Not all our vets have been human. Reckless makes Traveler, Little Sorrel, Comanche and countless other horses look like ‘also rans.’
Reckless was definitely like the little engine who could.
She was retired at the Marine Corps Base in Camp Pendleton where a General issued the following order…she was never to carry any more weight on her back except her own blankets. She died in 1968 at the age of 20.
h/t, Reckless
Lyrics | Dire Straits lyrics – Brothers In Arms lyrics
At what point do we get tired of burying our dead and having to prop up our mangled and wounded?
When do we stop all the chest thumping and mission accomplished bravado while hiding our tears?
How many thousands have come home with life altering injuries, never to be whole again?
Half of those men and women would have died even 40 years ago. Modern medicine has kept them alive and has chased off the grim reaper.
If we can land a man on the moon, we can find other ways to resolve conflict rather than blowing each other to kingdom come as we have done since the beginning of time.
To all our veterans, we are glad you are here. Thank you for your service–
I am a proud daughter and niece of veterans. My father and uncle came home in one piece. Not everyone did. I was one of the lucky ones.
*******************************************************************************************************
Alternate version of Brothers in Arms featuring Mark Knopfler, one of my favorite artists. Knopfler, from Dire Straits, is one of the gods of guitar, like Clapton.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fb_Jzgnrpv8&feature=related
I just finished watching Restrepo. It is available on Netflix. It will also be shown again on NatGeo Monday night at 9 pm. We have been so protected from our wars. Only military families have suffered. Industry and defense contractors have gotten rich. The rest of us have basically remained untouched.
The war in Afghanistan is costing 2 billion dollars a week. Our troops are being asked to be social workers. Meanwhile, those same troops are suffering death, horrible brain injuries, loss of limb and overall life-altering injuries. Military families have suffered because also because of the multiply deployments. Children have grown up without a parent and spouses have spent 10 years with partners popping in and out of their lives.
Remember last week when the Frank Buckles, the only surviving veteran of WWI died? His death is not without controversy. From Foxnews.com:
CHARLES TOWN, West Virginia — The daughter of Frank Buckles, who was the last American veteran of World War I, is urging lawmakers to let him lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Sunday.
Susannah Buckles Flanagan said her father, who served as a military ambulance driver, wanted to lie in the rotunda to honor the memory of all WWI veterans.
“He looked upon this as his final duty, which he took seriously,” she said.
“If the last American soldier surviving is not suitable to serve as a symbol around which we can rally to honor those who served their country in the Great War, then who can serve that purpose? There is no one left,” she said in a letter released Saturday.Read More
When we are at war, Americans observe days of commemorance such as Memorial Day and Veterans Day just a little more carefully and with a little more reverence. We have been at war since Fall of 2001.
From the US Navy Seals Website:
November 11 is celebrated annually as Veterans’ Day, a day when we honor the brave men and women who serve our country.
The story of Veterans Day is shared on the Department of Veterans Affairs website. The significance of November 11 goes back to the First World War, which officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, on June 28, 1919.
The war, however, had already ended even before that date. Seven months before, an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between Germany and the Allied countries, commenced on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month: November 11, 1918.
November 11 was proclaimed by President Wilson in 1919 as Armistice Day, saying: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.”
November 11 was declared a legal holiday in 1938. After the Second World War and the Korean War, the 83rd Congress, in 1954, declared November 11th as a day to honor American veterans of all wars. On October 8, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower issued the first Veterans Day Proclamation; he then designated then Administrator of Veterans’ Affairs, Harvey Higley, as the Chairman of the Veterans Day National Committee.
In honor of all American veterans:
Credits to fivemumaw | November 09, 2007 on youtube.com
who states this is a:Tribute to his late father who served in Vietnam and to all who’ve served in the U.S. Military… Past and Present: A Veterans Day Montage
From Guitar Guy 41503 on youtube.com:
Veterans Day is to honor all those who have served in an American branch of the armed services.
Please use this thread to remember friends and family members who have put on the uniform both in times of war and in times of peace.
