USO Canteen FReeper Style....Memorial Day....May 27,2002

FRiends of the USO Canteen FReeper Style and Snow Bunny

[Snow Bunny]

My wonderful Brother Tonkin. Thank you for your tremendous work you do for all of us. The P.O.Box you have done so beautifully. The work with the email a thon, your posts, serving now with the Coast Guard Aux. Thank you for all you do and so many things to many to list in one thread.

[Snow Bunny]

Misty, I want to thank you for your wonderful posts, your graphics that are always so great.Your support is so helpful and your humor is so cute.

Thank you so much Misty!!!

[BigBlueJon]

Thanks SAM, wonderful tribute.

[Snow Bunny]

I had never heard of Echo Taps before.To imagine it feels like something when you heard it , it is not just with the ears but in your whole body.

Thank you.

[BigBlueJon]

Hello Snow Bunny. Good morning Freepers, Vets and family. Hope everyone has had a great weekend so far. It's a tough one here at home. This is our first Memorial Day without Dad. Dad came back to the States in '68 from Viet Nam, but he never really left there. I think about him every day, but will more so tomorrow. Stay safe everyone.

[Snow Bunny]

BBJon, thank you my dear friend for sharing about your Dad. I know exactly what you mean in your post Jon, I understand so very much.
I am so sorry that your Dad is no longer with you, but he is and always will be in your heart and your memories. That is how I am with my Dad too.

(((((( hug )))))

I am so proud of him for serving our country.
Thank you again for being here BBJon.

[RadioAstronomer]

Hi! I know it has been a while. I thank all who post to and create this thread for the dedicated hard work that is accomplished to keep it going. I ended up working this holiday but with a glad heart because I feel humbled and am honored that you count me among the dedicated freepers who have served this great nation.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"Thank you for your tremendous work you do for all of us."

I am most grateful for your kind words.
I am no different than everyone else who comes to the Canteen.
I am one of the "We the People" who love our country.
Many who lurk at the Canteen and do not or can not post are part of "We the People" also.
"WE" all come here for the same reason, to support our military, vets and each other.
God has Blessed me by being amongst those who love and understand the true cost of Freedom.
It is I who Thank Him and ALL of you.

[MeekOneGOP]

Mornin' all! Happy Memorial Day!
Here's an article I found yesterday.......

The Virtual Wall - An Internet Memorial
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/689823/posts

I visited The Vietnam Memorial, The Wall, in Washington D.C.. As we approached the wall people were talking and looking around the park, young and old alike. As we got closer to the wall it got quieter and quieter. The long line viewing the names on the wall was totally silent. A few approached to rub a pencil over a piece of paper and others just left personal items to honor their lost ones. These actions could not help but move anyone standing nearby. I was awestruck by the amount of people standing there and the total silence along the entire wall.

Now for those that have been to The Vietnam Memorial or those that haven't, there is a "Virtual Wall" on the Internet to honor those who died in service to our country.

In 1998 Winstar Communications and The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Fund created "the Virtual Wall", an Internet website in honor of the men and women who lost their lives during the Vietnam War. Visitors can view an interactive image of the wall and zoom in on the names on the wall.

Visitors may add their own personal memorials to the names on the wall and even get a Virtual name rubbing. There is no charge to join The Virtual Wall and by doing so you may enter remembrances of those people you knew that lost their lives and even create your own personalized "My Virtual Wall" to keep track of postings to those that you knew.

Each name on the Virtual Wall links to a personal profile of that person. There is also the ability to link to those on the wall who have things in common with the person that you are viewing like; Other Veterans with the same last name who died in Vietnam, other Veterans from the same state, others who died on the same day, others who died in the same area of Vietnam, and others in the same branch of service.

For anyone who has any interest in The Vietnam War and those who died there for America, this site is a must see.

