A new network is forming. One that protects the American Legacy of service and sacrifice.

Join and bring your tribe to a secure and safe platform.

www.fall-in-veteran.com

https://youtu.be/x0uiD362T48?si=_64Sj6jRljzIC-rd

The America PAC! Wow. Elon is stepping in.

https://www.prageru.com/video/anti-israel-protestors-burn-american-flags-in-d-c-massachusetts-pays-for

Man, what is going on?

https://youtu.be/fmpAHYqjKLA?si=pHX-_XtwLAPruCyp

Director of Ops talking about Fall In’s mission to build a safe space for Veterans and Patriots.

#americaunrestricted

“Liberty Girl (Rosie to the Rescue)” by Norman Rockwell (1943)

Norman Rockwell hired a professional model for the Post cover Liberty Girl (Rosie to the Rescue), honoring the mythical embodiment of all the new roles that now belonged to the American woman during wartime.

As a symbol of the ability of Americans to mobilize and transform themselves during the war effort, Rockwell might have chosen a more idealized or classic portrayal, just as he based Rosie the Riveter on a classic Michelangelo painting, but he chose to paint her as a girl-next-door, accentuating her authenticity.

“Gilding the Eagle” by Norman Rockwell (1928)
The work originally appeared on the May 26, 1928 cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

Described by Norman Rockwell as "one of my best of this period," the painting features one of his favorite models of the 1920s, James K. Van Brunt. An ideal model and source of inspiration, Van Brunt posed for Rockwell in a wide variety of narratives and as numerous characters, including a cowboy (Dreams of Long Ago, 1927, Private Collection), and two old ladies gossiping (The Gossips , 1929, Private Collection).

In Man Painting the Flagpole , Brunt sits near the top of a lofty flagpole, holding himself upright with one arm as he diligently gilds the stately eagle that adorns its pinnacle. A faint, city skyline appears in the distance beneath him. With an extra paintbrush in his pocket and a bucket of gold paint at his side, he methodically completes his work while puffing on a pipe that protrudes from underneath his bushy mustache. The composition emphasizes the patriotic symbolism of the American eagle, while simultaneously portraying a sympathetic view of people at work--a theme Rockwell revisited throughout his career.

Take a min. Reflect on all you have to be grateful for.

Then, get up and fight to keep it.

God Bless America!

Our generation of Warrior fought for ALL Americans.

So grateful for the leaders that taught me the respect the enemy, all people, culture, my comrades and the flag we carry in our hearts.

The fight remains. You are a “citizen” soldier.

Today we have 44 X 4 Star Generals (1.2M in the force), In WWII there were 7 X 4 Star Generals (21M in the force).

It is time to unite. Our legacy is on the chopping block. America needs to understand what it means to stand in the gap to protect the honor of the country, force, unit and our brothers.

We are retired not separated. We have a duty as citizens to continue to fight the good fight.

#jointtaskforcepatriot

What an honor to spend the afternoon with such a GREAT America.

Long Live LT Dan!

Night Stalker Foundation
· 14 June, 2024

Since 1916, when President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation establishing a national Flag Day on June 14, Americans have commemorated the adoption of the Stars and Stripes in many ways–displaying the flag in the front of their homes, parades, and other patriotic observances.

Prior to 1916, many localities and a few states had been celebrating the day for years.

Congressional legislation designating that date as the national Flag Day was signed into law by President Harry Truman in 1949; the legislation also called upon the President to issue a flag day proclamation every year.

https://shop.fall-in-veteran.com/products/unisex-softstyle-t-shirt

The Special Fall In Veteran Tee - Design by ArtReynolds and Fall In.

Support an Unrestricted America. JOIN your Tribe at Fall In.

Contact FALL_IN_STAFF_DUTY with question about our business solutions intended to connect our Veteran Network.

NSDQ!-Serving and LLTB!

Thanks Art for all your support.

#unitedwestand #jointtaskforcepatriot

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/fall-in-veteran-llc-0825932b2_sono1420-home-of-the-foundations-and-associations-activity-7206260355323363329-8diG?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios

Don’t miss the opportunity to get this classic spirit and support the American military legacy of the 160th SOAR Night Stalkers.

Thank You NSF!

NSDQ!-Serving & LLTB!

https://open.spotify.com/track/48X5k2vce5rXckgDAnXMsa?si=DgCvZ0QMTAanqecLxLAM7g&context=spotify%3Asearch%3Adirt%2Bcheap

This is our land, and this dirt ain’t’ cheap. “It’s worth holding’ on to.”

God Bless America!

Thanks Cody for a good ole fashion country song.

https://youtu.be/eEIqdcHbc8I?si=mGFvcI4_wDLQ7ZQ9

An original American, and an exemplary POTUS.

#unitedwestand

Join Joint Task Force - Patriot TODAY. We are leading the protection of the American military legacy and the values of the Warrior Ethos.

A fun "walk in the park" over memorial day. SSG Kyle McKee Memorial Ruck. Contributed to SubZero Mission and hosted by All American Rucks. https://subzeromission.org/
https://www.allamericanrucks.com/

The symbolism of "The Missing Man Table": a place of honor in memory of fallen, missing, or imprisoned military service members.

A flag sits on the table:
-- America will not forget those who gave us freedom.

A single red rose:
-- The blood that many have shed in sacrifice for our country's freedom.

The red and yellow ribbons:
-- Our continued uncertainty, hope for their return, and determination to account for them.

The candle is lit:
-- The light of hope which lives in our hearts to illuminate their way home, away from their captors, to the open arms of a grateful nation.

A pinch of salt:
-- For the tears shed by the friends and families of the missing and fallen.

A glass is inverted:
-- Their inability to share a toast.

A sliced lemon:
-- The memory of the bitter loss of those who will never return.

The silverware shines bright:
-- A service member gone to serve his or her country.

The napkin is black:
-- The emptiness the warriors have left in the hearts of their families and friends.

The table is round:
-- Our everlasting concern for our service members who are no longer here.

The tablecloth is white:
-- The purity of their motives when answering the call to serve.

The chair is empty:
-- The seat that remains unclaimed at the table.

Remembering those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

#DefendWhatMatters #memorialday

U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command
· 18 May, 2024

Today is National Armed Forces Day. It is a day to recognize the tens of thousands of American servicemen and women who risk their lives and sacrifice time with family and friends to protect our Nation.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/05/17/a-proclamation-on-armed-forces-day-2024/#:~:text=NOW%2C%20THEREFORE%2C%20I%2C%20JOSEPH,May%20as%20Armed%20Forces%20Day.

#USASOAC #ArmedForcesDay

This is my AMAZING nephew, Andrew Underwood. He just won 2nd Place at his High School talent show. Sooooooo proud of this young man! So, So proud!

He did a full monologue from Transformers. “I am Optimus Prime.”

#oneofakind #heartofgold #myamericanidol

Pashtun

Pashtuns (also called Pushtan, Paktun or Pathan) are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. Though their exact numbers are uncertain and as with other communities are contested, previous estimates have suggested that they make up around 42 per cent of the population. They live mainly in the south and the east of the country. They have a distinct language called Pashto (an official language since 1936) but also speak Pakhto, which are both Iranian dialects that fall within the Indo-European group of languages. They are generally able to speak Farsi when necessary, often relying on the language in the context of trade dealings in the region. It is speculated that Pashtuns are descendants of Eastern Iranians, who immigrated to the area from Persia. However, there is also an interesting legend, which claims that they actually originate from one of the ancient tribes of Israel. Pashtuns are Sunni Muslims and can also be found in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan (about 14 million). They are seen as the historic founders of the Afghan Kingdom, with an apparent predominance in administration power until recently.

The social structure of the Pashtuns is based on the Pashtunwali (or Pukhtunwali) code, which is a mixture of a tribal code of honour and local interpretations of Shari’a. This requires the speaking of Pashtu and the adherence to established customs. Hospitality, protection of their guests, defence of property, family honour and protection of the female relatives are some of the most important principles for Pashtuns. They rely on the tribal council jirga for the enforcement of disputes and local decision-making, as well as the seclusion of women from all affairs outside the home. A major aspect of the Pashtunwali code emphasizes personal authority and freedom. Women are required to wear full-face and full-length garments known as the burka. Pashtun culture is celebrated for its traditional music, dancing, poetry and storytelling.

A majority of Pashtuns rely upon agriculture (irrigated wheat) and animal husbandry for their source of income, with some involved in trading in these and other commodities. Population relocation and poverty caused by the chronic lack of stability in Afghanistan has led to a rise in drug trafficking, mainly opium via Pakistan to Europe and North America. The difficult living conditions together with the lack of clean water and health care contributes to a short life expectancy of only about 46 years. Those living in the Kabul area seem to enjoy slightly better living standards.

Tribal divisions

Despite their past political dominance, Pashtuns have never formed a homogeneous group, and many have fallen victim to oppression at the hands of the elites from their own community. The power and leadership of individuals are perhaps what divides Pashtuns, not only into different tribes but also into numerous sub-tribes, each isolated within their own borders. Interference in each other’s affairs has caused conflict among sub-tribes throughout their history. Yet despite their infighting, they have generally rallied to form a unified front when challenged by external threats or interference by a central non-Pashtun government.

Pakistan’s policy has been mainly supportive of the Pashtuns, especially in more recent times, but does not support the claim for self-determination of the 13 million Pashtuns living in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, out of fear of losing part of their territory.

By Major Mark A. Smith Sr. (ret)
Note: Some decades ago, a friend in the Pentagon asked me to jot down a few Soldierly thoughts. Through the years I added a couple, but deleted none of the originals. They may not be modern or politically corrected, but they did make the rounds. I stand by them today.
- Mark
1. Never accept an officer as competent based on his source of commission.
2. Your right to influence the battlefield is diminished in ratio to the distance you are from the actual arena of action.
3. The battlefield selects its own Generals. No school or board can replace it.
4. Never call fire on your own troops, unless you stand among them.
5. Leaders are indeed born and no military school can provide what God did not.
6. Equipment procurement will always be compromised by not only being made by the lowest bidder, but by attempting to make it multi-functional.
7. Attempting to lighten the soldier’s load by diminishing the weight of any given weapon, will always result in shorter range and less firepower.
8. Excellent staff officers rarely make good battlefield commanders.
9. Outstanding commanders will surround themselves with excellent staff officers.
10. Never make command a reward for good staff work.
11. Discipline began its decline with the demise of the swagger stick and centralized promotion boards.
12. Outstanding NCO’s may make good officers. But, rarely will a riffed officer make a good NCO.
13. Atheists will never be trusted by their troops on the battlefield.
14. Women can do many things men do, except for a few days every month.
15. Going through the change, has nothing to do with the female senior officer’s uniform.
16. Sexual harassment is a two-lane road.
17. Soldiers tell the truth about good and bad commanders. Their opinion is the ultimate evaluation of an officer.
18. No commander was ever hated for being too hard. But, many are detested for trying to cultivate that image, without substance.
19. The maximum effective range of any weapon is that range at which the individual soldier can hit his target and not an inch further.
20. Pretty females rarely feel harassed by male counterparts.
21. Plain-looking female soldiers are usually the best performers and fit in.
22. Endurance should be judged on the bayonet assault course and not on a marathon run.
23. How far soldiers can run in shorts is unimportant, compared to how far they can speed march with full equipment.
24. Pregnant females are overweight soldiers. Thus, the US Army Weight Control program is not based on equal enforcement of the rules.
25. Tears on the cheeks of any soldier, regardless of gender, are only acceptable on the death of a relative or comrade and when “Old Glory” passes by.
26. Pregnancy is self-inflicted, thus abortions should be paid for by the soldier, as a non line of duty procedure.
27. Soldiers are not ‘sent into combat,” they are led.
28. Your worth as an officer should never be judged on how well you ran with a football in college.
29. West Point is a place of learning, as is any college. Both produce two types of officer; Good and Bad.
30. The computer will never be able to judge the content of a soldier’s spirit, as his Sergeant can.
31. Esprit De Corps cannot be attained at the Battalion picnic or Sports Day. It must be instilled by good leadership and belief in one’s fellow soldiers.
32. No new weapon or tactic will ever instill the same fear in the enemy that one Infantryman with a bayonet can.
33. He who drinks at lunch is a drunken soldier in the afternoon.
34. No soldier is so smart that his physical deficiencies can be overlooked in the Infantry.
35. Painting rocks and serving drinks to officers, have never been soldierly functions. And golf is not a required skill for officers.
36. Consolidation of all administrative personnel at battalion level has eroded accountability and proper reporting.
37. Anyone who thinks that future battlefields will not contain Infantrymen knows nothing about war.
38. Indecision kills more soldiers than any wrong decision. One can command his way out of a wrong decision.
39. The only mission of the Infantry Soldier is to kill the enemy. “Humanitarian Missions" are someone else’s job.
40. Only the Infantry and Armor can gain ground. Only the Infantry can hold it alone.
41. Special Forces are not Rangers or Light Infantry and should never be employed as such.
42. Rangers are light infantry and are not Special Forces.
43. Victory is not a limited objective. There is no other reason to engage an enemy, except victory.
44. Never shower or apply after-shave and cologne, forty eight hours prior to a night attack.
45. Sweat is the true lubricant of the Infantry fighting machine.
46. No American Soldier can be managed to victory. He must be led.
47. The only color in the U.S. Army is green.
48. Use of chemical weapons and biological weapons are a crime against humanity.
49. Not training your soldiers to protect themselves from them is a crime against your own troops.
50. Any tactic written in a book is known to your enemies.
51. If short hair is truly a matter of hygiene and discipline, then all soldiers must have it.
52. No member of a soldier’s family is more important than the mission.
53. No soldier can accomplish his mission if the Army neglects his family.
54. Any soldier who sleeps with another soldier’s wife or lover cannot be trusted on the battlefield and should be shunned.
55. Officers are more likely to wear unauthorized awards than any NCO or Private.
56. Any officer who claims he is accepting an individual award for the entire unit should allow his soldiers to wear it.
57. There can be no quota for awards.
58. Any award for Valor is of more value to the Army than any school diploma or certification.
59. Heroism cannot be taught. But, cowardice is a communicable disease.
60. The machine gun is too important a weapon to be used as a tool for punishing poor soldiers.
61. Precision weapons will jam, if the Commander demands communal cleaning.
62. No officer should be given a command, because, he needs one for his career.
63. No officer should be denied a command, because, he already had one.
64. The state of the Army can be evaluated by how its soldiers look in uniform, at any airport in the world.
65. No reporter can be trusted with operational plans. A reporter who reveals operational plans is a traitor to his country.
66. A combat veteran of any war should be respected by soldiers.
67. American soldiers do not lose wars. Leaders lose wars.
68. What a soldier saw with his own eyes, cannot be ignored or changed by higher headquarters.
69. If Special Forces are not assigned strategic missions, they are being misused.
70. The “Hummer” is a vehicle and is the only thing of that name allowed in the Infantry.
71. If you wish to learn about guerrilla warfare, study Francis Marion and not Westmoreland or Giap.
72. The one night you don’t dig in, will bring mortars on your position.
73. Taking the easy way will always get you killed.
74. Blank ammunition has no place in Infantry training.
75. The more you restrict Infantrymen possessing live ammunition, the more accidents you will have.
76. The Air Force and Navy are supporting arms.
77. Intelligence Officer is usually a contradiction in terms.
78. Inclement weather is the true Infantryman’s ally.
79. There is no special duty so important, that it takes the Infantry Soldier away from his squad.
80. Commanders who use the “Off Limits” authority to deny sex to combat soldiers will have a high V.D. rate.
81. A Commander’s morals are his own and cannot be imposed on his soldiers.
82. Chaplains must present themselves when the soldier has time, not because they have a schedule.
83. An officer must be judged on his ability and not on how many coffees his wife has attended.
84. Senior officers who allow discussions about a brother officer, not present, are not honorable men.
85. A Commander who bad-mouths his predecessor will never be truly respected.
86. Equal opportunity is guaranteed by the law and does not require a separate staff.
87. If a Sergeant Major suggests a unit watch, he is the supplier.
88. The quality of food went down, with the initiation of the consolidated mess.
89. No NCO or Warrant Officer outranks a Second Lieutenant.
90. Any officer who does not listen to NCO’s and Warrant Officers is a fool.
91. If you wish your subordinates to call you by your first name, go sell shoes. There is no place for you in the Army.
92. Any Army man who sneers at a Marine for being sharp and well turned out is no soldier.
93. Any Infantryman who must call higher headquarters before engaging the enemy has a fool for a commander.
94. Soldiers respect leaders worth emulating. They cannot be “ordered” to respect anyone.
95. No man who refused to serve his country in war should be elected or appointed over men and women being sent to fight.

via: POW * MIA
·
REMEMBERING A HERO: Col. James "Nick" Rowe, was one of only thirty-four American POWs to escape captivity during the Vietnam War.

