6 Comments

1. C. S. P. Schofield  •  Nov 11, 2012 @11:26 am
   

   Let us, by all means, take a moment to remember the sacrifices of the men and women who, in between being vilified by the Progressive Left, make the Progressive Left's tendency to meddling interventionism possible.

   Poor bastards.

2. louise  •  Nov 11, 2012 @12:53 pm
   

   How many people have served in the military since your Grandma and Grandpa? How many more stories like this could be written? Their sacrifice, and those of others that serve, completely blow me away.

3. Tali McPike  •  Nov 11, 2012 @1:57 pm
   

   I always like to share this poem on Veterans Day. This is where the tradition of wearing Poppies on Armistice/Remembrance/Veterans day comes from.

   The Poem was written by Lt Col John McCrae, a Canadian soldier and physician in the First World War. He wrote it after presiding over the funeral of a friend of his who died in the second battle of Ypres.

   In Flanders Field

   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.

4. Roscoe  •  Nov 11, 2012 @6:19 pm
   

   My dad was a navigator on a heavy bomber in WW II. When he died among his things was a picture of him and his air crew standing around by his B-24 after a crash landing.

   My wife researched the aircraft's tail number, and found it was part of the 466th Bomb Group. Turns out the 466 Bomb Group has a facebook page. My wife visited the facebook page and was shocked to see the same picture of the crash landed aircraft. But this picture had a caption listing all the crew.

   To make a long story short, my wife was able to locate the pilot, Elmo, who is still around and kicking. He and other WWII aviators meet every Monday morning in, of all places, the Wendy's at West Hills. We went to one of the meetings a couple of weeks ago, and Elmo had some stories about my dad.

   One in particular I liked. The time they crashed landed, after the plane lost its second engine Elmo called down to my dad and said they needed a place to set down. My dad called back "I have a vector for Sweden." Elmo said they wouldn't make Sweden, so dad said "How about Paris, I have a vector for Paris." So they crash landed right outside Paris.

5. Jess  •  Nov 11, 2012 @7:01 pm
   

   This was a great post to wrap up the weekend on a high note. I love these kind of stories.

6. Tarrou  •  Nov 11, 2012 @7:57 pm
   

   Welp, this may not be the best place for this, but I've been celebrating this day since 0900, so I'm twelve hours deep at this point. Wherever my cursor stops is good enough I suppose. Today I honor my fathers, my forefathers and my brothers. My grandfathers commanded tanks in Italy and ran the ball-turrets on B-17s. My great-uncles fought in the mud and cold of Korea, my uncles served in Germany, Iraq and the Phillipines. My cousins served in the Gulf and shipboard. My younger brother served with the 3rd ACR in Iraq, and my even younger brother is currently in ROTC, to be commissioned in May of next year. I've done nothing more than follow in the footsteps of better men than I am, and hope that those following will improve on my small contribution. Lads, to us and those like us, fewer every day.

   Sgt. JSG, US Infantry