Shawn Cameron’s Memorial Day

May

Memorial Day Flags

It is not a day solely set aside for charring and scarfing meats and over-imbibing alcoholic beverages and forgetting to wear sunscreen to disastrous effect. Memorial Day, which kicked off in 1868 as “Decoration Day” and was christened its current name in 1967, is a day set aside to recall and honor persons felled while serving in America’s armed forces.

As one can imagine, and only imagine, if one hasn’t experienced the trauma, the day is an emotional one for soldiers and servicemen and women and family and friends who own memories of brothers, sisters, relatives and buddies who did not come home.

New York junior middleweight Shawn Cameron is an Army man, a Staff Sergeant, upon discharge, to be exact. His dad took him to a recruiting station in 1999, as he was in danger of falling off the rails and veering deeper into a self-destructive mode. His eyes saw unfathomable things and his heart ached excruciatingly when experiencing things as do only those in that arena. In 2003, Cameron’s best buddy, Staff Sergeant Morgan Kennon was killed. He exited the service in 2006 and, every year, Memorial Day arrives to poke his psyche and soul.

I asked the 33-year-old Cameron (10-1, 5 knockouts), who grew up in East Flatbush and now lives in the Bronx, how, ideally, non-vets should view this day.

“Most times, people can’t relate unless they have a personal experience,” he told me. “I used to be the same way. Memorial Day used to be a holiday, until I lost friends. Now it’s like funeral day.”

So, is it a day to be dreaded? Or is it a mixture of sadness and otherwise, the latter being a day to recall good times with great people?

“Exactly, just a day to remember all the good people we lost.”

Are you able to pin down and traffic in good memories with the departed?

“Oh definitely, most memories are,” said Cameron, who fights on July 23 at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut.

“But lots of kids that joined the military to get away from bad situations and to get educational benefits, among other things, that paid the ultimate price.

“It just sucks that we lost so many good people.”

Thank you for your service, Shawn. And immeasurable gratitude to all who have served, currently serve and have selflessly dedicated and given their lives for our freedom and way of life in these United States of America.