Remember our Veterans

Salute our veterans today, young and old, for their sacrafice and bravery. Thank them for protecting our freedom and our Country. They have served us well.

 

little story i have to tell, when i was in d.c, we went to the "wall" (Vietnam Memorial). i seen a mother and her son, the son asks "why all those people shakin those old guys hands?" the mother says "i dont *uckin know!" the sons says "can i go shake there hands?" the mother says "*ell no, im tryin to get the *uck outta this crowded place"

this is a true story, i felt so ashamed as an American to hear another American talking like this, i dont know what the rest of the conversation was if there was anymore, but it really ticked me off

THE WALL

 

Yeah, cap...I've been to the Wall....it has a sobering effect. Thanks for posting it.

 

Never been there, probably never will.

I have an uncle that served in the Korean war and Vietnam. Hes an older man and got a job part time at Home depot.
The city here asked him along with other vets to be in the citys yearly Veterans Day parade. He accepted and asked for the day off from work so he could be in the event. Home Deopt refused saying the holiday was a busy day and they needed him to staff the department.

He took the day anyways and got fired for insubordanation. He then hired a lawyer and sued the company over it. Rather then being dragged through the courts publically .... a vet sueing them over a Vets Day event he and the company settled, and he was offered his job back. He gave them the middle finger and a big fu and didnt go back to work.

I know memorial day and vets day are different, just reminded me of my uncle johns ungrateful employer. Our family has sworn off Home Depot forever

 

God Bless 'um all regardless of when they served. Is there anyone on this site that's been to the Airzona and looked at the Bronze Wall that didn't get choked up. Me, The best I could do was fight the Tijuana Campagne in the mid and late '50s and they were throughly vanquished! But then we can't plan when we were hatched can we? Always remember this day and why, I do. Jer

 

well, id like to thanks anyone on the site that is a veteran, you guys/gals are the best!

 

I married right out of High School and wasn't long before we had our first son. Friends and my younger brother joined the service. When I tried I was married with child. But many relatives and two oldest sons were in Marines. Some uncles didn't return from WWII. I didn't serve. But know what it's all about and respect all service men and women. It's sad how some ignorant people act.
Leaving shortly to freeload spegetti and deserts from a neighbor who will tell me many more of his old war stories. Then we are gonna drink a few beers and watch Hatfields and McCoys on TV.
We did take time to give thanks to those who served and those who gave their all!
THANKS VETS.

 

My mom lost her only brother to the WWII. Her mom was a widow and the son was a bread winner till he got the bug to go fight. Very sad all around, he left a big void. Both our fathers were also in WWII, as were many of my fathers uncles. By the time we came around there was little need in Canada for military service as at that time our gov't had taken more of a pacifist approach. We honor our vets and support them in any way we can, they put everything on the line and get little back.

As for the HD experience, in Canada they were not allowing vets to sell poppies and they got huge negative publicity. They said something along the line that they did not want to be seen as supporting war. Jerks. It's not the employees, it is the management that comes up with this crap. Good for you uncle for pushing it.

One thing to think about is going to the local rest home and visiting some of these folks who fought in prior wars, are now in rest homes, have few if any visitors in some cases, and could use a visit from time to time. Adopt one or more of them and make it a point to get past to see them from time to time. That is one way to pay them back for what they did in their day.

A couple of times our car club was invited to go to seniors homes to display our cars which we did. The folks loved the cars, they brought back so many memories. Think about it, why not talk to some of your car buds, then talk to some of the seniors places, and maybe do a Sunday cruise there for a couple of hours. You could of course do the same at the Children's hospital = our future vets and station wagon owners after all.

 

Well said, Saf. It should be noted that many Canadians fought and died in the wars that often go unnoticed by many of us in the USA.

 

The Marines of Morenci - July 4, 1966
"They led some of the scrappiest high school football and basketball teams that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop. 5,058) had ever known and cheered. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. In quieter moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked deer in the Apache National Forest. And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morenci's mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps.

Their service began on Independence Day, 1966 - 45 years ago this Monday.

