Memorial Day Tribute

[HoosierDaddy]

[video=youtube;bEfVa738jFI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEfVa738jFI[/video]

 

[LuvMyMan]

Thank you for posting this. In how sad most of the news and events around the USA and even rest of the World, we do still need to take care of remembering everyone, everywhere, that have served to protect Freedom.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

[video=youtube;5MtdIO23MKM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MtdIO23MKM[/video]

 

[ingineer]

Thank you for posting this. In how sad most of the news and events around the USA and even rest of the World, we do still need to take care of remembering everyone, everywhere, that have served to protect Freedom.

Plus one million, Monday 3PM one minute of reflection
Richard

 

[jamespowers]

Plus one million, Monday 3PM one minute of reflection
Richard

Agreed!

 

[WH1]

RIP Brothers, greatest respect miss you all.

First Sergeant Luke Mercerdante, USMC, KIA Kandahar Province, 2008 (Remembering our last lunch together)
Sgt Maj RJ Cottle, USMC, KIA, Helmand Province, 2010 "Stay Frosty" never forgotten bro
L/CPL Nigel Olson, USMC, KIA, Helmand Province, 2010
L/Cpl Carlos Aragon, USMC, KIA, Helmand Province, 2010
SGM Larry Strickland, USA, KIA, Pentagon, 9/11/2001
and too many others it has been a long 12+ years for us

Think on them and too many others, Ramadi, Fallujah, Sangin, COP Payne, Fiddlers Green, PB Wolfpack and too many other battlefields most will never know about, they and we did our best. Honor them, I go to antiquity to honor our fallen brothers.

Memorial Day isn't about a barbecue and a good sale.

Pericles funeral oration
…that their deeds when weighed in the balance have been found equal to their fame! I believe that a death such as theirs has been the true measure of a man's worth; it may be the first revelation of his virtues, but is at any rate their final seal. For even those who come short in other ways may justly plead the valor with which they have fought for their country; they have blotted out the evil with the good, and have benefited the state more by their public services than they have injured her by their private actions. None of these men were enervated by wealth or hesitated to resign the pleasures of life; none of them put off the evil day in the hope, natural to poverty, that a man, though poor, may one day become rich. But, deeming that the punishment of their enemies was sweeter than any of these things, and that they could fall in no nobler cause, they determined at the hazard of their lives to be honorably avenged, and to leave the rest. They resigned to hope their unknown chance of happiness; but in the face of death they resolved to rely upon themselves alone. And when the moment came they were minded to resist and suffer, rather than to fly and save their lives; they ran away from the word of dishonor, but on the battlefield their feet stood fast, and in an instant, at the height of their fortune, they passed away from the scene, not of their fear, but of their glory.

 

[Gregg Axley]

[video=youtube;5MtdIO23MKM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MtdIO23MKM[/video]

Very nice.
Thanks for posting this HD.

 

[LuvMyMan]

For those that watched any TV today, it was great that some sport events paid a tribute to the service men that have served! Nascar race today was super special in how well they elected to display their love for this Country and those that have served to protect freedom. It was also very special that they could have a military band and choir actually sing a song that had the words, "God" in it, without all those "political correct" monsters throwing a fuss over it and making it be wrong to do so.

 

[LuvMyMan]

RIP Brothers, greatest respect miss you all.

First Sergeant Luke Mercerdante, USMC, KIA Kandahar Province, 2008 (Remembering our last lunch together)
Sgt Maj RJ Cottle, USMC, KIA, Helmand Province, 2010 "Stay Frosty" never forgotten bro
L/CPL Nigel Olson, USMC, KIA, Helmand Province, 2010
L/Cpl Carlos Aragon, USMC, KIA, Helmand Province, 2010
SGM Larry Strickland, USA, KIA, Pentagon, 9/11/2001
and too many others it has been a long 12+ years for us

Think on them and too many others, Ramadi, Fallujah, Sangin, COP Payne, Fiddlers Green, PB Wolfpack and too many other battlefields most will never know about, they and we did our best. Honor them, I go to antiquity to honor our fallen brothers.

Memorial Day isn't about a barbecue and a good sale.

Pericles funeral oration
…that their deeds when weighed in the balance have been found equal to their fame! I believe that a death such as theirs has been the true measure of a man's worth; it may be the first revelation of his virtues, but is at any rate their final seal. For even those who come short in other ways may justly plead the valor with which they have fought for their country; they have blotted out the evil with the good, and have benefited the state more by their public services than they have injured her by their private actions. None of these men were enervated by wealth or hesitated to resign the pleasures of life; none of them put off the evil day in the hope, natural to poverty, that a man, though poor, may one day become rich. But, deeming that the punishment of their enemies was sweeter than any of these things, and that they could fall in no nobler cause, they determined at the hazard of their lives to be honorably avenged, and to leave the rest. They resigned to hope their unknown chance of happiness; but in the face of death they resolved to rely upon themselves alone. And when the moment came they were minded to resist and suffer, rather than to fly and save their lives; they ran away from the word of dishonor, but on the battlefield their feet stood fast, and in an instant, at the height of their fortune, they passed away from the scene, not of their fear, but of their glory.

Thank you for this also. It does not take much to really understand, how sweet and dear it is to have real freedom. It has always been an element paid for by life, and no matter what anyone can say, to give a life for the love of "god and country" for "freedom" is perhaps the most noble thing anyone can ever do on this Earth.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Memorial Day service beginning at Park Cemetery in my hometown of Fairmount,Indiana (population around 3,000)...

 

[HoosierDaddy]

I didn't know this.. Did you? Have you ever been in a cemetery and saw coins laying on a tombstone? There is actually a reason behind it.


