THE QATSPY® Yankee Performance Sports Training & Apparel Quarters
By Charles W. Boatright
Memorial Day, More Than Names Engraved in Stone- These Names Represent Our Fallen Brothers/Sisters Who Gave the Every Fiber of Their Being
Memorial Day, as usual, I went out this morning at 5:30 AM with my four legged friend to lower my American Flag to half mast, as I do on every Memorial Day. This is to Honor those that have given the very last measure of their fiber and being for a Country that they loved.
We each have or know of a father, a mother, an aunt, an uncle, a brother or sister, or a close friend that placed their duty before their own lives for an idea that echoes throughout our history as a Nation founded on FIVE STAR principles, right in our Declaration of Independence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
My Memory of a Dear and Close Friend, CWO Donovan Briley
During my senior year in high school, I, along with my close friend, Donovan Briley, enlisted with the U.S. Army. During my third year of service, I was injured and issued and received a very much reluctant medical discharge, and started my civilian life about 20- years sooner than I had planned. Donovan went on to serve in the RANGERS and became a Chief Warrant Officer as a Blackhawk pilot. From our early days playing football together in high school, he faced every obstacle with the same can-do spirit that has also inspired me even at age 64.
I recall us skipping out during our senior year of high school after our Physics Class and me driving my CJ-7 Jeep for lunch to McDonald’s located on John F. Kennedy Boulevard in North Little Rock, Arkansas, every day at noon. One thing that I remembered about Donovan was that he was tough as nails, and nothing was too tough for him to face. Even now, I don’t back down from a challenge because of the spirit that Donovan possessed and that I remember.
I told just a fragment of what I remember about my friend CWO Donovan (Bull) Briley, because his story is like those who have given their last full measure for our Country. He lost his life on 03Oct1993 during Operation Restore Hope in Somali, Mogadishu, when his Blackhawk Helicopter was hit by enemy-fired RPG and went down. These accounts are captured in the Movie Blackhawk Down.
The way we can honor the lives of these Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Airmen, and Coast Guard personnel is to first tell their story and second, to hold dear to the founding principles of our Country that they sacrificed for. Does our Country have issues and short-comings; you just have to study our history to know this is the case. But the good has always outweighed these short-comings. There isn’t another country that I would want to call home and live beside my neighbors, that I call my sisters and brothers.
By doing this, we will honor their sacrifice that they and their family have made for this Great Country. So today, I lower my American Flag to Half Mast until noon when I will raise it to tell their story again.
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY
John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that a person will lay down his life for his friends.
Freedom of the Open Road Represents the Freedom that we Enjoy
When the World War II Veterans arrived home they found that the Freedom of the Open Road allowed them to transition back into society that built the greatest economy that the world has ever witnessed.
