It's that time of year again ... Memorial Day

[Hawkmoon]

Every year about this time I start seeing all sorts of articles, letters to the editor, and (yes) Internet posts suddenly remembering to thank all us living veterans for our service, and it never ceases to irritate me. This year, I received (today) a typically self-serving e-mail from my U.S. Representative, (mis)informing me that "Memorial Day provides us with an opportunity to say thank you to the thousands of men and women enlisted in our armed forces."

The twit then went on to write, "Monday, May 27th, will be the 144th Memorial Day celebration. While spending time with your family and loved ones, take a moment to reflect on the many sacrifices made by the men and women in our armed services who have made this celebration possible."

And, as happens every year, I am angered by this [bleep]. To see it coming from a United States Representative makes me all the more angry, because after all the years this twit has been in office she SHOULD by now know what Memorial Day stands for.

We living veterans have our own holiday, called Veterans' Day. We have Armed Forces Day to honor those who are currently serving. Memorial Day is the day when we are supposed to remember those who died in service, and I don't like the see that get lost by detours into other issues. Is it too much to ask that on the ONE day a year set aside to honor those who died in service of their country, we simply do just that?

I had the good fortune to visit Normandy just prior to the 50th anniversary of D-Day, and the tour took us to several of the American cemeteries in Normandy and nearby. The experience was almost overwhelming for most of us, and perhaps maybe for me more than the others since I was (I think) the only veteran in the group as well as the only one whose father actually fought in WW2.

Please - let's keep Memorial Day for what it is. Watch this video and count up the numbers. Say a prayer for all those souls, as well as those who died in the Civil War, WW1, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Veterans' day comes later in the year. So does Armed Forces Day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3m6-_PvgAc

http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries.php














The spirit of Memorial Day lives in John McRae's poem:

In Flanders Fields

by John McCrae, May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky

[zxcvbob]

Veterans' day comes later in the year. So does Armed Forces Day.

I have lots of peeves, but this is one of my pets -- the confluence of Veterans' Day into Memorial Day, with a little Armed Forces Day and "support the Police and Firefighters" thrown in too as if they were part of the armed forces.  ETA: And then the real Veterans' Day and Armed Forces Day are pretty much forgotten about.

Don't get me started about "Happy Memorial Day!"

[BobR]

I posted this exact thing on a local board. The ones who have a hard time understanding the concept are the one who have never served, it seems to me.

Several years ago, I had a trip to Europe mapped out, mainly touring the US Battlefield monuments and American Cemeteries, but because of an unexpected chunk of change my wife received that year, we ended up paying an extra 10k in taxes, like right now. It killed the trip, but I will make it before I die.

bob

[vaskidmark]

Thank you for posting that.

I look forward every yerar to reading your rant on the perversion of Memorial Day into a three-day mattress sales event that seems to forget those that are supposed to be the reason for getting the three-day weekend.

Tomorrow AM I'll off to watch the flag-raising ceremony at the Virginia War Memorial.  Then coffee and schmoozing with some by-gawd real heroes until high noon to watch the flag raised again.

I've already had a conversation with several merchants & fast food places in the area about their flags that were at half-mast yesterday.  Seems they thought it was supposed to be that way from Friday through Monday.  I aloso had a nice phone conversation with the Provost Marshal at the Defense Supply Center, reminding him of the phone call he got last year when his hired guards "forgot" to raise the flag at noon.  (Yes, he had forgotten to put out a memo on the schedule for the flag raising.  He said he would fire off a memo before he left work.  As I'll be elsewhere, a friend is going to check on them - they better get it right because he just loves to rant about "professionals" who screw up in their job.

All gave some.  Some gave all.

To friends gone but not forgotten.

stay safe.

[Jamisjockey]

I've been hammering it on facebook.

Chewed some guys out on a local fishing board about it. 

[Scout26]

I have the rant every year, and in fact posted it on here once.    This year I was a little nicer on my FB post.

[MrsSmith]

You were, Scout. And several of us shared your post on our pages too.

Irks me as well. And IMO any company that holds a "Memorial Day three-day sales event!!!!!" should be shunned and boycotted. That's beyond tacky, it's rude, shameful, and highly offensive.

