Rememberance Day 11/11/2008

In mid-December, a film will be shown for the first time of a  USAAF  B-17 mid-air collision incident in which 16 men died. For 60 years, this event seemed to be lost to history, and is based on two years of my research trying to find out what exactly happened, though very few seemed aware that it ever occured. A trailer for the film has been put on You tube and can be seen here---

http://uk.youtube.com/user/SeanCaveille

My uncle was in some war, and a few of my past relatives were in World War II.

Those are some lovely poems, in this thread.  

 All the poems were worthy of reading....my dad and his two brothers were all on Normany beach, within miles of each other and never knew it.  Richard was an paratrooper, Walt was in the marines, and my dad was an medic in the army. My husband as I've mentioned before was in Vietnam, his unit was an backup operations "base" to the "Green Berets" operating in the Central Highland near Pleiku...they were over ran by the regular North Vietnamese army. Out of 150 some guys his was one of four that came back. It means an GREAT deal to him to go an visit the Vietnam Memorial..because if it had not been for them giving their lives he would of never had his now. I knew before he left him and two other guys had needles to kill themselves instantly rather then be caught alive, because they knew the entire "operations" militarily wise going on in Vietnam at the time. He had been sending me home pictures of "shells" all around their tents day after day that had failed to go off that they had to call in teams to dismatle. there was very little he'd tell me going on also, but wrote everyday, if he skipped a letter that he numbered, I knew to call the Red cross. After two weeks and no letters, and already reading in the paper over here what had happened over there, and wondering if he were dead or not, he got through to me by ham radio operators and "patching" off ships and bases, by phone...to tell me he couldn't talk much, just wanted me to know he was "OK" and safe. You just have no idea the feelings of going through something like this people. They picked him up by helicopeter with two other guys and thier commander taking the military files with them, as the rest of them fought to their deaths so they could leave...he later would have to process allthe deaths of so many of  his  friends...average age of these guys...19 years old. I remeber them the day before they shipped out from the USA...throwing blankets over their barracks and singing an "partying" and thier commander said nothing, cause he knewthey needed this time to do that...after all they were in this 24 yr. old commander's eye mostly his "boys"...doing an man's job.Hubby's uncle died in Pearl Harborwith one of the ships there...and our Boy Scouts honor every year the 345.000 graves where my mother is now buried, and where two of classmates rest having died in Vietnam. You don't have to tell us that "War is Hell". Hubby's nephews and one neice back east, she and her husband were in the "Gulf War" and our nephew is an air force special computers operator right now. He just got back from Germany, because his mother is dying of Cancer. So being an only son, he's in distance to check on her and be with her now.Many of our relatives hold offices in social organizations like the VFW and such where they honor our service men also. You would think the world the world would lear somethign from all the deaths, but apparently not. Killing still seems an major occupation of the world. Both my mother's brothers were in the Korean War. My one uncle was an helicopter pilot. such are the years.

Here's a clip about the young soldiers, set to music.:-

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urtiyp-G6jY

 I was never in a war but I had mates who went to Vietnam, some never returned, and the ones that did were never the same.

I like this, Wolf.  When I was a small girl in Pennsylvania, they sold poppies for Remembrance Day - we call it Veteran's Day over here.  Some of those lovely old world customs never made it out west, so I had forgotten about it until we were in England last year at this time.  Everyone was wearing the poppies over there and it reminded me of my childhood.  Tonight I was watching election coverage on BBC America and the presenters were wearing poppies. 

I think it's nice and I think it's always good to remember.  And the poppy is a good symbol of the sacrifices demanded by war - because it's not a national flag, but, as outlined in the lovely poem, a symbol of the pain of the whole human family touched by war.