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Memorial Day

I would like to honor a couple of guys that didn't make it home.
L/Cpl Tony Ayala M/3/5. Port Arthur Tx. August 1968. I went through boot camp with him. He was the only one we lost from our boot camp platoon.


This one still bothers me a bit and I never met him. Sgt Kenneth Wayne Martin M/3/7. Manchester Tn. June 15, 1970. I was in country the at the time he was killed but I was in DaNang with VMCJ-1.
My full name is Kenneth Wayne Martin
 
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It isn't about the three day weekend.. it is about those that gave all!
 
If you ask most people, they couldn't tell what this holiday is in place for. Most will say for being off work and another reason for a BBQ. Good answers for sure but it stands for much much more as do many other. Let's not forget what they are and honor those that sacrificed there lives for our Great Country.
 
Three of us got together to drink a beer at the local bar, said good luck and headed out, but only two came back....

SP5 Zubke was serving as a radio operator with an artillery forward observer group assigned to an ARVN infantry battalion in Kontum Province. On 28 Feb 1971 the battalion was taken under attack by the North Vietnamese Army's 66th Infantry Regiment and forced into a defensive position. By early afternoon the next day, 01 March, the NVA force succeeded in breaching the ARVN defenses and overrunning the position. As the NVA entered the ARVN position friendly fire was called in on top of the defenders in a futile last-ditch effort to break up the attack.


The surviving US and ARVN soldiers scattered to attempt escape and evasion as individuals and in small groups. SP5 Zubke was alive when last seen within the defensive perimeter but he did not manage to return to friendly lines and there was no certainty as to exactly what happened to him. Although it was possible that he had been killed in the fighting, the uncertainty led to his being classed as Missing in Action. On 05 Oct 1978 the Secretary of the Army approved a Presumptive Finding of Death, changing his status from MIA to Died while Missing. His body has not been recovered.
 
Numbers are funny and I don't mean humorous.
They hit us with a 2 TRILLION dollar number for the virus.
A $1200 check for stimulus.
Nearly 100,000 deaths from Covid -19

The one number that I really felt was 400,000 American flags placed in Arlington National Cemetery this past week. That's one of some 180 National Cemeteries in the US. About 25 more in Foreign countries.
That is one huge number paid for our freedom.
Today is the day to thank all of them.
 
I would like to think that my uncle was killed fighting for my freedom,the ugly truth is he died for the projection of U.S. power.The sacrifice made by him and all the others is what moves me,not the ugly cause that put them there.

B.S. I can't think of a war in the last century when we were the original aggressor. We were either fighting for our country, attacked by other countries or we were helping other nations which were under attack from nations that if conquered could have turned into WWIII. Think of the lives that could have been saved if nations had the balls to stop Hitler and Tojo when they first invaded other countries. We simply cannot allow strong evil nations to grab up what parts of the world they want -- pretty soon there is only US and THEM. Like it or not, we are a world superpower and have been since WWII and part of our role is keeping another World War from happening. Remembering Maj. Richard Ives today, shot down over the DMZ end of June '68 on a SAR mission covering a downed pilot. A pleasant, soft spoken older guy who was in his 2nd war, and never complained about doing his duty.
 

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