I will remember (each of) you [veteran's day 09]

sarah mclachlan - i will remember you
DID YOU KNOW?
…that the American Battle Monuments Commission administers, operates, and maintains 24 permanent American burial grounds on foreign soil. Presently there are 124,909 U.S. war dead interred at these cemeteries, 30,921 of World War I, 93,238 of World War II and 750 of the Mexican War. Additionally 6,177 American veterans and others are interred in the Mexico City and Corozal American Cemeteries.

(all info taken from AMERICAN BATTLE MONUMENTS COMMISSION)
AISNE-MARNE AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
2,289 of our military dead

ARDENNES AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
5,329 of our military dead / 462 missing

BRITTANY AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
4,410 of our military dead / 498 missing

BROOKWOOD AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
468 of our military dead / 563 missing

CAMBRIDGE AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
3,812 of our military dead / 5,127 mssing

EPINAL AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
5,255 of our military dead / 424 missing

FLANDERS FIELD AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
368 of our military dead / 43 missing

FLORENCE AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
4,402 of our military dead / 1,409 missing

HENRI-CHAPELLE AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
7,992 of our military dead / 450 missing

ORRAINE AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
10,489 of our military dead / 444 missing
LUXEMBOURG AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
5,076 of our military dead / 371 missing
MANILA AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
17,202 of our military dead / 36,285 missing

MEUSE-ARGONNE AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
14,246 of our military dead / 954 missing

NETHERLANDS AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
8,301 of our military dead / 1,722 missing

NORMANDY AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
9,387 of our military dead /1,557 missing

NORTH AFRICA AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
2,841 of our military / 3,724 missing

OISE-AISNE AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
6,012 of our military dead / 241 missing

RHONE AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
861 of our military dead / 294 missing

SICILY-ROME AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
7,861 of our military dead / 3,095 missing

SOMME AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
1,844 of our military dead / 333 missing

ST. MIHIEL AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
4,153 of our military dead / 284 missing

SURESNES AMERICAN CEMETERY AND MEMORIAL
1,541 of our military dead / 974 missing

My previous posts pertaining to VETERAN’S DAY/WW II can be seen by visiting this post in honor of my Dad
My Dad. My Veteran

Meanwhile - thank you for allowing me a break in my "normal" art posting. Please look around my blog and be sure to enter my ART Give-Away contest a couple of posts below :)

