The True Meaning of Memorial Day: Honoring Those Who Never Came Home with David Cyr

during Memorial Day and really honor the day and whatever it presents? Anyway, just advice that how we could best honor them on Memorial Day. This is a new people. This is the veterans. When they tell your story, this is what they're saying. You know, a lot of guys need to out there and they don't know who to talk to. So, when somebody's trying to tell you a story, let them go, let them tell that story, let them get that release.

“Well, that should be one of the easier things to do, so I think that we'd all be blessed by that.”

Well, David, I really appreciate you for kind of opening up your heart a little bit in your memories. I'm sharing Jared and Alex's stories with us on Memorial Day and I'm giving us a way. Americans are capable of achieving extraordinary things when they have the freedom and opportunity to do so. This is American Potential. Hey, everyone. Welcome to American Potential Podcast. I'm your host, David From.

Today's Memorial Day. This isn't just another long weekend.

It's a day that was set aside to remember the men and women who never made it home.

And for a lot of veterans and active duty service members, this day carries a weight most people will really never fully understand. Memorial Day for them isn't just about remembrance in general. It's personal because they knew the names, faces and stories of those who've never made it back. So, in honor of them, we wanted to share some of the stories with you today. I want to welcome today's guest, David Seer, who is an Army veteran. David, welcome. Thanks for joining us.

David, thank you for having me. I've truly appreciate being here. Yeah, we appreciate you having on, coming on for such a solemn and important day for us in our country's history and I'm sure in your life.

“So maybe tell me a little bit about your military service and what made you want to sign up and what should you do?”

And then like, what branch, how long are you in there to solve this stuff? So, I think, well, I certainly nice to it to Army for 22 and a half years. I had a period of active duty, left active duty, what in the National Guard for a couple years, I think, came back active duty. But I knew I wanted to be a soldier when I was very young. I remember my dad taking me to see Reimbo first blood and I knew then that I wanted to jump out of planes.

You know, do those sorts of things and it was always a lifelong goal as my mom said when I came home told her I was joining the Army to jump out of planes.

She said, I'm not very surprised at all. So, I ended up in listing and April 7, 1995. I had a contract with the 82nd Airborne Division. I did three years. In August, date of '98, I, my service expired, so I left the way in the Connecticut Army National Guard for a couple years. I was actually a new National Guard when 9/11 happened, and I participated in a couple operations after 9/11,

notably the part of the anti-terrorist force for the United States Olympics at Salt Lake City Utah. And then when I came home, we went down to Ground Zero, and while I was at Ground Zero, we actually recovered, well, watched the crews recover, the remains of the last two bodies found. And I knew at that moment in time that it was a moment that I had to go back active duty and fight. So, I re-allisted May 30th, 2002. I was back on active duty, and the rest of the history, as they said.

So, I served at the 82nd Airborne Division, United States Recruity Command, the 102nd Infantry out of New Brick Connecticut, for a term. So, pretty storied history, a career there.

“Yeah, and so, what did you find the part with the military?”

I was medically retiring in August 1st, 2017. Okay. So, during the course of all that service, and that's quite a bit of service, David. I appreciate that. Where did that take you?

Like, what parts of the world did you serve in? Well, I had a torn Afghanistan, and then I had two tours in Iraq. So, 2003, from January 2003 to August 2003, nearly September, it was Afghanistan. From January 2004 to summer 2004, it was Iraq. And then again, in September 2005 to early 2006, it was Iraq for a second tour.

How did you -- I mean, obviously, all of us know the incredible fighting that went on and tragedy, and what the mission was in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Was there a lot of different -- was there a very different experience being those two different countries?

Definitely.

You know, I think about combat.

Charles Dicken said that there was the best at times. It was the worst at times. I may have got that backwards, but, you know, reality. But that encompasses my service and combat like that. Because you see both, you get to see the best at a human condition, and also the worst at a human condition.

But there are definite differences between Iraq and Afghanistan. Iraq, there's a lot more infrastructure than there was in this early in Afghanistan.

