OT: Something different for Memorial Day.

[skysdad]

Since our county has been founded I believe there's close to a million or more Americans who have gave their lives defended the United States of America. What I would like to do this year is for us as a board to list one person you know of who has gave their life for our freedom and to do what I'm doing right now . It doesn't have to be some one you knew personally. It could be an ancestor or a friends friend or relative. Just give the name and where they served.

Jerry Wagner Sr. Viet Nam.

OFC

 

[DukeDenver]

Here's a link to the World War II Memorial list of Duke Alumni. There are 240+ names on here that represent the greatest generation of Blue Devils. These guys sacrificed everything so that we could enjoy life freely.

 

[Wall2Boogie]

Amen op. I've never had a family or friend lost in battle but they have served
God bless you and those who have served and lost their lives for us

 

[Dattier]

Thanks for thinking of this, skysdad. I've been fortunate never to have been affected on a personal level, but as John Donne wrote, "Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind..." Those who have given their lives in service recognized how we are all connected through sacrifice; the rest of us owe it to them to recognize it through memorial and grateful stewardship of the freedoms they helped secure.

The name "Greg Evans" has stuck with me based on the gravitas with which my Mom spoke of him. He was a high school classmate of hers killed in Vietnam. I took a few minutes to look up additional information on him this morning:
PFC Gregory James Evans, Army. He was 3 weeks shy of his 21st birthday when he was killed in Quang Tri Province in Vietnam. He died of multiple shrapnel wounds.

 

[Dattier]

Would anyone have any tips for looking up additional info on military casualties? A friend's father was killed in a helicopter training accident sometime in the '70s or '80s. It seems like it's a lot harder to look up non-combat fatalities, and including "Marine" in your search often results in a lot of suggestions that have to do with deaths at sea, even non-military.

 

[dbav]

I know that this isn't exactly what you wanted, but I wish I had met my grandfathers. My paternal grandfather and my father's uncles all fought in the Army in Europe during World War II. My maternal grandfather served in the Navy on the Yorktown in the Pacific in the same war. My father served in the Army and was discharged a Captain in the military police. That was during Vietnam and my family is very grateful he was not deployed oversees.

I never got to meet my grandfathers. Both of them survived WWII, but they both died fairly tragically a few years after returning.

It's funny, a story I always tell is that my father is the perfect baby boomer. His father arrived home from WWII on Christmas Eve, 1945. My father was born in November of 1946.

Wish I could have met those men.