Memorial day is time to recognize the sacrifice of American patriots who gave their lives to defend our American freedoms. This Memorial Day we honor them and remember that those lives were lost in a struggle dedicated to the eternal truths of freedom. Our country was founded on that spirit, and Americans have nurtured it through every war in every era.
While many communities lay claim to the origin of Memorial Day, it was the Grand Army of the Republic, a Civil War Organization of Union Veterans, who officially declared May 5th as Decoration Day. It was proclaimed as a day for citizens to place flowers on the graves of Civil War dead. The nation’s first large observance was held that year in 1868, just three years after the Civil War ended, at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington DC.
By the end of the 19th century, Decoration Day ceremonies were held across the country on May 30. It was not until after World War I that the day was expanded to honor those who have died in all American wars. Then, in 1971 Congress declared Memorial Day a National Holiday.
Many Americans confuse the significance of Memorial Day compared to Veterans Day and the recently celebrated Armed forces day.
• Veterans Day pays tribute to every veteran who has served our nation.
• Armed forces Day recognizes those who are serving in the military today.
• Memorial Day is different. On this day the 148th Anniversary of this day we specially recognize the sacrifices of those who paid the cost of our freedoms with their lives in defense of this Great Nation.
Starting with the American Revolution, to the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert shield / Storm, Operation Iraqi freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan America’s military forces have built a tradition of honorable and faithful service.
Our Nation has been blessed with times of peace and prosperity. From September 11, 2001 to June 2014 (12 years) we have been a Nation at war and continue to be a Nation under attack by Terrorists. Therefore, this year’s Memorial Day has special meaning for the love ones of all those Service Members from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard who were killed in combat since 2001.
As we remember those who have most recently giving their lives in serving our Great Nation, we must also remember the hundreds of thousands who have gone before them. It is interesting to note that America’s war dead will not only be remembered today in the United States, but also at gatherings around the world. One overseas ceremony is in Cambridge, England. What makes this event amazing is that the United Kingdom doesn’t officially have a Memorial Day it has Remembrance Day in November. However, whenever Memorial Day is celebrated in the United States, hundreds of English citizens faithfully attend an Annual American Memorial Day Service at the Cambridge American Cemetery. They go there to honor the more than 3,800 Americans who are buried there on land donated by Cambridge University in 1944. The site is one of 24 permanent American Military Cemeteries on foreign soil such as Aisne-Marne, Brittany, Epinal, Lorraine, Meuse-Argone in Normandy, Oise-Aisne, Rhone, Saint Mihiel, Somme and Suresnes American Cemeteries in France, Henry Chapelle, Ardenes and Flanders Field American Cemeteries in Belgium, Florence, and Sicily Rome American Cemeteries in Italy, Luxemburg American Cemetery in Luxemburg, Mexico City American Cemetery in Mexico, Netherlands American Cemetery in the Netherlands, Corozal American Cemetery in Panama, Manila American Cemetery in Philippines, North Africa American Cemetery in Tunisia, Brookwood and Cambridge American Cemeteries in England.
The graves at the Cambridge American Military Cemetery are mostly filled with the remains of those Army Air forces men who flew bombers from the English countryside to the European mainland. Dedicated in 1956 by President Eisenhower, the Cambridge American Military Cemetery features a Chapel, reflecting pools and the Tablets of the missing, where the names and particulars of more than 5,100 Soldiers, Sailors and Marines are etched. Of the missing 3,524 are from the Army and Army Air Corps, 1,371 from the Navy, 201 from the Coast Guard and 30 from the Marine Corps.
President Eisenhower said “the Americans whose names are on the Tablets of the Missing were part of the price that free men were forced to pay to defend human liberty and rights”. He also stated: “All who shall hereafter live in freedom will be here reminded that to these men and their comrades we owe a debt to be paid with grateful remembrance of their sacrifice and high resolve that the cause for which they died shall live eternally”.
Please this May 30, 2017 stand with us and remember and honor all those that paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom and their families.
Showing posts with label veterans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label veterans. Show all posts
Monday, May 29, 2017
Thursday, November 20, 2014
General Petraeus on the military today
Thanks to my fellow veterans:
I remember the day I found out I got into West Point. My Mom actually showed up in the hallway of my high school and waited for me to get out of class.
She was bawling her eyes out and apologizing that she had opened up my admission letter. She wasn't crying because it had been her dream for me to go there. She was crying because she knew how hard I'd worked to get in, how much I wanted to attend, and how much I wanted to be an infantry officer.
I was going to get that opportunity. That same day two of my teachers took me aside and essentially told me the following: "David, you're a smart guy. You don't have to join the military. You should go to college, instead."
I could easily write a theme defending West Point and the military as I did that day, explaining that United States Military Academy is an elite institution, that separate from that, it is actually statistically much harder to enlist in the military than it is to get admitted to college, that serving the nation is a challenge that all able-bodied men should at least consider for a host of reasons, but I won't.
What I will say is that when a 16 year-old kid is being told that attending West Point is going to be bad for his future then there is a dangerous disconnect in America, and entirely too many Americans have no idea what kind of burdens our military is bearing.
