FReeper Canteen ~ MEMORIAL DAY 2025 ~ 26 May 2025

Serving the Best Troops and Veterans In The World !! | The Canteen Crew

[Kathy in Alaska]

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~

~ MEMORIAL DAY 2025 ~

TAPS

Canteen Mission Statement

Showing support and boosting the morale of
our military and our allies' military
and 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 of thanks for the valor of others, a day to remember the splendor of America and those of her children who rest in this cemetery and others. It’s a day to be with the family and remember.

I was thinking this morning that across the country children and their parents will be going to the town parade and the young ones will sit on the sidewalks and wave their flags as the band goes by. Later, maybe, they’ll have a cookout or a day at the beach. And that’s good, because today is a day to be with the family and to remember.

Arlington, this place of so many memories, is a fitting place for some remembering. So many wonderful men and women rest here, men and women who led colorful, vivid, and passionate lives. There are the greats of the military: Bull Halsey and the Admirals Leahy, father and son; Black Jack Pershing; and the GI’s general, Omar Bradley. Great men all, military men. But there are others here known for other things.

Here in Arlington rests a sharecropper’s son who became a hero to a lonely people. Joe Louis came from nowhere, but he knew how to fight. And he galvanized a nation in the days after Pearl Harbor when he put on the uniform of his country and said, “I know we’ll win because we’re on God’s side.” Audie Murphy is here, Audie Murphy of the wild, wild courage. For what else would you call it when a man bounds to the top of a disabled tank, stops an enemy advance, saves lives, and rallies his men, and all of it single-handedly. When he radioed for artillery support and was asked how close the enemy was to his position, he said, “Wait a minute and I’ll let you speak to them.” [Laughter]

Michael Smith is here, and Dick Scobee, both of the space shuttle Challenger. Their courage wasn’t wild, but thoughtful, the mature and measured courage of career professionals who took prudent risks for great reward; in their case, to advance the sum total of knowledge in the world. They’re only the latest to rest here; they join other great explorers with names like Grissom and Chaffee.

Oliver Wendell Holmes is here, the great jurist and fighter for the right. A poet searching for an image of true majesty could not rest until he seized on Holmes dissenting in a sordid age. Young Holmes served in the Civil War. He might have been thinking of the crosses and stars of Arlington when he wrote: “At the grave of a hero we end, not with sorrow at the inevitable loss, but with the contagion of his courage; and with a kind of desperate joy we go back to the fight”.

All of these men were different, but they shared this in common: They loved America very much. There was nothing they wouldn’t do for her. And they loved with the sureness of the young. It’s hard not to think of the young in a place like this, for it’s the young who do the fighting and dying when a peace fails and a war begins. Not far from here is the statue of the three servicemen;the three fighting boys of Vietnam. It, too, has majesty and more. Perhaps you’ve seen it;three rough boys walking together, looking ahead with a steady gaze. There’s something wounded about them, a kind of resigned toughness. But there’s an unexpected tenderness, too. At first you don’t really notice, but then you see it. The three are touching each other, as if they’re supporting each other, helping each other on.

I know that many veterans of Vietnam will gather today, some of them perhaps by the wall. And they're still helping each other on. They were quite a group, the boys of Vietnam; boys who fought a terrible and vicious war without enough support from home, boys who were dodging bullets while we debated the efficacy of the battle. It was often our poor who fought in that war; it was the unpampered boys of the working class who picked up the rifles and went on the march. They learned not to rely on us; they learned to rely on each other. And they were special in another way: They chose to be faithful. They chose to reject the fashionable skepticism of their time. They chose to believe and answer the call of duty. They had the wild, wild courage of youth. They seized certainty from the heart of an ambivalent age; they stood for something.

And we owe them something, those boys. We owe them first a promise: That just as they did not forget their missing comrades, neither, ever, will we. And there are other promises. We must always remember that peace is a fragile thing that needs constant vigilance. We owe them a promise to look at the world with a steady gaze and, perhaps, a resigned toughness, knowing that we have adversaries in the world and challenges and the only way to meet them and maintain the peace is by staying strong.

That, of course, is the lesson of this century, a lesson learned in the Sudetenland, in Poland, in Hungary, in Czechoslovakia, in Cambodia. If we really care about peace, we must stay strong. If we really care about peace, we must, through our strength, demonstrate our unwillingness to accept an ending of the peace. We must be strong enough to create peace where it does not exist and strong enough to protect it where it does. That's the lesson of this century and, I think, of this day. And that's all I wanted to say. The rest of my contribution is to leave this great place to its peace, a peace it has earned.