During most of his five years in captivity Rowe was held in a cage. He managed to escape on December 31, 1968, after overpowering his guard, he was picked up by a UH-1 helicopter.

More: http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/r/r077.htm

via: U.S. Pacific Air Forces
·
While the actual damage done by Doolittle’s Raid was slight, the raid had the desired effect of simultaneously boosting American morale while damaging that of the Japanese. The Japanese high command, inflicted with what they later would term “victory disease,” were outraged by the attack. They immediately agreed to Admiral Yamamoto’s plan to execute a major operation in the central Pacific, near a small atoll called Midway.

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10151519547770343&set=a.441041055342

“World Affairs Dominos.” You will NOT get this kind of Intel from YOUR Social Media….Start paying close attention. Decision Points on the horizon.

BLUF: The movements of Russia and China are elevated acts of aggression, and very concerning. (Are they coordinated? Certainly, NOT coincidence.)

Russia continues to move levers of controls and influence. Exercising more/new in their regional assets supporting Ukraine.

Ref. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-russia-war-latest-news-putin-b2528144.html

NOTE: AM/FM is still a strategic intel tool, and an effective messaging platform to those in the middle of the struggle…Use it to inform yourself. This Rock Station in Belgorod has been pushing English updates.

Listen HERE: https://radio.garden/listen/radiogora/45BGsV0D

***China leverages US sanctions to bolster operational dominance and seeks to weaken Taiwans tactical capabilities***

Close contacts in Taiwan suggest that Chinese are positioning to leverage the Chaos. Don’t wait until you feel the effects to understand the National Security concerns.

We the people have a responsibility to serve and protect our Allies. This is NOT hyperbole,…the literal “writing on the wall” should cause you to align with national/military priorities. And, be prepared to support a national course of action, if needed. Whether diplomatic or military. Is our ability to execute diplomacy in these regions intact?

Ref: https://www.reuters.com/world/china-sanctions-two-us-defence-firms-selling-taiwan-weapons-2024-04-11/

These events VERY purposefully leveraging a distracted American culture and government. Pay attention, please.

Traces of Texas
·
The Texas Quote of the Day, written by Herman Lehmann, is one of the most interesting I've read in years. Y'all may remember that, in 1870 when he was ten years old, Herman was captured by Apaches just outside of Fredericksburg. He was with the Indians for nine years, six with the Apaches, one on his own, and two with the Comanches (long story there).

Over time he lost his old life and language and became a full Indian, such that he participated in raids against Anglo settlements, battles with soldiers and Texas rangers etc. He spent a great deal of time with Quanah Parker. He was later discovered by American soldiers and returned to his mother and siblings, though he resisted this. It took a long time for him to adjust back to life among white folks, but he eventually did. In 1927, when he was nearly 70, he wrote "Nine Years Among the Indians 1870-1879." The Texas Quote of the Day comes from that:

“I am an old man now. I will soon reach the total of three score and ten years allotted to man, if death does not claim me —- seventy years of wonderful experience. I have seen many changes since I came into the world. The ox-cart gave way to the horse-drawn vehicle, and the automobile has surpassed that mode of travel. Speeding railway trains, flying machines, radios, and many other wonders have come to pass. We are living in a fast age. I am glad God has spared my life and permitted me to live to see these wonderful changes. I gave reverence to Him in the only way I knew how when I was an Indian; I worship Him now after the manner of an enlightened white man.

When I look upon these changes I marvel and wonder how it can be so. Of many of these things I am yet in ignorance; I cannot understand how the human voice can be wafted over the radio thousands of miles without the aid of wires, but it is done, for I have heard it. It is as much a mystery to me as the first telegraph line I ever saw. A party of Indians were coming down into the settlements on a raid when, at a point in the vicinity of Fort Concho [San Angelo], we came upon a newly constructed telegraph line. We stopped and considered it, and wondered what it meant. Each Indian had his own notion about what it was intended for, but we were all wrong.
The chief said he believed it was to be a fence to be made so high that the Indians could not get through, and so we proceeded to cut it down. Coming on down into the settlement we stole some horses and went back away with the drove, and we found the line had been rebuilt and the wire was in place again.

And the puffing locomotive and railway train was also an object of wonder when I came back to civilization and beheld them. The first train I ever saw was while I was with the Indians, and of course we did not know what it was, and in consequence got a scare that almost drove us frantic. We had come far down into the settlements on a raid, it may have been near Austin, and one night while we were waiting in a secluded spot in a little ravine, for the moon to come up, a train suddenly came around a curve from behind a mountain and was right on us before we had time to mount our horses. That hideous monster, belching smoke and hissing steam, and with glaring lights bore down upon us at terrific speed, and we ran, scrambling over rocks and through the brush, to get away from it. It followed us for a little ways, but we thought it lost our trail, as it went rushing on away from us. We were somewhat scattered when things became quiet, and I was uneasy for fear the awful thing had caught three of our comrades. But when we gave our agreed assembly signal the Indians came forth from their hiding places and we held a consultation. We decided to leave that region at once and not attempt to steal horses there, for that monster might return and catch us. It was generally agreed among us that it was the Evil Spirit that was abroad, and was seeking to devour all mankind, the white folks included. When we went back to camp and told what we had seen the Indians were greatly alarmed, and the medicine men warned us to stay out of that region.”

----- Herman Lehmann, "Nine Years Among the Indians: 1870-1879," published in 1927. Shown here: Herman Lehmann around the time he wrote this book.

via: AMERICAN - STRONG!
· 12 April, 2024
IF IT SAVES YOUR LIFE - IT IS NOT SILLY AT ALL!

U.S. Pacific Air Forces
·
March 28, 1942 - Doolittle Raid Planning. Without knowing the details or objectives of the top secret mission, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek granted final consent for American bombers to land at Chinese airfields. A few days later, President Chiang was told that at least twenty-five B-25's would be employed and that he should have fuel and flares ready at the Chinese bases.
This was the final piece to be put in place for the Doolittle Raid.

via: Battlesight Zero
·
On October 14, 2018, Technical Sergeant Cody Smith protected his Special Operations team with air power, despite being shot and blasted by mortars and RPGs.

The team was moving back to base when nearly 600 Taliban fighters opened up their ambush. As he returned fire with his rifle, Smith guided in Apache helicopters for strafing runs on enemy positions and F-16s to drop their bombs. For several hours, the team fought on through the ambush. Intercepted Taliban radio traffic revealed that they had identified Smith as the team's JTAC and were specifically targeting him to end the American air strikes. At one point, a mortar round landed only 2 meters away from Smith. It knocked him down and left him with a Traumatic Brain Injury. An enemy bullet targeting Smith hit home. Luckily, the round was stopped by his chest plate. He was hit a 3rd time when an RPG exploded on his vehicle. Through all of it, Smith refused medical treatment to continue his critical role. The Taliban began closing in on the convoy. Smith drove them back with 500 lb bombs and strafing runs as close as 50 meters away.

The journey back to base took 12 hours. Smith remained with his team the whole time, despite his injuries. During the battle, Smith called in 11 danger-close strikes, 9 bombing runs, and numerous strafing runs. He is credited with 195 enemy fighters killed and 18 enemy positions destroyed. Smith was one of two Americans sustaining TBI, and several others were wounded by bullets or shrapnel. His actions helped ensure no one was killed and the team could not be overrun. For his critical role in the battle, Smith was awarded the Silver Star. He was also named the 2019 Airman of the Year.

#battlesightzero #bzo #history #military #militaryhistory #veteran #veterans #america #airforce #usairforce #afsoc #silverstar #cct

via: The Giant Killer
·
U.S. Army Ranger Captain Kris Kristofferson:

Country music legend and Army vet Kris Kristofferson has a list of accomplishments so long, it might be faster to list off things he hasn't done.

He was an Army brat and brother to a naval aviator, so it was only natural that Kristofferson would find himself in the military. But his life both before and after the military has been more than interesting -- it's downright legendary.

In his younger years, Kristofferson was an accomplished athlete, skilled at rugby and American football. He also was a Golden Gloves amateur boxer. Pretty much anything that required giving or taking a beating, he was up to it.

For anyone who might be thinking he was a dumb young jock-turned country star, think again. Kristofferson studied literature at California's Pomona College, where he became a Rhodes Scholar. He carried on his literature studies at Oxford's Merton College, where he continued boxing. Upon graduating from college, he joined the U.S. Army.

Joining the Army in 1960, Kristofferson earned his Ranger tab before becoming a helicopter pilot, which was critical in getting his country music career off the ground (more on that later). He would reach the rank of captain during his service. In the meantime, he was making music and formed his own band while stationed in Germany.

Kristofferson was offered the prestigious position of teaching literature at West Point in 1965, but turned it down and left the Army. It was a move that caused his family, full of veterans, to disown him. His first wife divorced him four years later, which is some prime country music songwriting fodder.

It was finally time for Kristofferson to focus on music. He moved to Nashville, where he worked as a janitor and flew helicopters for oil rigs. He also worked in construction and fought forest fires in Alaska, anything he could do to keep focused on the music. It also was good experience from which to draw country music inspiration.

As he turned 30 years old, he was still moonlighting as a janitor in Nashville recording studios, strategically dropping demo tapes onto desks and hoping they would get into the hands of some of the biggest names in country music. ... also at Johnny Cash's house.

By now, we know Kristofferson learned to fly helicopters in the Army and ran into financial trouble while trying to make it in country music. In a big gamble, he stole a helicopter, flew to Cash's house and landed on the Man in Black's front lawn.

In retrospect, Kristofferson admits he's lucky Cash didn't try to shoot him down with a shotgun. Instead, the icon listened to his demo for "Sunday Morning Coming Down." Cash liked it so much, he recorded it, and Kristofferson took the first step toward becoming a country music legend.
Now "lifted from obscurity" (as Kristofferson puts it), he wrote some of his biggest hits, including "Vietnam Blues," "Help Me Make It Through the Night" and "Me and Bobby McGee." Later, he would form The Highwaymen, a country music supergroup comprised of himself, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash.

There are few country music stars that Kristofferson hasn't worked with or influenced during his career, even to this day. His music fame led him to the silver screen, where he appeared in 119 roles, including the "Blade" trilogy, the third remake of "A Star Is Born" and the History Channel miniseries "Texas Rising."

Kristofferson was inducted into the songwriter's Hall of Fame in 1985 and has earned more than 48 different BMI Country and Pop awards. In 2004, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and received the Veteran of the Year Award at the American Veteran Awards in 2011, with fellow country legend and vet Willie Nelson presenting the honor.

#usarmy #Militarylife #kriskristofferson #countrymusic #Army #Military

via: U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command
· 9 April, 2024
National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day is observed annually on April 9. On this day, we renew our strong and abiding commitment to America's former POWs and honor the tremendous debt of gratitude we owe to them for their courageous service and incredible sacrifices.
#nationalformerpowday #USASOAC

via: U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command
· 9 April, 2024
Today is National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day. A day in which we renew our strong and abiding commitment to America's former POWs and honor the tremendous debt of gratitude we owe them for their courageous service and incredible sacrifices. #nationalformerPOWday

Two African American GIs pose with personalized infantry shells during Easter. 1940s.

WWII Col. Van T. Barfoot, U.S. Army, Medal of Honor recipient.

During the breakout from Anzio to Rome, Barfoot knocked out two machine gun nests and captured 17 German soldiers. Later that same day, he repelled a German tank assault, destroyed a Nazi field piece and while returning to camp carried two wounded commanders to safety. Prior to his death, he was involved in a neighborhood dispute with his community association involving the removal of his American Flag from his front lawn. He won the dispute and his flag stayed in his front yard.

Green Beret Foundation
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1st Lt. Robert L. Howard, was awarded the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as platoon sergeant of an American-Vietnamese platoon which was on a mission to rescue a missing American soldier in enemy controlled territory in Vietnam. He retired at the rank of Colonel in 1992.

Visit the following link to read COL Howard’s Medal of Honor citation:
https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/robert-l-howard
5th Special Forces Group - Airborne

War History Online
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Stained glass window dedicated to the 101st Airborne paratroopers in the church at Angoville-au-Plain, Manche, Normandy, France.

This church, which served as an aid station during the Battle of Normandy in World War II, was tended by US Army Medics Robert Wright and Ken Moore of the 101st Airborne, treating 80 wounded soldiers, both American and German, as well as a child, with blood stains still visible on the pews.

Today, two stained glass windows commemorate the bravery of the 101st Airborne Division and the American parachutists, specifically honoring the two medics from the 2nd Battalion of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment (101st Airborne Division).

via: Night Stalker Foundation
· 21 March, 2024

Rosie the Riveter Day is a special occasion that commemorates the remarkable contributions and sacrifices made by American women during World War Two.

Throughout this pivotal period in history, women from all walks of life courageously stepped into roles traditionally held by men. They took on crucial jobs in factories, electronics, welding facilities, and various other industries to support the American war effort. In doing so, they played a vital role in bolstering the nation's strength and resilience during a time of great need.

It's estimated that around five million civilian women joined the workforce during this era, embracing tasks previously deemed suitable only for men. Additionally, approximately 350,000 women served in uniform, further demonstrating their dedication and commitment to the war effort.

Rosie the Riveter Day serves as a powerful reminder of the indomitable spirit and invaluable contributions of American women during World War Two. It honors their unwavering resolve, hard work, and determination in the face of adversity, inspiring future generations to continue striving for equality and justice.

A Father’s Pride in His Late Son’s Service
Commentary: A Father’s Pride in His Late Son’s Service
By Army Maj. Gen. Kurt J. Stein

Special to American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, March 15, 2010 – While flying on United Airlines last week, I overheard a telephone conversation from a gentleman seated directly behind me. His words went something like this: "Although today was an extremely sad day for me - it was absolutely the happiest day of my life, and I am proud to be an American."

This gentleman went on to talk about a funeral he attended in South Carolina, and specifically gave great kudos to the U.S. Army for the professionalism displayed at this service. He went into great detail about the funeral service itself and how it was conducted. He went on to say that Jeremiah really enjoyed serving in the Army, and now, he clearly understood why.

