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A Powerpoint Presentation to honor those who served. A
Soldier Died Today He
was getting old and paunchy, And
his hair was falling fast, And
he sat around the Legion, Telling
stories of the past.
Of
a war that he once fought in, And
the deeds that he had done, In
his exploits with his buddies, They
were heroes, every one. And
'tho sometimes to his neighbors, His
tales became a joke, All
his buddies listened quietly, For
they knew where of he spoke. But
we'll hear his tales no longer, For
ol' Joe has passed away, And
the world's a little poorer, For
a Soldier died today. He
won't be mourned by many, Just
his children and his wife, For
he lived an ordinary, Very
quiet sort of life. He
held a job and raised a family, Going
quietly on his way, And
the world won't note his passing, 'Tho
a Soldier died today. When
politicians leave this earth, Their
bodies lie in state, While
thousands note their passing, And
proclaim that they were great. Papers
tell of their life stories, From
the time that they were young, But
the passing of a Soldier, Goes
unnoticed, and unsung. Is
the greatest contribution, To
the welfare of our land, Some
jerk who breaks his promise, And
cons his fellow man? Or
the ordinary fellow, Who
in times of war and strife, Goes
off to serve his country, And
offers up his life? The
politician's stipend, And
the style in which he lives, Are
often disproportionate, To
the service that he gives. While
the ordinary Soldier, Who
offered up his all, Is
paid off with a medal, And
perhaps a pension, small. It
is not the politicians, With
their compromise and ploys, Who
won for us the freedom, That
our country now enjoys. Should
you find yourself in danger, With
your enemies at hand, Would
you really want some cop-out, With
his ever waffling stand? Or
would you want a Soldier, His
home, his country, his kin, Just
a common Soldier, Who
would fight until the end. He
was just a common Soldier, And
his ranks are growing thin, But
his presence should remind us, We
may need his likes again. For
when countries are in conflict, We
find the Soldier's part, Is
to clean up all the troubles, That
the politicians start. If
we cannot do him honor, While
he's here to hear the praise, Then
at least let's give him homage, At
the ending of his days. Perhaps
just a simple headline, In
the paper that might say: "OUR COUNTRY
IS IN MOURNING, A SOLDIER DIED
TODAY." Three
new names were again added to the Confirmed List of Names in May for a
new total of 1,815. We are
pleased that, even at this late date in the Project's timeline, new
names continue to be added from HixNews readers! In, the past month we
continued to make additional progress on missing information for names
already on the list, thanks to your continued help. In
our work to insure that no one is left behind who should be included in
the Memorial, please continue to help us by reviewing the Confirmed List
of Names when you select the "click here for confirmed list" link
near the bottom of this update with your computer mouse. To
speed the process, just use your class year or the years you may be
familiar with as a reference and see if you have a new name or some
missing data on existing names to email to us.
Class years, where known, are specifically shown to make this
effort easier for our readers. All
missing data for names already on the list is shown in red, again making
it easier for readers to see what's needed. In
addition, please go to the second website link shown below to see the
full List of UNCONFIRMED Names for the Memorial and see if you can help
us to establish whether or not these folks served during the Vietnam Era
(note: Vietnam Era dates are
shown in the "Memorial Qualifications" section below).
Additional names were added to the UNCONFIRMED List in May. Progress
has been made on site approval for the Memorial.
Bill Walden plans to meet with the Hicksville Superintendant of
Public Schools, Mrs. Maureen Bright, at the Jerusalem Avenue Middle
School Memorial Gardens next week to show her our plans.
Jay Tranchina should be joining Bill for this meeting to show his
plan for integrating our Memorial with all the others at the site by
connecting them with a brick paver walkway he has laid out, to be funded
by donations to the Memorial construction.
Approval will then be finalized once Mrs. Bright reviews the site
with the Board of Education. At
Hicksville's Memorial Day Ceremony last Monday, Mrs. Bright spoke
about her support for our Project. After
her talk, Bill Walden was approached by a number of Veterans in
attendance and also was approached by a local business regarding their
willingness to make a donation towards construction.
Ken
Strafer plans to hire a college student for the summer to perform the
research we need in Washington on our List of UNCONFIRMED Names.
We hope to make good progress on this during the next few months. Memorial Qualifications:
A person must have been on active duty in one of our Armed Forces
during the Vietnam Era. The
person did not necessarily have to serve in Vietnam, because by being in
service at that time he or she faced the possibility of being sent to
Vietnam and was an integral part of strengthening our Armed Forces
during a time of war. Overall
qualifications include:
Our
Project Team consists of the following HHS Alumni and Vietnam War Era
Veterans: ·
Ken Strafer, Founder (HHS
'62) ·
Joe Carfora, Project
Coordinator & Master List (HHS '62) ·
Carl Probst, Input Data,
Class of '59 & Others (HHS '59) ·
Tony Plonski, Input Data,
Class of '64 & Others (HHS '64) ·
Tommy Sullivan, Press
Release Editing (HHS '63) ·
Walter Schmidt, Town of
Oyster Bay Veterans Services Officer (HHS '65) ·
Joe Ingino, Veterans
Advocate, Hicksville & ·
Jay Tranchina, Input Data,
Class of '64 & Others, plus local press contact (HHS 1964) ·
Bill Walden, Cmdr of
Hicksville VFW Post, Site Selection/Approval & Fundraising Leader (HHS
'65)
Here's what we continue to need from each person reading this to
do: Please
click on the following link to review the Confirmed List of Names:
Click
here. Please
click on the following link to review the UNCONFIRMED List of Names:
Click
here. If
you know of someone who is not listed, or if you have information we are
still missing, please send what you have to Joe Carfora at jcarfora1@nc.rr.com.
Please use the information contained on the current list as a
guide for the data we need. Thank
you! The
Vietnam War Era Memorial Project Team Footnote extracted from www.vietnamwar.com
: During
15 years of military involvement, over 2 million Americans served in To access a huge list of veteran related websites
that offer assistance, visit http://buffalobobcasale.com |
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