QUESTION: If you could visit any famous military memorial or battlefield, where would you go?
© Copyright 2007 – 2025 Claycord News & Talk
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QUESTION: If you could visit any famous military memorial or battlefield, where would you go?
Subscribe to our newsletter!
© Copyright 2007 – 2025 Claycord News & Talk
Hiroshima and / or Nagasaki .. the only places atomic weapons were used in war
First time I went to Pearl Harbor, it was an incredible humbling experience.
Agreed!
When I was stationed in Pearl Harbor, my folks visited us, and I took them on a tour of USS Arizona memorial. My late, former father-in-law was a Pearl Harbor survivor.
WWll Midway battle Truk Lagoon. Diving there is fantastic.
I had my fill of battlefields in Vietnam, and for me, war memorials are a reminder of the
young lives that were sacrificed for a bulls#it war that congress knew we would never
win. When congress cut funding, and placed restrictions on military actions, we Marines
knew it was only a matter of time before we would lose the war, and we were fighting and getting killed for nothing.
The only wars in the 20th Century that were worth fighting were WWI and WWII, all other
wars were to satisfy political warmongers, and we didn’t win any of them.
USA won the Gulf war. Vietnam could have easily been won if we wanted to wipe out all the women and children and level the country that dust, but fighting a war with rules and lines you could not cross etc is ridiculous if you’re trying to win a war.
The biggest benefactor of the Gulf War was Iran. When Saddam Hussain was captured,
it gave Iran a more favorable position in the region, resulting in economic growth from higher oil prices. That’s not much of a win for the US.
For the US to have won the war in Vietnam, it would have required a sustainable military and political strategy. We should have brought down the corrupt South Vietnamese government and assisted the people in electing and securing a strong non-communist government, thereby keeping the South independent. The US should have fully invaded the North, and set up a blockade in and around its ports. The Marines knew what to do,
as did the Air Force, Navy and Army, but congress wouldn’t allow it.
Wiping out women and children and leveling the country to dust is gibberish.
Dawg, I have said it before, but it is never enough, thank you for your service.
The Viet Nam memorial in Washington DC.
I was stationed outside of Baltimore in the winter of ’92. I had some free time and drove to DC for the day where I visited Air and Space, Natural History, and the National Zoo. Night fell, it was late, and freezing cold! There was snow everywhere and the reflective pond was frozen over and covered in broken ice blocks. Nobody else was to be seen and it was as if I was the only person for miles. It was also silent because the accumulated snow was muffling the noise.
I decided to walk the length of the reflective pond with the intention of stopping at the Lincoln Memorial. Along the way to the LM, I happened upon the Viet Nam Memorial and “The Wall”. Almost 60,000 lost souls’ names engraved into the reflective black granite slabs.
I stopped at the statue of the three soldiers. It was freezing, silent, and empty. Except for the overwhelming feeling that I wasn’t alone; that the dead were with me, watching without sound. Eventually, I broke the spell and continued on to the LM where my old SLR camera died before I could get any pictures.
Truly a moving experience for me.
The American cemetery at Normandy is at the top of my list.
I have visited Pearl Harbor twice, the first time with my Dad, was on the USS San Francisco there during the attack and several years later with my wife. I visited Valley Forge in 1976. Two years ago we visited the Florence American Cemetery a few miles outside of Florence Italy, a very moving and solemn experience.
There is a section of the USS San Francisco’s bridge located in San Francisco at the
Golden Gate National Recreation Area at Land’s End. The San Francisco came under
heavy fire at Guadalcanal, and the bridge section is full of shell holes from the battle.
Dawg, I have been there a few times. My Dad was on the San Francisco during that battle and almost all of WW II. The San Francisco was the second most decorated ship in WW II. That is also the only naval battle where we lost two admirals, Callaghan on the bridge of the San Francisco and Scott on the USS Atlanta from friendly fire from the San Francisco. My Dad’s brother was a Marine on Guadalcanal and was wounded there, but also survived the war.
Our Submarine Veterans group had a memorial ceremony there following the USS San Francisco SSN 711 collision with the underwater mountain.
I was amazed at how much damage the original USS San Francisco had taken and survived. My uncle was in the First Marines at Guadalcanal.
My Dad attended the commissioning of SSN 711 along with many other former crew from the San Francisco. At the time, they said that was the largest group of former crew from a namesake ship to attend such an event. This was even more significant, since there was more than a 30 year gap between the decommissioning of the cruiser and the commissioning of the submarine. I was an aerospace engineer at NAS Alameda when SSN 711 made a port call there and I was able to go onboard; that was a very special day. The USS San Francisco should have been saved from the scrapyard and made a museum ship berthed in San Francisco.
Normandy and Gettysburg
Gettysburg Pa, the Lexington battle green Ma, Merriams corner and the north bridge are surreal. I would like to visit Normandy.
Normandy!!!
Custer’s Last Stand.…. Some very interesting books written about the issues leading up to it.
I’ve toured a number of Civil War battlefields, and Shiloh is probably the most memorable, so far. I still haven’t visited Gettysburg, but it’s high on my list of places I want to visit.
Spent a couple of days in Gettysburg. If it’s still available, take the walking tour of the town. You’ll hear about the effect on the citizens of Gettysburg and the surrounding area as the fighting surrounded them.
I would be so humbled to go to Normandy. I had the honor of visiting Pearl Harbor, Arlington National Cemetery (attended many changing of the Guard ceremonies), the World War II, Viet Nam and Korean Memorials in DC, all so very intense emotionally.