As Holidays come and go, War Barely Takes a Break

The Marines stood solemnly in a small auditorium at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. Rows of hardened faces stared ahead as the national anthem played and a slide show flashed images of happier times – and lives cut short.

“For those that have lost a loved one, Dear L-rd, please be everything that they can no longer be,” said the chaplain.

At that moment, two years ago, the war stopped for these Marines. It was for a rare chance to grieve. But it was just a moment. The Marines wiped their tears, got up and went back to work.

War doesn’t stop for holidays.

At bases across Iraq and Afghanistan today, U.S. troops are gathering to honor the fallen. They will remember the ghosts of wars past – and their friends from wars present. Some of their pain is fresh as the battle still goes on, some has been slowly healing over the past eight years. They will pause for a moment, just as those Marines stopped to reflect that Memorial Day. And then they will go back to work.

Here at home, our city will stop, for a moment, and remember the dozens of our own killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The nation will mourn nearly 5,000 Americans in all. Images of their faces will flash across the television. And we will wipe our tears, get up and go back to work.

Life doesn’t stop for war.

As the Marines walked out of that auditorium that day, I asked the general, “How can people back home show their gratitude?” I was somehow hoping for a way to take their pain away.

Without missing a step, he turned and said, “It only takes 10 seconds to walk up to someone and say, ‘Thank you for your service.’ And not just on Memorial Day.” And then he walked away and went back to work.

To the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan taking a break from their job today to mourn their losses, to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice and to the thousands of men and women in uniform visiting our grateful city for Fleet Week, New York stops and says, “Thank you.”