Memorial Day -- In honor of those...

OutdoorWriter

OutdoorWriter

Long Time Member
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...who fought & died for their country.

The largest United States Flag ever made displayed proudly at Hoover Dam. Each star is over 17 feet high. It takes a crew of 15 to unfurl it. God Bless America!

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In 2003 I was at Hickam AFB in Hawaii where we had stopped for refueling. The ramp was closed for a couple hours while 4 bodies touched US soil for the first time in nearly 40 years. The picture below shows the first guy being walked to his ride on the blue bus. The blue bus would then transport each body to CILHI (Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii). CILHI was an Army run facility which had the job of identifying remains brought back from various sites. On that day in 2003, all the remains were from Vietnam.

It was most chilling and humbling ceremony I have ever witnessed.
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Here is the bus, loaded with 4 brave souls.
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feddoc said:
In 2003 I was at Hickam AFB in Hawaii where we had stopped for refueling. The ramp was closed for a couple hours while 4 bodies touched US soil for the first time in nearly 40 years. The picture below shows the first guy being walked to his ride on the blue bus. The blue bus would then transport each body to CILHI (Central Identification Laboratory, Hawaii). CILHI was an Army run facility which had the job of identifying remains brought back from various sites. On that day in 2003, all the remains were from Vietnam.

It was most chilling and humbling ceremony I have ever witnessed.
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There's a movie titled, "Taking Chance," starring Kevin Bacon. He's plays an Army escort with the task of delivering bodies to their final destinations. I've probably watched that movie at least 6-7 times & teared up every time.

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There is no way I can adequately express my appreciation for any and all who have made America the greatest cizilation that has ever existed. I feel so fortunate and blessed by those who have come before and sacrificed so much for what we have to enjoy today. All I can say is thank you and may God bless you.
 
We recently had passed the anniversary of Pat Tillman's death. The AZ State grad left his NFL career as a defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals and enlisted in the United States Army in May 2002 in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. He served several tours in combat in Iraq & Afghanistan, where he was killed in April 2004 on a mountain mission. His death was the subject of a national controversy when it was determined he had been killed as a result of friendly fire, and the government had delayed the release of the information.

He was the first professional football player to be killed in combat since Bob Kalsu, who died in the Vietnam War in 1970. Tillman was posthumously promoted from specialist to corporal. He also received posthumous Silver Star and Purple Heart medals.

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eelgrass said:
Well put, Tony. And maybe there should be a category for those friends of ours who made it home from Vietnam but were never quite able to leave the war.
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And there were a lot of them. I fished & played softball with one for a decade. That conflict left a permanent scar in his brain that he never shook.

I could tell he had some problems. So on a trip he & I made to a Mexican lake to fish for bass, I kind of eased into getting him to talk a bit. He told made a sad tale about how he got his Purple Heart. I recall much of it, but it's still "an as told to me."

His squad got dropped via helicopter into hot zone. Within minutes they had Cong all around them. They had brought a mortar but somehow a part of it (maybe the base plate?) didn't make it off the copter. In order to use it, he sat with his legs slightly spread and held the barrel of the mortar in his hands with the end braced on the ground while someone else fed the rounds into it. He wound up with a couple broken fingers & burns. A helicopter finally came in did a job on the Cong. By that time, only Ric and two others guys lived through it.

The worse part for him was how he was treated when he returned to the states. He went back to ASU and some idiots actually spit on him. He just upped & quit school when that happened.
 
I had a very good friend in Junior High and High school. We hung out a lot and squirrel hunted together. When I heard he was home from Vietnam I called his mom's house and talked to him. I invited him to get together for a squirrel hunt and catch up on old times. He told me he would never pick up another gun, ever, and hung up. I later heard he moved to San Francisco, and few years later I talked to his mom and she hadn't heard from him in years. Then she disappeared. I often wonder whatever happened.
 
eelgrass said:
I had a very good friend in Junior High and High school. We hung out a lot and squirrel hunted together. When I heard he was home from Vietnam I called his mom's house and talked to him. I invited him to get together for a squirrel hunt and catch up on old times. He told me he would never pick up another gun, ever, and hung up. I later heard he moved to San Francisco, and few years later I talked to his mom and she hadn't heard from him in years. Then she disappeared. I often wonder whatever happened.
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RE; the gun

I forgot to mention that part with Ric. I tried to get him hunting with me. No way. Same thing as your buddy.

Ric finally went into the landscaping business with his own company. I lost touch with him when we moved to Colorado and could never find him again when we returned to Phx three years later.
 
My friend Ken was an Army sniper. He and his spotter were about to be picked up when an RPG took off his leg. Killed his spotter. The VC took his watch, pissed on him and left as he was lying there with his right thumb plugging a hole so he wouldn't bleed to death.

Help came. Ken was placed on a litter and being lifted into the Huey. A sniper took out the guy who was at the head of the litter. Of course the helo guys opened up and killed the sniper.

Ken has a few issues, but is still a proud American.

One year at the office Christmas party, I drew Ken's name. I got him a soccer ball and one knee pad. He still laughs about that nearly 30 years later.
 
OutdoorWriter said:
There's a movie titled, "Taking Chance," starring Kevin Bacon. He's plays an Army escort with the task of delivering bodies to their final destinations. I've probably watched that movie at least 6-7 times & teared up every time.

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Sorry that was a Marine escort. It's all based on true events. Normally a friend would escort the body home, but during the heat of the war, friends were still needed in combat.
 
Picked this up on Presswire:

NEWS PROVIDED BY
Arizona Department of Veteran's Services
May 28, 2021, 03:41 GMT​


(SIERRA VISTA, Ariz.) - 80 years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Signalman Third Class Austin Henry Hesler will finally enter his final resting place. Hesler was 21 years old when he was killed during the Japanese’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. On Friday, May 28, 2021 at 11 a.m., he will be buried at the Southern Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery (SAVMC).

Hesler enlisted in the U.S. Navy on August 8, 1939 in Kansas City, Missouri, and reported for duty aboard the USS Oklahoma in October. At the onset of the attack on Pearl Harbor, USS Oklahoma was hit by a torpedo just before 8:00 a.m. 429 crewmen were killed, including Hesler, as it quickly capsized due to damage sustained from multiple torpedoes.

When the ship was recovered in 1944, the bodies could not be identified and were commingled and buried in several mass graves in the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu and marked "Unknown.” In 2015, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) began reexamining the unidentified remains using advanced DNA testing. On February 24, 2021, DPAA confirmed that Hesler’s remains were identified.

U.S. Navy Mortuary Affairs worked with Hesler’s family to coordinate his transfer to Arizona. His remains arrived in Arizona on Tuesday. The Arizona Patriot Guard will escort his remains to the SAVMC. U.S. Navy and Air Force Funeral Honors will conduct the military honors portion of the service.

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Thanks to each of you guys posting. Let us never ever forget that our freedoms in this nation were paid for at a very high cost. Freedom is not Free, please stand strong as sadly many on the left are trying to rewrite our actual history.

I haven't verified this, but heard today on the radio that Memorial Day was originally started shortly after the Civil War by freed slaves wanting to never forget the men who died fighting for their God given gift of Freedom. If actually true, why is that not tought in our schools ?
 
So last night I saw "Taking Chance" for the umpteenth time on HBO On Demand. My grandfather used to tell my kids, "Big boys (girls), don't cry" when they were growing up. He wasn't always right. We ate dinner during the movie, and my wife joined me in shedding a few tears.

 
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