Memorial Day, 2011

 Here we are, once again. Memorial Day. The grills were put to good use all over our country, cooking up miles of hot dogs and sausages, countless sides of beef and flocks of chickens. Buckets of tater salads, pounds of chips, cakes, goodies galore were washed down by barrels of beer, soda and gallon upon gallon of sweet tea.


It is about now that I tend to encourage everyone to stop and remember those who have gone on before. Those who founded our country and those who died to keep it great. In my minds eye, I can see the Garden, with its row upon row of white crosses, American flags set out before each and every one. I still encourage you to say a silent (or not so silent) Thank You to them.


But this year... this year I am going to share a veteran who helped make our country great. A veteran we knew personally.

I'll start his story in high school, where a single young lady caught his eye at band practice. As he shyly invited her to take a walk with him to the water spigot (note that-- not water FOUNTAIN and for sure no bottled water,) Love At First Sight was in bloom. Their courtship continued through school. On graduation, our True American Hero joined the Army and was shipped out to the wilds of Vietnam. It goes with out saying, he went through Hell there, at one point being captured and held as a POW for a time. He made it home though, where he married that same girl from band practice.

Our Hero next went on to hold down a regular full time job, but his love of God and Country was strong. He joined the Air National Guard. For 20 years, he could be counted on to be there when the chips hit the fan. On his retirement from his "regular" civilian job, he hired on a civilian contractor with the Department of the Amy.

Now his many avenues of service are outstanding enough alone. But while serving, Our Hero applied his incredible problem solving skills and developed amazing advancements and improvements to many weapons systems and training systems (to only name two) that are still used today. He went above and beyond to help fellow soldiers- so that they too could stand a better chance of coming home safe to their families.

Speaking of family, Our Hero was not just a military man. He had a family- children and grand children, as well as countless "adopted" soldiers over the years that are still part of the extended family today.  He loved the outdoors. Fishing. Water skiing. Feeding the fish, and telling the grand kids about what types of fish were out there. He fed the birds, and loved his Purple Martins.

Our Hero went by many names. Daddy, Honey, Papa, Poppy, and to me, Johnny Reb.

Johnny Reb left behind an incredible legacy. One that ALL can be proud of. He went above the call of duty for his country, raised a beautiful family, spoiled his grand children rotten, and even took in a Damn Yankee.

Writing this post was far from easy for me. Even though it's been a month now, the pain of his loss haunts all of us still. Not only did our family loose a Hero, America did too. America lost a True Hero-- but Heaven gained one hell of a guardian.



Master Sergeant H. L. Harrell, rest easy, Sir. You are hereby relieved of command.