Alternative content


About the song "Before You Go"

When I began this page I didn't know where it was going to go. Then I began to think about growing up with the Viet Nam war as a background to my childhood.

Viet Nam was there every night on the evening news, it was ugly and deadly, but it was in a place I really didn't know where it was or why there was a war there. For a half hour or so the 'war' visited our house and then it went away.

Then the war became a personal thing. My fourth grade teacher's son was killed somewhere in Southeast Asia. Viet Nam was suddenly very real and someone I knew was never coming back.

memorialday

Through the years I chanted and marched against the war - as much as an elementary and middle-schooler could. However, the music had a major effect on my life (I didn't know how much for many more years.)

The photographs in LIFE Magazine really had more of an impact on me than the sanitized news reports on TV. As I got older I understood more and I knew that we shouldn't be in Viet Nam, Laos or Cambodia. We bought Nixon's promise to get our boys out of Southeast Asia ~ which did finally happen when troops from the North entered Saigon.

memorialday

In high school I became fascinated with past wars - the Revolutionary War, World War I and World War II, and just about any war fought in Europe. The Civil War turned me off and to this day the way brother turned against brother makes me ill. The Korean Conflict wasn't taught in school, and all I really knew of that came from M*A*S*H.

The war in Southeast Asia was too fresh and far from really being over - not as long as I wore that POW/MIA bracelet. I couldn't see the movies ~ the first Viet Nam era show I could watch was China Beach and even that sometimes was a little too close for comfort.

Gradually I have been able to see the movies, read the stories and watch the TV programs. Some of that came with help from a high school history teacher who would occasionally bring in slides from his tour in Nam. We saw not only the war and the poverty and strife, but also a very beautiful country which we were systematically destroying. He showed us the human side of the war and brought to me the realization that "but for the grace of God....."

memorialday

The VietNam Veterans' Memorial Wall Page
Click on the button above to find out how to add this link to your site


Never Forget - 9-11 5th Anniv Tribute site


memorialday

VETS PERSONAL PAGES

Memorial Day Speech & Poem by Dana Brown

GUNNER 44

memorialday


MILITARY & OTHER LINKS

The Viet Nam Veterans Memorial

Korean War Veterans Memorial

World War II Veterans Memorial

World War II Veterans Memorial

Gulf War Veterans Memorial Online

Casualties in Iraq & Afghanistan

Memorial Day

History of Memorial Day

Memorial Day

Just a Simple Soldier

Arlington National Cemetery

Lest We Forget

Flag Etiquette

Enduring Freedom

National Memorial Day Concert



seals

IN MEMORY ~ THE USS COLE


mlski
mlski mlski

photos from CBS news

UPDATE

Two Yemeni men have been charged in the bombing of the USS Cole. The US has handed down a 50-count indictment against the 2 who Attorney General John Ashcroft says have long-time links to al-Qaida. The 2 men remain at large after escaping from a Yemeni jail in April.

 

The USS Cole bombing was a suicide attack against the United States Navy destroyer USS Cole on October 12, 2000, while it was harbored and refueled in the Yemen port of Aden. Seventeen American sailors were killed, and 39 were injured.

Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack. A U.S. judge has held Sudan liable for the attack, while another has released over $13 million in Sudanese frozen assets to the relatives of those killed. The American Navy has also reconsidered its rules of engagement in response to this attack.

Several individuals have been described as a mastermind behind the bombing of the USS Cole.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who was captured in late 2002, says he only admittend to the bombing and other terrorist acts to stop extended interrogation techniques. The US planned to seek the death penalty, but on February 5, 2009, all charges against al-Nashiri were dropped "without prejudice" to comply with President Obama's order to shut down the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. The government reserves the right to file charges at a later date.

Abu Ali al-Harithi was one of the first suspected terrorists to be targeted by a missile armed predator drone. He has also been described as the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing. Two other co-conspirators were indicted in 2003 by the US Justice Department.

Jamal Mohammad Ahmad Al Badawi was convicted in Yemen, and sentenced to death. He was one of seventeen captives who escaped through a tunnel from a Yemeni jail in 2006.

On October 17, 2007, al-Badawi surrendered to Yemeni authorities as part of an agreement with al-Qaeda militants. Following his surrender, Yemeni authorities released him in return for a pledge not to engage in any violent or al-Qaeda-related activity, despite a $5 million reward for his capture. Two other escapees remained at large.

Tawfiq bin Attash has been considered the mastermind of the bombing. An Al Qaeda commander in Yemen also confirmed that another co-conspirator in the bombing, Abdul Mun'im Salim al-Fatahani, was killed in a US drone strike on January 31, 2012. Fahd al-Quso was killed in an airstrike May 6, 2012 in southern Yemen.


******************************
 

A memorial to the victims of the attack was dedicated at Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia on October 12, 2001. It was erected along the shore of the Elizabeth River near the USS Iowa memorial, and overlooks the berth of the USS Cole.


memorialday

9-11

On Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, the unthinkable happened. Terrorists struck - not once - but 3 times in the space of an hour - on US soil. Along with fear - emerged a rebirth of the spirit that this country was built upon and a rededication to the UNITED States of America.

Please visit the pages from these links which pay tribute to those who paid the ultimate price for freedom on that September morning.




memorialday

Return to:
my-sm

~ SPECIAL THANKS ~

~The National Archives ~
(Arlington Cemetery photo)
~ Patriotic Graphics ~
~ Anne's Place ~
~ Patrick's Gifs 4 Webbers ~
~ Animation Factory ~

~ To all the men & women who have served
to preserve our freedom at home ~

Cheerful Celebration's Holiday Web Ring
Powered by RingSurf
 [Join]
[List]
[Previous]
[Next]
[Random]
[Previous 5]
[Next 5]
[Skip Previous]
[Skip Next]
This site belongs to ML


memorialday

Thank you Bill!
8-16-2000

Thank you George!
1-22-03