While many see Memorial Day as just another day off, suitable for grilling hot dogs and hamburgers in the back yard, I have always regarded it as day for me to fulfill some obligations to some friends who gave their lives so we could enjoy our freedoms.

The first thing I do on awakening is display the flag on the front of our house.

In the morning we will go to pick up a 91-year-old lady who, with her husband, was my next-door neighbor when I was a boy. She is a widow now. Her husband was a WWII combat veteran of the Battle of the Bulge, fighting as part of a tank destroyer team. Don't even think about the horrors he went through.

Our first stop will be at his grave. He was Jewish, so although we will not lay flowers there, I have a small American flag that I will place there. For whatever reason, the Boy Scouts have somehow neglected the Jewish portion of the cemetery when placing flags. Moe Feld certainly deserves a flag at his grave, and it will be my honor to provide one in his memory.

Next, we will visit my parents' gravesite. Although my dad did volunteer for enlistment during WWII, he was rejected for physical reasons. Still, it's been a tradition in my family to place flowers on family graves on Memorial day, so we will do that for my mom, dad, grandfather and grandmother.

Next stop will be at the Arizona Vietnam Memorial. There are two names inscribed on that wall that represent good friends. One was Army Lt. Ed Cribb, a Mohawk recon plane pilot who was shot down on a mission and lost his life. Ed was close friend in high school ROTC. The next was Air Force Capt. Chuck Walling, whose Phantom aircraft was shot down in Vietnam. He was a fraternity brother of mine in college. His remains were only recently found and identified there, and were finally returned for burial in Arlington cemetery.

I will go to the memorial, place a rose beneath each of their names, render a solemn hand salute in their memory, and pause for a few minutes there to reflect on their ultimate sacrifice. They were special and brave men who did not deserve to die.

Memorial Day is special every year to me - and should be for all Americans. God Bless the fallen - we would not exist as a country without them.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

very well said.
it is a tradition in our family as well to put flowers on the final resting place of my father, grandfather, grandmother and uncles.
I have an Uncle that is buried at Jefferson Barracks in St Louis. He was in Korea never really talked to us younger kids about what he did when in the service.

I have never served in the Military but wish looking back that I had. But I do have a huge amount of respect for anyone who has and for those that paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms.

Thank you all who Served Past, Present and Future

This has probably been posted 100 times, but we should never forget. Not just Memorial Day. Angel Flight.

Amen! Can't be said enough

As Memorial Day approaches this one is worth another viewing.
Watch this short video and think back over the years. This is an incredibly great video.
It humbles you down to your toes. I will pass this to all I can; it is a fine tribute.

FREEDOM IS NOT FREE | A Soldier's Pledge - YouTube

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USAF/RET. 1966-1990

I made the rounds to 3 cemeteries yesterday, mom, dad, older brother, grand fathers, uncles, aunts, great grand mothers and grand fathers. I place flowers on all their graves. As I was walking among the head stones I noticed one from a veteran of the war between the states. I think next year he will have a flower on his grave.

I always remember a squadron mate of mine who died and rests at Arlington; LT Kara Spears "Revlon" Hultgreen.




I went out on the recovery ship to bring her home.

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No good deed goes unpunished.

The website says her callsign is "Revlon" but we called her Hulk.

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No good deed goes unpunished.

Every Memorial Day, I remember two men I never met, but wish I had:

Bugler Howard I. Carroll, my grandfather
117th Trench Mortar Battery, 42nd (Rainbow) Division, WW1, 1917 – 1919
The 117th fired for every infantry regiment in the Rainbow and for other divisions in their sectors at
(1) Luneville sector, Lorraine, February 21 to March 23, 1918;
(2) Baccarat sector, Lorraine, March 31 to June 21, 1918;
(3) Esperance-Souain sector, Champagne, July 4 to July 15, 1918;
(4) Champagne-Marne defensive, July 15 to 17, 1918;
(5) Aisne-Marne offensive July 25 to August 11, 1918;
(6) St. Mihiel offensive, September 12 to 16, 1918;
(7) Essey and Pannes sector, Woevre, September 17 to 30, 1918;
(8) Meuse-Argonne offensive, October 12 to November 1, 1918;
(9) Meuse-Argonne offensive, November 5 to 10, 1918;
They stood before Sedan with the most advanced units of the AEF, and participated in the Rhine Occupation.
Awards: Victory Medal with 5 bars, Occupation Medal, Croix de Guerre
Granddaddy Irvine died after the war from effects of being gassed.

Capt. Donald L. Gambrill, my father’s best friend, best man and my Godfather,
485th Bomb Group (Heavy), WW2
55 missions as B-24 pilot, later lead pilot, over Germany, Italy, Austria, Romania & Yugoslavia
Awards: Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters, Purple Heart
Shot down, KIA 10-Apr-45 over Bologna, Italy

My grandfather was overseas in France and Germany from Oct 1917 until April 1919. I have his war diary, medals, patches, bugle and trench knife, and recently donated my collection of more than fifty-five unit histories and documents, written by the men of the division who were there, to the George C. Marshall Foundation Library. I read and studied them all multiple times, and have collected maps of all those places.
I have a bucket list item to drive from St. Nazaire, France, where he debarked, to the training areas, to the battlefields and the towns he passed through and slept in getting to them, all the way to Bad Neuenahr in Germany where he was an occupation troop.

The division left New York with 28,000 men, and sustained nearly 15,000 casualties in nine months of combat.
On 13 Nov 1918 he wrote to his mother "I suppose you've heard the news from two days ago. The French made a big thing of it, but most of the Americans said just 'Well, that's good.' After the horrors I've seen and the hell I've been through steadily since last February, I hold you and Pop much dearer to me now. It sure does make a fellow think." He was 19 years old at the time.
Granddaddy is buried in Baltimore; Don is buried in the Florence American Cemetery in Italy.

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On this Memorial Weekend, I would like to honor my father's memory. Although our personalities were totally opposite, he was cerebral and I was more physical, we shared the same values. He was a good man who served his country through thirty-two years and three wars. Sept 12, 1918- Sept 24, 1997

The first phot is of him in bootcamp at Ft McPherson, GA, 1937
The next photo, on his way to a Pack Howitzer unit in Panama
In a unit photo, officer in dress cover to the rt of center, 13th Army Air Corps during WWII. Gunnery officer, flying out of New Guinea, and PI.
The last official photo as Col.

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God Bless America

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To the dead whom we honor today, to those who gave "the last full measure": I salute you, and pray you know how much your country owes you, even if your country often forgets.

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Oh well, what the hell.

I am humbly proud to have had many relatives that honorably wore the uniforms of their countries. Only one, however, was killed in combat. Let me briefly introduce you.

His name was Samuel Burgess, my mom's favorite uncle. Mom says I favor him with his curly blonde hair and hazel eyes. Mom said he was a wonderful singer and dancer and had a never-ending smile and saw the fun and good in everyone.

He was 22.

He was a rifleman for the 5th Battalion/East Lancashire Fusileers. They landed at Sword Beach on D-Day. As part of Operation Charnwood, they were, with the Canadiens, ordered to take Caen.

Three weeks after landing, he took a snipers bullet to the back. He died in the arms of one of his school chums who made it home to tell the tale to my grandmother (his sister)

He is buried in Épron, France outside of Caen.

My uncle Don can no longer visit his gravesite and my cousins, nieces and nephews have never been there nor do they plan to.

Sadly, it is not the same England that my mom knew.

I honor all who perished defending freedom.

They fought not because they hated what was in front of them, but because they loved what was behind them.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

As we all party with BBQ, beer, and family let us not forget those who are no longer able to partake! A silent moment of thank you and or a prayer is all we ask of you! Sitting here writing this it is easy to remember the times of yesteryear as if they were yesterday! This is my "Thank You" to those on their final voyage!
Joe Cebull EM2 SS/FBM USN 1961-1969

Memorial Day bump.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

...my Dad and Mom are both interred at Ft Logan cemetery in Denver...my Dad was a WWII medic in the South Pacific...my Mom a WAC x-ray technician state side during WWII...my Mom's father rests in peace under a military head stone in a small...very rural cemetery along the Colorado-New Mexico border...a WWI training accident caused his death...all are in my thoughts for Memorial Day...

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A Country Boy Can Survive