Happy Memorial Day and Thanks to Our Veterans
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Yeagermeister
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Thank you to all veterans and those that are still serving. You deserve a round of applause.
:clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2:
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Happy Memorial Day all our Veterans past and Present.
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Your bravery and courage has never known any peer. Many thanks to all veterans who have ever served this nation during war or peacetime.
BIGWAY
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As a Veteran I say you are Welcome. My thoughts and thanks go out to all the active duty military personel especially the ones out at sea (Navy), and the ones still in harms way be it in IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN, and many more hotspots all over the world. If freedom was easy you wouldn't be there.
God Bless.
God Bless.
MinnesotaCowboy
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Even the ole "MNCowboy" was a long term vet and I join all of you in wishing all our brave and courageous fighting men from the past to the present......damn I still get teary when they play the National Anthem!
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A Grateful Nation Remembers...
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McCordsville Cowboy
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Your welcome!!
Spent the last 6 years defending freedom. Go Boys
Spent the last 6 years defending freedom. Go Boys
Hostile
The Duke
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I wanted to pay special tribute to some WWII veterans who have impacted my life. Many of you have heard me say "a wise old cowboy once told me," and then I add a saying like "he's all gurgle and no guts." Those are real. Things those men would say that I remember.
I grew up in ranch country and found that the most interesting men in my hometown were the old cowboys. They were interesting because they were cowboys, and because they were WWII veterans. Carl Graham, Hosea Goodwin, Wayne Braidfoot, and Dunk Freeman were four of the "wise old cowboys" I talk about. Hosea is who I quote the most. He was also the last of the chuck wagon cooks and an artist with a Dutch oven pot over a campfire. Wayne was one of the "Windtalkers" whose codes were not decipherable by the Japanese code breakers.
Another interesting Veteran was our next door neighbor Martin Houltin. Martin was a WWII B-26 bomber pilot and also became the first to use an airplane to smuggle drugs out of Mexico. He was profiled in "High Times" magazine on a couple of occasions. The DEA called him the "Palomino" because of his white blonde hair. When Operation Sky Night was launched and Martin crossed the border into Mexico their radio call was "the Palomino has jumped the fence." He earned a purple heart in 1947 after being shot down and crashing in China.
An old cowboy who wasn't among the wise one I grew up around was Tom Farrell. There's a reason I say Tom wasn't wise. You see, after WWII Tom was never quite right again. He had been in the Bataan Death March.
All of those people who had an impact on my life are now gone. So is one here in Tucson who had a profound impact on me. His name is Bart Cardon. He had a huge impact on this entire country. As Dean of Agriculture at the University of Arizona he helped implement many of the advances in American farming and the food that went with our astronauts into space. Bart also served as General George S. Patton's Aide de Camp, though he rarely talked about it. In fact he was so silent about it that in the movie Patton, starring George C. Scott, they called him Cardman.
Here in Tucson some other WWII veterans have impacted my life as well. One of my neighbors, Mary Louise Hill, was an Army Surgical Nurse. She couldn't have children because of her duty and recently asked if she can leave everything she has to my 2 daughters when she dies. She is still a nurse at heart. Every day she puts out food for the stray cats in our neighborhood.
Another neighbor, Bill Lindskog, stormed Omaha Beach on D-day as part of the 3rd Army. Bill's wife is blind and in a hospital for the rest of her life and has been for the 5 years I've known Bill. He goes to her 3 times a day and feeds her every meal. A couple of years ago Bill gave me his 12 gauge shotgun because he's too weak to ever shoot it again.
Wayne Goodman may be the nicest person I have ever met in my life. I have often told his son Dan, a friend of mine, that I envy him his father. Wayne has 3 Purple Hearts from WWII, and a Gold Star. He earned the Gold Star by leading his troop back to safety after they were caught behind enemy lines. He was all of 19 when that happened. He was sent home to recover from his 2nd wound and while at a dance he met the girl of his dreams and before he was shipped back to Europe they got married. Norma, his "sweetheart" of 61 years passed away from cancer in December. My wife and I had taken dinner to them 2 days before she passed. The day she died, 2 hours later Wayne called my wife to thank her because he didn't want us to think they were ungrateful. That took my breath away.
