To Honor Veterans

Subject: BS: To Honor Our Veterans
From: Joe Offer
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 07:42 PM

I'm a pacifist, but I'm also a veteran of the U.S. Army. I joined because I had to, not because I have ever supported any war. I've received a request for a "respectful" Veteran's Day thread, like the one we had last year (click).

That seems like a reasonable request, so this thread will be monitored to keep the peace. If you want to make statements against wars and soldiers and all that, feel free - but do it in another thread. If you want to flame in THIS thread, your message will be moved or deleted.

And may those who died in warfare rest in peace and in honor.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: BS: To Honor Our Veterans
From: Big Mick
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 07:45 PM

Thank you, Joe. I was hoping this would happen.

To my brothers and sisters who served and didn't come home, I miss you, and honor you to this day.

To my brothers and sisters who served and did come home, it is up to us to continue to see to it that folks understand us.

We don't celebrate war. Most of us detest it in a way that only those that have seen it is all its ugliness can.

And, .... Thank You.

Peace,

Mick

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: mg
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 07:48 PM

And here's to those bearing the burden right now in Falluja and elsewhere. The line that sticks in my head is someone somewhere saying how much of our freedom rests on the shoulders of 19 year-olds. mg

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Big Mick
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 07:49 PM

Thanks, Sister Mary. I came back to this thread to say that.

Mick

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: DougR
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 07:50 PM

Bless 'em all.

DougR

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Peace
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 08:09 PM

I give thanks to those who have made it possible for me to live in freedom. Soldiers seldom pick their wars or the justness of their cause. We do that for them. Thanks to all of you everywhere. Would that your countries serve you as well as you serve your countries.

Bruce M

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: artbrooks
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 08:11 PM

Thanks Joe.

I doubt if many MudCatters spend much time hanging around the Legion Hall, but it is good to have a time and place to remember those who aren't with us today and those who came home battered in body or spirit...and those of us who mostly went on with our lives but remember, almost daily, where we were and who was with us. Equally worthy of honor are the people who choose alternative service because of their beliefs.

               \_/    ABSENT FRIENDS

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: beardedbruce
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 08:21 PM

Those who serve their country deserve the respect and appreciation of all it's citizens, regardless of our opinions on the specific conflict that they served in.

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Fishpicker
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 08:23 PM

To all veterans and to my comrades that did not come home, peace be with all of you. May we all look forward to a future without war.

                           FP

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 08:24 PM

Thanks, Joe. I'm tired of being flamed for having kept my word and supporting those who are now in harm's way. I wish them all -- US, Iraqi, Brit, Japanese, Afghani, whoever -- return home to peace, the love of their families, and the honor of their communities. And while I don't think the current unpleasantness in Iraq was necessary or right (Afghanistan's a different story), I will continue to be supportive of the grunts with the guns.

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Tannywheeler
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 08:28 PM

"Would that your countries serve you as well as you serve your countries."
Amen, Bruce M. 'Tis a consumation devoutly to be desired, as the man said.
It's a fact I've noticed before: Our most devout, practical pacifists are those who've served in battle.
Thank you is woefully inadequate, but all we've got.   Tw

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Once Famous
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 08:29 PM

As the yellow ribbon says:

God bless our troops.

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Amos
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 08:33 PM

I concur wholeheartedly, Joe. There is a page where you can scroll down all the names and pictures of the lost young men and women from our current military adventure. As I scrolled through just the ones from my own state of California, I kept think about what they had to stand up to before they dies, broken and unfulfilled, most of them under 25 years old. It breaks my heart to look in their lost faces.

The grunts with the guns and the men in the trucks are doing more than should be asked of them, and they are doing it bravely in spite of the terror that must live permanently in their guts. I don't know how they stand it. Honor them? You bet.

And get them out of there as fast as possible, I think, as well.

A

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: SINSULL
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 08:39 PM

Bless them all. And a special prayer for those who came back and live with the memories.

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: mg
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 08:51 PM

And a lot of those trucks are being driven by women. Quite a few have died in Iraq. mg

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Micca
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 08:54 PM

Armistace day in the UK is this coming weekend started to commemorate those who died in the First World war. All the Big Yins, Heads of political Parties (united ,for once)will attend at the Memorial in Whitehall for those who died in Any combat anywhere in the world and it is fitting that they should remember those that they sent to do the job on our behalf. WW1 which ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month 1918
" We will remember them"

In Flanders Fields
by John McCrae, May 1915

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.

