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Remembering Fallen Warriors on Memorial Day

   America's veterans reflect on lost comrades, time on the front lines

   Adam Phillips | New York 28 May 2010

   Monday,  May  31  is  Memorial  Day  in the United States, a time when
   Americans  traditionally take time to honor those who have died in the
   nation's wars.

   While  Memorial Day is often celebrated with flag-waving and patriotic
   ceremonies and parades, it can also be a highly personal observance: a
   time  to  grieve  for  comrades-in-arms and others who have lost their
   lives in military service.
   Sgt.  Carde,  who  was  wounded in Iraq, keeps a picture of his fallen
   comrade in his living room.

Courtesy: Sgt. Carde

   Sgt.  Carde,  who  was  wounded in Iraq, keeps a picture of his fallen
   comrade in his living room.

   Remembering the fallen

   It  is  noon  outside the Veteran's Administration hospital in Midtown
   Manhattan,  and the usual lunchtime crowd is here: health care workers
   in loose green scrubs, family members with bouquets and Mylar balloons
   on the way to visit patients, and veterans, like Bill Joseph.

   He takes a bite of a hot dog, adjusts his Veteran of Foreign Wars cap,
   and  recalls  his  experience  in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War
   more than three decades ago.

   "The  person  I most fondly remember is Cmdr. Bill Searfus, who became
   like  a  close  friend,"  says  Joseph.  "Although he was a commander,
   everybody  wanted to be there for him. He was compassionate. He gave a
   damn about his men."

   Cmdr.  Searfus'  plane  was  shot  down  over  Hanoi,  North Vietnam's
   capital.  "They  blew his canopy off and he almost made it back to the
   ship  and he went under," recalls Joseph. "It was very, very traumatic
   for  me  - more than if he got killed - because he almost made it back
   to our ship safely."
   Marco  Torres mourns three men in his squad, who were killed in a road
   ambush near Kabul, Afghanistan.

VOA - A. Phillips

   Marco  Torres mourns three men in his squad, who were killed in a road
   ambush near Kabul, Afghanistan.

   Marco  Torres mourns three men in his squad, who were killed in a road
   ambush near Kabul, Afghanistan.

   One  of  those men, Sgt. McKay, was like a big brother to him. "When I