The traders are closed and I can’t trade carbon today.
Gary
November 11, 2010 7:24 am
I mostly think of my grandfather who was near the front lines in eastern France at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh year when the Great War ended. His diary says little about military affairs other than the mundane, except for one comment about “ghastly sights” in the final days of fighting.
The entry for Nov 11th reads: “Armistice starts at 11 A.M. – beaucoup joy & excitement.” Thank you, veterans.
Djozar
November 11, 2010 7:28 am
Good post.
Father 20 year veteran, ‘Nam and Korea USAF
Grandfather WWII Vet USA
Uncle KIA St. Lo France, July 13, 1944 USA
Uncle 30 year vet Korea and ‘Nam USA
Myself, MM2 USN 6 years
Douglas DC
November 11, 2010 7:44 am
My late Father in Law- Utah beach. Tank Driver, Normandy, Battle of the Bulge,
Remagen, Aachen, Dachau.
Thanks, Carl RIP, soldier…
There’s a famous picture of the first three tanks going across the Bridge of Remagen.
He’s driving the third….
[From me and my family, accept my thanks. Robt]
Bravery means you do not, in any circumstance, ever, join the mass insanity called war. Brave the insane!
Ike Hall
November 11, 2010 8:03 am
Thanks, but I did it mainly for the college tuition money.
About this time of year, I always recall Kurt Vonnegut’s admonition in Breakfast of Champions about Veterans Day:
When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.
Armistice Day has become Veterans’ Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans’ Day is not.
So I will throw Veterans’ Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don’t want to throw away any sacred things.
What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.
And all music is.
MostlyHarmless
November 11, 2010 8:18 am
Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen (21st September, 1914)
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is a music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncountered:
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables at home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end they remain.
Replace “England” with the country of your choice. The sentiment’s the same, the feelings just as deep.
Dave Springer
November 11, 2010 8:42 am
Yesterday was the United States Marine Corps’ 235th birthday. The Marine Corps was officially formed by decree of the Continental Congress on November 10th, 1775 and began recruiting that same day at the Tun Tavern in Philidelphia which had long been a meeting place for our nation’s founders. Marines often refer to November 10th (among ourselves) as Chesty Puller’s birthday. Puller was the most decorated Marine evah.
So happy Veteran’s Day to all my fellow veterans and happy birthday to all my fellow Marines.
And thank you Anthony for providing this forum and thinking about us on this day.
Andy
November 11, 2010 9:16 am
In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Royal Canadian Army
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Keitho
Editor
November 11, 2010 9:22 am
November 11th is a day that everybody in the free world should respect and use for reflection. So many people, men and women, gave their all and more to help ensure we could live in a free democratic society by standing up to tyranny and just getting it done.
In my own country it has additional relevance as it marks the day we began to try by all means possible to resist the tidal wave of Communism sweeping through Africa in the 60’s and 70’s. Many good men gave their lives to that cause and we didn’t prevail.
Today intolerance is everywhere again and the desire of the left to surrender much that was won at great cost is quite startling. Peace isn’t the absence of war it is the absence of fear. Just look at what is happening to Ms. Dott in Germany today and recognize that the tyranny never sleeps and is everywhere the opportunist.
Resolve and vigilance in the face of oppression is what is required of all of us. Remember those brave giants of yesteryear and do what you can to emulate them.
Thanks.
My father and most of my uncles were in WWII. All kinds of stories about things that happened.
One I liked was that one of them (not my dad) was hiding in a cellar in France for several weeks so as not to get captured by Germans. Although there were some food stuffs, he was forced to eat butter alot to stay alive. He got out sucessfully and after the war could not eat butter anymore.
Mike Kelly
CWO4 USN ret
This day depresses me every year. I guess its the weird way I look at things, but it seems to me that the “Great War” never really ended. Unspeakable evil had been unleashed. By the sacrifice of so many, on the 11 hour of the 11 day of the 11 month it was contained. But not destroyed. It periodically break free of its bondage, once again blinding the minds of men with hatred and rage, as it did during WWII, like an aftershock. Thank GOD for generations of Men and Women who have answered the call, forsaking all, to confront that evil, when ever and where ever it has appeared.
Enneagram
November 11, 2010 9:37 am
Make a BIG CARBON FOOTPRINT Barbecue to celebrate.
