Moments in time REMEMBERING!!!

Photo by:1st Sense photography

Location: Spring Grove Illinois

As Memorial day 2018 Fast Approaches and we sit and Barbecue, we tend to forget those who served our country. We sit with our families at Parades honoring those who fell, and our children chase after candy. Yet after we go home and start the festivities of fishing, camping, and cooking on the grill. We never attend what happens after the parade. Usually every parade ends at a cemetery, and eulogies and a roll call for those lost in the many wars fought for this country are given. Flags adorn the graves of those lives lost and those who served but have since passed from this world. The Photo above I found this marker in a local cemetery in Spring Grove, Illinois. It made me think about who this man was, what he saw, the fact it was not a mechanized war but many men still lost their lives. I think we tend to forget the smaller wars, because our education mainly hit on wars such as the Revolutionary war, The Civil War, World War 1 and 2. The Smaller wars get buried in books somewhere, Wars such as the War of 1812, The Mexican-American war, The Blackhawk war etc… We forget that men no matter where they were from defended their countries and beliefs.

Photo by: 1st Sense Photography

Location: Woodstock, Illinois

Here I was strolling taking photos during a memorial day parade my sons youth football team had been in. This is a sight I will never, ever forget, a memory emblazoned in my mind forever. The soldier stood guard against a pole with his sons, and daughter wearing shirts that said welcome home Daddy. I was Choked up and decided to pick up the camera. Whether or not they knew it they created a moment. these children probably watched their dad go off to war not knowing the consequences of war, and that their dad may never return home. Yet he did unlike many others before him. I guess in a way this was my way of thanking him for defending our freedom from terrorism.

Photo by: 1st Sense Photography

Location: Woodstock, Illinois

At the end of the Parade a new flag upon the square dedicated to those who served the flag is replaced every year by those who served. Boots, Dogtags and a Rifle with the helmet of a fallen soldier stood in front of me. The soldiers lowered the flag and stood at attention as a new one replaced it. I really wish I would have looked at the dog tags that adorned the memorial for the fallen. We forget as we live our everyday lives, these soldiers go out fight and die for the freedom we take for granted. We may be watching a ballgame at home, or fishing. While men fall we forget about them, and think our lives are a given.

Photo by: 1st Sense Photography

Location: Tuscola, Illinois

a few years later I moved to a town called Atwood, Illinois. But before my ex and I moved there, she used to live in a tiny little town about half an hour away from Champaign, Illinois called Tuscola, Illinois. As I strolled the streets of Tuscola taking photos, I ran across this spray painted on a road for a fallen soldier. I actually was seeing this person meant something to someone. Sgt. Flynn Schultz was someones family, and friend I never knew the family, but I found this moving because it made you realize someone made this because he meant something to the people he knew and the people who lived in that tiny town. This may not have been how he wanted to be remembered as spray paint on a road in the middle of nowhere, but it was how someone made him remembered for a very long time to come. So when people walked past people would see his name and maybe take a second to pay their respects to a fallen soldier.

Hopefully this Memorial day before you go to parades, camp, go parties or whatever it is you may do, you will take the time out to remember those who died for your freedoms. If it is a moment of silence, or a prayer or writing maybe a memorial to someone you knew served and died for our country. Just all I ask is you REMEMBER!!!!

Memorial Day, May we Remember

On this Memorial Day we recognize those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to this country. We sit here and not only mourn the loss of those who gave their lives but remember those who did. I took this a few years ago In Woodstock, Illinois. As the soldiers you see changing out the old flag with the new salute as the change is made, the Rifle was with the pair of boots, and the helmet and dog tags adorned it. This is a way to honor a fallen soldier in the battle field.This is called the Battlefield Cross this practice goes back to the Civil War possibly earlier. It was a way to mark the dead or fallen before they were removed from the battle field.

This one was raised on a memorial day vigil for a fallen soldier from the surrounding area. I never did read the dog tags on the rifle. I often wondered who it was. I wish I knew the man who gave his life for this country. My way of showing he was remembered was from this photo. It was later published on Vogue.It Photovogue.

We often forget those who watched their brothers fall on the battlefield and do not think what they watched, what they witnessed or how they felt at that very moment. They watched their brother in arms fall before them. They were possibly a friend or even family member at times. Soldiers looked out for each other as they even lay dying. Some would try to comfort them in their last moments as they drew their final breath.

I am sure I cannot imagine the pure horror as soldiers came off a troop transport and stormed a beach as German soldiers following their orders to open fire opened up their full arsenal on our soldiers.the pure horror as their friends fell and they had to move over them as they lay there dead. Bombs dropping, the beach being shelled from a distance by battleships to try to compromise enemy positions and destroy them. Bullets flying through the air, and grenades, and mortars exploding all around them. I really cannot imagine the sights the sounds or the screams. To me it was the ultimate sacrifice. these soldiers were out to stop a ruthless dictator who had his sights set on taking over the world.

Soldiers who have died during battle knew the ultimate price they had to possibly pay, and yet they enlisted to defend you and I. They had families to lets also not forget them, moms, Dads, Brothers, Sisters, Cousins, Uncles, and Aunts. Those people have had to deal everyday with the loss of their loved ones. They watched their family members leave for war knowing they may never see them again.

Memorial Day is not just about your backyard Barbecue, or that beer you hold in your hand. It is not about going out to the lake, or seeing how drunk you can get. Memorial Day is about recognizing those who have served and  gave their lives for our country defending our freedom. It is also about honoring the families of the fallen those who have had to watch as their loved ones casket was carried that last 15 feet, with an American Flag Draped over it. It is about the Mother, or the son daughter or father who stand and lay their head on the casket as they weep because their family gave their life. They gave their lives for their families, friends, and for us the strangers they never knew so that we could have our Freedom.

Today as you watch the parades, or the wreath being laid on the tomb of the unknown soldier on television. Please take a moment of silence and say a prayer no matter your religion. people of all different races and religions and sexual orientations gave their life to defend you. They defended you so that you could be with your family, and be there to honor them today.

Thank you to those who gave their lives,

Brian Andrews