Veterans Day

[farmerjan]

Thank you to each veteran who served or is presently serving this country. I just wish that there were more like the ones that stepped up to the plate back in the world wars and believed that this country was worth fighting FOR... we are going to need each and everyone of the service members that are trying to protect this country today....

 

[greybeard]

Veteran's Day was kind of a strange deal this year. Nov 11 but it was 'observed' yesterday because it's a federal holiday and if the 11th falls on a weekend, it's observed the previous Friday or the following Monday to give federal workers a day off.

Here's to Veterans all, past and present!


Yesterday, was also the 248th birthday of the Marines, which is a big deal to all Marines all around the world. I had my cake and my 1 drink for the year...at home, but in past decades, I have attended quite a few Marine Corps balls. Sound fun...The official Marine Corps birthday ball celebrations tho, start off very somber, as spelled out in the Marine Corps Drill Manual, and it is a dress blues/or black tie/evening gown type affair. There is a serious and defined protocol for about an hour, depending who the guest speaker is and how long it takes the senior person there to read the official proclamation.
But, as the evening goes on, after the cake cutting ceremony (a sword is used) and the introductions and a mingling period, a meal is often served, the bar opens and things get a little 'relaxed'.

 

[coachg]

Thanking all the veterans and their families for their service and their sacrifices. My dad was so proud of his service .

 

[Warren Allison]

This is the face of a battle-tested U.S. Military Vet.
He carries the scars of villages, jungles, hills, deserts, and river deltas long forgotten.
He walks now with the sheep on the plains of peace.
But he forever dreams of slaughtering the hyenas......
To those of you who are so hell-bent on destroying this nation that he fought for...and bled for.. and watched brothers die for...beware: He may yet have a fight or two left in him. He has no fear of death and hell... he has met both face to face and came out victorious. He will not hesitate to make a final stand before meeting his Maker... and has no qualms about taking a few hyenas with him!

 

[Silver]

It is Remembrance Day here today. A time to thank those who served and remember those who fell.

 

[devonian]

It is Remembrance Day here today. A time to thank those who served and remember those who fell.

It's armistice Day here today and remembrance Sunday tomorrow, gutted I forgot the two minute silence at 11am today which I had planned to observe but I will observe the one tomorrow. Every year I forget but I will not forget this year. I can only imagine what some of the brave men went through back then so we could live in relative peace and liberty today.

 

[Silver]

It's armistice Day here today and remembrance Sunday tomorrow, gutted I forgot the two minute silence at 11am today which I had planned to observe but I will observe the one tomorrow. Every year I forget but I will not forget this year. I can only imagine what some of the brave men went through back then so we could live in relative peace and liberty today.

I also forgot to observe the silence this morning, and also promise myself every year that I will. When I had an oilfield consulting job I would shut my crews down for it always. Now that I tend to work alone I have a difficult time remembering to stop.

 

[wbvs58]

Anzac Day on the 25th April commemorating the landing at Gallipoli in 1915 is the big one here however we also have Rememberence Day observing 1 minutes silence at 11am on the 11th Nov.

Ken

 

[Down in Dixie]

Here I am making the best of it in Afghanistan. That's only 500 lbs of explosives I'm riding. Happy Veterans Day to all the other veterans out there.

 

[greybeard]

Anzac Day on the 25th April commemorating the landing at Gallipoli in 1915 is the big one here however we also have Rememberence Day observing 1 minutes silence at 11am on the 11th Nov.

Ken

I have listened to And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda several times in the last few days.
A very prophetic last few lines. The US Dept of Veterans Affairs projects that by 2036, there will be just a few hundred US WW2 vets left and they will be in their 80s and 90s, or older. There are just over 119,000 of them still alive today and they are currently dying at a rate of ~ 130/day but that death rate will rapidly increase in the next 15 years.

… And so now every April, I sit on me porch
And I watch the parades pass before me
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reviving old dreams of past glories
And the old men march slowly, old bones stiff and sore
They're tired old heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, "what are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question

… But the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men still answer the call
But as year follows year, more old men disappear
Someday no one will march there at all

… Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
And their ghosts may be heard
As they march by that billabong
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

The last Anzac veteran of Gallipoli died in 2002.

I do not know, nor can I estimate exactly when I grew old, but here I am.

