It seems like were missing that pride today! Our school systems, are not teaching kids about our flag or the many lives that died for it. Our schools don't say the pledge of allegiance any more, and the young have no respect for the war or our soldiers. I hope this memorial day parents will invest time in there kids and tell them what a great sacrifice our soldier made for us. This is a holiday to be proud of something great and grieve the lives that gave it to us.

How does one determine the amount or quality of valor possessed by another? Was a Union recruit who re-upped more courageous than a grunt storming Normandy through a wall of machine gun fire, or a draftee in a guerrilla fight in Mekong? How about the volunteer army of today, signing up to fight a desert war against an enemy who quibbles not with hiding among women and children, employing any and every weapon available, and doing so with religious fervor? They are all courageous, and they all have done a valiant service to our country. I will honor them by remembering and by living free. To all of you on this board who have served in the armed forces, and others who would be on this board if they had not made the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives, I thank you.

How to compare? How about the 8th Army Air bomber crews in WWII who flew their required 20-something missions and then kept going up again and again? How about my college classmate who flew over 200 missions off a carrier in Vietnam? Just revere all of them. And on a related note, Rick Atkinson's third volume on the European war, GUNS AT LAST LIGHT, just hit the stands, with poetic timing.

I've always thought a lot of John Basilone. He did'nt have to return to the war. But he did, just in time to be blown to bits at Iwo Jima.

There was a young local boy who ran away from home to serve as a drummer. His name was Johnny Clem and he made a name for himself.

I believe that a good parallel can be found in the soldiers serving in harm's way today. Brave men who have often served several combat tours overseas return to Afghanistan to lead younger, less experienced troops so as to hopefully see them return home safely and in one piece. Do they do it for the money? Hardly. To do often the same job for a private security contractor pays far more in a month than an enlisted soldier can expect in a year overseas sometimes, and in the case of out so-called "leadership" in Washington the commanders in 1863 were no less inept. Our soldiers are pinioned by absurd rules of engagement that when read can only make one wonder where the priorities of the people who wrote them are at. Is it truly the well-being of our soldiers, or is it in effect an attempt to set them up for failure, to reinforce the retreatist mentality that is increasingly the norm from our leadership? One can only wonder. What one cannot wonder or question is the bravery and devotion of those young men who deploy to those high, dangerous mountains and vallies.

The last big war before this was the Napoleonic War(s), when smoothbores still reigned, so armies still stood toe-to-toe.

Imagine battles fought at musket distances, using rifled muskets. The carnage...

No antibiotics and antiseptics, little clean water, little knowledge of bacteria and other pathogens.

And most of the Confederates were hungry, literally. Fighting away from home, supply lines fully stretched, marching overland. It is said when Union troops die, they darken and get bloated quickly, like normal people. When Confederates die, they look the same for hours and hours. Still pale, still thin. There was so little in their bellies to form gas, so little in their bodies to rot.

Why bother to try sorting out each man's motives? Isn't it enough to say "they went"?

When I married my lovely late wife 25 years ago this past Christmas, I was working as a park ranger at Chalmette Battlefield in New Orleans. That's where the Battle of New Orleans concluded the War of 1812 (actually the peace was signed six weeks earlier but no one had got the word yet). Two thousand British troops from Canada detoured on their way home after the conclusion of their tour died in about an hour, including their commander General Packenham. There's a veteran's cemetery on site but not a soldier from this battle. It does, however, contain fifteen thousand dead from the Civil War. Walking among those boys was always a sobering experience. What I found even more amazing that the white Yankee soldiers who re-upped was the black ones who enlisted knowing that they would be treated without any respect by most of their fellow Union soldiers and killed on sight if captured by Confederates. I think that was the worst kind of meat grinder to walk into! And there are several thousand black Union soldiers buried at Chalmette.

I'm sorry, I should correct the above. One soldier from the Battle of New Orleans is buried at Chalmette but he did not die there. He died on the Natchez Trace as he was returning home from the battle (home being Tennessee as I recall). His body was disinterred and moved to Chalmette some years after the cemetery was designated in the Civil War period.

