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GM Strong · Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 1:37 pm Post subject: V-E Day May 8, 1945

This will be the 60th Anniversary of Victory in Europe. Thanks to all our WWII Vets and a moment of rememberace to those whose paid the price and those who have gone on. This should be a Special Memorial Day in year 2005. Let us all rememeber them.
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8th Army Korea 68-69

carpro · Admin Joined: 10 May 2004 Posts: 1176 Location: Texas

Good post.

Thanks for the reminder.
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"If he believes his 1971 indictment of his country and his fellow veterans was true, then he couldn't possibly be proud of his Vietnam service."

Navy_Navy_Navy · Admin Joined: 07 May 2004 Posts: 5777

I've been listening a lot to old time radio shows, lately and one thing that has touched me is the "let's pitch in" and "anything for the boys" attitude that permeated all the programming from the war years.

I think the reason we don't see this as much today is that our military is so much smaller. Back then, everyone had someone on the front and usually, more than one someone. Today, few among us have anyone related to us that's in the service.

We don't personalize and internalize what the war effort is. We are not called upon to sacrifice the way our parents and grandparents did. I like to think that we would step up to the plate they way they did if circumstances warranted it, but watching the overall reaction after 9-11, I'm not so sure.

They sure earned their nickname, "The Greatest Generation."

And they sure had a lot to celebrate 60 years ago - after four long years and so much hardship and loss.

Here's a page of pictures of a street in New York on VE Day - http://www.zer0.org/ve/ Check out the large versions if you're on a fast connection. Look at the faces.

A toast to the generation before us - we mourn the losses of that long war but this week, we celebrate the victory of Allied Forces, Europe!

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~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

rbshirley · Founder Joined: 07 May 2004 Posts: 394

I B Squidly · Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 11:12 pm Post subject:

VE Day is only half the equation. VJ Day follows. But, who celebrates Armistice Day? today half forgotten as Veterans Day and as N3 noted we've today the smallest percentage of the population with any experience of the military in our history.

RB did a nice job of reminding us of the conflicts with living vets. It can't be helped if he left out the Berlin Airlift, Berlin '62, the Cuban Missle Crises, the USS Pueblo, Stark, Roberts, Cole, Honduras, Nicaragua more than once, the countless known and unknown Cold War efforts and Lord knows the times some military member stood a thankless watch between boredom and fear.

The 'Greatest Generation'? I'm not sure. "In Flanders fields the poppys grow, row on row...." Forgotten because they're all dead but I knew First War vets and can't diminish them. Memorial Day originally created to celebrate the Grand Army of the Republic, the 'Bloody Red Shirt' and who can say the 1861 War did not consume more citizen soldiers both in percentage and absolute numbers than any other; charging stoically to the slaughter! Leaping the Mexican War and 1812 where would be without the men who fought off the Mohawks, followed Arnold up the Kennebec, rode with Francis Marion, or marched with Washington without food or pay?

VE Day, the end of the Nazis was the start of the Cold War and the Soviet subjugation of Eastern Europe. Thoreaux derided standing armies as an invitation to trouble. But though Thoreaux advocated war on the south to end slavery he imagined it could be done with strong words. In 1939 when the Nazis walked over them the Polish Army was trice the size of the US. Osama doesn't answer our phone calls, but he does endorse Kerry. Go figure.

I've lost my chain of thought, I'm a partisan vet, I can only celebrate any of the underpaid who survived the enemy, congress, lifers, ineptitude, bureaucracy, the weather or the sea on behalf of an unappreciative populace.
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"KILL ALL THE LAWYERS!"

-Wlm Shakespeare

GM Strong · Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 1:49 am Post subject:

I lost your train of thought. V-J Day comes in August and we will honor the conclusion in the Pacific then. My grandfather served in the 3rd Division US Army in France WWI and dad was a B-24 pilot WWII (Europe)and a POW for 11 Mo. (See Moosberg post). Cousins way back served in the Civil War and one died. Four of my GGGG Grandfathers served in the Revolution, one crossed the Delaware with Washington. May 8 we honor V-E day, we have not forgotten the others. On Memorial Day and Veterans Day we honor all. I do my part by placing arrangements on burial locations and encourage others to do so without depending on others. Take the initiative and don't depend on others. I do what can be done and do not worry about what others will or can do. I pray, by example, this will continue when I am gone.
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8th Army Korea 68-69