Memorial Day originated as Decoration Day after the Civil War, established as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers and flags.
It is the rare family who does not have fathers, uncles, cousins, brothers or sisters who served – or are serving – in our armed forces, who have pledged to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
Many families have lost loved ones in the line of duty. My family was lucky; all of our soldiers and sailors came home.
On Memorial Day we remember those who fought and gave their lives in service to our country.
Flags In takes place at Arlington National Cemetery and the U.S. Soldier’s and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery every Friday before Memorial Day. The 3rd U.S. Infantry (The Old Guard) honors the Fallen by placing American flags before the gravestones and niches of service members buried there. It takes approximately three hours to place the flags in front of more than 260,000 gravestones. The Old Guard soldiers remain in the cemetery throughout the weekend to ensure that a flag remains at each gravestone.
“The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden.” — Ronald Reagan, Memorial Day speech, 1982
As I put out my flag today, I will remember all who gave their lives in service to the United States of America, and in defense of their fellow citizens. God bless them.
Stella's Place 
Watching the PBS Memorial Day Concert…
Been crying through most of it…If you get a chance watch it.
This was the opening song.
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Stand Easy, Stand Easy Stella……..Thank you……
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Good to see you Kin.
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getting ready to go on a trip overseas…Just might stay LOL
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Sounds like fun! Where are you going?
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Norway…
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Nice, my dad’s great grandfather is from Norway 🙂 .
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my grandpa & grandma is from there.
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Memorial Day (“Amazing Grace” Bagpipes)
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NASCAR driver surprises Gold Star spouse for Memorial Day
FoxNews
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Nevertheless She Persisted, the 2018 women’s history theme could easily be the mantra of American women in the military. Because of social ideas about the female experience, women have often been written out of military history. Yet, women’s patriotic duty, no less than men’s have inspired hundreds of thousands of women to support their country during our times of need. Whether playing a supportive role as water bearers, cooks, laundresses, nurses or as active military (often having to pass as men).
In our recent history women not only continue in vital support roles as nurses, but also in combat as field commanders and as officers. The bravery of countless women since the establishment of our great country gives us a legacy of strength and persistence.
As greater numbers of women chose a military career and expand the diversity of the Armed Forces their stories expand our wn sense of possibility and opportunity.
Deborah Sampson who disguised herself as a man was as a hero of the American Revolution. She was given the dangerous task of scouting British territory. She is the only woman to receive a pension from the Civil War.
Harriet Tubman served as an armed scout and spy scout Union Army. She was the first woman to lead an armed expedition in the war, which liberated 700 enslaved people.
Dr. Mary Walker was an abolitionist, prisoner of war and Civil War surgeon she is the only women to receive the Medal of Honor for courage during the Civil War.
Jacqueline Cochran was a pioneer in the field of aviation who was an essential contributor to establishing The Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP) who worked as civil service pilots, test pilots and anti-aircraft artillery trainers
Diane Carlson Evans is a former Army nurse who served in Vietnam, founded the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation to spearhead a campaign to place a national monument in Washington, DC recognizing the contributions of military women to their country, as well as civilian women’s patriotic service.
Delphine Netcalf-Foster injured while serving as support for the Grave Registration Company Mission in Saudi Arabia during Desert Storm/ Desert Shield. In 2017 she was elected as the first female African American national commander for the one million members of the Disable American Veterans of America (DAVA).
Tammie Jo Schults currently is in the news because of her successful landing on April 17, 2018 of a disabled Southwest Flight 1380. From her earliest memories, she always knew that she was destined to fly and challenged the countless barriers to keep women from earning their wings. In 1999 she became a military aviator, paving the way for female flight pilots.
The women noted here are but a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of women who represent the female experience in the military. Please join the National Women’s History Project in honoring all women who have served our great country. Each and every service woman is the embodiment of the idea that Nevertheless She Persisted.
http://www.nwhp.org/resources/commemorations/women-and-memorial-day/
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Back in the early 70s, before Jimmy Carter jumped in and added his touches, we had female combat engineers in my Reserve unit. That was back in the days when there was an actual physical test you had to pass to be an engineer – you had to be able to drag and carry so much weight so far, lift so much weight, it wasn’t a picnic. These women took the test and passed it – of course they had really physical civilian jobs (at least one was a lineman) but thing was times were hard for enlistments and they stepped up.
