MEMORIAL DAY-Thread One--"Remember...what we owe.."

5/12/02It was a somewhat typical New England spring day. | redrock

[redrock]

BUMP.....ya know why.

redrock

[redrock]

BUMP.....Ya know why.

redrock

[redrock]

BUMP...Ya know why.

redrock

[redrock]

REMEMBER.........

redrock

[redrock]

BUMP....for ALL the right reasons...

redrock

[redrock]

REMEMBER......

redrock

[redrock]

REMEMBER.....

redrock

[mommadooo3]

"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go.

Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may or may not have always. Take what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own.

And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Major Michael O'Donnell
KIA March 24, 1970
Dak To, Vietnam

[sit-rep]

bttt...

SR

[mommadooo3]

What I'll Be Doing For Memorial Day
By James E. Leiker

Memorial Day is a rough day for me. It's a day of remembering.

Remembering can be curse when you've spent years trying to forget. It's even worse when you get mad at yourself for not being able to remember. It's strange that you forget so many things you want to remember and remember so much that you really want to forget.

I spent 11 months, 28 days in sunny Southeast Asia. I came back physically whole. "No members missing" tag on this Marine. By the Grace of God, good training, and just plain pure dumb luck, I suffered no more than a slight hearing loss, a concussion or two, and 25 years of mixed-blessing memories.

I've been a good husband to my wife, a lousy father to my two daughters, a mediocre son to my mother, and a reasonably successful employee to five employers over the years. With these results, I consider myself as doing better than the average bear when compared to many of my fellow veterans. The Grace of God and luck still abound.

Memorial Day is not a day for self-evaluation or selfish thoughts. So I turn my remembrances to other people, places, and things.

I remember heat. Heat that kept you from getting a full breath for weeks. Heat that sapped your strength so that you were beyond exhaustion after a minor exertion. Heat that made you tired and kept you from sleeping. Heat that made you sweat buckets. Heat that made you freezing cold at 70 degrees.

I remember lush green mountains that always seemed to go up not down. I remember red earth that was sticky enough to glue a deuce and a half in place, slippery enough to make it impossible to stand on, and dusty enough to choke you into a coughing fit like a bad cigar.

I remember rice paddies. They could get you killed or save your life. Dikes stop bullets but can leave you exposed if you're dumb enough to walk on them. The water smelled of feces but was better than not drinking at all.

I remember rain. Rain that broke the intolerable heat then never stopped. Rain that was as gentle as silk or as stinging as a nest of bees. Rain that let you get a good clean shower and rotted your feet 'til they bled.

I remember the sun. The sun that created the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets I've ever seen in my life. The sun that you couldn't look at...if you ever wanted to see again. The sun that you could feel without touching it.

I remember a moon that shone so bright you could read a map by it. I remember moonlight dancing on foliage that made you see nothing one minute and imagine a host of slinking VC the next.

I'll never forget the colors of an explosion close at hand. The white center bleeding out to a yellow ring surrounded by black rolling smoke was beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

I remember the orange and green tracers dancing lazily through the night, while I prayed that none came to roost on me.

But above all this, I remember people. Faces, personalities, and human events still crowd my days and nights with pleasure and pain. I can remember entire conversations and events in explicit detail. I cannot remember the names of more than a few, and I don't know why. Shouldn't this be the other way around?

I remember the parting face of the Huey jock, who took an RPG in the nose 100 yards after he lifted off from leaving me in a clearing. I remember every detail of the guy who hung himself 2 weeks before he was going back to the world. I remember the guitar songs taught to me by the kid from Boston, who drove a jeep over a 105 shell buried on a dirt road and tripped the trap. I remember the quiet calm of the guy who told me he was sorry and assured me that I would be O.K. after he stepped on a mortar-round booby trap. All this while I held what was left of him in my arms, and we filled him with enough morphine to kill a horse because he was cut in half below the waist; and we knew he wouldn't survive the slick ride back to DaNang.

Of the hundreds I knew, I kick myself for remembering so few. Especially on this Memorial Day when I should be able to remember each and every one. They are the ones who paid for this Memorial Day. This is their day. I will not spoil it by forgetting even one of their number.

God help me, I will remember. From this day forth I will carry their memory and spirit with me as a living memorial to their sacrifice and dedication to God, country, duty, and honor. They shall not pass gently into the night as long as I have breath in my body to shout to the world...

REMEMBER, REMEMBER...For God's sake Remember.

