Tomorrow is Memorial Day

[Paul Taylor]

I put this up on my FB page. Think it fits here too.
Thanks to you that servered!

Most people have tomorrow off to sit around eat burgers hot off the grill, and enjoy friends and family or to just do nothing if they so choose. But there will be thousands of people working tomorrow defending our freedom. 

Take time tomorrow to thank someone who has served our nation in the military.

And thank God for those that paid the ultimate sacrifice.
John 15:13
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

[john e. holliday]

Yes we need to remember all of service men and women.  But, think of all those that are working for the convenience of the people that want to shop.  She is in Pharmacy at Wally World.   People just can't remember to get their meds before the weekends or holidays.   I can understand the hospitals, police, firemen and emergency personal.   But just think how many families can't be together for the day because of non emergency shopping.   Of course I forgot the service stations as we do need gas to get to places.   I have worked many a weekend and on holidays myself while with the phone company.

[John Stiles]

Thanx Paul...I agree thanks to all who served, and all those who went before me. Old soldiers never die if we continue to remember them, and their sacrifice!

[Phil Coopy]

Most folks are sittin' arohd havin' burgers brecause:

Never have so many owed so much to so few!
 
Percentage who actually have served their Country in the military.
Something to think about.
Received from a friend and I think very well done:

I remember the day I found out I got into West Point . My mom actually showed up in the hallway of my high school and waited for me to get out of class. She was bawling her eyes out and apologizing that she had opened up my admission letter. She wasn't crying because it had been her dream for me to go there. She was crying because she knew how hard I'd worked to get in, how much I wanted to attend, and how much I wanted to be an infantry officer. I was going to get that opportunity.
 
That same day two of my teachers took me aside and essentially told me the following: Nick, you're a smart guy. You don't have to join the military. You should go to college, instead.

I could easily write a tome defending West Point and the military as I did that day, explaining that USMA is an elite institution, that separate from that it is actually statistically much harder to enlist in the military than it is to get admitted to college, that serving the nation is a challenge that all able-bodied men should at least consider for a host of reasons, but I won't. What I will say is that when a 16 year-old kid is being told that attending West Point is going to be bad for his future then there is a dangerous disconnect in America, and entirely too many Americans have no idea what kind of burdens our military is bearing.
 

In World War II, 11.2% of the nation served in four years.
 

In Vietnam , 4.3% served in 12 years.
 

Since 2001, only 0.45% of our population has served in the Global War on Terror.
 

These are unbelievable statistics.
Over time, fewer and fewer people have shouldered more and more of the burden and it is only getting worse.
Our troops were sent to war in Iraq by a Congress consisting of 10% veterans with only one person having a child in the military.
Taxes did not increase to pay for the war. War bonds were not sold.
Gas was not regulated. In fact, the average citizen was asked to sacrifice nothing, and has sacrificed nothing unless they have chosen to out of the goodness of their hearts.
The only people who have sacrificed are the veterans and their families. The volunteers. The people who swore an oath to defend this nation.
You stand there, deployment after deployment and fight on. You've lost relationships, spent years of your lives in extreme conditions, years apart from kids you'll never get back, and beaten your body in a way that even professional athletes don't understand.
Then you come home to a nation that doesn't understand.
They don't understand suffering.
They don't understand sacrifice.
They don’t understand why we fight for them.
They don't understand that bad people exist.
They look at you like you're a machine - like something is wrong with you. You are the misguided one - not them.
When you get out, you sit in the college classrooms with political science teachers that discount your opinions on Iraq and Afghanistan because YOU WERE THERE and can't understand the macro issues they gathered from books, because of your bias.
You watch TV shows where every vet has PTSD and the violent strain at that. Your Congress is debating your benefits, your retirement, and your pay, while they ask you to do more.
But the amazing thing about you is that you all know this. You know your country will never pay back what you've given up.
You know that the populace at large will never truly understand or appreciate what you have done for them.
Hell, you know that in some circles, you will be thought as less than normal for having worn the uniform. But you do it anyway. You do what the greatest men and women of this country have done since 1775 - YOU SERVED. Just that decision alone makes you part of an elite group.
"Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few." – Winston Churchill
Thank you to the 0.45% who have and continue to serve our Nation.

Copied......Phil
 

[John Stiles]

That pretty much covers it Phil...except the part my mom told me some time after returning from Nam: Ques. Why don't people seem to appreciate us? "You know who you are and what you are about, son....it doesn't matter what other people say or accuse you of. And the Almighty knows!" 

[john e. holliday]

Ever since the time I was turned down to serve in the Army, I have often thought shouldn't  there be a place for every young man to serve in some capacity?    I truly appreciate all those that went to serve.  All my classmates went and served.