In those days the engineer job was mostly physical, it was hand tools from hammers of various sizes and picks and dirt wrenches but they did the job, better than some male soldiers.
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Women tend to be better faster with fine motor coordination. I can only imagine having to do the heavy lifting too and still fight the naysayers.
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Yiou should have seen them strap on pole/tree climbing gear and beat a squirrel up a tree.
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At least 142 women have died while deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to one report I read which was dated in 2017. The majority were legitimately combat related while others seemed to be via personal negligence in operation of vehicles or aircraft, some were suicides, a couple of murders–one by a fellow soldier and the other by an indigenous officer, others from natural causes, one was listed as unknown cause (?) and another as “still being investigated.” The report didn’t say whether these stats were similar to male counterparts.
Another report from a civilian journalist said no women have been killed in combat in Afghanistan because females aren’t front line there. Is that true? If so, IMO, then they shouldn’t be deployed to a war zone. Weak links get people killed…Bergdahl is a case in point (and whatever happened with his pension and back pay question, anyway?).
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Thank you to these men and women. Thank you to their families.
Goose bumps.
Thank you is so inadequate.
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Mornin’ y’all.
https://twitter.com/PolToons/status/1000844226345750528
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Not much more to say, you nailed it with that one.
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Mornin’ Z’s! Y’all gettin’ rain??
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Totally clear blue sky. We had rain over the weekend on and off but it was not connected to Alberto. The panicy talkinghead weatherguessers have gone from ‘RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!!” to “6 inches of rain Monday thru Thursday” to ” clear all week with a 20% chance of rain daily”.
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Morning WeeWeed!
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Mornin’ S&S!
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Mornin’ WeeWeed! So true.
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Mornin’ Stella!
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Morning Ms.WeeWeed…………..thank you.
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Mornin’ Colonel Sir!
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Posted this next door too but here’s a report that shows from a high of about 70% in the early 70s to a current low of 20% the number of veterans who are serving in Congress has steadily dropped. Only 20% of the Congfresspersons who determine US security and send the military off to war have ever signed a piece of paper pledging they’d die to protect it. Telling.
file:///home/chronos/u-f656e3c2a830917bb9123d9ffb18ce35885fe1e5/Downloads/799015.pdf
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Perhaps if we do have a military parade it will inspire military to serve in ither ways.
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Maybe we can have the Andrew Sisters sing a few……. Bugle Boy of Company B, ……
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The only thing that can get the Left, the Internationalists and Antifa off their rusty-dusties and togehter is the opportunity to protest a patriotic event. Maybe we could pasrade with live ammo…
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The oath above is on the DD Form 4, block 15 and is for the Active and Reserve forces of the military.
Block 16 on the DD4 is for the National Guard and reads: ” I—–, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the state of —– against all enemies foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the Governor of —– and the orders of the officers appointed over me according to law and regulation. So help me God.”
Small difference but legally important.
We were always wondering when the Liberal Secularists in Congress would remove ‘So help me God’.
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May 28, 2018
Memorial Day Observance
Following a Memorial Day wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, President Trump delivers remarks in the amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery.
Airing LIVE Monday, May 28 11:00am EDT on C-SPAN
https://www.c-span.org/video/?445878-1/president-trump-lays-wreath-tomb-unknown-soldier
Every second of every day ,of every year let us not forget those who never came back, and those they left behind.
Prayers & Respect to all them and their families. May God hold them in the palm of His hand.
~ G-d&Country (has new name)
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Stella, I must have messed up the spacing – having a little vision problem this morning. Is it possible you can fix it please so the video & picture shows? Thank You.
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The video won’t show here in that format. It is necessary to follow the link to C-Span to view it. I’ll look for a format (YouTube or Vimeo) that will play here.
