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Is it today or tomorrow? Anyway, a salute to all our veterans on this board and everywhere for your service.
I know Gil and I wore blue uniforms back in the day, and I know that he and I go back to when 11/11 was still called Armistice Day in remembrance of WWI. I believe it changed in the mid-50's.
sbalax Member # 2801
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Official is today, Sunday. "Observed" is tomorrow. The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month (1918) was when the Armistice ending the Great War was signed. Some of us are old enough to remember when it was called Armistice Day.
Our flag is out for both days.
We had a nice fly over of vintage warplanes today to mark the beginning of the Parade downtown.
I've noticed very few veterans' groups selling the red paper poppies. I know it's still a very big deal in the UK and Australia and New Zealand.
Frank in sunny and cool SBA packing for the next "Big Adventure".
Henry Kisor Member # 4776
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Am the son of an USNR LCDR (WWII) and the dad of an USNR LCDR (becomes CDR in January), still active. Did not serve myself (4F). Very proud of both dad and son.
Stephen W Member # 6059
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It was a beautifully crisp and sunny morning in London yesterday for Remembrance Day (which fell this year on Armistice Day). The annual service in Whitehall was, as ever, moving and there were some 230 different regiments and organisations marching past the Cenotaph.
Having lost my paternal grandfather in WW1 it is always a day which brings the odd tear to the eye.
We will remember.
Gilbert B Norman Member # 1541
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On Veteran's Day, I think of those who served yet were called to withstand far more fear, pain, and suffering in the service of their country than I was ever called upon to endure.
I'll be the first to acknowledge that my Viet Nam tour (Jul 67-68) was, save about three occasions of some "pop-pop', simply "365 and a wake-up". I sincerely hope that I have never implied to anyone in any walk of life that it was otherwise.
GBN Sgt. USAF 1965-69
sbalax Member # 2801
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Stephen--
Two of my Great Uncles died in the Battle of Vimy Ridge in WWI. One of my goals in the next year or so is to visit the Canadian Cemetery there.
Frank in clear and cool SBA
Iron Mountain Member # 12411
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SBALAX, I must say that where I live Memorial Day Vets are out at the intersections and in front of the local Walmarts collecting and giving out poppies for our Veterans. I put one on my shopping cart and a couple on my car visor or or a button on my shirt. I have to wonder what kind of a community do you live in that the normally ubiquitous Memorial Day Poppy is not present?
I too am old enough to remember Armistice Day. I believe it was officially changed to Veteran's Day in 1954. I also remember Decoration Day as opposed to Memorial Day. I was teachng in Georgia in the early 70's and at that time they still were not recognizing Memorial Day. But in April Confederate Memorial Day was celebrated.
Interesting regional differences.
sbalax Member # 2801
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I don't think it's the community so much as the local Veteran's organizations. I asked a couple of people I know in VFW and American Legion and they said "It's too much work for too little profit". Very sad indeed.
notelvis Member # 3071
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Had a remarkable ride yesterday on an excursion operated by the Roanoke NRHS Chapter. I was pleased that those of us who were veterans received a 10% discount over the published fare and a commemorative ribbon to wear onboard.
The folks in Roanoke do train things well. Everytime.
Ira Slotkin Member # 81
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My poems here are typically about our doings hereon, but today I want to share thi piece I did for/about my father, written some 15 years ago, after he died. He was a combat veteran of WWII. 2 years in the Pacific Islands as an Army infantry Lt. Struggled for much of his life with PTSD issues. He had been a soft spoken, gentle man before being drafted at 31. Worked for the NY Public Library.
Librarian
He archived donated documents -- personal reports of pogroms and pilgrimages, famines and fascists, assigned Dewey Decimal designations, inserted them gently and just so, amid historical and metaphorical, pedantic and romantic, biography and geography. Finding each a home.
Then war checked him out to fight hand-to-hand, foxhole-to-foxhole, registering faces of death before returning him - a long overdue book, binding broken, undecipherable scribblings in the margins, pages stained, or missing…
Walking wounded, he was lost in the stacks carrying volumes of experience he could not catalog, could not shelve.
