Veterans day and Happy Birthday to the U.S. Marine Corps

I was just about to blog Veterans Day, November 11 (which is also known in Great Britain and Europe as Armistice Day) and the birthday of the United States Marine Corps, November 10th, when I received the following from my good friend Jerry, a true patriot and also a Vietnam Veteran. He says it so much better than I can:

While this list of VERY SPECIAL PEOPLE doesn't come close to the
extensive list in my head and heart.... all of those since my earliest
memories, from the WW 1 Veterans who, with their crude prosthetic
devices and gas seared lungs, came home and dug coal, put down endless
miles of railroad, harvested an unimaginably massive hardwood forest,
layed the foundation for the industrial revolution and in their own
best ways dealt with their many demons right here in little old Buchtel
and many, many other such places, right up to and including todays best
and brightest..... it IS a respectful attempt to bestow HONOR AND
DIGNITY TO ALL who have stood tall and still do today when their country
calls. It is a modest and heartfelt effort to simply THANK THOSE who
offered it all.... left their families far behind; risked their lives
and yes, even worse; to keep our home on track of becoming the finest,
freest, most emulated, loved and feared nation in the short history of
modern man. No other nation has ever offered such promise, realized the
coming true of so many dreams, or stood ready to defend such great
ideals as has and done the United States of America. "THANKS" TO ALL WHO
WEAR THE TITLE, "VETERAN". GOD BLESS AND KEEP YOU AND YOUR FAMILIES,
AS YOU HAVE INDEED MADE AND HAVE KEPT IT ALL POSSIBLE !! AND,TO THE
FEW, THE PROUD, THE UNITED STATES MARINES, " HAPPY BIRTHDAY" .....
SEMPER FIDELIS !!! SULLY

A musical tribute to our military branches

"We Hold These Truths to be Self-Evident"

To coin a phrase from the Marine Corps: This is my flag. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

It has flown outside our house for several years, and the wind and weather have taken their toll on it. So, it seems fitting that we replace it on Independence Day with a new, and this time, a slightly larger flag. But while times change, it is still Old Glory, the Stars and Stripes. It still conveys the same message that we are all free people, part of a democratic republic, and that (as it says in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence) "...We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness..."

Today, July Fourth, is Independence Day in America.

While the Congress officially separated the American colonies from Great Britain on July second, 1776, it did not officially approve the letter to King George (the Declaration of Independence) until July fourth. From that day on, Americans have always celebrated our independence from the Crown on the fourth. And it's always been a joyous and festive occasion!

John Adams, one of the original signers, wrote this to his wife, Abigail: "...I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”

Let's celebrate! Happy Birthday, America.

D Day + 1

photo: GIs train for the invasion at Slapton Sands, south coast of England, 1944. [photo courtesy U.S. Army Center of Military History]

While we're on the subject of the invasion of Normandy, it's appropriate to remember that the invasion didn't just happen. The planning and preparations literally took years. One of the biggest feats was to assemble the necessary manpower and equipment, and train the troops, to be able to pull off the largest invasion in history. And they would likely only get one chance to do it.

The British Army lost most of its equipment when it evacuated from the French beaches at Dunkirk in 1940 as Hitler's armies advanced across France. Starting around 1942, massive amounts of arms, munitions and other equipment were shipped to Britain from America. Without these supplies, the Brits would not have been able to continue the war. In addition, thousands of American and Canadian troops also arrived--a total of 1.5 million ground troops, and an additional 500,000 airmen and sailors. Thousands of men and women who had escaped from Nazi-occupied Europe also managed to reach Britain with the intention of fighting to free their homelands: French, Poles, Czechs, Dutch, Belgians, and Norwegians all gravitated to Britain to fight the war.

Huge bases were set up in England to house and train the invasion troops. Farm land was acquired to build airfields for British and American bomber and fighter aircraft, so that they could conduct raids into occupied Europe and Germany. A lot of the civilian population in England were required to give up their houses, farms and villages to make way for the bases. American forces were assigned to the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset on the southwest peninsula of England where there was space for them to train.

Sure, there was some friction between the locals and the tourists, but overall, it was an incredible example of people pulling together and making sacrifices for the common good. I came across this message that was posted on a church in south Devon, where the local population had to leave in order to make way for the U.S. Army:

"TO OUR ALLIES OF THE USA: This church has stood here for several hundred years. Around it has grown a community, which has lived in these houses and tilled these fields ever since there was a church. This church, this churchyard in which their loved ones lie at rest, these homes, these fields are as dear to those who have left them as are the homes and graves and fields which you, our Allies, have left behind you. They hope to return one day, as you hope to return to yours, to find them waiting to welcome them home. They entrust them to your care meanwhile, and pray that God's blessing may rest upon us all." signed, Charles, Bishop of Exeter.

[extract from "The Normandy Landings" by Derek Blizard 1993, Reed International Books, ISBN 0-600-57905-0]

D-Day in Europe

photo: The first view that many soldiers had of France was from the deck of a landing craft like this one. In many cases, incoming fire from German machine guns also made it the last view they had.


Today is the sixty-fifth anniversary of the allied landings in Normandy, France; the largest one-day invasion in history. The invasion force consisted primarily of American, British, and Canadian troops, but also included soldiers from most commonwealth countries and european soldiers who had escaped from their own occupied countries to fight on the side of the allies (sorry if I left anybody out).

