How Are The Mighty Fallen

Memorial Day is not the start of summer. It is the day America promised to remember.

Some doors never opened again.

Some plates were set for ghosts.

Some children grew up only on stories.

I grew up an army brat.

My mother's father was a United States Marine Corps Master Sergeant. He hit the beach at Iwo Jima. Then Vietnam. He came home wounded. He carried that war the rest of his life. He carried it into his death.

My father's father served …