For God And Country, I Pass Geronimo, Geronimo E.K.I.A.
Two days after the September 11 attacks, U.S. President George W. Bush stated: “The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden.” He added: “It is our No. 1 priority and we will not rest until we find him.” Continue reading
“Unclaimed,” a new documentary premiering at Toronto’s Hot Docs film festival on Tuesday night, tells the story of Special Forces Green Beret Master Sgt. John Hartley Robertson, who was shot down over Laos in 1968 and was long presumed dead. Continue reading
May 21, 2013, in Military Life by Amy Bushatz
Memorial Day is one of those holidays where the true meaning gets lost in the shuffle. First there’s the confusion over what Memorial Day is even about. Then there’s the question of who it is for.
My favorite way to prepare my 4-year-old for upcoming events or challenges is through library books. Since we’ll soon be attending a Memorial Day run and remembrance ceremony, I want to at least give him a point of reference on the subject.
But it took me by surprise when one of the children’s books we acquired suggested that Memorial Day is a day that people remember those who have died – regardless of whether they served. In the past, they said, it was just for the military. But now it’s just for any one who wants to have memorial-ish feelings for anyone else, no matter who they are or what they did.
Wait, what?
But this Memorial Day-for-all business confused me.
And I didn’t exactly believe it. Really? Memorial Day is for everyone? We’ve really become THAT inclusive? Surely this book is just an anomaly, happily spreading misinformation to the children of the world.
And so I turned to the sum of all wisdom: Wikipedia.
“By the early 20th century, Memorial Day was an occasion for more general expressions of memory, as people visited the graves of their deceased relatives in church cemeteries, whether they had served in the military or not.”
Now, I don’t envy the ability of those who have lost members of their family — no matter who they are or what they did in life — to remember them. Certainly that is important, appropriate and necessary.
But I do envy their time and actions on this one day — the last Monday in May. Memorial Day, you will recall was founded after the American Civil War as “Decoration Day” – a day set aside to decorate the graves of the fallen.
We’ve been so well supplied since then with fallen heroes of other conflicts that the tradition has carried on.
But it, apparently, hasn’t carried well enough. What does it say about our society that we cannot take even one day to remember SPECIFICALLY the fallen of war?
How can we expect Americans to honor any service if we can’t even pause to remember for just 24 hours those who made the ultimate sacrifice?
No, people of America, Memorial Day’s meaning is not of marking the life of all of your loved ones. It is for honoring the service and sacrifice of the fallen. Please remember that.
By KEVIN FREKING Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Veterans Affairs is withholding bonuses for senior officials who oversee disability claims, citing a failure to meet performance goals for reducing a sizable backlog in claims processing.
The backlog has increased dramatically over the past three years, and the department has come under intense criticism from veterans groups and members of Congress who have asked President Barack Obama to try to speed the process.
VA spokesman Josh Taylor said Monday the savings would be used to help reduce the backlog. He didn’t provide specifics, nor could he say how many people would be affected or how much the savings would be. The withholdings apply only to executives of the Veterans Benefits Administration, which is part of the VA.
“We remain confident that VBA senior executives are dedicated to our nation’s veterans, and they will continue to lead our drive toward VA’s goal: eliminating the claims backlog in 2015,” Taylor said.
In all, records show the VA paid its senior executives a total of $2.8 million in bonuses in fiscal year 2011. Among the VBA bonuses, three staff members received the top payment of $23,091 each.
The amount of the bonuses was first reported by the Center for Investigative Reporting.
The number of disability claims pending for longer than 125 days jumped from less than 200,000 to nearly 500,000 in fiscal 2011.
“How does the department expect to turn things around when it is rewarding employees and managers for falling behind?” said Rep. Jeff Miller, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
The VA and other federal departments routinely give bonuses to Senior Executive Service workers and other non-political employees. The Office of Personnel Management put new limits into place in June 2011. The VA’s total spending for executives bonuses reflected those restrictions and dropped about 25 percent that year.
Miller said he was pleased the bonuses were halted.
“One can only wonder what effect this sort of policy may have had if VA had instituted it years ago,” he said.
