Not Forgotten - WSJ

Not Forgotten - WSJ

• A revival of Memorial Day traditions and an enduring example of bravery.

"...Charlie McKenna reports for the Boston Globe on the families of the fallen who have come to honor their dead:

Melida Arredondo, whose stepson Alex was killed in Iraq in 2004, said fellow Gold Star families who take in the display share a unique connection.

“Being out here seeing the other families - there’s a bond. You might not even know the other family’s first name or whatever, you just remember the kids,” she said.

She said it was a profound feeling “just to be here and honor each other as those who have lost their loved ones, honoring the troops who have lost their compañeros, and honoring those from Massachusetts who have died for liberty.”

Of course those who have died for liberty come from every state. 

It is perhaps an especially good time to remember a hero from Colorado who died 50 years ago this week. U.S. Army Maj. William Edward Adams was a helicopter pilot who was killed trying to rescue comrades in Vietnam’s Kontum Province. 

When he set out he must have known how much the odds were stacked against him. 

The citation for his Medal of Honor notes that he “volunteered to fly a lightly armed helicopter in an attempt to evacuate three seriously wounded soldiers from a small fire base which was under attack by a large enemy force. He made the decision with full knowledge that numerous antiaircraft weapons were positioned around the base and that the clear weather would afford the enemy gunners an unobstructed view.”...Read all.