The Virtual Wall
http://www.thevirtualwall.org/

"In the fall of 1982, a U.S. Navy officer walked up to the trench where the concrete for the foundation of The Wall was being poured. He stood over the trench for a moment, then tossed something into it and saluted. A workman asked him what he was doing. He said he was giving his dead brother's Purple Heart to The Wall. That was the first offering."

A book "Offerings at the Wall" is a collection of pictures and stories of items left at the Wall. The Smithsonian Institute has many of these items on exhibit. Some of them can be seen on their website:
http://photo2.si.edu/offerings/offerings.html

[MeekOneGOP]

102 Minutes: Fighting to Live as the Towers Died
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/689579/posts

Excerpt:

They began as calls for help, information, guidance. They quickly turned into soundings of desperation, and anger, and love. Now they are the remembered voices of the men and women who were trapped on the high floors of the twin towers.

From their last words, a haunting chronicle of the final 102 minutes at the World Trade Center has emerged, built on scores of phone conversations and e-mail and voice messages. These accounts, along with the testimony of the handful of people who escaped, provide the first sweeping views from the floors directly hit by the airplanes and above.

Collected by reporters for The New York Times, these last words give human form to an all but invisible strand of this stark, public catastrophe: the advancing destruction across the top 19 floors of the north tower and the top 33 of the south, where loss of life was most severe on Sept. 11. Of the 2,823 believed dead in the attack on New York, at least 1,946, or 69 percent, were killed on those upper floors, an analysis by The Times has found.

Rescue workers did not get near them. Photographers could not record their faces. If they were seen at all, it was in glimpses at windows, nearly a quarter-mile up.

Yet like messages in an electronic bottle from people marooned in some distant sky, their last words narrate a world that was coming undone. A man sends an e-mail message asking, "Any news from the outside?" before perching on a ledge at Windows on the World. A woman reports a colleague is smacking useless sprinkler heads with his shoe. A husband calmly reminds his wife about their insurance policies, then says that the floor is groaning beneath him, and tells her that she and their children meant the world to him.

No single call can describe scenes that were unfolding at terrible velocities in many places. Taken together though, the words from the upper floors offer not only a broad and chilling view of the devastated zones, but the only window onto acts of bravery, decency and grace at a brutal time.

Eight months after the attacks, many survivors and friends and relatives of those lost are pooling their recollections, tapes and phone records, and 157 have shared accounts of their contacts for this article. At least 353 of those lost were able to reach people outside the towers. Spoken or written at the hour of death, these are intimate, lasting words. The steep emotional cost of making them public is worth paying, their families say, for a clearer picture of those final minutes.

Many also hope the history of the day is enlarged beyond memorials to the unquestioned valor of 343 firefighters and 78 other uniformed rescuers. It is time, they say, to account for the experiences of the 2,400 civilians who also died that day. Iliana McGinnis, whose husband, Tom, called her from the 92nd floor of the north tower, said, "If they can uncover even one more piece of information about what happened during those last minutes, I want it."

Some details remain unknowable. Working phones were scarce. The physical evidence was destroyed. Conversations were held under grave stress, and are recalled through grief, time and longing. Even so, as one fragile bit of information elaborates on the next, they illuminate conditions on the top floors.

The evidence strongly suggests that 1,100 or more people in or above the impact zones survived the initial crashes, roughly 300 in the south tower and 800 in the north. Many of those lived until their building collapsed.

Even after the second airplane struck, an open staircase connected the upper reaches of the south tower to the street. The Times has identified 18 men and women who used it to escape from the impact zone or above. At the same time they were evacuating, at least 200 other people were climbing toward the roof in that tower, unaware that a passable stairway down was available, and assuming — incorrectly — that they could open the roof door. "The belief that they had a rooftop option cost them their lives," said Beverly Eckert, whose husband, Sean Rooney, called after his futile trek up.

