[Magdalen] Veteran's Day
Michael Bishop
rev at michaelbishop.name
Tue Nov 11 22:27:43 UTC 2014
Armistice Day as it is called here was widely observed. One of our
church schools came to church for a special service. The pupils
(4yr-11yrs) led the service including the Remembrance itself. They gave
a wonderful account of their understanding of remembrance, reading poems
they had written explaining the meaning of the poppies which are worn
for remembrance, and telling something of what they have learned of
local people who served in WW1.
One of the tales they referred to was that of the son of a vicar who had
as a young child been a pupil at the school. Goderic Hodges grew up to
be a ballonist on the western front - acting as a spotter for the
artillery in particular. The mind boggles at the danger he faced! He was
badly injured not when in his balloon, but when visiting the artillery
battery for which he spotted. Whilst he was there it took a direct hit
and he lost a leg. Later in the war he had a serious bout of flu and on
recovery had to report for a medical inspection. After examining him,
the following day Hodges received notice that he had been passed as A1 -
fit for active service. When he replied to the MO that he had had a leg
amputated, the response from the good doctor was "I only examined the
upper part of your body - you should have told me that you had lost a leg!"
Some medical examination!
....
....
God bless
Michael Bishop
rev at michaelbishop.name
Rector of Boylestone, Church Broughton, Dalbury, Longford, Long Lane, Sutton-on-the-Hill & Trusley
Diocese of Derby, England
On 11/11/2014 22:16, James Oppenheimer-Crawford wrote:
> My wife's chapter of the DAR went to our local veteran's hospital and
> visited. I came along as driver and vet, wore my desert storm cap.
>
> It was a truly good experience, if also heart-breaking. A few of the vets
> sat/lay unresponsive in their wheelchairs, and I tried to say a few words
> to them anyway, thanking them for their service. It's not so easy for me
> nowadays to squat down, but I'm in so much better shape than these guys, I
> had no reason to complain.
>
> A few of the guys were quite with it, and we sat and chatted a while. I
> think we all left with a feeling of wishing we could do more.
>
> James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
> *“If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better
> for people coming behind you, and you don’t do it, you're wasting your time
> on this Earth.” -- *Roberto Clemente
>
> On Tue, Nov 11, 2014 at 10:20 AM, James Handsfield <jhandsfield at icloud.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Greetings to all veterans in the pub and throughout the world. This
>> veteran thanks you for your service.
>>
>> -------------------------------------
>> Education is its own reward, both for the individual and for society.
>>
>> Jim Handsfield
>> jhandsfield at att.net
>>
>>
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