I’ll be the first one to admit that I was more than just a little skeptical when I received the first of what has become many e-mails from Senior Airman Jarred Taylor on May 15. I was looking for a local link to Iraq for a Memorial Day story, and I couldn’t believe that Taylor was totally legit.

After calling down to Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina that last ounce of nagging doubt was relieved as he is who he says he is, and in writing his story, I reflected upon my own.

Yes, once upon a time I was proud to be 11B or just a straight leg infantryman with no special training, but getting married and having a child alters your perspective on life greatly.

For me it meant telling my beautiful, loving wife Edna that after Sept. 11, 2001 it was time to leave the security of the military and make an attempt to return to this business of writing. It took far longer than expected, but she and our son, CJ, hung in there as what was supposed to take less than a month took more than two years.

I’ll be the first to admit that the idea of leaving my wife and son to go overseas in a combat environment wasn’t exactly appealing, but if I had to go, I would have gone. Thankfully, that didn’t happen as I left the Army before my unit was deployed. I just hope they were more prepared than when I said my last good-bye.

Taylor is not the only Poulsbo son or daughter serving in the sands of Iraq or mountains of Afghanistan, I know there are many others, but his story provides insight into the realities of a way of life those who have never served in the military may not understand.

Whether you support the war or are so opposed to it that you’d rather eat lutefisk for a month than see it continue one day longer, the troops deserve your support. If you don’t support the war, at least be patriotic enough to support those who may be your friend’s son or daughter.

Memorial Day is just a few away and even if you’ve got the biggest, baddest barbecue of the decade planned, take time for a moment of silence to honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom or are the walking wounded with obvious physical scars and hidden emotional and psychological wounds.

Taylor, like so many of his fellow airmen, soldiers, Marines and sailors, have lost close friends in combat, so Memorial Day has some extra meaning for them as they will in their own way take a moment or two for reflection.

I have only lost one friend in the deserts of Iraq, Sgt. 1st Class Brian A. Mack, so I consider myself fortunate.

At noon on Monday the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion will mark the day with a ceremony at the Kvelstad Pavilion in Poulsbo. I encourage you to join them and remember those who gave their all.

CHARLES MELTON

Kingston

Charles Melton is a reporter at the North Kitsap Herald, who served as infantryman in the U.S. Army from September 1999 to April 2002. He was assigned to the First Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment in Munsan, Korea and the First Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment at Fort Lewis.