Hundreds were trapped on floors untouched by the airplanes. Even though the buildings survived the initial impacts, the twisting and bending of the towers caused fatal havoc. Stairwells were plugged by broken wallboard. Doors were jammed in twisted frames. With more time and simple tools like crowbars, rescue workers might have freed people who simply could not get to stairways. In the north tower, at least 28 people were freed on the 86th and 89th floors by a small group of Port Authority office workers who pried open jammed doors. Those self-assigned rescuers died.

[MeekOneGOP]

..FOLLOW ME in new -Time of War- =
The Vietnam Vet / RICK RESCORLA..
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/689782/posts

NEVER FORGET

Memorial Day 1966 =

Americans say Vietnam Veterans are too close to the action to know what the Vietnam War is really all about.

Memorial Day 2002 =

Former CIA Director ..JAMES WOOLSEY.. says that a new Commission of America's -Best and Brightest- Minds should be brought together in a D.C. Conference Room to come up with recommendations on how to best fight a new World War on Terrrorism...

...with a picture placed on the wall above them of Vietnam Veteran ..RICK RESCORLA.. the Lifesaving Hero of the Battle of IA DRANG-1965, the World Trade Center Bombing-1993 and World Trade Center Airstrikes-2001 ..shining down as ..THE.. Example to follow in protecting our Country in a new Century.

...What a fitting Memorial Day Tribute to -The Vietnam Veteran- ...just when it is most needed...

...with an Enemy that is now just around the corner and up your Street...???

Signed:..ALOHA RONNIE Guyer / Vet-Battle of IA DRANG-1965 / Landing Zone Falcon / See.. www.LzXray.com

NEVER FORGET

[larryjohnson]

Alone today,I'll keep up.

[.45MAN]

It has been thirty years (about) since I was discharged from the military and I cannot feel more proud to be an American and a Veteran than I am today. The Military has once again been accepted into the human race, they are no longer looked down upon or pushed into the background thanks to their outstanding courage, determination and success in Afganistan, and from the support of our President GWB and a government that has integrity.

A heartfelt salute to all the military and to all who make this USO Canteen Forum a success.

Especially to the one and only SNOW BUNNY..

[Aeronaut]

Good morning John, Bunny, and all.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

[Aeronaut]

Lord Jesus, today we remember all those who gave their lives in the horror of battle. We ask that their sacrifices may lead us to peace and not war. May the courageous men and women who died to bring us freedom be justly rewarded and remembered by our sacrifices toward a world without military conflict. Make us, your disciples, into the mighty army of God dedicated to bring your message of love and reconciliation to all nations. May we strive with all our strength to make the world a better place for all your children to live in peace. I ask this in your name..., Amen.

[MeekOneGOP]

I hope it's ok if I post this sad news......

Freeper CommiesOut passes away
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/690030/posts

Sorry to find and tell you this way, I have the sad duty to inform you that CommiesOut passed away last night.

God rest a true patriot, and a man who stood for the finest attributes in humanity: loyalty, integrity, curiosity, honesty, and hard work.

From his Profile page:

Location: Torun, Pl (DC area, too), love TX&NM

Rest in Peace

[WhiteKnight]

Snow Bunny,

Thought I would post this one. My favorite!

HIGH FLIGHT
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never Lark, or even Eagle flew -
And while with silent lifting mind, I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr. 1922-1941

Thanks for remembering, Never forget our freedom is paid for with the blood of our soldiers, sailors and airmen.

WhiteKnight USAF

[corlorde]

Great post, thanks to all our men and women in uniform. Past, present and future

[corlorde]

Soldier I was that which others did not want to be. I went where others feared to go, and did what others failed to do I asked nothing from those who gave nothing and reluctantly accepted the thought of eternal loneliness...should I fail. I have seen the face of terror; felt the stinging cold of fear; and enjoyed the sweet taste of a moment's love. I have cried, pained, and hoped...but most of all, I have lived times others would say were best forgotten. At least someday I will be able to say that I was proud of what I was .... a soldier. George L. Skypeck, Vietnam Veteran