BEFORE YOU GO......

[Lipservice]

Normally I don't pass along emails. This is so beautiful,...and OVERDUE, I had to share. The song takes awhile to load, but please wait, I promise you won't be disappointed.

My mom told me that my dad used to wake up screaming in the night ... nightmares about what he had seen in the Pacific theater ... he was a radioman on one those amphibious assault vehicles and had to deliver wave after wave of "brothers" to enemy-held beaches. Mom said he would never talk about what he had seen. Please pass this along if you will ... we're losing them way too fast.

Thank you
Henry

The elderly parking lot attendant wasn't in a good mood!

Neither was Sam Bierstock. It was around 1 a.m., and Bierstock, a Delray Beach, Fla. , eye doctor, business consultant, corporate speaker and musician, was bone tired after appearing at an event.

He pulled up in his car, and the parking attendant began to speak. "I took two bullets for this country and look what I'm doing," he said bitterly.

At first, Bierstock didn't know what to say to the World War II veteran. But he rolled down his window and told the man, "Really, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you."

Then the old soldier began to cry.

"That really got to me," Bierstock says.

Cut to today.

Bierstock, 58, and John Melnick, 54, of Pompano Beach - a member of Bierstock's band, Dr. Sam and the Managed Care Band - have written a song inspired by that old soldier in the airport parking lot. The mournful "Before You Go" does more than salute those who fought in WWII. It encourages people to go out of their way to thank the aging warriors before they die.

"If we had lost that particular war, our whole way of life would have been shot," says Bierstock, who plays harmonica. "The WW II soldiers are now dying at the rate of about 2,000 every day. I thought we needed to thank them."

The song is striking a chord. Within four days of Bierstock placing it on the Web http://www.beforeyougo.us, the song and accompanying photo essay have bounced around nine countries, producing tears and heartfelt thanks from veterans, their sons and daughters and grandchildren.



"It made me cry," wrote one veteran's son. Another sent an e-mail saying that only after his father consumed several glasses of wine would he discuss "the unspeakable horrors" he and other soldiers had witnessed in places such as Anzio, Iwo Jima, Bataan and Omaha Beach. "I can never thank them enough," the son wrote. "Thank you for thinking about them."

Bierstock and Melnick thought about shipping it off to a professional singer, maybe a Lee Greenwood type, but because time was running out for so many veterans, they decided it was best to release it quickly, for free, on the Web.

They've sent the song to Sen. John McCain and others in Washington. Already they have been invited to perform it in Houston for a Veterans Day tribute - this after just a few days on the Web. They hope every veteran in America gets a chance to hear it.

Here is the website:
http://www.managedmusic.com/beforeyougo.html

Thanks to Cutch for sharing this

 

[1EZduzit]

As someone with an 86 year old father who was at Guadalcanal, that tore me up. I'm debating with myself about emailing the link to him. I can't seem to decide if sending him that "thank you" is worth drudging up all those memories?

Thanks

 

[EagleKeeper]

I have determined that many Vets of WWII no longer want those memories dredged up.

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: EagleKeeper
I have determined that many Vets of WWII no longer want those memories dredged up.

My experience is that they are more willing to talk about it with perfect strangers then with family. Of course, they are now so old (and close to death) that maybe that isn't even true anymore.

 

[EagleKeeper]

That may be why.

My mother has indicated that my Dad is more embaressed that he was surrendered and became a POW (Ardenes/Bulge) than discussing how he escaped during Dresden.

He has located one of his capturers and communicates with him. Visited him in Europe a couple of years ago.

 

[1EZduzit]

A few years ago, I was trying to teach my Dad how to use search engines so we googled Guadalcanal and found some pictures, which were kind of exciting to look at. You never know, he or someone he knew might have been in one of them. One of the pictures was an aerial photo of Henderson air field and he couldn't recognize it. I think he has spent the last 60 years trying to forget what happened.

He used to share some stories with me, but not anymore.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit
A few years ago, I was trying to teach my Dad how to use search engines so we googled Guadalcanal and found some pictures, which were kind of exciting to look at. You never know, he or someone he knew might have been in one of them. One of the pictures was an aerial photo of Henderson air field and he couldn't recognize it. I think he has spent the last 60 years trying to forget what happened.

He used to share some stories with me, but not anymore.

If he was one of the Marines defending it, I could understand why.

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit
A few years ago, I was trying to teach my Dad how to use search engines so we googled Guadalcanal and found some pictures, which were kind of exciting to look at. You never know, he or someone he knew might have been in one of them. One of the pictures was an aerial photo of Henderson air field and he couldn't recognize it. I think he has spent the last 60 years trying to forget what happened.

He used to share some stories with me, but not anymore.

If he was one of the Marines defending it, I could understand why.

