Thread: Why we celebrate Memorial Day

On May 26, 2008, SGT Raymond Hubbard, (a survivor of a rocket attack in Baghdad that amputated his left leg and severed his carotid artery resulting in a stroke from blood loss.) Gave his most heartfelt speech to date. Speaking about his fallen comrades, his family's military history, and what the nation needs to do for it's soldiers, by the end their was not a dry eye in the crowd.

CAIR Doesn’t Think Our US Military Should Be honored on Memorial Day
While the rest of the country was recalling its fallen troops, two prominent CAIR officials questioned whether they deserved to be honored.
By AmyElizabeth - May 23, 2015



Virtually all Americans come together on Memorial Day to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for the country’s freedom and safety. Two Council on American-Islamic Relations’ officials spent the holiday weekend differently: Questioning whether U.S. troops deserve to be honored and tweeting that the country was “established upon white supremacy.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group labeled by the Justice Department as a U.S. Muslim Brotherhood entity and unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism-financing trial, disingenuously claims that it is a moderate organization.

Yet, on May 23, Zahra Billoo, the radical executive-director of CAIR’s San Francisco Bay Area chapter, tweeted that she “struggles with Memorial Day each year” about whether to honor American soldiers who died in wars:



She also quoted another CAIR official, Dawud Walid, the executive-director of CAIR’s Michigan chapter, as questioning whether they should honor American soldiers that died in “unjust” wars and occupations.

That’s a direct insult to American soldiers currently serving in Afghanistan and those that have returned from Iraq, as CAIR officials consistently describe those wars with that terminology. Billoo quoted Walid as saying:



Billoo did, however, find one “soldier” she felt comfortably honoring. On May 26, she promoted an article from the anti-Semitic and anti-American Nation of Islam that asked for help for a “black liberation soldier” named Imam Jmil al-Amin:

Al-Amin was a member of the Black Panthers terrorist group and was convicted of murdering a police officer in 2000. He is also anti-American, stating “if America doesn’t come around, we’re gonna burn it down,” and “I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.”

Al-Amin also said, “When we begin to look critically at the Constitution of the United States . . . we see that in its main essence it is diametrically opposed to what Allah as commanded.”

Al-Amin is considered to be a political prisoner by radical groups like the Nation of Islam, the Sankore Institute of Islamic African Studies International and now, at least one CAIR leader.

The extremist cleric viewed America as intrinsically evil from its very foundation. Al-Amin’s theme is similar to other tweets written by Billoo and Walid over Memorial Day Weekend.

On May 24, as Memorial Day Weekend was beginning, Walid shared his thoughts that America is a fundamentally racist country:

The tweets are offensive and disturbing, but they are not unprecedented. In March, the Clarion Project reported on how Billoo and Imraan Siddiqi, chairman of the board for CAIR’s Arizona chapter, were sending out tweets depicting the U.S. military as “occupiers” and “murderers.”

The tweets outraged the American-Islamic Forum on Democracy (AIFD), a Muslim group opposed to Islamist extremism. Its leader, Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, served in the U.S. Navy.

“It is plain to see, however, that they [the CAIR officials] have nothing but disdain for our armed forces. We do hope that Muslim members of the U.S. military realize that CAIR sees you as ‘occupiers,’ not patriots protecting the freest nation on earth,” the AIFD said.

This is what some CAIR officials are saying publicly. If these are the views they feel comfortable expressing openly, then how extreme are the views expressed privately?

http://www.clarionproject.org/analys...ps-merit-honor

Memorial Day look back: Eagle photo touches hearts

Requests for the photo of an eagle on a gravestone at Fort Snelling National Cemetery, and use of the story, have come from the Department of Veterans Affairs, military publications and Arlington National Cemetery.

May 23, 2015 — 4:25pm



Talk to anyone in my business and they'll all say the same thing: No matter how long you write stories and put them in the newspaper, you are never really sure which ones are going to strike a nerve.
What you think might be a Pulitzer-quality epic might draw only a nice call from Mom, while a simple tale tossed off on deadline causes an uproar, or an avalanche of praise. One legendary former investigative reporter at this paper wrote scores of stories that changed laws and saved lives, yet never did he get more mail than when he wrote about burying his cat.

