This is America’s Memorial Day weekend, similar to Canada’s Remembrance Day in September. I DO have a timely consideration to offer.

It’s not timely in regards to this weekend, but because of it. I’m not thinking of a history lesson, but about real people that may be in your family.

I am at a point in my life that I have witnessed enough changes to understand how they accumulate, without awareness, to create a completely different time and place. We often can not say the important things we feel, to the people we want, because it is too late.

Many of us, from many countries, have fathers, grandfathers or perhaps even great grandfathers who was called to arms in WWII. The time to think about, to talk to, to thank, is very short. I ask you consider more than the time they may have left. Consider the time they had.

The frail and feeble person you see today came from a different time….. a very different world. A MUCH larger world and with MUCH less knowledge about it. The generation grew and matured during the time of the great depression. A time when the first concern of the average parent was truly if they would have food for these children tomorrow or even today. The “middle class” education was the 8th grade IF they truly were not pressed to work for honest survival of the family. The fastest means of “chatting” with someone in your country was only a day or two by telegram or a few weeks by mail. Telephones were NOT a matter for the private home. Electricity was common in the metropolitan areas, but not in many rural.

That person you may have in your family became aware of a threat to HIS future of something better, (you!) that was on the other side of a VERY BIG world. Men and materials moved by sea in days and weeks. Not in hours by air. The jet engine had not yet been invented.

That person went to a land as far and foreign as the moon is to us. My father and three uncles went. He went with many and came back with few. My father and one uncle came back. They met an enemy they only knew would kill them. It was at a time before antibiotics and many other things we have always had. It was when you buried your friend and brother where they fell. There are 93,000 American soldiers, in hundreds of rows of hundreds of grave still in Europe.

You may want to take another look at the old person in your life, if you are lucky enough to still have them. Even if you don’t thank them out loud, just remember you read this in English, not German, because of them.

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November 11th...

Any day will work for them I'm sure.

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awwww PF, that was awesome

Thanks PF.

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Vigil, if you were my husband, I would give you poison.

Madam, if you were my wife, I would take it.

PF you can and do put sentiments into words that most of us envy and I thank you.

I would also like to thank my dad, who was a Marine and my step-dad who was in the Navy and Special Forces. They have seen and experienced more unimaginable horror than most of us could ever imagine. These are two very special men in my life and I love them dearly and tell them both so on a regular basis. I feel very blessed to have them in my life!!!

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I like the bed I'm sleeping in, just like me it's broken in; it's not old -- just older.
Like a favorite pair of torn blue jeans, this skin I'm in it's alright with me; it's not old -- just older.....Bon Jovi

I did think of my grandad who fought in WW1 in the trenches in France.

Australia and New Zealand celebrate ANZAC Day on 25th April, the day that Australian and New Zealand troops landed on the Galipoli Peninsular in Turkey in WW1

As you say PF it was a world with much less knowledge but the troops faced the knowledge that any second could be their last on earth. Luckily i have not been in that position but I admire the bravery and spirit it took.

Lest we forget

Thanks PF ....

For me, my father was a medical man in the Korean conflict ... was still in medical school during WWII ... my step father served in the trenches in the Pacific theater during WWII ... and my uncle ... died during WWII ... he was a very young man, wife with 1 child and one on the way when he died as a pilot instructor in the early days of Miramar AF Base (don't know if it was called that then though). He had that assignment after he flew a "suicide" mission in the pacific theater to determine if the "enemy" was in a group of islands near where his group was stationed. He was awarded one of those high up medals for that act. He and my mother were very close and I know that even now, she still misses him. I was born many years after his death, so it is one of those losses that is an unknown. His children never knew him and I think that was always something sad to me.

Thanks again PF for the chance to remember!!!

I'm just curious...do the Americans use "In Flanders Fields" as part of their memorial services like the Canadians do?

PF---It's too bad,but they are FINALLY building a WW 11 monument!I watched an interview with Bob Dole the other night &
it is shocking,the amount of people,that have lived long enough to
see it!My father & his brother,certainly didn't!Too Bad! Irish

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Irish---Better to be dead & cool,then alive & uncool!
(Harley Davidson & the Marlboro Man)

Very eloquent (((((PF)))))! TY for this thread!

