Monday, May 25, 2009

The reason behind Memorial Day

1 comment:

Brad_in_MA said...

Putting aside the Obama-esque color scheme, it was Admiral Nimitz who said of the Marines on Iwo . . . "Uncommon valor was a common virtue."

In the 34 days of fighting on Iwo, the USMC took 26,000 total casualties, of which approximately 7,000 were KIA.

On a related note, NPR ran a story yesterday about some English-speaking school kids in Belgium who every year on Memorial day go to Flanders & sing The Star Spangled Banner in honor & memory of the 368 fallen Americans who lie there. I usually don't hold out much for NPR, but this was spot on.

- Brad