{"id":517,"date":"2022-07-09T13:12:24","date_gmt":"2022-07-09T17:12:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/takeitontheleftfoot.com\/?p=517"},"modified":"2023-08-03T05:28:34","modified_gmt":"2023-08-03T09:28:34","slug":"kilo-memorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/takeitontheleftfoot.com\/?p=517","title":{"rendered":"Kilo memorial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kilo memorial<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below is a speech I gave at a Kilo 3\/7 reunion in Scio, NY in September 2021. Kilo company hiked to the graveside of one of our fallen Marines, Medal of Honor recipient Corporal Jason Dunham.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A memorial service is held, to remember. We remember always; even when we don\u2019t want to.  We remember the brothers who fell, who did not return.  We remember each other.  We remember when we were young and strong.   Sometimes when we look back, we ask why. Why did it have to be him? Why did I come home? Why were we there? Why?  Satisfactory answers are elusive, so we remain unsettled; and we remember. I want to tell you of a few things today.  Things that will help you.  A friend of mine, an old fireteam leader, said \u201cyour mind is like a bad neighborhood; you don\u2019t go there alone when its dark\u201d.  So here are some things for each one of you to remember:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Number one: all one of us standing here, and our fallen brothers\u2026chose to become Marines.  It takes a particular kind of man to become a Marine, and to become a grunt.  My wife says the Marine Corps is a cult.  She might be right.  Each one of us also\u2026the first time anyway\u2026. we wanted to see combat. Yes, there was a measure of naivety in that; later when we experienced the true cost, we didn\u2019t want to see it anymore.  So, what was wrong with us?  Were we young fools?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I assert that nothing was wrong with us.  For a certain kind of man, for a Marine, for Kilo\u2026the one thing worse than war, is for there to be a war and to not<\/em> be a part of it.  We are warriors.  We\u2019ve always been this way.  We ran around as little boys pretending sticks were guns.  When we became men, we answered our call. And we<\/em> had the great privilege of fulfilling that call with Kilo. We knew some of us might not come home.  Each of us accepted that it might be us individually, and that thought did not trouble us.  It was the loss of a brother that gives us such grief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now listen closely to what I am about to say: those who we lost, felt the same way.  They would rather it have been them, then one of you. So, you are released from the guilt that has gripped you.  I say again: you are released.  If you were the one lying here, would you be angry with me? Would you look down and say \u201cI hope your life is miserable\u201d.  No, you would say \u201clive well brother, I am happy for you\u201d.  And that\u2019s what each of you need to do, in order to remember our brothers\u2026live well. Love deep, laugh hard, and cry when you need to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second thing to remember is that we did not fight from position of hate for the enemy, we fought from a position of love.  Love for each other.  Don\u2019t worry about politics, don\u2019t worry about if Iraq is now a better place.  We fought for each other. We are sturdy professionals, we are Marines; we are Kilo. We go wherever they decide to send us; we go with Kilo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are brothers forever.  We know each other.  We can communicate without words.  There was a time when we could recognize each other in the dark just by our silhouettes (Some of your silhouettes have changed!), but we still know each other. We remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to encourage you that you are not alone.  You are part of something that goes a long way back.  We would like to believe that there is nothing like Kilo, and that\u2019s partly true.  But we have a heritage that goes back for generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, in closing I am going to quote a few lines from an Englishmen.  These words were penned after WWI, where the losses were so great in Europe they call it the lost generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The epithet engraved over the fallen reads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you go home, tell them of us and say
For your tomorrows these gave theirs today.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Maxwell Edmunds, 1916<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And finally<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old
Age shall not weary them, not the years condemn
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We remember them<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From: For the Fallen, Laurence Binyon<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kilo\u2026we remember. We remember<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kilo memorial Below is a speech I gave at a Kilo 3\/7 reunion in Scio, NY in September 2021. Kilo company hiked to the graveside of one of our fallen Marines, Medal of Honor recipient Corporal Jason Dunham. A memorial service is held, to remember. We remember always; even when we don\u2019t want to.  We…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/takeitontheleftfoot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/takeitontheleftfoot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/takeitontheleftfoot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takeitontheleftfoot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takeitontheleftfoot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=517"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/takeitontheleftfoot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":775,"href":"https:\/\/takeitontheleftfoot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions\/775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/takeitontheleftfoot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takeitontheleftfoot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takeitontheleftfoot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}