Memorial Day. Right.

I normally don't have any issue with the way people celebrate Memorial Day. When I was a teenager, it was a weekend to spend hanging out with my friends before summer vacation. A break before the break, if you will.

Now that I'm a military wife, however, and I've spent some time delving into my familys military history...

...I find myself disgusted.

Do you ever feel that our fallen heroes are underappreciated? Do you ever feel that vibe of entitlement from people when you're out in public?

I know I do.

Today my hubby and I were in BJ's Wholesale, of all places. We walked by a table where Operation Gratitude was collecting letters from the public to include in care packages for the troops. The goal for this BJ's (at JANAF in Virginia Beach, of all places!) was a leager 300 letters to be written throughout the entire month of May. Today is May 30...and the location only had 150 letters.

ONLY 150!!

This is a military town full of veterans, active duty, reserves and Guard. To have such a pathetic number of people remembering our forward deployed troops was embarrassing.

I sat at the table writing my letter and watching piles of people walking by and not noticing.

The more I sat and watched, the angrier I got.

What is it about being born on American dirt that makes us feel like we have somehow earned the right to have people make the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf? What did we do to earn that?!

The answer: Nothing.

We. Did. Nothing.

And yet there I sat on 'memorial day weekend', watching a military town cruise past the table with their hot dogs and prepackaged hamburgers, paying no attention to the opportunity they were missing. An opportunity to tell a hero what they mean to them, to this country, to our world.

Instead, they passed by, concerned their meat would spoil.

I am sickened. I am angry. I am ashamed.

At the same time, I'm proud. I'm proud to have been in that store with a man who will ignore the entitlement tendencies of those people and go out and fight anyway. A man who says 'Don't hold it against them, they don't understand. They've never been there, or if they have, they've forgotten.'

THAT is a man.

Today I remember the fallen. I know many of you are remembering your heroes as well. Please go ahead and leave their names in the comments...they deserve every mention we can give them. I would love to hear about what kind of people they were, what their jobs were, the reasons they had for doing them. Our community thrives on the heroisms of its members. I hope we can remember them always, not just over a hot dog on one weekend a year.

Here are ours:

Chief Joel Baldwin

Chief Dave Gilbert

Senior Chief Carl McCaughan

Daniel  Holdren

Cyrus Holdren

Larry Dale

These were all great men. Some died in combat, some died as a result of combat, some died from illnesses caused by chenicals from combat. Regardless of their situation, they were all what Memorial Day is about.

I'm just grateful that they shattered my entitlement complex. We should all be so lucky.