May 30, 2005

Memorial Day.

WAC with flag

(An enlargement from the "Salute" set of drawings in the previous post.)
Posted by Ann Althouse at 2:18 PM

2 comments:

Pancho said...

Thanks to your Memorial tribute. On this day I always see the faces of those whom I served with in 1972 and didn't come home. I also am always drawn to the words of Tim O'Brien in his great book "The Things They Carried".
++++++++++++++++

"The things they carried were largely determined by necessity. Among the necessities or near-necessities were P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wristwatches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighters, matches, sewing kits, Military Payment Certificates, C-rations and two or three canteens of water.....

The carried diseases, among them malaria and dysentery. The carried lice and ringworm and leeches and paddy algae and various rots and molds. They carried the land itself--Vietnam, the place, the soil a powdery orange-red dust that covered their boots and fatigues and faces. They shared the weight of memory. They carried what others could no longer bear. Often, they carried each other, the wounded and the weak. They carried the sky......

For the most part they carried themselves with poise and a kind of dignity. Now and then, however, there were times of panic when they squealed or wanted to squeal but couldn't, when they twitched and made moaning sounds and covered their heads and said Dear Jesus and flopped around on the earth and fired their weapons blindly and cringed and sobbed and begged for the noise to stop and went wild and made stupid promises to themselves and to God and to their mothers and fathers, hoping not to die."
++++++++++++++
Wallace
Vietnam '72

5/30/05, 2:44 PM
Videos by Professor Howdy said...

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We like to play chicken.
You can get someone's goat.
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We get dog tired.
We can be as quiet as a mouse.
We can be as quick as a cat.
Some of us are as strong as an ox.
People try to buffalo others.
Some are as ugly as a toad.
We can be as gentle as a lamb.
Sometimes we are as happy as a lark.
Some of us drink like a fish.
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You have a riveting web log
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Editor

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'Thought & Humor' by Howdy
Cyber-Humor, Cyber-Thought
Cyber-Riddles for your divertissement!!!

5/30/05, 9:36 PM

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