Veterans Day
Today the nation (at least the segment of the nation that both remembers and reveres them) honors those who sacrificed a portion of their lives for military service to the United States. Some served a single hitch of a couple of years. Others served their entire life. Some were drafted. Others enlisted. All of them deserve our profound gratitude.
On May 20, 1866 a man you never heard of until now passed away at the age of 102. At the time he was the last surviving veteran of the War for Independence:
The Last One Gone
The dispatches yesterday as our readers have seen brought the announcement of the death of the last surviving revolutionary pensioner, Lemuel Cook at Clarendon, N.Y. He died at about the same age with Mr. Hutchings at Penobscot, 102 – and their deaths were not far separated. [Bangor Daily Whig and Courier (Bangor, Maine) May 24, 1866 - submitted by Nancy Piper]From the DAR Book:
b. 10 Sept 1759, Plymouth, Conn., d. 20 May 1866, Clarendon, New York
m. 1785, Hannah Curtis, b. 1768, d. 1832
SERVICE: Pvt in 2nd Light Dragoons Conn. Regt.
It boggles the mind. He was born at the height of our colonial existence, fought for our freedom and lived long enough to see a nation he helped create succumb to civil war and then reunite afterward.
Lemuel Cook was the embodiment of the ultimate veteran.
My father was a veteran. He enlisted in the U.S. Army when the Korean War broke out and was dispatched to Berlin. I remember him telling me stories about how he and fellow soldiers were ordered to drive out from the city and observe the Soviet tank divisions lined up on the border: at the time, Berlin lay in East Germany. He spoke of chilly, foggy mornings where he sipped coffee and nibbled at a breakfast sandwich of black bread and German sausage - all the while peering through binoculars at Soviet soldiers who were sipping their coffee and nibbling on their breakfast sandwiches. However, the mood was anything but pastoral and he swallowed his breakfast with dread because he had no way of knowing how this stand off would end.
The 9th Berlin Regiment was vastly outnumbered and if the Soviets chose to do so, they could very easily have slaughtered all of the Americans and taken over the city in its entirety. My father and his fellow soldiers were all that stood between tyranny and liberty.
At the time he was as old as my own son is now. My father passed away in 2006.
Happy Veterans Day, Pop. I miss you.
God Bless you, your Dad, your son… and all who defend us this day.
To those who’ve served, we always owe a debt. To those who will serve, those of us who HAVE served must continue to make sure that the debt this nation will owe you is paid.
If you get the chance, head on down to your local VA hospital. Try and give a little more in your time and effort to a brother or sister who has no family.
Let them know that, in fact, they are not forgotten.
Claremore had their veterans’ Day parade this morning. Will Rogers, a Cherokee form Claremore, said, upon watching a similar parade in New York when the “boys” came home and marched down Broadway, “If you really want to honor the Veterans, then let them sit down in the stands and let the people march by.” That’s how it was in Claremore today. On both sides of the street were vetrans sitting in chairs or on tailgates, with all their patches from Amvets, VFW, American Legion, and just some of those like moi who don’t go in for organizations. To top off the parade, the 138th OKANG did a flyover. They have been doing flyovers in Iraq since the first gulf war.
The Oklahoma veterans hospital, just up the road from me, was all decked out in flags and the parking lot was full with visitors. Still some sadness with sirens in the middle of the night and a life flight sitting down. The Old Country Girl gets upset when that happens. I guess that will happen more and more in the future as the last of the WWII, Korean War, and Cold war vets start passing through. Then will come the Vietnam vets. This is getting depressing, but often real debt is depressing.
7A/24/7FA, BCC5/60FA
My Dad was an expendable 2nd Lieutenant behind enemy lines in the Korean war and a very lucky chopper pilot in the Vietnam war. He taught his 3 daughters to be as fiercely patriotic as he is. Tomorrow I’m taking my homeschool band (including the new fife & drum corps) to play for him at his house (he’s on oxygen now and can’t get out much) on our way to play at our local Veterans Hospital.
God bless ALL of our veterans, past and present, who have sacrificed so much that we might be free. I’m in this fight as much for them as for my children and future grandchildren….
Posting it again because you can’t see this enough.
Veteran’s Day montage
We cannot say enough. Godspeed one and all.
*eats*
Well, Manly, judging from the overwhealming response you have recieved from the patriot commenters on veterans’ day, I will adjourn with this:
Bibamus, moriendum est!
Let us not forget our former Commanders-In-Chief, such as both of the Bushes.
Thank you. A million times, thank you.
A special greeting to GooDDaddy and any other veterans we have had the privilege to know on this site.
Thanks many, many thanks to all Veterans for your service!
Thank you to all of our soliders from wars present and past who gave their lives for for their country. Thank you.