Memorial Day originated as Decoration Day in 1868 when the Grand Army of the Republic established it as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of Union war dead with flowers. There were similar days designated in the South to honor Confederate war dead. In total, North and South, 600,000 had died, more than any conflict in American history.
By the beginning of the 20th century the competing days had merged. It didn't become an official holiday until 1971. In 1966 the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day. Waterloo—which had first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866—was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags. Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, lays a rival claim to the title.
The Memorial Day weekend is traditionally regarded as the beginning of summer, the time the flowers bloom. It has come to be an occasion for family barbecues and picnics. There is the Indianapolis 500. Maybe there's a parade. Maybe you can go to the beach. It's a three-day weekend.
But it is still a day to honor those who gave their lives for the country. They still lie there, in national cemeteries row upon row, in other places here and there, mixed in with their neighbors, friends and acquaintances. In still others their last resting places are unknown. There are about 1.1 million of them, counting all U.S. wars. There were 26,000 deaths in the Argonne Forest alone in World War I, the deadliest battle in U.S. history. It was fought from September 26, 1918, until the Armistice of 11 November 1918, a total of 47 days.
Just think about that for a moment. 26,000 letters to families. 26,000 visits by officers who were unlucky enough to draw what is probably the most difficult duty -- facing the anguished eyes of mothers, fathers, wives, and children, telling them the worst possible news. 26,000 lives, most of them young, that would never achieve their potential.
There were 116,000 dead in World War I, 405,000 in World War II, 36,500 in Korea, almost 60,000 in Vietnam, about 6,500 in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Those are just the big numbers. There were 266 killed in Beirut in 1983, 258 in the Gulf War, a few dozen lost in places like Somalia or El Salvador.
This is their day. When you fire up the grill think of them and the lives they never got to live. Think of over a million could-have-beens.