Memorial day

This old ass dude agrees.
To all that gave the ultimate sacrifice while serving this great country.

"Those who fail to remember history are doomed to repeat it"

'Dre...
 
I was scrolling through the special operations memorial wall last night. Probably know a good 20 dudes personally that didn’t make it home From the war. A handful more that died in training accidents. Those guys I knew would want us to spend Memorial Day with our families, have an awesome day doing what you love, have a few beers for them, and throw them a toast/thank you for making the ultimate sacrifice. Definitely a day of remembrance, but a day of celebration as well. Those guys would prefer a party over gloom. Have a blast, say thanks, never forget. :usa:
 
Many gave themselves fully, only to return home unwelcome, unloved, and unable to stop the replay of the actions they were commanded to do that reappeared the second they closed their eyes.
They lived for years in torture of those memories, unable to drown them in alcohol or drugs, only to die from related complications or from taking their own lives unable to relive another day of torture.
Remember our heros... but please remember the tortured as well
 
Family Cemetery...think I'm related to ~75%? Flags put out on veteran's graves (several KIA). Hard to make out, but the 2 flags in the back are for soldiers in the Civil War.
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Lost my Dad earlier this year to a horrible brain disorder called parasupranuclear palsy (PSP). Similar to Parkinson’s but no shaking/tremors but way more aggressive. The doctors gave him 2 to 4 years but they couldn’t tell us when the clock started ticking. He made it a little over 14 months and never stopped fighting. He never told me about his service. He may not have seen what others saw, but my older sister was 2 years old and my mother was pregnant with me when they activated his reserve unit to go into Cuba. They told them them to get their affairs in order and write everything down before they went in. I thank the Lord that everything settled down before he had to go in. That tough SOB fought a rare form of lymphoma for 20 years until his oncologist told him to stop because the PSP would take him before the cancer would and the cancer treatments would weaken him to fight the PSP.

For the past 15 - 20 years he mapped the local cemetery and made sure every veteran had a flag by their stone for Memorial Day weekend. No one paid him for that - the town, county, state didn’t authorize it. He felt he owed it to them. He knew that cemetery like the back of his hand. Because of this coronavirus I couldn’t be with my mom over this holiday. Thank Christ he passed before this bullshit hit so I could be with my family and we could have a “normal” funeral mass and burial.

On this day I am thankful for every single person that served this great country including my grandfather who was in the Navy and served in WWII, my uncles who served with the Marines in Korea and the Air Force in Vietnam, my cousin who served in the Army Special Forces in Nicaragua, Croatia and the Persian Gulf & the numerous veterans I’ve met through this site including @Jason W. @josh$$ @obullfish and the many that I haven’t met but I know from your posts.

God bless you all and know that I raised a glass or two to y’all today.
 
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