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: mg
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 08:58 PM

I know I have said this before, but I heard that sung in Newfoundland on a evening so bitter cold it made the tears freeze to my face...mg

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 09:10 PM

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Padre
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 09:28 PM

Thanks to all of you who are respectful of veterans.

Padre

HMCS (FMF) USN, Retired

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: iancarterb
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 09:30 PM

I joined the Navy in 1963 because I had a draft notice in my pocket and I was not a pacifist. I was much luckier than many. Just because I am not a pacifist does not mean that all war isn't crazy. The real lack of respect for all veterans comes from those who consciously avoided service and now feel qualified to put our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, friends and lovers into the inferno for reasons of their own. There is a good reason that the most vigorous objections before Iraq came from Colin Powell, the only person in a position of high responsibility who had ever been shot at.

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 11:03 PM

Once again....

Cause I have yet to find anything that says it better

11:11

Ah the glorious few are all the fewer here
In the cold November air
The crowd draws silent
Their collars raised
To the edges of the square
The children's choir sings "In Flander's Fields"
The band plays "Over There"
The old heroes still try to dress the line
As the chaplain reads the prayer

For the glorious few no longer stand so straight
As they did long years before
When they faced a hard and cruel fate
On a far and distant shore
Their tunics faded green and blue
Poor shelter from the cold
The memories made yet raw and new
At the calling of the roll

The heads are bowed in silence now
At the tolling of the hour
The first few falling flakes of snow
Drift gently on the flowers
All piled and stacked against the stones
Petals fluttering in the air
The eyes that stare down through the years
At the ones no longer there

The taste of lost and wasted years
So bitter on the tongue
White breath in clouds in the autumn cold
Frail chests with medals hung
In battle ribbons red and gold
In the pale November sun
The hands and faces grown so old
While the heart stays ever young

For the glorious few are all the fewer here
The old soldiers form the square
The wind blows hard and shakes the leaves
And stirs the thin white hair
Of these fading brave and fragile souls
As the bugler plays "Last Post"
The snow falls thick and faster still
And turns them white as ghosts

Lest we forget...

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 11:09 PM

To cite a few statistics:

From the Revolutionary War to the Gulf War, American casualties only:

Military service during war        42,348,460
Battle deaths        651,008
Other deaths in service (theater)        13,998
Other deaths in service (nontheater)        525,256
Nonmortal woundings        1,431,290
Living war veterans        17,578,5003
Living veterans        25,038,459

From July 1 to November, 1916, the Battle of the Somme:

By the end of the battle, the British Army had suffered 420,000 casualties including nearly 60,000 on the first day alone. The French lost 200,000 men and the Germans nearly 500,000.

The Battle of Lesnaya, 1708:

The Swedes lost 6,307 men in the battle, more than half of them prisoners. The rest of the force finally joined Charles on October 8, but served only to increase his problem of feeding the army. Russian casualties totaled 1,111 killed and 2,856 wounded, about one-third of those engaged.

Korea, 1950-1953:

The Korean War finally ended in July 1953. Left in its wake were four million military and civilian casualties, including 33,600 American, 16,000 UN allied, 415,000 South Korean, and 520,000 North Korean dead. There were also an estimated 900,000 Chinese casualties. Half of Korea's industry was destroyed and a third of all homes.

Civilian casualties, WW2:

Civilian casualties in the United Kingdom, slightly over half of which were inflicted in the London area, were as follows:

                   Killed    Seriously injured    Total
Aircraft bombs      51,509          61,423       112,932
V-1 (flying bombs)   6,184          17,981         24,165
V-2                  2,754          6,523          9,277
Artillery fire         148             255            403
---------------------------------------------------------------
Total               60,595          86,182       146,777

Civilian casualties in the USSR have been placed roughly at 2,500,000 killed. The loss of population (including both military and civilian casualties) caused directly or indirectly by the war has been stated at 20,000,000. Air raids against Germany killed approximately 300,000 Germans and seriously injured about 780,000 more. Numerous additional casualties occurred during the Soviet invasion of 1944-1945, but no specific estimates are available. Japanese civilian casualties probably approached 500,000 killed and 625,000 seriously injured, plus a considerable number reported as missing after the fire raids and atomic bombings. In addition, about 360,000 Japanese captured by the Russians in Manchuria, Korea, and the Kuril Islands were still missing in 1950; a large number of them have never been accounted for. Chinese civilian losses are unknown but probably numbered several million.

Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.        
Shovel them under and let me work—        
                I am the grass; I cover all.        

And pile them high at Gettysburg        
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.              
Shovel them under and let me work.        
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:        
                What place is this?        
                Where are we now?        

                I am the grass.              
                Let me work.

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Dave Swan
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 11:10 PM

My thanks and respect to those who have served and those who serve today.

D

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 11:11 PM

anzac day (25 April) is our 'Vet's Day' in NZ. However, this Armistice Day, we have have a major remmberance in Wellington.

A WWI Vet has arrived back in NZ, after the best part of 90 years in a French War Grave. Tomorrow, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, he'll start his (hopefully) final trip to become our Unknown Warrior. Check the site - it's a nice story, with daily updated photos and stories of his return. He's just one of almost a third of our NZ war dead who were never accounted for.

If you browse round our NZ National War Memorial site, you'll find a bronze sculpture of a woman with two kids - the "Unknowing Worrier" - who got the message "Missing in Action" - and nothing more....

"When will we ever Learn"?

Peace - Sam

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: dwditty
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 11:29 PM

Peace, thanks, amen.
dw

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: mg
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 11:29 PM

I absolutely wish we would go back to calling it Armistice Day. That is what it is. How fortunate they were, despite their losses, to have a war that had a definite ending time and date. mg

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: mg
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 11:37 PM

Here's my song for the Korean veterans..I probably post it every year..Tune is Dainty Davy

Those we left there in the cold
We remember we remember
Have no fears of growing old
Oh do we remember

Those who died face down in mud
We remember we remember
Asian soil Yankee blood
Oh do we remember

Those who fell in prison yards
We remember we remember
Savage weather savage guards
Oh do we remember

Heartbreak Ridge and Porkchop Hill
We remember we remember
If we don't honor them who will
Oh do we remember

Those whose names we can't forget
We remember we remember
Comrade spirits with us yet
Oh do we remember

Those who died when far too young
We remember we remember
It is for them this song is sung
Oh do we remember

Heartbreak Ridge...says it all...mg

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: dianavan
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 11:44 PM

The Remembrance Day Assembly at our elementary school is a very solemn occasion and we all wear black and white with red poppies. The students recite their poems for soldiers young and old and the choir sings. We also have a band that plays. We invite the Legionaires and it very hard not to cry. It is a tradition, and it will stay.

Rest in peace and know that we will always appreciate your sacrifice.

d

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Peace
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 11:57 PM

It's a beautiful song, Mary.

I am very happy to see this thread, especially happy for you, because I read something you wrote last year at this time and I could feel the anguish that some posts had caused you in previous years.

It's funny. I have four exchange students in my class this year: one is from Holland, another from Germany and two others from Japan. The school's Remembrance Day Ceremony was devoid of reference to countries or politics. And it reminded me of a professor I learned from at the University of Alberta. He was a retired officer of the Royal Marines, and the poster he hung on his office door showed a soldier--but you couldn't make out the soldier's nationality. I asked him why, and he said that in his opinion, because soldiers did as they were bid to do by their civilian leaders, there wasn't any real difference between them. All mothers and fathers worry about their sons and daughters. It has ever been thus. I would willing join people everywhere in praying for peace and an end to all war. May we see that in our time.

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 12:01 AM

I cannot attend any Armistice Day parade here in China, but I did manage to get to the ANZAC Day event in Wellington this year. Whatever nationality we are we should remember our lost service men and women.

I still find it hard to fight back the tears remembering friends of mine who died in the Falklands.

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: mg
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 12:08 AM

There is a wonderful song about someone who died in the Falklands and I think comes back as a ghost..mg

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Devilmaster
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 01:18 AM

We Shall Remember Them.

