Today we honor and give thanks for all Americans who died while serving and protecting Americans, wherever far away and however brutal that task became. We celebrate the lives and sacrifice of our fallen.
I hope that we Americans are indeed offering up our prayers for those who have served and their families. I hope we remember to thank God today that we have such patriots who gave up their lives because they believed that America is our home, our land, the heart of who and what we are as not only a nation among others, but a key part of our very identity.
I like to post this video each year. It’s a fitting tribute to what we have to celebrate and observe today.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God,
rest in peace.
Amen.
POW – MIA
Some Still Serve
Rep. John Leboutiller NY , at 2016 Rolling Thunder gave a short talk about the men left behind in Viet-Nam
Its on You Tube
As of that date he said about 250 were KNOWN still alive in camps along Laos / VN border.
Thank you, Menagerie. A very moving video and article.
I’ve made a reminder to myself, to put out the flag.
I will continue to pay tribute to the EOWs (End of Watch) who have died wearing the green and blue of the United States Border Patrol, Customs, and ICE, defending our nation from a foreign invasion…all too often dying inside our own borders while doing it [sometimes as a result of a betrayal by our corrupt government which failed them willfully, like Agent Brian Terry].
My father is one of them. Four decades later he is missed by his family and the remaining members of the Thin Green Line that served with him along that godforsaken Rio Grande River.
Honor First. You are not forgotten.
Big Jake, grateful Americans thank your Dad for his service.
Thank you my friend. He was a good man. My mom was a great lady to hold our family together alone afterward. Those left behind suffer* greatly. It takes a toll.
—
* Thankfully the deceased do not any longer.
Thank you Menagerie for posting this again. It is a critical reminder of the sacrifices of communities. My wife was about 3 weeks old when her father gave his all in Viet Nam. Her mother drove her kids from San Diego back to her family in North Carolina and raised them well. Despite our loss, our oldest serves today to protect our Republic from foreign threats. I see it as my duty to handle the domestic side.
AMEN ?
and Amen.
From Rotterdam the Netherlands i salute those great Americans that liberated my country from tyranny! I will never forget, always remember!
Will visit Margraten this coming weekend to honour those who lost their lives..
God bless America!
Every good man does his part – together we fashion our own victory. The Netherlands has been a vital “haven” even if most don’t know it – God bless your people as well, together we will achieve heaven on earth. After all it’s right in front of us, and in OUR hands.
We thank you!
Thank you.
May God bless you.
Thank you.
Your people bravely defied the tyranny, to.
My most beloved girlfriend in HS was a 100% Dutch girl. In the words of Tom Petty … she … Yeah, you could kiss like fire, and you made me feel … like every word you said was meant to be
Yes, I would have married her. But she was Dutch Christian reformed, and pretty much HAD to marry within her faith.
My point … oh my point … ? I love the Dutch people … and the AJAX school of soccer 🙂
Tom Petty lover!? Check! Dutch girls… Check! In the words of Lenny K. American woman! Even a greater
check 😉
Ajax? .Thats what we use to clean the toilet over here in Rotterdam. Feyenoord is the team, Kenji. But i forgive you for mentioning the unspeakable 🙂
To bad things did not work out with you and that Dutch girl..
@ the other replying treepers
Thanks everybody for your kind words! Love you all back! God bless America! The Netherlands and the real president: Donald J.Trump!
Well … Feyenoord IS the team of Johan Cruyff … so you can’t be all that bad … 😉
GOD BLESS AMERICA !
FREEDOM IS NEVER FREE…
ALL GAVE SOME…
SOME GAVE ALL !
Thank you, Menagerie.
Video of Staff Sargent John C. Beale homecoming from Falcon Field in Peach Tree City, Georgia to McDonough, Georgia. People lined the roadways with flags to pay respect to this fallen hero, for about 30 miles. Posting this because we saw this amazing procession while living in PTC. People parked their cars where ever possible and walked to Hwy 34 to watch. I will never forget, we thank and owe them all.
Memorial Day 2021– A time to revisit the American’s Creed
Remember those who died in combat on this sacred day wearing the uniform of this great nation.
On this solemn day there will be cemeteries all across the nation where loved ones will pay their humble respects and quiet tribute to a father, mother, sister, or brother. The loss may be fresh, or it may only be a distant but still painful memory. When I visit Arlington National Cemetery, I often see the tokens (flowers, stones, and photos) of remembrance left behind by those still grieving their loss.
