Army of Mom: Honor Memorial Day

What is Memorial Day? A day to remember the military men and women who have died in the line of duty. This link is a good one for the history althought I think his feelings are slightly flawed about changing the date back to May 30 instead of the last Monday of the month. The author of the site feels that the value of Memorial Day and what it means has been degraded because people look at it simply as a three-day weekend. I think if they moved it back to May 30 and it was in the middle of the week that people who pay no attention to it. Look at some other holidays like Veteran's Day. Do people REALLY mark it in any certain way? Not usually. I'm going to try and take Hot Rod to a memorial service in the morning. Last year, we took him to Fort Hood and it was very moving for us and I think a good learning tool for him. In 2003, we took the whole family to see the moving wall and it was very touching. Some old VFW vets gave the boys some spent shells from the funeral of a veteran who got a 21-gun salute. (If I get info wrong here, please tell me and I'll correct it. I'm not good with miliary lingo, even though I should be as a former military dependent!)

Please remember all the sacrifices of those brave me and women in the Armed Forces and thank a veteran today for his or her service. I'll thank my veteran. Army of Dad, I'm very proud of the service you gave to your country.

Here is Hot Rod at the Fourth Infantry Division museum at Fort Hood Memorial Day 2004. AoD was serving in 4ID when I met him.

Here is AoD with Hot Rod by a marker for AoD's last assignment before leaving the Army.

Here is the Iraq war memorial we have all heard so much about. It was created with melted down Saddam statues by his former sculptor and paid for by the 4ID soldiers to honor a slain comrade. The stained glass you see in the back is a copy of the Ivy Leaf patch 4ID solders wear on their uniforms.