My thanks to all of you veterans who served your country in the armed forces. We don't seem to give you enough credit for the sacrifices you made and for risking life and limb for the rest of us. At least on this day we remember these things.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

To me it's bad planning to separate this holiday from Memorial Day. Those are the men and women we should remember. The living have their reward.

FYI, I'm going to work later in the A. M. I'm savoring the morning at home with a cup of coffee and MBShop.

Anyway, Thanks Dee8go. And thanks to the other veterans. And thanks to this country that has given me so much.

B

Many sincere Dittos.

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95 SL500 Smoke Silver, Parchment 64K
07 E350 4matic Station Wagon White 34K
02 E320 4Matic Silver/grey 80K
05 F150 Silver 44K

I know what you're saying, Bot, but I feel like in some ways coming home missing arms, legs and other parts of one's self missing, both physical and emotional, is a huge sacrifice.
I wish that our government was a little more effussive in ITS appreciation of vets. From all that I have seen and heard, the government treats vets pretty shabbily. That's just criminal.

__________________
" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

In Flanders Fields


In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

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Jonathan

2011 Mazda2
2000 E320 4Matic Wagon
1994 C280 (retired)

Well said, and x2.

__________________
1984 300TD

Can't argue that.

(thanks, Howie).

Hear, hear!

__________________

1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

Thanks to the many Vets who walk among us..

and a belated Happy 233rd Birthday to the US Marine Corps...

Many thanks for the thought.

One thing that seems to have been completely forgotten by this country in the last few months, with all the hoorah over politics and the economy, is that we still have two wars going on in foreign lands. I'm wondering if the young people serving over there are beginning to feel foresaken by their country.

I sincerely hope this country doesn't repeat the same mistake it made 35 years ago, with the veterans from another long and unpopular war, with these young people - to essentially sweep them under the rug, to put them out of sight and out of mind, so that nationally we don't have to be reminded of this painful episode in our history and of the mistakes we made. They deserve so much more than that.

Unfortunately, as the years go by and the generation that lived thru the shared national experience of WWII passes into history, and an ever smaller percentage of the population serves in an all-volunteer military, I find fewer and fewer people who understand what it means to be a veteran or to have went thru the hell of combat.

Before the election, one young gent at work asked me why I had such respect for McCain, even though I felt he wasn't suited for President. I explained it was because of his service in the Navy, enduring 7 years of torture as a POW, then having the guts and strength to pull himself back together afterwards, both physically and mentally, and make a remarkably successful life for himself. I told him that regardless of what I thought of McCain politically, it took one hell of a man to go thru something like that and keep on charging forward.

The young gent gave me a blank look, then snorted derisively, and said "So he was a Tom Cruise wanna-be and flew fighter jets, screwed up and got his sorry butt shot down, then sat out the war on his rear in prison? Big f#####g deal!". He then made a comment hoping that McCain got his butt whipped in the election, and walked off.

I was at a complete loss for words. I could understand the young man's political leanings, but the utter contempt he displayed for what McCain had endured as a veteran and POW in service to his country - that was a display of ignorance so breathtaking that I wouldn't know where to begin to enlighten the young man.

So on this Veteran's Day, it's not only my hope that the young people now serving will receive their just due, but that somehow this country will have it's eyes reopened and appreciate their service and regard them as the national treasure they are.

__________________
Just say "NO" to Ethanol - Drive Diesel

Mitchell Oates
Mooresville, NC
'87 300D 212K miles
'87 300D 151K miles - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD 67K miles
Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club

Hat's off to you guys. Thanks for serving.

Thanks Mom!!!!

I just returned to my office after attending a Remembrance Day service in Toronto. I had the privilege of standing next to a (seated) 97 year old veteran of the Second World War. He served as a frigate commander in the Battle of the Atlantic and had obviously served with some distinction, as evidenced by his collection of medals that came with the various clusters denoting being mentioned in despatches, etc. He was plenty hard of hearing, but you could see the look in his eyes - a combination at the joy of being remembered on this day (we must have had 5 or 6,000 people show up for the service) along with the sorrow of being amongst a clearly dwindling number.

Take a moment to thank these guys and another moment to listen to them. You'll get fewer and fewer opportunities as the years go by.

__________________
Jonathan

2011 Mazda2
2000 E320 4Matic Wagon
1994 C280 (retired)

Soldiers of the Great War


The guns fell silent 90 years ago today. Between the time that the terms of the Armistice were signed in the predawn hours of November 11, 1918 and the moment it came into effect at 11 o'clock that morning, the Western Front registered as many as 11,000 casualties, including a conservatively estimated 320 Americans killed and 3,200 wounded.

Today fewer than a dozen veterans of the Great War survive, and just one doughboy: 107 year-old Frank Buckles of Charles Town, West Virginia. They are a justly celebrated few. Mr. Buckles was awarded a Légion d'honneur by then-French President Jacques Chirac, and President Bush received him in the Oval Office earlier this year. British and Commonwealth veterans have been feted with similar honors. Erich Kaestner, the last veteran of the Kaiser's Army, died in January.

There's a tendency to talk of these men mainly as our "last links" to the war that was meant to end all wars. But they are also living reminders that much worse was still to come, because the victors failed to prevent the rise of the totalitarian regimes in Russia and Germany, the fascists in Italy and the militarists in Japan, and because the U.S. withdrew from its global responsibilities. Not least among the victims of those errors was Mr. Buckles himself, who spent three years as a civilian prisoner of the Japanese when he was trapped in the Philippines during World War II.

Now we are at a similar pass in Iraq, where the U.S. has effectively defeated Sunni and Shiite insurgents on the battlefield. But whether this costly achievement will hold depends largely on our willingness to support the Iraqi government and steel it against its own fascistic challengers, particularly Iran. If there's one lesson to be learned on this Armistice Day, it's of the price that's paid when we allow victory to slip from our grasp.


Today's WSJ

Thanks to everyone here who has served, thank you Uncle Zorro, Sam, the guys I went to college with who served in Nam. Milo grazi guys.

__________________
"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL