“Today belongs to all who did not get to take off the uniform,” said Captain Craig Felker, speaker at the World War II Museum in Eldred on Monday and executive director of the Society for Military History.
Felker delivered a brief but powerful speech exemplifying the mission of the museum, that is to keep the memories of those who came before alive, because, “the dead have no voice,” he said.
As he went on, he told the story of Eugene Sledge, a World War II soldier who fought at Peleliu and Okinawa, and later in life wrote a chilling memoir about what he and his fellow Marines endured.
Felker described the book, “With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa,” as an “unvarnished and critical account of the war” stating that this is the meaning of the day — Memorial Day, “Peace was purchased at such a high cost. It must be remembered.”
What he learned from Sledge, Felker suggests there are three major takeaways.
The first is context or perspective. So few have the experience of what it is like to take to the battlefield, to experience the horrifying cruelty that cannot be refined in the state-sponsored carnage that is war. Sledge brings all of this to life in telling from first hand experience what each moment a soldier sees, feels, hears.
The second takeaway that Sledge offers is a real experience in loss and grief. Soldiers are together at all times, good and bad. Camaraderie is mandatory and can make the difference in life and death. The fear of losing anyone is not something that crosses their minds, they are brothers. Sledge describes losing the commander as something akin to losing a parent. It was like a loss of mental security.
The third piece Felker shared was remembrance and reflection. Sledge wrote that he gathered his thoughts when the fighting was through in quiet disbelief and relief as he remembered the lost.
Felker paused, then asked, “What happens to Memorial Day tomorrow?”
“Their sacrifice is a call for us to make society better,” he continued, “make sure the elected officials are doing the right thing and making the right decisions. So much blood was spilled to ensure the rights and freedoms.”
Throughout the entire talk, the room was silent. A few boys in the back had come in from the parade dressed in yesteryear’s olive green drab uniforms. As Felker spoke, it was like seeing Sledge in the audience, watching as his words and stories were retold to a new generation. This is what happens to Memorial Day tomorrow.
