# Lest We Forget **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 7, 2008, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673 "2008-11-07T18:00:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2008, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/1 "2008-11-07T18:00:26Z")
It will soon be Remembrance Sunday. To all the servicemen and women who gave their lives fighting for what they believed to be right, I say Rest In Peace. To those still engaged in conflict I pray you’ll return home safe and in one piece. To those dregs of humanity who harbour hatred for others, I pour scorn on you. To those who believe that religion, no matter which one, is the key to peace, I laugh at your stupidity ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2008, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/2 "2008-11-08T20:18:46Z")
> [@chowder](#): > > It will soon be Remembrance Sunday. > > To all the servicemen and women who gave their lives fighting for what they believed to be right, I say Rest In Peace. > > To those still engaged in conflict I pray you’ll return home safe and in one piece. > > To those dregs of humanity who harbour hatred for others, I pour scorn on you. > > To those who believe that religion, no matter which one, is the key to peace, I laugh at your stupidity Totally with you **Chowder**. When you look back on things there are so many who have fallen along the way. But we’re still here and I think about it often. God bless them all. ---
**Author:** ![Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8c91f0/32.png) [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/3 "2008-11-09T03:34:24Z")
The Flowers of the Forest [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZrQnnZJ68Xo/hqdefault.jpg "Green Fields of France") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrQnnZJ68Xo) “In some faithful heart are you forever enshrined?” Yes. ---
**Author:** ![SSG\_Schwartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/4 "2008-11-09T04:16:38Z")
Thank you, **chowder**. We appreciate your support. SSG Schwartz ---
**Author:** ![lynxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e99b99/32.png) [@lynxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynxie)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/5 "2008-11-09T07:06:45Z")
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. ``` We are the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. ``` — Lt.-Col. John McCrae ---
**Author:** ![scareyfaerie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scareyfaerie/32/3135_2.png) [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/6 "2008-11-09T10:10:51Z")
What **Chowder** said. ---
**Author:** ![Lucretia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@Lucretia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucretia)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/7 "2008-11-09T10:25:43Z")
On behalf of myself, currently in Afghanistan, my son, newly returned from Iraq, and my husband, who continues the fight as a civilian after 20 years of service, I thank you for the kind words. Capt Ileen Verble, USAF, Nurse Corps mother of PFC Austin Verble, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment wife of MSgt (Ret) Keith Verble, USAF ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/8 "2008-11-09T11:42:16Z")
They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn At the going down of the sun, and in the morning We shall remember them 4th stanza from _For The Fallen_ by Laurence Binyon ---
**Author:** ![trupa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@trupa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trupa)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/9 "2008-11-09T17:44:33Z")
This is for those who went, despite their countrymen’s lack of appreciation. [TOMMY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGClrsAN2aY) \*I went into a public-‘ouse to get a pint o’ beer, The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.” The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die, I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I: O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”; But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play, The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play, O it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play. I went into a theatre as sober as could be, They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me; They sent me to the gallery or round the music-‘alls, But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls! For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, wait outside”; But it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide, The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide, O it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide. Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap; An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit. Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, 'ow’s yer soul?” But it’s “Thin red line of 'eroes” when the drums begin to roll, The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll, O it’s “Thin red line of 'eroes” when the drums begin to roll. We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too, But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you; An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints, Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints; While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, fall be’ind”, But it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind, There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind, O it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind. You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires, an’ all: We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational. Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace. For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!” But it’s “Saviour of 'is country” when the guns begin to shoot; An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please; An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool – you bet that Tommy sees!\* -Rudyard Kipling. 1865-1936 And 'bless your heart, Capt. Verble, and your family’s. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/10 "2008-11-09T18:19:56Z")
I usually get a poppy for a handful of loose change. This year I stuffed a five dollar bill into the donation jar and gave the kind, elderly gentleman distributing the poppies a sincere thank you, from the bottom of my heart. He knew I meant it. ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/11 "2008-11-09T18:50:14Z")