And so it is with my June column on the amateur photographer, the widow and the eagle on a gravestone.

A quick recap: Amateur photographer Frank Glick was on his way to work when he drove through Fort Snelling National Cemetery early one morning. He spotted a bald eagle through the mist, perched on a gravestone, and snapped shots with his aging but ever-present camera.

Nice shot, he thought.

An acquaintance saw the photo and suggested that he see if the deceased soldier had any living relatives who might want it. Indeed, Maurice Ruch's widow was alive and well and delighted to receive a copy of the eagle watching over her beloved husband.

Glick's friend called me. Nice story, I thought.

Then it began.

Mail and calls from Minnesota, then Chicago, Florida, Arizona, North Carolina and finally, Afghanistan. The picture and story had gone viral. I noticed 11,000 people had recommended it on Facebook. I forwarded scores and scores of requests for reprints to Glick. Unfortunately, he had become ill and has been in the hospital off and on since the column ran. Mail piled up. (To reach Glick about the photo, e-mail him at [email protected]. Be patient.)

"It's been pretty hard to keep up with this stuff," Glick said from his hospital bed. "It's pretty amazing what's going on."

Requests for the photo, and use of the story, have come from the Department of Veterans Affairs, military publications, Arlington National Cemetery. Soldiers in Afghanistan have inquired about the photo, including some from the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division, stationed at Bagram Airfield.

"I sent a good-sized one to a base in Afghanistan because they wanted to build a memorial to members of their unit who had been killed," Glick said.

This letter, from Atlanta, was typical:

"You have no idea just how much this photo and story mean to so many of us who have served. We do not ask for special treatment; we do not ask for your gratitude; we don't even ask for your patience when we occasionally 'geeze' with old stories. We would like to have some understanding just how much service to this great nation means to each of us. Your picture and story show me that some do understand."

One person wrote a poem based on the photo, another wrote a song and a third sent me a short story based on the column. Veterans have called the Fort Snelling cemetery, crying.

Not surprisingly, there were few readers who insisted that the photo was a fake. The bird was too big, they said. There's an aura of light on one side that reflects the use of Photoshop, said others.

"It's not Photoshopped," said Glick. "I did crop it [as did the newspaper]. If I had Photoshopped it, I wouldn't have the eagle's tail covering the name."

He also may have put the eagle on a different headstone to make the composition perfect, he said. "It's a good picture, but it could have been a much greater picture."

Glick took the photo with an older Nikon camera and a multi-purpose lens. He took more than 60 shots of the bird at the cemetery, from different angles and locations. Some are sharp, some are blurry. Some are not very well composed.

"But I just like the feel of this one."

Star Tribune photographers studied the original that Glick sent me and said there's nothing conclusive to say whether it is faked. They also looked at a photo of the bird from the front and said it seemed legitimate, and consistent with the other photo.

As for the size of the bird?

The tombstones rise about 22 inches from the ground. Eagles can grow to 37 inches tall. So the proportion seems right.

I asked a cemetery employee if they ever see eagles.

"All the time," she said. Her boss concurred.

Glick's significant other, Jo Edwards-Johns, got a call from Glick shortly after he shot the photos because he was so excited. She has tried to keep up with the mail between trips to the hospital to be with Glick.

Meanwhile, the woman who received the free print, Vivian Ruch, has likewise been flooded with calls.

"I can't tell you the impact it has had," she said. "It's because it's just not about Maurie, it's about all of them [soldiers]."