However…..I see no oldies around here! 🙂
James Sexton
November 11, 2010 9:44 am
Cousin Sam, currently in Afghanistan
Dad – U.S. Army 23 yrs Vietnam
Uncle – U.S. Army – Korea
Uncle – U.S. Marine Corps, Siapan & Iwo Jima
Uncle – U.S. Army – Normandy
Uncle – POW Germany – U.S. Air Corp
Uncle- KIA Germany- U.S. Air Corp
G. Grandfather Spanish- American War
GG Grandfather- Civil War-KIA
GG Grandfather- Mexican American War
Other cousins and uncles in places too numerous to mention.
They went where they were sent.
To them and all others. Thanks guys, we owe you much.
Myself, U.S. Army active 1988-1992 active reserves 1993-1997.
PaulH
November 11, 2010 9:50 am
November 11th is Remembrance Day here in Canada, where much like Veteran’s Day, we remember the sacrifices made by Canadian soldiers.
In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
DesertYote
November 11, 2010 9:51 am
#
Andy says:
November 11, 2010 at 9:16 am
#
Thanks for posting this even though reading it always makes me cry.
H.R.
November 11, 2010 9:53 am
I always – always – stop to remember at 11:00 am on the 11th day of the 11th month that the Armistice commenced that ended the war of all wars. It makes me sad for those who fought and didn’t make it to that day and makes me grateful for those that fought to get the world to that day.
(Refers to WWII, I agree, but my contribution anyway)
Men, in khaki dressed.
Twenty columns, twenty rows; a rose between the headstones grows
Rank and file, creed and race, all are gathered in this place
Now all here is neat and ordered, not so then, for the war dead
Cretan soil their final rest; four hundred men in khaki dressed.
New Zealand’s shores they’ll never reach; Souda Bay, their nearest beach
May ’41, the leaders knew, the date their foe’s arrival’s due
Enigma signals told it all, but Freyberg had to hold the call
Strategy, played close-to-chest, doomed these men in khaki dressed.
Brothers, uncles, fathers, sons: family heroes every one
Heard the call their country made; great the price that many paid
Now that generation’s passed and we wander on this grass by sea
And in our freedom feel so blessed by all the men in khaki dressed.
M Grainger, Souda Bay, December 2009
Thank you to all my fellow vets and thank you to those who wish us well. I served in the Cold War USAF during a period of peace in the mid 80s.
My father served in the Army and spent a year in Pakistan near Pershawar. He watched Gary Powers take off on his fateful trip to a Soviet Prison.
My grandfather drove landing craft in the Pacific during WWII.
My great great grandfather served in the 15th NJ Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. His grandfather served in the Revolutionary War.
Thank you, and blessings to all who serve(d).
The traders are closed and I can’t trade carbon today.
I mostly think of my grandfather who was near the front lines in eastern France at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh year when the Great War ended. His diary says little about military affairs other than the mundane, except for one comment about “ghastly sights” in the final days of fighting.
The entry for Nov 11th reads: “Armistice starts at 11 A.M. – beaucoup joy & excitement.” Thank you, veterans.
Good post.
Father 20 year veteran, ‘Nam and Korea USAF
Grandfather WWII Vet USA
Uncle KIA St. Lo France, July 13, 1944 USA
Uncle 30 year vet Korea and ‘Nam USA
Myself, MM2 USN 6 years
My late Father in Law- Utah beach. Tank Driver, Normandy, Battle of the Bulge,
Remagen, Aachen, Dachau.
Thanks, Carl RIP, soldier…
There’s a famous picture of the first three tanks going across the Bridge of Remagen.
He’s driving the third….
[From me and my family, accept my thanks. Robt]
Land of the free. Because of the brave.
I have a humorous salute to veterans involving the “Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson up at my blog: http://meteorologicalmusings.blogspot.com/2010/11/happy-veterans-day.html
Happy Veteran’s Day and thank you for your service and sacrifice!
Bravery means you do not, in any circumstance, ever, join the mass insanity called war. Brave the insane!
Thanks, but I did it mainly for the college tuition money.
About this time of year, I always recall Kurt Vonnegut’s admonition in Breakfast of Champions about Veterans Day:
When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.
Armistice Day has become Veterans’ Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans’ Day is not.
So I will throw Veterans’ Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don’t want to throw away any sacred things.
What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.
And all music is.
Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen (21st September, 1914)
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is a music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncountered:
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables at home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end they remain.
Replace “England” with the country of your choice. The sentiment’s the same, the feelings just as deep.
Yesterday was the United States Marine Corps’ 235th birthday. The Marine Corps was officially formed by decree of the Continental Congress on November 10th, 1775 and began recruiting that same day at the Tun Tavern in Philidelphia which had long been a meeting place for our nation’s founders. Marines often refer to November 10th (among ourselves) as Chesty Puller’s birthday. Puller was the most decorated Marine evah.
