July 4th, 2026
Tomorrow we celebrate the birth of our country and the freedom we enjoy. This year, I’ve noted a link between Memorial Day and the 4th of July. Therein is a story.
On April 20, 2005, five US Marines climbed into a troop carrier to conduct a raid on an al-Queda meeting at a local café in Ramadi, Iraq. The insurgents had learned that if they placed an improvised explosive device against a wall, the explosion would double its force as it erupted. The convoy of men rolled our of their camp with their Captain in the lead humvee. In the minutes that followed, an IED exploded, shrapnel piercing the armor and bodies of the Marines in the carrier. Two men were killed when shrapnel hit one in the heart, the other in the head.
Earlier that day, LCpl Mortenson had risen from his seat and ordered another Marine to switch places with him. He had mentored this young man through his first deployment into Iraq. He took the seat at the tail end of the truck, losing his life when the IED exploded.
Mortenson had served with the belief that it would be better for him, a single man to give up his life, rather than lose one of the men with a family at home. This was his motivation in switching seats.
A Biblical reference tells us “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13
That day Lance Corporal Mortenson laid down his life for another. How many of us would make that choice? Twenty years later, the surviving Marines celebrate the freedom of this nation, knowing what it cost some of their comrades-in-arms. First comes Memorial Day with its sacrifice, followed by the celebration of freedom. This was the gift that Lcpl Mortenson chose the day he ordered another Marine to switch seats.