President's Veterans Day Message

President's Veterans Day Message
Veterans Day, 2003
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation




The willingness of America's veterans to sacrifice for our country has earned them our lasting gratitude. On this, our Nation's 50th annual Veterans Day observance, we celebrate and honor the patriots who have fought to protect the democratic ideals that are the foundation of our country.

When the armistice ending World War I was signed on November 11, 1918, more than 4.7 million Americans put down their arms and turned to the work of strengthening our Nation. The end of that first global conflict was initially commemorated as Armistice Day. In 1954, the Congress renamed the day as Veterans Day to recognize all those who have served in our Armed Forces.

Throughout our history, loyal citizens from every corner of America have willingly assumed the duty of military life. And time after time, in conflicts across the globe, they have proven that democracy is mightier than tyranny. From World War I and World War II, to the conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf, to the recent battles in the war on terror, our military has built a great tradition of courageous and faithful service. Our veterans have helped bring freedom to countries around the world. Free nations and peoples liberated by American troops are grateful for the long, distinguished line of American veterans who have come to their aid.

Today, our veterans inspire new generations of Americans as we work to defeat terrorism and advance peace. In respect for and recognition of the contributions our service men and women have made to the cause of peace and freedom around the world,the Congress has provided (5 U.S.C. 6103(a)) that November 11 of each year shall be set aside as a legal public holiday to honor veterans.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim November 11, 2003, as Veterans Day and urge all Americans to observe November 9 through November 15, 2003, as National Veterans Awareness Week. I encourage all Americans to recognize the valor and sacrifice of our veterans through appropriate ceremonies and prayers. I call upon Federal, State, and local officials to display the flag of the United States and to participate in patriotic activities in their communities. I invite civic and fraternal organizations, places of worship, schools, businesses, unions, and the media to support this national observance with suitable commemorative expressions and programs.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this tenth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-eighth.

GEORGE W. BUSH

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0031110-5.html

ONLY NUMBERS?

Two hundred, twenty-eight years
That, we have been going to war
Eleven times we said, "For freedom!"
Was, what we were fighting for.

We've spent two, point, six trillion
But that was just a petty cost
Compared to all of the spent lives
Of those loved ones, who were lost.

Thirty-two hundred plus, a month
For more than thirty-two years
The total time fighting our enemies
And more time, shedding our tears.

One and one quarter million dead
That's more than fifteen every day
Since we went to war, "For freedom!"
In our Revolutionary way.

One and one half million wounded
For this Country of the Free
Although some of these losses
Were the Union's and Confederacy.

But, all of them are Veterans
Who fought for what they believed
In their own way, doing battle
For those Freedoms, they perceived.

As of late, a Veteran's definition
Has come from a different kind of War
For which we all, are conscripted
To help guard, our Freedom's door.

Let's Honor, each and every one
And though we may not know each name
They were so much more than numbers
In every Wartime's deadly "game".

And, this November eleventh
In the year, Two Thousand Three
Let's hope someday, all People
Live in a land, where they are Free.

Let's make Veterans Day a memory
And a part of days gone past
Learn to live with our Fellowman
In a Free World at Peace, at last.

NOVEMBER 11TH


There are so many little towns
That make up this great nation
And the heroes from them
Boggle the imagination.
Those who answer the call
In peace and wartimes strife
Who give of themselves
So, we can live this life.
Some go and fight those wars
Some die, some hurt, survive
But all that they believe in
Is what keeps freedom alive.
It is all those little towns
And people who live there
Who stand and fight for freedom
For people, everywhere.
Somebody's dad or brother
Husband, daughter or son
Mother, sister, cousins
We all, know someone
Who, when freedom was threatened
Here at home, around the world
Were determined to insure
Freedoms flag remained unfurled.
They believe and fight for
The things this world needs
They might not always win
But they will have planted seeds.
In time of peace or conflict
There is always a price to pay
And today, we pay them tribute
On this Veterans Day.

