The SOUNDS of FREEDOM for Memorial Day 2019

NAF Atsugi MacArthur Park Japan Naval fighter mono plane

Memorial Day weekend in W. D.C. area was noted for two things, all 350,000 grave stones at the Arlington National Cemetery had individual U.S. flags  posted and Rolling Thunder was in town.  Also known as Decoration Day for placing flowers at Graves.   Rolling Thunder is a group of bikers from all over the country, mostly veterans, who came to Washington to honor Memorial day.  They drive their bikes from 28 states and ride the freeways.  The Harleys and Hondas, BMWs and Yamahas, rolled and roared.  Hence the name Rolling Thunder.  For the 15 years we lived in Arlington, we recognized and enjoyed the roar. Apparently after 3 decades, 2019 was supposed to be the last year, not because of lack of excitement for the Veterans, but logistical and financial problems, such as someone at the Pentagon deciding that the parking lot could not be used.  Now understand the Pentagon has 25,000 employees during the week, but it will be closed Memorial Day weekend into Monday.  Lots and lots and lots of room.  Anyway, President Trump announced Rolling Thunder would be back and could continue. Hooray.

United States Navy Helecopter HSC Red Cross Volunteers from Tokyo Japan South

Recalling  our mission to the Army and Navy bases in Japan, we lived between Camp Zama and Naval Air Facility Atsugi, which are about 8 Kilometers apart. One of apartment  features, because of our proximity, were the daily air shows of F-18s flying and training overhead. Right over at 3,000 feet.  The roar of jets was deafening.  A branch member called it the ‘Sound of Freedom’. The planes came from the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, when it was in port at Yokosuka.  While in port for a month, the pilots stayed current by flying daily.  Our private air show.  People pay lots of money for air shows in the states, unless you live under the airports where it is free.

            So I made a list of Sounds of Freedom, including Rolling Thunder and F-18 Air Force Jets.  Most of the rest are music and songs because I want to march, or  to dance, or to sing along, or remember patriotic events.  Other sounds, songs, memories are just as great, maybe some better, for other reasons. Maybe tea pot steaming, railroad whistles, ambulance siren, water fall, wedding bells, operas, hammers, saws, animals, are your sounds of freedom. But this is my list of 54 Sounds of Freedom in alphabetical order, not by priority.  If you want to submit your sounds of freedom, please comment,  or add to the list, or email.

