For all our troops
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1R8qLAmkLU&feature=related[/yt]
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1R8qLAmkLU&feature=related[/yt]
November 11
- Thread starter Gil T.Azell
- Start date
"God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it." Daniel Webster
On this Veterans Day, Thank you to all who serve.
Warmest Wishes,
Whoa Nellie
On this Veterans Day, Thank you to all who serve.
Warmest Wishes,
Whoa Nellie
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.
- John McCrae
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.
- John McCrae
Hear, hear!
One day all Human beings will respect the lives and rights of others; when that day comes it will be thanks to all those who lived and died to hold the line against the darkness.
Happy Veteran's Day. Everything we have we owe to them.
Happy Veteran's Day. Everything we have we owe to them.
To all those who chose to risk their lives for your country, you guys are a lot braver than I ever can be. Thank You for your service and dedication. Happy Veterans day to all Veterans, new and old.
This is a great day to support our troops but that is also something we should do everyday. We need to remember that our troops are there because they signed up to protect our country by whatever means was felt it needed to be done. I disagreed with why we went to Vietnam, I disagree with why we went to Iraq -both times- but those actions were not done by our troops but by leaders, politicians and people far up the food chain than the men on the ground, in the trenches, on ships and in planes. These men should be supported for what they've elected to do no matter what it is they are doing. Supporting the troops and wishing them the best isn't the same as supporting a war.
/** a salute to my fellow vets, sisters and brothers in arms.
May our path be always peaceful now, and may we still be ready if duty calls.
1st Lt. USAF '73 - '77
May our path be always peaceful now, and may we still be ready if duty calls.
1st Lt. USAF '73 - '77
As some of you may know, IRL I am the Clinical Director for a large agency which serves homeless veterans. Today is a somewhat bittersweet celebration for those who served and now have no place to live.
This year we have served nearly 2000 homeless veterans. Since the wars began we have served over 350 homeless OEF/OIF vets. And that's just one agency, in one part of one state.
Fundraising appeals are forbidden here (with good reason), but if anyone would like to show their gratitude for these men and women, feel free to PM me and I'll provide a link to our agency's website.
In the meantime, thank you to all who stood ready. Enjoy your day.
This year we have served nearly 2000 homeless veterans. Since the wars began we have served over 350 homeless OEF/OIF vets. And that's just one agency, in one part of one state.
Fundraising appeals are forbidden here (with good reason), but if anyone would like to show their gratitude for these men and women, feel free to PM me and I'll provide a link to our agency's website.
In the meantime, thank you to all who stood ready. Enjoy your day.
I have yet to see a war that I agree with, but I support and admire those who fight them. Thank you, Veterans.
I have yet to see a war that I agree with, but I support and admire those who fight them. Thank you, Veterans.
(I assume by "see a war" you mean personally seen. As those whole Revolutionary War and World War II things were pretty necessary.)
But, yeah, many people don't want to support troops or our military because they disagree with the war(s) we're in. This was one of the main griping points against Vietnam and both the wars in Iraq. Not knowing the particulars I imagine the Korean War was greatly contested by the public too. (The war in Afghanistan I could see agreeing with.)
But people think supporting the troops is the same as supporting the war. I don't see it that way. The men over there signed up to protect our country, do a job and do a mission. It's not their fault the "mission" they're given has dubious circumstances behind it. We should still support them, hope the best for them, give them the best we can, and hope they come home safely.
Spite the government and powers that put them there, not the men doing the job. Getting mad at them is like getting mad at the Gasco Attendant for the price at the pump.
We honour our armed forces and veterans on November 4, the day of the armistice between Italy and Austria-Hungary at the end of WWI.
Let us not forget that, behind different uniforms and different flags, our fallen are all human beings deserving, if not of honour, at least of respect.
Let us not forget that, behind different uniforms and different flags, our fallen are all human beings deserving, if not of honour, at least of respect.
Let us also honor those who fight and died regardless of the country they fought for.
A real life story I thought would be interesting to tell here on Veterans Day. I met an old German who still comes to my local gym on a regular basis. I have known for some time he fought in the battle of Stalingrad as my mother is friends with him, so I decided to ask him some more about his experience there and how things were before then.
