Monster CrossFit workout honors vets on Memorial Day, the support they receive post-war does not.

Talk about a staggering workout.

Nearly 70 locals are honoring Memorial Day through what one organizer calls "suffering a little pain in solidarity."

The annual "Murph" workout at First City CrossFit—which I recently profiled with "Recent newcomer First City CrossFit enjoys burly growth in business by staying true to CrossFit roots"—is one of the hundreds of Workouts of the Day, or WODs, completed by CrossFit tribes around the world.

(Learn more about how the explosively growing CrossFit movement began on Monterey Bay with "Much of CrossFit’s exploding global movement was first flexed locally.")

The Murph is also intense: first comes a 1-mile run, then 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups and 300 squats, then another mile.

One kicker: competitive athletes are invited to do it while wearing a 20-pound weight vest or body armor.

And the real kicker: The exercise is conducted in memory of Navy Lieutenant Michael  Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., who was killed in Afghanistan June 28, 2005.

This workout was one of Murphy's favorites; he called it “body armor."

Something heavier than a vest or armor comes with Memorial Day, something described most succinctly in the media by Mother Jones, which gathers 14 gut-wrenching facts about U.S. veterans with a piece called "Charts: Suicide, PTSD and the Psychological Toll on America's Vets."

It's not easy reading, but it's brief, and critically important for compassionate citizens.

Here's one of the many reasons why: Murphy died in the field. More soldiers now die as a result of suicide than combat. And that can be prevented, at least partly, with better services and better recognition of post-traumatic stress disorder.

U.S. soldiers deserve tributes like the Murph WOD.

They also deserve much better from their government.