36feet10inches
Staff Sergeant
Bit OT for me this, normally all I have anything to say about is to do with sticking plastic Spitfires together (badly).
Terrible, terrible news from Fort Hood this morning, right on the heels of five British soldiers murdered by a policeman they were training in Afghanistan earlier this week, with the death toll there and in Iraq (where Britain is no longer involved) climbing every week.
And of another era, lately my growing interest in WWII avaiation has led me to read about some of the sacrifices made by young men serving in RAF Fighter and Bomber Commands, thousands dying in dreadful circumstances in the service of their country and of liberty. If not for them (and many others), Europe might be a very different and much less pleasant place today. I visited an airfield recently, the former RAF Wickenby in Lincolnshire, which was a relatively minor bomber station during the war, but which saw 1,080 air crew leave and never return. Very affecting.
We Brits don't really "do" the kind of overt support for members of the armed forces serving overseas in the same way as our friends in the US, or for that matter the same type of patriotism. The Stars and Stripes hanging outside a house in the States is commonplace, the Union Flag outside a house in Britain is unusual and often a sign of the wrong kind of nationalism. We're just a bit more reserved like that.
What we do have is Remembrance Day, or "Poppy Day", each year, where the fallen of conflicts current and past are remembered. The date coincides with Armistice Day at the end of the First World War, and is symbolised by the poppy, which grew in abundance in the fields of Flanders and northern France, where so many young men died. The occasion is used by the Royal British Legion (through the Poppy Appeal) to raise funds to assist families bereaved by war and injured veterans. The visible symbol of support is the wearing of a poppy:
This year they are everywhere.
The two world wars were long before my time. I wasn't really old enough to understand the Falklands. The first Gulf War was something that happened on TV. With the more recent conflicts, and maybe my advancing years, I've become more aware of the sacrifices being made my individuals and families in conflicts where the reasons for their being there in the first place are a lot less clear than something as black and white as the clear threat of tyrannical oppression on our own and neighbouring soil. Not being a "big picture" sort of guy, I don't really understand all the issues involved in modern conflicts (and I'm probably not even aware of many of them) but as a family man I have a better understanding of the effects of individual sacrifice. Whatever the reasons for their being in these situations, right or wrong, these men and women are entitled to the unconditional material support of our government and moral support of their countrymen.
I'm not a religious man, far from it, but on Remembrance Sunday I'll be putting on a suit and tie, wearing my poppy with pride, and turning out to the service at my local church with my family to show support for the young men and women involved in the current conflicts, and to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in other conflicts in the past.
It is the absolute least I can do.
Terrible, terrible news from Fort Hood this morning, right on the heels of five British soldiers murdered by a policeman they were training in Afghanistan earlier this week, with the death toll there and in Iraq (where Britain is no longer involved) climbing every week.
And of another era, lately my growing interest in WWII avaiation has led me to read about some of the sacrifices made by young men serving in RAF Fighter and Bomber Commands, thousands dying in dreadful circumstances in the service of their country and of liberty. If not for them (and many others), Europe might be a very different and much less pleasant place today. I visited an airfield recently, the former RAF Wickenby in Lincolnshire, which was a relatively minor bomber station during the war, but which saw 1,080 air crew leave and never return. Very affecting.
We Brits don't really "do" the kind of overt support for members of the armed forces serving overseas in the same way as our friends in the US, or for that matter the same type of patriotism. The Stars and Stripes hanging outside a house in the States is commonplace, the Union Flag outside a house in Britain is unusual and often a sign of the wrong kind of nationalism. We're just a bit more reserved like that.
What we do have is Remembrance Day, or "Poppy Day", each year, where the fallen of conflicts current and past are remembered. The date coincides with Armistice Day at the end of the First World War, and is symbolised by the poppy, which grew in abundance in the fields of Flanders and northern France, where so many young men died. The occasion is used by the Royal British Legion (through the Poppy Appeal) to raise funds to assist families bereaved by war and injured veterans. The visible symbol of support is the wearing of a poppy:
This year they are everywhere.
The two world wars were long before my time. I wasn't really old enough to understand the Falklands. The first Gulf War was something that happened on TV. With the more recent conflicts, and maybe my advancing years, I've become more aware of the sacrifices being made my individuals and families in conflicts where the reasons for their being there in the first place are a lot less clear than something as black and white as the clear threat of tyrannical oppression on our own and neighbouring soil. Not being a "big picture" sort of guy, I don't really understand all the issues involved in modern conflicts (and I'm probably not even aware of many of them) but as a family man I have a better understanding of the effects of individual sacrifice. Whatever the reasons for their being in these situations, right or wrong, these men and women are entitled to the unconditional material support of our government and moral support of their countrymen.
I'm not a religious man, far from it, but on Remembrance Sunday I'll be putting on a suit and tie, wearing my poppy with pride, and turning out to the service at my local church with my family to show support for the young men and women involved in the current conflicts, and to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in other conflicts in the past.
It is the absolute least I can do.
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