Veterans Day

I join you in memory of my Dad and my uncle, who fought WW2, my cousin Rabbie who fought in Vietnam and is still dealing with the aftermath and my cousin Eiline who is serving in Iraq at the moment. May God bless all the men and women who sacrifice themselves to make the world a better place.

God bless you all,

Marcia

jdwithhcv:

So sad that so many had to pay the ultimate price -- and those who were lucky enough to come home will never be the same.  I know the Vietnam War experience is indelibly engraved in my husband's soul, and there isn't a single day that goes by that he doesn't think about the men who served alongside him.  The reality of what he endured from his fellow Americans when he first returned was almost as unbearable as the war itself -- the anti-war sentiment became an anti-soldier sentiment for so many years after Vietnam, he never thought this day would come, that people would hold him in any honor.  Even though it's been almost forty years, in essence he's still fighting, because the legacy of the war left him with unerasable memories and (most likely) this liver disease we call hep c.  For so many like him, the war is far from 'over'.

My heart goes out to you for the loved ones you lost -- our citizens and our country are forever indebted to them for their fearless service.  Putting one day aside every year to honor and cherish our veterans is the very least we could do for our soldiers.  Thanks for reminding us all of what so many gave in sacrifice.

God bless America and all her soldiers,
~eureka

I stand proud with the Soldiers who served, and those who are serving now.    I am so proud being an American, so proud my beloved husband gave 27 years to our country.  

Eureka is right, war can cause so much pain, memories. But if not for some of these folks   who did serve and paid the ultimate price  mentaly with their lives, were would be now?  What happened to those Vietnam vets is awful and God Bless them for having to endure that.

I have lived with the military also for 27 years, I know these men and women well, they are my friends.   I spent time in Walter Reed Ladsthul hosp in German,  I have known their courage, their honor.   Their determination to make  the world a better place.   MOst of us do have family who have served in one war or another.

These folks who still put hand to heart when reciting the pledge of allegiance.  Sing loudly  God Bless America.   Who understand both the word pledge and allegance.

God's Eternal love and abundace to these men and women, who have ensured our freedom, our freedom of speach, who have never taken another countries land,  who as Colin Powel once said, the only land we have ever asked was enough to bury our dead" loose quote.  

Thank you JD for posting that, to him and eurekas husband, So proud of their service and to all who have died and serve now.  

Deb

Before I forget, this is also for Larry, who wanted to be a blacksmith but instead became a door gunner.  He sat in his wheelchair and told me his story while we watched a Coast Guard chopper med-evac a dying man off the deck of the MS Noordam one winter day.  There are so many others....

The names keep coming back (brain fog still!).  How could I forget Joe my almost-brother.  An officer and a gentleman!

A fitting tribute, Una. Reminds me of the poem by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918):

In Fanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

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.

Thank you Brent.  Here's something by Robert Frost...

A Soldier

He is that fallen lance that lies as hurled,
That lies unlifted now, come dew, come rust,
But still lies pointed as it ploughed the dust.
If we who sight along it round the world,
See nothing worthy to have been its mark,
It is because like men we look too near,
Forgetting that as fitted to the sphere,
Our missiles always make too short an arc.
They fall, they rip the grass, they intersect
The curve of earth, and striking, break their own;
They make us cringe for metal-point on stone.
But this we know, the obstacle that checked
And tripped the body, shot the spirit on
Further than target ever showed or shone.

I had not heard that before. Thanks.

Its not well known but it really gets to me.

This journal would not be complete without John Rydelwicz, George Kamenicky, Ronald Bond, Robert Ryan, George Tousley, Bobby Kohn, Craig Paul, Barry Lockhart and Douglas Martin, all US Air Force Academy class of 1969, all fallen in service to our great country.  Gone but never forgotten.

You are loved, you are missed.