“I like to tell people, I believe that's part of the issue that people have when they serve is the fact that”

we grow up on a progressive notion of what the world is based off of living in the United States, and it's wrong. And then you go to somewhere like Afghanistan, and you realize that everything you believe about the world, maybe not everything. But a good portion of it is completely different. So now you're trying to redefine yourself in this new world with these new rules. And then, you know, you have trauma that happened to you, you lose a buddy, you see a buddy get named, and you're trying to fit all these pieces into the puzzle that don't necessarily fit like they wanted it.

And it causes a lot of, you know, friction for for veterans unfortunately. And, but yeah, I think the infrastructure is the biggest piece for sure. Wow, or in Afghanistan would be the lack of infrastructure.

Yeah, I never thought about that aspect of it. That's really fascinating. You make a lot of sense.

So, you know, unmemorial damage you were remembering the men and women who didn't make it back. And unfortunately, you had some friends who lost their lives in combat.

“One of them was Jared Dennis, and you, what can you tell us about Jared and what he was like and tell us a little bit about him?”

Jared was a native year old soldier. He was a pair of trooper. He was a warrior. The last time I saw Dennis, he was on a, a fatigue out machine gun. We were in an ambush. And I said, hi, you do when he looked at me and he said, Sergeant, I'm doing good. And he just had the face of a confident, courageous warrior. We weren't in ambush. He was on a metovac. And he was on the way back to our position from the metovac when they ran into a secondary ambush.

Now, Dennis being a warrior, he was in a, in a, in a back at a truck. And he saw the enemy. And rather than getting down to taking cover, he stood up. He mounted his weapon at top, but that truck. And he opened fire on the enemy, taking her element of surprise. Now, doing so, he drew their fire to himself and he was morally wounded. In fact, when they broke contact from that secondary ambush, he ran as far as he could until he couldn't run anymore. And ended up getting down under a bush. And when our friend staff sergeant graph from the 82nd and fees found him, he says, hey,

he probably didn't have some staff serge grass, graph 82nd and fees. And I'm here to get you in Jared being a comedian. And he was at Sergeant, it's nice to meet you. I'm sucking. So he was just always the comic relief in our squad. And he went out as a hero.

I imagine a lot of stories, unfortunately, like that. I mean, it always is amazing to me that I think somebody should forget about how young

our men and women who have always fought for this country are. You know, but then he's 19 years old. A lot of us feel like people can't make controversial decisions in their life, barely at 19 years old. And here he is, damn, for his country and acting really heroically. What was it like? I mean, you were just a sergeant, your job was to command and direct these men.

“It was like serving with all these young people who then you have to, you know, make into a really strong, great fighting force.”

It was a privilege and honor to know men that have the intestinal fortitude and the candoric commitment of Jared Dennis, you know, he was our squad comedian. I'd like to joke around a lot. I'm a one night. We were clearing a compound into head and Afghanistan for religious reasons. They die everything red. And they had chickens that turned out pink instead of red. And he said, and his accent surges here. I can't believe there's pink chickens up. I've seen everything. And you know, a couple of days, a couple of weeks later, we're in another mission, we're writing in a car.

And another one of our squad comedians, picks a joke. And Dennis looks to be surges here. Now I've heard everything. I can't believe this. And as it well, Dennis, you've seen and you've heard everything. What else is there for you to do? And again, he went out to show us what he had left on April 25th. And that was to be a courageous and confident warrior.

The thing that people always talk about is like the, often like the downtime, like who was funny, who played pranks, who, you know, just the stuff that, you know,

“if you're hanging out in a dorm, you'd be talking about your friends about too. It's like that the camaraderie there is so special. I imagine it's kind of, it's much stronger.”

And you know, a lifelong bond. Yeah, I find the two things that you missed most when you leave the military. And this is just to be saying it's, it's common most veterans I speak with, is the structure and the camaraderie. And that's it. There's a lot of things about the army. I like to say the army take has a way of taking a fun out of a lot of things that you'd like to do.

But it's being with those brothers on your left and right. You know, we all have our own specific reasons why we want to serve.

