Good Morning!
And a Happy Memorial Day to you all. 🙂
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The 3rd US Infantry Regiment, known as the Old Guard, has been honoring the fallen by preparing Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day Services for more than 60 years. 900 soldiers, 400 flags each.
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Quote of the Day
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.”
George S. Patton
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QoD’s
Do you plan to attend a memorial service today?
Or do you have someone among your family or friends that you’re thinking of today?
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Wandering Views 
First? Really? You’re slipping, Chas!
Good quote. Patton must have had a good upbringing. It’s good to remember that God gives life. And when tragedy strikes, as it did in Moore last week, it is good not to wonder why such things happen to good people, but to remember that those who survived did so because of a merciful God.
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My family has been very lucky to have never lost anyone in war, though my uncle was thought to have died in WWII. My grandmother even got a letter of condolence. He survived and lived well into his eighties outliving both his brothers and his only full sister.
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I was up and gone to the Y before 05/27 came up. I caught up on yesterday’s posts and ol’ slowpoke was ready to go. We often leave early in the summer.
Our power went off for an hour last night. I remembered how a winter storm took out power down in Greenwood several years ago. Elvera’s Bro-in-law had asthma. He caught it in France in 1944. He had an asthma attack and was not able to get to an auxaliary resparator in time. He is not listed as a weather-related death. But it was.
My 13 year old brother was killed by an auto in 1952. I was called home from Arabia on emergency leave. It was the end of November that I was ready to return to Arabia. But since I was to be discharged in March, they decided to discharge me early. So I left the Air Force on 17 Dec. 1952.
If I had waited until March 1953 to leave the AF, I would not have enrolled at USC in Feb. ’53 and much of my life would have been different.
You all are too young for this, but I often reminisce about How this, or that, event, though minor, has made a big difference in my life.
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Elvera had a brother in the Marines who was on Guam and Iwo Jima.
Another brother in France.
A Bro-in-law in France, Bronz Star.
I had an uncle who fought in N. Africa and Italy.
I was in during the Korean War, and flew in C-54’s to Thule, C-97’s to Europe and then B-29’s out of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. I was never in combat.
My dad was drafted and sent to Ft. Jackson. He was 33, had three children, was an electrician at a steel palnt and had a bad knee. They sent him home.
Elvera has nephews who were in both Iraqui wars.
Everyone returned home safely.
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That’s an interesting list of military service without any deaths, Chas. My own family line of soldiers goes all the way back to Bacon’s Rebellion, and yet the only death was Captain Henry Arthur Dial in 1753 during the French and Indian War.
My husband served 21 years in the Navy and the only men I personally knew who died on active duty were both chaplains. (One in a helicopter accident, the other of a heart attack while delivering tsunami relief in 2004).
My father got to Korea on the USS (aircraft carrier) Enterprise the day they signed the armistice. My cousin’s husband returned from Viet Nam addicted to heroin–so he was lost, though apparently he’s still alive somewhere.
My grandfather was in the army during WWI, training to go to France in the bayous of Louisiana. He came down with spinal meningitis–a killer in 1917–and spent months in the hospital recuperating while his unit all died in the trenches over there Grandpa lived to 103.
As you all know, I’ve spent the last 18 months in the Civil War and, more recently, WWI. It’s sobering, exasperating, horrifying, exhausting and so very troubling to read about all the devastating slaughter for so little result. Every time I visit Gettysburg, I stand in that field and wonder what Pickett was thinking when he ordered that charge. (And is it true he spent the rest of his life nearly insane with remorse?)
I tell you, all my research is turning this Navy wife into a pacifist . . .
Today, however, I can remember with awe and honor those who answered the call of their country and made the greatest sacrifice of all.
Semper Fi? May God have mercy on us all.
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MIchelle, I recently saw a bumber sticker that said, “War is not the answer”.
I said, “To what?”
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I remember a speech about how horrible war was a couple years ago at the Memorial Day service I was covering. The speaker knew first hand of war’s horrors.
But then he added “There are some things more obscene than war.” He then recounted some of the conditions found in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, women and children handcuffed to beds … I have pacifist leanings as well, and some wars are simply unnecessary.
But others … In a fallen world, I’m afraid war will happen — and sometimes it is just regrettably necessary.
My dad and uncle served in the Navy in WWII, both came home. My uncle survived Pearl Harbor. The attack taught him to swim — quickly and literally under fire.
I had an ancestor in the Civil War (Union), he came home as well. (I have some of his old letters and his rifle).
And, yes, I will be going actually to two Memorial Day services today (all in the line of duty as a journalist who pulled the holiday shift). The first one will be a tribute to the Navy Seals. The second is a tribute to “Rosie the Riveter(s).”
