Day of Memory (OT) - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: May 30, 2005

Day of Memory (OT)

Date: May 30, 2005

I count those acres of white crosses and Stars of David on the beaches of France among the most moving sights I have ever seen. On that cold, windy March day when I first saw them, I cried tears of sorrow and loss. Thank you, M de G, for giving me the opportunity to remember that.

Date: May 30, 2005

Blessed are those that go before us into harms way.
Blessed are those that support those in harms way.
Blessed are those who remember those in harms way.
Blessed are those who give us freedom.
Blessed are those in the uniform of our country.
Blessed are those who made it back, to be a reminder of those who didn't.
Blessed are those who are active duty and the veterans.
Blessed is this day.

My son is active duty in Korea on this Memorial Day.
Blessed are the parents and loved ones of those in the military.

M. de G. Thank you for your lovely words. May we always remember those men and women who gave us the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

Date: May 30, 2005

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

--John McCrae

Date: May 30, 2005

I had my classes read "In Flanders Fields" this fall. Always moving.

Here is a link to a song that always makes me cry. It's not a real link, somebody can make it hot.

Turn your speakers up a bit.

http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/ItisPeke/VDay.html

Date: May 30, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: LVN
"I had my classes read "In Flanders Fields" this fall. Always moving. Here is a link to a song that always makes me cry. It's not a real link, somebody can make it hot. Turn your speakers up a bit. http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/ItisPeke/VDay.html"

http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/ItisPeke/VDay.html

Date: May 30, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: LVN
""

Thank you, LVN, and HL, Jr. Hope this works:

http://www.clermontyellow.accountsupport.com/flash/UntilThen.swf

Date: May 30, 2005

quote:
Originally posted by: ram
"http://www.clermontyellow.accountsupport.com/flash/UntilThen.swf"

Thank you from a vet.

Date: May 30, 2005

Thank you, ram. That was incredibly moving and beautiful.

Date: May 30, 2005

Thanks from a Vietnamvet, the grandson of a WWI vet and nephew of vetsWWII and Korea, and the father of a Iraq II vet.

Date: May 30, 2005

When WWII started, my grandmother was 40 years old. By the time it ended, she had one son occupying Europe, another aboard a minesweeper, and one who had spent a year in the hospital after his ship (USS Intrepid) was hit by a kamikaze. She had gone completely gray.

Other affected relatives, in-laws, and out-laws included one life ruined by Vietnam, one body damaged by a career aboard wooden-decked boats in the Artic and Pacific, one shot in the stomach and sent home to die (but declining for fifty years), one who accompanied Admiral Byrd to the South Pole and later escorted a ship load of burned corpses home (and could never stand to smell a carnation afterwards because that was the smell of it). One flew "the Hump" armed only with a pistol, and all of them had mothers, wives, children who suffered every day of it too.

And so we have the freedom of this message board, and the only dictator on our horizon very small potatoes indeed.

Date: May 30, 2005

It's already tomorrow here in Cambridge, England, but I think I can just slip this message under the wire.

Not more than a few miles from where I sit typing this is Madingley cemetery, the one spot in England where all those many Americans who died in WWII are buried. It's a stunning place--not just the rows and rows of crosses, but--as it's on a rare hill in this flat country--also a surprising view of the surrounding countryside that's still free because of those buried there. There's a memorial chapel at the end of a long reflecting pool, a high-roofed chapel with windows of all the State seals. Along the reflecting pool is a long wall with an overwhelming number of the names of the fallen.

When you approach, you see the American flag flying, as those 13 acres were proclaimed American soil. Room enough for the dead.

Jameela

Date: Jun 1, 2005

It's an Irish song, but I see it as a tribute to just about any fallen soldier.

Alternate Lyrics to Green Fields of France - by Eric Bogle

Well, how do you do Private William McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside?
And rest for awhile neath the warm summer sun
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done

And I see by your gravestone, you're only nineteen
When you joined the great fallen in nineteen sixteen
Well I hope you died quickly, I hope you died clean
Or poor Willy Mcbride, was it slow and obscene?

Chorus:
Did they beat the drums slowly?
Did they play the pipes lowly?
Did they bugles carry you over as they lowered you down?
And did the band play 'The Last Post' in chorus?
Did the pipes play 'The Flowers Of The Forest'?

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind?
In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined?
And though you died back in nineteen-sixteen
In that faithful heart are you always nineteen?

Or are you a stranger without a name?
Forever enshrined behind some glass pane
In an old photograph, torn and tattered, and stained.
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame.

(Chorus)

Well the sun's shining down on these green fields of France
The warm wind blows gently, and the red poppies dance
The trenches have vanished long under the plow
There's no gas, no barb wire, there's no guns firing now

But here in this graveyard that's still no-man's land
The countless white crosses stand mute in the sand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
The whole generation was butchered and damned

(Chorus)

And I can't help but wonder young Willy McBride
Do those that lie here know why that they died?
And did they really believe you when you told them the cause
Did they really believe that this war would end wars?

Well the suffering, and the sorrow, the glory of pain
The killing and dying they were all done in vain
For young Willy McBride it's all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again...