A day in the life of President Bush (5/27/07): Memorial Day even tribute to our Armed Forces

WhiteHouse.gov & various ^ | 5/27/07

[Wolfstar]

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: President Bush spent some quiet time at Camp David before returning to the White House earlier today. Tomorrow he will participate in the annual Memorial Day commemoration at Arlinton National Cemetary. The First Lady was in Phoenix on Friday and Dallas on Saturday, where she attended a viewing of a new exhibit featuring more than 100 creations by Spanish designer Cristobal Balenciaga (1895-1972), and of designers he influenced, such as Oscar de la Renta. Mrs. Bush will return to Washington by Sunday evening, so she can join her husband in the Memorial Day commemoration.

Today the President was on hand as the Rolling Thunder group made their annual visit to the White House.

Motorcycle group revs up Bush
By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush likes a serene White House most Sundays. Every now and then, though, he is ready for rumble.

Leaders of Rolling Thunder, the motorcycling group that raises awareness about missing veterans, roared right up the mansion's driveway this Sunday. Bush, just back from a weekend at Camp David, stood alone outside the South Portico to meet them.

No Memorial Day weekend in the capital is complete without the ritualistic rumble of Rolling Thunder. For 20 years now, the nonprofit group has led a "Ride for Freedom" along the National Mall, a full-throttle demonstration in support of soldiers held captive or missing in action.

"How you doing, Artie? Welcome back," the president told Artie Muller, the founder and executive director of the nonprofit group.

Muller led 13 visitors who came calling on eight motorcycles. The guests included Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and White House chief of staff Josh Bolten, whose Harley-Davidson was decked out with patriotic bunting.

Special Visit: Soldier Gets Thank-You From President Bush

An injured soldier receives a very special thank-you from President Bush.

Army Specialist Shane Nault was critically injured by a roadside bomb earlier this month. Doctors say he had two wounds to the head and his brain was swelling. Shane graduated from Memorial High School in 2005.

Shane's family says Bush stopped to visit the 20-year-old at the National Naval Medical Center.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: From the Presidential Radio Address, Saturday, May 26, 2007:

On Memorial Day, we also pay tribute to Americans from every generation who have given their lives for our freedom. From Valley Forge to Vietnam, from Kuwait to Kandahar, from Berlin to Baghdad, brave men and women have given up their own futures so that others might have a future of freedom. Because of their sacrifice, millions here and around the world enjoy the blessings of liberty. And wherever these patriots rest, we offer them the respect and gratitude of our Nation."
President George W. Bush

THE WEEK AHEAD:

— Monday, Memorial Day, President and Mrs. Bush participates in a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va. The President will give the keynote speech at the Arlington National Cemetery Memorial Day Commemoration.

— Tuesday, the President goes to Georgia, where he will tour a Federal Law Enforcement Training Center at the Port of Entry Building, Glynco, Georgia. After he returns to the White House, GWB will participate in a photo opportunity with the 2006 MLS Cup Champion Houston Dynamo, and he meets with Vietnamese democracy and human rights activists in the Oval Office.

— Wednesday, the President travels to New Jersey, where he makes remarks at a New Jersey Republican State Committee reception. New Jersey Convention and Exposition, Edison, N.J.

— Thursday, President Bush delivers a speech on international development at USAID, Ronald Reagan International Trade Building, Washington. This speech sets the stage for the his upcoming trip to Europe and the G8 Summit.

— Friday, no public events are scheduled.

[Wolfstar]

In the spring of 1868 John Logan, Commander-In-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a Union veterans organization, designated May 30th as a memorial day "for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land."

The first national celebration of the holiday was held at Arlington National Cemetery on May 30, 1868. Approximately 5,000 people gathered around the veranda at Arlington Mansionm and after listening to speeches the visitors, including children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphans Home, walked through the cemetery placing flowers on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers.

Although it has had different names (e.g., Decoration Day) in earlier times, the holiday we now call Memorial Day has been observed at Arlington and around the country continuously for 139 years.