Remembrance Medley. (2 meg mp3)

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 02:45 AM

For my Father's brothers, Uncle Eck and Uncle Geordie, still in their teens to this day, lying on the Somme battlefield since 1916 ["Lions led by donkeys"]. For my Friend, Sam Nesbitt,died in the Po valley, 1945, the last week of the war [ a "D-day Dodger"] . For all the other thousands of young men and women who gave their lives in following orders. And for all the millions who perished or have been maimed thro' Man's inhumanity to man. May the day arrive which gives meaning to the words "They did not suffer in vain".

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Tinker
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 10:33 AM

May the tears that fall in remembered anguish, like rain upon the fire parched soil
Feed the soul's stark wounds now gapping. as memories weave and healing toils

For in the rubble lies a seed, demanding too it's birth
Honor, cherish and nurture, the needs planted in blood upon the earth
Each of us has taken part in fueling hatreds fires
And each us must hold the hearts that battles now make tired.


Thank You

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 01:24 PM

I'm assuming that memories may be related here as well. Not all war time was bad time. My name is Steve Neff and I served in the United States Marines from August of 1962 to August of 1970. I was in Vietnam as a "Battery Powered Grunt", i.e. a radio operator that served mainly with the infantry - or the grunts. The single most memorable piece of my war time service is I came home alive. And dang glad of it. The following is about a fellow Marine and I's discussion, after the battle of Double Eagle II, of our relative concerns regarding safety. I still have to chuckle when I think about it -

One night I was drinking like a fish, yes I used to do that, and me and my partner Delbert got into an argument. Well Delbert wasn't the sharpest tack in the box but he knew better than to drink and fight. I, on the other hand, was not sober enough for that thought.

So I picked a fight with him. Now Delbert and I had some issues from a past incident in which I ended up hung up in canvas with VC grenades landing around us and he ended up safe in a fighting hole. It was at Tam Ky and we had set up on this polo field. Nice neat rows of shelter halves. Whoever thought that one up wasn't thinking.

Well when the grenades and machine gun fire started Delbert went out of the puptent at high port with his M-14. I was a tad slower and ended up tangled inside this freaking tent. I had not forgotten the incident. Matter of fact JD was at this fight and remembers it quite well. Anyway - back to the rear with the beer

We were discussing the finer points of consolidating our efforts in returning fire and I thought it best we BOTH be out where that could occur - Delbert, however, was not quite of the same mind. He figured when the shooting started the best thing to do was to cover his ass first. (He'd later pay a price for that - Kharma is a wicked stepmom.) And he had done so that night (covered his ass while leaving mine exposed).

I'd drink another beer and get louder and he'd tell me, "Eliot, don't do this." I, of course, was older and wiser and was bound to get my point across whether he liked it or not. I finally got to my feet and took a swing at him and he ducked it - then the asshole punched me in the eye! I was dumb founded! How the hell did he do that? So I took another swing and he punched me again.

Shit - this was not going well so I closed for the kill. He, in the meantime, was trying to get me to quit and I was just getting madder. Well he closed both my eyes for me. Couldn't see a dang thing - but I could feel his knuckles wacking me. Finally Lance Alstrom and another Marine took me in tow and hauled me to the Doc's hootch.

Well the Doc's thought that was pretty funny. And figured if I was so drunk that Delbert could whup my ass they could have some fun also. Them knotheads decided that I might get an infection, it had happened before (take a stroll through Elephant Grass and see what happens a couple of days later), and I couldn't argue with them.

So they shot me full of penicillin, put ice on my eyes, and put a couple of stitches over my right eye to close off some of the bleeding. Well Lance and the other guy, wish I could remember his name, hauled me back towards the tent area. On the way I suddenly stopped breathing. Well crap - now what? I was so drunk I don't think I knew what was happening. But the world was getting more than weird from my side.

Back to the Doc's hootch. They were a tad PO'd that I was disturbing their beauty rest right up until Lance mentioned I'd stopped breathing. Those two miracle workers figured out I must be allergic to the penicillin and gave me a shot of something else real quick. I started coming back around again and one of the Docs asked me if I'd ever had a bad reaction to penicillin. Told him not that I knew of.

So he put a drop of penicillin on my eye and it turned red - he said that penicillin has this thing with some people? That after a bit you can't take it anymore. Well that fight, and that shot, was my limit.

