Memorial Day 2009

6:42 am EST May 25th, 2009 | News | 10 Comments

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10 Responses to “Memorial Day 2009”

  1. jr says:
    May 25, 2009 at 7:40 am

    charity navigator lists the most efficient veterans charities http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=531

  2. Jay Tea says:
    May 25, 2009 at 8:26 am

    Yesterday, I spent the day at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts, touring retired warships (including one Soviet/East German missile corvette) and meeting quite a few veterans who had served on ships like the Massachusetts, the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr., and the Lionfish. To see how they lived, for months on end, while serving our nation… it was amazing.

    And their attitude… so many of them considered it a privilege to have served.

    Sometimes I wonder how the hell we deserve such service.

    J.

  3. Dkelsmith says:
    May 25, 2009 at 9:17 am

    To all that have given it all, and to the families that remain….God Bless.

  4. Dkelsmith says:
    May 25, 2009 at 9:19 am

    Jay Tea,

    Conscription Army or not. What was on the line at the time, and the length of time that people were gone is unfathomable. I couldn’t imagine being gone for almost four years. I think the WWII guys are truly the “greatest generation”.

  5. White Whale says:
    May 25, 2009 at 9:56 am

    I am spending the day taking a day trip in Georgia in honor of my deceased father. He was a veteran along with one of my uncles and both grandparents. I wish I could be in Arlington to pay my respects but I will have to wait a few months. God bless all our veterans and current servicemen.

  6. Frank DiSalle says:
    May 25, 2009 at 1:03 pm

    Mess Management Specialist Seaman Lakeina Monique Francis, Woodleaf, N.C.

    She was only 19, fresh out of basic training, just beginning to grasp what the United States Navy might be all about. It was Lakeina Monique Francis’ first sail as a proud member of her country’s armed services. She was assigned to the destroyer Cole. As the ship plowed through the ocean, she had no doubt that she was at sea.

    ”We heard from her on Sunday,” her mother, Sandra, said. ”She was just getting over seasickness.”

    Her family was uncertain where her ship was actually headed. She wasn’t allowed to tell. They didn’t hear the name Yemen until Thursday, when a Navy chaplain and a Navy officer arrived at their home in Woodleaf, a small North Carolina town, to give them the worst news possible.

    Seaman Francis, a mess management specialist, was among the 17 American sailors killed in an explosion on Thursday that tore a gaping hole in the hull of the Cole during a refueling stop in Yemen. American officials believe it was an act of terrorism.

    A 19 year old girl from North Carolina who wanted to be a cook, her life ended in a crappy mudhole in the Middle East: that’s what it’s about.

    It’s not about the “impact on families and the community”; it’s not about “benefits for returning servicemen and women [see November 11]“; and it’s not about the hope that there will never be another war.

    It’s about Lakeina Francis , and a commitment to the idea that she did not die in vain. It might also be about the idea that a country worth dying for, is a country worth living in.

  7. Repack Rider says:
    May 25, 2009 at 1:06 pm

    Sometimes I wonder how the hell we deserve such service.

    As one of your “honored” veterans, sometimes when I read your posts I ask myself the same question.

  8. Quaker in a Basement says:
    May 25, 2009 at 1:06 pm

    The sacrifice of citizens does not justify the failures of leaders. Let us honor those who answered the call rather than those who made the call necessary.

  9. Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle says:
    May 25, 2009 at 11:26 pm

    Did anyone hear about what Obama did today? Pretty classy I’d say.

  10. Sean D. Martin says:
    May 26, 2009 at 12:47 am

    Did anyone hear about what Obama did today?

    No. Elaborate, please.