Posted on 05/28/2004 12:26:47 AM PDT by dutchess
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We are going out of town this weekend, I am glad I got to see this touching tribute before we left.
We should never forget the price they paid. A blessed Memorial Day to you also.
Mornin', everybody ! Happy Friday ! TGIF !
What a moving and beautiful tribute ((((((dutchess))))) and the poem that ((((((NicknamedBob)))))))) wrote is so appropriate and moving. Deepest thansk to you both for bringing us closer to the true meaning of Memorial Day - not hotdogs and hamburgers, not an extra day off, but to honor the military members past and present that make deep sacrifices to ensure our freedoms.
Later, I'll post a picture of the fallen soldier that I have honored since I received his MIA bracelet to wear over 30 years ago. I posted a tribute to him last year on the Finest and will continue with the tradition this year.
Read: Colossians 3:8-17
We all . . . are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. —2 Corinthians 3:18
Bible In One Year: 2 Chronicles 4-6; John 10:24-42
As a young boy, theologian Alister McGrath enjoyed experimenting with chemicals in his school's laboratory. He liked to drop a tarnished coin into a beaker of diluted nitric acid. He often used an old British penny bearing the image of Queen Victoria. Because of the accumulated grime, Her Majesty's image couldn't be seen clearly. But the acid cleansed away the grime and the Queen's image reappeared in shining glory.
We know, to be sure, that we were created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26), but that image has been defaced by our sin. We are still His image-bearers, however.
Once we invite Jesus to enter our lives as Savior, He goes to work to restore the original image. He transforms us to make us like Himself (2 Corinthians 3:18). This process is described as putting off some behaviors and putting on others. For example, we are to "put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language" (Colossians 3:8) and to "put on love" (v.14).
Unless and until our sin-tarnished souls are cleansed by Jesus' forgiveness, God's image is obscured in our lives. But when we trust Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, we are forgiven and the restoration begins. —Vernon Grounds
A salute for a job well done.
Good Morning all....not a long weekend up here in Canada but prayers will be sent.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. This is so beautiful. I wish every American could read this.
Last work day of the month - very busy. I'll come back later to read more. I hope everyone has a fabulous Friday and a wonderful, safe, happy weekend. ((H)) to all.
Remember to pray for President Bush, our military, and America.
ThankYou Aqua!
Drive-by G'morning to y'all and have a great weekend!
I'm not on your ping list anymore?
did I do somethin wrong? : (
did I do somethin wrong? : (
Been a bad Mayor huh????... time out in corner for 20 minutes should do it!
OK
Here is my personal GI memorial...
I am here at my dad's grave.... US Navy, Pacific Theater WW2; 33 degree Mason; Eastern Star; Dr. Michael E. Grlicky...1917-1990.Buried Sunset Memorial Park, North Olmstead, OH.
and 6 weeks before his death
Miss you Dad!
Men like Donald Roof do what they do because of men like George McCoy.
McCoy was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division who parachuted into Normandy, France, on June 5, 1944, at the start of the D-Day Invasion.
The 79-year-old Hamburg resident recalled descending, watching tracer bullets flying up through the night sky and thinking every one was aimed at him.
"The sky was lit up with tracers, and it was like the Germans were saying, "Here's McCoy, let's get him.' Or at least that's what it felt like," he said.
"I was just a grunt who did my job. The heroes are the guys lying in the fields over there," he said.
Ceremonies in France marking the 60th anniversary of D-Day will include a jump by 30 members of the World War II Airborne Demonstration Team, who honor veterans like McCoy by re-creating World War II-style airdrops.
They will include Roof, of West Seneca, who served with the 82nd Airborne in Vietnam. Roof, a pipefitter at Ford Motor Co.'s Buffalo Stamping Plant in Hamburg, wasn't comfortable talking about his role.
"It's not about me. It's about the demonstration team and the guys who jumped on D-Day," he said. "We do it to honor them."
The Airborne Demonstration Team is different from the team of 11 World War II veterans - now in their late 70s and 80s - who have been denied permission to re-create their jump on the 60th anniversary of D-Day. The Army determined that the risk of injury was too great for the World War II veterans.
So, unless it's reversed, that decision will leave the jumping to the younger demonstration group, which remains determined to honor the older veterans.
And they do feel honored, said McCoy, who has never seen a demonstration jump but is aware of the volunteer group.
"I think it's wonderful that they think that much of what we did," he said. "I wish I was jumping with them."
The demonstration team, formed in 1995, is based in Lawton, Okla.
Members pay their own expenses, and Roof figures he has about $3,500 invested in equipment, including a parachute, uniform and M-1 carbine rifle with folding stock.
He travels to Oklahoma several times a year to participate in demonstration team activities, including air shows.
At age 59, he isn't sure how much longer his body will allow him to jump, but jumping from a World War II-era plane over Sainte Mere Eglise, the first town in France liberated on D-Day, "will be the jump of a lifetime. I can't wait," he said.
Team members will jump from about 1,000 feet with about 125 pounds of gear. The low altitude and round parachutes are designed to get troops on the ground as quickly as possible, an experience completely different from sky diving, which Roof also has done.
"You have about four seconds to deploy your reserve chute (if the main chute doesn't open). You can steer them," he said of the military chutes. "But it's like steering the Queen Mary."
The team was formed by Richard Wolf, a retired Army Special Forces first sergeant, and has about 130 members, according to Craig Singhaus, public affairs officer.
"We're not a bunch of rich playboys. We do it to honor the old guys, so they know they're not forgotten," said Singhaus, a Maryland resident.
Roof's wife of 34 years, Diane, and four of their five children plan to travel to France for the event. She said she supports her husband's jumping, adding, "He looks pretty nice in his uniform."
When Roof travels to Oklahoma, he usually goes by car, a 22-hour trek.
"I don't like to fly," he said.
Information on the demonstration team is available at its Web site, www.wwiiadt.com.
e-mail: ternst@buffnews.com
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