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A Touch of Home
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This is how I think of the USO Canteen
Freeper Style. It is like a cottage down a road,
a place where a weary veteran can spend the night.
Since it opened, it is magical how so many
Freepers who post here, feel it too.
It has been so dear how the Freepers
kept making it a cottage - a home-type of
place that had a huge living room
for them to visit in and a dance floor,
a library, etc.
Many Veterans have written to me,
saying that the Canteen is like home
to them for the first time since they
served.
This is your Canteen -
a respite from our busy
and sometimes troubling world.
Make yourself at home.
Snow Bunny
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If you know a Veteran, someone in your family,
friend of the family, neighbor, who served their
country, take a brief moment of your day to thank
them.
Thank them for the sacrifice they made
for the better good of their country.
We at Free Republic, and the USO Canteen FReeper
Style, are thankful for every service member
in our military, who has served our great nation.
So, to the men and women who answered the call,
In both times of war and peace, thank you.
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Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
John McCrae
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High Flight
High Flight was composed by
Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr.,
an American serving with the
Royal Canadian Air Force.
He was born in Shanghai, China
in 1922, the son of missionary
parents, Reverend and Mrs. John
Gillespie Magee; his father was an
American and his mother was
originally a British citizen.
He came to the U.S. in 1939
and earned a scholarship to Yale,
but in September 1940 he enlisted
in the RCAF and was graduated as
a pilot. He was sent to England for
combat duty in July 1941.
In August or September 1941,
Pilot Officer Magee composed
High Flight
He then sent a copy to his parents.
Several months later, on
December 11, 1941 his Spitfire
collided with another plane over
England and Magee, only 19 years
of age, crashed to his death.
Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vc
His remains are buried in the
churchyard cemetery at Scopwick, Lincolnshire.
The poem, High Flight, has over
the years become a mantra to pilots.
It is a tribute to, and in memory of
pilots of all generations.
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 the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high unsurpassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941
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