Troop Trains and Flowers

Very nicely presented.  I hope everyone got to see the news piece on the poppies that were "planted " in London to commemorate WWI soldier lives lost.  Incredibly moving. 

Jeff Youst

Thank you Jeff. Not feeling

Thank you Jeff.

Not feeling well enough to go out today, but I did hear the aircraft go overhead at 11am.

I'll take a look at the news piece.

Well Done

Well Done

Thanks, for sharing that,

Thanks, for sharing that, Dee.

Hope you feel better soon.

Barry

THANKS TO ALL THE VETS FOR YOUR SERVICE

Yes Thank you. Also those serving now. Thank you

To All our UK and Canadian Subscribers

Wishing you a good Remembrance day this 12 November 2017. I wish to thank everyone for their service and let us not forget those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Cheers,

Rich S.

Just to say

I live in Belgium, Belgium has extremly suffer during the war of 14-18.

Belgium was the theather of the famous battle of Yser, which was never ending during the whole war.

Like all the battles in 14-18, she was hard and has cost thousands of lives

We have made big commomerations and we have honored with a enormous sincerity all the US, Canadian , Australian and English soldiers which have help us to riscover our liberty by giving us their lives at this time.

These commomerations are during the whole week end around the Yser ( a small river) country where they are numerous US, Canadians, Australians and English military cimetery of 14-18.

Tomorrow the day of the armistice, Belgium like the others country around, commomerate this so destructive war, but in Belgium this was so important because of the Yser battle and the resistance of Belgium with the help of all these lost soldiers against the German empire.

Belgium will never thank you enough for such sacrifice which was so far from your country.

WWI and WWII

Thank you and your country for the remembrance of our efforts.

WWI and WWII

Thank you and your country for the remembrance of our efforts.

Remberence

Thanks to all that have served, all that are serving, and those that will serve. Remberence to those that made the ultimate sacrifice.

A triple thanks to Americans from a decendant of Germans...

Thanks  - #1  - for envisioning, creating, nurturing and defending a democracy.

Thanks  - #2  - for defeating fascism and class-based despotism.

Thanks  - #3  - for being generous in sheltering innocent civilians and fragile democracies worldwide as they are nursed to aspire to the values established in Thanks, #1!

(I have 2 postcards written by one of my grandfathers to the other... from the front lines - German II Army, near the channel - postmarked 1918, and curiously, before either of my parents were born.)

Thanks, Dee, for your post... may we all forever remember hard lessons and REFUSE to repeat the errors.

Lest we forget

This day in November, 11 November - the day of the signing of the WW I armistice, is celebrated as "Armistice Day", now named "Veterans Day" in the USA. We remember and acknowledge those that have served the country in the military services. Memorial Day, as we call it in the USA ("Remembrance Day" as observed in Canada and the UK as well as European countries) is in May and is observed in remembrance of those that gave their life in military service. Memorial Day (Remembrance Day) is symbolized by the red poppy, a flower that grows in a large number in Flander's Field in south Belgium.

It is fitting that the OP shows railroad passenger cars that were used to carry troops across the country to their training sites or on their way to deployment overseas.

Listen Up..Let it never happen again

To those who died (two great-uncles at Jutland, 1916)

To those who were wounded. My grandfather lost his left leg below the knee in the British Army WW1. He lost his house to a German bomb that flattened it in south-east London in 1942 but luckily no one was home at the time.

To those who served and survived (my father was a British Consular agent and spymaster in China during WW2).  My uncle was shot down over France and was smuggled out to England by the French underground. About the time I was one year old a V-2 landed about a mile away in suburban south-east London.

I was drafted into the US Army 1967-69 and fortunately did my tour peacefully in Germany.

My son born in 1979 has fortunately never had to face death, destruction and the sheer insanity of war and and the inanity of any military organization. 

A white poppy will do for my remembrance......

11-11-18

Sadly, the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War sort of came and went unnoticed in the US for the most part.

I was at a model train show in the Seattle area on Saturday and you could tell who was from Canada (British Columbia) as they wore poppies. Acknowledging WW1 just isn't a 'thing' in the US.

I've been to Ypres in Belgium, seen Flander's fields in person. I was 18 at the time and I remember a RAF pilot who was killed there, a grave for a 18-year-old pilot. Charles Angelo Moody. I don't know why but I never forgot that name.

As for myself: 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, US Army (got out as a Captain)

well done Dee

Lee, thanks for adding that.  Lots of great stories in this guys.

Warriors Past

I can't go back any further then one of my grand fathers. He joined the army when he was 16 to escape the Mormon church. He grew up in Salt Lake City with 11 brothers and sisters. He started out chasing  a famous bandit around northern Mexico with Pershing. Went through WW1 and WW2. WW2 he spent fighting in the Pacific. At some point he went to officers school and when he finally retired he was a full Colonel. He was also in Korea. At some point he went from the front lines to being in supply. As kids we used to be allowed to look through a box full of medals. There were to us kids a lot of them.

