Memorial Day 2023

Commemorating those lost in battle can be traced to 361 BC. in Greece following the Pelopennesian Wars.

Here in America what later became Memorial Day began just after the Civil War, was expanded to include all soldiers lost after WWI and didn't become a national holiday until nearly the end of the Vietnam war. (1971)

When I was a boy, people handed out poppies to commemorate the dead, due in large part to the following poem. Written be a surgeon during WWI, the poem came to speak for so many.

I include it here, for you today.

 

 In Flanders Fields

By John McCrae 

In Flanders fields the poppies blow 

Between the crosses, row on row,     

That mark our place; and in the sky     

The larks, still bravely singing, 

fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. 

We are the Dead. 

Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,     

Loved and were loved, 

and now we lie,         

In Flanders fields. 

Take up our quarrel with the foe: 

To you from failing hands we throw     

The torch; be yours to hold it high.    

If ye break faith with us who die 

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow         

In Flanders fields.

There is a hill just opposite my home that is covered with poppies each spring, I never fail to think of the lost each time I drive by it.

Remember, today at 3pm, to take on minute to honor those who were lost in our wars.

Next time, on the 3rd, we will return to Texas, so join me there, as always at 9:00am.

To see Vietnam memorials from any state, please click on a state name on the left side of this page. 

I will ask, as I do at the end of nearly every post now, for anyone who has pictures of Vietnam memorials not seen here to please send them to me. I will give you full photo credit for the pic and any information about it you may know. Check your state, or anywhere you may have visited, from the list at the left, or any place else. Please send them to the email at the left or directly to me at Ldddad@comcast.net. Thanks.