Nov 11th - Veteran 's Day

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Sixlashes

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It is definitely a calling. I enjoyed it every day I put on my uniform.

I have always been mindful that the vetrans' families are the unsung heros. They are the ones stuck at home keeping things going with Mom or Dad gone. Add my appreciation with yours for the families of our service men and women.

The best memories I have of my militay career are coming home from deployments. Since I was a maintenance superintendent on heavy aircraft, I usually flew on my squadron's aircraft. After a long deployment in a hostile and/or an economicly depressed area, flying back over the U.S. never failed to hit me emotionally. To look down at this wonderful country after you have so sorely missed it, it is so beautiful. Yes, we have our issues and problems sometimes. But it is undeniable that our nation is the best thing going compared to the rest of the world. We have our worries, but trust me; they are very small compared to what a huge section of the world's population deals with.

I am proud to be an American!:D
 

Dunbar Plumbing

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans_Day

http://www.veteransforamerica.org

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/10/print/20081031-1.html

capt.6a4b0f3d2afe47dd9571dbd733e4a90e.veterans_day_pamr101.jpg
 

Terry

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Here is a letter my father sent to my mother

Fort Benning, Georgia
Infantry School
November 2, 1942


Dear Pamela,
Just a line a bedtime. The squad room has only 6 of us at home this evening which is a large number considering pay day week. Twenty five of us live up here now, the rest of them are out tanking up. Some of the six that are here now would be out except for minor ailments such as poison oak, boils and such.
One would normally expect to find an army of courageous men in a place like this. We have some good men in the army.
In making an army that will fight it is necessary to build courage into the men. Courage is not always a born trait as some may believe. The essence of courage in a fighting man is competence in his profession, the knowledge of his weapons and seasoned ability to use them. The confidence gives the final outward manifestation of courage. To be good as a fighter a man must really know his stuff. If a man is merely bluffing he is apt to break down when the shellfire cracks his veneer.
When a man is regarded in civilian life as a fighter, it usually means that he is competent at fighting other men. That is the definition Hitler places on the "fighting" man. He says a man must fight.
The theory we hold to says that a man must fight also, but he doesn't have to fight other men. He can fight disease, nature, flood, fire, and famine. This kind of fighting is the real thing. It is the kind of fighting engineers do when working out a mighty project. That is the American philosophy of democracy. Often men are called sissies because they lack the physical vigor to engage in human contests, but they may be the most proficient fighters of all were the facts known.
It is this silent kind of fighting that a man has to do in a competitive world to supply the need for his family. It is the kind of fighting I like to do the best. The opponent is sometimes intangible and has the odds in his favor, but that is the way life is set up.
I have a lot to fight for, the finest family any man ever had, an understanding with my wife that makes life really worth living. Carrying on research while attending the Infantry School has the effect of giving us a private fight on two fronts--one military and one economic.
Your letters of cheer and assurance, darling, are wonderful morale builders. You will probably never know all that goes on in the mind of a man when he receives a cheering letter from loved ones at home, but the part you play in my happiness is beyond measure. Keep up the good work, sweetheart.
Goodnite my love,
Mel


More letters

1539melpam.jpg
 
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Cookie

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I know that love your dad and mother had, I had the same with my husband. I hope to find again in my life time, but won't hold my breath.

Your dad sounded remarkable, and your mom, I had already said to you, is absolutely, an amazing woman. And, quite beautiful.

Those are wonderful letters and I am very surprised not censored. I have my dad's to his mother, and they censored the heck out of them. He also, served in France. He was hurt in Anzio, it was there, he lost his hearing and became, " shell-shocked."

With your dad's mention of Hitler, it makes it all so real doesn't it?
What sorrowful times.

Your dad was so tall, how tall was he? Mine was 5 foot 1.
 

Terry

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Your dad was so tall, how tall was he? Mine was 5 foot 1.

6' 1-5/8"
That's how it listed it, not 6'2", 6'1-5/8"

It wasn't until I was 40 that I finally became the same height.
I was 3/4" shorter than that for twenty years, and then added 3/4" in two months. And then my shoe size became the same as his too.
Very strange.

It was nice to see the two of them together,
They would meet for lunch, and the waitresses would ask if they were married. They still had it for each other after 45 years.
Cookie, there is still time. It can happen.
 

Cass

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The man who wrote this letter died a few days later...sometimes we forget the men who went before...long before...


July the 14th, 1861
Washington DC


My very dear Sarah:

The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days - perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more.

Our movement may be one of a few days duration and full of pleasure - and it may be one of severe conflict and death to me. Not my will, but thine 0 God, be done. If it is necessary that I should fall on the battlefield for my country, I am ready. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing - perfectly willing - to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt.

