markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

https://youtu.be/QyKfr8G04Qc

Today is NOT about hot dogs and burgers! It is a day of memorializing our fallen heroes!!

Mark

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Amen!

Amator21 Loc: California

PixeelStan77 said it better that I could, but yours is a very appropriate posting!

DHenard Loc: Northeast Tennessee

There are thousands of families around our great nation that has an empty seat at their table because of the sacrifice made by their love one. May God bless them. We owe them so much. Thank you for your sacrifice.

SteveR Loc: Michigan

A friend of mine lost a brother in his first month in Vietnam. Several guys from my h.s. died in Vietnam.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

My wife lost her fiancé in Viet Nam. He was 19.
Mark

SteveFranz Loc: Durham, NC

Great tribute on this solemn day.

Semper Fi Brothers & Sisters

USMC 1961....

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

US Army 58-60'
Mark

joehel2 Loc: Cherry Hill, NJ

Great Memorial Day post, Mark. The Coast Guard anthem is not one that I have heard often; I'm glad it was included.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Sang them all in grammar school music classes at Bradley Beach Grammar School. (41 - 50'). Used to know all the words.
Thanks, Joe!!
Mark

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Army 66-69, Vietnam Dec 66 to Jan 69.

Three days before TET our tac ops center was told we had to send someone on 7 day TDY to a complex guarding a mountain pass. It had been a year since I had done outpost duty because I was a. classified documents clerk b. classified reports clerk c. Alternate Custodian of Documents (they didn't let me out much, I knew too much) but we had gotten a Lt and a SSgt added to our staff and they were familiarized with my jobs so I was told to pack up to go. Well just then our cartographer/draftsman came in the office and said he hadn't gone on outpost duty, had finished all his work for the next 10 days and a. wanted to see if they followed his plans for the new bunkers b. had just made E5 so would command one of the bunkers. Mac went in my place. Two days in a row he hiked down off the mountain and flew back on the daily hot meal copter to complain about some pothead losers whose unit had left them on TDY for over 2 months and he wanted them gone since they kept sleeping on guard and he and his Cpl were exhausted from staying up with them on their guard shifts as well as doing their own. He finally got a promise they would be replaced in 2 days. Well that night when the Cpl left the bunker to wake up the next guards those two went to sleep and didn't see a sapper squad coming (that pass was the first place hit in our area). The sappers blew the bunker with a satchel charge tossed some grenades around and kept running toward the next bunker. The Cpl was blown 5 meters away from the tent where he was waking Mac for the next guard shift when the satchel charge went off but he saw a grenade land on Mac's sleeping bag as Mac was just sitting up. Mac was killed instantly and so were two other men sleeping near the bunker - the two pot heads lived with only minor injuries because a sand bag baffle in the bunker protected them. The Cpl was dazed and when he was able to think again he found he had fired off three magazines (he didn't remember doing that) and the sappers who tossed the satchel charge and grenades were dead, all shot in the back as they ran toward the next bunker. One of our guys at the next bunker a big Swedish kid grabbed an M60 machine gun, jumped on top of his bunker and did a "John Wayne" using that M60 like it was an automatic rifle and basically wiped out 1 1/2 squads of sappers and stopped the attack cold.
So in a military cemetery there is a grave, and Mac's name is on the wall in spots where I would have been if he had walked into the office 2 minutes later.
Sorry to go on about it, but every so often, like Memorial Day, I get into a "There but for the grace of God go I." mood. And VA turned me down for PTSD and gave me 40% disability for Agent Orange exposure instead of 100% for the two combined because I told them that after 5 years teaching in East LA my nightmares changed from Nam to school related things. = "Had PTSD but recovered on his own."

A friend who does have 100% told me of a group he belonged to at a VA hospital lead by a Doctor whose goal was to get Vets the max disability possible and he asked if I could join and appeal my disability - the answer came back "Yes". That was the week before the Covid lock downs started and among other things that group was dissolved. I never got to go see that Doctor.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Thanks for sharing your "story". Bless you!!
Mark

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Thanks

I went on outpost duty at the pass two weeks later and it was completely changed. New bunkers built by an Engineer company, about six guys for a "day shift" to watch and receive supplies etc and the rest of us slept all day and were on guard all night. And the the Col. in command of our HQ sent a replacement for me after only 2 1/2 days of my 7 day TDY and jerked me back to HQ. Seems all three of the other people who knew the combinations to the document safes had forgotten them (1 SSgt, 1 Lt & 1 Major), some officer from our next higher HQ making an inspection had slammed and locked the safes when he found them open (HQ operated 24/7 so the safes were only locked during alerts normally). And two weeks after that he sent his driver to get me back from a 24 hour guard post 2 miles from the base when no one could remember where some papers he wanted were filed. After that I did nothing but regular guard shifts on base until I got promoted out of my slot in the Tac Ops Center and no other higher ranking slots were open so I got replaced by a new clerk, a Sgt and a Captain in my three jobs. I shuffled sideways at HQ and became the Chief Admin NCO for the Central Vietnam officers club system my last 6 months until I rotated home for discharge. That was almost a vacation - basically about 20+ days a month of trying to look busy or reading books and 10 days of frantic reports and bookkeeping. The whole office was a Lt, a bookkeeper, myself and a Vietnamese Personnel Clerk who took care of paying, hiring and firing workers for the officer's clubs. Many days were so slow that the bookkeeper and I learned to install stereo sound systems and would go out to clubs to do that, or rewire one that someone "tried to fix".

bgate Loc: Texas

Semper Fi
USMC 1952-1972

dancers Loc: melbourne.victoria, australia

I had uncles killed in WW1.................I had cousins killed in WW2.......and some were in hideous camps for up to five years.......... as far as ai can see it is never ending....