Remembering 'Honor and Courage' this Memorial Day

By Staff Sgt. Lindsey KiblerMay 27, 2014

Remembering 'Honor and Courage' this Memorial Day
1 / 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Remembering 'Honor and Courage' this Memorial Day
2 / 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Landon, an indirect fire infantryman, and Choi served together in the 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, was killed in action Feb. 26, 2005, in Abertha, Iraq, after an improvised explosive dev... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Remembering 'Honor and Courage' this Memorial Day
3 / 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Kimberly Giles, mother of fallen Soldier Pfc. Landon Giles, stands with her grandson, Azrael Bradford, 6, at Pfc. Giles' tree, number 61, at the Fort Stewart Warriors Walk, Dec. 14, 2013. Kimberly attended the wreath laying ceremony and hung ornament... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Remembering 'Honor and Courage' this Memorial Day
4 / 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption – Staff Sgt. Lindsey Kibler, the Public Affairs noncommissioned officer in charge with 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, stands with her son, Azrael Bradford, 6, at the memorial tree for her brother, Pfc. Landon Giles. Giles' tree... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Remembering 'Honor and Courage' this Memorial Day
5 / 5 Show Caption + Hide Caption – A picture of Pfc. Landon Giles rests against his memorial tree, spot 61, at the Fort Stewart Warriors Walk. Giles was killed in action Feb. 26, 2005, while on patrol in Abertha, Iraq. He was an indirect fire infantryman assigned to the 6th Squadron, ... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

FORT BENNING, Ga. - Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably seen the Memorial Day meme posted, shared and tweeted across social media sites of an amputee Marine visiting the grave of a fallen service member at Arlington National Cemetery. It reads "In case you thought it was National BBQ Day."

This Memorial Day will, most likely, include barbecues and friends, as well as a visit to see my brother, Pfc. Landon Giles. My recent permanent change of station from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, to Fort Benning, Georgia, allows me to make the short drive to Fort Stewart, Georgia, where I can enjoy the sun, the fresh air and the shade of the trees while my son, Azrael, and I tell him about what is going on in our lives.

Our meeting spot is Tree 61.

That is where the 3rd Infantry Division's Warriors Walk planted a tree for Landon. Next to him, in spot 60, stands the tree for his battle buddy, Pvt. Min S. Choi. Landon, an indirect fire infantryman, and Choi served together in the 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Inf. Div.

On February 26, 2005, they were together in the third vehicle of a multi-vehicle convoy as it patrolled in Abertha, Iraq, only a week after the two arrived in country. They were together when an improvised explosive device ripped through the vehicle. They were together when they gave their lives for our country.

Landon had turned 19, on February 1, only three weeks prior to his death. Choi was 21.

I think it's no coincidence that their unit's motto is "Honor and Courage." They were, both, honorable and courageous in life and in death.

Landon is one of 468 3rd Infantry Division Soldiers who is represented by a tree at the division's sprawling Warriors Walk. He is one of 4,486 American service members who gave their life during operations in Iraq, according to the Washington Post's Faces of the Fallen project. He is one of 6,805 service members who have paid the ultimate sacrifice since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began, according to the project's most recent tally.

But, the act of remembering those lost in battle dates back much further than Operations Iraqi Freedom, New Dawn and Enduring Freedom. It began as a day to do exactly what I intend to do- remember the fallen and decorate their graves.

According to the Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs, under the U.S. Department of Veterans Administration, Memorial Day began three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, and was then referred to as Decoration Day. At that time, the head of an organization of Union veterans - the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) - established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers.

After World War I, the day was expanded to honor those who have died in all American wars, according the Department of the Army's Center for Military History, and, in 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by an act of Congress. People in some areas still refer to the day as "Decoration Day."

The U.S. Army Military History Institute estimates that more than 1.1 million Soldiers have given their lives to protect our freedoms since the start of the Civil War in 1861.

This Memorial Day, I urge you to take a moment to send a prayer, a thought, or, even, a wish to our fallen Freedom Fighters, to their families who, also, have sacrificed for our nation and to those currently in harm's way in military operations around the world.

In a May 31, 1982, Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery, late President Ronald Reagan asked us, as Americans, perhaps the greatest challenges of all- to sacrifice, endure and prosper.

"Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we-in a less final, less heroic way-be willing to give of ourselves."