Memorial Day - 2016

Today is Memorial Day and we went to the different cemeteries to put flowers on parents, grandsons, sister, and loved ones graves. I also stopped at the gravesite of a young man, whose mother I worked with when I was 14. He was a year older than I and went to Vietnam a year or so before I did. He was killed in Vietnam in a helicopter crash after serving approximately 43 days. As usual I looked for graves of Veterans with military headstones especially those from Vietnam, and paid my respects. I have to go to another cemetery tomorrow to pay my respects to a guy I knew when I was 14. He was also a Vietnam Veteran. His family is gone and there is really no one left. I don't want him to be forgotten. It is hard to explain this but I find myself so saddened seeing graves of Vietnam Veterans. More so than my families. I try to figure this out and come up with some reason for this and try not to feel so uncaring for my own family and ashamed my feelings aren't as strong. I guess that I feel a closer connection to those who served. They were a real family to me. We knew no one, were young, and put in the same situation. Friendships seemed to grow fast and we laughed, borrowed and lent money, got drunk together, shared our lives and were showed our many emotions. I have always felt a loss especially for those I was with prior to, or at the time of, their death while at the 24th. I'm just feel so confused right not at this time. I also feel a loss for my friend Norm who I was stationed with at Ft. Carson after Vietnam. I found out he had died at 29 and never got the chance to meet up with him after I left Ft. Carson. He helped me a great deal after my return to the states. I'm rambling so much in this so I have just sign off. To all who served, you are in my thoughts and prayers.