A little worried about the logistics, the 2nd event begins an hour after the first one ends and it’s in a small park by the beach — which will no doubt be packed today. Not sure how the parking will work out. I was thinking of packing my bike in case I had to park way far away — but I think I’d be as slow on the bike as I would on foot! 🙂
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I had relatives in the War of N o northern Aggression. none died. I had a great uncle in WWI. He died in 1974. I had two great uncles in WWII. They came home to long successful lives. My father in law was on a ship in Korea. He died in 2004. Two of my miles were in in Viet Man. They are still alive. My dad had been out of the Navy just long enough not to go back in and be sent to Viet Man. (Live auto correct. Can you figure out what I am trying to say?) There is a story there about a brother’s love and what he couldn’t let him big brother come home to after being in a war but only three of the four parties are dead. It is a story I probably shouldn’t know but do. I am the keeper of many family secrets. Sometimes I think it is really strange that I know things no one else does. Many of them will die with me because there is just no good reason for anyone else to know, but then I think they may should be told to fill in some gaps.
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I disagree with Patton’s quote. I do agree we should thank God for such men and women who are willing to sacrifice themselves for others. I include everyone, in that, not only those who do it in the military.
However, good people should be mourned and we are to “grieve with those who grieve”. The two things he mentioned are not mutually exclusive. Death is an enemy and, though we do not mourn as unbelievers (if we are Christians) , we do mourn.
My uncle was declared dead for two years. He was, in fact, in a Korean POW camp. Wonderful for his family when he returned and they learned the truth. Devastating to the other man’s family who thought he was the one who had lived. My grandmother never believed he was dead, but I know another woman who insisted her son was alive until his body was found seven years later. Feelings are not always real.
I wish war and crime were something we can just declare not to be, but we don’t have that power. Some think they have that power, but will learn differently in time. We can only pray that there foolishness will not cause many others to be harmed.
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Then I have my own personal disabled vet. He spent a good portion of his career at Naval Hospital Pensacola and
Guantanamo. He got some sort of special commendation award for the hospital in Cuba.
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Today I have a seven year old. Yesterday, I had a six year old. He used to be the four year old in glasses, now he is the seven year old in glasses. He helped me make a birthday cake for the neighbor, her birthday is tomorrow and she is his local grandma.
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Why we celebrate Memorial Day:
http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries.php
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Happy Birthday to the little 7 year old in glasses! How’s he doing, Mumsee?
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My grandfather fought in WWI. My mother served in the Korean War as a nurse, and my father served in Vietnam as a flight surgeon. Also, as a German-speaking neurologist, my father once treated Rudolf Hess while he was in prison all by himself at Spandau (Berlin).
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We have had quite few in the military, but I don’t know of any deaths and not all served in was zones. A couple of sons have been over in the danger area, not sure just where, as with a daughter in law, but all came home safe and sound. A neighbor was killed in Vietnam when I was quite small.
On the other hand, my sister went to the doctor and died, so I am thinking of her these days, though it has been about thirteen years. So, I am thinking of folks, but not in the way you mean.
I have an ancestor who was living in Michigan or some such place. He walked back east and then down south and then back home. That is a lot of walkingHe left home as a private and returned home as a private. But he did his duty as he saw it. A lot of folks have similar stories, I imagine.
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Thank you, Karen, he is doing very well. Still cannot count past four though he used to get to five once in a while. We keep working on stuff. His little sister, five, can count to one hundred and by tens to one hundred. Hopefully, she will teach him as they play.
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Well, I earned my (overtime holiday) pay today — traipsing all over the local cemetery after covering the memorial day service (as usual, I couldn’t find my car; cemeteries just all look alike to me). Nice service, skydivers, flyovers, bagpipes, gun salute, speakers. About 3,000 attended.
Then I had to make the mad dash south along the coast to the next ceremony they wanted me to cover. Much more home-town-y, but in a beautiful park overlooking the ocean where there were sailboats and (land side) lots of barbecues and volleyball games going). The final speaker was someone invited up from the audience, but he began rambling about how we no longer have the fascists or communists to worry about, but rather global warming/climate change will be the new war front for the U.S. to stand up to … Um, yep. This is definitely California.
Just turned in the story. Took a couple short “tout” videos at the first program, I guess they posted OK (who really knows after you hit that ‘submit’ button) as I keep getting messages that random strangers have “liked” them or something. I can only absorb so much social media, I’m afraid.
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Oh, and during the global warming war speech? I could actually roll my eyes since I was wearing sunglasses. 🙂
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Donna,
🙂
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And the war profiteers in the global warming war are AlGore and his ilk.
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Marched in Rochester NY for their Memorial Day parade, then played at the ceremonies in Hamlin NY at their VFW Post. Our youngest, 3 1/2 is too small to help hold the banner yet, but proudly walked the whole parade route! 🙂
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