Veterans Day

Sorry for the delay on this post. Had a great opportunity to spend my Vets day/week cruising the wonderful free waters of America on the Cumberland River! Awesome trip.

Patrick "Byrdman" Byrd
14 years enlisted & made it to E7
14 years officer & made it to 04. After 28 years total service, was promoted to 05, called by a one star and congratulated... Next morning, called in to see the two star...and was told my promotion and 2 others had been pulled as to promote a "more balanced force..."... I lost my balance on that one :mrgreen: :thdown ...

"I thought we promoted soldiers on merit and assignments."..was about my last professional comment at the time. :amgry :mrgreen:

So, after a few less than professional statements of what I thought about the two stars "balanced" Army, I promptly turned in my retirement papers and in less than an hour was in my boat shoes, T-shirt, and heading to get on my C-Dory. 14Jan05 and have not had a watch on after that time, but much time on my boats, and sometimes I wear shoes. :beer :beer :smiled :thup

Today, I will walk to my next door neighbor's home and take him to lunch. He is a true American Hero. USMC Edgar "Ed" A. Harrell one of the 316 survivors of the USS Indianapolis after the 30Jul45 sinking with 1196 on board. About 5 days in the water and still lived to tell and write about it after many of his fellow warriors having been eaten by the constant shark attacks. His book, "Out of the Depths" is a great read. Forward was written by another great American, also a Marine, Oliver North. Today, Ed spends his time/travels speaking to groups about his ordeal. Great Man to listen to. His book:

http://www.indysurvivor.com/categories/ ... /bios.html


Thanks to all who have allowed our Freedoms.

Byrdman
 
"that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Abraham Lincoln
 
”Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children what it was once like in the United States when men were free.” . . . . Ronald Reagan
________
Dave dlt.gif
 
Marty quoted:
"that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Abraham Lincoln
Click to expand...

Just want to say to each Vet here, and to everyone who has/or had a family member in the armed services of our country,
SALUTE, and Thank You

I respect and appreciate your service. I'm proud to have served and shared, and prouder still to be living in our USA, in our time, with our freedom.

God Bless America

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
DSC_0069.jpg
 
Ken Mathews U.S. Army 42-45 two purple hearts and silver star with cluster.

I never knew my grandfather was in the army until i was in my teens. He never talked about it. My mom did not Know what awards he had until I told her. He never talked about it to any of his 5 girls. Did not talk to me until after I got thru boot camp. I am always surprised by the humility of combat vets of any war.

Tom Elliott U.S.M.C. 87-95
James Elliott U.S.M.C. 07-present
Patrick Elliott U.S. Army 07-present (nephew)
 
Well - I've been lucky to have benefited from the service of others w/o having to serve myself. So, I'll hoist a glass to my old man:

Roger James Bumgarner - USAF - Korean war - I don't know the exact dates but he was lucky to be an air traffic controller stationed in Japan.

Of course, I'll also hoist a glass to my "adopted uncle" - Lester "Dusty" Lampman pictured on page 1 of this thread. Man that guy's got a lot of good (and sometimes bad) stories to tell!

Thanks Dusty and all the other vets out there.
 
I hung the flag. I spent this day, as I spend at least part of every day now, thinking about Sgt Daniel Wagoner, who gave that last full measure just over a year ago. I remembered classmates and friends who were shipped overseas. I thought about my father-in-law, who dropped out of Ballard High School and joined the Navy, the day after Pearl Harbor. I relived my own feelings about being inducted into the Army in 1968 - an unlucky Viet Nam Era draftee who got lucky, was sent to Korea, and came home unscathed.

And now I will go back to hoping that one day we will find a way to honor the sacrifices of veterans without letting all the feelings that engenders slide into something that contributes to unnecessary sacrifices in the future. I owe this to Daniel.

Honor the fallen. Pray for peace.
 
CPT Gary Ross, Army, December 1992 - Present
Current Duty Station: Iraq... again.

I had no idea there were so many veterans here. Now I know why I like you guys so much.
 
Hosea Fountain (Great Grand Father)
CSA
11/5/1864
Released from Appomattox prison camp 4/3/1865

Marvin Murphy (my granddad)
Army World War 1
Corporal discharged 11/15/18

Marvin Murphy JR (Dad)
USN WW 2
Sino-American Co-Operative China
E-5

Kenneth Murphy (Uncle)
USCG
30 years
Captain

Herman Gerdes (1st Cousin)
USN
Still on Patrol in the Robalo some where in the sea of Japan
LT JG

Marvin Murphy
USNR
1967 to 1973
E-4

Countless friends on the wall

Thanks to all
 
Since I listed my service on this thread last year, I find it of interest to read what others have shared regarding their parents, grandparents etc.
Their desire and willingness to serve our country most likely played a large part in our decisions to serve as well.

That being said I'll share dad's service with you.....

Commander M. DeWitt Safford, USN Chaplain

'42-'44 Chaplain with the 33rd Construction Battalion ("SEEBEES") on the island New Caledonia in the South Pacific.

Contracted Malaria and sent to San Francisco where he recovered, then assigned from.....

'44- 46 to the USS Intrepid (Aircraft Carrier) (He and Dusty waved to each other a few times while Dusty was on other carriers nearby....is that right Dusty? :wink )

'46-'53 Commanding Officer, Chaplain Company, El Toro Marine Base.

He continued in the Navy Reserve until his retirement in '67. He then served as the Naval Reserve Association's National Chaplain from Oct. '76 - Oct '79.

(As many of you know the USS Intrepid is now a floating museum in New York City and yes I did share dad's USS Intrepid "memory" book with Dusty at a Sequim gathering several years ago...don't think they ever really met, but they were in close proximity of each other).

(Going back in time I had relatives that fought beside Ethan Allen with the Green Mountain Boys).
 
a belated tip of the hat to all that have served our great country and a tale or two.
As kids, my brother & I would always ask what dad did in the service and what where all of the medals on his old uniform. Dad would never say anything, but mom always said that he just rattled around Wisconsin drinking with his national Guard buddies and the medals where awarded for his drinking prowess and the fact that he once had shot a deer. Dad never talked, upon further review, dad had some problems & alcohol was just one of them.....fast forward to about five years ago, I received a folder with all of dad's official papers and low & behold, in that folder it appears that he had done the whole WWII island tour, now I know why he had some issues, I just can't fathom a young man going through that kind of carnage with picking up some demons.

I thought I'd take a look at the family tree on my moms side of the family as I'd been told there are quite a few folks with a service history. I Google up grandma's maiden name and find a web site dedicated to the family tree, I plug granny's name in the search function and, bling, up it pops. Going back through time, the tree has many historic military folks starting with Major General Robert Sedgwick of 1654 Boston.....General John Sedgwick of civil war misfortune is on a different branch of the tree.....myself, I once drove by a Coast Guard recruiting center and though about enlisting...I should have
 
Ken just asked on a new thread about the relationships that the C-Brats have had with the military.....so I resurrected this thread that we had in years past.

Hopefully the newer members to the site will add on to these six pages worth of memories.
 
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