When one of the nine failed his service-aptitude test, the other eight insisted that the corps must take all or none. A second test produced a passing grade. They helped each other over some of the rough spots in boot training as members of Recruit Platoon 1055 at San Diego. When one of them stumbled into the formation of another unit and got the traditional pummeling, the others rescued him. They spent another six weeks in infantry training at California's Camp Pendleton, then came home together for a final round of parties and dates. Beneath their careless courage, six of the nine harbored a premonition, a vision of a future that they could only accept calmly.

BOBBY DALE DRAPER, an all-state linebacker whose jolting tackles would have brightened the Saturdays of any college coach, remained silent as a couple of buddies talked of what they would do with their separation pay. Bobby was asked what he would do. "I'm not coming back," he said.

STAN KING, the oldest and most contemplative of the group, had abandoned his plans to study engineering at the University of Arizona in order to enlist with his former high school friends. A 6 ft. 4 in., three-sport letterman, he told his mother of his feelings just before going to Viet Nam. "We were up practically all night," Mrs. Glenn King recalls. "He had his grave all picked out in Clifton Cemetery. He loved that place and those beautiful red hills."

ALFRED VAN WHITMER, a quiet but competitive youth, most enjoyed riding his two horses, a mare and a quarter-horse colt, through the secluded countryside. His parents had just begun payments on a new house when he came home on leave. "Van said he was increasing his life insurance," his mother remembers. "He turned to his father and said: 'Dad, I'm going to pay off this place for you.' "

LARRY J. WEST, probably the liveliest and most restless of the bunch, served one tour in Viet Nam and volunteered for another. Morenci High Coach Vernon Friedli saw him leaning against the wall of the bowling alley one night. "His eyes were blank—his mind was a thousand miles away. We talked, and then he stuck his hand out, shook mine, and said it had been nice knowing me. 'What do you mean?' I asked. There's no way for me. I've come close to it a number of times. I won't be back.' "

JOSE MONCAYO was called "cowboy" by other Marines because he talked so often about horses. Tall and husky, he was popular with Morenci's girls because of his quick humor. "My son had a feeling," recalls his mother. "He told me not to cry when they brought his body back."

CLIVE GARCIA was photographed with his mother just before he returned to Viet Nam. He wrote a note on the back of it: "Your eyes are swollen. You've cried too much, Mom. Life itself really isn't this bad. We only have a few sad minutes, all we can do is accept and live with reality." He also told his mother that "it would happen and not to be sad." He said that he would be brought home by someone who loved him—"a grunt, Mom, a grunt like me."

Draper, 19, was killed in an ambush while leading his squad on a road sweep. King, 21, died less than a week after reaching Viet Nam. Whitmer, 21, was killed on a patrol. West, 19, was shot near Quang Nam while serving with a landing team. Moncayo, 22, was part of an entire platoon wiped out by the enemy near Quang Tri. Garcia, 22, had volunteered to lead an unscheduled patrol in Quang Nam province when he was struck down by a booby trap.

Only three of Morenci's nine Marines made it back alive.

Joe Sor-relman, 21, the Navajo who had first failed the aptitude test, Leroy Cisneros, 21, a Spanish-American, and Mike Cranford, 22, an Anglo."

Think about what it was all for and commit yourself to work for peace.

 

A great story and a great memorial, passing. Thanks.

 

From your nieghbour....

 

Gee whiz, Just Passing - that is quite the story. It makes ones heart hurt to read it and realize just how young these young men were and what they did for the rest of the free world.

Thank you for sharing that with us. I know there are many stories like that out there that just don't get told, or if they do, not often enough.

Mankind has come so far yet stumbled so many times along the way, and it seems we are destined to continue to stumble as part of our program while we are on this earth.

 

Thanks for noting that Fox. As a Commonwealth Country, we and Australia and the others were in both world wars from the start. As soon as Britain got involved so did we. We aren't much bigger (if we are) as the State of California, but we do what we can when the need arises. We just don't have the human capacity nor the financial ability to support long term efforts. At times what we do seems so paltry in comparison to what the bigger nations are able to take on, but we do what we can. And we appreciate it when it is acknowledged.

Stef - you are right, it happens all the time. It is embarrassing, frustrating, and disappointing when we see it happening. I try to take my business elsewhere but in some cases, like HD, they've killed off all the small competitors who were often run or owned by vets. I think when these things happen that the major newspapers should be printing those companies names and let the public know what feeble excuses they are using, but then they'd lose advertising revenues and............