Happy Memorial Day. Attention please!

Posted in PICTURES       25 May 2009       4630       1 GALLERY VIEW

We won't forget your deeds!


Memorial Day
is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (May 25 in 2009). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War (it is celebrated near the day of reunification after the civil war), it was expanded after World War I to include American casualties of any war or military action - WIKI .

1 Happy Memorial Day. Attention please!

2 Happy Memorial Day. Attention please!

3 Happy Memorial Day. Attention please!

4 Happy Memorial Day. Attention please!

5 Happy Memorial Day. Attention please!

6 Happy Memorial Day. Attention please!

7 Happy Memorial Day. Attention please!

8 Happy Memorial Day. Attention please!


In the summer of 1862, a young man belonging to a Vermont regiment was found sleeping at his post. He was tried and sentenced to be shot. The day was fixed for the execution, and the young soldier calmly prepared to meet his fate. Friends who knew of the case brought the matter to President Lincoln's attention. It seemed that the boy had been on duty one night, and on the following night he had taken the place of a comrade too ill to stand guard. The third night he had been again called out, and, being utterly exhausted, had fallen asleep at his post. As soon as Lincoln understood the case, he signed a pardon, and sent it to the camp. The morning before the execution arrived, and the President had not heard whether the pardon had reached the officers in charge of the matter. He began to feel uneasy. He ordered a telegram to be sent to the camp, but received no answer. State papers could not fix his mind, nor could he banish the condemned soldier boy from his thoughts. At last, feeling that he MUST KNOW that the lad was safe, he ordered the carriage and rode rapidly ten miles over a dusty road and beneath a scorching sun. When he reached the camp he found that the pardon had been received and the execution stayed. The sentinel was released, and his heart was filled with lasting gratitude. When the campaign opened in the spring, the young man was with his regiment near Yorktown, Virginia. They were ordered to attack a fort, and he fell at the first volley of the enemy. His comrades caught him up and carried him bleeding and dying from the field. "Bear witness," he said, "that I have proved myself not a coward, and I am not afraid to die." Then, making a last effort, with his dying breath he prayed for Abraham Lincoln. By Z. A. Mudge (Adapted)

Allen Hoe, 62, served as a combat medic in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968. His son, Nainoa K. Hoe, served as a first lieutenant infantry officer with the Army's 3rd Battalion in Mosul, Iraq. He died there on Jan. 22, 2005, at the age of 27. On Memorial Day that year, Allen traveled to Washington, D.C., from his home in Honolulu for services being held at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, often referred to as, "The Wall." Army nurses returning home from the war were being honored there that day. "I thought it would be great to welcome these young trauma nurses with some special Hawaiian leis," Hoe says. When he saw Maj. Paula Couglin walking up the path he said, "Here, this is a special gift from me to you." Couglin lowered her head so Allen could place the lei on her and saw a button Allen had pinned to his chest. She put her finger on it and said, "I know him." "How do you know him? He was my son," Hoe recalls saying. "I was the trauma nurse at the crash unit where he died," Couglin said. "I will never forget that face." The two hugged and Couglin cried. Allen could tell that Couglin was tense. "I want you to know that my son was a warrior," he told her. "He absolutely recognized all of the risks that were involved." Couglin decided to tell Hoe something that had been bothering her. It was her job to prepare his son's body for a last viewing, but she couldn't get his eyes to close. Hoe laughed. "My son would sleep with his eyes partially open," he told her. "His men ... were never certain what they could do when the lieutenant was sleeping, because they never knew if he was sleeping or if he was just awake watching what they were doing." Reflecting on the chance encounter, Hoe says, "It was one of those miracles at The Wall. It was absolutely remarkable."




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