The Real Memorial

Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Montano died in combat. He was just 21.

It wasn’t combat in Iraq or Afghanistan. Montano wasn’t a special operator in North Africa. He encountered entirely foreseeable and preventable combat outside a bar in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Eight months earlier, Davey Spencer, his murderer, had been booked on charges of assaulting a peace officer. Court transcripts for the proceedings are not publicly available. What we know is that the charge was dropped in favor of Spencer pleading guilty to two lower misdemeanor charges. He was sentenced to 27 days, time served, and released.

It would be approximately his 60th criminal charge, according to public records. He had previously spent seven years in prison.

Memorial Day is supposed to be about remembering the historical sacrifices of American KIAs going all the way back to the revolution. Generally, I am not one of those insufferable hardos about Memorial Day. I don’t condemn Americans of all stripes simply taking the three-day weekend to cook dogs and burgers without the least bit of genuflection to American veterans.

I’m not here to lecture any of them.