Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / Memorial Day Flashback With Intrepid Co-Chair Bruce Mosler from 2021; Thoughts on Memorial Day 2024

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Memorial Day Flashback With Intrepid Co-Chair Bruce Mosler from 2021; Thoughts on Memorial Day 2024 · OneLegUpAlex Media

• 0:25
  In the last ten years of doing a show on Memorial Day on the Alex
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  Garrett podcast Network, I'm pretty sure I've utilized some portion of Battle Hymn of
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  the Republic on Memorial Day because it is the Memorial Day song. I kind
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  of learned it back when on East forty seventh Street, the Holy Family Church
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  right down the block from my own apartment would blare out at eleven o'clock the
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  Battle him of the Republic and it stuck with me. And now I get
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  to kind of share that experience of hearing that and growing to love the Battle
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  Hymn of the Republic as an anthem from a Memorial Day that I want to
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  share that with you every year. Today obviously took it a little lighter.
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  After recovering from this hospitalization. We did go to the monument which is on
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  Union Turnpike on one sixty fourth Street, the Hillcrest American Legion Post ten seventy
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  eight, and it's always special. They put the wreath up to honor the
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  fallen of those who lived in this area in Queens in Hillcrest, New York.
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  So always want to pass by that monument and I employ to visit it,
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  not just today, I'm Amorial Day, but every day if you're in
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  the area on Union Turnpike in Queens, a way to honor our fallen.
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  Now, this is an interview I'm going to play for you from a Royal
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  Day is a few years old, but it is Bruce Mosler who's always been
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  running the USS Intrepid Museum Memorial Day festivities and ceremonies, and I caught up
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  with them three years ago. The first Memorial Day after the pandemic was really
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  dying down, if you will, and people were back out. Here's what
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  Bruce Mosler and I talked about just feet away from the Intrepid on Memorial Day
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  twenty twenty one. I'm here with the co chair of this beautual Intrepid on
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  Memorial Day, Bruce Mosler. Bruce, thanks for you continuing this tradition a
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  year after the pandemic. How does this feel today? It feels like a
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  weight's been lifted and that we can once again be together with each other,
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  even though we are practicing social distancing and doing other things. But it also
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  feels as if particularly important to remember those As I mentioned, more than thirty
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  three thousand New York Is in fifty two thousand the state. Six hundred thousand
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  Americans have perished to this pandemic. So we'll remind us all again if my
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  precious life is the Intrepid family lose members as well well. I think you
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  heard Susan mentioned earlier that several of our of our veterans who have served have
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  passed. And I think everybody in New York knew someone or someone who knew
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  someone who passed in this tragic moment, because let's face it, New York
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  was hit first and hardest. Anyways, I would say the Intrepid is a
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  perfect example of our fortitude in the city, though, would you agree?
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  I think it's it reminds us of how resilient New Yorkers are, just as
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  Intrepid was, no carrier, faced greater odds and survived and thrived and as
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  I said, new ultimate victory. And for those of you know, be
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  a veteran listening to this and they still need to support through this, where
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  can they go to? I feel like you guys are great resourts to tell.
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  Look, there's there's a tremendous number of places to continue support our vets,
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  including I have a there's there's any number of you can go to the
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  Commissioner, James Hendon and the Veterans' Affairs Department in New York. They're all
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  we're all here to help our veterans regain their footing. And one last thing,
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  the adaptability of the Intrepid to go online and all that. I'm sure
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  you played a role in that. It was special to keep this going even
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  through a pandemic. It was critical to all of us who would play a
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  part in Trepid to make sure that even though people couldn't come to us,
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  that we could get to them. It was continue. It was important to
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  continue our educational programs. It was important to continue reminding people of the cost
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  of freedom. All those things. You guys actually educate veterans. I did
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  not know that until I came in here. We do. We also educate
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  young people in public schools, and that's a very important part of what we
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  believe is to remember that freedom isn't free. There's a very high cost to
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  maintain our freedoms. And you had family as well. Did you serve?
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  Did you have family? I did not have. My father served. I
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  did not. I was appointed to Department of Defense Business Board, which was
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  my way of giving back and I think every person can get back in some
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  capacity, way, shape or form, and must Bruce, thank you so
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  much, and God bless you, God bless you. I have a blessed
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  Memorial Day. Thank you you too, thank you, thank you. Now.