VETERANS ALL (after 9/11)

Well! We're in a different world
Than, what, we ever knew
It will never, be the same
As it was, for me and you.

I think that, since 9/11
Some words forever changed
Like the meaning of "Veteran"
Has been, re-arranged.

Now, we all are fighters
For our "freedoms' cause"
If we don't stand, be counted
We'll have lost, "the cause, that was!"

On this Veterans' Day
In this "land of the free"
We honor those, who gave all
Those with us, and those, yet to be.

We honor those who perished
In attacks upon our shore
And those hunting evildoers
Who came through our "open door".

We honor all Americans
And freedom lovers of the world
Where flags like, "The Stars And Stripes"
Fly in the breeze, unfurled.

I think from this day forth
All patriotic celebrations
Will always give us pause
To these new, realizations.

We must rid this Earth
Of those "Devils" and their goals
With terror on their minds
Within their hateful souls.

So, here's to all the Veterans
Who have made "Freedom Ring"
And, those around the world
Who know! We have a "special" thing.

Veteran's Day 2001

TIME TO GO


I could see the flash of cannon
Over the ridge of the hill
Could hear the shots over my head
As I lay deathly still.

I looked up at the twinkling stars
Through the haze of the gunsmoke
And I could hear my comrades
Whispering as they spoke.

There was a quaking in their voice
That betrayed their mortal fear
And as I gazed into the sky
I asked, "What am I doing here?"

I thought of all those buddies
Killed on this foreign shore
And of loved ones back home
And then, I knew, "What for!"

To fight for God and Country
Is a calling, most will heed
To keep freedom safe from those
Who would plant an evil seed.

I lay there in my foxhole
Gripped by the numbing cold
But then, felt a warmth, from inside
Like I was held in the "fold".

I felt my best friend touch me
And couldn't believe he said,
"No need to call the corpsman,
'Cause he's already dead!"

And then my head felt light
As I looked down below,
Whispered, "I'll see ya', Bros
Because it's time for me to go!"

POW/MIA

So many fates are left unknown
And so many rumors that abound
So many families ask the question
When will, the answers be found?

So many years have come and gone
Sometimes, hope is hard to keep
There's some who feel there's none
And in some, it's buried deep.

The pain, is in not knowing
How, to put loved ones to rest
When there is no way to prove
They have passed, the final test.

But, no matter what the answers
We can't let this cause alone
Until, each and every one of them
Is found, and brought back home.

POW/MIA STORIES

It's hard to find, the stories
That, they won't talk about
It's hard, to realize the things
That they had, to go, without.

How can they let the feelings
(Even, they don't understand)
Show to, any other people
In this, Freedom's Land.

We can't know, the hardships
Unless, we were there
Especially, when they came back home
To those who didn't, seem, to care.

Unless you had, lived through it
Watching, Comrades that had died
Why should they, talk about it to us
Of, the tears, inside, they've cried?

Even, if they chose to tell us
What difference, would it make
Would it be worth the chance
That they, would have to take.

Why should they bare their soul
That's already been, stripped, clean
Because, even with, a picture of it
We couldn't see, what they have seen.

Sometimes, all we have to do
Is, to look into their eyes
And think that we might see or hear
Their, mournful, pain-filled cries.

That POW who came home
Who lived, through that Hell
Can't tell the stories, of the MIA
Who never had, a chance to tell!

So, we may never, ever, know
Of, the horrors, they have, known
And, if we think about it
It's probably best, that they aren't shown!

But there is, always an end
To every, never-ending story
Although sometimes, they're never told
In, all their Truth and Glory.

So if you ask about it
And if you ever wonder why
They won't talk of that nightmare
Maybe now, you might know, Why

OLD GLORY

More than two hundred years ago
Betsy Ross sewed strips of rag -
From those bits of colored cloth
Was shaped "Old Glory", our grand flag.

Stripes of red and white
For the thirteen colonies -
White stars against the blue
Began waving in the breeze.

It's gone through minor changes -
With stars added, as we grew -
It's flown proudly o'er our land
And in some other countries, too.

