Memorial Day 2024

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Memorial Day is on us once again, and has been the case for most of my 74 years on this planet, Young Americans ( and I was one of them) have raised their right hands, promised to "support and defend the Constitution" and gone in Harm's Way.
My family has been little touched by the wars of the United States, few served, few lost. My mother told me my long gone paternal grandmother said she lost an uncle-or a great uncle, or a couple of them-at Gettysburg, Union troops, my mother mentioned a cousin by marriage who was MIA in the Bulge, that's all I know of.
The real meaning of Memorial Day has been summed up by Charles Johnson Post, a veteran of the Cuban Campaign of 1898, a rather minor affair compared to the Civil War and the bloodlettings of the 20th Century. But as Post reminds us:
"Whether a man falls with 20,000 others in some grand battle or all by himself on a lonely outpost, he is a 100% casualty to himself. What more is there to give ?"

 

[Beemerguy53]

Thanks for posting this, sir. Too many people seem to have no idea what Memorial Day is all about...

 

[Rudi]

Hard to believe this important day is here already. Seems like it was just Christmas. The quickening.

 

[STCM(SW)]

I may go and see my wife's resting place that day...
Having nothing better to do.

 

[H Richard]

Trying to keep my children, (who live 800 and 2200 miles away), from having many difficult things to take care of when we pass on, I recently had our headstone designed and paid for it. Of course when it was done they had to place it on the lot. (With no rush for carving in the final dates). I did learn that there is a Veteran bronze emblem that the Veterans Administration furnishes for headstones. When I called the monument company that it hadn't been installed on our stone, I was informed they had to furnish a death certificate to the VA for it.



I'm not quite ready for that yet.

 

[mckenney99]

Hope this is not considered to be derailing the OP's thread.
When I was in elementary school, I remember it being an annual tradition for all the kids to be given a Poppy to wear during the school day on the Friday before Memorial Day. I'm not sure if this is still being done. Probably another tradition that has been tossed into the trash bin of revised history.

Here is a link to the story behind the Poppy tradition.

The Poppy Story | The American Legion

 

[fiasconva]

Even though family members served during both WWI and WWII they all made it home. The only casualty was my great-great grandfather who died during the siege of Petersburg during the Civil War. However, we buy 2 poppies every year honoring my dad and father-in-law every year.

 

[Magnum_PI]

To all who have served, thank you for your service.

To all who have been lost in war for this country, we owe very much of our freedoms to them.

Thank the living you know who have served, remember the fallen.

There are still some of us who understand Memorial Day isn't just a "long weekend".

For anyone who doesn't know what Memorial Day is really about, they should be smacked upside the head with a phone book for being so dense.

 

[HardToHandle]

Had a lengthy drive today with my 8yoa to a soccer game.
The way there was a discussion about his Great Grandfather who died in the Korean War. The way back home was a discussion on his great, great uncle who died on the way to France in the 1918 pandemic.

The way I was raised, there is no more important public observance than Memorial Day. That said, I would be happy if we didn’t add any more names to those walls. It is a bittersweet holiday.

 

[lkabug]

Personal and a privilege.
This Memorial Day I will again take part in "Rolling to Remember" the successor to Rolling Thunder. For me it is personal and a privilege, as my brother was a casualty In Vietnam. I ride for him and all that did not make it home.