Memorial Day 2008 ... Thank you, PFC Ross McGinnis ...

PFC Ross McGinnis showing our enemies what we think of them!

In a couple of days (June 2, 2008), PFC Ross McGinnis will receive the Medal of Honor posthumously for his quick and courageous act last December 4th. He did it as much for his comrades in the Humvee (all of whose lives he saved) as for America when he smothered a grenade about to explode. He could as easily have jumped out from his gunner's turret as to jump down and yell for his fellow soldiers to "duck" as he covered the grenade that was lodged near the vehicle's radio ... with his body.

I read and reread his story and the stories of his fellow soldiers when it was published this week as part of our local newspaper's tribute to all of our fallen heroes over the past 250 years or so.

Memorial Day has terrific and deep meaning, I think, thanks to so many (like PFC McGinnis) to whom we owe our freedom. No, I do not personally support the war in Iraq, but I very much support the young men and women who are there because they feel the "need" to be there.

He was only nineteen ...