"In Flanders Fields"

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below


We are the Dead.

Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.


Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.



http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-kass-met-0525-20140525,0,410360.column?page=1

"Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae, a physician who survived chlorine gas shelling by the Germans in Belgium during World War I, wrote the famed poem 'In Flanders Fields.' "

Just came back from a memorial at Church and heard TAPS for the first time this weekend.

TAPS is always a haunting melody for me- sad and mournful. It was originally written as a bugle call to announce the end of the day, but several people have added words to the melody. My favorite rendition is:

"Thanks and praise, For our days,
'Neath the sun, Neath the stars,
'Neath the sky,
As we go, This we know,
God is nigh."

I have noticed something lately in this country that has been bothering me... a drug abusing actor dies of an overdose and the news is all over it, people crowding memorial services, statements from famous people about the great loss...etc, etc.

BUT we still have soldiers dying overseas. How many died last week- does anyone even know? It's not in the news- if it is, it's a 2 second segment before a commercial.

That's so very wrong- each sacrifice made should be announced to the world.. these are young men and women DYING for our country and we can't even put their names on the news??

Off my soapbox now...

God Bless our Soldiers - past, present, and future. Without them, we would not have what we have.

Connie, that's a beautiful poem. Thank you for posting it.

Kelly, I feel the same way you do.

To those who paid the ultimate price in the name of freedom, you are not forgotten.

I wonder why Memorial Day is called a holiday?

Another 'Great War' poem. The third and fourth stanzas.

By Robert Laurence Binyon

For The Fallen

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left 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.

I wish that the names of every wounded and lost soldier would lead off the evening news. Suicides could be covered too. There are apparently a LOT of suicides, overseas, and at home.

I think that Walter Cronkite's news coverage in the '60s helped to end the Vietnam war.

My husband, a physician, says the domestic VA hospitals, the ones not caring for acute combat victims, are a fright . Crummy, lazy doctors. Burnt out nursing. I pray for improvement there too.

I join all that will shed a tear today and I join Betty in her prayer for the improvement of the VA hospitals.
It is sorely needed!

Today I plan to join our church group for a picnic at the park which we have every memorial day. We do try to take time to remember our vets. I will be joined by my grandson and my dog. The kids at the picnic have fun playing fetch with her and she can never get enough fetching.

Kelly, I know what you mean. When the media makes a big deal out of a celebrity and yet the thousands of soldiers who have died overseas is lesser "news" than that.....to me what they're saying is they're just as expendable as chess pieces.

A friend sent this link a few weeks ago.
http://www.virtualwall.org/iStates.htm

Someone put a huge amount of work into this. It lists each death in the Vietnam war, when and how they died and their location on the wall.

You can click on a state and town and find who never was able to return home.

I started browsing Reddit a few weeks ago. It does follow Sturgeon's Law (90% of everything is cr**) but there are a number of gems that pop up from time to time.

This is was part of an oral history project
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu5AdrQYWTI

YouTube is a surprising resource. Here is a Disney short (~22 minutes) they created as a training film for soldiers on how to use an anti-tank rifle. The detailing and animation very high quality.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlJD0pZp4eQ
Essentially using a single-shot 50 caliber round to take on a tank. Seems more like wishful thinking.
Some more Disney files
Not everyone served on the battlefield. Someone had to make all a that stuff.
Proper Riveting ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyXEjn7f330

Another Reddit link of a North American B25 assembly plant in Kansas City,
The full image is 7068x5435 pixels. Zoom in and look at all the detail. Then count the planes. The number of planes, tanks, guns and ships produced during WWII was a number you can barely visualize.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Assembling_B-25_bombers_at_North_American_Aviation%2C_Kansas_City%2C_Kansas.jpg

One of my walking routes takes me by a local assisted living center. I often stopped by with Chance & Dallas and now with Nikki and her heathens. One gentleman I often chatted with was a B25 pilot in the South Pacific. After all those years, one of the few photos he kept in his wallet was of his plane and ground crew.

Another gentleman would sit, running his fingers through Chance's thick sable coat as he reminisced about the German Shepherd he liberated and brought back home with him. Seems his unit found an abandoned training facility (guide dogs? I was never quite certain what they were trained for). The dogs were nearly starved at that point. In the great tradition of GI's they rescued the dogs and adopted them into their unit. Bill was able to wangle 'his dog' a spot on the ship home. I'm glad Chance was able to help him relive some good memories.

I'm pretty sure this has been posted on the board before, but I believe it's an especially beautiful tribute for today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70Ikj1hZDnw