Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
~Amen~
Every year I post this video. I am very proud to have called the little town of Ringgold, Georgia my home for many years. Every year we drive back down to spend the few minutes it takes to go through town, the main stretch and all the little side roads, and appreciate the flags, and honor the fallen.
May the blood cost of our freedom be increasingly appreciated and honored. And may America always be blessed with towns and people like this, who remember and honor our fallen because they value our freedom and know the cost.
If you hijack this post with political content that belongs on the other threads I will put you in moderation. This is a memorial in remembrance of our dead. Not a place to rant.
God bless America.
God bless America….God bless our troops.
May He forever bless–and may we never forget–all those who gave their lives in the ultimate sacrifice to God, family and country.
And thank you and God bless you Menagerie. This video gets me a little choked up every time I watch.
Happy and Blessed Memorial Day to all.
Remembering 🇺🇲 🪖
Honoring. 🇺🇲 🎖️
❤️🤍💙
Nothing more haunting than coming home from S.E.Asia and seeing my brothers unloaded from the cargo bay in boxes! That was hard to take, knowing that was a political conflict! Most elected officials had no idea of that feeling! Changed me forever!!! Realizing later on, that it was all a lost cause! Saigon fell! Now Ho Chi Minh City. Never forget!
The really sad part of it was we won every battle we fought, and we LOST the conflict because of politics!
We lost the conflict because of DEMOCRATS. Just like the Afghanistan PullOut.
Politicians, not politics.
Viet Nam Memorial
Panel 36E
Line 65
Vietnam Memorial. PANEL 42W. Line 17. 💔
I feel the pain and sorrow in your words, Pa. May we always remember so others will not forget. Thank you for your service….and sorry for your losses.
….And grant eternal peace to the fallen soldiers, sailors, and airmen who died in defense of this country and their compatriots.
Amen
Eternal Father, strong to save, Whose arm hath bound the restless wave
Author: William Whiting (1860)
1 Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm does bind the restless wave,
Who bids the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.
2 O Savior, whose almighty word
The winds and waves submissive heard,
Who walked upon the foaming deep,
And calm amid the rage did sleep;
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.
3 O Holy Spirit, who did brood
Upon the waters dark and rude,
And bid their angry tumult cease,
And give for wild confusion peace;
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.
4 O Trinity of love and pow’r,
Your children shield in danger’s hour;
From rock and tempest, fire, and foe,
Protect them where-so-e’er they go;
Thus, evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.
Thank you, Menagerie for your remembrance and reverance for those who gave all. Blessings to all.
Amen
So beautiful, so thoughtful for the community.
Thank you Menagerie for your yearly faithfulness in posting the beautiful prayer and Ringold Flags.
Our fallen are at peace in the loving arms of our Lord. While we remember them and miss them everyday, today we honor them and in prayer, thank them for their ultimate sacrifice.
Two family members killed on the battle fields of Belgium WWII, 18 days and about 60 miles apart. Three family members survived Vietnam and Korean DMZ only to die later of Agent Orange poisoning. One other survived his wounds received in Vietnam only to die 8 years later. He had severe PTSD but in those days you kept your nightmares to yourself.
There are four of us who are left to tell the stories and share our memories, my husband, me, my daughter and my cousin’s son. God has the rest.
May God bless this Memorial Day and give us all His peace.
Stunning picture.
Every single grave has family and friends who suffered trauma learning the news of their loved one dying.
No more wars. No more body bags. No more gravestones.
This former Army E-5 (SGT) salutes each and every one of them.
May God bless their loved ones.
The cost of wars was not limited to the single soldiers who fell. This is something that I remember constantly when we read of those who served with honour and died far from their homes and all whom they loved and who loved and prayed for them, friends and families alike. Their grief remains long after.
I never fail to recommend on Memorial Day this movie.
“Taking Chance”
For those who have seen it, you will understand why it never fails to bring me to tears.
For those who have yet to, I can assure that following the journey of one young soldier from the country he died in back to the home he loved will move you very very deeply. I cannot recommend it highly enough on this Day of Remembrance.
