Take a moment today to remember the people who have given their lives in the service of their country.
(Photo from flickr user jdcdc. Used under Creative Commons license.)
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Thank you for the Memorial Day rememberance from a Vietnam Veteran. Lost a friend in Vietnam.
From a Gulf War and Afghanistan veteran, thank you again for the support. I still think you shouold contact Chase masterson about her ‘Trek to the Troops’ I know many would enjoy meeting you and your witty stories.
AM1 Joe Haight
P.S. Glad you liked the coins.
They shall not grow old
As we grow old
Age shall not weary them
Nor the years condemn
At the going down of the Sun
And in the morning
We will remember them.
If you’re reading this – thank a teacher.
If you’re reading this in English – thank a Veteran.
And for your moment of implied cultural supremacy, thank commenter Bog.
Today, like many Americans, I am remembering friends and family who served in this country’s military.
My father, Louis L. Williams III, served in the US Signal Corps during WWII (despite a congenital hearing loss that left him legally deaf) and post-war worked for Harry Diamond Labs and the Army Material Command.
My grandfather, Dr. Louis L. Williams, Jr., despite his age (55!), went to North Africa during War II to aid our troops in dealing with malaria and encephalitis. His specialty at the US Public Health Service was malaria control. His war service ended when he suffered a heart attack in country.
My dear friend Lt. Col. Samuel Shumaker served in Korea and Vietnam and spent 2 years in a Korean POW camp. He was one of the first people to encourage my writing and gave me many books from his library that inspired and continue to inspire me.
My dear friend Bill Surgi was aboard the USS Yorktown at the Battle of Midway and survived in the water for two days afterward, despite a broken arm. When Dr. Robert Ballard went to look for the Japanese and American ships that were sunk at Midway, Bill was one of two sailors from the Yorktown who accompanied him. If you ever see the National Geographic special that was made about that trip, you will see what a lovely man Bill was.
I honor and remember the sacrifices of these dear good men. I also pray that such sacrifices will never be required ever again.
As a Navy vet and current Army spouse, just about to ship off her other half to Afghanistan.
Thank you.
Lumamoth, I have no idea what you’re talking about.
I’m posting from England, which would pretty certainly have been over-run in WWII if it were not for the intervention of the United States. That’s why I posted what I did. I have no idea what you’re trying to say, I’ve run it through my brain forwards and backwards and it doesn’t make much sense.
“There are twenty-five million living American Veterans. Since General George Washington commanded the Continental Army forty-two million Americans have served the colors.
A million have been killed in its defense. Another million and a half wounded.”
-Major General Kelly, from today’s memorial day address in Fallujah.
Men and women who stood in that cold and lonely place between the ones they loved and the desolation of war. They gave it all and I hope we do all we can to deserve it. We don’t, but I hope we try anyway.
Remember the debt owed by everyone who never wore a uniform, to everyone who ever wore one.
If you’re reading it in Esperanto, thank Google translate.
Has the day gone forever, when people sacrificed their personal safety to fight for principles, civil liberties and justice?
All I seem to see now in the west is people willing to throw away every last right, freedom and vestige of justice, in the false hope it will somehow keep them safer….
Lumamoth, I have no idea what you’re talking about.
M(r/s) Bog,
I think that Lunmoth was mistaking your emphasis. In the US, there is a strong strain of reactionary nationalism that has distaste for anyone else’s language. Many people in the US are radically against their children learning foreign languages because they see it is unpatriotic. The worst example is this TRUE quote from a Lutheran minister in Missouri: “If English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for my kids”.
I suspect that Lunamoth thought that you were coming from that point of view.
Just my $.067.
What I’m talking about, Bog, is that that quote, which has been bandied about in those interminal “forward this to a million people” emails, comes off as jingoistic and implies that English is the only language that should be celebrated. There are veterans in other countries besides English-speaking ones. Your comment suggests that only the fights of those English-speakers were worthwhile.
Note I don’t suggest that your comment *intended* this, just that that is how it comes across.
Thanks, Wil, for reminding me to thank Grant.
Anchorage theatre won’t be the same without your shenanigans, and neither will rock-climbing. Peace, my friend.
As the son of a combat veteran of WWII who nearly made the ultimate sacrifice , as he witnessed first hand many of his buddies do. My dad carried japanese steel and psychological trauma in him til’ his death in 2004, compliments of a Mitsubishi Zero, thanks for your sentiments! There are too many in this country that are clueless as to what others have done for them and to what others would do to them to silence not just nutty ideas, but everyday common sense freedoms that we so ardently make possible by staunch resistence and self sacrifice. Appeasement is no answer, to those who embrace brutality as the path to righteousness and glory, got that Mahmoud.
Note to Bog. No problem chap, I have 3 uncles who fought the Nazis and would’ve gladly fought for a freedom loving England again as would I, sadly only one of them is still alive.
For those railing against english, for the record English is the common international language as my Chinese Soldier, Friend and former roomy of four years tells me and if he can learn english from chinese, everybody else should be able to from just about anything else, its about communication. Feel free to learn or know all of the irrelevant languages you want, I know French and German myself not that I have much use for them. I think the disdain is over resentment held about how english came to be the international language, let go of your hatred and get over it. It didn’t happen to you and its a matter of dealing with the world in the here and now..and if your German or French and upset because I said your languages are irrelevant, they still are and my ancestry is German and French aswell as English.
