Memorial Day Commemoration
I wanted to wish you all a good Memorial Day as we remember those who’ve gone before us and usher in another summer season.
This day, my family will remember Amie Muller and her sacrifice to this country, as we have for the past two years since her early death from cancer. Amie is the mother of my eldest daughter, Caidyn.
We will think of her and mourn her loss this weekend. Amie left behind her husband and three children. Please pray for her kids, their comfort, and for their lives to be blessed by God.
Army social media went to shit they wanted peoples exsperiances what they got was alot of how army destroyed there lives and suicides
Dr. Frank, God bless you. May God bless every hero that we mourn, every hero that continues to serve, and every hero that strives to stay alive in a world that will never truly understand the sacrifices and the price we have paid for the freedoms everyone is given for free!!!
From “military.com”
Titled:
“Return of Rolling Thunder? Trump Weighs in on Memorial Day Ride”
Date: 27 May 2019
From: “Military.com” | By Richard Sisk
“The riders of veterans group Rolling Thunder began leaving Washington, D.C., Monday amid mixed messages. Though the organization had said that 2019 would be its last Memorial Day ride in the nation’s capital, messaging from the White House said they’d be back in 2020 for a 33rd annual motorcycle tribute to those who fell in combat, and POWs and the missing-in-action from America’s wars.
“If [President Donald Trump] has anything to do with it, this will not be the last ride of Rolling Thunder,” Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie said to cheers at a Rolling Thunder rally at the Lincoln Memorial Sunday following the annual ride to the site from the Pentagon.
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A comment posted Monday on the Rolling Thunder site spoke for many of the thousands of riders who attended events over the weekend: “Please tells us this is not the last ride.”
Their hopes were raised early Sunday by a tweet sent by Trump from Japan, where he met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for talks on trade and North Korea.
“The Great Patriots of Rolling Thunder WILL be coming back to Washington, D.C. next year, & hopefully for many years to come. It is where they want to be, & where they should be,” Trump tweeted.
Shortly after Trump’s statement, former Army Sgt. Artie Muller, Rolling Thunder’s co-founder and executive director, was on C-Span’s show Washington Journal and was asked for his reaction to the president’s tweet.
“Well, it’s not the final Rolling Thunder, it’s the final one in Washington, D.C.,” said Muller, a Vietnam veteran. “It’s getting entirely too expensive, there’s too much interference — running around and everything else.”
He estimated the cost of putting on Rolling Thunder at $200,000, and said the money could be spent more wisely on veterans issues and organizing rides by local chapters across the country next Memorial Day.
However, in a speech later Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial, Muller did not entirely rule out a ride in Washington, D.C. in 2020, but said “there’d have to be a lot of discussions and a lot of changes for everybody that comes here.”
“That man in the White House is working for us,” Muller said of Trump. “We’re going to have a meeting” of Rolling Thunder organizers on the prospects for next year, he said, “and “we’ll let you know in the future.”
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Hopefully, some of the organisers of “Rolling Thunder” had a long ass talk with Sec. Wilkie over his leadership, OR lack thereof, at the VA.
How many more vets have to die, and/or loved ones have to mourn, before VA employees are held accountable!
Lest we never forget survivors of MST Military Sexual Trauma, a special kind of reliving hell day to day, know we have your six, even if the VA will never understand with empathy.
Same shout-out to all related survivors in periphery of any Veterans Suicide.
Stay away from va if possiable mind altering drugs no accountability. If you complain they will retaliate
My father’s Memorial Day remembrance on Twitter, his name etched on the Vietnam Memorial and on my heart…
God Bless you ALL for your service and sacrifice to our country.
BestFriends@msgatorelle
10/21/68 Never to be forgotten. My hero, my Daddy. #HonortheFallen #VietnamWarriors #MemorialDayWeekend2019 pic.Twitter.com/WulkBZgUmy
Remembering both Mom and Dad, both WW2 Veterans, US Navy.
Dad served aboard PMYs and PBMs, fighting the Japanese in the Pacific. He suffered “shell shock” and got “dinged” in the head.
His alcoholism from neglect at the VA for PTSD and TBI ruined lives. Only in 1988 did he recieve 100%. Too late.
My best to those that gave all on the battlefield and many that died slowly for their sacrifice.
