02/29/2020
They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old, Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.
If you have ever known one of the fallen, you have known greatness. But it is hard to be content with their silence, for we miss them.
The empty chair on a holiday is empty every day, the photograph that goes wherever you do -- the picture fades, but the person in it does not. Their fighting spirit persists. Passed on through the ranks, their spirit echoes in those that serve today in the air, on land and at sea. In a world awash with change, some things stand firm. Some things are as Plato said: ‘good and true and beautiful.”
No words will ease your pain... but I beg you, let it have meaning. Unite your sorrow to their awesome purpose.
We are blessed by our time by those now asleep, the mighty and the gentle. Let us tell their stories with others and then like the poet we all can say, “ sleep soldiers, still in honored rest, your truth and valor wary. The bravest are the tenderest, the loving are the daring.”
Remembering an Iowa Hero, Army 2LT Richard "Brian" Gienau, 29, Tripoli, Iowa - 2/27/05. We will never forget.