Delbert felt like shit for whupping my ass, well not REAL bad cause I pushed him into it, but I was still pretty drunk and was going to go after him again when cooler heads prevailed. I suspect the Company Gunny had showed up by this time - "No beer? Get that worthless fuck to bed and get quiet - NOW assholes."

Loved them Docs - they did a good stitch job - if you don't know you can hardly see the scar. No report of the fight, the fixing, or anything else - but my medical record suddenly sported a bright red "ALLERGIC TO PENICILLIN" stamp.

What a way to fight a war - no VC? Hell let's try to kill each other!

Semper Fi
Steve

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 01:29 PM

It's the same guy as above - You gotta understand that a combat vet has a different take on things - I sent this to one of the Medics assigned to us when he was asking about funny encounters with "Docs" - what we called the Corpsment assigned to us in the Fleet Marine Force.

Then there was the time after Vietnam - I was stationed at LeJeune with Headquarters 8th Marines Comm Platoon. We had this asshole of a Sgt E-5. Name was Gary Hamblin - I'll never forget that guy. He hadn't been off across the pond yet and figured our attitudes just plain sucked and he was going to send us back to boot camp for a retraining.

I don't remember what we did but this knothead decided that several of us could spend the weekend field daying the barracks. They were brand new brick barracks, instead of the quonset huts we'd been used to, and they had a shit load of windows. So it was toothbrushes and no more - to clean the whole area. Man we were pissed.

But we did it and sniveled - but we did it. A week or so later we found out that Sgt Hamblin was scheduled to have some hemoroids removed by surgery. Well shucky darns - guess who the attending Medic was? Yep - same Brother that stitched up my eye in Vietnam. I'll have to ask JD what his name was - don't know why I can't remember it. Remember him real well.

So anyhow - here's Sgt Hamblin getting a ream job and our buddy is going to be ass(pun har freaking har)isting person after the surgery to make sure he's all clean and stuff. Wasn't all nice and laser techy like today. They used pocket knives and horse hair stitching material.

There was also the issue of what to keep the area in question clean with.

I tell you those Docs earned my respect even more - ever hear of Witch Hazel? That shit will burn holes in your nose just smelling it - let alone on fresh knife cuts around someone's anus. And even better? Doc called us and told us when the first application would be. So we moseyed over, just to see how Sgt. Hamblin was (can't let a Brother down now can we), and with us in attendance the Doc applied liberal doses of Witch Hazel to Sgt. Hamblin's ass hole.

It was so freaking cool!! Hamblin didn't dare yell cause we were visiting and actin like we liked him. Doc's filling his butt with fire. And the tears were rolling down his cheeks. We had to leave before one of us lost it. So outside we went and laughed our selves into a fit! Lord was that funny. And we were just outside his window all the time! I can still remember rolling on the grass grinder between us and 10th Marines. Holding our stomachs and laughing - oh man - I still laugh when I think about that.

He came back to us a few days later and was quite civil. Treated us like real live combat Marines that needed a break. Lord you Docs - EVIL when pushed!!

Told you we looked at things differently -

Semper Fi
Steve

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Little Robyn
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 01:47 PM

There's a lovely song about a Vet returning home on Remembrance day, thinking of his friends. It was one of the last songs written by NZ songwriter, Dave Jordan and can be found here:
Goodnight Ruby


We sang it at the Wellington Folk Festival a few weeks back and several people were in tears.
Robyn

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Fishpicker
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 01:54 PM

"Lord you Docs - EVIL when pushed"


Never mess with the Corpsman or cooks! =8^)


                         Doc FP

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 03:46 PM

Dang right, fp. I let the medics in ROK use my veins for practice blood draws, since I have good veins. They reciprocated by letting us keep our beer and booze in their spare bacteriological 'fridge, in there with the dead spirochetes they'd use to really screw up anyone who was stupid enough to mess with 'em.

Why, you may ask, did these medics have a supply of dead syphillis germs? Because before you could go home you had to have a clean bill of health relative to VD. That took a blood draw by the medics you had been screwing with. Whether or not you ever visited The Turkey Farm or any other such place was irrelevant -- a couple quick wipes with a toothpick and they'd make a VD test on Mother Theresa turn out positive. Then, eight more weeks in a special ward before you got to go home....

