Memorial Day

Copyright, JD Crowe, all rights reserved

"Thank you" to those who gave their last full measure and the ones they left on the homefront.

For Memorial Day, May 31st

(JD Crowe/Mobile Register 2004)

Memorial Day

This month marks the 147th anniversary of one of the first memorial days, then called Decoration Day, in Charleston, SC.

Memorial Day commemorates the men and women who have died in our nation's military service. Our national observance has slipped away with the long weekend, but the real sense of loss will hang about those left behind: mothers, wives, children, comrades, friends, ... For them and their fallen loved ones, I include these thoughts from Arlington National Cemetery through the famous photograph by John Moore, and the words of Rich Galen:

Arlington National Cemetery, on Memorial Day, has nothing to do with the sweep and grandeur of history, nor the gigantic commitment of resources to battles and wars; nor grand strategies and brilliant tactics.

Mary McHugh at the grave of  Sgt. James Regan
(photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

It is a place where - and the day when - we remember the individual men and women who were killed at Bull Run, and Belleau-Wood, at Iwo Jima, on Omaha Beach, and in Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan, and Iraq and all the other un-locatable places with unpronounceable names where we have too-often sent young men and women to fight and, too often, to die.

Arlington National Cemetery, on Memorial Day, has everything to do with a single white headstone nestled in a neat row among all the other white headstones next to it, in front of it, and behind it. Up hills and down swales.

It stands, along with the others, in silent acceptance of a nation's gratitude.

Update:

For more on John Moore's photo, check out this video:

Taps

A Thousand Words

Remember the Fallen 2010



Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let the Perpetual Light shine upon them. May they rest in peace.

Procession for Staff Sgt. John Beale

Welcome Home the Fallen 2010

Walt Whitman - Dirge for Two Veterans

Love the Fallen 2010

1

The last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finish’d Sabbath,
On the pavement here—and there beyond, it is looking,
Down a new-made double grave.

2

Lo! the moon ascending!
Up from the east, the silvery round moon;
Beautiful over the house tops, ghastly phantom moon;
Immense and silent moon.

3

I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-key’d bugles;
All the channels of the city streets they’re flooding,
As with voices and with tears.

4

I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring;
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.

5

For the son is brought with the father;
In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell;
Two veterans, son and father, dropt together,
And the double grave awaits them.

6

Now nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive;
And the day-light o’er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.

7

In the eastern sky up-buoying,
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin’d;
(’Tis some mother’s large, transparent face,
In heaven brighter growing.)

8

O strong dead-march, you please me!
O moon immense, with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans, passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.

9

The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music;
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love.

4Troops - For Freedom

Mission of the Fallen 2010



A portion of the proceeds from each sale of the 4Troops CD is donated to the American Legion, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, and the USO.

Lt. Col. John McCrae, Canadian Army - In Flanders Fields

Our Duty to the Fallen 2010

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.

Zac Brown Band - America the Beautiful/Chicken Fried (live in Minneapolis)

Celebrate the Lives of the Fallen 2010

Preparing for Memorial Day

Remembering the Fallen 2010

This month marks the 145th anniversary of one of the first memorial days, then called Decoration Day, in Charleston, SC. Memorial Day commemorates the men and women who have died in our nation's military service. This year, The Troglodyte will include a post each day through Memorial Day as a tribute to those who have given their last full measure in service to their country.