🙏🏻 🇺🇸 🙏🏻 🇺🇸 🙏🏻 🇺🇸 🙏🏻 🇺🇸
That’s my go to for Memorial Day.
I dare anyone to not get dust in their eye watching it. God bless.
I couldn’t accept the dare, Dunes, because I’d fail it every single time.
A most fitting tribute to the young soldier whose real life journey it was.
I don’t know what’s worse – those who fall and die on the battle field, or those returned home broken – shadows of their formal selves with nightmares they refuse to share, or those they share by adopted vices to try to help them forget. Their families forever affected and inflicted.
God in Heaven,
Be Merciful. Come quickly. Lead Your legions of angels into battle on our behalf, that there be no more wars, no more illegal intent, no more evil, or crime against humanity that You Created in Your Own Image. God, come! Let not one more life, one more soul, be wasted. Help us to stand firm, while we wait with our pleas.
We love You. We Trust You,
In Jesus’s Holy and Saving Name, AMEN
Amen, dear Woo 🙏🏻
There are untold numbers of those returning who have seen things in war which will change them and never leave them; and there are many every day who, having returned, choose to draw the curtains permanently on those horrors.
Again, I say a fervent AMEN 🙏🏻
About 20 years ago, I was walking the corridor/tunnel of Hines VA….there was a scrawny younger man in a wheelchair–but still ‘old’, long hair pulled back in a pony tail…his parents were pushing the wheelchair…and they were no spring chickens…had to be late 70’s….all I could think was a a ‘broken Viet Nam Vet’…being cared for by his mom and dad…the image has stayed with me….just like the married couple in the hospital….late 80’s….with Star of David tattoo’s and numbers on their arms….Freedom isn’t free….
This photo is so heartbreaking.
All my family came back from WW2, although my dad didn’t live long after the war. He was banged up pretty good. I didn’t know until his funeral that my uncle was a decorated Marine who survived 5 Island campaigns in the Pacific. Chest full of ribbons, including 4 Purple Hearts. The only thing he said to me as I was leaving for Vietnam was that I should be prepared to meet the Good Lord because I might not be coming back alive. At his funeral, I was shocked that this gentle man had even been a soldier, much less a decorated hero.
I didn’t fare as well, lost a lot of friends, especially my Boot Camp Buddy that I enlisted with. His name is on the monument honoring everyone from Marshall County that was killed in Vietnam. I don’t attend the public services on Memorial Day, although the guard at the Park will let me in after they lock the gates.
Thanks for doing all that you do, as my grandmother always said: You are just a breath of fresh air. And thanks for letting me vent a little bit.
Semper Fi, Smedley. Stay strong Marine.
So many kept their experiences locked away, dear sir. My dad as a surgeon in the Korean War in a MASH unit in front of the front lines trying to save as many as he could never ever, not once, spoke of what he saw.
God bless you and the souls of your friends who are now in their eternal home 🙏🏻
Mansions of the Lord
I know we are headed for huge Disruptions. Stick together, love your family. Live your life.
When the time comes, heroes like these will give us the strength to Fight.
We must do what is necessary.
Yes….I agree. We must do what is necessary for we know not the time.
This.
This …..is what I think of when I see our proud banner and long may it fly freely.
Our flag still flies because of sacrifices made and promises kept.
Honor the sacrifice of the fallen.
Freedom is our strength, a mighty weapon.
EXCLUSIVE
He’s the sniper with one of the longest kills in history. After taking out a Taliban terrorist from 1.28 miles away he watched friends suffer and ended up in jail – and now has a message for Joe Biden
Nick Ranstad was twenty minutes into a nap when his spotter woke him up. Four Taliban fighters were 1.28 miles away from the hut where the Army specialist sniper was living in Kunar Province in northeastern Afghanistan. If the insurgents had looked more carefully, they would have seen white marks on boulders beside them. Ranstad, a 28-year-old Florida native, had been using them for target practice for weeks.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13448193/nick-ranstad-sniper-afghanistan-message-joe-biden.html
The rest was history. What happened to Ranstad in the years that followed has become all too common among veterans from the War on Terror. That story is one the Pentagon doesn’t want you to hear.