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https://www.c-span.org/video/?445878-1/president-trump-lays-wreath-tomb-unknown-soldier
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Post from Facebook in 2017:
A large percentage of our country doesn’t know of, or care about Normandy. A few weekends ago, British artist Jamie, accompanied by numerous volunteers, took to the beaches of Normandy with rakes and stencils in hand to etch 9,000 silhouettes into the sand, representing fallen soldiers. Titled The Fallen 9000, the piece is meant as a stark visual reminder of those who died during the D-Day beach landings at Arromanches on June 6th, 1944 during WWII.
The original team consisted of 60 volunteers, but as word spread nearly 500 additional local residents arrived to help with the temporary installation that lasted only a few hours before being washed away by the tide.
9,000 Fallen Soldiers Etched into the Sand on Normandy Beach to Commemorate Peace Day.
What is surprising is that nothing about this was seen here in the U.S.
Someone from overseas had a friend who sent it with a note of gratitude for what the U.S. started there. Please share with others who understand “freedom is not free — nor has it ever been”
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This is amazing. The kind of thing that could be shown as a ww2 primer to younger kids who arent ready for the real photos. Perspective!
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Back in the early 60s when we were in Germany there was one of those ‘low tides of the century’ where the sea drew back hundreds of yards farther than normal from the D-Day beaches. When it went out the amount of D-Day equipment that was scattered on the usually inundated sand was amazing. Some loical fishermen there were telling vistors how they know areas farther out where even more equipment and even ships are sunk, they avoid them as their nets get snagged and torn.
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Beautiful! I’m forwarding it to my email list. Thanks for posting, Stella!
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Sobering. Somber.
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https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/05/uk-judge-orders-news-blackout-following-arrest-of-tommy-robinson-for-reporting-on-sex-grooming-gang-trial/
MEGA. Or England, jolly old England, is done.
http://www.theweek.co.uk/uk-news/62397/councillors-and-police-had-sex-with-rotherham-abuse-victims
Oh, do tell. What a surprise. This is my shocked face. 😐
England is SJW infiltration taken to it’s logical extreme.
We have English judiciary actually calling for the banning of kitchen knives, or, at least, the grinding down of their tips so they won’t be so stabby.
Woe, England. Woe. How far you got on this Earth.
How far you’ve fallen. Both are impressive feats.
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England owned 3/4 of the planet. Look at it now. Pathetic, but predictable.
England, now, is like that famous pro basketball star that was spotted begging for spare change last year, on a street corner.
England needs more people like Tommy. Way more. Our American revolutionaries were criminals, too. Good. England is now part of the Ummah, and subject to it’s dictates.
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And France, and Spain, even Holland…empires come and empires go. At least Spain managed to extract itself from the Ummah and seems to be fighting getting drowned under it again.
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Seventy years ago, the United States expended thousands of lives and billions in treasure helping to save the British (and the rest of Europe) from fascism. I wonder why we bothered. It was all for nothing. Europe is the Ummah, Nazi, Fascist, and Communist, all at once now.
Why did both my grandparents fight, both in Europe and in the Pacific?
Was it just for a paycheck?
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First of all, Germany and Japan declared war on the United States. Beyond bombing Pearl Harbor, Japan even attempted (and occasionally succeeded) in bombing the west coast of the continental United States.
German U-boats cruised the Atlantic coast and actually sunk merchant marine ships.
Why did your grandparents fight? It was for our country, NOT European or Asian countries. Just thank God that the fight didn’t come here, because it could have even more than it did.
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And now, for the 3rd time in 100 years, we have a resurgent Germany in Europe. In the Pacific we see China and Japan both eye-to-eye in a military buildup. The more things change…
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I want to say that I’m glad, and I am, that it didn’t come here. The bullets, trenches, bombers and tanks.
But it did come here. Orwell would agree.
And yes, America did pretend to be a savior in those wars. The story of Superman, Zorro, and Buckaroo Banzai came out of that pretension. Watch some banned Bugs Bunny cartoons with buck-toothed Chinamen and dumb Germans.
We thought we were saving Iraq.
Heh. That will never happen. They will forever be killing each other, Chicago-style.
The middle-east will always be the Earth’s Chicago.
