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W
e e k l y F
e a t u r e P a g e
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The contents of the “Weekly Feature” page are provided
to you for your entertainment, amusement, and perhaps information.
Here you may find articles of interest, pictures, historical information
on the Club, or whatever shuffles to the top of the pile on our
desk. The only defined characteristic of this space is that we
will make every effort to change/replace it around the middle of
each week. Thank you for visiting, and please stop by again. Click
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A Time
to Remember
All across this great land, in almost every small town,
you can find one. Tucked away on a back street, or maybe a mile or
two down the highway north of town,
you'll see the 50 year old tank, or a worn smooth artillery piece, or maybe just
an old Jeep that sits in the front yard of a rather plain cement block building
where the old guys gather. We often use them as a reference point, "just
take the next corner past the VFW Hall". We all know they're there,
and have been for most of our lives, but we've seen them so long we tend to loose
sight of what really is housed within those walls. Today, we remember.
The Nation remembers at the end of each May, and the
national news outlets will feature a parade or two, and they will gather
at the Mall in Washington DC for
a ceremony, but the real story is closer to home, no matter where home is.
That's where we really remember. Where those guys were more than names,
they were faces,
friends, even family.
In this generation, they fought in Iraq, in my generation,
it was Viet Nam, before that it was Korea, then Europe, Japan and the
Pacific, and however grim
and thankless
it was, they did their job, came home and went back to work. But they didn't
all come home, and they didn't all come home unscarred. Today, we remember.
Like
politics, all news is local, they say, because what really matters
is what how it impacts you. Memorial Day should impact us all, if we
take a moment
to
observe it. Beyond the 10 minute local parade, the cookout in the backyard,
and maybe the trip up north, we need to give a little thought to those guys
that
gather out at that unpretentious cement block building north of town. They
aren't clamoring for our attention, they ask little of us, but we owe them
a never ending
measure of gratitude and, most importantly, our respect.
Like I said, it's
all local, you know who they are in your community, and you know their
stories. "Back in the Day", as they say, our small town
high school graduated a class of 30, with 18 boys. By my count, at least 8
of them served, 5 in Viet Nam. Today, we remember:
Bill
USMC, Viet Nam
|
Ken
US Army, Viet Nam (Killed in Action)
|
Mike
US Army, Germany
|
Tom
US Army, Viet Nam (Wounded in Action)
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Paul
US Army, Germany
|
Phil
US Army, Viet Nam
(Wounded in Action)
|
Russ
US Army, Germany |
Harry
US Army Viet Nam
(Wounded in Action)
|
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