My ears immediately perked up when I overheard him talk about the Army in such a positive way. He boasted about the General who presented the flags to him and his family, the sharp-looking soldiers of the salute battery, the sounds of taps, how the soldiers stood at attention for such a long period of time, how the military paid for his family to fly to South Carolina, the number of letters and calls he received from Jeremiah's command, how the Red Cross assisted, and so on. He could not say enough great things about our Army.

I quickly pulled a two-star card from my briefcase and wrote him a thank-you note for his kind words about our Army. He had no clue I was in the Army since I was in civilian clothes. Within seconds, he tapped me on the shoulder and with tears in his eyes proceeded to tell me the rest of the story.

The gentleman's name is Robert Wittman. He was flying with his entire family: wife, son, daughter, Mom, Dad, grandparents and friends. They were carrying home the cremated remains of his son, Sgt. Jeremiah T. Wittman of the 4th Infantry Division, who was killed in Afghanistan on Feb. 13.

Dad told me that Jeremiah already had two tours in Iraq and ultimately gave his life in Afghanistan. While in Iraq the first time, Jeremiah's vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device, and several of his buddies were severely injured. He went on to say that his son truly loved the Army and did what he did from the heart.

His dad was a proud man. He did say that he often wondered why his son stayed in the Army after his initial attack in Iraq. Now that he saw the U.S. Army in action at the funeral, he said – as he had on the phone earlier -- that he now understands why.

Dad proudly held up the urn and boasted about how beautiful it was, and he continued to brag about the Army for all to hear. The folks around him listened with big ears and inspiration.

I must admit, although it really was a beautiful urn and a wonderful Army story - it brought a slight tear to my eye, as I, too, have a son —- a captain in the 82nd Airborne Division -- serving in Afghanistan, and this moment hit home.

Bottom line: Although the family was saddened by the loss of their son, they were all proud to be associated with the U.S. Army. I could see it in their eyes and hear it in their voices. Why? Simply because of the way they were treated by our Army family at the funeral. The 4th ID leadership and others involved did it up right and made a positive, lifetime-lasting impact with this family.

Great job!

To top off a memorable flight, when the aircraft came to a halt the pilot announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please. Among us today is a Great American Soldier named Sgt. Jeremiah Wittman, killed in action on 13 February. Our deepest sympathy, respect and sorrow go out to the Wittman family. We ask that you honor Sergeant Wittman -- our fallen hero -- the entire Wittman family and our armed forces by remaining seated and allowing the family to depart the aircraft first.”

At that moment, you could have heard a pin drop in the aircraft, but within seconds, everyone on the aircraft was clapping as the family departed on their way.

The family departed feeling special and honored. I sat there proud to be an American Soldier
(Army Maj. Gen. Kurt J. Stein is the commanding general of U.S. Army TACOM Life Cycle Management Command.)

☞Today in History
- On today’s date 98 years ago, Tuesday, March 16, 1926, famous U.S. Army war dog Sergeant Stubby (circa-1916 - 1926), hero of World War I, met his earthly demise at around the age of ten when he died in his sleep from the effects of unspecified natural causes.

Stubby, a mixed-breed dog of uncertain pedigree, but thought to be part Boston Terrier, is known as the most decorated war dog of World War I & the only dog to be nominated for rank & then promoted to sergeant through combat, a claim for which there is no documentary evidence, but which was recognized in connection with an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution.

Sergeant Stubby was the official mascot of the 102nd Infantry, assigned to the 26th (Yankee) Division. Stubby served for 18 months & participated in seventeen battles on the Western Front.

He saved his regiment from surprise mustard-gas attacks, found & comforted the wounded, & once caught a German soldier by the seat of his pants, holding him there until American soldiers found him. Back on the home front, Sergeant Stubby’s exploits were front-page news in every major newspaper.

After returning home, Stubby became a celebrity & marched in, & normally led many parades across the country. He met Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, & Warren G. Harding. In 1921, General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing presented a gold medal from the Humane Education Society to Stubby. Stubby later became the mascot of the Georgetown University football team.

I long for the day when we will all say "We Are All Americans Here!"
https://youtu.be/iriyj-MlMuA?si=Ti-jbtJ6VPsxJMfa

The Giant Killer
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God Bless this Hero!

Private Cleto Rodriguez brazenly attacked an enemy fortress to save his platoon during the Battle of Manila, heroics for which he received the nation’s highest military honor the Medal of Honor:

On February 9, 1945, 21-year-old US Army Private Cleto L. Rodriguez rushed across smoking rubble and into withering Japanese gunfire on the island of Luzon in the Philippines.

For nearly a week, he and his fellow soldiers from Company B, 2nd Battalion, 148th Infantry Regiment of the 37th Infantry Division battled to liberate the capital city from a determined enemy.

The American advance had pushed the Japanese back to the Paco District’s once-elegant railway station, situated on the broad Plaza Dilao.

Three companies of die-hard Japanese marines were busily fortifying the building.

Nearly invisible entrenched fighting positions dotted the area.

Sandbag-lined pillboxes and bunkers protected well-armed and equipped defenders.

Rodriguez’s platoon launched a frontal assault against the station across the wide expanse, but enemy fire pinned them down 100 yards from the building.

Rodriguez developed a plan to save his platoon with Private First Class John N. Reese, Jr., a fellow 21-year-old automatic rifleman and full-blooded Cherokee from Pryor, Oklahoma.

Living up to the words on their regimental patch, “WE’LL DO IT,” the two grabbed as many grenades and magazines for their Browning Automatic Rifles as they could carry and ran through enemy fire toward the train station.

Even in urban combat where dangers multiply, Rodriguez was not panicked.

“I have never known fear,” he later claimed.

At a young age he had become acquainted with hardship.

Born in San Marcos, Texas in 1923, he lost his parents at only nine years old.

Selling newspapers to support his family, he often slept in the San Antonio Express’s building so he could wake up early enough to deliver the papers before school.

Rodriguez dropped out before graduating and joined a gang, leading to an aggressiveness that served him well after volunteering for the Army in March 1943 and joining the “Buckeye Division.”

Up against 300 enemy troops, the two Americans fired and maneuvered as a disciplined team.

Clearing hostile positions as they went, the pair of BAR men patiently pushed to within 20 yards of the station’s main entrance.

Without regard for his safety, Private Rodriguez destroyed a 20mm gun and machine gun from close range.

After two-and-a-half hours, the two were out of grenades and had nearly burned through all their ammunition.

With the help of Reese’s suppressive fire, Rodriguez made it back safely to friendly lines.

The Oklahoman, however, fell to a sniper’s bullet while reloading.

Both soldiers displayed exceptional bravery, resulting in 82 enemy troops killed.

With the platoon from Company B no longer caught in a deadly position, the American advance continued.

Rodriguez once again took the initiative only two days later, single-handedly killing six enemy soldiers and destroying a 20mm gun.

President Harry S. Truman presented newly promoted Technical Sergeant Rodriguez with the Congressional Medal of Honor, the first Mexican American in the Pacific theater of operations to receive the nation’s highest military award.

One of the most decorated soldiers in the PTO, Rodriguez also received the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and numerous other awards.

For his bravery on February 9, Private Reese received the Medal of Honor posthumously.

After the war, Technical Sergeant Rodriguez returned to San Antonio to a hero’s welcome.

He left the Army in December 1945 and worked for the Veterans Administration, where he began a lifelong commitment to help fellow Hispanic Americans receive continuing education and skills training.

In 1952, Rodriguez rejoined the service, initially with the US Air Force before transferring to the Army, retiring in 1970 as a master sergeant.

On December 7, 1990, Rodriguez died at 67 years old.

He is buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, the final resting place of eleven other Medal of Honor recipients, six of whom are fellow WWII veterans.

MEDAL OF HONOR CITATION:
“The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Technical Sergeant Cleto L. Rodriguez, United States Army, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty on 9 February 1945, while serving with Company B, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division.

Technical Sergeant Rodriguez was an automatic rifleman when his unit attacked the strongly defended Paco Railroad Station during the battle for Manila, Philippine Islands.

While making a frontal assault across an open field, his platoon was halted 100 yards from the station by intense enemy fire.

On his own initiative, he left the platoon, accompanied by a comrade, and continued forward to a house 60 yards from the objective.

Although under constant enemy observation, the two men remained in this position for an hour, firing at targets of opportunity, killing more than 35 hostile soldiers and wounding many more.

Moving closer to the station and discovering a group of Japanese replacements attempting to reach pillboxes, they opened heavy fire, killed more than 40 and stopped all subsequent attempts to man the emplacements.

Enemy fire became more intense as they advanced to within 20 yards of the station.

Then, covered by his companion, Private Rodriguez boldly moved up to the building and threw five grenades through a doorway killing 7 Japanese, destroying a 20-mm gun and wrecking a heavy machinegun.

With their ammunition running low, the two men started to return to the American lines, alternately providing covering fire for each other's withdrawal.

During this movement, Private Rodriguez' companion was killed.

In 2 1/2 hours of fierce fighting the intrepid team killed more than 82 Japanese, completely disorganized their defense, and paved the way for the subsequent overwhelming defeat of the enemy at this strongpoint.

Two days later, Private Rodriguez again enabled his comrades to advance when he single-handedly killed six Japanese and destroyed a well-placed 20-mm gun by his outstanding skill with his weapons, gallant determination to destroy the enemy, and heroic courage in the face of tremendous odds, Private Rodriguez, on two occasions, materially aided the advance of our troops in Manila.”

Photo of President Harry S. Truman presents Cleto Rodriguez with the Medal of Honor on the White House Lawn on October 12, 1945. Signal Corps photograph.

The Giant Killer book & page honors these war heroes the book details the incredible life of the smallest soldier, Green Beret Captain Richard Flaherty along with the harrowing stories from the men of the 101st Airborne in Vietnam.

The Giant Killer FB page honors these incredible war heroes making sure their stories of valor and sacrifice are never forgotten.

God Bless our Vets!

Prayers for my father, mentor, and friend. A Soldier, warrior, and true American patriot.

"In the beginning of a change the Patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned.
When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot. The soul and substance of what customarily ranks as patriotism is moral cowardice — and always has been.

In any civic crisis of a great and dangerous sort the common herd is not privately anxious about the rights and wrongs of the matter, it is only anxious to be on the winning side. In the North, before the War, the man who opposed slavery was despised and ostracized, and insulted. By the "Patriots." Then, by and by, the "Patriots" went over to his side, and thenceforth his attitude became Patriotism.

There are two kinds of Patriotism — Monarchical Patriotism and Republican Patriotism. In the one case the government and the kind may rightfully furnish you their notions of Patriotism; in the other, neither the government nor the entire nation is privileged to dictate to any individual what the form of his Patriotism shall be. The Gospel of the Monarchical Patriotism is: "The King can do no wrong." We have adopted it with all its servility, with an unimportant change in the wording: "Our Country, right or wrong!"

We have thrown away the most valuable asset we have — the individual right to oppose both flag and country when he (just he by himself) believes them to be in the wrong. We have thrown it away; and with it all that was really respectable about the grotesque and laughable word, Patriotism."

This passage is an excerpt from a section titled "Maxims in the Rough" from "Mark Twain's Notebook," a collection first published in 1935 by Harper & Brothers.

Mark Twain (1835-1910), the author of "Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer," remains one of the most celebrated American writers and humorists.

“THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”
- Thomas Payne, The American Crisis

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/summer-soldiers-and-sunshine-patriots-american-crisis

Americans should know our priorities, and drives defense policy and budget considerations.

It’s a dangerous world. Grateful for the Warriors that execute violence ensuring freedom and security around the world.

Dear Art “Burt” Reynolds,

I hope this letter finds you in good health and high spirits. Allow me to extend the Fall In communities sincerest gratitude for your remarkable service and unwavering dedication to our Tribe. Your contributions are instrumental in the growth and success of our platform but have also significantly impacted our community in the most positive ways imaginable.

Your commitment to excellence and expertise coupled with your unshakable faith in America, is a driving force behind our achievements. Your innovative ideas and proactive approach have propelled us toward new heights, enabling us to offer unparalleled services to our users. Your ability to inspire and lead the team has fostered a collaborative and productive environment, which is truly commendable.

Furthermore, your dedication has ensured the highest standards of security and reliability instilling confidence and trust among our users. It is evident that your efforts play a crucial role in establishing Fall In as a secure and dependable platform. For this, we are immensely grateful.

On a personal note, I want to express my appreciation for the support and guidance you provided me, and the Team. Your mentorship has been invaluable, and I am honored by the opportunity to work alongside someone of your caliber.

Please accept my heartfelt thanks for your service to Fall In and the community we serve. Your legacy of excellence and commitment will continue to inspire us all.

NSDQ-Serving! & LLTB!

Warmest regards,

The Fall In Skipper

Super Tuesday Shenanigans? - Hhhmmm...

https://www.reuters.com/technology/metas-facebook-instagram-down-thousands-downdetector-shows-2024-03-05/

Fall In America standing strong from this AOR.

NSDQ!

via: USAF Special Warfare Recruiting
·
This Sunday’s Hero Story…

The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to (then) Technical Sergeant John A. Chapman, United States Air Force, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.

Technical Sergeant Chapman distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism as an Air Force Special Tactics Combat Controller of the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, attached to a Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Team conducting reconnaissance operations in Takur Ghar, Afghanistan, on 4 March 2002.

During insertion, the team’s helicopter was ambushed causing a teammate to fall into an entrenched group of enemy combatants below.

Sergeant Chapman and the team voluntarily reinserted onto the snow-capped mountain, into the heart of a known enemy stronghold to rescue one of their own.

Without regard for his own safety, Sergeant Chapman immediately engaged, moving in the direction of the closest enemy position despite coming under heavy fire from multiple directions.

He fearlessly charged an enemy bunker, up a steep incline in thigh-deep snow and into hostile fire, directly engaging the enemy.

Upon reaching the bunker, Sergeant Chapman assaulted and cleared the position, killing all enemy occupants.

With complete disregard for his own life, Sergeant Chapman deliberately moved from cover only 12 meters from the enemy, and exposed himself once again to attack a second bunker, from which an emplaced machine gun was firing on his team.

During this assault from an exposed position directly in the line of intense fire, Sergeant Chapman was struck and injured by enemy fire.

Despite severe, mortal wounds, he continued to fight relentlessly, sustaining a violent engagement with multiple enemy personnel before making the ultimate sacrifice.

By his heroic actions and extraordinary valor, sacrificing his life for the lives of his teammates, Technical Sergeant Chapman upheld the highest traditions of military service and reflected great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.

#medalofhonor #moh #neverforgotten #honor #courage #bravery #airforce #cct #combatcontroller #firstthere

Air Force Special Operations Command
Air Force Special Tactics

via: TSAF Industries
·
CPL Matthew Commons, 21, of Boulder City, Nevada was killed while fighting in Afghanistan against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda during Operation Anaconda in the renowned Battle of Takur Ghar; where US Army Rangers were called upon to rescue and extract a Navy SEAL team under intense enemy fire.

The MH-47 Chinook helicopter carrying a US Army Ranger Quick-Reaction-Force, including CPL Commons, crash landed due to enemy fire. CPL Commons and two other Rangers were killed by direct enemy fire as they fought their way out of the helicopter.

The battle would endure for 12 hours, while Army Rangers and the surviving Navy Seals fought to secure and hold the peak of Takur Ghar, later named Roberts Ridge.

CPL Commons was the youngest of seven American heroes killed in the battle, he proudly served with Company A, 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.

Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Matt moved to Colorado with his family when he was 7 years old.

He developed a passion for soccer that endured through his high school graduation.

Matt and his brother also played roller hockey in high school, where Matt spent a lot of time in the penalty box for roughing opponents.

He said that hockey was the only sport where you could legally fight and only get a penalty for it.

At home, Matt would enjoy playing video games with his brother and friends.

His presence in the house was marked by constant noise, music, lively conversations, and laughter.

In July 2000, Matt joined the Army with the goal of pursuing a career as an Army Ranger, a path he had long aspired to follow.

His interest in the military had been a consistent aspect of his ambitions growing up.

In early October 2001 Matt was scheduled to attend Ranger School for leadership training but was pulled to begin training for war.

By the end of the year, he and 1st Ranger Battalion, A Company would be in Bagram, Afghanistan - Matt would celebrate his 21st birthday just two weeks before his death.

He is survived by his mother Patricia, his father James and brother Aaron.

RLTW! - NSDQ!

#Patriot #Hero #RLTW #suasponte #tsafindustries #tsafnation
(Ref: suaspontefoundation.org/memoriam/commons/, arits.org; www.arlingtoncemetery.net/macommons.htm)

via: TSAF Industries
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SPC Marc Anderson, 30, of Brandon, Florida was killed while fighting in Afghanistan against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda during Operation Anaconda in the renowned Battle of Takur Ghar; where US Army Rangers were called upon to rescue and extract a Navy SEAL team under intense enemy fire.

The MH-47 Chinook helicopter carrying a US Army Ranger Quick-Reaction-Force, including SPC Anderson, crash landed due to enemy fire.

SPC Anderson and two other Rangers were killed by direct enemy fire as they fought their way out of the helicopter.

The battle would endure for 12 hours, while Army Rangers and the surviving Navy Seals fought to secure and hold the peak of Takur Ghar, later named Roberts Ridge.

SPC Anderson proudly served with Company A, 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment.

Marc was born in Fort Benning, Georgia, and in 1978 when his father retired from the Army, his family relocated to Alliance, Ohio.

Marc was a gifted athlete in High School, with a special talent in track and field.

''Physically, Marc was like an N.F.L. lineman,'' said Jim Polen, Marc’s former track coach, adding that despite his size, he could run the 40-yard dash in less than five seconds.

But Marc had brains as well as brawn.

''He had the quick humor of a talk show host,'' Polen said, searching for words to describe what made Marc Anderson so special.

''He was as bright as a college professor. But he had the spirit of a little boy.''

Marc would go on to attend Case Western Reserve University, before transferring to Florida State University.

He distinguished himself as a standout student-athlete.

He was recognized as an All American in both football and track by the NCAA and won the Florida State student athlete of the year award in 1995.

After obtaining his teaching degree from Florida State University, he taught math in Fort Myers.

Marc was dedicated to his students and volunteered with Boys/Girls clubs during summer.

Marc enlisted in the Army to assist in paying off his student loans.

He is survived by his parents and two brothers.

#Patriot #Hero #RLTW #suasponte #tsafindustries #tsafnation
(Ref: andersonmcqueen.com/obituary; rangersremembered.com; leadthewayfund.org)

via: WW II uncovered
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🇺🇲WWII uncovered: Medal of Honor Recipient Jack Lummus: From the New York Giants to the Beaches of Iwo Jima

Jack Lummus, of Ennis Texas, was a sports star at Baylor University. Excelling in both baseball and football, Jack was nominated for two consecutive years as an All-American. However he left Baylor early to enlist with the Army Air Corps. Unfortunately, Jack washed out in flight school.

Jack returned to baseball briefly in the minor leagues and then signed with the New York Giants. As a rookie he played nine games. "On December 7, 1941, the Giants were playing the Brooklyn Dodgers. Around half-time, the Associated Press ticker in the press box gave out a message saying, "Airplanes identified as Japanese have attacked the American Naval Base at Pearl Harbor." The players continued the game, knowing nothing of the attack.

Jack enlisted with the US Marine Corps on January 30, 1942. He graduated from Officer's Training School at Quantico on December 18, 1942. Initially, Lummus was assigned to the Marine Raiders at Camp Pendleton - ultimately attaching to the 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division.

"In January 1944, he was assigned as Executive Officer, Company F, 2nd Battalion, 27th Marines. In August 1944, the Division was transferred to Camp Tarawa outside of Waimea, Hawaii. Lummus boarded the USS Henry Clay for the trip. After four months of training, the Division was assigned to the V Amphibious Corps and would fight to take the Island of Iwo Jima." - USMC Archive

According to US Marine Corps records: "First Lieutenant Jack Lummus was in the first wave of Marines to land at Red One."

"On March 6, Lummus was put in command of E Company’s third rifle platoon. Two days later, the platoon was at the spearhead of an assault on an objective near Kitano Point. As Lummus charged forward, assaulting pillboxes on his own, his men watched as he survived several shrapnel hits, only to step on a land mine. Despite horrific damage to his legs, Lummus continued to push his men forward, demanding that they not stop for him." - National World War II Museum

According to the National World War II Museum: "Lummus was triaged and evacuated to the Fifth Division Hospital, where doctors did all they could to save his life. Despite 18 pints of blood transfusions and their best efforts, the damage to Lummus’ body was too much, even for his athletic frame. Before he died, Lummus said to one o f the surgeons, “I guess the New York Giants have lost the services of a damn good end.” A few hours later, Lummus asked for a sip of coffee, after which he laid back, closed his eyes, and smiled as he took his last breath."

First Lieutenant Jack Lummus was 29 years old at the time of his passing.

"Jack Lummus was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on May 30, 1946.

His military and athletic legacy continue today, as the U.S. Navy named a maritime prepositioning ship in his honor, the USNS 1st Lt Jack Lummus, in 1986, and the New York Giants inducted him into their Ring of Honor on October 11, 2015" - The National Medal of Honor Museum

Jack lies in rest at Myrtle Cemetery in Ennis Texas. Lest We Forget.

#ww2uncovered #honorourveterans #bayloruniversity #newyorkgiants #rememberthefallen #honorthefallen #MedalofHonor #iwojima #WWII #WWIIveteran #WorldWarII #lestweforget
WWII uncovered©️ description and photos sourced by: USMC Archive, National World War II Museum, Baylor University and Ancestry Database

via: USAF Special Warfare Recruiting
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This Sunday’s Hero Story…

The President of the United States of America awarded the Air Force Cross to Captain Barry F. Crawford, Jr., United States Air Force, for extraordinary heroism in military operations against an armed enemy of the United States as Special Tactics Officer of the 21st Special Tactics Squadron, in action near Laghman Province, Afghanistan, on 4 May 2010.

On that date, while attached to Army Special Forces Operational Detachment Alpha and their Afghan partner force, Captain Crawford conducted a helicopter assault into Hendor Village. Upon landing, Captain Crawford received reports that multiple groups of armed enemy were maneuvering into prepared fighting positions in the high ground around the village. As the assault force initiated clearance operations, they began to receive a high volume of accurate machine gun and sniper fire from an enemy force well over 100 fighters. As the assault force was attacked, Captain Crawford took decisive action to save the lives of three wounded Afghan soldiers and evacuate two Afghan soldiers killed in action. Recognizing that the wounded Afghan soldiers would die without evacuation to definitive care, Captain Crawford took decisive action and ran out into the open in an effort to guide the helicopter to the landing zone. Once the pilot had eyes on his position, Captain Crawford remained exposed, despite having one of his radio antennas shot off mere inches from his face, while he vectored in the aircraft. Acting without hesitation, Captain Crawford then bounded across open terrain, engaged enemy positions with his assault rifle and called in AH-64 strafe attacks to defeat the ambush allowing the aid-and-litter teams to move toward the casualties. While the casualties were being moved the team's exposed position once again came under attack from two enemy trucks that had moved into the area and were threatening the medical evacuation landing zone. As one of the aid-and-litter teams was pinned down by enemy fire, and the medical evacuation helicopter took direct hits from small arms fire, it departed with only four casualties leaving one wounded Afghan soldier on the ground. Captain Crawford developed, coordinated, and executed a plan to suppress the enemy, enabling the helicopter to return to the hot landing zone to retrieve the last casualty. While Captain Crawford's element exfiltrated the village, the assault force conducted a two-kilometer movement over steep terrain with little to no cover. During this movement the ground force commander and Captain Crawford's element were ambushed and pinned down in the open from multiple enemy fighting positions, some as close as 150 meters away. Without regard for his own life, Captain Crawford moved alone across open terrain in the kill zone to locate and engage enemy positions with his assault rifle while directing AH-64 30-mm. strafe attacks. Continuing to move the team further over 1.5 kilometers of steep terrain with minimal cover, Captain Crawford again engaged the enemy with his assault rifle while integrating AH-64s and F-15E's in a coordinated air-to-ground attack plan that included strafing runs along with 500 and 2,0000-pound bomb and Hellfire missile strikes. Throughout the course of the ten-hour firefight, Captain Crawford braved effective enemy fire and consciously placed himself at grave risk on four occasions while controlling over 33 aircraft and more than 40 air strikes on a well-trained and well-prepared enemy force. His selfless actions and expert airpower employment neutralized a numerically superior enemy force and enabled friendly elements to exfiltrate the area without massive casualties. Through his extraordinary heroism, superb airmanship, and aggressiveness in the face of the enemy, Captain Crawford has reflected great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.

via: USAF Special Warfare Recruiting
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This Sunday’s Hero Story…

The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to (then) Technical Sergeant John A. Chapman, United States Air Force, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. Technical Sergeant Chapman distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism as an Air Force Special Tactics Combat Controller of the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, attached to a Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Team conducting reconnaissance operations in Takur Ghar, Afghanistan, on 4 March 2002. During insertion, the team’s helicopter was ambushed causing a teammate to fall into an entrenched group of enemy combatants below. Sergeant Chapman and the team voluntarily reinserted onto the snow-capped mountain, into the heart of a known enemy stronghold to rescue one of their own. Without regard for his own safety, Sergeant Chapman immediately engaged, moving in the direction of the closest enemy position despite coming under heavy fire from multiple directions. He fearlessly charged an enemy bunker, up a steep incline in thigh-deep snow and into hostile fire, directly engaging the enemy. Upon reaching the bunker, Sergeant Chapman assaulted and cleared the position, killing all enemy occupants. With complete disregard for his own life, Sergeant Chapman deliberately moved from cover only 12 meters from the enemy, and exposed himself once again to attack a second bunker, from which an emplaced machine gun was firing on his team. During this assault from an exposed position directly in the line of intense fire, Sergeant Chapman was struck and injured by enemy fire. Despite severe, mortal wounds, he continued to fight relentlessly, sustaining a violent engagement with multiple enemy personnel before making the ultimate sacrifice. By his heroic actions and extraordinary valor, sacrificing his life for the lives of his teammates, Technical Sergeant Chapman upheld the highest traditions of military service and reflected great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.

#medalofhonor #moh #neverforgotten #honor #courage #bravery #airforce #cct #combatcontroller #firstthere

Air Force Special Operations Command
Air Force Special Tactics

- AFSOC Combat Controller TSgt.John Chapman's family receives his Medal of Honor posthumously today -

This is the FIRST Medal of Honor for a Special Tactics Airman -- & the 1st Airman since the Vietnam War.

SUMMARY OF ACTION: BATTLE AT TAKUR GHAR

Sergeant Chapman enlisted in the Air Force on Sept. 27, 1985, as an information systems operator, but felt called to be part of Air Force special operations. In 1989, he cross-trained to become an Air Force combat controller.

According to friends and family, Sergeant Chapman had a tendency to make the difficult look effortless, and consistently sought new challenges. Dating back to his high school days, he made the varsity soccer squad as a freshman. Also an avid muscle-car enthusiast, he rebuilt and maintained an old Pontiac GTO.

Combat control would prove to be another instance of “making it look easy.”

Combat control training is more than two years long and amongst the most rigorous in the U.S. military. Only about one in ten Airmen who start the program graduate.

From months of rigorous physical fitness training to multiple joint schools – including military SCUBA, Army static-line and freefall, air traffic control, and combat control schools – Sergeant Chapman is remembered as someone who could do anything put in front of him.

“One remembers two types of students – the sharp ones and the really dull ones – and Chapman was in the sharp category,” said Ron Childress, a former Combat Control School instructor. Combat Control School is one of the most difficult points of a combat controller’s training program, from completing arduous tasks without sleeping for days, to running miles with weighted rucksacks and a gas mask.

“During one of his first days at Combat Control School, I noticed a slight smirk on his face like [the training] was too simple for him…and it was,” said Childress.

Following Combat Control School, Sergeant Chapman served with the 1721st Combat Control Squadron at Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina, where he met his wife, Valerie, in 1992. They had two daughters, who were the center of Sergeant Chapman’s world even when he was away from home – which was common in the combat control career field.

“He would come home from a long trip and immediately have on his father hat – feeding, bathing, reading and getting his girls ready for bed,” said Chief Master Sgt. Michael West, who served with Sergeant Chapman through Combat Control School, a three-year tour in Okinawa, Japan, and at Pope Air Force Base. “They were his life and he was proud of them…to the Air Force he was a great hero…what I saw was a great father.”

The Battle of Takur Ghar

In conjunction with Operation Anaconda in March 2002, small reconnaissance teams were tasked to establish observation posts in strategic locations in Afghanistan, and when able, direct U.S. air power to destroy enemy targets. The mountain of Takur Ghar was an ideal spot for such an observation post, with excellent visibility to key locations. For Sergeant Chapman and his joint special operations teammates, the mission on the night of March 3 was to establish a reconnaissance position on Takur Ghar and report al Qaeda movement in the Sahi-Kowt area.

“This was very high profile, no-fail job, and we picked John,” said retired Air Force Col. Ken Rodriguez, Sergeant Chapman’s commander at the time. “In a very high-caliber career field, with the highest quality of men – even then – John stood out as our guy.”

During the initial insertion onto Afghanistan’s Takur Ghar mountaintop on March 4, the MH-47 “Chinook” helicopter carrying Sergeant Chapman and the joint special operations reconnaissance team was ambushed. A rocket propelled grenade struck the helicopter and bullets ripped through the fuselage. The blast ripped through the left side of the Chinook, throwing Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Neil Roberts off the ramp of the helicopter onto the enemy-infested mountaintop below.

The severely damaged aircraft was unable to return for Petty Officer Roberts, and performed a controlled crash landing a few miles from the mountaintop. Thus began the chain of events that led to unparalleled acts of valor by numerous joint special operations forces, the deaths of seven U.S. servicemen and now, 16 years later, posthumous award of the Medal of Honor to Sergeant Chapman.

Alone, against the elements and separated from his team with enemy personnel closing in, Petty Officer Roberts was in desperate need of support. The remaining joint special operations team members, fully aware of his precarious situation, immediately began planning a daring rescue attempt that included returning to the top of Takur Ghar where they had just taken heavy enemy fire.

As the team returned to Petty Officer Roberts’ last-known position, now on a second MH-47, the entrenched enemy forces immediately engaged the approaching helicopter with heavy fire. Miraculously, the helicopter, although heavily damaged, was able to successfully offload the remaining special operations team members and return to base. Sergeant Chapman, upon exiting the helicopter, immediately charged uphill through the snow toward enemy positions while under heavy fire from three directions.

