Since I sit in my studio with three service flags from deceased brothers who
served, and memories of two more brothers for whom I don't happen to have
flags, and two more brothers who served and are still living, I tend to say
to your comments, "Amen!" Well said. Thank you for having served and for
expressing your well earned opinion.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Walter Waddell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 2:54 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] June 6, 1944 06061826Z07
> Dear Randy,
>
> That photo appears in a discontinued Virginia Cavalcade issue. I have kept
> a copy for the Stonewall Brigade Band. It has been packed away with many
> other records, photos, and keepsakes that I collected to December 31,
> 2005. I see no point in finding it or the article -- a comment that you
> and your Virginia historians are welcome to weigh for yourselves, but
> don't bother me with them -- I'm not interested in what you haven't done.
>
> As to the other notes on the current application of our foreign policy:
> Unless you've served three voluntary (two "in-country" -- as brief as they
> may have been) Vietnam tours as I have, you've had your say in last
> election by the only thing that counts in this country -- so far -- the
> results of the ballot.
>
> Since I lost, I claim the right of privilege for the loyal minority to
> voice dissent.
>
> I find it difficult to conceive that life and opportunity in this current
> America yields only circumstances so dire that they hold a pistol to the
> heads of the recruits of the police, fire, linesmen, and, yes, soldiers to
> force them to sign the dotted line.
>
> I suspect that there are a good many that fully appreciate and understand
> that they enjoy because of the voluntary and involuntary sacrifice of a
> sacred few -- it's been that way since the beginning of civilization and
> it will be that way until this species, as all species must, makes itself
> or becomes extinct.
>
> We were right to be in Vietnam and we are right to be in the battle for
> Iraq in the War on Terror. It's been our foreign policy since 1812. The
> only ones that prevent the job from getting done as it should are the "oh,
> can't we just all get along" crowd.
>
> The only outcome that matters for my grandchildren and the survival of
> their North American culture of republicanism is to win, regardless of the
> cost or its righteousness - now, tomorrow, and forever more.
>
> I believe several Virginia signers of the Declaration of Independence said
> about the same thing -- albeit much more eloquently and with much more at
> personal risk.
>
> Boy -- I'm I going to get it!
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Randy Cabell" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 1:46 PM
> Subject: Re: June 6, 1944
>
>
>> Yes, we would do well to remember our heritage of the 116th Infantry. It
>> has its roots in the 2nd VA Infantry, CSA which became known as "The
>> Stonewall Brigade." The 116th (in its earlier unit designation I think)
>> went to Mexico with Pershing just before the US entered WWI, and went to
>> France in 1918. There is a classic photo somewhere of Will Ruebush
>> leading the Band of the 116th Infantry down Broad Street in Richmond when
>> they returned. Back about 1988, I walked the beaches of Normandy, saw
>> the monument to the 29th Division, marveled that anybody could scale the
>> rocks at Point-du-hoc, and got a lump in my throat when walking among the
>> crosses at Coville-sur-mer which Richard Dixon calls out.
>>
>> Units of the 116th, including companies from Winchester have served in
>> Afghanistan, the local unit losing two men to a roadside IED. I learned
>> in the paper that the local unit has been mobilized once again, this time
>> for service in Iraq, leaving at the end of this month. Whether you agree
>> with out current policy in Iraq or not, you gotta applaud those men who
>> are willing to up-root themselves, turn their lives upside down, and
>> serve their country when called upon.
>>
>> I am guessing that for the past several years, more than 50% of the
>> Virginia National Guard has been in Federal service at any given time,
>> but I have no stats to back it up. It would be interesting to see what
>> it is, and see how many units have been called up more than one time.
>>
>> Randy Cabell
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Heritage Society" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 12:32 PM
>> Subject: [VA-HIST] June 6, 1944
>>
>>
>>> The crosses stand in perfect formation beneath the Normandie sky. It is
>>> the graveyard at Colleville-sur-mer overlooking Omaha Beach where 9000
>>> young Americans came to France on June 6, 1944 and now stay, forever
>>> brave. On that morning, the first to reach the beach were men of Company
>>> A of the 116th Regiment, 29th Infantry Division from Bedford County,
>>> Virginia. Of its 36 men who went to war, 23 died in France, 19 on D-Day,
>>> the highest percentage lost of any community in the United States.
>>> Today, in Bedford, there is a memorial to the D-Day landings. To reach
>>> it you will probably travel on a highway that bisects Virginia, known
>>> generally as Route 29, but it's full name is the 29th Infantry Division
>>> Memorial Highway, a daily reminder of the men who were heroes at Omaha.
>>> Richard E. Dixon
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> No virus found in this incoming message.
>> Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.472 / Virus Database:
>> 269.8.11/837 - Release Date: 6/6/2007 2:03 PM
>>
>>
>
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