So happy Veteran’s Day to all my fellow veterans and happy birthday to all my fellow Marines.
And thank you Anthony for providing this forum and thinking about us on this day.
In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Royal Canadian Army
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
November 11th is a day that everybody in the free world should respect and use for reflection. So many people, men and women, gave their all and more to help ensure we could live in a free democratic society by standing up to tyranny and just getting it done.
In my own country it has additional relevance as it marks the day we began to try by all means possible to resist the tidal wave of Communism sweeping through Africa in the 60’s and 70’s. Many good men gave their lives to that cause and we didn’t prevail.
Today intolerance is everywhere again and the desire of the left to surrender much that was won at great cost is quite startling. Peace isn’t the absence of war it is the absence of fear. Just look at what is happening to Ms. Dott in Germany today and recognize that the tyranny never sleeps and is everywhere the opportunist.
Resolve and vigilance in the face of oppression is what is required of all of us. Remember those brave giants of yesteryear and do what you can to emulate them.
Thanks.
My father and most of my uncles were in WWII. All kinds of stories about things that happened.
One I liked was that one of them (not my dad) was hiding in a cellar in France for several weeks so as not to get captured by Germans. Although there were some food stuffs, he was forced to eat butter alot to stay alive. He got out sucessfully and after the war could not eat butter anymore.
Mike Kelly
CWO4 USN ret
This day depresses me every year. I guess its the weird way I look at things, but it seems to me that the “Great War” never really ended. Unspeakable evil had been unleashed. By the sacrifice of so many, on the 11 hour of the 11 day of the 11 month it was contained. But not destroyed. It periodically break free of its bondage, once again blinding the minds of men with hatred and rage, as it did during WWII, like an aftershock. Thank GOD for generations of Men and Women who have answered the call, forsaking all, to confront that evil, when ever and where ever it has appeared.
Make a BIG CARBON FOOTPRINT Barbecue to celebrate.
However…..I see no oldies around here! 🙂
Cousin Sam, currently in Afghanistan
Dad – U.S. Army 23 yrs Vietnam
Uncle – U.S. Army – Korea
Uncle – U.S. Marine Corps, Siapan & Iwo Jima
Uncle – U.S. Army – Normandy
Uncle – POW Germany – U.S. Air Corp
Uncle- KIA Germany- U.S. Air Corp
G. Grandfather Spanish- American War
GG Grandfather- Civil War-KIA
GG Grandfather- Mexican American War
Other cousins and uncles in places too numerous to mention.
They went where they were sent.
To them and all others. Thanks guys, we owe you much.
Myself, U.S. Army active 1988-1992 active reserves 1993-1997.
November 11th is Remembrance Day here in Canada, where much like Veteran’s Day, we remember the sacrifices made by Canadian soldiers.
In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
#
Andy says:
November 11, 2010 at 9:16 am
#
Thanks for posting this even though reading it always makes me cry.
I always – always – stop to remember at 11:00 am on the 11th day of the 11th month that the Armistice commenced that ended the war of all wars. It makes me sad for those who fought and didn’t make it to that day and makes me grateful for those that fought to get the world to that day.
(Refers to WWII, I agree, but my contribution anyway)
Men, in khaki dressed.
Twenty columns, twenty rows; a rose between the headstones grows
Rank and file, creed and race, all are gathered in this place
Now all here is neat and ordered, not so then, for the war dead
Cretan soil their final rest; four hundred men in khaki dressed.
New Zealand’s shores they’ll never reach; Souda Bay, their nearest beach
May ’41, the leaders knew, the date their foe’s arrival’s due
Enigma signals told it all, but Freyberg had to hold the call
Strategy, played close-to-chest, doomed these men in khaki dressed.
Brothers, uncles, fathers, sons: family heroes every one
Heard the call their country made; great the price that many paid
Now that generation’s passed and we wander on this grass by sea
And in our freedom feel so blessed by all the men in khaki dressed.
M Grainger, Souda Bay, December 2009
Sorry, should have included link to picture of spot that inspired the poem.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kUsmTbR9ocY/S0eJK4lkJtI/AAAAAAAASCE/h5o6cJI2VYc/s1600-h/IMG_3871.JPG
Thank you to all my fellow vets and thank you to those who wish us well. I served in the Cold War USAF during a period of peace in the mid 80s.
My father served in the Army and spent a year in Pakistan near Pershawar. He watched Gary Powers take off on his fateful trip to a Soviet Prison.
My grandfather drove landing craft in the Pacific during WWII.
My great great grandfather served in the 15th NJ Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. His grandfather served in the Revolutionary War.
Thank you.