They all are.
Veteran’s Day, 2008.
|
|||||
Hot Mic
Bloggers in Arms
BlogrollContinuous WavePaid to BlogReciprocating EnginesSmarter'n MeWingmen
OmakaseAmazon Search |
The War Was in ColorBy lex, on November 11th, 2008
37 comments to The War Was in Color |
Targets of Opportunityblog advertising is good for you Credo"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones "Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra" "And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche "A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke “You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier "Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas "Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex Amazon AssociateFor the Effort!Winnar! Subscribe CategoriesPagesTagsacademy
afghanistan
Araby
Blogging
buffoonery
culture
Defense Industry
economy
Flying
Friday Musings
geopol
Gratuitous slap
GWOT
Headlines
health care
History
iran
iraq
issues
libya
Media
Memory Lane
Military
Navy
norks
Oz
pakistan
piracy
politicians
politics
Politics and Culture
prc
pundits
science
sea stories
silliness
Small Stuff
SoCal
Tech Lust
technology
UAVs
UK
usaf
usmc
weapons
|
|||
|
Copyright © 2013 Neptunus Lex - All Rights Reserved |
|||||
Powerful.
Tears running down my cheeks … Thank You.
[...] Neptunus Lex with more vid: The War Was In Color. [...]
WELL DONE! The thing you really remember, I would say it embeds itself into the very core of your being. It is not very glamorous, but very effective. You can not experience it in a simulator or movie theatre. It is the smells of war. One small sniff, your memory is triggered and you’re right in the middle of the battle. You never forget, you just learn to respond differently. This is not unique to war, there are counterparts in the civilian world. As I watched your video, I could almost smell the event.
Thank you, to all who served!
Grumpy
Lex – my deepest and most humble thanks for your service to this great country.
And to all the veterans who comment in this place – my thanks to you all as well.
Happy Veterans Day, Lex. I’ll bet you’re at work, aren’t ya?
I always find it ironic that I got every Veterans Day off while serving and worked every Veterans Day after I retired. Something ain’t quite right with that picture, yanno?
Mike Royko, the famous Chicago newspaper columnist, proposed that every year on Veterans’ Day all veterans – and ONLY veterans – get the day off. I always thought that was a good idea. And I’m not a veteran.
Thank you.
Grumpy, you are right about the smells. The smell of JP-5 exhaust, and the smell of warm OD canvas. I can smell those, or hear the thumping of a Huey and the whole world changes for a moment.
Happy Vetrans’ Day, Lex et al.
Although I’ve always thought that sounded rather funny but I’m sure you get the sentiment.
“The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month.”
When I was a child in the fifties, the VFW had side-walk sales of paper poppies for your lapel up on the the town square…..
Is this still done anywhere? Or are we “past” that now? Or was it always a small town thing?
I miss the poppies……..
And the kind of people who wore them.
Thank Lex and thanks to all m y fellow Vets.
I’ve liked that song ever since I heard it on Laura Ingraham’s show. That was a great viddy to go with it.
God Bless You All … Lex and fellow warriors…
I love you all, for your courage and kindness, and I love you more every year of my long life, which your courage and sacrifice gifted to me.
Bless You Forever.
Marianne
virgil – I am an addict to English Football — pay extra to get all the games on DirectTV. Was watching this weekend, Remembrance Day Weekend in England. My team was playing Arsenal, and all of the Arsenal players were wearing a special jersey, with a poppy embroidered in the center. After the game, all of the players autographed all of the shirts, and they were auctioned off, with the proceeds going to the British Royal Legion. All of the teams in the Scottish league did the same. As I watched the commentary, I noticed all of the commentators were wearing poppies.
Got me to wondering (dangerous thing that is!) — since the next four years, I probably just need to keep my mouth shut, why don’t I channel that energy in to making Veterans’ Day a “remembrance”? Memorial Day is supposed to be the day we honor our dead — in reality, it is the opening weekend of summer. But November 11th has the potential to be a true day for reflection, honor, and thanksgiving. Could I take that same energy that would be wasted railing against all of the wrong headed things coming, and turn it to something good?
VFW owns the rights to the Poppy — there might some things to work out with them. But there was plenty of talk this past election, that seemed to resonate, about no one asking to sacrifice but our troops. If that feeling was genuine, then a concerted effort to have a visible reminder, on just one day, that freedom isn’t free, probably should resonate as well.
