Memorial Day

[nodoginnafight]

"My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."
- John F. Kennedy

Have a happy, safe, and blessed Memorial Day. And take a moment to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice to secure our right to bitch at each other on message boards.

 

[waltky]

Bataan Death March survivors remember ordeal...

Aging veterans remember torment of Bataan Death March
May 26, 2014 ~ It's been 72 years since the Bataan Death March. Pedro Pineda, 94, thinks he might be ready to start talking about it.

"Here is something I cannot forget," he said last week while meeting with fellow veterans in a San Francisco apartment. "During this march, we had a short rest by an artesian well. We were so thirsty. But the Japanese sentries changed their mind, and told us to go back. On the way back, they bayoneted this guy ... "Oh my gosh, I saw that," he said, tears rolling down his cheeks and his fists clenched. "I never talked about it. But it happened. I saw it." Pineda, a retired cardio technician from Daly City, isn't the only one who rarely speaks of the infamous World War II massacre in the Philippines, a scorching, 63-mile trek Japanese soldiers forced upon 78,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war following the Battle of Bataan.

The incident is rarely taught in schools and is often overlooked in war retrospectives, in part because it was among the worst defeats in U.S. military history and in part because of the sheer horror of what the soldiers endured. But a Berkeley woman is trying to change that. Cecelia Gaerlan has launched a nonprofit, Bataan Legacy, to educate younger generations about the sacrifices and courage of Bataan soldiers. She visits schools, lobbies for Bataan to be included in textbooks, and on Monday is hosting a reunion for Bataan survivors at the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco. "These soldiers gave so much, but people just don't know. That's the double tragedy of Bataan," said Gaerlan, whose father, Luis, 94, is a Bataan survivor. "These men are now in their 90s. Time is of the essence."

This picture, captured from the Japanese, shows American prisoners using improvised litters to carry those of their comrades who, from the lack of food or water on the march from Bataan, fell along the road." Philippines, May 1942.

MacArthur's plan

The Bataan Death March was in April 1942, four months after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. As a U.S. territory, the Philippines was an early and central player in the war's Pacific Theater, and thousands of Filipino soldiers fought the Japanese under the leadership of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. With much of Southeast Asia under attack by the Japanese, MacArthur's plan was to hold tough on the Bataan peninsula and, after the arrival of supplies and reinforcements, attack north from there. But the Japanese blockaded Bataan, and thousands of American and Filipino troops were left stranded without food or medicine. After a three-month siege in which 10,000 American and Filipino troops died, the U.S. surrendered.

The Japanese then marched the prisoners of war - who were severely weakened from hunger and malaria - across the jungle to an internment camp. During the march, Japanese soldiers executed, bayoneted and tortured thousands of prisoners. To survive, the prisoners ate grass, maggots, worms and crickets. They sucked water off guava leaves. How they survived is a mystery, still. "I don't know why we lived. Luck? Something," Pineda said.

Internment camp

See also:

Missouri man chronicles losses on WWII submarines
May 24, 2014 ~ Serving aboard an American submarine was one of the most dangerous assignments in World War II, with nearly 1 in 5 crew members losing their lives somewhere in the ocean depths.

Paul Wittmer of suburban St. Louis has spent years working to ensure that those men — more than 3,600 sailors — are remembered, including a book that has been years in the making. Wittmer, a submarine veteran who turned 90 last week, has conducted research for eight years at the National Archives at St. Louis, which houses millions of military personnel records. He compiled biographical information on every man lost aboard a submarine during the war. The research fills six volumes. The painstaking effort even helped correct history. The Navy previously listed 3,505 submarine officers and sailors lost on 57 subs downed during World War II. Wittmer calculated a larger number — 3,628.

The duty was highly risky, Wittmer said, and about 20,000 men volunteered. "When you go on a patrol, you are essentially alone," Wittmer said. "You didn't have any support group, and you went deep into the enemy harbor. You rescued people. You plotted enemy mine fields. That was a very nasty business." Wittmer has been active in submarine veteran organizations, helping to get monuments erected to honor the dead. For years, he wanted to compile their life history in a book, but much of the personnel information wasn't available to the public. Wittmer tried Freedom of Information requests, but to no avail. In 2007, the government made public personnel records for all veterans discharged as of 1945, the end of World War II. "Mr. Wittmer was right there at the door waiting for us," said Whitney Mahar, the archives' research room manager, who says 10 to 20 people show up each day to do research. "He's very persistent, very serious about his research and what he's trying to accomplish."

