REMEMBRANCE DAY...we shall remember them.

[PADDY]

TODAY (11th November) is REMEMBRANCE DAY. Spare a thought at 11am (for 2 minutes) today, wherever in the world you may be, for those young men and women who have given their lives over two great wars and many smaller ones to date, so that we may enjoy the freedom that many of us now take for granted.

Our freedom is founded on a bedrock of blood, sweat and tears.

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 not grow old, as we who 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 shall 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.


As

Laurence Binyon

For the Fallen (Valediction)

 

[swinggal]

Yes, Rememeberance Day is important here in Australia too. I have my Red Poppy pinned to my shirt today. Lest we forget.

 

[Hondo]

"Veterans Day" here in the U.S.A. remember a Vet.

What will you do? Today were having a review, Parade of veterans, remembering all. Then I'l kick back and watch some films, Patton, Saving Private Ryan, 12 O?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢clock High just to name a few.
God Bless them one and all.
:cheers1:

 

[Rigby Reardon]

I thought we might include a toast tonight at Sir Winston's, as well. For all who stood in the line of fire, for all who stood vigil.

 

[K.D. Lightner]

Mother and I are about to leave to visit Laurel Hill cemetary. My father is buried there in the veteran's section. He was in the US Navy in WW II and served on the USS Vogelgesang. There will be new decorations on the military graves, and mother and I will bring flowers.

Let us also remember those in WW I. About a year ago, I read that there were only about 200 of them left worldwide, all of them are over 100, now. The oldest, a US Veteran from Puerto Rico, is 114 -- one of the oldest living people in the world today, maybe the oldest. Within a decade, they may very well be all gone.

If you are lucky today, there will be one of those vets riding in a convertible in a parade in your neck of the woods. Give him a cheer -- the last survivors of the Great War.

karol

 

[Miss Neecerie]

TODAY (11th November) is REMEMBRANCE DAY. Spare a thought at 11am (for 2 minutes) today, wherever in the world you may be, for those young men and women who have given their lives over two great wars and many smaller ones to date, so that we may enjoy the freedom that many of us now take for granted.

This is one of those things I got used to while I was in England and almost forget we don't do back over here. Thank you for reminding me.

 

[Johnnysan]

In honor of my father,

Gerald A. Little who served in the U.S. Army during WWII. He was, at various times, a member of the 1st Armored Division, 88th Infantry Division and Fifth Army as an enlisted man and non-com in the 403rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Batallion that saw action in the European Theater of Operations in North Africa and Italy. He was awarded five major combat stars for service including Monte Cassino and the Po Valley Campaign in 1945.

To all who have served us all so faithfully and well, my sincerest respect and thanks.

 

[SHARPETOYS]

My dad is buried in Arlington Cemetery. He was a veteran of WW11, Korea and Vietnam. He died at age 55 in 1978 he is still in my heart each and every day. To my dad who I love so very much.

As we commemorate this Veterans Day, it is fitting to reflect on the sacrifices made by our veterans and by their families. Whether we honor this service with grand parades or a simple handshake accompanied by a quiet ?¢‚Ǩ?ìthank you,?¢‚Ǩ? these heartfelt gestures let our fighting men and women know we have not forgotten those who answered the call to duty.

Wars have beginnings and endings, but our duty to care for those who fought them must never end.

 

[Captain America]

11:11

Ah the glorious few are all the fewer here
In the cold November air
The crowd draws silent
Their collars raised
To the edges of the square
The children's choir sings "In Flander's Fields"
The band plays "Over There"
The old heroes still try to dress the line
As the chaplain reads the prayer

For the glorious few no longer stand so straight
As they did long years before
When they faced a hard and cruel fate
On a far and distant shore
Their tunics faded green and blue
Poor shelter from the cold
The memories made yet raw and new
At the calling of the roll

The heads are bowed in silence now
At the tolling of the hour
The first few falling flakes of snow
Drift gently on the flowers
All piled and stacked against the stones
Petals fluttering in the air
The eyes that stare down through the years
At the ones no longer there

The taste of lost and wasted years
So bitter on the tongue
White breath in clouds in the autumn cold
Frail chests with medals hung
In battle ribbons red and gold
In the pale November sun
The hands and faces grown so old
While the heart stays ever young

For the glorious few are all the fewer here
The old soldiers form the square
The wind blows hard and shakes the leaves
And stirs the thin white hair
Of these fading brave and fragile souls
As the bugler plays "Last Post"
The snow falls thick and faster still
And turns them white as ghosts

Lest we forget...​

 

[The Wingnut]

Today is the first Veterans' Day without my grandpa.

He'd be proud of me. I rode in the back of 1943 Willys MB in a parade, dressed in USAAF flight gear with four other reenactors. We were officially part of the USAF entries in the parade.

 

[Steven180]

God bless all those that have sacrificed, suffered, and died in defense of freedom, their beliefs and rights, nation, family, and most importantly, in defense of friends with whom they served.

And God bless those that honor and respect their memory. May their tribute serve to defer and minimize wars of the future.

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." -John Stuart Mill.

M.

 

[MissMittens]

Let's also remember those who died in forgotten wars. While we still remember those who fought in WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, let's not forget those who fought in the world's true first World War, 1914-1918

If I should die, think only this of me:

That there's some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England. There shall be

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

Gave, once her flowers to love, her ways to roam,

A body of England's, breathing English air,

Washed by the rivers, blessed by the suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

In hearts a peace, under an English heaven.


Rupert Brooke (1887-1915)

 

[coalman]

To those who we owe so much too

lest we forget

 

[Story]

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

 

[Windsock]

For me this amazing collection of images brings it very much back to the present.


http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?.../?set=a.196095067075739.51313.194652777219968

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.195144437170802.50881.194652777219968

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.196102327075013.51318.194652777219968

 

[PADDY]

11/11/11

Spare a few thoughts during a quiet moment today...

 

[Spitfire]

They will not be forgotten.

Thank you!

 

[Shangas]

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.*

*It is Sweet and Honourable to Die for One's Country.

 

[Story]

http://icasualties.org/oef/

SSG Jorge M. Oliveira

*

CPT Omar Khaemes

 

[cco23i]

To my brothers and sisters who are and have served I lift a glass to you today. God bless you all.

Scott