FReeper Canteen ~ MEMORIAL DAY 2023 ~ 29 May 2023

Serving The Best Troops and Veterans In the Whole World !! | The Canteen Crew

[Kathy in Alaska]

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~

~ MEMORIAL DAY 2023 ~

TAPS

Canteen Mission Statement

Showing support and boosting the morale of
our military and our allies' military
and family members of the above.
Honoring those who have served before.




In honor of those who lost their lives while serving our country, we would like to share with you President Ronald Reagan's 1986 Memorial Day remarks at Arlington National Cemetery:

Today is the day we put aside to remember fallen heroes and to pray that no heroes will ever have to die for us again. It’s a day of thanks for the valor of others, a day to remember the splendor of America and those of her children who rest in this cemetery and others. It’s a day to be with the family and remember.

I was thinking this morning that across the country children and their parents will be going to the town parade and the young ones will sit on the sidewalks and wave their flags as the band goes by. Later, maybe, they’ll have a cookout or a day at the beach. And that’s good, because today is a day to be with the family and to remember.

Arlington, this place of so many memories, is a fitting place for some remembering. So many wonderful men and women rest here, men and women who led colorful, vivid, and passionate lives. There are the greats of the military: Bull Halsey and the Admirals Leahy, father and son; Black Jack Pershing; and the GI’s general, Omar Bradley. Great men all, military men. But there are others here known for other things.

Here in Arlington rests a sharecropper’s son who became a hero to a lonely people. Joe Louis came from nowhere, but he knew how to fight. And he galvanized a nation in the days after Pearl Harbor when he put on the uniform of his country and said, “I know we’ll win because we’re on God’s side.” Audie Murphy is here, Audie Murphy of the wild, wild courage. For what else would you call it when a man bounds to the top of a disabled tank, stops an enemy advance, saves lives, and rallies his men, and all of it single-handedly. When he radioed for artillery support and was asked how close the enemy was to his position, he said, “Wait a minute and I’ll let you speak to them.” [Laughter]

Michael Smith is here, and Dick Scobee, both of the space shuttle Challenger. Their courage wasn’t wild, but thoughtful, the mature and measured courage of career professionals who took prudent risks for great reward; in their case, to advance the sum total of knowledge in the world. They’re only the latest to rest here; they join other great explorers with names like Grissom and Chaffee.

Oliver Wendell Holmes is here, the great jurist and fighter for the right. A poet searching for an image of true majesty could not rest until he seized on Holmes dissenting in a sordid age. Young Holmes served in the Civil War. He might have been thinking of the crosses and stars of Arlington when he wrote: “At the grave of a hero we end, not with sorrow at the inevitable loss, but with the contagion of his courage; and with a kind of desperate joy we go back to the fight”.

All of these men were different, but they shared this in common: They loved America very much. There was nothing they wouldn’t do for her. And they loved with the sureness of the young. It’s hard not to think of the young in a place like this, for it’s the young who do the fighting and dying when a peace fails and a war begins. Not far from here is the statue of the three servicemen;the three fighting boys of Vietnam. It, too, has majesty and more. Perhaps you’ve seen it;three rough boys walking together, looking ahead with a steady gaze. There’s something wounded about them, a kind of resigned toughness. But there’s an unexpected tenderness, too. At first you don’t really notice, but then you see it. The three are touching each other, as if they’re supporting each other, helping each other on.

I know that many veterans of Vietnam will gather today, some of them perhaps by the wall. And they're still helping each other on. They were quite a group, the boys of Vietnam; boys who fought a terrible and vicious war without enough support from home, boys who were dodging bullets while we debated the efficacy of the battle. It was often our poor who fought in that war; it was the unpampered boys of the working class who picked up the rifles and went on the march. They learned not to rely on us; they learned to rely on each other. And they were special in another way: They chose to be faithful. They chose to reject the fashionable skepticism of their time. They chose to believe and answer the call of duty. They had the wild, wild courage of youth. They seized certainty from the heart of an ambivalent age; they stood for something.

And we owe them something, those boys. We owe them first a promise: That just as they did not forget their missing comrades, neither, ever, will we. And there are other promises. We must always remember that peace is a fragile thing that needs constant vigilance. We owe them a promise to look at the world with a steady gaze and, perhaps, a resigned toughness, knowing that we have adversaries in the world and challenges and the only way to meet them and maintain the peace is by staying strong.

That, of course, is the lesson of this century, a lesson learned in the Sudetenland, in Poland, in Hungary, in Czechoslovakia, in Cambodia. If we really care about peace, we must stay strong. If we really care about peace, we must, through our strength, demonstrate our unwillingness to accept an ending of the peace. We must be strong enough to create peace where it does not exist and strong enough to protect it where it does. That's the lesson of this century and, I think, of this day. And that's all I wanted to say. The rest of my contribution is to leave this great place to its peace, a peace it has earned.

Thank all of you, and God bless you, and have a day full of memories.

