The FReeper Foxhole Celebrates Veterans Day - November 11th, 2003

various

[snippy_about_it]

LOL. I only scold you lovingly though. You are an important part of our "family" here at the Foxhole and I won't have you talking about your service as any less than others. It all counts and I'm glad to see you yield. ;)

[OESY]

Thanks OESY for remembering the Dogs.

Thanks for the heads up! Here's another website -- with pictures -- that I found:

War-Dogs.com

[SAMWolf]

"Be Worthy"



Do not give us medals or ribbons for our death,
For where we are, we cannot wear them, about them we cannot know.
Do not raise flags or hold parades for us,
For where we are, flags and bands cannot go.

We ask but one thing of you, our America, our land -
Of you who asked us to fight:
Please be worthy of the blood we shed,
Be worthy of our eternal night.

Let this be our everlasting, enduring challenge and proclamation:
Be worthy of the tears, loss, pain, and sorrow
The we, our families, and our nation
Have shed for this - your today and tomorrow.

For this, our sacrifice, we ask this and nothing more -
Remember our country, its freedom, and its history.
Let freedom, vigilance, and respect reach from shore to shore.
Do not let our lives and deaths be a mystery.

From Lexington to Gettysburg to the Ardienne Forest, to Bastogne,
To Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf, the present, and the future unknown;
Where you, our country has sent us, we have always gone
So that you and we can always call America and freedom our home.

Our blood, our hopes, our lives we gladly pay
So that on our country and its honor there is no stain.
Never let history say,
"They served, cried, bled, and died in vain."

Honor us or remember us, as you will,
But always think first of why we are not here - you, our country
Our plea will always be insistent, quiet, but still:
Please, Please be Worthy.

An Annoymous Vietnam Veteran
November 11, 2002

[Conspiracy Guy]

Me too. Both in hot war and cold war. Combat and support. We all need know the sacrifices made by those who serve.

[Darksheare]

Well, I do count it as a point of personal pride that the people I trained up to replace me in my slot in my unit all were promoted to higher positions.
A few made Seargent, and one went to OCS and became a Lieutenant. (He transferred form us to another battery, ended up XO over at that battery. *chuckle*)

That is my personal pride, that those I trained knew their stuff and weren't afraid to say so.
(If they didn't, I'd have hounded them for it, and did at times.)

I do miss it at times.

[SAMWolf]

"What Veterans Day Means To Me"
R. Cannon, First Place – High School Division

He sat in his congressman's office surrounded by his family, and received the Bronze Star for bravery after fifty-three years. He cried as he told his story. He was drafted shortly after Pearl Harbor. An Army infantryman during World War II in the European Theatre, he was captured by the Germans in the Tunisian Invasion of North Africa and taken prisoner. My grandfather, Joseph Mandese, spent two years in a prisoner of war camp. He was given a cup of water, a piece of cheese, and a piece of bread each day. He was tortured during interrogations. Lice were embedded under his skin, and he suffered from dysentery. Along with four other prisoners, they planned and executed an escape that took them through the mountains of Italy. They hid in fields and relied on the generosity of an Italian family for fourteen months until it became to dangerous. His ordeal ended when the Fascists fell, and they met American troops. He was eighty-five pounds and had been in the same clothes for three and one-half years. During this time his family had mistakenly received notice of his death.

The young congressman and his staff, who worked to help him get his long overdue medal, were amazed by my grandfather's recall of dates and places. I am proud of him. He is eighty-one years old now and he wears his medal proudly.

My grandfather truly believes that his contributions and those of other soldiers in World War II helped save our democracy. He is correct. Our great country is great because of the people, men and women, who gave their life, their health, and the innocence of their youth to go to foreign lands and fight for freedom. My generation is very much removed from the horrors of war. It is through the recent war movies, such as, Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line, that we can vividly see the atrocities of war. Veterans Day could be a time when our schools organize programs in which we would hear the first hand accounts of soldiers who are still alive from the different wars. By hearing their stories, like I heard my grandfather's, we would be touched by their brave efforts.

The teen-agers of today are enjoying the freedoms we have because of those who served and protected those freedoms. I enjoy spending time with friends and running frequently to stay in shape. What would my life be like if I were now saluting another flag? Would I be doing the things I love to do? Would I be forced to do things that the government would want me to do? Would my future choices be restricted? The answers to all these questions are unknown, but one certainty is that our freedoms were safeguarded by our veteran's efforts. I am certain that what our veterans have done will not and have not gone unnoticed.

There are many like my grandfather who have served our country in or out of wars by being in military service. Our flag and the freedom that it symbolizes was protected by their peace and war time efforts. On November 11, what can we do to honor our veterans? How can we show them our gratitude? Some concrete ways to show them that we appreciate their bravery would be to: take a moment in our busy schedules and remember them in a moment of silence, attend the local Veterans Parade, support veteran organizations, or simply tell a veteran--thank you.

[Light Speed]

[snippy_about_it]

I confess I can find nothing to brag about for April 24th except the fact that it is your birthday and hopefully that has changed the tide!

:)

[PsyOp]

“I’ve long since forgotten the name of the speaker, but I’ll never forget what he said. ‘Imagine this. In the spring of 1945, around the world, the sight of a twelve-man squad of teenage boys, armed and in uniform, brought terror to people’s hearts. Whether it was a Red Army squad in Berlin, Leipzig, or Warsaw, or a German squad in Holland, or a Japanese squad in Manila, Seoul, or Beijing, that squad meant rape, pillage, looting, wanton destruction, sensless killing. But there was one exception: a squad of Gis, a sight that brought the biggest smiles you ever saw to people’s lips, and joy to their hearts.’” - Stephen H. Ambrose, The Victors, 1998.

Soldiers, Sailors & Airmen - In Quotes.

[snippy_about_it]

SAM these essays of "What Veterans Day means to me" are excellent posts. Thank you. It's good to see our young people have an understanding and are learning about our veterans.

[snippy_about_it]

SCDogPapa, Ping to the link at post 162. Thanks OESY, great link.

[snippy_about_it]

Great pictures Light Speed, thanks.

[PsyOp]

PsyOp as a member of the 101st. Photo taken during a training excercise in '83.

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks SAM for the poetry "Be Worthy". You've posted some really good stuff for today.

[Prof Engineer]

I've always had a special attachment to poppies. I assumed it to be just for the CA state flower, but now I realize there's a much better reason. Thanks for the post

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the Bulge photos Light speed.

[snippy_about_it]

Great! Thanks PsyOp. Got one without the mask?

Thank you for your service to our country.

[HiJinx]

"What Veterans Day Means To Me"
C. Fruend, First Place, Intermediate/Middle School Division

Wow. Somebody gets it.
SAM, thanks for posting this, and thanks to C. Freund for a winning essay.

[snippy_about_it]

Thanks PsyOp for the link to your thread, great stuff.