Well, the long weekend has passed and we have now returned from our beaches, our grills, and our games to perform our daily services but as this holiday recedes let us not forget the people it was intended to honor; our fallen service men and women.

Fallen does not have to mean combat. Though we have been in active operational combat continuously since later 2001 I think it is a factor often overlooked just how dangerous military service is even when you are not participating in combat operations.

The men and women of our armed services practice, operate, and maintain complex and dangerous system, devices, both weapon system and support system, that very easily present a danger to life and limb.

In my brief service as a member of the United States Navy, a life that I was ill suited for; such tragedies stuck my own ship. I took part in a single deployment to the Western Pacific in 1981and on that cruise two men lost their lives. One was a marine who fell from a helicopter during operations, and from a great height the sea is no more forgiving to a falling body that the cold hard ground. The second death was a navy Chief who testing repairs on a helicopter when a bad roll of the ship caused the aircraft to strike the deck as a sharp angle, shattering the rotors, sending their shards as shrapnel across the deck, and tumbling the helicopter over the side. Men were maimed but the accident and we never recovered the chief.

Remember and think upon all the dangers our men and women face everyday in their service to our nation, our ideals, and our safety.