Note: The President spoke at 10:10 a.m. at the Memorial Amphitheater. Prior to his remarks, he placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Please remember that The Canteen is here to support
and entertain our troops and veterans and their families,
and is family friendly.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Links to redrock's
Memorial Day Threads from 2006

"We Can Be Heroes...Just For One Day"
MEMORIAL DAY ~ Thread # 1


"Just Another Drunk Indian"
MEMORIAL DAY ~ Thread # 2


"Chocolate Chip Cookies"
MEMORIAL DAY ~ Thread # 3


"Hey...Do Ya Wanna Hear a Polish Joke?"
MEMORIAL DAY ~ Thread # 4

"Remember...What We Owe"
MEMORIAL DAY ~ Thread # 5



"The Betrayal of The American Soldier"
MEMORIAL DAY ~ Thread # 6

Final ~ "Falls The Night"
MEMORIAL DAY ~ Thread # 7

[PROCON]

Thanks for tonight's Memorial Day Canteen and for honoring our Nation's Warriors who sacrificed their all!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Pro...they MUST be remembered.

Thank you.

[Kathy in Alaska]

~ MEMORIAL DAY 2023 ~

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT

Showing support and boosting the morale of
our military and our allies' military
and the family members of the above.
Honoring those who have served before.

CLICK HERE TO FIND LATEST THREADS

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To every service man or woman reading this thread.
Thank You for your service to our country.
No matter where you are stationed,
No matter what your job description
Know that we are are proud of each and everyone of you.
To our military readers, we remain steadfast
in keeping the Canteen doors open.

The FR Canteen is Free Republic's longest running daily thread
specifically designed to provide entertainment and moral support for the military.
The doors have been open since Oct 7 2001,
the day of the start of the war in Afghanistan.

We are indebted to you for your sacrifices for our Freedom.

NOTE: CANTEEN MUSIC
Posted daily and on the Music Thread
for the enjoyment of our troops and visitors.

[Kathy in Alaska]

PROGRAMMING NOTE!

This MEMORIAL DAY thread will run for 2 days.

Tuesday evening will be the next new thread...The Quiz!

Thank you!

[The Mayor]

May 29

Hope That Holds

Bible in a Year:

• 2 Chronicles 7–9
• John 11:1–29

I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.

Habakkuk 3:18

“I know Daddy’s coming home because he sent me flowers.” Those were my seven-year-old sister’s words to our mother when Dad was missing in action during wartime. Before Dad left for his mission, he preordered flowers for my sister’s birthday, and they arrived while he was missing. But she was right: Dad did come home—after a harrowing combat situation. And decades later, she still keeps the vase that held the flowers as a reminder to always hold on to hope.

Sometimes holding on to hope isn’t easy in a broken, sinful world. Daddies don’t always come home, and children’s wishes sometimes go unfulfilled. But God gives hope in the most difficult circumstances. In another time of war, the prophet Habakkuk predicted the Babylonian invasion of Judah (Habakkuk 1:6; see 2 Kings 24) but still affirmed that God is always good (Habakkuk 1:12–13). Remembering God’s kindness to His people in the past, Habakkuk proclaimed: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (3:17–18).  

Some commentators believe Habakkuk’s name means “to cling.” We can cling to God as our ultimate hope and joy even in trials because He holds on to us and will never let go.

Reflect & Pray

How does rejoicing in God help you in difficult times? What can you do to praise Him today?

Father, thank You that come what may, my future is bright with You!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Hello Veterans, wherever you are!!

[The Mayor]

Amen Kathy and Thank you so much for this thread.
God Bless America and Thank you Lord for being in control

[radu]

Greetings to all at the Canteen!

To all our military men and women, past and present,

THANK YOU
for your service!

[Kathy in Alaska]

God Bless our Troops!

Band of Brothers ~ Hymn To The Fallen

[left that other site]

Good Evening, Everybody.

(((HUGS)))

Never Forget.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Mayor, and thank you for today’s sustenance for body and soul.

Enjoy your weekend.

[luvie]

Oh, my goodness.
The names of our beloved FRiends
who are no longer with us.
Brings tears to the eyes.

[luvie]

We take this time on Memorial Day to salute our Fallen Heroes who through the history of our country have fought and died for all of us. THANK YOU!!!

FourHymn~In Flanders Fields

Remember our Fallen this
Memorial Day Weekend!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, radu...is your area having any parades or ???

Sadly there are no parades here this year. I couldn’t have gone, but ....

[radu]

Howdy, luvie.

I hope you’ve had a good day. Do you still have an alarm clock? :-)

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, ML...((HUGS))...hope you and Blue can get out and enjoy the day. And you and Tippy, too!

It’s gloomy here. I wish it would rain.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Too true, luvie, too true...many FRiends lost.

[radu]

Howdy, Kathy.

No parades around here that I’m aware of but the towns all have some sort of Memorial Day event each year. I hope my back will allow me to attend the one here but that’s iffy. Still having to wrestle with the well since the water pressure won’t stay up. I’m stuck doing it until I can find someone later this week. Disasters always seem to happen on a holiday weekend.

[luvie]

Hey there, radu!

Yes, the alarm survived, because I got up at 6:45am!! I just couldn’t sleep well and knew if I went back to sleep that close to alarm time, I would destroy it. LOL! But now, I’m totally dragging and will probably go to bed earlier tonight. My eyes are burning like crazy.

How was your day? Did your back survive the weekend and the last mowing?