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: kendall
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 03:49 PM

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. I will wear my medal which says I served my country during the Korean unpleasantness.

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Micca
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 03:56 PM

In my place of work, staff and students of all denominations will gather just before 11 to observe the 2 minutes silence for the fallen, as we do every year..

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 07:50 PM

Several years ago I wrote a song which still expresses my feelings today:


                      THE SOLDIER'S TRIBUTE
   
         
    NOW THE SHELLS ARE COMING FAST, HEAR THE CANNON'S MIGHTY BLAST
    SEE THE MINE EXPLODING OVER THERE
   YOU CAN HEAR THE WOUNDED MOAN OUT THERE WHERE THE BULLETS ROAM
   OH WHAT A BURDEN THE POOR SOLDIER BEARS

    NOW THE SOLDIER STOOD ALONE AND THOUGHT OF HIS NATIVE HOME
    OF HIS WIFE WHO'S WAITING FOR HIM FAR AWAY
    HE THOUGHT OF HIS LITTLE GIRL WITH HER SILKY GOLDEN CURLS
    BUT WAR WAS ON AND SO HE HAD TO STAY

    THE SUN HAS SET; THE DAY IS DONE; WORK IS OVER; WAR IS WON!
    SOON YOU WILL BE GOING HOME ONCE MORE
    AND THE SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL SEEM TO STAND ERECT AND HAIL
    THE SOLDIER WHO IS MARCHING HOME FROM WAR

    YOU HAVE LIVED THROUGH THAT GREAT FIGHT, AND YOU'RE GOING HOME   
    TONIGHT
    WITH YOUR WIFE AND LITTLE GIRL YOU'LL BE
    YOU DESERVE TO GET THE REST; IN THE FIGHT YOU'VE DONE YOUR BEST
    IT'S MEN LIKE YOU WHO KEEP OUR COUNTRY FREE
   
       (c) 1996
       A.McLean
   [e-mail]

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 09:16 PM

Back when I was in high school I came across this poem. You probably know it; it's still as true today as when it was written. It's true for all nations and all soldiers whether past, present, and, I suspect, future.

If you want to honor veterans, remember the point of this poem.


I went into a public house to get a pint o' beer,
The publican he up an' says, "We serve no red-coats here."
The girls behind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an' to myself says I:
O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but hadn't none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,
But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls!
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait outside";
But it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide,
The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,
O it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide.

Yes, making mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.
Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, how's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of heroes" when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of heroes" when the drums begin to roll.

We aren't no thin red heroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barracks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduct isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barracks don't grow into plaster saints;
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall behind",
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool - you bet that Tommy sees!

                                           -Rudyard Kipling

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: dianavan
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 10:51 PM

Today we had our school assembly. The old vet got up and mumbled his lines and was incoherent for much of his speech. I was so proud of our students - not one snicker, not one smile - just absolute, respectful, silence.

When the students started reading their poems, I started to feel a little shaky. When the choir raised their voices, the tears just rolled down my face. I was thinking about the soldiers in Fallujah and how hard it is for their families. I was thinking about all the innocent lives, lost. I was thinking about how my own family contributed three generations of soldiers.

I have a very sincere question to ask. I have my father's medals. Should they just sit in my cedar chest or would it be appropriate if I wore them at a Remembrance Day Assembly?

d

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Billy the Bus
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 10:59 PM

wear 'em d

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: LadyJean
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 11:09 PM

Now you have me thinking of my dad, who served with the First Armored Division in North Africa.
Then I thought about Cricket, a long ago lover, who was a Vietnam veteran.
And my good friend Nils, who served with Army Intelligence in West Germany, and sings Gilbert and Sullivan.
And Donovan, another Vietnam veteran. We've been arguing steadily since we first met, but he can be a very good friend.

"Yet quaint and curious war is, you'd shoot a fellow down, you'd meet and treat like anyone else, or help a half a crown". Thomas Hardy wrote.
MY books are still in boxes. Can someone produce a copy of Hardy's "Channel Firing"

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: mg
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 11:16 PM

'The Last of the Light Brigade'

There were thirty million English who talked of England's might,
There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night.
They had neither food nor money, they had neither service nor trade;
They were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade.

