Greenwood Cemetery Memorial Day 2016

I've been unable to find anything in local media noting the Memorial Day ceremony at Greenwood Cemetery yesterday, so I thought it worthwhile to make note of it here.

Each year the Disabled American Veterans, Chapter No. 30, host the ceremony on traditional Memorial Day: May 30.  Most years this is not actually on that three-day-weekend Monday, but this year as it happens, May 30 fell on Monday.  Steve and I were a little worried that attendance would be down because the Hillcrest ceremony was at 9:00, the Keithville cemetery ceremony at noon, then the American Legion ceremony at 2:00.  The ceremony at the Greenwood Cemetery was at 1:00 so attending them all would take a superhuman feat of accomplishment.

Happily, attendance was about on par with past years though perhaps a little low - certainly understandable with so much going on this year.

A new addition to the organization line-up this year was the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

As in past years, the Parkway High School JROTC did a lovely job first posting the colors, then the National Anthem which was played on the violin.

The JROTC also did a flag folding demonstration, noting the relevance of each fold of the flag...

... and the cadets escorted various organizations to the flagpole for wreath laying.

Guest speaker this year was Jim Adams of the Northwest Louisiana War Veterans Home. He spoke of the importance of remembering the fallen, noting that it's certainly okay to watch a ballgame and light the grill on Memorial Day, but to take a moment and remember the sacrifices of those who made it possible.

The placing of the wreaths came next: The United Daughters of the Confederacy ...

...and other organizations made the procession.

Each group was escorted by the Parkway JROTC:

Also in attendance, as in past years, were the Sons of the Confederacy with their three-shot rifle volley that is always impressive!

This is truly one of my favorite Memorial Day services each year and I wish it was better attended.

Greenwood Cemetery is full of incredible history and is a fascinating place to visit.  It is beautifully maintained and well kept.  You may recall the Kelley brothers are buried there that I've written so often about, but there are so many other stories as well.

Memorial Day was a quiet one for us; after the service we went home, ate some watermelon and called it a day!  Still recovering from our trip, we didn't have much energy for anything else yesterday.

At any rate, local media may have been there, but I didn't see anything posted about the event and wanted to be sure the ceremony was noted. It is one that we never miss.

The SIGIS Take a Trip Series:

Take a Trip to Keachie Confederate Cemetery Memorial Service

Take a Trip to the Eighth Annual Barksdale Oktoberfest

Take a Trip to the 2015 Highland Jazz & Blues Festival

Take a Trip to the American Legion Cross Lake Floatilla 2015

Take a Trip to Two Memorial Day Ceremonies in Shreveport

Take a Trip to the Battle of Natchitoches

Take a Trip to Miss Cammie's Dinner Table

Take a Trip on Route 66 from Oklahoma City to Miami OK

Take a Trip to Coushatta, See the Lawnmower Man, and a Crop Duster

Take a Trip to the 2014 Cross Lake Floatilla:  Loving the Lake Life

Take a Trip to the Barskdale AFB First Annual Luau

Take a Trip to the 2013 Highland Jazz and Blues Festival

Take a Trip to Natchitoches for a Sons of the American Revolution Grave Marking Ceremony and Some Gator Bites

Take a Trip to the Sixth Annual Barksdale Oktoberfest

Take One More Quick Trip to Jefferson, Texas and Explore Room 104

Take a Trip to the Cross Lake Flotilla 2013

Take a Spontaneous Mother's Day Trip to Jefferson, Texas

Take a Trip Along East Texas Back Roads

Take a Trip to the "Going Green on the Red River" Festival

Take a Springtime Drive Down the Cane River Heritage Trail

Take a Spring Break Trip to Arcadia Louisiana

Take a Trip to the 2012 Natchitoches Christmas Festival
Take a Trip to the 2012 Grand Cane Pioneer Day and Christmas Parade

Take a Trip to the 2012 Highland Jazz and Blues Festival

Take a Trip to the 2012 Vets for Vets Event

Take a Trip to the Norton Art Gallery and the Photographs of the Vietnam War Exhibit

Take a Trip to Octoberfest 2012 at Barksdale Air Force Base

Take a Picnic Trip to the Lock and Dam and a Detour to Lake Bistineau

Take a Dinner Ride Through East Texas

Take a Trip to an End of Summer Party and Listen to Soulfish Blues Band

Take a Summer Trip to Jefferson, Texas and Meet New Friends

Take a Trip to Dallas, Texas and The West End

Take a Stocking the Freezer Trip to Ed Lester Farms and Find a Cool Truck!

