Monday, May 26, 2014

So that others may live


When you go home, tell them of us and say
For their tomorrow, we gave our today

My cousin and I used to hang out together as much as we could. Both of us came from broken families, or the popular term today "dysfunctional families" This term makes me laugh; is there any such thing as a "functional family?" 'But I digress.

We caught fireflies, and tag. When the other kids teased me, he stood up for me. but, other times, he was as mean to me as a cousin should be. 
He always walked t the beat of a different drummer, and went against the grain. He was a hippie, I was a member of the "young Republicans"
He thought there was a lot wrong with America, I, well, I tried to stay in-between and neutral. I didn't like to ruffle feathers, or have confrontation.

He used to tell me I was totally useless, I had to learn to take a stand for something. But I just liked peace. 

My family has a history of being Navy, years of our ancestors, have completed their military duty in service to the "squids"

It surprised me enough when he decided t go into the service, much less the Marines. Who does that??
       Apparently he did.

       A few years prior when I had the conversation with my beloved brother,
       it was more traumatic,there was a war on now it was peacetime. I knew my        cousin was safe.
        
       October 22, 1983 i was the mother of three, wife, housewife drifting pretty much        through life, only concerned about my own little world. 

      October 23, 1983 changed that. When I spoke to my Uncle about what           happened he told me, my cousin had given up a three day pass so his buddy could see his wife.
He was on guard duty, near the front of barracks. Wrong place right time.

He never knew what hit him, a suicide bomber of a little known group called the Islamic Jihad drove his vehicle stuffed with explosives into the Marines Barracks in a city call Berut Lebanon, 241 sleeping, or just walking up unsuspecting Marines lost their lives. my Cousin was one of them. 220 Marines, 18 Saliors and 3 soldiers., its a little known fact that in the confusion a second bomber drove his vehicle a few yards away into the French Barracks making a total of 299 dead.

There just  isn't any such thing as peace time. 

June 6th, 1944 is known as DDay, the allies stormed the beaches of Normandy,
and the begining of the end of World War two began. the thing is the allies succeeded because the Nazis were afraid to wake Hitler. the forces that could have stopped this invasion laid silent because Hitler slept on.
So we won the war. /at a high cost.

So much of winning is such a comendy of errors. The North  won Gettysburg because they were able to entrench on the "high ground" it could have just as simply gone the other way except..A.P. Hill did not advance and take the main hill the night before. 

We honor our military because they have chosen to fight so we can be free.
They do not go into this planning on dying, but realize it is a possibility.

Went the day well?
We died and never knew.
But, well or ill,
Freedom, we died for you.

Isn't it funny how quickly being naive dies? How your eyes are opened, and you see clearly?
 I no longer drift through life, not caring about what happens. 
Thank you for your sacrifice.

       





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