Memorial Day and Veterans Day are very important to me. While I never had the calling (or perhaps the courage) to enlist in our armed forces, my father served in World War II. He survived both Iwo Jima and Okinawa and was preparing for the invasion of Japan when the war ended. But his experiences in the Navy changed him in fundamental ways and affected him for the rest of his life. I’ve posted about my father and the importance of our military heroes before – you can read those posts here and here.

In any event, I inherited his love for history and for honoring those who have sacrificed for our country. Perhaps the best way for me to illustrate that is with an excerpt from my upcoming book, The Wilkes Insurrection,  a contemporary thriller which will be published in October. The protagonist, Tamika Smith, is a Major in the Air Force reserves whose regular job is working for a US Senator. She is a Combat Search and Rescue specialist who did tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the beginning of the story, she rescues a number of passengers from a civilian plane crash at Offutt Air Force. The excerpt below is from her subsequent testimony to Congress.

Tamika and her experiences represent in a deep way the reasons we should always honor those who served and sacrificed by celebrating Memorial Day.

For the rest of this post, head on over to my LinkedIn page.