Many Americans since the Revolutionary War have selflessly laid down their lives so that others may live — a testament that freedom truly is not free and often comes indeed at a heavy price and sacrifice.
On this day when we honor their sacrifice it is appropriate that we revisit the words to the American’s Creed passed as a resolution by the U.S. House of Representatives on April 3, 1918 as America was in the midst of the “War to End All Wars.”
“I believe in the United States of America, as a government of the people, by the people, for the people; whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in a republic; a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies.”
Remember those who died in combat on this sacred day wearing the uniform of this great nation, because without their sacrifice we would not have the freedom that many of us flippantly take for granted. Ensure they did not die in vain and honor their memory in your heart.
Honor. Duty. Freedom.
Thank you
? to “Enjoy the long weekend.”
Link to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. View All Medal of Honor Recipients | Congressional Medal of Honor Society | Page 1 (cmohs.org)
Those living represent those that made the ultimate sacrifice.
a LIVING MoH recipient is a rare bird indeed….more have been issued lately to living servicemen but it is still the case most are issued posthumously
I has the honor of speaking from the same Podium with one. Melvin Biddle. PFC 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment. He led the way as a scout in various night actions fighting near Soy Belgium and took out several machine gun nests single handedly. All the heros that died during those terrible days of late December 1944 that fought to delay or stop the German offensive will never be known. A squad here a platoon there, various individuals, holding cross roads or covering the retreat of their units so they could fight again against overwhelming odds until killed.
It was at the rededication of the Weddington Cemetery which we had rebuilt. Several veterans from the war of 1812 and Civil war buried there. One of which was likely in Ft. McHenry that fateful night the Star Spangled Banner still waived.
We worked hard to restore that cemetery. Weddington Cemetery Reconstruction (cemeteries-madison-co-in.com) Melvin passed in 2010. The last living MOH recipient from WW II in Indiana.
And Melvin Biddle was kind enough to come and say a few words at the rededication ceremony. Weddington Rededication Ceremony (cemeteries-madison-co-in.com) I’m the guy in uniform in the picture of the volunteer commission members.
A memorial day offering from the great songwriter, Hugh Prestwood:
It’s been a long time since I’ve lost someone who served close to me. I recently lost the spouse of that person, that puts this day in more focus for me this year.
I was collecting memories when I came upon sets of photos of their time on different bases and locations.
Christmas balls, costume parties, Easter banquets, and weddings of many service members. Young, vibrant, and full of life were these people I didn’t know, their new families, and children that might be grandparents today.
I stopped at each face that I didn’t recognize, to honor them and the families that supported them. Then I stopped when I saw a baby that I recognized and the joy in the faces that seemed to overcome the hardship of separation, uncertainty, and perhaps loss.
The faces I knew and didn’t know, were all living their best life. I will celebrate all their lives today for what, “they believed in”, and because that’s a, “key part of our identity”.
Thank you for these words Menagerie.
Amen.
AMEN
RIP, Uncle Bob
KIA Korea 09,Oct. 1951
Thinking today of my West Point grad, lifer, Vietnam vet father, who is now in The Mansions of the Lord.
Thank you! God bless our heroes for all eternity. They all made the ultimate sacrifice. Let us never forget them.
God Bless.
There was a beautiful video of Ronald Reagan’s funeral where they used this song. In the video they show all the people lined up along highways etc. as he is being taken back to the Reagan Library. I have never been able to find it since. But the music has always stayed with me.
God bless our heroes. Thank you.
Amen.
On this day, remember! . . . the Chinese Communists want “the fruited plains”!
I’ve seen this in person it’s beautiful. There are towns and burgs throughout the USA that do this I know of many just in the state of GA.
In my little town when the National Guard rotates back in, the town shows up waving flags lining both sides of the road to cheer on the returning heroes, to which there are many since Gulf War 1 (thanks NWO GHW Bush).
This is who the swamp has given the middle finger, Proud, Patriotic Americans who follow the rules. The problem is, by destroying the Constitution to install China Joe, they broke the deal. We know, they know, the world knows.
God Bless those who have fallen for this great land and God Bless those who will fall.
Before it was known as Memorial Day, today was called Decoration Day.
Established in 1868, the event commemorated fallen soldiers who were buried in Arlington Cemetery, a site that was formerly owned by Robert E Lee’s family.
