Memorial Day – 2012
Remembering those veterans from our respective families who have since passed on (reposted from years past):
Bruce Henderson:
- Peter Anderson, USMC — My dear departed uncle Peter served with Marine Intel during Vietnam
- Ian Henderson, RAF — [my dear departed father] RAF pilot who served the crown during the Battle of Britain as well the far east as a flight leader. He lied about his age to join the flight corps and was a decorated Ace for combat action.
- Robert Zimmerman, USN — My dear departed step-grandfather served in the US Navy during WW2
- Howard Martin, USN — My biological grandfather was a pilot who died in WWII when my mother was just a child
Bruce Webster:
- John A. Webster, USN (ret.) — served in both WW II and Vietnam [my father]
- James Francis Webster, USN — served in WW II [my paternal grandfather]
- John Silas Fickes, CSM, USN — served in WW I, Mexican War (1920), and WW II [my maternal grandfather]
- John William Fickes, 1st Sgt., Co. A, PA Militia, 8th Reg. Infantry — served in Spanish-American War [my great-grandfather]
- James Edward Taylor, Pvt. Co. D, II PA Volunteer Infantry — Civil War [my great-great-grandfather]
God bless them, and God bless America, truly the “last, best hope of Earth” (Abraham Lincoln).
- O beautiful for heroes prov’d
- In liberating strife,
- Who more than self their country lov’d,
- And mercy more than life.
- America! America!
- May God thy gold refine
- Till all success be nobleness,
- And ev’ry gain divine.
— America the Beautiful (3rd verse), Katharine Lee Bates