Memorial Day

In case you thought today was about getting a three day weekend...

I just found out one of our very good acquaintances is a Purple Heart recipient!!!!!  Have known him for at least 20 years........and in all that time he never mentioned it to us.   Vietnam Vets really get the shaft when the discussion is on regarding vets.  Soooooooooo sad, one of the worst wars for causalities and they don't get enough recognition or hardly at all.   

I have held dying service members in my arms as they died. Its how I remember and Memorialize them. I wont forget that, ever.

May God Bless our fallen soldiers. 

Saving Private Ryan should be a mandatory movie every high school student should be required to watch on the Friday before Memorial Day Weekend. For the rest of time. Young men who survived but lost brothers and close friends became fathers, then grandfathers, then great grandfathers and passed through a generation largely unnoticed. They never asked for a thank you. We can't ever forget the men and women we lost. 

American history isn't clean or sanitized or politically correct. It's barbaric and savage and covered in blood of 230 years of ultimate sacrifice. Our children cant ever think the freedom they enjoy didn't come about by chance and something to be taken for granted. It was earned. 

Saving Private Ryan is a great movie Chili. A couple of the scenes were mildly disturbing and it took a little while to get them out of my head after seeing it. The whole fight/stabbing scene towards the end got to me with the little story within a story leading up to it and how the one guy failed to do anything about it while it was happening. You're absolutely right that there's nothing clean, sanitized, or politically correct about war. It's a nasty, nasty business.

We are blessed for the men and women who gave their lives protecting this country.  That should never be taken lightly.  

Saving Private Ryan was based on a true story. Different names but same subject. The character that Tom Hanks played was based on a Chaplain who was tasked to find "Ryan" (different name in the true story). As a non combatant he faced daunting odds and historic WWII battles. But was successful in his quest. 

I can't get through 30 minutes of that film...

It's amazing how war is often portrayed as decisive leaders making the call and soldiers merely marching to their orders for glory and victory. I remember vividly an interview with Joe Califano, who was an assistant in the Johnson White House, saying he was around the building after midnight on many occasions. He said that was when LBJ, despite his reputation as a ball-busting SoB, would read the troop casualty reports because almost no one was around and he'd often be reduced to tears. 

I hear you all.  I have the movie Saving Private Ryan.  When the movie came out some WWII vets said it was to real for them.  I watch it every once and a while.  I have a Dad, Uncles (8 of them), some cousins, and a son who are all veterans of one war or another.  None have died while in the armed forces of our country for which I am thankful.  Most won't talk much about their experiences.  It took my Dad some time to talk about it according to my Mom.  And that was after us kids found his metals and silk maps - among other things.  Eventually he recorded it all.  But to them war isn't very glamorous.  

GOL  what you wrote resonates, I had a parent  and several uncles in WWII and a few more in Korea and Vietnam no KIA but a couple severely wounded and I never heard a word  about it until they were deceased. 

  I am a retired combat vet and when I was leaving the service the endless medical appts at our local VA left me in a waiting room full of WWII vets and because I am out here on the West Coast I heard stories shared amongst themselves about many of the Pacific Hell holes like Guadalcanal, and the New Guinea campaign.  Listening to them discuss those brutal conditions fighting people a few yards away in the steamy jungles of the South Pacific caused me to wonder how anyone survived.  The close quarter's fight described by one as a brawl in a steam closet  made me thankful I lived in another era.

  Similar stories about the frigid winter of 1950-51 in  N Korean again caused me to marvel that any human could endure this and survive.  I guess it is along winded way to say I never let htis day pass without thinking of the sacrifices people made and the brutality they endured to ensure we can drink Leine's and bitch about loud Bear fans!

I salute you, sir, and all others who served and are serving, including my wife's nephew who is an Air Force pilot and his brother heading off to the AF Academy this summer. I pray for peace.  

Thank you for sharing and God Bless those who made the ultimate sacrifice so we can live in freedom.

Pack88 posted:

GOL  what you wrote resonates, I had a parent  and several uncles in WWII and a few more in Korea and Vietnam no KIA but a couple severely wounded and I never heard a word  about it until they were deceased. 

  I am a retired combat vet and when I was leaving the service the endless medical appts at our local VA left me in a waiting room full of WWII vets and because I am out here on the West Coast I heard stories shared amongst themselves about many of the Pacific Hell holes like Guadalcanal, and the New Guinea campaign.  Listening to them discuss those brutal conditions fighting people a few yards away in the steamy jungles of the South Pacific caused me to wonder how anyone survived.  The close quarter's fight described by one as a brawl in a steam closet  made me thankful I lived in another era.

  Similar stories about the frigid winter of 1950-51 in  N Korean again caused me to marvel that any human could endure this and survive.  I guess it is along winded way to say I never let htis day pass without thinking of the sacrifices people made and the brutality they endured to ensure we can drink Leine's and bitch about loud Bear fans!

I was a Marine and when I was on active duty in the early to late 90's I got to meet a lot of Korean and Vietnam vets.  The stories that they told truly give you goosebumps and makes you shiver.  In the early 90's I worked for a few Marines that were Vietnam vets who were getting ready to retire.  One flew medivac missions in Vietnam and flew something like 300 missions and was never wounded which was rare.  Another one had something crazy like 7 purple hearts and was a tunnel rat in Vietnam and had some stories that would make your blood curdle.  And I also met a bunch of Korean vets who served in the Chosin Reservoir in Korea.  Not one of them talked about their sacrifices and were so humble about it.

Thanks for sharing your stories. As an immigrant to this country I quickly became aware of the brotherhood (and sisterhood) that continues to ensure that this remains the greatest country on earth. I almost joined.