COINS LEFT ON TOMBSTONES


While visiting some cemeteries you may notice that headstones marking certain graves have coins on them, left by previous visitors to the grave.

These coins have distinct meanings when left on the headstones of those who gave their life while serving in America's military, and these meanings vary depending on the denomination of coin.

A coin left on a headstone or at the grave site is meant as a message to the deceased soldier's family that someone else has visited the grave to pay respect. Leaving a penny at the grave means simply that you visited.

A nickel indicates that you and the deceased trained at boot camp together, while a dime means you served with him in some capacity. By leaving a quarter at the grave, you are telling the family that you were with the solider when he was killed.

According to tradition, the money left at graves in national cemeteries and state veterans cemeteries is eventually collected, and the funds are put toward maintaining the cemetery or paying burial costs for indigent veterans.

In the US, this practice became common during the Vietnam war, due to the political divide in the country over the war; leaving a coin was seen as a more practical way to communicate that you had visited the grave than contacting the soldier's family, which could devolve into an uncomfortable argument over politics relating to the war.

Some Vietnam veterans would leave coins as a "down payment" to buy their fallen comrades a beer or play a hand of cards when they would finally be reunited.

The tradition of leaving coins on the headstones of military men and women can be traced to as far back as the Roman Empire.

 

[vitanola]

"Let Us Not Forget":

[video=youtube;82Y9LBkB8ac]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82Y9LBkB8ac&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/video]

"This is Edison speaking. Our boys made good in France, the word 'American' has a new meaning in Europe. Our soldiers have made it mean courage, generosity, self-restraint and modesty. We are proud of the North Americans who risked their lives for the liberty of the world. But we must not forget and we must not permit demagogues to belittle the part played by our gallant allies. Their casualty list tells the story. However proud we may be of our own achievements, let us remember always, that the war could not have been won if the Belgians, the British, the French and the Italians had not fought
like bull-dogs in the face of overwhelming odds. The Great War will live dilately in the minds of Americans for the next hundred years. I hope that when we do reverence to the memory of our brave boys who fell in France, we shall not forget their brothers in arms who wore the uniform of our allies. I believe that the national airs of France, Great Britain, Italy and Belgium should for all time to come be as familiar to us as our own Star Spangled Banner."

 

[LizzieMaine]

"The Great War will live dilately in the minds of Americans for the next hundred years. I hope that when we do reverence to the memory of our brave boys who fell in France, we shall not forget their brothers in arms who wore the uniform of our allies. I believe that the national airs of France, Great Britain, Italy and Belgium should for all time to come be as familiar to us as our own Star Spangled Banner."

Very appropriate. One of the graves I visited today was that of a boy from my home town who died in the Argonne. No one had left flowers, but there was, at least, a fresh flag when I stopped to pay respects.

 

[VintageBee]

Thank you to all who fought for our freedom

 

[Harp]

What stays with you latest and deepest? of curious panics,
Of hard-fought engagements or sieges tremendous what deepest remains?

Whitman

 

[gear-guy]

Thanks for those who have served and are serving now, and also to all who stay home and raise a family. All too often we forget the sacrifice of the spouse, partner,or loved ones who stay home,raise kids,run a household, and work a job. I also say thanks for all of you!:eusa_clap

To Archie the birth father of my wife, you never got to see her grow up or see your granddaughter or great granddaughter,but you would be proud!

 

[ChiTownScion]

When we meet thus, when we do honor to the dead in terms that must sometimes embrace the living, we do not deceive ourselves. We attribute no special merit to a man for having served when all were serving. We know that, if the armies of our war did anything worth remembering, the credit belongs not mainly to the individuals who did it, but to average human nature. We also know very well that we cannot live in associations with the past alone, and we admit that, if we would be worthy of the past, we must find new fields for action or thought, and make for ourselves new careers.

But, nevertheless, the generation that carried on the war has been set apart by its experience. Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing. While we are permitted to scorn nothing but indifference, and do not pretend to undervalue the worldly rewards of ambition, we have seen with our own eyes, beyond and above the gold fields, the snowy heights of honor, and it is for us to bear the report to those who come after us. But, above all, we have learned that whether a man accepts from Fortune her spade, and will look downward and dig, or from Aspiration her axe and cord, and will scale the ice, the one and only success which it is his to command is to bring to his work a mighty heart.

Such hearts--ah me, how many!--were stilled twenty years ago; and to us who remain behind is left this day of memories. Every year--in the full tide of spring, at the height of the symphony of flowers and love and life--there comes a pause, and through the silence we hear the lonely pipe of death. Year after year lovers wandering under the apple trees and through the clover and deep grass are surprised with sudden tears as they see black veiled figures stealing through the morning to a soldier's grave. Year after year the comrades of the dead follow, with public honor, procession and commemorative flags and funeral march--honor and grief from us who stand almost alone, and have seen the best and noblest of our generation pass away.

But grief is not the end of all. I seem to hear the funeral march become a paean. I see beyond the forest the moving banners of a hidden column. Our dead brothers still live for us, and bid us think of life, not death--of life to which in their youth they lent the passion and joy of the spring. As I listen , the great chorus of life and joy begins again, and amid the awful orchestra of seen and unseen powers and destinies of good and evil our trumpets sound once more a note of daring, hope, and will.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Assosiate Justice, United States Supreme Court, and veteran, Twentieth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry

Memorial Day, 1884

 

[Zombie_61]

I didn't know this.. Did you?

I had never heard of this, or seen coins on a headstone; now I will be mindful of it from this day forward. Thank you for sharing!