Memorial Weekend
Community
I'll be taking a group of Boy Scouts to camp near and hike the Shiloh National Military Park.
Mike thanks for being a leader Scouts would not exist with good leaders!
This has been posted before but it needs to be posted again.
We owe these fallen Americans a debt that can never be repaid.
73 years ago I was born on Memorial Day. If I had been born one day later it would have been my parents 5th wedding anniversary.
I spend every Memorial Day putting flowers on the graves of every relative buried here. The list keeps growing. This year we added our mother.
Afterwards we go home and have a BBQ and let the memories come out. I wouldn't spend it any other way.
Powerful images
Hope all have a good one
The Old Sarge, my daughter and I do the same thing. She picks me up in her truck and we go to the graves. I was thinking the other day about some real old time daffodils that grow on my property. When my dad bought that land 65 years ago there were places where at one time were houses back in the woods. Now long gone but the daffodils still grow in the woods. They aren't fancy like the ones now days but are all doubled up. I am going to dig some and plant them at mom and dad's grave. That is permissible here. My dad would love that. I always put water iris' on the graves that I cut from the pond my dad built in 1955. The daffodils would bloom every spring. The originals must have been planted over 100 years ago.
Here is a montage of newpaper articles when my dad came home from the war. I am the little boy, born on March 20, 1942.
I Fell
I fell in distant combat so that you might still stand
lovingly protected in our forefathers' promised land.
I fell for liberty and freedom amid battle's fearsome roar
with thoughts of home and family as others gone before.
I fell beneath a tattered, frayed flag of red, white and blue,
as symbolic and defiantly waving as when it flew anew.
I fell confronting distant cannon, mortar and enemy gun
with unfilled dreams of youth before my time was done.
I fell with courageous brethren overcoming heart pounding fear,
embraced by God's divine promises beyond this earthly sphere.
I fell awash in battle's lethal spreading crimson stain,
leaving you to bear the burden that I did not fall in vain.
Written specifically in memory of USMC Cpl. Wm. Daley and in honor of all of our fallen heroes.
Wm. Barnes Cpl. USMC (1963-1966)
Wish I could go with you guys, Seapig. I used to live about an hour or so from Shiloh. Spent many many hours walking that park.
Jim Great articles on your dad. A true hero And certainly one if the greatest of the greatest generation
His stories must have been incredible
Thanks Pat!
Would love to have you with us Lefty, sometimes its tough to get enough adults to go to allow us to maintain 'Two deep leadership'.
Very moving poem Tinecounter.
Some great color photos taken during WW II.
1. Make certain that you click onto each photo
to magnify it.
2. Then click a second time to return the photo
to its normal size.
Dad (second from left) with his three brothers. Dad was on Iwo Jima 5th Division Marines from d-day throughout. His 18 year old brother (far right) was also there in the 4th Division and was KIA. Dad didn't know until two months later when he got a letter from his parents. 5 years later another brother (3rd from left) was KIA in the Korean conflict. Loss of both brothers was always very tuff on him and his parents. God bless the fallen Warriors! C
I saw this one on Facebook, very touching.
not sure which is more heart wrenching, the loved ones left behind or no family there to care
God bless the fallen Warriors! X2
Silence is indeed golden. This day to reflect and all of the above is 24 Kt.
The Rock
Mouse that was incredibly well done. Thank you.
