RIP RYBALLZ

You died in Action... real life action, protecting those you loved!

Rest In Peace Brother!

Thank you for your sacrifice.

I wish to convey my deepest thanks but words just don't seem convey those feeling so deep inside...



(Many verses have been written over time to the tune TAPS)

These are my words of tribute for you Ry:

Fare thee well
Sleep tonight
Rest your head…from the toil…of the fight
Peace has come…God is near
See the light

You are blessed
With this rest
You’ve become…now a part…of the best
Freedom lives…due to you
Dearest friend



LEST WE FORGET

We have so many freedoms
we live with everyday
that we take for granted
as always being this way.
It can be so easy to forget
that what we've come to know
was won through the blood and tears
of those who fought our country's foe.
Who offered the most precious gift
that anyone can give
they offered up their own lives
so that we may live
Live in a land of freedom
where you can speak your mind
where happiness is a right
and not something for which to pine.



On my feet, with hand over heart when the National Anthem sounds, goosebumps hatch and my eyes moisten when "Old Glory" waves...


If you Free, thank a veteran

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a Jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.

Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, A piece of shrapnel in the leg or perhaps another sort of inner steel: The soul's ally forged in the refinery of adversity.

Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe Wear no badge or emblem. You can't tell a vet just by looking.

What is a vet?

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She or he is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Danang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another or didn't come back AT ALL.

He is the drill instructor who has never seen combat but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each others backs.

He is the parade riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor remains unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket, aggravatingly slow, who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a Soldier, Marine, Sailor or Airman, and also a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember each time you see someone who has served our country. When you see one just lean over and say Thank You.

That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU".

it would have been your Birthday today!

RIP