Memorial Day

[Forkin' Crazy]

As you watch a ball game, cook on the grill, and have a day off, just remember what this day is all about.

[Lake X Kid]

Years ago I took these photos at a local annual Memorial Event.

[CDave]

God bless all who have served and didn't come home. I thank you for your ultimate sacrifice.

[Forkin' Crazy]

I had a dear friend that when passed away, I was a pallbearer at his funeral. In WWII he flew all kinds of planes but ended up in a C 47 pulling gliders and dropping off paratroopers.

I am working with is daughter, which is a dear friend, to scan pictures from his scrap books... It is amazing what they went through. One mission flack got them and blew part of the cockpit off taking out his copilot! And he landed and kept flying!

He came in with a huge hole in one wing once... Amazing courage!!

They were the greatest generation. My uncle was in the Navy in the Pacific. He was tough as nails!

But people were tough as nails then. No men in dresses and gender manipulation.

What a sad turn for normality.

We are f**ked.

[CDave]

My godfather flew a P-47 Razorback in WWII.
He spent 1 1/2 years in a German POW camp. I did some research online and found the squad he was in and the number of the P-47 he flew. I also found a website that showed the camp he was in.
Another one of my dads friends flew a F4U in the Marines, at the tail end of WWII and in the Korean War.
My dad served in the Navy during the Korean War on a LSM. He was a Motor Machinist Mate 2nd or 1st class. In the Chosin Valley Reservoir area.

[JBS]

Dad was a pilot and flew off carriers in the Pacific.He was in his early 20s when WW2 broke out. He told me hurrendous stories of flying his Hell Cat at night off the carrier at night on missions in the south Pacific.He saw plenty of action, but never really talked much about it.If he suffered from PTSD,he covered it well .After the war,he got out of the Navy and came home and sold cars most of his life. He refused to sell or ride in a Japanese or German cars.

[WaterZebra]

Yeah........the really great heroes never talked about it much. My father was a naval surgery assistant. In order to get the dead back home for burial, they had to make every air transport flight count. That meant doing taxidermy on the bodies to get as much weight out and more bodies per flight back home. The Ukranian situation pales in comparison to what the WWII vets went thru. Most Americans today view Memorial Day as a 3 day weekend to go somewhere. My father's brother was blown off the California and swam 50 yards under burning oil to the beach.