DeSoto County Veterans Park

DeSoto County Veterans Park *The development of the first Veterans Park to honor our nation’s heroes from all wars or conflicts. Opened Oct. 7th, 2017

06/14/2026

June 14, 2026

Hello Everyone!!

Want to wish a Happy 251st Birthday to the U.S Army!!! Thank you for your service and God Bless You!

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06/14/2026

June 14, 2026

Hello Everyone!!

249 years ago today, June 14, 1777, during the American Revolution, the flag of the United States was adopted by resolution of the Second Continental Congress.

The Flag Resolution, that passed on June 14, 1777, stated:

"Resolved, That the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate strips of red and white; and that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation."

The national flag, which became known as the “Stars and Stripes,” was based on the “Grand Union” flag, a banner carried by the Continental Army in 1776 that also consisted of 13 red & white stripes. According to legend, Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross designed the new canton for the Stars and Stripes, which consisted of a circle of 13 stars and a blue background at the request of General George Washington. Historians have been unable to conclusively prove or disprove the legend that it was done at the request of General Washington.

With the entrance of new states into the United States after independence, new stripes and stars were added to represent new additions to the Union. In 1818, however, Congress enacted a law stipulating that the 13 original stripes be restored and that only stars be added to represent new states.

On June 14, 1877, the first Flag Day observance was held on the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the Stars and Stripes. As instructed by Congress, the U.S. flag was flown from all public buildings across the country. In the years after the first Flag Day, several states continued to observe the anniversary, and in 1949 Congress officially designated June 14 as Flag Day, a national day of observance. God Bless to All!!

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06/11/2026

June 11, 2026

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250 years ago today, June 11, 1776, the Continental Congress selected Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut & Robert R. Livingston of New York to draft a Declaration of Independence.

Knowing Jefferson’s prowess with a pen, Adams urged him to author the first draft of the document, which was then carefully revised by Adams and Franklin before being given to Congress for review on June 28.

The revolutionary treatise began:

"When, in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the Causes which impel them to the Separation. We hold these Truths to be self-evident that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." God Bless to All!!

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06/10/2026

June 10, 2026

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251 years ago today, June 10, 1775, John Adams proposed to Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, that the men laying siege to Boston should be considered a Continental Army led by a general.

The men who had armed themselves & rushed to surround British forces in Boston following the Battle of Lexington & Concord were overwhelmingly from New England. However, John Adams, representing Massachusetts, realized that the military effort would only succeed if the British thought the colonies were united. To this end, Adams suggested the appointment of a Virginian, George Washington, to command the Continental forces, despite the fact that New Englanders were used to fighting in local militias under officers elected from among their own ranks.

On June 15, Adams formally nominated George Washington as commander in chief of the Continental Army & Washington accepted the post the next day. On June 17, the newly named army fought the Battle of Bunker Hill, as John Adam’s wife, Abigail, and son, John Quincy, watched from their hometown of Braintree.

Just as the British had discovered the difficulties of waging war with unruly Yankees for soldiers during the Seven Years’ War, Washington, the Virginia planter who became a soldier, was unimpressed upon meeting his supposed army. Just as the British had, he saw “stupidity” among the enlisted men, who were used to the easy familiarity of being commanded by neighbors.

Washington promptly insisted that the officers behave with decorum & the enlisted men with deference. Although he enjoyed some success with this original army, the New Englanders went home to their farms at the end of 1775, & General Washington had to start fresh with new recruits in 1776. God Bless to All!!

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06/07/2026

June 7, 2026

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84 years ago today, June 7, 1942, the Battle of Midway, one of the most decisive U.S. victories in its war against Japan, came to an end. In the four-day sea and air battle, the outnumbered U.S. Pacific Fleet succeeded in destroying four Japanese aircraft carriers with the loss of only one of its own, the Yorktown, thus reversing the tide against the previously invincible Japanese Navy.

At the Battle of Midway, Japan lost four carriers, a cruiser, and 292 aircraft, and suffered 2,500 casualties. The U.S. lost the Yorktown, the destroyer USS Hammann, 145 aircraft, and suffered 307 casualties. Japan’s losses hobbled its naval might, bringing Japanese and American sea power to approximate parity and marked the turning point in the Pacific theater of World War II.

In August 1942, the great U.S. counteroffensive began at Guadalcanal and did not cease until Japan’s surrender three years later. May we all prove ourselves worthy of their sacrifice. God Bless to All!!

