Memorial Day: Thousands of Musicians to Participate in ‘Taps Across America’

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Breitbart

Thousands of trumpet and bugle players, and other musicians across the nation, are invited to play “Taps” at 3:00 p.m. from wherever they are on Memorial Day to honor America’s fallen heroes.

CBS News’s Steve Hartman and retired Air Force bugler Jari Villanueva are joining forces to call upon American musicians to participate in “Taps Across America” as a way to keep the spirit of Memorial Day alive, even as traditional parades and other holiday events are cancelled due to the crisis caused by the Chinese coronavirus.

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'They Died Setting People Free'

At one point captured and forced into slave labor, 95-year-old World War II paratrooper Henry Langrehr tells his story for the world, even the parts that he is ashamed of.

After escaping a labor camp, the raggedy young soldier was caught behind enemy lines draped in American uniform and fighting for survival. He was starving. His odds of making it out alive were low. But with the stars to guide him and a loaded gun he took from a Nazi who had killed his friend, Langrehr found his way eastward to the American front. 

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Memorial Day Flashback: Dan Crenshaw Remembers His Fallen Brothers In Powerful Tribute

Every Memorial Day, millions of Americans take time to remember those who have fallen in service to country — but for some, like Republican Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw, it’s personal.

Crenshaw, a retired Lieutenant Commander and Navy SEAL, marked the day by sharing a series of photos memorializing his own brothers-in-arms — each of whom willingly paid the ultimate price for their friends, their families and millions of complete strangers.

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Memorial Day: 5 things you didn't know about the holiday

Many Americans see Memorial Day as an opportunity to relax in the yard, gather around the grill with friends, or plan a weekend getaway — and it usually is, even though the latter two traditions may be hindered by the ongoing coronavirus health crisis. But no matter how we choose to observe, it's important that we never lose sight of the day's significance.

8 GRILLING MISTAKES THAT COULD RUIN YOUR MEMORIAL DAY COOKOUT

With that in mind, here are five interesting things to consider while we're celebrating, and paying respects to, the men and women who died serving this country.

#1. We're all aware that Memorial Day is a day of remembrance, but Congress has also established an exact minute of remembrance. The National Moment of Remembrance Act, which was adopted in December of 2000, encourages every citizen to pause each Memorial Day at 3:00 p.m. local time to remember the brave men and women who died serving this country. In addition to any federal observances, Major League Baseball games usually come to a stop during the Moment of Remembrance, and for the past several years, Amtrak engineers have taken up the practice of sounding their horns in unison at precisely 3:00 p.m.

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Memorial Day: Thousands of Musicians to Participate in ‘Taps Across America’

 

Well I hope they are Social Distancing...and Wearing Masks. Otherwise there could be...Dire Consequences.

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America’s honor

Scott Johnson

May 25 2020

In observance of Memorial Day 2007 the Wall Street Journal published a brilliant column by the late Peter Collier to mark the occasion. The column remains timely and is accessible online here. I don’t think we’ll read or hear anything more thoughtful or appropriate to the occasion today. With the kind permission of Peter himself, here it is:

Once we knew who and what to honor on Memorial Day: those who had given all their tomorrows, as was said of the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy, for our todays. But in a world saturated with selfhood, where every death is by definition a death in vain, the notion of sacrifice today provokes puzzlement more often than admiration. We support the troops, of course, but we also believe that war, being hell, can easily touch them with an evil no cause for engagement can wash away. And in any case we are more comfortable supporting them as victims than as warriors.

Former football star Pat Tillman and Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham were killed on the same day: April 22, 2004. But as details of his death fitfully emerged from Afghanistan, Tillman has become a metaphor for the current conflict–a victim of fratricide, disillusionment, coverup and possibly conspiracy. By comparison, Dunham, who saved several of his comrades in Iraq by falling on an insurgent’s grenade, is the unknown soldier. The New York Times, which featured Abu Ghraib on its front page for 32 consecutive days, put the story of Dunham’s Medal of Honor on the third page of section B.

Not long ago I was asked to write the biographical sketches for a book featuring formal photographs of all our living Medal of Honor recipients. As I talked with them, I was, of course, chilled by the primal power of their stories. But I also felt pathos: They had become strangers–honored strangers, but strangers nonetheless–in our midst.

(Snip)

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