#NeverForget our troops. 🇺🇸

Army retired, husband, father, grandfather, Iraq vet.

[#NeverForget our troops. 🇺🇸 @willo1246]

https://t.co/2FyqUkUXkQ

[Echoes of War @EchoesofWarYT]

162 years ago today, in a soaking rain along the banks of the Chickahominy River, 50,000 Union soldiers spent the entire afternoon tearing scraps of paper into rectangles and pinning them to the insides of their uniform coats.

On each scrap they wrote, in pencil, their own name, their regiment, and their hometown.

There were no military dog tags in 1864. There would not be any for another half century. The reason every Federal soldier within sight of the Confederate works at Cold Harbor was writing his name on his coat that afternoon is preserved in the memoirs of Grant's aide, Lieutenant Colonel Horace Porter, who walked among them and asked one veteran what he was doing.

The man did not look up. "So my body can be identified."

The attack had been scheduled for dawn. Hancock's II Corps had gotten lost in the dark on its night march and stumbled into position six hours late, exhausted and out of water. Grant pushed the assault to 5 p.m. Then the sky opened up and a hard summer rain swept the line. He pushed it to dawn on June 3.

The pause was a gift to Robert E. Lee.

For 24 hours, Confederate engineers worked in the rain with shovels, axes, and entrenching tools. They deepened trenches. They cut interlocking fields of fire. They built traverses to protect against enfilade. They laid in artillery so that no part of the front did not have at least two batteries aimed at it. By dusk on June 2, the Confederate position at Cold Harbor was, according to one engineer who walked it after the war, the strongest field fortification ever built in North America up to that date.

Union soldiers across the muddy open ground could hear it being built. The chock of axes. The thud of logs. Officers walking the parapet shouting orders. The men in the Federal trenches did not need a written order to know what was coming.

So they wrote.

Some men wrote their parents' addresses. Some wrote their wife's name. Some wrote nothing but a single sentence, a request, a goodbye. One captain in a New York regiment wrote in his diary that night, in the last entry he ever made: "June 3. Cold Harbor. I was killed."

He had finished the entry the night before, and dated it for the morning.

At 4:30 a.m. on June 3, the assault went forward. Seven thousand of those name tags became the only way to identify the bodies.

The grim ritual that the dog tags of every American soldier since the First World War quietly continues, every time a young person clips a small metal plate around their neck, was invented in the mud of Virginia by men who knew exactly what their generals were about to do to them.

And went forward anyway.

[#NeverForget our troops. 🇺🇸 @willo1246]

Pvt. William Walker Fitts, Comany D, 16th Georgia Infantry. Fitts, born in Madison County, Georgia, enlisted in the Spring of 1862. He was killed in fighting at the Muleshoe salient at Spotsylvania Courthouse on 12 May 1864.

[#NeverForget our troops. 🇺🇸 @willo1246]

Pvt. William W. Cavender, 7th Georgia Inf. Cavender enlisted on 21 May 1861. He was wounded in the head by a shell fragment on 21 July 1861 at the Battle of 1st Manassas. Doctors used a silver plate to cover the hole in his head. He survived the war and died on 6 Nov 1911.

[#NeverForget our troops. 🇺🇸 @willo1246]

Pvt. Eli Pinson Landers, "Flint Hill Greys", Company H, 16th Georgia Infantry. Landers enlisted in August 1861, and he died due to disease on 27 October 1863 during the Chattanooga campaign.

[Silence Dogood @Silence03062]

I reposted this yesterday. Roland passed away during the night. I've known him for 45 years. Our sons are best friends. Please take a moment for a prayer for a Vietnam veteran. Thanks..

[James Woods @RealJamesWoods]

This is EXACTLY why Karen Bass must go. This and a thousand other reasons.

[#NeverForget our troops. 🇺🇸 @willo1246]

Seaman James Michael Termini, of Lee Massachusetts, served with the the Lighterage Section, US Naval Support Activity (DaNang), Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV). James was fatally wounded on 25Feb66 in the Quang Nam province of South Vietnam. He was 18 years old.

[#NeverForget our troops. 🇺🇸 @willo1246]

Pfc Neil Ellis Bateman of Cheektowaga, New York served with Co B, 1st Bat (Airborne), 327th Inf Regt, 101st AD. PFC Bateman was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for Valor and bravery for his actions on May 15, 1967 while involved in a conflict in the Quang Ngai province.

[#NeverForget our troops. 🇺🇸 @willo1246]

Private First Class George Milton Johnson, of Clarkston Georgia, served with the 1st Marine Division, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, G Company. George was fatally wounded on October 9, 1968 in the Quang Nam province of South Vietnam. He was 20 years old.

[#NeverForget our troops. 🇺🇸 @willo1246]

Private Larry B. Wynne, of Chicago Illinois, served with Company K, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, Third Marine Amphibious Force. Larry was fatally wounded on February 19, 1967 in the Quang Ngai province of South Vietnam. Larry was 21 years old.

[#NeverForget our troops. 🇺🇸 @willo1246]

Private First Class Leroy Henry Romig, of McClure Pennsylvania, served with the 25th Infantry Division, 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry, A Company. Leroy was fatally wounded on December 11, 1968 in the Hua Nghia province of South Vietnam. He was 23 years old.

[#NeverForget our troops. 🇺🇸 @willo1246]

Specialist Four Harry L. Van Alst Jr, of Le Roy New York, served with Company B, 1st Battalion, 11th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 5th Infantry Division. Harry was fatally wounded on September 11, 1968 In the Quang Tri province of South Vietnam. He was 21 years old.

[#NeverForget our troops. 🇺🇸 @willo1246]

Feb 69 dated Meal, Combat, Individual, better known as the C-Rat. This menu is Pork, Sliced and Cooked. The B-1A unit, accessory packet, has sanity butter and can of fruit (just out of frame) complete the meal. Twelve meals to a case, with 3-4 loose P38 can openers.

[James Woods @RealJamesWoods]

On Memorial Day a veteran dies from being beaten to death for the way he voted.

In America.

[Nick Plumb @PlumbNick]

When I left Texas at 18 to join the Army, they told us if we fought overseas, we’d be preserving our way of life back home. Twenty years later, I finally came back…

…and now Texas is just a bunch of Indian shops, Afghan markets and halal stores.

This is my state, but it feels so far from home.

Is this really what we fought for?

[Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 @mtgreenee]

How dare the peasants complain about data centers stealing their water and driving the cost of electricity!!

How dare the peasants complain AI will replace their jobs!!

The peasants are dangerous extremists if they don’t shut up and comply!!

[#NeverForget our troops. 🇺🇸 @willo1246]

Cpl Donald Casper Bennett, of New Lexington Ohio, served with the 1st Platoon, Battery C, 3rd Battalion, 16th Artillery Regiment, Americal Division, United States Army. Don was fatally wounded on March 28, 1971 in the Quang Tin province of South Vietnam. He was 20 years old.

[DB Cooper @shopcardhub]

It’s late, but for Memorial Day I want to post a link to a fallen friend of mine whom we lost almost 10 years ago. He was the bravest guy I ever knew. RIP brother.

Thank you to all our service members, and prayers tonight for families of the fallen 🇺🇸

https://t.co/rpHqruWgqL

[DB Cooper @shopcardhub]

https://t.co/s5QQlxUHeU

[Beard Vet @Beardvet]

Happy Memorial Day, we Remember and Honor the Brave Men and Women who made the Ultimate Sacrifice for Our Freedom.
Let’s Give Them Thanks 👊🏽✝️🇺🇸