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  Bruce is also part of the Veteran Initiative program at Chrisman and Wakefield wanted
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  to add that in there on this Memorial Day twenty twenty four, so to
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  talk with them a year after the pandemic, the first Memorial Day when the
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  vaccines had rolled out and everything, and there was a great crowd of veterans,
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  of supporters of the military, of military families at that event three years
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  ago. But today I think Memorial Day. I think of Memorial Day every
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  year and I think of how I am not losing the meaning of this day.
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  But as people continue to go to the beaches and they don't really think
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  about why they get to go to the beaches, they don't think about who
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  stormed the beaches. Maybe a lot of them do, But you know the
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  point, the societal, the commercial use of Memorial Day has really watered down
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  what today is, and that is to honor the fallen whom stormed the beaches
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  of Normandy. I saw a tweet today This was very interesting. They had
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  basically restored all nine thousand plus grave markers of the soldiers that stormed Omaha Beach.
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  They used the sand from that very beach to restore and scrub the letters
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  of the soldiers who died there as a way to commemorate their bravery, their
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  fight for America. Nine thousand plus graves restored with the sand taken from Omaha
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  Beach to the very beach they stormed to keep our country safe, to keep
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  our country from turning into a fully German Globally, what they did to storm
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  the beach of Normandy curbed Germany. And we can all be stop them and
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  we can all be thankful for that, can't we, Especially today when we
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  already see internal anti Semitism, And I feel like that's also watered down a
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  lot of what the Spring has become. Instead of enjoying Commencement and then enjoying
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  Memorial Day and honoring the troops, I see people protesting in the middle of
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  Memorial Day weekend parades. That's bs that should never be allowed to happen.
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  That's not free speech, that's attacking even events honoring those who gave these snot
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  nosed braddy college kids and older the ability to protest. So the snot nosers
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  are now basically telling the veterans and those who died to give them the right
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  of speech, screw you. You see that, that's what they're saying by
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  interrupting Memorial Day parades. So I pray that no matter what you see on
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  TV, you don't let the snot nosers who encamped on college campuses and ruined
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  commencements and spread anti Semitism in the process, by the way, ruin this
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  meaning of a moral day. And I think those who hold it truly in
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  their heart will get it. And as who have no regard for America,
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  you will never be as brave as those soldiers who have died and sacrificed their
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  lives to keep this country exceptional, to keep it going, to keep it
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  free. You will never be that brave. And that's why we are on
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  the brave because only those who are willing to sacrifice their life for a cause
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  such as America, for a country America, that's the epitome of bravery right
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  there. And then I do love that a lot of these veterans who are
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  living today come home and continue to work in police departments across the country and
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  continue to keep us safe when their tour of duty is done. But for
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  those who died on the battlefield, they are what keeps this country the fabric.
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  If we just cut out the noise of the encampments of the protesters,
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  it's the fabric of this country which those who fought and died for our country
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  serving in the US military, that is who is preserving fabric. And I
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  say preserving because obviously, unfortunately millionitary members are always worried about their lives,
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  well, families are. Military members are always at risk to lose their lives
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  when at sea overseas, but at home, we cannot let this Memorial Day
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  fade away. We must always go to the local parades, the local church
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  services honoring and yes even the intrepid services honoring those who lost their lives defending
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  our country. Because those events and those people that risked it all and sacrificed
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  it all and lost their life for our country are what keeps this fabric great.
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  So maybe this memorial that we take out the noise, we remove it
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  from our consciousness, we remove it from our TV screens, and we just
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  purely no America is exceptional, does not have its flaws, Yes, but
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  it's exceptional. And you know how we know that because we honor those who
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  have fallen every last Monday in May, because they knew the exceptionals of America
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  and they fought for it. And the way we can fight for it is,
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  yes, by and listening, if you so choose, but by just
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  continually being louder than the noise that were being shown on our TV screens,
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  by the encampments we're being shown on our TV screens. We have to be
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  louder than that. We have to be more of a cheerleader for America so
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  much so those that want to disrupt and everything like that won't even matter.
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  And that's the end goal. That is what our soldiers fought for, to
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  keep America exceptional. Let's not let them die in vain? Can we do
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  that? Can we let their sacrifices mean so much more than it already does
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  by being louder than the noise out there and rooting for America more than those
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  who seemingly root against America. We have to be better, oh head,
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  to be louder and more proud of this country, just like those are sacrificed
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  their lives were they were so proud to serve in the military that they lost
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  their lives. We thank the troops this and every day on the Alex Garrett
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  podcast S.