This sniper who served is very upset that the VA does not treat returned soldiers properly and give them the care they need. He mentions how he reacted to his buddy’s death. He also talks bout the time Biden looked at his watch when the 13 dead soldiers bodies were returned from Afghanistan. Its a cry for help for our returned soldiers
“The former motto included an excerpt from President Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, in which he noted it is our nation’s responsibility
“to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan.” google.
John 15:13.
Although I can no longer find a google article, I have the copy of the Marine Times in my safe.
Somewhere around 2010, a squad was on a hill in Afghanistan…they were under attack…air support was cancelled due to the “civilians” and “children” on the ground down below…the squad perished.
As he tells the story, my son was due to go there with them, he got pulled from the mission…he now suffers intense survivor guilt….those who perished were his personal friends as well as fellow Marines.
“Some gave all”
I have a colleague who has 47 confirmed while on the scope.
Being I had been 4 years regular Army he felt safe talking to me.
“I see every single face each and every day.”
Memorial Day is no longer for those who died in combat because everybody who picked up a weapon has a piece of their soul die.
Very powerful story. Thank you for posting and sharing, Charlotte.
Thank you for posting Stevie.
Thank you Menagerie…
It always brings back a bittersweet memory…I was honored with an invite to the formal opening ceremony (in early 2008), for the South Florida National Cemetery, just after my parents were interred there. It was a very moving experience.
My dad “gave some”…others “gave all”.
John 25:13 KJ21
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
My grandmother had this verse on her kitchen windowsill. It is now on the same windowsill, above the kitchen sink in my home.
Two of her sons served in WWII, one also served in Korea. Her other two sons served in Korea.
Memorial Day was and is a day of remembrance, her sons came home…their friends did not.
Hugs Rebelbees! What a beautiful tradition….
God does work in mysterious ways…
Seeing the Ringgold flags each year is guaranteed to moisten the eyes as does hearing taps at any time of the year.
God bless America and those who died defending it,
❤️🙏🇺🇸 Menagerie:
That short and truly beautiful video is so deeply patriotic and inspirational.
I watch it every year afresh when you post it here.
Thank you.
🇺🇸 God Bless all our Servicemen who gave it all. 🇺🇸
Thank you for fighting CIA proxy wars.
Amen.
After reading Sundance’s tribute to the fallen, I read another article at the American Thinker that pointed out, and rightly so, how these deaths and sacrifices have been for nothing. I attended a neighborhood get together yesterday and no one, other than myself, brought up current issues. I mentioned how Baltimore’s population has now receded to 1920 levels – zero interest. I mentioned how our military installations are being probed – crickets. This is how we lose. If our fellow travelers are nothing more than self absorbed see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil empty vessels we don’t stand a chance. I sincerely hope that your communities are unlike mine and that the people around you care deeply about what is threatening our country and will act to keep America the home of the brave.
God Bless America and all the great Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen & Marines who gave their last full measure for this great country as Founded.
I am old enough to remember people still calling this day “Decoration Day.”
If you do not know the music of the great American composer, Charles Ives, then you should give his piece Decoration Day a chance: a clashing collage of musical memories, sad, bittersweet, and yet boisterously brash for a moment, and then wistfully, thoughtfully, religious and mindful of sacrifices past.
(It is possible that YouTube will illogically and inappropriately stick in a commercial during the 8-minute piece! Please try to ignore it!)
Thank the Lord that they are ours. May they rest in eternal peace in the arms of our loving God, in Jesus name Amen.
God bless & keep you all.
America Still Has Heroes
At a time when fewer people say they love their country, 24-year-old Kennedy Sanders and 20-year-old Jared Schmitz died for it.
JOE NOCERA
MAY 27
https://www.thefp.com/p/america-still-has-heroes?publication_id=260347&post_id=144959254&isFreemail=true&r=7g0ui&triedRedirect=true
My uncle was killed 9 Oct 1951 in Korea which sent my father home with his remains.
Never forget the sacrifices made by OUR true heroes.