[Jewels1091]

hey

[Wolfstar]

Pinging you to the Memorial Day eve Dose.

[Wolfstar]

       

[Wolfstar]

PHOTO OF THE DAY: Taken at a Memorial Day ceremony circa 1920-25, this photo shows three generations of American veterans. (L to R) John Finn served in the Civil War; John Raeulin was a veteran of the Spanish-American War; and William Giering was a veteran of World War I.

[Wolfstar]

Click this link to hear a beautiful version of SGM Woody English, U.S. Army Band, playing on a B flat Bach Stradivarius Field Trumpet (bugle).

Taps

Day is done,
gone the sun,
From the hills,
from the lake,
From the skies.
All is well,
safely rest,
God is nigh.

Go to sleep,
peaceful sleep,
May the soldier
or sailor,
God keep.
On the land
or the deep,
Safe in sleep.

Love, good night,
Must thou go,
When the day,
And the night
Need thee so?
All is well.
Speedeth all
To their rest.

Fades the light;
And afar
Goeth day,
And the stars
Shineth bright,
Fare thee well;
Day has gone,
Night is on.

Thanks and praise,
For our days,
'Neath the sun,
Neath the stars,
'Neath the sky,
As we go,
This we know,
God is nigh.

[Wolfstar]

In Flanders Fields
by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD, Canadian Army (1872-1918)

IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

[Wolfstar]

Bury Me With Men Like Them
Author unkown

I've played a lot of roles in life;
I've met a lot of men,
I've done a lot of things I'd like to think
I wouldn't do again.

And though I'm young, I'm old enough
To know someday I'll die.
And to think about what lies beyond,
Beside whom I would lie.

Perhaps it doesn't matter much;
Still if I had my choice,
I'd want a grave 'mongst
Soldiers when
At last death quells my voice.

I'm sick of the hypocrisy
Of lectures of the wise.
I'll take the man, with all the flaws,
Who goes, though scared, and dies.

The troops I knew were commonplace
They didn't want the war;
They fought because their fathers and
Their fathers had before.

They cursed and killed and wept...
God knows
They're easy to deride...
But bury me with men like these;
They faced the guns and died.

It's funny when you think of it,
The way we got along.
We'd come from different worlds
To live in one where no one belongs,

I didn't even like them all;
I'm sure they'd all agree.
Yet I would give my life for them,
I know some did for me..

So bury me with soldiers, please,
Though much maligned they be.
Yes, bury me with soldiers, for
I miss their company.

We'll not soon see their likes again;
We've had our fill of war.
But bury me with men like them
Till someone else does more.

[Wolfstar]

From the Revolution to Afghanistan and Iraq -- saluting America's veterans and current members of our Armed Forces.

Greater love hath no man (and woman) than this...

[Kaslin]

Good evening!

[lysie]

Thanks

[Wolfstar]

Washington Crossing the Delaware -- If anyone asks you who the greates president in U.S. history was, tell them it was George Washington. Without Washington, and the men he led during the Revolution, there would have been no United States of America.

[Wolfstar]

The USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) dueling with the British frigate Guerrière during the War of 1812, colored engraving by Cornelius Tiebout, 1813.

[ThePythonicCow]

A wonderful poem - thanks.

And thanks to those who have died, that we might live a bit longer in freedom.

[Wolfstar]

Some of the dead at Chancellorsville during the Civil War. Nope...freedom most certainly is not free, although too many in our easy times don't understand this profound truth.

[Wolfstar]

A battlefield during WWI. These are Canadian soliders, then still subjects of our closest ally, the United Kingdom.

An old veteran of WWII.

[Wolfstar]

Korea, often called the "forgotten war."

[STARWISE]

Hi ;)

[Wolfstar]

Vietnam, the war during which the American Left gave full voice to their hatred of America's Armed Forces.

[Wolfstar]

Army specialist Brandon Larsen, 21, battling suspected Al Qaida-supported insurgents following an ambush on a supply convoy in Pech Valley, Kunar province, Afghanistan.

An American patrol in Afghanistan.