Thankful Tuesday/Veterans Day

On this thankful Tuesday I would like to say thank you to ALL our veterans(in honor of Veterans Day tomorrow)! I love American history and I love hearing and knowing about my ancestries participation in our Armed forces and making this country what it is. I love being an American and would not want to be anything else. I'm very proud and thankful for our veterans!

I can trace family members back to the Civil War for certain. I'm strongly convinced that their was a Massengill in the Revolutionary War, but I don't have documents to substantiate it.

This was my Great Grandmother, Sierra Nevada Little's older brother, Jonathon Little. He actually died in the Civil War in the very town I live in right now. I find that amazing. I would love to know where he was buried, but so far we have not been able to determine that.

I also have a Great Grandfather Foreman who fought in the Civil War and was seriously wounded. Although he lived to be quite old, so I'm surmising he survived it quite well. I have visited the spot where the battle took place in Virginia. Some day I'll have all those pictures on my X drive so I don't have to sort thru mounds of pictures.

Great Grandfather Foreman was VERY funny... I have read some of the things he wrote and some of the stories he told. According to him, he was shot in the chest and it moved his heart so he didn't die :)

Thank you Jonathon and thank you GGrandfather Foreman

My Grandma Foreman's brother David McConnell fought in WWI.. I also have a picture of him somewhere in his uniform(next time I'll be more prepared) I was always told that he was "gassed" and he lived a very debilitated life until he died at a fairly young age. How rough and terrifying it must have been for those young men to go to all those places in the world during those years to fight such a horrible war.

Thank you Uncle Dave

Toward the end of WWII, I actually have very spotty distant memories. I can remember where we were living, very near military bases. I can remember putting blankets over our windows at night and I remember the very low flying black airplanes that flew very low when I was outside playing and it frightened me.
This is my cousin Herb who served during WWII and I also had several other cousins that I remember seeing in uniform during that time.

Thank you to all my cousins!

So many of my parents generation were lost during that terrible war.

Here is my dear Uncle Lyle.. How young and handsome he was! I remember very clearly visiting him at Ft. Lewis. It may have been because he was leaving and my Grandma was his mother so that might have been why we went. I know Uncle Lyle served in Porto Rico and really liked it there. He's talked to me about wanting to go back to visit it.

I REALLY wish I had a picture of my Uncle George, but it's in this abyss! He served in Scotland and I've seen a lot of his home movies he took while he was there. I've always wanted to visit Scotland because of him telling me about it.

Thank you Uncle Lyle and thank you Uncle George.

So then we move on to the Korean War or the "Police Action" as it was referred to. I don't know of any close friend or family who fought during that war but I did work for a man named Ed at Weyerhauser, who was a Korean War Veteran

My husband was stationed in Korea for a year in 1958/1959..It wasn't a very pleasant place to be but he has many funny stories so I don't think it was ALL bad :) AND he has also said if he could go back and look around he would, but he's not fond of leaving the country any more.

Thank you Ed.

And then of course their was Vietnam. Our "TV" war. Nothing was withheld from us during that war! We witnessed everything nightly on our news. Walter Cronkite took us on a trip there daily.

My husbands childhood friend Bobby Starnes, was sent there.. He was sent there during the worst of worse times.. It a was horrible, scary time. His first child was born while he was there. I remember attending the Coffee County Fair with his Mother while he was there. Her eyes stayed flooded with tears all the time you talked to her. But Bobby came home and never spoke of the war ever. I remember going to the lake and swimming with him when we first moved back to Tennessee, he was so fun loving and happy, he was never the same. He went on to raise 3 wonderful girls and just a few years ago he and his wife both died within a year of one another.
Thank you Bobby.

And then there was the "First" Gulf War that hit us really close to home and kept us in knots for over a year. We were so sure that our Daddy was going to be called up, but it ended before he had to go. I really felt like we dodged a bullet. A very good friend and fellow Fireman, Eugene London, did have to go and I remember the parades and the celebrations that followed their return. I'll never forget him running into my husbands arms and them high fiving one another :)

Thank you Eugene.

And here is my personal Veteran on the day he graduated from NCO school. Daniel and I attended and we were VERY proud of him and he was proud of himself, because he too is very proud of his country. Believe it or not Democrats can be patriotic and serve with pride! what a concept :)

Thank you my dear ~

I would just LOVE to be in New York this week to see the USS New York made from the Steel taken from the Twin Towers. What an amazing thing to do to honor those Americans. I saw one of the Sailors that was stationed on that ship and he was SO PROUD!

Thank you all of the Veterans past and present!