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.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

God speed.

The coolest name on HotAir!

“Earn this”

( ‘Captain Miller’ to ‘Private Ryan’ )

Cpl. Brennan Beck of Lodi, said that lately he had been dreaming a lot about his buddy. A week ago, he said, he dreamed about walking around with his friend on their base in Iraq. McGinnis — who would have turned 21 on June 14 — was wearing the Medal of Honor around his neck, and everyone was saluting him.

“He goes, ‘Man, I hate being saluted all the time,’ ” Beck said, recalling the dream. “So I asked why he doesn’t just take the medal off. He looked at me and said, ‘Man, you know what a chick magnet this is? All the girls talk to me.’

“I woke up,” Beck said. “I missed him so bad, but I had a smile on my face. It was so real.”

This stuff just breaks me up. I have a smile and a tear. It’s so wonderful and so awful all wrapped into one. He epitomizes a wonderfully honorable life and the type of actions that leads to a movie like 300 made over 2,000 years later.

Their mission was to patrol the streets of Adhamiyah in northeast Baghdad and find a place to put a 250-kilowatt generator to provide electricity for more than 100 homes

Honor these heroes by never ever taking freedom and the life of luxury we have for granted.

right2bright on June 3, 2008 at 1:10 PM

Women did have it easier under Hussein. Iraq was more secular and far less fundimentalist.

AYNBLAND. You are a fool. You know nothing whatsoever about Iraq or you would not have written that total nonsense.

lexhamfox on June 3, 2008 at 12:35 PM

And you do?
Please enlighten us…

AYNBLAND. You are a fool. You know nothing whatsoever about Iraq or you would not have written that total nonsense.

Tony737 on June 2, 2008 at 11:46 PM

I like that. Not preachy, but it makes the point and honors their memory and the service of their comrades.

Is that SOP military protocol toward the medal or was it simply showing respect and honor to the man?

Courtesy, not regulation. I saluted a retired sgtmaj MOH recipient even though I outrank him

Is that SOP military protocol toward the medal or was it simply showing respect and honor to the man?

Tony737 on June 2, 2008 at 11:46 PM

http://www.history.army.mil/moh.html

Good morning. No, we haven’t been to the theater since ‘300′ and I can’t remember when before that. I’d like to see it, but without a babysitter, I guess we’ll have to wait for the DVD.

I’ll remember that they saved my family and me from a life of dhimmitude and slavery – Sub

Oh God, if only we could get the rest of Free World to understan this!

PaisleyCow on June 3, 2008 at 2:33 AM

Well done. I enjoyed your work. Best wishes to your lady friend and her family. I hope their terrible loss is somewhat soothed by the pride they should rightly feel.

God Bless You, Pfc. McGinnis. Well done. A greatful nation owes you a debt of gratitude.

thuja on June 3, 2008 at 1:23 AM

I agree, I dislike hillary to the core of my being, but she would understand the sacrifice of these heroes. I think that her time in the Senate has changed her from the anti-military shill she was in the 90’s

I look at guys like him the same way I look at Secret Service people, when all your natural instincts tell you to take cover you instead put yourself in the way of the bullet. This young man had buckets of courage, what a leader he would have made in his later years.

I’d never heard that. I like it!!