Today’s Memorial Day Tribute comes from our dear friend Captain George Harris. He was kind enough to write the Memorial Day thread for today as a special favor for Elena and me. I know it was not an easy task. I would like our readers to know a bit about George before you read his tribute:
Captain George S. Harris, U.S. Navy (Retired) served in the Navy from August 1951 to July 1990. He rose from Seaman Recruit to the rank of Captain. During his career he served as a Senior Company Corpsman in a Marine rifle company in Korea, and several tours as a medical company commander in the First and Third Marine Corps Medical Battalions. As the commanding officer of B Company, First Medical Battalion, he served in Vietnam in 1966-67. Unlike many officers in his field he had “hands on” experience in treating wounded Marines in Vietnam.
His military decorations include Legion of Merit with Two Gold Stars, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Presidential Unit Citation, Navy Meritorious Unit Citation, Navy Good Conduct Medal with Bronze Star, National Defense Service Medal with Bronze Star, Korean Service Medal with Marine Corps Device, Vietnam Service Medal with Two Bronze Stars and Marine Corps Device, United Nations Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal and the Navy Expert Pistol Ribbon.
Here are my thoughts this Memorial Day–
Memorial Day is here once again. It is not to be confused with Veterans’ Day, which used to be called Armistice Day but few remember what happened at the “eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month. 1918” when the armistice was signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany in a railroad car in France and all was quiet on the Western Front.
Memorial Day is when we, as a Nation, are supposed to stop and remember all those brave men and women who gave the last full measure, laying down their life for their countrymen. At our National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia the sixty-year old ceremony known as “Flags In” was completed a few days ago when more than 350,000 small American flags were carefully placed one foot in front of each tombstone and on “The Day” a wreath will be placed in front of the Tomb of the Unknowns. People will gather in cemeteries around the nation to honor our military dead.
Just who is it exactly that we’re remembering? From our very beginning at the Battle of Concord when citizen soldiers stood,
By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled;
Here once the embattled farmers stood;
And fired the shot heard round the world.”
Concord Hymn
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1837)
until today, almost 42 million Americans have answered our Nation’s call to arms. Some 1.2 million have been killed or died in the service of their country and another 1.4 million have been wounded. In our most recent actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 5,300 have been killed and nearly 37,000 have suffered what are now known as life altering injuries. You know who they are—they’re the ones with missing arms, legs, eyes and assorted chunks of flesh and those whose minds that have been forever stained with the memories of war.
In Vietnam, I held young men and watched as the light left their eyes and my strongest memory of that terrible time is still the smell of blood. I have stood by that “rude bridge” in Concord and if you listen very closely you can hear the sound of musketry and the cries of the wounded and dying. I have walked through Arlington National Cemetery where some 30 funerals a day take place. I am always awed at the sight of all those gravestones lined up so precisely. I have attended the funerals of many friends there and listened to the beat of the muffled drums and the clip-clop of the horses drawing the caisson.
Not all died a “hero’s death” on the battlefield. Some, like me, served their nation and long after the smoke of battle has cleared they join that band brothers lying beneath gravestones scattered around the world. One last crackle of rifle fire and the mournful sound of Taps echoes across the land as they are laid to rest.
Day is done, gone the sun
From the lakes, from the hills, from the skies
All is well, safely rest;
God is nigh
From the News and Messenger:
Manassas National Battlefield Park will be marking Memorial Day with a commemorative ceremony on Monday.
The event will begin at noon at Groveton Confederate Cemetery and New York Avenue and will feature Union and Confederate flags, state flowers and wreaths of spring blooms decorating the battlefield in memory of the fallen of the two Civil War battles of Manassas in 1861 and 1862, and in commemoration of the nation’s war dead through history.
Members of the 42nd Virginia Infantry and 14th Brooklyn Militia reenactment groups will represent Con-federate and Union troops in conducting funeral musketry salutes at the cemetery and at the 14th Brooklyn Monument.
The park’s artillery detachment will fire a salute from a 10-pounder Parrott gun in honor of the war dead, and members of the 42nd Virginia will perform guard duty at the cemetery through the afternoon.
The ceremony will begin with the raising of flags to the peak of the cemetery flagstaff at noon. Musketry and artillery salutes will follow at the cemetery and a final musketry salute will be fired at the 14th Brook-lyn Monument at about 1 p.m.
