“You’re invited to join us Friday, August 5, at Solomons Gazebo 6 to 9 p.m. to Salute, Honor, & Remember at WWII USO Remembrance, ‘USO Night.'” said Roseanna Vogt, Director of the Circle of Angels Initiative, Inc. “SPAM Time T/5 ‘Spam’ Turner and PFC ‘Bubba’ will entertain with a WWII USO-style radio show featuring historical lively ‘jump and jive’ music from the 1940’s.”
There will be a wreath-laying at 7 p.m. and taps at 8 p. m. This event is free and open to the public.
“Normandy, the home of the D-Day landings where thousands lost their lives to free Europe from fascist tyranny has today witnessed a different form of fascism. But we defeated the Nazis so we can defeat these murderers,” French politician Mike Hookem said.
“We are filled with sadness over the brutal killing at the Church of Saint-Etienne du Rouvray of its priest, Father Jacques Hamel, 84, by two ISIS perpetrators, killed by police,” Vogt said. “who had targeted the church which is one of a number of churches on a list distributed by ISIS as targets for violence.” Three other people were injured.
“It feels important in the face of the violence that has erupted across the world today to honor the sacrifice of those who trained at the WWII top secret amphibious base and to remember how people came together to fight evil when the world was at war.
Those trained at Solomons Island, MD, invaded Guadalcanal, the first beach in the Pacific, ironically a Solomons island, on August 7, 1942, the first Friday of the month.
The hardest fought and lengthiest battles were raged on the Solomons islands. When the savagery of war ended in 1945, on Guadalcanal alone, losses were calculated at 550 lives and 2,500 wounded marines for every square mile; Japanese losses were worse. Because of their strict code of honor, only a handful of Japanese survived.
At USO Night, the Circle salutes those who made history at the top secret amphibious training base at Solomons Island and all who serve in uniform or have served at any time, and the homefront heroes and heroines who keep the home fires burning.