A big thank you to Chaing Mai RBL

[sappersrest]

Thank you to the Chiang Mai branch of the Royal British Legion for organising todays Annual service of remembrance at the Foreign Cemetery. Well organised with a good turnout.

[mamborobert]

I would like to add my thanks as well, a very nice service indeed.

I was somewhat suprised that it was not bigger given retiree population of CM but was advised at the event that the VFW holds a separate service in the morning. Given the nature of the service I would have personally thought that a joint service would have been more in spirit of such a memorial/rememberance service, and indeed other national groups also attending (given no RSL for example). A RBL member suggested that an invitation was made to the VFW but declined for some reason.

I believe I saw NancyL there as well, thanks for Royal Thai Army? for the bugler, and it was nice to see wreathes from students as well..

Many thanks to the RBL.

Lest We Forget.

[NancyL]

Yes, I was at both the VFW and RBL ceremonies. The VFW event was sparsely attended, perhaps because of its early hour. As for combining the two events -- this has been done in the past but has created unhappiness with some of the traditionalists within both the VFW and RBL who feel that "their" ceremonies should be observed in certain ways.

Remember that there are two different holidays being observed. Veteran's Day and Remembrance Day are not the same. Veteran's Day honors U.S. military veterans (living & dead) and those currently in the armed forces. Remembrance Day honors those who have died, both military and civilian, in defense of their freedom.

Both ceremonies were very moving and deserve wide support. I'm not really an advocate of trying to merge them, but I do wish they could proceed concurrently, without a long gap between the two ceremonies. Perhaps the short American ceremony first, followed by the Remembrance service.

The cemetery looked fantastic. The Landscape Gardening group of the CM Expats Club has been working very hard in the past couple months to clean up and renovate portions of the grounds. Their work continues.

[jonwilly]

They'd Drink together, Fight together and some of their long gone mates Died together but Remember together ?

Must be an age related thing no longer memories together.

John