Memorial Day

[Travelwanted]

I want to thank any and all vets and their families for their service and sacrifice.

Freedom is not free.

 

[Senator]

As a disabled Vet, I appreciate the thanks.

Far too many people live in the USA, mostly non-veterans, that complain about not enough 'freebies'. Yet, they do not appreciate all of the people that paid the ultimate price for them.

The USA and it's population would be a much better place if 100% of people 18+ were either Veterans or active duty.

 

[Gumby]

I too appreciate the sentiment, but Memorial Day is to remember those of our brothers and sisters in arms who did not make it home.

Ode of Remembrance

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.

-- from “For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon, September 1914

 

[Senator]

Not only remember the ones who have died, but thank God they were there in the first place.

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

— George S. Patton

 

[zerogravity]

"Freedom is not free"

Off to pay respects at the local Memorial Day parade. The living veterans join the parade at the very end to lead it into pilgrims home cemetery. The vets get solemn applause. The marching bands stop playing and just march. At the end a lone bugler plays taps. Prob one of the most moving melodies on earth.

So thank you, senator, and all the rest of the individuals and families who chose or did not choose to serve our great country.


--ZG

 

[atmsmshr]

Last November, my wife and I visited Washington DC. Our visits included Arlington, the Pentagon 9/11 memorial and the Holocaust museum. We also drove up to the battlefield memorials of Gettysburg.

It was a solemn rememberance of the ultimate sacrifice that soldiers, sailors and airmen have paid to beat back tyranny throughout our great country's history. Most of those servicemen and women who died were only young adults - which only makes their heroism even greater.

 

[Ronstar]

At least once a year, I visit a memorial site - Arlington, Gettysburg, nearby Abraham Lincoln Cemetery. For me, the visit really puts things in perspective. These men and women paid the ultimate price in preserving our freedom.

 

[eytonxav]

Thanks to those who gave their all, and to their families and all others that are still in harms way. We will never forget!

 

[Bestwifeever]

My mother's brother died off the coast of Italy in WWII. Here's to you, Uncle Samuel, and the rest of the heroes who died that day and any other day in service to our country.

 

[Silver]

My father-in-law is 94 years old, and doing great. Lives independently in his own home, travels extensively, and his memory is stunning. He was a night fighter pilot in WWII. His stories are amazing and sad. So many lives lost.


I adore him. He is, for me, my own personal hero.

 

[kannon]

Thank you to those who sacrificed for the freedom we are so blessed. Thank you to the families whose grief never ends. Thank you to those who served and returned home yet still sacrificed in ways we can not imagine. Thanks to those still in harm's way that allows us to enjoy a day of reflection. We may have a crazy political process, we may have many challenges ahead of us, but we have the freedoms to address them and prosper thanks to those wonderful men and women who served and serve this great nation.

God bless our country.

 

[aja8888]

Remembering

My Dad was on a minesweeper in the South Pacific in WWI but made it home. Wooden hulled ships going into areas to pull magnetic mines before the destroyers come in to do their work was very dangerous duty.

I was in the AF during the Viet Nam Crisis and combat rated. I lost a few friends at that time. They are all heroes. My closest friend here in Texas still carries a lead slug or two from being shot down in his helicopter gunship in Nam. Us that are still here and have survived those times are pretty lucky.

 

[imoldernu]

Uncle Jerry, was KIA in crash of the Reluctant Liz.. a B24... over Bucharest in 1944... 2 KIA, 10 POW. for the remainder of the war. Tail gunner didn't get much of a chance.
My later neighbor Howard :http://www.riversidesaginawfilmfestival.org/docs/Howard_the_Hero.pdf
Passed away a few years ago.
Probably 6 Gold Stars in the windows of Elder Street.. the short street where I grew up in the 1940's. Five out of 7 uncles in WWII.
Neighbors and an older cousin in Korea, and my best friend ever wounded and diusabled. Many friends relatives and neighbors in the Vietnamese war, with many deaths. Two close coworkers died in separate helicopter accidents.

In the last Memorial day ceremony in our Florida community, in the memorial day ceremonial luncheon out of perhaps 50 men in attendance, 2/3's stood up to be recognized for their service.

