November 11, Please observe it.

[norm1]

Vi,

I live and work in that country your brother gave his life for.

On their behalf may I express their deep and sincere gratitude, through you, to your big brother and your family.

Yes Vi, the poppies are on sale here and me and many others are proud to wear them in memory of him and all the others over the years who have given their lives for our future.

I will be thinking of you tomorrow at 11am.

 

[CW]

Vi,


I have visited the Cemetaries in Northern France and can only say that they are a magnificent tribute to those who gave their most precious possession for us. If any of you have the opportunity to do so then please do. What you will you will experience will stay with you for the rest of your life. To stop what we are doing for 2 minutes at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month is the very least we can do to say our thanks.

Let us all do so.

I haven't had the chance to travel overseas yet. I do know that visiting any of the national cemetaries here in the US evokes the same somber gratitude though. I have spent literally hours walking thru those acres and acres of our countries fallen servicewomen and men.

I have visited the wall in DC,,, once,,, and I literally could not see for all of the tears,,, not just for buddies and friends of mine that did not come back,,, but for all of the folks that did not come back.

So, no, two minutes is not too much to ask as a tribute. And if you can't stop, or just forget the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, just get a poppie and say a silent thank you at any time you can. Not only to those that have passed on, but also to those that serve today.

Okay, I am off this soap box,,, and thank you for not flaming me

 

[Vi]

I had never really told my story before, because I felt it would show my weakness, and really I am stronger for this experience. What I lost, when my big brother was killed, has been replaced with greater understanding of life. One person cannot change the world for better or worse. Many in history have tried, others are still trying, and many people like my brother was, are out there, right now, protecting us from the horrible things.
My tears are for those we have lost. My sorrow is for those that don't care. Those that don't get a lump in their throat when they hear the Star Spangled Banner or their own National Anthem.
I don't know what it would have been like to still have my brother, I wonder about that all the time, but I do know what it means to feel him next to me every time I watch the flag being raised, or every time I sing the National Anthem. And my legs get very weak when I see a missing man formation, but my heart gets stronger, knowing that there are others that believe a deeply as he did about his country.
All of you that have responded to my posting, bless you, and I hope that your flag will be flying high on the 11th, and that you will thank just one veteran for his or her part in making the country great. Yes, Buy a poppy, wear it proudly, buy several and pass them out to those that don't understand what it means. Explain it to them, they will be better for it.
I hope to see those markers in France someday. I have traveled much of the US and have visited some National Cemetaries. The feeling each time is of pride and sorrow, and my heart beats a little faster when I think of what the world would be like without their sacrifices.
Tomorrow I will be at the local VFW for their flag raising, and I plan on wearing my big brothers shirt again, proudly. I will hug and kiss those that are honored. There is 1 gentelman from WWI that I will set by.....you see he is all alone and very frail, but to me he is the reason we have a future to look forward to. Each time I am asked why I seek out this little old man. It's because I feel that he will soon be gone, another page in history lost, and I want him to meet my big brother. Vi

 

[Ksss]

Many heartfelt thanks to all of the Vets out there. As a child born in a country rebuilding from the after effects of the Korean War, to a father who fought in WWII, and to all my many friends who lived to return from the Viet Nam War, and those who didn't, to all of the young people who served in Desert Storm: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Through selflessness, you have given each of us the freedom to write here our heartfelt thanks for all you have given. I have seen firsthand what the effects of war can do to a person, and I can say that if I had been in a similar situation, I do not think I would have the fortitude to withstand such destructive mental and emotional damage that war can do to a person. Words cannot express the gratitude and respect I hold for each of you. You went off to distant lands to fight for rights of people you don't know, to keep us safe. Even though we have never met, and probably never will, I just want you to know, you will hold a special place in my heart, this your day and every day for the rest of my life. THANK YOU!

 

[Ezzy]

The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Rupert Brooke WWI

EZ

 

[Cheyenne]

I have to stop reading this thread. I'm running out of kleenex for the tears.

To all the vets, a simple "thank you." Today, and always.

 

[Merelan]

Cheyenne, I have a new box I just opened.. care to share?

I have to brag. My husband, who grew up Air Force, amazes me constantly. Anytime, no matter how hurried or hassled we are, he sees someone with a cap or jacket or something showing they might be military, he stops and asks them. And then he listens to them. There have been times when I could have shot him for doing this. More then once it has been a half hour or so till we get away. But never have I walked away feeling the same. He listens to their stories, and they do so like to share them. They are living pieces of history. When he gets home he jots them down, not for any purpose, he just likes too. I have seen the faces of these men and woman when he takes their hand and shakes it, thanking them for their service and sacrirfice.There was one man, old and tired looking. His wife nagging and the line we were in long. The man was wearing a cap with a ship and its name, and I am ashamed to not remember which. Of course my Dreamer started talking to him. Asking him questions and being truly interested in what he had experienced and what he had to say. The mans face lit up, but as he spoke it softened again. Soon he was holding my husbands hand, and crying. There in the middle of the store. It turns out that no one had ever thanked him for his service. Not in the over thirty years he had been retired. Over and over this happens, and it makes a difference to them. Thank them, ask them where they served, and listen.
"I am proud to be an American, at least I know I'm free
and I won't forget the men who died, to give that right to me." Lee Greenwood

 

[Tom Ahern]

November 11,Please observe it.

Cheyenne--I am a Vietnam Disabled Vetern!It is not so
much that there are not Veterns left as it is having
Clinton as Commander-in-Chief.I know;I;as many veterns
my age,refuse to salute someone like him.Being called
a BabyKiller,etc.I can live with as I have been a biker
for over 40yrs. and am used to getting looked down on
for no reason.When I and my friends give a piece of our
body or get shot,you have to earn my respect! Irish

 

[norm1]

I have just watched the Remembrance Sunday Service from the Cenotaph in Whitehall.......I have to say that this year I found it even more moving..........and I thought of Vi...... God Bless you young lady...........

 

[Busty]

I stand on the other side of this discussion - I did not have anyone in the military in my family so I cannot say that I know how it feels in that respect but I am a child of survivors of WW2. There is not a Remembrance day that goes by that I don't find a way to thank the veterans of this country and of the U.S. and Britain. If not for you - I would not be here. Although I don't have much of an extended family - my parents having lost most of their's to Hitler I am nontheless greatful that with all your help they were able to survive. If not for the brave men who fought for our freedom where would we all be. Thank you to those of you who had a father or brother who fought for our freedom. To the brother and sister I had who didn't make it through the war - never a days goes by when I don't think of you.

 

[Vi]

I am so happy to be an American. Saturday the 11th day of the 11th month, at 11AM..........more tears were shed. Others cried with me and with the many veterans and their families. I was allowed to participate in a short parade. I was allowed to push the wheelchair of a WWI veteran that short distance........my big brother was so proud.

 

[Isabella Thorne]

WHAT IS A VET?

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg - or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can't tell a vet just by looking.

What is a vet?

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She - or he - is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another - or didn't come back AT ALL.

He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat - but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.

He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow - who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being - a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a deliverer and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You. That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded. Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU".
____________________________
"It is the soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protestor to burn the flag."

Father Denis Edward O'Brien, USMC