Sacrifices to Remember - 2023

    Another Memorial Day Weekend in the United States; another time to reflect on the heroes of the military and those that support them and us that have given all, resulting in death, early graves, too often sad yet often heroic endings.

    This past year I lost a friend and former colleague, Nicholas. Originally from Missouri, he was a good, decent, competent, kind, hard-working person and soldier. He helped me in my career and helped many others. He deployed overseas with the Army multiple times.

    Perhaps he would have taken his own life had he not been in the military. No one can know, no one can be sure of what his life would have been had he not been a soldier. But the fact of the matter is he was a soldier, and like many before and after him he became a victim of some of the sacrifices of serving his country. Or, he is a part of the U.S. system of those that gave of their time and efforts to make our military better, stronger, and to accomplish the nation's goals.

    And we lost him. I got the call from a former commander in December 2022, but before that someone else had reached out that Nicholas was gone, I think through an email or social media chat. No more for him past 2022, the year of his last deployment (or rotation, a Warrant Officer boss of mine calls it) when he and a small group of us met up at an overseas base where we posed for pictures and smiled and laughed at a USO. A USO, a place where people support and give back to us troops.

    Again, perhaps he would have died whether he had served our country and deployed multiple times or not. But thankfully, he did do those things.

    I believe that he sacrificed and gave back to his nation. I remember him fondly and somewhat forlornly. I think of his remaining daughter, spouses, family, friends, and cohorts.

    As I stated at a celebration of his life, he is a part of the flag now. I pointed back to it sitting solemnly on the stage in front of which I stood and spoke to those that remembered and celebrated him that Tuesday after Martin Luther King's Day.

    God bless the soul and legacy of Sergeant Nicholas. God bless all of us, let us remember him with understanding and gratitude. May our nation continue in strength and moral courage.