Remember the dead soldiers who died in battle. They paid the highest price. A price you can’t pay them back.
Taps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38wx8C7VmB4
Peace be with them and with you. Enjoy your weekend.
My thoughts and prayers are with those who have served past and present and those who have passed on .
Rocky
Taps always bring a chill to my spine and tears to my eyes.
The one who returned gave a lot, those who did not gave all.
My dad lost his best boyhood friend in a B-17; dad served with the 1st. Cav the Philipines and Japan, now they are together.
And those that give all continues as we speak…always a poignant day for me.
When you wake up each morning…look around. At the coffee in the pot…the bird feeder in the back yard that your family enjoys…the car sitting out in the driveway…the entire way of life that you enjoy at times without a thought. And then please take a moment to thank the servicemen & women who have died so that you can enjoy all of it. As well as the others who have spent their lives protecting it both in days past & currently. They will hear you.
Uncle Jesse,
The song “Taps” has the same effect on me. It is a beautiful reminder of all who left us too soon.
God Bless them all,
Mike
Taps and the Gettysburg Address:
[FONT=Times New Roman][COLOR=blue]Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that “all men are created equal”[/COLOR]
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 battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. 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 hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.
It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, 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". [/FONT]
Lets not forget those who have died for their nation during peace time service as well. Their sacrifice and giving of the last full measure of devotion is no less important than any other. Here is a video deadicated to all who serve. The song is “Believe” by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCQQVgR_DVM&playnext_from=TL&videos=owhGdorLvJE
Personal remeberances:
Spec 4 Timbe Seats 1985 C Troop 1/6th Cav 6th Air Cavalry Brigade
My best friend. The deepest wound of all. Killed by one of your own in a callous disregard for the troops in his charge.
Major Marie Rossi Cayton 01MAR1991
First female aviation commander officially in combat and the first one killed. CH-47 Pilot. She was killed along with her flight crew the day after the Gulf War cease fire was signed.
One night on a flight through the Chocolate Mountains fighting bad weather and the remnants of the Santa Anna winds. We were on a real vomit comet that night. Lots of frayed nerves but when I looked into the cockpit there you were, steady at the flight controls, ice water in your veins, just doing your duty. You could make a CH-47 dance.
Sgt Brent W. Dunkleberger 12DEC2009 7th Cav, 1st Cavalry Brigade killed by an RPG in Iraq. Garryowen Brent! I will see you again on Fiddler’s Green some day. I promised to teach you how to fly fish and I will get to do that when we meet again.
Lt Colonel Michael E. McLaughlin 05JAN2006 Operation Iraqi Freedom 2nd Combat Brigade, 28th Infantry Division Pennsylvania Army National Guard “Bloody Bucket”.
Mike was my favorite XO for the year I was a cannon crew member. Mike refused to let the medics treat him until his men were treated after a suicide bomber blew them up along with about 80 Iraqi civilians.
YES I BELIEVE!
No BBQ’s or Holiday Sales for us. Just a trip to the memorials in Olympia to remember those who cashed the check America wrote “over there” no matter where that happened to be. I never saw a grey haired old man give up his life, but always fresh faced youngsters, some with the smell of their last stateside meal still on their breath, who went way before their time. Some, thankfully, went in an instant. Others not so much. They were afraid and most wanted the same thing, their Mama. No brave words or heroic statements, just some quiet whimpers, or loud screams of agony, a grab for whatever hand was available to hold onto and a last raspy exhale. Then the limp shell of what used to be your best friend or someone you barely knew was wrapped in a poncho or zipped into a body bag. They all died too young, they gave up everything they would ever have or be because America sent them into harm’s way. The least America can do is remember. Some of us will never be able to forget.
REE
1SG (Ret)
RVN 1965,66,67, 70, 71, 72
11B4P
I am right there with you Top! If not in body always in spirit!
REE, I wish I could write half as well as you just did.
Hugs,
LF
Ron,
Thank you.
This picture has always reminded me of who they were and are.
Mark
Always remember, Always pay respect, Always be thankful… As Always, Best Regards.
Oldest Medal of Honor recipient from WWII dies
By JULIE WATSON Associated Press Writer ? 2010 The Associated Press
May 27, 2010, 7:05PM
SAN DIEGO ? Retired Navy Lt. John Finn ? the first American to receive the nation’s highest military award for defending sailors under a torrent of gunfire during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor ? died Thursday. He was 100.
Finn was the oldest of 97 Medal of Honor recipients from World War II still living. He died at a nursing home for veterans in Chula Vista, outside San Diego, according to a Navy statement.
