Veterans Day - Never Forget

[bigbill]

Originally Posted by cachagua

Uhhhh, ...because it's about what exactly?

It is a day for honoring the people who served their country, regardless of who was in office. Service members swear loyalty to the democratically elected leader and follow the orders given. There isn't political ideology on the battlefield, that's decided somewhere else. Today is about the people who put country before self, the morality of the leadership is up to the voters.

[Hellgate]

2006 Al Kut. GT Zaskar back in Baghdad at the time.

[Bruce K]

Today and this thread are about taking a moment to remember and honor those who gave served this country.

All the other conversation is for another day.

BK

[joosttx]

Originally Posted by Hellgate

2006 Al Kut. GT Zaskar back in Baghdad at the time.

Originally Posted by bigbill

Two pictures, the one with me in dress blues was around 2008, the one in whites was this past June. Same guy, same kid. My son is a Plebe at the Naval Academy and I'm retired and working a second career. It's my 33rd Veteran's Day, his first.

Thank you and we will never forget.

[paredown]

The Great War, aka WW1 looms larger for Canadians (where I grew up) than for Americans, but larger still for the British. The death toll was stunning in the trenches..

I spent a fellowship year at Cambridge (UK), and would visit my advisor at Jesus College--his rooms were above one of the back "courts" in which there is a memorial to the Jesus College members who lost their life in the "Great War"--the actual number has escaped me (recently confirmed at 158 members) who lost their life between 1914-18--from one small college, probably 600 members total then (a guess). These men mostly served as junior officers (by class)--so almost a quarter of the college gave up their lives in that war.

Hence one of the great books about war's aftermath--Testament of Youth, in which one woman writer memorializes the death of so many of her male friends of that group of young men...

Blurbed on Amazon:
"Much of what we know and feel about the First World War we owe to Vera Brittain’s elegiac yet unsparing book, which set a standard for memoirists from Martha Gellhorn to Lillian Hellman. Abandoning her studies at Oxford in 1915 to enlist as a nurse in the armed services, Brittain served in London, in Malta, and on the Western Front. By war’s end she had lost virtually everyone she loved. Testament of Youth is both a record of what she lived through and an elegy for a vanished generation. Hailed by the Times Literary Suplement as a book that helped "both form and define the mood of its time," it speaks to any generation that has been irrevocably changed by war."

That plus Wilfred Owen should help people remember...

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by Joxster

You all must be so proud of your President who was put off by a bit of rain to honor the 166,708 US service personel who died during WW1

I worked for the MoD, I would log on every morning to the Roll Call of Death on my laptop, seeing names of service personel I would drink with and work with who were killed in theatre the day before.

deleted..not for today..since some are posting pix...best years of my life..1972-1992..Many civilians really don't understand the military..a 'normal' way of life it isn't(not for the families either)..thank goodness there are those who wish to serve and serve honorably..many thanks to all who served..from this retired old fart..

[bobswire]

Prior to the Veterans Day parade in Petaluma, the air was still toxic from the Camp Fire. a few photos from some of those who participated.

[paredown]

I found this very moving--a small gravesite in Holland where 8 American WWII airmen are buried, and the residents have held services for them nearly every year since. And named the streets of a new development after them...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.0e9a29dd7731

[93KgBike]

Originally Posted by Bruce K

Today and this thread are about taking a moment to remember and honor those who gave served this country.

All the other conversation is for another day.

BK

As someone who comes from a military family, and who is pretty darn patriotic: we can take it.

People should feel what they feel about those who have fallen in the field. War is hell.

And war is politics.

I salute our veterans, the fallen and those serving. And I pray for a final end to war, for all time.

[Keith A]

My dad...who passed away several years ago. He served in the Korean conflict and could quote the exact number of days, hours and minutes he was in the Army. I miss this man.

[choke]

Me in 1990, 4th of July celebration at the Ambassador's Residence in Bonn, Germany.

[pbarry]

Originally Posted by oldpotatoe

deleted..not for today..since some are posting pix...best years of my life..1972-1992..Many civilians really don't understand the military..a 'normal' way of life it isn't(not for the families either)..thank goodness there are those who wish to serve and serve honorably..many thanks to all who served..from this retired old fart..

Originally Posted by choke

Me in 1990, 4th of July celebration at the Ambassador's Residence in Bonn, Germany.

Two members here whom I know a little bit: Thank you for being there for the rest of us, and your country, warts and all. We all owe you this day and our gratitude.

[fourflys]

this was as few years ago while I was stationed in San Diego... just started my 26th year a couple months ago... still love my job!

[TonyG]

Originally Posted by Bruce K

Today and this thread are about taking a moment to remember and honor those who gave served this country.

All the other conversation is for another day.

BK

I agree with that 100%.

But I am very interested in having that that other conversation should it ever be allowed.

[roguedog]

Missed this thread.

Thanks to all who serve. I do know I owe the freedom I have and my/our way of life to all those who have served today and thru history.

Thank you.