The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
A soldier's account: What honor means and how to express it
By Lt. Renn Moon, Guest Writer
PUBLISHED: May 29, 2008
I grew up in an area where community was just your neighbors, an era when mini-malls flourished and towns became far less personal.
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Where I lived we had no parades and did not come together at functions such as this. I truly learned about community when I was deployed to Iraq in 2006 and 2007.
The support of communities like this is indescribable. My unit received countless care packages, letters, cards and other support the entire year while deployed, all from communities like Dexter.
I can honestly say I have never seen so many Girl Scout cookies in my entire life. Organizations like the Girl Scouts of America, the Boy Scouts and Cards from Destiny are only a couple of examples of community.
My unit left from Owosso, a small community near Lansing, and during our absence our unit's location and armory changed from Owosso to a neighboring town, Corunna.
When we returned on Oct. 19 we expected to see our families waiting at the new armory in anticipatory excitement. However, something very different occurred.
While riding back on buses from the Flint airport, about seven miles from Corunna, in the heart of central Michigan farmland we began to notice people coming outside their houses.
Some held flags while others waved. The houses were sparse and separated by acres of land, but at every house we passed people came out to greet us. Initially the response was surprising.
We were shocked that someone had put the word out to these people in the countryside that we were coming home. Whispers among the troops began to spread across the bus until it became a whisper no more, and soldiers began pointing out in excitement the growing amount of spectators.
As we drew nearer to the town the houses grew closer and closer together until neighborhoods began to form. All the while people were coming out of homes and businesses to wave and show their support. As we entered the township's borders it became clear the entire community was in on it.
The fire trucks and local police pulled in front in order to lead us home. One block before we reached the downtown area the high school band slyly turned off from a side road and led our buses through town.
Soon the waves of the people and community were accompanied with cheers and smiles. A single veteran stood on the side of the road saluting us as we passed by. Emotions that had been forced down for the past year in order to deal with the trials of combat began to surface.
I looked back down the aisle of the bus and noticed that the once steely-eyed faces of the soldiers were replaced with tears of joy.
They were overcome with emotion at the support and reception that we were given by this community. As we pulled into the armory we were finally greeted by our cheering families, after passing through a community we had never met.
We were welcomed and honored that day by a small community, an American community.
It was not Memorial Day or Veterans Day. No one had to cheer us on and no one had to send us packages; but they did.
Communities banded together across America to honor the servicemen and women every day of the year. You have honored us and still honor those fighting right now.
So today I was asked to join this community on Memorial Day - a day to honor those servicemen and women past and present, fallen and standing.
It is a day when we honor those who have made great sacrifices in order provide our communities with freedom, our country the ability to prosper, and our people with security.
For over 200 years American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have answered the call both in victory and defeat.
They have sacrificed time, family, and self in order to stave off chaos and maintain order in a fallen world. America has been a city on a hill and a beacon of light for this world.
Throughout time, our defenders have ensured that we the people and we the communities are in the position to keep that light shining. We must not fail them.
President Benjamin Harrison once said: "I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day. I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it. We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did."
So today we honor them. We honor them in different ways: some of you will pray, while others will surrender a moment of silence out of respect, still others will decorate memorials and graves with flowers.
There is no wrong way to honor them; only God knows your heart. But here, together, we will celebrate what they stand for and the sacrifices they have made.
By parade, by music, and by fellowship we will celebrate. We will celebrate not just them but what they fought for, and that is communities across America - communities like this one.
First Lt. Renn Moon spoke to those who attended Dexter's Memorial Day celebration Monday. He is an Assistant Professor of Military Science at Eastern Michigan University's Army ROTC program.
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