Stand Tall and Strong

May you rest in peace

The Jupiter Lighthouse, which usually appears red, was lit up using blue lights in honor of veteran Jupiter Police Officer Bruce St. Laurent, who was killed in the line of duty after being hit by a car while working in the presidential motorcade Sept. 9. A procession for Officer St. Laurent will be held in Jupiter today beginning at 1:30 p.m. followed by a grave site service at the Riverside Memorial Park which the public is welcome to attend. There is also live video stream of the funeral started at 11am.

I would have like to have watched some of it during my lunch hour but darn firewalls at work won't let us watch any kind of videos - can't even look at weather radar neither.

My condolences to his family at home and at the department. I know he will be missed.

Memorial Day remembrances

Going through the paper today, I came across this article written like a poem. I'm not sure who wrote this but its quite beautiful and haunting.

They rose like fog in a deep, dark valley,
Leaving the blood-stained earth,
The smell of gunpowder,
The stench of sweat and burned flesh.
Leaving behind their broken bodies
On the fields of Shiloh and Manassas,
Of Chancellorsville and Antietam,
At Gettysburg where they gave their
Last full measure of devotion,
And joined the long, ghostly march
Of Americans dead from combat.
They rose from the blood-stained earth
At Belleau Wood and Chateau-Thierry,
from the muddy trenches,
from the clouds of poison gas,
from the snipers' deadly mark.
They rose from the blood-stained earth
At Somme and Normandy,
At Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima,
The bodies of the soldiers they were,
Buried at Colleville-sur-Mer in France,
At Ardennes in Belgium,
At Nettuno in Italy.
And joined the long, ghostly march
Of Americans dead from combat.
The heroes of Inchon and Chosin
Rose from the blood-stained earth
And joined their eternal brothers
And sisters, fathers and grandfathers
On the long, ghostly march
Of Americans dead from combat.
They rose from the blood-stained earth,
From the rice fields and the jungles
Along the Mekong, at Da Nang
And at Khe Sanh.
Far away and dangerous places
Where terrible things were seen,
And terrible things were experienced.
They rose and joined the long, ghostly march
Of Americans dead from combat.
At Kosovo and Kabul and Kandahar,
They rose from the blood-stained earth,
Rose like fog in a deep, dark valley
And joined the long, ghostly march
Of Americans dead from combat.
And still the line grows longer
With each passing day,
Stretching beyond the horizon,
Stretching our ability to remember.
Hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands
Joining the long, ghostly march
Of Americans dead from combat.
Dead in Mosul, dead in Kirkuk,
Dead in Najaf, dead in Tikrit,
Dead in Fallujah, dead in ...
And they march and they march
and more and more they march
And we can only kneel and beg
That those we know and love
Will not join them as they march,
Will not join those who rise
From the blood-stained earth
Like a fog, joining in the march,
Taking their place on the long, ghostly march
Of Americans dead from combat.
And the sounds of bagpipes and bugles
Echo with the playing of "taps,"
And we pray again for the brave,
For Americans dead from combat.
Amen. Amen. And Amen.

For your honor and bravery you shall always have my respect

The American Flag does not fly because the wind moves past it. The American Flag flies from the last breath of each Solider, Sailor, Airman and Marine who has died protecting it. - Author Unknown.

Memorial day will be here on Monday and the weekend of parties start most likely tonight and well into the weekend. I won't be partaking in any kind of parties, in fact I'll be working but regardless I wouldn't be out drinking and getting crazy. I have a good handful of friends who have joined the armed services. I have one friend who recently returned from Iraq. A close friend of Sam's who graduated the academy and served in the same department just recently re-enlisted as a private contractor and is currently back in Iraq or Afghanistan.

I am thankful for their services both at home and overseas.
I am thankful, honored and blessed that I know these individuals on a personal level.
I am thankful that they have not sustained physical harm in their tours overseas or in boot camps.
I am thankful for the services of the men and women serving this country of whom I do not know.
I am thankful for your courage, selflessness and bravery to engage in battle on foreign territory.
I am thankful for those of who are able to make it back home safely, and more thankful for those who cannot. Your families have my love and prayers.
I am thankful for you.
Thank you.

Please everyone, be safe and have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. And just remember what this day was observed for.

9/11

The 10th anniversary is coming up in just about 142 days. I know my self, I'm always looking for a new project to work on. Sam's patch project is just about done, just one more frame and I'll always be on the look out for a few of the older department patches. I just purchased (a horrible habit now that I know my way around ebay) a 9-11 memorial patch of Sirius K9 of the New York Port Authority. Apparently, he was the only police K9 to have lost his life during the World Trade Center Ordeal. This site here: K9 Monuments showcases memorials and statues to service animals. Sirius has a plaque that was erected in 2002. This got me thinking on my next big patch project: collect various 9-11 memorial and department related patches and of course get them framed. I'm not sure on the whole look of it and if I'll include anniversary patches, which apparently as I'm finding out there has been one released for every year past that date...so 10 in all. I'd like to include patches of all the departments that were lost in the WTC, Pennsylvania and Pentagon attacks inclusive of police, fire, and other government officials.

I'm still scrolling through the K9 Monument/Memorial site and I'm just amazed at the number of monuments that have been erected all over the world to service dogs.

Not sure when I'll have this all done, it'll probably take a few years at best with just collecting the different patches. I think I'll stick to it being a 10year showcase. I started researching which companies of the fire department were involved, so I'm going and cataloging all 347 firefighters to find which engine/ladder/battalion/squad/rescue company they were with and then going on ebay and a few other sites to find their department patch. I'll be doing the same for the police department and port authority and any other department I can find within that research.

Sorry if any of this sounds repetitive, kind of typing out the thoughts as it comes to me. I'm trying to catch myself if it has been said already.

I'm thinking of contacting the WTC memorial to see if they can help as a last resort with anything and kind of explain what I'm doing and if they would be so kind to help. Not sure if I'll end up donating the finished product...but if the memorial museum does help, I would like to send them something as a thank you, possibly a little side framed patch project that they could put int he museum if they can do that sort of thing. I'll be keeping an update of everything I'll be doing.