Memorial Day: From Free Bird to Texas Jack

As a fashion editor, I have very few chances of writing about Memorial Day. But, as a military wife, Memorial Day is not just a holiday. It is a time when my husband and I remember his comrades-in-arms who had fallen or who had passed away.

Those we remember are not just names on a wall or a book. Those are men and women, most of them very young whom we shared meals with, had drinks and spent the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas with.

But this year’s Memorial Day is something special to me. As a book reviewer and professional reader, I’ve been touched by two very different books Free Bird and Texas Jack written by two different authors.

Written by Kevin Cooley, Free Bird is the story of two Marines – Sean Murphy and Sgt. Free Bird, a bomb sniffing German Shepherd who were deployed in Iraq during the Second Gulf War.

On the other hand, Texas Jack is not about a war. It is a coming of age story of an ordinary boy in Texas. Written by Bart Hopkins, Texas Jack has that perfect balance between realism and the romanticism that we usually attach to our childhoods.

I am unsure if Kevin Cooley has ever served, but Free Bird has touched me because of its realism – how our men and women in uniform fight a war and how their families at home worry about them.

On the other hand, Bart Hopkins is active duty military. Somewhere out there, he stands guard so that Americans can sleep soundly at night, assured of their freedom when they wake up in the morning.

Bart Hopkins is doing in real life what Sean Murphy and Free Bird did in fiction.

And that is the reason why on this Memorial Day, I want to thank these two authors – Kevin Cooley and Bart Hopkins. They wrote books that I truly enjoyed for one and in their different ways, they also guard the freedom that I enjoy so that I can write what will be the latest fashion trend next season.

Thank you Kevin and Bart!

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