@ 357 --- Maybe you should go sit in on a class in school one day. The Pledge of Allegiance has been 'banned' just like the 10 Commandments from our Court Houses. Kids can be expelled if caught praying in school. American History is almost non-existent. I asked a High School Senior a question as a joke. I asked her when the War of 1812 was fought. This girl was the Valedictorian of her class of 3500 students. Her answer? 'I don't know. They haven't taught us that in History Class.'
I would have to agree with 'tleichty1989'. He is more correct than you think. Most kids just think of Memorial day as a 3 day weekend and the end of another school year. Yea, summer. They don't have a clue as to what it means unless their parents explain it to them.
As to the American Flag, what would you do if you drove by an office building with the Mexican Flag flying ABOVE the US Flag? It's happened quite a few times. You have to get a Policeman to go in and explain that it is not allowed to be done that way. The US Flag is always the topmost flag in this country.
Schools today just want to see numbers of kids that they have graduated. It makes their school appear to be a better school than some of the others out there. Some schools have gone so far as to 'falsify' grades on a failing student just to pass them on to the next grade or to Graduate them. Think not? Go talk to some of the parents of a kid with ADD or a 'slow learner'. They will tell you what they go through with the school system.
Maybe it's time you took the blinders off and see what the rest of us see on a daily basis.

For tleichty1989, I retired two years ago as a teacher. I worked in three different states and 7 different school districts. In every school, every day of every year the pledge was recited. Don't know where you got your information, but in my experience simply NOT TRUE. If you ware one of the many that bash our public education system because you have a burr up your A@@, I would put you in the category of willfully ignorant. That makes you part of what is wrong with America today.

The willfully ignorant who blindly follow flawed political ideology and I mean both Conservatives and Liberals and especially the Tea Party blowhards are the electorate that have given us a series of suits in the White House and no real leaders in decades.

VicF,

That's the best post I've read on here in a long time.

My oldest son, who teaches high school science, recites the Pledge of Allegiance in school every day.

Bob W, in regards to your remarks about Richard Nixon. After the war had ended Nixon invited 600 veterans and their spouses to be honored at the White House. At no other time, before or since in the history of the White House had a president honored veterans in such a way. While some may judge his presidency on a single event, no one loved the veteran more than Nixon.

Lastly, My youngest son, 18 years old, ships out to the Marine Corp very shortly. Considering over 1/2 of his life he has lived with the reality that Marines are killed overseas almost daily, makes me wonder why he would choose Marine Infantry School as his occupation. While I am naturally a worried parent I am also very envious of his new adventure.

The History Channel is doing documenteries all over the country and I was fortunate for them to come to the high school in the town I live in. Since I have been the commander of the VFW for over 17 years and active in veterans issues I was invited to represent the Vietnam Veterans. They had a panel of a WWII Veteran, a Korean Veteran, Myself and an Iraqui Veteran. The panel was held infront of the entire student body and a moderator asked us questions after we had 10 minutes to give our experiences about the war we represented. I was amazed at the attention of the students. The students were allowed to ask a few questions of each of us and it was amazing at the questions they asked. I found out that the students are eager to learn about our military past and believe it or not they have a deep respect for military veterans. The History Channel taped the session and it is now a part of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. They sent me a copy of the CD and it turned out great. I teach Hunter Education classes in the same high school and we recite the Pledge of Allegience every morning before school and have for the past 41 years that I have taught there. At least we are one school that hasn't stopped yet.

For Buckhunter. like every President from Harry Truman to Ronald Regan, Nixon was a veteran. I am aware of his continued support of veterans, even after he left the White House. As for that "single" incident. His handling of it has been the singular event that I believe has led to the march of folly that is American Politics today. It has destroyed the (for lack of better term) "moral authority" of the presidency. I submit as evidence every president since.

Bob, I think we will both agree political rhetoric should not write our history books.

Thanks WAM.

I am very grateful for all our service men and women.

As for bravery, I would have to nominate my Dad's great uncle Sgt. Edward A. Miller of the 101st Airborne who landed behind German lines the night before D-Day and fought hedgerow by hedgerow for a few days and nights straight. His platoon fought at the Battle of the Bulge where he was captured at Bastogne, France and tortured by Nazis until the end of the war. He was a great man, and never ever complained once despite almost dying several times by the hands of his captors. May God bless our veterans.

Let us also remember those, from all wars, who have yet to come home.

we need to remember these people because it is an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE that our government quickly writes them off and forgets about them. Bengazi is a PRIME EXAMPLE.

FYI, Bastogne is in Belgium not France. Been there. Not criticism of your vet, just a little geography lesson.

750,000 dead. That figure gets one's attention.

Currently in my 6th war zone and as a Marine, I am hopeful that one day our species will evolve into something more impressive. No, the irony (hypocrisy?) of someone like me saying something like that is not lost upon me.

Still, we are a species of savages at the moment, and grim events like Fallujah, Gettysburg, Guadalcanal, Beirut, Khe Sanh, the Chosin Reservoir, Normandy, Belleau Wood, and Helmand (my current pos) will continue to be repeated for a while yet. I suspect we will all have some explaining to do when we each go topside.

On the edge of the empire, at the tip of the spear, Semper Fidelis.