This week there has been no Sea Cadets for me (except some admin that I help with) but no time with cadets after the previous week’s camp. They had a good time – and yes water was part of many of the events – but there were also fun activities such as bowling and trampolining (a tad hard to do on water! 😉 ) and everyone had a good time. At Sea Cadets – and maybe especially at camps or when one is offshore – there is the tackling of uncertainties and fears that come with something new – and lots of encouragement and camaraderie. One thing was quite unexpected at camp – wearing one’s best uniform – when one had been in water or fun clothes all week. It wasn’t planned per se but it was a response to the calendar with August 15th being VJ Day (Victory over Japan) and the end of World War 2 – 80 years ago. A significant component of the Sea and Royal Marine Cadets is ceremonial and civic engagement – probably the most public events are Trafalgar Day and Remembrance Sunday / Day. And so the cadets in their best, attended, and carried standards and helped the public lay wreaths and acknowledged something that happened long before they – and most of us! – were born. In the UK this war and these troops have often been described as ‘forgotten’.
Part of my message …
Most of us cringe inside or feel embarrassed when we’ve forgotten someone’s name. Sometimes we do ask – maybe it’s a first meeting in some sort of business – but we can also go through all sorts of memory gymnastics if it is someone’s name we should know, should’ve remembered. Then we hope we can ‘get away with it’ – the not remembering and heaven help us if we have to introduce the person to someone else!
It is awkward not to remember. It is not good not to be remembered. No one ever feels affirmed by being forgotten.
You are here because you have not forgotten – you have remembered – that, in 1945, the fighting continued in Asia and the Pacific after it concluded in Europe. But the phrase the ‘forgotten war’ is often said about what happened in what from here is called the ‘Far East’.
You are remembering that service has a cost – time away from family – military personnel were still returning home to the UK in 1947 – think about that – for those far away and those at home when the fighting has stopped.
You are remembering the fatalism often taken up in this world about living and dying – especially when times are tough and unpredictable – of the sortie from a Liberator Squadron flown from Burma who returned and landed safely to find that the war was over. It wasn’t when they took off – but one of the aircraft that had taken off with them didn’t come back. Many have asked ‘Why did I come home?’ just has many have asked, ‘Why did he have to lie in foreign soil?’.
… even when it seems otherwise – God told his people that should parents or the world forget, he would never forget each person in this world and his care was engraved on his hands (Isaiah 49:14-16). Such engraving, marks; the marks of sacrifice – of the cross – can remind people that they are important; can remind each individual that you are important and will not be forgotten.
GS