Salute to Veterans, Post your Colors!

Holedigger · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:41 am

Thought it might be an appropriate day to post your (favorite) Colors pic
Salute!

This series of pics was shot on the SS American Victory last year. They cruised out on Tampa Bay, we had several flybys in vintage AC, and a ceremony for two sailors who had passed that year. Full Color Guard, Taps, ashes spread on the waters. Touching ceremony.

Randy Haskin · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 10:11 am

Holedigger wrote:

Thought it might be an appropriate day to post your (favorite) Colors pic
Salute!

A very interesting fake Garand...

This is not a great photo, but it's the one that hits me in the gut every time I look at it.

This is the battlefield memorial for "Boot" Das and "Salty" Watkins, the F-15E crew who were KIA in Iraq in April '03.

Their memorial was only a week or so later, and this "Taps" and missing man flyby took place just as the sun was setting.

With the low light and an inexpensive camera, it was tough to get a clear shot of it. But, to me, it captures the essence of the moment, of these two KIA warriors, and of the sacrifices made by countless millions of Americans in service to their country.

Randy Haskin · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 10:12 am

delete double post

Robbie Stuart · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 10:13 am

Thanks Dad, & thanks to all our Vet's.

1st Lt Charles F. Stuart JR. 363rd Fighter Group, 381st Fighter Squadron, 9th AAF. WWII

Second Air Force · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 10:19 am

Thank you to all veterans, past and present.

My father, standing, and his best buddy in North Africa:

The young men from our tiny farm-town parish who served in WWII, taken at the funeral of one of their brothers who didn't come home:

Scott

Django · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 11:36 am

Thanks to Veterans today and every day.

My Sister wrote this poem for my Dad, and read it last night at the dedication at the new Vietnam Veterans Memorial back home.

The Veteran
by Jaima LaFollette

You left your home for foreign soil
To help a country in turmoil
The war was tough, the war was long
Some people thought the war was wrong
Protestors couldn't comprehend
The right to freedom you did defend
As soldiers you fought hard and true
What else was there for you to do?
You fought for your country as was decreed
Dogged by those who didn't see the need
Thank God for those who made it home
Thousands of families were left alone
Husband, Father, Son, Brother
Lost forever to one another
Whether gone but not forgotten,
Or home safe, or down trodden
All who vow to protect and serve
A hero's welcome do deserve.

clangjr · **Joined:** Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:48 pm **Posts:** 106

Django wrote:

Thanks to Veterans today and every day.

My Sister wrote this poem for my Dad, and read it last night at the dedication at the new Vietnam Veterans Memorial back home.

The Veteran
by Jaima LaFollette

You left your home for foreign soil
To help a country in turmoil
The war was tough, the war was long
Some people thought the war was wrong
Protestors couldn't comprehend
The right to freedom you did defend
As soldiers you fought hard and true
What else was there for you to do?
You fought for your country as was decreed
Dogged by those who didn't see the need
Thank God for those who made it home
Thousands of families were left alone
Husband, Father, Son, Brother
Lost forever to one another
Whether gone but not forgotten,
Or home safe, or down trodden
All who vow to protect and serve
A hero's welcome do deserve.

Very nice, do you mind if I share it?

Django · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:00 pm

Sure, just as long as she is credited.

Holedigger · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:08 pm

Very nicely done. How well attended was the monument ceremony?

Vietnam is even now a quickly fading memory for many. The social unrest, the riots, the nightly bodycount on the news. Today's generation looks at 'Nam as ancient history through whatever lens the school system sees as "appropriate".

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:26 pm

What is a Veteran?

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.

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 savior 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

Elroy13 · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 12:58 pm

Thank you Dad, Brother, both Grandfathers & Great Grandfather, Uncles & Cousins!! And thank you to ALL VETERANS past & present!! This land is nothing with out you.

Not just on this day of Novemeber but all year long!....THANKS!

jet1 · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:56 pm

Canso42 · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 5:54 pm

That is a very moving piece Jack. Thank you for sharing it. Thank you, all of you here, present military and past veterans.

Doug Ratchford

Jack Cook · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:04 pm

Uncle George served has a squad leader in Dog Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment, 1st Marine Division in Korea during 1951-52
and was awarded the Bronze Star with combat V.

Boot camp Parris Island 1949

1951 has a Sgt with the weight on the world on his shoulders.

CrewDawg · **Posted:** Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:20 pm

This was from Memorial Day earlier this year. Thank you to all who served and to the families of those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

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Salute to Veterans, Post your Colors!

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