Memorial Day-2011

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God Bless The USA ~ Lee Greenwood

~Thanks to Youtube~
littlebrat672



Junie

Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday in May.



( From Wikipedia )


Memorial Day

The gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery are graced by U.S. flags on Memorial Day.
Also called Decoration Day
Observed by United States
Date Last Monday in May
Observances Remembrance of American war dead

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This is a picture of my husband and a friend in 1955. They were temporally assigned to Camp Kilmer, NJ for deployment overseas!

Here they are in NYC-Broadway and 42nd street...a night on the town before being shipped out to Casablanca, French Morocco.

( Charles, age 20 here, is the one on the right...
He is STILL on the RIGHT, too! :) )

This would be a voyage of 9 hard days with most of the men suffering extreme seasickness! The ship they were on was a smaller ship for troop transport...very close quarters; and they were to encounter bad storms on this trip-adding to the dismal conditions.

This was the ship.

USS Private William H. Thomas

After 9 rough days they reached their destination.

This was my husband's first of 4 assignments to this part of the world during his 4 years in the Air Force. ( 2 different bases)

His job in the Air Force was to be as a fire and rescue specialist. Charles quickly rose in rank and became crew chief in charge of a work crew.

During that time period the need arose often for men trained in this kind of operations, as there were frequent plane crashes near and on the base. We (USA) maintained a heavy presence in that part of the world during that time period.

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The name of the ship used in transport-USS Private William H. Thomas- caught my attention. I wondered about a ship being named for a Private.

I'm so glad I looked up the information on this!

This is a story that will make you cry (it did both Charles and me) and it will make you so very proud!

Read about this American Hero here!


God bless our brave men and women who are willing to fight for our country and our freedom!



Junie