a special thought

[madron]

just givin a special thought today for all the armed forces that made and make our lives better

[Manky Monkey]

Taz & I have just got home from the local Remembrance Day service. She's a volunteer standard bearer for the women's branch of the Royal British Legion. The Legion hall & function room's a 100 yards from our cottage & the local church is 200 yards in the other direction. So we met up with the veterans at 10.30 this morning & they marched up through the village to the church, the vicar gave a sermon, then on to the churchyard across the road & down to the Legion hall, laying wreaths at each one. I'm not religious at all but it's the one day of the year I'll put a suit & tie on & go & sit in church.
Much bigger turn out this year, maybe because of Afghanistan & Iraq being in the news more. Lots of very proud, medal bedecked ex services men & women. Some had travelled from as far as Croydon to be there, as well as ex members of Welsh & Scottish regiments. Taz's fellow standard bearer had to leave straight after to fly the flag at another village's service.
The church was packed -how come I'm always the one who ends up without a song sheet? Good job I used to do plenty of parades with the cub scouts when I were a lad & vaguely remembered the words to most of the hyms. Local land owners, (& Taz's bosses), Lord & Lady Onslow were there as well as local celebrity Robson Green, (remember him?). Nice to see people making the effort.
Then it was back to the Legion hall for the afternoon. Taz & I were roped into helping with the raffle, which raised over 650 quid for the Poppy Appeal.
As I said, we're not religious & not into glorifying war at all, but happy to give up a couple of hours to remember those brave enough to give up their lives for the rest of us.

[ROD]

Yep ,I agree . The Americans are really big into the armed forces and their appreciation of them. Ive often thought how strange we are not?

[morrag]

Good for you Mr M. it's not about glorifying war, after all, its about remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf.Like yourself, I'm not religious, but went to the morning service today, to show my own respect to brave men and women, as I feel that's the least I can do, Morrag

[BikerGran]

The Americans are really big into the armed forces and their appreciation of them. Ive often thought how strange we are not?

We used to be when I was a kid - I guess WWII was in very recent memory then, lots of folks had been involved in it.

Nowadays probably a majority of people never look at the news (unless it's about some celebrity) and spend their lives playing computer games so they don't live in the real world!

Having said that, Mike was in Malaya when they were fighting the terrorists, and he won't have anything to do with any of it.  He says he was there  - been there done that got the t shirt and that's enough for him.

[tbone]

Yep ,I agree . The Americans are really big into the armed forces and their appreciation of them. Ive often thought how strange we are not?

I think the Vietnam veterans and 1st Golf war veterans may argue that!
As a nation they have been very lucky in not facing conflict in their own country, seems to me that much of their appreciation is bravado, a `look how great we are at saving the world` attitude because its always witnessed from afar. Having a `first hand` experiance of warfare would prove to be humbling.


Its extremely gratifiying to witness events up & down the country like we saw today and i have the deepest respect for all those involved, however, i have just as much respect for those that weren`t. The one`s still serving who couldn`t march down the local high street, the ex service men who want to distance themselves from the horrors they witnessed or the small groups of comrades who gathered in pubs & clubs to raise a glass to those that didn`t beat the clock, and of course, the fallen themselves, from all the conflicts still going on, back to the war to end all wars.