Hoyden R.

Ohhhhh. Soooooo....

It's like Playboy bunny "tails" only on the wrong part of their anatomy....

Oh My DOG! This made me laugh hard enough to scare the poor dog.

Maybe Putin has no shirt on again and they are wondering if they pull those crumpled up plastic bags over their own heads, they can smother themselves before anyone rescues them.

NIce!

Wife of a Soldier

by Bertholt Brecht

What did the wife of the soldier get

From the ancient city of Prague?

From Prague she got the linen skirt.

It matched her shirt did the linen skirt

She got from the city of Prague.

What did the wife of the soldier get

From Brussels, the Belgian town?

From Brussels she got the delicate lace.

All the charm and grace of the delicate lace

She got from the Belgian town.

What did the wife of the soldier get

From Paris, the City of Light?

From Paris she got the silken dress.

Born to possess the silken dress

She got from the City of Light.

What did the wife of the soldier get

From Libya's desert sands?

From Libya, the little charm.

Around and around she wore the charm

He brought from the desert sands.

What did the wife of the soldier get

From Russia's distant steppes?

From Russia she got the widow's veil.

And the end of the tale is the widow's veil

She got from the distant steppes.

An Airman's Hymn
by Wallace Llewellyn Berry

When the last long flight is over
And the happy landings past
When my altimeter tells me
That the crack-up's come at last.

I'll swing her nose for the ceiling
And I'll give my crate the gun
I'll open her up and let her zoom
For the airport of the sun.

Then the great God of flying men
Will smile on me - sort of slow
As I stow my crate in the hangar
On the field where flyers go.

Then I'll look upon His face
The Almighty Flying Boss
Whose wing spread fills the heavens
From Orion to the Cross.

I like this thread, so I had to go find it so I could resurrect it.

A SAILOR'S GRAVE

Author: Glen V. Ruff

Poppies grow in Flander's Field
Over the heads of the brave.
But Poppies don't cover a sailor's grave
Flowers won't grow on a wave.
On land there is usually a marker
A cross, a stone, or a tree.
How do you mark the resting place
of the ones who are buried at sea?
They are no less the fallen
Than the others interred on the land.
Though their graves are unadorned
The seamen will understand.
They chose to sail the oceans
They knew where the danger lies
And if tragedy ever happens
The sea claims the sailor who dies.

He's buried in the Sylvan Abbey Memorial Park in Clearwater, Florida. Some cemeteries have lists of those interred as well as a directory of where you can locate the grave on their website, so I went to have a look.

No luck.

So I called the Cemetery at 727-796-1992 and spoke to Karen, who was most helpful. She looked up his grave information and called me back with the following:

George Robert Dwyer was buried on 28 March 1960
His Grave is located in Garden West, Lawn B
Lot 283, Space 1

Now you need to find someone local to Clearwater, FL to go take a picture of the grave for you.

Sometimes members of the American Legion Posts, Veterans of Foreign Wars Posts or local War Veterans groups will take pictures. I've known others to put an add up on Craig's list requesting someone to go take a picture for them.

http://www.sylvanabbey.com/location/about/cemetery.html

It is better than waking up with the horse's head in the bed next to you.

Better a horses head than a horses ass, yes?

Go to the Find-A-Grave website and check it, there may be a photo. Sometimes people will go take pictures of graves for you from the local grave finder community. I had someone take pictures in ME for me and I in turn took pictures in Cheshire and Hamden, CT for someone else.

You need to get an Epson scanner Paul!!!! Don't know who this Border Guards (building... fences?) General was either--but he went to a lot of foreign parades!

Paul HAS a NICE HP Scanner in our bedroom. It's capable of scanning slides even. He just has to learn how to use it or ask me to scan things for him.

Oh my goodness!! My husband showed me the banner and the embroidery, but he didn't show me those fanfare trumpets!!!!

