More for Memorial Day

I hope you are reading all my Memorial Day posts and when you are done here, going to the Cards for Heroes Blog Hop- click on the blinkie at the top of my sidebar. Make sure you watch the CFH video below- it is wonderful!

I just found Cards for Heroes but I intend to get involved. I've already gotten 20+ cards ready to ship to them this week. These are all blank cards that the men and women serving can use to write in and send home to loved ones.

This is a picture of my Dad in his barracks in Greenland during WWII. (Isn't he handsome?) He was assigned to a weather station there that did the forecasts for the ship convoys and D-Day.

All the stories Dad was willing to tell about his time in the service were lighthearted. He talked about the barracks dog, a Huskie, and meeting Eskimos, and watching the Aurora Borealis at night. After he died we found an old newspaper story among his papers that my Grandmother must have saved for him as he was overseas when it was printed. It told how his unit had the highest suicide rate in all the services because of the drastic conditions at his base. None of the Americans serving there had ever been exposed to the realities of living north of the Arctic Circle: the extreme cold, and the almost two weeks of total darkness in winter which caused depressions so severe that some of the men could not take it. I cannot even imagine how terribly this must have frightened and upset Grandmom.

Few, if any, of the Americans serving in the Middle East today have lived in the conditions they are currently experiencing. Baking heat and desert dryness I would guess can be just as demoralizing as those long, bitter days of total darkness were for my father at his posting.

Some of my favorite stories to hear as a child were the ones about the mail- how Grandmom would pack cakes in popcorn to keep them fresh, and how Grandpop got mad at Daddy for playing poker, even though he sent his winnings home. "If you can win $50 you can lose $50!" Dad always said that the mail bag was the most important part of the week for him and everyone else up there.

Part of the Cards for Heroes program is something called Any Hero letters. These are cards or letters that you can write to someone serving overseas. An Any Hero letter is included in each box of blank cards; to read more about them, check out this Any Hero link.

I think there is no better way this holiday weekend to honor those who sacrificed their lives for our country than to support those who are currently serving. Please read through all my Memorial Day posts then head on over to Cards for Heroes and see what you can do to participate. Someone "over there" needs you!