We admire them, respect them, and on May 30 (or last Monday in May) we remember how much we owe them.  It used to be called Decoration Day, a day set aside to remember those killed in the Civil War.  It's since come to be called Memorial Day, a day on which we remember all our war dead.  Anyone who's been to Arlington National Cemetery cannot help but be humbled and know indeed that this is "where valor proudly sleeps."

In 1866, when the US was still healing from the Civil War, a druggist in Waterloo, New York suggested that the city observe a special day for Union Soldiers buried in the Waterloo cemetery.  About the same time, Gen. Jonathan Logan was planning a similar remembrance for those who had survived the war.  Less than 20 years later, the name was changed to Memorial Day and devoted to remembering the fallen of all wars.   Not until 1971, however, did it become a national holiday, when it was officially declared by President Nixon to be observed on the last Monday in May.

Between the American Revolution and Gulf War, over 26 million men and women have served our country in wartime.  Nearly 900,000 never came home.  Well over a million came home injured. Pain and loss knows no color, no borders, and speaks the same language everywhere.  Every serviceman and woman, at home and abroad, still with us or not, should have our unconditional gratitude.