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One of my wife’s favorite songs — I like it, too — is Engelbert Humperdinck’s After the Lovin’
What does it have to do with Memorial Day, or the day after?
Perhaps nothing.
It just seems to me that it is after Memorial Day, after the photographs of officials and celebrities laying wreaths, making speeches, remembering and honoring our fallen troops have all been published, some of the most heartrending and tender images begin to appear.
Fair warning: If you have had “enough already” of Memorial Day “messages” and images, enjoy the song and go no farther.
Here are some of those images, after Memorial Day…
U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Tiffany Robinson kneels in front of a battlefield cross following a Memorial Day ceremony on Camp Lemonnier, Djibouti, May 26, 2014. Robinson is assigned to 449th Air Expeditionary Group. Combat gear hangs on the cross to represent each of the five U.S. military branches to commemorate fallen service members.
Roses and flags adorn headstones for Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., May 26, 2014.
U.S. soldiers walk across a field of 6,800 memorial lights representing the U.S. service members who have fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan during a Memorial Day vigil on Camp Buehring, Kuwait, May 26, 2014. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Marcus Fichtl
A Tuskegee Airman renders honors during a Memorial Day wreath laying ceremony held May 26, 2014, at the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Va. (With my apologies to U. S. Air Force photographer Jim Varhegvi for cropping other dignitaries out of his beautiful photograph)
Young volunteers representing the East Coast Chapter of the Tuskegee Airmen Inc. participated in a Memorial Day wreath-laying ceremony held May 26, 2014, at the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Va. Chief Master Sgt.(U.S. Air Force photo/Jim Varhegyi)
Coalition soldiers with International Security Assistance Force Regional Command South bow their heads in remembrance of fallen service members during a Memorial Day ceremony on Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, May 26, 2014. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Brock Jones
Capt. Jerry Yellin, a World War II P-51 pilot and the national spokesman for the Spirit of 45 Organization renders honors during a Memorial Day wreath-laying ceremony May 26, 2014, at the Air Force Memorial, Arlington, Va.
Dawn breaks over the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery in Boise, Idaho, on Memorial Day, May 26, 2014. Idaho dignitaries held a Memorial Day Ceremony there later that day. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Samuel Morse)
Lead Photo: C.D. Studyvin, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, salutes the U.S. flag during a Memorial Day ceremony at El Paso Cemetery in Derby, Kan., May 26, 2014.
All photos: DOD
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.