May 18, 2026 — Memorial Day: Something Left Behind?
Check out miss this week’s blog post by IP attorney, author Timothy Trainer, host of the podcast and video show Tim’s Travails • Follow Tim on Substack
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Memorial Day’s observance is to honor those who died serving in our wars. Memorial Day 2026 occurs only days after two Vietnam veterans who served together in the same rifle company passed away within 48 hours of each other. They survived their combat tour of duty in Vietnam. They came home bodily whole. Still, it’s difficult to believe that every combat engagement didn’t take a part of them as they fought to survive.
Bill, the lieutenant, and Larry, the nineteen-year-old soldier, carried the weight of their world on their backs. Spending weeks out on the trails, creating new ones in the jungle, and carrying everything they needed, including the weight of ammunition and their weapons. Rank didn’t lessen Bill’s load. Larry was no stranger to walking point. Their respective ranks might have imposed different responsibilities on them, but ultimately, they depended on each other and the rest of their brothers-in-arms to endure the jungle and combat.
Serving under an aggressive but experienced and knowledgeable company commander, Bill and Larry experienced their share of combat. They survived all the gunfights. Their bodies were exposed to Agent Orange. Their hearing suffered from the sounds of combat: small-arms fire, exploding grenades, artillery, and mortar fire. They saw things they could never unsee.
When the time arrived, both men left the uniform behind and returned to civilian life. For each, the time came when reconnecting with their fellow soldiers was welcome. Eventually, both attended reunions, traveling long distances to Washington, D.C., Michigan, and other parts of the country. The reunions provided a certain sense of freedom: freedom to talk about Vietnam with others who knew and didn’t judge, and freedom to grieve and mourn those who were lost. Being with their fellow soldiers allowed their emotions to escape.
Having attended reunions of those who’ve been in combat, the one thing we should all remember this Memorial Day is that the survivors of combat, regardless of which war, left a part of themselves back there. How much was left behind differs with each individual. For some like me, Memorial Day, a day for remembrance, isn’t just for those who gave their lives in battle; it’s a day to think about what we ask those in uniform to do in our name.
Wars are not limited to the destruction of things but are about the taking of life. Asking those in uniform to undertake such a burden in our name should be done only after all other options are exhausted.
Timothy Trainer
About the Timothy Trainer: Writing books is a passion for attorney Timothy Trainer, who for more than three decades focused on intellectual property issues in his day job. He has worked in government agencies and in the private sector, and his assignments have taken him to 60 countries around the world.
Tim found time to pen a few non-fiction tomes, including his first book, Customs Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights; the 15th edition was published in 2022. Thomson Reuters’ Aspatore Books published Tim’s next title in 2015, Potato Chips to Computer Chips: The War on Fake Stuff.
Fiction was a genre he always wanted to try. In 2019, Pendulum Over the Pacific, was released by Joshua Tree Publishing. “This political intrigue story is set in Tokyo and Washington, D.C., and centers on trade tensions between the U.S. and Japan in the late 1980s,” Tim explains.
In 2023, his first series hit bookstores: The China Connection.
In 2025, he published the sequel, The China Factor, which ranked #63 on the Amazon Asian Literature list in May.
