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"lest We Forget"


Kan Win

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Thank you for the post. Remembrance Day, or Veteran's day as we call it in the States, is my Grandfather's birthday. He past at the ripe old age of 94 back in 2005. However he left us with some great stories of this era. A heart mummer kept him out of the war but he did his part working for the Bud Company in Philadelphia where he maned the assembly lines that built a number of our Air Craft parts. Now 60 years later, I find my self also supplying our troops at war. I own a small procurement company in Iraq that gets the stuff the Army needs off the local markets and I spend allot of time with the troops. Whatever your political affiliations are....man if you see these men and women over there you can't help but too love them, you can't help but feel for them and want to support them. May the Gods Bless them all, and all who wore that uniform in the past and all that are destined to wear it in the future.

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hi all

this something that is very close to my heart, i fancy myself as a bit of a historian, i have travelled to menin gate where they say if you can't find your surname among the names off the missing in action inscribed on the walls your not english, it was a sobering experiance, even without the guns and shells!!!!! may we never forget those brave souls that gave the ultimate sacrafice so that we can live by the principles of freedom. and lets not forget that lives where lost on both sides fighting for what they believed in, right or wrong does not matter, for 20,000,000 servicemen on both sides lost there lives. i am lucky to be working in belgium at the mo, wearing my poppy with pride. when will there be in a bank holiday in the u.k. like there is in belgium on the 11th, if we forget history then we forget the lessons learnt. i shall be remembering the silence tomorrow. and god help anone that doesn't!!!!! :o

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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.

By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

Canadian Army

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Thank you for the timely reminder Despite the horrific stories I heard from the veterans in my family about WWI, WWII and Korea, one thing that was consistent from them was their disdain for war and its horrors and a their great respect for those that had served in Asia. The asian theatre veterans that survived the death marches, slave labour, torture and brutality, never had their stories told or sacrifices acknowledged as widely as did the veterans of Europe, despite having dealt with far worse battle conditions, so I keep an extra thought for those veterans. I don't think I could have done what they did.

And I say a little prayer for a guy I went to school with that he comes back to his family from Afghanistan, to his wife and kids as safe as my family did from their service in Europe and Korea.

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Siegfried Sassoon

Survivors

No doubt they'll soon get well; the shock and strain

Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk.

Of course they're "longing to go out again,"--

These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk,

They'll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed

Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died,--

Their dreams that drip with murder; and they'll be proud

Of glorious war that shatter'd all their pride ...

Men who went out to battle, grim and glad;

Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.

CRAIGLOCKART,

Oct. 1917.

Lest We Forget

R.I.P. Grandad & All Your Mates

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For the last few years I have visited the war graves in Kanchanaburi on 11/11 at 11.00. Often I've been on my own.

I contrast this with the amazing turnout for ANZAC day, with hundreds of Ozzies, Kiwis, ambassadors, Pooyai and diverse panjandrums. I've often felt ashamed that the UK embassy could do so little (lest we forget) though they did attend find time to attend ANZAC day.

Today I went to the cemetary again and was pleasantly surprised to see a few wreaths, presumably left over from Sunday. A small one from the UK embassy, one from 'Alex Salmond, First Minister, Government of Scotland' (sic), one from the Dutch embassy, a few regimental ones and others dedicated to family members. Its a small step, but it is progress.

Still, I wish we could shame our respective embassies into arranging a turnout as impressive and well-attended as the ANZACs.

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For the last few years I have visited the war graves in Kanchanaburi on 11/11 at 11.00. Often I've been on my own.

I contrast this with the amazing turnout for ANZAC day, with hundreds of Ozzies, Kiwis, ambassadors, Pooyai and diverse panjandrums. I've often felt ashamed that the UK embassy could do so little (lest we forget) though they did attend find time to attend ANZAC day.

Today I went to the cemetary again and was pleasantly surprised to see a few wreaths, presumably left over from Sunday. A small one from the UK embassy, one from 'Alex Salmond, First Minister, Government of Scotland' (sic), one from the Dutch embassy, a few regimental ones and others dedicated to family members. Its a small step, but it is progress.

Still, I wish we could shame our respective embassies into arranging a turnout as impressive and well-attended as the ANZACs.

Perhaps a letter to the editor of the BK Post can get your mission started?

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For the last few years I have visited the war graves in Kanchanaburi on 11/11 at 11.00. Often I've been on my own.

I contrast this with the amazing turnout for ANZAC day, with hundreds of Ozzies, Kiwis, ambassadors, Pooyai and diverse panjandrums. I've often felt ashamed that the UK embassy could do so little (lest we forget) though they did attend find time to attend ANZAC day.

Today I went to the cemetary again and was pleasantly surprised to see a few wreaths, presumably left over from Sunday. A small one from the UK embassy, one from 'Alex Salmond, First Minister, Government of Scotland' (sic), one from the Dutch embassy, a few regimental ones and others dedicated to family members. Its a small step, but it is progress.

Still, I wish we could shame our respective embassies into arranging a turnout as impressive and well-attended as the ANZACs.

Photos by a good friend of mine Simon, Anzac Day in Kanchanaburi 2006

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Thank you for your post "MHM". I feel the same.

Yours truly

Kan Win :o

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