Memorial Day Special Edition

[Guest guest]

> *Warriors’ Watch Riders: We shall never break the faith.*

>

> Ypres Salient, Belgium, 1915

>

> The Western combined forces were surrounded by the Germans on three

> sides in a small corner of Belgium. Both sides had dug in to escape

> the mayhem of exploding shells and gas. It was the beginning of Trench

> Warfare in World War I.

>

> Major McCrae was a surgeon attached to the 1st Field Artillery

> Brigade. He had just endured 17 hellish days treating the wounded;

> Canadians, Brits, Indians, French and Germans, in what would become

> known as the second Battle of Ypres.

>

> McCrae saw more blood and heard more anguished screams than any man

> could endure. Later, McCrae would write, " I wish I could embody on

> paper some of the varied sensations of that seventeen days...

> Seventeen days of Hades! At the end of the first day if anyone had

> told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our

> hands and said it could not have been done. "

>

> Of the terror all around him, bodies torn apart by shells and

> suffocated by gas, one death in particular affected McCrae. is

> Helmer was a former student who McCrae had befriended. He was killed

> by a shell blast and buried that same day in a cemetery near

> McCrae’s dressing station, and in the absence of a chaplain McCrae

> performed the funeral rites.

>

> Seeking release from the horror that replayed in his mind, McCrae sat

> on the back of an ambulance and began to express his anguish by

> writing a poem. In the cemetery, he could see wild poppies growing.

> Modern science tells us that the digging of trenches and exploding

> shells exposed the tiny poppy seeds, allowing them to germinate. This

> is why the poppies grew on battle fields. To McCrae, it must have

> seemed almost mystical, the bright red flowers covering the broken and

> torn earth like spattered blood.

>

> A young soldier watched McCrae as he scribbled in his notebook. “His

> face was very tired but calm as he wrote,†the soldier said. “He

> looked around from time to time, his eyes straying to Helmer’s

> grave.â€

>

> McCrae didn’t like his own poem when it was finished and tossed it

> away. His description of that day was nearly lost to history. But a

> fellow officer retrieved it and read it and saw the power in those

> lines. He sent it to newspapers in England and it was published on

> December 8, 1915.

>

> In that way the most famous poem of warfare comes down to us, and

> gives us our symbol of remembrance of our war dead, the red poppy.

> Here is McCrae’s poem, “In Flander’s Field:â€

>

> * *

> *In Flander's Field*

>

> /by McCrae/

>

> 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.

>

> *Memorial Day, 2010*

>

> Today the red poppy symbolizes “Remembrance Day†in Canada and

> Memorial Day in the U.S. The poppy serves as a reminder to us, the

> Warriors’ Watch Riders, to remain faithful to the memory of those

> who gave all so that we may continue to live our lives as free people.

> Chances are you will find yourself presented with a red poppy sometime

> this coming weekend, either real or crafted out of cloth – perhaps

> made by a disabled veteran or other military supporter. *If so, please

> wear it with great honor*.

>

> One of the functions we, the WWR, perform is to pay our respects and

> to provide an honor guard at the funeral services of those who have

> fallen, and to veterans who at some point in their lives took an oath

> to defend us, even at the possible cost of life itself. There is no

> higher form of nobility than to risk – or sacrifice - one’s life

> for something larger than self – for an ideal, for freedom, for

> one’s friends, family, and nation.

>

> We honor and respect homecoming soldiers for this same reason, because

> we know their hearts and the nobility that lives in those hearts. The

> SP4 supply clerk who comes home safely to his family from a tour in

> Iraq is every bit as heroic and deserving as the infantryman who

> looses his life in battle. Both took the same oath and wore the same

> uniform. Both knew the risks, both served despite the risk. We, the

> Warriors’ Watch Riders, hold both in the same high esteem. Sgt.

> Hartman was a cook, this wonderful woman should have been

> “safe,†yet her tragic death at the hands of our enemies is just

> as final as that of any combat soldier who dies. When our soldiers

> turn aside our praise and cheers with words such as “I am not a

> hero,†thank them kindly but remind them that we will choose who our

> heroes are, thank you anyway.

>

> We, the Warriors’ Watch riders, consider what we do for them not a

> job, or even a service, but *our duty *as free Americans. It is (or

> should be) the duty of every free man and woman to do the same.

>

> We perform our duty freely and with joy, at our own expense, on our

> own time, and with no one’s permission. What is the cost of a tank

> of gas compared to the cost of a life sacrificed for our freedom? What

> is four hours spent riding on a Sunday or two hours standing in a flag

> line on a rainy day when compared to 15 months in a combat zone, or

> worse, when compared to eternity? The performance of this duty is our

> *promise to them*; it is our *act of faith* to our uniformed brothers

> and sisters

>

> To the Warriors’ Watch Riders, God bless and preserve each one of

> you. God grant you peace and protect your families and your homes. You

> are special people. You are people who put honor above self and

> respect above comfort. On this Memorial Day, 2010, may your peace and

> prosperity be blessed 10 times over. You have the right and even the

> responsibility to enjoy and to be thankful for the freedom that is

> your birthright as an American, a birthright guaranteed in writing,

> the pact between our nation’s warriors and you – a pact witnessed

> by God and signed in blood - the blood of patriots. To our uniformed

> brothers and sisters, please be comforted as you go about your daily

> duties so far from home and hearth by the sure knowledge that WE , THE

> WARRIORS’ WATCH RIDERS, HAVE YOUR BACKS AT HOME. *On this Memorial

> Day, you who have died may sleep peacefully in your fields of poppies,

> secure in the knowledge that WE WILL NEVER BREAK FAITH WITH YOU.*

> * *

> - *Wayne Lutz, Warriors' Watch Rider*

> * *

> Header Photo: Canadian War Cemetery, Groesbeek, Netherlands. Photo by

> Han Viester

>

<http://www.go-to.de/sign/hv/hvspecial/Canadian_War_Cemetery_Groesbeek_01.html>

>

> Tombstone Photo: Canadian War Cemetery, Groesbeek, Netherlands. Photo

> by Han Viester

>

<http://www.go-to.de/sign/hv/hvspecial/Canadian_War_Cemetery_Groesbeek_01.html>

>

> Marine Salute: Cheltenham Veteran's Cemetery, land. Photo by

> Carpenter <http://www.pbase.com/carpents/root>

>

>

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