Thank You Veterans

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky                          
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

We don't think of this poem often enough.  When I was a child we did hear about it.  It is hard to believe so many more have died for our country since that time to keep us safe at home and to help the enslaved in other countries.  We are a remarkable nation.  We have have been blessed.  We have had so many willing to give their lives for our country.

 I do not know the number of military we have at this time.  I know the ones in our military now are all volunteers, that includes my grandson and grandchildren of my siblings. My brothers who are old and in ill health both volunteered at a time when the military wasn't volunteer but they remembered their uncles in the Marines and Navy in WWII. 

Today we honor them all. It's Veterans Day. 
For more on "In flander's Field" go here. and here. and here.