Memorial Day

[getsome]

Wishing a safe and happy Memorial Day to all the members of this great forum....I give my most Humble Thank You to all current and former Military Veterans who have Served our Great Country so Honorably and who have given me the Freedoms that I Cherish Today....God Bless You All and God Bless America....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ST4Nva-ShI

[cigarrodog]

Amen.

[jocko]

amen getsome, now lets get the fokking government out of the vets way and let them pick the hosptial of their choosing. Why did we ever need VA hospitals in the first polac,e just givbe every vet a PAID IN FULL VOUCHER and let him go where ever he wants. He can't get jacke dup any worse than what the VA has been doing to our soldiers. really pisses me off, but our POTUS, he that worthless POS is MADDER THAN HELL.

I really wanted to make the Ride to the Wall again this year but things did not work out for me to do it. Sure makes me humble when I leave that area. they outta make our POTUS and alal the members of congress sit in front of the capital building and watch the procession of riders who are there to honor those who gaqve some and to those who gave all... Salute

[Bill K]

Back at you...

Your avatar looks like a manned side door .50 caliber machine gun. Did you serve as a crewman or armorer in a helicopter squadron?

Thankfully the outfit I served with in Vietnam suffered no casualties while in country. Unfortunately we did loose a pilot and radar intercept officer in a training accident shortly before deployment.

[DavidS]

Went with my family to watch my big brother depart for Vietnam in '68. First time I ever saw my mother cry. (He came home safe)
Next year I graduated HS and wanted to join up. Mom said you are only 17 and you can't without my signature, do something else! So I went to college. Right decision, thanks Mom. (Joined the Navy after college).

[getsome]

(Quote) Bill K....
Back at you...

Your avatar looks like a manned side door .50 caliber machine gun. Did you serve as a crewman or armorer in a helicopter squadron?

Thankfully the outfit I served with in Vietnam suffered no casualties while in country. Unfortunately we did loose a pilot and radar intercept officer in a training accident shortly before deployment...



No sir, I didn't have the honor of serving in the Military....When I was just out of High School I was doing a little recon work in the back seat of a Chevelle with the current Mrs. Getsome of 38 years and that little bit of heavy action ended up with a little Getsome 9 months later so I was in a hurry to find a job at the time to feed my new family which I luckly was able to do but I really think I messed up by not joining the Military and to this day I regret that decision....

I still love to shake the hand or pay for a Vet's lunch when I see a Military member in uniform or a Vet with a Vietnam hat on out in public and I made sure my children did the same when they were growing up...It always amazes me how they always seem surprised and so thankful for the attention...

I'm going to be away from the forum until next week which is why I started this thread so early....I like to tell this story which happened to me on a Memorial day a couple years back...Each Sunday and on National Holidays I raise the Flag at our Church and that particular Memorial Day morning it was very foggy and as I got the flag up and began to tie off the ropes I noticed a little old man with a cane that looked 100 years old came limping up the walk towards me out of the mist....He was wearing a Army dress uniform and at first he didn't say a word but stood there like a ghost....All of the sudden he stood up as straight as he could and came to attention and smartly saluted the flag....He said he was the local American legion Captain and was on the way to the post when he saw me raising the flag and wanted to stop and thank me for doing it because most people don't anymore....

I was flabbergasted and didn't know what to say to a WWII Combat Vet thanking me for doing what everybody should do every day of the year....I mumbled out a you're welcome sir and the old Soldier limped back to his car and drove off...I stood there for a minute wondering, did that really just happen???....I still get choked up thinking about him....

[getsome]

amen getsome, now lets get the fokking government out of the vets way and let them pick the hosptial of their choosing. Why did we ever need VA hospitals in the first polac,e just givbe every vet a PAID IN FULL VOUCHER and let him go where ever he wants. He can't get jacke dup any worse than what the VA has been doing to our soldiers. really pisses me off, but our POTUS, he that worthless POS is MADDER THAN HELL.