[zxcvbob]

Sermon this morning was on Memorial Day, and a reminder that for some families this is the first Memorial Day since their son or daughter (sibling, etc) gave his life in service to our country.

[French G.]

Wow, thought I was the only one. My mom told me she was thinking about me on Memorial day last year and I asked if she was planning something being that I was still a living veteran.

[Gewehr98]

I clarified it a smidgen on my FB page. 

And I chafe at the Memorial Day car sale teevee commercials, too.

Let's see if I'm the only one in my neighborhood who flies a flag tomorrow...

[vaskidmark]

Now I'm really steamed!  Just got the schedule of events for the Memorial Day observation at the local Veterans' Cemetary.

"The proceedings will conclude with the playing of Taps and the rendering of  a 21-gun salute to the fallen veterans by ___ Sons of Confederate Veterans Chapter __."

21-gun salute?  I know the group.  They are reenactors portraying a infantry company.  They do not own a cannon.  Unless something happened at the last reenactment that I didn't hear about, they did not charge an artillery battery and capture a cannon or two and not give it back.  So I called my friend who pretends he is the First Sergeant of this band of merry men and asked where they got the cannon.

One of their reenactors, who means well but ... (Well, you know how that sentence usually ends, so just go ahead and fill in the blank.  Be sure to add "Bless his heart" at the end.)  He did the write-up and did not get anybody to check it before he hit "send".  He will no longer be doing any publicity activity for the unit, as this is the umpteenth time he has confused the firing of three volleys with a 21-gun salute.  (Seven members of the firing party, each firing three times.  Let's see: 7 x 3 = 21!  A 21-gun salute!)

Seems the ceremony tomorrow is going to include a history lesson on the firing of three volleys and why that is not a 21-gun salute.  Followed shortly thereafter by The Kicking In the Butt All the Way Back to the Parking Lot, a slightly more modern tradition.

stay safe.

[zxcvbob]

Now I'm really steamed!  Just got the schedule of events for the Memorial Day observation at the local Veterans' Cemetary.

"The proceedings will conclude with the playing of Taps and the rendering of  a 21-gun salute to the fallen veterans by ___ Sons of Confederate Veterans Chapter __."

21-gun salute?  I know the group.  They are reenactors portraying a infantry company.  They do not own a cannon.  Unless something happened at the last reenactment that I didn't hear about, they did not charge an artillery battery and capture a cannon or two and not give it back.  So I called my friend who pretends he is the First Sergeant of this band of merry men and asked where they got the cannon.

One of their reenactors, who means well but ... (Well, you know how that sentence usually ends, so just go ahead and fill in the blank.  Be sure to add "Bless his heart" at the end.)  He did the write-up and did not get anybody to check it before he hit "send".  He will no longer be doing any publicity activity for the unit, as this is the umpteenth time he has confused the firing of three volleys with a 21-gun salute.  (Seven members of the firing party, each firing three times.  Let's see: 7 x 3 = 21!  A 21-gun salute!)

Seems the ceremony tomorrow is going to include a history lesson on the firing of three volleys and why that is not a 21-gun salute.  Followed shortly thereafter by The Kicking In the Butt All the Way Back to the Parking Lot, a slightly more modern tradition.

stay safe.

[showing my ignorance here] Why is that a mistake worthy of "really steamed" and a ceremonial butt-kicking?    Is it somehow disrespectful?

[SADShooter]

Don't have the answer to your question, bob, but I can say the clarification was available via a 15-second Wiki-search. Thus, the error seems a mite silly.

[Hawkmoon]

[showing my ignorance here] Why is that a mistake worthy of "really steamed" and a ceremonial butt-kicking?    Is it somehow disrespectful?

Because a "gun" is something larger than can typically be carried and shoulder fired. A 21-gun salute is rendered by a Navy ship, or several Navy ships.

If you were never in the Army or the Marine Corps, perhaps you've never encountered the little ditty the drill instructors beat into our heads to make certain we knew the difference between a rifle and a gun:

"This is my rifle, this is my gun
My rifle's for fighting, my gun is for [something else ... there are ladies present]."

[zxcvbob]

Because a "gun" is something larger than can typically be carried and shoulder fired. A 21-gun salute is rendered by a Navy ship, or several Navy ships.

