The Flag and Military funerals

[HBombToo]

I hope this makes it. It's amazing to me how true the statement "Learn something new everyday" actually is.

Enjoy

HBomb

[PolkThug]

Interesting stuff. I had no idea.

[BlueMDPicker]

My father, a decorated veteran of WWII, received full military honors at the funeral and graveside service. I remember the flag ceremony and ritual vividly. It gave me an even greater appreciation and pride in his military service and sacrifices. We have the flag from his service, with the spent rounds folded inside, in a case I had custom made proudly displayed on our mantle.

[Jstas]

Sorry guys, just call me killjoy but I know for a fact that this is total bunk because I have participated in several flag ceremonies with Boy Scouts, V.F.W. Posts and American Legion Posts.

Now for the proof, three snopes.com entires:

About the flag folding:

http://www.snopes.com/military/flagfold.htm

About the 21 Gun Salute:

http://www.snopes.com/military/21gun.htm

About the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier guard:

http://www.snopes.com/military/unknown.asp




Yeah, you're probably gonna think I'm an asshole but I don't care. This country has many fine traditions, quite a few are meant to remember those individulas who gave the ultimate sacrifice to ensure our way of life. While the stories here are very touching, I cannot sit by and see the time honored traditions bastardized in either good or bad ways. I'm all for honoring fallen countrymen who served with honor in the armed forces and I thank every veteran that gracious took the opportunity to defend my country when good ole Uncle Sam called but I insist that if it is going to be done, it'd be done right. That includes treatment of the flag too.

[bobman1235]

Anyone else using Firefox and having trouble opening up that file? Grrrr...

[Jstas]

Right click on the link and select Save File As... or Save Link Target As... and then save it somewhere and open it with MS Word. If you don't have Word, WordPad whould open it. If you don't have either then you have two options. One, get Microsoft Word or go download a Word Document Viewer and use that.

If you have Microsoft Works and not Microsoft Office, the word processor in Works will not read MS Word documents. At least, last time I checked it didn't.

Otherwise, you are SOL.

[bobman1235]

Yeah, that worked. I'm an idiot - the default filename didn't have the ".doc" extension so I just assumed it was saving the wrong thing... but when I opened it in word it was normal.

Nothing to see here, move along :)

[PolkThug]

Doh! Looks like we got bamboozled Henry. I shoulda snopes'd it.

I thought it sounded like religious propaganda but I wasn't sure.

[jcaut]

On a similar, but off topic note, there's a free program called Abiword that's very similar to MS Word. If all you need is a word processor it works well, and is compatible with Word documents. You can download it HERE (http://www.abisource.com/).

Jason

[HBombToo]

well again we Live and Learn. No heart burn here....

[Toxis]

yeah, sounded like way to much thought went into that.