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);
And to our vets on this blog, a huge thank you for your service to our country.
Let me know if you are a vet if you don’t see your name. And my apologies in advance.
Wolverine, Cargosquid, George Harris, Kelly, Formerly Anonymous, Tom Andrews, Moe,
Second Alamo, e
ok fess up. Who have I left out? I know someone.
To A Man I Once Knew
Perhaps I won’t have all the details of this story as correctly as I should, but I will tell it anyway On the very day I arrived in Vietnam, I opened a copy of the Stars and Stripes. The first thing I saw was a pcture of a man I knew very well, a U.S. Marine Corps chopper pilot. I had known he was somewhere out there. And here he was, staring at me from the pages of a newspaper on my first day in a combat zone. The caption under the picture announced that he had been awarded the Bronze Star for valor under fire. It appears that he had piloted his chopper into the midst of battle to pick up and transport wounded Marines. As the chopper landed on that battlefield, he looked up and saw an enemy rocket headed toward his craft, right at the front windscreen. Now, most men would have jumped from that chopper to save their own lives. But not this man. His co-pilot had not seen the rocket coming. So, the pilot turned instantly and pushed the unsuspecting co-pilot out of the other door, leaping to his own safety only after the co-pilot was out. The rocket apparently demolished the chopper, but both men survived. It sort of gives a special meaning to those old and honorable words: “Semper Fi.”
The pilot survived the war and continued to serve his country in the USMC. But he unfortunately passed away at a relatively early age. On this Memorial Day, I salute Lt.Col. William G. Barnes, U.S. Marine Corps.
I honor my godfather who fought in Korea. He emmigrated to this country from Swizterland with his sister and his mom, they were some of the last jews to escape before Hitler’s reign of murder. He is the epitome of the American dream to me. Both he and his sister served as public servants, he for the state of Vermont as a senator, and his sister as the first female govenor of Vermont.
Lyrics to All Gave Some, Some Gave All
I knew a man called him Sandy Kane
Few folks even knew his name
But a hero was he
Left a boy, came back a man
Still many just don’t understand
About the reasons we are free
I can’t forget the look in his eyes
Or the tears he cries
As he said these words to me
All gave some and some gave all
And some stood through for the red, white and blue
And some had to fall
And if you ever think of me
Think of all your liberties and recall
Some gave all
Now Sandy Kane is no longer here
But his words are oh so clear
As they echo through out our land
For all his friends who gave us all
Who stood the ground and took the fall
To help their fellow man
Love your country and live with pride
And don’t forget those who died America can’t you see
All gave some and some gave all
And some stood through for the red, white and blue
And some had to fall
And if you ever think of me
Think of all your liberties and recall
Some gave all
And if you ever think of me
Think of all your liberties and recall, yes recall
Some gave all
Some gave all
I salute my Uncle Trosclair, one of the first Rangers in WWII and my father-in-law Samuel Cohen, who followed Patton across Europe.
I salute my brother, Michael, a Marine Huey pilot, who came home from Vietnam, and his son Philip, soon to be in command of an F-18 squadron, and his other son, Jason, who served in Iraq as a Marine Lt., as a Forward Air Director.
I salute the gentleman I met, at the Marine Corps museum, staring at the Tarawa Landing exhibit, with tears in his eyes….he went in on the first wave and had to watch the second wave get cut to pieces. His story of drinking beer with his fellow Marines while watching some Army clown named MacArthur do multiple movie takes on a beach had me laughing, and his tears while describing the terror of the Phillipine dark, in a fox hole, in the rain, waiting for the Japanese to sneak in, under the constant fire, and the worse terror of finding out that some of the men crawling around out there were yours and being scared to make a mistake……..his sister told me later that he had NEVER spoken so much of the war at one time, to anyone……ever.
To absent friends…….
If anyone is interested, UCV will be posting some videos for Memorial Day.
