doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Veteran's Day

As a fellow Veteran, I want to wish all the veterans a Happy Veteran's Day as well as a heartfelt thank you for your service. Let us remember those who sacrificed their lives, as well as those who are serving this day.
God bless America!
Karl

Happy Veterans day to all the vets here.

As you celebrate your one day holiday recognizing your service, also remember that anti- gun Democrats designated an entire month to celebrate queer pride month and Black History month. When they say they respect you, maybe ask them about this.

Karl-
Thanks for your service. Army 1966-69.

Happy veterans Day to all of my brothers in arms; Past and present.
And lets not forget the scourge of veterans; suicide. 44 a day are taking their lives. A sad situation.
If you know a vet struggling. talk to them. Listen to them.

Myself . . . . . . - US Special Forces, MACV SOG - 2 tours in Vietnam, 8 years off/on in Afghanistan
Twin Brother . .- US Special Forces - 13 months in Vietnam
Brother . . . . . - Army Security Agency, "tour driver"* in E.Berlin - fluent German speaker - 4 years
Nephew. . . . . - Marine Harrier Pilot in Iraq and Afghanistan
Father. . . . . . - Commander Pathfinder stick for 3 BN 508 PIR in Normandy - Killed at Pretot
Uncle. . . . . . . - B-24 Navigator flying out of England 1943-44 - 30 missions
Step-Father. . . - US Navy, Radar officer on USS Pensacola.
Uncle. . . . . . . - Corsair pilot in US Navy 1945-1949, reserve pilot served in Korea
Uncle. . . . . . . - 30-year navy pilot/officer - USS Enterprise Air Wing commander 1968 off Vietnam
Grand-father. . - tank battalion in WWI battle of the Somme - lost an eye
Grand-father. . - Merchant Marine officer plying the N,Atlantic during WWI
etc. etc.

Veteran's Day used to be Armistice Day. Memorial Day remembers the fallen. But this is the day for us the living (and sometimes we have to think about why that is). Thanks to the American people and God Bless America.

*The US mission in Potsdam E.Germany during the Cold War (WW-III) had the right to drive through E.Germany to "inspect" things, just as the Soviets did in West Germany. They put him through race car driving and used disguised 4wd Fords (illegal) where they would lose surveillance and run down tank trails to photograph military equipment on sidings. One was murdered by the Soviets. He was getting out to finish Mechanical Engineering degree at Stanford and the Army decided they had to "prepare" him for civilian life so posted him to a Mercedes factory - hummmm. Mercedes = Mechanical engineer; "Please Mr. Bear, don't throw me in that briar patch." He advised buying Mercedes made in the morning - because every worker consumed 6 beers during lunch.

Well, I'll just have to be a little out of step with you and your strictest proponents, Gene. As well as the living ones I will always remember the Veterans that have died, but who did not die while serving, on Veteran's Day. If the military sees fit to send an honor guard to a funeral of a Veteran I sure think they need to be remembered on Veteran's Day.

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.

Where do dead Veterans get honored, if not on Veterans Day?

Stan, mourning US military personnel who died while serving is what Memorial Day is all about. Veterans Day is for all Veterans who served in the US military, peacetime or wartime, and that includes the KIA and those who repaired the tanks, typed the orders, did the intelligence work, supplied the armaments.

"Veterans Day honors all who have served in the U.S. military, not just those who have served in combat. It is a day to thank and honor all American veterans, both living and deceased, who served honorably during wartime or peacetime."

So I sort of think of Memorial Day as solemn. Veterans' Day as that raucous parade down Constitution Avenue in 1982 led by Gen. Westmorland to celebrate the opening of the Vietnam Memorial (and the return to "respectability" of the Vietnam era Veteran - grudgingly so by the Ho Chi Minh loving media):





(And I missed that parade. I came back from Africa in late September 1982 and got married, attended the hearings on putting a statue and flag on the memorial - an amazing experience, the room filled with big angry men outraged at Jane Fonda. I wanted to stay for the parade but was told that if I were gone "more than three weeks," I wasn't necessary. So new wife represented me. And the 6 page letter she wrote to me in French on attending the reading of the names at the Cathedral to the march itself was so evocative that I translated it three times in three different ways for the Marine Gunney Sgt in Brazzaville. Perhaps I'll post it.)

On those early Oct 1982 hearings at the "fine arts commission" in DC on changes to the "Black Wall of Shame" as VN Veterans then referred to the VN Memorial, which demanded a flag and statue, here is a political cartoon from the era. You had to have been there to understand: (The "Hey Mama San" referring to the Mya Lin designer is devastating).

Argo44, I was addressing your statement that Veteran's Day is "the day for us the living". I pointed out that it is also for the Vets who have died, not just the living ones. That's all. No elaboration necessary for my part.

Thanks to all Vets for their service, both the living and the dead.

Today is Remembrance Sunday, and we watched The King laying his wreath at the Cenotaph on behalf of the Nation.

