An American Soldier Comes Home

All –

We live in Henry County, Georgia. Our county is named for Patrick Henry, one of our founding fathers and a one of our nation’s greatest patriots. The citizens of this county understand the patriot’s heart.

Last week Nelle, a neighbor and I were discussing how we are always amazed at the patriotism, valor and honor our servicemen demonstrate every day and how proud we are of their service.

A couple days later we heard that we recently lost one of our own in Afghanistan. SSG Beale.

He served proudly while his family and our communities prayed for his safety waiting nervously for his return. Last week he came home a hero. An American patriot. An inspiration and a solemn testament to the great sacrifices some must make each generation for the next.

When we heard of SSG Beale’s return, the citizens of our county rose up, stood on their feet and gathered at every street corner along the nearly 20 mile course from Falcon Field in Peachtree City in Fayette County to McDonough in Henry County.

Our neighborhood gathered at the corner with our flags waving and our hearts pounding as much with pride as sorrow as we ushered the procession down Jonesboro Road.

There were no community organizers. We didn’t need them. We instinctively know what to do. It’s a small thing to gather a few flags and a few friends together and stand in honor of a hero. A patriot. A neighbor.

Our communities are a wonderful blend of ethnic, religious and political orientations. On that day there were no whites or blacks, no Jews or Gentiles, Christians or Muslims, Democrats or Republicans, Liberals or Conservatives. We were all Americans. We understand the patriot’s heart. It beats in our chests.

The link below is a video shot from one of the patrol cars in the procession. This video will never win an award. But it’s a powerful testament to a community of citizen patriots, a tribute to our home town hero and the family who loaned him to our country as a down payment for the freedoms so many don’t appreciate.

Tears welled up in my eyes as SSG Beale’s procession passed – and again each time I watch this video.

Most of the people standing along the procession’s course probably didn’t know SSG Beale. But we knew his heart. We stand proudly in support of his family and raise them in our prayers.

You have a voice – the voice of a patriot. Stand proud and speak clearly. You are an American. You are not alone.

Mike

http://blip.tv/play/AYGJ5h6YgmE

More Videos: http://www.jasonpye.com/blog/2009/06/video_of_staff_sgt_beales_retu.html

Happy Birthday to Ralph Abraham

Happy Birthday, Ralph

Happy Father's Day

Honoring All Fathers

The Bear

Sent by Millie Majors. Scene from one of my favorite movies. Lessons on compassion and mercy.

Posted for all those great fathers and father figures who nurture and mentor "Little Bears." Happy Father's Day!

Bruce Springsteen's Memorial of Tim Russert - June 18, 2008

LUKE RUSSERT Honoring His Dad - Memorial Service - June 18, 2008

Walter McLemore Parker

Services for Walter McLemore Parker will be held today at 10 a.m. at St. Patrick Catholic Church with Father Frank Cosgrove officiating. Burial will be in Magnolia Cemetery with James F. Webb Funeral Home in charge of arrangements. Mr. Parker, 68, died Wednesday, June 10, 2009, at his residence in Enterprise. He was born August 28, 1940, in Birmingham, Ala.

Survivors include his wife, Suzanne Otnott Parker, of Enterprise; daughter, Suzy Parker Johnson and her husband Bruce; son, John David Parker and his wife Kelly; five grandchildren; sister, Nona Rhodes, of Augusta, Ga.; and brother, Dr. Paul Parker Jr., of Jackson.

He was preceded in death by his son, Mac Parker.Family and friends may sign an online register book at Jamesfwebb.com.Visitation was held Friday, from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.

_________________________________________

O God our Father, Creator of all the living,
we entrust to Your gentle care
all those we love who have gone before us;
and have gone to their rest in the hope of rising again.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Eternal rest, grant unto Mac, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon him.
May the souls of the faithful departed
through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

O God our Father,

Creator of all the living, we entrust to Your gentle care all those we love who have gone before us; and have gone to their rest in the hope of rising again.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Eternal rest, grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

Mac Parker

Tonight, let's remember the smiling face of our friend and classmate Mac Parker and the last time many of us last saw him at Coty's during our class reunion. Mac died in his sleep Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning of an apparent heart attack. Nona, his twin, spoke with her brother Sunday night, and he had never been happier, she says. He and his wife, Sue, were restoring an old house in Enterprise. Nona said that Mac had converted to Catholicism and he and Sue are devout Catholics.

When Mac went to bed Tuesday night, he was complaining about not feeling well but refused to go to the emergency room. He went to bed and never woke up.

Visitation will be Friday, June 12th, at Webb Funeral Home, Meridian, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Services will be Saturday morning at 10:00 at St. Patrick's Catholic Church with burial to follow in Magnolia Cemetery.