In World War II, 11.2% of the nation's population served for four (4) years.
During the Vietnam era, 4.3% of the nation's population served in twelve (12) years.
Since 2001, only 0.45% of our population has served in the Global War on Terror.
These are unbelievable statistics. Over time, fewer and fewer people have shouldered more and more of the burden and it is only getting worse.
Our troops were sent to war in Iraq by a Congress consisting of 10% veterans with only one person having a child in the military. Taxes did not increase to pay for the war. War bonds were not sold. Gas was not regulated. In fact, the average citizen was asked to sacrifice nothing, and has sacrificed nothing unless they have chosen to out of the goodness of their hearts.
The only people who have sacrificed are the veterans and their families. The volunteers. The people who swore an oath to defend this nation. You stand there, deployment after deployment and fight on. You've lost relationships, spent years of your lives in extreme conditions, years apart from kids you'll never get back, and beaten your body in a way that even professional athletes don't understand.
Then you come home to a nation that doesn't understand. They don't understand suffering. They don't understand sacrifice. They don't understand why we fight for them. They don't understand that bad people exist. They look at you like you're a machine - like something is Wrong with you. You are the misguided one - not them.
When you get out, you sit in the college classrooms with political science teachers that discount your opinions on Iraq and Afghanistan because YOU WERE THERE and can't understand the macro issues they gathered from books, because of your bias.
You watch TV shows where every vet has PTSD and the violent strain at that. Your Congress is debating your benefits, your retirement, and your pay, while they ask you to do more. But, the amazing thing about you is that you all know this. You know your country will never pay back what you've given up. You know that the populace at large will never truly understand or appreciate what you have done for them.
Hell, you know that in some circles, you will be thought as less than normal for having worn the uniform. But you do it anyway.
You do what the greatest men and women of this country have done since 1775. YOU SERVED. Just that decision alone makes you part of an elite group.
"Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few." -Winston Churchill- Thank you to the 11.2% and 4.3% who have served and thanks to the 0.45% who continue to serve our Nation.
General David Petraeus, West Point Class 1974
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the members of the U.S. ARMED FORCES don't have that problem."
General David Howell Petraeus - A brief biography
Upon graduation from West Point in 1974, Petraeus was commissioned an infantry officer. After completing Ranger School (Distinguished Honor Graduate), Petraeus was assigned to the 509th Airborne Battalion Combat Team, a light infantry unit in Vicenza, Italy. Ever since then, light infantry has been at the core of his career, punctuated by assignments to mechanized units, unit commands, staff assignments, and educational institutions.
Graduating the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in 1983, as the General George C. Marshall Award winner as the top graduate, he went on to advanced educational assignments, esarning his PhD and teaching at West Point degree from 1985-1987.
Petraeus commanded the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)'s 3rd Battalion 187th Infantry Regiment, known as the "Iron Rakkasans", from 1991–1993. During this period, he suffered one of the more dramatic incidents in his career - in 1991 he was accidentally shot in the chest with an M-16 assault rifle during a live-fire exercise when a soldier tripped and his rifle discharged. He was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, where he was operated on by future U.S. Senator Bill Frist. The hospital released him early after he did fifty push-ups without resting, just a few days after the accident.
In 1999, as a brigadier general, Petraeus returned to the 82nd, serving as the assistant division commander for operations and then, briefly, as acting commanding general. During his time with the 82nd, he deployed to Kuwait as part of Operation Desert Spring, the continuous rotation of combat forces through Kuwait during the decade after the Gulf War.
In 2003, Petraeus, then a Major General, saw combat for the first time when he commanded the 101st Airborne Division during V Corps's drive to Baghdad.
In June 2004, less than six months after the 101st returned to the U.S., Petraeus was promoted to lieutenant general and became the first commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command Iraq.
In January 2007, as part of his overhauled Iraq strategy, President George W. Bush announced that Petraeus would succeed Gen. George Casey as commanding general of MNF-I to lead all U.S. troops in Iraq.
On October 31, 2008, Petraeus assumed command of the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Petraeus was responsible for U.S. operations in 20 countries spreading from Egypt to Pakistan—including Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
On June 23, 2010, President Obama announced that he would nominate Petraeus to succeed General Stanley A. McChrystal as the commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan.
Petraeus retired from the U.S. Army on August 31, 2011. On April 28, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that he had nominated Petraeus to become the new Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
On 9 November 2012, citing an extra-martial affair, Petraeus announced his resignation from the CIA. General Petraeus remains a well respected soldier by trops and peers alike.
I remember the day I found out I got into West Point. My Mom actually showed up in the hallway of my high school and waited for me to get out of class.
She was bawling her eyes out and apologizing that she had opened up my admission letter. She wasn't crying because it had been her dream for me to go there. She was crying because she knew how hard I'd worked to get in, how much I wanted to attend, and how much I wanted to be an infantry officer.
I was going to get that opportunity. That same day two of my teachers took me aside and essentially told me the following: "David, you're a smart guy. You don't have to join the military. You should go to college, instead."