 

[firemen122]

This is the face of a battle-tested U.S. Military Vet.
He carries the scars of villages, jungles, hills, deserts, and river deltas long forgotten.
He walks now with the sheep on the plains of peace.
But he forever dreams of slaughtering the hyenas......
To those of you who are so hell-bent on destroying this nation that he fought for...and bled for.. and watched brothers die for...beware: He may yet have a fight or two left in him. He has no fear of death and hell... he has met both face to face and came out victorious. He will not hesitate to make a final stand before meeting his Maker... and has no qualms about taking a few hyenas with him!

Warren as an older Marine what you posted touched me deeply as I read it. I have honestly lived my life and raised my children to believe this way. I have won the lottery of life and been allowed to live my life as a truly free human being in the greatest free nation the world has ever known. I have hopefully done my part to allow my descendants to do so as well.

 

[Warren Allison]

I have listened to And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda several times in the last few days.
A very prophetic last few lines. The US Dept of Veterans Affairs projects that by 2036, there will be just a few hundred US WW2 vets left and they will be in their 80s and 90s, or older. There are just over 119,000 of them still alive today and they are currently dying at a rate of ~ 130/day but that death rate will rapidly increase in the next 15 years.

… And so now every April, I sit on me porch
And I watch the parades pass before me
And I see my old comrades, how proudly they march
Reviving old dreams of past glories
And the old men march slowly, old bones stiff and sore
They're tired old heroes from a forgotten war
And the young people ask, "what are they marching for?"
And I ask myself the same question

… But the band plays Waltzing Matilda
And the old men still answer the call
But as year follows year, more old men disappear
Someday no one will march there at all

… Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?
And their ghosts may be heard
As they march by that billabong
Who'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me?

The last Anzac veteran of Gallipoli died in 2002.

I do not know, nor can I estimate exactly when I grew old, but here I am. View attachment 36910

Well, if you had just joined at the end in 1945 at 18 years old, you would be 96 today. I doubt there are 119,000 alive now, and any alive in 2036 would be at least 109.

 

[wbvs58]

Well, if you had just joined at the end in 1945 at 18 years old, you would be 96 today. I doubt there are 119,000 alive now, and any alive in 2036 would be at least 109.

GB probably meant Vietnam.

Ken

 

[Lannie]

On behalf of my husband, thank you all for these posts. Some of them brought tears to my eyes. My husband was in the Air Force during Viet Nam, and of course, was spit on and berated when he got home. Every time someone thanks him for the job he did back then, he's surprised. I'm going to let him read this thread, though. It will lift his spirits.

Last year, a friend of mine in Kansas got her son's sixth grade class to write thank you letters to my husband. They pick a veteran or two every year to send thank you letters to. Well, we didn't know anything about it, until this fat envelope showed up with about 30 hand-made cards from the kids. He cried when he opened it and saw all of those beautiful thank you letters, with his name on each one. Heck, even I cried.

 

[jltrent]

A lot of people not happy about it being on Saturday as I was talking with some of the banking people, and they were not getting a day off.

My dad was in WW2 in the Air Force.

 

[Mountaintown Creek Ranch]

There is no accomplishment that I have made in my lifetime that I could measure to those who have served.

Thank you to all that we're brave enough to put other lives before their own.

God Bless those awesome people

 

[Warren Allison]

Warren as an older Marine what you posted touched me deeply as I read it. I have honestly lived my life and raised my children to believe this way. I have won the lottery of life and been allowed to live my life as a truly free human being in the greatest free nation the world has ever known. I have hopefully done my part to allow my descendants to do so as well.

Thank you for your service. @firemen122

 

[greybeard]

A lot of people not happy about it being on Saturday as I was talking with some of the banking people, and they were not getting a day off.

Oh, the tragedy... This wrong, MUST be righted!!

The Dept of Veterans Affairs considers the post-war military occupation of Japan as part and parcel of WW2, in part because of the (at that time) unknown long term dangers of the 2 atomic bomb areas. Occupation of Japan ended April 28, 1952.

 

[CowboyRam]

A lot of people not happy about it being on Saturday as I was talking with some of the banking people, and they were not getting a day off.

My dad was in WW2 in the Air Force.

View attachment 36914

Sadly there are a lot of people that think of Veteran's day as just another three day weekend.

 

[CowboyRam]

At 11:11am every Veteran's Day, in Anthem Arizona, the rays of the sun perfectly align and pass through the ellipses of these five Armed Services pillars and form a perfect round solar spotlight on the United States Great Seal.