Once on the ground, the team assessed the situation and moved quickly to the high ground. The most prominent cover and concealment on the hilltop were a large rock and tree. As they approached the tree, Sergeant Chapman received fire from two enemy personnel in a fortified position. He returned fire, charged the enemy position and took out the enemy combatants within.

Almost immediately, the team began taking machine gun fire from another fortified enemy position only 12 meters away. Sergeant Chapman deliberately moved into the open to engage the new enemy position. As he heroically engaged the enemy, he was struck by a burst of gunfire and became critically injured.

Sergeant Chapman regained his faculties and continued to fight relentlessly despite his severe wounds. He sustained a violent engagement with multiple enemy fighters, for over an hour through the arrival of the quick reaction force, before paying the ultimate sacrifice. In performance of these remarkably heroic actions, Sergeant Chapman is credited with saving the lives of his teammates.

The upgrade to MOH

“John was always selfless – it didn’t just emerge on Takur Ghar – he had always been selfless and highly competent, and thank God for all those qualities,” said Col. Rodriguez. “He could have hunkered down in the bunker and waited for the (Quick Reaction Force) and (Combat Search and Rescue) team to come in, but he assessed the situation and selflessly gave his life for them.”

Sergeant Chapman was originally awarded the Air Force Cross for his actions; however, following a review of Air Force Cross and Silver Star recipients directed by then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, the Secretary of the Air Force recommended Sergeant Chapman’s Air Force Cross be upgraded to the Medal of Honor.

In accordance with Air Force policy whereby Medal of Honor recipients are automatically promoted one grade on the first day of the month following the award, Sergeant Chapman will be posthumously promoted to the rank of master sergeant on Sept. 1, 2018.

Although Sergeant Chapman will be awarded the Medal of Honor, family and friends have expressed his humility and how he would react today, if he were here.

“If John were to find out he received the Medal of Honor, he would be very humbled and honored,” said Chief Master Sergeant West. “He was just doing his job, and that’s what he would say at this moment.”

His widow, Valerie Nessel, has always known her husband was capable of such greatness, but asserts that John wouldn’t be anxious to be in the spotlight.

“[John] would want to recognize the other men that lost their lives,” said Valerie. “Even though he did something he was awarded the Medal of Honor for, he would not want the other guys to be forgotten – that they were part of the team together.”

“I think he would say that his Medal of Honor was not just for him, but for all of the guys who were lost,” she added.

In total, seven service members lost their lives during the Battle of Takur Ghar:

Petty Officer 1st Class Neil Roberts – U.S. Navy SEAL
Technical Sergeant John Chapman – U.S. Air Force combat control
Senior Airman Jason Cunningham – U.S. Air Force pararescue
Corporal Matthew Commons – U.S. Army Ranger
Sergeant Bradley Crose – U.S. Army Ranger
Specialist Marc Anderson – U.S. Army Ranger
Sergeant Philip Svitak – U.S. Army 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment

“John would have, so I’ll say it for him. Every American who set foot on that mountaintop acted with great courage and selflessness, and deserve all of our praise and admiration for the sacrifices they made,” said Col. Rodriguez.

How do you get information on communication?

If you want to learn more about civilian comms and the capabilities of different equipment, Ham Radio Crash Course on YouTube is one of the best places to start! Never stop learning, knowledge is the lightest preparedness equipment you can get!

https://lnkd.in/e2H_MrNk

hashtag#America hashtag#hamradio

Too soon?

Today's cell phone network outage should be raising some questions. Do you have a way to communicate with your local support network? Do you have ways to power those methods of communication? Do you have designated frequencies for everyone to meet on? DO YOU EVEN HAVE A COMMS PLAN OR LOCAL SUPPORT NETWORK?!

If we do not learn and adapt from our life experiences we are failing to grasp the most important lessons! NSDQ!

hashtag#America hashtag#Comms hashtag#preparedness

Small Town America = Perfect Bugout Location? Part 3

Location Location Location...

A simple rule from the battlefield for those not used to conflict,
Space = Time = Responding vs Reacting to a situation

Responding to a situation allows time to evaluate a situation, critical thought and strategy to be applied, a plan to be implemented.

Reacting means dealing with the hand you are dealt relying almost solely on training and instinct which has a significantly higher probability of a less than ideal outcome.

There is a 15-mile buffer of corn, soybeans, and wheat surrounding my small town of 16k people. While you can be more isolated by sitting in the woods somewhere there are many things you give up by doing so. If you are isolated in the woods, who will give you information about what is going on around you? Your "secret" location may not be secret and definitely won't remain a secret once you start living there. We're not even going to get into maintaining 24-hour security of a remote location in this post, if you're managing security who is working? If you're sick whos' maintaining security?

Small Town America is the perfect balance between isolation and community support. There will always be a bad actor or two...but they are well known and easy to keep track of within a community, not so much while isolated in the woods. In your environment do you have space/time? Do you still think isolation in the woods is your best option?

#America #veteran #commonsense

Small Town America = Perfect Bugout Location? Part 2

Bugout vehicle or SUPPLY DUMP for the unprepared?

I love a good kitted out vehicle BUT is it a good answer in an emergency...probably not! Planning to drive around a vehicle with supplies hanging off of it through or around people without those resources doesn't pass the common sense test. It falls into the same category as Marie Antoinette's infamous "let them eat cake" comment before she lost a vital appendage.

Humans are basic despite all of our beliefs of having a more evolved mind. Those in need/fear will fill that need through almost any means necessary. Remember everyone fighting over toilet paper? Now replace that with food, gas, housing and you can see where this goes. Everyone that has ever seen combat knows this simple truth...people survive and not always in a pretty or socially acceptable way.

Back to the kitted out vehicle with gas, food, housing hanging from every square inch... I would venture to say they're not going to remain attached very long! I'm not saying don't prepare a vehicle to give you mobility...just saying don't advertise everything you're taking with you!

#America #veteran #commonsense

Small Town America = Perfect Bugout Location?

Last week I talked about Local Support Networks when dealing with disasters either natural or manmade. While there are those that plan to "go to the woods," often this is not the ideal approach and I'm going to use this series of posts to talk about how that concept is only the preferred option as a last resort.

First lets take a look at why going mobile to a remote location in times of emergency is not ideal. If the disaster is natural or manmade there will be hinderances to travel! While you may have the perfect "prepped" vehicle the majority of the nation does not and they will be on the roads with you. If anyone has seen an "organized" evacuation BEFORE a hurricane you can understand that no 35" tired 4x4 is going to get you through TRAFFIC!

You know the condition of the resources you are leaving FROM but you do not know the condition of the resources where you are going TO! One we are talking about physical supplies but two also PEOPLE you may need to lean on! No matter how prepared you are and the size of your knowledge library you CANNOT BE AN EXPERT IN EVERYTHING!

I don't know about you but if I have a appendicitis I'm not going to have my family operating on me on the kitchen table, I want a doctor that has done it before! The people around me are great people and I know them all by name (small town America)! I know doctors, farmers, mechanics, builders, vets....all in my Local Support Network.

If bad things happen DON'T PANIC, and you don't have to ditch everything to go to a bugout location, far from it! Have a plan to support yourself in your current location, and people to lean on for specialty skills. If you don't have a PRACTICAL skill that can contribute, now would be a great time to LEARN one!

More posts on this topic to follow!

#America #Veteran #commonsense

My wife is representing Morgantown WV in the Mrs West Virginia pageant. Her platform is helping Veterans. She is currently in the top 6 but needs to be in the top 5. If you would like to sponsor or donate you can go to the link I’ve attached. One vote is $2.50. For those of you that have already voted or sponsored, thank you!

https://mrswvamerica.com/2024-contestants/ols/products/mrs-southern-wv-summer-hill

Or you can cashapp us $thejacksonfamly

Triple Canopy - Airborne, Ranger and Special Forces
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First day, Desert Storm, 1991, February 25:

Seventy miles to the east, eight Special Forces soldiers from ODA 525 landed near the small village of Swayjghazi. CWO “Bulldog” Balwanz had his team dig two hide sites, 300 yards west Highway 7. This team had the same problem as Sims’ Team. They did not think that villagers would be wandering around their position, located near a drainage ditch. However as soon as the sun came up shepherds led their goats near the Special Forces team, while women and children gathered firewood. Just like Sims’ Team, children discovered the hide site. Balwanz knew that they could not shoot children, so after they were discovered the Team moved 400 yards away and into a muddy ditch. The children returned with a young man, who spotted the Americans. “As-Salaam Aleykum” Balwanz called to him, but the young man turned and hurried back to the village.

Thirty villagers returned, armed with rifles. As they fanned out across the field four trucks arrived, along with a bus and a Land Rover. The vehicles unloaded 150 Iraqi soldiers. Balwanz called XVIII Corps headquarters and told them that he needed immediate extraction and air support. Balwanz ordered his men to pile all their rucksacks and equipment outside the ditch, and then primed it with a block of C-4 plastic explosive. The Americans only kept their weapons, ammo, and a single satellite radio. The C-4 exploded just as a group of Iraqis reached the pile.

Bullets tore through the dirt around them, as the Americans returned fire with M16s and M203 grenade launchers. The Iraqis resorted to human wave attacks, but they never quite understood the accuracy of American soldiers.

In just the first ten minutes of the fight Balwanz and his men killed about forty Iraqi soldiers. The fighting continued, with no end in sight. Though the field was littered with Iraqi bodies, the men did not see any rescue in their future. Balwanz saw his men wave farewell to each other across the sides of the ditch.

Just as the Iraqis were close enough to rush the Team, several F-16s arrived and dropped cluster bombs on the highway. Balwanz used his survival radio to direct bombs to within 200 yards of his position. A group of Iraqis charged down the ditch, trying to stay clear of the F-16s, but Balwanz and one of his sergeants stopped their attack.

Balwanz moved his men 300 yards away in all the chaos, without the Iraqis being aware of it. After an hour and a half two rescue helicopters were able to land right on top of the team, and rescue Balwanz and his men.

With 150 Iraqis dead in the field, it probably seemed to the Iraqis that they had been rescued from the demons that had been unleashed upon their small village.

HOOAH!

via: U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command
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Interesting aviation related Black History month story, and maybe the prelude to modern-day UAS!

There were many heroes and heroic sagas during World War II. But, many heroic actions received little or no recognition because the American Army was segregated; and the Soldiers and their units were black.

One such all-black unit was the 320th Very Low Altitude barrage balloon battalion. The battalion was raised up in 1942 just a year after the Coastal Artillery Corps took over responsibility for barrage balloons from the Army Air Corps.

"The 320th VLA was the only black combat unit to take part in the D-Day landings and was the only barrage balloon battalion to land on the beaches. Units from the 320th landed on both Omaha and Utah beaches and, if you look at pictures of the D-Day beachhead and you see barrage balloons there, they were manned by three to five black troops from the 320th," said Jonathan Bernstein, Army Air Defense Artillery Museum director here. "The first Soldiers from the battalion landed on Omaha Beach at 9 a.m., two hours after the invasion began. The first balloon was floated at 11:15 p.m. that night, and by the next day all of their balloons were knocked out by German artillery fire. But, they were resupplied and were able to quickly float new balloons."

via: U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command
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Interesting aviation related Black History month story, and maybe the prelude to modern-day UAS!

There were many heroes and heroic sagas during World War II. But, many heroic actions received little or no recognition because the American Army was segregated; and the Soldiers and their units were black.

One such all-black unit was the 320th Very Low Altitude barrage balloon battalion. The battalion was raised up in 1942 just a year after the Coastal Artillery Corps took over responsibility for barrage balloons from the Army Air Corps.

"The 320th VLA was the only black combat unit to take part in the D-Day landings and was the only barrage balloon battalion to land on the beaches. Units from the 320th landed on both Omaha and Utah beaches and, if you look at pictures of the D-Day beachhead and you see barrage balloons there, they were manned by three to five black troops from the 320th," said Jonathan Bernstein, Army Air Defense Artillery Museum director here. "The first Soldiers from the battalion landed on Omaha Beach at 9 a.m., two hours after the invasion began. The first balloon was floated at 11:15 p.m. that night, and by the next day all of their balloons were knocked out by German artillery fire. But, they were resupplied and were able to quickly float new balloons."

Personal Hero and Great American Story.

https://youtu.be/PoThY6gjLg8?si=st-VLBHuhRynDKbd

American Experience | PBS
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Happy Birthday George Washington!

The United States' first president was born on February 22, 1732 in Virginia. (Unless you're still following the Julian calendar -- in which case, his birthday was February 11, 1731).

Read a short bio of President Washington: http://to.pbs.org/1Bw3eQB

On this day in Air Force History
February 22, 1978:

From Vandenberg AFB, Calif., an Atlas F booster placed the first Navigation System Timing and Ranging (NAVSTAR 1), a Global Positioning Satellite, into orbit.

On 31 March, the satellite became operational. OPS 5111, also known as Navstar 1, NDS-1, GPS I-1 and GPS SVN-1, was an American navigation satellite launched in 1978 as part of the Global Positioning System development program.

It was the first GPS satellite to be launched, and one of eleven Block I demonstration satellites.

“The MEDAL OF HONOR” #488 in this Series.
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government.

Peter Joseph DALESSANDRO, US Army, TechSergeant
World War II – September 1, 1939 to September 2, 1945

Peter Joseph DALESSANDRO, US Army, TechSergeant

Date of Birth: May 18, 1918 Watervliet, New York
Date of Death: October 15, 1997 (aged 79)
Burial Location: Gerald B. H. Solomon Saratoga
National Cemetery, Schuylerville, NY

DALESSANDRO was Platoon Sergeant of First Platoon and ordered to secure an important
crossroad on the high grounds of Kalterherberg, Germany.

His Citation reads:

“He was with the 1st Platoon holding an important road junction on high ground near Kalterherberg, Germany,
on 22 December 1944.

In the early morning hours, the enemy after laying down an intense artillery and mortar barrage, followed through with an all-out attack that threatened to overwhelm the position.

T/Sgt. Dalessondro, seeing that his men were becoming disorganized, braved the intense fire to move among them with words of encouragement.

Advancing to a fully exposed observation post, he adjusted mortar fire upon the attackers, meanwhile firing upon them with his rifle and encouraging his men in halting and repulsing the attack.

Later in the day the enemy launched a second determined attack.

Once again, T/Sgt. Dalessondro, in the face of imminent death, rushed to his forward position and immediately called for mortar fire.

After exhausting his rifle ammunition, he crawled 30 yards over exposed ground to secure a light machine gun, returned to his position, and fired upon the enemy at almost point blank range until the gun jammed.

He managed to get the gun to fire 1 more burst, which used up his last round, but with these bullets he killed
4 German soldiers who were on the verge of murdering an aid man and 2 wounded soldiers in a nearby foxhole.

When the enemy had almost surrounded him, he remained alone, steadfastly facing almost certain death or capture, hurling grenades and calling for mortar fire closer and closer to his outpost as he covered the withdrawal of his platoon to a second line of defense.

As the German hordes swarmed about him, he was last heard calling for a barrage, saying, "OK, mortars, let me have it--right in this position!"

The gallantry and intrepidity shown by T/Sgt. Dalessondro against an overwhelming enemy attack saved
his company from complete rout.

He was captured during the battle and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war.”

After coming back as a war hero to Watervliet, New York, where he lived before the war, DALESSANDRO was elected to the New York Senate as Democrat Deputee, where he served for 35 years.

After he retired from the Senate, he became the Senate Minority Leader's Secretary.

He retired from public life in October 1977, but stayed active in the politic of the Albany County until his death.

