As citizens begin their summer at poolside and backyard grills this Memorial Day, they need to put the “memorial” back in Memorial Day by pausing to honor the sacrifices that make our freedom possible. No words are adequate to console those who have lost a loved one serving our nation, but we can pause as individuals, families and a Nation to offer our thoughts and prayers. We not only remember the sacrifices of our veterans, we think of the mother who hears the sound of her child's 21-gun salute. We grieve for the husband or wife who receives a folded flag. We grieve for a young son or daughter who only knows Dad from a photograph. And as we share that grief, we also honor those among us; true heroes who place Nation above self and give their all for all of us.
President Abraham Lincoln spoke for us all in his letter to a mother who lost five sons during the Civil War.
Dear Madam,
"I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom."
How can words suffice in honoring our fallen veterans? We honor them by remembering – remembering that they loved America, so offered to serve far from its shores. They revered freedom, so sacrificed their own that we may be free. They defended our individual rights, yet yielded their individuality to do so. But most of all, they valued life, yet bravely readied themselves to die in service to our country.
The brave men and women we honor today selflessly gave of themselves to defend a way of life that we so cherish -- the rights of all people to determine our own futures, free of oppression and fear. It is because of these everyday heroes that we celebrate Memorial Day, commemorating the selflessness and sacrifice of those upon whose very lives rests the foundation of freedom. Memorial Day, one of our nation’s oldest and most significant holidays, recalls the glory and sacrifice of all who have set their personal aspirations aside for the preservation of our society.
In times such as these, it is important for every American to reflect on what it truly means to live in freedom. We owe all of our veterans, past and present, a debt of gratitude for the sacrifices they have made in the defense of liberty. It is our duty to keep the memory of our fallen veterans alive. May we never forget those have fought for our freedom, and may we celebrate the lives of those who have truly made America the land of the free and the home of the brave.
We need to put “memorial” back in Memorial Day. As this special day approaches, let us reflect on the freedoms we all enjoy for which many have died. To the families in of our fallen heroes who gave their hearts to this country, I say thank you. We owe you and your loved ones our heartfelt gratitude and more. On this Memorial Day, we join fellow Americans in a national day of remembrance in honor of America’s fallen. One Nation, One Day—let us never forget.
On this day, our hearts go out to the spouses and loved ones of those who have given all they can give in service to our nation. We share their sorrow, but we cannot know their grief. What we can do – and must do as a nation – is remember those who have fallen. Remember what they did; why they did it; and appreciate what that sacrifice means to us. It means freedom. It means security. I means strength, and the motivation to stay strong in freedom’s cause. To do any less – to not remember – would defile the hopes and dreams of those we honor today.
Italics and bold are my emphasis.
Thanks to all the Veterans of all the wars for giving us a free country to live in. Pray for those still in the conflict. They serve us proudly.
Barry Hunter
US Army 1968 - 1971
Vietnam !969 - 1970
Showing posts with label Memorial Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Memorial Day. Show all posts
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Memorial Day Thoughts
This was sent to me by the staff of the Department of Veterans Affairs and I thought it was worth sharing.
There is no observance in America more somber than Memorial Day. In events held across America this Memorial Day weekend, people will gather in small towns and great cities for one purpose: to remember our war dead, pay homage to their sacrifice and courage, and to recall the selflessness that embodies military service. Indeed, throughout Europe, Africa and the Pacific Islands, Americans and our foreign friends alike pay their respects by visiting our Nation’s 24 overseas military cemeteries.
This year, as in years past and years to come, the Department of Veterans Affairs plays a key role in these observances. On Memorial Day, millions of Americans gather on the pastoral lawns of our 131 national cemeteries, crisscrossed row upon row with markers over the final resting places of some of our nation’s most courageous citizens. By virtue of scale, solemnity and serenity, it is moving beyond words, and brings home the supreme cost of defending democracy.
Across the generations – across the centuries – Americans have answered the call to duty and many paid the ultimate price. The America we know today would not be the same were it not for the men and women we honor on Memorial Day.
But the true meaning of Memorial Day eclipses American history. Much of the contemporary history of the world was shaped and molded by the tens of millions of American veterans who put their lives on hold to wear the uniform. Who among us could even begin to contemplate the world today had courageous defenders of freedom not stood fast against the scourge of Nazi fascism or ruthless imperialism in the Pacific?
The latest generation of American veterans is engaged in a struggle no less critical to history than those of their predecessors. Everyday, young men and women are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan after service in harms way. Most come home to joyous reunions with loved ones and revel in the collective sigh of relief that marks a safe return. Others come home with the visible and invisible wounds that are the tragic hallmarks of armed conflict, while still others return in solemn, eternal repose beneath a draped American flag.