They felt that life was fleeting; they knew not that art was long,
That though they were dying of famine, they lived in deathless song.
They asked for a little money to keep the wolf from the door;
And the thirty million English sent twenty pounds and four!

They laid their heads together that were scarred and lined and grey;
Keen were the Russian sabres, but want was keener than they;
And an old Troop-Sergeant muttered, "Let us go to the man who writes
The things on Balaclava the kiddies at school recites."

They went without bands or colours, a regiment ten-file strong,
To look for the Master-singer who had crowned them all in his song;
And, waiting his servant's order, by the garden gate they stayed,
A desolate little cluster, the last of the Light Brigade.

They strove to stand to attention, to straighten the toil-bowed back;
They drilled on an empty stomach, the loose-knit files fell slack;
With stooping of weary shoulders, in garments tattered and frayed,
They shambled into his presence, the last of the Light Brigade.

The old Troop-Sergeant was spokesman, and "Beggin' your pardon," he said,
"You wrote o' the Light Brigade, sir. Here's all that isn't dead.
An' it's all come true what you wrote, sir, regardin' the mouth of hell;
For we're all of us nigh to the workhouse, an, we thought we'd call an' tell.

"No, thank you, we don't want food, sir; but couldn't you take an' write
A sort of 'to be continued' and 'see next page' o' the fight?
We think that someone has blundered, an' couldn't you tell 'em how?
You wrote we were heroes once, sir. Please, write we are starving now."

The poor little army departed, limping and lean and forlorn.
And the heart of the Master-singer grew hot with "the scorn of scorn."
And he wrote for them wonderful verses that swept the land like flame,
Till the fatted souls of the English were scourged with the thing called Shame.

O thirty million English that babble of England's might,
Behold there are twenty heroes who lack their food to-night;
Our children's children are lisping to "honour the charge they made-"
And we leave to the streets and the workhouse the charge of the Light Brigade!

        -- Rudyard Kipling

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: Peace
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 11:16 PM

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
Channel Firing

             1That night your great guns, unawares,
             2Shook all our coffins as we lay,
             3And broke the chancel window-squares,
             4We thought it was the Judgment-day

             5And sat upright. While drearisome
             6Arose the howl of wakened hounds:
             7The mouse let fall the altar-crumb,
             8The worms drew back into the mounds,

             9The glebe cow drooled. Till God called, "No;
            10It's gunnery practice out at sea
            11Just as before you went below;
            12The world is as it used to be:

            13"All nations striving strong to make
            14Red war yet redder. Mad as hatters
            15They do no more for Christés sake
            16Than you who are helpless in such matters.

            17"That this is not the judgment-hour
            18For some of them's a blessed thing,
            19For if it were they'd have to scour
            20Hell's floor for so much threatening ....

            21"Ha, ha. It will be warmer when
            22I blow the trumpet (if indeed
            23I ever do; for you are men,
            24And rest eternal sorely need)."

            25So down we lay again. "I wonder,
            26Will the world ever saner be,"
            27Said one, "than when He sent us under
            28In our indifferent century!"

            29And many a skeleton shook his head.
            30"Instead of preaching forty year,"
            31My neighbour Parson Thirdly said,
            32"I wish I had stuck to pipes and beer."

            33Again the guns disturbed the hour,
            34Roaring their readiness to avenge,
            35As far inland as Stourton Tower,
            36And Camelot, and starlit Stonehenge.

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: mg
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 11:43 PM

http://www.comcen.com.au/~raiment/Comments.htm

This is a comment section for a Falklands War web site. I was looking for the song about the ghost of the Falkland war..I want to say Roy Bailey...does anyone know it? mg

Subject: RE: To Honor Veterans
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 11:44 PM

Well I've had a few beers tonight. Visited with a bunch of Marines and laughed and talked of the death of Arafat and the deaths of the warriors we knew and fought.

Prayers are in my heart tonight for the men and women dying in a far flung space called Iraq. God Bless their hearts and souls, let them come home alive, let them stand as examples, not of right and wrong, but of what courage can be when your country has asked one to go.

This is an old Marine saying Thank You America for the privelege of serving in your name. I did my best and could have done better - but I gave it my all.

God Bless and Semper Fidelis

Steve "Eliot" Neff
former Corporal of Marines