May::Day 25::Memorial Day Red, White and Blue

   "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.  " Read more about "In Flanders Fields" by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918), Canadian Army

Arlington Cemetery,where the ashes of my parents (veterans of WWII) are inurned, a portion of the Vietnam Wall Memorial

Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) — established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country. The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The ceremonies centered around the mourning-draped veranda of the Arlington mansion, once the home of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Various Washington officials, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, presided over the ceremonies. After speeches, children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home and members of the GAR made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers on both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers and singing hymns. Read more...(From the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)