OT - Thank you VETs

A sincere thank you on Veteran's day to all who serve and who have served to protect and defend our freedoms. You have my deepest respect and appreciation. I always used to call my dad and thank him on Veteran's day, but he passed 5 years ago. So a very special thank you to all Veterans. We could not do what we do without your support.

How right you are.

It will be a sorry day when we realize how great we have it because it's being taken away. Realize it now.

God bless those currently serving and those who have served. You have my sincere appreciation for defending our country, our rights and our freedom.

that was beautiful, Shad.

thanks.

ORIGINAL: robby

A sincere thank you on Veteran's day to all who serve and who have served to protect and defend our freedoms. You have my deepest respect and appreciation. I always used to call my dad and thank him on Veteran's day, but he passed 5 years ago. So a very special thank you to all Veterans. We could not do what we do without your support.

Amen to that.

Nicely put Robby.

Frank, thank you sir, you have my utmost and highest respect.

Shad, I apologize for being a dick, thank you sir for your service. I don't apologize for anything dickish I may say in the future, but for anything from here previously, you have my humble and sincere apology.

6string, thank you sir, you have my utmost and highest respect.

I will buy anyone of you a beer or 6, any day and thank you again.

Much respect, Jay.

I was trained by Vietnam Marines (1979-82), during Carter's peacetime. I seriously honor and respect these VFWs, especially these my mentors.

Jay and phill, thank you both very much for serving, and a belated happy Veteran's Day!

ORIGINAL: foxwolfen

I was in the air force posted to Germany. . .

The sound of bagpipes washed over me and the power of the place suddenly overwhelmed me. I realized that I was looking at the ghosts of the our boys... boys who gave their lives in defense of others... the single most noble way to die.

It took every ounce of my strength to not start to cry. Standing there in the dripping rain, choking back the tears I wondered if I would be capable of making the same sacrifice as these people did (including the German soldiers, who fought just as hard and are innocent of the decisions made by their leaders).

Robby thank you for the thread and for the opportunity it affords to sincerely thank those here that have served the cause of the democratic freedom that most of us here enjoy (and have the freedom to moan about, particularly during election times... ). I hope you all can bear with me for one last thought I have on the subject.

Shad that was an awesome post and as the season of Remembrance here (and I note 'over there' too) passes for another year it couldn't have been more poignant for me.

I spent several years living next to an abandoned WWII bomber station (actually if you live anywhere on the East of England its nigh impossible to be more than 5 miles away from an ex. RAF or a US 8th Air Force one) and I swear that every day you could hear the drone of one of the planes that never came back and feel the heaviness in the stomach that the real grisly business that 'Maximum Effort' once meant.

The USAAF by day and the RAF by night took the war to Nazi Germany in the only way that it could at that time using the blunt instrument of strategic bombardment and incurring a massive loss of life to the civilian population. This policy was put forward by the military leaders at the time as the only means of effectively waging war and was carried out without question by the brave and professional men who served to implement the policy, which incidentally was vindicated by Albert Speer as being a MAJOR factor toward the downfall of the third reich.

After the war the powers that be (notably including Churchill) washed their hands of this policy because of the numbers of civilian deaths that rivalled and maybe even surpassed those caused by the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. The result was that those that served and fought on in that campaign knowing they had a roughly evens chance of surviving weren't even acknowledged post war with as much as a campaign medal let alone any kind of memorial merely because of the political bad taste that remained and that is still true to this day.

Of the many of those that served in this campaign a large proportion were Canadian nationals fighting for the UK and serving as were the nationals of many then 'commonwealth' nations and it is completely humbling for me that these heroic individuals died for a foreign country who never even had the guts to thank them.

All of which serves underline what is completely relevant today, we may without hesitation question our leaders and their often ill advised foreign policies, but never ever forget the selfless dedication and preparedness of THOSE THAT SERVE to make the supreme sacrifice to uphold those policies without question.

Thank you for tolerating my indulgence

....Lest we forget.....

http://www.rafbombercommand.com/memorialfund/

Was about to send a PM to Robby, but hey...it might be a piece of "interresting" info for everyone.... or not

No action (aka "war") on this guy (and thanks for that..) - a tad young for that, since I'm only 39 and Norway only has (and have) "volounteers" in action abroad. (UN forces).

The ceremony-story from France was ment to be a "fun" one..... French pro soldiers from the Foreign Legion parading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Foreign_Legionvs. Norwegian kids (myself included) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMKG.

My service was as a "bugeler", playing at a zillion ceremonies, from funerals to "good night king"-signal at the Royal castle to the event above, to ceremonies 4. july for the US Embassador to.....4 yrs later (doong service again...) at the olympics in 1994.

Anyways... be proud of the men and women that risk (and have) there lives to make this earth to be a better place for all!

Hi Robby, Notnat and All: Proud Navy Vet, HS-2, USS Enterprise, 74-78. When Saigon fell, and later when Idi Amin grabbed the missionaries (we never found him, he was likely in Libya..). Anyhow, I'm in touch with 3 other bandmates from the band we had on the Enterprise (76-77). From my soundclick website, you'll see the URL for MoeFletcher. There are 2 MP3's there with the 2 tunes we played in the talent show on the Enterprise (1977). Preserved it over these 30 some years (10" reel, to casette, to digital). Joe

ORIGINAL: notnat

ORIGINAL: robby

A sincere thank you on Veteran's day to all who serve and who have served to protect and defend our freedoms. You have my deepest respect and appreciation. I always used to call my dad and thank him on Veteran's day, but he passed 5 years ago. So a very special thank you to all Veterans. We could not do what we do without your support.

As a proud US Navy veteran(1973-79), I thank you Robby...

My thoughts goes out to all the vets.

My grandpa died during ww2 he was only 32. I never got to see him let alone know him and that hurts!! I have photos and that all! He was buried overseas.