I could easily write a theme defending West Point and the military as I did that day, explaining that United States Military Academy is an elite institution, that separate from that, it is actually statistically much harder to enlist in the military than it is to get admitted to college, that serving the nation is a challenge that all able-bodied men should at least consider for a host of reasons, but I won't.
What I will say is that when a 16 year-old kid is being told that attending West Point is going to be bad for his future then there is a dangerous disconnect in America, and entirely too many Americans have no idea what kind of burdens our military is bearing.
In World War II, 11.2% of the nation's population served for four (4) years.
During the Vietnam era, 4.3% of the nation's population served in twelve (12) years.
Since 2001, only 0.45% of our population has served in the Global War on Terror.
These are unbelievable statistics. Over time, fewer and fewer people have shouldered more and more of the burden and it is only getting worse.
Our troops were sent to war in Iraq by a Congress consisting of 10% veterans with only one person having a child in the military. Taxes did not increase to pay for the war. War bonds were not sold. Gas was not regulated. In fact, the average citizen was asked to sacrifice nothing, and has sacrificed nothing unless they have chosen to out of the goodness of their hearts.
The only people who have sacrificed are the veterans and their families. The volunteers. The people who swore an oath to defend this nation. You stand there, deployment after deployment and fight on. You've lost relationships, spent years of your lives in extreme conditions, years apart from kids you'll never get back, and beaten your body in a way that even professional athletes don't understand.
Then you come home to a nation that doesn't understand. They don't understand suffering. They don't understand sacrifice. They don't understand why we fight for them. They don't understand that bad people exist. They look at you like you're a machine - like something is Wrong with you. You are the misguided one - not them.
When you get out, you sit in the college classrooms with political science teachers that discount your opinions on Iraq and Afghanistan because YOU WERE THERE and can't understand the macro issues they gathered from books, because of your bias.
You watch TV shows where every vet has PTSD and the violent strain at that. Your Congress is debating your benefits, your retirement, and your pay, while they ask you to do more. But, the amazing thing about you is that you all know this. You know your country will never pay back what you've given up. You know that the populace at large will never truly understand or appreciate what you have done for them.
Hell, you know that in some circles, you will be thought as less than normal for having worn the uniform. But you do it anyway.
You do what the greatest men and women of this country have done since 1775. YOU SERVED. Just that decision alone makes you part of an elite group.
"Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few." -Winston Churchill- Thank you to the 11.2% and 4.3% who have served and thanks to the 0.45% who continue to serve our Nation.
General David Petraeus, West Point Class 1974
"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the members of the U.S. ARMED FORCES don't have that problem."
General David Howell Petraeus - A brief biography
Upon graduation from West Point in 1974, Petraeus was commissioned an infantry officer. After completing Ranger School (Distinguished Honor Graduate), Petraeus was assigned to the 509th Airborne Battalion Combat Team, a light infantry unit in Vicenza, Italy. Ever since then, light infantry has been at the core of his career, punctuated by assignments to mechanized units, unit commands, staff assignments, and educational institutions.
Graduating the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in 1983, as the General George C. Marshall Award winner as the top graduate, he went on to advanced educational assignments, esarning his PhD and teaching at West Point degree from 1985-1987.
Petraeus commanded the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)'s 3rd Battalion 187th Infantry Regiment, known as the "Iron Rakkasans", from 1991–1993. During this period, he suffered one of the more dramatic incidents in his career - in 1991 he was accidentally shot in the chest with an M-16 assault rifle during a live-fire exercise when a soldier tripped and his rifle discharged. He was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, where he was operated on by future U.S. Senator Bill Frist. The hospital released him early after he did fifty push-ups without resting, just a few days after the accident.
In 1999, as a brigadier general, Petraeus returned to the 82nd, serving as the assistant division commander for operations and then, briefly, as acting commanding general. During his time with the 82nd, he deployed to Kuwait as part of Operation Desert Spring, the continuous rotation of combat forces through Kuwait during the decade after the Gulf War.
In 2003, Petraeus, then a Major General, saw combat for the first time when he commanded the 101st Airborne Division during V Corps's drive to Baghdad.
In June 2004, less than six months after the 101st returned to the U.S., Petraeus was promoted to lieutenant general and became the first commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command Iraq.
In January 2007, as part of his overhauled Iraq strategy, President George W. Bush announced that Petraeus would succeed Gen. George Casey as commanding general of MNF-I to lead all U.S. troops in Iraq.
On October 31, 2008, Petraeus assumed command of the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Petraeus was responsible for U.S. operations in 20 countries spreading from Egypt to Pakistan—including Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.
On June 23, 2010, President Obama announced that he would nominate Petraeus to succeed General Stanley A. McChrystal as the commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan.
Petraeus retired from the U.S. Army on August 31, 2011. On April 28, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that he had nominated Petraeus to become the new Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
On 9 November 2012, citing an extra-martial affair, Petraeus announced his resignation from the CIA. General Petraeus remains a well respected soldier by trops and peers alike.
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