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This weekend

peter nap

Accomplished Advocate
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
13,551
Location
Valhalla
I just wanted to give a quick thank you to all the service men and women here, active and otherwise. Without them we may not be carrying legally at all, much less open carrying.
THANK YOU!
 

va_tazdad

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2009
Messages
1,162
Location
Richmond, Virginia, USA
This is Memorial Day weekend.

It is a time for remembering those that gave their lives to protect this, and many other countries. Without their ultimate sacrifice, things might be greatly different in many places around the world. Some died in battle, some in training accidents, some just doing their regular job, but all deserve to be remembered.

To them, I render a salute and a wish that they rest in peace.
 

skidmark

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
10,444
Location
Valhalla
Thanks, peter, but my day comes in November.

Stolen from a blogger who says it better than I can:

Perhaps Memorial Day seems like a time to put flags on old headstones and remember our grandfathers and great-grandfathers. Perhaps it seems to be just a day off from work to mark the start of summer. It’s not. It’s about remembering the sacrifice made by very young men to preserve our country. Day by day, year after year, we send young men into harm’s way and not all of them come back.

We cannot repay their service, we cannot do or say anything to ease the loss to their families, all we can do is remember.

Bring a hanky.


http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/laurence-binyon-for-the-fallen.htm

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

For the British who inspired the poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99tCg596QSc ("The Last Post")

Please watch all 5 minutes of it. One poppy petal for every fallen British soldier.
Years ago I had the privilege of watching a Rememberance Day ceremony much likke the one depicted. At the end the servicemen took off their hats and collected every single poppy petal, then placed their hats on the altar.

For our war dead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFubhsfwp_c ("Echo Taps")

stay safe.
 
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scouser

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2011
Messages
1,341
Location
804, VA
Thanks for that post skid.

That poem brings back memories of when I was an elementary school aged child. Once every month one class would be on our school stage and lead our Morning Prayer service*, with a short meaningful 'play' of some kind. It just so happened one year that my class had to do the November one. Our teacher had each of us learn one line from that poem and in turn we recited it to the entire school. We would spend time everyday for a couple of weeks beforehand practicing our lines, and our teacher told us of the horrors that had inspired that poem. Most of our teachers had lived through WW2, and their parents and grandparents had been the ones in the trenches in WW1 so they had heard the stories first hand. For us kids growing up in the 1970s, our experience was limited to still seeing derelict buildings and wasteland around the city that still hadn't been fully tidied up from when the Luftwaffe destroyed them over 30 years earlier

*for those of you who don't know me, I didn't go to school in the US, we didn't have any 'Separation of Church & State' Activists screaming that praying in school was an abomination, so in fact it was perfectly legal for us to do so.
 

mpguy

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2012
Messages
689
Location
Suffolk Virginia
Honor to the Soldier, and Sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country's cause. Honor also to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field, and serves, as he best can, the same cause -- honor to him, only less than to him, who braves, for the common good, the storms of heaven and the storms of battle.

President Lincoln
 

skidmark

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
10,444
Location
Valhalla
Honor to the Soldier, and Sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country's cause. Honor also to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field, and serves, as he best can, the same cause -- honor to him, only less than to him, who braves, for the common good, the storms of heaven and the storms of battle.

President Lincoln

Trying my hardest to be socially appropriate.

Because I remember so many who could not come back home -

Save that for November.

stay safe.
 

TFred

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
7,750
Location
Most historic town in, Virginia, USA
Trying my hardest to be socially appropriate.

Because I remember so many who could not come back home -

Save that for November.

stay safe.
Skid, take a look and see if this author gets what you are trying to say here...

TFred

I’m a veteran, and I hate ‘Happy Memorial Day.’ Here’s why.

Excerpt:

It’s not Veterans Day. It’s not military appreciation day. Don’t thank me for my service. Please don’t thank me for my service. It’s take the time to pay homage to the men and women who died while wearing the cloth of this nation you’re so freely enjoying today, day.​
 

skidmark

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Jan 15, 2007
Messages
10,444
Location
Valhalla
Pretty much nails it.

Thanks for the find.

Hoping that one day again we will not need to write/read stuff like that.

stay safe.
 

HPmatt

Regular Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2013
Messages
1,467
Location
Dallas
In Brooklyn in 2013 went over to Ft Greene Park, a fortification in Revolutionary War to protect Brooklyn, as well as a Civil War fort. This is the current memorial to the 10,000+ Revolutionary War prisoners that died on the British prison ships in the East River and Wallabout Bay - now the Brooklyn Navy Yard. There is a small crypt that houses remains bodies that washed to shore.
9cd6775fd2f14634b5b01f84f64c36d7.jpg
25dea48f955bfd2d72828e1ab154d8b2.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Grapeshot

Legendary Warrior
Joined
May 21, 2006
Messages
35,317
Location
Valhalla
The actual true count is unknown - such will vary by the search performed.

"In memory of the 11,500 patriotic American sailors and soldiers who endured untold suffering and died on the prison British ships anchored in Wallabout Bay during the Revolutionary War 1776- 1782. Their remains lie buried in the crypt at the base of this monument which was dedicated on November 14, 1908. This plaque was afforded by The Society of Old Brooklynites on June 1, 1960. Farelly Crane M.D. President."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_Ship_Martyrs'_Monument
 
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