But I Am Living Still

Kris Kristofferson, 88.

UPDATE 30 SEPTEMBER 2024 12:35 [Borepatch]: I first posted about Kristofferson here.  Quite a man.

Rest In Peace, James Earl Jones

Doubtless Dwight will cover this in full presently.  But he was an actor that I enjoyed pretty much throughout his entire career (who can forget him in The Sandlot?) - but one role stands out in my mind: his guest appearance (as himself) on The Big Bang Theory.

And this scene was hilarious (from that same episode) but I had never heard the full story:

May flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest.

A day for remembering

80 years ago the Allies stormed the Atlantic Wall.

Via Chris Lynch, we see that the French High School kids in Normandy remember.

82 years ago was the battle of Midway.  The torpedo bombers sacrificed themselves almost to a man but that opened the way for the dive bombers to rip the heart out of the Imperial Japanese Navy.

106 years ago the Marines went on the assault at Belleau Woods in the Great War.  It was one of the costliest days in Marine Corps history, and took heroes like First Sergent Dan Daly to rally the men: Come on you sons of bitches!  Do you want to live forever?

 

Truly a day for remembering.  Remember them.

Google has a remembrance today, too.

Some lesbian writer.  So brave, no doubt.  So very brave.  

Hey Google - french kids spent minutes chanting U-S-A!  You might ponder what that means.

There are only 61 living Medal Of Honor recipients

There used to be 62.   God speed, sir.

Rest in peace, and rise in Glory.

Jo Dee Messina - Heaven Was Needing A Hero

Memorial Day is the traditional start of summer.  Beach, swimming pools, and backyard barbecue is the agenda for most.  But that's not what the day is about.  I posted this twelve years ago and it still captures the spirit of this weekend.  Christian Golczynski is around twenty five years old now.

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Memorial Day isn't about barbecues for Christian Golczynski.  He was eight years old when LTC Ric Thompson handed him the flag that had draped his father's coffin.  That was five years ago.

This weekend will be the fifth Memorial Day where he won't be thinking about barbecues.  Next month will be the fifth Father's Day with an empty chair at the dinner table.

That is what Memorial Day is about.

I've posted this song a number of times over the last year or two, as it captures in music the sound of a heart breaking.  The song alternates between memories of the loved and lost, and the stumbling emptiness as the singer tries - and fails - to make sense of the loss.  It's not your typical sentimental Country music song, it's pure, 100 proof grief.

For some, that is what Memorial Day is about.

There is no official music video for this song; Messina is no longer the chart topping singer that she was in the 1990s.  But people have taken this music and found photographs that amplify the music and make it personal.  The second picture is one that I found particularly moving - nearly as much as the one of young Master Golczynski shown here.

This is what Memorial Day is about. 



Heaven Was Needing A Hero (songwriter: Jo Dee Messina)

I came by today to see you
Though I had to let you know
If I knew the last time that I held you was the last time,
I'd have held you and never let go
Oh it's kept me awake night wonderin'
Lie in the dark, just asking "why?"
I've always been told you won't be called home until it's your time

I guess Heaven was needing a hero
Somebody just like you
Brave enough to stand up for what you believe and follow it though
When I try to make it make sense in my mind
The only conclusion I come to
Is that Heaven was needing a hero like you

I remember the last time I saw you
Oh you held your head up proud
I laughed inside when I saw how you were, standing out in the crowd
You're such a part of who I am
Now that part will just be void
No matter how much I need you now
Heaven needed you more

'Cause Heaven was needing a hero
Somebody just like you
Brave enough to stand up for what you believe and follow it though
When I try to make it make sense in my mind
The only conclusion I come to
Is that Heaven was needing a hero like you

Yes, Heaven was needing a hero...that's you.

Abraham Lincoln's letter to Mrs. Bixby is justly famous:

Executive Mansion,
Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.

Dear Madam,

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,

A. Lincoln

Christian Golczynski also laid a sacrifice on that same altar of our freedom, a sacrifice costly beyond our reckoning.  I hope that the fullness of time will ease his anguish as well.  I fear that it will not.

That is what Memorial Day is about.  Not a barbecue in sight, just pure, 100 proof grief.  This weekend as you go about your normal business of life, remember SSgt Marcus Golczynski.  And Christian.  And what that sacrifice means.  May this Republic be worthy of them.