"It's just got some quality about it," said Glick. "Sure, I wouldn't mind getting rich off of it, but that probably isn't happening. It makes people feel better. It makes them feel warm and fuzzy. That's what it's for."


http://www.startribune.com/memorial-...7PBHOPfAyd1.01

Leaning In - This is the story of 2 young Marines who lost their lives in Ramadi. On Memorial Day, it's important to remember their sacrifice, along with those of countless others. There's reports that there is a movement to upgrade their posthumous Navy Cross awards to Medals of Honor.

http://www.businessinsider.com/john-...-ramadi-2013-6

Everybody Should Read General John Kelly's Speech About Two Marines In The Path Of A Truck Bomb
Geoffrey Ingersoll - Jun. 3, 2013, 11:20 AM

Five years ago, two Marines from two different walks of life who had literally just met were told to stand guard in front of their outpost's entry control point.

Minutes later, they were staring down a big blue truck packed with explosives. With this particular shred of hell bearing down on them, they stood their ground.

Heck, they even leaned in.

I had heard the story many times, personally. But until today I had never heard Marine Lt. Gen. John Kelly's telling of it to a packed house in 2010. Just four days following the death of his own son in combat, Kelly eulogized two other sons in an unforgettable manner.

From Kelly's speech:

Two years ago when I was the Commander of all U.S. and Iraqi forces, in fact, the 22nd of April 2008, two Marine infantry battalions, 1/9 “The Walking Dead,” and 2/8 were switching out in Ramadi. One battalion in the closing days of their deployment going home very soon, the other just starting its seven-month combat tour.

Two Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20 years old respectively, one from each battalion, were assuming the watch together at the entrance gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines.

The same broken down ramshackle building was also home to 100 Iraqi police, also my men and our allies in the fight against the terrorists in Ramadi, a city until recently the most dangerous city on earth and owned by Al Qaeda. Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and daughter, and a mother and sister who lived with him and he supported as well. He did this on a yearly salary of less than $23,000. Haerter, on the other hand, was a middle class white kid from Long Island.

They were from two completely different worlds. Had they not joined the Marines they would never have met each other, or understood that multiple America’s exist simultaneously depending on one’s race, education level, economic status, and where you might have been born. But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in the same crucible of Marine training, and because of this bond they were brothers as close, or closer, than if they were born of the same woman.

The mission orders they received from the sergeant squad leader I am sure went something like: “Okay you two clowns, stand this post and let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass.” “You clear?” I am also sure Yale and Haerter then rolled their eyes and said in unison something like: “Yes Sergeant,” with just enough attitude that made the point without saying the words, “No kidding sweetheart, we know what we’re doing.” They then relieved two other Marines on watch and took up their post at the entry control point of Joint Security Station Nasser, in the Sophia section of Ramadi, al Anbar, Iraq.

A few minutes later a large blue truck turned down the alley way—perhaps 60-70 yards in length—and sped its way through the serpentine of concrete jersey walls. The truck stopped just short of where the two were posted and detonated, killing them both catastrophically. Twenty-four brick masonry houses were damaged or destroyed. A mosque 100 yards away collapsed. The truck’s engine came to rest two hundred yards away knocking most of a house down before it stopped.

Our explosive experts reckoned the blast was made of 2,000 pounds of explosives. Two died, and because these two young infantrymen didn’t have it in their DNA to run from danger, they saved 150 of their Iraqi and American brothers-in-arms.

When I read the situation report about the incident a few hours after it happened I called the regimental commander for details as something about this struck me as different. Marines dying or being seriously wounded is commonplace in combat. We expect Marines regardless of rank or MOS to stand their ground and do their duty, and even die in the process, if that is what the mission takes. But this just seemed different.

The regimental commander had just returned from the site and he agreed, but reported that there were no American witnesses to the event—just Iraqi police. I figured if there was any chance of finding out what actually happened and then to decorate the two Marines to acknowledge their bravery, I’d have to do it as a combat award that requires two eye-witnesses and we figured the bureaucrats back in Washington would never buy Iraqi statements. If it had any chance at all, it had to come under the signature of a general officer.

I traveled to Ramadi the next day and spoke individually to a half-dozen Iraqi police all of whom told the same story. The blue truck turned down into the alley and immediately sped up as it made its way through the serpentine. They all said, “We knew immediately what was going on as soon as the two Marines began firing.” The Iraqi police then related that some of them also fired, and then to a man, ran for safety just prior to the explosion.

