Memorial Day isn’t just about those in combat
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2026 Blog #17
May 25, 2026
Memorial Day isn’t just about those in combat
It is right and proper that we celebrate Memorial Day each year. Those who have died in combat defending our nation deserve to be remembered. It is, however, sad that we must have this day of memorial. It is sad that we go into conflicts as often as we do. It seems that in the past, conflict and war were our actions of last resort. In recent history, it appears that too often, war is becoming our first, and default action, not our last one.
Another thing that bothers me a bit about our Memorial Day ceremonies is that we assume that everyone to be remembered was someone who died of death in combat. Yes, most people to be remembered were killed in combat, but not everyone. There are some also, who suffered belated deaths years after their military experience. These too ought to be remembered.
In past blogs on Memorial Day, I have told the story of my Godfather, Kenneth Kizer who was in the Construction Battalion on Guam Island. He developed depression, took up self-medication, and killed himself thirty-five years after the war ended. Today, I wish to speak of another tragic death. This death is of a military chaplain who had seen enough horrors, that while on leave, he killed himself rather than report back to duty as a chaplain.
His name is Rev. Victor W. Simons. Like me, he was a New Jersey native. I am a Jersey City native, and he was a native of Newark, NJ. He and I went to different colleges, but we went to the same seminary, New Brunswick Theological Seminary. I graduated seminary in 1980 while he graduated and was ordained in 1927. He pastored his first church in Ulster County, NY. He was called to be the pastor of the Community Church of Glen Rock beginning in 1931 where he was the seventh pastor. After 11 years pastoring this church, he entered the United States Navy during the Second World War and served honorably from 1943-1945.
According to the history that I have read, he was home on leave from the United States Navy and was to report back to duty. Shortly before he was to return, he walked to the train tracks in Glen Rock and walked in front of a moving train. He was killed instantly.
No one that I have met knows for certain what horrors he saw during the war or perhaps what confessions he heard. Yet, somehow, what he experienced made it difficult for him to continue living. For him, the pain of being alive outweighed the joy of being alive. That is a sad state for anyone to walk into. He was a victim of war just as much as a military man who was killed by a gunshot.
On this Memorial Day, I hold up Rev. Victor W. Simons who served his country well but succumbed to the trauma of being part of the military in the time of war. I do hope that somehow the children of God will learn live without the need for war so that future Memorials Days will be unnecessary.
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