If you were never in the Army or the Marine Corps, perhaps you've never encountered the little ditty the drill instructors beat into our heads to make certain we knew the difference between a rifle and a gun:

"This is my rifle, this is my gun
My rifle's for fighting, my gun is for [something else ... there are ladies present]."

I've never been in the service, but I'm aware of the little rifle/gun thing.  I think he was beating it into your heads just for the fun of beating you in the heads rather than the importance of the distinction.  So my question still stands, was calling a 3-shot volley rifle salute a "21-gun salute" somehow disrespectful to the dead? 

It does bring up another question though, couldn't you do a proper 21-gun salute using field artillery, or is is strictly a naval ship thing?

[Scout26]

You fire a 3 volleys.  The number of guns/rifles present are to a certain extent irrelevant.  (I've done funerals where we could only muster 4 or 5 riflemen, you still fire 3 volleys.  And stand as far as possible from the gravesite so they can't get a good count.)

And yes, Field Artillery pieces are Guns as well and can be used in place of shoulder fired weapons. .

[Gewehr98]

ZXCVBOB, there is a distinct difference between a rifle volley as performed at a graveside ceremony and a 21-gun (aka, wheeled field artillery) salute.

As for the gun vs. firearm thing, well that's something to be discussed in Navy/Marine/Army circles.

I don't get wrapped around the axle, because my Air Force Combat Arms folks told us to take our guns with us to our qualifications, and then back to the armory for cleaning and turn-in. 

They also issued my gun and ammo, be it a M38, M1911, M9, or M16A2 to me when I deployed.  I suppose I could've just stood there and corrected them on the principal of the thing, but I figure life's too short...

[Perd Hapley]

Because a "gun" is something larger than can typically be carried and shoulder fired.

How does this myth survive, when every English-speaking person knows it is not true? 

[Fly320s]

How does this myth survive, when every English-speaking person knows it is not true? 

Through the art of pedantry, it seems.

[Gewehr98]

It is a bit of an art, ain't it?   

[zxcvbob]

I look forward every year to reading your rant on the perversion of Memorial Day into a three-day mattress sales event that seems to forget those that are supposed to be the reason for getting the three-day weekend.

One of the mattress sale ads I saw showed a brief shot of a field of red poppies.  I like they know it means something but can't grasp what it is...  Or maybe it was just crass commercialism.

[vaskidmark]

A gun salute, regardless of the number of shots fired, is a rendering of honors.

Just for starters, the firing of three volleys takes place at graveside at trhe conclusion of the service.  Cannon salutes, which are reserved for general officers and certai poilitical offioces, are rendered at noon of the day of the funeral, and take place at the nearest military base having artillerey available.

I suppose that compliance with standardized military protocol is a form of pedantary.  But then almost everything done in the military is pedantary because there is a field manual that describes, in infinite detail, how it shall be done.

stay safe.

http://drummajor.net/documents/USArmyDrillandCeremony.pdf
https://rdl.train.army.mil/catalog/view/100.ATSC/36E2FF6E-6A92-4FCE-A25F-09B684EEAA3C-1327075372265/chap14.htm#17
http://www.survivalebooks.com/free%20manuals/1964%20US%20Army%20Vietnam%20War%20Drill%20and%20Ceremonies%20331p.pdf

[Jamisjockey]

Some gave all

[Scout26]

And I had someone unfriend me on FB because I posted the following on their page.  (After they wished everyone a Happy Memorial Day and thanked those veterans of WWII, Korea and Vietnam that welcomed him home from DS/DS.)

"I’m going to say this as gently as possible; please accept it in the spirit that it is offered.

Please do not thank a veteran this weekend. We have our day in November. This weekend is for our friends, our brothers and sisters who paid the ultimate sacrifice and gave their lives in the cause of freedom.

When you thank us, as sincere as it is, it reminds us that we came home, while they did not. Somehow, for us, it lessens the solemnity of the day and heightens our survivor guilt.

We appreciate your gratitude. We are embarrassed by it, but we appreciate it. But please, please, this weekend, remember it is not about service, it is about sacrifice.

And while willing, we did not make that sacrifice. . ."

[Strings]

I've had this discussion with MANY people. Some get offended, some are just clueless, and a very few actually get it