Yes, Orange Spazz, that is the way the VA does business either after the fact or never. Yes, many of our families have served and are still serving. Patriots. Getting back to where I had shared a little about my family members, I will say this if my family members had had their care in the VA, they would be lost their businesses and they would have been fired from the agencies and companies. Yes, I have family members who are currently serving still. I have a very large family. First Cousins all the way down to 19 and 20 year olds. Have a first cousin who is a Navy Pilot and her husband is also a Navy Pilot. Have three kids. But, anyway, Benjamin what is the purpose of expanding the VA in more areas of the country if the VA cannot deliver decent care. Honestly, Benjamin, so the VA can just exist for the purpose of paying out malpractice settlements and torque claims. Benjamin, one was not able to hold employment and be in school with the way this VA has been. I am serious. Too much crap. Dealing with the VA was a full time job in itself. And, yes, I am headed back to the workforce. I maybe enrolled in the VA; but, I march to my own tune. School to work. And, I seriously doubt that I will reapply for Chapter 31 Vocational Rehabilitation. Too much crap involved. By the time they make a decision, I will have already been there and done that. Too political and too much of the VA agenda and not the agenda that the veterans desire for their own lives. Best. They were already part of the problem.
But, of course, why would they be enrolled in the VA anyway, because they did not leave active duty with a disabling condition? Either straight retirement or one termers. I am not sure if there are veterans who do not have a disabling condition from being injured on active duty even go to the VA. ??????
Or Benjamin, is the VA expanding for other reasons besides Community Care for the veterans? Is this preparation for the federal government to shove single payer care down the American citizens thoats against their will? See if the VA has expanded, the system would already almost be positioned for such a tyrannical takeover action to occur. Maybe this is why the Democrats are becoming friendly to the veterans. To use us veterans as their pawns just like they do illegal immigrants. For votes. Benjamin, could this be what is developing?
HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL!?????????
Today, I’ll say a prayer for you, Benjamin Krause and Amie, and all their families!
Besides me, I’ll also mourned the horrifying loss of my Mom, Ms. Ida Ruth and all my family members that served proudly, honorably, and bravely in all the Wars since World War I!
Lastly, my prayers are with all the veterans and all their families??????!
May God Bless America and us all!
Dr. K
Just got back from Standing Color Guard and firing squad for Memorial Day ceremonies. Watched a Chief Petty Officer break down and cry and watched with awed respect as the Boy Scouts and a high school band played for and then thanked all Veterans in the audience for their service, and thanked the ones who we were honoring and their families. If this is how the young are being brought up then I dont have any fear for my country as its in good hands. lets just hope they are the actual ones and not the few and far between
Yes, Dan, I hear you. Let’s hope.
Remember this Veterans and our Troops we would not be called United States and if see one Happy Memorial Day and many more to come and on website Don’t Surrender Semper Fi.
following
Happy Memorial Day, Ben and family.
My memories go back to the few “brothers” I lost while serving in Vietnam AND beyond.
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This is from “military.com”! To read the full article, go to “military.com”——-
Titled:
“Nonprofits Struggle to Reach At-Risk Veterans Who Shun VA Services”
Dated: 26 May 2019
By: Richard Sisk
From a photo in the article:
[Participants of the 2019 377th Security Forces Squadron Suicide Awareness Ruck March stand in formation at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, March 29, 2019. The ruck march was created to support The Brave Badge Initiative Facebook page. The Facebook page was created due to the increased rates in suicide in the security forces career field in the past year and aims to give Defenders another place to go to when they are struggling with mental health issues. (Austin J. Prisbrey/U.S. Air Force)]
NEW YORK CITY — From a warren of desks in a downtown Manhattan office building, the small team of social workers and counselors takes calls from veterans who either won’t go to the Department of Veterans Affairs or are bewildered on where to turn for help.
This is the Rapid Response Referral Program of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, an effort to combat what Navy Reserve Cmdr. Jeremy Butler, IAVA’s chief executive officer, calls the “navigation” problem for veterans trying to find the right fit in a vast and disjointed support system.
In addition to the VA and other government agencies, there are traditional veterans service organizations and more than 40,000 support groups registered as nonprofits with the Internal Revenue Service, according to the Institute for Veterans and Military Families at Syracuse University.