But when you're in the dirt, like I was like we were that day on April 25th, it isn't about your family back home. It's, it's not even about your freedoms. It's not about the constitution. It's about your brother to your left and right. And what you're going to do to be able to be home with them. And one of them does it come home. It's life changing.

“Well, you know, you'll send another friend named Alexander Van Alten. What was his story? And then, you know, when did you first meet him?”

So Alex was from Clarksville, Tennessee. And he enlisted in the army in 2004, 2005, time for him. So I want to say late 2005, early 2004. And he came to our squad, our Arpaltoon in early 2005, and then deployed with us in September that year. He had just buried the love of his life, his school, his school sweetheart, Shayna.

And they were have had big plans. But he was a solemn guy really quiet, the quiet, constant professional. You know, he would always step up when somebody was needed.

And he would do everything he could, he would do the best he could, and no matter what it was. And remember when we deployed that to Iraq, he struggled a little bit. I remember before we rolled across the border into Iraq, we were in Kuwait.

“And he was struggling a little bit. He was upset. You know, he was missing his, his newlywed wife that he's never been away from, except for basic training. So, you know, but he pushed on and he pushed through it.”

And ended up having some great times during that deployment. And then after that deployment, I ended up getting sent out to recruit a command, but they're Michigan to do they ended up in Afghanistan. And the village that we had also visited in 2003 called Sagan Afghanistan, which is a hotbed. It's also one of the most heavily landmined areas in the world. And the Alex ironically was the unit was on the mission with the Dutch Army. So it was a joint, joint mission. And subdupped soldiers, I stepped on landmines.

And the engineers had gone out and cleared the minefield for people to go in and help and about an Alex of volunteers. No, everything that he had, he volunteered to go through into harm's way to help these deaf soldiers and carry them to safety. Unfortunately, on his way back from helping these gentlemen, he too stepped on the landmine. And what's counterstrafically wounded? Yeah, I mean, the common element there is like you have two friends who are trying to save their fellow colleagues. In fact, in Alex's case, I mean, for given for another country trying to save allies to do something selfless and then, you know, paying the ultimate price for it.

And like I said, he was a quiet, silent professional, but he was a joke through too. When he got to know, you know, he would open up a little bit more and he was just a genuinely good Christian man. Yeah. Well, when something like this happens and say you're in the country and you're how to, how does the unit deal with that kind of tragedy and that kind of ploss. It's, it's difficult. So I use my secretary in Iraq in 2005. We were in filling into this city called Al Haqlania. Now, we had been deployed to Iraq under emergency conditions because the, the Marine Corps was having a trouble with this city.

So we went in, we put the Marines into the sister city called Haditha that night and then we refitted in the same night rolled into Haqlania. And we were sitting in what's got a blocking position. So it's a position, you're blocking anybody from being able to do the city. So you can court in the city for, for your mission. And as we're doing so, I want a Hanvi several a couple hundred meters away from me, just blow up no better way.

And the gunner on that truck was my driver, PFC Molenar's best friend, and his day was a specialist Jacob Vanderbosch.

“And I never forget, Rudy looked at me and he said, "Fosh." And I said, "Don't worry Rudy, he's going to be okay."”

I knew that he probably wasn't going to be, but it was our first day of a 26-day mission, Dave. So imagine if you will, 26 days, you have to keep your head on the swivel, you have to be alert. If I let Rudy, if I let his mind leave the mission for a minute, it could have been a catastrophic moment for our vehicle. So in order to keep us going, and of course, you know, you mourned, but you can't really mourn as you normally would because you're still focused on the mission I need.

So you know, we did a memorial service there, we all set our peace, but you never really get to bereave a go through the process.

And that's really, if you look at it, it's where a lot of people have issues because you have to compartmentalize. And it was the New England Journal of Medicine, said, and I believe it was June 2007 that those who compartmentalize have a higher propensity for PTSD. Now, there's a sweet spot because people who don't compartmentalize also have a higher propensity. So there's a sweet spot where you could do it for to get you through the moment, but then immediately start to go through that process. For soldiers, we don't necessarily have that opportunity.