I am indescribably proud of the people of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the service they provide to this community of Veterans. The value and importance of their work is evident every day in the faces of the Veterans we serve. Whether it’s the gritty determination of a patient undergoing rehabilitative therapy at one of our VA medical centers, the ear-to-ear grins of a veteran and his family buying their first home with a VA loan guarantee, or a young veteran entering college because of expanded VA benefits under the Post 9/11 GI Bill, the Veterans we serve are our inspiration to live up to Abraham Lincoln’s promise, “to care for him who has borne the battle, and for his widow, and orphan.”
At VA, we embrace the full meaning of these words. VA’s Office of Survivors Assistance stands ready to serve these families of our fallen Veterans. As champions for survivors, they serve both as the leading resource for benefits and as an advocate on their behalf to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Currently, more than 500,000 Survivors are receiving VA benefits. We share their sorrow, but we cannot know their grief. What we can do – and must do as a nation – is remember their loved ones and their sacrifice. We must remember what they did; why they did it; and appreciate what it means to us – personally and as a nation.
Through their spirit, adherence to duty and honor – and yes, their sacrifice – our Veterans have paid for and delivered the freedom and security not only we Americans enjoy, but that lived by increasing millions around the world.
This is why we pause and remember Memorial Day – this year and every year. We remember those who have paid the ultimate price for America and all humanity, and we also reflect on the achievements wrought by their sacrifice. Life and liberty are God-given rights, but throughout history, the task of defending these high ideals has fallen to ordinary men and women of extraordinary courage and fortitude.
Their perseverance and loyalty to a higher calling is central to what and whom we honor each Memorial Day. Let us never forget those who have fallen and the immeasurable good for which they have laid down their lives.
Let us never stop educating our youngsters about the price that has been paid for their freedom. A trip with them to one of our sacred shrines – our Veterans cemeteries – is a good place to start.
There is no observance in America more somber than Memorial Day. In events held across America this Memorial Day weekend, people will gather in small towns and great cities for one purpose: to remember our war dead, pay homage to their sacrifice and courage, and to recall the selflessness that embodies military service. Indeed, throughout Europe, Africa and the Pacific Islands, Americans and our foreign friends alike pay their respects by visiting our Nation’s 24 overseas military cemeteries.
This year, as in years past and years to come, the Department of Veterans Affairs plays a key role in these observances. On Memorial Day, millions of Americans gather on the pastoral lawns of our 131 national cemeteries, crisscrossed row upon row with markers over the final resting places of some of our nation’s most courageous citizens. By virtue of scale, solemnity and serenity, it is moving beyond words, and brings home the supreme cost of defending democracy.
Across the generations – across the centuries – Americans have answered the call to duty and many paid the ultimate price. The America we know today would not be the same were it not for the men and women we honor on Memorial Day.
But the true meaning of Memorial Day eclipses American history. Much of the contemporary history of the world was shaped and molded by the tens of millions of American veterans who put their lives on hold to wear the uniform. Who among us could even begin to contemplate the world today had courageous defenders of freedom not stood fast against the scourge of Nazi fascism or ruthless imperialism in the Pacific?
The latest generation of American veterans is engaged in a struggle no less critical to history than those of their predecessors. Everyday, young men and women are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan after service in harms way. Most come home to joyous reunions with loved ones and revel in the collective sigh of relief that marks a safe return. Others come home with the visible and invisible wounds that are the tragic hallmarks of armed conflict, while still others return in solemn, eternal repose beneath a draped American flag.
I am indescribably proud of the people of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the service they provide to this community of Veterans. The value and importance of their work is evident every day in the faces of the Veterans we serve. Whether it’s the gritty determination of a patient undergoing rehabilitative therapy at one of our VA medical centers, the ear-to-ear grins of a veteran and his family buying their first home with a VA loan guarantee, or a young veteran entering college because of expanded VA benefits under the Post 9/11 GI Bill, the Veterans we serve are our inspiration to live up to Abraham Lincoln’s promise, “to care for him who has borne the battle, and for his widow, and orphan.”
At VA, we embrace the full meaning of these words. VA’s Office of Survivors Assistance stands ready to serve these families of our fallen Veterans. As champions for survivors, they serve both as the leading resource for benefits and as an advocate on their behalf to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Currently, more than 500,000 Survivors are receiving VA benefits. We share their sorrow, but we cannot know their grief. What we can do – and must do as a nation – is remember their loved ones and their sacrifice. We must remember what they did; why they did it; and appreciate what it means to us – personally and as a nation.
Through their spirit, adherence to duty and honor – and yes, their sacrifice – our Veterans have paid for and delivered the freedom and security not only we Americans enjoy, but that lived by increasing millions around the world.
This is why we pause and remember Memorial Day – this year and every year. We remember those who have paid the ultimate price for America and all humanity, and we also reflect on the achievements wrought by their sacrifice. Life and liberty are God-given rights, but throughout history, the task of defending these high ideals has fallen to ordinary men and women of extraordinary courage and fortitude.
Their perseverance and loyalty to a higher calling is central to what and whom we honor each Memorial Day. Let us never forget those who have fallen and the immeasurable good for which they have laid down their lives.