Political appointees such as Allison Hickey, who oversees the Veterans Benefits Administration, are not offered the bonuses.
As usual, must have been compiled by a Marine because all the old macho-cynical sayings that have been floating around were combined and ascribed to the Marines. Some pretty funny stuff here though.
Marine Corps Rules:
1. Be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one.
2. Decide to be aggressive enough, quickly enough.
3. Have a plan.
4. Have a back-up plan, because the first one probably won’t work.
5. Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
6. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun whose caliber does not start with a ‘4.’
7. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive.
8. Move away from your attacker. Distance is your friend. (Lateral and diagonal preferred.)
9. Use cover or concealment as much as possible.
10. Flank your adversary. When possible, protect yours.
11. Always cheat; always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.
12. In ten years, nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived.
13. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating your intention to shoot. Continue reading
Starting in 1941, an increasing number of British Airmen found themselves as the involuntary guests of the Third Reich, and the Crown was casting about for ways and means to facilitate their escape.
Now obviously, one of the most helpful aids to that end is a useful and accurate map, one showing not only where stuff was, but also showing the locations of ‘safe houses’ where a POW on-the-lam could go for food and shelter. Continue reading
“OK” is the all-purpose American expression that became an all-purpose English expression that became an all-purpose expression in dozens of other languages. It can be an enthusiastic cheer (A parking spot! OK!), an unenthusiastic “meh” (How was the movie? It was…OK.), a way to draw attention to a topic shift (OK. Here’s the next thing we need to do), or a number of other really useful things. It’s amazing that we ever got along without it at all. But we did. Until 1839. Continue reading
Jane Fonda tells Oprah that thing she did in North Vietnam was an “unforgivable mistake” and talks about what she learned when she apologized to a group of Vietnam Veterans in an episode of Oprah’s Master Class. The clip surfaced because Oprah ran a followup interview with Fonda on Sunday April 7th at 9pm on Oprah’s Next Chapter.
For our readers born after 1980, Jane’s still apologizing for hanging out with the enemy and a series of photographs that showed her having a grand old time. No matter what she says, there are still a few folks who believe she should be hanged as a traitor. One of our editors has a neighbor who refuses to recognize the Atlanta Braves 1995 World Championship because Fonda was married to team owner Ted Turner at the time and was photographed celebrating in the owner’s box. It’s like that.
To read more or see the video. CLICK HERE
SOURCE: Military.com Under the Radar
Remembering Bataan
Editor’s note: In the Human Factor, we profile survivors who have overcome the odds. Confronting a life obstacle — injury, illness or other hardship — they tapped their inner strength and found resilience they didn’t know they possessed. This week we introduce you to 92-year-old Lester Tenney, a survivor of the Bataan Death March during World War II. Tenney went on to become a college professor, write a book and found Care Packages from Home, a nonprofit, volunteer group that sends care packages to U.S. troops.
(CNN) — Seventy-one years have passed since that ninth day of April, 1942, on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines, where we witnessed the defeat of a once-proud Army.
It was where Gen. Edward King, commander of all U.S. armed forces on Bataan, told his men,
“We have no further means of organized resistance, we are low on ammunition, have virtually no medical supplies, and our food is all but gone. Our front lines are destroyed and both flanks severely weakened. The situation has become hopeless.”
Then he continued, “If I do not surrender all forces to the Japanese today, Bataan will be known around the world as the greatest slaughter in history.” Continue reading
On Wednesday, May 1, 2013, Mike (Perimeter Grunt) Stokes and I attended the Rancho Cucamonga High School Rancho Remembers event. This event brings together high school students and veterans. The event also serves as an oral history that otherwise the students would never hear. After being guided to a parking place I was greeted by a student who showed me through a gauntlet of students. One student approached me and escorted me to a sign-in station and then to my table.
Three students then joined me for the first session. After the opening ceremonies we started on our first session of interviews. About an hour later there was an intermission and another team of students joined the table for the second session of interviews.
I was totally overwhelmed by the quality of the students and their questions. There were more than 300 veterans attending and about 1,000 students. This type of program makes me feel that America is greater than ever.
Charlie Company Vietnam 1966-1972 