Memorial Day 2008

[Chuck]

Memorial Day is again just around the corner. It has become a day for many for nothing more then shopping sales, auto races, and picnics.

What has happened to those days when a family would go to a cemetery, say a prayer and plant a flag?

It did not make a difference which one. Just find a grave of a fallen warrior and plant a flag in his or her honor..

Our troops are giving so much and we are in turn giving back so little.

You hear about groups such as the "Blue Star Moms". Yes you may give a little something to them that.. But what about honoring those that have gone before us... those that have given their all.. With a flag.

We own that little symbol to them for giving us what we have.. our freedom.

I will be there the last Monday of May. I hope some of you are there, someplace.. with me.

I salute all the troops that have gone after me and still carry on to protect what we have given our selves for. I am proud to have been a Marine for almost 52 years now. If I could do it all over again... I would.. and I would hope better the second time around..

Please feel free to jump in and add your thoughts about Memorial day.. Past, present, and in the coming future. If you are not a member of the forums it would be very easy to join so that you could make a post here. I'll be watching and waiting for you to come tell me your thoughts.

Chuck Edmonds, Major, USMC, Retired

[MISS JOAN]

Military Message Broadcast on Memorial Day Weekend

WITI-TV -- While people celebrate Memorial Day weekend as the start of summer, a Milwaukee radio station wants to make sure that friends and family have a chance to publicly thank members of the military for what they're doing in support of our country.

It's impossible to say 'thank you' too many times, so RadioMilwaukee, is going to make some of the public airwaves available to the people who know, love and respect these service members.

To honor members of the military, 88Nine RadioMilwaukee is inviting area residents to tape personal thank yous to family members or friends who are veterans or are currently serving our country in the armed forces.

The station is also recording the thoughts of area servicemen and women still serving in reserve and National Guard units.

The acknowledgments naming loved ones and thanking them for their military service will be recorded over the next few weeks and air on RadioMilwaukee (88.9 FM) during the Memorial Day weekend.
Interested residents can arrange to tape a brief thank you to a military friend or relative by going to radiomilwaukee.org or by calling RadioMilwaukee at (414)475-8030.

In addition to playing the taped thank yous over Memorial Day weekend (Saturday May 24 through Monday May 26), the station will play songs by many of the military honorees' favorite artists. :salute:

[O'BOOT]

Normandy Cemetery Honors WWII Fallen
May 23, 2008
McClatchy Newspapers


Above a sand and shingle beach, where unspeakable carnage once played out, American soldiers have taken the high ground for all eternity.

"Bloody Omaha" was the landing beach where Allied forces suffered the heaviest casualties on D-Day, as they began to liberate Western Europe from Nazi occupation. And many soldiers interred at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial died on that beach or before they reached it. Today, it's hard to imagine the chaos, anguish, death, fear and valor on June 6, 1944, when even the terrain -- steep bluffs overlooking the beach -- opposed the landing.

Check out our Memorial Day Tribute slidshow

In appearance, Omaha Beach is much like other parts of the Norman coastline, rugged, sometimes storm-lashed, tranquil in fair weather. Its smells and sounds are of the sea, not war.

A visit to the Normandy American Cemetery, however, brings into focus the scope of the D-Day invasion and the sacrifice.

Row upon row of marble crosses and Stars of David are the defining features of the cemetery. They mark the graves of 9,387 service members. Most were killed during the Normandy campaign that began on D-Day.

In the cemetery's Garden of the Missing, the names of 1,557 service members whose remains were not recovered are engraved on stone tablets.

Visitors sometimes spend hours walking amid the headstones. They linger inside a colonnaded memorial where maps engraved in stone, and accompanying text, detail the progress of Allied forces from the D-Day beaches to the end of the war. They pause near the reflecting pool.

The staff at the visitor's center provides information on the cemetery and local history. Next of kin get special treatment, including help finding where a family member is interred and an escort to the gravesite.

But, long before leaving home, anyone planning to visit the grave of a relative should use the services offered by the American Battle Monuments Commission, which is responsible for 24 military cemeteries on foreign soil. Commission staff will provide information about travel routes and accommodations. Immediate family can obtain letters authorizing fee-free passports.

The commission's online databases can be searched by name for an exact grave site. Staff also can generate a list of service members buried at a specific cemetery who entered military service from the same state. For example, 445 service members from Texas are interred at the Normandy cemetery or have their names listed among the missing.

What brings family members to the Normandy cemetery is apparent: They come to honor loved ones. And, perhaps, seeing them at rest in such a tranquil setting is a comfort.

More than a million visitors come to the Normandy cemetery each year, with next of kin being only a small percentage. Walking through the carefully tended grounds, you'll hear many languages. French citizens turn out in the hundreds of thousands each year to pay their respects.

For many American tourists, visiting the Normandy cemetery is something akin to a pilgrimage.

"Just because you do not have a family member there does not mean you don't have a connection," said Jon Bennett, who teaches at St. John's Northwestern Military Academy in Wisconsin. "We're here today because of all these soldiers who put their lives on the line for us to live in a democracy."

Every year, as part of an honors history class, cadets at the academy research alumni who died in World War I and World War II. And, earlier this year, Mr. Bennett traveled with 29 cadets to place wreaths on the graves of two former students in France, one of whom died on D-Day on Omaha Beach and is buried in the Normandy cemetery.

According to a contemporary newspaper account, the landing craft carrying 2nd Lt. Gilbert Allis Jr. began to capsize after being hit by an enemy shell. He and another soldier waded ashore with a radio. Lt. Allis then began directing fire on enemy positions until he was killed. Lt. Allis, the son of a founder of Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co., was awarded a Silver Star for gallantry.

Cadet Jon Fundell, 18, of LaCrosse, Wis., described placing a wreath on Lt. Allis' grave at Normandy as one of his most humbling experiences.

Jeffery Giammanco, an 18-year-old cadet from Chicago, shared his thoughts. "The moment you set foot on the grounds, there was a different feeling that came over you," he said. "It felt as if there was a strong presence that made everyone proud to be an American."

http://www.military.com/news/article/normandy-cemetery-marks-wwii-fallen.html?co l=1186032320397