Yeah, I can deffinetly smell the jet exhaust and hear the roar of the Jet engine.
We Remember.
Nice find, Lex – thanks for sharing!
Wow, I didn’t realize you Yanks didn’t do the poppy thing. It’s Remembrance Day here and the poppies are always a huge part of it. A great way for the Legions to raise funds. And remind all of us to remember.
Embarassed but pleased to say I attended my first Remembrace Day parade and ceremony today. No doubt it had something to do with my youngest (now officially known as “The Bus Driver”) being part of it all this year. But it made me wonder why I never attended before.
Michelle—we Yanks still do poppies, courtesy of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. But the old ones are passing on (WWII and Korea) and the next generation of Vets (Vietnam and forward) aren’t much interested in organizations like the VFW and American Legion.
As a school girl and member of Camp Fire Girls, I used to volunteer each year on Veterans Day and Memorial Day, passing out Poppies for a donation, but I don’t think our children are interested anymore.
I think a good place to start is by asking merchants to refrain from coupling “sales” with Memorial Day and Veterans Day. I’ve notice that none of the big retail businesses have a BlowOutSale on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Wish I had Marianne’s eloquence (loved her comment), but I don’t. My love and thanks to all you Veterans is just as heartfelt, though.
@#10, virgil – I miss those poppies, too. Everyone in town wore one – and proudly!
I’m in Minneapolis this week. Went to mass with a good friend and his family. At the end of mass, before the benediction, the priest asked all the veterans in the church to stand for a blessing. My friend, who is an Air Force pilot (which I think technically qualifies him as a military veteran) and I stood up with the other veterans.
It was kind of sad, because we, in our early 40′s, were by far the youngest to stand. I was humbled to stand among folks who probably fought in battles that I have studied and did things I can’t imagine. Most of them were old and a few took a few seconds to stand up. The priest gave a nice blessing, and then a woman started clapping. Everyone else quickly joined in, and then people stood and clapped for a full minute. I was moved and unfortunately got something in my eye.
Honestly, when I signed my name and raised my hand, my intentions were selfish and personal. I got so much more out of my “service” than I could ever hope to get back. (SJS will attest to that!)
I now make it a point to say hi to the young folks in uniform I see when I travel. Try to buy them a coffee or even something colder and better when I can. It is a cool thing to have done for you, and an easy and cool thing to do for others. An easy and unawkward way to say “Thanks.”
Happy Veterans day. Thank you folks for your service (even you, Snake) and God bless us all.
Nose
Nose,
I found them in Atlanta International. They’re the best we have. I’m happy to buy them a cold one.
There are some absolutely amazing shots in this video. Thanks for sharing!
Some of the South Pacific clips brought back conversations with Dad who served with First Marines at Peleliu and Okinawa. He affirmed duty and honor but was careful to mention it was downright horrible (in color). Proud he served / glad he survived.
Thanks to all our veterans for your service and sacrifice. We owe you much.
Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.
Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg – or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s ally forged in the refinery of adversity.
Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem.
You can’t tell a vet just by looking.
What is a vet?
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.
He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.
She – or he – is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another – or didn’t come back AT ALL.
He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat – but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other’s backs.
He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.
He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.
He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket – palsied now and aggravatingly slow – who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.
He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being – a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.
He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.
So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You. That’s all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.
Two little words that mean a lot, “THANK YOU”.
Remember, November 11th is Veterans Day
* * * * *
“It is the soldier, not the reporter,
Who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the soldier, not the poet,
Who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the soldier, not the campus organizer,
Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier,
Who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protestor to burn the flag.”
often attributed to Father Denis Edward O’Brien, USMC
A-T-One … The above is a moving, beautifully written essay on what a deep, forever-debt we owe our warriors. You just made me cry. Thank you.
Marianne
@Wilko: Eewww, Peleliu! I’ve read Professor (Corporal) Sledge’s book about that.
To find out that the mission was unnecessary, but was too advanced in planning to cancel; after you’d done the mission, well, dang.
P.s. Thanks to all who did what they did at Peleliu, be they live or dead. As far as they knew at the time, they were doing an essential service. I’ll now go outside and spill a libation for them.