That symbol of our freedom -
Should be protected, at all cost -
But now our reverence for it
Seems, to be getting lost.

There are some things so sacred
To our great American way
That, those who desecrate it
Should, have a price, to pay.

Even though each buys his own
That flag belongs to us all -
It's owned by all the people
And we should never let it fall.

I'd just like to take a moment to wish all my brother and sister veterans a wonderful Veteran's Day. Let's not forget our POW/MIA's on this day and all those in uniform around the world protecting our freedoms.

God Bless you all.......



Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

A matter of honor

Recipients join once a year for a convention
By John Wilkens
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

November 11, 2003

The grenade landed and time stopped. At least it felt that way to John Baca.

"Do I run?" he remembers thinking. "Do I pick it up and throw it back?"

Moments like these are woven into the fabric of American life, talked about in history books and movies, remembered at boot camps and military reunions and on days like today, Veterans Day.

They are kept alive because of what they say about who we are, or about who we think we ought to be. They speak of courage and sacrifice and selflessness – our better angels, personified.

None of that entered Baca's mind at the time, of course.

He was an Army grunt in Vietnam, a 21-year-old infantryman from San Diego who considered himself lucky to be drafted because it probably kept him out of jail. He'd already spent some time in juvenile hall for various shenanigans.

On Feb. 10, 1970, his heavy-weapons platoon was operating near the Cambodian border. Setting up for a night ambush, they got ambushed first.

Baca, rushing to aid those under attack, had set up his 106 mm recoilless rifle and fired off a round when the grenade arrived. Eight other GIs were nearby. Pick it up? Run? Baca had to decide.

He took off his steel helmet, put it over the grenade and covered it with his body.

After the explosion, other soldiers propped him against the trunk of a tree. Baca could see his intestines sticking out of his uniform. He worried not about dying but that his mother would find out he was a liar; he had told her in a phone call on Christmas Day not to worry, that he was far from the front lines.

Airlifted out of South Vietnam, first to Japan, and then home to the United States, he was hospitalized for months. After he recovered, he left the Army and was just starting college when he was summoned to the White House.

In a ceremony there, on June 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon presented Baca with the only United States military award worn around the neck, a blue ribbon with white stars and a medal that says "valor."

The Medal of Honor.

More than 39 million men and women have served in the nation's armed forces since the Civil War. Only 3,440 people have received the Medal of Honor.

And only 134 of them are still alive. Changes in military training, technology and tactics have reduced the likelihood of situations like those that brought the medal in the past.

Combat has occurred in many places in the past 30 years – Lebanon, Grenada, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, among others – but yielded only two of the medals. They were awarded posthumously to two Army sergeants killed in the "Black Hawk Down" incident in Somalia in 1993.

Nobody thinks it's a bad thing that fewer people are joining the medal's ranks. The award is almost always linked with death (about half of the recipients died in the episode that later brought them plaudits) or with death-defying actions.

But some observers are wondering what else will pass away if and when there are no more living examples of what the medal represents, no more recipients to give speeches or ride in parades.

That concern has spurred the publication of a new book, "Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty," and production of a new documentary "American Valor," which airs tonight at 9 on KPBS.

"These are people who had the courage to do the right thing when it needed to be done," said Nicholas Kehoe, president of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. "We need to keep alive the legacy of what they did because we don't want people to forget that there is a price to freedom, that men and women have been willing to lay down their lives."

That's not easy in an age when the word "hero" is used so indiscriminately. It has appeared in almost 500 stories so far this year in The San Diego Union-Tribune alone, including stories about bounty hunters, veterinary technicians and con men.

Athletes, movie stars and rock musicians are often our role models, bumped from the public's adoration only when a disaster temporarily elevates the profile of police officers and firefighters.

If Eminem is a hero, what does that make Robert Modrzejewski?

On July 15, 1966, Modrzejewski (pronounced Mo-g-s-key) was a Marine captain commanding about 130 men in the jungles of South Vietnam. They got into a battle that stretched over three days and left them with about 90 casualties, including 16 dead.

