The military is much more than it seems.
The Air Force's key visual is the pilot - but without many, many people keeping that plane running, the base working, the missions planned, medical support, communications supplied - that pilot would be a ground-pounder.
The Army's key visual is the grunt, fully laden down with his combat load and armor. But without many, many people providing transportation, logistic support, communications support, medical support - he'd be all dressed up with no place to go and nothing to do it with.
The Navy's key visual is the sailor on ship. But without the folks on shore making sure the ship has what it needs, where it needs it, when it needs it, and providing a thousand and one ancillary services from logistics to medical support to simply delivering the mail - that ship owuld soon find itself empty.
The Marines? The toughest of the services - but still needing logistics, communications, and transportation... most of which they crib off the Navy's budget. Without the extras, the Marine would be like the Grunt - loaded down with armor and his combat load and unable to get ot the fight.
So on this Memorial Day - I'd like to salute them all. The admin clerk in a base stateside, the missile crews under the western prairie, the Pilots trash-hauling and pulling combat missions around the world, the GI in Iraq, the Sailor in the Persian Gulf, the Marine in a God-forsaken hotspot somewhere I couldn't find on a map given Google Earth and three days.
You keep us free. And I am so proud to have been one of you for a time.
And I'd like to salute all who served in the past. Every contribution was needed - even if it didn't seem so at the time. It all went together to become the United States Military of today - and if you worked on weapons systems or hardware that's no longer used, when you were in it WAS needed.
On Memorial Day, 2008 - let us remember. We are the sum of all who have passed before.
J.