All survived. Many were injured … some seriously. One of the Iraqis elaborated and with tears welling up said, “They’d run like any normal man would to save his life.”

What he didn’t know until then, he said, and what he learned that very instant, was that Marines are not normal. Choking past the emotion he said, “Sir, in the name of God no sane man would have stood there and done what they did.”

“No sane man.”

“They saved us all.”

What we didn’t know at the time, and only learned a couple of days later after I wrote a summary and submitted both Yale and Haerter for posthumous Navy Crosses, was that one of our security cameras, damaged initially in the blast, recorded some of the suicide attack. It happened exactly as the Iraqis had described it. It took exactly six seconds from when the truck entered the alley until it detonated.

You can watch the last six seconds of their young lives. Putting myself in their heads I supposed it took about a second for the two Marines to separately come to the same conclusion about what was going on once the truck came into their view at the far end of the alley. Exactly no time to talk it over, or call the sergeant to ask what they should do. Only enough time to take half an instant and think about what the sergeant told them to do only a few minutes before: “ … let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass.”

The two Marines had about five seconds left to live. It took maybe another two seconds for them to present their weapons, take aim, and open up. By this time the truck was half-way through the barriers and gaining speed the whole time. Here, the recording shows a number of Iraqi police, some of whom had fired their AKs, now scattering like the normal and rational men they were—some running right past the Marines. They had three seconds left to live.

For about two seconds more, the recording shows the Marines’ weapons firing non-stop…the truck’s windshield exploding into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart and tore in to the body of the son-of-a-bitch who is trying to get past them to kill their brothers—American and Iraqi—bedded down in the barracks totally unaware of the fact that their lives at that moment depended entirely on two Marines standing their ground. If they had been aware, they would have know they were safe … because two Marines stood between them and a crazed suicide bomber.

The recording shows the truck careening to a stop immediately in front of the two Marines. In all of the instantaneous violence Yale and Haerter never hesitated. By all reports and by the recording, they never stepped back. They never even started to step aside. They never even shifted their weight. With their feet spread shoulder width apart, they leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they could work their weapons. They had only one second left to live.

The truck explodes. The camera goes blank. Two young men go to their God.

Six seconds.

Not enough time to think about their families, their country, their flag, or about their lives or their deaths, but more than enough time for two very brave young men to do their duty … into eternity. That is the kind of people who are on watch all over the world tonight—for you.

http://www.businessinsider.com/john-...#ixzz3b5P7uaUY




Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/john-...#ixzz3b5Oitsd0

Army Secretary Rules WWII Women Pilots Ineligible for Arlington Burial
By Faye Higbee
Posted January 2, 2016

"A Slap in the face"



The rules just keep getting tighter and tighter for burial at the National Cemetery. After a decade of being allowed burial at Arlington National Cemetery, Secretary John McHugh suddenly reversed the ruling and barred the WWII Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) from burial at Arlington.

“It is just mean-spirited for the Secretary of the Army to question their value to their country. Again.” Kate Landdeck, Texas Women’s University.

The family is hoping that Congress will persuade the incoming Secretary, Eric Fanning, to change the ruling at his upcoming confirmation hearing. The fight for honor for WASPs has been ongoing for 50 years.

It may not really be about honor, it may be about space. The cemetery is running out of room. But instead of creating more room for burial plots, the Army decided to once again make them ineligible. They even said that the cemetery had “no right” to bury other WASPs there. For the families of the women who served in WWII, that was a huge slap in the face.

A Memo from the Secretary

Fox News wrote,

McHugh’s memo, which Terry Harmon obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, says Army lawyers reviewed the rules in 2014 and determined that WASPs and other World War II veterans classified as “active duty designees” are not eligible for inurnment — placement of their urns in an above-ground structure at Arlington. The largest group affected by the memo is actually the Merchant Marine, nearly 250,000 of whose members served during World War II.

The WASP program was much smaller — just over 1,000 women were accepted into the program, which ran from 1942 to 1944.

Once again, lawyers make the decisions instead of people with a heart.

