Honor on Memorial Day Weekend: What's worth the price, is always worth the fight.

a reply to: gusdynamite
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You being not an american says alot.

I don't expect you to understand just how significant memorial day is to Americans.

I am a US Soldier and I will most definitely honor my fallen comrades, no matter the era.

To all ATS military members, enjoy this 4 day to its fullest and honor your battles, remembrance will keep the their spirit alive.

a reply to: CaticusMaximus


Goodbye. I wouldn't expect understanding from you because you evidently don't recall any history and you apparently like to play all "Westboro" with your misguided activism one usually would call being a Hippy,progressive or other such thing because you seem devoid of TACT.
As to what is honored here is the idea of respecting the poor bastards who have gone,in YOUR place,to go do what the world does.If we hadn't we would have had a draft of say...people like YOU and we would have been overrun and destroyed because of the apparent skill of most commies, academicians,lawyers and such when dealing with nasty things like combat and war.
YOUR job is to stop the war not to weaken your own side by trying to attack social norms of American culture,despite what political instruction has taught you.

originally posted by: Arnie123
a reply to: gusdynamite
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You being not an american says alot.

I don't expect you to understand just how significant memorial day is to Americans.

I am a US Soldier and I will most definitely honor my fallen comrades, no matter the era.

To all ATS military members, enjoy this 4 day to its fullest and honor your battles, remembrance will keep the their spirit alive.

I am a human being and I try to honour all of those who are no longer with us. I didn't realise one must be American to do that.

If you want to get into it, though, feel free and I'll be happy to offend you.

Tonight I thought I would add a few to represent the period which impacts me most directly and personally. The Vietnam War.

First, a few quick facts for those who may not be familiar with that war. The first ground troops entered Vietnam in March of 1965. The last Americans got out on April 30th 1975. The war is recognized as ending in March of 1973. These are the dates of official record.

During that time 3,403,100 men served in the S.E. Asian Theater. 2,594,000 men served within the borders of South Vietnam. An Additional 50,000 are recorded to have been in Vietnam across the years between 1960 and 1964.

In addition, 7,484 women served in Vietnam. Over 80% of those served as nurses. The Peak of strength of U.S. Forces within Vietnam came on April 30th, 1969. On that day, 543,482 men were engaged in the war in some way.

America in 1964 wasn't comparable to America today, in my opinion. Watergate hadn't happened yet, and generations of reasons to be distrustful had yet to come about. The Duke was on TV and America wore a White Hat in the world, not grey. In that world, our men and some women first deployed, then became drafted to deploy in a place called Vietnam.

All Gave Some. . .

. . .Some Gave All

The first one I chose for the meaning I know it held to someone I remember this weekend.

Next is a special look at how even a war as total and as brutal as Vietnam could have moments of tenderness. This performance came for the close of the USO show at Long Binh in 1968.

I had a variety of ways to present these, and I finally chose a reflective and thoughtful approach to give some balance to the normal view of Vietnam in contrast to those who present it all to often for money with a movie or to dramatize a book. These last two reflect that.

Vietnam in pictures and with a real focus on the men...boys really, who were sent 11,000 miles away to a place few even knew where to find on a map before it became a household name.


58,220 are recorded as casualties of the Vietnam war, according to Archives.gov. Of those, 728 died in Laos, 523 died in Cambodia, 10 in China, 1,120 in North Vietnam and 178 in Thailand. The balance were casualties within the Republic of South Vietnam. The average age of a combat soldier for that war was just 19 and roughly 30 % of those killed were draftees. (Source)

In addition I want to mention the Republic of Korea who had 300,000 total men serve with American forces and roughly 5,000 lost their lives as a result.

Also Australia contributed 60,000 men during the war and earned a reputation as some of the most reliable in Vietnam. Of those who served, 521 were killed and some 3,000 wounded.

All who served there, gave something there and that something stayed there. All deserve to be remembered, if not honored, in my humble opinion. At least on this weekend as the one weekend of the year which has the purpose set aside.

a reply to: CaticusMaximus

The people at home were who let the ball drop on this one. Not doing anything about it? Ask yourself and your neighbors why they aren't.

People aren't demanding the truth from their politicians nor do they call for the removal of the ones who don't do what they were put into office to do; they aren't throwing news organizations in the trash that don't give quality, well researched news pieces; they aren't firing the police commissioner for purchasing military gear or demanding the resignation of police officers who have bad records.

We recently saw a police commissioner pressured into resigning for saying the 'n-word', but cannot be bothered to do the same for other public officials when the crime is much more serious than a bad word.

What happened here at home when our military was overseas, was all on us.

Now, its time to honor the dead. I know this is difficult to do when you think you need babysat. But I really would try, in my eyes, it is they who should be VERY disappointed in what we allowed to happen when they weren't at home.

God protect and strengthen the family's of our fallen - and I pray they know how grateful we are to them and their families.