"Remember...What We Owe.."--MEMORIAL DAY 2005--Thread# 5

5/26/05 | redrock--(..some old geezer in Utah...who is NOT P.C.)

[redrock]

"We must teach them."..and.."The heartfelt significance requires reminding. Story telling. Wisdom being passed on from our Veterans to our younger generations."

..every year...I collect the stories as best I can...and every year (for at least as long as I've been on FR)...I try and pass them on.

Whenever I collect a new story....I read it to my children...so they might get the lessons...and understand just how precious..and how costly our Freedom is.

What you've posted is the truth.

...and the truth (no matter what some may say) is always awesomly beautiful.

Thank You for posting it.

redrock

[Soaring Feather]

Thanks Sam.

[blackie]

Lest We Forget ~ Bump!

[SAMWolf]

You're welcome Redrock.

You're Memorial Day threads are always appreciated. Thanks.

[JLO]

[GailA]

My flag is up, had to repair a wind tear in it yesterday. She may be slightly faded but she sure still looks beautiful.

GOD bless each and every one of our Military past and present.

[lightman]

My favorite Memorial Day web site: www.usmemorialday.org

[Victoria Delsoul]

Thanks for the thread, Redrock, and thanks Sam for your post.

[potlatch]

[potlatch]

[tgslTakoma]

Here's another good site.

My suggestion* for folks this Memorial Day weekend... take time out of the long weekend and find a busy intersection in your town, and fly a flag or wave a sign; remind everyone else what this weekend really is about.
*Humbly offered.

[redrock]

Excellent suggestion.

redrock

[Smartass]

What Is A Veteran

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service:
a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.

Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding
a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg -
or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's
ally forged in the refinery of adversity.

Except in parades, however, the men and women who
have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.

You can't tell a vet just by looking. What is a vet?

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi
Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored
personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks,
whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a
hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of
exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility
and went to sleep sobbing every night for
two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another -
or didn't come back AT ALL.

He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat -
but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account
rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to
watch each other's backs.

He is the parade - riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons
and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the
ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns,
whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever
preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor
dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield
or in the ocean's sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket -
palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a
Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were
still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being -
a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in
the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions
so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness,
and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on
behalf of the finest, the greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country,
just lean over and say Thank You. That's all most people need,
and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could
have been awarded or were awarded. Two little words that mean a lot,
"THANK YOU." Author- Father Denis Edward O'Brien
USMC

[redrock]

Nope...no P.C. here....

redrock

[potlatch]

Wonderful post SmartA!! Hope all's well with you.

[ntnychik]

Thanks for posting, Smartie. Great stuff this Memorial Day weekend.

[Smartass]

LOL...I'm still recouping. Not quite back or there yet!

[Smartass]

Thank you Chik.   I have a few more coming up!

[potlatch]

Well I hope you have a relaxing weekend. We are going out of town to visit my daughter near the border. I'll probably be in Mexico shopping!!

[Professional Engineer]

It IS about REMEMBERING.

This will be my first Memorial Day since I erected the flagpole. I'm glad I'll be able to do this.