Featured speaker, James Garfield, offered tribute to the war dead whose lives were sacrificed with the hope of reuniting the states that had separated from their former political body.
Presently, the rule of a politically powerful scientific oligarchy has begun remorselessly suppressing opposition voices. This has reignited calls for secession among some who post here and by others elsewhere.
Today, let us call to mind the awful price paid by those buried at Arlington as a warning and make a good-faith attempt at political reconciliation through all honorable means.
Arlington National Cemetary was seized as a gesture of punishment for Gen. Lee commanding the N Army of VA during the “Civil War”….I find it extremely honoring to a man of character that his previous land is used to bury in honor those who perished in combat and after the long watch
And a Gentle reminder… only 2% of all Southerners in 1860 owned slaves.
Two percent.
In other words, the 98% of Confederate soldiers who did not, were not fighting “for slavery” — they were fighting for Southern independence and states’ rights to self rule.
Why does this matter now? Because the Left uses that war to hang the albatross of slavery around the neck of the South, and by extension America, forever and ever.
And to smear and discredit the South of today: not coincidentally, the heart of the Bible Belt and the most patriotic region of the nation (and the region with the highest percentage of warriors per population).
For the record, I agree with Gen. Longstreet, who said after the war, “We should have freed the slaves, and THEN fired on Fort Sumter.”
Bitter wisdom, too late. It would have clarified things.
The forces who want to consolidate Central power ALWAYS use some moral fig leaf as a cover for their real motives. But like David Horowitz warns us, with the Left, the issue is never the issue… the issue is always more power for Them.
Thank you Menagerie for posting this and all of your other posts!
God Bless America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you just doesn’t seem enough for the sacrifice made by those who gave their lives for this great country and all of us, but it comes from the heart. Rest in peace. We will never forget!
Amen
”They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not 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. ”
Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen (9-16)
We will remember them!
Your Day at the Beach
Nice.
That was beautiful, Than You!
This one is called Bringing Them Home:
I get a quarterly newsletter from the American War Memorials Overseas, Inc., a great organization.
https://www.uswarmemorials.org
All of their newsletters have fascinating stories. Here is the latest. One of the sad, sad stories is of the US Navy Zeppelin Disaster over the city of Hull in the UK on 24 Aug 1921, where 44 of 49 were killed, 16 of them were American sailors.
https://www.uswarmemorials.org/html/documents/newsletter%2051.pdf
The War Memorial for the Zeppelin Disaster is in the Western Cemetery in Hull. I am working on cleaning up the Find a Grave memorials for the fallen, and to put together a Virtual Cemetery for them. Many of them have photos and family stories, as well as the history from that time. Here are a few of the men who perished, along w/photos of the airship and newspaper clippings from that time:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16025129/edward-m.-maitland
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16025088/john-rye
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/208657814/eric-edward-steere
214 mile tribute to Chris Kyle. It’s not how many people he killed, it’s how many he saved. God Bless him – the quintessential sheepdog.
WOW! That was a tearjerker.
One-on-one Interview – ‘American Sniper’ Chief Chris Kyle – Navy Seal w/ Ed Young
Fellowship Church, Grapevine, TX
1 Jul 2012
Carlos Hathcock is who Chris Kyle believed was the greatest sniper ever.
This Marine Was The ‘American Sniper’ Of The Vietnam War
By Blake Stillwell
https://www.military.com/marine-corps-birthday/carlos-hathcock-famous-marine-corps-sniper.html
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6923778/carlos-norman-hathcock
I headed up to the cemetery where my father is buried on Friday to plant some flowers. I was dismayed to see that the VFW had not placed any American flags on the veterans markers like they used to do for Memorial Day weekend, including my father’s who is a Korean war veteran.
I went down to the Dollar Store and they had about three dozen, made in America *what a concept* American flags. I bought every one they had and went back to the cemetery and placed them on every veterans’ marker until I ran out.
That really bothered me that this tradition of placing those flags to honor and remember those veterans was being neglected and I got choked up while placing those flags.
Love you, Dad. Thank you for everything!
You choked me up.
Thank you.
??
Things we do when there’s no one observing reveals much about our character.
I’d be honored to shake your hand.
