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May 29, 2006 [LINK]

Memorial Day 2006

Staunton Memorial Day closeup Jacqueline and I attended the Memorial Day ceremonies in Staunton's Gypsy Hill Park this morning. Most of the speakers were from the World War II generation, and most but not all of the folks in the audience were senior citizens. There was music, prayer, a rifle squad, and a presentation of flowered wreaths by the VFW, American Legion, and their auxiliary units. Such gestures are at once emotional and terribly inadequate. We each try to do what we can to make sure that the agonizing deaths of servicemen and women in past wars, and in the present war, will not be forgotten.


Staunton National Cemetary tombstones Afterwards, we paid our respects at the Staunton National Cemetary, which was established just after the Civil War. I was astonished to learn that a large majority of the tombstones from that era are inscribed "Unknown." It also includes the graves of 20th Century soldiers, even some as recent as 20 or so years ago, but it seems to be full. The cemetary is well maintained by the Federal government, and located in a prominent place along Route 250, but it is oddly overlooked by most people. I don't recall seeing any visitors there before.

Today's Washington Post had the latest installment of the "Faces of the Fallen."

Chris Green is hosting this week's Virginia blog carnival, and he has compiled a variety of blog posts related to Memorial Day at Spank That Donkey.


Iraq reserve deployed

In response to the surge of al Qaeda terrorist actions, American commanders in Iraq have transfered the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Armored Division from Kuwait to al Anbar province, west of Baghdad. That leaves just a reinforced Marine battalion in the Kuwaiti reserve sector. See Washington Post.

Posted (or last updated or commented upon): 29 May 2006, 11: 30 PM  .




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Hits on this page (single blog post) since July 2, 2007:

My blog practices

My general practice is to make no more than one blog post per day on any one category. For this reason, some blog posts may address more than one specific issue, as indicated by separate headings. If something important happens during the day after I make a blog post, I may add an updated paragraph or section to it, using the word "UPDATE" and sometimes a horizontal rule to distinguish the new material from the original material. For each successive day, blog posts are listed on the central blog page (which brings together all topics) from top to bottom in the following (reverse alphabetical) order, which may differ from the order in which the posts were originally made:

  1. Wild birds (LAST)
  2. War
  3. Science & Technology *
  4. Politics
  5. Latin America
  6. Culture & Travel *
  7. Canaries ("Home birds")
  8. Baseball (FIRST)

* part of "Macintosh & Miscellanous" until Feb. 2007

The date of each blog post refers to when the bulk of it was written, in the Eastern Time Zone. For each blog post, the time and date of the original posting (or the last update or comment thereupon) is displayed on the individual archival blog post page that appears (just before the comments section) when you click the [LINK / comments] link next to the date. Non-trivial corrections and clarifications to original blog entries are indicated by the use of [brackets] and/or strikethroughs, as appropriate so as to accurately convey both the factual truth and my original representation of it. Nobody's perfect, but I strive for continual improvement. That is also why some of the nature photos that appear on the archive pages may differ from the (inferior) ones that were originally posted.

The current "home made" blog organization system that I created, featuring real permalinks, was instituted on November 1, 2004. Prior to that date, blog posts were handled inconsistently, and for that reason the pre-2005 archives pages are something of a mess. Furthermore, my blogging prior to June 1, 2004 was often sporadic in terms of frequency.


Blog errata
(preliminary)

April 4, 2008: "Andy Ashby" should be "Andy Jones"

April 3, 2010: "Mike Morgan" should be "Nyjer Morgan"

: "" should be ""