I really wanted to make the Ride to the Wall again this year but things did not work out for me to do it. Sure makes me humble when I leave that area. they outta make our POTUS and alal the members of congress sit in front of the capital building and watch the procession of riders who are there to honor those who gaqve some and to those who gave all... Salute


Have no fear Jocko, I heard President Puddy Tat say he was outraged about the VA mess and wouldn't tolerate it PERIOD....Kinda like if you like your insurance plan you can keep it PERIOD and if you like your Doctor you can keep your Doctor PERIOD....so He's all over this one....

I heard today that the terriorist prisoners at Guantanamo get much better medical treatment than our Vets do through the VA....Illegal Immigrants in Arizona get much better FREE medical care than out Vets do at a VA Hospital....He!! even that stinking turncoat girly boy, Bradley (Chelsea) Manning gets better, more timely treatment in Leavenworth than a Vet at a VA Hospital.... FREAKING DISGUSTING...
If Ovomit is Commander in Cheif then he should be jailed for being AWOL and for Dereliction of Duty.....I hope this is the scandal that breaks the camels back but I doubt it and Jay Carney will just spin it up again.......

Time to take out the TRASH in D.C.

[muggsy]

I'm up for giving Chelsea the sex change operation that he seeks and I have just the dull rusty knife to use.

[berettabone]

Wishing a safe and happy Memorial Day to all the members of this great forum....I give my most Humble Thank You to all current and former Military Veterans who have Served our Great Country so Honorably and who have given me the Freedoms that I Cherish Today....God Bless You All and God Bless America....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ST4Nva-ShI
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[cohoskip]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ST4Nva-ShI

Thanks for posting that, Getsome...

[downtownv]

Thanks Getsome that was moving.


I'd like to add one for you tough guys!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfj4s7OaMZQ

[AIRret]

amen getsome, now lets get the fokking government out of the vets way and let them pick the hosptial of their choosing. Why did we ever need VA hospitals in the first polac,e just givbe every vet a PAID IN FULL VOUCHER and let him go where ever he wants. He can't get jacke dup any worse than what the VA has been doing to our soldiers. really pisses me off, but our POTUS, he that worthless POS is MADDER THAN HELL.

I really wanted to make the Ride to the Wall again this year but things did not work out for me to do it. Sure makes me humble when I leave that area. they outta make our POTUS and alal the members of congress sit in front of the capital building and watch the procession of riders who are there to honor those who gaqve some and to those who gave all... Salute

I agree Jocko, I drive an hour and a half so I can go to a decent VA in Ann Arbor, MI instead of 40 mins. to a fancy new VA in Detroit that has NO CLUE!!!

Thanks for the post, getsome!
I'm retired AF but I definitely didn't see the action my husband did. HE was drafted and saw action in Vietnam as an infantry man…….he definitely earned his "Combat Infantry Badge"!

[DeaconKC]

Well said! Thanks from here too!

[Tinman507]

Been away for a few days. My bride and I took a couple of friends down to DC for the weekend. Neither had ever been there before so we wanted to take them to see some of our special must see places. We arrived on Friday about noon at the Air & Space Museum near Dulles and saw all the cool stuff there.

Saturday we drove to Arlington and parked the truck. Hopped one on the tour buses into town and went immediately to the National Archives. You MUST see the Declaration, Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They are the reason all the rest of this city and country exists. We then walked along the National Mall and saw all the magnificent buildings and monuments along there. Walked down to the Wall. I had forgotten that being Memorial Day weekend, Rolling Thunder was talking place. Thousands of Vets of all ages and thousands of Bikes parked everywhere. Many were looking at the wall, some crying, some taking rubbings of the 53,000 names there.

We left there and grabbed a bus back to Arlington and went up to the Tomb. We saw the changing of the guard and then we were privileged to see a wreath ceremony from the West Point Class of 89. Tons of brass there and at least one general officer. The sight of the thousands of headstones with "Flags In" is both sobering and awe inspiring. All those men and women who gave it all for us is something none of us should ever take for granted.

