MILITARY & MOTORCYCLES_MAY 31, 2013
The Times They Are A Changin’
Over the Memorial Day Weekend I spent time with people who served or had family who served this Nation in the military. Sunday morning as I was preparing for two events, one at the Sarasota National Cemetery and the second being the parade at Lakewood Ranch for some reason my topic came from nowhere and stuck with me for this column. ‘The Times They Are A Changing’ was sung by a person I had met back in Los Angles in 1966. He was sitting on a bar stool next to me and he was writing something on a napkin. That person was Bob Dylan. I was in the military at the time and was in California for the weekend from my duty Station at Williams Air Force Base, Chandler, AZ. I don’t know if he was psychotic or a psychic but his song seems to be coming true. He wrote these words in the song;
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’
As I participated in the events surrounding Memorial Day I found what appears to be a lack of interest in not only history of this country but also those who attend Memorial Day and Veterans Day events.
As I have said in numerous columns there always “Have been so few (10%) to protect so many” of the citizens in the United States. A large number who served can be found resting in hallowed ground in cemeteries around the country such as Sarasota National Cemetery, Arlington as well as cemeteries around the world. I have seen the numbers of people attending these events dwindle over my lifetime. As a child I remember watching ‘old’ men salute the Flag and watched them tear up as it passed. Today I am one of the ‘old’ men of which I speak.
I have walked through Arlington and Sarasota National Cemeteries and read the names of those interred there. I worked in the morgue at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon, Vietnam removing munitions from those who had been killed during the Tet Offensive. I have seen the hundreds upon hundreds of body bags stacked out in the yard under a Vietnamese sun. My goal for the rest of my life is to make sure the ninety percent who didn’t serve remember what the ten percent have done for you and your family members. To those who have served and the one’s whom we have lost I say ‘Thank You”, well done ladies and gentlemen. To those who disrespect the military by not returning a salute and utilizing Marines as bell hops, I say shame on you.
God Bless America and those who serve to protect us.
Terry Longpre