Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers;
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The quote is hardly needed as this picture (via Blackfive) says everything one needs to know about Memorial Day.
Suggested reading this Memorial Day from the New York Times
http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/25/as-memorial-day-nears-a-single-image-that-continues-to-haunt/