{"id":5395,"date":"2012-11-12T18:39:22","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T18:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/?p=5395"},"modified":"2012-11-28T16:56:32","modified_gmt":"2012-11-28T16:56:32","slug":"thought-2012-11-12-veterans-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/uncategorized\/thought-2012-11-12-veterans-day","title":{"rendered":"Thought 2012.11.12 Veterans Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n \n \"Fb-Button\"\n <\/a>\n <\/div>
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Veteran’s Day<\/h2>\n

Like many of you, my thoughts have dwelt on our veterans this weekend. \u00a0Two stories in particular have touched my heart. \u00a0These men may not have crossed your mind, but to me – they are the perfect representation of a Veteran of this great land.<\/p>\n

The first soldier is a man of fearless dedication to his country. \u00a0As a soldier and leader in his part of the military, he fought and prayed many days for the freedom and liberty of those who stood beside him and their family and friends back home.<\/p>\n

At a particular low point, his group of soldiers were nearly destitute. \u00a0They had been fighting for weeks, had marched mile after mile and were cut off from supplies and relief troops. \u00a0The site before him was full of ragged men – hungry, exhausted and quickly loosing hope.<\/p>\n

In a moment of desperation and anger this soldier rose and presented the flag. \u00a0He talked of home, family, freedom and the God who made it all possible.<\/p>\n

His determination to protect freedom at any cost saved his men, encouraged others to join them and eventually defeated the enemy.<\/p>\n

What was the flag he raised? \u00a0We know it as the Title of Liberty.<\/p>\n

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The second story is from desertlocalnews.com (click here<\/span><\/a><\/span> for the original article).<\/p>\n

“You might\u00a0remember a news story several months ago about a crotchety old man\u00a0who defied his homeowners association and refused to take down\u00a0the\u00a0flagpole on his property and the large flag that flew on it. Now you can\u00a0find out who, exactly, that old man was.<\/em><\/p>\n

On June 15, 1919,\u00a0Van T. Barfoot was born in Edinburg — probably\u00a0didn’t make much\u00a0news back then.\u00a0\u00a0 Twenty-five years later, on May 23, 1944, near\u00a0Carano, Italy, Van T. Barfoot, who had enlisted in the US Army in\u00a01940, set out to\u00a0flank German machine gun positions from which fire\u00a0was coming\u00a0down on his fellow\u00a0soldiers. He advanced through a\u00a0minefield, took out\u00a0three enemy machine gun positions and returned\u00a0with 17 prisoners of\u00a0war.<\/em><\/p>\n

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If that\u00a0wasn’t enough for a day’s work, he later took on and\u00a0destroyed\u00a0three German tanks sent to retake\u00a0the machine gun\u00a0positions.<\/em><\/p>\n

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That\u00a0probably didn’t make much news either, given the scope of the\u00a0war,\u00a0but it did earn Van T. Barfoot, who retired as a colonel after\u00a0also\u00a0serving in Korea and Vietnam, a Congressional Medal of Honor.<\/em><\/p>\n

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What did\u00a0make news was a neighborhood association’s quibble with how the\u00a090-year-old \u00a0veteran chose to fly the American flag\u00a0outside his\u00a0suburban Virginia home. Seems the rules said a flag could be flown on\u00a0a house-mounted bracket, but, for decorum, items such as Barfoot’s\u00a021-foot flagpole were unsuitable.<\/em><\/p>\n

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He had\u00a0been denied a permit for the pole, erected it anyway and\u00a0was facing\u00a0court action if he didn’t take it down. Since the story made national\u00a0TV, the neighborhood association has rethought its position and\u00a0agreed to indulge this old hero who dwells among\u00a0them.<\/em><\/p>\n

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“In the\u00a0time I have left I plan to continue to fly the American flag\u00a0without interference,”\u00a0 Barfoot told The Associated Press. \u00a0 As well he\u00a0should. \u00a0And if\u00a0any of his neighbors still takes a notion to contest him, they might\u00a0want to read his Medal of Honor citation. It indicates he’s not real\u00a0good at backing down.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\n Van T.\u00a0Barfoot’s Medal of Honor citation:<\/em><\/p>\n

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This 1944\u00a0Medal of Honor citation, listed with the National Medal of Honor\u00a0Society, is for Second Lieutenant Van T. Barfoot, 157th Infantry,\u00a045th Infantry:<\/em><\/p>\n

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A Real Hero Has Died\u2026.<\/span><\/strong><\/em>
\n VanT. Barfoot died at the age of 92 on 2 March 2012.”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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Both Moroni and Mr. Barfoot used a flag to inspire patriotism. \u00a0Symbolism is a powerful way to remind us to continually align our lives with the Lord and righteousness.<\/p>\n

All history tells us that valiant people have defended their homelands and their freedoms. \u00a0Are we doing our part?<\/p>\n

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Alma 46:12-13<\/strong>: “And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it – In memory of our God, our religion, , and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children – and he fastened it upon the end of a pole. . . and he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should a band of Christians remain to possess the land”<\/em><\/p>\n

~ Sister Tiffany Birrell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veteran’s Day Like many of you, my thoughts have dwelt on our veterans this weekend. \u00a0Two stories in particular have touched my heart. \u00a0These men may not have crossed your mind, but to me – they are the perfect representation of a Veteran of this great land. The first soldier is a man of fearless…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5395"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5420,"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5395\/revisions\/5420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brucebarton.com\/journey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}