The Armed Forces Medley

Every year on PBS they broadcast the National Memorial Day Concert from Washington, D.C.  I always like the Armed Forces Medley, so I figured today was appropriate to post it here.  This is from the 2010 broadcast, introduced by co-host Gary Sinise.  The sound quality isn't crisp, but the lyrics to all the songs are included which is why I decided to use this particular clip.  (I think most people generally know the words, but over time, some of them do slip through the cracks.  Besides, I never knew the words to the Coast Guard Anthem.

Whenever I'd visit my folks at their independent living residence, one of their best friends was a wonderful guy named Sidney Kraus (who I wrote about here).  Sid was a former professor and well-regarded historian about the presidential debates (the author of several books on them and other subjects), extremely funny, wildly liberal and loved discussing politics or...well, most anything.  But as funny and jovial as he was, he was deeply proud of his military service, and would turn deeply serious at a moment's notice when the subject came up.  He always wore his Navy baseball cap on Memorial Day, and other appropriate days when the mood hit him. He was even planning to get to the big D-Day Memorial Celebration held last December on its 50th anniversary in Normandy, and though it was difficult for him to get around, he had gotten approval to participate by an armed forces group which was arranging travel for a limited number of veterans.  Alas, he passed away in November, just a month before the event.  (Though at that point, his condition had worsened enough that it was unlikely he could have made the trip.)  So, in part in his memory, I wanted to include this video, as well.