Memorial Day - It Ain't About The Cookouts

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping" by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication "To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead" (Source: Duke University's Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920). While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it's difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860's tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868. It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war). It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 - 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis' birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.

In 1915, inspired by the poem "In Flanders Fields," Moina Michael replied with her own poem:

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.

She then conceived of an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need. Later a Madam Guerin from France was visiting the United States and learned of this new custom started by Ms.Michael and when she returned to France, made artificial red poppies to raise money for war orphaned children and widowed women. This tradition spread to other countries. In 1921, the Franco-American Children's League sold poppies nationally to benefit war orphans of France and Belgium. The League disbanded a year later and Madam Guerin approached the VFW for help. Shortly before Memorial Day in 1922 the VFW became the first veterans' organization to nationally sell poppies. Two years later their "Buddy" Poppy program was selling artificial poppies made by disabled veterans. In 1948 the US Post Office honored Ms Michael for her role in founding the National Poppy movement by issuing a red 3 cent postage stamp with her likeness on it.

Traditional observance of Memorial day has diminished over the years. Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper flag etiquette for the day. While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country.

There are a few notable exceptions. Since the late 50's on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the 1,200 soldiers of the 3d U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery. They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing. In 1951, the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts of St. Louis began placing flags on the 150,000 graves at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery as an annual Good Turn, a practice that continues to this day. More recently, beginning in 1998, on the Saturday before the observed day for Memorial Day, the Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts place a candle at each of approximately 15,300 grave sites of soldiers buried at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park on Marye's Heights (the Luminaria Program). And in 2004, Washington D.C. held its first Memorial Day parade in over 60 years.

To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the "National Moment of Remembrance" resolution was passed on Dec 2000 which asks that at 3 p.m. local time, for all Americans "To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to 'Taps."

The Moment of Remembrance is a step in the right direction to returning the meaning back to the day. What is needed is a full return to the original day of observance. Set aside one day out of the year for the nation to get together to remember, reflect and honor those who have given their all in service to their country.

But what may be needed to return the solemn, and even sacred, spirit back to Memorial Day is for a return to its traditional day of observance. Many feel that when Congress made the day into a three-day weekend in with the National Holiday Act of 1971, it made it all the easier for people to be distracted from the spirit and meaning of the day. As the VFW stated in its 2002 Memorial Day address: "Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day."

For Our Next Trick....

Vehicle Rollover Training!

So, the day after battling my comrades in Hand-to-Hand combat, we got the opportunity to acquire new bruises (and find undiscovered ones from yesterday).

They put us in a simulated Hummer, then rolled it over. Now, it might not look to hard, right? Just unbuckle the seatbelt and climb out.

But, when you undo the seatbelt, you fall on your head, and remember, we have our very heavy bullet proof vests on, so we fall with much velocity and inertia. That is the scenerio when the hummer is 180 degrees upside down.

But we also got to roll over...over...over beyond 180 and over to our side. This is real fun for those on the drivers side. Now when they undo their seatbelts, they fall even farther than when upside-down, and if they don't time it right, they land smack on those in the passenger seats. Talk about a tangle of soldier arms and legs.

Here are the subjects for this first iteration (four per vehicle) and the view of the device in its normal rightside-up position. The box on top is for the door gunner hatch.




Loading Up...




Here we are rolling to the 180 degree position.

BTW, you can see the operator has screens providing views inside the vehicle via cameras to ensure safety.





Exiting at 180 degrees.....




Now, the 270 exit.
This time the vehicle rolls upside-down, and continues to roll onto its side.

This makes for a long drop when the left seaters unbuckle.

The Army has made this training mandatory for all deploying soldiers, as they were getting injured and killed trying to get out of wrecked vehicles.

CAUTION: Racy Photos!

Clear the kids out of the room before viewing!


Today, we have coed wrestling military personnel...take it away Laura!


Part of our training is hand-to-hand combat, now called Combative Training.


Warm Up Instructions:

Here we are first warming up our muscles before battle.



More Warm Up:



And more: (I hope the enemy got the memo about the importance of warming-up before fighting for your life LOL)



Now, we get down to business.

First we learn how to choke someone, then we learn how to get out of a choke.




{Laura labelled this one "Release." hmmmmmm...}

Learning various chokes and holds. We would practice first how to be the aggressor. I, of course, hope to have a knife or gun, instead.

Is it Lunch Yet??

This pic just says it all!

Training for house clearing of enemy terrorists. The "house" is only an outline of t-posts on the ground. We practice technique and code words before going into a dark house with blind halls and rooms.



Here I am in the dance line. I am in the middle.



This is how we start and end every day. We get instructions for the day in the morning, and the plan for the next day in the evening.




One of my soldiers in the S-1 section, SPC Minchew, gets an award for being good at this job. He is our Finance guru. He got a FL Meritorious Service Ribbon.



Here I am, with SGT Morales and 1LT Bannister. We are still clean as it is morning and we are loading up to go back out to the woods for training.



Here we are in the class for claymore mines. Next to me is PFC Horsford. She earned her Associates Degree while still in high school in Advanced Placement psychology. She is currently studying Computer Engineering on-line.



The business side of a claymore mine.

