Memorial Day

[Bazza]

Remembering those who have served and paid the ultimate price, made the ultimate sacrifice to keep us all free.

This is the Land of the Free because of the Brave!

Thank you all for your service.

 

[bamamc1]

I’m continuing my annual tradition of watching the entire Band of Brothers series on Memorial Day. Thanks to all who’ve served our country and especially those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

 

[Windsortide]

Happy Memorial Day and thank you to all the veterans and all that you have done!

 

[Bazza]

I’m continuing my annual tradition of watching the entire Band of Brothers series on Memorial Day. Thanks to all who’ve served our country and especially those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

FYI.....there's a new series starting tonight.....

World War II With Tom Hanks premieres Monday, May 25 at 8/7c

 

[bamamc1]

FYI.....there's a new series starting tonight.....

World War II With Tom Hanks premieres Monday, May 25 at 8/7c

Thanks for the heads up. I’ll definitely watch.

 

[Tidewater]

My favorite quote from George S. Patton, Jr.:

“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived” George S. Patton, Jr., June 7, 1945.
Despite Patton's admonishment, I have to confess that when I look at the grave of Private Maryland Virginia Griffith, 116th US Infantry, 29th Infantry Division, killed in action at Verdun, October 10, 1918, I do mourn.

Griffith was 21 when he died.

 

[Bazza]

My favorite quote from George S. Patton, Jr.:

“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather, we should thank God that such men lived” George S. Patton, Jr., June 7, 1945.
Despite Patton's admonishment, I have to confess that when I look at the grave of Private Maryland Virginia Griffith, 116th US Infantry, 29th Infantry Division, killed in action at Verdun, October 10, 1918, I do mourn.
View attachment 57374
Griffith was 21 when he died.

Maryland Virginia Griffith served in the United States Army as a Private, fighting on the western front in France for three years from June 1916 until his death in October of 1918. While overseas, he was on the front lines of numerous combat missions at the Center sector, Haute Alsace, Malbrouck Hill, and the Battle of Molleville Farm. He died at the Battle of Molleville Farm in 1918. The town of Waynesboro honored his life and his service to the United States by having an extravagant funeral and ceremony at this Basic Methodist Church in 1921 when his remains were finally returned to the United States from a grave in France.

Private Griffith served his fair share of combat missions. He served in the Center sector, Haute Alsace, Malbrouck Hill, and the Battle of Molleville Farm, where he was killed. The Battle of Molleville Farm was an intense 47-day campaign that saw over 1.2 million Americans involved. Griffith was one of the 26,000 killed.

After this brutal campaign and the death of Private Griffith, it took over three years for his body to be found and returned from France to the U.S. The town of Waynesboro remembered him in an extravagant funeral with the main funeral ceremony at this site, the now closed Basic Methodist Church, a thriving church with deep connections to the city of Waynesboro, as a historic focal location for weekly town gatherings and worship.

Griffith frequented Basic as a practicing methodist. At his funeral, multiple pastors, reverends, “scores of automobiles” (the assembly line was invented less than 20 years before this), church choirs, other Great War veterans, family, and friends were all present at the services conducted on July 25th, 1921. So many attended the services for this revered soldier that the front lawn and the roads overflowed with people from Basic, Waynesboro, other neighboring towns, and travelers from afar trying to pay their respects to the brave soldier, who had lost his life in a foreign land but was finally returned home and honored at one of the town’s most honored locations.

More here:

Basic Methodist Church, Funeral site of World War I Private Maryland Virginia Griffith - Clio

Maryland Virginia Griffith served in the United States Army as a Private, fighting on the western front in France for three years from June 1916 until his death in October of 1918. While overseas, he was on the front lines of numerous combat missions at the Center sector, Haute Alsace, Malbrouck...

theclio.com

 

[4Q Basket Case]

Killed on the last day of the war. Incredibly sad. As humans here on earth, we can’t help but think it’s unfair and wonder why.

For some questions, we can’t know the answer until we ourselves have ended our journey and can ask the true Arbiter.

 

[Bazza]

Every year, I share this video of French caretakers who take sand from Omaha Beach in Normandy, and scrub them into the letters to give them the gold coloring.

They do this for all 9,386 US soldiers who died.

France also gave us this land as American soil.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2058930459049165191

 

[Tidewater]

June Tabor's rendition of "The Green Fields of France."
"The Last Post" is the British version of "Taps."

Well how do you do, Private William McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside,
And I'll rest for a while in the warm summer sun?
I've been walkin' all day long, and I'm nearly done.
I see by your gravestone you were only 19
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916
Well, I hope you died quick, and I hope you died clean,
Or William McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Did they beat the drums slowly,
Did they sound the fife lowly,
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugle sing "The Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest?"

And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined?
And though you died back in 1916,
To that loyal heart are you always 19?
Or are you just a stranger without even a name,
Forever enclosed behind some glass pane
In an old photograph, torn and tattered and stained,
And fading to yellow in a brown, leather frame?

Did they beat the drums slowly,
Did they sound the fife lowly,
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugle sing "The Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest?"

Well the sun, it shines now on these green fields of France;
The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance.
The trenches have vanished now under the plough
No gas and no barbed wire, no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard that's still No Man’s Land
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man,
And a whole generation who were butchered and damned.

Did they beat the drums slowly,
Did they sound the fife lowly,
Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugle sing "The Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest?"

And I can't help but wonder, now Willie McBride,
Do all those who lie here, know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you 'The Cause?'
You really believe that this war would end wars?
For the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame,
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,
For Willie McBride, it's all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again!

Did they beat the drums slowly,
Did they sound the fife lowly,
Did the rifles fire o' ye as they lowered you down?
Did the bugle sing "The Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest?"

Did the bugle sing "The Last Post" in chorus?
Did the pipes play "The Flowers of the Forest?"