Jock, if you would be so kind, what are the makers on those fanfare trumpets? I am a trumpet and bugle player, so I am really really interested in researching them a bit.

I just informed Paul R. that I want one!!

So, what Paul hasn't let on is that I am a bit OCD. The thought of shooting this Soviet Officer's Jacket naked, meaning without the proper under clothing, had me giving him dirty looks and grumbling.

Me: What kind of shirt goes under this Soviet Naval Officer's great coat?
Paul: I don't know. I'll go look it up on line...... White shirt, back neck tie.
Me: Do you have a white shirt?
Paul: I don't think so.
Me: You SHOULD! It's part of your uniform! They are issued in your sea bag! Ugh!
(I go look through the closet for a white uniform dress shirt.)
Me: Do any of the Nazi's have a black tie? Check in the Collection Closet! Go strip one one off one of them!

Paul went spelunking in his Collection Closet to find a uniform in his collection to purloin a tie from so we could put this Soviet Officer's uniform together properly and to shut me up. lol

Hi Honey - you got this back tush-wards.

Kirov is the Military Medical Academy on the Military Academy badge you pinned on the Officer's jacket in the other thread.

This pin says KTOF, I think it's a Guided Missile Cruiser from the Pacific Fleet.

The band on the cover says тихоокеанский флот, tikhookeanskiy flot or Pacific Fleet.

I questioned if the white cover would have been worn with this jumper as the covers are typically the same color as the jumper, but as it all came together, Paul wanted me to shoot it together.

Are those his serial numbers stenciled into the jumper?

His name is Акижанов or Akizhanov.

Check out this Award booklet and notice that the name in it is crossed out with another written over it in blue ink. There is also a note on the back in the same blue ink. I am trying to make out the handwriting so I can go look it up.

I am curious about why this would have been done this way.

I thought it was pretty ironic that Paul has had that Military Academy Badge for so many years without even realizing that it was the Military Medical Academy.

It has this on it.

ВМА ИМ Кирова, MI Kirov Military Medical Academy

Just spectacular work. You do need to create a gallery for all of your work.

The colors in the FJ Eagle just gave me an idea for framing up a Soviet Order of the Red Star that Paul got the other day....

GO = General Orders

WD = War Department

http://www.history.army.mil/documents/WDGO/WDGO24-1947/WW2campindex.htm

Ryekyue GO 40 WD 45 = General Order 45, War Department 1945 - http://www.history.army.mil/documents/WDGO/WDGO24-1947/f06.jpg

Bronze Star Metal GO 69 HQ 7th Inf was awarded on General Orders 69, 7th Infantry HQ 4 May 1945
Purple Heart was awarded on General Orders 63, 7th Infantry HQ on 4 June 1945

Both awards look to be awarded for action in Okinawa.

Some General Orders that list awards are available on line, however I can not find them for the 7th Infantry Division. I do not know if they are available in the National Archives. If you are looking for the award citation that goes with the medal, I think you will have to have someone with access to those archives pull it for you.

Not too many records in Ancestry.com

US Army Records of the 7th Infantry Division in WWII: http://www.history.army.mil/html/forcestruc/cbtchron/cc/007id.htm

I found census records for him and the contents of his enlistment records.

I am going through the newspapers for any mention of his name now.

More Patton Love. I wish there was a book of all his poems, my lovely husband would get it for me. (It is truly a wonderful thing to be married to another History lover. :-)

ABSOLUTE WAR (1944)

General George S. Patton, Jr.

Now in war we are confronted with conditions which are strange.

If we accept them we will never win.

Since by being realistic, as in mundane combats fistic,

We will get a bloody nose and that's a sin.

To avoid such fell disaster, the result of fighting faster,

We resort to fighting carefully and slow.

We fill up terrestrial spaces with secure expensive bases

To keep our tax rate high and death rate low.

But with sadness and with sorrow we discover to our horror

That while we build, the enemy gets set.

So despite our fine intentions to produce extensive pensions

We haven't licked the dirty bastard yet.

