The human memory is a strange and sometimes nonsensical human operation. Through the passage of time, repetition, and change, it is common to forget our first experiences in a skill or the first time we met someone whom has aged at our side. In contrast, there are certain people, places, events, encounters, experiences, or any number of things that we remember with vivid detail and realistic mental regeneration as though the day was not separated by thousands in between.
It is fascinating to see interviews with World War II veterans who can recall names, ranks, weapons, procedures, events, and seemingly unimportant bits of information from their war experiences and yet if you asked them what they had for breakfast that morning they would likely shrug their shoulders. It seems logical to most that war memories would entrench themselves within the minds of the airmen, sailors, and soldiers because those experiences could have been the last moments of the lives of those men. My great uncle served in the Navy upon a battleship. As a boy I remember how much pride he exhibited as he recalled a multitude of details regarding the ship he called home for a comparatively brief but eventful period of his life. Interestingly this vivid recall ability is also exhibited by men who played Major League Baseball. While many regular season games slip from the memories of the participants, there are games that they remember with clarity and detail; inning by inning, out by out, and pitch by pitch. These games are typically of significance in some way, perhaps being a game in which they reached a statistical milestone, an opportunity to earn a starting job, their lone All-Star Game, or the World Series.
Neurologists would likely have theories or studies to reference for the reason why certain files within our minds are so complete and easy to retrieve while others seem to be incomplete, misfiled, or missing. However, a PhD is not required to draw parallels between the experience of a serviceman and a ball player. Generally speaking, the service years of both are during a man's 20's and 30's, his prime athletic years as an adult. These are also the years when a man expects to begin making a name for himself in his career, meet and marry a girl, and become a father. In other words, both of these experiences fall within the prime of a man's life. Although the purpose and nature of these experiences vary greatly, in a sense both of these men are going to war. They share the same uniform as their comrades and they are on the same team trying to beat those who wear a different uniform. There are also a multitude of indescribable mental and arduous physical challenges faced by both, yet one set is incomparably more serious than the other. Yet perhaps the aspects that are most similar between these two endeavors is a shared notion that what they are trying to accomplish is important, that others are counting on them, and the knowledge that they are part of something much larger than themselves....
