Saturday – 
Lynrd Skynrd Concert with family/friends – Confederate flags fly, and none of the snoop-dog types showed up. I’m sure they would have felt welcome if they’d have attended, but it didn’t happen. Strangely, the women at the concert did not wear pink cat hats and carry posters depicting their reproductive organs. I know, what’s that about? There were a few Confederate Battle Flags, and that is kryptonite to old hippies. And trust me, the average age – well, you get it.

There were a lot of veterans present, and it’s the Memorial Day weekend when we honor those who offered up their last full measure of devotion to the country – that others may live free.

Veterans have all lost someone. We fought for those next to us. Some of us lost more than others. Some of us gave more than others and there were a number of disabled veterans at the concert. 

Sunday – 
Go to church and recover from the concert.
Monday – Memorial Day
Little League baseball games – hot dogs, cola drinks and loud cheering! 
Then a visit to the cemetery to recall. Many of my friends rest at the US National Cemetery at Arlington, Virginia. Some, fewer, rest at the Fort Rosecrans Military Cemetery in San Diego. It’s closer to drive to Ft. Rosecrans than it is to drive to Virginia. 
Sermonette:
Many of the men who I served with and died went home to rest under the earth in family plots in small towns where their people can visit them and lay cut flowers on their graves.
And no matter how we honor our warriors, killed in action, there is a little piece of us, who went into the ground with them. We share their crypts, their ashes and their resting places until the day when we are called home to join them.

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33 COMMENTS

  1. Good morning! Glad you had fun at the concert. Skynyrd is a longtime favorite of mine as well. Today I'll be working the range. Some days I'm as much an instructor as a safety officer there. While most that come out there are just fine, some are obviously complete novices and those we have to keep an eye on. Tomorrow I'll be out with my Legion Post conducting ceremonies at three local cemeteries. I don't know how much longer we'll be able to do this. In our post the WWII vets are nearly gone, and the Korea vets are in the mid to upper 80s. I'm the youngster(almost 68) in the active group. Younger guys don't seem to want to join. The rest of us will just have to keep going as long as we can I guess.

  2. The generations are changing. The present generation(s) have had it relatively easy and the all-volunteer military means that most of them don't have to think about the cost of keeping the nation safe – beyond dollars and cents. Even then, they're happy to rack up costs for the next generation.

    The range sounds like fun – but I'm sure that you get some crazies out there who don't consider safety to be anything but "guidelines".

  3. During a recent phone conversation with a Jarhead cousin planning Monday's activities, he commented, while our family has a scattering of Purple Hearts, thankfully there are no Gold Star mothers.

    I am honored to escort two Gold Star mothers tomorrow.

  5. Beautiful Sermonette, LL. Thank you. I will offer my Mass today to all the fallen soldiers.

  6. Sounds like you have a fine weekend planned. Good that some folks remember the real reason it's called Memorial Day. It irks me when I hear "Happy Memorial Day."

  7. It's an honor – and sometimes, for me, there is a lot of grief involved. There is a guilt to me for having survived and at times I ask why me? Others have said the same thing so I know that I'm not the only one.

  10. There isn't much happy about a mouth full of dirt. But we have what we have because they held the line and a cause to celebrate their lives and their determination to be who they were, and stand as they did.

  11. Good Sunday Sermonette, LL. Will light a candle before mass for those who gave all, and their families…

  13. We do and we're there to reel them in. Most will do better when we point things out to them, simply a case of "I didn't know." We often find ourselves acting as instructors. Those who refuse to "get it" are ejected from the range. Luckily that rarely happens.

  14. There's guilt for those who don't see combat, as well. My father, and a good friend's father, both worked in targeting intelligence. I know that they both questioned the decisions they had to make and the fact that those decisions led to other men going out and not returning. You can second-guess yourself for years about those decisions and the losses tied to them.

  15. Walking the grave sites of your fallen brothers is a good way to work off all the hot dogs from the ballgames. I am remembering The Lost 74 and a few others today and tomorrow.

  16. Well said on all counts. And yes, remembering those we've lost does give pause on this day more so than most. There but for the grace of God go us.

  18. Yes, that's the case. But the ghosts of people you knew, and sometimes people you killed remain. I can imagine that the workers on the shipyards and those who built the machines during WW2 lived with the knowledge that they were winning the war in their own way and without them it didn't happen.

  20. The whole dynamic will be changed when Kevin has eaten enough peas to become a large as Godzilla. Then the haters and scoffers will eat their words.

  22. Yes, and in many ways I can't help but think they were the best of us. But we're here, we do the best. We love and work and worry and sweat while they're learning to play the harp.

    Or in the case of our enemies, to shovel coal.

  23. Lynyrd Skynrd rock, no two ways about him and what can say? Sorry, Neil, Southern Man don't need you around.

    May the fallen rest in peace and rise in glory.

  25. I only served with one guy that died in service, and he was walking down a street in Turkey when Kurds killed him.
    But I remember him.

  26. Trying to be charitable here on the blog, Ed. Some people have air between their ears, should never drive a car, play with matches and gasoline and firearms will only shorten their spans.

  30. Forget your lust for the rich man's gold
    All that you need is in your soul
    And you can do this, oh baby, if you try
    All that I want for you, my son, is to be satisfied

  32. My dad, who served in the Marines in Vietnam, passed away of COPD on May 9th. He timed his departure in such a way as to allow his obituary to run on what would have been his 71st birthday, and his burial to be set the day after Memorial Day, when there was still a sea of flags over the graves at the veterans’ cemetery. He had a Marine Corps honor guard and Taps, and I put his flag in a glass case along with one of his dog tags from Vietnam that he gave me years ago. The Marines did a wonderful job and I think my dad would have been pleased. It was fitting reparation for the manner in which he was probably “welcomed” back from the war.

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