(Kenneth Roberts Greenwood)

PLACERVILLE, Calif. May 25, 2022 — As we celebrate the fun and games now associated with the three day Memorial Day weekend, we forget the “real” Memorial day is May 30 and is to honor those who gave their lives in military service. (Veteran’s Day is when we honor those who served to protect our freedoms, living or not.) On Memorial Day we pay tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve our freedom and our way of life. I am grateful for their sacrifice.

I hope you have fun this weekend, but please join me to pause for a moment in their memory this weekend and especially May 30.

Memorial Day is very special to me. On August 2, 1944, my uncle, Second Lt. Kenneth E. Roberts, USAC, was shot down over France on his second or third combat mission in a P-47 Thunderbolt. He is buried at a cemetery in France overlooking the beaches of Normandy. Someday I hope to go there and visit my namesakes’ final resting place (I am Kenneth Roberts Greenwood). (Thanks to my friend Eddie Goss who visited his grave last Fall and provided some moving pictures; see below.)

I didn’t know much about his death other than my mother and my aunt’s deep loss of their beloved brother, and hearing that grandpa (a W.W.I Army vet.) threw the Purple Heart across the room after it arrived. Kenneth was a third year journalism major at UC Berkeley. He volunteered early in the war, but they wouldn’t take him as his eyesight was poor. Not to be discouraged, he drank countless gallons of carrot juice and ultimately passed the test and went into flight school in southern California, Alabama and ultimately to England and France.

As I learned from the PBS documentary, “A Fighter Pilot’s Diary” (1995), (and again, in part in “The War” on PBS in 2008) the life expectancy of a P-47 pilot was not long in those first months of the invasion. Their units were subject to 85% casualties, most of which ended in death. If you ever have a chance to see that presentation, do so and remember the sacrifice of Lt. Roberts and all the others who died to preserve our precarious freedom.
Along with the Purple Heart there was an embossed proclamation “signed” by President Roosevelt…

* In grateful memory of Second Lieutenant Kenneth E. Roberts A.S. No. 0-767388, who died in the service of his country in the European Area, August 2, 1944. He stands in the unbroken line of patriots who have dared to die that freedom might live, and grow, and increase its blessings. Freedom lives, and through it, he lives- in a way that humbles the undertakings of most men.*

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A little history… (Remember, it was called “Decoration Day” until after WWII and then a three day weekend was declared in the 1970’s.)

Hopefully, we have all read our Constitution, Bill of Rights, Gettysburg Address and other great documents of our history, but what about the original Memorial Day Order? We accept it as a holiday from work and a time to play, most without a real understanding of it’s meaning. We usually don’t even celebrate the event on the day it was originally designated (May 30!).

For those interested in passing this tradition to others, here is the text of the original order. Many of us have lost comrades or loved ones in combat to secure or preserve our freedoms. We should never forget their sacrifice, and I hope all of you feel the same.

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Original Memorial Day Order:

General Order
Headquarters, Grand Army of the Republic
No. 11
Washington, D.C., May 5, 1868

I. The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form or ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

We are organized, comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose, among other things, “of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers, sailors, and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion.” What can aid more to assure this result than by cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foe? Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in chains, and their death a tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms.

We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the Nation can add to their adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders. Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and found mourners. Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of free and undivided republic.

If other eyes grow dull and other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain in us.

Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as sacred charges upon the Nation’s gratitude, –the soldier’s and sailor’s widow and orphan.

II. It is the purpose of the Commander-in-Chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades. He earnestly desires the public press to call attention to this Order, and lend its friendly aid in bringing it to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance therewith.

III. Department commanders will use every effort to make this order effective.

By command of:
JOHN A. LOGAN,
Commander-in-Chief.
N. P. CHIPMAN,
Adjutant-General.

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