With it being Veterans Day, it's a good day to thank everyone who has sacrificed to protect our country from the people who would harm it. But their sacrifice means nothing if we squander the freedom and safety we have been given. America is a unique experiment in human history, being a country created by the consent and through the agreement of the people. Because of this, we have created a free and fair and just society, and there are none others like it. We are a beacon to the world, so let's make sure our fire burns brightly.
23 comments:
Ah, nuts. I was trying to set up a game involving WWI veterans and guessing their pictures, but the links won't work. Ah, maybe I'll try again when I get back from work.
Happy Veterans' Day, everyone!
Sesquicentennial of the Knoxville Campaign of the civil war happening this month. My great grandfather was a combatant with the 36th Mass. Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Severely wounded at Peebles Farm near Petersburg on October 2, 1864. Warner, in particular, gets my thanks today.
Fortunately my two brothers and most boys of my generation were not compelled to serve as Nixon deactivated the draft right before most of them turned 18.
My father served in the Navy as a seaplane pilot in the Pacific post WWII and before the Korean Conflict. I love hearing the tales of his exploits in the Sea of Japan.
My Uncle served in the Army during WWII and was held in a Japanese prison camp for 4 years until one day all the guard had disappeared and the planes flying over were US war planes. Up until that moment, he had assumed that we had lost the war...
My grandfather served in the Army during WWI. He received the Purple Heart and spent much of 1918 processing the bodies of victims of the influenza epidemic in Europe...and never contracted the flu.
To all who have served and their families, wives/husbands and children, thank you for your service and sacrifice. To all who serve now and in the future, thank you and bless you.
Rustbelt, Good luck with that. Enjoy work. :)
Jed, It sounds like you have a family history!
Bev, My father served for 20 years, but never in combat. My uncle went to Vietnam. Beyond that, my relatives tended to be on the other side. My grandfather served in Russia as a doctor, but ended up being taken prison by the Americans in France. My great grandfather was an Austrian fighter pilot during WWI. Before that, we had an explorer who met the Dali Lama and spent most of his life in the Caucuses.
My father-in-law was in the Army Reserves for >20 years. Technically he is a vietnam vet but never saw action.
My family is pretty quiet when it comes to military service. Mom is Irish so you have either territorial judges or road agents. Dad's side was mostly farmers/ranchers.
Huge thanks to all Veterans in the Commentarama halls.
My brothers and I are first generation in our family to not serve in any branch, going all the way back to the Revolutionary War. Being medically ineligible, do whatever I can to support our men and women in uniform. To do any less just ain't right.
It's a good way to keep your ego down to reflect on the fact that a lot of people younger than you have put their lives on the line and had the responsibility for keeping others alive. For a 25-year-old like me, that's a very sobering thought.
Happy Veterans' Day, all.
T-Rav - That is so true. I was well over thirty when I realized that my uncle was a prisoner of war at 19-23 years old! Wow! It hit like a brick to the head. I compared what I was doing at that age to what he was doing and I kind of felt so embarrassed for getting upset about all the trivial complaints and "injustices" I obsessed over at that age.
"...my relatives tended to be on the other side."
Does this mean we shouldn't be friends anymore? Am I supposed to exact some ancestral retribution or something?
Bev, Nope, not at all.
As for doing stuff by the age of 25, Mozart had played for the emperor by the age of 6 and written his first opera by age 11. Try topping that!
Koshcat, It hate to use this Clintonian phrase, but it really does take a village. America was made by people from all walks of life, each contributing their little parts. That's what makes us great... everybody matters. :D
Mozart's sister played with him...
Bev, Yes, she did. And I don't know about you, but I wasn't doing any of that when I was 6-10.
Yes, but Mozart died at 35, so peaking too early equals an early death. Or being a musician is bad for your health. I can't decide.
As a side note - "Mozart's Sister" is an excellent movie.
Bev, I haven't seen that one. I did really enjoy Amadeus though.
I think it's being a musician that's the problem. Most of them die horribly at a young age... like Jimmy Hendricks. And if they don't, then they turn into zombies who haunt the earth drinking human blood for all eternity... like Keith Richards.
Kids... don't become musicians.
Shut yo mouf!
Sorry JLH, it is an occupational hazard.
Bev, it amuses me to read the WWII accounts from 19- or 20-year-old soldiers in France or wherever referring to the incoming recruits a year or two younger as "a bunch of kids who don't know what they're doing." Makes you think.
Here is a video a posted on Facebook.
LINK
If the good Lord would let me I would do it all over again...I made some of the best friends..and traveled to some of the best places....(I can't believe the USAF paid me to go to Southern California in the early 70s and Germany in the 90s..). It was a great experience..
Critch, My father had a pretty good time in Berlin in the 1960s from the sound of it.
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