Thank all of you, and God bless you, and have a day full of memories.

Note: The President spoke at 10:10 a.m. at the Memorial Amphitheater. Prior to his remarks, he placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Please remember that The Canteen is here to support
and entertain our troops and veterans and their families,
and is family friendly.

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TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Free Republic
KEYWORDS: canteen; memorialday; military; troopsupport

[Kathy in Alaska]

FReeper redrock’s links………

Links to FReeper redrock's
Memorial Day Threads from 2006

"We Can Be Heroes...Just For One Day"
MEMORIAL DAY ~ Thread # 1


"Just Another Drunk Indian"
MEMORIAL DAY ~ Thread # 2


"Chocolate Chip Cookies"
MEMORIAL DAY ~ Thread # 3


"Hey...Do Ya Wanna Hear a Polish Joke?"
MEMORIAL DAY ~ Thread # 4

"Remember...What We Owe"
MEMORIAL DAY ~ Thread # 5



"The Betrayal of The American Soldier"
MEMORIAL DAY ~ Thread # 6

Final ~ "Falls The Night"
MEMORIAL DAY ~ Thread # 7

[Kathy in Alaska]

~ MEMORIAL DAY 2025 ~

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT

Showing support and boosting the morale of
our military and our allies' military
and the family members of the above.
Honoring those who have served before.

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We are indebted to you for your sacrifices for our Freedom.

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[radu]

Greetings to all at the Canteen!

To all our military men and women, past and present,

THANK YOU
for your service!

[radu]

Howdy, Kathy.

Hope the weekend has been restful.
Not as pretty up there today. Or maybe it is. It’s been raining and I hope you’ve gotten some at your house.

We had a tornado warning this afternoon but nothing more than a burst of strong wind for a minute and some heavy rain. More rain and storms heading this way.

[lightman]

Honor those who served....our Veterans.
Thank those currently serving....our Military.
NEVER forget those fallen in the line of duty…our Heroes.

And please don’t conflate the three!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Hello Veterans, wherever you are!!

[Mark17]

20 years USAF. My son is a USAF Captain. 👍

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Thank You, Kathy! Just beautiful! :)

"Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high."

[lightman]

One Great-Great-Uncle KIA, 1864, in the siege of Petersburg.

One Great Uncle mortally wounded, 1864, at Spotsylvania and died as a POW in Confederate hands.

[Kathy in Alaska]

God Bless our Troops!

Some Gave All

[lightman]

This prayer, which was found in possession if a dead Confederate soldier has always been among my favorites:

I asked God for strength that I might achieve,
I was made weak, that I might learn to humbly obey.

I asked God for health, that I might do greater things,
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy,
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men,
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for – but everything I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am among men, most richly blessed.

[SkyDancer]

~ Evening All! ~

~

~ Welcome To My World ~

I’m Down There Somewhere

[left that other site]

Hi Everbody!

(((HUGS)))

Blessed Memorial Day to You.

Never Forget Those Who made the Supreme Sacrifice for Our Freedom.

[SkyDancer]

I visited Andersonville Confederate POW camp - the feeling I got walking around that camp was just eerie. It’s the designated POW memorial camp, I bought a t-shirt there with the POW symbol on it and wear it proudly at times when out in public.

[PROCON]

Phenomenal Memorial Day Canteen, thanks so much!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, radu...is it still raining? We had a few drops, eough to wet the street, but not enough for a single puddle.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Stay safe from those storms. Keep a row boat handy. LOL!

The dry spot in the back yard didn’t get hardly wet at all. I need to go turn on a sprinkler. Sunset isn’t til 11:09p.

[Kathy in Alaska]

And please don’t conflate the three!

Hear! Hear!

We try to educate.

[fidelis]

[radu]

I saw there was rain there earlier today but it was scattered. I didn’t know if you were lucky to get some or not. A little is better than none at all. The sun’s out now on your side of town but it’s still ugly to the north and the west.

Not raining here at the moment but more is closing in now. Should be here within a half hour. Hoping it will all be out of here by morning so we won’t get wet during the Memorial Day ceremony. Better turnout when it’s dry. We’ll be there, no matter what. We’re serving a little food after the ceremony ends. We have to be there at 9:00 so that means an early rise. UGH! Getting ready to shut the ‘puter off and get a few things done so I can hit the pillows soon.