Memorial Day

[filkertom]

Today we remember those who have fallen to keep us free.

Some people choose not to remember. More, some invoke them while sending more to die needlessly.

Support the troops. End the war.

We would be honored if you should choose to remember someone's sacrifice in this thread.

Comments

[fair-witness.livejournal.com]

My grandfather, who served with the 32nd Infantry Division in World War II, a citizen soldier who came home but had nightmares about the Japanese until the final days of his life.

[lorddragon65.livejournal.com]

My father told the following story of when he was an MP in the Air Force in Korea in 1951.

He was guarding a radar installation atop a hill on an tiny island off Seoul. Luckily for him there were a platoon of Marines on the beach. North Korean or Chinese soldiers (he was never quite clear as to which it was) would "island hop" from the mainland every day, wait one island away and attack the beach each night in an attempt to take down his installation. After three days of this, the Marine Officer on the beach had had enough. Just after dawn on the fourth day, six destroyers surrounded the islands that the Communist forces used to stage and let loose with everything they had. Dad said the Marine officer called it "Gunnery practice" with a laugh and a slap on the back. After the "practice" was over the cartographers had to be called to remove the islands from the map.

This was the only story Dad would tell about his time in Asia that didn't involve cookouts or bars.

Absolutely.

[fluxi.livejournal.com]

I am remembering my Uncle Donovan Carter. He enlisted in the military at a time they didn't really check "age". He died in 1950, at the age of 17 in the Korean Conflict.

[jss]

My grandfather, who made it to colonel in the army medical corps in WWII.

I remember a story he told about someone who'd screwed something up so badly my grandfather wanted to bust him back to private. Unfortunately you can't bust a private back to a rank he already holds, so he promoted him to corporal for a day then busted him back down to private the next.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

In recognition of a different kind of sacrifice:

Here's to all the parents who said, "I don't like it, but it's your decision," when their son or daughter joined up. Which is a lot harder than saying, "I'm so proud of you!" And is harder still to maintain in one's own mind, if your child doesn't come home.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Master Sergeant Juan J. Valdez, the last Marine out of Vietnam.

As far as I know he's still alive, but he certainly put his own life at risk repeatedly during the embassy evacuation. He was a model of good leadership at a time when things were very low.

[pagawne.livejournal.com]

Ira Hayes. Being a lionized hero killed him. (One of the flag raisers on Iwo Jima)

[pagawne.livejournal.com]

Mrs. Johnathan Wainwright. Japanese prison camp.

[liddle-oldman.livejournal.com]

Everyone in my family made it back with some interesting scars. But as we were growing up, ten years later, most of them were still twitching occasionaly.

[nightmarewriter.livejournal.com]

My Dad, who served in Korea. He came home and became a dad of four girls, of whom I'm the youngest. My grandfather, who served in WWII, who married my grandmother and became the only grandpa us girls ever knew.

And to me and my hubby, whom I met in Tech School in the Air Force. Being a vet helps you to appreciate the sacrifice of vets, IMHO.

it may be an on-going sacrifice

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

My father joined up young by lying about his age. It says something about his family that they didn't care that much when he left, or so he said.

In the South Pacific off Saipan, he saw one friend burnt to death in front of him when a kamikazi flew into his ship. What got him out of the Navy was that he got dumped overboard when the end of a rope failed to have a knot in it, in the North Atlantic. He inflated his wet wool pants and survived when someone else didn't. He lost two ribs and part of a lung in an operation to save him from complications of pneumonia after the boat circled back round and fished him out. He didn't like having to explain a scar that ran round most of his chest.

It was an on-going sacrifice that other veterans know about, and unfortunately, more will know about.

He hated backfires and fireworks noises, he slept badly, he had hearing like a bat, such that dogs barking blocks away would bug him enough to wake him up. He did not like being startled, and he loathed people playing gun-fag with weapons they had not *earned*, in his eyes.

I think he considered himself very lucky not to have more of the full-blown reactions, such as hallucinating and dropping the floor at sudden crashing noises. These days we would recognize as post-traumatic stress syndrome.

I was an adult for some years, living away from home, before he'd talk about any of it.

[kestrels-nest.livejournal.com]

To my father, Bernard Cohen, who served stateside during the Korean War.

To my cousin, Jack Arluck, Who died in the Pacific after the war with Japan was officially over, fighting some Japanese soldiers who either hadn't gotten the word or refused to quit. Jack was his parents' only son, and I don't think Uncle Norman ever recovered from his death.

To my friend Hank Waggoner, whom I consider a Vietnam War casualty. He died just about 20 years after the end of the war, of alcohol abuse trying to self-medicate against horrors that never stopped stopped replaying themselves for him.

To Chuck Lambert, who was an Air Force combat pilot for 20 years.

And to all those who served during the "Cold War", holding themselves ready to defend their nation at a moment's notice with no way to know when or if that call would come, only that it would be their duty to answer it.

To David (I don't know his last name), a Vietnam era conscientious objector whose nightmares came from what he saw in the hospitals that cared for the wounded.

Our men and women in uniform know they may be giving their lives. It is the duty of those who send them not to waste that gift, nor to spend such coin for petty or mercenary purposes. Spending American lives to stop Hitler was necessary for both self-defense and as a matter of conscience. Spending them in defense of oil is unconscionable. The flag symbolizes the United States. It does not symbolize Halliburton.

From my MIA bracelet

[lordavon.livejournal.com]

Private First Class Gary L. Hall
United States Marine Corps
Lost 15 May 1975 in Cambodia

[filkferengi]

When my grandmother was born, her oldest brother was serving in France during WW1. Her younger brother served in the Pacific in WW2. Both made it home safely, and lived to see their grandchildren. That was just one family out of many.