I typed the wrong last name for the 19 year-old soldier killed in Iraq on Sunday. My post title should read "Godspeed, SPC Carrie French", and not SPC Fisher.

My apologies for the mistake.

I once memorized this bit for the mental exercise and because the language is so stirring:

He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Please pardon my spastic left mouse finger tonight...remove the duplicate entry..

and St Crispin's Day was Oct 25th, the same day as the Battle Off Samar (1944) and The Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War.

Very interesting corrleation between epic battles in history and that same day across centuries...all speaking to courage, and extreme sacrifice in the face of overwhelming odds...