Outnumbered 10-to-1 by the North Vietnamese, surrounded and running short of ammunition, Modrzejewski rallied his troops. Although he was wounded by shrapnel, he managed to crawl and run 200 yards through enemy fire to re-supply Marines cut off from the rest of the company. He called in close-quarter artillery and napalm strikes.

It worked. For reasons he still doesn't understand – he clasps his hands together, as in prayer, when he talks about it – the enemy withdrew into the hills.

Almost two years later, on March 12, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson put the Medal of Honor on him. He was 33.

Living now in Tierrasanta, he'd be the last one to call himself a hero. "You're focused on the right there, right then," he said. "You're trying to save as many of your men as possible. You're trying not to do something stupid to get men killed."

He said he doesn't wear the medal for himself, but for those who were with him in Quang Tri Province.

"Not a day goes by that I don't think of the people who made the sacrifice and were either killed or injured," he said. "There are things that stay with you forever. This is one of them."

The medal, he said, "doesn't belong to me. I'm just a caretaker."

The caretakers get together once a year for a convention. They know their numbers are dwindling so it's a time mostly for camaraderie. "We never talk about war," Modrzejewski said.

They do, though, sometimes talk about the fakers.

About 100 people have been exposed as frauds in the past 10 years, said Thomas Cottone Jr., an FBI special agent in New Jersey who investigates the impostors.

"They do it for prestige," he said. "They feel unfulfilled somehow, and they think the medal will make them feel more important. It's bizarre, really, and sad."

In one recent case, Bruce Cotta, a man known as the most highly decorated Vietnam veteran in Rhode Island, was debunked. An Army medic, he had tried unsuccessfully three times to get his Bronze Star elevated to a Medal of Honor.

Then he forged papers to claim the next highest award, the Distinguished Service Cross. He arranged a presentation ceremony with a congressman and invited the media. In the ensuing hoopla, a post office branch was named after him.

Often it's another veteran who turns them in. It's getting easier, especially with the Internet, to verify military medals, and sites such as fakewarriors.com and stolenvalor.com have been launched in recent years to "out" the posers.

"The real medal recipients, they are irate when this kind of thing happens," Cottone said. "They are the most humble guys you'd ever want to meet. Other than the blue ribbon around their necks, you couldn't pick them out at a Rotary meeting.

"This hurts them because the last thing they were thinking about when they did what they did was the Medal of Honor. Most of their actions were taken to save the lives of fellow servicemen. You can't put a price on those kinds of actions."

Modrzejewski, for one, doesn't get it. "You have to wonder why some guy would want to do that, to put something on his wall or around his neck that he didn't earn."

After he joined the Marines, in 1957, he learned about the Medal of Honor and wanted no part of it. "Quite frankly, I didn't want one because of what usually goes with it – namely, death," he said.

Now that he has one, though, he said he feels a responsibility to protect its integrity and preserve its legacy. He cringes every time a letter arrives from the medal foundation – it too often means another of the recipients has died, he said – but in one sense the thinning numbers are comforting.

"If there are no more Medals of Honor," he said, "that probably means the nation is at peace."

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/m...614-honor.html


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

Veterans help keep history of the Marines alive
November 11,2003
MIKE SHERRILL
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Jack Murphy slides the silver cigar cutter out of its black pouch. He slices the tip off the cigar. Then the cutter goes back into the pouch and into his right breast pocket.

As Murphy, 73, lights the cigar, he tells a story in his graveled voice. He may talk Notre Dame football, but often the retired Marine gunnery sergeant talks about his time in the Corps that started in 1947 and ended almost three decades later.

When his buddies get together, they "solve the world's problems," he said grinning.

"I wouldn't last up in Washington D.C.," he said. "I'd get up there and last one term."

To know Murphy, gruff but quick-witted, is to know that's true.

Murphy spends a lot of time talking about his service. As a member of the retiree council on Camp Lejeune, Murphy and others will go to the School of Infantry and let the young Marines know what to expect.

