I had the privilege and honor to be the guest speaker for a fairly large audience on Saturday, 28 May 2016, for an early Memorial Day Commemoration ceremony in a local retirement community. There were 160 in attendance, including eight World War II veterans, and 39 widows of deceased veterans included in the audience. While we were getting settled in and waiting for the ceremony to begin, I reflected on my emotions, and what events trigger that emotion. My father was rather stoic about such things and rarely showed much emotion, although I knew he felt it. But an uncle of mine was quite emotional, open to tears on what at times seemed to be events of not much consequence to others. I seem to be more like my uncle than my father in this instance. But, while I contemplated this at this Memorial Day observation, both before and after my remarks, I honed my list down to my top three triggers, and they all involve the American Flag and that which it represents.

Coming in at number three is hearing any rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. My first memory of becoming emotional with our national anthem was after my first week in the Indocrination Battalion of Aviation Officer Candidate School. Under the watchful eyes of our USMC Drill Instructors we were marched to the Chapel for our first visit there for religious services. When they began that service, with the broadcast of the national anthem, I remember swelling with pride, feeling a lump in my throat, and choking back tears. Still,to this day, when I hear the anthem and imagine that star-spangled banner yet waving, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave, I swell with pride and and choke back tears.

Next, at number two, is the rendering of Taps. I had a sense of sadness with this tune prior to my military service, but it grew in importance to me during my active duty where one hears the lone bugle every evening at sunset when the Flag is lowered for the day at all military installations, and then again at memorial services for fallen shipmates. The important part and significance of Taps at all military funerals or memorials elevates its emotional quotient exponentially. I cannot hear Taps now without being overwhelmed with emotion which can lead to tears and wet cheeks.

But the top of this emotional trigger list has happened directly with me only one time, and will not occur again. That instance was the ceremonial presentation of a folded flag by an Honor Guard Officer to me at my father's memorial service.  Whenever I witness the bestowal of a folded flag to the survivors of deceased Veterans, the memory of my experience overwhelms me, and I cannot help but weep. I can hold it together until the senior Honor Guard Officer kneels and solemnly presents the folded flag, with the words "On behalf of a grateful Nation."  I will lose it every time.

At the Memorial Day Observation on Saturday, all three elements came to play as it opened with our National Anthem, and ended with a ceremony of recognition for the widows of those deceased Veterans, which included the playing of Taps by a lone bugler. The solemnity of it all lead me to imagine those 39 widows each being presented the folded American Flag with the words "On behalf of a grateful Nation . . .." It was tough.

Lest we forget.