I was 1A for the draft, but delayed service 'til after college to be commissioned as a 2nd lt.

Easy to lose perspective about the casualties of war... especially those who never returned. Statistics about the ultimate sacrifice for US Personnel.

 

[braumeister]

My dad nearly lost his leg in WW II from a German machine gun bullet in Italy, but thanks to a famous New York neurosurgeon who had been drafted and happened to be on the scene, he kept the leg (although it bothered him severely the rest of his life. I came home mostly in one piece after a year in Vietnam, so my family was lucky.

But the place I generally think of on this weekend isn't even on the radar for most people in this country.

If you ever have the opportunity to visit the town of Ieper in Belgium (Ypres is its French name), by all means do so.

There is a large memorial outside the town dedicated to the over 50,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers who died in that World War I battle whose bodies were never found.

Every evening, there is a ceremony where the townspeople (and visitors) gather at the memorial to honor them. This has been going on for nearly 90 years.

Absolutely the most moving experience I have ever had.

As a local Ieper citizen said to me once, "You have no idea how grateful we are that we are not speaking German today."

Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate, Ieper - Ypres, Belgium
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menin_Gate

 

[bclover]

My Daddy!!
Though he did not die in service, he remains my hero. I love you Pop

 

[redduck]

Thanks for the above post, bclover.

 

[Lucantes]

On this Memorial Day I would like to give thanks to all who have paid the ultimate price in support of the United States of America.
I would also like to thank all other veterans and current active duty who have, or are currently, serving our nation.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Your dad's heroism is amazing, bcllover, not to mention what a nice looking young man he was back in the day.

I too honor all my family members (DH, both parents and their five brothers, and all of those men and women who were and are in the armed forces) and all the other veterans, but on Memorial Day I think mostly of those who did not return from that service.

 

[mickeyd]

I'm remembering my brothers-in-arms today who were not as fortunate as I was to return home.

Some of my other fellow Americans in San Diego failed to get the memo...

A man wearing a red shirt and hat then agrees
that it was right for the government to cancel NASA’s annual Memorial Day
celebration of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.

A woman then relates what Memorial Day means
to her, “a day off of work on Monday,” before another woman who says she has
never took part in any Memorial Day activities agrees that the government is
right to cancel Memorial Day, “if it’s in the best interests of the country.”

Told that Memorial Day is to commemorate “the
first flight of the Wright brothers,” another man says he will recognize it by
“partying” before admitting that he doesn’t know what Memorial Day is.​

VIDEO: Americans Have No Idea What Memorial Day Is » Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

I find it interesting that we have a holiday for the living and one for the casualties. Does any other country do that? Not a rhetorical question, I just don't know.

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[Ed_The_Gypsy]

For the last hundred years, most of us men in my family and those our spouses have served. My mother as well. None of us were drafted. I was a draft dodger--I enlisted.

This is not our day--we all came back. Today we all remember those who did not.

I rather like Robert Heinlein's idea that full citizenship should be reserved for those who have served. I have the wild idea that there would be fewer wars.

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[gayl]

Some of my other fellow Americans in San Diego failed to get the memo...


VIDEO: Americans Have No Idea What Memorial Day Is » Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind!

That is so sad! It must be taught in schools & reinforced at home. My kids & grandkids know what my Dad went thru as a medic in Pacific Theater WW2, Korea, and serving active duty as a reservist at Hamilton & Travis after his 20. Brother was a mechanic at Hamilton AFB

 

[REWahoo]

This is not our day--we all came back. Today we all remember those who did not.

Or we should.

Old Andy Rooney said it nicely:

For too many Americans, Memorial Day has become just another day off. There's only so much time any of us can spend remembering those we loved who have died, but the men, boys really, who died in our wars deserve at least a few moments of reflection during which we consider what they did for us.

They died.

We use the phrase "gave their lives," but they didn't give their lives. Their lives were taken from them.

A Memorial Day worth remembering

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

He sure did. Andy was a WW2 vet himself.

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[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Oops. A war correspondent. He was there when the concentration camps were liberated. He fiercely responded to holocaust deniers. "It was real. I was there."

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