I have read several stories in the past weeks…..soldiers coming home. No, not from Iraq, Afghanistan, but from WWII.
DNA has been the tool to identify remains long since decomposed into dust and bone. It’s bittersweet. Mothers and fathers who themselves have died, will not weep at a son’s gravesite. Perhaps some nieces and nephews who never knew the boy……just the memory told to them before the last of his generation left this earth.
I have a farmhouse in Gettysburg. Beneath the fields, many still remain unknown. We now have monuments to remember those who fought, each thinking his side was right. Sadly, those monuments are being torn down. It is my hope that history’s truths, the ugly, the heroic, the rights, the wrongs, will always be taught and those who sacrificed will all be known in this way. They gave so much more than their names to war……every war……each death deserves recognition.
Yes, it’s nice to become known after being unknown for so long; but it really doesn’t matter to those whose remains are being transported across the sea and laid to rest in American cemeteries. They are with those who knew them, loved them, wept for sons who never came home……they are all home now. In Civil War times, it was known as the good death, to be surrounded by loved ones and buried in home ground. There are still so many unknowns out there, they did not have a good death, but may they all have everlasting peace and be home with the ones they love……………
Here is the news story of one such soldier
Peace,
Shirl
The Roses and Thorns of Life 
Reblogged this on Walking Among the Ghosts of Gettysburg.