The women pilots trained combat pilots. They test-flew repaired military aircraft. They towed airborne targets so the men could shoot live-fire rounds at them. They were subject to living in a barracks and military discipline.

Their Commander, Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, created the unit with the intention of it becoming a full military unit…but he was denied. And there are only about 100 or so women left alive- all of whom are in their 90’s.

Expand the cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery should be expanded. A Military veteran – male or female- should have the right to be laid to rest with others who have served this nation.

As the rules and the space get tighter, and the older veterans die, and the cutbacks in the military give less and less to the men and women who have served…the honors may die with them. And that would be a true tragedy.


“There is nothing more important than America’s heroes to be buried with dignity in our own soil, with the earned rights of all men and women have who sacrificed their lives to something greater than themselves.” R. Ferran, USMC veteran

http://unclesamsmisguidedchildren.co...ington-burial/


Women pilots who served in WWII can't have ashes laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery
Published January 01, 2016 · Associated Press

McLEAN, Va. – The ashes of World War II veteran Elaine Harmon are sitting in a closet in her daughter's home, where they will remain until they can go to what her family says is her rightful resting place: Arlington National Cemetery.

Harmon piloted aircraft in World War II under a special program, Women Airforce Service Pilots, that flew noncombat missions to free up male pilots for combat. Granted veteran status in 1977, the WASPs have been eligible to have their ashes placed at Arlington with military honors since 2002. But earlier this year, then-Secretary of the Army John McHugh reversed course and ruled WASPs ineligible.

After Harmon died in April at age 95, her daughter, Terry Harmon, 69, of Silver Spring, Maryland, was dismayed to learn that the Army had moved to exclude WASPs. She said her mother had helped lead the effort to gain recognition for WASPs. "These women have been fighting this battle, off and on, for over 50 years now," she said.

Harmon's family and others are working to overturn McHugh's directive. A petition on change.org has received more than 4,000 signatures. Harmon also hopes Congress will ask incoming Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning about the issue at his upcoming confirmation hearing.

McHugh's memo, which Terry Harmon obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, says Army lawyers reviewed the rules in 2014 and determined that WASPs and other World War II veterans classified as "active duty designees" are not eligible for inurnment — placement of their urns in an above-ground structure at Arlington. The largest group affected by the memo is actually the Merchant Marine, nearly 250,000 of whose members served during World War II. The WASP program was much smaller — just over 1,000 women were accepted into the program, which ran from 1942 to 1944.

In a statement, Army spokesman Paul Prince said the cemetery superintendent in 2002 had no authority to allow WASPS' remains into the cemetery. Under federal law, he said, WASPs are eligible only for burial at cemeteries run by the Department of Veterans Affairs — not Arlington National Cemetery, which is run by the Army.

Kate Landdeck, a Texas Woman's University history professor who has focused much of her academic research on WASPs, said she doesn't understand the rationale for the Army going out of its way to exclude this group of women from Arlington after they had been deemed eligible for over a decade without controversy. WASPs "are a distinct group of women with the surviving 100-or-so women all in their 90s," she said. "It is just mean-spirited for the Secretary of the Army to question their value to their country. Again."

Gen. Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, who commanded the Army Air Forces in World War II, created the WASP unit in 1942 with the intention of granting it full military status, but Congress never approved it.

So the WASPs served as a paramilitary unit, subject to military discipline and staying in barracks, Landdeck said. They test-flew repaired military aircraft, trained combat pilots and towed airborne targets that other pilots fired at with live ammunition during training.

Arlington is running out of space and faces ongoing pressure over its eligibility requirements. Tight rules spell out whose ashes can be laid to rest there, and even tighter rules spell out who is eligible for in-ground burial, which place a greater strain on the cemetery's capacity. Harmon's family says the WASPs aren't asking for anything beyond what they earned: eligibility for placement of ashes. And they say the impact on cemetery capacity would be minimal, given that so few World War II veterans remain.

Harmon's granddaughter, Erin Miller, said her grandmother, a Maryland native, had specifically requested her ashes go to Arlington. "My grandmother is from here," Miller said. "Arlington is kind of our local national cemetery."

