Memorial Day in the US

Today was Memorial Day.  Even during the pandemic, or despite the pandemic, some were able to observe the meaning of today.   Boyd Huppert (KARE 11) reports:

With traditional parades and cemetery honors suspended, Americans took matters into their own yards – and driveways, and porches, and front steps.

“I just put something out on Nextdoor, ‘Say, hey, who wants to join me?’” Jenny Parton-Olson said.

Which is how Parton-Olson ended up being joined by Mary Yerks and Carla Herling, hitting their high notes atop the highest point in Crystal's Forest Park.

In Buffalo, ninth grader Hannah Rocker played Taps on her clarinet as she looked down from the deck of her family’s home.

In Arkansas – John Two-Hawks played Taps for Staff Sgt. Rick Keiffer, his friend, killed in Iraq.

While in Maryland, school music lessons were cancelled before Drew Swain had mastered Taps on his trumpet. Undeterred he played assisted - by Bluetooth and little brother.

2020 wasn’t the traditional Memorial Day. Yet, it will be remembered as the year we honored our heroes at home.

KSNT offers this on  California.


From Alabama, Tiffany Lester (WHNT) reports:

Memorial Day 2020 is being celebrated differently this year due to COVID-19. Different groups were able to host a ceremony, but it was limited space.
One of those groups is the Jimmy Harris VFW post 6837 in Boaz.
The organization hosted a ceremony at Old Mill Park at 11 a.m. Monday.
The Boaz mayor was in attendance as a wreath was placed by the Boaz Veterans of Foreign Wars monument inside the park.

North Dakota?  Chris Howard (KVRR) offers:

“We are deeply and eternally grateful to the brave men and women who stood in harms way to protect our nation and defend the values we hold dear,” said Governor Doug Burgum, “Now more then ever, we must never forget that freedom isn’t free.”
Retired Major Arnie Strebe never forgets the price of freedom.
“For those who have been impacted by a loved one killed in action, this day is not about car sales, good deals, or running off to the lake,” said Major Strebe.
For him, there are reminders in his daily life of the true cost that our nation pays.
He and his wife are close friends with Trevor Hendrickson.
“I knew Trevor’s father, we weren’t best buddies, but he was a brother, a brother in arms,” said Strebe.
Trevor’s father was Staff Sergeant Kenneth W. Hendrickson.
Strebe and Hendrickson met on multiple occasions while they were part of the 164th Engineer Battalion.
Staff Sgt. Hendrickson was killed when his convoy struck an IED just north of Fallujah, Iraq in 2004.
“His sacrifice is exactly why we celebrate Memorial Day,” said Strebe.

Oklahoma, KFOR notes:

Family members of one Oklahoma airman are honoring his sacrifice this Memorial Day.
Tech Sgt. Marshal Roberts was just 28-year-old when he died on March 11 from injuries sustained during a rocket attack while deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.
He is the first Oklahoma Air Guardsman killed in combat.
“The night of Marshal’s death, when the rockets where coming in, he took cover with a friend. As they heard the commotion, they discussed running to a bunker for cover,” said Chief Master Sgt. Derrick Hildebrant, 138th Civil Engineer Squadron, 138th F,. “Not knowing if they would make it, Marshal told his fellow Airman to go and get her [body] armor on. As that friend went and got her [body] armor on, the rocket landed. Marshal lost his life that day, but heroically, he saved another.”

In Texas, Raegan Gibson and Jordan James (12NEWSNOW) report:

On a day where we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, the mourning and lingering questions continue for one family this Memorial Day. 
Army Specialist Kamisha Block was killed while serving in the Army in Iraq in 2007 by her boyfriend, Brandon Norris. Norris was also serving when he killed Block in a murder-suicide. 
Block's family held a candlelight vigil on Monday at Del Rose Cemetery.
Shonta Block is Kamisha's sister, and she's still fighting for answers 13 years after the murder. 
"We're all hurting today," Block said. "I picture her a lot of times in that coffin and the flashes come back."
The pain is still fresh more than a decade later.


Also in Texas, Erin Sheridan (VALLEY STAR) reports:

When the city decided to cancel its annual silent march to honor veterans and the nation’s fallen soldiers this Memorial Day, one Rio Grande Valley resident stepped up to organize an event in its place. On Monday morning, Brownsville’s veterans, friends, and family members walked the mile between HEB and Veteran’s Park in silence to remember those who lost their lives in service.
“I’m here because this is a gold star,” said Jose Vera, whose brother, Abelardo Vera was killed in 1968 in Vietnam. “This event was canceled because of the virus and many other reasons. We’re here because it’s a special day.”
Veterans and family members gathered in the parking lot for photographs before the march began. Brownsville Police officers and vehicles led the parade, followed by two veterans carrying flags ahead of the crowd of 70. All wore masks to keep safe.
The event was organized by retired U.S. Army Sgt. Enrique Castillo, Jr., who planned to participate in the march even though it was cancelled, as he does every year in honor of his mentor and colleague Sgt. 1st Class Russell P. Borea, of Tuscon, Arizona, who died Jan. 19, 2007 while serving during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Borea was killed when an improvised explosive device detonated during combat operations. Castillo was injured in the attack and lost his right leg and is a purple heart recipient. “I do my part as far as to honor my platoon sergeant, but of course, to join the local veterans so we can go and give our respect and memorial. We do this every year,” Castillo said of the event.