Today my family honors my Dad who fought in India, China, and Burma and drove the Burma Road in WWII. He was career AF. In 2007 he reported to his final, eternal assignment to join his sweet bride he met at a USO dance. We miss them both, but rejoice in knowing we will see them again.
We also celebrate my FIL who flew the SB2C-4 Helldiver, Squadron Hellrazors, Pacific Theater. He flew off the USS Wasp, USS Hornet and USS Saratoga. My husband still proudly wears his Dad’s original patch (one of the one’s designed by a squadron member and produced by Disney at Disney’s expense).
Both men were strong, proud Americans. How we need more of them today.
Thank you all that served our Nation Honors you, God Bless you from a grateful Nation.
Thank you for all the sacrifices made by these great Americans! ❤️
Thank you Menagerie!
My father did not fight in the US Army but he fought the fight against evil in the Belgian Underground during WWII.
Miss him as always.
He was a good man. ❤️
May he rest in peace.
A quick link. Proper flag etiquette for Memorial Day:
https://www.gettysburgflag.com/memorial-day-flag-etiquette
From President Reagan
Given all the stooopid stuff on television, you would think they would find a little room for this: I have never heard of it until today.
Apparently this has been done every year since 2013 (?):
“A large percentage of our country doesn’t know of or care about Normandy, perhaps even being removed from the text in History Books.
A few weekends ago, British artist Jamie Wardley, accompanied by numerous volunteers, took to the beaches of Normandy with rakes and stencils in hand to etch 9,000 silhouettes representing fallen people into the sand. Titled The Fallen 9000, the piece is meant as a stark visual reminder of those who died during the D-Day beach landings at Arromanches on June 6th, 1944 during WWII.
The original team consisted of 60 volunteers, but as word spread nearly 500 additional localresidents arrived to help with the temporary installation that lasted only a few hours before being washed away by the tide.
[Note from AG: BE SURE TO SCROLL ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE COMMENT AT THE VERY END]
.webp
9,000 Fallen Soldiers Etched into the Sand on Normandy Beach to Commemorate Peace Day on September 25, 2013
“What is surprising is that I saw nothing about this here in the US. An overseas friend sent it with a note of gratitude for what the US started there.”
See:
https://www.facebook.com/kathy.cadden.ukraine/posts/10210535035920502
I had a great uncle who was a Pathfinder. He survived. I met him several times when I was young. I’ve visited the beaches and the US Cemetery. Believe me, the French have not forgotten.
Beautiful touching video, I think of all the families behind their names, and the sacrifice they gave to this country.
I pray that this country is saved from the tyranny, they fought for our freedom.
On this Memorial Day 2021, we give thanks to our Heavenly Father for those warriors who gave their lives for us that we might live our lives in freedom. Amen.
They answered the call. They gave it all.
We honor their sacrifice by standing for that Liberty today and opposing in our time the tyranny they opposed in theirs.
Lee Harris: “Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe. . . . They forget that in time of danger, in the face of the Enemy, they must trust and confide in each other, or perish. They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the Enemy. And that, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the Enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn’t done enough for — yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part — something that we could correct. And this means that that our first task is that we must try to grasp what the concept of the Enemy really means. The Enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you. And while it is true that the Enemy always hates us for a reason — it is his reason, and not ours.”…….
But what happens when the Enemy is Within, “Domestick”, yet allied with the Foreign, as all our Founders warned?
America’s Great Seal as designed by Benjamin Franklin in August, 1776.
“Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God”
“Rays from a Pillar of Fire in the Clouds reaching to Moses.”
We Bind Satan, all his minions and all his works in High Places. We bind the spirit of pedophilia, of perversion, of child sacrifice, of mad science, of treachery, of bribery, of betrayal, of race hatred, of murder, of sedition and of treason. Be LOOSED RIGHT NOW and be cast to the bottom of the sea, in the Mighty Name of Christ Jesus, the Name above all names, Amen and Amen!
John 15: 11-17 The Message Bible
11-15 “I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father.
16 “You didn’t choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you.
17 “But remember the root command: Love one another.”
Rest in the Vine: “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God”: Memorial Day, 2021
I would like to pay tribute to my Uncle Nicky, who will turn 100 in September, 2021. Don’t know how many that fought in WWII are still with us, but he is and deserves this tribute:
Uncle Nicky (my father’s brother) was drafted into the World War II US Army September 10th, 1942 (the actual day I was born)and was originally in the 22nd Armored Division before serving as a medic for 39 months in three major campaigns – in Ardennes, the Siege of Bastogne, the Battle of the Bulge. He was also a part of the 517 Medic Clearing Company, which participated in the Liberation of Paris.