The two stakes anchor the beginning and end of the ignition wire. Directly behine the spool of wire you can just see a green thing that looks sorta like a staple gun. The is the trigger. The small blue box like thing just to the left is a test kit. You connect it to the "trigger" and look for a light to flash. Then you know everything is properly set to fire.

Target Practice

From Laura:

At the M16 zero range


Just before going out to fire.


M-16 Firing Line

The Sergeant Major - He is an E-9, and has been in this same unit for 24 years. Very unlike the Active Army, where everyone moves to new locations and jobs every three years.


Waiting around for night fire. That is my gear leaning against the far corner post. My weapon is slung over my shoulder, of course. You never leave your weapon.




See those targets just in front of the tree line? Well, that's what we have to hit. The smaller "target" closer up isn't. It is just the lane number. You don't want to aim at someone else's target out of your lane, or they get the credit for your kill.
The person next to the shooter is a coach. He is helping a young soldier. The person in back of the foxhole with the vest and paddle is a range safety. The other side of his paddle is red. The tower will ask if everyone is ready to fire, and the range safety will hold up the white side for yes, and the red side for no. If there is a hazard, the safety can also stop the shooting by waving the red side, and shouting "cease fire" or "check fire".. Anyone on the range can yell that to stop the firing.


The targets are not the white and black square signs in the distance, but the faint orange bump in the horizon just in front of the trees. The signs are just to mark the edge of the lane.


Between the day and night firing, they fed us. Luckily, it wasn't MREs. Here is the chow line on the table. Behind you can see our "creature comforts"...outhouses so we aren't forced to pollute nature. Needless to say, in hot Florida, these things get to smelling horrid.

The green trailer pulled by the LMTV (truck) is our water. Before using, make sure it is printed "potable" on the side, as often these water loads are not drinkable. In country, we will be getting our water the same way, but it is NOT potable. These trailers are called "water buffalos".

The food was rice, turkey (severely processed), green beans, and salad.


This soldier is female, and the coach is the E-9, SGM Capley.


Our trucks. This is how we get out to the field, we pile into the back. The Army does not allow military weapons to be carried in privately owned vehicles. So we all have to load up like cattle into military vehicles when we are carrying our weapons.

The irony here is, the Army is emphatic about soldiers wearing seatbelts. But there are no seatbelts in the back of these trucks.

Most of the time, these trucks have a canvas cover top.


On this range, the targets pop up from behind the black berms.

I usually shoot expert, but unfortunately my magazine did not load correctly on Table 3, so I did not even get a shot off except for the last target of that table. I did qualify, though.

Check out these GUNS!

Here I am qualifying on the M4 rifle. We had to shoot 20 rounds from the foxhole, ten kneeling, ten prone unsupported, 20 wearing an NBC mask (prone), and 30 at night.



I did qualify, but don't know what badge I got, yet.

Oh, and the day before I got a root canal.

And that morning I was on IV fluids. What I thought was stomach cramps from the 800 mg Motrin from the Dentist, was actually dehydration. I went from the zero range that morning ( shooting the weapon and adjusting the sights to make it hit the target where the shooter is aiming), directly to the dentist, where I had drills in my mouth, so could not drink for hours. when I went to the Troop Medical Clinic this morning for the stomach cramps that started the day before, he said it was from dehydration. I got some IV fluids and the cramps went away.

But after firing, the tooth was POUNDING with pain. So I took another motrin an hour ago. So far no stomach cramps:)

I go to the dentist again tomorrow for fillings and to start the crown process for the root canal. Sure wish I could get Hollywood teeth, too.


If you are not familiar with the M4, here is a comparison with the M16. The M16 is on top. The M4 is on bottom and is required for aviators to fly in country. No M4, then no piloting helicopters.

The round thing attached to the top of the weapon is a laser sight. It shines a red dot on the target. It, too, is adjusted to correct any aiming errors during the zeroing process.

Training, Training, Training!

From Laura:

Here I am listening to the instructor on NBC ops (Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical). He is explaining the new chemical detection alarm. I am hoping we will never have to use it :)


We get hours upon hours of Army briefings before we leave. More commonly called "death by Power Point."



Back to the field:
Checking claymore wire for damage. Claymore's are ground set explosive devices. Been in the Army forever! The guy on the right is the Battalion Commander.


Here is the Claymore mine. It is the skinny blue thing in front of MAJ Temple. You have to set it so the curve is away from you, or it blows you up instead of the enemy.


Setting up a hasty checkpoint. The wire channels the vehicles to the armed guards. We then do an initial screening/check. Then back to a more detailed check.



Here is the vehicles after the initial check. At this point, a more thorough check is done. We had soldiers in the unit pretend to be Iraqis. They would try to kill us, and we would have to subdue or kill them.
It was during this, when our CW4 Safety Officer, playing the role of the Iraqi, broke a finger in two places.
Another, a Master Sergeant, had to get five stitches in his face.




Of course, there is a proper way to get into the house, too, including code words, assigned firing sectors, etc.



Here is how to enter a back door, if you are not welcome. (The guy in the soft cap is an evaluator.)



Here we go room to room, clearing it of all enemy before we get killed first.
This is the same house we were throwing grenades in the day before.




More house cleaning, the Army way.
(all these are taken by my cell phone. It was a bit dark in this room for my cell phone to do a good job)


That's all folks!