ARMED FORCES DAY – 16 MAY 2009

Saturday night and it is late and I have just remembered/found out/learned that it is once again Armed Forces Day, 2009.

We did know it was coming. There have been references here and there.

But it slipped our minds, even tho the military, things military, are often in our thoughts.

And so, at this late hour, the thought occurs, what to do, be it ever so humble and so inadequate? What to do to honor, in even a very small way, our Thin Red Line, if you will?

For those who may not know, Thin Red Line is a mid-19th Century reference to a thin line of British troops holding against Russian cavalry in the Crimean War. The phrase has become shorthand for a military formation holding back superior numbers of hostiles.
In the same way, Thin Blue Line has become synonymous for our police forces coping with the forces of anarchy in our society.

This is the spirit in which we refer to our American Military on this Armed Forces Day: our Thin Red Line v. the barbarians and hostiles to our nation and/or to civilization.

With this in mind, and thinking of the disregard and hostility with which our American Military is sometimes treated by certain segments of our society and our government, we at The Study offer a few lines of poetry, written a century ago to honor Tommy, representative of the military of Our Mother Country but used here to honor the Military of the United States:

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.
Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

We aren't no thin red 'eroes, nor we aren't no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An' if sometimes our conduck isn't all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don't grow into plaster saints;
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind",
But it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind,
There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind,
O it's "Please to walk in front, sir", when there's trouble in the wind.

- From Tommy by Rudyard Kipling.

When you see a Veteran, thank him or her for his or her service.

We owe our Veterans for what they have done for us in the past and for what they are doing for us today.

May they be wisely led and magnificently equipped.

Amen.