Memorial Day 2024 – How I See It

Published on by Brian Farno

Happy Memorial Day! At face value, it is a holiday that most working class may get as a paid holiday and really gets associated with kicking off Summer. Pools open, barbecues are going in full force and, at least at my house, the grass needs to be cut at least twice a week. None of these things are the reason behind the holiday, and so I’d like to share just how I reflect on the day that is now known as Memorial Day.

This was a local Queen City Rucking Crew event put on by one of our retired Marine members to educate us and commemorate the Battle of Derna. This photo was taken at the halfway point at one of the local Marine Memorials here in Cincinnati.

Memorial Day started as Decoration Day and was established to decorate the war memorials and graves in order to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice while serving our country. The maternal side of my family has many members both active and retired in the many branches of our Armed Forces, and it was a tradition for my folks to take my sister, brother and I all out to our ancestors’ graves all throughout the Tri-State area and place flowers on all of them as well as flags on those that were military. There is only one relative that I am aware of who made the ultimate sacrifice, and that was during World War 1. When my Papaw (mother’s father) was alive, I could see on his face when we visited these memorials some of his past would come back. He was an ambulance driver in the Army during World War 2. He would share very little with us other than he saw a lot of things and would drive to the front lines in order to try and save his brothers in arms. Then, one of my uncles served in Vietnam with the Air Force, and he was a crew member for a while that would bring back those that paid the ultimate sacrifice. That was not something he liked to share as he said there were so many, and he had to see so much just through the act of transporting the fallen soldiers.

A lot of the events I have done all honor a historical event. This was before the event started, learning the background of the Battle of Derna

Flash forward to current day and, as I have mentioned before, I like to participate in GORUCK events which are cadre’d by current and retired Special Forces members. There are events where they will share stories about their brothers and sisters in arms who have fallen, so we often do their favorite exercise or some other movement in order to honor their memories.

While Cincinnati doesn’t have a desert like the soldiers had to hike through during their events, we do have plenty of stairs.

So while you are grilling, mowing, or just relaxing this weekend and thinking about how you can sleep in and relax on Monday, take a moment to look up a fallen soldiers’ history, maybe even one in your own family and pay respect to them through an act of kindness, doing something outside your comfort zone, or if you know their favorite exercise, push some limits and get out and workout. If you need someplace to start, check the Medal of Honor Recipient database, just pick a person and learn just a small portion of their story.

Brian Farno, MBA – CCASS Application Engineer

BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

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