06/06/2026

June 6, 2026

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82 years ago today, June 6, 1944, General Dwight D. Eisenhower gave the go-ahead for Operation Overlord that we know as D-Day. He told the troops: “You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you.”

Eisenhower had originally selected June 5, 1944, as the date for the invasion; however, bad weather on the days leading up to the operation caused it to be delayed for 24 hours. In anticipation of the invasion the following day, more than 3,000 ships, landing craft carrying troops & supplies left England for the trip across the Channel to France. More than 11,000 aircraft were also mobilized to provide air cover & support for the invasion.

At dawn on June 6, 1944, thousands of paratroopers and glider troops were already on the ground behind enemy lines, securing bridges and exit roads. The amphibious invasions known as D-Day began at 6:30 a.m. The British & Canadians overcame light opposition to capture beaches, code-named Gold, Juno, and Sword, as did the Americans at Utah Beach, but faced heavy resistance at Omaha Beach, where the U.S. suffered more than 2,500 American casualties.

At day’s end, a total of approximately 156,000 Allied troops had successfully stormed Normandy’s beaches. According to some estimates, more than 4,000 Allied troops lost their lives in the D-Day invasion, with thousands more wounded or missing. Less than a week later, on June 11, the beaches were fully secured & over 326,000 troops, more than 50,000 vehicles & some 100,000 tons of equipment had landed at Normandy.

The invasion began to turn the tide against the N***s. The psychological blow of such a defeat also prevented Hi**er from sending troops from France to build up his Eastern Front. The following spring, on May 8, 1945, the Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of N**i Germany.

Today is the 81sth anniversary of that battle. At the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial on Omaha Beach the remains of 9,388 American military dead, most of whom were killed during the invasion of Normandy & other military operations, are at rest. Among them are 3 Medal of Honor recipients, one being Theodore Roosevelt Jr., 45 sets of brothers, (30 of which are buried side by side), a father & son, an uncle & nephew, 2 pairs of cousins, 4 women & 1557 listed as MIA.

Let us remember & honor those who fought on the beaches of Normandy & in all other military operations to preserve our freedoms & those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the service of our country that began 81 years ago today. Only around 1% of the 156,000 troops who participated in the landings are still thought to be alive today. May we all prove ourselves worthy of their sacrifice. God Bless to All!!

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06/05/2026

June 5, 2026

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82 years ago today, June 5, 1944, more than 1,000 British bombers dropped 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries placed at the Normandy assault area, while 3,000 Allied ships cross the English Channel in preparation for the invasion of Normandy—D-Day.

The day of the invasion of occupied France had been postponed repeatedly since May, mostly because of bad weather & the enormous tactical obstacles involved. Finally, despite less than ideal weather conditions, or perhaps because of them, General Eisenhower decided on June 5 to set the next day as D-Day, the launch of the largest amphibious operation in history. Ike knew that the Germans would be expecting postponements beyond the sixth, precisely because weather conditions were still poor.

Among those Germans confident that an Allied invasion could not be pulled off on the sixth was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, who was still debating tactics with Field Marshal Karl Rundstedt. Rundstedt was convinced that the Allies would come in at the narrowest point of the Channel, between Calais and Dieppe. Rommel, following Hi**er’s intuition, believed it would be Normandy.

Rommel’s greatest fear was that German air inferiority would prevent an adequate defense on the ground. It was his plan to meet the Allies on the coast before they had a chance to come ashore. Rommel began constructing underwater obstacles & minefields & left for Germany to demand from Hi**er personally more panzer divisions in the area.

Bad weather & an order to conserve fuel grounded much of the German air force on June 5, consequently, its reconnaissance flights were spotty. That night, more than 1,000 British bombers unleashed a massive assault on German gun batteries on the coast. At the same time, an Allied armada headed for the Normandy beaches in Operation Neptune, an attempt to capture the port at Cherbourg.

In order to deceive the Germans, phony operations were run, dummy parachutists & radar-jamming devices were dropped into strategically key areas so as to make German radar screens believe there was an Allied convoy already on the move. One dummy parachute drop succeeded in drawing an entire German infantry regiment away from its position just six miles from the Normandy landing beaches.

All this effort to scatter the German defenses & make way for Operation Overlord the next day, was found to be a success during the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6. May we all prove ourselves worthy of their sacrifice. God Bless to All!!

