Addison Bragg, The Billings Gazette & Memorial Day Column

As a kid, what I most wanted to be was a journalist. There was just something glamorous and admirable about writing for your hometown paper, meeting deadlines, and seeing your name in print. In fact, my love of words and writing led me to Missoula, MT to pursue a degree in print journalism. They have an outstanding journalism school, one of the best in the nation. As most students do, I changed my major a few times, but never have I forsaken my love for writing. Some of the most notable people in American history have been journalists--Edward Murrow, Walter Winchell, Dan Rathers, Nelly Bly, Ida Tarbell, and Katie Couric. One that you may be less familiar with was Addison Bragg.

Addison Bragg was the first local columnist that I can remember from childhood. He worked as a newsman for the Billings Gazette for 30 years, and maintained a weekly column called "Bragg About Billings" for many years after that. He wrote about everyday events and extraordinary happenings. As a veteran, he often wrote poignant columns regarding military service. Addison Bragg died last Monday, May 18, 2009. What follows is a reprint of a Memorial Day column that merits another look.

Holiday belongs to those who wore the uniform

Back where I did part of my growing up they called it Decoration Day.

It was a small town in Ohio, too small a town, in fact, to have its own Soldiers Monument--but there never came a last Monday in May in North Lewisburg that those who lived there didn't remember what the day was all about.

I remember those past Memorial Days and remember what they stood for and why we kept them and once more I hear the distant rifle volleys followed by the haunting sound of a bugler playing "Taps."

The flags were always out in that little town on this special day, all the way from the fire bell tower atop City Hall and the homes along quiet streets to the evergreens on a hill a half-mile east where tiny flags were stirred by the wind as it blew softly across the graves of the military dead.

We weren't all that far removed in time from when Memorial Day began.

Many of those former soldiers or sailors who turned out to mark the holiday in that small town were less than a decade away from the war in France.

And, the way it happens sometimes in small towns, some were even looked upon as heroes.

But the greatest respect was shown to the white-haired old men who on that day of the year walked, some still leaning on their canes, around town wearing blue coats with brass buttons. One or two wore strange headgear, much resembling the cap worn by the soldier on the Soldiers Monument at the county seat.

But that was then and this is now when Memorial Day has come to be for those who are remembered and those who do the remembering and there's nothing wrong with that.

And much has happened since the first observance soon after the war's end when women in a southern town still occupied by Union troops decorated the graves of soldiers from both sides who were buried there.

Then in the 1880s it was made "official" by the Grand Army of the Republic, and much later an act of Congress made it the holiday as we celebrate it today.

But no matter what the change in attitude or custom, the basic reason for the day should be remembered.

It's important to realize Memorial Day belongs not only to those who fell in battle but to all who once wore our country's uniform and, having served, came home to live long, happy and fulfilled lives. It is for them, too, that ceremonies are held, honors accorded and tributes paid.

The flags, the flowers, the reunions, the memories all give meaning to a day which has come to be one of the most important of the year. This is as it should be for, as some wise man asked, how can we know where we are going if we have not the will and wisdom to look back at where we have been.

Memorial Day gives us a chance, at least once a year, to do just that.

And as for those whose memory we pause momentarily on this one day, the poet Lawrence Binyon, in his verse "To The Fallen," expressed it well:

"They shall not grow old
As we who are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them
Nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun
And in the morning
We shall remember them."

Editor's note: This column was originally printed in The Billings Gazette on May 26, 2003.

For extra credit, please write notes of thanks and gratitude to those you know who presently serve or who have served in the past. Then, direct them to this blog so that they can read the comments.

As an example:

To: Zeb and Eric Fettig
My heartfelt thanks go out to both of you for having served (and serving) this country so honorably. Without those willing to protect the freedoms we hold dear, they would undoubtedly disappear. As stated on the Korean War monument in DC, "Freedom isn't free!"