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I'm Proud to Be An American

Dear Reader,


Happy Memorial Day! This week I experienced a miracle at work. For those who don't know, I work late night custodial at the Wilkinson Student Center. Those late nights are usually uneventful while we set up rooms for the next day or polish the floors. However, I feel it a tender mercy that on Sunday night I was given the task to clean up in the Memorial Hall in the Student Center.



I will admit that my ideas of the Memorial Hall were greatly mistaken. I had never actually been in that hall until Sunday night and in my mind it was just a hall where the university hung the American flag along with quotes about freedom and was nothing really special. How wrong I was. As seen in the photo above, the hall is a memorial for all the BYU students/alumni that have given their lives in defense of our country. 





The hall includes a list of names of all the fallen BYU students/alumni from each war. The lists contain several dozen names and the other cases contain their stories. If you have time to go visit, I highly recommend taking the trip. 


I myself have several family members who have served in the military. My favorite is my Grandpa Lundstrom. He served in the Army during World War II. The only thing I know for sure is that he was part of the occupation force in Japan at the end of the war. He had several decorations as a soldier before he came home and was discharged. He did not die on the battlefield, but he put his life on the line for freedom. He died shortly before my brother and I were born. I would have loved to have met him and talked about his service. 

There you have it: we all should remember those who have given service to our country in the military. Many of them gave their all. Others only put it all on the line. However, I know that they all believed to some degree that they were fighting for a better world where we can all find happiness, or as stated in the Declaration of Independence, "the pursuit of happiness." Happy Memorial Day!

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