Yes, I know. Getting a bit dusty in your room, isn't it? Sort of stings the eyes a bit, doesn't it?

Gerard,

Yes it does sting the eyes and the heart.

... give thanks that such men lived.

Amen.

Must be the CS on the floor kicked up from walking around, tightens the throat, and opens the sinuses. Where is that Facebook button? I'm going to go pour a drink, and make dinner while I think about young Marines.

Semper Fidelis.

"The mothers of Rome told their sons, come back with your shield or on it. Then they stopped saying it. Rome did not endure much longer." Robert A. Heinlein.

(And for some reason -- must be allergies! -- my eyes are tearing.)

My Marine Corporal son is home with us for Easter. For some reason I feel the need to go hug him again.

My Marine Corporal son is home with us for Easter. For some reason I feel the need to go hug him again.

Posted by: Patvann at April 23, 2011 1:17 PM

Give him one for the rest of us too, wouldya?

There's an interesting back story to Staff Sgt Roger's homecoming.

Seems that the cretins from Westboro Baptist planned to protest at his funeral services.

The citizenry of the town had other ideas however and prevented that from happening in a variety of very interesting ways:

"A couple of days before, one of them (Westboro protestors) ran his mouth at a Brandon gas station and got his arse waxed. Police were called and the beaten man could not give much of a description of who beat him. When they canvassed the station and spoke to the large crowd that had gathered around, no one seemed to remember anything about what had happened.

Rankin County handled this thing perfectly. There were many things that were put into place that most will never know about and at great expense to the county.

Most of the morons never made it out of their hotel parking lot. It seems that certain Rankin county pickup trucks were parked directly behind any car that had Kansas plates in the hotel parking lot and the drivers mysteriously disappeared until after the funeral was over. Police were called but their wrecker service was running behind and it was going to be a few hours before they could tow the trucks so the Kansas plated cars could get out.

A few made it to the funeral but were ushered away to be questioned about a crime they might have possibly been involved in. Turns out, after a few hours of questioning, that they were not involved and they were allowed to go on about their business."

http://thehayride.com/2011/04/westboro-baptist-church-goes-to-mississippi-and-loses/

Now THAT is the American way of dealing with this sort of thing.