I’d like to salute my father, a WWII tank destroyer crewman who saw action in France, Germany, and North Africa. He was wounded two different times, and received the Silver Star for once having stayed in his burning tank and returned fire until the rest of the crew, and then finally himself, escaped under a hail of machine gun fire. I once took him to Aberdeen Maryland where he was once more united with that very same type tank, and even though in his late 70’s, he quickly climbed onto the tank and proudly stood beside the gun turret that many times saved his life. I have that photo hanging on my wall to this very day. Unfortunately he never got to visit the WWII Memorial for he passed away in 2002, but I was fortunate enough to have toured the memorial in his memory before it was officially opened to the public. These are the sacrifices made by those before us that many fail to understand, and it is that sacrifice that makes the bond between veterans and country so strong. Those who have never stood in harms way will probably never understand nor experience that bond that exists for those who have.
Have a peaceful and pleasant Memorial Day.
Even though I have never met him, I would have to say Senator John McCain. He made what was nearly the ultimate sacrifice by spending years in a POW camp, and refusing preferential treatment for early release when the enemy found out how prominent his father was. He would not jump the line ahead of others and chose to continue the torment of living in the camp instead.
As one of the people in PWC who voted for McCain in the 2000 Republican primary, and in the 2008 general election, I can truly say, “Don’t blame me, I voted for McCain.” In 2000, I thought his experience, judgment and maturity would make a better president than would Bush, Jr. I’ll let history be the judge as to whether I was right. While I will give President Obama the respect he deserves as our Commander-in-Chief, I think we would now be far better off with President McCain than with President Obama.
I honor my wonderful father-in-law, who fought in Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Bougainville despite a grievous but (at the time) undetected congenital heart condition that eventually took his life 20 years ago. My son proudly bears his name.
Semper Fi(/i>, “PT”!
May I salute a guy named “Hank.” He was an Army ambulance driver at the Battle of the Bulge. As he was loading wounded G.I.”s into his ambulance, a German artillery shell landed. “Hank” spent the rest of his war in military hospitals in Belgium and England and then lived his entire life with the pain of shrapnel in his legs. He came to know the VA medical system very well — and always had good words for it. We just buried him, shrapnel and all.
Two more for the Roll of Honor on this Memorial Day:
Chester Vernon Rieke, Kansas farm boy, the “big brother” in a family of 12, great-grandson of a calvary officer in the Prussian army, First Lieutenant of Infantry, 30th Regiment of the US Army’s Third Infantry Division. Wounded at Anzio and then again in Alsace. Went to be his Lord on 5 October 1944 in the small village of le Thillot in France, only 60 kms from the Siegfried Line, killed by German tank fire while carrying a wounded comrade from the battlefield. Two Purple Hearts. The Silver Star for Gallantry in Action. The Army Distinguished Service Cross. “No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for a friend.”
Leo Jacob VanderMolen, 18 years old, Fireman Third Class on the USS Jacob Jones (DD-130). Went to his Lord on 28 February 1942, when the Jacob Jones, on coastal patrol against German submarines, was struck by two torpedoes from a U-boat, causing the ship’s magazine to explode and sending 138 out of 149 Navy officers and men to a watery grave.
Remember them. They will always belong to us.
These are just wonderful, you all. Keep them coming. I love our honor roll!
I would like to honor my paternal Grandfather who fought in World War I and my maternal Grandfather and his six brothers who fought in the Pacific theater of World War II. Everyone of them fought bravely, returned home, led honorable lives, and are now deceased. My earliest memories of their sacrifice and honor continue to inspire me to this day ….
My father and uncle were both in the army during WWII. They did many different things. My aunt’s husband, Uncle Billy, was a navigator in a B-17. My mother worked for the Department of the Army and was frozen on her job. She was not allowed to quit even though she was a civilian. I honor all these people who are no longer with us.
I honor my Cousin Frank who got a good dose of mustard gas during WWI.
I honor my great great grandfather, Drury, who was 1st VA Artillery (Albermarle Light) from Virginia.
To the Memory of Harold William “Bud” Wieland Jr of Coffeyville, Kansas. Enlisted in the US Army in 1943 at the age of 21 at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri. Became a Private First Class in the 363rd Infantry of the 91st Division. Killed in action in Italy on 12 July 1944 and buried in the American Cemetery in Florence, Italy.
