Day 15 - Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day. Take a moment and thank a Veteran today.

In Flanders Field
by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae
3 May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

We went to the Afghan Engineering District's (AED) Memorial Day picnic today. Traditional burgers and potato salad. They even had ice cream cones. I just wish I could watch the Indy 500 with a beer. I did get a little taste though. Here's Ada and I enjoying a cold, non-alcoholic Becks.

We're trying to cultivate more outside relationships with other US units in Kabul. It is purely selfish. We're staying on a NATO compound with 20+ other nationalities. There isn't much traditional US influence to remind us of home, so we're always looking for other US units to hang out with. It turns out the AED folks have steak and lobster a few nights a month, so our attendance at the picnic today, aside from having something nice to do on Memorial Day, was a thinly veiled attempt to be invited back for steak and lobster night! Of course our attendance at the German embassy was totally an effort to foster (no reference to the Australian beer) international relations as well.

I got a Memorial Day email today from one of my Florida friends. It is a picture of his neighborhood waitresses flashing the "Vi Gang Sign." If you know what this is, congratulations, you're a true geek. If not, you can read about it here. Have a great Memorial Day weekend.