Memorial Day Salute

[CAPT MOGUL & Sandy]

I would like to take this moment here and say THANK YOU to all of you veterans out there!!! We are so fortunate to be able to enjoy what we have today only because of the work done by you. And to those of you who are still serving, THANK YOU! My prayers are with each of you and... the fallen ones:(. God Bless the USA!!!!It is my prayer that God will help us all to continue to be strong and do what is right during these tough times.:)

Happy Memorial Day and be Safe!!!

Sandy Harris Brockman
P.S. Starting to look for that 45ft.:confused:

[michaeldterry]

Ditto to what Sandy said! Below is a description of the Memorial Day flag retirement ceremony that was sent to me by my 85 year old uncle, USAF Major - retired. It touched my heart and I thought I'd share with my fellow POGgers:


Happy Memorial day! Wish you could go to the flag retirement ceremony at the National Cemetary at NAS Pensacola. The Boy Scouts ceremonially tear the retiring American Flags along the bottom of the blue field. The lower half containing only red and white stripes is folded lengthwise and laid across the white gloved outstretched arms of another scout. The blue field is torn away from the upper shorter stripes. The full piece of upper stripes are the laid across the same boys arms. The blue field is then folded corner to corner an laid across the boys arms. The scout then gets in a line of other scouts with outstretched arms all with remnants of ceremonially torn flags. One by one a group of uniformed retired and active military folks from all branches of the service take each scout in succession and dedicate the retiring flag to Honor, Country, Service, God, Heroism, Duty and many other values that too many people have taken for granted. The scout and escort then approach a row of gas burners made from half cut barrels. At each burner an attendant removes the flag from the scout’s arms and burns it in the burner. The scout then goes back through this ritual until all flags have been burned. These flags are collected from all over the county and surrounding area. There has been 50 foot flags all the way down to the little ones you see on tables in restaurants. Thousands and thousands; truckloads of these flags are retired in this way every Memorial day. I’ve seen this almost every year since Brett was in the scouts back the mid 90’s. I have never watched or participated in it with a dry eye. This goes on from 0700 til late afternoon or until they are through. When they are finished they collect all of the ashes and take them to the flag pole at the main entrance to the cemetery. At the base of the pole there is a larger bronze plug about 10 inches in diameter. It is the opening to an extremely large vault used only for these ashes. The ensuing ceremony would even make a Democrat cry!

Happy Memorial Day! Thank you to every US serviceman and woman, past and present! The freedoms we enjoy are due to your service and sacrifice!

[dalej]

Thanks Sandy,

It's so easy to rush on by and not take the time. Our gratitude to our service men and woman.

[Sid Tuls]

Thanks for sharing the above posts!!!!!!!!!

[BrianE]

Beverly and I would like to add our thanks to our fellow POG members who have defended our country. Every year we attend a Memorial Day ceremony given by the WWII Submariners Assn in Portland, OR. During the ceremony a ships bell is tolled 52 times for the submarines lost during the war. Sadly the ranks of our WWII vets is getting smaller each year.