The family is staying at the Hampton Inn in Meridian.

Sue Parker's address: County Rd # 367, Enterprise, MS 39330

Happy Birthday to Mary Jane Kelly Heisterkamp

Happy Birthday MJ

Happy Birthday Lyle McLellan Morehouse

Happy Birthday, Lyle

The Beginning of the Allied Invasion of Normandy

Today, June 6, 2009, we have been graced with the beautiful words and scenes of the speakers in Normandy, all delightful to eyes and ears, as they commerated this special day. Nice though this was, it seemed somewhat sanitized at times, as ceremonies like this often do. Sanitized compared to June 6, 1944.

Did you know that some 215,000 Allied soldiers, and roughly as many Germans, were killed or wounded during D-Day and the ensuing nearly three months it took to secure the Allied capture of Normandy?

The purpose of the D-Day landings in northern France by the Western Allies was to open the Second Front against Adolph Hitler's Germany. The Allies had been fighting in mainland Italy for some nine months, but the Normandy invasion was to set the stage to drive the Germans from France and ultimately to destroy the National Socialist regime.

On D-Day, the allies landed on five beaches, code named:

Sword Beach (British)
Juno Beach (Canadian)
Gold Beach (British)
Omaha Beach (American)
Utah Beach (American)

At Omaha Beach, American casualties numbered around 5,000 out of 50,000 men, most in the first few hours, while the Germans suffered 1,200 killed, wounded or missing.

What were the first few hours like at Omaha Beach? Better than the written word, the opening scene from the movie, "Saving Private Ryan," might help us understand. It focuses on the massacre on Omaha Beach. Certainly there are images here which one can never forget. So let's watch and remember and pray. This is D-Day, June 6, 1944, the beginning of the Allied invasion of Normandy.

The Year We Were Four

D-Day June 6, 1944
Photographs of Robert Capa

Resources: National Archives

American Soldiers Land on Coast of France

D-DAY JUNE 6, 1944

The invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe begins as American soldiers land on the coast of France under heavy German machine-gun fire during D-Day. June 6, 1944. (Photo credit: Courtesy US National Archives)

Download and watch a 9-minute National Archives video (30 megs mpeg4 format) produced by the US Office of War Information detailing D-Day preparations and showing troops practicing for the attack. (You need QuickTime to watch. Download here. Free.)

Prayer of Franklin D. Roosevelt, June 6, 1944, D-Day

Listen to the entire speech - 6:33

My Fellow Americans:

Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.

And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:

Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest -- until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.
For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them -- help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keeness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment -- let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace -- a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

Thy will be done, Almighty God.

Amen.

Franklin D. Roosevelt - June 6, 1944

Ronald Reagan, Speaking on 40th Annivesary of D-Day

Listen to the entire speech - 12:59

We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For 4 long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.
We stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but 40 years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.

The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers -- the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machineguns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After 2 days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms. . . . (Read entire speech.)

Meridian Elects Its First Woman Mayor

Cheri Barry, Republican mayoral candidate, smiles as she talks with guests that gathered at the Quality Inn Tuesday evening to show their support and await final results from the election. Barry claimed a victory with 304 more votes than Percy Bland, Democrat, after all electronic and absentee ballots were counted.

Meridian Star

Remember Maxine Reeder Strickland In Your Prayers

As many of you know, Maxine (our favorite story teller) was not able to come to our reunion because of problems with her left foot. She had to have surgery and was still recovering. It was her third surgery on this foot, each requiring complete bed rest for weeks at a time.

The surgery was not a success. She continues to have problems with this foot and is in pain.

To make matters worse, now she is having problems with her right foot. Surgery is recommended, but for now, Maxine is wearing braces on both feet which she will have to wear for the rest of her life or until surgery repairs the problems. Her doctor said that actually she should be confined to a wheelchair. Her doctor is trying to obtain a scooter for her, but is having difficulties with red tape. Let's pray for the scooter too.

Please keep Maxine in your prayers and stay in touch with our dear friend.

Does Cat Come With It?

I'm trying to convince Maxine Strickland to buy a iRobot Roomba (vacuum cleaning robot). What do you think, Maxine? iRobot is an interesting company to read about. I noticed that it has military contract for robots.

1. iRobot Roomba 560 for $379.99. http://store.irobot.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2804959&cp=2804605.3334619.2501652&sr=1

2. Hammacher Schlemmer offers a lifetime guarantee and money back if not happy.
http://www.hammacher.com/publish/76817.asp

3. Here is buyer’s guide on a blog: http://robotstocknews.blogspot.com/2006/03/roomba-buyers-guide.html

Happy Birthday to Becky Nicholson Brumlow

Happy Birthday Becky