To the Memory of Alexander Hume. Descendant of proud Scottish Jacobites who had been exiled to America after the first Jacobite rebellion in Scotland. Lieutenant in the 2nd South Carolina Regiment of the Continental Army. Killed in action at Savannah, Georgia, on 9 October 1777, only two days after he had joined the army. One of the first military casualties of the American Revolution.
To the Memory of John Cornelius Lynch of Kansas. His father, a shopkeeper, was killed in a robbery when John was only two. John joined the Army in 1943 and participated in the campaigns in North Africa and Italy, including the invasion at Anzio. One of the proudest moments of his life was when he rode a tank into the city of Rome on “Liberation Day.” John was one of those who came home in 1945.
To the Memory of Gordon Fuller John. He was a Navy man, a signalman in the Pacific Fleet during World War II. He was eventually reassigned to the USS Sable in Chicago, Illinois. The USS Sable and the USS Wolverine were old, coal-fired, side-wheeled steamships which were converted into “aircraft carriers” by laying decks across their entire length. The ships were used to train Navy pilots in carrier take-offs and landings — the pilots who became so important in the Pacific war. Those pilots trained in the cold and the winds of temperamental Lake Michigan. Between 1942 and 1945, 18,000 Navy pilots were trained there, including a young man from Yale named George Herbert Walker Bush, who later remembered that he had never been so cold in all his life as he was aboard the USS Sable.
And, finally, I would like to pay a special tribute to all those sailors and troops, living and dead, who went with MacArthur to Inch’on, South Korea, in February 1951. That action, a surprise counterattack behind the North Korean lines, changed the course of the Korean War.
You have to see Inch’on in order to truly understand the scope of that action. The tides in that place are so huge that, at certain times of the day, the inner bay and archipelago become almost nothing but a huge mud flat. Many of the islands become no longer a part of the sea but a part of that sea of mud. You see an island with its trees and other flora. Below them is the supporting earth of the island, sometimes shaped like a diamond with its tip thrust into the mud. Ships could only reach the port when the tide was in and then had to be berthed in tidal basins as the tide receded. The invasion at Inch’on in 1951 had to be timed precisely to those great tides — undoubtedly one of the reasons why the North Koreans were caught by surprise. A magnificent and never to be be forgotten feat of arms for which every American sailor and soldier who was there can take great pride.
I would like to recognize Robert Warren King (Navy) and Margaret Cramer King (Marines) who were my grandchildren’s great-grandparents. They were both WWII vets. I also recognize their grandfather Bob King (Marines), who is still alive, and very much kicking but served during the Vietnam era. Semper fi, Bob.
Wow, Wolverine. That sounds like a horrible place actually. Thanks for sharing that with us.
This memorial day I would like to honor my father, father-in-law, grandfather, and both of my uncles, all served in the US military and I will be forever grateful to each of them for their service.
Only 18 postings so far? That’s sad considering the number of posts a thread on illegal immigration would have gotten by now. I guess it shows where the current population places its priorities, not in patriotism and sacrifice, but in political correctness.
I honour my late dad, Roy. He wore a Canadian Armed Forces uniform as soon as England entered the war in ’39. After serving his country, he lived to serve God, his family and fellow man. He passed away in ’99. Big salute Dad, I will see you again someday because of Christ.
I honour my son Jared serving in the U.S. Army, soon to be deployed. I am proud of you son.
Thank you for serving Jared. It is because of soldiers like yourself that we are a free country. Thanks to all of our military and may God bless America.
Well, darn it, SA. I’m tuckered out. You want my entire genealogical chart? Got several more in the American Revolution. Even got a British sailor who jumped ship in Boston and was a member of the original Tea Party. Got a chap who was a staff officer with “Mad Anthony” Wayne. Another who fought in the War of 1812. At least three Confederate veterans that I know of. Even got a guy who fought in Cuba during the Spanish-American War and two with Pershing in the Mexican Border Service of 1916. Not to mention a number in France during World War I and a whole passle of others in the Philippines, China, Europe, the Aleutians, and who knows where else during WWII. I’m saving them up for next year — or maybe Veterans Day.