~Katey

Memorial Day Tribute - LEGACY

~~~

I don't mind if you've got something nice to say about me

And I enjoy an accolade like the rest

You could take my picture and hang it in a gallery

Of all who's who and so-n-so's that used to be the best

At such'n'such ... it wouldn't matter much

I won't lie, it feels alright to see your name in lights

We all need an 'Atta boy' or 'Atta girl'

But in the end I'd like to hang my hat on more besides

The temporary trappings of this world

I want to leave a legacy

How will they remember me?

Did I choose to love?

Did I point to You enough

To make a mark on things?

I want to leave an offering

A child of mercy and grace who blessed Your name unapologetically

And leave that kind of legacy

I don't have to look too far or too long a while

To make a lengthly list of all that I enjoy

It's an accumulating trinket and a treasure pile

Where moth and rust, thieves and such will soon enough destroy
Not well traveled, not well read, not well-to-do or well bred

Just want to hear instead, "Well Done" good and faithful one...

Nicole Nordeman - Legacy

~In Remembrance~

February 1924-October 2008

My Dad. My Veteran. (click link)

To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. ~ 1 Peter 2:21

My Dad. My Veteran.

Unforgettable - Nat King and Natalie Cole

IMPORTANT:

Press the ARROW symbol ONCE on the screen to play while you are visiting this post ~ thank-you.



He was born in 1924. He marked his years by quarters. He died 23 days ago at age 84 and 3/4s. He was not ready to go, but he walked through the veil into eternity finally surrendering to the Hand of God mere moments after he had dinner and he had a day of visitors in that hospital room. He had a procedure scheduled the next morning. This wasn’t suppose to happen.

God is sovereign. I am not mad at Him, but I am mad at a few other things and people. I didn’t really want to blog about this, yet I have thought of little else lately. I have addressed about 150 envelopes so far, I have become friends with Bud the headstone salesman, Mike the Funeral Director, and a small cast of other characters I never knew existed 23 days ago.

My Dad was not sick. In the days before this happened he insisted on making Mom drive their van around the block just to see if she still could. He made it clear he wanted me to ‘handle things’ and made an official appointment to be sure I did. He made several other eternal gestures that previous week that make us all now stand in stunned silence in hindsight.

"Twilight Regatta" acrylic n canvas board

Maybe it is weird, but inside each thank-you being mailed I tucked in a print of one of my Dad’s paintings. It is certainly one of my favorites. It showed what he was really capable of. It was done as a 4”x6” on canvas board when I had him painting postcard size. I wish it were 4 foot by six foot! I pushed him along through all my own art phases… artist trading card 2.5” x 3.5” size, postcard size, mini inchie size and so on - he always eagerly jumped into whatever whim I presented to him.

He loved the process of making art and waiting on the praise. You see, as artists that is what we do somehow. We make it and wait to see what the world says. Part of the lesson is learning to make it no matter what anyone says, but we still really get charged when there is the tiniest accolade awaiting the other side of the making of it.

My Dad was without question my biggest praiser. My art walked-on-water to him - even if it didn’t. He saw into it - the gift behind whatever I was making. Even if it was only a whiff of an idea… a plan to be rolled out and I was dealing in pieces and parts of a greater thing… he saw the thing too. He got it.

My Dad never made ‘proper’ art that we ever saw growing up, but he was unmistakably an artist. He was constantly moving and making. He was forever tearing apart a car, painting a wall (again and again), painting a car, buying a car to tear apart or paint, building something… dreaming. He rarely finished anything. He could see the end in his own head and sometimes that was enough. He made small pencil sketches when asked by a young daughter (me) or later, young grandson… we knew. Yes, he was an artist always.

Around his 81st birthday I set him up with ‘real’ art supplies. He was championing me in my eBay art selling endeavors and he was just bubbling inside. When he had his own paint, brushes, and the right sizes and kinds of papers and canvases he went to work quickly and prolifically. Many years of dreaming came spilling out. He made it then waited quietly for the praise. I wanted him to be content in the process regardless of praise (or none) - but he found plenty of applause from everyone and his small format art sold well on eBay when I offered it!

He painted nearly 2 years until potential changes in living location prompted his art supplies to be packed away. He struggled with his things gone, but slowly gained them back and bought new things, and began painting again as much as he could. I stopped selling his work after that initial pack-up of his studio since I didn’t know when or if he would paint again. I felt the need to hoard his work after that time knowing it was so limited. It was never the same as in those first two years he painted and made messes so freely, but it was clear once again he was an artist and no one could take that from him.

You can take the studio away from the artist, but you can’t take the soul out of the artist. You were expecting “you can take the artist out of the studio, but you can’t take the studio (art) out of the artist”… but I like my first version better.

The morning my husband was ironing my Dad's clothes for the funeral he noticed red paint on the nice white shirt Mom had given us for Dad to wear. I had to smile as I glanced up at myself in the bathroom mirror near where the ironing board was and saw green paint on the cuff of my own white sleeve.

I am the youngest of six. He was different with me. That is just the way it was. I have observed that where a teenager might have discord with his parents, he finds a special bond with his grandparents. Sometimes I wonder if Dad and I were more like that. We were past the kid-parent contention and more into the grandparent-grandchild magic - maybe because he was 40 when I was born and maybe because I went away to college and didn’t move back to our hometown for such a long time. Maybe it was because I 'got' him (I didn’t agree with him a lot but I got him… and he got me). When we did share a view point (especially about people) - we were like amalgamated metals.

I became the family historian and genealogy researcher about 15 years ago. Dad’s war stories became my war stories. I asked and listened over and over to get them inside of my head. This past July we set up a 10’ x 20’ tent at a local air show - featuring our collection of WWII photos and memorabilia - with Sam telling his experience live-in-person. He was fantastic and he was given the respect and praise so deserved.

He flew 38 missions over Europe in the belly of a B-17 Bomber. He was a waist gunner as well as an occasional tail gunner. I could go on for days telling you his stories.

He was honest. He was fair. He was sensitive. He was blunt.

I really only wanted to say that I miss him and I always will.

He called me Jayne.

~katey~D
http://www.blueyeduckstudios.etsy.com/

Read more about Sam from my previous blog posts.... please look

I wrote a little about him here (personal WWII photos): http://blueyeduckstudios.blogspot.com/2007/10/world-war-ii-thank-you-ken-burns.html

And I featured a little bit about his art here: http://blueyeduckstudios.blogspot.com/2007/06/d-day.html

World War II (Ken Burns PBS)

Meet my Dad...

A young kid from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - who joined in to help stop the madness.

My Dad, Smitty, is on the far left - he said he and the guys sometimes rotated positions, but mainly he was the waist gunner. This B-17 is "Sack Time Sioux". Next to him are Strehlow and Croner.

Here is the entire crew... pictured in Deopham Green, England - where their bomb squadron, the 728th, began their missions.

Dad was part of the Mighty Eighth's 452nd Bomb Group.

Dad on the remains of the day.

German fighters spotted the squadron flying into Russia and came back with reinforcements for a bombing run which left our boys with nothing except a long 'walk' back home to England via North Africa and other places never before imagined by this steel mill boy.

Decorated and back home safe after 35 missions - my Dad.

If you missed Ken Burns 7-part film called simply THE WAR on PBS, please find it and watch with your children. God Bless America and our military and those who remember.

joy in the journey,

katey-D

Psalm 103


ALL PHOTOS ARE COPYRIGHT (c) 2007 by the Smith Family Archives / Blueyeduck Studios