Today is Memorial Day 2013!

[The Count of Merkur Cristo]

To One and All:
Today is Memorial Day and I humbly and respectfully ask of you to please remember and honor the men and women in uniform who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country and who "gave up all their tomorrows so we can have our todays".

"May God Bless and Keep Them and May They Rest In Peace". CBJ

 

[ohthatguy]

A humble Salute to all our Active and Veterans out there. Thank you.

Gotta love Amazing Grace on the Pipes!

 

[Topgumby]

I read this to my two boys today. It's from Ernie Pyle's book, "Brave Men".








The Death of Captain Waskow

AT THE FRONT LINES IN ITALY, January 10, 1944 - In this war I have known a lot of officers who were loved and respected by the soldiers under them. But never have I crossed the trail of any man as beloved as Capt. Henry T. Waskow of Belton, Texas.


Capt. Waskow was a company commander in the 36th Division. He had led his company since long before it left the States. He was very young, only in his middle twenties, but he carried in him a sincerity and gentleness that made people want to be guided by him.


"After my own father, he came next," a sergeant told me.


"He always looked after us," a soldier said. "He’d go to bat for us every time."


"I’ve never knowed him to do anything unfair," another one said.


I was at the foot of the mule trail the night they brought Capt. Waskow’s body down. The moon was nearly full at the time, and you could see far up the trail, and even part way across the valley below. Soldiers made shadows in the moonlight as they walked.


Dead men had been coming down the mountain all evening, lashed onto the backs of mules. They came lying belly-down across the wooden pack-saddles, their heads hanging down on the left side of the mule, their stiffened legs sticking out awkwardly from the other side, bobbing up and down as the mule walked.
The Italian mule-skinners were afraid to walk beside dead men, so Americans had to lead the mules down that night. Even the Americans were reluctant to unlash and lift off the bodies at the bottom, so an officer had to do it himself, and ask others to help.


The first one came early in the morning. They slid him down from the mule and stood him on his feet for a moment, while they got a new grip. In the half light he might have been merely a sick man standing there, leaning on the others. Then they laid him on the ground in the shadow of the low stone wall alongside the road.


I don’t know who that first one was. You feel small in the presence of dead men, and ashamed at being alive, and you don’t ask silly questions.


We left him there beside the road, that first one, and we all went back into the cowshed and sat on water cans or lay on the straw, waiting for the next batch of mules.


Somebody said the dead soldier had been dead for four days, and then nobody said anything more about it. We talked soldier talk for an hour or more. The dead man lay all alone outside in the shadow of the low stone wall.


Then a soldier came into the cowshed and said there were some more bodies outside. We went out into the road. Four mules stood there, in the moonlight, in the road where the trail came down off the mountain. The soldiers who led them stood there waiting. "This one is Captain Waskow," one of them said quietly.


Two men unlashed his body from the mule and lifted it off and laid it in the shadow beside the low stone wall. Other men took the other bodies off. Finally there were five lying end to end in a long row, alongside the road. You don’t cover up dead men in the combat zone. They just lie there in the shadows until somebody else comes after them.


The unburdened mules moved off to their olive orchard. The men in the road seemed reluctant to leave. They stood around, and gradually one by one I could sense them moving close to Capt. Waskow’s body. Not so much to look, I think, as to say something in finality to him, and to themselves. I stood close by and I could hear.


One soldier came and looked down, and he said out loud, "God damn it." That’s all he said, and then he walked away. Another one came. He said, "God damn it to hell anyway." He looked down for a few last moments, and then he turned and left.


Another man came; I think he was an officer. It was hard to tell officers from men in the half light, for all were bearded and grimy dirty. The man looked down into the dead captain’s face, and then he spoke directly to him, as though he were alive. He said: "I’m sorry, old man."


Then a soldier came and stood beside the officer, and bent over, and he too spoke to his dead captain, not in a whisper but awfully tenderly, and he said:


"I sure am sorry, sir."


Then the first man squatted down, and he reached down and took the dead hand, and he sat there for a full five minutes, holding the dead hand in his own and looking intently into the dead face, and he never uttered a sound all the time he sat there.


And finally he put the hand down, and then reached up and gently straightened the points of the captain’s shirt collar, and then he sort of rearranged the tattered edges of his uniform around the wound. And then he got up and walked away down the road in the moonlight, all alone.