I guess my generation (Vietnam) is the last to remember this day when growing up as being known as “Armistice Day”–I sort of liked it better–although I understand the logic behind the change. Still, it decouples the actual event from the celebration–sort of like “President’s Day” instead of Washington’s birthday (in Illinois Lincoln’s birthday was an official holiday also) which just makes it a general mish-mash–but then I’m a fossil, so what do I know?
Let me amend that: “Fighting Fossil”
(at least in spirit!) “Bad to the Bone!”
and all that–at least that’s what we all thought when we were younger…..when we weren’t scaring ourselves to death, that is….I guess we were all “bi-polar” that way…occupational hazard and all that.
Justthisguy-yep it was pretty nasty and E.B. Sledge summarized it well in “The Old Breed”.
As A-T-One eloquently posted, you couldn’t tell by looking that some frequently replayed nightmares of the experience until they were finally laid to rest (with military honors).
Eugene B. Sledge’s book is the best combat memoir I’ve ever read–and I’ve read a bunch of’em–with the possible exception of Guy Sajer’s “The Forgotten Soldier.” But Sajer was a nazi, so it don’t count on this day. FYI there is a new trade paperback version of Sledge’s book with an introduction by Victor Davis Hanson that I’d highly recommend.
My favorite anecdote from the book, on the night before the invasion of Peleliu a salty corporal offered the skinny green Sledgehammer a cigarette. “No thanks, I don’t smoke.”
“Well, son, if you’re still alive this time tomorrow you’ll smoke the hell out of every cigarette you get your hands on.”
And he did, too.
Thanks Lex,
Saw the vid in the office this morning without sound and had to wait until the sun went down to get back to it.
This is a very special day for us and I join some of the rest of the crew in remembering it as Armistice Day; the day the guns fell silent. However, duties to perform and so the first order of business after getting home was to call mom and wish her a happy birthday. I mean, after checking in with the US court to see if they wanted me to report for jury duty tomorrow. Business before pleasure.
Rand Simberg has a contemporary reason why we should give thanks.
Thank you very much lex.
The two vids were quite moving for me, as were the many comments that followed. …. Especially the ones about the “poppies” which are very personal to me, and something I was once so very proud to wear as a small-town, Midwest kid. (As a counter to the old ’60′s anti-war song, I do sincerely wonder, “where have all the ‘poppies’ gone, long time passing…”)
Nevertheless, however moved earlier by your today’s blog, I just packed it all away as usual and compartmentalized. But later in the day, in addition to a few well wishes from my friends, two wonderful and serendipity things happened:
As I write this, I have tears in my eyes. Not so much for #1 and #2 above, but for those many who served, but are no longer here with us – including my best high school friend and Recon Marine who didn’t make it, a WW-II B-24 nose gunner who was my big brother, and too many personal others to mention.
Those guys made us, and saved us. Lex’s awesome vids give only a moving hint.
Regardless…….. Thank you, lex!
PS – The War In Color Vid might give a hint as to why I do not enjoy fireworks like a normal person, and try to be somewhere else when the sports event or celebration turns to shooting the “rockets red glare.” But that’s OK. I love it, even though I usually cannot bear to watch/hear/smell/ or feel it, politely excusing myself and going elsewhere. Fireworks and celebration are still important things to do, and a key part of our heritage.
Fliterman,
Thank you sir for you service.
I just wanted to say that for no particular reason.
v/r
Curtis
Virgil- They still sell poppies where I live. I bought one Sunday from a Veteran, standing outside our grocery store. They sell there every year and I make a donation in turn. I have the paper poppy attached to my purse. Everyone I know buys them… and the WWII vet I bought it from was affiliated with the VFW.
Ditto on the poppies here in CT. I bought one over the weekend. I always make a donation when I see them being sold.
But I do worry as well – it’s only been WWII vets selling them for a long time now. What happens when they are gone?
i echo flit, bou and kris (but especially flit) on the topic of the poppies. every year i buy a handful and pass them around to those who most appear (to me) to need the slightest nudge to remember “why” there are poppies to be worn…
..and i always save one poppy, and that one dangles from my rear view mirror, getting faded daily by the sun, but always there as a reminder. until the next year, when i get a new vibrant red one again.
Good find. Can’t say more. Speechless. Unusual for a blowhard like me.
Thanks, CAPT Lex. Brought back some good memories, sir. Thank you.
Subsunk