Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: brandx0 on November 11, 2008, 04:23:29 pm
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Whether it's called Armistice Day, Veteran's Day, or Remembrance Day, I would like to just thank our men and women at arms, past, present, and future for keeping us safe, and for being willing to fight for people you've never met, and will never know.
In Canada, it's traditional to recite a poem today by a Canadian soldier who fought in World War I, and wear a red poppy as a symbol of our thanks. Let's all take a moment to thank our veterans and soldiers in our own ways today, on the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War.
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 was a field surgeon, commander of a Canadian General Hospital, he famously fought during the Second Battle of Ypres, the first time mustard gas attacks were used during the war. He witnessed the death of his friend and former student, Lt. Alexis Helmer, and was inspired to write this poem the next day on a scrap of paper. John McCrae died of pnumonia on January 28, 1918, never living to see the end of the war.
So thank you all, and thank you Grandpa, for keeping your head down and living to the ripe old age of 83. Otherwise I wouldn't be here. And that would piss me off.
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Okay, besides myself and Dekker, do we have any other current/past HLP military types? :)
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Amen :)
Wish I had someone to honor, but I make my remembrance to our armed forces altogether.
Too bad some immature punk stole my poppy and decided to pull a really funny prank which involved me sitting on it the needle :doubt:
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I served for four years myself but never saw combat. I got deployed once to Kuwait between the two Gulf Wars to conduct some military exercises as a show of force but that was about it.
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My 5th hour teacher was a Major in the special forces. Enlisted in '76, commissioned in '80, retired in '94. One grandfather fought in Anzio in WWII, the other apparently scouted Paris pre-liberation.
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Attended the local Remembrance Day ceremonies this morning. Salute to our veterans!
My family is filled with veterans of World War II. Mostly pilots of varying types from trainers to bombers, some were in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, and my Grandfather was an officer with the Polish Army and was there at Monte Casino.
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Okay, besides myself and Dekker, do we have any other current/past HLP military types? :)
Sandwich pops to mind.
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No personal military experience but had an old uncle who was in the RN during WW2 and lost a leg when his destroyer was torpedoed. Also had a great uncle that was killed WW1. By a sniper if remember rightly, but it was a long time ago i was told about that so not entirely sure.
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I have a grandfather who was in the Italian military in World War 2. His leg got torn up while he was driving a gas truck that got hit by a grenade (or maybe an RPG).
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Both my grandfathers were in WWII, but neither of them ever told me what (if any) combat they had seen.
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I had a great-grandfather whom I believe fought in WWI, and a great-uncle in WWII who was wounded in combat, but I sadly don't know anything about either one's experiences.
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Sandwich pops to mind.
Oh yeah... ;)
Stormkeeper, eliex and myself are going to be current in about three to five years.
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One grandfather served with the Army Coast Artillery pre-WWII, then with the Corps of Engineers during the war; I've seen a picture or two of him at the bridge at Remagen, but he wasn't a frontline soldier. The other I...don't know. My mother's side of the family was never close. Father was Navy with the riverine forces in Vietnam and still works for the Navy in a civilian capacity. His sister, my aunt, was Military Police around the same time but never got closer than Korea. Lots of people I know and/or work with are active-duty military, this is a Navy and Marine town.
The girl's family is mostly military. Her brother was in the Navy serving aboard an AE (that's Auxilary, Explosives to the layman, an ammunition ship and source of endless black humor, as they are named after active volcanos) and volunteered roughly a year ago for the reforming riverine force in Iraq, but he's supposedly being reassigned to the States for duties unspecified within a month or so; he suspects that the opinion of a senior enlisted (those who actually command and fight the small boats usually) is wanted by the acquistions people. Her father is Navy, captain, serving currently on a staff job here on the West Coast, commanded a frigate for the first round of the Gulf conflicts and served aboard a destroyer during the late 70s and early 80s in that part of the world, when Iran and Iraq were messing about. Her mother is former Navy, just missed Gulf one in retirement, a nurse.
And me? Not me. I don't believe I'm cut out for it, though I've been told otherwise. My brother considered the Marines but decided against.
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Alpha 3: My grandfather once served in the Great War. He died in Sirius, fighting the SC Tantalus.
Alpha 2: Thanks for the family history, Alpha 3, now focus on your mission!
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Alpha 3: My grandfather once served in the Great War. He died in Sirius, fighting the SC Tantalus.
Alpha 2: Thanks for the family history, Alpha 3, now focus on your mission!
how come I never hear that line when I play that mission?
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how come I never hear that line when I play that mission?
Because your flying skills are too good. That only happens if the whole of Beta wing is killed, I think. I got that once or twice before.
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It always happens, what choo talkin bout willis?