The Groveton Cemetery is located on U.S. 29 about one mile west of Va.234. Parking for the cemetery is located immediately to the west of the site, off U.S. 29.
The 14th Brooklyn Monument is across U.S. 29 from the cemetery, with public access and parking located on New York Avenue, a park tour road.
Hopefully these brave soldiers will continue to be honored in this way, regardless of time. Many of those young men are buried far from their homes. Their families didn’t have the comfort of visting their graves. Virginia is full of civil war graveyards. My favorite one is a Union cemetery over on route 250, just east of Staunton. My father always tipped his hat when we drove by on the way to visit my grandparents and said ‘hello buddies.’ He did that every time he passed a military cemetery.
Over in the Valley and down I 81 lies the hamlet of Mt. Jackson. All of us have seen the exit. My dear friends Jane and Bob live there. They returned home after many years out of the area to settle into retirement with family and friends. Bob served in the Coast Guard and Jane served in the school systems in Tidewater and Prince William County. It is difficult to catch up with either of them because they are so busy. But I digress….
I recently spoke with Bob about his membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans. I wanted to know more. Many people think of the Sons of Confederate Veterans as a bunch of moonshine drinking, beer bellied, hell raising, flag waving bearded old grizzlies who continually shout “Forgit? Hell no!” every other word while they pet their 10 coon hounds yapping at their heels. Not Bob and not many others.
Bob is one of the most genteel, educated, Virginia gentlemen I know. He does not fit the image painted above. In speaking to Bob, I almost got a mystical sense of a desire to stay connected to his past and his roots–not just stay connected but to honor that past and those roots. He and Jane both have a strong sense of history. There was an unmistakable message that we do not allow our collective regional heritage to be distorted and conveniently swept under the rug in favor of a more politically correct image of what we were not.
I share much of Bob and Jane’s heritage and I think it is important for all sons and daughters of the South to admit, like all Americans, those chapters of our history that are ugly and we certainly have some. But all of our heritage is not ugly. Much of it is good, gracious, and a great source of pride. Don’t ever let anyone tell you differently. Honoring this past honors your family; those people who, in most cases, were just ordinary people trying to go about their everyday lives doing what they had to do to get along in the world they knew.
One of the first Decoration Days was held in Mt. Jackson at their local Confederate Cemetery. Soldiers from 11 different Confederate states are buried there. Very few families could travel to honor their dead. Many wars later, as we commemorate Memorial Day 2010, let’s go back some 144 years ago to a little place in the Valley:
From Virginia.org
Our Soldiers Cemetery was established in 1861 on land obtained from Col. Levi Rinker. The cemetery, containing about 400 graves, was first dedicated on 10 May 1866 by a memorial association. The entire community, including the nearby town of New Market and Edinburg, participated in the dedication of the cemetery. A wreath of flowers was placed on each of the graves. The ceremonies included addresses in the church by Maj. H.K. Douglas (an aide of gen. Stonewall Jackson) and others.
Because of the efforts of Raymond Watkins of Falls Church, VA, and others, the list of Confederate soldiers buried here is complete and there are no longer any unknowns. There are soldiers from eleven southern states buried here: AL, FL, GA, LA, MD, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX, and VA.
Inscription:
“The Mount Jackson Confederate Hospital’s Cemetery, now called Our Soldiers Cemetery, was dedicated on May 10, 1866 the third anniversary of Stonewall Jackson’s death. The “Memorial and Decoration Day” organized by the local ladies was one of the first such observances in the South. The service began with an address in the church by Major Henry Kyd Douglas, the youngest of Jackson’s staff officers. Afterward, a participant wrote that “ladies, gentlemen and children as well as many ex-Confederates, all carrying wreaths prepared the day before, marched to the cemetery ¾ of a mile north of town to place those wreaths on each of the 400 graves.”
Much honor and thanks to my mother, Betty, who taught her kids to have pride in their heritage during times when frankly, it wasn’t the easiest thing to do.
Resource: The Historical Marker Database
…
I love Rolling Thunder! They evolved out of the Vietnam War. As they came back from Vietnam, often bewildered, it was like time had stood still. Did they quietly accept that they had fought in an unpopular war and to suck it up and move on? Oh hell no.
