Memorial Day

[filkertom]

When we remember those who have died trying to keep us free. Let their sacrifices not be in vain.

Comments

[tomreedtoon.livejournal.com]

I notice that the government page that Tom posted includes such stuff as barbecue safety and boating safety. Another reminder that most people take this holiday as playtime.

As for me, although I'm far away from my dad's (and mom's) grave site up in Jefferson Barracks, I'll be thinking of them. Although they died of "natural causes," they gave a lot of their lives to this country. While Dad served in World War II and Korea, taking the measly Navy pay (although it's far more generous than what current sailors are paid) Mom had to make a home on a limited budget for four kids. She had to take the disdain of her sisters who "married well" and lived in relative luxury, whose husbands didn't serve.

You ever notice that most men in those wars don't like talking about what happened in those wars? There was an understanding that war IS Hell, and that the folks back home shouldn't be exposed to it. In general, the horror of war only hit home when the soldiers returned, maimed or psychologically shattered. And those pains were suffered in silence.

My generation has, perhaps rightly, been judged as not willing to serve, not willing to support this country or even their neighbors. But I think there's one thing we did right. We recognized that war hurts everyone, the victors included, and therefore we should only enter one when it is absolutely necessary. So we published the pictures of coffins being returned from the Middle East, even though the government forbid it. We showed the maimed and injured, even in the Doonsberry comic strip, although that didn't fit in with the perfect show desired by the people in power.

The people who performed those protests have been called Communists, Socialists and traitors to their country. Their accusers are largely people who have profited, monetarily and politically, from the deaths of those young people. I personally think that those protesters are doing more for the military, and providing more honor for the veterans who served, than the guys running power boats over manatees or getting burned over barbecue grills.

If this ramble is a little incoherent, it's because I'm tired and troubled by thinking about this business.

[archiver-tim.livejournal.com]

You ever notice that most men in those wars don't like talking about what happened in those wars?

My dad amoung them. We (the family) thought it was just insignificant memories that faded. Nope. Only very late in his life did we children discover from mom, that 5, 10 or more years after being home and in a family life, he was waking in the night with nightmares, night screams, sweats and such. To many vivid memories. Including his buddies getting shot and killed. Back then, to many WWII soldiers did not know to get some help in overcoming those remnants of service. He was lucky, he had a skill to go into service with, as a telephone man, he was assigned to the signal corp. So, while he learned how to use and carry a gun, he was not the one to shoot in battle. However, he was amoung the first to Leyte Island (The Phillipines) to set up communications ahead of the main landing and McArthur's return. Unfortunatly, while trying to trace just where my dad was during the war, my sisters discovered that the paperwork details were destroyed in a fire somewhere in the 60s and 70s. Only his release papers now give any clue of where he served.

[tomreedtoon.livejournal.com]

Curiously enough, was that fire located in St. Louis's records facility? My father deserved to have a certain award, and qualified for it, but because his records were destroyed he never got it.