Take a Trip to Coushatta Down Louisiana Backroads

Take a Trip to the 2012 Cross Lake Floatilla

Take a Sunday Drive in North Caddo Parish

Take a Trip to Minden's First Annual Cinco de Mayo Festival

Take a Trip to the 2012 Defenders of Liberty Air Show at BAFB
Take a Springtime Trip to Second Hand Rose Antiques in Minden, LA
Take a Trip to Logansport, Louisiana
Take a Trip to the Lock and Dam on Red River
Take a Trip to the 2012 Barkus and Meoux Parade
Take a Christmas Shopping Trip to Second Hand Rose in Minden
Take a Trip to the Fourth Annual Barksdale AFB Oktoberfest 
Take a Trip to Grand Cane's Fifth Annual Pioneer Trade Day
Take a Trip to the 2011 Highland Jazz & Blues Festival
Take an Autumn Trip to Jefferson, Texas
Take a Fall Trip to Second Hand Rose Antiques in Minden
Take a Trip to the 8th Air Force Museum at Barksdale Air Force Base
Take a Summertime Trip to Grand Cane
Take a Trip to Desoto Parish
Take a Summer Trip to Second Hand Rose Antiques in Minden
Take a Trip to Natchitoches and Melrose Plantation 
Take a Trip to Ed Lester Farms and a Random Antique Stop
Take a Trip to the Norton Art Gallery and the Masters of Cuban Art Exhibit
Take a Trip to Natchitoches to See the Christmas Lights
Take a Trip to the Third Annual BAFB Oktoberfest 
Take a Trip to Natchitoches and Oakland Plantation

Take a Trip to Jefferson, Texas 

Full Metal Jacket Saturday:  The Oktoberfest Edition

Oktoberfest at BAFB

Memorial Day Links 2012

It's been a memorable Memorial Day around SIGIS.

After talking about it and not doing anything about it for several years, Steve and I finally joined the Lowe-McFarlane American Legion Post 14 today.  We were headed out that way today for their "casting of the wreath" Memorial Day ceremony anyway, so we gathered our paperwork and went a little early and signed up.

The post was chartered in 1919 just six days after Congress granted the American Legion a national charter.  The post is housed on 11 acres on a beautiful point on Cross Lake and is very active in numerous service organizations.  I went ahead and signed up for the Auxiliary, too.

We got our paperwork done and then were given a tour of the facility.  There's a huge meeting room with a beautiful view of the lake and a "grand ballroom" upstairs with an even prettier view of the lake.  There's a fishing pier, lots of historical artifacts, a lounge with an outdoor patio, an RV park, a kids playground, a boat pier, and lots of really nice people.

The wreath ceremony was held on the point where a nice breeze kept the heat tolerable:

The ceremony included he tolling of the bell and a reading of the names of the fallen.

A few boats gathered at the point to participate.

Then the wreath was cast on the waters...

After the ceremony we adjourned to the lounge for a little while before heading home for smoked brisket and fresh veggies from our Coushatta trip this week.

The Shreveport Times has a nice photo gallery of the wreath ceremony.

A quick round-up of Memorial Day posts:

Goldfish and Clowns:

You see, my father was a soldier. He did not set out in life to be one, but the world dictated otherwise back in the satanic onyx days of the early 1940s, and so a soldier he became. He fought long and well in a different kind of battlefield than the soldiers slogging through the mud below. He was huddled in his radio operator’s station aboard a freezing B-29 over Japan, focused on the task at hand while thinking about the young bride waiting for him back home again in Indiana. 

 The Daley Gator has videos.

Legal Insurrection is remembering Lt. Roslyn Schulte.

Ed Driscoll points out that not everyone is moved by thoughts of the fallen on Memorial Day and cites the rhetoric of MSNBC's Chris Hayes as an example.

Pundette looks at some Medal of Honor citations.

Paco links to Rep. Alan West's remarks.

Pirate's Cove has the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Philadelphia.

Politicaljunkie Mom posts the now iconic photo of a grieving fiance and also shares the photographer's remarks.

Sippican Cottage has a beautiful post.

And, of course, Michelle Malkin has a link-filled lovely post.

Tomorrow the three day weekend is over and many will stow their flags in a closet until the next holiday - July 4, perhaps.  Meanwhile, brave Americans will continue to fight for our freedoms and serve with honor.

Never forget.

Red River Tea Party Event: July 3, 2010

If you live in my neck of the woods be sure to mark your calendar for July 3 as the Red River Tea Party puts on its now annual picnic on the lawn outside the Bossier Civic Center.

The program kicks off at 10:00 a.m. and runs until about 11:30 with music and picnic following.  I'm excited because the line-up this year is awesome:  Louisiana radio personality Moon Griffon will be there and C.L. Bryant will be making a return engagement.  If you've never heard C.L. Bryant, do yourself a favor and watch this from his speech at the March on Washington last September:



I first heard him at the first Shreveport/Bossier Tea Party event in April of 2009.  Bryant just appeared at that event, not scheduled to speak or known to the organizers.  After Board Member Royal Alexander visited with him for a bit, he pulled Bryant on stage.  Thank goodness he did.  You can watch that equally rousing speech here.  I don't know if Sharon McCullar is speaking again this year or not, but I hope so.  She moved me to tears with her speech in April of this year; at about 3:55 in this video when she starts talking about her two Marine sons, I lost it. 

There will be vendors at the event this year to include pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs and sno cones.

Make your plans to bring the family and come celebrate the Fourth and have a good time!

It's a Dual Holiday - Flag Day and the U.S. Army's Birthday

Today is both Flag Day and the 235th birthday of the U.S. Army.