After that the rest of us went back into the cowshed, leaving the five dead men lying in a line, end to end, in the shadow of the low stone wall. We lay down on the straw in the cowshed, and pretty soon we were all asleep.

 

[OkieStubble]

Thanks to all who gave their lives for my priviledge to live free...


Edit:

 

[Topgumby]

While I'm always grateful when somebody who knows I'm a Veteran offers me a thank you or acknowledgement on Memorial Day, I sometimes feel that I should point out it's not about guys like me who have been blessed by luck or safe billets and lived to be discharged or retired. That's Veterans day. Those still wearing the uniform have Armed Forces Day.

Memorial Day is all about guys like Captain Waskow who never came home.

 

[ackvil]

Thank you for this important reminder. It's not about Memorial Day retail sales - but to honor those that gave their life for this country.

 

[73mountaineer]

While I'm always grateful when somebody who knows I'm a Veteran offers me a thank you or acknowledgement on Memorial Day, I sometimes feel that I should point out it's not about guys like me who have been blessed by luck or safe billets and lived to be discharged or retired. That's Veterans day. Those still wearing the uniform have Armed Forces Day.

Memorial Day is all about guys like Captain Waskow who never came home.

Thank you for this important reminder. It's not about Memorial Day retail sales - but to honor those that gave their life for this country.

Thank you for that. I cringe a little each time I hear someone wish others a "Happy" Memorial Day. While I know that they don't mean anything by it, it is clear that on some level they have missed the point of the holiday.

Remember the fallen.

 

[buffdaddy]

Thank you for this important reminder. It's not about Memorial Day retail sales - but to honor those that gave their life for this country.

Nothing wrong with enjoying BBQs, shopping, or a movie. I just hope everyone just takes a minute to say "Thank You" to the Men and Women who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

 

[Mr5x5]

To One and All:
Today is Memorial Day and I humbly and respectfully ask of you to please remember and honor the men and women in uniform who gave the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country and who "gave up all their tomorrows so we can have our todays".

View attachment 337431

"May God Bless and Keep Them and May They Rest In Peace". CBJ

+1

 

[jbradley]

While I'm always grateful when somebody who knows I'm a Veteran offers me a thank you or acknowledgement on Memorial Day, I sometimes feel that I should point out it's not about guys like me who have been blessed by luck or safe billets and lived to be discharged or retired. That's Veterans day. Those still wearing the uniform have Armed Forces Day.

Memorial Day is all about guys like Captain Waskow who never came home.

Well said. Today is about those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Thank you to them, and thank you to their families for giving them to us.

 

[knlgskr]

While I'm always grateful when somebody who knows I'm a Veteran offers me a thank you or acknowledgement on Memorial Day, I sometimes feel that I should point out it's not about guys like me who have been blessed by luck or safe billets and lived to be discharged or retired. That's Veterans day. Those still wearing the uniform have Armed Forces Day.

Memorial Day is all about guys like Captain Waskow who never came home.

Well said. Today is about those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Thank you to them, and thank you to their families for giving them to us.

When I am in the vicinity of a Military Cemetary; I try to visit it, they mean(t) something to someone somewhere. We don't have to hate who we fought against nor love who we fought with; may all rest in peace. AF 1966-70 didn't serve in Vietnam

 

[Cartier]

I have a hard time celebrating this day. I'm absolutely disgusted that the average American only sees this as a great weekend for sales. I feel so bad for the ones that didn't make it home and their families. Sorry, I'll get off my soap box. This is just a very sad day.

 

[The Count of Merkur Cristo]

I like to think this piece is appropriate on this sacred & honored day (WARNING: Long Video [56 minutes]), !

"You will never know the true nature of your nationality, until your Nation calls you to Serve". CBJ

 

[Argonaut]

When my grandfather was alive (a WWII Army combat vet), he celebrated Memorial Day more than any other holiday. He said he owed it to his friends that didn't come home to enjoy his time with his family. His hometown in New Jersey recently canceled the Memorial Day parade that they have held for as long as I can remember, that was one of grandpa's favorite things in the world. My grandmother, who is still alive and still in her home of 50+ years, is infuriated!