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WASHINGTON, May 23, 2008 – More than 3,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines officially kicked off the Memorial Day commemoration last evening as they placed 265,000 miniature flags at every grave at Arlington National Cemetery. U.S. Army Master Sgt. Sandra Quaschnick, right, and U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Jennifer Bailey, left, render salutes during the "Flags In" ceremony to honor fallen heroes at Arlington National Cemetery, Va., May 22, 2008. Quaschnick and Bailey are assigned to the Fife and Drum Corps of the 3rd U.S. Infantry, "The Old Guard." Defense Dept. photo by Sebastian J. Sciotti Jr.  (Click photo for...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WHAT: EchoTaps Worldwide WHERE: Fort Snelling National Cemetery ~ Minneapolis, Minnesota WHEN: 11:00 AM ~ Saturday - May 19, 2007 ~ Armed Forces Day ADMISSION: Free ~ Open to the Public ~ Handicapped accessible CONTACT: Jeff Seeber, Project Director, condocat@att.net EchoTaps Worldwide is a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Bugles Across America to create awareness of VA programs and the availability of volunteer buglers to play Taps at the funerals of Veterans. Musicians will render Taps at 11:00 AM local time on May 19 beginning at American Battle Monuments Commission sites overseas...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- “Once captured, there is no comprehending what goes through your head,” said former Marine and Vietnam prisoner of war, Walter W. Eckes, 59, who spoke at the Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital’s 15th annual Prisoner of War/Missing in Action remembrance ceremony Sept 16. The first national commemoration for POWs/MIAs was July 18, 1979. Since then, Congress has passed yearly resolutions for the tribute. But in 1996, a presidential proclamation designated the third Friday in September as National POW/MIA Recognition Day. For the commemoration in 1991, the hospital planted a tree as a living memorial...

The bomb attack killed 22 United Nations staff UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has paid tribute to the 22 workers killed in a bomb attack on the organisation's headquarters in Baghdad two years ago.He said the failure to find those behind the bombing was an example of the impunity that so often followed attacks on UN workers around the world. He commended UN staff currently in Iraq for braving hardship and fear. Among those killed in the bombing was the UN special envoy to Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello. snip... (excerpted)

While others talked the cheap talk these are the guys who walked the real Vietnam walk. And this Friday, as a new war rages in Iraq, the New Yorkers who served in Vietnam will march across the Brooklyn Bridge to commemorate the 20th anniversary of this city's Vietnam veterans "Welcome Home" ceremony. The event will start at 10 a.m. at Cadman Plaza Park, with an 11 a.m. march across the Brooklyn Bridge to Vietnam Veterans Plaza at 55 Water St. Remembrance ceremonies begin at noon with keynote speakers, followed by a POW/MIA wreath laying, and a reunion center. Although I...

Try, if you can, to picture the scene. A vast crowd in Red Square: Lenin's tomb and Stalin's memorial in the background. Soldiers march in goose step behind rolling tanks, and the air echoes with martial music, occasionally drowned out by the whine of fighter jets. On the reviewing stand, statesmen are gathered: Kim Jong Il, the dictator of North Korea, Alexander Lukashenko, the dictator of Belarus, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, the former dictator of Poland — and President George W. Bush. That description may sound fanciful or improbable. It is neither. On the contrary, that is more or less what...

Sixty years ago, on April 15, 1945, Lieutenant John Randall, then a 24-year-old SAS officer, was on a reconnaissance mission in northern Germany. He and his driver were heading down the road to Lüneberg when he noticed a large, imposing iron gate in front of a track leading off into the woods to their left. Curious, Randall decided to investigate, and so discovered one of the most horrifying aspects of Hitler's Germany. "We were totally unprepared for what we had stumbled across,'' says Randall, now 85, sitting opposite me in the Special Forces Club in London. ''I just drove through...

Two days from now, January 27th, marks the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army. Here is a brief chronology of the camp, and a moving virtual tour of the site can be found here. Commemorating the liberation of this place of horror seems like it would be a simple thing, but in today's world, nothing is ever simple. For starters, some Muslims are feeling rather left out: British Muslims will boycott a state ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz unless it also commemorates the "holocaust" of the Palestinian intifada. The...

He believed that his whole life had been leading up to this moment in history. The time was December 1941. Japan had sunk the American fleet at Pearl Hitler and Hitler’s Nazi legions were at the gates of Moscow. He believed that the fate of the civilized world depended upon America resolve. Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall picked him to lead the most powerful military force ever assembled—the soldiers of the greatest generation. He accepted the charge and led the nation to victory in the bloodiest conflict in world history . . . The story goes that...