So now, we're pushing that down, we're compartmentalizing, and by the time we get home, we think we're better. But we're not, it seems so.

You know, and it could be, you're in a, you're in a bridal gallery with your sister, getting her final dressing.

And all of a sudden you get this crushing guilt because, oh, I was the one that came on the wall. And it starts to seep out. And for some guys, that that seepers turns into just a gushing outlet. And then they end up taking their lives.

“That's why, you know, right now we're looking at up to, they say, 70 veterans that they take their lives.”

But with service members, you look at upwards of 50 a day, our comedic suicide, our, our, our, you know, removing themselves from this fond face we call Earth. So it's, it's, has long, elastic effects, unfortunately. Yeah. Well, I'd imagine seeing, you know, horrors that you saw, and just the intensity, the constant intensity. It's, it's, I don't think human brains really meant for that.

So I, I sort of admire what you all have done in your service. We can talk about Memorial Day today. I got to imagine it's a tough day to kind of, you know, wake up on and think about the purpose of it. But do you have mixed feelings like, how do you and other veterans feel about Memorial Day and how do you approach it? It's been a process.

When I first came home, it was a lot of guilt.

It was a lot of pain. But I, I've decided to do something meaningful. I like to talk about these guys. I like to talk about their experiences, so that they're not forgotten. So people know who these heroes are. In fact, my daughter, if she was a, a wife, she was a boy when she was born.

Her name was going to be Jared Alexander after those two heroes. So I find something meaningful, and I'm able to use my ability to speak as an outlet. Many people don't have that, but I'm blessed. I'm able to, I'm grateful for that. But it's really different. You know, those experiences shaped my belief on Memorial Day. What I was saying that I'm Memorial Day, a lot of people take soldiers.

Take veterans, service members. It's really awkward. And we appreciate it. But, you know, there's a distinct difference between veterans day and Memorial Day. I know guys that really get upset with people think, I, I appreciate the intent and where people are coming from.

But it, it's really hard to say thank you for your brothers that you lost. It's, so it is very solemn. You know, it's a lot different from when I was younger before I joined the military. And now if you're like, hey, let's, let's go, you know, barbecue and go to the beach and have a good time.

“To now it's, you know what, I really want to remember these guys.”

I, I really want to bring importance to what they did in their sacrifices. So that's what it means to be today. Is there any advice you'd give to folks who didn't serve who want to honor folks during Memorial Day?

Anyway, that, you know, just advice that how we could best honor them on Memorial Day.

Listen to people. Listen to veterans. When they tell your story, listen to what they're saying.

“You know, a lot of guys need to outlet, can they don't know who to talk to?”

So when, when somebody's trying to tell you a story, let them go, let them tell that story.

Let them, let them get that, that release. Well, that should be one of the easier things to do. So I think that we'd all be blessed by that.

Well, David, I really appreciate you for kind of open up your heart a little bit in your memories

and sharing Jared and Alex's stories with us on Memorial Day kind of giving us a way to

“remember them and the folks who, the folks who gave that ultimate last measure to this nation.”

So thanks for sharing with us and I appreciate your joining us. You're welcome. I think you're so much. You know, one last thing if I may. Yeah, there's a lot of people out there that criticizes people because they have a good time on Memorial Day. No, definitely go out. Have a good time. Enjoy yourself.

“Because I know that's what Jared, that's what Alexander would have wanted you to do.”

They'd want you to go out and have a good time. Just remember them when you're doing it. Yeah. Great advice. Thanks, David. Appreciate it. Have a good day. Two. Well, folks, if you like this episode, I'd like to stay connected with the podcast. Be sure to like, subscribe to our channel as well as following us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

And I'll just remember Liberty and Freedom are easily taken for granted. Don't take for granted. Go out there and defend Liberty and Freedom. They should join us and we'll see you on the next episode. Thank you for listening to American Potential. You may listen to more stories from Americans working every day to expand freedom and opportunity in their communities by visiting

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