The WWII vet who has had the biggest impact on my life is Jim Smith. I worked for Jim for 5 years building houses. He was on the USS Lexington in WWII. That was the 3rd ship into Pearl after the attack. He is a great man with too many stories told to me to share them all. He told me all about Butch O'Hare and Johnny Sain whom I mentioned in another thread. One of my favorite stories about Jim involves one day when he bought pizza for all of us on his crew. I grabbed a slice of pizza and started eating when this crazy guy who worked with me started giving me grief because I didn't bless the food though I am a Christian. I explained to him that I did ask a blessing, just silently between myself and my Lord. He wasn't buying it. He said that wasn't a good prayer because my head wasn't bowed, my eyes weren't closed, and I wasn't on my knees. Jim took a bite of pizza and said, "actually, the best prayer I ever said was while running across the deck of a ship to avoid machine gun fire from a Zero."
Sorry to bore you. I felt the need to share this.
I grew up in ranch country and found that the most interesting men in my hometown were the old cowboys. They were interesting because they were cowboys, and because they were WWII veterans. Carl Graham, Hosea Goodwin, Wayne Braidfoot, and Dunk Freeman were four of the "wise old cowboys" I talk about. Hosea is who I quote the most. He was also the last of the chuck wagon cooks and an artist with a Dutch oven pot over a campfire. Wayne was one of the "Windtalkers" whose codes were not decipherable by the Japanese code breakers.
Another interesting Veteran was our next door neighbor Martin Houltin. Martin was a WWII B-26 bomber pilot and also became the first to use an airplane to smuggle drugs out of Mexico. He was profiled in "High Times" magazine on a couple of occasions. The DEA called him the "Palomino" because of his white blonde hair. When Operation Sky Night was launched and Martin crossed the border into Mexico their radio call was "the Palomino has jumped the fence." He earned a purple heart in 1947 after being shot down and crashing in China.
An old cowboy who wasn't among the wise one I grew up around was Tom Farrell. There's a reason I say Tom wasn't wise. You see, after WWII Tom was never quite right again. He had been in the Bataan Death March.
All of those people who had an impact on my life are now gone. So is one here in Tucson who had a profound impact on me. His name is Bart Cardon. He had a huge impact on this entire country. As Dean of Agriculture at the University of Arizona he helped implement many of the advances in American farming and the food that went with our astronauts into space. Bart also served as General George S. Patton's Aide de Camp, though he rarely talked about it. In fact he was so silent about it that in the movie Patton, starring George C. Scott, they called him Cardman.
Here in Tucson some other WWII veterans have impacted my life as well. One of my neighbors, Mary Louise Hill, was an Army Surgical Nurse. She couldn't have children because of her duty and recently asked if she can leave everything she has to my 2 daughters when she dies. She is still a nurse at heart. Every day she puts out food for the stray cats in our neighborhood.
Another neighbor, Bill Lindskog, stormed Omaha Beach on D-day as part of the 3rd Army. Bill's wife is blind and in a hospital for the rest of her life and has been for the 5 years I've known Bill. He goes to her 3 times a day and feeds her every meal. A couple of years ago Bill gave me his 12 gauge shotgun because he's too weak to ever shoot it again.
Wayne Goodman may be the nicest person I have ever met in my life. I have often told his son Dan, a friend of mine, that I envy him his father. Wayne has 3 Purple Hearts from WWII, and a Gold Star. He earned the Gold Star by leading his troop back to safety after they were caught behind enemy lines. He was all of 19 when that happened. He was sent home to recover from his 2nd wound and while at a dance he met the girl of his dreams and before he was shipped back to Europe they got married. Norma, his "sweetheart" of 61 years passed away from cancer in December. My wife and I had taken dinner to them 2 days before she passed. The day she died, 2 hours later Wayne called my wife to thank her because he didn't want us to think they were ungrateful. That took my breath away.