In an interview archived with the Library of Congress, Elaine Harmon recalled she needed permission from her skeptical father to begin training as a pilot while a student at the University of Maryland. "Back in those days, women weren't expected do things like this, and so many people were against the idea of women flying, endangering their lives," she said in the interview.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/01/01...-cemetery.html

Tom Tancredo 28 May 20166,549
Obama Dishonors Memorial Day at Hiroshima

uncertain is that what America needs in confronting the moral evil of radical Islam is moral resolution — the resolve to hold fast to the same moral principles that saved the world from nuclear war over the past 71 years since that fateful day in Hiroshima in 1945.

We can honor our fallen warriors this Memorial Day only by remembering such moral distinctions, not forgetting them as Obama did at Hiroshima.


Does anyone think it an accident that President Obama chose Memorial Day weekend to give his high-sounding moral equivalence speech in Hiroshima calling for a “moral revolution”?

What Obama proposed in his speech in Japan is moral disarmament, and the consequences of that moral capitulation will be horrific if the world follows his advice.


At Hiroshima, Obama was silent on the question of American sacrifice, American valor, and American virtue, but eloquent on the issue of American guilt.

What Obama did NOT do in his speech in Japan was to praise America’s fallen warriors, the men and women whose bravery and sacrifice saved the world from nuclear war over the 71 years since that first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

Obama is wrong, but if even half of Americans agree with the president, then we have abandoned the meaning of Memorial Day and substituted Atonement Day in its place. And if America’s future leaders think our nation has no further need to honor our fallen warriors, America may discover we have no warriors willing to tread in their path.

Obama’s moral capitulation presents a stark and sobering contrast with the patriotism of a different President, America’s chosen leader only one generation ago. Thirty-two years ago in 1984 Ronald Reagan went to the beaches of Normandy to honor the fallen warriors of many nations who made the ultimate sacrifice to liberate Europe from Nazi tyranny.


The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity….It was a deep knowledge– and pray God we have not lost it — that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest.

And like every president since the dawn of the atomic age, Reagan was mindful of the terrible destruction that can be unleashed by nuclear weapons. He spoke to that fear on that beach at Pointe du Hoc, France, overlooking a cemetery filled with the graves of American, British, Canadian and French soldiers:

I tell you…we want to wipe from the face of the Earth the terrible weapon that man now has in his hands….And I tell you we are ready to seize that beachhead. We look to the Soviet Union for some sign that they are willing to move forward…there must be a changing there that will allow us to turn our hopes into action.

The difference between Obama’s attitude toward nuclear weapons and Reagan’s attitude is the difference between night and day. That is easy to see. But the deeper question is this: Is it also the difference between two generations? Does Obama’s generation see no evil in the world — and no virtue in America — that would justify the use of those terrible weapons?

The meaning and value of Memorial Day has been lost if Obama’s view of the world is representative of an entire generation. Eight presidents from Truman to Kennedy to Reagan saw the importance of American resolve in confronting evil and possessing the resolve to use whatever force is necessary to defeat evil.

Does Obama’s moral ambivalence on the use of atomic bomb in 1945 speak for America or only for his own peculiar idea of American guilt? We will have to wait five months for the answer.

But what is not uncertain is that what America needs in confronting the moral evil of radical Islam is moral resolution — the resolve to hold fast to the same moral principles that saved the world from nuclear war over the past 71 years since that fateful day in Hiroshima in 1945.

We can honor our fallen warriors this Memorial Day only by remembering such moral distinctions, not forgetting them as Obama did at Hiroshima.


http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...day-hiroshima/

There are 58,267 names on the wall
39,996 were just 22 or younger
8,283 were 19 years old
33,103 were 18 years old
12 were 17 years old
5 of these soldiers were 16 years old
There are 3 sets of Father and Sons on the wall
31 sets of parents lost two of their sons
997 were killed on their first day
1,448 were killed on their last day
8 women were on the wall, all nurses
244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the war
153 of them are on the wall.