As Memorial Day weekend came to a close , Lynn and I were riding through Hartselle and decided we would drive through Hartselle City Cemetery. Some of you may not realize it, but a group of patriotic folks places flags on the graves of soldiers each Memorial Day.

We usually check and make sure that Lynn’s uncle, Hal Roberts, has a flag placed on his grave in memory of his service on Memorial Day.

Hal was killed in WWII when the plane on which he served as a radio operator, either crashed or was shot down, in what was then known as Burma. He was only 20 years old at the time of his death. He was among several young men from Hartselle who left to fight during this war and did not return home alive.

Sadly, men from our town have paid the ultimate sacrifice in all wars fought since WWII as well. As the Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War and the continuing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. But one thing that stands out to me is how young most of these fallen soldiers were at the time of their deaths.

These young men, many who left their mother and father’s home to fight in a conflict many miles and oceans away from Hartselle, may never have attended college, lived alone, married or had children. These young men, and now young women soldiers never had a chance to live their lives in the freedom they fought and died supporting.

Thinking back again on Hal Roberts, he was younger than both of my sons’ current age. While it was difficult to have both of them leave for college, I cannot even begin to fathom how Hal’s parents felt when he went off to war at such a young age. But then for their lives to be lost at such a young age, it is difficult to even write about.

In fact, Hal’s mother died about a year after his death, while she died after having surgery, many folks who know her thought she died of a broken heart.

While it is terrible for any person, regardless of their age to die in a war, it is difficult to put into words or even imagine, a mother’s little boy on a battlefield, his lifeblood leaving his body at such a young age.

As this Memorial Day comes to a close, we as Americans know that we can never thank enough the men and women who paid the ultimate price for our freedom and for our country. May the spirit of all the soldiers who have given their all burn brightly in those of us who live in this great county, and may we never forget the sacrifice they made.

Randy Garrison is the president and publisher of the Hartselle Enquirer.