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Veterans Day 11-11-2022 - updated to 2025

Bazza

Bazza

TideFans Legend
Oct 1, 2011
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New Smyrna Beach, Florida
THANK YOU to all our veterans and their families....we love and respect and above all.....are GRATEFUL for your service and sacrifice!

At Walmart earlier this week I was headed to the self-checkout and noticed a man in front of me kinda hunched over a bit wearing a ball cap and pushing his cart with a younger female escort and I was thinking to myself "That looks like a military veteran."

I went about my business and as I was finishing up they went by and I was able to see his "Honor Air" ball cap so extended my hand and said "Thank you for your service!" Boy did his face light up! Korean veteran and he proceeded to share a few stories about me in historical nature. I told him about my folks and my Mom who also took an Honor Air flight.

I see veterans every day and always make a point to connect and let them know they are loved and appreciated.
 
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It is the veteran, not the preacher,
who has given you freedom of religion.

It is the veteran, not the reporter,
who has given you freedom of the press.

It is the veteran, not the poet,
who has given you freedom of speech.

It is the veteran, not the protester,
who has given you freedom to assemble.

It is the veteran, not the lawyer,
who has given you the right to a fair trial.

It is the veteran, not the politician,
who has given you the right to vote.

It is the veteran,
who salutes the Flag,
who serves under the Flag,
whose coffin is draped by the Flag.
 
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United States Army
2009-2019 (92Y, 42A)
92nd EN BN (2009-2013)
16th SB (2013-2016)
United States Army Central - “Patton’s Own” (2016-2019)
Operation Enduring Freedom 2010-11

From one Vet to another, thanks to all of you who have served this country. God bless you all.
 
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Bazentin-le-Petit has renovated and rededicated a monument to a British officer Captain Houston Wallace of Birkenhead, England (incidentally, the place where the CSS Alabama was built).
Wallace at Oxford.jpg
Wallace at Oxford before the war.
Captain Wallace disappeared in July 1916 at the Somme and his body was never recovered. His aunt erected a monument to his memory in the 1920s.
Wallace Calvary.jpg
Monument before restoration
After a century of being in the elements, the monument needed some work so Brits and French folk pitched in and renovated it.
It was rededicated last week in northern France..Since I do not think family members were there, I see the crowd as rededicating the monument not just for Captain Wallace, but for all the dead and missing.
 
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I have posted this before but it is worthy of a repeat.

Well, how do you do, Private William McBride?
Do you mind if I sit down here by your graveside?
And rest for awhile in the warm summer sun
I've been walking all day, and I'm nearly done
And I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916
Well, I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean
Or, Willam McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Chorus:
Did they beat the drum slowly?
Did they sound the pipe lowly?
Did the rifles fire o'er you as they lowered you down?
Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest"?

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind?
In some loyal heart is your memory enshrined?
And though you died back in 1916
To that faithful heart are you always nineteen?
Or are you just a stranger without even a name
Forever enclosed behind some glass pane
In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained
And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?

Chorus:
Did they beat the drum slowly?
Did they sound the pipe lowly?
Did the rifles fire o'er you as they lowered you down?
Did the bugles sing "The Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest"?

Well, the sun it shines down on these green fields of France
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance
The trenches have vanished now under the plow
No gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now
But here in this graveyard it's still No Man's Land
And the countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
And a whole generation who were butchered and damned

4. And I can't help but wonder now, Willie McBride
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you 'The Cause?'
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain
For Willie McBride, it all happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again
 
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A couple of things that continue to surprise me: people that don’t know the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. I was surprised when Ken Jennings, “the guru” host of Jeopardy, stated on the Memorial Day broadcast about it being “a day to remember all those that serve or have served”. Technically he was wrong. It is about recognizing those that gave the last full
measure of devotion-laying down their lives- in service of this nation.

Why do we honor our veterans on November 11 each year? Originally today was Armistice Day. Armistice was declared ending WWI in 1918 at “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” - 11:00 am Paris time on the 11th of November. President Eisenhower in 1954 changed it Veterans Day. It is a day sent aside to recognize and honor all that have served in military, both living and dead.

And the first Veterans Day parade? It actually happened here in Birmingham. AL in 1947 after WWII.

www.al.com

Veterans Day, where it all began: Down in Alabama

Listen to "Down in Alabama" wherever you get your podcasts.
www.al.com www.al.com
 
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Tidewater said:
Herman Eaton Co E, 11th New Hampshire Volunteers.
View attachment 54247
49 years after the war, this was what he wanted to be remembered by.
Decorated for the day.
Click to expand...
I too have ancestors that served on both sides of this war. My great grandfather actually was conscripted into Confederate service. In 1864, while a prisoner at Rock Island, took his loyalty oath and joined the 3rd US Volunteer Infantry for frontier service in Nebraska - garrisoned to guard the Overland Stagecoach route. He mustered at Fort Leavenworth in November of 1865 and walked home to Alabama.
 
I have never worn any cap not Christ or BAMA related until three months ago. I bought a U.S. Navy veteran cap and I was shocked at the number of people who thank me for my service, especially young people. I served from '66 until '72. I spent my sea duty on the U.S.S. LaSalle, LPD-3.
 
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I also had the honor of meeting Major Richard “Dick” Winters, of “Band of Brothers” fame. His son was a work colleague of mine at the time. What an incredible gracious and humble man.

It will always be one of the great privileges of my life…being able to meet him and shake his hand.
 
My favorite poem regarding our faithfulness to those who have died for us:

In Flanders Fields
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 amid the guns below.

We are the dead, short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Click to expand...
— John McCrae
 
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Bazza said:
Just in time for Veteran's Day!

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Stuart M5A1 Tank

Bid for the chance to own a Stuart M5A1 Tank at auction with Bring a Trailer, the home of the best vintage and classic cars online. Lot #218,750.
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Currently sitting at $150K with auction ending in 16 hours......

Click to expand...
I saw an old photo of a Stuart next to the sign for Leipzig. That means the photo was taken in March or April 1945.
The Stuart did not have much armor and was frankly obsolete by that stage of the war, so those were some cagey tankers driving that tank. They had "learned the value of not being seen."
 
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