Same song, different video. The video below is of our American troops who have lost their lives. It puts faces to our national loss. Very touching. I hope you have time to view both.
All of us know at least one person who has given his or her life for our country. This thread is dedicated to those we knew. Please post about someone you knew. If you don’t know someone, please remember a stranger or someone who touched your heart in some way.
My stranger would be Lori Piestewa, the Hopi woman who was killed in the early days of the Iraq War.
My people I knew would be my classmate Charlie Milton-Vietnam War and Corporal Brian Medina, United States Marine Corps, class of 2002 Gar-Field HS (Iraq);
Our open thread is late this week. There is just need for some tidbit room today.
First off, did anyone catch the hearings regarding the oil leak? The families who spoke of the 11 who were killed on the was just heart breaking. Those 11 lives lost have been overshadowed because of the magnitude of the ecological disaster. Meanwhile these families and friends mourn the loss of their loved ones.
Speaking of rolling thunder, that storm last night was horrific. I got wind, lightning, and lots of hail. I thought the hail was going to break the windows.
There is a superiorinteractive sectionabout those who have lost their lives in Iraq and Afganistan at CCN. Please check it out. Very worthwhile. I found the soldiers from Prince William County there also.
Although he was a guest of honor at numerous gatherings of veterans and Medal of Honor recipients — including at the White House, where he was greeted by President Obama — Finn routinely declined to accept the accolade of hero.
“I can’t believe this,” Finn told the more than 500 people who gathered last year at a local diner to celebrate his birthday. “All I ever was was an old swab jockey…. What I did I was being paid for.”
Rousted from bed by the explosions that chaotic morning in Hawaii, Finn immediately manned a machine gun and began firing at the Japanese attack planes that swooped low over the naval air station at Kaneohe Bay on their way to their primary target, the U.S. planes and ships at Pearl Harbor.
“I loved the Navy,” he often told reporters, “and that day I was just furious because the Japanese caught us napping and made us pay for it.”
Wounded numerous times by bullets and shrapnel, Finn refused to be evacuated. His leadership and courage gave heart to dazed sailors to begin fighting back against the new enemy.
This Memorial Day, President Obama will not be going to Arlington National Cemetery. Instead, Vice President Joe Biden will be providing the executive branch honors. President Obama will be attending Memorial Day services at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery outside of Chicago. This change of pace has some people outraged.
Instead of speaking at Arlington, as he did last year and as most presidents have done, Obama will appear at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery outside Chicago, the White House said. Vice President Biden will take his place at Arlington, the most prestigious military cemetery in the country and home to Section 60, a large burial ground for soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Paul Rieckhoff, the founder and executive director of the group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, expressed disappointment at the White House move. “Arlington is hallowed ground, and the center of our nation’s attention on Memorial Day,” Rieckhoff said. “Unfortunately, President Obama and his family will not be there with us.”
Critics — mainly conservatives — have argued that attendance is more important with two wars ongoing. “Obama may talk about the government in the first person, but the men and women lying at Arlington know differently,” commentator Eric Erickson wrote on the conservative site Redstate.com. “Of course, Obama really doesn’t like the military, does he.” Fox News blared the headlines: “Trampling on Tradition?” and “Offensive to Soldiers?”
Many veterans don’t think it matters which National Cemetery the President recognizes. There are National Cemeteries all over the United States. Abraham Lincoln established the first 14 National Cemeteries. It seems fitting that the President would attend the one honoring the 16th president.
As far as tradition goes, it might be appropriate to remind the critics that tradition only goes back less than 150 years. Arlington National Cemetery is the former plantation of Robert E. Lee. No soldiers were buried there until towards the end of the Civil War. Lee actually lost the mansion because he couldn’t pay taxes on the place. Additionally, other presidents have not attended Memorial Day ceremonies for numerous reasons:
Obama is not the first president to miss the Arlington ceremony. Ronald Reagan spoke at West Point one year, and went to his California ranch another year. George H.W. Bush, a war veteran, did not go at all. Bill Clinton, who did not serve in Vietnam and had a rocky time with the military, went to Arlington all eight years, and George W. Bush, who also avoided combat service in Vietnam, attended from 2003 onward.
We need to leave politics and honor the war dead. Moonhowlings.net will try to feature something about Memorial Day each of the days over the holiday weekend. Regardless of how one feels about this war, or that war, or the other…we love our vets and we honor those who have died in service, so that we might live free.