An unusually large number of people have taken part in the annual commemoration in Amsterdam of the Kristallnacht, the beginning of the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany in 1938. Around one thousand people attended the commemoration, compared with just a few dozen last year. The leaders of all parliamentary parties were present, as well as representatives of the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches and Muslim organisations. Several speakers, including European Commissioner Frits Bolkestein and mayor Job Cohen pointed out that Jewish inhabitants of Amsterdam are increasingly the target of insults and harassment.

<p>Four decades ago today, Medgar Wiley Evers, following a challenging day at the office, sought the sanctuary of his wife, family and home.</p> <p>Evers could surely feel the love and devotion emanating from his modest abode as he turned into 2332 Guynes St. Unfortunately, on that evening, June 12, 1963, Evers was forever suspended from his comfort and joy.</p>

BULGARIA yesterday commemorated the 60th anniversary of protests against the Nazis that saved the country’s Jewish community from the Holocaust. Protests by Bulgarian clergymen, intellectuals, politicians and others stopped the Nazis from deporting the first group of 8,500 Jews, sparking a policy that prevented the deportation of any of Bulgaria’s 50,000 Jews. Yesterday, all schools in the country opened with a special class dedicated to the Holocaust. In his address to the participants of an international conference in Sofia yesterday, Peter Schieder, head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, praised Bulgaria for its actions. "Sixty years ago,...

(The following has been edited slightly to correct typos, edit out names of people involved and to preserve some personal reflections) September 11, 2002 - 7:55 am One year ago, America was under attack. I still can't believe it was that long ago. It seems like it could have been yesterday. One of the other things I can't believe is the amount of people who died. I sit on a DART bus, running on route 6 (on Kirkwood Highway), and I just passed Price's Corner (Shopping Center). Earlier on this journey, I passed Ursuline Academy, and waited for the bus....

By Adam Sparks Chronwatch.com The San Francisco Chronicle checked in with 3 intriguing stories commemorating 9/11. The problem is that many readers, including Chronwatch.com the online S.F. Chronicle critic, felt that the paper was going overboard pandering to its very liberal, progressive readership. Any one of which of at least 3 stories filed in the Chron could win a journalistic award for "Unsure of the Concept". The first story was a sympathetic portrayal of an Arab who was imprisoned for being a collaborator. The Chronicle regretted his unfair and lengthy incarceration, in spite of the fact that this gentlemen: a)...

Leave it to the Chron to commemorate 9/11 with a sympathetic piece on a convicted mass murderer. In a story about a convicted killer who was a founder of the notorious street gang the Crips, the Chronicle goes to great lengths to inform us that this mass killer was a "Nobel Prize nominee". Yeah right, in the same Peace nomination as that other peace loving stalwart, Yasser Arafat. These two names alone could start a pycho killer Hall of Fame. But the Chron highlights that this killer, who was convicted for killing a 7/11 clerk and others with a shotgun...

You may think that the Chron doesn't know how to commemorate 9/11. You would be wrong. Despite all the deaths of Americans including infants that happened on 9/11. The Chron has come up with the classic response for the commemoration. Why not train medical doctors in California on how to kill more babies!! I'm not kidding. Talk about sensitivity and timing. The Chron, in an editorial in today's edition claims that California has a new problem, it doesn't have enough abortion providers for women. Many of you are probably not aware of this crisis. Of course, in typical Chron style,...

seems the morons running our school district has found a good way to commemorate our 9/11 dead. Try to understand the terrorists, Islam and give them a big hug. I don't know which of the grieving relatives of the victims of 9/11 this will please. The leftist administration and the United Educators (teachers union) are far more likely to sympathize with the terrorists, and teach our kids about the root causes of terrorism than they are teaching our kids about respect for the American flag or the travails of our Founders. These alleged educators are firmly in control of our...

Congress Holds 9/11 Commemoration in New York Fri Sep 6,12:07 PM ET By Ellen Wulfhorst NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amid extraordinary security, hundreds of U.S. lawmakers arrived by train in New York on Friday for a special joint session of Congress, its first in the city for over 200 years, to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. The train carrying more than 200 members of the House of Representatives and more than 60 members of the Senate arrived in Pennsylvania Station at just before 9:30 a.m. Dozens of New York police officers, National Guard units and Secret Service...