06/04/2026

June 4, 2026

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84 years ago today, June 4, 1942, the Battle of Midway, one of the most decisive U.S. victories against Japan during World War II began. The four-day sea-and-air battle took place June 4th to 7th, six months after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor & one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea. The outnumbered U.S. Pacific Fleet, under Admirals Chester W. Nimitz, Frank J. Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance, succeeded in destroying the previously invincible Japanese navy.

In six months of offensives prior to Midway, the Japanese had triumphed in lands throughout the Pacific, including Malaysia, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, & numerous island groups. The United States, however, was a growing threat, & Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto sought to destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet before it was large enough to outmatch his own. Luring the American aircraft carriers into a trap & occupying Midway was part of an overall "barrier" strategy to extend Japan's defensive perimeter, in response to the Doolittle air raid on Tokyo.

Yamamoto’s plan consisted of a feigned move toward Alaska followed by an invasion of Midway by a Japanese strike force. When the U.S. Pacific Fleet arrived at Midway to respond to the invasion, it would be destroyed by the superior Japanese fleet waiting unseen to the west. If successful, the plan would eliminate the U.S. Pacific Fleet & provide a forward outpost from which the Japanese could eliminate any future American threat in the Central Pacific. U.S. intelligence cryptographers broke the Japanese naval code, determined the date & location of the planned attack, enabling the forewarned U.S. Navy to prepare its own ambush.

In the meantime, 200 miles to the northeast, two U.S. attack fleets caught the Japanese force entirely by surprise & destroyed three heavy Japanese carriers & one heavy cruiser. The only Japanese carrier that initially escaped destruction, the Hiryu, unleashed all its aircraft against the American task force and managed to seriously damage the U.S. carrier Yorktown, forcing its abandonment. At about 5:00 p.m., dive-bombers from the U.S. carrier Enterprise returned the favor, mortally damaging the Hiryu. It was scuttled the next morning.

When the battle ended, four Japanese carriers’ that were part of the six-carrier force that had attacked Pearl Harbor six months earlier were sunk, as was a heavy cruiser. Other losses included 292 aircraft & an estimated 2,500 casualties. The U.S. lost the Yorktown, & the destroyer USS Hammann, 145 aircraft & approximately 300 casualties.

The Battle of Midway, along with the Guadalcanal campaign on Aug 21 of the same year, is widely considered a turning point in the Pacific War & the counteroffensive did not cease until Japan’s surrender three years later.
Military historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare", while naval historian Craig Symonds called it "one of the most consequential naval engagements in world history”. May we all prove ourselves worthy of their sacrifice. God Bless to All!!

06/02/2026

June 2, 2026

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161 years ago today, June 2, 1865, in an event that is generally regarded as marking the end of the Civil War, Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of Confederate forces west of the Mississippi, signed the surrender terms offered by Union negotiators.

With Smith’s surrender, the last Confederate army ceased to exist, bringing a formal end to the bloodiest four years in U.S. history that began April 12, 1865, and cost 620,000 Union and Confederate dead. God Bless to All!!

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05/29/2026

May 29, 2026

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178 years ago today, May 29, 1848, following approval by the territory’s citizens, Wisconsin became the 30th state.

In 1634, French explorer Jean Nicolet landed at Green Bay, becoming the first European to visit the lake-heavy northern region that would later become Wisconsin. In 1763, at the conclusion of the French and Indian Wars, the region, a major center of the American fur trade, passed into British control.

Two decades later, at the end of the American Revolution, the region came under U.S. rule & was governed as part of the Northwest Territory. British fur traders continued to dominate Wisconsin from across the Canadian border, & it was not until the end of the War of 1812 that the region fell firmly under American control.

In the first decades of the 19th century, settlers began arriving via the Erie Canal & the Great Lakes to exploit Wisconsin’s agricultural potential, & in 1832 the Black Hawk War ended Native American resistance to white settlement. In 1836, after several decades of governance as part of other territories, Wisconsin was made a separate entity. Madison, located midway between Milwaukee & the western centers of population, was named the territorial capital.

By 1840, the population in Wisconsin had risen above 130,000, but the people voted against statehood four times, fearing the higher taxes that would come with a stronger central government. Finally, in 1848, Wisconsin citizens, envious of the prosperity that federal programs brought to neighboring Midwestern states, voted to approve statehood. God Bless to All!!

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Address

4716 Pepper Chase Drive
Southaven, MS
38671

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