May the good Lord let our Fallen Rest in Peace and May HE give their Families Peace. GOD, please watch over our Country. RIP Luis Gutierrez, to my last day I will not forget. REDHORSE!
😢💔🇺🇸🙏🪖🎖️
One day, if it is His Judgement upon me, I will get to embrace those who gave all for us.
What a Glorious Day that will be.
Amen
Thank you, Amen.
Just beautiful🙏🏻🇺🇸.
It’s right up the “backroads” from me.…I love small town America❤️🤍💙
Same here, it’s just a short drive WNW of the taxurfeets.
Thank you to all who served and gave their last full measure.
Thale – former USN 72-77 active
RIP.
Amen
Many have forgotten—they don’t know the difference between Armed Forces Day, Veterans Day and Memorial Day.
We honor all of those who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom and liberty. May we prove to be worthy of their sacrifice. God Bless the USA and may He guide our hearts and minds as we face the challenges ahead.
When working as an analyst in AFG and feeling homesick, would go to the Wall of Fame and look at the names of the fallen, and there were a lot, to remind myself to buck up because those Americans gave all. Helicoptered from Kabul to Camp Morehead, which was named after Special Forces SGT Kevin Morehead who died in Iraq in 2003. There was a plaque honoring Kevin at the camp featuring the Bible verse,
On Memorial Day we honor two uncles I never knew, who gave their lives in the Battle of the Bulge.
In recent years this strengthens & hardens my resolve against the leftist Marxists trying to overrun America…not on my watch.
“Our flag does not fly because the wind moves it. It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.”
Our Son Paul served 15 months as Helicopter pilot in Iraq and 1 + years in Saudi Arabia as Instructor to train to defend their land from Yemen terror. Success but lost his life in Training Saudi students God Bless and remember this always Love and God Speed
I am very sorry for your loss. It’s our loss, too!
God bless, and hold dear those innocents who sacrificed. Amen
Thank you for this post. Rest in Peace to all the veterans who have given all. Special remembrances, my Dad and Stepdad, both WWII Navy veterans. They were just kids, but what they saw and experienced…
We snowbird in Florida in our travel trailer. Ringold is a regular stop on our way to and from Florida. It has a couple of gas stations that are travel trailer friendly.
When the Memorial video was first posted, I thought we’d get a chance to see the flags. Sadly, our return trip in the Spring is nowhere near Memorial Day, so we’ve never seen the flags.
We might start staying longer in Florida. Our old bones feel the cold more. So there’s hope that we may start returning home later and be able to catch the flags.
Menagerie kids you not. Ringold is a neat little town.
You really should do it. As you can tell from the video, the entire town has the flags flying, and it is a breathtaking sight. Stop in for coffee at Caffeine Addicts. And if November is better for you, they also do it on Veteran’s Day.
Thanks, Menagerie! We usually head South in November.
Father’s Grave – Ft. Sam Houston Cemetery – Major Bradley TenEyck Van Deusen – WWII
Father was trained in the army by WWI veterans. Many of his poems cover that period.
The Convent of the Guns
The Daily Maroon
Oct 18, 1928
Our clean curved mouths are cold and dead.
Our polished skin is marred.
Our tawny thighs are thick with dirt,
Dinted, cut, and scarred;
Our day is done! But once!
Our open mouths blazed Deaths’ caress
Our tongues with steel were tipped!
Ah! Bitter spinsters were we then
As we slashed and cut and ripped;
Our youth was filled with lovers
All laughing, joyous boys
Who stroked our slim, proud beauty
Their latest, deadly toys.
Then clean and fresh and polished
We went forth with the Dead
The living, lovely happy lads
Whose last touch, dyed us red.
But supplanted like all harlots
By the newer fresher one
We turned to rest and quiet
As our kind have always done,
With a printed tag about our throats
To inform our lovers’ sons
We’re an Ordanance Exhibition
The Convent of the Guns!
El Tigre.
The Zero Hour
Daily Maroon
Nov 2, 1928
Grey stars agleam in a blank, dead sky
Grey guns agrowl below.
Grey clad men out beyond the wire.
Grey fields in the star-shells glow.
