I left work early today to spend some time with my dad on his birthday. He would have been 75 today, an important milestone. But this thread isn't about that or how I'm (still) dealing with it.

As I walked up the hillside at the National Cemetery in Chattanooga, I was dumbstruck by the number of brothers and sisters in arms who have joined him there since August 2004. Most from the World War II/ Korea era, many from Vietnam, several younger still. Hundreds of them from just this relatively small metro area.

They were all still standing tall, facing front, columns perfectly dressed.

Please join me this evening in raising a glass, saying a prayer, or just saying "thank you" to all those who gave (and continue to give) so much that we may live free.

That is all.

Fall out.

Dismissed.

 

to the Veterans once again.

We just lost a local boy in Iraq. The coverage in the local paper made me I was making a comment to Rick about one of the pics and could barely get the words out.

Here's a story about his burial

http://www.s-t.com/daily/04-06/04-15-06/02local.htm

His brother who is in the Navy, came home for the funeral.

http://www.s-t.com/daily/04-06/04-14-06/01mainphoto.htm

 

I believe that the statistic is that WWII Veterans are dying off at the rate of about 1200 per day now.

I just received these photos in an e-mail today and they seemed appropriate, touching and sad.

Here are two pictures that were awarded first and second place at the picture of the year international this year. Very very touching photos.
First Place



First Place
Todd Heisler The Rocky Mountain News
When 2nd Lt. James Cathey's body arrived at the Reno Airport, Marines climbed into the cargo hold of the plane and draped the flag over his casket as passengers watched the family gather on the tarmac. During the arrival of another Marine's casket last year at Denver International Airport, Major Steve Beck described the scene as one of the most powerful in the process: "See the people in the windows? They'll sit right there in the plane, watching those Marines. You gotta wonder what's going through their minds, knowing that they're on the plane that brought him home," he said. "They're going to remember being on that plane for the rest of their lives. They're going to remember bringing that Marine home. And they should."



Second Place
Todd Heisler The Rocky Mountain News
The night before the burial of her husband's body, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to his body for the last time. The Marines made a bed for her, tucking in the sheets below the flag. Before she fell asleep, she opened her laptop computer and played songs that reminded her of 'Cat,' and one of the Marines asked if she wanted them to continue standing watch as she slept. "I think it would be kind of nice if you! kept doing it," she said. "I think that's what he would have wanted."

The quote that followed says it all:

"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him."

 

semper fi

 

Thank you again for your service to our country.

 

 

I appreciate those of you who continue to remember my son and my brother who are both proudly serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, respectively. My daughter and I went to the local veteran's cemetery on Sunday and paused to reflect on the rows and rows of young men who served and gave their lives in service to these United States.

 

Salute, to all those who have served and are serving.

Thanx

dvh

 

Special thanks to some members and friends of our family. My uncle Armando Armas Sr. (Killed in Vietnam) my cousin Marcos Ruiz Toledo who served in the first Gulf war and Somalia and also my best friend

 

I do not mean this as a polical statement:

As our form of government is set up to divide the militrary from the Congress and the Senate. With that stated: I can not help but acknowledge Willie's comment.

What other country would do what we have done. I still can not reconcile how any thinking person could not consider Saddam Hussein as an evironmental terrorist after his order to "light off" over five hundred oil wells after his invasion of Kuwait.

I just don't get it? How could anyone that is concern with the global envirnoment not consider him as a terrorist?