Veteran's Day - "Only the dead..."

“For 14 hours yesterday, I was at work-teaching Christ to lift his cross by the numbers, and how to adjust his crown; and not to imagine he thirst until after the last halt. I attended his Supper to see that there were no complaints; and inspected his feet that they should be worthy of the nails. I see to it that he is dumb, and stands before his accusers. With a piece of silver I buy him every day, and with maps I make him familiar with the topography of Golgotha.”

Captain Wilfred Owen, The Manchesters
Killed in Action, 4 November, 1918

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgwQcUhKceg

Comments

[Gozer]

Herbert Reed
"The Happy Warrior"

His wild heart beats with painful sobs,
His strin'd hands clench an ice-cold rifle,
His aching jaws grip a hot parch'd tongue,
His wide eyes search unconsciously.

He cannot shriek.

Bloody saliva
Dribbles down his shapeless jacket.

I saw him stab
And stab again
A well-killed Boche.

This is the happy warrior,
This is he...

-------
Wilfred Gibson
"Back"

They ask me where I've been,
And what I've done and seen.
But what can I reply
Who know it wasn't I,
But someone just like me,
Who went across the sea
And with my head and hands
Killed men in foreign lands...
Though I must bear the blame,
Because he bore my name.

[Will]

from time immemorial

those departed and the lucky living wounded who remember their sacrifice

Ω ξείν', αγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ότι τήδε
κείμεθα, τοις κείνων ρήμασι πειθόμενοι.

O xein', angellein Lakedaimoniois hoti tede
keimetha tois keinon rhemasi peithomenoi.

Stranger! To Sparta say, her faithful band,
Here lie in death, remembering her command.

Erich von Manstein Lost Victories

[PhilDS]

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Since I live near Flanders fields, I've seen the crosses row on row. The amount of blood shed in that small area, for such a pointless war, is truly saddening.

[clif]

Col Lang thank you for your service.

[William R. Cumming]

Hard to believe that ten years from today the wonder of that ARMISTICE will be a century past. John Keegan refers to WWII as the greatest event so far in human history and probably for the next thousand years. Nonetheless clearly it was just an Armistice for WWI on November 11th, 1918 and not a peace. Who alive on that day could imagine the horror to follow. Blessed are the Peacemakers.

[mj]

Today on Imus Andy Rooney said about Veterans Day. "I don't especially like it. We served, we got a free country. That's all we should need". Grumpy old dude but he had something.

[Jose]

In war, there are no unwounded soldiers. ~José Narosky

[Ian]

In memory of those who earned a hero's welcome home, and in memory of all the fallen.

"This tomb the dust of Aeschylus doth hide,
Euphorion's son and fruitful Gela's pride
How tried his valor, Marathon may tell
And long-haired Medes, who knew it all too well."

Tombstone of Aeschylus

"Shot at Dawn
One of the First to Enlist
A Worthy Son of his Father"

Tombstone of Private Albert Ingham, 18th Manchesters, Executed for Desertion at the Somme, 1916

[mj]

Go tell the Spartans, thou who passest by,
That here, obedient to their laws, we lie

[Cujo359]

Captain Wilfred Owen, The Manchesters
Killed in Action, 4 November, 1918

For those who might not recognize the date, Capt. Owen died a week prior to the Armistice that ended his war.

John Kerry's words before Congress thirty years ago haunt us still. What's sadder is that I doubt he'll be the last to have reason to utter them.

[Nancy K]

I agree there is no unwounded solier. My father was a gunner in WWII and was shot down and was a POW for 2 years. The war took much of his joy away and at times he was a very unpleasant person. He loved his country and was very much against the Viet Nam war. I think he could not bear others seeing what he had.

[YT]

Col., sir : Do you think "nucular" weapons (if they were invented earlier) would have helped avert the bloodiest conflict in Europe, the 3rd. "total war"? Or was it necessary that Europe experience such horrors in order for it to become the Union that it is today?

Apologies, too much influence from Harry Turtledove.

[Mustache]

Sergeant Joyce Kilmer, US 69th Infantry.

Killed in action, 30 July 1918.

"I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;"

There were few trees left, where that poet died.

[ads]

William R. Cumming wrote:

It was just an Armistice for WWI on November 11th, 1918 and not a peace. Who alive on that day could imagine the horror to follow?

Kaporal Hitler perhaps?