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I did not see this earlier. I would like to present a brief memorial for my great uncle.  I did not have the privilege to meet him.  Nazis killed him in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest while he stood against them for freedom.

I present, Marvin P. Roeder, standing here with his sister, my Great Aunt "Mitt" Millicent Roeder. My dad's sled can also be seen. 

Dad says he thinks Marvin was having the time of his life in the military. He was 37-years old, and single. He was traveling the country and then waiting in England to go into the field of battle. He was in the battle field just a few days, when the time of his life, ended. God bless him.

Grandpa carried the telegram in is wallet for decades, and then a few years before he died, he gave it to me to carry forward. I am carrying it forward.

One of the difficult things in the movie "We were Soldiers" was the scenes about telegrams being delivered (was in the book as well of course).  The military corrected that one at least.  It can be a strain when a lot of men from one area are killed in the same event, as happened in Cincinnati in 2005 when 14 Marines were killed, 5 of them from the Cincy area.  The local Marine reserve communications I&I staff had to respond.  They had about 5 minutes of "training".  They sent two to each parent's known address, which meant they had to provide 8 separate teams.  There was nothing written, just verbal.  That Marine group was overwhelmed obviously, and Marines from New Orleans were sent up to assist, and ironically the reverse happened in a few weeks and the hurricane hit NO.

And of course there is no "good way" to deliver such news.  

I may have mentioned that my Dad was awarded a Purple Heart for WW II.  He gave it to me to keep around 2000 or so.  He had to work to get the award for some reason, records lost in the St. Louis fire was part of it, he kept writing to Congress about it, and finally got it around 1990.  I know he had a Purple Heart tag on his car and it's on his grave marker.

I don't know of a best way to treat Memorial Day other than spending time with those who mean something to you and letting them know they do.  Days of reflection can be a reminder to say stuff we probably should say more often while we still can.  Vita brevis.

The Bedford Boys included three sets of brothers: twins Roy and Ray Stevens, with Ray killed during the landing while Roy survived, Clyde and Jack Powers, with Jack killed and Clyde wounded but surviving, and Bedford and Raymond Hoback, both killed. The losses by the soldiers from Bedford were chronicled in the best-selling book The Bedford Boys by Alex Kershaw, and helped inspire the movie Saving Private Ryan. The movie's director, Steven Spielberg, helped fund the memorial, including funding for the creation of the Arnold M. Spielberg Theater, in honor of his father, a World War II veteran.

That level of loss from one small town is almost inconceivable.

I thought they did away with keeping units together from the same area in the Civil War.A hot day in the field and there's no young men to come home to.I'm aware of the Bedford Boys.But I had read Saving Private Ryan was based on the Neilands who were friends of Skip Mucks who was a friend of Don Malarkeys in Band of Brothers from Steven Ambose/Speilberg

Reserve units are naturally going to be manned by folks from the same general area, which can be 2-3 stateswide.

That was the same event.  A "track" was destroyed by a large IED and 14 Marines were KIA, all but 2 from Lima 3/25.  The two were part of the track crew.  One was apparently blown clear somehow.  Lima Company is actually based near Columbus at Rickenbacker.  The larger regiment is in Brook Park and comprises three companies plus staff, Kilo, India, and Lima companies.  Kilo and India for whatever reason were not "in the field" nearly as much as Lima.

Lima had 23 KIA and 59 Purple Hearts out of 186 deployed.  This is their story.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRMCjzTYbY0

I believe we're coming up on 75 tomorrow.  It is amazing that many of them are still living 75 years after, I suppose they were around 20 at the time.

I have visited Omaha twice in my life, and hope to go back again.  The cemetery is extremely moving.  The beaches are very quiet now, some vacation houses here and there, and some remaining German fortifications.  

Obama of course was assaulted by the !st Division which had experience from North Africa and the 29th Division which was "green".  The 29th acquitted itself quite well as I recall.  The movie "The Big Red One" was interesting I think, included Luke Skywalker.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_A0ZvUIDfE

Lee Marvin left school at 18 to enlist in the United States Marine Corps Reserve on August 12, 1942. He served with the 4th Marine Division in the Pacific Theater during World War II.^[6] While serving as a member of "I" Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division, he was wounded in action on June 18, 1944, during the assault on Mount Tapochau in the Battle of Saipan, during which most of his company were casualties.^[7] He was hit by machine gun fire, which severed his sciatic nerve,^[8] and then was hit again in the foot by a sniper.^[9] After over a year of medical treatment in naval hospitals, Marvin was given a medical discharge with the rank of private first class (he had been a corporal years earlier but had been demoted after causing trouble)^[9] in 1945 at Philadelphia.^[10]

Marvin's military awards include: the Purple Heart Medal, the Presidential Unit Citation, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal, Combat Action Ribbon.