We Shall Keep the Faith
Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet - to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.
We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.
And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We'll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.
by Moina Michael
From the Department of Defense:
Petty Officer Zarian Wood, 29, of Houston, Texas, died May 16 in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device blast while on dismounted patrol. Wood was assigned as a hospital corpsman to Third Battalion, First Marine Regiment, First Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force.
From The Houston Chronicle:
"He was a good honest Christian man," said his father, a 63-year-old Vietnam veteran. "He thought he went over there to help children and help the country better itself, and wham."
The father took a shaking breath, still stunned by the news.
"Ah well, he's with the good Lord, you know," he said.
...
His decision to undergo rigorous training to become a hospital corpsman was very much in character for him, his relatives say.
"He was a very giving young man and my mother taught all of us that when you have nothing to give you have yourself to give," said his sister, Teresa Robertson.
...
"He was taking care of other folks," his father said. "He was doing what he wanted to do, and he was doing it for his beliefs. He didn't want younger men to have to see and do what he'd seen and done over there."
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(big thanks to timroff for the beautiful logo)
About "I Got the News Today" (IGTNT)
I Got the News Today is a diary series intended to honor, respect and remind.; its title is a reminder that almost every day a military family gets the terrible news about a loved one. Diaries about the fallen usually appear two days after their names are officially released, which allows time for the IGTNT team to find and tell their stories.
Click here to see the series, which was begun by i dunno, and which is maintained by monkeybiz, noweasels, blue jersey mom, Chacounne, twilight falling, joyful, roses, SisTwo, Spam Nunn, JeNoCo, Janos Nation, True Blue Majority, Proud Mom and Grandma, Sandy on Signal, CalNM, and me, a girl in MI. These diaries are heartbreaking to write, but, we believe, an important service to those Americans who have died, and to our community’s respect for and remembrance of them.
If you are interested in volunteering for the series please contact me, a girl in MI, at a_girl_in_mi_101 AT yahoo DOT com
Please bear in mind that these diaries are read by friends and family of the service members chronicled here. We treat these diaries as a place to remember and reflect. May all of our remembrances be full of compassion rather than politics.