Let us never stop educating our youngsters about the price that has been paid for their freedom. A trip with them to one of our sacred shrines – our Veterans cemeteries – is a good place to start.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
In Flanders Fields
The Flower of Remembrance
In Flanders Fields
By John McCrae
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.
This was the poem written by World War I Colonel John McCrae, a surgeon with Canada's First Brigade Artillery. It expressed McCrae's grief over the "row on row" of graves of soldiers who had died on Flanders' battlefields, located in a region of western Belgium and northern France. The poem presented a striking image of the bright red flowers blooming among the rows of white crosses and became a rallying cry to all who fought in the First World War. The first printed version of it reportedly was in December 1915, in the British magazine Punch.
McCrae's poem had a huge impact on two women, Anna E. Guerin of France and Georgia native Moina Michael. Both worked hard to initiate the sale of artificial poppies to help orphans and others left destitute by the war. By the time Guerin established the first sale in the U.S., in 1920 with the help of the American Legion, the poppy was well known in the allied countries — America, Britain, France, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — as the "Flower of Remembrance." Proceeds from that first sale went to the American and French Children's League.
Guerin had troubles with the distribution of the poppies in early 1922 and sought out Michael for help. Michael had started a smaller-scaled Poppy Day during a YMCA conference she was attending in New York and wanted to use the poppies as a symbol of remembrance of the war. Guerin, called the "Poppy Lady of France" in her homeland, and Michael, later dubbed "The Poppy Princess" by the Georgia legislature, went to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) for help.
The poppy was adopted as the official memorial flower of the VFW at its national convention in Seattle, Wash., in August 1922, following the first nationwide distribution of poppies ever conducted by any veterans organization.
In 1923, faced by a shortage of poppies from French manufacturers, the VFW relied on New York florists to make up the difference. This was a huge setback, however, and led to the idea by VFW officials to use unemployed and disabled veterans to produce the artificial flower. This concept was approved in late 1923 and the first poppy factory was built in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1924. This provided a practical means of assistance to veterans and also ensured a steady, reliable source of poppies. Veterans at Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities and veterans homes help assemble the poppies, and each year the VFW distributes roughly 14 million worldwide.
It was around the same time the first poppy factory was built that the VFW registered the name "Buddy Poppy" with the U.S. Patent Office. The term "Buddy" was coined by the poppy makers as a tribute to their comrades who did not come home from the war or who were scarred and crippled for life.
The VFW celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Buddy Poppy as its official flower in 1997. While profits from its sales have helped countless veterans and their widows, widowers and orphans over the years, the poppy itself survives as a perpetual tribute to those who have given their lives for the nation's freedom.
In Flanders Fields
By John McCrae
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.
This was the poem written by World War I Colonel John McCrae, a surgeon with Canada's First Brigade Artillery. It expressed McCrae's grief over the "row on row" of graves of soldiers who had died on Flanders' battlefields, located in a region of western Belgium and northern France. The poem presented a striking image of the bright red flowers blooming among the rows of white crosses and became a rallying cry to all who fought in the First World War. The first printed version of it reportedly was in December 1915, in the British magazine Punch.
McCrae's poem had a huge impact on two women, Anna E. Guerin of France and Georgia native Moina Michael. Both worked hard to initiate the sale of artificial poppies to help orphans and others left destitute by the war. By the time Guerin established the first sale in the U.S., in 1920 with the help of the American Legion, the poppy was well known in the allied countries — America, Britain, France, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — as the "Flower of Remembrance." Proceeds from that first sale went to the American and French Children's League.
Guerin had troubles with the distribution of the poppies in early 1922 and sought out Michael for help. Michael had started a smaller-scaled Poppy Day during a YMCA conference she was attending in New York and wanted to use the poppies as a symbol of remembrance of the war. Guerin, called the "Poppy Lady of France" in her homeland, and Michael, later dubbed "The Poppy Princess" by the Georgia legislature, went to the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) for help.
The poppy was adopted as the official memorial flower of the VFW at its national convention in Seattle, Wash., in August 1922, following the first nationwide distribution of poppies ever conducted by any veterans organization.
In 1923, faced by a shortage of poppies from French manufacturers, the VFW relied on New York florists to make up the difference. This was a huge setback, however, and led to the idea by VFW officials to use unemployed and disabled veterans to produce the artificial flower. This concept was approved in late 1923 and the first poppy factory was built in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1924. This provided a practical means of assistance to veterans and also ensured a steady, reliable source of poppies. Veterans at Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities and veterans homes help assemble the poppies, and each year the VFW distributes roughly 14 million worldwide.
It was around the same time the first poppy factory was built that the VFW registered the name "Buddy Poppy" with the U.S. Patent Office. The term "Buddy" was coined by the poppy makers as a tribute to their comrades who did not come home from the war or who were scarred and crippled for life.
The VFW celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Buddy Poppy as its official flower in 1997. While profits from its sales have helped countless veterans and their widows, widowers and orphans over the years, the poppy itself survives as a perpetual tribute to those who have given their lives for the nation's freedom.
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