The WWII vet who has had the biggest impact on my life is Jim Smith. I worked for Jim for 5 years building houses. He was on the USS Lexington in WWII. That was the 3rd ship into Pearl after the attack. He is a great man with too many stories told to me to share them all. He told me all about Butch O'Hare and Johnny Sain whom I mentioned in another thread. One of my favorite stories about Jim involves one day when he bought pizza for all of us on his crew. I grabbed a slice of pizza and started eating when this crazy guy who worked with me started giving me grief because I didn't bless the food though I am a Christian. I explained to him that I did ask a blessing, just silently between myself and my Lord. He wasn't buying it. He said that wasn't a good prayer because my head wasn't bowed, my eyes weren't closed, and I wasn't on my knees. Jim took a bite of pizza and said, "actually, the best prayer I ever said was while running across the deck of a ship to avoid machine gun fire from a Zero."
Sorry to bore you. I felt the need to share this.
5Stars
Here comes the Sun...
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A Soldier's Moment
© By Ryan A. Collette
Like the last few pops of corn kernels in a fire,
The explosions cease.
Dense smoke rises like a final curtain call,
For some, their bow is a gesture of gratitude to a deity.
For others, it is an honorable last call on the stage of life.
The soldier huddles close to his comrades,
Crouched behind a fortress of sand.
Echoes of mortar fire still ring in his ears,
But his muscles slacken in the stillness of the moment,
His body slumps with fatigue in the calm,
And his mind wanders to the days of innocence and pleasure,
Like the warm soft scent of spring grass as he slides into second base,
Or the cool wet fingers of the ocean as they gently refresh him,
Or the salty sizzle of barbecue fare turning on a grill.
Memories flash, reality beckons, and desolation returns.
He ponders, Why me? Why here? Why now?
Movement.
Voices around him.
The soldier grips his weapon, his body tenses, his muscles stiffen.
He studies his surroundings,
With ears tuned to catch the slightest of sounds.
Slowly, he rises slightly to peer over the fortress of doom to the horizon beyond.
What will he encounter?
A moment of fear in the stillness,
A moment of resolve in the quiet,
A moment for the brave rebirth of the soldier within.
As the adrenaline flows, and the return call to the amphitheater of war is heard, he is poised and ready to spring.
He proudly reflects, Why not me?
© By Ryan A. Collette
Like the last few pops of corn kernels in a fire,
The explosions cease.
Dense smoke rises like a final curtain call,
For some, their bow is a gesture of gratitude to a deity.
For others, it is an honorable last call on the stage of life.
The soldier huddles close to his comrades,
Crouched behind a fortress of sand.
Echoes of mortar fire still ring in his ears,
But his muscles slacken in the stillness of the moment,
His body slumps with fatigue in the calm,
And his mind wanders to the days of innocence and pleasure,
Like the warm soft scent of spring grass as he slides into second base,
Or the cool wet fingers of the ocean as they gently refresh him,
Or the salty sizzle of barbecue fare turning on a grill.
Memories flash, reality beckons, and desolation returns.
He ponders, Why me? Why here? Why now?
Movement.
Voices around him.
The soldier grips his weapon, his body tenses, his muscles stiffen.
He studies his surroundings,
With ears tuned to catch the slightest of sounds.
Slowly, he rises slightly to peer over the fortress of doom to the horizon beyond.
What will he encounter?
A moment of fear in the stillness,
A moment of resolve in the quiet,
A moment for the brave rebirth of the soldier within.
As the adrenaline flows, and the return call to the amphitheater of war is heard, he is poised and ready to spring.
He proudly reflects, Why not me?
ethiostar
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Hostile;1511211 said:
That wasn't boring at all Hos, it was a great read.
It is those types of people in our past that make us the person we are today. It is nice to slow down every now and then, reflect and appriciate all those who have contributed something positive in our individual and collective lives.
Hats off to you and them!!
Yeagermeister
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One of the few war vets that I know was my former JROTC instructor. He was an Italian imigrant that went through Ellis island as a child. Since he was alone he ended up in an orphange. He joined the Navy when he was a teenager, lying about his age, and part of the battle of Midway. Then served in both Korea and Vietnam before retiring. He's in his 80's with the usual health problems. I haven't checked on him in a long time like I should have. 
:
We could always get him off subject by asking about his days in service.
: We could always get him off subject by asking about his days in service.
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ethiostar;1511227 said:
:signmast: