MEMORIAL WEEKEND ...How Do You Commemorate Your Military Service People?

  





Putting this years 'Memorial Weekend' into proper perspective; I've found it really ironic that my country fought to obtain our freedom from England and yet we've been joined in a like minded resolve with you and you with us in every military action since that time?
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So what do you do with a 3 day weekend?

Eat barbecue and drink beer, mostly ...

Ben_Reilly wrote:Eat barbecue and drink beer, mostly ...

     

Do you do the majority of the grilling or turn that over to another 'master chef'?
What's on the menu?

4EVER2 wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:Eat barbecue and drink beer, mostly ...

     

Do you do the majority of the grilling or turn that over to another 'master chef'?
What's on the menu?

I always do my fair share of the grilling, and it’s never very fancy, just burgers, steak, sausage, etc. How about you?

Used to crank up my smoker: brats, burgers, country style ribs, some chicken thighs, and then just some hot dogs for fun.  Always figured if I was going to use that much wood - might as well make enough to share and love the left overs! 
But with so many elderly neighbors that don't do any grilling, they'd suffer through a care package of one of each for their weekend meals and were tickled to have something homemade. 

This year - I'm invited over to a neighbor doing all the work and I just get to supervisor his smoking timer; he's apprenticing my longevity behind the smoker and the types of wood to use.
His wife is still a fan of that nasty smelling propane tank - we tried to covert her last year; had her bag up some left over hot dogs from our smoker and some from her gas grill and then she opened those bags the next day --- WHEW, she was shocked at that nasty gas fumes still attached to the grilled hot dogs she thought 'were always the best!'  LOL

Saw a memorial to war dogs earlier. Do you know what happened to the dogs when the war in Nam ended? I'LL tell you what happened, The fucking US government said US WAR DOGS could not come back to America although their handlers said they would look after them. They had to be left behind at the mercy of the Vietnese who beat them and FUCKING ATE THEM. I saw battle hardened troops crying as their dogs were took away, never forgot it.

nicko wrote:Saw a memorial to war dogs earlier.    Do you know what happened to the dogs when the war in Nam ended?    I'LL tell you what happened,   The fucking US government said US WAR DOGS  could not come back to America although their handlers said they would look after them.  They had to be left behind at the mercy of the Vietnese  who beat them and FUCKING ATE THEM.  I saw battle hardened troops crying as their dogs were took away,  never forgot it.

I know Nicko ...my oldest brother was stationed at one of the busiest supply depot over there; he tried his damdest to smuggle several canine out while the upper brass was busy shipping out the crates of drugs and stolen artifacts ...but he wasn't able to get many aboard planes.  Even the USO groups smuggled some out for a few flights but those were few and far between ...
But our government treated those married Vietnamese females & bi-racial children the same way!

4EVER2 wrote:

nicko wrote:Saw a memorial to war dogs earlier.    Do you know what happened to the dogs when the war in Nam ended?    I'LL tell you what happened,   The fucking US government said US WAR DOGS  could not come back to America although their handlers said they would look after them.  They had to be left behind at the mercy of the Vietnese  who beat them and FUCKING ATE THEM.  I saw battle hardened troops crying as their dogs were took away,  never forgot it.

I know Nicko ...my oldest brother was stationed at one of the busiest supply depot over there; he tried his damdest to smuggle several canine out while the upper brass was busy shipping out the crates of drugs and stolen artifacts ...but he wasn't able to get many aboard planes.  Even the USO groups smuggled some out for a few flights but those were few and far between ...
But our government treated those married Vietnamese females & bi-racial children the same way!

They did, in the case of both dogs and the people.

Not that we can talk, we left the Afghan and Iraqi interpretors who worked for us, and who the Generals said did much more than they were asked and were a huge part of it, and they and their families have been terrorised, torturned and killed and we are STILL dragging our feet about granting them asylum.

AUSTRALIA'S mlitary remembrance day is Anzac Day...

https://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac-day/

http://www.army.gov.au/our-history/traditions/anzac-day

https://anzacday.org.au/home

ANZAC DAY falls on the same date, April 25th, each year -- so we Aussies only have a 'long weekend' if it's a Friday or Monday, or it falls on the weekend (when the Monday will be a public holiday for regular 5-day-a-week workers)..

When it's on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, that's a one-day public holiday..

No idea when our memorial weekend/days are tbh.

Do you ask, have you asked your family members about their service days?

4EVER2 wrote:Do you ask, have you asked your family members about their service days?

All died 4ever. No one left from the service unfortunately.

eddie wrote:

4EVER2 wrote:Do you ask, have you asked your family members about their service days?

All died 4ever. No one left from the service unfortunately.

Well, for all of our 'spirit guide/ancestors' that watch over us daily
...from mine to yours

4EVER2 wrote:Do you ask, have you asked your family members about their service days?

My Dad flew Lancaster Bombers during the last war and wouldn't talk about it for ages.  It has only been during the last 4/5 years that I have actually found out about many things.  He still has nightmares about it.   I had a great-uncle who was in a Japanese POW camp in Malaysia and others who were injured.   We always think that our family were so lucky, because, even though we are a huge family, and those who stayed at home were in London and got bombed out over and over again, not one member died during the war, and that has to be a record.

sassy wrote:

4EVER2 wrote:Do you ask, have you asked your family members about their service days?

My Dad flew Lancaster Bombers during the last war and wouldn't talk about it for ages.  It has only been during the last 4/5 years that I have actually found out about many things.  He still has nightmares about it.   I had a great-uncle who was in a Japanese POW camp in Malaysia and others who were injured.   We always think that our family were so lucky, because, even though we are a huge family, and those who stayed at home were in London and got bombed out over and over again, not one member died during the war, and that has to be a record.

Not really, as my fathers family lived through the siege pf Malta, as In 1942 the tiny island of Malta became the most bombed place on earth, the concentration of bombs far surpassing that suffered by London in the Blitz. Not one of my family members died, though suffered horribly with a lack of food and fuel even to bake bread. My father and his siblings at one point had to be placed into an orphanage, when my Grand mother had complications with her pregnancy of my aunt and went into hospital. Being as my GrandFather was fighting for the British, there was then simply nobody there then to look after them. I not disocunting what your family went through as the blitz was horrendus and all those who fight and serve in wars have nightmares over who they kill. I am sure many others never lost any family members and we should be grateful to all those who did survive. Those who fight in combat though. They just learn to deal with this horror in different ways. It got the better of my Irish Grandfather who fought with the Battleaxe Division in Africa, Italy and Austria. He became an alcoholic and blew all the money the family shop had into ruin. War has many effects on those who fight them, of which we should never forget.

Was the bombing campaigns wrong against Germany and Japan civillian areas? Most definately, but it did achieve a tactical success. As in Germany, it forced many fighters to be withdrawn from the front to defend the skies of the Reich against such attacks. This helped obtain total air supremacy over the battlefield which was crucial in defeating Nazi Germany

I wasn't talking just about the Blitz, I was including those who fought in the Army, Navy and RAF, about 20 of them altogether.

sassy wrote:I wasn't talking just about the Blitz, I was including those who fought in the Army, Navy and RAF, about 20 of them altogether.

Well I am glad many survived, but you are not the only one that had no family member die during the conflict bith fighting and as civillians.

sassy wrote:I wasn't talking just about the Blitz, I was including those who fought in the Army, Navy and RAF, about 20 of them altogether.

Some of you English could probably trace a few of your ancestors clear back to the ...well way the hell back there into the knights of the round table; my family - not so much.
I did have an Aunt that was from a group of those English children sent out during the worst of the bombing to America and she met my Uncle and were married.  Now her stories for her early days in England and what she remembers doing 'without' were incredible too hear.
For instance; she never learned to enjoy 'milk', there wasn't any in the region of England that she was living, and she considered that powdered substance to be abominable {not worth making} but she would pour orange juice over her cereal to eat it and she did up to the day she could no longer have that to eat.

4EVER2 wrote:

sassy wrote:I wasn't talking just about the Blitz, I was including those who fought in the Army, Navy and RAF, about 20 of them altogether.

Some of you English could probably trace a few of your ancestors clear back to the ...well way the hell back there into the knights of the round table; my family - not so much.
I did have an Aunt that was from a group of those English children sent out during the worst of the bombing to America and she met my Uncle and were married.  Now her stories for her early days in England and what she remembers doing 'without' was incredible. 
For instance; she never learned to enjoy 'milk', there wasn't any in the region of England that she was living, and she considered that powdered substance to be abominable {not worth making} but she would pour orange juice over her cereal to eat it and she did up to the day she could no longer have that to eat.

Don't think I fancy orange juice and cereal much lol.   On my Dad's side they come from the South Coast and their surname is one of the rarest in the country, but on my Mum's side, my great-grandmother was Maltese, she came over to be a nurse in Kings Lynn, then moved to London when she had my Nan.   She became friends with the lady next door, who had 9 children, died having her 10th, so she started looking after the children.   After a couple of years, she married the father of her friend's children, and they went on to have another 8!!!!!!   My Grandad on my Mum's side was one of 8, his twin brother was killed beside him on a naval ship during WWI.   They were so poor that some of the children had to go and live with their grandparents as their parents couldn't feed and clothe them.   My Dad's is the 'posh' side, he had one sister and one brother, neither of whom had any children, but I have so many cousins and second cousins on my Mum's side it's ridiculous lol

sassy wrote:

4EVER2 wrote:Do you ask, have you asked your family members about their service days?

My Dad flew Lancaster Bombers during the last war and wouldn't talk about it for ages.  It has only been during the last 4/5 years that I have actually found out about many things.  He still has nightmares about it.   I had a great-uncle who was in a Japanese POW camp in Malaysia and others who were injured.   We always think that our family were so lucky, because, even though we are a huge family, and those who stayed at home were in London and got bombed out over and over again, not one member died during the war, and that has to be a record.

For all of those that died on those foreign soil from over here, that seems pretty dam amazing.  My mom's family were 9 strong boys in that family and I can't remember how many sisters - mom being the baby; but those short statured ones ended up on submarines and the taller/slender ones went into the Air Force - except Uncle Buck he trained the horses and mules that were used for Army duty, they sad he size was just to big to hide anywhere and wouldn't fit into any thing that the average soldier drove.  All of his brothers were much smaller in comparison; he got teased a lot about being the 'milkman' baby.

I think the history of families, rather than world history, tells the story of what happened years ago in a much more human way and far more interesting that history books and dates and places.

sassy wrote:I think the history of families, rather than world history, tells the story of what happened years ago in a much more human way and far more interesting that history books and dates and places.

Which is why you fail to understand history, as many tall tales stem from within families.
Its all very interesting all aspects of history but its about finding the facts from fiction.
That is why history is so interesting as new things come to light all the time

eddie wrote:No idea when our memorial weekend/days are tbh.

Really? November 11. You know The Cenotaph?

Cass wrote:

eddie wrote:No idea when our memorial weekend/days are tbh.

Really? November 11. You know The Cenotaph?

Oh right yes! For some reason I thought we were talking about weekend memorials....

It's confusing over here: we have this 'Memorial Day'

Memorial Day/Decoration Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces.^[1] The holiday, which is observed every year on the last Monday of May, originated as Decoration Day after the American Civil War in 1868, when the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of Union veterans founded in Decatur, Illinois, established it as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the Union war dead with flowers.
*****
On June 28, 1968, the Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend. The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971. After some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply, all 50 states adopted Congress' change of date within a few years.

...and so many make the pilgrimage to their family cemeteries' - decorate their family graves - have picnics - family reunions and such.
And in November, 11th ... we have Veterans Day 

Memorial Day is not to be confused with Veterans Day; Memorial Day is a day of remembering the men and women who died while serving, while Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans.

 
I just remember as a little kid, we spent a huge amount of time trudging through one cemetery after another watching my many cousins placing 'plastic flowers' around the graves of deceased family members but we weren't supposed to ask questions about what/why/who those graves were...all very bizarre and confusing.  Then later there'd be the enormous picnic and games and if you were luck you could find some quiet time to have a chat with grandpa when people were off doing other stuff.
Neither one of my parents enjoyed those excursions - liked plastic/fake plants/flowers - and would rather recount the stories of those that were buried there.

eddie wrote:

Cass wrote:

Really? November 11. You know The Cenotaph?

Oh right yes! For some reason I thought we were talking about weekend memorials....

probably because it is called Memorial Day weekend over here

We have the 11th hour of the 11th day of the month and in Jersey we also have 9th May which is Liberation Day when the islands were liberated from the Germans.