Tag Archives: Afghanistan

Memorial Day 2022

2022: For many, the pain, strength, and pride of Memorial Day is very personal and real.

CW-2 (Apache Pilot) Kirk Takeshi Fuchigami Jr. of Keaau, Hawaii.

EOW: 20 Nov 2019 Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Takeshi was a BYU-Hawaii student and worked at Laie Ace Hardware.

Here is McKenzie Norman Fuchigami – a very young and strong widow’s post – on Facebook:

“McKenzie Norman Fuchigami is with Takeshi Fuchigami at Memorial Day.

Another Memorial Day in the books, and another day without him. Of course I want to take this opportunity to remember his beautiful soul.

Takeshi proudly served his country and I know he would not hesitate to do it again even given the outcome.

But I also cannot help on this day to remember what was lost.

It’s daunting and frankly SOUL CRUSHING thinking about living the rest of my life without him. Never hearing his voice again or seeing his face light up, making my heart whole. What’s worse? Knowing I missed my short chance of making him a Dad, sharing a family with him. I’ll never be able to get that chance back, something my brain knows, but my heart just won’t accept.

Memorial Day is a painful one, thinking about all of the thousands of lives that are forever altered.

The high price of freedom I’m reminded by daily. And even though it’s painful, I will take this day and every day to remember his irreplaceable presence, and the life we could have had.

To those who will always have a permanent hole in their heart, I hope this Memorial Day reminds you of the love that we got to have even if it was short lived.”