as a Gulf War I vet, i will walk over to my parent's house and have a summer wheat ale with my Pops, a Korean War vet. Mom will sit with us and we will talk about the Neil Young Heart of Gold concert doc that we took in recently and enjoy the 80F+ temps and abundant sunshine.
we will also talk about the guy who lived one block over that went to VietNam and whose name is inscribed on the town's VietNam Memorial.
Before I retired, I never took off Memorial Day off. I never understood it, after 1963 when I found out a classmate had died in a war in a country I'd never heard of - Viet Nam. Years later, as a Viet Nam "era" veteran [non-combatant, assigned to Europe], I didn't understand what there was to celebrate. The holiday didn't fit its stated meaning. How was eating hot dogs and auto racing related to remembering our war dead?
A few years ago, I read an article about parades in Palestine where people carried photographs of young men, "heros" who had become suicide bombers. I was horrified at the tragedy of that. The article said they had people trying to join up all the time. It was hard to read.
Last summer, we were staying in an Atlanta airport motel before catching a very early flight. The motel was full of teenagers. I thought it might be a Band Trip. It wasn't. The next morning, they were out front loading onto buses, headed for Fort Benning.
On Memorial Day, I feel an uncomfortable sadness. Thanks for the reminder...
Posted by Mickey at May 28, 2006 04:07 AMI will toast my Uncle Roy, who was in every major naval battle in the pacific in WWII, getting hit by kama-kazis, pulling sailors out of burning gun turrets and picking up survivors from the Lexington.
He served as a Chief on the destroyers Aulick, Compton, Anderson and The Sullivans. 23 years in the US Navy, he also saw action in Korea.
He was a member of the SAR, as we have 2 relatives who fought in the Revolution.
And cheers to my Uncle Tony who was a Sherman tank gunner at the D-day landings, and just died this year, thinking the Iraq War was a monumental mistake.
Posted by TIKI AL at May 28, 2006 05:34 AM"On Memorial Day, I feel an uncomfortable sadness."
Mickey, a description that defines exactly what I am feeling also.
My Uncle is the only one who served in our family. He was in WWII, and I believe he was in the Military Police. He speaks nothing, as silence has always been his rule when it came to discussing personal experiences in WWII. However, ask him his thoughts on this pResident and this War, and you will unleash a running dialogue of contempt.
There is no honor in this War and it is time to bring these men/women home to their families and those who love them.
Posted by Judith at May 28, 2006 05:36 AM
Disrepectfully juvenile commentary and activity link deleted by host
Posted by dawnaggio at May 28, 2006 06:16 AMSpeaking of Veterans, finally Kerry is going after the so-called Swift Boaters and their lying.
Kerry Pressing Swift Boat Case Long After Loss
Posted by Judith at May 28, 2006 06:52 AM
The children of Guantanamo Bay
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article620704.ece
Posted by Judith at May 28, 2006 07:00 AMHonor them, by working to pressure the Bush junta to end the Iraq war.
Then, impeach the Motherfucker from Midland, after we regain the US House in November.
Finally, end GOP attempts to cut funding for medical care for returning veterans. This Republican practice is immoral.
Posted by Christopher at May 28, 2006 07:01 AMFor Veteran's Day I will remember my father, a WWII vet, combat marine in South Pacific, awarded the Silver Cross for bravery in the battle of Bloody Nose Ridge on Pelilu. He spent much of his adult life helping men like himself, alcoholics, suffering from PTSD to heal and have a good life. When he was on a hospital ship returning to the states after being wounded on Okinawa, he made a promise that in war he had seen so much cruelty he was going to learn to be a kind person. He did that.
Two weeks before he died of kidney failure he changed his voter registration from life-long Republican to Democrat. He said the Republicans had lost respect for peace, for the environment, and even for veterans and common decency. They had become a party of corrupt extremist ideologues. To his dying day he suffered from the violence of WWII and spoke of what a terrible traged it is.
Bill R.
Bob Schieffer brought up an excellent point today on Face the Nation. While we remember and honor the fallen soldier, we must also remember the ones who went to war whole, and came home disabled, mentally and physically.
