My oldest nephew got married this past weekend.
While it was certainly a fun time, it was also a busy one, so I didn’t have as much time to prepare a Memorial Day post as I would have liked.
I’ve written before about the Catholic chaplains who have received the Medal of Honor. You can find those posts here, here, here, here, and here.
There are four other chaplains who received the Medal of Honor, all during the Civil War:
- Francis Bloodgood Hall, for actions on May 3, 1863 at Salem Heights, VA.
- Milton Lorenzi Haney, for actions on July 22, 1864 in Atlanta, GA.
- James Hill, for actions on May 16, 1863 at Champion Hill, MS.
- John Milton Whitehead, for actions on December 31, 1862 at Stone River, TN.
The links above go to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society pages for each man. The citations are a lot shorter than those for 20th and 21st century recipients. I don’t know enough about CMOH history to comment intelligently on this.
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The actual wedding ceremony yesterday was outdoors. Some of us had to hang out outside after the ceremony for photo taking. It was hot – at least 94 degrees fondly Farenheit – and I was wearing a suit, so I was getting more than a little warm under the collar.
And then, out of nowhere, down the path, came two charming young women with miniature donkeys. Even better, the miniature donkeys had saddlebags loaded with ice cold beer and hard seltzer. Their timing was impeccable. And the donkeys were very charming.
I commented later to Mike the Musicologist that, between this and the Wienie 500, America really is the greatest country on Earth. Do you think they have donkeys bearing cold drinks in North Korea? Or Communist China? Of course not.
And it is because of the contributions of men like Hall, Haney, Hill, and Whitehead that we can have nice things like this today. Remember.
Too little is made today of Memorial Day. While in high school, we always had a huge parade, even in my little town of 1,000 people.
As a band member, I always marched in the parade, ending at our local fairgrounds, where many speeches were given and solemnity was the note of the crowd.
We often had band members who would pass out while standing at attention during the presentation of the American flag and a 7 gun salute by the VFW hall members.
I am sad that so many people have lost sight of patriotism and the cost of war, in order to maintain our way of life. We can be proud of the good of our nation while still recognizing our faults.