Our Family's American Hero

This is a picture of my Grandmother taken at Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery holding Uncle Wayne's burial flag.

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Memorial Day is a day for remembering the men and women who have died protecting our country and pray for those serving today.

I grew up knowing our family’s American hero, though he died fifteen years before my birth. The picture of a young marine in dress blues was prominently displayed in Grandma’s living room.

I knew there was an island in the South Pacific, called Okinawa, before I could name the fifty States of America. The pain etched in Grandma’s eyes as she told and retold his story taught me the high price of freedom.

In 1943 a seventeen year old boy, from Kansas City, Kansas enlisted to become a man in the United States Marine Corps. His mother reluctantly signed her permission. He argued that a draft notice would come in a few months. He would rather volunteer.

Pfc Wayne A. McClintock, USMC – Died April 4, 1945 in Okinawa during WWII. His body was originally buried in Okinawa, until an act of congress gave my grandparents the option to have his body moved stateside four years later. On April 6, 1949 Uncle Wayne’s body was buried with full military honors at Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.