It’s depressing to think that on this day, some so-called charities are ripping off good people with bogus claims of supporting vets (if this doesn’t make any sense, we didn’t get the post about deficient vet charities up). So let’s move on to something a little more positive — some entertainment, if that’s really the word, that speaks to this day’s meaning here in the USA.
There are movies about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the vast majority of which show the war through Hollywood’s diseased lens, and suck. One which doesn’t and we’ve mentioned before (link is to our review, which contains a link to Amazon) are Memorial Day, which tells an intergenerational story of maturity and sacrifice. There’s another good one we intended to review, and apparently didn’t, Taking Chance starring Kevin Bacon (amazon) and based upon, no kidding, a blog post about true events.
Bob Owens has a post with three country songs about sacrifice in war — all recent, one based on the Vietnam unpleasantness, and two from our more recent wars. We didn’t know all these. Country’s not our bag, but Bob is correct in pointing out that only country artists seem to have anything to say about this subject.
The radio is on, and a NATO trooper — possibly an American — has been killed today in Afghanistan. Well, Big & Rich, Trace Adkins, and Tim McGraw still have their back. And so, not that it has the same impact, do bloggers like Bob and we.
Update:
The Daily Caller had a good couple of posts by Alex Quade, who embedded with ODAs from one of our old groups, 10th. (Unfortunately, they play the commercial-site game of dividing each post into sevens to cheat their advertisers by falsely inflating page views — why do sites do that, do they think their advertisers are stupid?). Anyway, links are below. Good reporting by Quade (and her photos are good also, so you may want to suffer through the 14 stupid page loads for them). Adding the SF History and Lore tag to this post.
- Part 1 (first of seven pages).
- Part 1 print version (no photos, but all the text on one page).
- Part 2
- Part 2 print version
(And no, we didn’t get the post on bogus vet charities done. Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you).
Kevin was a former Special Forces weapons man (MOS 18B, before the 18 series, 11B with Skill Qualification Indicator of S). His focus was on weapons: their history, effects and employment. He started WeaponsMan.com in 2011 and operated it until he passed away in 2017. His work is being preserved here at the request of his family.
3 thoughts on “Some better Memorial Day thoughts”
As for that ‘bear’ comment, one of my Gunnys always finished it with ” … but it’s always fun to walk in the woods.”
I’m looking forward to your post about the charities — it’s important to have good intel on the best return on your investment. One enterprise nearby is the 4 Spirits distillery, founded & run by a vet, named for four comrades in arms from 2/162nd Infantry who were KIA in Baghdad. Some 10% of the proceeds go to local vet causes — the proprietor told me that some great charities like Wounded Warrior don’t have a presence yet in Oregon. http://4spiritsdistillery.com/2012/01/behind-the-name/
I have a tangential appreciation for some Country music, but I like that it focuses more than other genres on what Dolly Parton calls its attention to being ‘lyric intensive’. As such, & due to its cultural underpinnings, it speaks to me about these issues better than any other.
The charity post is up, and to my surprise (when I first learned this, anyway) WWP doesn’t do all that great. Your guy from Four Spirits is on the right track by giving locally, IMHO. He can know the actual people running the charities.
A friend of mine runs a small charity like that in Florida, Divers 4 Heroes. He spends 100% of what he raises on the wounded guys he takes diving, and he and his unpaid wife eat a lot of expenses. The WWP spends around 40% of what it raises on wounded folks and their families, and around 60% on overhead and fundraising. Which is, one supposes, better than a lot of veterans’ charities.
I must have picked a horrible day to watch Taking Chance…with all this pollen, or whatever, in the air. It got kind of hard to see with the eyes watering at times.
HBO really stepped it up for that one.