Where is everyone #5

Son in law got him… 20 1/2” spread.

 

I thought of that today - April 25th I think is the Commonwealth - (In NZ it's ANZAC day - Australian New Zealand Armed Corps) , it's traditional to make a donation to the RSA (Returned Serviceman's Association) and wear a fabric poppy on the day, attend the parade.

I'm not sure how many younger Americans realize that the Commonwealth countries played their part in every conflict from WW1, WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan included. NZ has its own walls of honor and RSA halls. Been a while since I've been back and I wondered today if the current humans still honor the sacrifice.

Grandad was a radio operator in WW2 - for some reason I had him stationed in Fiji, which didn't make sense - he was in the Solomon Islands.

Certainly , enjoy every sandwich - sacrifices were made to ensure a tasty bite.

 

I hope we never have a conflict like that again. We lost too much and too many in wars through out history.

I see you picked up on the Warren Zevon quote too.

 

Final thought on today, and yes I do think about these things on the remembrance days of past events. And then I promise I'll shut up and go to bed and drive towards my bride tomorrow,

When I was born, the Great War was 60 years settled, The end of WW2, the last global conflict - 40 years past.

I began voraciously reading (public library and microfiche at the time) books and material, initially on military aviation, but eventually the whole scope of sea battles, ground force, trench warfare . . . you name it, from the age of 5-15 (1980 to 1990).

Was dead set on going into the RNZAF, glad I didn't, because they retired their MASSIVE fleet of THREE A- 4 Skyhawks in the early 1990's, and my physics and science grades weren't quite up to par to beat out the other youngsters vying for the position at that time. They scaled back to a couple of C-130 Hercules for search and rescue operations after that. So I'd be flying a big bus, and honestly the 379 is more fun.

My young brain thrived on the information, but could not grasp the politics and the time that the conflicts occurred within.

Here we are, or I am - 109 years since Flanders fields, poppies and crosses, 79 years since Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and I wonder if many of the more recent humans ever read, research and discover these major MAJOR events that occurred.

So thanks to all of you that did serve, or have family that served, in any respect - it means a lot to me.

 

Well said Blair.

I was fortunate to have spent a year in Europe in 1967. I was a kid, but the images of Dachau, Normandy, and the Berlin Wall are still vivid in my mind. Being raised in the security of the interior of the U.S., seeing cathedrals that remained standing that had been bombed only 25 years prior left an impression in my mind.

Having civil defense drills in grade school, living with the threat of nuclear war during the Cold War, having relations that worked on the development of nuclear bombs, was part of our youth. Having signed up for the draft during the Vietnam War is as close as I came to serving in the military, but I fear today's youth will not appreciate the sacrifices that those before them made. Hopefully things can calm down in the Middle East and Ukraine, and another world War does not break out.

 

That's my fear. Politics aside we shouldn't be tossing our young Men into war - especially when it always seems to be caused by people who will never have to sacrifice a thing in the end.

 

Danm nice!

 

Nice buck! Tell him congrats!

 

Nice

 

TA Morris Illinois. Nobody farther away from the restaurant than me. Unless you’re at the Peelot next door. Here till morning.