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As we get ready to head out for our holiday weekend activities (BBQ, beach, concerts,parties), I hope we all stop for at least a few moments to acknowledge and honor the service of ALL our veterans who gave not just their time but their very lives so that we might remain free to live our lives to the fullest. So many young folks, cut down in the prime of their lives. We can’t know what they might have contributed to society in the future-but we do know they have their last full measure of devotion on behalf of their fellow men and women. If you know anyone who is a gold star family (who lost someone in one of the many wars over the years), please acknowledge and comfort them and let them know how much you appreciate their sacrifice as well. Sunday night on PBS is the National Memorial Day Concert In Washington DC. I encourage each of you to watch as it is incredibly moving. Also stop at 3pm local time on Monday and have a
moment of silence to honor those who “slumber forever young’ . And If you feel led to, reply below with a story of someone you know. They deserve no less!
Thanks,
CynMy own dad served for 21 years I’m the USAF and I’m Vietnam for a year. He never talked about it much, but my mom said he was always looking out for the men in his weather detachment and insisted on being the ONLY one to do the last minute briefings on the flight line for the planes spraying Agent Orange defoliant. While my dad didn’t die in Vietnam, he carried the scars of his memories from his time there-keeping them to himself thus sparing us kids from thinking too much about the horrors of war. The exposure to the Agent Orange contributed significantly to his later death from colon cancer at 75, so while he didn’t die IN battle he DID die DUE to battle. So this year, 18 years after his death, I honor his memory as the finest man I ever knew or will know in m lifetime. He was the epitome of the man Rudyard Kipling wrote about in his epic poem “If”.
If (by Rudyard Kipling)
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!Cyn
SALUTE !
Thank you Cynthia
There is a video on Youtube called “The Story of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers”. If you have never seen it is well worth a watch. I have plans to visit the Tomb this fall with a friend who served in Vietnam.
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My Grandfather served in WW1 driving motorcycles from the front to the rear delivering messages, he was gassed once and had his bike shot out from under him a few times. He rarely spoke about it and when he did he always told me to never forget the ones that died. My Dad was in the 8th Army Air Corp in England and he kept the .50 cals working on the B-24 Liberators. His base was bombed so many times and he cried once telling us about how he had to help remove his friends that were killed during raids. He only spoke once about it and never did again. My only sibling was off shore Vietnam on a destroyer and then went and served with a Ranger group…He died from asbestos exposure he received onboard the ship later in life. Vietnam killed him but he didn’t know it yet.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.” George S. Patton
Thank you Cynthia,I am a Vietnam vet{3rd Brigade 82nd Airborne Recon},my Dad served in WW2 in China,Burma and India,my uncle served with Patton in Germany.My Dad only spoke of the funny things that happened when he served.I adopted the same way as my Dad. I am so lucky that I had two of the greatest generation of soldiers to teach me what freedom means and I treasure their memories and I treasure freedom .They both survived their war ,and were laid to rest ,with full military honors.
thank you, Cyn,
I was a silver star parent (my eldest daughter served), as were my parents (as I served, there was a silver star on the door of my parents’ home).
my musical instrument was the trumpet, and I have played taps more times than I want to remember, including for my uncle and my father, and on multiple other auspicious occasions.
personally, at the moment, I am tapping out (funny reference) to these occasions because this is a tough subject for me to broach…
this weekend is for those who never made it home.
let’s not sully it with other unassociated things…
Today is a day to remember the fallen – those who paid the ultimate sacrifice to allow us to continue to live with the freedoms we enjoy and to allow others to have the chance to do the same.
As a veteran it is nice to be thanked for my service, however, today is not for those of us that have served or are currently serving – it is for those that never had the chance to be thanked. Take the time to remember and that them today, and if you know or happen to see a Gold Star family thank them for the sacrifice their loved one made.
Agreed. I’ve had to cut people off and educate them on the purpose of Memorial Day. I tell them to find me November 11.
Bless you for bringing this up. As a conscientious objector myself (at that point in my life, considered Army Reserve later but was overweight and overage at that point) it’s something I perhaps don’t think about as often as I ought.
I think about a young serviceman, he was the younger brother of my own younger brother’s high school best friend, I’d say he was in the prime of his life but in my opinion he’d never even reached it yet, stepped on a mine in Afghanistan and well… that was it. Barely twenty as I recall, maybe barely even knew what he was fighting for, but he gave it all just the same. It was my freedom he fought for, all of our freedom. Kind of puts real courage in perspective I guess. He will be missed.
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Today I remember my father in law. He is no longer with us but was a member of The Greatest Generation who fought in the great war so we could have the freedoms and liberty we enjoy today.
He was part of a mortar squad and began his service storming the beaches of Italy. Later he endured hell at Anzio then fought all the way up through Italy getting wounded along the way. He served in France until the end of the war.
Like many of his combat brothers he didn’t speak much about those times preferring to forget as much as he could and move on with his life. Some things are better left unsaid. The things he saw and did were scars upon his memory for the rest of his life and when he did speak of it you could see the pain in his eyes. He was a good man. A good man to his family and the community. So I think of him today and all the others who went to the front lines. He returned but so many did not.
So today have a great Memorial Day with friends and family but take a moment to remember and honor those who gave their entire future to make our freedoms possible. I salute them all.
One of my grandfather’s was in the Pacific at that same time with the Army. My great uncle was lucky enough to be on the Missouri when Japan surrendered. We stand with all those they fought along side and those who gave their life defending this country.
Today the guns are silent. Not due to peace, but due to those carrying them. They have sacrificed blood, sweat, and tears, and have paid the ultimate price. Men like the 5 Sullivan Brothers from the USS Juneau. Men like Lieutenant Commander Waldron of VT-8 and 29 of his 30 Squadron crew, who died in combat against the Japanese. Men like those who stormed the beaches of Normandy, and those who followed to liberate France and end the tyranny of Germany. Moreover, we remember those like Sergeant William Harvey Carney, who at the Battle of Fort Wagner, SC, in 1863, refused to let the American Flag fall to the ground. We stand with all of those who died, who sacrificed their life so that we may be free. Today, the guns are silent in their memory.
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