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Posted on 05/02/2002 9:29:44 PM PDT by A Navy Vet
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Please update the "America Remembers" committee with your plans so we can include them in our news releases and other PR efforts. Thank you.
Rodger Hunter - rhunter1@cox.net
Jeff Taylor - jeff@freeper.org
"AMERICA REMEMBERS": Sample Promotion Letter - Please Send Out
National Cemeteries, Memorial Day Ceremonies, & Military Installation Locators
to visit the tribute page
Toward FREEDOM
Honorable ______________,
I urge you to cosponsor HR2442, Combat Merchant Mariners Veterans Benefits Act of 2001: To provide veteran benefits to certain individuals who serve in the United States merchant marine during a period of war. Please contact Legislative Aide Charles Cooper in Congressman Felix J. Grucci's Office, at telephone 5-3826 to cosponsor the Bill.
The men and women who supported our troops by carrying ammunition and supplies to Korea, Vietnam, and Gulf War as part of the U. S. Merchant Marine, Military Sea Transportation Service, or Military Sealift Command, deserve recognition as veterans. At least 55 mariners were killed during the Vietnam War, two of them while Prisoners of War. They certainly earned veteran status during this "War Without a Front." See: http://www.USMM.org/vietnam.html
President Truman praised the Merchant Marine for its outstanding support of the United Nations forces in Korea, including its role during the Invasion of Inchon and the Redeployment from Hungnam. General Colin Powell stated, "Since I became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I have come to appreciate first-hand why our Merchant Marine has long been called our Nation's fourth arm of defense. The American seafarer provides an essential service to the well-being of the Nation as was demonstrated so clearly during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm."
Please let me know that you have become a cosponsor. Thank you!
From: sfgate.com
TAPS: While you're gathered around the barbecue on Memorial Day, you might pause to remember the 2 million Americans who gave their lives for their country, and got you the day off. First observed in 1868 to honor the Civil War dead, Memorial Day hits a little closer to home this year because of Sept. 11.
The big ceremony at San Francisco's Presidio on Monday will honor those who died that day and salute Americans killed in wartime, with a special nod to the 54,000 lost during the Korean conflict that began 50 years ago. The ceremony begins at 10 a.m. with a parade, led by pipers and drummers from the Army's 91st Division band, from the Presidio Parade Ground to the National Cemetery, where 40,000 small flags will flutter. The band will play patriotic songs, police and firefighters will lay wreaths, a 21-gun howitzer salute will sound and military planes will fly over. (415) 561-5500.
The 11 a.m. ceremony at Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno will feature the San Andreas Brass Band and a speech by Mel Moore, a Navy pilot who was shot down during the Vietnam War and spent six years as a POW at the infamous "Hanoi Hilton." (650) 761-1646.
Leo Bach, who was stationed at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and was later held in a German POW camp, will speak at the noon ceremony at Civic Park in Walnut Creek. (925) 943-5895.
The band starts to play at 9:30 a. m. at Marin Veterans' Memorial Auditorium in San Rafael. (415) 472-3500.
And the "Lost Boat Ceremony" begins at 11 a.m. aboard the World War II submarine Pampanito at Pier 45 in San Francisco. (415) 775-1943. All free.
Please see post #16.
rhunter@vets4constrestore.org
CG, see #18.
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