A successful allied invasion of Europe was essential to support the previous invasion in the Mediterranian sea by allied forces landing in Italy. Without it, the war with Nazi Germany could have dragged on for years, and the way that the world looks today would have been vastly different. The Americans who took part in World war Two, young service people from every state in America, people who worked in factories building tanks, aircraft, and ships, have been appropriately named "The greatest generation." Without them, and their counterparts in allied countries, it's conceivable that the entire world may be living today under the rule of German fascism.

The landings by sea were conducted across five Normandy beaches; Two for the American forces, codenamed "Utah" and "Omaha", and two for the British forces: "Gold" and "Sword", and one beach, "Juno" for the Canadians. In addition, American and Commonwealth airborne troops landed by parachute and glider.

The logistics and preparations involved in mounting such an operation took years. I remember my mother, who was driver in the British Army at the time, telling me how she and the other female drivers in her unit spent months in the lead up to the invasion hauling naval shells from the factory to the south coast of England.

The surviving veterans are now all in their eighties, or older. They are dying at a rate of about 300,000 each year.

So if you know one, today may be a good time to ask them if they would like to talk a little bit about their experiences sixty-five years ago. Many of them don't want to remember, but at the very least, you might take the time to say thanks. The world war two generation made history and shaped the future.



The U.S. cemetery in Cambridge, England, contains the remains of 3,812 of American war dead from World War II.

Ronald Regan on Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day. It is the day that Americans pause for a moment to remember, honor, and give thanks to all the people in our five service branches, the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard, who have sacrificed themselves for our country. The rest of us owe these people for everything that we have. Spanning four centuries, every war fought by Americans from the Revolutionary War to the two world wars, Korea, Vietnam, and the current Global War on Terror, has influenced who we are as a nation, and what we have accomplished.

I wanted to write something profound to mark this important day. But in the course of my research I came across the speech that President Ronald Reagan gave at Arlington cemetary on Memorial Day, 1982. He said it so much better than I ever could, so here is a particularly relevant excerpt from one of this country's greatest presidents. God bless our service people, our veterans, and our country:

"The willingness of some to give their lives so that others might live never fails to evoke in us a sense of wonder and mystery. One gets that feeling here on this hallowed ground, and I have known that same poignant feeling as I looked out across the rows of white crosses and Stars of David in Europe, in the Philippines, and the military cemeteries here in our own land. Each one marks the resting place of an American hero and, in my lifetime, the heroes of World War I, the Doughboys, the GI's of World War II or Korea or Vietnam. They span several generations of young Americans, all different and yet all alike, like the markers above their resting places, all alike in a truly meaningful way.

"Winston Churchill said of those he knew in World War II they seemed to be the only young men who could laugh and fight at the same time. A great general in that war called them our secret weapon, ``just the best darn kids in the world.'' Each died for a cause he considered more important than his own life. Well, they didn't volunteer to die; they volunteered to defend values for which men have always been willing to die if need be, the values which make up what we call civilization. And how they must have wished, in all the ugliness that war brings, that no other generation of young men to follow would have to undergo that same experience.

"As we honor their memory today, let us pledge that their lives, their sacrifices, their valor shall be justified and remembered for as long as God gives life to this nation. And let us also pledge to do our utmost to carry out what must have been their wish: that no other generation of young men will ever have to share their experiences and repeat their sacrifice.

"Earlier today, with the music that we have heard and that of our National Anthem -- I can't claim to know the words of all the national anthems in the world, but I don't know of any other that ends with a question and a challenge as ours does: Does that flag still wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? That is what we must all ask."

President Ronald Reagan, Memorial Day, 1982.

Today is Victory in Europe Day. What have We Learned?

Sixty Four years ago today, the part of the Second World War that was fought in Europe was officially brought to an end when the president of Germany, Admiral Donitz (Hitler's successor) surrendered to the Allies. The war in the Pacific against Japan would continue a while longer. But for the people of Europe, the war that had begun in September of 1939 was finally over on May 8th 1945.

In 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Adolf Hitler in an attempt to avoid a war between Britain and Germany.

The following is the wording of the statement that Neville Chamberlain waved when he stepped off the plane after the conference in Berlin had ended on 30 September, 1938.

"We, the German Führer and Chancellor, and the British Prime Minister, have had a further meeting today and are agreed in recognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for two countries and for Europe.

"We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again.

"We are ... determined to continue our efforts to ... contribute to assure the peace of Europe."

Chamberlain read this statement to a cheering crowd in front of 10 Downing St. and said;

"My good friends this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honor. I believe it is peace in our time."

On September 3rd, 1939, Britain and France went to war with Germany, after Germany invaded Poland.

What can we learn from the lessons of history?

1) Aggressor nations cannot be appeased by simple negotiation. We must always negotiate from a position of strength if we want to win and survive against dictators and aggressive ideologies.

2) Maintaining a strong military is the final solution to aggression after all other political and diplomatic methods have been exhausted.

3) It is naive and dangerous to assume that we can change the minds of heads of state or people of other countries, civilizations, or religeons simply by talking to them and assuming that while we don't understand their reasons and point of view, they will easily see ours and come over to our way of thinking.

Today, we face threats to our nation's security, and the security of our allies on many fronts: Nuclear proliferation, the spread of nuclear weapons to rogue nations is upon us. Radical islamic terorrism is here and growing. We cannot secure our borders. We cannot afford to fight another large war.

But we absolutely cannot afford to appease dictators and rogue nations. History is clear about what happens when we try.