Anyway I started out to say thanks for the sentiment! I gotta stop reading everybody elses blog when writing my own I feel the need to respond, I wouldn’t be writing at all but its a slow time in the design studio, please let this ringing be a cool job on the other end, bye.
Lunamoth,
That really wasn’t what I meant. I see on reflection how it could seem to skim over, or worse belittle, the millions of lives of non-English speaking servicefolk all over the world. That’s really not what I intended at all.
First: veterans, for what you’ve done for not only the US but for people around the world, thank you.
Second: I don’t think that any language is irrelevant. If nothing else, a certain language represents a certain culture. Personally, being part Native American, I don’t like the fact that English is the national (not to mention international) language, and I *really* hate it when people here in the US say, “Speak English or die!” or “Speak English or leave!” But that’s just me.
-Alicia
[email protected]
http://www.thewagband.com
Wil,
As a veteran, the son and grandson of veterans, going back to the time of Queen Elizabeth I, who granted my g-g-g-(etc.)grandfather, Edward Gurganyie, lands of the Engish Crown, and for the two uncles killed in the Pacific in WWII, after whom I am named, I thank you.
James Allen Davis
I’m getting an Obama feeling that some stuff stated here is about me. I’m getting the impression that it’s hard to convey ones intent even in english. I don’t mean to belittle or lessen the importance of other languages and I don’t certainly mean that you shouldn’t learn your ancestral culture or language, and they can have importance, (ex. Navaho Code Talkers) and getting in touch with ones roots, but learning a common language in which everyone can communicate can actually avert anybody dying from a lack of understanding of situations or intentions. I personally have never told anybody to “speak english or die” or “get out” my concerns are more to the contrary, people dying from a lack of understanding. I’m more concerned with the U.S. becoming the country of babel.
I’ll refer to my Chinese friend, family name Shah. Our common language transcended our misconceptions of each other and clarification of others. I was even able to get him to trust me enough that I wouldn’t hold his cultural ideas and beliefs against him, that he told me things that would make PETA go ballistic. Common language allowed all the pouch eating, commi lovin ideas told through media to be pushed aside, allowing me to know the man, an honorable man, worthy of respect, friendship, understanding, an admiration. I am honored to call him one of my best friends. In contrast, his mother called all the way from China one time, He wasn’t there and she spoke nothing but Chinese, the only thing I could do was hang up, she could of been screaming bloody murder and send help for all I knew. In short there needs to be a common language.
Since nearly a third of the worlds population can understand or speak english as a first or second language, it has risen to dominance and most important internationally even if it was through dubious means of british colonialism in many places. I didn’t mean to say that any language, race, or culture was irrelevant, but that was just a word my German teacher used to describe the language and its importance in a world arena. She was a german, in fact she had the unfortunate plight of being born in Hitler’s wonderland and growing up in the rubble.
Since this post is about veterans, It seems I’ve been surrounded by war my whole life. My neighbor who landed on normandy that fateful morning stabbed a Hitler youth in the heart with the kids own knife. He was haunted by visions of that kids face the rest of his life, and he definitely batted an eye upon doing so. It is important that people understand that killing or witnessing those killed is not something that the average soldier takes in stride, they will need your support well into the future to deal with, even if they seem O.K. now. My father didn’t have psych support back then nor did my neighbor. Believe me, I know, it messes people up.
Oh sweet Sagan’s Ghost…! Wil, I am so sorry – I seem to have turned the comments in your Memorial Day post into something that distracts everyone from the fallen, and what they gave us. I am so sorry man 🙁
Though I suppose, at least, we are free to have this misunderstandings and silly arguments. I’ve already apologised if I seemed silly and jingoistic, I shan’t do so twice, but to reiterate:
The language doesn’t matter, nor the country of origin. What matters is our freedom, our love of it, and the respect we pay to those who paid the ultimate price that we may have it.
I quipped cheaply, and it offended someone and they zapped me back. We traded words, and I think it’s fine. Can we please drop the language thing and get back to respecting those who gave us a world where we can obsess about minutiae please?
See, Bog gets it, even if others didn’t!
Remember folks: the Internets are no longer just for porn, they’re also the place where everyone goes to tell others they’re wrong! 😀
::raises glass::
“To our friends who are still in the desert!”
(ancient Foreign Legion toast)
Jim Heivilin
MAJ, USAR, EN
Your post (and post title) reminded me of a picture (Flickr) I took in Normandy, France.
I’m from the Netherlands and I realize I owe a lot (maybe even my existence) to the U.S., British and Canadian forces.
I was really moved and grateful when I was at that cemetery and think every European should go there at least once.
I’m always glad to see people remember and honor our military, especially for those that have made the ultimate sacrifice.
In responce to wandrew’s comment, I happen to have an M51 field jacket that has the name Lt. Col. Shumaker written on the inside of the collar. Could this be the same as your dear friend? Please let me know.