In article <111120061011465944%chib@nospam.com>, chibiabos
<chib@nospam.com> wrote:

I know this is going to be buried in the noise. I know a lot of you
don't really care but I just have to say that some of us know what it
means to be in a war. Some of us have not seen our buddies come back.

I just want to say, to all the guys we left behind, although you can
never know how much we grieve or whether your sacrifice was really
worth the ultimate price, we thank you.

We remember you.

To Tom. Fish, Woody, and most of all to Charles and Cherokee, happy
Memorial Day.

It was, of course, Veteran's Day, not Memorial Day. I'd had a bit to
drink, and I conflated the two.

My bad, but the sentiments remain the same.

On Sat, 11 Nov 2006 10:11:46 -0800 chibiabos <chib@nospam.com> said
the following in alt.atheism and I was immediately reminded of 1,000
Chinchillas singing Handel's "Messiah" for some reason...

I know this is going to be buried in the noise. I know a lot of you
don't really care but I just have to say that some of us know what it
means to be in a war. Some of us have not seen our buddies come back.

I just want to say, to all the guys we left behind, although you can
never know how much we grieve or whether your sacrifice was really
worth the ultimate price, we thank you.

We remember you.

To Tom. Fish, Woody, and most of all to Charles and Cherokee, happy
Memorial Day.

And many more to come.

"Honkie" Green, "Crash" Allen, and "Big Pig" Salle.

If the streets of Heaven are guarded by United States Marines, the
Army is dug in outside the walls. And Rangers are LRRPing in Hell.

chibiabos <chib@nospam.com> wrote in news:111120061011465944%
chib@nospam.com:

I know this is going to be buried in the noise. I know a lot of you
don't really care but I just have to say that some of us know what it
means to be in a war. Some of us have not seen our buddies come back.

I just want to say, to all the guys we left behind, although you can
never know how much we grieve or whether your sacrifice was really
worth the ultimate price, we thank you.

We remember you.

To Tom. Fish, Woody, and most of all to Charles and Cherokee, happy
Memorial Day.

And many more to come.

Wish it wasn't so. I can't imagine what it must be like; never been there.

Found in alt.binaries.pictures.aviation:

"What is a Vet?"

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia
sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel
carriers didn't run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose
overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the
cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th
parallel.

She (or he) is the nurse who fought against futility and went to
sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another -- or
didn't come back AT ALL.

He is the Parris Island drill instructor who has never seen combat --
but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks
and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each
other's backs.

He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and
medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals
pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose
presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the
memory of all anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with
them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket -- palsied now
and aggravatingly slow -- who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and
who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him
when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being -- a person
who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his
country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have
to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he
is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the
finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country,
just lean over and say Thank You. That's all most people need, and in
most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been
awarded or were awarded.

Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU."

chibiabos explained on 11/11/2006 :

I know this is going to be buried in the noise. I know a lot of you
don't really care but I just have to say that some of us know what it
means to be in a war. Some of us have not seen our buddies come back.

I just want to say, to all the guys we left behind, although you can
never know how much we grieve or whether your sacrifice was really
worth the ultimate price, we thank you.

We remember you.

To Tom. Fish, Woody, and most of all to Charles and Cherokee, happy
Memorial Day.

And many more to come.

-chib

I heard it. I have not been in war, nor lost anyone I personally knew
to war. However, I can try to empathize.

You likely are an atheist, but I will say it anyway:

May your comrades walk in harmony, peace, and beauty....and I know they
do now.

--
Pangur Ban - nonchristian theist