YAKTRINEWS reposts this CNN story:

Marine Corps Lance Corporal Robby Mathews’s family is cooking up his favorites today — steak, veggies and red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting — a joyful tribute on a somber day of remembrance.
It’s been almost six years since the active duty Marine died by suicide as he struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and a suspected traumatic brain injury caused by an improvised explosive device that exploded under his vehicle in Afghanistan.
But this is the first Memorial Day that his wife, Aaron, felt ready to mark the holiday specifically in Robby’s honor, after grappling with how to recognize Robby without letting his death define him.
CNN spoke to seven widows and family members of service members or veterans who died by suicide and they all reported similar feelings.“I thought I was alone when I first became a widow,” said Teresa Bowman, whose husband, Staff Sgt. Justin Ray Bowman, died in 2012. “I didn’t want to talk about it because – I don’t want to say I was ashamed – but because it’s a taboo topic.”
At first, Teresa would simply say that Justin died and leave it at that.
She stopped following military-related Facebook pages after reading comments criticizing service members and veterans who died by suicide. The judgment from within the community stung the most.
“You’re told. ‘He was a coward, he took the easy way out,'” she said.
The stigma of suicide leaves many families to mourn in private.
“Nobody knows what to say, so it’s uncomfortable and you get to that point where you don’t say anything,” says Connie Dalton, the widow of Army Sergeant Major Bob Dalton, who died in 2015.

Memorial Day should not be about partisanship and it should not be about shaming any of the fallen.  If someone has taken their own life, that might be due to their own decision and solely due to that.  It may be due also to what they saw in war -- that's not uncommon.  It might be due to the reality that the VA still does not provide the needed services.  Equally true, before they become veterans, service members do not receive the training they need for traumatic experiences that they may have. 

The shaming of some because they committed suicide goes to a very sick and active culture that is not helping any veteran -- living or dead.  It's a culture that needs to be ended. 

In Iraq, James Rothwell (TELEGRAPH OF LONDON) reports a new tactic ISIS is using:

Islamic State scattered video game controllers set to explode at the push of a button in Yazidi homes as they were expelled from Iraq, a new film about the persecuted group’s brave minesweepers has revealed. 
A photograph seen by the Telegraph shows a controller that, had it been picked up by a child and played with, would have detonated four bombs and destroyed the house where it was found, in northern Iraq. 
It is one of a series of bombs disguised as household items unveiled in a new film covering the tense work of Yazidi minesweepers in Iraq.


On ISIS, XINHUA notes:


An Iraqi army helicopter was slightly hit by a machinegun on Monday during an operation by Islamic State (IS) militants in the western province of Anbar, the Iraqi military said.
The incident took place when an army force destroyed IS positions and seized weapons and explosives during an operation to hunt down IS militants in a desert area near the two of al-Rutba, some 400 km west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the media office of the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said in a statement.
It said that the troops were backed by two helicopter gunships and during the operation the helicopters pounded three IS vehicles, but one of the vehicles was carrying a heavy machinegun and opened fire at the helicopters.
One of the helicopters was slightly damaged, but managed to return to the base safely, the statement added.


Meanwhile Omar Sattar (AL-MONITOR) reports:

The new Iraqi government has begun procedures to reinvestigate the violent acts during the popular protests that broke out in October and killed more than 700 people and injured over 25,000. The decision was greatly welcomed at home and in the international arena. The United Nations Security Council called for “transparency during the investigation.”

Following the first meeting of his government May 9, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Khadimi announced the formation of an investigation committee, whose members have not been disclosed so far. He said that the committee will work on uncovering the names of the parties responsible for killing hundreds of protesters who have been calling for reform and the trial of corrupt politicians.

The committee is currently being formed and its members will be announced at a later stage. This is the second committee of this kind, following the one that was formed by Adel Abdul Mahdi, former prime minister who resigned at the end of November 2019, which did not yield satisfactory results for the protesters and failed to indict any party behind the bloody events that took place in central and southern Iraq.

 

So will this be another 'investigation' where nothing happens?  That has been the government response -- not just under Adel Abdul Mahdi. 

RISING had new segments today including this:




Earlier today, Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "Rest Assured, Judge Tootie Is Here" went up.  Isaiah has another comic going up after this.