Veterans

I'm a veteran who did his service and came home in one piece.
Some were not so lucky and gave their life.
Memorial Day is for them.
Veteran’s Day is for me.
Don’t thank me on Memorial Day. Thank my brothers & sisters who never came back and gave their all!
Memorial day is also about the living, who actually had to see their friends and their people die before their eyes, it's a healing process for some of us, that said a lot of veterans are not going to see the next veterans day.
 
I bothers me when I go to a Memorial Day celebration and the speech expands to more than the veterans who died while they were in military service. The speaker put in their political plug and include First Responders, Police, and other civil and non-civil groups. Then I am ready to leave.
 
Korean War Vet here. Please do not wish me a Happy Memorial Day. Honor those who have fallen in conflicts everywhere.
Memorial Day back in the day was referred to as Decoration Day. My dad made a career of being in the Army, so that was a big deal in our house. Our small town had a parade that ended at the Veterans section of the cemetery where we had a placing of a flag on every veteran’s gravesite. One of the local ministers would deliver an address to the crowd, say prayers and the ceremony would end with playing of taps. I think this is why I attend the ceremony at Arlington. It just seems to me that I am carrying on with the family tradition of honoring those who died while serving.
 
Here in Canada you can go months without seeing a person in the uniform of the Canadian Armed Forces. At 85,000 people, it is not nearly as big as the US military is. Only one of our current Members of Parliament previously served in the CAF, as a Infantry officer. He was until recently the Minister of National Defense, now the Minister of Economics. Our political leaders don't come from a military background. In the entire 155 years since our Confederation in 1867, only one Canadian Prime Minister was ever a military member before being elected to office and he served in WW1 . November the eleventh is our Remembrance Day. It is a day for mourning the loss of our fallen. A quiet day, usually rainy and cold with the leaves blowing around the cenotaph in Ottawa, at the National War Memorial. Broadcast on all TV networks live with no commentary, just the sounds of the guns firing a 21 gun salute, and the visuals of the assembled military units, both current and past members. No political speeches from the Prime Minister, no posturing for the cameras, just the Silver Cross Mother laying a wreath on behalf of her deceased son or daughter as the silence is interrupted by the crash of the guns slowly firing and the piper playing the Lament of Flowers In The Forest. Our nation remembers quietly . JimB.
 
Last edited:
I’m sure that we have all seen the ads on TV for “Tunnels to Towers.” My opinion only, I think these people are doing a great thing by either paying off the mortgage or building the severely injured servicemen a home they can maneuver in. We have added that charity to our list of donations.

I also think our government should be doing more for these men and women that sacrificed their body parts while serving our country. If we can send $40 billion checks to Ukraine, why shouldn’t the American soldier who has been critically injured also expect more than just a disability check?
 
No truer words were even spoken. Back when we had real men. Some of the stuff they went through in WWII, would send most men over the edge today, or to Canada. Some did come home with what was called shell shock back then. Today, we know it as PTSD. My biological father was in WWII, but I wasn't old enough for him to tell me stories that he encountered while overseas and his family knew only bits and pieces. I was handed his medals and ribbons after I graduated high school, but no story to go along with any of them. Being in the Pentagon, I was able to get some information, but most of that stuff has or had been archived. You need a subpoena to resurrect that stuff.
 
No truer words were even spoken. Back when we had real men. Some of the stuff they went through in WWII, would send most men over the edge today, or to Canada. Some did come home with what was called shell shock back then. Today, we know it as PTSD. My biological father was in WWII, but I wasn't old enough for him to tell me stories that he encountered while overseas and his family knew only bits and pieces. I was handed his medals and ribbons after I graduated high school, but no story to go along with any of them. Being in the Pentagon, I was able to get some information, but most of that stuff has or had been archived. You need a subpoena to resurrect that stuff.
I would get the history of his unit , then contract, the men that are still alive in his unit , and ask if they knew your dad.
 
No truer words were even spoken. Back when we had real men. Some of the stuff they went through in WWII, would send most men over the edge today, or to Canada. Some did come home with what was called shell shock back then. Today, we know it as PTSD. My biological father was in WWII, but I wasn't old enough for him to tell me stories that he encountered while overseas and his family knew only bits and pieces. I was handed his medals and ribbons after I graduated high school, but no story to go along with any of them. Being in the Pentagon, I was able to get some information, but most of that stuff has or had been archived. You need a subpoena to resurrect that stuff.
I always thought that if you had the DD214, Veteran Affairs may be able to help get you some information. I don’t know that for a fact, but it may be worth a try. Of course, if you worked at the Pentagon, you probably tried about everything possible. It would be nice if you knew some information about your dad’s service record. Good luck.
 
I always thought that if you had the DD214, Veteran Affairs may be able to help get you some information. I don’t know that for a fact, but it may be worth a try. Of course, if you worked at the Pentagon, you probably tried about everything possible. It would be nice if you knew some information about your dad’s service record. Good luck.
Most of that information gets archived after so many years. The VA will dig it out if it pertains to you getting benefits, but to get information on someone else, probably not.
 
No truer words were even spoken. Back when we had real men. Some of the stuff they went through in WWII, would send most men over the edge today, or to Canada. Some did come home with what was called shell shock back then. Today, we know it as PTSD. My biological father was in WWII, but I wasn't old enough for him to tell me stories that he encountered while overseas and his family knew only bits and pieces. I was handed his medals and ribbons after I graduated high school, but no story to go along with any of them. Being in the Pentagon, I was able to get some information, but most of that stuff has or had been archived. You need a subpoena to resurrect that stuff.
I don't think you'd need a subpoena to obtain your own father's military records, but unfortunately many don't exist because of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natio...the General Services Administration. Contents
 
I appreciate your reply, but I was told by the VA that some records were being put on a system that was only viewable by something called a micro-fish system. This goes back to the 1970's when computers were just beginning to show up at the VA. My attorney told me that if I was able to have a judge sign off on a subpoena, I may be more likely to get something from them, but they could just tell me that they were sorry and that no records were available. I will keep trying. It would be nice to learn as much as I can about my parents. My grandparents wouldn't tell me much because they said my dad worked in Intelligence, so they didn't know much either. I think he was Army, but he could have been Navy because my grandmother told me that he was at one time stationed in Hawaii for a very short time.
 


Back
Top