Written by: Beck

My grandfather wanted to go to the dedication of the new World War II memorial in Washington DC. Ultimately, he had to decide against it. His mobility has decreased too much, and he feared the crowds would be unbearable.



Read about the largest and the last WWII soldiers reunion if you like.

The weekend dedication of a World War II memorial drew thousands of veterans on Thursday in what is likely the last major gathering of U.S. soldiers from that conflict before their generation dies out.

Washington's grassy National Mall was filled with veterans complete with cameras, canes, wheelchairs, uniforms and war memorabilia for the four-day reunion, which is expected to attract 800,000 people amid tight security after terror threat warnings.

There's something above and beyond the ordinary level of anger I feel when I hear about terrorist threats against something like this. But that's neither here nor there. Should something happen, the vets who died would be making far from their first sacrifice for this nation.

World War II veterans are today at least 76 years old and about 1,000 die every day, according to a Department of Veterans Affairs estimate. Of the more than 16 million Americans who served in World War II, about 4.4 million were still living in 2003, the department said.

For more info on the WWII Memorial, go here. For the history of Memorial Day, see this. For WWII history, go read a damn book. My personal recommendation would be The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich for the European front, and The Pacific War 1941-1945 for the Pacific theater.

For some reason, I'm reminded of "The Last Cowboy Song" by the Highwaymen. And no, I'm not normally a country music fan.

This is the last cowboy song
The end of a hundred year waltz
The voices sound sad as they're singing along
Another piece of America is lost

Have a nice Memorial Day.

Update: I'll be periodically bumping this post to the top of the list all Memorial Day weekend long. So don't necessarily assume, when you see this post, that there isn't anything new below it.

Update: MSNBC has an article on the WWII Memorial dedication.