Fogbow

Thanks for your service.

Across all the cemeteries, all missing and never accounted for:

Foggy wrote: ↑Thu Nov 11, 2021 8:06 am Thanks for your service.

I never know how to respond when people say this to me. What I really want to say is, “If you knew some of the things I’ve had to do in the name of service to our country, you wouldn’t be thanking me.”

But that would be rude and bitchy. So I just say thanks and go on my way.

“Thank you, and thank you for your support and prayers,” is my reply.

Happy Veterans Day

I fixed oscilloscopes to keep you free.

You're welcome.

optimusprime wrote: ↑Thu Nov 11, 2021 8:24 am “Thank you, and thank you for your support and prayers,” is my reply.

Happy Veterans Day

Yeah. Sorry. I’m in a mood.

To all, a peaceful and reflective Armistice Day.

Yes!! Thank you all!!!

In Oz it's Remembrance Day.

A few days early but Remembrance Sunday in England is the Sunday after Armistice Day, so...

I always feel weird when someone thanks me because I served in peace time. I am humbled by the sacrifice of those who served in conflict and combat.

I have zero photos from that time, but I did keep this.

Thank you to all the vets who.are reading this. I also thank my Marine dad, my Army brother, and my Navy brother. All chose to have personally paid burials so veterans who could not afford a burial could choose a burial in a veteran cemetery. My brothers are still alive.

THE OFFSIDE LEADER* BY WILLIAM HENRY OGILVIE

This is the wish, as he told it to me,
Of Driver Macpherson of Battery B.
I want no praise, nor ribbons to wear ;
I 've done my bit, and I 've had my share
Of filth and fighting and blood and tears
And doubt and death in the last four years.
My team and I were among the first
Contemptible few when the war-clouds burst.
We sweated our gun through the dust and heat,
We hauled her back in the Big Retreat,
With weary horses and short of shell,
Turning our backs on them. That was Hell.

That was at Mons ; but we came back there,
With shine on the horses and shells to spare !
And much I've suffered and much I've seen
From Mons to Mons on the miles between,
But I want no praise, nor ribbons to wear —
All I ask for my fighting share
Is this : that England will give to me
My offside leader in Battery B.

She was a round-ribbed blaze-faced brown,
Shy as a country girl in town,
Scared of the gangway and scared of the quay,
Lathered in sweat at a sight of the sea,
But brave as a lion and strong as a bull,
With the mud at the hub in an uphill pull.
She learned her job as the best ones do.
And we hadn't been over a week or two
Before she would stand like a rooted oak
While the bullets whined and the shrapnel Broke,
And a mile of the ridges rocked in glee.
As the shells went over from Battery B.

One by one our team went down,
But the gods were good to the blaze-faced Brown.
We swayed with the battles back and forth.
Lugging the limbers south and north.
Round us the world was red with flame
As we gained or gave in the changing game ;
Forward or backward, losses or gains,
There were empty saddles and idle chains.
For Death took some on the galloping track
And beckoned some from the bivouac ;
Till at last were left but my mare and me
Of all that went over with Battery B.

My mates have gone and left me alone ;
Their horses are heaps of ashes and bone.
Of all that went out in courage and speed
There is left but the little brown mare in the lead,
The little brown mare with the blaze on her face
That would die of shame at a slack in her trace,
That would swing the team to the least command,
That would charge a house at the slap of my hand,
That would turn from a shell to nuzzle my knee —
The pride and the wonder of Battery B.
I look for no praise and no ribbons to wear.
If I 've done my bit it was only my share.
For a man has his pride and the strength of his Cause
And the love of his home — they are unwritten laws.
But what of the horses that served at our side.
That in faith as of children fought with us and died ?
If I, through it all, have been true to my task,
I ask for no honours. This only I ask :
The gift of one gunner.
I know of a place
Where I’d leave a brown mare with a blaze on her Face,
'Mid low leafy lime-trees in cock's-foot and clover
To dream, with the dragon-flies glistening over.

*Most people not being accustomed to horse/carriage lingo, the offside leader is the most important horse in a team. Near side of a horse is the left side, offside is the right side.

My thanks to all those who have when called upon done what was needed. It is absolutely not their fault that their service has been tainted by betrayal and misuse by politicians and warmongers.

Going to the cemetery today. Father, Navy, WW2. Pacific. Got over to Guam the day after the war ended. He was pretty lucky. I had an uncle who fought on Guadalcanal. I always knew that, but I didn't understand until HBO did a series on the war that it was some of the most brutal combat in the war.

“How The Heroes Die, Veterans Day 2021”:
https://www.stonekettle.com/2021/11/how ... -2021.html

“If you want to honor veterans, then don’t call them heroes. That’s the easy way out.
If you want to honor veterans, then live up to the ideals they fought to defend.
I didn’t go to war so that my son could follow.
I went with the hope he would never have to.”

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2021/11 ... 636654248/

Bill would grant benefits to descendants of Black WWII veterans

The bill would extend the Post-9/11 GI Bill, which provides education benefits for the latest generation of service members and veterans, including payments of tuition and fees. It would also expand access to the VA Loan Guaranty Program to assist the veterans and their families in obtaining home loans.

Clyburn said in a statement to NBC News that many Black WWII veterans were unjustly treated after returning home and had only limited access to GI benefits due to racial disparity in the 1944 bill's implementation.

"It is important to acknowledge this injustice and help address the wealth gap that was exacerbated by the government's failure to fulfill this promise to World War II veterans of color," he said.

U.S. Rep. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., said in a statement that Black service members expected their fight against tyranny in the Pacific and Europe to be rewarded with opportunity.

"Racial inequity in how the immense benefits of the original GI Bill were disbursed are well-documented, and we've all seen how these inequities have trickled down over time, leaving Black World War II veterans and their families without what they earned through service and sacrifice," Warnock said.

Happy Veteran's/Remembrance Day.

As is the Remembrance Day tradition in the UK, here is Nimrod from Edward Elgar's Enigma Variation as played at the Cenotaph for Remembrance Sunday in 2009.


Lucky for me, there is an organ arrangement for it that I intend to play this Sunday again for the prelude. Here is David Briggs playing it on the organ at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC.


Since it is originally an orchestral work, I should include that here. I played this version once as well, back in my violin days.

Air Force basic training, Lackland AFB TX Oct 1972 318th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, McChord AFB WA 1978

Semper fi, Frater! Thanks to all Fogbow vets!!!!!!

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: ↑Fri Nov 11, 2022 8:08 am Semper fi, Frater! Thanks to all Fogbow vets!!!!!!

And a Semper Fidelis to all the Fogboz vets

Merci, all, for your service.