Finding connections in silence and gratitude

It doesn’t have 57,000 names like the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.

But there are 33 names that are on both walls.

It should mean something to you even if you don’t know any of the names on it. But if you know at least one name, it means everything.

I’m talking about the memorial wall at Las Cruces’ beautiful Veterans Memorial Park. The wall lists the names of all the area military members who gave their lives in service since World War I.

When Las Crucen SFC Antonio Rey Rodriguez was killed in Afghanistan Feb. 8 of this year, his marked the 204th name to go on the wall. The wall also lists the branches of service of each hero.

Each year, on Memorial Day, the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Mesilla Valley Chapter, in conjunction with the Veterans Park Memorial Wall Committee, conducts a solemn service honoring the soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen whose names appear on the wall.

The ceremony will go on this year, but with a very limited group in attendance due to the public-health ordinances.

You won’t be able to attend in person, but thanks to the Military Order of the Purple Heart, you can review the names, and honor their sacrifice, in this week’s Bulletin, on page 25.

Most years on Memorial Day weekend, I visit a local cemetery, browsing the graves. Typically, after some looking you’ll find a military marker of a person who died young during a time of war. You can’t know for certain if the deceased died in combat, but if not, you know that a fellow soldier or sailor likely did. I like to take a moment of silence and gratitude at the gravesite.

This year, I perused the list of names from the wall.

A name jumped out to me pretty quickly: Mike C. Beckett of the Army Air Corps, who died during World War II. I talked with my friend Pat Beckett, and sure enough, the deceased was Pat’s uncle. Pat was only 3 or 4 at the time, but one of his earliest memories is of his grandmother, Antonia, spreading out all over the floor the letters Mike had written from overseas. Mike had gone through school in Las Cruces, was engaged to be married and 22 years old when he was declared dead Dec. 27, 1943. He had been missing since November, after being shot down in a B-17 over Germany. A newspaper clipping of the day said Mike was the 35^th man from Doña Ana County to die in the war to that point.

Pat said, upon Mike’s death, everyone in the family enlisted to go fight, including Herman, Pat’s father and Mike’s older brother.

“Mike joined the National Guard before the war broke out, and he was part of the 200^th Artillery Regiment that wound up going to Bataan,” Pat said. “But he was such a good shot the Army Air Corps picked him up as a gunner.”

Such is the randomness of war: Your assignment takes you away from one of the cruelest situations in World War II, and death finds you regardless.

Years later, Pat’s wife, Becky, lost a first cousin – also named Mike – in the Vietnam War. Not long after, they had a son they named Mike, in honor of their fallen relatives. You may know the younger Mike Beckett; he and his wife, Veronica, run the COAS Bookstore, founded by Pat.

Look over the names yourself, and you’ll likely find a connection as well.

Whether you do, or whether you don’t, take a pause at one or two of the names, and take a moment of silence and gratitude.

We can never repay the service they gave.