Sunday morning we wanted to go back into town to see Rolling Thunder ride around the mall. We stood on Constitution Ave in front of Museum of Natural History and watched literally 10's of thousands of bikes roll by. Waving to the Vets and cheering them. This was the 25th anniversary of their first Rolling Thunder Ride for Freedom in 1988.

Here's some video I shot. We stood there for 2 full hours and they never let up.

7PCPo3f0NYU

Made me damned proud to be an American.

Thank you to all the men and women who made sacrifices and to all who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Happy Memorial Day All!

[Pointblank]

Twenty years ago I read this news story. I saved it and read it every Memorial Day:


05/12/94 Prize-Winning Author Kills Self

WASHINGTON--Vietnam veteran Lewis Puller, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his autobiography, shot and killed himself Wednesday at his Virginia home, police report.

Puller, 48, lost both legs when he stepped on a mine while serving in Vietnam with the Marines in 1968. His story of the ordeal and it's repercussions, titled "Fortunate Son," won a Pulitzer in 1992.

Puller's father was the legendary Lewis "Chesty" Puller, whose heroism in the Pacific during World War II made him the most decorated Marine in history, being awarded 56 medals in a 37-year military career.

The younger Puller worked as a lawyer at the Defense Dept, but left after winning the Pulitzer to become a writer-in-residence at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Police revealed no other details of the death of Puller, who fought depression and alcoholism after returning from the war.

Of his Vietnam War memoir, Puller once said:

"It was something I had to do. Of course, it's not over, I wouldn't want Vietnam to go away, it was too important."

Puller grew up in the shadow of his father, who was proud that his forebears had fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War and who gave his son a .22 hunting rifle at the age of 6.

But the older Puller did not live to see his son's literary success, dying in 1971 apparently heartbroken over his son's terrible wounds.

Puller graduated in 1967 with an English degree from William and Mary College before joining the Marines. He married Linda Ford Todd in 1968 and she was 3 months pregnant with their son when he was shipped to Vietnam.

On October 11 that year, he set off a *****-trapped howitzer round and lost both his legs, large sections of his torso and most of his left hand.

"I wondered at the time if I was doing the right thing by allowing you to live," wrote the doctor who treated the young lieutenant on the battlefield. "Never had I seen more severe traumatic injuries in a patient who had lived."

His wife Toddy helped nurse him back to health in a wheel chair, helped him earn a law degree in 1974, cleaned up after his alcoholic binges and campaigned for him in his unsuccessful 1978 run for Congress. The couple also had a 2d child, a daughter.

Although Puller never joined the anti-war movement, he felt bitterness toward the Nixon administration but also a kinship with the soldiers dying in Vietnam.

On the eve of a symbolic protest in which Vietnam vets were to march on the Capitol and throw away their medals, Puller changed
his mind.

"As I sat silently...feeling the weight of the bronze and silver in my hand and studying the red, white and blue stripes of my Silver Star and the majestic cameo of George Washington on my Purple Hearts, I knew that I could never part with them," Puller wrote in "Fortunate Son."

"They had cost me too dearly, and though I now saw clearly that the war in which they had been earned was a wasted cause, the medals still represented the dignity and the calibre of my service and of those with whom I had served."

"I could no more discard them than I could repudiate my country, my Marine Corps or my fellow veterans," Puller wrote.

(From Reuters)

[GROTMAN]

Wishing a safe and happy Memorial Day to all the members of this great forum....I give my most Humble Thank You to all current and former Military Veterans who have Served our Great Country so Honorably and who have given me the Freedoms that I Cherish Today....God Bless You All and God Bless America....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ST4Nva-ShI

+1 Big thumbs up to all of you who have served and are serving. :Amflag2:
http://someonenoticed.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/thumbsupd.png (http://someonenoticed.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/someone-noticed-awards-thumbs-up-to-newspaper-for-being-an-advocate-for-open-government/)

[AIRret]

Thanks pointblank, that was special!!!

[ced_56]

Thanks to all who have served, are serving, or will server. Also thanks to the group we often forget to thank....their families. Not an easy life especially during deployment times.