JUNE 2022. Blues Vol 38 No. 6.1

DARYL LOTT daryl’s

DARYL LOTT daryl’s deliberations Number Four Thousand, Four Hundred, and Seventy Four Memorial Day seems to me to gain more importance very year. Maybe it’s because as one ages, thoughts of mortality and life experience generally reveal just how fragile life is. In our country, Memorial Day marks the beginning of Summer, but in doing so, remembers the ends of life for the people who gave their “last full measure of devotion,” as President Lincoln so eloquently put it. Gold Star Families gather to remember the loved ones lost in the never ending fight between good and evil. Those sacrifices are beyond the description mere words attempt to convey. Every jubilant victory in battle is tempered with the thoughts that not everyone survived. In my own family, the Battle of Midway and the Air War Over Hitler’s Germany produced tide turning victories for our country, but our family lost a sailor (Garland Lott) on the “USS Yorktown” and an airman (Edgar Lott) on the B-17 “Lady Liberty.” Neither body was recovered. In the case of missing or unrecoverable remains, our country honors the fallen with symbolic resting places as they are memorialized on official cenotaphs. Garland’s name appears on the cenotaph at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii. Edgar’s name is etched on the cenotaph at the Netherlands American Cemetery not far from where his aircraft was blown out of the sky. Cenotaphs are not the exact same as a memorial. A cenotaph only contains the names of the missing or those with unrecoverable remains. The largest and most famous cenotaph in Texas is located at the Alamo. The Alamo defenders’ bodies were unceremoniously burned in a pyre by a madman dictator. Therefore, the sacred cenotaph in the Alamo Plaza is their symbolic final resting place. This Memorial Day I draw your attention to a photo accompanying this essay. I encourage the reader to study the young man pictured in the photograph. At first glance he appears to be a handsome lad with a bright future. One could say he represents the blossoming of the best of American youth. His hometown is listed as Greensboro, North Carolina. I can tell you that he played outside linebacker on the Northeast H.S. Rams football team. He was their team captain and graduated in the Class of 2006. After high school, he attended college, but found out that it wasn’t really for him. He joined the Army in 2009. He didn’t have to go too far from home as he was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He went to Iraq as a Specialist with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team. Specialist David E. Hickman was on a police type of patrol in Baghdad. He was patrolling in an armored vehicle when a roadside bomb exploded and ripped through his patrol vehicle. Specialist Hickman has the distinction of not only being a brave and dedicated soldier, but his is the last combat death in Iraq. As such, I consider this gallant young man to be representative of all of our loved and lost Americans in Iraq. There were a total of 4,474 young Americans who gave their lives in the War on Terror in Iraq. They did not sell their lives cheaply. There were 23,984 enemy combatants killed in Iraq, leading to freedom for the Iraqi people and security in our homeland. The other photo that accompanies this essay is of the only memorial at this time to those Americans who paid the ultimate price in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is called the “Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial” and it contains the names of all the fallen heroes of Iraq and Afghanistan. The memorial is located in Irvine, California. There are other active funding projects to honor our heroes of the War on Terror in other locations. If any reader feels so inclined to donate, I am sure the projects are worthy. Have a blessed Memorial Day and enjoy the freedom you posses as a result of others who were willing to give everything they had to provide it. Remember the Gold Star families who bear a disproportionate burden in the quest for freedom and justice among men and nations. God Bless the United States of America. 92 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 93