All that jazz  from  Chicago ,  Zeta Jones and Zellwegger, AFI’s 100 #98 – John Kander & Fred Ebb
America the Beautiful– inauguration of President Trump  in 2016  by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, Katharine Lee Bates 1895. ScoutSongs.com
Andrew Sisters
Aquarius Let the Sunshine In, From Hair – AFI’s 100 #33
Auld Lang Syne  – lyrics by Robert Burns. It’s a Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart 1946.
Battle Hymn of the Republic – Julia Ward Howe 1863 Civil War, inauguration  of President Reagan, by America’s Choir
Buttons and Bows – AFI’s 100 #87, Bob Hope talent.
Caissons.  U.S. Field Artillery March,  John Philip Sousa, The Army Goes Rolling Along Caisson Song (Army),  Caissons go Rolling Along – Edmund L. Gruber,  Bryden and Danford.
Carnival of Venice, Neapolitan folk tune “Oh Mama, Mama Cara”. “(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?“, Jean-Baptiste Arban (1825-1889) for cornet.
Carry On, Carry On  (Firm as the Mountains Around US),
Chicago,  My Kind of Town Chicago is  – Jimmy Van Heusen Music, Sammy Cahn lyrics 1964 Robin and the 7 Hoods. Frank Sinatra
Dixie (Dixie’s Land) – “I Wish I Was in Dixie” – Daniel Decatur Emmett,  1850s
Eyes of Texas – to the tune I’ve Been Working on the Railroad,  UT Austin and UT El Paso school songs.  Railroad song in Canmina Princetonia 1894, Levee Song. And Old Joe Somebody in the House with Dinah  London j.H. Cave 1830s.
F-18 fighter jets from the USS Ronald Reagan, Tokyo and NAF Atsugi Japan.  These are the dozen of jets that leave the aircraft carrier Reagan when it is in port at Yokusko port in Japan.   The pilots train over Atsugi, flying about 3,000 to 5,000 feet with the planes flying low and high, east and west. 
Glen Miller
God Bless America – This is the Army 1942, Irving Berlin  composer Lyrics and Kate Smith, Talent
God Bless the U.S.A. by Lee Greenwood at MAGA rallys 2019, previously with President Reagan 1984 Republican convention.
Heigh Ho, Hi Ho from Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs – Disney – Frank Churchill music,  Larry Morey lyrics
I Got You Babe, Sonny Bono and Cher. Groundhog Day 1993, McDowell and Murray.
I Want to hold your Hand – Beatles, Lennon and McCartney,  1963
Jailhouse Rock  – from   AFI’s 100 #21
Jingle Bells,  – James Pierpont
La Marseillaise, Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, 1790 French national anthem. Casablanca 1942.
Mickey Mouse March – Jimmy Dodd composer 1952.
My City Was Gone instrumental The Rush Limbaugh Show on armed forces network, overseas,
NBC Nightly News Fanfare. ‘The Mission’ composed by John Williams began September 9, 1985. Broadcast as morning news at Ramstein Air Base, Landstuhl Germany.
New York, New York Theme from –  Kander and Ebb 1977, Start Spreadin’ the news I’m, leaving today, AFI’s 100 #31
New York, New York, a wonderful town, the Bronx is up but the Battery’s down.  On the Town 1944 musical Frank Sinatra  Leonard Bernstein  music, Betty Comden and Adolph Green from   AFI’s 100 #41.
Oh, How I Hate to Get up in the Morning (Yip! Yip! Yaphank! And This is the Army) Irving Berlin.
Oklahoma! – Richard Rogers and  Oscar Hammerstein 2nd , adopted as the state song
Ol’ Man River,  1927 Show Boat Jerome Kern  music, Oscar Hammerstein 2nd lyrics.
On  Wisconsin – State song
Onward Christian Soldiers.  Sabine Baring-Gould lyrics 1865,  Arthur Sullivan 1871 music. Salvation Army’s march.
Over There, (The Yanks are coming.) – Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942 – George M. Cohan, 1917.
Pot of jam – if my friends could see me now –  music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields,1966.  Shirley MacLaine , Sweet Charity
Puttin’ on the Ritz – AFI’s 100 #89 Young Frankenstein 1974  – Irving Berlin, This is the Army, ‘That’s What the well-dressed man in Harlem will wear.
Ride of the Valkyries (German: Walkürenritt or Ritt der Walküren, Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelunger. 1851. Apocalypse Now(1979),[8]
Ring of Fire, Johnny  Cash
Rolling Thunder Washington D.C. Memorial Day Weekend,  28 states and 70,000 members.  These are veterans who ride motorcycles to Washington, and drive the freeways, with the engines of the cycles sounding in the neighborhoods, 50 and 100 cycles at a time.
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Scotland the Brave – or Praise to the Man Who Communed with Jehovah
Sinatra
Star Anchors Away (Navy),),
Star Spangled Banner –  The National Anthem from 1933, –  Francis Scott Key, lyrics, John Stafford Smith who wrote the tune for “The Anacreontic Song”  at the Football and Basketball games, Olympics.
Stars and Stripes Forever – National March by John Philip Sousa
Swanee River  or Old Folks at Home  or Way Down on the Swanee River.– Stephen Foster, 1851, State song of Florida
This is the Army Mr. Jones, – Irving Berlin,
This Land (is Your Land) – Woody Guthrie 1940. And Carter Family  When The World’s on Fire.
U.S. Air Force – Off We Go – Wild Blue Yonder – (Air Force)  Robert MacARthur Crawford.  1947
We Will Rock You –  Queen, Brian May 1977. Stomping and clapping.
Yankee Doodle – Connecticut state song, Dutch European  folk song from 1600s, played at Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown, October 1781. And Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga.
Yellow Rose of Texas –  1853 in Christy’s Plantation Melodies, folk song
Zip-a dee-doo-dah from song of the South 1946 – – AFI’s 100 47

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