Chamblee Officer, Veteran Knows Memorial Day's True Meaning

Gerald Thomson has known people who served in the military who never came home.

"Sure, I've known a few," said Thomson, a U.S. Army veteran who is now a sergeant with the Chamblee Police Department. "Two of my friends were killed in enemy fire, and another died in a helicopter crash in Baghdad."

Thomson has been with the department since February 2006. Prior to that, he was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and again from late 2004 to 2005. Thomson has been in the U.S. National Guard since 2006, and was deployed to Afghanistan from May 2009 to April 2012.

So he knows what Memorial Day is all about.

"Most people don't know the true meaning of this day," he said. "To most people, it's just a three-day weekend and a reason to have a party and a barbeque.

"Memorial Day is about the ones who didn't come home. But to me ... well, I think about that every day."