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During The (un) Civil War, my great-great grandfather was paid by a rich Mecklenburg County businessman to take his place in the North Carolina Regiment, which was commonly done apparently. He was killed at Gettysburg.
This letter was written to his young wife here at home with their baby, the future grandmother my own mother grew up with, in the days before Picketts Charge, about the horrors he was witnessing. I do have a transcription. Perhaps I'll post it.
Thanks for bringing it back, P. Iâm not around here much these days, took a peek & this was the first thing I saw.
I stand by what I said here even more today. I canât imagine what it would be like to be serving the current administration, led by a cognitively deranged draft dodger with his incompetent goons of ex-Fox News hosts & such, using our military for their egos, power, and personal wealth. God help us to get through the worst administration in the history of our country.
Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States observed on the last Monday of May, dedicated to honoring and mourning the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. It's a day for reflection and remembrance of the sacrifices made by those who gave their lives for their country.
My father was a career U.S. Army Officer and World War II & Korea veteran. Fortunately, he was not killed in action. But he knew many who had lost their life in combat, and when I was a kid he taught me to take that day to remember those who died to protect our freedom.
I'm a Vietnam Era U.S. Navy veteran. As such, while I enlisted during the war, I was not deployed to an active combat area. While I was not put in harm's way, I knew the day I enlisted that I most likely would be, barring divine intervention and luck. I spent my time as an Naval air traffic controller, training squadrons of fighter jet pilots bound for aircraft carriers deployed in the Gulf of Tonkin to fly missions in North Vietnam. I did not train with him (before my time), but Senator John McCain was one of those pilots. My father's last duty station was at Fort Wolters, Texas, the primary helicopter training center for every helicopter pilot that was deployed to Vietnam. I personally knew several of those pilots, who volunteered to run the local Civil Air Patrol chapter, of which I was a member in my teens. Some of them never came back from Vietnam.
It's been four years since anyone has posted in this thread until now. Thank you, OV, for posting the moving bereavement poem by Mary Elizabeth Frye yesterday. Thank you for your service in the U.S. Army as well.
Otherwise, this year's Memorial Day thread was just another political bitchfest and personal grudge match exercise. My hope is that all of us will take a few minutes to honor those who died protecting our freedom to say anything we want here without retribution, imprisonment, or death.
During The (un) Civil War, my great-great grandfather was paid by a rich Mecklenburg County businessman to take his place in the North Carolina Regiment, which was commonly done apparently. He was killed at Gettysburg.
This letter was written to his young wife here at home with their baby, the future grandmother my own mother grew up with, in the days before Picketts Charge, about the horrors he was witnessing. I do have a transcription. Perhaps I'll post it.
Thanks for posting.
Several things struck me about the letter. The cursive. The spelling. The resolve when surrounded by the horrors of war when fighting was "less efficient" than it is today. The reality of illness within the troops, and the understanding that almost two-thirds of those that died in the civil war died of disease, not combat.
My civil war relatives included an enlisted soldier that shortly after the war was dishonorably discharged for stealing back money he'd lost in a card game in camp the night before.
During The (un) Civil War, my great-great grandfather was paid by a rich Mecklenburg County businessman to take his place in the North Carolina Regiment, which was commonly done apparently. He was killed at Gettysburg.
This letter was written to his young wife here at home with their baby, the future grandmother my own mother grew up with, in the days before Picketts Charge, about the horrors he was witnessing. I do have a transcription. Perhaps I'll post it.
Thanks to your great great grandad. May we find a way to dismantle the machine that consumed him.
During The (un) Civil War, my great-great grandfather was paid by a rich Mecklenburg County businessman to take his place in the North Carolina Regiment, which was commonly done apparently. He was killed at Gettysburg.
This letter was written to his young wife here at home with their baby, the future grandmother my own mother grew up with, in the days before Picketts Charge, about the horrors he was witnessing. I do have a transcription. Perhaps I'll post it.
Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States observed on the last Monday of May, dedicated to honoring and mourning the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. It's a day for reflection and remembrance of the sacrifices made by those who gave their lives for their country.
My father was a career U.S. Army Officer and World War II & Korea veteran. Fortunately, he was not killed in action. But he knew many who had lost their life in combat, and when I was a kid he taught me to take that day to remember those who died to protect our freedom.
I'm a Vietnam Era U.S. Navy veteran. As such, while I enlisted during the war, I was not deployed to an active combat area. While I was not put in harm's way, I knew the day I enlisted that I most likely would be, barring divine intervention and luck. I spent my time as an Naval air traffic controller, training squadrons of fighter jet pilots bound for aircraft carriers deployed in the Gulf of Tonkin to fly missions in North Vietnam. I did not train with him (before my time), but Senator John McCain was one of those pilots. My father's last duty station was at Fort Wolters, Texas, the primary helicopter training center for every helicopter pilot that was deployed to Vietnam. I personally knew several of those pilots, who volunteered to run the local Civil Air Patrol chapter, of which I was a member in my teens. Some of them never came back from Vietnam.
It's been four years since anyone has posted in this thread until now. Thank you, OV, for posting the moving bereavement poem by Mary Elizabeth Frye yesterday. Thank you for your service in the U.S. Army as well.
Otherwise, this year's Memorial Day thread was just another political bitchfest and personal grudge match exercise. My hope is that all of us will take a few minutes to honor those who died protecting our freedom to say anything we want here without retribution, imprisonment, or death.
I keep hoping that one time... just one time... Trump will be able to pull his sh*t together to post a presidential & respectful Memorial Day message to the country honoring our fallen servicepeople without derailing the sentiment by having to make it about himself or air ongoing grievances.
...but clearly that is just too much to ask of the child.
I realize you don't care about foreigners, but as someone who has benefited greatly by the governments funding of research, I guess you figure you got yours, so screw everyone under 50. The Medicaid cuts planned are estimated to kill 30,000 people per year, and leave 8 million+ without healthcare.
As usual, a foolishly inconsiderate joke in defense of Trump doesn't deflect.... it projects. Rome wasn't destroyed in a day... just give Donnie time.
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.