According to the Rolling Thunder website:
Rolling Thunder began in 1987 as a demonstration to bring awareness to the plight of prisoners of war (POW) and to those missing in action (MIA). Rolling Thunder originated when four Vietnam Veterans, exercising the First Amendment “Right to Petition and Assemble”, organized the first group of 2500 motorcycles to ride through the streets of Washington, DC. This first Rolling Thunder run was made in an attempt to petition the government to take responsibility for the soldiers that were abandoned after the Vietnam War ended.
My generation is a scrappy bunch. They are loud and proud. No parade? No ticker tape? No recognition other than brats demonstating? They made their own damn parade. My generation yells at you to convince you of their opinion. After you agree (even if it is to shut us up) then we yell at you some more just to make the point. Oliver Stone shouts the boomer point of view. Rolling Thunder roars it.
Now as those who served in the Persian Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan join them, the roar will be even louder. They won’t let us forget. They have come to honor their dead and their missing, the P.O.W.s who never came home.
Official Rolling Thunder Website
Enjoy the roar
And from another perspective…ride along with them.
Rolling Thunder 2009 – Ride of the Patriots – Fairfax to Arlington
The former home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee is now the final resting place for more than 300,000 people. Memorial DayArlington National Cemetery. President Herbert Hoover conducted the first national Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on May 30, 1929.
Before every Memorial Day, soldiers put a flag at each grave. This tradition creates a beautiful scene.
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);
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This video was actually Thursday.
This video is a good one to kick off the Memorial Day weekend. It reminds us of those who go the extra mile.
For those without sound, John Finn was the oldest living Medal of Honor recipient.
From the LA Times:
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.
Corey thought he was only insulting Annabel, Eric, and I am sure, he was thinking of me also in his kind words (major sarcasm)when he called Coffee Party participants “fruit cakes” and “nuts”. What he did not realize was that many of the attendees were military vets. One of whom holds the rank of Colonel. Colonel Morris Davis served in the Air Force for 25 years. He resigned after being appointed Chief Prosecutor at Gitmo due to his insistence the trials be fair and spoke out strongly against torture as he felt it compromised the integrity of the prosecutors.Corey Stewart’s Nuts Are OutLast Saturday, I attended a Coffee Party Day event at the town hall in Haymarket, Virginia. The Coffee Party is a new group that encourages civil discourse on public policy issue. About 30 people attended the event and, based on a show of hands, at least a third of the attendees were military Veterans. I’d estimate the median age of those in attendance was over 50 years of age. The common theme was there are a lot of problems facing the nation and screaming at each other is not going to solve them.The Honorable Corey A. Stewart … my representative.
Corey Stewart is the Chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors. On the official county website, he is listed as “The Honorable Corey A. Stewart” and supposedly he represents me and all of the other citizens of the county, including those of us that met at the Haymarket town hall last Saturday. Here is what he said in an interview with a reporter from the Gainesville Times:
“The Coffee Partiers are a bunch of fruitcakes; yeah, they’re a bunch of nuts. If they’re going to be a coffee party, they’ll be a hazelnut party.” Stewart elaborated, saying the Coffee Party is “just a phase; it’ll disappear.” He derided one of the co-founders saying, “does (he) have a job?” Stewart described the Tea Partiers as patriots “concerned about the direction of the country and about the vast amount of spending that happening.” He called the Tea Party a “legitimate movement” while saying the Coffee Party is “just a load of crap.”
So, my representative, The Honorable Corey A. Stewart, considers me and the other Vets who were there on Saturday fruitcakes, nuts, and a load of crap while he believes the Tea Party group are “patriots.” It seems that a lot of people like The Honorable Corey A. Stewart, Newt Gringich, Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck, among others, like to use the word patriot to describe themselves and those who agree with their ideology, while none of them ever felt the urge to put on the uniform and defend the constitutional right to belittle others by calling them fruitcakes, nuts, and crap. Apparently he, like former VP Cheney, had more important things to do than serve in the military. To him and the others; you’re welcome.
UPDATE: Title changed to appear less leading.