DALESSANDRO was a member of the American Legion, Catholic War Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Elks.

He died in 1998.

MEDALS and AWARDS:
. Medal of Honor
. Silver Star
. Purple Heart

IN HIS HONOR:
A portion of County Route 151 alongside Albany International Airport was been named in his honor in Colonie, New York.

NOTE:
A spelling mistake made 42 years ago by the Federal government will greet travelers every time they drive to the Albany County Airport.

The small error, however, does not bother Peter J. DALESSANDRO, the county's Medal of Honor winner. He was beaming Monday morning when he and Albany County Executive James J. Coyne pulled off the red, white and blue plastic wrap to unveil the new name for the Albany County Airport access road: "Peter J. Dalessondro Boulevard."

"That's the way it's spelled on my Medal," DALESSANDRO of Loudonville said, flipping over his Medal of Honor to show where the "o" was written on the back.

The Giant Killer
February 21, 2022
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The incredible story behind this picture of two Vietnam Vets that never knew each other meet on a chance encounter and create an iconic picture.

Vietnam veteran, Eddie Robinson, in a wheelchair, watching the Chattanooga Armed Forces Day parade with his child. This photograph won a Pulitzer Prize in 1977.

Chattanooga, Tennessee. May 15, 1976. Photo by Vietnam Vet Robin Hood.

“By the spring of 1976, the Vietnam War is over. But its effects are deeply embedded in the lives of millions.
Robin Hood learned a trade in Vietnam — he went over as an Army information officer and came back as a photographer. Eddie Robinson served in Vietnam, too. But the war took something away from him: his legs.

The two Veterans crossed paths at the Armed Forces Day Parade in Chattanooga, Tenn., on May 15, 1976. Hood is walking along the sidelines, taking pictures for the Chattanooga News-Free Press.

“I had just finished photographing a group of small Vietnamese children who had been relocated to Chattanooga as war refugees and were now watching the parade and waving small American flags.” Then Hood sees Robinson, in army fatigues, a rain poncho — and a wheelchair. “The thought occurred to me that here was a man who had made a supreme sacrifice for the Freedom of those (Vietnamese) children-” Hood releases the shutter. Robinson wistfully watches the parade and protects a child from the rain.

And the truth is that all Veterans pay with their lives... Some pay all at once, while others pay over a lifetime.
- JM Storm

via: Historia Obscurum
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In February of 1945, Earl Shaffer's best friend was killed on Iwo Jima.

Earl Shaffer (pictured) and Walter Winemiller had been hiking buddies back home in Pennsylvania before the war, and together had dreamed of doing the impossible...

The more than 2,100-mile-long Appalachian Trail had been finished not long before the outbreak of the Second World War, and no one believed it was possible to hike its entire length.

Shaffer and Winemiller decided that they wanted to be the first, but the war interrupted their plans.

Earl entered the U.S. Army in 1941, and worked on radar systems throughout the Pacific Theater. He survived, but his friend did not, dying on Iwo Jima in 1945.

After his discharge, Earl felt aimless and restless, and in 1948 decided to make good on his and Walter's dream.

Starting in Georgia, Earl began walking north along the trail. He took very few supplies with him, and even hiked without socks sometimes.

Earl wrote that he took to the trail to "walk the war out of my system", and as the miles wore on, he began to find the peace that had eluded him since the war's end.

As he closed in on the northern terminus of the trail in Maine, he paused and wrote in his journal, "In very good spirits. Thinking of Walter."

It took Earl Shaffer 124 days to complete the entire Appalachian Trail, but, still believing it to be impossible, few people believed he'd actually done it.

It was only after a fierce grilling from officials of the Appalachian Trail Conference that his accomplishment was recognized officially, and Earl became famous as the first person ever to walk the complete length of the Appalachian Trail.

In 1965, Earl hit the trail again, this time hiking north to south from Maine to Georgia in 99 days.

Then in 1998, fifty years after his initial thru-hike, Earl completed the full trail again at the age of 79.

Earl Shaffer died of cancer in 2002, but his personal odyssey continues to inspire countless Veterans who, like him, turn in greater and greater numbers each year to America's wild trails, forests, and mountains to find peace and purpose, and to walk off their own wars.

Most people won't take the time to read this all the way to the end. I hope that you will.

17 INCHES" - you will not regret reading this

An excellent article to read from beginning to end.

Twenty years ago, in Nashville, Tennessee, during the first week of January, 1996, more than 4,000 baseball coaches descended upon the Opryland Hotel for the 52nd annual ABCA's convention.

While I waited in line to register with the hotel staff, I heard other more veteran coaches rumbling about the lineup of speakers scheduled to present during the weekend. One name kept resurfacing, always with the same sentiment — “John Scolinos is here? Oh, man, worth every penny of my airfare.”

Who is John Scolinos, I wondered. No matter; I was just happy to be there.

In 1996, Coach Scolinos was 78 years old and five years retired from a college coaching career that began in 1948. He shuffled to the stage to an impressive standing ovation, wearing dark polyester pants, a light blue shirt, and a string around his neck from which home plate hung — a full-sized, stark-white home plate.

Seriously, I wondered, who is this guy?

After speaking for twenty-five minutes, not once mentioning the prop hanging around his neck, Coach Scolinos appeared to notice the snickering among some of the coaches. Even those who knew Coach Scolinos had to wonder exactly where he was going with this, or if he had simply forgotten about home plate since he’d gotten on stage.

Then, finally …

“You’re probably all wondering why I’m wearing home plate around my neck,” he said, his voice growing irascible. I laughed along with the others, acknowledging the possibility. “I may be old, but I’m not crazy. The reason I stand before you today is to share with you baseball people what I’ve learned in my life, what I’ve learned about home plate in my 78 years.”

Several hands went up when Scolinos asked how many Little League coaches were in the room.

“Do you know how wide home plate is in Little League?” After a pause, someone offered, “Seventeen inches?”, more of a question than an answer.

“That’s right,” he said. “How about in Babe Ruth’s day? Any Babe Ruth coaches in the house?”

Another long pause.

“Seventeen inches?” a guess from another reluctant coach.

“That’s right,” said Scolinos.

“Now, how many high school coaches do we have in the room?”
Hundreds of hands shot up, as the pattern began to appear.

“How wide is home plate in high school baseball?”

“Seventeen inches,” they said, sounding more confident.

“You’re right!” Scolinos barked. “And you college coaches, how wide is home plate in college?”

“Seventeen inches!” we said, in unison.

“Any Minor League coaches here? How wide is home plate in pro ball?”............“Seventeen inches!”
“RIGHT! And in the Major Leagues, how wide home plate is in the Major Leagues?

“Seventeen inches!”

“SEV-EN-TEEN INCHES!” he confirmed, his voice bellowing off the walls. “And what do they do with a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over seventeen inches?”

Pause. “They send him to Pocatello!” he hollered, drawing raucous laughter. “What they don’t do is this: they don’t say, ‘Ah, that’s okay, Jimmy. If you can’t hit a seventeen-inch target? We’ll make it eighteen inches or nineteen inches. We’ll make it twenty inches so you have a better chance of hitting it. If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say twenty-five inches.'”

Pause.

“Coaches… what do we do when your best player shows up late to practice? or when our team rules forbid facial hair and a guy shows up unshaven? What if he gets caught drinking? Do we hold him accountable? Or do we change the rules to fit him? Do we widen home plate? "

The chuckles gradually faded as four thousand coaches grew quiet, the fog lifting as the old coach’s message began to unfold.

He turned the plate toward himself and, using a Sharpie, began to draw something. When he turned it toward the crowd, point up, a house was revealed, complete with a freshly drawn door and two windows.

“This is the problem in our homes today. With our marriages, with the way we parent our kids. With our discipline.

We don’t teach accountability to our kids, and there is no consequence for failing to meet standards. We just widen the plate!”

Pause.

Then, to the point at the top of the house he added a small American flag.
“This is the problem in our schools today. The quality of our education is going downhill fast and teachers have been stripped of the tools they need to be successful, and to educate and discipline our young people.
We are allowing others to widen home plate! Where is that getting us?”

Silence.

He replaced the flag with a Cross. “And this is the problem in the Church, where powerful people in positions of authority have taken advantage of young children, only to have such an atrocity swept under the rug for years. Our church leaders are widening home plate for themselves! And we allow it.”

“And the same is true with our government. Our so-called representatives make rules for us that don’t apply to themselves. They take bribes from lobbyists and foreign countries. They no longer serve us. And we allow them to widen home plate! We see our country falling into a dark abyss while we just watch.”

I was amazed. At a baseball convention where I expected to learn something about curve balls and bunting and how to run better practices, I had learned something far more valuable.

From an old man with home plate strung around his neck, I had learned something about life, about myself, about my own weaknesses and about my responsibilities as a leader. I had to hold myself and others accountable to that which I knew to be right, lest our families, our faith, and our society continue down an undesirable path.

“If I am lucky,” Coach Scolinos concluded, “you will remember one thing from this old coach today. It is this: "If we fail to hold ourselves to a higher standard, a standard of what we know to be right; if we fail to hold our spouses and our children to the same standards, if we are unwilling or unable to provide a consequence when they do not meet the standard; and if our schools & churches & our government fail to hold themselves accountable to those they serve, there is but one thing to look forward to…”

With that, he held home plate in front of his chest, turned it around, and revealed its dark black backside, "We have dark days ahead!.”

Note: Coach Scolinos died in 2009 at the age of 91, but not before touching the lives of hundreds of players and coaches, including mine. Meeting him at my first ABCA convention kept me returning year after year, looking for similar wisdom and inspiration from other coaches. He is the best clinic speaker the ABCA has ever known because he was so much more than a baseball coach.

His message was clear: “Coaches, keep your players—no matter how good they are—your own children, your churches, your government, and most of all, keep yourself at seventeen inches."
And this my friends is what our country has become and what is wrong with it today, and now go out there and fix it!

"Don't widen the plate."

USAF Special Warfare Recruiting
·
Todays Hero Story:

The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Master Sergeant Timothy A. Stamey, United States Air Force, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving with the 18th Air Support Operations Group in Afghanistan, from 8 November 2001 to 5 January 2002.

During this period, Sergeant Stamey served as Operational Detachment Alpha Tactical Air Control Party Sergeant in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. While assisting host nation forces, he courageously operated in enemy territory in advance of the forward line of troops, frequently negotiating minefields under continuous fire and threat of attack, with no immediate support.

Sergeant Stamey provided positive terminal attack control on over eighty sorties of fighters and bombers destroying over seventy-five tanks, mobile anti-aircraft systems, and vehicles, four ammo-dumps, numerous command and control facilities and bunkers, inflicting 2,139 enemy casualties. As a result, Northern Alliance forces were able to push forward cities of Taloqan, Khanabad and Konduz.

From 13 to 15 November 2001, enemy forces initiated a counter-attack. Accordingly, the team received continuous small arms, direct heavy weapons and indirect and direct tank fire. Sergeant Stamey called in strikes against the attackers until they withdrew.

On 23 November 2001, as allied forces were preparing for a final attack toward Khanabad and Konduz, Sergeant Stamey and the team members received sniper and heavy machine gun fire from enemy positions on three sides. He contacted a B-52, declared an emergency situation, and briefed the pilot.

Sergeant Stamey then assisted in suppressing the enemy with small arms fire. With his team running low on ammunition, he passed his remaining ammunition out to the team members. Without regard for his personal safety and under intense fire, Sergeant Stamey crawled to their ammunition storage point, returned to resupply the team, and then resumed accurate sniper fire while awaiting additional close air support. When the aircraft arrived, he resumed terminal attack control and destroyed the advancing enemy.

Sergeant Stamey's efforts directly contributed to the team's mission success. By his gallantry and devotion to duty, Sergeant Stamey has reflected great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.

#silverstar #honor #courage #bravery #airforce #specialwarfare #tacp #jtac #thestrongshallstand
TACP Association | TACP Foundation

OTD via: SIERRA HOTEL AERONAUTICS
·
February 20th, 1962 11:03 UTC; John Glenn boarded the Friendship 7 spacecraft.
The hatch was bolted in place at 12:10 UTC.
The gantry was rolled back at 13:20 UTC.

At 14:47 UTC, after two hours and 17 minutes of holds and three hours and 44 minutes after Glenn entered Friendship 7, engineer T.J. O'Malley pressed the button in the blockhouse launching the spacecraft.
At liftoff Glenn's pulse rate climbed to 110 beats per minute.

Thirty seconds after liftoff the General Electric-Burroughs designed guidance system locked onto a radio transponder in the booster to guide the vehicle to orbit. As the Atlas and Friendship 7 passed through Max Q Glenn reported, "It's a little bumpy about here." After Max Q the flight smoothed out. At two minutes and 14 seconds after launch, the booster engines cut off and dropped away. Then at two minutes and twenty-four seconds, the escape tower was jettisoned, right on schedule.

After the tower was jettisoned, the Atlas and spacecraft pitched over still further, giving Glenn his first view of the horizon. He described the view as "a beautiful sight, looking eastward across the Atlantic."

Glenn received word that the Atlas had boosted the MA-6 into a trajectory that would stay up for at least seven orbits. Meanwhile, computers at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland indicated that the MA-6 orbital parameters appeared good enough for almost 100 orbits.

John Glenn and "Friendship 7" made three orbits of the Earth, making Glenn the first American to orbit the Earth.

After four hours and 56 minutes in flight the spacecraft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean and was safely taken aboard the USS Noa.

On a side note, earlier in his flying career, Glenn was next assigned to VMF-311 flying the new F9F Panther jet interceptor. He flew his Panther for 63 combat missions during the Korean War, gaining the dubious nickname "magnet ass" from his apparent ability to attract enemy flak.

Twice he returned to base with over 250 flak holes in his aircraft.

www.Sierrahotel.net

via: Susan Kee - Honoring Korean War Veterans
·
"When you're young, you take more risks, and you are more brave. Maybe, this is why they send young men to war..."
- Korean War veteran

This photo of a young American Soldier serving in the Korean War, is a reminder to us of how young they were and also how brave they were. Most of them were about 18 years old and in many cases, they were only 16 or 17 years old.

Many Korean War Veterans say, "when you're young, you take more risks, you are more brave. Maybe, this is why they send young men to war..."

Many of these young men admit they did not even know where Korea was when they were sent there.
Little did they know that the fate of a Nation and its People rested on their shoulders. It is because of their great courage and sacrifices that South Korea and its People were saved from the grips of North Korea's communist regime and South Korea prospers and flourishes in Freedom today.

Over 70 years later, our Korean War Veterans are now nearing or over 90 years of age. Everyday, there are increasing number of Korean War Veterans passing away and leaving us. Over the last few years I have attended more funerals of Korean War Veterans than ever before. Sadly, I have lost count of how many funerals of Korean War Veterans I have attended in the past 10 years. My heart breaks with the passing of each Korean War hero.

Time is running out and I feel there is a great urgency to capture and document their stories. Their experiences and stories are important pieces of our history that we all should know and pass on to future generations.

The fact that South Korea is a thriving Free Nation today is only possible because of all who fought and saved her from communist tyranny during the Korean War. This incredible legacy of these young men who fought with great courage and gave their lives to save a nation from communist oppression, should never be forgotten.

Over 36,000 Americans sacrificed their lives and over 8,000 became Missing in Action with thousands others from other United Nations countries who laid down their lives to save South Korea and its People.
I am among the millions of Koreans who live in Freedom today because of their tremendous sacrifices. We, Koreans can never Thank them enough and we will never be able to repay all that was sacrificed for us.