[mommadooo3]

Proclamation 4932 --
Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 1982
April 16, 1982
By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Since the end of the Civil War, Memorial Day has been the time when we honor the American men and women who gave up their lives on the field of battle. We do this in recognition of the enormous sacrifice they have made to preserve our liberty and, also, of the responsibility we bear to transmit liberty to future generations.

Memorial Day is an opportunity to remember that those who died in the defense of our country were serving an even higher cause. For all through our history, America has been a beacon to other peoples, serving as a source of political inspiration, a haven for the poor and oppressed, and a friend to nations in distress. Today, as so often in the past, we stand as a guarantor of peace. In full accord with our national ideals and responsibilities, we are prepared to assist countries threatened by economic upheaval or international violence. And we stand ready to work together with other nations to remove the sources of conflict and insecurity and build a firm foundation for peace in the future.

In recognition of those Americans to whom we pay tribute today, the Congress, by joint resolution of May 11, 1950 (64 Stat. 158), has requested the President to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe each Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace and designating a period on that day when the people of the United States might unite in prayer.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Memorial Day, Monday, May 31, 1982, as a day of prayer for permanent peace, and I designate the hour beginning in each locality at 11 o'clock in the morning of that day as a time to unite in prayer. I urge the press, radio, television, and all other information media to cooperate in this observance.

I also request the Governors of the United States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the appropriate officials of all local units of government to direct that the flag be flown at half-staff during this Memorial Day on all buildings, grounds, and naval vessels throughout the United States and in all areas under its jurisdiction and control, and I request the people of the United States to display the flag at half-staff from their homes for the customary forenoon period.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 16th day of April in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and sixth.

Ronald Reagan

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:14 a.m., April 19, 1982]

[Sunshine Sister]

Thank you for the post. I didn't know that taps had words until I started coming to FR. It's amazing what we can teach each other.

I come from a long line of warriors. I have never appreciated them and honored them more. What courage it must take to face an enemy who is determined to take you out. Thanks vets!

[Jackie222]

Thanks Redrock. "Remember.......what we owe....." is growing stronger and deeper with each new year.

[jwalsh07]

My Uncle Jimmy just passed away last Friday. He was a gentle and cherubic Irishman who emigrated to America in 1938. He enlisted in the United States Army and served in Normandy, Northern France, Central Europe and the Rhineland.

He loved his family, he loved his country and he loved his wife, my Aunt Marion for more than half a century. He joins my Dad, a WW2 vet and many more of his friends and brothers in heaven.

Though I didn't see my Uncle much in my adult years there has always been a special place for him and the brogue he never lost in my heart. Godspeed Uncle Jimmy.

[Washington_minuteman]

Yes, it is about remembering. Next, appreciating; and finally then, determining not to lose that which cost so many, so much. Not to foreign enemies, not to street gangs, not to corrupt politicians, not to an unlawful bureaucracy run amok.

The greatest insult to the memory of all those who gave their all for the sake of this nation's future, would be if we, let the fruit of their sacrifice, slip from between our fingers, and into the hands of men of evil intent.

Your story brings a scene to my mind, which I shall attempt to describe.

Standing upon the hill of decision, seeking the Creator's guidence, you might see out of the corner of an eye, a farmer, next to his plow. musket in hand, alert for an approaching enemy. Then, just at the furthermost reaches of sight, two men approach; one wears Blue, the other Gray. They silently join you, united against a common foe. From the other direction, three more men are seen, approaching. One soaked in sweat, carrying a Tommy Gun, the second, struggles up the hill, burdened by his artic gear and M-1 Garand; helped by the third, M-16 slung and face painted in jungle camo. Behind them, wearing a broad smile across his face, beneath the shadow of his painted steel pot, carrying his faithful Springfield rifle, comes a fourth..

A voice speaks to your heart, telling you that you're not alone on this hill. Surrounding you are represenatives of the hundreds upon thousands who have stood here in the past. They made a decision, one which they did not regret; for they gave their all, that this nation, under God, did not perish from the earth.

Today, we all, stand upon the hill of decision, surrounded by the memories, hopes and dreams of all those in whose footsteps we now stand. Their memory is part of God's Grace, which will see us courageously through the day.

Thank-you, Bro, for starting this thread.

4/19!
minuteman

[Alamo-Girl]

bump!

[redrock]

I will NEVER forget those still 'missing'.

HERE'S a thread about one of them.

redrock

[Dubya]

Thanks for the thread.

[redrock]

BUMP......REMEMBER...

redrock

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

A FReeper hug for your efforts to post this thread! God bless you!