Hello:

To ALL of you who risked YOUR well being for OUR well being, please accept my deepest thanks.

excon

I too am a proud American who appreciates the men and women who keep us safe.

God bless you all, and God bless America.

For all of those, known and unknown, who are keeping my kids safe and free, my thanks.

A big thanks from me to all those men and women who served and are serving our country. Wishing everyone a happy and safe Memorial Day!

Joshua Chamberlain was a Union officer during the Civil War. He fought in 20 battles, had six horses shot out from under him and was wounded six times. He is best known for leading the 20th Maine during the battle for the Little Round Top at Gettysburg. When his unit ran out of ammo he led them in a bayonet charge that turned the tide of the battle . He received the Medal of Honor for his actions July 2,1863.

April 9, 1865,during the surrender of the Confederate army led by Robert E Lee ,Chamberlain had the honor of greeting the defeated Confederate armies as they started their march home. He described the scene and explained his honoring the sacrifices of those who had served in his book "The Passing of the Armies"

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"The momentous meaning of this occasion impressed me deeply. I resolved to mark it by some token of recognition, which could be no other than a salute of arms. Well aware of the responsibility assumed, and of the criticisms that would follow, as the sequel proved, nothing of that kind could move me in the least. The act could be defended, if needful, by the suggestion that such a salute was not to the cause for which the flag of the Confederacy stood, but to its going down before the flag of the Union.

"My main reason, however, was one for which I sought no authority nor asked forgiveness. Before us in proud humiliation stood the embodiment of manhood: men whom neither toils and sufferings, nor the fact of death, nor disaster, nor hopelessness could bend from their resolve; standing before us now, thin, worn, and famished, but erect, and with eyes looking level into ours, waking memories that bound us together as no other bond; — was not such manhood to be welcomed back into a Union so tested and assured?

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He had interupted a career as a professor,and after the war he returned to his profession ;eventually becoming a dean of his college and the Governor of Maine .

During one Memorial Day tribute he is quoted as saying

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Heroism is latent in every human soul - However humble or unknown, they (the veterans) have renounced what are accounted pleasures and cheerfully undertaken all the self-denials - privations, toils, dangers, sufferings, sicknesses, mutilations, life-long hurts and losses, death itself - for some great good, dimly seen but dearly held.

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For that we are eternally grateful .

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Originally Posted by tomder55

Joshua Chamberlain was a Union officer during the Civil War. He fought in 20 battles, had six horses shot out from under him and was wounded six times. He is best known for leading the 20th Maine during the battle for the Little Round Top at Gettysburg. When his unit ran out of ammo he led them in a bayonet charge that turned the tide of the battle . He received the Medal of Honor for his actions July 2,1863.

April 9, 1865,during the surrender of the Confederate army led by Robert E Lee ,Chamberlain had the honor of greeting the defeated Confederate armies as they started their march home. He described the scene and explained his honoring the sacrifices of those who had served in his book "The Passing of the Armies"



He had interupted a career as a professor,and after the war he returned to his profession ;eventually becoming a dean of his college and the Governor of Maine .

During one Memorial Day tribute he is quoted as saying

For that we are eternally grateful .

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Excellent Tom, thank you.

Stringer

A huge thanks from me as well. And thank you, Ex, for being among those who served.

Edit: I had to add this image...
http://media.hotair.com/wp/wp-conten...sjohnregan.jpg