I believe the best way we can thank and honor them is to learn their stories and make them known. Many Korean War Veterans say to me, "the Korean War is forgotten, no one knows anything about it." So, I challenge every Korean War Veteran to do something to change that. The way that our Korean War Veterans can make sure that the Korean War is not forgotten, is to share their stories and teach the rest of us, of what happened.

70 years later, I thank God that I, a Korean American woman, can meet these very heroes who saved my family, and my birth country and learn their amazing stories. Since 2012, I have interviewed hundreds of Korean War Veterans and everything I share with you on this Facebook page is a result of what I have learned from them. Our Korean War Veterans have been my greatest teachers of Korean War history. Our Korean War Veterans will continue to be my inspiration and I will continue to share their incredible stories with you, as my way of Honoring and Thanking them.

I encourage all of you who have a Korean War Veteran as a family member or friend, to please seek the Veteran and ask him if he would share anything of his Korean War experiences. Their stories are important history that should be remembered.

This post is dedicated with utmost gratitude to all the young men from the US and United Nations countries, who risked their lives and gave their lives in the Korean War.

May these Heroes, their stories and their legacies, never be forgotten. With everlasting Love, Gratitude and Respect to my greatest heroes, Susan Kee - Honoring Korean War Veterans

PHOTO CAPTION:
"American Soldier scans the area in front of his Observation Post on the front line somewhere in Korea. July 29th, 1950." (Photo Credit: U.S. Army)

#koreanwar #koreanwarveterans #koreanwarheroes #freedom #freedomisnotfree #neverforgotten

Worth a read...

Strong words from Soldiers such as Willy McTear come in Loud and Clear to Leaders, if they have the stones to face such realities and they provide us, as a Nation, with some Hard Truths that must be heard/faced.

How our Vietnam Veterans were treated upon their return from the green hell of that conflict is something every American who is worthy of such a title should be ashamed of. That must Never happen again... it is Ok, and Right even to hate War (I know that first hand), but when we hate Our Warriors, well, that Must Never Happen Again...

May God Bless our Vietnam Veterans, May He bring them a calm to their heads and hearts from such memories, and grant them Peace for the rest of their days - we must Never Forget how we treated them upon their return to our Homeland, ever...

SALUTE!

via: The Giant Killer
·
Powerful words from a Vietnam vet!

Photo of Willie McTear, McTear served in Charlie Company of the Army 9th Division's 4th Battalion, 47th Infantry Regiment, 1967.

McTear gives his opinion of the draft, the brotherhood of war, and what it was like to be spit on & cursed at upon his return from Nam.

"I’m just one of the approximate 9,000 men who were drafted and made up the Ninth Infantry Division. This is my opinion based on my personal experience.

We, the draftees, were designated well in advance for the Ninth Division to occupy the Mekong Delta.

We fought in the most difficult terrain in all of South Vietnam: jungles, mud and swamps. The only volunteers were the officers. The rest of the entire division, with exception of some non-commissioned officers, were draftees. I was in one of the first integrated companies of all draftees.

We had the best officer, Jack Benedict. Rest In Peace.

Each patrol was a suicide mission. We would have liked the choice to choose the branch of service and a Military Occupational Speciality. But that was not an option for draftees, only a carrot that was dangled to get us to enlist.

We viewed this as punishment for not volunteering. We all gave some and some gave all. R.I.P.

After several firefights we realized how the draft board and America really felt about us. Sergeant Bill Reynolds said it best. “America is not with us.”

Enough said.

Without a word said, we understood that we had a special bond and from this point on we will fight for each other because we had been abandoned.

More abandonment was revealed and manifested upon our arrival home, not as heroes but as villains. We were spat on and cursed at. Our government didn’t have the decency to give us a heads up upon our arrival.
That hurt really deep.

The wounds inflicted are invisible and manifested in many ways. Many of us grapple with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a sense of not belonging and not being good enough to be accepted as Soldiers.

So thank you draft board for souls lost and lives destroyed beyond repair.

I try not to remember the suffering you inflicted upon us, but remember our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility and the courage to endure past and current hardships.

I think I can speak for the Ninth Division, 4th Battalion, 47th Infantry and especially Charlie Company.

God did through Andrew Wiest what we could not do for ourselves when he wrote the book, The Boys of ’67: Charlie Company’s War in Vietnam.

Writer and arm-chair general Abigail Pfeiffer said it best: “Wiest addresses the ugliness and humanity of war but also the loving bonds that are created between Men who experienced war together and the indelible marks it leaves on their minds.”

And a big thank you to National Geographic for “Brothers in War,” for bringing The Boys of ’67 to life with that documentary, the story of Charlie Company.

To the draft board, we forgive you, but we hope and pray the draft board will be eliminated."
- Willie McTear

The Giant Killer book & page honors these incredible war heroes making sure their stories of valor and sacrifice are never forgotten. The book which features the incredible life of the smallest soldier, Green Beret Captain Richard Flaherty (101st Airborne & 3rd SF Group 46th Co.) and several of the other heroes featured on this page is available on Amazon & Walmart. God Bless our Vets!

via: Korean DMZ Vets

1998 - Up on the Z - Panmunjom, JSA soldiers preparing to receive remains from the Korean War that were recovered from the north. This was November 98. 69 years since the Armistice was signed, over 7000 Americans are stilling missing. #DMZ #korea #rok #JSA

via: Rebel History
February 19, 2022

80 years ago today in 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. This executive order led to the mass internment of Japanese-American citizens in ten camps spread out across the American countryside west of the Mississippi River, most infamously the Manzanar and Tule Lake camps in California.

This executive order was passed in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack of December 1941 and allowed for the removal of any and all Japanese-American citizens from their homes and their property confiscated. The text of the order itself did not actually single out Japanese-American citizens specifically, but instead delegated the authority to do so to the Secretary of War. Who did indeed single out the entire West Coast as a military zone and subsequently had 110,000 Japanese-American citizens forcibly removed from their homes and businesses and shipped to these ten camps: Manzanar, Tule Lake, Minidonka, Heart Mountain, Topaz, Gila River, Poston, Granada, Jerome and Rohwer.

This internment proved later to be a massive violation of the rights of a group of American citizens based on war hysteria. Aside from the removal of these citizens from their homes, civil rights violations within the camps were rampant. In addition to stories of occasional abuse from military personnel, there were also major riots at times. The most famous of these was the Manzanar Riot of December 1942, when the leader of the Kitchen Workers’ Union was arrested for exposing the creation of artificial shortages of meat and sugar by camp administrators, who had been stealing these food rations and selling them on the black market. Several thousand internees marched in protest of his arrest, and were attacked as a result by military police with tear gas. Two marchers were also fatally shot in the confrontation.

In December of 1944, Major General Henry C. Pratt issued Public Proclamation No. 21, which stated that all internees were free to return to their former lives, which in most cases either no longer existed or would never be the same as of January of 1945. Only ten U.S citizens were arrested as Japanese informants throughout all of World War Two, and not a single one was Japanese. Eventually, an investigation by the Carter administration concluded that the internment of these citizens was unwarranted, and Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Rights Act of 1988, which paid twenty thousand US dollars to each surviving internee and issued a public apology from the federal government.

[Online References]
(https://www.history.com/.../roosevelt-signs-executive...)
(https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=74 )
(http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5154 )
Authored by DK

The song written by 8 Warriors and the song writer for Jimmy Buffett that tells our healing journey with only OUR WORDS! We know we're not poets but it speaks in warrior language that only those who have "been there" can speak! Find hope and joy today. NSDQ Serving!

#bouldercrestfoundation #songwritingwithsoldiers #America #healing

Black Helicopters + President Reagan = Happy Presidents Day!

Hooter Bros! Night Stalkers Don't Quit Serving!

160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne)

#America #patriot #veteran #NSDQ

https://youtu.be/3q4GpjPdWKI?si=v6auOXkZtyg9_-gG

Happy Monday, and no I don't expect you to be working today! Just needed to get this out.

This is one of the most impactful open source videos (Mike "Garand Thumb" Jones) that gives the current situation of drone warfare in Ukraine and how quickly the world of strategy and tactics is evolving, faster than any other period in history.

Key points:
-Current uses of drones (future ACFT will only enhance/scale these missions)
-Noise signature of different drones = different threats and responses
-Counter drone tactics
-Non-western tactics for mass infantry and escalation
-The old is new again with trench warfare but with new technology
-What is cutting edge now will be accepted doctrine in 2-5 years, faster if conflict breaks out
-Mines on the battlefield/cluster munitions
-Use of smoke to break contact
-Frag!

Our thinking will have to be innovative and adaptive to win in any near peer engagement, this is not the warfare of Global War On Terror! If we stay rooted in the thinking of today's problems and not on the missions/challenges we will face in the future we will loose...and yes that is a possibility...

https://youtu.be/Tge7YMi4gJs?si=i6iy9HJGSUFhgpOV

#America #Veteran #Patriot #Ukraine #Tactics

Enjoying our Freedom on Presidents Day, because of YOU.

Thank YOU! To all those that continue to serve American citizens and each other.

U.S. Army Special Operations Command
#DIDYOUKNOW

The 2nd Ranger Infantry Company was the first, the last and only all-African American Ranger Infantry Company (Airborne) in the United States Army. Affectionately known as “Buffalo Soldiers,” the company was activated in October 1950 and fought in the Korean War before being deactivated in August 1951. During its existence, the unit earned four campaign streamers and multiple combat ribbons for several battles. Their audacity and valor have inspired generations of U.S. Army Rangers ever since.

#BlackHistoryMonth
#ARSOFHistory
#ARSOF
#The75thRangerRegiment
#UnitedStatesSpecialOperationsCommand(USSOCOM)

Retired Chief Petty Officer David Goggins is the only person to ever complete US Army Ranger School, US Air Force Tactical Control Party Training, and US Navy Seal Training. Individually, each of these training programs are nearly impossible to complete. He not only completed the training, but served honorably, completing numerous combat missions in each capacity. David Goggins is an American hero and we may never know the true extent of all he has done for our country. He is a Guinness World Record holder and widely regarded as “the baddest man on the planet”. We salute you!!!

Fallen Yet Not Forgotten
- February 13, 2022

This photo, taken on January 30, 1945, shows Robert Prince, a Captain of the Army's elite 6th Ranger Battalion. He was chosen by Lt. Col. Henry Mucci to plan and lead the rescue of 500+ POWs at Cabanatuan POW camp in the Philippines. To date, it remains the most successful rescue mission in US Military history. The Raid at Cabanatuan was depicted in the 1945 film "Back to Bataan" and the 2005 film "The Great Raid that featured James Franco playing Prince.

For his heroic actions, Capt. Robert Prince was awarded the second-highest award for valor, the Distinguished Service Cross. He survived the war and went home. This true American hero passed away on January 1, 2009, at age of 89.

We salute and honor his service!
https://fallenyetnotforgotten.com

via: Military Historia:

During World War II, America cranked out some 640,000 Jeeps produced by both Willys-Overland and Ford. Once assembled, they could be stacked for transport overseas.

https://militaryhistoria.com/the-jeep-the-legend-of-ww2-beyond/?fbclid=IwAR1btdCNeZ-kkQbCn9t2qduer1cz57TNR7MI5RCAx8X9umSBBjuBH6U72PE

Welcoming 10.40.10 fitness and there partner company Battle Bars to the Fall In family. Excited to announce, CEO Alex Witt and team, will be bringing their nutrition bars and new fitness app to Fall In Veteran and supporting those looking to “Train American.” Proud that Patriots are joining the movement.

Character only a few understand. Matched with the loyalty we promise every American.

Fall In and Stand to.

The Founding of the United States:

On This Day in History > January 25, 1776, the first national memorial is ordered by Congress.

"On January 25, 1776, the Continental Congress authorizes the first national Revolutionary War memorial in honor of Brigadier General Richard Montgomery, who had been killed during an assault on Quebec on December 31, 1775.

Montgomery, along with Benedict Arnold, led a two-pronged invasion of Canada in late 1775. Before joining Arnold at Quebec, Montgomery successfully took Montreal. But the Patriot assault on Quebec failed, and Montgomery became one of the first generals of the American Revolution to lose his life on the battlefield.

When word of his death reached Philadelphia, Congress voted to create a monument to Montgomery’s memory and entrusted Benjamin Franklin to secure one of France’s best artists to craft it. Franklin hired King Louis XV’s personal sculptor, Jean Jacques Caffieri, to design and build the monument.

Upon its completion in 1778, the Montgomery memorial was shipped to America and arrived at Edenton, North Carolina, where it remained for several years. Although originally intended for Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Congress eventually decided to place the memorial in New York City. In 1788, it was installed under the direction of Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant beneath the portico of St. Paul’s Chapel, which served as George Washington’s church during his time in New York as the United States’ first president in 1789, and where it remains to this day. Montgomery’s body, which was originally interred on the site of his death in Quebec, was moved to St. Paul’s in 1818."
____________________________________________________________________
Today's Inspirational Quote from Our Flag
​"He was brave, he was able, he was humane, he was generous, but still, he was only a brave, able, humane, and generous REBEL."
- Stated by British Prime Minister Lord North upon hearing of General Montgomery's death in battle. Obviously, Lord North was upset that this long ago British soldier had decided to leave the British Army and join the cause for independence of the American colonies

Painting by John Trumbull of General Montgomery being killed during the 1775 attack on Quebec

LESSONS IN LEADERSHIP: From a Janitor
By Colonel James E. Moschgat, Commander of the 12th Operations Group, 12th Flying Training Wing, Randolph Air Force Base, Texas

William “Bill” Crawford certainly was an unimpressive figure, one you could easily overlook during a hectic day at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Mr. Crawford, as most of us referred to him back in the late 1970s, was our squadron janitor.

While we cadets busied ourselves preparing for academic exams, athletic events, Saturday morning parades and room inspections, or never-ending leadership classes, Bill quietly moved about the squadron mopping and buffing floors, emptying trash cans, cleaning toilets, or just tidying up the mess 100 college-age kids can leave in a dormitory. Sadly, and for many years, few of us gave him much notice, rendering little more than a passing nod or throwing a curt, “G’morning!” in his direction as we hurried off to our daily duties.

Why? Perhaps it was because of the way he did his job-he always kept the squadron area spotlessly clean, even the toilets and showers gleamed. Frankly, he did his job so well, none of us had to notice or get involved.

After all, cleaning toilets was his job, not ours. Maybe it was is physical appearance that made him disappear into the background. Bill didn’t move very quickly and, in fact, you could say he even shuffled a bit, as if he suffered from some sort of injury. His gray hair and wrinkled face made him appear ancient to a group of young cadets. And his crooked smile, well, it looked a little funny. Face it, Bill was an old man working in a young person’s world. What did he have to offer us on a personal level?

Finally, maybe it was Mr. Crawford’s personality that rendered him almost invisible to the young people around him. Bill was shy, almost painfully so. He seldom spoke to a cadet unless they addressed him first, and that didn’t happen very often. Our janitor always buried himself in his work, moving about with stooped shoulders, a quiet gait, and an averted gaze. If he noticed the hustle and bustle of cadet life around him, it was hard to tell. So, for whatever reason, Bill blended into the woodwork and became just another fixture around the squadron. The Academy, one of our nation’s premier leadership laboratories, kept us busy from dawn till dusk. And Mr. Crawford...well, he was just a janitor.