They destroy weak nations without firing a shot, for the most part. We just let them. Because “nice”. They destroy their OWN nations. Why wouldn’t they destroy ours? Course they would. Hey, let’s let a few million in and give them all EBT cards! Great idea.
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When there still was an England…
50 Vintage Photos of Life in England during the 1930s
35 Vintage Photos of Rural Life in Victorian England, circa 1857
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Apparently, this is nothing new.
Clinton Apologizes Over Use of F.B.I. To Get G.O.P. Files
The White House issued an apology today with President Clinton’s endorsement to several prominent Republicans because their confidential files were improperly obtained from the Federal Bureau of Investigation by the White House two years ago.
In delivering the apology, Leon E. Panetta, the White House chief of staff, said on a television news program that the incident was “completely inexcusable.”
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One later in the day, President Clinton said he fully supported a public apology though he said the incident appeared to be “a completely honest bureaucratic snafu.”
The White House has acknowledged that confidential F.B.I. files on as many as 340 people were improperly obtained because an outdated list was used in getting background checks on people with access to the White House. Among those whose files were obtained by the White House were Marlin Fitzwater, press secretary for President George Bush; James A. Baker 3d, the former Secretary of State and White House chief of staff; Kenneth E. Duberstein, former White House chief of staff and now an adviser to Gen. Colin L. Powell, and B. Jay Cooper, director of communications for the Republican National Committee.
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I find it interesting that Mike Morrell and Leon Panetta aka the song & dance team ‘The Hillaryettes” have gone totally silent…. I’d bet money that Morrell & Panetta (Beacon Global Strategies) were among the top CONTRACTORS abusing the NSA databases this time around as well.
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Bullshit. There is no ‘accidental’ anything with getting these files but the biggest BS is that the FBI has them because of WH access.
The FBI under Hoover collected information and held files on all DC-level pols from the POTUS down thru Congress and to anyone else they may have to leverage. The styories of folks rushing to get their hands on these files when Hoover went to room temperature are legend.
Interesting also is that security clearances then were done by the DIS, the Secret Service did WH security…why is the Bureau sticking its nose into these affairs and keeping old files? The Bureau, as well as other Federtal LEA and intel agencies are contacted in a Yankee White access investigation, if the Bureau wants to know if someone has POTUS access it could check the DIS check desk, just asd I used to do, and get all the poop – accesses are stored with clearances.
Clinton should know about the files and access restrictions as should the Bureau. Hey, if confidential files were that easy to get bthen why’s Congress having all those problems getting simple information out of the Bureau? The folks the records were on should in themselves have rung some bells in the Bureau, they were rather a known group.
Just more lies and swamp stuff, SSDDDC (different day in DC).
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I remember this, Clinton said he didn’t know he shouldn’t do it and no one told him is was wrong. Just a silly honest goof. 😐
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Mmmhuh…just a mistake…just happened…we’re so sorry (we got caught)…I bet Billy Jeff had a lip quiver when he spoke about that “completely honest bureaucratic snafu.”
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Yesterday G&C posted about peonies. Looking through my files just now, I found these two image addresses. I think vintage diamonds and peonies go very well together…in case anyone is wondering what to gift me for a holiday or birthday….
Old Cut Diamonds and Platinum 1.9 ct. Art Deco…
“Peonies” by William Jabez Muckley (1837-1905) – pencil, w/c, heightened with white & gum arabic on paper – 1892
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😊
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Peony diamond ring?
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Well, what Senator John McCain has been holding out for is about to happen. If he doesn’t leave office until after June 1, the governor of Arizona will appoint Cindy McCain as the Senator from Arizona, because it will be past time for a special election.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/05/28/report-cindy-mccain-likely-succeed-husband-john-mccain-senate/
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Ugh.
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Just look at this cutie!
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Wonder what that could be?
https://twitter.com/AdamBaldwin/status/1001288721453334528
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Too many possibilities to guess.
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“Hillary’s Artfully Hidden in Layers Back Brace is Actually Sentient and Robotic.”
“George Soros seen with XBOX controller.”
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I think she is trying to cover the horns growing out of her back and she keeps slipping, tripping and dropping her vodka while her feet transition into cloven hooves. Just the facts.
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