Heroes All, Memorial Day at Memorial Park in Grass Valley, California May 28, 2012

Americans showed up in big numbers all around the country to thank those service men and women who gave their all for us.  Today's ceremony at Memorial Park was well attended and my guess is five hundred people or more.  I saw many people I know and since I never served in the armed forces I felt it my duty to show those that have and do I appreciate them very much.

The ceremony had a presentation by the Blue Star Moms and each mom told us the name of their child serving in the military.  Then we were honored to have three men from WW2 tell us a few stories about their deeds in the war zones.  The last man was a Pearl Harbor/Arizona Navy survivor.  He was pretty sharp for 91 and what a man.  He simply epitomizes to me why America is so great and why our freedoms were gained and protected and died for  by men like him.

Supervisor Nate Beason gave the main speech and I was very impressed.  He gave a very wonderful tribute to our heroes.  I was unaware he served on board a ship in the Gulf War.  Thanks Nate!  After the choir led us in short snippets of the military branches songs, a woman sang "Proud to be an American" and did an excellent job.  That song always brings tears to my eyes.

After all was said and done, my brother showed up and we went and paid tribute to our dad, his dad and our uncle.  Grandpa was in the army in WW1 and served in France.  Dad and Unc were in the navy in the South Pacific and saw many major battles.  I try and pay my respects to Pop and I miss him a lot.  Here are some pictures I took with my phone so I hope they show OK.

A good sized turnout to thank our heroes

The wall of my personal heroes and America's too