The Coca Cola 600 is run on Memorial Day weekend, so NASCAR goes all out to "honor the troops" at the race. They make a big production out of having troops on the track prior to the race, troops in the stands, troops in the television broadcast... All of these troops are alive and speaking to us, so NASCAR, as they so often do, is honoring the wrong troops.
Further, in addition to appearing in public wearing fatigue uniforms, showing that they have little or no pride in their service and no self respect, not one of these "troops" tells the interviewer that they are getting it wrong, because this holiday is about honoring military service people who have lost their lives in service to their country.
We have Veterans Day to celebrate guys like me, people who have served in the past; none of whom would ever have appeared off base wearing anything but Class A dress uniform.
We have Armed Forces Day to honor those who are presently serving; despite of their own disrespect for their service by wearing fatigues off base.
This day was created specifically to honor those men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation; those who in placing themselves, "their precious lives, between their homes and the forces which would destroy them," lost their lives.
To those, the soldiers and sailors on eternal patrol, rest in peace.
When doesn't NASCAR get it wrong?
ReplyDeleteLike you, I'm a veteran. It's been nearly 25 years since I retired from active duty. If we were going to and from work, we were allowed to wear our fatigues. If we had to make short stops while in transit, we could do so in our fatigues. If you were on base/post/station, you could pretty much live in your fatigues. When participating in a formal ceremoney, we wore our dress/formal uniform unless otherwise specified.
Things have changed somewhat since those days. I do know that troops are allowed to travel from certain overseas area while wearing fatigues. Others, when rotating out or rotating back stateside, are allowed to wear civilian attire because of the terrorism threat unlike the old days when we all flew the cattle car flights and had to wear a dress/formal uniform.
As to the mixing up of dates, most Americans, military and civilian, get them mixed up due in part to the changes in education. Like not teaching history or civics anymore. Then Congress didn't help matters either by turning some of these holidays into 3-day weekends. It's become a total goat rope Bill and all we can do is shake our heads despite what we know and hopefully pass on our knowledge to our children and grandchildren.