The barrage is a pounding symphony
That ears attuned cannot hear.
There’s something flicking the parapet
There’s something above you fear!
Not fear of “stopping one” above,
Or fear for the man beside.
There’s something flicking the parapet
There’s a fear that you cannot hide.
“Stand By!” The rifle is cool in your hand
And your heart pounds hard and quick.
There’s something flicking the parapet
Number Three of the squad is sick.
The rifle hurts the palm of your hand
Like gripping a stiff wire brush
There’s something flicking the parapet
“Walk slow through the wire, then rush!”
The whistle! The ladders! Up over the edge!
And your legs seem stiff and sore.
There’s something flicking the parapet
Number Three is sick no more!
Grey stars agleam in a blank dead sky
Grey guns agrowl below.
Grey faces turned to the glowing stars
Where men lie dead in a row.
El Tigre.
Sorry, I hadn’t uploaded the image before this comment and now can’t reload the image which IS there now.
The other side of the coin…
‘On Memorial Day, remember those who Died for Nothing’
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/05/on_memorial_day_remember_those_who_died_for_nothing.html
They be a lot of shuddering on Judgement Day, (except by DJT).
‘God Said’ ~ by Todd Rundgren
“…But I don’t dwell upon you, so get over yourself
Cause you’re not praying to me, you’re praying to yourself
And you’re not worshipping me you’re worshipping yourself
And you will kill in my name and heaven knows what else
When you can’t prove I exist, so get over yourself“
Beautiful
The USS Stark. 37 lives.
I remember.
God bless the families who lost loved ones all those years ago.
Never forget: Sgt. James Regan
https://rangersremembered.com/portfolio/sgt-james-regan/
Silenzio (The Silence)
Many heroes died to defeat Fascism. Fascism offered state-controlled businesses, anti-Jew hatred, terrible living conditions for the average family, no freedom of speech, rigged elections, non-stop war, corrupt press, and kangaroo courts.
Sure glad all of those things don’t exist in the USA today. /S. /S. /S
😡😡😡😡😡😡😡
83’ wooden-hulled Coast Guard craft, placed under Naval Command during WWII and part of the Rescue Flotilla (a/k/a “The Matchbox Fleet”) – tasked with helping the wounded & injured during the Normandy Invasion, June 6, 1944.
My father was on one of these boats.
Many of the casualties occurred when the landing craft swamped even before they got ashore. The men were fished out of the water and brought to medical ships standing off farther out in the channel.
Dad mentioned his service in the Coast Guard frequently and was proud if it, but couldn’t recall too much detail without getting emotional.
I’m here because he made it back.
We lost him in 2013.
Miss you Dad.
Love you Dad.
Thank-you for your post and the service of your father.
It is not well publicized that the Coast Guard has sent Sailors, under US Navy Command, to ALL US combat theaters of operation (in HARMS WAY) since WWI. They manned escorts, rescue craft, landing craft, port control-patrol craft, etc. etc.
The Coast Guard and Merchant Marine need to be remembered along side the other regular services on this day.
Thank You.
Quick story… my father left high school, enlisted in the Coast Guard and was first assigned to shore duty walking the beach along Cape Hatteras looking for any threats from the sea.
After a month or so of this, he went AWOL and hitch-hiked to Coast Guard HQ in Washington where he turned himself in. He told them they could either put him in the brig or assign him somewhere else, but he wasn’t spending the rest of the war walking a beach.
Next thing he knew he was on a Liberty Ship with one of those 83 footers strapped to the deck on their way to support the D-Day invasion.
At their annual Veterans Day ceremony, Minnesota Valley Lutheran high school remembers the Coast Guard and the Merchant Marine… they have for 25 years.
Thank you Menagerie.
Each year it humbles me to see the number of young men who have sacrificed, especially from a small town like yours.
The small town I live near will toll the church bell every 30 seconds for each young man who has fallen. We are a bit smaller than your town but yet it will take almost an hour. It will toll for men who served in the Civil War up through our most recent in Iraq.
Bless you Menagerie and all who remember.
Tribute to our fallen
Thank you so much for posting this.