My grandmother, his wife was an army nurse for a good portion of her life. I don't know much about her background. Her family was part of the blue bloods of Boston. Really well off in other-wards. She went through college and then took off for the wild west and shortly afterwards convinced her to younger sisters who were twins to join her in California somewhere. They had 3 boys. The 2 oldest also went through WW2 both in the pacific. My dad the youngest, was too young for WW2 and says that first my mom kept him out of Korea and then I came along which made it even easier to avoid the military.

I asked one of my uncles if he had any stories he would be willing to share about his army days. Turned out he was in the 2nd wave of the invasion of the Philippines and by the time they got on shore and up to the front line it was getting dark. So his company set up their pup tents and went to sleep. The Japanese did one of their suicide charges where they would over run a position and then pull back while the Americans would move back up to their original position. My uncle slept through the whole thing, waking up just as the Americans were coming back in to the camp. He claimed he never heard a thing.

I joined the USAF from 1972-76 and also went to Germany then back to CA. I worked in Med Supply at the USAF Regional Hosp in Wiesbaden. The nice thing about that job was it gave me access to the entire hosp and a close up view of how the medical field works.

Jack 

Thank you Dee for reminding

Thank you Dee for reminding us all, of the sacrifice many made for us through the years.

A wonderful, gentle reminder which we hope we and other generations won't ever, forget.

Barry

World War 1 Museum KCMO

I sometimes volunteer at the local WW1 Museum in Kansas City. If you are ever here I recommend it, it is a first class operation.  As I have learned  it is appalling the losses that were taken and the horrible ways 20th century man came up with killing each other as 20th century weapons eclipsed 19th century offensive tactics.  All war is grisly business, but WW1 was a real killing field, where the poppies bloomed.

ex USAF Captain, C-130 Trashhauler

How my father made Sargent

Please share any thoughts or

Please share any thoughts or stories.

Lest we forget.

Okinawa

My father was called up towards the end of the war and joined as a Second Lieutenant as he was a college graduate from Auburn . He was put into the corp of engineers, and the family (wife and us 2 kids) were transferred to Okinawa in 1947-1949. We lived in a quonset hut on the edge of a cliff that was riddled with caves. My brother and I were told to NEVER go in those caves,...lots of live ammo still around (can you imagine telling a couple of young boys that command....ha...ha).

When he came back to the US he decided to leave the Army and go back to work as an electrical engr. When that company decided to ship him over many places, he decided to rejoin the Army,...reenlisted as a sargent, becoming a Sarge Major for 30 years,....one tour to Austria, 2 tours to Korea.

(we went to Okinawa aboard a troop ship)

1998-2006

Don't forget, this isn't Memorial Day, it's for honoring all Vets...

Frankly, growing up I was always told the day was for Vets who served in conflicts. At some point it became all vets, even those who served in peacetime and never heard a shot fired in anger.

I fit under the latter category. I never got 'downrange,' though it wasn't for lack of trying. Saw some pretty messed up stuff anyway as bad things can happen even in peacetime.

I eventually got out because I wasn't built for the running (I kept getting repetitive stress fractures in my lower legs), but there's not a day I don't miss it in some way. That sense of teamwork, you just don't find in the civilian world.

My very last day in uniform, as an Army IRR Captain...

Each subsequent male in my family was a vet, going back to the Civil War (on the Confederate side). Grandpa was in WW1 but he passed before I was born. Dad was in the USAF in the late 50s.

My brother retired as a LTC in the USAF. My nephew is a Army reserve Captain, having gone through the same ROTC program at Florida State I went through 15 years before.

My Dad

In WW2 my Dad was an Army Air Corps radio operator on C47 and C54 transports bringing supplies into the Pacific theater and air lifting the wounded back. He didn't like to talk about his experiences and always said that the guys that liked to talk about it a lot didn't experience it up close. 

 He did talk about the flights as the war was winding down and he was on planes going into China. He always told my Mom that someday he wanted to return with her so she could see what he found to be fascinating in China. They never made it.

 The other story I remember was from my grandfather. He and my Grandma took comfort that in all the flights that my dad was on they at least had parachutes to save them if the planes got into trouble. After the war my dad told them that he had purposely kept the truth from them that they never flew with parachutes as that would add weight and diminish the amount of supplies that could be loaded.....every ounce was important. But he told me that the other big factor was "Hey, we were flying over thousands of miles of water and parachuting into that wasn't an option"

Open water

I had a customer who had been in the Air Force who was fascinated with ship wrecks.  For some reason he assumed since I'd been in the Navy that I shared that fascination.  Nope.  Until you sail out of sight of land and realize you can't swim back you will not want to think about your ship becoming a sink.

On this Veterans Day 2020 let us always remember those who sacrificed to give us our freedom.  Never forget.

Scott Chatfield