HOME |
RSS | 
With so many boring days sitting around on the base, soldiers are known to relieve the boredom and stress of their jobs by goofing around. Environmental Graffiti has some great photos of these playful occurrences for your viewing pleasure.
The bravest among the brave, some soldiers stand head and shoulders above the rest for war exploits that will make your jaw drop. For example, Audie Murphy’s actions in World War II that won him a Medal of Honor:
Murphy’s unit was down to 19 men out of 128. They couldn’t fight, they needed to rearm, and they needed somebody to hold the line. So Murphy stayed behind, shooting Germans until he ran out of ammo. Then, deciding he wasn’t done killing Germans, he jumped onto a burning tank and starting using its .50 caliber machine gun. He even killed an entire squad of Germans trying to sneak up on him. Oh, and he did this for almost an hour, while wounded in the leg. And then his men showed up, and Murphy led them on a forward action. Translation: after spending an hour in the freezing cold on a burning tank spraying Germans with machine gun fire, he decided that wasn’t enough and decided to get close and personal.
And he is just one of ten soldiers from all over the world listed as the most badass. Link -via Unique Daily
For further information, you can visit the links mentioned in the video:
National Moment of Remembrance.
The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund.
A group of GIs stationed in Afghanistan lip sync and dance to Lady Gaga’s song “Telephone”. They did a great job, but you can almost feel the boredom that inspired this. -via YesButNoButYes
Former British soldier Shaun Clark spent over four hours in a tattoo parlor yesterday, celebrating Remembrance Day by having the names of all 223 British soldiers who died in Afghanistan tattooed on his body.
He said: ‘I don’t mind suffering for a few days if I can let the lads know that people really care about what they’re doing out there, and raise some money for the guys coming home wounded as well.
‘The family thought I was mad to begin with, but they’ve come round to the idea now, and my wife is backing me all the way.’
The married father-of-two from Doncaster hopes his challenge will raise £500 for the charity Help for Heroes.
He plans on updating the sombre list every year on Remembrance Day if required.
Tattoo artist Kevin Kent donated his services free of charge. Link -via Digg
(image credit: Ross Parry Agency)
Those of us in the U.S. are celebrating Memorial Day today – a day to honor lost loved ones and soldiers (more on that in a minute). But our Memorial Day is just one of many Remembrance days across the world. Here are the traditions of a few of them (and a little explanation of ours).
The U.S. Memorial Day was originally conceived to honor soldiers (Union soldiers, specifically) who had fallen in the Civil War, so you can see it has been a tradition for quite some time. It’s hard to say exactly where it started, because more than two dozen cities claim they originated the day, but in 1966, Lyndon B. Johnson officially declared Waterloo, N.Y., the home of Memorial Day. Although some of us forget what a solemn occasion the day is, at least one group of people remember: the soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry spend the Thursday prior to the holiday placing small American flags at the graves of more than a quarter of a million gravestones in Arlington National Cemetery. They spend the rest of the weekend patrolling the grounds to make sure each and every flag remains upright and flying.
Every year on the 25th of April, Australia and New Zealand honor their soldiers – the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) – who fought in the Gallipoli Campaign of WWI. Nearly 11,000 soldiers died during the eight-month campaign (and nearly 80,000 died in the war overall). The holiday was officially declared in 1920 and ever since, people have honored some obvious traditions – memorial services, marches and events honoring veterans – and some not-so obvious ones. For instance, some people play two-up, an Australian gambling game, because it was one of the ways soldiers amused themselves. And it’s not uncommon to add a little rum to your coffee that day to honor the “gunfire breakfast” some soldiers used to warm their bellies before battle. Like the United States’ Memorial Day, Anzac Day has now broadened to honor all loved ones who have passed away and not just the soldiers.
The German memorial day was proposed in 1919 and was meant to remember those who died in WWI. Some thought it was appropriate and others didn’t, largely due to the fact that there was a dispute over what laws the Reich could enact and what laws the states could enact. It created a lot of confusion (and probably some angry politicians), so it wasn’t really regularly celebrated until about 1934, when the Nazis declared it an official holiday. Except they mangled the meaning all around and called it Heldengedenktag, the Day of Commemoration of Heroes. It’s not a bad idea in theory, but the Nazis turned it into inappropriate (and scary) hero-worship. That version of Volkstrauertag ended in 1945, but in 1948, the country brought back the holiday with its original intent. To commemorate the occasion, two Sundays before Advent, various goverment officials from the Chancellor to the Bundespräsident give speeches and the song “Ich hatt’ einen Kameraden” (I had a comrade) is played. Photo via Reservistenverband.
