The sweet taste of victory, upon returning from battle...Mwah!!!...A famous kiss WWII photo...Maximum card from USA, with Memorial Day pictorial postmark

Happy and grateful Memorial Day!

"U.S. Navy photo journalist Victor Jorgensen captured another view of the same scene, which was published in the New York Times the following day.^[3] Jorgensen titled his photograph Kissing the War Goodbye."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kissing_the_War_Goodbye.jpg

Now, the most famous version (also featured on the stamp above) is this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Legendary_kiss_V%E2%80%93J_day_in_Times_Square_Alfred_Eisenstaedt.jpg

"V-J Day in Times Square is a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt that portrays an American sailor kissing a young nurse in a white dress on V-J Day in Times Square on August 14, 1945."

(Not to be confused with Vajayjay )

"Since the identity of the nurse had been claimed, in its August 1980 issue, the editors of Life asked that the kissing sailor come forward. In the October 1980 issue, the editors reported that eleven men and three women had come forward claiming to be the subjects of the photograph. Listed in the October 1980 issue as claiming to be the nurse were Greta Friedman and Barbara Sokol as well as Edith Shain."

"Glenn McDuffie laid claim in 2007 and was supported by Houston Police Department forensic artist Lois Gibson.^[10] Gibson's forensic analysis compared the Eisenstaedt photos with current-day photos of McDuffie, analyzing key facial features identical on both sets.

She measured his ears, facial bones, hairline, wrist, knuckles and hand, and compared those to enlargements of Eisenstaedt's picture.

"I could tell just in general that yes, it's him," said Gibson, a 25-year department veteran. "But I wanted to be able to tell other people so I replicated the pose."^[11]

In the August 14, 2007 issue of AM New York McDuffie said he passed five polygraph tests confirming his claim to be the man.^[12] He says that on that day he was on the subway to Brooklyn to visit his girlfriend, Ardith Bloomfield.^[12] He came out of the subway at Times Square, where people were celebrating in the streets. Excited that his brother, who was being held by the Japanese as a prisoner of war, would be released, McDuffie began hollering and jumping up and down. A nurse saw him, and opened her arms to him. In apparent conflict with Eisenstadt's recollections of the event, McDuffie said he ran over to her and kissed her for a long time so that Eisenstadt could take the photo:

I went over there and kissed her and saw a man running at us...I thought it was a jealous husband or boyfriend coming to poke me in the eyes. I looked up and saw he was taking the picture and I kissed her as long as took for him to take it.^[13]"

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-J_Day_in_Times_Square}

"Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May.^[1]Formerly known as Decoration Day, which was first recorded to have been observed by Freedmen (freed enslaved southern blacks) in Charleston, South Carolina in 1865, at the Washington Race Course, to remember the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War. Today, what is now known as Memorial Day, commemorates all U.S. Service Members who died while inmilitary service.^[2] The recognition of the fallen victims was then enacted under the name Memorial Day by an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR)^[3]— to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War. Over time, it was extended after World War I to honor all Americans who have died in all wars.

Memorial Day often marks the start of the summer vacation season, and Labor Day its end.^{[citation needed]"}

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_day}

There's some BLUE in the stamp, right? :)

==========

Happy Blue Monday! (meme)

Please visit:  http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/