Memorial Day

[Fire-medic]

It is just a perfect day here in south FL, a nice breeze, sun is shining, maybe 15% cloud cover. The pool is 89 degrees F, and my terrier is on-patrol in the backyard looking for squirrels.

I am thankful to enjoy all these things and my safe family life because of those who served and who protected our lives in military service, and those who sacrificed to support them.

In the western NY town by Lake Ontario in which I was raised, Decoration Day was a harbinger of the coming break from school. Summer promised days filled with play and fun, riding our bicycles to the Erie Canal to go swimming by the locks, who dares to dive-off the lock? We all-knew the story of the boy from the "next town-over," who drowned swimming and diving-off the lock because when he dove-off he went right-into the carcass of a cow which a local farmer had thrown-into the canal. He was trapped between the ribs, and drowned. For-sure it happened, though nobody actually knew his name.

The town used to have a parade through town to the village cemetery where an elderly woman in a WW I uniform would blow "Taps" (when she finished she would always begin to cry, and someone would hold her by her elbow, and comfort her) and then the uniformed VFW members would use their bolt-action rifles to offer a 21-gun salute. As kids, when the row of seven riflemen would work the bolt-action and eject the shells, we kids would scramble amongst their legs, scrambling for the brass cartridges, hot though they were.

The volunteer fire dept. and the other parade members would form their line in-front of our house, and I recall watching the men assemble in their uniforms and get onto the apparatus when the queue got the signal to begin, passed-down the line by calls or whistles. The school band always was part of the group, and there were always cool convertibles festooned with banners, announcing the passenger was the "Monroe County Harvest Queen," or the village beauty queen, or the village board...

Any veteran who cared-to was able to walk in the parade, and many did, still capable of fitting into their uniforms. They always looked so-solemn, but once the cemetery ceremony was over, they were smiling and greeting their neighbors, as we went back to our routines. Kids played, adults prepared for barbeques, and we all remembered why we were there, to honor the members who served and those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.

 

[06VMAXIMUS]

+1 FM!! God bless those who served! I didn't serve in the armed forces, but my dad was the pilot of a B-26 during WWII. He loves to fly, and still owns a Cessna 170 but can no longer fly it due to having a heart bypass 6 years ago. I wish he could go up in it, it would make his day. Thanks go out to all of our servicemen/women on this great day!

 

[Barry barker]

+1 again and thanks to all those that serve our nation!!!:clapping:

 

[Dr.n2o]

Amen....God bless the troops !

 

[VMike]

On this day of remembrance God bless those men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice and those who are serving now.
Mike

 

[sdt354]

A big thank you to all that served.
Steve

 

[Bill Kratzenberg]

Just got back from a nice weekend in Asheville north carolina.
Here is a great pic from chimney rock state park.
Happy Memorial Day,Thanks to all our veterans !

 

[maleko89]

Thanks to all here that have served. Thanks and love ya.

 

[CaptainKyle]

Thanks to all that have served & the one still protecting us !

 

[Rollie]

Thank you to all who served their country , and to those who are currently serving , Hoo rah .

 

[Fire-medic]

I wanted to re-post here, because again it's Memorial Day. Pray for our dead from war, pray for their families, if you aren't religious, then consider thanking those who caused their families to be labelled 'Gold Star' families. That label is in-honor for those who died in service to their country. Thank-you to all veterans, whatever their roles.

Here is a fascinating narrative about the greatest ace in aerial combat for the USA, Major Richard 'Dick' Bong, of Poplar WI. He flew the #1 plane for aces' credited kills, Dick Bong had 40 confirmed kills, in a Lockheed P-38 Lightning. The #2 USA air Ace was Major Thomas McGuire (below) also flying a P-38 Lightning.

Major Bong named his plane after his girlfriend, then wife, Margaret, who, when they first met, told him, "call me Marge." That's the name and whose portrait picture he affixed to his P-38 planes he flew. When I was a kid, in the 1950's/'60's, the Monogram model of the P-38 Lightning came with a set of decals to water-transfer onto your assembled plane. One of them was Marge's famous 'head-shot,' which Dick Bong said, was "the most shot-at girl in the war (WW II)." As a kid, I always wondered why a photograph of an attractive woman was included in the decals for the Monogram model, instead of a long-haired blonde in a red dress, stretching her impossibly-long legs down the fuselage, maybe while riding a 500 lb. bomb casing. This video explains the story of numerous P-38's wearing that picture, and that name. Those were Dick Bong's planes.

In the European Theater of wartime operations, the Nazis nicknamed the Lockheed P-38, "the fork-tailed devil." My uncle flew the reconnaissance version of the P-38, the P-5. So that it could fly higher and faster than Nazi fighters, it carried no armaments, just photo equipment. My uncle said, "the only weapon I carried was a 1911 Colt .45 automatic." Lockheed's website says that half of all aerial photography in the European Theater was shot by P-38/P-5's.

The Lockheed P-38 was the plane that shot-down the plane carrying Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, the planner of the attack on Pearl Harbor, after an intercepted Japanese radio message gave his schedule for a flight to Japanese-held land. The only Allied fighter with enough range to make the flight was the P-38. Yamamoto's plane crashed on an island, and his body was found. With the distance the P-38's flew and their fuel load, they had up-to a 10 minute window to find Yamamoto's plane and to destroy it. Logistically, it was almost-impossible odds. However retribution for those lost at Pearl Harbor was the outcome of the day. The long-shot mission was accomplished. Not-all the P-38 pilots made it home.

Unfortunately, Dick Bong was killed in a test flight for a jet plane on the first day of Atomic Era warfare, August 6, 1945, Hiroshima's bombing. He had lost stability shortly after take-off, and instead of bailing-out safely over a populated area, he rode the plane away from there, but was too-low to survive when he attempted to depart the aircraft.








The #2 American aviator all-time Ace with 38 confirmed kills was Major Thomas McGuire. He also flew a Lockheed P-38. Like Major Bong, he didn't live to see the end of the war. Her is his Congressional Medal of Honor citation:

He fought with conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity over Luzon, Philippine Islands. Voluntarily, he led a squadron of 15 P-38's as top cover for heavy bombers striking Mabalacat Airdrome, where his formation was attacked by 20 aggressive Japanese fighters. In the ensuing action he repeatedly flew to the aid of embattled comrades, driving off enemy assaults while himself under attack and at times outnumbered 3 to 1, and even after his guns jammed, continuing the fight by forcing a hostile plane into his wingman's line of fire. Before he started back to his base he had shot down 3 Zeros. The next day he again volunteered to lead escort fighters on a mission to strongly defended Clark Field. During the resultant engagement he again exposed himself to attacks so that he might rescue a crippled bomber. In rapid succession he shot down 1 aircraft, parried the attack of 4 enemy fighters, 1 of which he shot down, single-handedly engaged 3 more Japanese, destroying 1, and then shot down still another, his 38th victory in aerial combat. On 7 January 1945, while leading a voluntary fighter sweep over Los Negros Island, he risked an extremely hazardous maneuver at low altitude in an attempt to save a fellow flyer from attack, crashed, and was reported missing in action. With gallant initiative, deep and unselfish concern for the safety of others, and heroic determination to destroy the enemy at all costs, Maj. McGuire set an inspiring example in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service.



Note their holstered sidearms, like my uncle carried: 1911 Colt .45 automatics.



Major McGuire, shortly before he was killed while defending other squad members during aerial combat, in his P-38, Pacific Theater.