"The experiences of the past help these (new) guys," Murphy said. "I care about those kids out there. They need to know where they're coming from. The Marine Corps wasn't invented six weeks ago."

While many debate whether the Marine Corps was better then or now, Murphy said the argument is unnecessary.

"We don't need any of that," Murphy said. "It's one Marine Corps. We did what we did to the best of our ability with what we had at the time."

That's the kind of balance Murphy brought to the Veterans History Project, created by the U.S. Library of Congress and operated locally by organizers for the planned Marine Corps Museum of the Carolinas.

In this program, veterans of all decades are video- and audio-recorded while interviewed, the questions often spurring memories.

"I think there's part of it that's always with you," Murphy said. "Sometimes (talking helps). Sometimes there's things you want to forget."

For Murphy, who lives in Jacksonville, it's important the stories come from those who lived them.

"It's important to get the guys who were there before some peacenik professor starts changing history on us," Murphy said. "I guess, it's not important what I say. It's important what's said by all the guys."

Murphy's service took him to Korea once and Vietnam twice. He spent his time in Korea as a high-speed radio operator tapping out Morse code. In Vietnam, he worked with the Naval Security Groups doing the things that "if I told you about them, I'd have to shoot you," he chortled.

He remembers all his drill instructors, including one with a thing for air raids, a memory that made Murphy roll his eyes. His stories included meeting John Wayne and having a beer with the legendary Lt. Gen. "Chesty" Puller.

"I wanted to go into the service, and I wanted to see the world," Murphy said. "I wanted to see what I couldn't afford to pay for. Damn places I wanted to go, I never got sent to. But I'd do it again. The Marine Corps was good to me, and I hope I was good to it."

Murphy laughed at his memories of learning Polish in language school then coming to a local base near Warsaw.

"I couldn't find anyone who was Polish, and I couldn't find anyone who knew why it was named Warsaw," Murphy said.

But Murphy has little humor reserved for times when the country went to war then left too soon. He listed Vietnam, Somalia and Lebanon and said it's the politicians who lose the wars, not the military.

"Of course, we haven't had a war since World War II," Murphy snorted. "Believe me, any time you're getting shot at, that's a war. I don't care what they call it."

Murphy said only veterans truly know what it takes to win a war. No one likes casualties, but realistically some must be expected. "I don't think anyone hates war more than the man who has to fight it," Murphy said.

But he sees indigenous people, like those in the mountain villages of Vietnam, who help American troops and are punished when U.S. troops leave.

"That's why the cut-and-run bothers me," Murphy said. "If you're going to do something, do it to the end."

He sees the "Peaceniks" out again now in the Iraq conflict and said that now is the wrong time for America to leave, that those who preach leaving don't know what it takes to finish the job.

That's why he points the Veterans History Project as important to get the story out. Those of any branch of service at any time are welcomed to participate. Interested veterans need to call the museum and schedule a time and a place with project coordinator Tonya Nagle.

The project was introduced locally by Jason Lowry from the office of U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C. Lowry said project coordinators want to include both men and women. Interviewing along the East Coast, Lowry has even talked to a World War I veteran.

"If you're uncomfortable talking about certain things, don't talk about those things," Murphy said.

"If you're uncomfortable talking about the whole thing, just better leave it alone. But there's not all bad things that happen. If it doesn't bother you to talk, and for the sake of the straight stuff, it's better that it comes from someone who was there."

Contact the Marine Corps Museum of the Carolinas at 937-0033.

http://www.jacksonvilledailynews.com...6&Section=News


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

Every veteran has a story to share
November 11,2003
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Every veteran has a story. A story about going to war and how it changed the world or the character of a man; a story about being drafted, doing one's time and getting out; or a story about being a lifer, wearing a uniform that now sits lovingly preserved in a trunk full of memories.

Every veteran has a story. It's a tale of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps where humans were warehoused, then murdered. Fighting for footholds on God-forsaken coral atolls and seeing friends die securing something that nobody really needed anyway. Carrying fallen comrades through ice and snow on feet numbed by cold, or wondering if the approaching child might be rigged with a bomb.