But, my dear wife, when I know that with my own joys I lay down nearly all of yours, and replace them in this life with cares and sorrows - when, after having eaten for long years the bitter fruit of orphanage myself, I must offer it as their only sustenance to my dear little children - is it weak or dishonorable, while the banner of my purpose floats calmly and proudly in the breeze, that my unbounded love for you, my darling wife and children, should struggle in fierce, though useless, contest with my love of country?

I cannot describe to you my feelings on this calm summer night, when two thousand men are sleeping around me, many of them enjoying the last, perhaps, before that of death -- and I, suspicious that Death is creeping behind me with his fatal dart, am communing with God, my country, and thee.

I have sought most closely and diligently, and often in my breast, for a wrong motive in thus hazarding the happiness of those I loved and I could not find one. A pure love of my country and of the principles have often advocated before the people and "the name of honor that I love more than I fear death" have called upon me, and I have obeyed.

Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me to you with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly on with all these chains to the battlefield.

The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when God willing, we might still have lived and loved together and seen our sons grow up to honorable manhood around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me - perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar -- that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name.

Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have oftentimes been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness, and struggle with all the misfortune of this world, to shield you and my children from harm. But I cannot. I must watch you from the spirit land and hover near you, while you buffet the storms with your precious little freight, and wait with sad patience till we meet to part no more.

But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the garish day and in the darkest night -- amidst your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours - always, always; and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath; or the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.

Sarah, do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again.

As for my little boys, they will grow as I have done, and never know a father's love and care. Little Willie is too young to remember me long, and my blue eyed Edgar will keep my frolics with him among the dimmest memories of his childhood. Sarah, I have unlimited confidence in your maternal care and your development of their characters. Tell my two mothers his and hers I call God's blessing upon them. O Sarah, I wait for you there! Come to me, and lead thither my children.

Sullivan
 
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Cookie

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Neat letter Cass. I am a Civil War buff. Really, anything with the history of wars, I am a weird girl, I used to watch Combat growing up, starring Vic Morrow. Anyone else remember those? But, of course that was a thing I did with my dad. He would sit there and tell me about WW2, and how they did the road to Rome. I remember pretty much every story of my dad's, and as I got older I wrote them down with him one day, over breakfast with him, of eggs & coffee. He died one week later. Fate? I never begged anyone for anything, but when I found out daddy was sick I begged him not to die. So, he died, and I dealt with it, like I deal with everything that comes down the pike in my life.

I am a survivor and boy, do I ever hate that word. Yet, aren't we all survivor's in one sense or another just by living, by breathing in & out? Like that bumper stick from what the 70's, which says, " Shit happens." I had one of those at one time, along with hippie beads and a tie-dyed blouse, and fringed boots.

But, we all aren't hero's. That is reserved for those who put their life on the line for another's.

Nah, it won't happen again, Terry, you meet the love of your life but once. I am satisfied with that. That is more than some people get in life with love. We used to have lunch at Bob Evans and we sat next to each other all our married life. Like we were joined at the hip, but it really was our hearts. I could never decide if I liked him more or loved him more. And, he wasn't perfect, he was far from it. He was just perfect for me. He made me laugh.

How funny you grew taller, when most shrink when getting older. ;)
 

Redwood

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I used to work on these... Before I crosstrained and went into plumbing...
We called them Aardvarks...
When you see the head on shots you'll understand why...
If there is an MO, LN, UH, or, CC, on the tail I probably worked on it.

Here is a video a kid made for his father that was a Wizzo (Navigator/Weapons System Operator WSO) on one.


Here is one that is laser designating a target in Iraq after dropping a laser guided bomb.


The USAF has retired their fleet to the boneyard and the RAAF is still flying their's. Here is an Australian video. it's a good clip with both in the cockpit and outside views...
 
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Terry

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It's Veterans Day again. here's an update with pictures. Please add your stories and pictures too.

melvin-1940-corps-of-cadets.jpg


My father Melvin Love, 1940, while still in college, Corps of Cadets, State of Washington, Staff Sargent.

clare-the-little-general.jpg


My brother Clare Love, born in 42 and then Vietnam as an adult.

melvin-1940-corps-of-cadets-2.jpg


Melvin on the left.
 

Jeff H Young

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Thanks Terry always amazed at the great photographs you share and interesting history!
I never was in military but want to thank those that were ,, My Father Navy just caught tail end of ww2 was stationed in HI navigator couldn't quite get pilot. his brother born in 1920 was in much action in Europe a bomber pilot.
both grandfathers were WW1 veterans born in 1890s.
Thank you all Veterans and active duty!
 
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