Never Forgotten - Memorial Day

Scrammer · May 26, 2018

Let us all have a Respectful Memorial Day.

clearconscience · May 26, 2018

I spent last night watching military documentaries.
And a Vietnam doc the night before.

I didn't serve, but Thank God daily for the men and women who did.
Especially those who the country cashed their check for and their families left behind.

Gone for not forgotten. My vow is to always show you respect, and teach my kids about your sacrifice.

GOG · May 26, 2018

Damn.

Hop Sing · May 26, 2018

Let us never forget.

cigars · May 26, 2018

Great. I was just thinking to myself, hmm what can I watch that will make my eyes well up with tears?
Thank you to all those who made the ultimate sacrifice for all of us. It is indeed an honor to live in this country and it was an honor to serve amongst better men than I.

Scrammer · May 26, 2018

When I was young I had a friend that I played with. Of course back then we played soldiers, shooting our toy guns and such.
One day he told me his father was killed in WW2.
As I got older, it came to me, I wondered what his mother thought as she would see her son playing War out in the yard.

Dungannon · May 26, 2018

EPS · May 26, 2018

So as I sit in my front yard on my lawn chair drinking a beer I think .
And today I think about a guy or girl .
Sitting some where with a gun in there hand instead of a beer .
And I just think and I think .
Mmmmmmm if it wasn't for those guys and girls with the gun in there hand.
Would I be able to sit here and think.

Andy54Hawken · May 26, 2018

To all of those who I served with , Thank you...
To all of those who have not come back , You are not forgotten...
To all who have never fully come home and relive the past at times...May you have the peace you deserve...
Andy

RicInOR · May 26, 2018

As far as I know all my uncles who served in WW2 came home. All have past since.
My dad is still puttering around - tho he never left CONUS.
I didn't loose any cousins in the wars/police actions/terror times.
So, our family is fortunate.

There is a gold star in the window down the block.

There is a ramp on the front stoop of another.

I am sure those who have demons abound.
My daughter is fighting PTSD. No one tried to kill her, just her ship tried to burn to the sea. She didn't know until a small electrical fire in a car she owned put her off -- Now she's in counseling.

for those wounded, my thoughts and prayers are with you.
for those who didn't come home, my prayers are for the families.

Ruger Rich · May 26, 2018

I'll never forget the 55,000+ guys who never made it home from Vietnam. I only knew a few and I was one of the lucky.

USMC-03 · May 26, 2018

Weekend liberty brief from the Gunner:

Alright you pathetic reprobates, fall in and listen up.

We have a long weekend; go ahead and blow off some steam but remember this is about those who didn't make it back. It's up to us to live with them in mind, value and make the most of every minute in honor of their sacrifices.

Stay out of the hospital, newspaper and jail. Don't start trouble but if you must participate, finish it quick and get out of the AO.

Don't add to the population without good reason and a plan. Don't reduce the population without damn good reason.

Roll out in teams and family units; stay aware and alert. Go armed if legally allowed.

Don't go full bat crap crazy; 0430 PT on Tuesday and 15 mile road march Wednesday.

Set the watch and get out of my sight before I decide a working party is in order.

That is all; dismissed!

TOVO · May 26, 2018

I never was never able to server and I am always able to say Thank You For Your Service.

Quartermaster · May 26, 2018

cigars said:
Great. I was just thinking to myself, hmm what can I watch that will make my eyes well up with tears?
Thank you to all those who made the ultimate sacrifice for all of us. It is indeed an honor to live in this country and it was an honor to serve amongst better men than I.

Last year's tribute really did a number on me.

Scrammer · May 27, 2018

Ura-Ki · May 27, 2018

I witnessed something as a child that forever changed me, even at such a young age, it stuck with me to this day, and I will never, ever forget what I felt that day, and all the days since! On that day, several of us neighborhood kids were out in my yard playing as kids do, when a strange car pulled up to the neighbors house. Two very smartly dressed Naval officers in Dress Blues exited that car, soon followed by a holy man in a uniform! My mother, being a Navy wife screamed at first, thinking the car was ment for her, and then quickly broke up the group of us and told every one to go home NOW! Mom than ran as fast as she could with my baby brother in her arms to the neighbors house, she made it just in time to catch that poor mother who had just been informed of her oldest son's death! You have never experienced emotional agony until you have heard the whail of the wife or mother who has just learned of a death of her solder, her life has just stopped, the whole world is spinning, and there is nothing to ease that kind of pain! I witnessed two more such visits as a child, and they all affected me deeply! When I joined, I was reminded by my mother and a few weeks later my Wife to be, don't you ever get killed, the though of a "Offical car" visiting would drive them out if their minds!
I often thought of my Wife and my Mother, vowing to my self that I would do my utmost to ensure that neiter would ever experience that most horrible thing, something many, way to many have had to experience! I often thought of those who died in front of me, how hard it would be for those left behind, knowing that even though I had nothing to do with their death, some how feeling responsable and for the experience yet to come when the flag wrapped coffin returns a fallen solder to his family back home!
Memorial day for me is a difficult day for me, I have experienced so much, and I know what lies ahead for those gold star families! I take comfort in having been the last living person many of those solders saw, holding their hand and praying for them or over their bodies, being the first to drape the Flag across their broken bodies in a small show of well earned respect and admiration! I am forever grateful to those who have served, those who fell, and those who never made it home! God speed one and all, this brotherhood of ours must some day end, let it end with pride and honor!

Scrammer · May 27, 2018

RicInOR · May 27, 2018

In Recognition: Posthumous Medal of Honor Recipients

Jamie6.5 · May 27, 2018

Ura-Ki said:
I witnessed something as a child that forever changed me, even at such a young age, it stuck with me to this day, and I will never, ever forget what I felt that day, and all the days since! On that day, several of us neighborhood kids were out in my yard playing as kids do, when a strange car pulled up to the neighbors house. Two very smartly dressed Naval officers in Dress Blues exited that car, soon followed by a holy man in a uniform! My mother, being a Navy wife screamed at first, thinking the car was ment for her, and then quickly broke up the group of us and told every one to go home NOW! Mom than ran as fast as she could with my baby brother in her arms to the neighbors house, she made it just in time to catch that poor mother who had just been informed of her oldest son's death! You have never experienced emotional agony until you have heard the whail of the wife or mother who has just learned of a death of her solder, her life has just stopped, the whole world is spinning, and there is nothing to ease that kind of pain! I witnessed two more such visits as a child, and they all affected me deeply! When I joined, I was reminded by my mother and a few weeks later my Wife to be, don't you ever get killed, the though of a "Offical car" visiting would drive them out if their minds!
I often thought of my Wife and my Mother, vowing to my self that I would do my utmost to ensure that neiter would ever experience that most horrible thing, something many, way to many have had to experience! I often thought of those who died in front of me, how hard it would be for those left behind, knowing that even though I had nothing to do with their death, some how feeling responsable and for the experience yet to come when the flag wrapped coffin returns a fallen solder to his family back home!
Memorial day for me is a difficult day for me, I have experienced so much, and I know what lies ahead for those gold star families! I take comfort in having been the last living person many of those solders saw, holding their hand and praying for them or over their bodies, being the first to drape the Flag across their broken bodies in a small show of well earned respect and admiration! I am forever grateful to those who have served, those who fell, and those who never made it home! God speed one and all, this brotherhood of ours must some day end, let it end with pride and honor!

Thank you for your service.
And for making it home, so you could share those experiences here, with us, today.