Memorial Day

• May 26, 2008

Most Americans have never heard a shot fired in anger, either on foreign battlefields or what have sometimes been called the “mean streets” of home.
Most Americans have not had to take up arms to stop a threat to their homes or their country.
Most Americans have not been called to a place where they might have to sacrifice their lives in order to save the life of a companion or friend.
Most Americans have not been called to leave the comfort of their homes to live in desolate places under harsh conditions for days, weeks, months on end.
Today is a day to remember the sacrifice of those who have, so that you may not have to.
I’d like to leave you with the words of one such veteran as a part of your remembrance of this day. The speaker’s identity, for the moment, unimportant. Listen to the words:

Unless you are a veteran you might find it odd that I would be indebted to the Navy for sending me to war. You might mistakenly conclude that the secret veterans’ share is that they enjoyed war.
We do share a secret, but it is not a romantic remembrance of war. War is awful. When nations seek to resolve their differences by force of arms, a million tragedies ensue. Nothing, not the valor with which it is fought nor the nobility of the cause it serves, can glorify war. War is wretched beyond description. Whatever gains are secured by war, it is loss that the veteran remembers. Only a fool or a fraud sentimentalizes the cruel and merciless reality of war.
Neither do we share a nostalgia for the exhilaration of combat. That exhilaration, after all, is really the sensation of choking back fear. I think we are all proud to have once overcome the paralysis of terror. But few of us are so removed from the memory of that terror to mistake it today for a welcome thrill.
What we share is something harder to explain. It is in part a pride for having sacrificed together for a cause greater than our individual pursuits; pride for having your courage and honor tested and affirmed in a fearsome moment of history; pride for having replaced comfort and security with misery and deprivation and not been broken by the experience.
We also share — and this is harder to explain — the survivors’ humility. That’s a provocative statement, I know, and the non-veteran may easily mistake its meaning. I am not talking about shame. I know of no shame in surviving combat. But every combat veteran remembers those comrades whose sacrifice was eternal. Their loss taught us everything about tragedy and everything about duty.

Duty. Honor. Country. And remembrance. Share the spirit of Memorial Day with those you love.
Cross posted at Proof Positive

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Bat One

Fred,

I didn’t know. Thank You!
http://www.ski-blog.com/ sayanything-24

Duty, Honor, Country indeed.

My service left enduring scars on my life and I did not serve in combat. It was difficult, but the sacrifices I made by setting aside my personal goals in the name of my country left me humbled by those that sacrificed so much more.

I pray for our veterans and troops that they are comforted during their suffering and that they know our gratitude for their service. I pray that all wars end soon, but knowing the nature of man, that is not realistic. So I also pray that the wars that do occur will be swift and the causes just and that the forces of good and of freedom shall emerge victorious.
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

So I also pray that the wars that do occur will be swift and the causes just and that the forces of good and of freedom shall emerge victorious.

Amen!
Bat One

To all our veterans, those here, and those departed, a sincere, heartfelt, Thank You!
Neiman

Can any speech about war and our brave soldiers ever, I mean ever, be greater than this very short speech that Lincoln felt was a failure?

<img src="http://i30.tinypic.com/igf04o.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Lestat

I'm partial to Shakespear.

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
Neiman

Lestat: Yes, quite nice!

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother.

I trained with a neighbor down the street from my home, a great guy, he volunteered for Vietnam, he came home with a steel plate in his head; but it was unbowed, he was grateful to survive and for being allowed to be a Marine. Many of those I knew early on in the Corps never made it home, I always feel a little guilty that I not only lived, but bore no wounds, I still feel like I had it so easy in that damn jungle! My brother was not so lucky or my boy, I don't know why some of us, so undeserving seem to never get a scratch, while men so much better than us pay such a high price. Life ain't fair!
Fred

From Kipling:

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.
Neiman

Fred: Another very nice conribution!
Fred

Forgot to post link to full text of Kipling's "Tommy". Vets can relate to this. Perhaps I've gotten cynical in my old age, but I get so weary of the "Support the Troops" mantra from those who have never fought.
http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/Rudyard_K…

GySgt USMC (Ret)
http://Array Neiman

Gunny: You are so right about those not having fought in war, having smelled the smoke, the burnt flesh, heard the cries of a brother in pain, had a dear friend die next to them and etcetera, just don't get it – never will.

In the long run it doesn't matter, we served and fought, many were wounded and many died in the history of America for a cause greater than themselves, so whether other don't understand war or hate soldiers, we having been in war fought for the guy next to us, everyone else just gets to enoy what the soldiers purchased for them.

Remember: There is no such thing as an ex-Marine, only serving Marines and former serving Marines, we are brothers as long as we live!
Fred

Neiman, thank you.

Another:

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."

General George Smith Patton
http://sayanythingblog.com/readers/author/Anna/ Anna

To all of our American soldiers, living and dead, I salute you, I pray for you, I appreciate you, and I thank you for fighting for our freedom and the continued existence of our beloved country. To those for whom Memorial Day is meant, thank you for making the ultimate sacrifice so that we may be free.
Neiman

"A Soldier Died Today"
(Unknown Author)

<img src="http://i32.tinypic.com/2017wo.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic">

He was getting old and paunchy and his hair was falling fast. And he sat around the Legion, telling stories of the past, of war that he had fought in and deeds that he had done. In his exploits with his buddies, they were heroes, everyone. And 'tho sometimes to his neighbors, his tales became a joke, all his buddies listened, for they knew whereof he spoke. But we'll hear his tales no longer, for old Bob has passed away. And the world's a little poorer, for a soldier died today.

No, he won't be mourned by many, just his children and his wife. For he lived an ordinary, very quiet sort of life. He held a job and raised a family, quietly going on his way, and the world won't note his passing, 'tho a soldier died today. When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state, while thousands note their passing and proclaim that they were great. Papers tell of their life stories, from the time that they were young, but the passing of a soldier, goes unnoticed, and unsung.

Is the greatest contribution, to welfare of our land, some man who breaks his promise and cons his fellow man? Or the ordinary fellow, who, in times of war and strife, Goes off to serve his Country and offers up his life? The politician's stipend and the style in which he lives,
Are sometimes disproportional, to the services he gives. While the ordinary soldier, who offered up his all, is paid off with a medal, and perhaps a pension small.

It's so easy to forget them, for it was so long ago, That our Bob's and Jim's and Cathy's, went to battle, But we know it was not the politicians, with their compromise and ploys, Who won for us the Freedom, that our Country now enjoys. Should you find yourself in danger, with your enemies at hand, would you really want some cop-out, with his ever-waffling stand? Or would you want a soldier, who has sworn to defend, His home, his kin,
And country, and would fight until the end?

He was just a common soldier and his ranks are growing thin, but his presence should remind us, we may need his likes again. For when countries are in conflict, then we find the soldier's part, is to clean up the troubles, that the politicians start. If we cannot do him honor, while he's here to hear the praise, Then at least let's give him homage, at the ending of his days. Perhaps just a simple headline, in the paper that might say:

"OUR COUNTRY IS IN MOURNING,
A SOLDIER DIED TODAY"

I think for me this says it all about what today means and how we honor the wrong people.

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