For in war just as in loving, you must always keep on shoving

Or you'll never get your just reward.

For if you are dilatory in the search for lust and glory

You are up ###### creek and that's the truth, Oh! Lord.

So let us do real fighting, boring in and gouging, biting.

Let's take a chance now that we have the ball.

Let's forget those fine firm bases in the dreary shell raked spaces.

Let's shoot the works and win! Yes, win it all!

Nice. I really like the Sea Scout uniforms. My daughter would love sea scouts.

Not wishing to go into the details of my military service I'll just add to what Peter has touched on by saying that those who would glamourize war have never been in one. The following poem is by Siegfried Sassoon in WW I and hits close to home.

I knew a simple soldier boy

Who grinned at life in empty joy

Slept soundly through the lonesome dark

And whistled early with the lark

In winter trenches cowed and glum

With crumps and lice and lack of rum

He put a bullet through his brain

And no one spoke of him again

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye

Who cheer when soldier lads march by

Sneak home and pray you'll never know

The hell where youth and laughter go.

Whenever I see people watching parades, waving flags and cheering, I recite the last verse to myself.

I have a few of Siegfried Sassoon's works in my collection file. I'll have to add this one too.

Another favorite of mine from Patton. (I think we need to add a section in the collection we are displaying in the house for General Patton.)

DEAD PALS

General George S. Patton, Jr.

Dickey, we've trained and fit and died,

Yes, drilled and drunk and bled,

And shared our chuck and our bunks in life.

Why part us now we're dead?

Would I rot so nice away from you,

Who has been my pal for a year?

Will Gabriel's trumpet waken me,

If you ain't there to hear?

Will a parcel of bones in a wooden box

Remind my Ma of me?

Or isn't it better for her to think

Of the kid I used to be?

It's true some preacher will get much class

A tellin' what guys we've been,

So, the fact that we're not sleeping with pals,

Won't cut no ice for him.

They'll yell, "Hurrah!"

And every spring they'll decorate our tomb,

But we'll be absent at the spot

We sought, and found, our doom.

The flags and flowers won't bother us,

Our free souls will be far --

Holdin' the line in sunny France

Where we died to win the war.

Fact is, we need no flowers and flags

For each peasant will tell his son,

"Them graves on the hill is the graves of

Yanks, Who died to lick the Hun."

And instead of comin' every spring

To squeeze a languid tear,

A friendly people's loving care

Will guard us all the year.

A Soldier's Burial (1943)

General George S. Patton, Jr.

Not midst the chanting of the Requiem Hymn,

Nor with the solemn ritual of prayer,

Neath misty shadows from the oriel glass,

And dreamy perfume of the incensed air

Was he interred;

But in the subtle stillness after fight,

And the half light between the night and the day,

We dragged his body all besmeared with mud,

And dropped it, clod-like, back into the clay.

Yet who shall say that he was not content,

Or missed the prayers, or drone of chanting choir,

He who had heard all day the Battle Hymn

Sung on all sides by a thousand throats of fire.

What painted glass can lovelier shadows cast

Than those the evening skies shall ever shed,

While, mingled with their light, Red Battle's Sun

Completes in magic colors o'er our dead

The flag for which they died.

THE SILENT ARMY

IAN ADANAC

IN The Montreal Daily Star

NO bugle is blown, no roll of drums,

No sound of an army marching.

No banners wave high, no battle--cry

Comes from the war-worn fields where they lie,

The blue sky overarching

The call sounds clearer than the bugle call '

From this silent, dreamless army.

No cowards were we, when we heard the call,

For freedom we grudged not to give our all,"

Is the call from the silent army.

Hushed and quiet and still they lie,

This silent, dreamless army,

While living comrades spring to their side,

And the bugle-call and the battle-cry

Are heard as dreamer and dreamless lie

Under the stars of the arching sky,

The men who have heard from the men who have die

The call of the silent army.