Memorial Day is the day we honor and remember those men and women who gave their lives while serving our country. Armed Forces Day is for those who currently wear the uniform, Veterans Day is for those who use to wear the uniform and Memorial Day is for those who never made it out of their uniform. Please join me in remembering the fallen soldiers who are no longer with us this weekend.

Today’s first photo is from Michael Monette, himself a Veteran, so quite appropriate that we honor the fallen men and women with a sunrise flag from a fellow comrade.

The remaining photos come from Emily Lahnala who had applied about a year ago to be a guardian on the Upper Peninsula Honor Flight. About a month before the May 2nd U.P. Honor Flight, Emily received a call asking if she could join Mission 23 as there was a Veteran from Bessmer, in need of a guardian. She traveled to Escanaba and met Verne, spent the day with him in Washington, DC touring the Memorial monuments, sharing laughs and tears with him and snapping photos for him to remember the trip with. Emily said at the end of the trip that she had truly made a forever friend and experienced one of the best things she will ever do in her lifetime. How beautiful is that? The photos are just a small sampling of the Memorials they were able to see that day and which I thought would be more than appropriate to help us all remember what Memorial Day is truly about...remembering the men and women who have given their all.

Her video is a fitting conclusion to this day, Taps, recorded that day, also. May all our fallen heroes Rest in Peace.

What a great Memorial Day page to honor our fallen heroes. That first picture is very fitting and just spectacular. Emily captured this day beautifully. I'm so proud to know her and call her a friend. What a wonderful way to give of herself and help a vet. Way to go, Em. So proud of you.

Taps is always so haunting. I remember when we were in school, the band would go to the cemetery to play. I played trombone and had to go quite a way from the others to play the echo of taps. My mother always said it sounded so beautifully haunting. Those are days I'll never forget. Even then I knew how special it all was. May we never forget that freedom isn't free.

Hi
Did anyone else watch the Memorial Day concert on PBS last night? As always, I found the combination of words from veterans (read by actors) and music moving.

Taps was originally a "lights out, go to sleep" bugle call. But it is of course also used to say "rest in peace" in the context DebS mentions.

I watched the National Memorial Day Concert on PBS last night. Sobbed through it...not just tears. Wow...That should be mandatory viewing for everyone.

I also watched an old Discovering episode of the 906 Honor Flight....bawling like a baby then too. Here's a link to it, it's well worth the watch, especially today.

906 Outdoors Memorial Day special

THANK YOU to all our Fallen Soldiers, to the Gold Star Families, and to all the Friends of Warriors that didn't make it home.
(and thanks to Deb for playing TAPS all those years ago...I don't think I could do it!)

Deb...I was just telling someone about how you would go up in the trees, hidden, to echo taps like that. I was hoping to do that, but by the time I was in the high school band they had stopped doing that. It was always so eerie and mysterious, I loved it.

I also watched the National Memorial Day Concert and was teary throughout.
The link on Donna's post is a good one, also, with Vets talking about what the Honor Flight meant to them.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
–John McCrae, May 1915

Bob was asked to play Taps at funerals for the Vets from WWl WWll,& Vietnam. He played his trumpet and was the one who played up in the front to be seen by all. Someone else was his echo. Sad this is becoming a lost art as Taps is now played mostly by a recording now day.

I appreciated Mary's description of the various days assigned to each Armed Forces category. It reminded me of a thought that comes up periodically.

For those veterans that have passed but after their uniformed service, they seem to fall between the cracks. If Memorial Day is properly designated for those fallen in uniform then the closest thing would be Veterans Day to include all who previously served, both living and dead. But these veterans usually get grouped into Memorial Day and Veteran's Day seems to focus only on the living. Just say'in and wonder'in.

“…Memorial Day is for those who never made it out of their uniform.”
Beautifully said, Mary.
Alex...I can't take credit for that, it's something I read and really liked that explanation, so I've shared it a number of times.

And religious or not…
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

Beautiful pics. I also watched the Concert on PBS last night - Could not stop the tears from flowing thinking of what those soldiers saw, heard and felt during their service and that it will never leave them. My cousin was on Iwo Jima and he was a tormented soul his entire life after that. We must give them our hearts, thanks and respect. God Bless them all. Thank you for sharing the photos.

It is nice to belong to a group of people who so respect our soldiers and what they sacrificed for us. Everybody's posts are from the heart.

Mary, I was always so excited and proud to be playing the echo on Memorial Day. I was nervous, too. I always knew everybody was looking at me and I didn't like that. But it was so meaningful. Why do I think that Fr. Dion started that tradition with the St. Joseph's band? I could be wrong. And that's really sad that they stopped doing that. It's such a great tradition

Here's a link to the National Memorial Day concert from PBS last evening:

National Memorial Day Concert

Deb...I didn't know Fr. Dion had started the Taps echo tradition in Lake Linden. I thought you had done that in High School. I wasn't in school there when Fr. Dion was here.

My memory may be wrong. But I could have sworn I did it for both bands.

Deb, you probably did, but I was at St. Cecilia school then, not St. Joseph school.