[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

I don't believe that my own, personal debt to this valiant dead can EVER be expunged. All I can try to do is live my life like these Ultimate Sacrifices were worth it.

Amen.

[Illbay]

Thanks for your replies to this thread. It is comforting to know I"m not the only one.

I don't cry easily, but the tears have managed to come several times when I have seen these faces.

[Illbay]

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

-- John McCrae (1872-1918)

[Illbay]

"Where do we get such men? They leave this ship and they
do their job. Then they must find this speck lost
somewhere on the sea. When they find it, they have to land
on its pitching deck. Where do we get such men?"

- Rear Admiral George Tarrant in James Michener's The Bridges at Toko-Ri