by Jack
For most of our older adults (over 55) this day is not about half-off sales or beer and hotdogs. It has a little more meaning than that because they’ve witnessed the last 40 years and those years haven’t been all that easy! Freedom has come at a pretty high cost.
This day we have the opportunity to thank all those who served for one more day of freedom.
From Marcus Luttrell’s FB page.
Memorial Day is a tough one for a lot of us, but especially for the Gold Star Families. To everyone who has lost a loved one in the war, you are in our thoughts and prayers.
Mel showed me this video and it sums up anything that needs to be said about Memorial Day.
Hope everyone enjoys this day and gets to spend time with friends and family.
Land of The Free, Because of The Brave.
God Bless
Txfrog
http://www.c-spanclassroom.org/Video/1510/Executive+Power.aspx
Peggy the link leads to a C-Span interview with Jonathan Turly about eecutive power…is that what you intended?
Nope, did an oops apparently. Here is the video Luttrell had on his page.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgYLr_LfhLo&app=desktop
I’m too shocked to post the stories about the Vietnam memorial mural in So. Cal was destroyed by taggers and the kid who drove his car through a different memorial destroying over 150 crosses with deceased names on them.
Where is the pride our country had once? Has it been erased by hate from within and against one another? How can we respect the lives’ of the living when we disrespect the lives’ of those who died for us and our freedom?
We aren’t a nation any more. We’re just a bunch of individuals fighting each other for stuff and it makes me sick.
Thanks Obama for your hope and change. You said you’d transform our country — well you did. I hope you’re proud of yourself.
I know it’s Memorial Day and not Veterans’ Day, but grab a Kleenex for the best video to honor our Vietnam vets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2L3skZ7FEw
That was good, thanks Peggy.
Wonderful Peggy.
It’s been too long in coming, I just glad the injustice of the sixties is being acknowledged and corrected. Bless them all, the survivors, the MIA, and they guys who came home without fanfare and often to hostility. I have a friend who spent 10 years in the Pacific Northwest wilderness. It’s inexcusable what was done to those men and women.
The reason I said what I did (below the Memorial Day picture) was because in the days leading up to this day a number of my friends and family talked about the fun they were going to have on this 3 day weekend. I’m sure not against people having fun, but it seemed like they were melding today into just another holiday…it’s not.
Coming off World War II there were almost a half million war dead and they left behind a lot of friends and family. Back in that day this was a very personal event for Americans and they understood and respected what Memorial Day was all about. If that great loss wasn’t enough, another 37,000 died shortly thereafter in Korea, followed a decade or so later by over 58,000 KIA in Vietnam. But, that last great sacrifice ended 42 years ago.
This historical fact should not diminish the sacrifice of those fallen in smaller wars since, but it just seems to me that the personal connection we one had with this day is slipping out of view. Memorial Day should remind us that we all have a great personal responsibility to those died in service to us.
Just a thought now, but perhaps the best way we could honor the fallen is to appreciate our freedom and use it as wisely as we use our vote, so that their sacrifice will not have been in vain. Enjoy this day with your friends and family, but take a few moments to pay your respect, after all this Memorial Day.
I was looking around for inspiring stories and stumbled upon an interesting bit of little known history:
This is our shared history, the first great sacrifice that followed our founding. Another way to honor the men (and women) that have died for our country is to remember those who died to free the slaves and unite the country.
The things they Carried….
They carried P-38 can openers and heat tabs,watches and dog tags,insect repellent, gum, cigarettes, Zippo lighters, salt tablets, compress bandages, ponchos, Kool-Aid, two or three canteens of water, iodine tablets,sterno, LRRP- rations, and C-rations stuffed in socks. They carried standard fatigues, jungle boots, bush hats, flak jackets and steel pots. They carried the M-16 assault rifle. They carried trip flares and Claymore mines, M-60 machine guns, the M-70 grenade launcher, M-14’s, CAR-15’s, Stoners, Swedish K’s, 66mm Laws, shotguns, .45 caliber pistols, silencers, the sound of bullets, rockets, and choppers, and sometimes the sound of silence.They carried C-4 plastic explosives, an assortment of hand grenades, PRC-25 radios, knives and machetes. Some carried napalm, CBU’s and largebombs; some risked their lives to rescue others. Some escaped the fear, but dealt with the death and damage. Some made very hard decisions, and some just tried to survive. They carried malaria, dysentery, ringworm, jungle rot and leaches. They carried the land itself as it hardened on their boots.
They carried stationery, pencils, and pictures of their loved ones – real and imagined. They carried love for people in the real world and love for one another. And sometimes they disguised that love: “Don’t mean nothin’! “They carried memories. For the most part, they carried themselves with poise and a kind of dignity. Now and then, there were times when panic set in, and people squealed or wanted to, but couldn’t; when they twitched and made moaning sounds and covered their heads and said “Dear God” and hugged the earth and fired their weapons blindly and cringed and begged for the noise to stop and went wild and made stupid promises to themselves and God and their parents, hoping not to die.They carried the traditions of the United States Military, and memories and images of those who served before them. They carried grief, terror, longing and their reputations. They carried the soldier’s greatest fear: the embarrassment of dishonor. They crawled into tunnels, walked point, and advanced under fire, so as not to die of embarrassment. They were afraid of dying, but too afraid to show it.They carried the emotional baggage of men and women who might die at any moment.They carried the weight of the world.
THEY CARRIED EACH OTHER.
Author Unknown
Remember them this Memorial Day.
Minstrel Boy—
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbCf4wQAkL0
Minstrel Boy. Simultaneously heart breaking and inspiring. Freedom comes at a great cost.
Did not come across this until now. 19 Marines come home.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=C6f_FvZpm3g