Patrap's WunderBlog

Good Afternoon, Pat ~

Wanted to take the time to thank you and yours for the service all have rendered to our Country.

I didn't realize, until perusing your blog-header, that we're both using the first graphic, i.e, " Memorial Day - Never Forget - Ever Honor". I think it's more than worthwhile for each to use or spread around.

Great Charles Durning Youtube video!

Hope you and your family have a most safe and respectful holiday weekend!

Photo credit: 365 los angeles

At Los Angeles National Cemetery are markers inscribed with words adapted from the poem
"Bivouac of the Dead" by Theodore O'Hara.

THE MUFFLED DRUM'S SAD ROLL HAS BEAT
THE SOLDIER'S LAST TATTOO.
NO MORE ON LIFE'S PARADE SHALL MEET
THAT BRAVE AND FALLEN FEW.

ON FAME'S ETERNAL CAMPING-GROUND,
THEIR SILENT TENTS ARE SPREAD,
AND GLORY GUARDS WITH SOLEMN ROUND
THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD.

NO RUMOR OF THE FOE'S ADVANCE
NOW SWEEPS UPON THE WIND,
NO TROUBLED THOUGHT AT MIDNIGHT HAUNTS
OF LOVED ONES LEFT BEHIND.

NO VISION OF THE MORROW'S STRIFE
THE WARRIOR'S DREAM ALARMS.
NO BRAYING HORN NOR SCREAMING FIFE
AT DAWN SHALL CALL TO ARMS.

THE NEIGHING TROOP, THE FLASHING BLADE,
THE BUGLE'S STIRRING BLAST,
THE CHARGE, THE DREADFUL CANNONADE,
THE DIN AND SHOUT ARE PAST.

YOUR OWN PROUD LAND'S HEROIC SOIL
MUST BE YOUR FITTER GRAVE,
SHE CLAIMS FROM WAR HIS RICHEST SPOIL
THE ASHES OF THE BRAVE.

Thanks Pat!

SGT Larry William McKee, US Army

On the night of 27/28 March 1971 Fire Support Base (FSB) Mary Ann was occupied by 209 Americans from several units of the Americal Division:

* HHC 1/46th Infantry;
* C Co 1/46th Infantry;
* a Recon Platoon;
* elements of a Mortar Platoon;
* two 155mm howitzer sections, 3/16th Arty; and
* twenty ARVN artillerymen.

At approximately 0230 hours, 28 March 1971, the VC mounted a coordinated mortar and sapper attack. Almost simultaneously with the mortar attack, sappers employed satchel charges and rocket propelled grenades (RPG) to penetrate the south side of the FSB's perimeter. Americans in the perimeter bunkers hunkered down until the explosions from the mortar rounds, satchel charges, and RPGs had subsided, but by then the sappers had breached the trench line and were inside the base. Once inside FSB Mary Ann, the sappers struck over half the bunkers. By the time the VC withdrew, 30 American soldiers were dead and 76 wounded - sadly, according to Army records 12 of the 30 dead were killed by friendly fire brought down to force the VC from the over-run areas of the base.





The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Wall Page
"If you are able, save for them a place inside of you and save one backward glance when you are leaving for the places they can no longer go.

Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may or may not have always. Take what they have taught you with their dying and keep it with your own.

And in that time when men decide and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind."


Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
1 January 1970
Dak To, Vietnam
Listed as KIA February 7, 1978

Nice blog you've got here. It's good to remember more than recent veterans, especially those who fought so bravely in WWII, Korea, and also the Vietnam vets who never got appreciated as they deserved at the time.



And to those who are left behind to mourn. You're heroes, too!

Thank you Pat!

SGT John P. Schneider, U. S. Army, WWII Veteran, Grandfather, Died of cancer in 1967.

CWO-2 Christian P. Schneider, U. S. Army, Korean War Veteran, Father, Died of cancer in 1997.

I remember you Grandpa. I remember you Dad.

I did my best to serve my Country as you did.

I will always remember you.

Thank you Pat! You always do us proud.

My father was a veteran of WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Served in the U.S. Navy from 1943-1969. He was on a carrier in the Pacific at the end of WWII. He passed away in 1982 and rests at Barrancus cemetary in Pensacola NAS.