MEMORIAL DAY 2003--#3--"I Came to See My Son's Name"

All over the place | Ronald Reagan,Jim Schuecler,unknown

[redrock]

GARDENS OF STONE.

Take a walk thru any cemetery.....you will find that somewhere in that Hallowed Ground...lies a Veteran...maybe beside his wife (or maybe beside her husband)...maybe with his parents...buried together..til the next world comes.

Maybe..somewhere on the headstone..or grave marker..will be an inscription...."U.S. Army--1943-1945" ...or..."U.S. Navy--1940-1944"...or something telling you that ..one time long ago...this person was caught up in a Great Crusade...to fight evil and to protect his family and his Country.

When you are there...next to that grave...gently clean away the leaves..touch the name and say "Thank You"....

redrock

And if you happen to be in a little cemetery near Roseburg,Oregon....just a little "jump" from the V.A. Hospital there...please walk to the back...and if you come across a small marker in the ground..with a picture of the U.S.S. Yorktown...please touch the stone..and tell my father..that I Miss him.

Thanks Dad.

[redrock]

Memorial Day........

redrock

[redrock]

Memorial Day......

redrock

[redrock]

Memorial Day.........

redrock

[redrock]

Memorial Day.......

redrock

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Redrock.

[ladyinred]

I miss my veteran dad too! It is nice to know that on Monday, the local vets here will place a small American flag on his grave, and every other vet in the cemetary. There will be a special ceremony honoring them, and American flags will line the driveways. I will take roses from my garden, wishing he could see how his daughter has become quite the gardener. He would be so surprised at that, as before I wouldn't so much as pick up a fallen leaf!

Thanks to my dad, and all of the Fathers and Mothers who served, and are now resting from their labors. We honor you, and are ever grateful for your sacrifice.

[Heinz 57]

Thanks Redrock,

My dad was USN WWII vet and he passed as well, I've always honored Memorial Day but even moreso after I served (USAF-Desert Storm).Great article, I thank my dad ...and yours too.

[noutopia]

Thanks redrock!!

[Molly Pitcher]

I'm going to post, day by day, a tribute written by Pat Conroy, the novelist, and first published in Forbes ASAP in Oct. 2000, and then picked up months later in Reader's Digest as its Turning Point Feature.

The Man I Should Have Been

While I was protesting the war, he was fighting it...

The True things always ambush me on the road and take me by surprise. I was not looking for a true thing in the state of New Jersey. Nothing has ever happened to me in New Jersey.

I had been interviewing my old teammate Al Kroboth in Roselle, N.J., quizzing him about the 1966-67 basketball team at The Citadel for a book I'm writing. At six feet, five inches and carrying 220 pounds, Al had been a forward-center who, for most of his senior year, had led the nation in field-goal percentage. After we talked basketball, we came to a subject I dreaded, but which lay between us and would not lie still.

"Al, you know I was a draft dodger and anti-war demonstrator."

"That's what I heard, Conroy," he said. "I have nothing against what you did, but I did what I thought was right."

"Tell me about Vietnam, Big Al," I said.

On his seventh mission as a navigator for Maj. Leonard Robertson's A-6 fighter-bomber, Al was getting ready to deliver their payload when they were hit by enemy fire.

Though Al has no memory of it, he punched out somewhere in the middle of the ill-fated dive and lost consciousness. He doesn't know if he was unconscious for six hours or six days, nor does he know what happened to Major Robertson. (His name is engraved on the Wall in Washington and on the MIA bracelet Al wears.)

When Al awoke, he couldn't move. A Viet Cong soldier held an AK-47 to his head. Al's back and neck were broken, and he had shattered his left scapula. When he was well enough to get to his feet (he still can't recall how much time had passed), two armed Viet Cong led Al from the jungles of South Vietnam to a prison in Hanoi.

The journey took two months. Al Kroboth walked barefoot through the most impassable terrain in Vietnam, usually in the dead of night. He bathed when it rained, and he slept in bomb craters. Infections began to erupt on his body, and his legs were covered with leeches.

At the time of Al's walk, I had a small role in organizing the only anti-war demonstration every held in Beaufort, S.C., the home of Parris Island and the Marine Corps Air Station.

My group attracted about 150 to Beaufort's waterfront. At that moment my father, a Marine officer, was asleep in Vietnam.

In 1972, at the age of 27, I thought I was serving America's interests by pointing out what massive flaws and miscalculations and corruptions had led to a ground war in Southeast Asia.

To be continued tomorrow....

[mystery-ak]

Thanks dad...career Capt. USAF(dec)...my fav uncle career GSgt USMC(dec)...my hubby..1Sgt USAAviation..now in Iraq..and now my son...Spc. IANG....just demobilized.....God Bless them all.....

[redrock]

Remember the "Moment of Silence'.....3 P.M. on Monday.

redrock

[redrock]

Excellent article....keep 'em comin'!!!!!

redrock

[redrock]

Memorial Day........

redrock

[redrock]

Memorial Day.........

redrock

[redrock]

Bless 'em ALL!!!

redrock

[redrock]

Memorial Day.........

redrock

[redrock]

Memorial Day.................

redrock

[redrock]

Memorial Day..........

redrock

[RaceBannon]

While on board the USS Okinawa, LPH-3, we were heading to Guam when one of the boilers needed to be repaired, and the ship came to a stop. We were dead in the water, but still maintained flight quarters.

On Feb 1, 1980, a CH-46 was chained down and turning on Spot 1 on LPH-3 in the western Pacific, spot 2 was launched first.

Rotor wash from spot 2 came up under the a/c on spot 1, the ship started to lift, pilot rammed collective down to keep ship on deck, but ship bounced. A/C was NOT chained down tight enough, and A/C snapped the chains on the port side of the aircraft, flipped over the starboard side of the ship and went in the water on the port side of the aircraft.

Maj Creel is at the top. He broke 2 ribs, one arm and one leg. He was sent back to Hawaii for recuperation.

GySgt O'Hallorn is the red head leaning over, he died in the late 80's in a CH-46.

With his back to us is SSgt Echevarria, later to retire as MSgt Echevarria from HMX-1 in 1992

Being pulled in is either Cpl Kevin Doering or LCpl Leo Beery. One got pulled out earlier, dont remember. Cpl Doering died from Lupus in 1995 or 96. Leo Beery is a designer and salesman of prosthetic devices in Oklahoma.

Lt James Oscar Hensley is still in the aircraft to this day. I think the chart showed the depth there to be about 6000 fathoms or so.

Crash was on Feb 1, 1980. Lt James Oscar Hensley III, North Carolina, Semper Fidelis