It’s About Remembering
A year later. 75 years later. 237 years later. Lexington to Gettysburg.
San Juan Hill to Iwo Jima to Chosin.
Hue City to Kuwait to Fallujah to an American Airman murdered by an Islamic Terrorist in an airport:
The Procession to Honor Airman Zachary Ryan Cuddeback
Murdered in Germany, but much loved by his hometown.
Crusader was there in the gloaming Friday ~ with SO MANY others ~ to raise a flag, a prayer and a thank you.
…to a number one country song, written by someone who overheard a heartwrenching radio interview with the dad of a Medal of Honor winner…who never came home.
To those grandpas, Pops, Moms, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, sweetest daughters and dearest baby boys who never came home:
We remember you. All.
Amen and thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you and God bless them all.
In Flanders Field – Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.”
And the American Answer:
We Shall Keep the Faith
Moina Michael
“Oh! You who sleep in Flanders’ Fields
Sleep sweet – to rise anew;
We caught the torch you threw,
And holding high we kept
The faith with those who died.
We cherish, too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led.
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.
But lends a lustre to the red
On the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders’ fields.
And now the torch and Poppy red
We wear in honour of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught:
We’ve learned the lesson that ye taught
In Flanders’ fields.”
Oh – and that song is beautiful.
@ Crusader – thanks. I couldn’t be there. Glad you could.
P.S. Re: Flanders Fields – I’m taking advantage of you a bit – I used to post that on my own blog, when I was blogging. Hope you don’t mind me posting it on yours.
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