Veterans day

[6Gun4Fun]

I noticed that it passed unmarked here on the board so I just wanted to wish all my fellow veterans a Happy Veterans Day!  Thanks to each and everyone one of you who took up the banner of freedom!

[Howdy Doody]

Thanks pard and same to you. The big board covered it pretty well this year. Now to get out troops back on our soil and quit policing the world for a while. 

[6Gun4Fun]

This year was the first time that I was sought out and given a Thank You from co-workers for being a Veteran. It really meant a lot that someone would go out of their way to say Thanks.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Back at'cha, pard. 

Thanks to all.

[Haggis MacGurk]

Tipped a few for my buddies yesterday. I was down town after our Remembrance Day Parade in uniform, and was asked by a civilian how he should go about thanking us. Being a Canadian soldier, in years past we were used to being largely ignored by the public. I just told him to live and enjoy his life. That's thanks enough for me.

Airborne

[Steel Horse Bailey]

Did ya have on a poppie?

Or is that strictly British?



No matter, Thank you Haggis.  A lot of us folks "down here" really appreciate our good neighbor Canadian Military types ... as we do our own.  It's comforting to have friendly neighbors.

But it doesn't get expressed enough.

[Haggis MacGurk]

Roger that. And yes, we do wear the poppy, but it's made of plastic. Not the ones we see on patrol in Afghanistan

[Gaucho Gringo]

Sorry to say I have not seen anyone selling poppys in about 20 years around here. During the 70's and 80's I worked in a door factory for 14 years and there were a lot of WW II vets working there. There was quite an asssortment: one had been a B-17 belly
gunner(the guy was barely 5' tall), a couple of D Day vets, and a bunch more who didn't talk much but you could tell they were vets by the date they were hired. My dad was in the Marines and spent 28 months in the Pacific, being shipped out in the first wave in the spring of '42. I have nothing but respect for these guys who served in any of our armed services in any war we were in. I tried to join in the 70's but was turned down because of my hearing. I will have to actively seek out a poppy seller next Veterans Day.

[Dr. Bob]

Originally, the French organization similar to our American Legion started selling silk poppies to raise funds to support disabled veterans of WWI and their widows and orphans.  They offered the program to the US American Legion who accepted it.  The AL decided that poppies were not very American and changed to daisies.  This PO'd the French and they took the program away and offered it to the VFW.  They still sell poppies today.  Check with your local VFW post!  I volunteer at the National WWI Museum here in Kansas City, Missouri and we have a poppy field there with 9,000 poppies, each one representing 1,000 soldiers who died in WWI.  The poppy was chosen because it was the first plant to grow in "no mans land" after an attack and the artillery barrage that cleansed the vegetation.  Our poppy field at at the entrance to the Museum and you cross a glass bridge over it to enter the exhibits.  If you visit the Museum, there are VFW poppies available for you to take with you.  General Colin Powell toured yesterday and was impressed with the Museum.  To do the exhibits justice, allow at least 2 hours.  I spent 4 1/2 hours on opening day and just looked at the exhibits, without reading all the cards.  There is a lot more to see and do.

Things to look for!

Renault FT 17 tank
Gen. John Pershing's 4 star flag
1917 Harley Davidson Motorcycle
Lafayette Escadrille air plain.
17 inch Mortar crater
Highland soldiers plaid trews [pants - what is interesting about them?]
Pantheon de la Guerre mural [Who was added to the painting in the mid 1950's]
Pieces of the Rheims Cathedral
The Mauser anti-tank gun.

[Adirondack Jack]

I noticed that it passed unmarked here on the board so I just wanted to wish all my fellow veterans a Happy Veterans Day!  Thanks to each and everyone one of you who took up the banner of freedom!

I appreciate the sentiment, but like my 83 yr old FIL who survived WWII, I'm a veteren every day, blessed to live in a land defended by many who paid the "last full measure of devotion", and happy to have been able to do my bit.  I really don't need a "bank holiday" to remind me.

[6Gun4Fun]

I know what you mean Jack.  I hope all the 18 year old bank tellers who never served a day in their lives appreciate that day off!