We owe appreciation

War memorials across the U.S. show names of men and women who gave their lives while serving our country. Behind every name is a life and a loss.

On one memorial near Newberry, S.C., is the name of my uncle, Tech Sergeant Lyle Vinson, 23, a flight engineer, and 13 fellow airmen who died when two B-25 bombers collided in midair near Newberry on Feb. 5, 1943. A group of 15 planes and crews were returning from Tampa to Greenville, S.C., after training. Pilots then didn’t have sophisticated instruments common today. Flights of three planes flew the same course at slightly different altitudes and stayed in radio contact to avoid collisions. When they encountered rain and dense fog, something went terribly wrong that afternoon 75 years ago.

Lyle, one of seven children from a poor Illinois farm family, enlisted in the Army Air Corps before the attack on Pearl Harbor. He wrote dozens of letters to his family from 1941 to just days before his death. Lyle detailed military life, thoughts of family and the excitement of a young man away from home for the first time. With his letters passed down to our family was the plainly worded telegram reporting Lyle’s death.

On Memorial Day, I remember Uncle Lyle, born nearly four decades before me. I wonder what kind of life he, and those who perished with him, might have had. They didn’t live to enjoy their families or see many modern innovations.

Military service is serious and potentially deadly. On Memorial Day, and every day, we owe the men and women who died to protect this country our respect and appreciation. Their families deserve our deepest sympathies for the loss of their loved ones whose lives ended honorably, but too soon.

JOYCE WILLIAMS

North Little Rock