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    The FReeper Canteen Observes ------------------------Memorial Day 2016 ------------------------     HistoryMemorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping" by Nella L. Sweet (see below) carried the dedication "To...

The remains of a U.S. Marine who was killed in action during World War II finally completed the 70-year journey from a South Pacific atoll to his home in Texas. His body has been missing since 1943. n November 1943, U.S. Marine Corps Private First Class Elmer “Rabbit” Mathies, Jr. was killed during the Battle of Tarawa. Private Mathies was one of 1,200 Marines killed during the 3-day battle battle. His remains were finally identified and have been returned to Hereford, Texas in time for Memorial Day, the Amarillo Globe-News reported.

Memorials to veterans in a Los Angeles neighborhood and a town in Kentucky, as well as a Civil War veterans cemetery in Virginia, were damaged as the nation prepares to mark Memorial Day, officials said. A Vietnam War memorial in the Venice area of Los Angeles has been extensively defaced by graffiti. The vandalism occurred sometime during the past week, KCAL/KCBS-TV reported. The homespun memorial painted on a block-long wall on Pacific Avenue lists the names of American service members missing in action or otherwise unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. News of the vandalism came as another veterans-related memorial was...

Items not excerpted are in the public domain. In Flanders Fields By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918), Canadian Army In Flanders Fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses row on row,That mark our place; and in the skyThe larks, still bravely singing, flyScarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,Loved and were loved, and now we lieIn Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe:To you from failing hands we throwThe torch; be yours to hold it high.If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not...

An old song, but Toby Keith does a good job honoring the American Soldier, (This means Marines, Sailors, Airmen and Coast Guardsmen too!)

A 91-year-old World War II veteran is recovering after police say his caretaker beat him with his oxygen tank. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports that 45-year-old Elena Erickson was charged Thursday with attempted murder for the May 15 beating of Michael Tristano. North Port police say Erickson hit him in the head multiple times with the tank before leaving him on the floor to die. They say she returned to the home the next day, found him still alive and called paramedics. She denied any connection to the beating.

Long forgotten, private color film of the actual attack on Pearl Harbor

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Sunday Chapel ~ MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND 2016 ~ TAPS Canteen Mission Statement Showing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand 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...

Happy National Hamburger Day! What a perfect weekend to celebrate with a juicy burger? Grab some buns and ground chuck, we’ve got burger recipes from our NBC4 Grill Masters to make this holiday sizzle. Our very own Mike Jackson, Jerod Smalley, Olivia Fecteau and Marcus Thorpe are releasing, for the first time, their very own burger secrets. (Okay they’re not secrets per say, but they will make your hamburgers taste great). Mike’s ‘Buffalo Burger’I like bison because it’s lean and a little healthier than beef, plus I like eating things that are ‘exotic.’ Start with the right ingredients. Put one...

Does anyone think it an accident that President Obama chose Memorial Day weekend to give his high-sounding moral equivalence speech in Hiroshima calling for a “moral revolution”? What Obama proposed in his speech in Japan is moral disarmament, and the consequences of that moral capitulation will be horrific if the world follows his advice.

VENICE (CBSLA.com) — Vandals defaced a memorial to Vietnam war veterans in Venice – an awful sight on this Memorial Day weekend. Stewart Oscars welled up as he looked at the vandalized mural located on Pacific Avenue near Sunset Court. It was covered in graffiti from end to end. “This knocked me out. So sickening. Just sadness…think of all these people. They’re gone,” Oscars said. “I remember the Vietnam war and how friends went to war, and bodies came back. Somehow, it has to be taught that this is not a good idea. This is actually stupid.” The memorial was...

First Deposition Testimony from Clinton Email Discovery Released State Department Office of Inspector General Slams Clinton Email Practices Justice Department Documents Reveal the Widespread Use of Fast and Furious Weapons by Major Mexican Drug Cartels – Linked to at Least 69 Killings Memorial Day: Why We Fight First Deposition Testimony from Clinton Email Discovery Released The court-ordered discovery to uncover details about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email system has produced the first testimony from her top aides. This week we released the deposition transcript of Ambassador Lewis Lukens, former deputy assistant secretary of state and executive director...

You might have a hard time relating to Memorial Day, like I used to. Even though my grandfather and father were soldiers in the two World Wars, ours was not a military family. I didn’t know any soldiers, none of my friends were and nobody I knew in my community was one either. Vietnam was over by the time I was in high school. It was a time of relative peace and quiet. Then I moved to Israel in my twenties and got married. Now my own children are soldiers. All of their friends are soldiers. Everywhere I look I...

This Memorial Day weekend most Americans will enjoy an extra day off from work enjoying family gatherings, hot dogs on the grill, and ice cold beer. It’s easy to get caught up in spending time with relatives and family, and it’s not unusual for people to forget what this weekend commemorates. So the fact that many will forget, or not think much about what the weekend is truly all about isn’t unexpected. So here’s a little reminder for you. For seventy-seven days in 1968, about five thousand United States Marines were under siege by the forces of North Vietnam and...

Memorial Day is a day of honor and reverence; it is a solemn day. We must recognize an unfortunate fact of life; that our beloved country was formed and is protected by the blood of its warriors. Yet as unfortunate as this is we can be thankful, because over the years Americans have answered the call every time our way of life has been threatened. None understand this better than those who put everything on the line by signing a contract to serve in America’s Armed Forces. Many honorable men and women paid the price with their limbs and lives....

Donald Trump is planning a Memorial Day weekend visit with one of his favorite constituencies: bikers. As motorcyclists stream into the nation’s capital for Rolling Thunder, their largest annual gathering, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is planning an appearance on Sunday, campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said. “I am doing it in honor of the great bikers who have been totally supportive of my campaign and now I want to be supportive of them,” Trump said in a statement to Bloomberg Politics. “I look forward to it!” The bike rally, called the “First Amendment Demonstration Run,” begins at noon Eastern time...

America will celebrate Memorial Day in 2016 with the two presidential candidates, for the first time ever, having never been part of those armed services whose sacrifice we honor on that holiday. What causes young men to bleed and to die in another hemisphere? What led brave men to fight and die in the Civil War or in our War of Independence? The drone of politics today is all about the economy. People have plenty to eat and live in larger homes and apartments than our grandparents did. Medical care is much better now than thirty years ago. We live...

With Memorial Day just around the corner, let us remember our family, friends, and fallen heroes in their eternal rest. Let us especially remember the fallen of Benghazi. They have left this life, but cannot be fully at rest until the nation acknowledges the truth about their sacrifice upon the altar of progressive politics. What follows is a compilation of salient timestamps regarding the national disgrace that was Benghazi. They were gleaned from reputable sources—none of which had all the facts, but most of which reported identical information, and they are the best available at this writing: CBSNews.com, TheHill.com, Breitbart.com, Doug...

House and Senate Democrats told Republican leaders Thursday to postpone a Memorial Day recess until their demands for Supreme Court nomination hearings and emergency spending to combat the Zika virus and other crises are met. From the opioids and heroin crisis to the lead-tainted water scandal in Flint, Mich., Congress faces a larger workload than ever but has opted to work less in a contentious election year, according to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. Congress is set to skip town Thursday for its Memorial Day break and will not return until the second week...

Like a lot of other Americans these days I’m spending too much time pissed off about way too many things in this great nation of ours. I’m not perceptive enough to fully understand how we got ourselves into such a mess but I do know it’s gotten me to thinking about Memorial Day this year. And that’s another thing that pisses me off. As a veteran, I’m angry that this day will be passed by most of my countrymen with not one thought about the millions of Americans who lost their lives in our nation’s wars or undeclared conflicts. As...