Memorial Day

A Day to Reflect on what it is we Live for

On May 5, 1868, John. A Logan, who had served as a Major General in the U.S. Army during the Civil War, issued General Orders No. 11 for the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), the nation’s largest association of Army veterans. General Orders No. 11 directed GAR members to observe May 30 for the purposes of decorating the graves of the Civil War dead. The first official observance of Memorial Day was on May 30, 1868, when then-Congressman James Garfield, who had served as a Major General in the U.S. Army during the Civil War and would go on to become President, spoke at Arlington, Virginia. Memorial Day became an official holiday as we know it today in 1971.

As we observe Memorial Day, I like to reflect on Army Major John Alexander (“Alex”) Hottell III. Alex gave his life to the nation in 1970 while serving in the Vietnam War. He is now buried at the West Point Cemetery. Before he died, Alex composed his own obituary, which included the following:

“I am writing my own obituary for several reasons, and I hope none of them are too trite. First, I would like to spare my friends, who may happen to read this, the usual clichés about being a good soldier. They were all kind enough to me and I not enough to them. Second, I would not want to be a party to perpetuation of an image that is harmful and inaccurate: "glory" is the most meaningless of concepts, and I feel that in some cases it is doubly damaging. And thirdly, I am quite simply the last authority on my own death.

I loved the Army: it reared me, it nurtured me, and it gave me the most satisfying years of my life. Thanks to it I have lived an entire lifetime in 26 years. It is only fitting that I should die in its service. We all have but one death to spend, and insofar as it can have any meaning it finds it in the service of comrades-in-arms.

And yet, I deny that I died FOR anything—not my Country, not my Army, not my fellow man, none of these things. I LIVED for these things, and the manner in which I chose to do it involved the very real chance that I would die in the execution of my duties. I knew this, and accepted it, but my love for West Point and the Army was great enough—and the promise that I would someday be able to serve all the ideals that meant anything to me through it was great enough—for me to accept this possibility as a part of a price which must be paid for all things of great value. If there is nothing worth dying for—in this sense—there is nothing worth living for.”

Source: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/8642077/john-alexander-hottell

Today as we hold in our hearts those who gave their lives for our country, let us also reflect on who and what we are living for with our own lives.