Memorial Day Weekend

TEN HUT .. SALUTE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...zrsyCtoWY&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...zrsyCtoWY&NR=1

Originally Posted by bigtex

Bump.

And BT that's tough stuff right there.

One of America's greatest memorials................

Originally Posted by LexusLover

The greatest as far as I am concerned. A tribute to the generosity of the USA.

Let us remember the Benghazi 4 who were abandoned and left behind by their country. Of the 4, I especially think about the former Navy Seal who was certain American air support was on its way and sacrificed his life putting a laser target on a terrorist mortar. Unfortunately for him, no American air support was sent and his targeting gave away his position and life. The world notices these "small" things.

The greatest as far as I am concerned. A tribute to the generosity of the USA. Originally Posted by LexusLover

Amen.

At ease, soldier.

The greatest as far as I am concerned. A tribute to the generosity of the USA. Originally Posted by LexusLover

To all those who lie there. Those we know, and those we have forgotten.

Thank you to all of you.

To all our Veterans of long ago and today. Thanks for keeping our country safe and free.


http://youtu.be/VmNWoNTYhi4

Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

COG,
This day was not a time to inject political discourse. Period.
LL

Let us remember the Benghazi 4 who were abandoned and left behind by their country. Of the 4, I especially think about the former Navy Seal who was certain American air support was on its way and sacrificed his life putting a laser target on a terrorist mortar. Unfortunately for him, no American air support was sent and his targeting gave away his position and life. The world notices these "small" things. Originally Posted by Uncle Han

No thanks to your political statement uncle ham

COG,
This day was not a time to inject political discourse. Period.
LL Originally Posted by LexusLover

Well stated LL! While you and I have often disagreed in the past, this particular topic is something we have always agreed upon. Indeed, there is a time and place for everything. However one chooses to observe Memorial Day is up to each individual. But in my mind, it should be to remember and honor those who have given their lives for this country, not to "inject political discourse."

Every man in my family, including my immigrant Irish grandfather, served in the U.S. Armed Forces. I lost an 18-year-old cousin in Vietnam, and my already-widowed uncle, who had also borne the passing of his firstborn young son due to scarlet fever (something I survived as a child), was so distraught at the death of his remaining son far away from home, he committed suicide not long after. I remember being at 2 funerals in one month, pretty scary for the little girl I was at the time looking up at the big coffins.

Even though our warriors currently aren't fighting within their "native land" like the one below, this poem by 19th century Irish writer John Banim, a contemporary of Sir Walter Scott, reminds me of how our soldiers were viewed after Vietnam, might again be treated following future conflicts, and would have been applicable after the Civil War to the Confederacy. At the time, it was probably very political, but penned in homage and sadness more than a century and a half ago, it still holds powerful imagery about the fear all soldiers face in battle, the bravery they must show then, and the fortitude they must have after they return home.

The Irish Soldier
by John Banim (1798-1842)

The Irish soldier cast for fight,
Stood to his arms at dead of night,
Watching the east, until its ray
To the battle--field should show his way;--
Soldier, soldier, soldier brave,
You will fight though they call you slave,
And though you but help a bandit hand
Uncheck'd to kill in your native land.

The soldier thought on his chance of doom--
How the trampled sod might be his tomb--
How, in evening's dusk, his sightless stare
To the small pale stars might upward glare;--
Soldier, soldier, soldier brave,
You will fight though you think of the grave--
Though it yawn so near you, black and chill,
Honor and courage man you still.

And o'er his solemn brow he made
The Christian sign, and humbly said--
``Your prayers, good saints, if I should fall;
And for mercy, O Lord, on you I call!''--
Irish soldier, soldier brave,
You will fight, although you crave
The prayers of the saints your own to aid,
And the sign of the cross on your brow have made.

The morning broke--the bugle blew--
The voice of command the soldier knew,
And stern and straight in the van he stood,
And shouting, he rush'd to the work of blood;--
Irish soldier, soldier bold,
Thousands lay round you, crimson'd and cold--
But over their bodies you still fought on,
Till down you sank as the day was won.

And the Irish soldier now hath come,
Worn, and wounded, and crippled, home,
The hated, and slander'd, and scorn'd of those
Who safely slept while he faced their foes;--
Irish soldier, soldier bold,
In your native land you now are told
'Twas traitor--blood on that field you lost,
For you call'd on the saints, and your brow you cross'd!

How is what I posted political? If you really want to honor our fallen, let's do all we can to not add to their numbers. Do you really have a problem with that? Is wanting to prevent war a right/left issue? Or is war patriotic, per se?

You people will criticize anything if I say it. I could post that the sky is blue, and someone would call me a shit sucking faggot liar.