Fellow thread mates:
On this day, it is difficult to know how to express the very personal thoughts we all have inside...for our country, our families, those who we lost, and our future.
As a national day of remembrance, I sent an email to my close friends and decided to share the most important parts with you. I've removed the personal stuff, but the message remains the same. These are the words of my father who passed away several years ago. He spoke them in 1982 during the dedication ceremony of the memorial at the site of his World War II's base.
His words remain as poignant today as they did then.
On this day, we shall remember them and all those who lost their lives defending our way of life, including those in New York, on September 11, 2001.
God Bless America
wr
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"It was sincerely an honor when I was asked to participate in this memorial service.
As I stand here today, my thoughts pour back over the years,
with memories tumbling one upon another in all directions. I feel so very insignificant when I think of the sacrifices so many made in bringing to a conclusion the turmoil of the war in which we were engaged.
It is some 40 years ago that our thoughts wander back into the past when we were far away from home, fighting for the human rights and dignity of mankind. United in thought and united in effort, waver mindful of the great responsibility we all shared. Each of us with one burning desire to get the job finished --- and go home!
Here our group was our family for the moment.
Regardless of how hostile our daily world was around us, we had a family to come home to when our daily jobs were completed. Whether our jobs were on the ground or in the air, our base became a place of warmth, a place of
safety and a place where comrades in arms shared their deepest thoughts. Our family was a cheering section when our planes and crews returned safely and a stampede of hundreds of helping hands when trouble beset any of us.
One could not function without dependence upon another and the gratitude for such support was only surpassed by determination and team work. A family is
the most important unit of all mankind. It is the core around which great nations are built. It is the foundation of any great society. Our family here did its share, and then some, to prove the above statement. This was our home away from home. It was a place where memories were born
to be indelibly imprinted upon our minds.
Places, actions, happenings, people, faces, friends, all moving before the camera eye of our memory in a kaleidoscope of color, changing each second
with the turn of events.
Here in a moment in time and then gone.
Our associations were of necessity but with a united cause from which grew strong bonds of friendship. Men lived daily without fear but not without apprehension. May we hope and pray that those we eulogize today will
somehow know their sacrifice has in some way touched all of our lives, and each of us have become better people because of their supreme effort.
This magnificent memorial we stand before today is an expression of our memory to those who gave until they could give no more.
Each individual meant so much to someone, somewhere --- their loved ones, their friends, and to their country. May the souls of our comrades in arms that sacrificed so much know that our thoughts are with them at this moment.
It is with these memories in mind may we ask God's blessing upon our comrades no longer with us.
May they rest in peace forever." |