Posted by Judith at May 28, 2006 08:08 AM
I will put out my flag, mow the lawn, cook some ribs, and spend the rest of the day watching old war movies, remembering the faces of the three of my Officer's Candidate School classmates who were KIA in Vietnam. I will also reflect on a poem by the late Grantland Rice, who, as a sportswriter, knew a thing or two about human beings facing desperate battles.
"All wars are fought by old men
in council rooms apart,
who map the battle plan and plan
the battle chart.
But out beyond their sightless eyes
Beyond life's vanished joys,
I've noticed nearly all the dead
are hardly more than boys."
T'was ever thus. I wish it was not.
Posted by PretzelsOne at May 28, 2006 08:35 AMPretzelsOne, thanks for the poem. Very sad, and very true.
Posted by Judith at May 28, 2006 09:02 AMI will think of my three living uncles and my deceased dad, all of whom served during WWII.
I will remember my own service in the sixties.
I will use the fact that it is Memorial Day to tell anyone who wants to listen how much I opposed the invasion of Iraq, and how much more correct I turned out to be on that subject than the president of ths United States, who deserted his unit during his "service."
And I will spend a few luxurious minutes hating the cowardly assholes who would place other people in harm's way after doing everything they could to avoid service themselves, and who do not feel the pain I do over every one of the tens of thousands of innocent people killed by my country in Iraq.
Posted by Repack Rider at May 28, 2006 09:16 AMRepack, speaking of cowardly assholes, whats your take on ppj; think he's a paid shill? Ya think TL knows it?
Posted by jondee at May 28, 2006 02:46 PMFor relatives on my Dad's side, I'll think about those who served in the Revolutionary war. I'll think of those who died defending their tribes against American troops. I'll think of one with his name on the Alamo. Don't think anyone died in the Civil War -they all moved west because they thought it was not their fight (very rational bastards). Lost a couple in WWI, my Dad's brother in WWII. Lost no one in Korea or Vietnam, Iraq, etc. though many served. Pretty similar for my Mom's side. Lot's of death in war. We'll be at the cemetaries for a bit, then I'm getting shit-faced and calling friends to talk about the idiots running the asylum in Washington.
Too many deaths in war to tolerate stupidity targeted at gaining a legacy through a trumped-up war.
Posted by phidipides at May 28, 2006 07:50 PMEvidently Bush compared himself to Truman during a speech at West Point.
Truman put on his desk, "The Buck Stops Here." In the Bush Administration this applies to no one in this administration's accountability-free zone.
It was patriotism, a sense of duty and a love of freedom that led Bush's West Point audience to enter our armed forces. It is that spirit, and that sacrifice, which we honor on Memorial Day. It's tragic that these young men and and women are being asked to clean up the mess that Bush himself made, to mend crockery that Bush himself broke, to pacify a terrorist breeding ground that Bush himself created. They are willing to risk their lives so that those who went before them to Iraq did not do so in vain; the disgrace is that it is Bush's vanity, not the cause of freedom, that makes their own sacrifice necessary.
It's a saving grace, I suppose, that Bush didn't wear a flight suit to address the graduating cadets. But dressing himself as Harry Truman is the rhetorical equivalent of borrowing a warrior's codpiece, and stuffing it with delusional righteousness.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marty-kaplan/the-bush-stops-here_b_21721.html
Posted by Judith at May 29, 2006 01:58 AMI'm not doing anything special today. But I will put in a good word here for my uncle who passed away right before Xmas. My dad used to say "he went to war too young" and I presume that was why he stayed a bachelor all his life (?). My dad had mental problems and died fairly early himself, but he never spoke about Okanawa that I know of. I'm happy to say my aunt just recently gave me a hand-drawn Xmas card "Greetings from Okanawa" that my dad made way back. It's a pencil sketch with a little stain on it. I'll be cleaning it up and scanning (and maybe delicately colorizing the holly leaves and berries?) for next Christmas to send around.
I'll be thinking of the death of spirit that goes hand in hand with wars.
Okinawa is how it's s'posed to be spelled.
Have a good day everyone.
Posted by Sharon at May 29, 2006 06:58 AM