Report from Dover AFB: (SERIOUS TISSUE ALERT!)

recieved email

[SandRat]

This is a verified copy of the email. Only the To: author, and email signature have been redacted.

[SandRat]

Sniff, Sniff ....

ping!

[SAMWolf]

Just a small group of soldiers waiting to do their duty and honor the fallen.

And a hard Duty it has to be.

[Old Sarge]

We care for our own.

Even if most of our nation couldn't care less, we care for our own.

Thank you, 'Rat...

[BykrBayb]

This is very well written tribute to our fallen soldiers.

[Maigrey]

Duplicate Ping!

[jigsaw]

Thank you for posting this.

May God comfort our fallen soldiers and their grieving families.

[Professional Engineer]

bump

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

This is beautiful. Thank you, SandRat. My evening's gone, but that's o.k...(*sniff*).

Thanks for the re-ping, Maigrey.

Tried to find something special to add, but it seems wrong to add anything ~ except  thank you  to our beloved troops (and a blurry screen alert).

---

The squad moves slowly back onto the elevated platform and deposits the casket with a care that evokes an image of fraternal empathy...their gentleness is unmistakable and compelling....The few of us observing say nothing, the silence absolute, underscored by something sacred...

 

...Still, the story must be told. A democracy's lifeblood, after all, is an informed citizenry, and this image is nowhere in the public mind.

.....it is a soldier's story, and it must be told through a soldier's eyes. In the military, we seldom discuss whether we are for or against the war.

Instead, we know intimately its cost. For those of us standing on the tarmac at Dover in those still and inky nights, our feelings have nothing to do with politics. They are feelings of sadness, of empathy. And there is nothing abstract about them.

Chaplain (COL) US Army Reserve Command

"The soldier's heart...spirit...soul...are everything." General George Marshall

     ~ Y ~

[SandRat]

Tried to find something special to add,..

Perhaps the Bagpipes playing Amazing Grace?

No you're right -- pass the kleenex box please.

[JLO]

Thanks SandTrap, for the difficult duty. Need kleenex here also. God bless you all!

Here's something I read earlier that might be nice to read. http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=4174&catcode=11

[ladyinred]

Hard to read, but I hope they don't think that we don't care about those who are giving their lives for our country. We do, very much. I for one understand why the media is not allowed there filming, they would turn this most solemn occasion into a circus.

God Bless our military.

[JLO]

Please excuse my faux paux in mis-stating your name just above as SandTrap. Must have been a Freudrian slip.

[SandRat]

No offense. I've been stuck in those too on the links and elsewhere.

[armymarinemom]

There are those who would politicize this scene, making it the device of an argument over the freedom of the press. But if this scene were ever to be exploited by the lights and cameras of our "infotainment" industry, it would be offensive.

Well they once again plan to make an issue out of Dover this Month.

From Military Families Speak Out Web

Dover to D.C. Memorial Procession

A trail of mourning and truth to honor those killed and wounded in Iraq

Sunday, March 14 - Monday, March 15, 2004

The Bush Administration refuses to acknowledge the toll of this war – including those who are killed and wounded. We call on this administration to start telling the truth, and stop hiding the toll. We will begin this two-day event at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the U.S. war dead arrive. This memorial procession will honor our fallen brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, wives, husbands, mothers, fathers and friends, along with Iraqis and the increasing number of people from other countries who have been killed and wounded, as we deliver our call to end the violence to the nation's capital.

Sunday, March 14 - Gather at Camden Friends Meetinghouse in Dover at 12 Noon, for a brief service followed by a memorial procession to the gates of Dover Air Force Base, arriving at 2:30pm. Following a ceremony at the base, a funeral caravan will proceed to Baltimore, MD for the night and then into Washington, DC the following morning.

Monday, March 15 - Gathering and observances at 9am at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, DC, current residence of many U.S. servicemen and women wounded in Iraq, followed by memorial procession to White House, arriving at Farragut Square, (2 blocks from the White House) at 2pm. We will then process to the White House to speak the names of those who have died in Iraq. At the White House some people in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. will engage non-violent civil disobedience as they deliver the memorial and opposition to the war.

Please plan to join us on March 14 and 15, to honor those killed and wounded in Iraq, and to say no to war.

Military Families: For more information and to get involved, contact Military Families Speak Out at mfso@mfso.org

Coming Soon:

Information about an MFSO gathering on Saturday, March 13 in Washington, D.C.

Driving and Bus information to Camden/Dover, Delaware Driving and Bus information to Walter Reed Hospital in D.C.

Information about airports (closest are Baltimore-Washington Int'l Airport, Washington National Airport and the airport in Philadelphia)

Ideas about inexpensive places to stay in the Washington D.C. area

Information about possible rides from the D.C. area to Dover (on March 14) and Walter Reed Hospital (on March 15).

[JLO]

God love ya - you're in my prayers. Just an FYI, I'm partner to a 100% P&D disabled VN vet for the past 16 years. He served as a 173rd Airborne Ranger.

My thoughts and prayers to you all.

(As for my earlier comment, I guess I was thinking you are in a SandTrap, so to speak).

Thanks for responding again.

Here's what I wanted you to read from my linked earlier post. I think it says alot.

''Thank you,'' I said, ''for the work you do. You really represent us all well in your service here. It must be
wonderful work.''

He paused and then allowed a big smile to cross his face. ''Oh, yes, sir, it truly is.''

Yes, things certainly are different in Washington. "

[SandRat]

I'd really like to know just how many of the members and organizers of this little band really are military family members and I mean blood relatives or wives/husbands.

Know the Baltimore Sun and the Wash Post would never ask that and check it; the Wash Times might.

[SandRat]

Something for your partner.

[armymarinemom]

I'd really like to know just how many of the members and organizers of this little band really are military family members and I mean blood relatives or wives/husbands.

Probably not as many as they would like for everyone to think. The Chapter that was organizing in our area used ROTC parents, cousins etc. They denied to our face that they are working with the very same groups that are listed on their web as sponsers

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

True. It's not a sideshow. The end of this message seems in line with the liberal cries about not being able to see the soldiers come home because they want their "body count."

These men and women who gave the last full measure aren't political footballs for either side and those who want to use them for such are sorry individuals.