Preparation and Reflections for Memorial Day

And remembering a North Carolina farm boy

On Monday most of you will be flooded with good articles properly honoring the servicemembers who sacrificed their lives in the service of this Country. I wanted to give you a little something ahead of time, along with a modest suggestion of a way to spend a little time between now and then that may aid your reflection on what they gave for their comrades-in-arms and for the Country.

First, a note to my readers, new and old

Some of you may be wondering if I have dropped off the face of the earth, since I have not recently been able to write or post much. For new readers, I explained the reasons for this hiatus in “To My Loyal Subscribers.” I am still laboring under some limitations but hope to be able to pick up the pace a bit. So, as I said previously, “Do Not Forsake Me” please.

The comments below are adapted from an article that I originally posed on Memorial Day 2024.

Some suggestions for observing a meaningful Memorial Day and reflections on one of the fallen

Memorial Day is to remember and honor our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines who have been killed in action serving this Country and its people. It is a time for reflection and more than a little sadness, not joy.

One of the things that I would ask you to reflect upon this Memorial Day is the sacrifice made by those whom we honor.

I don’t mean just to take a few minutes to acknowledge that they died too young, and then return to your grilling, water skiing, partying, or whatever. Dig deeper.

Here is something that everyone can do: Set aside 30 minutes to visit the Wall of Faces. It includes photos and memorials of all those killed in Vietnam. Pick a date special to you — perhaps your birthday, wedding anniversary, college graduation, or whatever. Then look at the men who died on that date throughout the years of the Vietnam war. See their photos. Read the comments by family, friends, and comrades. Reflect on the things that they forfeited. Almost all of them would now be in their 70s or 80s. They all missed out on the things that you and I have enjoyed for the last 50 to 60 years. Days of joy and laughter, days of sorrow and tears, everything that makes up life.

You may find that you want to spend more than a half hour there. You may even find yourself going back for subsequent visits on later days. I hope so.

And for those of you within convenient driving distance of Asheville, NC, here is another suggestion and the story of a North Carolina farm boy buried nearby.

Garney Burleson was a farm boy from North Carolina. He is not famous. You will not read about him anywhere other than here. He was a member of the “Bravo Blues,” the elite aero-rifle infantry platoon of B Troop, 1/9 Cavalry, of the famed 1^st Cavalry Division. All the aero-rifle platoon leaders were known by their radio call sign, “Blue.”¹ You can read about them and another fallen hero here.

Garney was killed in killed in action on January 28, 1971, in Binh Tuy Province, Vietnam. He was twenty. He would be 75 today.

Garney is buried in the cemetery of Plesant Grove Baptist Church, a small country church just outside of Asheville, NC. No immediate family members survive him today. Not parents, not siblings. He never had any children. At the time of his death, Garney had been in Vietnam for about three months. So, if we do not remember him and keep his name alive, no one else will.

Garney was well-liked by all his fellow Blues. I never heard a single criticism or complaint about him. Like many other young 19- and 20-year-olds, Garney did his duty to his Country and his comrades. He faced the fire. He faced the fire without shirking or shrinking while many of his college-aged contemporaries were dodging the draft.

When killed, Garney was serving under his second Blue platoon leader. His first platoon leader, then-1st Lieutenant Mike Nardotti, had been medically evacuated after being seriously wounded by a B-40 rocket propelled grenade. He was wounded a second time by rifle fire as he was courageously crawling forward under heavy fire to pull a wounded Ranger team leader to safety. The two Blue leaders just before Nardotti had been, in his words, “evacuated on stretchers.” Regrettably that Ranger did not survive his wounds. Lieutenant Nardotti spent months recovering from his wounds. After his retirement Major General (Ret.) Mike Nardotti, related the story of the fight in this Oral history. The entire episode is worth your time for Memorial Day, but if you want to focus on the action in which he was wounded, it starts around 54:00.

Garney kept a cool head under fire. On one occasion he was lying on the ground behind a tree during a firefight. Keeping his body behind the tree, he held his rifle around it and fired at the North Vietnamese. An enemy soldier in a bunker only a few yards away returned fire, hitting Garney’s exposed rifle. The bullet hit the front sight-blade of his M-16 and then travelled all the way down the length of his rifle to take out the rear sight also. Obviously, if Garney had been looking through the sights, the bullet would have pierced his head. Unperturbed, Garney held up his damaged but still-operable rifle for a nearby soldier to see, smiled and calmly said, “They’re shooting pretty close today, aren’t they.”

Garney’s last “Blue” platoon leader was scant feet away from him when he was killed and carried his body to an evacuation helicopter that was able to descend through a small opening in the trees. On Memorial Day 2018, that platoon leader made the trip from Knoxville, Tennessee, to his fallen soldier’s gravesite.

“Blue” was a bit distressed at what he found at the church and cemetery. He knew that Garney had no surviving close relatives but thought that he might encounter a memorial service or at least some flowers left by the church. That was not to be. He was alone and Garney’s grave was undecorated. Not even a flag. Although there were several others interred nearby who could be identified as veterans from their headstones, the church had made no effort to honor them in any way on that Memorial Day.

“Blue” left briefly to go to a nearby store to purchase a small American flag, and some flowers. He returned and placed them on Garney’s grave. He then penned a hasty note to his former soldier, encased it in a protective plastic bag, and left it at the tombstone, held down with a small stone. He could only hope that by virtue of God’s grace, Garney would know what it said and that he was not forgotten.

This is the note the platoon leader left for Garney.

Please join me now and on Memorial Day in remembering Garney Burleson, Jr. and the other fallen from all wars, whose sacrifice we remember and honor on Memorial Day. If you can please consider visiting Garney’s gravesite and perhaps leaving some flowers or your preferred symbol of respect. He is interred in the Pleasant Gove Baptist Church cemetery, which is about 15 miles southeast of Asheville, a short distance of State Rte. 74.

A concluding post-script by the author

My successor also was wounded very seriously after a relatively short time as Blue. Thus, I was the only one of the (at least) five Blue leaders from B/1//9 Cavalry in 1970-71 who was not “evacuated on a stretcher.” Reflect on that casualty rate as you think about our servicemembers this Memorial Day.

1. The significance of the different colors for the various platoons of B/1/9 Cavalry is explained in my prior article, Running Through the Fire.