Every veteran has a story. It's about pulling kitchen duty and peeling potatoes or swabbing down the deck of a ship; long weeks aboard a carrier with a population as big as a city, with personal space smaller than a closet; standing guard duty in the piercing cold wind or deadly, debilitating heat.

Every veteran has a story. Some are heroic, others mundane. Some inspire, others recount boredom and the routine of everyday life. Some strike to the heart, raise our pride, touch our souls. Others remind us that war is a dirty business - not for the weak or spiritless.

Every veteran has a story. It's the tale of one who always knew he'd fly high with military wings gracing his chest or tend to the wounded in the heat of battle. It's also the tale of a woman scrapping to accompany her unit to a war zone or black men relegated to second-class citizenship, yet still willing to fight and die for their country.

Every veteran has a story, and it's a story worth telling. Stories about wars that shaped the history of mankind; about long nights spent in foxholes or barracks or seeing the sights in a strange city; about leaving spouses home to cope alone and sometimes coming back to find the spouse gone. They're about children growing up while parents were off serving their country; about holidays spent in a USO or base mess hall; about inspections and making rank and sometimes getting busted.

Some are about policing the office, polishing brass, going to the range, sleeping in the field and the day-to-day business that goes with being a member of the U.S. Armed Forces.

At one time, young men could be required to enter the U.S. Armed Forces. Compulsory service finally ended following the Vietnam War, but not before hundreds of thousands of men and women of every race and creed had served. Since then, the volunteer armed forces have flourished, augmented by reserves and the National Guard. They are all members of an elite club - veterans of the U.S. military.

Each and every one has a story, an amalgamation of his or her experiences - good, bad, hair-raising or dull. It's a story containing a snapshot of history, a moment that will never be relived, never recaptured. A story that deserves telling and retelling, before it's gone, lost for all times.

Know a veteran? Ask about his or her military service. Learn why this nation is proud and free. Hear about those who didn't make it back, as well as the ones who did. Then record it, stamp in the collective memories of this nation and hold it tight.

Every veteran has a story. Make sure it's heard. For in the telling, we become a richer nation, as well as one that truly understands just what it is that veterans have earned on behalf of all of us, the precious gift they've given to this country: Freedom.


If you or someone you know has a story to tell, the Marine Corps Museum of the Carolinas would like an interview for the Veterans' History Project. Stories from all branches of the armed forces and from all wars and military actions are welcome and needed.

To find out more about this unique way to leave a living legacy, or to set up an appointment, telephone (910) 937-0033 or fax (910) 937-0537; or write to Marine Corps Museum of the Carolinas, P.O. Box 1046, Jacksonville, N.C. 28541; or e-mail mcmuseum@earthlink.net.


http://www.jacksonvilledailynews.com...ection=Opinion


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

A Veterans Day reminder




I went into a public-'ouse to get a pint o' beer,
The publican 'e up an' sez, "We serve no red-coats here."
The girls be'ind the bar they laughed an' giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an' to myself sez I:
O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but 'adn't none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-'alls,
But when it comes to fightin', Lord! they'll shove me in the stalls!
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, wait outside";
But it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide,
The troopship's on the tide, my boys, the troopship's on the tide,
O it's "Special train for Atkins" when the trooper's on the tide.

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.
Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.

You talk o' better food for us, an' schools, an' fires, an' all:
We'll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don't mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool — you bet that Tommy sees!

— Rudyard Kipling's "Tommy"

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20031...2545-2825r.htm


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

Outstanding post gentleman. I would Like to say Thank You to all of those who have served from the Front Line to those who were in the Rear With The Gear. Every job was important no matter where or when you served. Those of us who were the Grunts, In the planes with the Arty in the field sometimes forget about the guy in the rear making sure we still have Bullets, Bombs, Beans and Bandaids to keep the operation going. No matter what your job was it made the Corps and the Fleet a success.