He was and he still won't hardly eat Spam or rice. you should have seen how upset he got when his great-nephew maried a Japanese girl. He's gotten over it to a degree now, but he didn't go to the wedding.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit
A few years ago, I was trying to teach my Dad how to use search engines so we googled Guadalcanal and found some pictures, which were kind of exciting to look at. You never know, he or someone he knew might have been in one of them. One of the pictures was an aerial photo of Henderson air field and he couldn't recognize it. I think he has spent the last 60 years trying to forget what happened.

He used to share some stories with me, but not anymore.

If he was one of the Marines defending it, I could understand why.

He was and he still won't hardly eat Spam or rice. you should have seen how upset he got when his great-nephew maried a Japanese girl. He's gotten over it to a degree now, but he didn't go to the wedding.

I'd guess he was a member of 1st Division.

The Marines in the pacific saw the worst fighting in the war outside of the Russian-German front.

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: K1052

I'd guess he was a member of 1st Division.

The Marines in the pacific saw the worst fighting in the war outside of the Russian-German front.

I can't swear to it, but as I recall, yes. I think his dress uniform has the 1st div patch on it? He like to impress on people the value of keeping a strong defense by telling them that when he landed on Guadalcanel he felt a little funny with his WWI rifle, helment, and pack on.

 

[K1052]

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit

Originally posted by: K1052

I'd guess he was a member of 1st Division.

The Marines in the pacific saw the worst fighting in the war outside of the Russian-German front.

I can't swear to it, but as I recall, yes. I think his dress uniform has the 1st div patch on it? He like to impress on people the value of keeping a strong defense by telling them that when he landed on Guadalcanel he felt a little funny with his WWI rifle, helment, and pack on.

If he went ashore with a Springfield rifle, he most likely was with 1st Division. The Marines Corps issued the M1 Garand as their standard service rifle after their experience on Guadalcanal.

Your dad is one hell of a guy.

 

[trenchfoot]

methinks it's important for our veterans to know of this song, however, i think it's even more important that everyone else see and hear this music video, especially our young ones.

what i like alot about this music video is that in a very meaningful way it expresses the idea that freedom and peace comes at a very high price, and we shouldn't forget that...ever.

*edit* - for clarity

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: K1052

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit

Originally posted by: K1052

I'd guess he was a member of 1st Division.

The Marines in the pacific saw the worst fighting in the war outside of the Russian-German front.

I can't swear to it, but as I recall, yes. I think his dress uniform has the 1st div patch on it? He like to impress on people the value of keeping a strong defense by telling them that when he landed on Guadalcanel he felt a little funny with his WWI rifle, helment, and pack on.

If he went ashore with a Springfield rifle, he most likely was with 1st Division. The Marines Corps issued the M1 Garand as their standard service rifle after their experience on Guadalcanal.

Your dad is one hell of a guy.

Yes he is, you should meet him

He and I almost went down to Nevada this year for the Guadalcanal reunion. It happened to fall on the opening day of pheasant season here, which is a big deal for us, so he decided he would rather do that instead. We're planning on going to it next year though, God willing.

 

[Lipservice]

My father was in the Army. He joined up right after Pearl Harbour. He was in the Philippines for the entire war. He was an engineer but must have been in the heat of battle a lot because he got 2 Purple Hearts. He never talked about it much... the War that is. Only one time, when I was young, an Army buddy of his came to our house and they talked about it a lot. He died in 1996. He would have been 86 this year.

 

[NTB]

Both of my grandfathers served in WWII; one was a radio operator on the USS Walker, and the other I *think* worked in the shipyards on the West Coast. I'm not sure though; I only heard bits and pieces from my grandmother - I don't think he ever said a word. And thanks to Alzhiemers, he probably never will My other grandfather (the radio operator) talks about it a little from time to time, but never much.

Nathan

 

[PELarson]

Thanks.

I think it stands as a thank you for Veterans of all confilcts.

 

[1EZduzit]

I watched the flag pass by one day,
It fluttered in the breeze.



A young Marine saluted it,
And then he stood at ease..



I looked at him in uniform
So young, so tall, so proud,
With hair cut square and eyes alert
He'd stand out in any crowd.


I thought how many men like him
Had fallen through the years.
How many died on foreign soil
How many mothers' tears?


How many pilots' planes shot down?
How many died at sea
How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?
No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of Taps one night,
When everything was still,
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered just how many times
That Taps had meant "Amen,"

When a flag had draped a coffin.
Of a brother or a friend.




I thought of all the children,
Of the mothers and the wives,
Of fathers, sons and husbands
With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard
At the bottom of the sea


Of unmarked graves in Arlington.
No, freedom isn't free.



Enjoy Your Freedom & God Bless Our Troops
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