Henry Kisor Member # 4776
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Ira, that brought tears to my eyes. Beautiful.
sbalax Member # 2801
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Beautiful, Ira. Thank your for sharing this.
Frank in clear and cool SBA
Ocala Mike Member # 4657
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Ira, I'm keeping that on file in my Reference section.
notelvis Member # 3071
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Ira, Ira, Ira -
Supurb.
That is all.
MDRR Member # 2992
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David, My brother and I rode the train Sunday as well, sorry to miss you. We were in car # 5.
Great day for a ride...
notelvis Member # 3071
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quote:Originally posted by MDRR: David, My brother and I rode the train Sunday as well, sorry to miss you. We were in car # 5.
Great day for a ride...
Likewise!!!!!
Which car was #5?
I spent most of the day upstairs in Dome #1 but Dome #1 was the middle of the the three domes.... the short dome in NP livery.
The only time I moved about was at the Vaughn siding where they moved the locomotives around the train for the return trip. At that point I walked through each of the five vintage cars for a look.
And yes - it was a nice day for a train ride. I've reached the point now where I'll confess that what I like most is the opportunity to ride a dome car on a route that ordinarily does not have passenger train service!
MDRR Member # 2992
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We were in coach #5, 3rd car from opposite end of train from you. Jealous of you riding in luxury! LOL
Ira Slotkin Member # 81
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Thanks for the appreciation group. Ira
notelvis Member # 3071
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quote:Originally posted by MDRR: We were in coach #5, 3rd car from opposite end of train from you. Jealous of you riding in luxury! LOL
The way I rationalize this is that by using my Amtrak Guest Rewards Mastercard to purchase the seat in the dome, I am that much closer to my next 'free' trip in an Amtrak sleeping car.
Of course the factor which convinced me to do it was the Roanoke Chapter's offer of a 10% discount to any veteran! When I called to inquire about dome tickets the gentleman said "I'm sorry, we only have one dome ticket left for the train on Sunday." I replied "One ticket in the dome is all I'm looking for. May I buy the one you have?"
Done deal!
George Harris Member # 2077
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Mr. Norman: Also did my tour in Nam (Jan-Nov 1971, tour less than 365 due to the "Vietnamization" program) and without getting shot at, an experience I was happy to have missed. 1LT with a construction platoon. Huge drug problems by that time. All knew that the politicians had given away the store by then. My first job after taking the platoon was putting in flush toilets, big septic tanks and sand filters for the MP Battalion's hooches in Saigon. Try telling that one with a straight face.
Could not explain to my parent's generation, all males of which that were under 40 at the time of WW2 were vets except one who worked in a bomb factory, why I came home in civies. Just got tired of the antiwar people screaming baby killer at me after I got off the plane in California.
Most of these men were on the west coast or in the Pacific preparing for the invasion of the main islands of Japan when the Bomb was dropped. People tend to forget what a bloodbath those bombs kept from happening.
Back to the railroad world: My parents talked of traveling between his parents and her parents a couple of times when he was on leave with her sitting in his lap because there were no seats, and on the last one of these, holding me as well. It is hard to imagine today how jammed to the walls and worked to the limit everything was then.
In Nam: There was a one meter gauge railroad that ran between Saigon and Hanoi. The part from Saigon to Long Binh and maybe some beyond and also around Cam Rahn Bay was in service. one of my jobs at one point was to fix a washout of the Long Binh post fence where it was next to the railroad. As part of this we put in a culvert made up of half sections with a rebar grill and concrete aprons around it to be under the replaced fence. There was a slack wire going through the railroad culvert. The Platoon Sgt and I looked at it and thought about hooking something on it and backing way up and pulling to see what happened. Decided that best idea was to carefully bury the thing in concrete rather that possibly having to explain why we blew up the railroad.
KacyB Member # 52680
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POppies are still a VERY big deal in the UK.
I have a paper one, but my children have enamel ones which I put on their book bags.
I can't imagine anyone here without a poppy in November.
Just sayin' about poppies. I can't add much to the rest of the conversation!!
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