Posted on 11/10/2005 10:34:00 AM PST by A.A. Cunningham
blurry screen alert....
Sorry, I can't read the entire column. I'm at work and need to retain my composure. Had a real hard time with just the excerpt.
God Bless all of our men and women in uniform, and their families.
My eyes are full of tears for these fallen men, I reflect to many years ago while a Corpsman with the Marines in Vietnam. I think everyone needs to see this presentation. I have been present as we went to the doors of families to share that their son had fallen in combat. Many years later as a Pastor, I have set and weeped with famlies again at the loss of their son. As the father of a Naval Officer my heart goes out to all the Young men and women who serve our beloved America.
Today, we celebrate the Birthday of United State Marine Corps. I love you guys, and hethanks for protecting me while I was in Vietnam serving with you. Mike Company, 3rd Battalion 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division 1969-70
Amen. I'm going to have to go back to read this when I'm not at work.
God Bless all of our veterans, past and present. I can't thank them enough for their service.
Thanks for the post.
To everyone....the pictures are amazing.
Oh my gosh you got me crying now.
This just hits home. I spent yesterday fishing with a WWII veteran who told me the details of a battle in the South Pacific where he watched everybody around him get killed.
He held back tears (yes, after all these years, and he's 84) as he told me how him and another U.S. Army sharpshooter with the 81st Wildcat Division took out a nest of Japanese machine gunners and saved a whole lot of American lives.
He won a Silver Star for his efforts. He reached down to pick up the other guy's helmet, who got hit and died, and machine gun bullets knocked the helmet out of his hand, filling him full of shrapnel.
His commanding officer was tied to a board in a tree shooting, and they killed him. He told me about having to tell another man where to retrieve the body.
And about the guy operating the radio, who said that morning "I don't want to go out today, I have a bad feeling," who also died that day.
He was 20 years old then, and his stint in the Army was the first time this country boy had ever been away from his Tennessee home.
And today is the birthday of the U.S. Marines.
Thank God for these fine American men who give the ultimate sacrifice for others.
My heart hurts
I am going to have to read the whole thing later when I don't have kids walking in the door from school. That was heart wrenching.
Good Bless all the Fallen.
Oh, yeah.... Me, too.
Too tough to read...God bless this hero and his young family
Well put, mine as well. I couldn't finish reading it in one sitting.
Very sad, but extremely insightful and important article.
SZ
What a beautiful, yet sad, story. I think the man who wrote this for the paper must really have a heart as big as Texas, and writes as a friend would. Thank you for sharing it with us.
God Bless all of our men and women in uniform, and their families.
Dittos to all you wrote.
I just finished reading the entire article. Took a long time and a bunch of kleenex.
I will NEVER FORGET the men and women whose service makes freedom real.
When I was Navy active duty, I visited the Punch Bowl cemetery in Hawaii and found his name inscribed on one of several granite columns honoring the war dead & missing. To her own death, however, my great aunt believed Billy was still alive.
My brother, also Navy, later researched the circumstances surrounding his disappearance (patrol logs were declassified by that time), and it was determined his sub had run afoul of a Japanese minefield. Another sub in the same patrol area had exchanged supplies a couple of days earlier, then later heard an explosion on the sound phones. To his credit, my brother obtained copies of the patrol logs, a flag, and medals that he presented to my great aunt more than 50 years after her loss.
Very important indeed. Such a sad event. God, it just breaks ones heart as I know it did yours and probably everyone else who read it.
bump...
I can never read these without bawling. Friends' son is in boot camp right now.
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