Mozart - Requiem in D

The older I get, the grumpier I get.  Sometimes I look on our society and feel like I am getting my Jeremiah on, which is never a good look.

Memorial Day is one of the times that this reliably happens.  Look, people, this holiday is not about barbecues and beach.

Remember them, that their memory not fade.

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine.  Et lux perpetua luceat eis.  Amen.

The last American WWII triple ace takes off on his last flight

I love that he named his P-51 "Old Crow", after his favorite whiskey. 

Rest in peace and rise in Glory, General.

Slow Salute

Big Country chases down how his Great Uncle died in World War II.  Rest in peace, Lieutenant.

The last Korean War Medal of Honor recipient reports to the final muster

Rangers lead.  Wow.

Last survivor from USS Arizona weighs anchor for the final voyage

As you'd expect, Dwight has the skinny.  Moving from battleships to naval aviation, he flew 200 combat missions and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.  Then he came back for Korea.

Go read his story.  Giants strode the face of the earth back then.

Fair winds and following seas, Lieutenant Commander.

What a man!

Dwight posts the obituary of Gen. John C. Bahnsen Jr. (USA - ret).  So who was Gen. Bahnsen?  Just a guy who was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, five Silver Stars, four Legions of Merit, three Distinguished Flying Crosses, four Bronze Stars (three with the V device), two Purple Hearts, and the Army Commendation Medal (with V device).

Holy cow.  Rest in peace, General.

Rest In Peace, sniper

SGT Chuck Mawhinney - the greatest Marine Corps sniper ever - has reported to the final muster.  As always, Dwight has the writeup (highly recommended).

What struck me was what he did when he came back from Vietnam.  Seeing how other veterans were treated, he pretty much dropped the whole military thing - he got a job with the Forest Service, hunted and shot trap, married and had kids, and seems to have been one of the solid, quiet, dependable community guys.

Then his story came out in the 1990s when the country was ready to treat the 'Nam vets right.  He got some much deserved recognition then, but the years before strike me as nothing so much as a sniper knowing how not to be seen.

103 confirmed kills with another 216 probables.  Wow.

Rest in peace, Sargent.

Now get on over to Dwight's place and read the amazing story.

Another veteran reports for the final muster

The last survivor of the British Army surrender at Singapore. 

Ave atque vale.

R.I.P. Peter Schickele

"Professor"* Peter Schickele has passed away at the fine old age of 88.  Dwight has the obit.  I ran across his music back at State U, and have enjoyed its very clever music inside baseball ever since.

I hadn't known that he orchestrated Joan Baez's Noel album.  I also hadn't known that he won four Grammys.

Schickele, of course, created the P.D.Q. Bach character.  One of my favorites is here, "The Art Of The Ground Round".  I had this album, Back In The Day.

Rest in peace.

* It seems that he taught at Julliard, so the term isn't clearly wrong.

Nikalaus Wirth, R.I.P

Computer scientist Nikalaus Wirth passed away on New Year's Day.  Wirth is known for creating the Pascal computer language - full disclosure: I wrote a fair amount of code in Turbo Pascal way back in the day. 

Pascal passed out of fashion (if indeed it was ever fashionable) a long while back.  What I remember of Wirth was his wit.  Asked at a conference what the proper pronunciation of his name was.  He answered that you could call him by name, in which case it was pronounced "Weert".  Or you could call him by value in which case it was pronounced "Worth".  Funny, in a really geeky way.

Divemedic has lost his mother

I'm so sorry.  Rest in peace and rise in glory.

The highest recorded mileage on an automobile

Irv Gordon bought a new Volvo P1800 in 1966 and drove it 3.2 million miles. The car could have gone farther, but Irv died in 2018, so that was it for the mileage streak.

He said he just did regular maintenance on it.  Wow.

The end of the War To End War

This day is less somber in the USA - we have our remembrance day in May with Memorial Day (which pre-dates Remembrance Day by some 50 years).  Today on these shores it's "Thank a Veteran" Day.

But in Europe and the ANZAC nations, this remembers when a whole generation was butchered and damned.

You can visit young Willie McBride in the Authuille Military Cemetery, grave A.36.

Et lux perpetua luceat eis.

Rest in Pease, Dick Butkis

I sure did enjoy your Miller Lite commercials, back in the day.

Jimmy Buffett - Hey Good Lookin'

Rest In Peace, Jimmy. Thanks for all the great music.