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Just an update on the real life adventures of the cruise ship Costa Concordia that provided the idea and the setting for my story "Concordia." She struck rocks on Friday January 13th 2012 off the coast of Italy and for the last two and a half years has rested on her side just offshore from Giglio Island. On Wednesday she began her final voyage some 200 miles to Genoa where she'll be scrapped. Watching the videos I thought I detected the yacht "Grace Full" trailing a few miles away. James Anderson RIP, long live Robert Burns!
I watched a flag pass by today
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 sounds of taps last night
when everything was still.
I listened to the bugler play
And felt a sudden chill.
I wondered 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
and 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.
(Author unknown)
On this Fourth of July, Americans celebrate your freedom, but please give a thought to all the men and women who served and continue to serve, and especially those who gave all. God bless them.
Semper Fi!
Recently I was at a local gun shop and one of the staff came outside for a break. He saw my Marine Corps license plate and said, "Thank you for your service." I knew this upbeat young man had lost both of his lower legs to an IED in Afghanistan and was medically retired as a staff sergeant. I replied, "Thank YOU for YOUR service," but it hardly seemed adequate.
On this anniversary of D-Day I say thank you to all those who served and especially those who suffered wounds for our country. And then there is the thanks we owe to those men and women who gave all (and their families).
I count myself lucky to have returned from war unscathed and I look back on my service with pride.
From now on when someone says, "Thank you for your service," my response will not just be "You're welcome," but I will add, "It was my privilege." AA
Well, that's it. I considered a chapter 12 but pretty much said and did everything I set out to do in writing this story in 11 chapters. I'm glad most of you enjoyed it and as always, I'm sorry about the delay in the last couple of chapters. Sometimes working for a living just gets in the way of what I really want to do - but the bills got to be paid and Uncle Sam really needs the money these days so...
On to something new. Regards and thanks for reading. keep in touch. AA
Chapter 11 is finally off to editing. Thanks for all the support and hanging in there with me as life and work got in the way of writing. I didn't want to rush the last chapter so it took a bit longer. Thankfully I can usually get some quiet time to write while waiting for, and traveling on airplanes (thank you Bose and 3 flights in 4 days last week!) so I finished on a flight home from southern CA. Best wishes, and thanks for the encouragement. AA
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