This is Gettysburg battlefield.
Beautiful, isn’t it?
It’s hard to imagine that the largest loss of life on American soil occurred here, isn’t it? It’s too beautiful to have thousands upon thousands of bodies strewn about on this soil so thick and deep you couldn’t find an open place to step.
Saturday was my 35th birthday and I spent it here, a place I have always wanted to go. I stood here on Little Round Top with my LONG time blogging friend of almost 5 years, Erin, and took everything in.
This war is hard.
Many people I love have served and deployed-a dear family friend is stationed at Ft.Hood.
If you have ever had a loved one in harms way due to service in the military this day becomes extremely personal for the good and the bad.
When I was little it seemed that Veterans were the old guys that wore their uniforms in parades.
No longer.
When we were in Washington DC we spent our last day seeing Arlington National Cemetery with our friends, Kyle and Camille. It is one of the most sobering, heart wrenching places in the world. Hundreds of thousands of people are buried here. Many lost their lives in defense of our country and many others saw combat.
I saw and overheard the story of a young MP who was walking up to see the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier. He had a prosthetic leg and you could see terrible shrapnel scars on his remaining leg.
War is terrible.
I know it is a necessary evil but I hate it.
Having lost a son my heart aches and hurts and stings for every mother, father, wife, child, brother, sister, family, friends and community that have lost a loved one while serving.
I honor them and I honor the people they leave behind.
I am EXTREMELY proud of all our service men and women. They sacrifice more then any of us can possibly know as do their families and loved ones. Those who serve honorably deserve every praise, honor and shout of acclamation in the land, though they would be the very LAST people who would want that. They would always deflect the honor to a fallen brother or sister.
Most of them are completely unaware of the heros and heroines that they are.
May they stay safe and come back to those they love.
This war has worn out our country but our love and support for our service men and women is unending.
God bless.
Due to inappropriate behavior, comments to this post are now closed. (Further explanation in the comments section.)
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The face of war became all to real to us while we were on a road trip 2 years ago. I wrote about it here…
http://cookienotes.blogspot.com/2007/11/remembering.html
Gettysburg and Arlington Cemetery are both gorgeous sites of sobering emotion. I’m glad you were able to visit both. I used to live in Arlington, and often visited the Cemetery, usually wandering off to the sections unvisited by tourists. I’d sit under a tree and read a book, just keeping the graves company. Living there gave me entirely new insights as to the value of our soldiers’ bravery and sacrifice on our behalf. Agreeing or disagreeing with the President should never, in any way, have anything to do with the extraordinary sacrifice of all men and women in uniform who are willing to lay down their lives to protect ours, or the ones who gave the last full measure of devotion.
I walked through Gettysburg and sobbed the entire day. As awful as that war was, I am so grateful that even then, people were fighting for my children’s rights.
I know the sacrifices they and their families make, and it always makes me well up. Good thing for touch typing. Can’t much see the screen.
Lovely, lovely post. No matter whether one supports the war or not, the support for our military (and for me as a Brit living in Tennessee, that means both the US and British armed forces. Heck, that means any country who has people in Iraq and Afghanistan) is unwavering. A wonderful, but terribly sad, new tradition has sprung up in England. Whenever the body of a fallen soldier is returned to Britain, the coffin is driven through the small town of Wooton Bassett. The whole town comes to a halt as hundreds of people line the streets to pay their respects. Just yesterday, 6 fallen soldiers were honored. The saddest part of all was hearing that one of the families held up a banner declaring “Welcome Home”. That’s when I fell apart. Sadly for Britain, Remembrance Day (our name for Veterans Day), falls more than once a year. My heart swells with pride, yet also breaks every time when I hear about Wootton Bassett.
This is beautiful Loralee. This is a day to remember and I am so glad to do it.
THANK YOU for your comments, guys. Unfortunately, some are using this post for asshat commentary to spew their hateful feelings about the former administration and this war and have crossed the line of what I find acceptable.
I don’t care what you think of war or Bush or what you should have for dinner. The people who serve honorably are UNTOUCHABLE in my book.
This is my house and you just do. not. go. there.
And frankly, I don’t want to read and monitor the mudslinging.
This day deserves more then that.
So, I am closing this post to further comments.
Thank you for your understanding.
Loralee