Fair Winds and a Following Sea

This was written many years ago for lost sailors so my apology to all of you.
I think these words would apply to all of us in this rather exclusive fraternity of brothers in arms, so if you would but indulge an old sailor a few words to my departed brothers from all branches of the military.

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind ever be at your back,
May you find old friends waiting to greet you, there on the outside track.
We're gathered together old times to remember, 'tis but for ourselves we would grieve,
So we'll sing you a chorus and bid you farewell - fair winds and a following sea.

We'll sing of 'The Leaf' and 'The Parting Glass', we'll raise up our voices in song,
No sadness today for those who have passed, we celebrate with a voices glad and strong.
A catch in the throat, a tear in the eye, but no funeral dirge will this be,
We'll roar 'Auld Lang Syne' as a victory song - fair winds and a following sea.

And those of us left here will miss a true friend, who shared with us good times and bad,
Raising a glass to your memory we'll say: “We've known you – why should we be sad?”
We honor a life that was lived to the full, we honor a spirit, now free.
You'll long be remembered, whenever we say: “Fair winds and a following sea!”

"Every Day is Memorial Day" - Gold Star Mother

This picture was taken just before the news conference held by Vets for Freedom back in April. 

If there was ever a definition of Memorial, then this Gold Star Mother fills the meaning in for us!

May God bless each family who has suffered the "ultimate" sacrifice, and may we get the job down and get our troops home.

I know I can speak for the entire Cyber Crew when I say that none of us want to lose even one more troop in this war, but I also know that none of us want to lose this war and disrespect the memory of those who have fallen. 

Cyber Pastor

"Every Day is Memorial Day" - Help Send A WWII Vet to DC to See the WWII Memorial

- Cyber Pastor

I first introduced you to my good friend Harold a few days ago in a Memorial Day pictures post. Harold served in the US Army in the Pacific theater during World War II. 

Harold is 85 years old and wants to go see the WWII Memorial in DC that honors him and his fellow veterans of "The Big One". Not only did Harold serve, but he also donated money to have the long overdue memorial finished. 

Mrs. CP and I would love to be able to take Harold and his wife Lucy to DC to see this important piece of our nation's history. 

Now, I've never done this on our blog, but I would like to ask our online friends and readers of this blog to assist us with a financial gift to help make this trip possible. 

I'm going to be talking to some local folks as well, but I know there are many of you who love veterans, and no gift is too small to help us out. I'm looking to raise $1500, so that Harold will not have to put out any money for this trip - I believe he earned it by his service.

Please pray about this and if you feel led to do so, you can donate by the PayPal button on the left side of the blog, or you can email me at hopecyberpastor@gmail.com to make other arrangements. 

God Bless all of our veterans today and always. 

"Every Day is Memorial Day" - More Memorial Day Pictures

Teaching our grandkids to honor God and Country!

Mrs. CP with the grandchildren.

Our friends Harold and Lucy. Harold is 85 and a WWII veteran. I'm going to talk about Harold more in a future post.

SSG Michael Bechert was added this year. Click here to read about his story.

"Every Day is Memorial Day" - Another War Hero!

The following was the end of an email sent by my District Superintendent. I've deleted a couple of pieces of info to protect this person's privacy. 

This last Sunday I met another true hero.  His name is Mr. Mike, and he attends one of our churches.  He served in World War II.  His ship was sunk by the enemy fire and he and his buddies had seven minutes to get on a life raft before the ship sank.  Four of the men I believe were on Mike’s raft.  One soldier died and so Mr. Modejewski, and the others with him, were forced to throw the dead soldier in the ocean because of details I won’t go into in this E-mail.  

They survived for three days out in the ocean without any water or food except what fish they could catch.  Mr. Mike told us he used his T-shirt to catch fish with so they could eat them.  Finally after three days a plane came by and rescued them.  

There are thousands of stories like Mr. Mike’s where soldiers have suffered and died so that we could have our freedom.  Of course, as I write this, thousands of Americans are in harms way defending our freedom.  May God be with them all.  They also are heroes! 

"Every Day is Memorial Day", Never To Be Forgotten

Thanks to Lew at Right in a Left World for posting this article. Please visit his blog to check out more Memorial Day gatherings.

Strangers across the sea remember sacrifices of American soldiers.

Sunday, May 25, 2008 3:42 AM EDT

BY MICHAEL DOOLING | REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

This morning Maurice Coenen quietly walked into an American cemetery, knelt down and placed an arrangement of red, white and blue flowers at the base of a white marble cross bearing the name of a man he never knew.

For a few moments he stood in silence before the cross that bears the chiseled name of American soldier Robert E. Doran, a native of Waterbury.

This was not the first time Coenen, 31, visited this grave.

In addition to Memorial Day, he places flowers and pays his respects on Christmas and on the date Doran died. He performs this ritual as a small token of thanks for events that happened long before he was born. His solemn observance today did not take place in Waterbury or in one of the thousands of cities around the United States. This gesture of remembrance took place in the small town of Margraten in the southern Netherlands.

To this day, the Dutch are thankful for the Allies who won back their freedom from Nazi occupation of their homeland. Grateful Dutch citizens founded the Association for Adopting Graves at the American Cemetery in Margraten after World War II. The sole purpose of this organization is to remember the sacrifices of the fallen liberators and to decorate their graves at various times throughout the year.