To be a medic, he went through 90 days of training at Camp Barkeley in Texas, an area with desert-like conditions where trainees were pushed to complete training drills.
During his time in France, he served in the operating room and as an aid man, using only bandages, morphine, and penicillin to treat wounded soldiers during gunfire – a daunting task, even though each medic carried a gun inside their jacket.
Though dodging bullets and tending to soldiers’ wounds is terrifying enough, he remembers the brutal temperatures during the Battle of the Bulge, which varied from five below to five above zero.
My uncle received two battle stars for serving during the Battle of the Bastogne and the Battle of the Bulge.
Me wife and I just went to see my dad who passed almost 7 months ago. He was a Korean War veteran. My mother still is not comfortable in going. It was the first time going to see my dad. I thought today was appropriate.
The Veterans Cemetery couldn’t find enough volunteers to put flags on the grave stones. So as people pulled in, we just started to grab bundles of flags to place. My wife and I along with another older man, finished one section up where my father was. The young man, who looked to be the only park representative there, thanked us over and over. He needed not too. It was the little I could do and I told him so.
They now need people tomorrow to come and remove the flags the young man said as we left. I am just amazed there aren’t enough people there, employed on site, to do it themselves. I guess I was just a bit saddened knowing they couldn’t get the help they needed on such an important day in our country.
My uncle George was MIA in Korea. He was lost in the Chosin battle. He was brought home in November of 2013. I held his vertebrae in my hand (only part found) and kissed him before wrapping him in a piece of cloth my grandmother, his mother had embroidered with green and yellow follows (army colors). The whole town turned out for his homecoming. Other than getting married, and having children, it was the greatest honor I could have. My Dad died about 6 months before.
Here’s an excellent Memorial Day message by Dutch Sheets. If you don’t know of him yet, you’re in for a treat. ?????
The American flag is beautifully waving in the morning breeze on this Memorial Day. I admit that I wasn’t going to unfurl it today because I did not want to give deference to the band of usurpers and thieves occupying the halls of D.C. and what they are doing to our beloved America.
I prayed about it this morning and the answer to my prayer was, “Do it for the men and women who bravely fought and gave the ultimate, their lives, in honor of our American way of life. The U.S. Constitution, the law of our land, is based on God’s Natural Law. ” So that is why I am displaying the American flag today.
God’s Natural Law stands regardless of the effort to subvert it, to slap up a disgusting imposter.
Be ye brave and steadfast, America, and stand!
In honor of the men and women in my family who bravely served America.
Every year I come on here and watch this. Every year I try to comment but the words never seem right so I delete my comment. It’s hard for my family at this time of the year. We don’t cook out, we don’t go to stores, we lock the doors and remember. We remember a young man who gave his life in Afghanistan on June 7th, 2012. We remember the good times and we remember the bad times. We remember telling him goodbye just before he deployed. We remember the phone call and we remember the long procession through streets lined with people paying their last respects. We remember the funeral and the 21 gun salute. We remember Everything.
This year I am determined to make this statement. The people who stole this country will not succeed, they not only stole it from those of us living here but they stole it from those who gave everything. THIS WILL NOT STAND. So help me god.
Rest in peace son. We’ve got it from here.
P.S. I hope this is fitting and not filled with mistakes. It’s hard to see through the tears. Don’t look away.
Bless you and your family. There is nothing unfitting in your statement. We will honor all the fallen by insuring that we rectify this corruption of our nation.
God’s Peace be on you and your family wait a minute. They haven’t gotten away with it yet. Every minute people spend bowing to their fake reality are precious minutes lost forever. We fight by living our best life. We don’t let them set the narrative.
Amen.
God bless your son
God bless your family
God bless you
Thank you for writing.
“determined to make this statement. The people who stole this country will not succeed, they not only stole it from those of us living here but they stole it from those who gave everything.”
‘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 above the guns below…’
God Bless all of our brave men and women who served and continue to serve… God Bless America.
When it was called ” Decoration Day ”
Many younger folks have no idea that was the original name.
I didnt until Grandparents told me.
I never liked all the ads.
Car + washing machine sales are not the point at all.
That video is beautiful.