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“Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them."- Franklin D. Roosevelt”

"If you want to thank a soldier.Be the kind of America worth fighting for" - Unkown

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” - Mark Twain

Flag is at half-staff until Noon.

My Dad was in the USAAF in the Pacific in WW 2.  He would talk about it on occasion, as a kid I was all ears and figured he was John Wayne etc.  One time he mentioned the high stakes poker games that could happen, they had money and little to buy (he said he didn't play).  And he noted they all figured they would be killed, the hope was "Golden Gate in 48", when they thought maybe the war would end.  Simple math suggested few would make it.

The photo above made me remember that, these young Marines about to assault Iwo Jima, with Okinawa to come, and then mainland Japan if needed.  Maybe they could do this, I'm not sure I could, out of fatalism and lack of hope?

Why is war so common in our history?

Remembering and honoring our fallen heroes.
— 
Their lives they held
their country’s trust;
they kept its faith;
they died its heroes.
Hartley Burr Alexander
Memorial Stadium Northeast Inscription

On this Memorial Day 2024, here's Captain Henry Waskow, memorialized by the revered War Correspondent Ernie Pyle in what is often cited as the most widely read single column in American history: The Death of Captain Waskow


Pyle begins by writing of Waskow: "In this war I have known a lot of officers who were loved and respected by the soldiers under them. But never have I crossed the trail of any man as beloved as Capt. Henry T. Waskow of Belton, Texas."

The column was published January 10, 1944, nearly a month after Captain Waskow perished during fighting in the Italian Campaign outside Naples on December 14, 1943.

Writing on the return of Waskow's body from the battlefields: "The men in the road seemed reluctant to leave. They stood around, and gradually one by one I could sense them moving close to Capt. Waskow’s body. Not so much to look, I think, as to say something in finality to him, and to themselves. I stood close by and I could hear...Another man came; I think he was an officer. It was hard to tell officers from men in the half light, for all were bearded and grimy dirty. The man looked down into the dead captain’s face, and then he spoke directly to him, as though he were alive. He said: "I’m sorry, old man."

Pyle's column marked a notable departure from the media's detached approach to death, instead detailing the subdued activity following a single soldier's death. The Washington News gave The Death of Captain Waskow frontpage treatment and subsequently sold out that day's edition. Pyle's column was widely read on the radio and also incorporated into a war bond drive. For months afterwards, stacks of thank you letters from around the nation arrived to Captain Waskow's family in Texas.

How many "Memorial Stadiums" are in the US?

not any new stadiums

Why is war so common in our history?

Because we're animals.

Going over to a cookout later.