Memorial Day

[Johnny]

Remember what this day is about!( some gave all,all gave some) this day is to remember all of our fallen brothers.Please take just a moment to pause and remember those that did not come home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you from one old vet

[FLT]

Johnny if I may . I'd like to thank the ones that did make it back as well. No one makes it out unscathed . Someone that has lived through that kind of mans inhumanity to man is ever the quite same.

[Cattle/Horses]

Visited with my father a little today. He was severely wounded in the Philippines during WWII.

Being the humble man he is, his main comment was how good it that the U.S. is finally taking care of their wounded. From his perspective, for 55 years he got very little monetary and health benefit from the VA. He spent 4 years in Augusta's VA hospital being patched up and rehabilitated. Once released he retuned home, put it all behind him, raised a family and worked a productive life. Only since the media started showing how badly our boys retuning from Iraq and Afghanistan were treated, has the VA and Congress stepped up. The VA clinic on Rigins in Tallahassee has been built. My father has received more assistance in the last 10 years than he did the previous 55. (I know there is a thread here about had bad the VA is, please don't bash me. This is his perspective comparing the last 10 to the previous 55 years)

I'll glad for the assistance and care he gets now at 89.


THANK YOU to all of you who served, and my heart felt condolences and thanks to those of you lost family members serving our country.

[YankeeFingergasm]

Thank you to all that have served and will serve in the future. Thank you to all the families that sacrificed for us also.

[Johnny]

Cattle/horses,i can understand your father getting more help in the last ten yrs than the previous 55,as my father was a ww2 vet also and had a hard time getting some medical help from the va also.My uncle the same story,he was a 3time purple heart winner also bronze star from the battle of the bulge.It only took until I was 66yrs old to get any help,even though it was in my medical records.I was told by the Va in Tallahassee in 91 they could not help me! went to Allen Boyd same story, I told them to stick it were the sun didn't shine!So yes I have seen the bett3r side but also the negative side.

[Tack Driver]

Remember what this day is about!

Always Johnny, always.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j280/sstanley_photos/IMAG0575_zpstjqjfiwt.jpg

[Johnny]

Thanks TACK!

[rr53]

Thanks to all. I know Wes' Dad. He is a helluva man.

We went up the river today. Good times.2677

[Tack Driver]

If I can't rant to you guys, I don't know who I can.

I fucking hate Memorial day. Fucking hate it.

Up and down car row (Tennessee St.) are the biggest American flags that anybody makes, each dealer trying to outdo the rest. The Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep store has a 22 foot MONSTER of a flag right on the corner. Ours was the only one at half mast from sunup to noon today, and that's only because a single, solitary, particular employee gave a shit enough to fight what amounts to a yacht sail down and back up.

I met a 22 year old college student today that asked me why I was wearing a flag pin. (I happened to be a Gadsden/American flag pin but that's not the point)

I went to the grave of a Marine that fell at Iwo Jima today. Here I am feeling bad about myself because I've only made the time to get to one, when I know of two that were brought home to Tallahassee to be laid to rest. I had to step over and climb around bushes and overgrown shrubs to get to it, in the middle of a cemetery, in the middle of downtown. Who runs this place? Who manages it? Why isn't this hallowed ground, at LEAST for today?

I hate Memorial day because it reminds me that we send our best to shit hole parts of the world to fight fights that we may or may not need to be involved in, for long enough periods of time that ensure that most come back maimed, dead, or not at all while politicians play politics and posture for votes based on the success or struggles of those young men and women. When they get back, they are treated like a burden. Like a debt that people act like they shouldn't have signed up for. Like an STD they got fucking an ugly chick.

Memorial day reminds me that there are men and women in this country that are willing to fight, raise hell, and blow shit up for the IDEA of America, even if the people of America don't deserve it. Even if the government doesn't deserve it.

This day fucks me up. I saw an advertisement for something that showed a uniformed solider saluting the son of a fallen Soldier/Marine/Airman/Seaman/Etc.. It twists my gut to the point that I want to seek out every person that can't tell me what the day is about and beat them to a oozing pulp.

I hate Memorial Day. It's a tough day for the families of the fallen, and I think it should be a day of reflection for everybody else, and a chance to help absorb some of that. I get that there are some that have sacrificed (most Marines) who think earning a buzz, raising hell, getting weird, and racing boats to and from Crab Island is quite the tribute. That said, everybody should still take the time to reflect, and most don't.

I'm growing weary of the sheep gentlemen. Very weary. Each Memorial Day seems hurt a little more.

[jonastio]

Today, I hung out with my parents, my sisters and most of their families, and my family. We went to Wakulla Springs, and I sat with my 2 year old on the jungle tour boat and pointed out the bulk of the alligators to the rest of the tourists. Getting the whole clan together is something we usually do on Memorial Day. Last year, my little family went and visited the graveyard across the street from my dad's store. Then we went and visited a couple of the memorials downtown. I found it was *really* hard to explain why those places were special to a 3 year old. We'll get to it, and my kids will learn for sure but for now, my dad's the Marine and this is what he wants to do, so that's what we're gonna do.

[Tack Driver]

Today, I hung out with my parents, my sisters and most of their families, and my family. We went to Wakulla Springs, and I sat with my 2 year old on the jungle tour boat and pointed out the bulk of the alligators to the rest of the tourists. Getting the whole clan together is something we usually do on Memorial Day. Last year, my little family went and visited the graveyard across the street from my dad's store. Then we went and visited a couple of the memorials downtown. I found it was *really* hard to explain why those places were special to a 3 year old. We'll get to it, and my kids will learn for sure but for now, my dad's the Marine and this is what he wants to do, so that's what we're gonna do.

My girlfriend has a 6 year old, and she doesn't really grasp it, nor to I pressure her to. This year seemed to resonate more than the last.

The Wakulla Springs boat tour has to be the most wildlife dense mile in the Southeast. If there is a teachable moment, it's on that spring/river. Did you realize or catch where they were telling you about the next 3 miles of river that Edward Ball donated that not even the Wakulla Springs boats are allowed to go? That not even biologists are allowed into? That has to be like Jurassic Park.

[jonastio]

You couldn't understand a damn thing our tour guide was saying today. I had not heard of that, though. Interesting.

[Tack Driver]

You couldn't understand a damn thing our tour guide was saying today. I had not heard of that, though. Interesting.

Yeah, if there is a Swamp Ape, it's habitat is right down there just past where those boats turn around, and he lives in what must look like Eden.

[TargetShooting]

I am going to watch "saving private Ryan "