This weekend, stay safe, enjoy family and friends, and remember...

[Basil]

 

[NutmegCT]

amen to that! it's not a holiday for upbeat concerts, cookouts, flags on all the lamp posts, it's a holiday to remember things like this:

SGT James Regan | Rangers Remembered

rangersremembered.com

 

[DrEntropy]

I have no concern over our flag on lamp posts. Fly it whenever/wherever.

 

[Basil]

I have no concern over our flag on lamp posts. Fly it whenever/wherever.

I’m with you on that point.

 

[AngliaGT]

amen to that! it's not a holiday for upbeat concerts, cookouts, flags on all the lamp posts, it's a holiday to remember things like this:

View attachment 108745

SGT James Regan | Rangers Remembered

rangersremembered.com

I believe that's at Arlington.I visited Tony Barnhill's grave there,& it was a very
sobering experience.The personal items & photographs that people left really affected
me.
I met the director of Arlington,& he told me that he was very respectful to the people
visiting there,that it was a very personal time for many.
I also noticed a row of graves with the same date of death on them,& realized that
they were all in a helicopter that went down in Iraq.

 

[equiprx]

I believe that's at Arlington.I visited Tony Barnhill's grave there,& it was a very
sobering experience.The personal items & photographs that people left really affected
me.
I met the director of Arlington,& he told me that he was very respectful to the people
visiting there,that it was a very personal time for many.
I also noticed a row of graves with the same date of death on them,& realized that
they were all in a helicopter that went down in Iraq.

SJT James Regan was from very near where I lived on Long Island, from 1964 to 1977.
But I moved to California a few years before he was even born.
My significant Vet was Harry Taylor from my class of 1965 at H F Carey High School.
We were both drafted in 1969 and were on the same bus headed for Ft Dix.
Harry was a multi sports star at H F Carey High School, I had no interest in sports or High School.
I got busted for ditching classes and forging absence passes.
As we were boarding the bus Harry asked if he could sit with me.
I knew Harry from school but not more than tangentially.
He said If we asked the Army to be buddies we could do our basic training together and be deployed together.
I was probably the shortest and skinniest kid in our graduating class and harry was 6 ft and strong.
What I felt he was saying was he would stick up for me if I got bullied.
I was sent home that day for a sketchy medical reason (another different story).
Once I got home that day, I didn't have contact with anyone, mostly out of embarrassment.
I never heard from Harry after that, but years after, I heard that he died about 6 months after deployment.
To me he was already a hero, that day on the bus, and I think of him nearly every day.
He would have probably taken a bullet for me, God only knows why.
I 'visited' his name online at the wall a few times and wrote our story on the comments.
Even though I eventually protested against the war, I never protested against the servicemen.
If there is a Heaven Harry is definitely there.

 

[NutmegCT]

I never protested against the servicemen.

Exactly the same here. The "conflict" was a result of politics and treaties. The servicemen were often pulled into it.

Let's keep this thread about the purpose of Memorial Day.

 

[Basil]

Let's keep this thread about the purpose of Memorial Day.

And that means keep the dang politics OUT OF IT!!!