His father was a very well off Germany businessman and a well decorated veteran of the first World War. He was also in business with a Jew that served alongside him in WW1. The SS decided to punish both men for being in business together. They took all of the Jew's assets along with the rest of his family and they were never seen again. With his non-Jewish business partner the SS took all the assets including their house, their car, and everything else and dumped their family on the street. As part of the punishment they conscripted the German businessman's two sons into just about the worst position in the German Army... being on the front line of the battle of Stalingrad. They were given summer gear along with t-shirts and sent into a situation so cold they had to hide under bodies to keep from freezing to death. He said that the cold killed more people in their unit then the Russians.
After the war he and his family had nothing left so he immigrated to the U.S. to help pay for his family back home. He was captured by the U.S. at the end of the war and his brother was captured by the Russians. His brother was political and ardent anti-Nazi Party which got him into trouble with local German authorities in the early 40s. He was apolitical and didn't give a damn about politics. His brother starved to death in a Soviet slave labor camp in the early 50s. Americans troops he believes saved him from the fate of his brother because when he was a POW Red Army soldiers came by and were under orders to round up German soldiers and send put them on trains (almost certainly bound for the Gulags) the American soldiers refused to hand over their POWs to the Russians which he believes spared him from the same fate as his brother. It was also one of the reasons he decided on coming to the U.S. after the war.
However, he says he has been subject to decades of abuse here in the United States with people calling him a Nazi and a Jew killer for fighting in the German Army. It was so bad that he says now if he knew how bad it would be for the U.S. he might not have come here. He says Americans don't understand the difference between the German Army (who for the most part tried not to commit war crimes and were loyal to the German state not the Nazi party until 1945 when after the assassination attempt on Hitler they were forced to become part of the Nazi party for the last few months of the war) and the SS and Waffen SS who were behind the vast majority of the war crimes people see on TV and in movies.
He also says that the current generation of Germans are hateful towards people like him that served in the German army that they believe they should have fled or fought them. His response to that is unlike the Von Trapp family it wasn't like all he had to do was hike over the mountain and he and his brother would have been in a safe country. As for refusing to serve that would have gotten them a bullet in the head and no money back for their family to be able to live on given everything was taken from them and they were blacklisted for jobs. As for trying to fight back against the SS that would have just gotten him and his whole family killed.
So they picked fighting in the closest thing to hell on Earth at the time rather then the other options. For that he is looked down on by modern Germans and in America he has found that people just don't know that being a German soldier in WW2 is not the same as being a concentration camp guard shoving Jews into ovens. By the way he also said the Red Army was as bad as the Waffen SS when it came to war crimes against civilians in Eastern Europe.
His father had an interesting take on the SS taking away all the assets of his Jewish partner as well as his assets. His father believed the anti-semitism thing was a convenient scam for Heinrich Himmler and his cronies to redistribute the wealth of loyal German citizens (Jewish and otherwise) into their own pockets. He believed the SS were building their own state within the German state (sort of like the Revolutionary Guard has done today in Iran). During the war he didn't know where his business partner went only that he disappeared. He found out only after the war that his Jewish partner and his family were sent to a concentration camp where they were they died. Both families had been close friends before they were seperated.
What I find interesting is that just about all soldiers throughout history are allowed to be respected (except German soldiers in WW2). Terrorists are a different story, but you can still dress us as as a terrorist on Halloween and get away with it, but you will likely catch holy hell if you dress up like a WW2 German soldier. The former soldier in my story simply believes that most people today don't know the history of the era or what its like to live in a country were all media is controlled and saying the wrong thing can get you and your family killed. People who have attacked him don't know or care that neither did he help carry out the Final Solution nor did he know it was going on.
A real life story I thought would be interesting to tell here on Veterans Day. I met an old German who still comes to my local gym on a regular basis. I have known for some time he fought in the battle of Stalingrad as my mother is friends with him, so I decided to ask him some more about his experience there and how things were before then.
His father was a very well off Germany businessman and a well decorated veteran of the first World War. He was also in business with a Jew that served alongside him in WW1. The SS decided to punish both men for being in business together. They took all of the Jew's assets along with the rest of his family and they were never seen again. With his non-Jewish business partner the SS took all the assets including their house, their car, and everything else and dumped their family on the street. As part of the punishment they conscripted the German businessman's two sons into just about the worst position in the German Army... being on the front line of the battle of Stalingrad. They were given summer gear along with t-shirts and sent into a situation so cold they had to hide under bodies to keep from freezing to death. He said that the cold killed more people in their unit then the Russians.