I don’t think my mother will mind if I post what she wrote to us kids last year: [QUOTE=My Mom] Just a note to remember in your prayers your grandfather, who served honorably in the European theatre during World War II. He fought in France and Germany. After the war, before he was discharged, he was seriously injured while guarding Prisoners of War in Germany and spent almost a year in hospitals recovering. Without his sacrifices (two years of his life under miserable conditions and seeing horrible atrocities) and those of his wife, your grandmother. who lived without him for those 2 years and worried (along with his family and friends) for his safety throughout them, we might not have the freedoms we take for granted today. He was in the field artillery and his watch once saved his life and those of his crew. The watch caught somehow on the cannon and prevented its firing. When they checked everything they realized the shell was defective and would have blown up on site killing everyone if it had been fired. He was away while I was 7 to 9. He was one of the lucky ones because he did come home, and he was still in one piece. But he did suffer nightmares, etc., for years after. So take a minute to remember all the men and women whose sacrifices we honor on Veterans Day. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2008, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/12 "2008-11-09T22:59:04Z")
Farewell. ---
**Author:** ![Jillyvn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Jillyvn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jillyvn)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/13 "2008-11-10T08:56:54Z")
Hello everyone. I was listening to a local cbc program - the Vinyl Cafe by Stuart Mclean - and he has a lovely rememberance day tribute. It’s a long podcate - 50 minutes. This link takes you straight to the mp3: [http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/vinylcafe\_20081108\_8957.mp3](http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/vinylcafe_20081108_8957.mp3) ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/14 "2008-11-10T09:18:26Z")
> [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](#): > > The Flowers of the Forest > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrQnnZJ68Xo&feature=related](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrQnnZJ68Xo&feature=related) > > “In some faithful heart are you forever enshrined?” > > Yes. That’s an awesome song, because if you’ve never heard it before, it starts out pretending to be another sabre-rattler war song, and it lets you believe that until it hits you with one line: "Well, I hope you died well and I hope you died clean _Or, young Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?"_ Most moving war song ever, IMHO. Lest we forget. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/15 "2008-11-10T10:39:25Z")
Rememberance Day is called Armistice Day in Aus, and happens on the 11th day of the 11th month, regardless of the day of the week it falls. At 11.00am on this day each year, the cities come to a standstill for a minutes silence…and a really eerie experience it is too, to be in the middle of a bustling noisy CBD that suddenly goes completely dead for a minute. All public transport stops, then the cars follow and the people realise that it’s time to stand still and listen to the silence. A single bugler ends the quiet time, and regardless of the age, gender or ethnicity of the folks within earshot, hankies are pulled and many a teary eye is dabbed. BTW, ‘Flowers of the Forest’ is a song by Scottish ex-pat-now-dinkum- Aussie **Eric Bogle** called **No Man’s Land**. Listen to it in the original, it’s brilliant. Try also, **‘And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda’.** Cheers folks. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/16 "2008-11-10T11:40:26Z")
May they rest in peace. **No Man’s Land** a/k/a **Green Fields of France** refers to [Flowers of the Forest](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_of_the_Forest), but Bogle didn’t write it. The tune is an old Scottish one, and the two different sets of lyrics date to the 18th century. It’s a well-known pipe tune, as mentioned in the wiki article: > [@](#): > > many renditions are played on the Great Highland Bagpipe; due to the content of the lyrics and the reverence for the tune, it is one of the few tunes that many pipers will only perform at funerals or memorial services, and only practiced in private or to instruct other pipers. Link to a youtube rendition, at a memorial service in the Falklands: [Piping on the Two Sisters, Falkland Islands](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO0qkvdI5UQ&feature=related). ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/17 "2008-11-10T12:51:54Z")
Yes. Thank you, all of you, who protect us, have sacrificed, have died so that we can live the good lives we do. Tomorrow, Tuesday, is Veterans Day in the United States. In our family it never goes forgotten, and neither will you. God bless you. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/18 "2008-11-10T15:27:31Z")
“And on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns fell silent.” But not before a last-minute frenzy of bombardment as artillerists attempted to fire off as many of their stockpiled rounds as possible, and not before commanders all across the Western Front inexplicably sent their men forward into machine-gun fire one last time, _knowing beforehand_ that it would be moot at 11:00. It’s been [estimated that 11,000 additional casualties](http://www.envirosagainstwar.org/know/read.php?itemid=2229) were incurred in these senseless assaults. For the soldiers, I bow my head in respect; for their commanders, I find it much more difficult. Although I am an American, I’ll give a nod to **chowder** ’s side of the pond: [England is a Garden](http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=4436), by John Keegan ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/19 "2008-11-10T15:46:05Z")
[The quintessential SDMB remembrance thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=23572) Eight years on and I still tear up reading it. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2008, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673/20 "2008-11-10T19:21:26Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > “And on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns fell silent.” > > But not before a last-minute frenzy of bombardment as artillerists attempted to fire off as many of their stockpiled rounds as possible, and not before commanders all across the Western Front inexplicably sent their men forward into machine-gun fire one last time, _knowing beforehand_ that it would be moot at 11:00. It’s been [estimated that 11,000 additional casualties](http://www.envirosagainstwar.org/know/read.php?itemid=2229) were incurred in these senseless assaults. > > For the soldiers, I bow my head in respect; for their commanders, I find it much more difficult. > > Although I am an American, I’ll give a nod to **chowder** ’s side of the pond: > > [England is a Garden](http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=4436), by John Keegan The BBC ran a documentary just last week about this very subject. It seems that one of the worst offenders was General Pershing who, just like Patton in WW2, didn’t want to stop until he had reached Berlin. Evidently there was an enquiry back in Washington after the war about all those unnecessary death, but the findings were hushed up for some reason or other. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lest-we-forget/471673.md?page=2)