In Memoriam - 2016

My Memorial Day weekend started early as I was walking my dog on Thursday afternoon.  It was about 5:30 pm and I heard the deep, brooding rumble that I recognized as coming from a warplane.  No commercial airliner sounds like a warplane regardless of how big it might be.  You can hear that sound from a P-51 Mustang if you go to the Dream Machines show in Half Moon Bay, but nothing--and I mean nothing-- sounds like a WWII bomber's engines revved up.

I looked up just to the south of my house and a B-24 Liberator was pulling a long, slow, loud U-turn at about 2,000 feet of altitude.  The B-24 is part of the Wings of War tour put on every year by the Collings Foundation and it was heading back to Moffett Field.  Its distinctive bright red rear rudders were clear as day.  I lost my Dad just about two years ago.  He was a C-47 pilot in Europe.  WWII vets have been dying at a rate of about 1,000 per day for the last decade--and those are the lucky ones!

I'm really tempted to get into our current politics, but I won't.  Not on Memorial Day.  Let's just take a moment to remember those who have answered the call.  Dad was always a bit amazed that he learned to fly before he learned to drive a car.  That's just how it was.  As I stood there on Occidental Ave. with my mouth hanging open, cursing the fact that I had been caught without my camera or phone, I took my moment.  Here is that very same Liberator up close.  I hope you saw it sometime this weekend, too.

 

Comments

[Samiselfie]

God Bless everyone in the military.
I thank you for your service and am proud to be an American.

RIP Dad. WW 2 army vet who served with honor for 3 years.

[Peter Garrison]

My dad was pleased to serve 36 years in the United States Navy.

He was in his flagship P-3 Orion over the South China Sea hunting for Russian submarines when the Vietcong launched SAM missiles at his formation. They didn't hit his plane but he was personally affronted that someone was so earnestly trying to kill him.

The bond between this admiral and his men was protective of their Naval bond and of their Nation. An example:

One day, when coming home from school, I saw my father's driver at the top of the hill from our home. The driver would release his parking brake and roll in front of our house at exactly 1600 hrs. to take my dad to the Naval Air Station.

So as not hold rank over the sailor and demonstrate their shared sacrifice, my father was standing on the other side of our front door holding his sword, gloves and hat under his left arm and peeking out the peephole so that he could open the door and walk out to the sidewalk exactly when his car arrived in front of the house.

They were together in the Navy – this enlisted man and this officer – to protect the Constitution and you and me.

[Peter Garrison]

Another story – this about my father-in-law : He was in the South Pacific and a Kamikazi tried to blow up his ship. The pilot ended up in the water and his ship rescued the Japanese pilot.

[Cathy Baylock]

Thank you for this great tribute to those who have served our country to guarantee our freedoms. I wanted to share this post from the Burlingame Historical Society Facebook page that documents those Burlingame lives lost serving our country and locations of Burlingame war memorials: https://burlingamehistory.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/casualties-of-war-6-feb-2015-re-edit-draft-update.pdf

[J]

The https://burlingamehistory.files was very moving. Thank you!

[BHS Marching Band Video From The Memorial Day Parade]

Thank God that Joe and Cathy are patriotic.

My children and I enjoyed the Memorial Day Parade from Hillsborough Town Hall to North Elementary. Despite having lived in Burlingame for 8 years, we'd never gone to that community event in the past.

The marching bands from Carlmont High School, San Mateo, and Burlingame High School brought a classic celebratory atmosphere among the Hillsborough politicians, Dave Pine, and several antique Sheriff's deputy cars complete with their drivers smoking cigars.

My NRA shirt drew a few "thank you for your service" complements as we walked up the narrow street to the post parade carnival, which felt awkward.

One fireman said to another, his shirt isn't going to be very poplar around here. The other said, that's kinda the point of the day...that we're free to express ourselves whether we agree or not.

There were several touching salutes to the brave men and women who risked their lives and minds to stand up for our country and our values.

My wife has been working as a clinical psychologist via Stanford at the Palo Alto and Menlo VAs for nearly 10 years. I'm proud of her service to Vets, along with my ancestors service throughout the military back to one serving as an officer/body guard to George Washington and beyond.

I ran into a friend of mine with his kids. We took our hats off during the star spangled banner.

Please check it out next year, it was really great. I'd love to see more Peninsula folks who served, memorialized.

Burlingame High School Marching Band (video):
https://www.facebook.com/alex.kent.5621/videos/10153653696159849/