After the war he and his family had nothing left so he immigrated to the U.S. to help pay for his family back home. He was captured by the U.S. at the end of the war and his brother was captured by the Russians. His brother was political and ardent anti-Nazi Party which got him into trouble with local German authorities in the early 40s. He was apolitical and didn't give a damn about politics. His brother starved to death in a Soviet slave labor camp in the early 50s. Americans troops he believes saved him from the fate of his brother because when he was a POW Red Army soldiers came by and were under orders to round up German soldiers and send put them on trains (almost certainly bound for the Gulags) the American soldiers refused to hand over their POWs to the Russians which he believes spared him from the same fate as his brother. It was also one of the reasons he decided on coming to the U.S. after the war.
However, he says he has been subject to decades of abuse here in the United States with people calling him a Nazi and a Jew killer for fighting in the German Army. It was so bad that he says now if he knew how bad it would be for the U.S. he might not have come here. He says Americans don't understand the difference between the German Army (who for the most part tried not to commit war crimes and were loyal to the German state not the Nazi party until 1945 when after the assassination attempt on Hitler they were forced to become part of the Nazi party for the last few months of the war) and the SS and Waffen SS who were behind the vast majority of the war crimes people see on TV and in movies.
He also says that the current generation of Germans are hateful towards people like him that served in the German army that they believe they should have fled or fought them. His response to that is unlike the Von Trapp family it wasn't like all he had to do was hike over the mountain and he and his brother would have been in a safe country. As for refusing to serve that would have gotten them a bullet in the head and no money back for their family to be able to live on given everything was taken from them and they were blacklisted for jobs. As for trying to fight back against the SS that would have just gotten him and his whole family killed.
So they picked fighting in the closest thing to hell on Earth at the time rather then the other options. For that he is looked down on by modern Germans and in America he has found that people just don't know that being a German soldier in WW2 is not the same as being a concentration camp guard shoving Jews into ovens. By the way he also said the Red Army was as bad as the Waffen SS when it came to war crimes against civilians in Eastern Europe.
His father had an interesting take on the SS taking away all the assets of his Jewish partner as well as his assets. His father believed the anti-semitism thing was a convenient scam for Heinrich Himmler and his cronies to redistribute the wealth of loyal German citizens (Jewish and otherwise) into their own pockets. He believed the SS were building their own state within the German state (sort of like the Revolutionary Guard has done today in Iran). During the war he didn't know where his business partner went only that he disappeared. He found out only after the war that his Jewish partner and his family were sent to a concentration camp where they were they died. Both families had been close friends before they were seperated.
What I find interesting is that just about all soldiers throughout history are allowed to be respected (except German soldiers in WW2). Terrorists are a different story, but you can still dress us as as a terrorist on Halloween and get away with it, but you will likely catch holy hell if you dress up like a WW2 German soldier. The former soldier in my story simply believes that most people today don't know the history of the era or what its like to live in a country were all media is controlled and saying the wrong thing can get you and your family killed. People who have attacked him don't know or care that neither did he help carry out the Final Solution nor did he know it was going on.
I have yet to see a war that I agree with, but I support and admire those who fight them. Thank you, Veterans.
(I assume by "see a war" you mean personally seen. As those whole Revolutionary War and World War II things were pretty necessary.)
Why was the Revolutionary War necessary? Rich white slave owners didn't want to pay their taxes, and?
I have yet to see a war that I agree with, but I support and admire those who fight them. Thank you, Veterans.
(I assume by "see a war" you mean personally seen. As those whole Revolutionary War and World War II things were pretty necessary.)
Yes, Vietnam and since. I was alive for Korea, but barely.
I have yet to see a war that I agree with, but I support and admire those who fight them. Thank you, Veterans.
(I assume by "see a war" you mean personally seen. As those whole Revolutionary War and World War II things were pretty necessary.)
Why was the Revolutionary War necessary? Rich white slave owners didn't want to pay their taxes, and?
Stop quoting Dazed and Confused.
To all my fellow vets, thank you for serving.
Happy vetrans day to my fellow veterans! I especially Thank my fellow Trekbbs veterans!
As others have done in this thread, I would like to stress not only the courage and sacrifice of soldiers, but ask that we spend time this day considering the costs of war, and the effects that are felt for generations. Let us hope for a day when there is no need for Soldiers, and we look back on the bloodshed of war in history books, not on the front page of our newspapers.
As others have done in this thread, I would like to stress not only the courage and sacrifice of soldiers, but ask that we spend time this day considering the costs of war, and the effects that are felt for generations. Let us hope for a day when there is no need for Soldiers, and we look back on the bloodshed of war in history books, not on the front page of our newspapers.
