I was at Ft. Logan National Cemetery in Denver last Monday.
My father's dad and my grandma have been there for ~20 yrs. Grandpa passed first and was cremated, so we put his box in with Grandma. Grandpa was a chief master sergeant in the USAF. My mother's father was a lieutenant colonel in the USAF. He was buried at Arlington last spring.
My father was a Captain in the United States Air Force. He passed three years ago and was cremated. My mother (she would have preferred it if I had said "Sainted Mother") came to live here in Denver last thanksgiving. They moved to Ft. Worth 32 yrs ago, so I only saw them occasionally throughout my adult life. Mom was sicker than anyone knew. She passed, while I was kissing her forehead, on the 15th of last month. I'm glad she was with us those 4-1/2 months. We put Dad's ashes in Mom's casket with her.
Although we held my Mother's funeral on the 19th of April, we had to wait for copies of my father's discharge papers. That done, we held a small family gathering at Ft. Logan last Monday to bury my parents.
Ft. Logan is a beautiful place. Over 100, 000 buried there. You feel the sacred nature of the place when you are there. The headstones line up every direction you look down them. The weather was perfect. My mother would have approved. I am glad she is back with Dad. Literally and philosophically, together forever.
I have a profound respect for those who served our country. Those who gave their sons, daughters, husbands, wives, parents and other loved ones have sacrificed for us all. Whether we agree with the politics of our leaders or the seemingly strange reasons for conflict does not matter. Those dead and wounded had their reasons for serving, and those reasons are not the point either. Regardless of the why's, wherefore's, and reasons, they served us by serving our country. No matter how I feel about everything else, I am sincerely grateful for their service. I am proud of our country and her people.
Let freedom ring throughout the world, and God bless and protect the United States of America.
Larry Curtis