Contact: Chaplain, Major Norris Burkes, Air National Guard, www.angchaplain.com  

SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 9 /Christian Newswire/ --  Memorial Day 2008. Chaplain, Major Norris Burkes serves on a team that does multiple death notifications to military families in Northern California.

Chaplain Norris Burkes is there when a military family hears their most dreaded nightmare. "Ma'am, we regret to inform you that your husband, Sgt. John E. Smith, was killed today while in the service of our country."

One woman met the team saying, "I don't know what this is about, but it will need to wait until after my son's birthday party."

She knew, of course and she invited the team into a private room, where the commander finished his script and the medic watched for signs of fainting. At the wife's request, Chaplain Burkes read a passage of scripture and prayed. The paralegal explained how her husband's body would be escorted home by a trusted friend.

The details of this scenario have been rehearsed in the minds of every service member and anyone related to a service member. But despite the terrifying possibilities, spouses, friends, children and parents unwrap their loving arms from the brave necks of their loved ones and release them into harm's way.

But even as loved ones pray for their return, some will receive the dreaded knock at the door. So, it is in the memory of our nation's soldiers that we pause to honor the unwavering tenacity of those who've stormed sandy beaches, braved steaming jungles and endured scalding desert heat to serve their country.

On this Memorial Day, let's put aside political differences to say to the families of all who've been forced to hear those official regrets: "Thank you on behalf of a grateful nation." And may prayers go up from people of every faith that families everywhere will someday cease to hear the words, "Ma'am, we regret to inform you ..." Reprinted from Chicago Tribune at http://www.thechaplain.net/articles.aspx?id=113  

Norris Burkes is an Air National Guard chaplain scheduled to go to Iraq in January. He writes a syndicated news column for Gannett News Service called Spirituality in Everyday Life. The column appears in over 30 papers in North America and was named 3rd best column in America by the National Society of Newspaper columnist in 2004 He is the author of No Small Miracles (2006 Integrity Publishing)