It is believed that Flag Day was first celebrated in 1885.  The tradition continued somewhat informally for years after that and finally in 1893 the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames of America adopted a resolution requesting that everyone fly the flag on that day, June 14.  It was not until 1949 that Truman signed an Act of Congress designating the day as Flag Day.  You can read more history here.

Last year on Flag Day I posted a favorite anecdote from the Leo Thorsness book, Surviving Hell:  A POW's Journey.  I'm going to re-post it because it's a reminder of how much our flag really means:

Thorsness was captured in 1967 during the Vietnam War;  his cellmate Mike brought them to tears when he scrounged together items to make a flag;

"Mike scrounged a small piece of red roof tile and laboriously ground it into a powder, which mixed with a bit of water, became a faded red or maroon color to make the flag's stripes. We had gotten a bit of medicine in the last year of our captivity, usually a blue pill of unknown provenance prescribed for afflictions. Mike patiently leached the color out of one of the pills and used it to make a blue square in the upper left of the handkerchief. With a needle made from bamboo wood and thread pulled from our single blanket, he stitched little white stars on this field of blue."

It took Mike a couple of weeks to make that flag, working secretly so the guards would not know, and when he proudly showed it to his cellmates, some of them cried. When the guards found the flag, of course, Mike was tortured as he knew he would be all along.

As for the Army, of course, when the Revolutionary War broke out there was no single national army but rather each state had its own militia.  The Continental Congress met in May to solve this problem and created a national army.  On June 14, 1775, Congress approved the national army and the next day named George Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.  You can read more about the formation of the Army here.

To honor both the Army and our flag, here is the Army Field Band with The Star Spangled Banner - awesome!



Update:  Click on over to Pecan Corner; she's got the first recruiting poster for the Continental Army.  Neat!

A Patriot Every Single Day

By now you've heard about the kids in California who were sent home from school for wearing American flag t-shirts on Cinco de Mayo.  I wanted to point out, in case you missed it, the response Victor Davis Hanson left on The Corner yesterday:

A few youths were sent home from the local high school for subervisely wearing American-flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo. “I think they should apologize,’cause it is a Mexican Heritage Day,” Annicia Nunez, a Live Oak High student, said. “We don’t deserve to be get disrespected like that. We wouldn’t do that on Fourth of July.”

Note the use of “we,” suggesting an ethnic allegiance that trumps the national one; note the equation of a Mexican Heritage Day with the Fourth of July; note the strange idea that the sight of the American flag leads to one being “disrespected”; and, of course, note the action by the school’s administration — banishing the boys for apparently politically incorrect, subversive behavior.

He is correct, of course.

At The Morgan Hill Times, one of the offended Latin American students says,

"It's disrespectful to do it on Cinco de Mayo," said Jessica Cortez, a Live Oak sophomore. "They can be a patriot on some other day. Not that specific day." 

I don't guess the First Amendment stands for much in California these days.  

With all due respect to Miss Cortez, I will be a patriot every single day; I'll be a patriot on the Fourth of July, on Memorial Day, Veterans Day, hell, even Boxing Day and Bastille Day.  I'll be a patriot on Thanksgiving, Christmas (oh yes, I can say Christmas here), and even on Cinco de Mayo. 


(Photo by: Lora Schraft:  The Morgan Hill Times)

Gary Sinise: Patriot!

Actor Gary Sinise, aka Lt. Dan, received the Presidential Citizens Medal today from President Bush. I was pleased to see this because everything I know about Sinise is that he is a true patriot and all 'round good-guy. He is probably most known for his role in Forest Gump but if you ask a lot of service men and women they might say he is best known for the support and love he has shown them.

Steve can probably speak to this better, but Sinise and his Lt. Dan Band appeared at Fort Polk when Steve was stationed there and Steve had nothing but good things to say about the guy. Sinise takes his Lt. Dan Band tirelessly around the globe on USO tours to entertain the troops. He has also visited soldiers in Walter Reed and also the Navy Medical Center in Maryland. He has visited with Iraqi school children and with author Laura Hillenbrand (Seabiscuit) founded the Operation Iraqi Children Program which provides school supplies to Iraqi children.

The Presidential Citizens Medal was established in 1969 to recognize U.S. citizens who have performed exemplary deeds of service for the nation; it is one of the highest honors a civilian can receive from the President, second only to the Medal of Freedom.

Good call by President Bush on this one! As Bill O'Reilly would say, Mr. Sinise is a patriot!

Veterans Day 2008

Happy Veterans Day to my favorite veteran!

And If THIS Doesn't Bring a Tear To Your Eye...

Changing of the Guard, Buckingham Palace, 9/11/2001



Even Steve shed a tear on this one.

Note to Obama

Dear Mr. Obama,

Shame on your campaign for dumping 12,000 flags in the dumpster after your big show at Invesco Field. You might be happy to know that they have been rescued by a vendor at the field and will be distributed by Boy Scouts to be used in Mr. McCain's rally this afternoon. We know you didn't personally dump the flags in the dumpster but you might want to advise your volunteers to study up on the U.S. Flag code. It doesn't make such a good impression on Americans when their flag is treated with disrespect. Thanks so much.

Your Average American

Listening To...