The "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918.
(https://www.landzdown.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.guim.co.uk%2Fsys-images%2FAdmin%2FBkFill%2FDefault_image_group%2F2011%2F11%2F3%2F1320321731198%2FPoppies-007.jpg&hash=a9e71d93e5bdcc836e94a658514405e0f8eca3e5)
For my buddy mitch, the Phantom Phixer, who kept the F4s flying. We remember, always.
"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go. Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may or may not have always. Take what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own. And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind."
Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
1 January 1970
Dak To, Vietnam
Mike was shot down on 24 March 1970. Listed as KIA 7 February 1978 (Presumptive Finding of Death). Remains repatriated on 12 April 1995. Identified on 20 June 2001. Came home to Arlington National Cemetery in a group burial on 16 August 2001.
Panel 12W Line 040
(The original cross was changed to a diamond)
Once again, republishing Canuk's post from 2006, Lest We Forget (https://securitygarden.blogspot.com/2016/11/lest-we-forget.html), dedicated to all who died for their country and including my special thanks to Mitch (Phantom Phixer) and Ghost.
Dulce et Decorum Est - Wilfred Owen - an excerpt
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Owen's poem Dulce et Decorum Est, written during the First World War, was published posthumously in 1920. It brings vividly to life the desperate human misery of warfare, condemning and raging against the "lie" that war is noble. Owen served on the front line in the Manchester Regiment, suffering severe shell shock, and was killed in action on November 4 1918. His mother was informed of his death on Armistice Day, seven days later.
For the full poem go to http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html
Right on and God Bless my Dad!! for his awesome service to USA!!
Some info on my DAD!! first photo he is bottom right hand side front row.
was in charge of operation 'Ranch Hand" passed away from AGENT ORANGE"
(https://www.landzdown.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi5.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fy197%2FANG-Graphics%2FMemorialDay.gif&hash=1b91214e81d600e88667deb12492f07469eecbcb)
GR@PH;<'S, (https://www.landzdown.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi5.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fy197%2FANG-Graphics%2FHammys_pint.gif&hash=cc0389ecbc422dd802c9559495afa0ed259644e2)