Memorial Day

Memorial Day commemorates U.S. men and woman who have died in military service. It first began as Decoration Day to honor Union soldiers who died during the American Civil War. Many of us understand the history behind Memorial Day. War and history continue to repeat itself. Today very few are alive that served in World War II. My Father served in the Korean War and he has passed on like many of our fathers and forefathers. Many today can still remember The Viet Nam War where many of our friends and family gave their lives for the freedom of the Viet Nam people. We also remember Bosnia, and Kosovo where my son served on the aircraft carrier the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt for about one year. Desert Storm is fresh in our minds. Currently our men and women serving Afghanistan and Iraq are in the thoughts of many. Our service men and women are serving all around the globe helping other countries. As our families ponder the real meaning of Memorial Day please keep those in prayer as they remember loved ones that have preceding them in death by serving our great country giving their lives in foreign lands so others could experience the freedom we have in the United States of America.

For those families that have lost loved ones I salute You! You can't give anything greater then a loved one that served our country and lost his or her live for our freedom and the freedom of others in foreign lands.

For those of you with family currently serving in the Armed Forces around the world I pray that all is well.

Please take the time and read this entire Memorial Day gift that you have just received.

The Medal of Honor Lives on in Memory of out Fallen Sons, Daughters, Friends and in the lives of our wounded who live with the memories of war. The highest U.S. military decoration awarded for bravery and valor in action 'above and beyond the call of duty'. It is awarded "for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life, above and beyond the call of duty, in actual combat against an armed enemy force."

IRAQ WAR 2007

Merry Christmas to ALL!! FROM SKOONDOG

THIS IS TO YOU MY TRUE FRIENDS:( CALLED A SOLDIER REPORTS TO GOD!!!)

THE SOLDIER STOOD AND FACED HIS GOD, WHICH MUST ALWAYS COME TO PASS

HE HOPED HIS SHOES WERE SHINING, JUST AS BRIGHTLY AS HIS BRASS.

STEP FORWARD NOW, YOU SOLDIER, HOW SHALL I DEAL WITH YOU?

THE SOLDIER SQUARED HIS SHOULDERS AND SAID "NO, LORD, I GUESS I AIN'T

BECAUSE THOSE OF US WHO CARRY GUNS, CAN'T ALWAYS BE A SAINT.

I'VE HAD TO WORK MOST SUNDAYS, AND AT TIMES MY TALK WAS TOUGH,

AND SOMETIMES I'VE BEEN VIOLENT, BECAUSE THE STREETS ARE AWFULLY ROUGH.

BUT, I NEVER TOOK A PENNY, THAT WASN'T MINE TO KEEP...

THOUGH I WORKED A LOT OF OVERTIME, WHEN THE BILLS JUST TO STEEP,

AND I NEVER PASSES A CRY FOR HELP, THOUGH AT TIMES I SHOOK WITH FEAR,

AND SOMETIMES, GOD FORGIVE ME, I'VE WEPT UNMANLY TEARS.

I KNOW I DON'T DESERVE A PLACE, AMONG THE PEOPLE HERE

THEY NEVER WANTED ME AROUND, EXCEPT TO CALM THEIR FEARS.

IF YOU'VE A PLACE FOR ME HERE, LORD IT NEEDN'T BE SO GRAND,

I NEVER EXPECTED OF HAD TOO MUCH, BUT IF YOU DON'T I'LL UNDERSTAND.

THERE WAS A SILENCE ALL AROUND THE THRONE, WHERE THE SAINTS HAD OFTEN TROD

AS THE SOLDIER WAITED QUIETLY, FOR THE JUDGMENT OF HIS GOD,

"STEP FORWARD NOW YOU SOLDIER, YOU'VE BORNE YOUR BURDENS WELL,

WALK PEACEFULLY ON HEAVEN'S STREETS; YOU'VE DONE YOUR TIME IN HELL."

SKOONDOG DANIEL SCHOONOVER	Troop Info: 57th Signal Battalion B Company "Tropo" Platoon Fort Hood, Texas Specialist(SPC) Venegas, Rafael

In memory of our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, boyfriends who lost their lives In Viet Nam

Please take a few minutes and keep your eyes on this photo and think of the boys and girls being sent home paying the highest price that could be paid; Dying for our Freedom and Rights of Others to Experience this Freedom. This picture is what Memorial Day is all about.

It was a time of great exulting and excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and sputtering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest depths of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles, beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast doubt upon its righteousness straight way got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.

Sunday morning came -- next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams -- visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! -- then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation:

"God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest, Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!"

Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory -- An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there, waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"

The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside -- which the startled minister did -- and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:

"I come from the Throne -- bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import -- that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of -- except he pause and think.

"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two -- one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this -- keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.

"You have heard your servant's prayer -- the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it -- that part which the pastor -- and also you in your hearts -- fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. The whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory -- must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God the Father fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with hurricanes of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen."

[After a pause.] "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits."

Everyone while I was putting this together tears were in my eyes for those that have died so others might live in the freedom we take for granite. Freedom is not owed it's earned. It's sad that our boys and girls pay the ultimate price, their lives, for the right of others to live in a democratic freedom throughout the world but they willingly serve this great country and our 'Commander in Chief' 'The President of The United States'.

I can't tell you to enjoy this Memorial Day Weekend because it's not a weekend to enjoy it's a weekend to reflect on those that have paid the highest price during military actions, THEIR LIVES.

Remember someone, this weekend, in your town or state is in tears because they just lost a husband, a wife, a father, a mother or a daughter or son. Please take a minute and in silence say a prayer for these people that have lost a loved one. This is what Memorial Day is all about!