I think back to my Uncle John, who fortunately survived Dunkirk and Burma so I got to know him.

The schoolboy in the 1925 photo in my thread “St. Partridge Day” he grew up to be an Estate Agent, joined the Territorial Army and was Commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1936. His Gunners Officer’s sword therefore bears the Royal Cypher EVIIIR.

He went to France with his unit, 229 (Eastbourne) Battery as part of 58 Field Regiment R.A. where they fought the Blitzkreig until they had to be evacuated at Dunkirk.

He was posted to India, and fought in Burma as a Gunner as part of 14th Army, losing the sight in one eye.

I lent him George MacDonald Fraser’s “Quartered Safe Out Here” and when he returned it he commented that he had worked out the artillery fire plan for the taking of Meiktila.

Sadly, we never got to go shooting together although I remember him saying to me once he would love to go snipe shooting in Ireland. Perhaps he had shot snipe in India.

A Canadian cemetery outside of Arras, France...

https://imgur.com/a/7mRJQPU

This post is in memory of Robert Adams...

Who when asked his occupation, replied...

Soldier...

The Very Human Story of Robert Adams...

- born in 1875 and raised as a Texas Cowboy...

- learned some law and courtroom procedure by clerking for a traveling Texas State Court judge...

- joined the U.S. Army around 1900...shipped to the Philippines...fought in the Moro War...promoted to the rank of sergeant...

- very unusual for one with only a few years of service...

- served ten years or so on garrison duty at various army posts in Texas...

- during that times promoted to 2nd lieutenant, and served as legal council to enlisted personnel under military trial...

- participated in U.S. occupation of Vera Cruz, Mexico...

- fast forward to the hurricane of 1915 that devastated Galveston, Texas.....

- Lt Adams was found to be absent without leave and intoxicated...

- He was charged and scheduled for court martial trial...

- Knowing his obvious indefensible guilt and knowing that he would be broken to private and most likely sent to Leavenworth prison...

- where there were many men imprisoned, who he had failed to successfully defend...

- he then took the most logical step... and deserted the U.S. Army...and fled to Canada...

- after arrival in Toronto in 1915, Robert enlisted in a newly forming Canadian Army unit, the 97th Battalion, aka known as "The America, Legion"...

- An effort to recruit U.S. citizens, exclusively...look it up...

- upon realizing Robert was a veteran soldier, with 15 years of experience, he was commissioned, with the rank of Senior Major...

- talk about being in the right place at the right time...

- after basic training, the 97th was sent to Nova Scotia, for advanced training...

- ie: trench warfare...

- after realizing what they had signed up for...about half of the 97th deserted...

- after arrival in England, the 97th was disbanded, with the remaining officers and men assigned to a replacement battalion...

- it so happens that the Second Canadian Mounted Rifles were in need of a Senior Major...

- now one should know that the 2CMR had been dehorsed and turned into infantry...

- Robert served in the trenches as Senior Major of the 2CMR until sometime in 1917...

- when...he was again found to be intoxicated on a regular basis...

. instead of dishonorable discharge, Major Adams was diagnosed with shell shock, and sent to a rehab hospital in England, where he was discharged from the Canadian Army...

- shortly after returning to the U.S. and discovering he was a wanted man, Robert again fled to Canada...

- where he again enlisted as a private in the Canadian Army...

- and was shortly posted to the 58th Battalion of the CEF...

- where on August 27, 1918, private Adams was killed in action, during the Battle of Arras, France...

- and so ends the story of Robert Adams...who when asked what was his occupation, replied...

- Soldier...


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As Parabola states, yesterday in the United Kingdom was Remembrance Sunday and Wednesday will be Remembrance Day. We have no Veterans Day, as such. I like to think they all get combined as one.

I did 12 years service as an infantry officer in the Regular Army, including five tours of Northern Ireland. We lost comrades and I remember them at this time of year. I also recall the good times and good friends and many good mates, some of whom are still alive and with whom I meet up when we can, spread around the world now, but drawn together by that thread of shared hardship and common experiences: Arctic warfare, jungle warfare, counter terrorism, armoured warfare on the north German plains, home defence, all mixed in with doing duty as binmen and firemen when they were on strike, for much higher wages than we were on, at the government's bidding.

Also remembered are those of my family who served and survived, my father, my two grandfathers, my uncles and the one who did not return, Great Uncle James, killed in France in 1917. And then there was the master at school who taught me French. He had married a French lady before the start of WW II. They had a daughter. He joined SOE in its early days. Eventually he was captured and tortured by the Gestapo. When they could not extract the information they wanted from him, they killed his family. He survived and ended up teaching French to us and visiting his in-laws back in France during each summer holidays. A brave man carrying a heavy burden and a sixty a day cigarette habit. A very good and patient teacher.

Tim

A heartfelt thank you to all the Vets!!!

Freedom isn't free, thanks to all the great veterans (past & present) that know that detail quite intimately.

Happy Veteran's Day.