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Memorial Day

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Azrael, May 27, 2019.

  1. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Maybe spend a minute today thinking about those who sacrificed themselves on our behalf.
     
  2. Driftwood

    Driftwood Well-Known Member

    And know the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day.
     
  3. Cosmo

    Cosmo Well-Known Member

    And don't go around saying "Happy Memorial Day"
     
  4. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    The tension between the solemnity of the holiday and its status as the unofficial start of the happy (for most) summer season has always struck me.
     
    Inky_Wretch, HanSenSE and maumann like this.
  5. dirtybird

    dirtybird Well-Known Member

    I was taking to someone about that. I mean, once you make it the anchor of a May three-day weekend, it just kind of sets up that way.
     
  6. heyabbott

    heyabbott Well-Known Member

    Jack Lummus - Wikipedia

    Jack Lummus, NY Giants, Medal of Honor recipient, posthumously.

    Lummus was in the first wave of troops to land at Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945. He landed at 9 a.m. on the beach known as Red One. He and his platoon spent the next two weeks incessantly fighting the dug-in Japanese.

    His initial duty was a liaison officer for the Second Battalion, spotting targets on the slopes of Mt. Suribachi for artillery and air strikes. On March 6, he was given command of Company E's third rifle platoon. On March 8, his platoon was spearheading a final assault on an objective east of Kitano Point, near the northern edge of the island. Despite minor wounds received from grenade fragmentation, Lummus knocked out three enemy strongholds, well-fortified positions arranged to defend each other, which were preventing his platoon from reaching its objective. Following this action, he stepped on a land mineand was mortally wounded, losing his legs. While lying on the ground, he urged his platoon on, until he was carried off to an aid station.

    At the aid station, he famously told the doctor, Thomas M. Brown, "Well, doc, the New York Giants lost a mighty good end today."He was transferred to the field hospital, where he underwent surgery and a transfusion of 18 pints of blood, but died of internal wounds on the operating table. He was buried in plot five, row 13, grave 1,244 in the Fifth Division Cemetery. His body was later moved to Ennis, Texas.

    For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as leader of a Rifle Platoon attached to the 2d Battalion, 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jimain the Volcano Islands, 8 March 1945. Resuming his assault tactics with bold decision after fighting without respite for 2 days and nights, 1st Lt. Lummus slowly advanced his platoonagainst an enemy deeply entrenched in a network of mutually supporting positions. Suddenly halted by a terrific concentration of hostile fire, he unhesitatingly moved forward of his front lines in an effort to neutralize the Japanese position. Although knocked to the ground when an enemy grenade exploded close by, he immediately recovered himself and, again moving forward despite the intensified barrage, quickly located, attacked, and destroyed the occupied emplacement. Instantly taken under fire by the garrison of a supporting pillbox and further assailed by the slashing fury of hostile rifle fire, he fell under the impact of a second enemy grenade but, courageously disregarding painful shoulder wounds, staunchly continued his heroic 1-man assault and charged the second pillbox, annihilating all the occupants. Subsequently returning to his platoon position, he fearlessly traversed his lines under fire, encouraging his men to advance and directing the fire of supporting tanks against other stubbornly holding Japanese emplacements. Held up again by a devastating barrage, he again moved into the open, rushed a third heavily fortified installation and killed the defending troops. Determined to crush all resistance, he led his men indomitably, personally attacking foxholes and spider traps with his carbine and systematically reducing the fanatic opposition until, stepping on a land mine, he sustained fatal wounds. By his outstanding valor, skilled tactics, and tenacious perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds, 1st Lt. Lummus had inspired his stouthearted marines to continue the relentless drive northward, thereby contributing materially to the success of his regimental mission. His dauntless leadership and unwavering devotion to duty throughout sustain and enhance the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life in the service of his country.
     
  7. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    In Great Britain and France, Nov. 11 is Memorial Day. It's called Remembrance Day in GB and still Armistice Day in France. The War to End War was a generational slaughter for both countries, so it's no surprise they do this. Armistice Day here became Veterans Day because our involvement in WW2 was so much larger than in 1917-1918.
     
  8. HanSenSE

    HanSenSE Well-Known Member

     
    heyabbott likes this.
  9. BitterYoungMatador2

    BitterYoungMatador2 Well-Known Member

    My dad, an Air Force Vietnam vet who worked on the planes that dropped agent orange, died of a heart attack Memorial Day weekend 1982. My stepfather died Memorial Day weekend 2003.

    Goes without saying my mother and I both think this holiday can go fuck itself.
     
  10. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    I always hated the term "sacrifice" when used on Memorial Day. As if a soldier dying automatically made us free, or that their lives were given to appease the Goddess of Freedom. It doesn't work that way. Every time someone takes an oath to defend this country they too are putting their life into a public trust. Our obligation to them - and the families they may leave behind due to their service - is to be a country worthy of their decision to step forward and serve.
     
    OscarMadison likes this.
  11. Inky_Wretch

    Inky_Wretch Well-Known Member

    It’s a day that should be taken seriously ... seriously saving money with these deals!
     
    HanSenSE and BitterYoungMatador2 like this.
  12. Slacker

    Slacker Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]

    There Will Come Soft Rains


    There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
    And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

    And frogs in the pools singing at night,
    And wild plum-trees in tremulous white;

    Robins will wear their feathery fire
    Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

    And not one will know of the war, not one
    Will care at last when it is done.

    Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
    If mankind perished utterly;

    And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
    Would scarcely know that we were gone.


    Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933)
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2019
    OscarMadison likes this.
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