I'm not an everyday poster....and I gather there's been a rocky road for the Canteen. I guess that kind of stuff happens in a country where we have the freedom to debate, have different opinions, and even arguments. Lord knows in other countries, you'll hardly find men and women posting ANYTHING on a website, let alone their thoughts and ideas. Nobody ever said we Americans were perfect....but, doggone it, we have freedoms other people can only dream about.
I honor and cherish our military personnel....active, reserve, retired....all of them. I thank them from the bottom of my heart....I teach my children (ages 10 and 8) that 'freedom isn't free'...somebody has to sacrifice something. They colored a picture of our flag and took it up the street to our 77-yr-old neighbor who was awarded 2 Purple Hearts for his service in WWII. He said it made his day. They played a song for him on their recorders. He may be just "our neighbor" every day....but he's also our hero everyday.
God bless you all.....our military serving our country and the people who remember them everyday. THANK YOU.
Coach Joe Paterno signing a card. Flanking him are Penn State football players: Line Backer Dethrell Garcia (#58), Corner Back Eric Dare (#30), and Safety Paul Cronin (#29)
Dagwood and Blondie greeting card.
By Kathleen T. Rhem
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Nov. 12, 2002 -- Clergymen from all services and several religions joined today in dedicating a chapel built at the site where American Airlines Flight 77 hit the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.
"It's a beautiful place, a quiet place," said Maj. Gen. Gaylord Gunhus, Army chief of chaplains. "A bit over a year ago it wasn't so. … It was a place of horror, pain, blood. It was a place of fire and broken stone walls. It was a place of death for so many. … It was a place where we prayed to God to take away the suffering and restore the peace."
During the ceremony, Gunhus lit the stained glass window at the front of the chapel and described its special significance. The window's designer, commercial artist Dennis Roberts, donated his time and materials. He brought the pieces of colored glass to a senior Army chaplains conference and enlisted the help of roughly 400 chaplains and chaplain assistants in assembling the window.
The five-sided window features an eagle, an image of the Pentagon, the American flag and an olive branch. Two crimson rings around the images are made of 184 pieces of red glass, one for each of the 184 victims killed here Sept. 11.
"Those broken shards were bound together then in a window that virtually jumps out at us with a message of hope and our nation's resolve," Gunhus said. "What once was a pile of broken glass is now a symbol of unity and of remembrance."
He mentioned that outside one of the chapel windows is a charred piece of stone that was blackened in the fire following the attack. It was laid in the rebuilt wall as a "reminder to us of how this wall came to be," Gunhus said.
"Today, we dedicate this Pentagon Memorial Chapel in memory of our friends and colleagues and comrades -- all faithful servants of their nation," he said. "This place created in their honor appropriately pays tribute to our God and to our country."
Maj. Gen. Lorraine K. Potter, chief of the Air Force Chaplain Service, lights a candle Nov. 12, 2002, during the dedication service for a memorial chapel built at the site where terrorists crashed hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon Sept. 11, 2001. Photo by Kathleen T. Rhem.