Coenen is a Web site developer from Maastricht and is one of several thousand Dutch who have adopted the graves. Coenen has also adopted the grave of a soldier from Memphis; both graves were assigned to him by pure chance. Like others who have taken on the responsibility, he is trying to learn everything he can about the lives of his fallen soldiers and the battles in which they fought. In his quest, he recently contacted the Sunday Republican for information about Doran's life before entering the service. He also hopes to contact family members to learn more.

"I have peace with the knowledge that they will know that Robert, and what he did and gave, isn't forgotten overseas."

Robert Doran lived with his mother Mary V. Doran, his sister Jean, and his brother William at 92 Alma St. in the East End. During the war, William served with the U.S. Navy on the destroyer USS Rhind. Doran's father George died suddenly in 1934 and the family fought to survive the remaining depression years. According to his sister Jean Murphy, now 89, Bob had a special place in his mother's heart. "Bobby was born to make his mother happy, a terrific kid, and never did anything to worry her," she said.

After graduating from SS. Peter and Paul School, Robert attended Leavenworth High School, graduating in 1941. He played basketball with the East End team known as the Shamrocks and, after graduating, worked at the First National grocery store on East Main Street until he was drafted in 1943. Shortly before leaving for Europe, Doran took a train to Waterbury in a surprise visit home for just two hours. Though he saw his mother and aunts, his sister Jean wasn't home and she missed seeing him for the last time, something she regrets to this day.

Doran, as a member of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment (101st Airborne Division) was part of the invasion force at Normandy. In fact, he was one of the "pathfinders" who were among the first to parachute into Normandy - before the formal invasion started - in order to mark landing zones for the troops to follow. A few months later he parachuted behind enemy lines in The Netherlands as part of Operation Market Garden. Doran was the radio operator for Lt. Col. Robert G. Cole, who later received the Medal of Honor. During a firefight on Oct. 18, Doran had to adjust his position to improve radio reception and was struck and killed by a sniper's bullet. Twenty minutes later, Lt. Col. Cole was killed in a similar manner.

Several weeks passed before a telegram from the War Department was delivered to the house on Alma Street reading, "The Secretary of War desires to express his deep regret that your son, Technician Grade Robert E. Doran, was killed in Holland." When given the choice of moving his remains home or leaving them overseas, Robert's mother made the tough decision. "Let him stay with his pals," she said. Robert's body was eventually interred in the American Cemetery at Margraten.

Jean only recently discovered her younger brother's grave had been adopted by Coenen and she is most grateful that he looks after it. "I cannot begin to express my appreciation, how kind people can be."

She is looking forward to sharing her stories about her brother.

Jean was not surprised, however, by the attitudes of the Dutch toward the United States. When she visited The Netherlands in 2000, the first member of her family to do so, she noticed considerable evidence of their appreciation of Americans noting banners reading, "You are our heroes," and a statute dedicated to the 101st Airborne troops. She was also moved by the cemetery's serene beauty. "Gorgeous but such a sad place," she remembers. The Dutch were very kind to her and the cemetery's caretaker escorted her to her brother's grave. The debt of freedom the Dutch feel toward the United States runs very deep and has been passed on to the next generation.

With her she brought a little bit of Waterbury to leave behind. Before she had left for Europe she visited their childhood home on Alma Street and dug up some dirt from their old backyard. When she at long last knelt before the marble cross marking her brother's grave she dug a small hole in front of it, gently placed their late mother's rosary beads inside and lovingly covered them with soil from Bob's homeland.

Now, that soil and Robert Doran's remains are forever blended in that rich earth in the countryside of The Netherlands.

The photo gallery can be seen here.

"Every Day is Memorial Day" - I Pondered Long and Hard

This day after Memorial Day is another new beginning for us here at Do The Right Thing. For several days we have been posting a series entitled "Build Up to M-Day".  The purpose was that our troops and veterans deserve to be remembered more than 2 or 3 days a year. 

To keep that spirit going, we are going to continue that theme with a new name "Every Day is Memorial Day". 

Here is the first post, and SGT Porter is listed on our GWOT Prayer List. --- Cyber Pastor

submitted by Garry

I pondered long and hard about the issue of a post or just a note for Memorial Day, and one point was simply overwhelmed by the emotions it brings up. After listening to Daniel Porter speak on Sunday, I was lost.

Nothing I have, nothing I know compares to what the men and women serving now are going through.

 

It's easy to think or to say all war is the same. Good people live and good people die. But this time around, while the issues are clear cut, it's a lot more difficult to tell the players even with a score card.

Mistakes are made, and the wrong people die, that seems to be the worst part Daniel has to go through.

When his unit was attacked  and he got hurt, there were no casualties in his unit, but everything else in a radius did not walk away. That's just the way it is, when your buddies ass is on the line, everything else is secondary. When people live in a war zone, they just need to live with that fact, they are IN a war zone.

Ain't pretty, just real.

 

By the way, God the Father had his had on Daniel on the 3rd of March. The EFP which went through two open windows took his name tapes off his jacket on the way through.

 

Y'all take care and be blessed

 

 

shalom

garry