Over the last year, IAVA has had 235 contacts, an uptick of 50%, to the referral program from “at-risk” veterans, said Lindsay Rodman, a former Marine legal officer who served in Afghanistan and now is director of legal strategy and communications at IAVA.
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With everything we’ve seen and heard from different vet-cetric websites, like this one, WHY would any vet want to use the VA for ANYTHING! Is it because the vets don’t want to end up being a “statistic”! That would be my guess!!!!!!
Agree with you Crazy Elf.
I want to thank the many Veterans who gave their lives to our country, through many Wars, past and present, to my father who was Veteran of the Korean War, my brothers who served, my son’s who served as well, and those who plan or now serving, Thank You, and God Bless America
Happy Memorial Day to you, young Benjamin. I will be remembering my dad, Ishmael W. Gutierrez, WWII veteran and participant in Operation Crossroads, the nuclear detonation testing at Bikini Atoll in July 1946.
Growing up, I watched him suffer mightily – – – as a child, not really understanding what I was witnessing. As an adult war veteran – – – I certainly do now.
How I wish I could have him back for just one more long serious conversation.
Juan, I have several family members other than myself who served in the military.
2 of my father’s brothers. Being that you mentioned the Korean War, one of my dad’s brothers is a Korean Veteran. He is still living. He is in his late 80s now and is still kicking. Ran business for many years and then my cousins took it over. Both of my dad’s brothers are still living who served in the military. On my mom’s side, 4 of my mom’s brothers served in the military. One retired from the Marine Corp as a Chief Warrant Officer 5 with having served over 33 years in the Corp. He served during 5 tours to Vietnam and served during the first Gulf War where he was shot down and was held as a POW. After retiring, he became a Mathematics College Instructor after all of that. This is why I say age really is not a factor if someone can deliver. My other uncle retired from the Air Force as a Full Colonel and is a Director in NASA out in LA, California. San Jose. My other uncle served in the Marine Corp for one term and has always run his own business. My other uncle served in the Navy for 6 years and became a disabled veteran. He is the one to whom I have spoken about in Ben’s blog who passed this past November 2018. I witnessed how the VA treated him over the years. From Voc Rehab denial in the past to home loan abuse to negligent care to not one penny even paid on his funeral.
100% SC veteran. 3 of the 4 uncles are just 3 or 4 years older than me. My parents in their 80s and still kicking. Knock on wood because we honestly really never know when it is our time to go. I am very proud of my mom’s brothers. They are truly Patriots. My dad’s brothers as well. And, do you know what Benjamin? Only one of my mom’s brothers received care from the VA. My uncle who was SC. Rest of them are in decent health and have private sector employer care and Tricare. Everyone have a blessed Memorial Day.?????
God Bless America ????
Oops, I left out one of my mom’s sisters. She served in the Navy and went onto work for the Department of the Navy and retired from there. Proud of my aunt too. Thank all veterans for their service. ?????
Angela,
Several members of my family have served this nation dating back to pre-1776. The first member of our family to set foot in ‘The Colonies’ was Jeremiah Clements who was born at St James, Clerkenwell, London, England on 8 November 1607.
His son, Captain John Francis Clements was born in 1631 at Southwark, Surry, Virginia making him the first male in our family to be born on this soil that we all live on today.
His son was Benjamin Clement, Sr. – – – the first male member of our family to drop the last ‘s’ from the original name, and it has been passed down that way ever since.
I too, had many Uncle’s and Cousin’s and other relatives who served in the military. My Maternal Grandfather served as a Doughboy with the American Expeditionary Force under Blackjack Pershing.
My Uncle Roy was a marine killed at Wake Island during WW2.
There have been at least two members from our family present in every conflict involving our nation’s military from the Revolutionary War up until what historians now refer to as the First Gulf War.
Some of us made it home alive. More did not. Some of us have seen more than one war.
So we have that in common. We each come from a family with a strong military background.
I suspect that there are many veterans here on Ben’s Board that have similar family backgrounds.
Happy Memorial Day to you.
Thank you Jim. Hope you had a blessed Memorial Day as well. Jim, serving pre-1776 is tremendous. Yes, I agree. Most veterans and current active duty military members usually have had other family members who have served and who maybe still serving. Have a great day.