Wittmer poured through thousands of documents, compiling information such as the name of each veteran, his date of birth and birthplace, parents' names, service dates and dates — or approximate dates — of death. In some cases, he was able to find photos of the men, who came from all across America. Wittmer, who grew up in New York City, joined the Navy in 1942. Curiosity led him to enlist on a submarine. "They had the best diesel engines, and I wanted to know about diesel engines," he said. "I actually learned quite a bit — how to operate them and take them apart and put them back together again." After the war, Wittmer worked as an engineer in New Jersey and Connecticut. He moved the family to St. Louis in 1978 to work at Ferguson Machine Co. Five years earlier, a fire at the archives destroyed records of thousands of servicemen, including about 80 percent of Army personnel discharged between 1912 to 1960 and countless Air Force personnel discharged from 1947 to 1964.

Fortunately for Wittmer and families of submarine veterans, the Navy records were intact. The latest edition of Wittmer's self-published, six-volume set of the hardbound books, "United States Submarine Men Lost During World War II," was published earlier this year. It is co-authored with Charles Hinman, curator of the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum in Hawaii. The set is available for $300. Wittmer said the information in the books will not be posted on the Internet. Wittmer has sold 11 sets and donated one to the records center. He would like to get one in every state library and archive. It wasn't easy, he said, but it needed to be done. "It was labor-intensive," Wittmer said. "It was the equivalent of a 40-hour week job at my personal expense. But it was a labor of love, really."

Missouri man chronicles losses on WWII submarines - Military history - Stripes

 

[TemplarKormac]

 

[jon_berzerk]

Executive Mansion,
Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.

Dear Madam,--

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,

A. Lincoln

 

[strollingbones]

 

[strollingbones]

please dont pass up the dav booths when you see them.....donate

 

[strollingbones]

 

[jon_berzerk]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVecpn3DUHc]Ronald Reagan We Are Americans - YouTube[/ame]

 

[longknife]

story @ feedly: your news. delivered.

Not just any soldier performs this duty! Read this @ Army medic becomes guard at Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - U.S. - Stripes

Do not thank me for my service because today is not about me at all.
That’s what a number of fellow military veterans said, when I asked what they wanted people to know about Memorial Day.
“It’s not about us,” said Staff Sgt. Jay Arnold, a soldier with the Illinois Army National Guard. “It’s about those who went before us.”

 

[boedicca]

Thank you.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-Y0SMitMpk].[/ame]

 

[ScreamingEagle]

 

[Erand7899]

To those who gave the last full measure of their short lives so that we, the living, can stand, proud, tall, and free. We can never repay them for their sacrifices, but we can thank them and remember them for all time. Thank you, heroes!

 

[PaintMyHouse]

To those who gave the last full measure of their short lives so that we, the living, can stand, proud, tall, and free. We can never repay them for their sacrifices, but we can thank them and remember them for all time. Thank you, heroes!

Pretty romantic view of our dead cannon fodder, but that's to be expected today.

We lost Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and very shortly will lose Afghanistan, but we are still here. Exactly what did they die for if nothing changed here even after losing? In your heroification of the dead, keep that little reality in mind.

 

[Mr. H.]

From this morning...

 

[tinydancer]

To those who gave the last full measure of their short lives so that we, the living, can stand, proud, tall, and free. We can never repay them for their sacrifices, but we can thank them and remember them for all time. Thank you, heroes!

Pretty romantic view of our dead cannon fodder, but that's to be expected today.

We lost Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and very shortly will lose Afghanistan, but we are still here. Exactly what did they die for if nothing changed here even after losing? In your heroification of the dead, keep that little reality in mind.

Somewhere in the hollows of the deep lies the body of my great grandfather. I never talke this day lightly.

So with all due consideration. Fuck off.

 

[PaintMyHouse]

To those who gave the last full measure of their short lives so that we, the living, can stand, proud, tall, and free. We can never repay them for their sacrifices, but we can thank them and remember them for all time. Thank you, heroes!

Pretty romantic view of our dead cannon fodder, but that's to be expected today.

We lost Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and very shortly will lose Afghanistan, but we are still here. Exactly what did they die for if nothing changed here even after losing? In your heroification of the dead, keep that little reality in mind.

Somewhere in the hollows of the deep lies the body of my great grandfather. I never talke this day lightly.

So with all due consideration. Fuck off.

Your emotions don't trump the hard truths.

 

[natstew]

President George Bush visits the Troops for the Troops. He still visits wounded soldiers in hospitals. He does it anonymously.

Barack Hussein Obama visits the troops for Barack Hussein Obama.

 

[blackhawk]