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Hello all, I'd like to honor those vets who have gone before us on this most solemn holiday. Those who were KIA, survived a war or served but now passed should have our grateful thanks for the sacrifices they made for our great country.

I'd like to acknowledge my Father, Julius M. Westberg, 3rd Bn, 351st Inf Regt, 88th Inf Div "The Blue Devils" who served in the Italian campaign and was in the unit that liberated Rome. He was awarded the Combat Infantry Badge, Bronze Star and Purple Heart w/OLC along with the normal campaign medals for WWII. He was the finest and most noble man I've ever known.

Lets not forget why we have this day. It's not about BBQ's, fun and games and family and friends. It's about them.

If you'd like to honor someone, please post their story. I think they'd like it.

Best Regards,

Greg

Father. Pathfinder stick commander, 3 Bn, 508th PIR, 82nd Airborne. KIA 20 June 44 at Pretot in Normandy. I and my twin brother followed in his footsteps. Poster at the WWII memorial on the Mall..beneath the airborne bronze.

Well said Greg. I heard many stories from my Grandmother and Great Uncle about their baby brother who never made it home from WWII. The sadness they felt from his loss never totally left them. I recall reading telegrams from the War Department that my Grandmother kept, notifying his family that he was missing in action, and then killed in action, and later that eyewitness accounts said that his position took a direct hit from a bomb, and his body was never recovered. Those who died to preserve our freedom made the ultimate sacrifice, and we should be thankful. But those parents and family members who never got to see them again paid a very heavy price too.

Several years ago, my nephew was working in the Butcher and Meats section of a local grocery store while he was in college. An elderly lady customer frequently stared at him when she shopped there for meat. And then one day she told him he was a handsome young man, and he looked just like her fiancé who had been killed in northern Africa during WWII. When she told him the name of her dead fiancé, he was stunned to realize that it was my Grandmother's brother, who would have been his Great-Great Uncle. When she came in a couple weeks later, she brought some letters he had sent her shortly before he was killed. She had kept them for nearly 70 years.

The meaning of Memorial Day hits closer to home for some...

Forever Young:
SSGT Thomas Henry Laird, "Air Apaches", 500th Bomb Sqdn, 345th Bomb Group, 5th Air Force, MIA/KIA October 16, 1943, Wewak, New Guinea
PFC Robert Hardeman, 2nd Marines, KIA July 2, 1944, Saipan. Mom's oldest brother; mother-in-law's only brother. Gil

Respect to those who gave (and are giving) their lives for our freedom. We must not forget them.

My wife’s father, the late Frank Cowley, was one of the lucky ones. A glider borne signaller in the British 1st Airborne he fought through Sicily, Italy and Arnhem but lived to an old age

He had to swim to the beach in Sicily, having first used his fighting knife to slash open the top of the glider to save the carrier pigeons from drowning.

At Arnhem he had to swim the Rhine to escape, being rescued on the far bank by the Polish “Grey Devils” of the 6th Airborne. He said that he recognised them by the smell of their aftershave.

At my son's recent highschool graduation, the handful of students going into the millitary were singled out and honored with a standing ovation. Absolutely appropriate and with spectacular timing IMHO. I'll be thinking of my Army Air Corps father (& his beloved B-17s) on Monday, and all the kiddies who used to haunt the city park where I went to highschool, on those hot summer nights with all their Chevelles, GTOs, Mustangs, & Barracudas. After 1968 and the Tet Offensive, those gatherings never seemed to happen again. God Bless them all.

Greg,
Well said! As a vet, it is a time to reflect and remember them. A peaceful Memorial Day to all.
Karl

I had 5 uncles in service during WWII: MY mother's 3 brothers Alonzo, Edgar, and George Chapman. And two brothers in law, Ray Nyhan and Richard Fish. All in the Navy except Uncle Ed, who was Army. (They called him "the traitor".) All returned home safely. The Chapman family lived in Waterloo, Iowa. Same neighborhood as the 5 Sullivan brothers, who were all lost when the cruiser Juneau was sunk by a Japanese submarine.

I went 45 shooting today. What better way to honor those who paid the ultimate price to guarantee my right to own and shoot firearms than to exercise that right.

My famiily lost 2 members over Germany in the 8th Air Force. One named Ebbert, the other Bitner. Their German surnames serve to remind me of who Americans are as a people. I was taught that we come from all corners of the Earth, seeking liberty and freedom to do as we chose without persecution due to our beliefs and the opportunity to be self governed. This is always in jeopary and comes with enormous cost.

The east-west main drag in my town is lined with flags this weekend. There are hundreds of them. Our war dead are not forgotten here.

The 45s by the way are 1911a1 models, one a Colt the other a Remington Rand from 1944 and 1945. While they never fail to put a smile on my face at the shooting range, I'm awfully glad it was not my duty to use them in combat.

My gratitude to those who did I'm unable to express in words.

The tradition we celebrate as Memorial Day was begun as early as 1868, possibly as early as 1866, when Decoration Day was "instituted", to remember the fallen in the War Between the States. The name was later changed to Memorial Day, and enlarged in it's scope so that it is now is a way for us to honor the fallen from ALL wars in which American fighting men and women have been lost. A very solemn day for me, as there have been seven Hillis men lost in these wars.

I recently discovered the website, Faces of the Wall, which contains photos, bios, and posts of folks commenting on the man behind the face. Often the posts are from men who served with the man who was killed in Vietnam. Touching to say the least. Gil
https://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/

Thanks Gil, for the reference to the "Wall of Faces" site. I looked up a few gone but not forgotten friends. Yesterday was for remembering...Geo