Posted on 05/25/2020 7:25:06 AM PDT by NOBO2012
"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." Winston Churchill
As we do on this day each year, we pause to remember the men and women who died fighting for our freedom.
We stand by humbly, gratefully, silently, to honor their sacrifice.
We remember
We mourn for those lost
And we mourn for those theyve left behind
As we reflect once again on the the steep price of freedom.
if youre lucky enough to live someplace where picnics, parades and celebrations have not been outlawed by fiat, by all means enjoy them as today is a holiday after all. But do pause to remember and honor all the brave Americans across the centuries who gave their lives in the ongoing fight for freedom - a thought that holds special resonance in a year that has seen so many petty tyrants crawling out of the woodwork to use Coronavirus as an excuse to suspend our constitutional freedoms.
These enemies of freedom will always be in our midst and will always be a threat to liberty. God willing, America will always be there to vanquish freedoms adversaries.
Above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. It is a weapon that we as Americans do have. Let that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey upon their neighbors. - Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, 1981
- Original posted May, 2015
Rest in peace my brothers and sisters.
Photo courtesy of Patton Leadership Center.
Whatever happened to Pvt Jenkins? Trump ought to find out
Photo---Patton Leadership Center.
When I was aikido I asked my dad (World War II 3rd Army) why General Patton didn’t let him ride on a tank, instead my dad went mostly on foot from Normandy to Berlin. He said he preferred walking, because tanks were bagger target.
In the movie Patton, which I took my dad to see, the last time he was in a theatre, they show the tanks running out of gas. My father said that was true. At times they were pushing there Germans back so fast the supply line had to catch up. .
My dad didn’t die in the war, obviously. He was shot and went back into combat 2 weeks later. But my thoughts and prayers are with those who paid the ultimate price.
Thanks for the realtime input.
Yes, they did run out of gas......but they soldiered on.....to glorious victory.
Oh...thank you...I’m about to cry.
The pilot of one craft got scared watching the action on shore---torrents of German bullets firing everywhere.
He stopped the craft in high waters indicating the soldiers get out.
The squad leader pulled a gun on the pilot and said, "Bring er in."
The soldiers would have drowned debarking in high waters since they carried heavy supplies on their backs.
Indeed. My dad’s platoon was ordered to not enter Berlin even though they were ready to cross the river. The Soviets were given the honor due to their massive losses at the hands of the Germans.
The day was called "Decoration Day." a day when the whole village assembled, held a parade to the cemetery, and followed the marchers there, where a prominent member of the community gave a message, speaking in memoriam of the aspect of the passing on and meaning of the lives of those being remembered, the ones whose bodies' permanent residence was now the place of their burial.
After this message, the crowd broke silence and went about decorating all the grave sites with flowers and wreaths and other such items as would honor those buried there.
Most prominent was the replacing and renewal of the worn-out flags in their permanent holders situated at the head of the grave, or at the entrance of every tomb, for any individual whose history included serving in the military, going way back in some cases to the Revolutionary War days, if such a veteran lay there.
But the idea was to honor in their death of everyone whose living presence had blessed and invigorated the community, whose participation ion it had given reason and purpose to its existence and ongoing history.
I am sorry that today's culture has placed its selfish interests of business, shopping, and partying above the purpose of holding a true memorial remembrance of the persons and works of each one's Moms and Dads and other relatives and friends, that their contributions to one's own present life may not be forgotten.
We should not play down the significance, and merely relegate the occasion as an excuse to extend the off-work time for self-centered preoccupations of some close-by weekend, rather than selecting and dedicating the moment, the particular invariant day of the year, when the whole nation brings its activity to a halt with a single unalloyed purpose, business economics taking second place, that pursuit of a sincere dedicated day of remembrance of all those who have passed be foremost, including especially thinking of those fallen heroes who died before their time on behalf of their grateful inheritants.
Today's typical "Memorial Day" occasion is just a second-hand ghost of what it used to be, back in the day, a that one can only yearn for now, never again realize.
Leaders must lead. Be the first boots on the ground and the last boots off. When we go into battle, I will be the first one to set foot on the field, and I will be the last to step off. And I will leave no one behind. Dead or alive, we will come home together. So help me God. Lt. Co. Hal Moore, August 1965, Fort Benning, Ga.
WW1?
WW1?
whats the question?
Gen Patton was a WWII General, shown pinning a silver star on a young PVT. The grave pictured is for a WWI veteran, born in 1896. It’s clearly not the same person.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.