Despite head wounds and other injuries, Finn, the chief of ordnance for an air squadron, continuously fired a .50-caliber machine gun from an exposed position as bullets and bombs pounded the Naval Air Station at Kaneohe Bay in Oahu. He then supervised the rearming of returning American planes.
“Here they’re paying you for doing your duty, and that’s what I did,” Finn told The Associated Press before his 100th birthday. “I never intended to be a hero. But on Dec. 7, by God, we’re in a war.”
President Barack Obama said “his modesty does not diminish his extraordinary conduct or the incredible example he has set for our men and women in uniform and for all Americans.”
“I had the privilege of meeting Lt. Finn last year, and I was struck by his warmth and humility,” Obama said in a statement from the White House. “As we mark Memorial Day, and pay tribute all who have fallen in defense of this nation, the passing of Lt. Finn is a reminder of the sacrifices that generations have made to preserve the freedoms we hold dear.”
Finn, who enlisted in the Navy just before his 17th birthday, received the Medal of Honor on Sept. 15, 1942.
He later served as a limited duty officer specializing in anti-aircraft guns in San Diego, Hawaii, Washington, Panama and aboard aircraft carriers, the Navy said.
Finn retired in 1956 after three decades of service, but he continued to help young sailors and stayed active in Navy organizations, Lt. Aaron Kakiel said.
“He’s been a real inspiration to a number of our aviation ordnance men and an example for the entire Navy,” he said.
Born July 23, 1909, in Los Angeles, Finn lived for 50 years on his ranch near Live Oak Springs, outside San Diego.
Finn died at the Veterans Home of California in Chula Vista, the Navy said. Officials initially said he had died at his ranch.
He will be buried with full military honors. Kakiel said the Navy was still working with his family members on the details.
1SG
Nothing personal just business.
Thanks Steve, I heard about Lt. Finn’s passing from a caller on a local talk radio show this afternoon. I hope I just missed it when it was on network news and the papers. I thought this was a great quote from Lt. Finn posted in the Union Tribune web article
Finn often downplayed his heroic efforts during World War II and said he was just doing his job. “I read about other guys with the medal who lost their lives or really suffered in wars, and I think about myself. I was just an uneducated man who got mad as hell one day,” he said in a 1984 interview with The [i][b]San Diego[/b][/i] Union."
My son returned from vacation in Washington DC and he brought back Cherry Tree seeds for his Mom, but for me he brought back something that I will treasure for the rest of my days. The boy is not perfect just damn good.
My thoughts and prayers to those that serve and have served and paid the ultimate price for that service.
Note: 1982 was the year that I joined the Canadian Armed Forces
The following message was sent to me this morning by a good friend and retired US Navy Captain. I thought it worth sharing. On this Memorial Day, let us extend our heart-felt Thanks! to our service men and women, past and present!
"Our flag reminds me of a young Navy pilot named Mike Christian. Mike was a POW in a place referred to as the Hanoi Hilton in North Viet Nam. Mike found the remnants of a handkerchief in a gutter that ran under the prison wall. Mike managed to sneak the grimy rag into his cell and began fashioning it into a flag. Over time all the POWs loaned him a little soap, and he spent days cleaning the material. He with the help of the other POWs scrounged and stole bits and pieces of anything that might be used in making his flag. At night, under the mosquito net, Mike worked on the flag. He made red and blue from ground-up roof tiles and tiny amounts of ink and painted the colors into the cloth with watery rice glue. Using thread from his own blanket and a homemade bamboo needle, he sewed in the stars. Early in the morning a few days later, when the guards were not alert, he whispered loudly from the back of his cell, ?Hey gang, look here?. He proudly held up this tattered piece of cloth, waving it as if in a breeze. Using imagination, one could tell it was supposed to be an American flag. When he raised that smudgy fabric, every POW automatically stood straight and saluted, chest puffed out, and more than a few eyes with tears.
Every week, the guards would run the POWs outside and go through their clothing. During one of the shakedowns, they found Mike?s flag. Everyone knew what would happen. That night they came for him. The cell door was opened and Mike was pulled out. One could hear the beginning of the torture before they even had him in the torture cell. He was beaten most of the night. About daylight they pushed what was left of Mike back through his cell door. He was badly broken; even his voice was gone. Within two weeks, despite the danger, Mike scrounged another piece of cloth and began another flag.
The Stars and Stripes, our National symbol, was worth the sacrifice to him.
Now whenever I see a flag, I am reminded of Mike and the morning in a POW camp in North Viet Nam when he waved that tattered emblem of a nation. It was there and then, thousands of miles from home in a lonely prison cell, that he showed us what it is to be truly free."