My father served twice while in the Army. Once in WWII and then again in Korea. He was a paratrooper and ski master/instructor and trained other soldiers for these purposes. He didn't speak much about his time[s] served, but his medals spoke loud and clear for him.

He bought my mother's engagement ring while on his last tour in Germany. Supposedly, we have a step brother who is German, but we've never been able to find out for sure. Dad died (1997) just as he was opening up to us (his nosey daughters) about the details.

Ironically, he wasn't the one who taught me to ski (we never did much of anything together) , but I wanted desperately to learn because of his ability. He seemed proud when I was finally able to relate the experience with him.

TY dad...and all the soldiers...who served in the armed forces, then and now, to protect us and our country!

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Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~

My 12 year olds class read it at their service yesterday! I have a copy of that framed, that was my grandmothers. I almost gave it to him to bring in for the Memorial Day service yesterday. But knowing 12 year olds like I do, I thought it best to leave it in its place!

My mother just returned from a vacation in DC where she saw the new WWII memorial, here is a copy of the email she sent....


Wanted to share this with you. Friday was an emotional day with many
thoughts of dad/ grandpa as we attended the military funeral of
a friend's dad in Arlington and then late that afternoon we walked from our hotel to see the new WWII Memorial.

This memorial sits on the mall between the Washington Monument and the
Lincoln Memorial. You can look down and see the Capitol building. It
will be dedicated this Memorial Day weekend with a big reunion of all
WWII vets. They are busy setting up tents etc for this event. The
memorial was beautiful, moving and quite impressive - It is very large.
All granite.

You descend into the middle of the memorial by one of two walkways
that have reliefs made of metal on the walls depicting all the
branches of the armed forces during the war. - The perimeter of the
memorial are granite columns in a semi circle on either side of a
raised pool of water - one for each states and country that fought in
the war containing granite memorial wreaths, In the middle of all of
this is a very large lake like pool with 2 large fountains spouting
water high in the air on either side one side days Pacific and the
other Atlantic.

We were both so moved. You can not help shed a tear. Wish dad/grandpa could
have seen it. He would love it. There was one elderly man sitting on
a bench by the fountain in tears. The memorial is so late in coming -
most of the people that fought in that war have died...



Anyway thanks for reminding me to reflect again PF!

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my pics

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Never say never, but if you do it's okay to change your mind~me, I think

WOW! Sounds wonderful...albeit, late in coming...huntersgirl! TY for sharing that very vivid tribute!

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Minds are like parachutes. They only work when they are open.

~Thomas Dewar~

While I have no direct family that served, in any of the past or more recent/current wars, I would like to offer my thanks to all those that did as well as their families.

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-Toast-
"It takes a lot of brains to enjoy satire, humor and wit - but none to be offended by them." -- Johnny Hart ("BC", cartoonist, 2000)
"Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog: Nobody really enjoys it and the frog generally dies as a result." -- E. B. White

My father served 30 yrs in the Army Air Corps, which became the US Air Force. He was stationed at Pearl Harbor 11-12 years before the attack, served in the south Pacific during WWII...he had currency from all the countries on the Pacific Rim (Peru, New Guinea, Netherlands Indies [now Indonesia], Phillipines, Australia, Occupied Japan...he even some US Dollars that were marked just for Hawaii, in case the Japanese ever invaded). I have been led to believe he was in Quartermaster(supply), I don't believe he ever heard a shot fired in anger. When the Korean conflict broke out, he had just married my mother & my brother had just been born...he decided to spend his tour of duty in Korea so he could get his points early & get back stateside sooner...in Japan, they fould a blind spot in his peripheral vision, & sent him home. Even tho he never seemed to be in real jeopardy, he did serve his country proudly for three decades, & was buried with military honors...he is at rest in the Field of Honor, & on this day I do take a moment to go thank him & his comrades for making the world a little better for my generation...

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