By Ski Ingram
May 2025
Memorial Day
On May 26th, this country will be observing Memorial Day, the one day that is set aside to remember and honor the men and women who went to war and were killed during their service to this country. Every man and woman who serve in our military take an oath, usually on their first day of service, to defend this country against “all enemies foreign and domestic.” Every member of the military knows that he or she may die while in this service, yet they take this oath willingly and without reservations.
Every May I devote “A Veteran’s Thoughts” to the national holiday of Memorial Day. This year will be no different. It upsets me, as a Vietnam veteran, that so many Americans do not understand the reason for the holiday and its importance. It’s important to understand that Memorial Day has been set aside to honor those who die while in military service during a time of war. It is not a day to honor all who serve and have served. We do that on Veterans Day.
It embarrasses me that while growing up I had no Idea why the nation celebrated Memorial Day. My family would use the day to visit my older sister’s grave who died as an infant. Our family would gather at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside California. Sometimes other relatives or special friends would be invited to attend. We would decorate Joan’s grave with flowers and then have a picnic lunch at grave side.
Before World War I Memorial Day, as we know it today, was called “Decoration Day.” It began during the war between the states when family members would visit the graves of those who had died in battle and honor their lives by decorating their graves with flowers. “Decoration Day” before World War I was a day to honor those who died in the Civil War. In 1918, Decoration Day began to be known as Memorial Day and a day to honor all veterans who had died in war. In 1966, the United States Congress officially recognized the last Monday in May as Memorial Day and declared it a national holiday.
No one knows what city or state was the first to officially recognize Decoration Day as a national holiday. What pleases me is that so many people realized that our war dead should be honored for their sacrifice to our country.
The first known city to recognize those who had died in war was Charleston, South Carolina on May 1, 1865. Two and a half months earlier Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard ordered the evacuation of all Confederate soldiers from Charleston in the wake of an impending attack by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman. Along with the soldiers the city’s white population also evacuated the city leaving thousands of former black slaves to fend for themselves. As a symbolic gesture, the first Union troops to enter the city were Union soldiers of the 21st Infantry Regiment and the 55th Massachusetts Infantry. Both regiments made up from black soldiers.
On that first day in May, black workmen (recently freed slaves) voluntarily dug up every Union soldier who had died in a Charleston prisoner of war camp because they had been buried in a hastily dug mass grave ahead of the evacuation. They reburied those soldiers in properly dug graves and rendered the proper honors they were due. Afterward the rest of the day was celebrated with a parade of school children, citizens, and Union soldiers. It may be said that Memorial Day was founded by African Americans in order to remember the fact that the Civil War was fought to abolish slavery. It’s shameful that when the white southern leaders returned to Charleston the memory of the event was actively suppressed and lost to history until Professor David Blight rediscovered it in old newspapers.
It wasn’t until I was attending Special Forces (Green Beret) training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina that I began to understand and appreciate Memorial Day. It was early in 1970, every Saturday afternoon we participated in a parade to, among other things, remember those Green Berets who had died in Viet Nam that week. It was while in the Army that I learned the history and the true purpose of Memorial Day. While serving in Viet Nam as a Ranger Scout, nine soldiers I worked with were killed in action. I always make a special effort on Memorial Day to remember their names and the sacrifices they made for this country.
This Memorial Day will be more difficult than in years past. I’ve come to accept that many people in America take these freedoms for granted and use the three-day weekend with no thought or care of how and why we are able to enjoy our freedoms. But this year I am witnessing those on the Left actively working to take away those freedoms that so many men and women died to preserve. They are doing their best to protect illegal aliens who rob, rape and murder legal citizens. If the Left and the Progressives get their way the service members who died to preserve our freedom will have died in vain.
It’s important that patriotic Americans reject those who wish to “fundamentally change” America. We need to protect our American way of life. We need to fight those who would take away our God given rights. The Left will continue to gaslight us in hopes of convincing us that things we once thought of as bad are now good. Do not listen to them. Use your common sense and support those who are working to make America great again.
Ski Ingram is a life member of Lester Keate Post 90 of the American Legion in St. George, Utah. He now lives in Gilbert, Arizona. He is a combat veteran and is a life member of five different veteran’s organizations and the NRA. If you would like to subscribe to his newsletter go toSki@Skiingram.com or www.Skiingram.com
