Memorial Day Reflections: Major General Tony Cucolo

A veteran talks about how we can honor those who are no longer with us on Memorial Day.

By Andy Uhler & Hannah McBrideMay 25, 2015 8:50 am

The Texas Standard collected the memories of veterans across the state for Memorial Day 2015.

After 35 years with the Airborne Ranger Infantry, Tony Cucolo retired in September 2014. But he’ll always consider himself a lifelong soldier.

“Deep inside each of us veterans, every day is Memorial Day,” he says. “I don’t mean we go about our day brooding, consumed in grief. But, for some of us, a sight, a sound, a smell, or the mention of a name – of a person or a place – will trigger a memory, a memory that might be tied to someone who’s no longer with us.”

“We carry the memory of the dead and, I imagine, the hope, the hope that those dead and their great sacrifice that we so vividly remember, will not have been made in vain,” he says.

Cucolo says gathering on Memorial Day reminds Americans to be worthy of freedom and realize we have a responsibility of those generations of Americans who have died to not let them down.

Send us your Memorial Day memories on Twitter (@texasstandard) or via email (texasstandard@kut.org).