A good day to remember what we've lost and hopefully what we've gained, all the good along with all the bad. Maybe there are better days ahead! Best to all. Steve

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Thank you Steve, well said, and here's hoping indeed for better days for all.

I'll add my sincere salute to all those who served in their respective armed forces, past and present. Freedom is never free.

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Indeed a good day to remember those who fell.

In Flanders Fields
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.

–John McCrae

Lest we forget.

I'm always reminded of this scene from MASH:


"War isn't hell. War is war and hell is hell, and of the two, war is a lot worse...there are no innocent bystanders in hell."

I'm 33 now and WW1 air combat has fascinated me since I was 9 or 10, in large part because of how personal it was. Pilots had their interpersonal rivalries on their own side, sometimes in their own squadron, and in many cases they knew the names of the more well-known/high profile individuals they were fighting against. It's easy to find account after account of WW1 pilots talking about the time they encountered so-and-so in the air.

There's something unique about that tension: placing thousands of young men in the world's newest technology, one that was deadly enough to the pilot himself, and on top of that expecting him to go around gunning people down, and on top of that having him gun down people whose name and face he may be able to identify. When looking at the mass industrialized meat grinder that was the trenches down below, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that this was individual men killing other individual men much like themselves - but that fact is inescapable in the air.

AlbrechtKaseltzer

Albrecht- well said.