FOR MEMORIAL DAY

This AP photo by Danny Johnston:

Madeline Grace Wallace, age 4, carried flags for the graves at the National Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas, on Friday, May 25, 2012.

May many Americans remember to honor our military on this and every Memorial Day!

MEMORIAL DAY 2011

This Memorial Day 2011, the following has been made possible at Arlington National Cemetery:

MEDITATION FOR MEMORIAL DAY

An exquisite essay appeared in the Washington Post for Memorial Day. Please take time to read and meditate upon the words and sentiments below:

I stand under an aged oak, and the rows of simple white headstones extend in their heart-stopping sweep across the Virginia hills of Arlington National Cemetery. Each stone sentinel is dressed and at attention, calling to mind both the life and the death of the soldier who lies beneath. Solid, steady and unyielding, the markers stand in counterpoint to the soft green earth and capricious light that dances across their faces.

One weekend in May, each of these white uniforms is decorated with a small American flag, placed there by a living soldier's hand. These flags are brilliant in the afternoon sun, and it is my privilege to walk among these honored ranks to remember those who died in service to me.

But the men and women who sleep in these rolling hills didn't know it was for me that they fought in the forests of the Ardennes or in the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan. They didn't know it was for me that they left behind wives, husbands and sweethearts, children and parents, friends. I, too, didn't know until life's experience began to teach me how precious my freedom is. Only by examining my life -- taking stock of all the blessings and opportunities that have been mine because of the freedoms I can count on as an American citizen -- could I begin to understand the purpose of their service and the meaning of their sacrifice.

Read the rest at Always On Watch.

FOR MEMORIAL DAY: TODAY'S EDITORIAL IN THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Excerpt from the editorial "Real Torture - Real Heroes":

On Memorial Day, forget Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghraib. If you want to know about real torture, consider the scene in Bilibid Prison in Manila at some point in 1942.

It is described in the soon-to-be-released "Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and its Aftermath," (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), by Michael and Elizabeth Norman:

"Here, for example, on a thin cotton pad on the concrete floor in Ward 11, a dim prison dormitory, is Army Air Corps Private Benjamin C. Steele, serial number 190-18-989. The patient presents symptoms of multiple infectious diseases, indications of starvation, and an infected puncture wound of the right instep. His pulse is 110, irregular and thready; his blood pressure is 95/50 but difficult to hear because of extensive edema; he has a fever of 103 degrees. He is often not oriented to time or place and must be forced to eat. His treatment protocol involves quinine for the malaria, carbasone and emetine and liquids for the dysentery, sulfa powder for the foot infection and incipient gangrene, and complete bed rest for his jaundice and pneumonia. A treatment plan with one notable omission: It did not address the most serious and easily treated of Ben Steele's maladies, the one turning him into a fleshy elephantine grotesque, beriberi."

From Tuesday through Saturday of this week, that same Ben Steele, now 91, will attend in San Antonio what is being billed as the very last of the annual meetings of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor. Only about 50 of Mr. Steele's fellow survivors remain in good enough shape to attend, and only six or seven of those will be, like Mr. Steele, an actual Death March survivor.

[...]

As for Mr. Steele, a Montana cowboy before World War II, he became a noted artist, first as a "crafts director" in the Army for 10 years after the war, and then, after getting several degrees, as a full professor of arts at Montana State University. Mr. Steele's drawings are used as illustrations throughout "Tears in the Darkness." What he will enjoy this week at the San Antonio meeting, he said, is "just getting together and talking and eating with the guys."

His horrific experience in the Pacific theater, he said without a trace of open bitterness, "made me appreciate my country. I'm a very patriotic guy. And it made me appreciate a good meal and a warm bed at night. It even makes me appreciate a drink of water, some of the smaller things we take for granted. It makes me appreciate my home. And of course, freedom. If you want to know what freedom is worth, ask a POW."

Sir, we salute you and all your colleagues fallen around the world for the sake of our country. Our own freedom exists thanks to you.

Be sure to read it all.



Must-see information about Ben Steele, including his drawings!

Memorial Day Tradition Celebrates Third Year

For the third consecutive year, I’ve chosen the days leading up to Memorial Day as appropriate for honoring all of those who paid the ultimate price in service to their country by publishing war stories written by my father, Ted, who served as a low-ranking enlisted man in the U.S. Army during World War II and returned home wounded, but alive.

The stories first appeared in my father’s self-published 1992 autobiography, “Some Events in One Life: Mine!“ Not published for any commercial gain, he printed up a dozen or so copies of that book as a means to provide his six children — including yours truly — and their heirs a personal look at his participation in one of history’s most-harrowing events, World War II.

Links to each of those installments, 12 in all, can be found here.

VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL

Searchable and interactive site

According to this article in the Washingon Times:

The Washington Times has partnered with the Internet company Footnote.com on a new project that transforms Washington's Vietnam war memorial wall into an interactive, personal journey on the Web. The Interactive Vietnam Veterans Memorial allows you to search the names on The Wall and to drill down into the government's official war records to learn details about each of the 58,000-plus heroes enshrined on the wall. You can also add your own personal stories, remembrances and photographs.

The digital image of The Wall — actually thousands of photos fused together — locates each veteran’s name where it appears on the Memorial. From there, any visitor from The Times site can leave their stories and remembrances or upload photos of veterans.

Rolling Thunder

From this article in the May 25, 2008 edition of the Washington Times:

"Rolling Thunder" is a most fitting motto.

Indeed, thousands of bikers are rolling along the Washington area's roadways today with plenty of gumption and an unabashed carbon footprint. Exhaust pipes are vibrating, pistons are pumping, and it is, well, thunderous.

For the 21st year in a row, the two-wheeled crusade called Rolling Thunder has taken over the capital of the free world. An estimated 350,000 motorcyclists — plus their intrepid passengers, activists, organizers, fans and awestruck spectators — have assembled here to draw America's attention to fallen soldiers, lost warriors, prisoners of war, honored veterans and military families.

[...]

"It's a sea of bikes when we're assembling at the Pentagon. Every kind you can imagine. It takes five hours. Then the word finally comes — 'Start those engines.' You hear the thunder as we fire up, row after row, like a wave coming — then we start the move forward. When it's your turn to go, it's unbelievable. People get choked up," Mr. Ries said.

The riders themselves have some airborne help from a different breed of choppers this year.

For the first time, "Flying Thunder" has joined the effort. In mid-May, a quartet of 40-year-old UH-1 "Huey" helicopters took off from Palm Springs, Calif., and escorted several groups of riders as they journeyed towards Washington. The four aircraft landed yesterday in Lynchburg, Va., and will do a flyby this afternoon....

Anyone living here in the D.C. area can't miss the significance of Memorial Day. These bikers see to it that we remember.

Video: Memorial Day 2008

Patriotism for this solemn day:



YouTube Link

Remember those who have served and given their sacrifice to protect us here at home. Memorial Day is not about cookouts and shopping sprees.

MEMORIAL DAY TRIBUTE

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.--Ronald Reagan