That changed one fall Saturday afternoon in 1976. I was reading a book about World War II and the tough Allied ground campaign in Italy, when I stumbled across an incredible story. On September 13, 1943, a Private William Crawford from Colorado, assigned to the 36th Infantry Division, had been involved in some bloody fighting on Hill 424 near Altavilla, Italy. The words on the page leapt out at me: “in the face of intense and overwhelming hostile fire... with no regard for personal safety... on his own initiative, Private Crawford single-handedly attacked fortified enemy positions.” It continued, “for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty, the President of the United States...”

“Holy cow,” I said to my roommate, “you’re not going to believe this, but I think our janitor is a Medal of Honor winner.” We all knew Mr. Crawford was a WWII Army vet, but that didn’t keep my friend from looking at me as if I was some sort of alien being. Nonetheless, we couldn’t wait to ask Bill about the story on Monday. We met Mr. Crawford bright and early Monday and showed him the page in question from the book, anticipation and doubt in our faces. He starred at it for a few silent moments and then quietly uttered something like, “Yep, that’s me.”

Mouths agape, my roommate and I looked at one another, then at the book, and quickly back at our janitor.

Almost at once we both stuttered, “Why didn’t you ever tell us about it?” He slowly replied after some thought,

“That was one day in my life and it happened a long time ago.”

I guess we were all at a loss for words after that. We had to hurry off to class and Bill, well, he had chores to attend to. However, after that brief exchange, things were never again the same around our squadron. Word spread like wildfire among the cadets that we had a hero in our midst-Mr. Crawford, our janitor, had won the Medal! Cadets who had once passed by Bill with hardly a glance, now greeted him with a smile and a respectful, “Good morning, Mr. Crawford.”

Those who had before left a mess for the “janitor” to clean up started taking it upon themselves to put things in order. Most cadets routinely stopped to talk to Bill throughout the day and we even began inviting him to our formal squadron functions. He’d show up dressed in a conservative dark suit and quietly talk to those who approached him, the only sign of his heroics being a simple blue, star-spangled lapel pin.

Almost overnight, Bill went from being a simple fixture in our squadron to one of our teammates. Mr. Crawford changed too, but you had to look closely to notice the difference. After that fall day in 1976, he seemed to move with more purpose, his shoulders didn’t seem to be as stooped, he met our greetings with a direct gaze and a stronger “good morning” in return, and he flashed his crooked smile more often. The squadron gleamed as always, but everyone now seemed to notice it more. Bill even got to know most of us by our first names, something that didn’t happen often at the Academy. While no one ever formally acknowledged the change, I think we became Bill’s cadets and his squadron.

As often happens in life, events sweep us away from those in our past. The last time I saw Bill was on graduation day in June 1977. As I walked out of the squadron for the last time, he shook my hand and simply said, “Good luck, young man.” With that, I embarked on a career that has been truly lucky and blessed. Mr. Crawford continued to work at the Academy and eventually retired in his native Colorado where he resides today, one of four Medal of Honor winners living in a small town.

A wise person once said, “It’s not life that’s important, but those you meet along the way that make the difference.” Bill was one who made a difference for me. While I haven’t seen Mr. Crawford in over twenty years, he’d probably be surprised to know I think of him often. Bill Crawford, our janitor, taught me many valuable, unforgettable leadership lessons. Here are ten I’d like to share with you.

1. Be Cautious of Labels. Labels you place on people may define your relationship to them and bound their potential. Sadly, and for a long time, we labeled Bill as just a janitor, but he was so much more. Therefore, be cautious of a leader who callously says, “Hey, he’s just an Airman.” Likewise, don’t tolerate the O-1, who says, “I can’t do that, I’m just a lieutenant.”

2. Everyone Deserves Respect. Because we hung the “janitor” label on Mr. Crawford, we often wrongly treated him with less respect than others around us. He deserved much more, and not just because he was a Medal of Honor winner. Bill deserved respect because he was a janitor, walked among us, and was a part of our team.

3. Courtesy Makes a Difference. Be courteous to all around you, regardless of rank or position. Military customs, as well as common courtesies, help bond a team. When our daily words to Mr. Crawford turned from perfunctory “hellos” to heartfelt greetings, his demeanor and personality outwardly changed. It made a difference for all of us.

4. Take Time to Know Your People. Life in the military is hectic, but that’s no excuse for not knowing the people you work for and with. For years a hero walked among us at the Academy and we never knew it. Who are the heroes that walk in your midst?

5. Anyone Can Be a Hero. Mr. Crawford certainly didn’t fit anyone’s standard definition of a hero. Moreover, he was just a private on the day he won his Medal. Don’t sell your people short, for any one of them may be the hero who rises to the occasion when duty calls. On the other hand, it’s easy to turn to your proven performers when the chips are down, but don’t ignore the rest of the team. Today’s rookie could and should be tomorrow’s superstar.

6. Leaders Should Be Humble. Most modern day heroes and some leaders are anything but humble, especially if you calibrate your “hero meter” on today’s athletic fields. End zone celebrations and self-aggrandizement are what we’ve come to expect from sports greats. Not Mr. Crawford-he was too busy working to celebrate his past heroics. Leaders would be well-served to do the same.

7. Life Won’t Always Hand You What You Think You Deserve. We in the military work hard and, dang it, we deserve recognition, right? However, sometimes you just have to persevere, even when accolades don’t come your way. Perhaps you weren’t nominated for junior officer or airman of the quarter as you thought you should - don’t let that stop you.

8. Don’t pursue glory; pursue excellence. Private Bill Crawford didn’t pursue glory; he did his duty and then swept floors for a living. No job is beneath a Leader. If Bill Crawford, a Medal of Honor winner, could clean latrines and smile, is there a job beneath your dignity? Think about it.

9. Pursue Excellence. No matter what task life hands you, do it well. Dr. Martin Luther King said, “If life makes you a street sweeper, be the best street sweeper you can be.” Mr. Crawford modeled that philosophy and helped make our dormitory area a home.

10. Life is a Leadership Laboratory. All too often we look to some school or PME class to teach us about leadership when, in fact, life is a leadership laboratory. Those you meet everyday will teach you enduring lessons if you just take time to stop, look and listen. I spent four years at the Air Force Academy, took dozens of classes, read hundreds of books, and met thousands of great people. I gleaned leadership skills from all of them, but one of the people I remember most is Mr. Bill Crawford and the lessons he unknowingly taught. Don’t miss your opportunity to learn.

Bill Crawford was a janitor. However, he was also a teacher, friend, role model and one great American hero. Thanks, Mr. Crawford, for some valuable leadership lessons.

Dale Pyeatt, Executive Director of the National Guard Association of Texas, comments: And now, for the “rest of the story”: Pvt William John Crawford was a platoon scout for 3rd Platoon of Company L 1 42nd Regiment 36th Division (Texas National Guard) and won the Medal Of Honor for his actions on Hill 424, just 4 days after the invasion at Salerno.

On Hill 424, Pvt Crawford took out 3 enemy machine guns before darkness fell, halting the platoon’s advance.
Pvt Crawford could not be found and was assumed dead. The request for his MOH was quickly approved.

Major General Terry Allen presented the posthumous MOH to Bill Crawford’s father, George, on 11 May 1944 in Camp (now Fort) Carson, near Pueblo. Nearly two months after that, it was learned that Pvt Crawford was alive in a POW camp in Germany. During his captivity, a German guard clubbed him with his rifle. Bill overpowered him, took the rifle away, and beat the guard unconscious. A German doctor’s testimony saved him from severe punishment, perhaps death. To stay ahead of the advancing Russian army, the prisoners were marched 500 miles in 52 days in the middle of the German winter, subsisting on one potato a day. An allied tank column liberated the camp in the spring of 1945, and Pvt Crawford took his first hot shower in 18 months on VE Day. Pvt Crawford stayed in the army before retiring as a MSG and becoming a janitor. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan officially presented the MOH to Bill Crawford.

William Crawford passed away in 2000. He is the only U.S. Army veteran and sole Medal of Honor winner to be buried in the cemetery of the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Today in History:

- On today’s date 169 years ago, Tuesday, January 23, 1855, noted American gunsmith, firearms designer, & founder of the Browning Arms Company John Moses Browning (1855-1926) was born at Ogden City in Utah Territory.

Browning is famous for developing many varieties of military & civilian firearms, cartridges, & firearms mechanisms, many of which are still in use around the world. He is probably the most important figure in the development of modern automatic & semi-automatic firearms & he is credited with 128 firearms patents.

Among John Browning’s most successful designs are the Model ‘94 Winchester lever-action rifle, the Colt .45 M1911 semi-automatic pistol, the Browning 9mm P-35 Hi-Power semi-automatic pistol, the Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun, the Browning Automatic Rifle, & the Browning Auto-5 semi-automatic shotgun.

The undated studio photograph depicts John M. Browning with one of his namesake Browning M1917 water-cooled heavy machine guns.

Pilgrim’s Progress
By MATT GALLAGHER

Home Fires features the writing of men and women who have returned from wartime service in the United States military.

I’m one of the lucky ones.

War destroys without regard to what’s fair or just. This isn’t a new or terribly profound revelation, but witnessing it, and sometimes participating in it, makes it seem like both. In a professional military, the entire point of training is to minimize the nature of chance in combat. But all the training in the world will never eliminate happenstance in war, or even render it negligible.

I returned from Iraq with all of my limbs, most of my mental faculties and a book deal. I wake up every morning in an apartment in New York City. I’m working toward a graduate degree. I have a beautiful fiancée who reminds me to slow down when I’m drinking. And every day I feel more and more detached and removed from the Iraq dustlands I promised myself I’d shed like snakeskin if I ever got back home.

Like I said, one of the lucky ones.

I didn’t really appreciate the concept of becoming ‘unstuck’ in time until I returned from war.

Meanwhile, the black bracelet on my wrist carries the names of four individuals who weren’t so lucky. One got shot through the armpit with a ricocheting bullet and bled out on an outpost roof. Two drove over the wrong piece of street at the wrong time and likely didn’t even know it was a roadside bomb that ended it all. The last one made it through 15 months of war only to get drunk one night back in the States and shoot himself in the face during an emotional breakdown.

In Kurt Vonnegut’s classic novel “Slaughterhouse-Five,” the protagonist Billy Pilgrim becomes “unstuck in time.” Much of the novel focuses on Pilgrim’s experience of the fire bombing of Dresden in World War II, something Vonnegut himself survived as an American prisoner of war. Like many American literature students, I was required to read “Slaughterhouse-Five” in high school, and if memory serves, I even enjoyed that assignment at 16. But I didn’t really appreciate the concept of becoming unstuck in time until I returned from war. Just like anyone who poured blood, sweat and tears into missions in faraway foreign lands, I left part of myself over there, and it remains there, while the rest of me goes about my business 6000 miles away — a paradox of time and space Vonnegut captured all too brilliantly.

I’ve walked by manholes in New York City streets and smelled the sludge river I walked along in north Baghdad in 2008. I’ve stopped dead in my tracks to watch a street hawker in Midtown, a large black man with a rolling laugh and a British accent, who looked just like my old scout platoon’s interpreter. And I’ve had every single slamming dumpster lid — every single damn one — rip off my fatalistic cloak and reveal me to be, still, a panicked young man desperate not to die because of an unseen I.E.D.

Despite these metaphysical dalliances with time travel the names on my black bracelet are, in fact, stuck in time. Or, more accurately, stuck in memory, where they’ll fade out and disappear like distant stars before becoming shadows of the men we served with and knew.

So it goes.

So it went for my friend Rob. During the invasion of Iraq in 2003 his unit drove through a neighborhood near Baghdad airport in doorless Humvees. A civilian vehicle pulled out in front of them, temporarily blocking their path. A group of teenage boys stood aimlessly on the street, and one exchanged nods with Rob, who sat in the front passenger seat. Rob glanced away quickly, to see if the civilian vehicle had moved yet, and then, suddenly, a grenade bounced off of the inside of the windshield and into the vehicle. Rob followed the small plume of smoke and rattling noises, grabbing the grenade from behind the radio to his left. He picked it up, intending to throw it back out of the vehicle, but it slipped out of his hand and dropped, landing between his feet. He reached back down for it, fingers just meeting casing when it exploded. He lost a hand and suffered severe nerve damage in his right leg as a result.

Back from Iraq, I carried my self-righteousness around in the form of a portable soapbox.

Recounting the story over drinks one night Rob said he wished he and the other soldiers in his Humvee hadn’t taken their eyes off of the Iraqi teens. Then he added that “luck was for sure on our side that day,” because had he not dropped the grenade but tossed it away as planned, it would’ve exploded at head level, likely killing him and possibly the Humvee’s driver, as well. He laughed deeply, and clinked his prosthetic hook against my pint glass.

Everything’s relative, I guess. Especially luck.

If chance is war’s dirty little not-so-secret, self-righteousness is the veterans’. Upon returning to American society, it’s all too easy to fall into pitfalls about what civilians get or don’t get. Nine years of war fought by an all-volunteer force that constitutes less than 1 percent of the total population has augmented this disconnect between soldier and citizen; in many ways, a separate warrior caste has evolved into being. The impact on our republic of fighting protracted, landlocked wars with an all-volunteer force can be debated. The impact of it on those actually fighting can’t be.

After returning from Iraq and separating from active duty, I carried my self-righteousness around in the form a portable soapbox for many months. Occasionally this proved necessary — sometimes the pejorative “they” really didn’t get it. There was the drunk Wall Street-type who told me, without a trace of irony but with plenty of faux-jingoist twang, “it must be awesome to kill hajjis.” And there was the too-cool-ultra-progressive who couldn’t help but smirk condescendingly while pointing out that “we” signed on the dotted line, after all, so “we” should’ve been ready for anything and everything before we departed for Iraq. Then, as passive-aggressively as possible, he analogized modern American soldiers to mercenaries.

Though I’m certainly no tough guy, the primal urge to put both of these guys’ faces through the nearest window was very real and very pointed. I didn’t do that though, for better or worse. Instead, I told the former that some of my best friends were Muslim and that such a black-and-white understanding of the war is what got us into so much trouble over there in the first place. For the latter, I nodded and smiled, telling him that for someone who hadn’t left the borough of Brooklyn in over a decade, he certainly possessed one hell of a world view.

Neither talked to me again. So it goes.

Most of the time though, my soapbox and self-righteousness and sardonic wrath were unnecessary. Not because people didn’t get it, but because I finally realized it wasn’t their fault they didn’t get it. They’re not supposed to get it — this isn’t Sparta, nor is it even post-World War II America. Sometimes — many times, actually — they wanted to get it. Slowly and surely, I found the all too obvious solution of simply answering people’s questions as considerately as I could, careful not to ascribe my experiences as universal to all of Iraq or all of Afghanistan. I’d rather ramble, I reasoned, and provide nuance and opinion than serve as the representational hollow caricature born only to sacrifice for fast food and online shopping and general postmodern excess.

Just one man’s solution to a litany of complexities, I guess.

I got unstuck in time again last month, right when winter graced the Eastern seaboard with its presence. I was getting out of the Union Square subway station, headphones in, mind tuned out, stomach craving a cheeseburger. I don’t qualify as a full-fledged New Yorker yet, but I’ve lived here long enough not to be disturbed by the sight of a cold and decrepit-looking homeless person. So, coming up the subway steps, I strolled by a young man with a scraggly yellow beard wrapped in an urban camo jacket without anything more than a passing glance. He held a cardboard sign marked in black marker with the words “IRAQ VET, HOMELESS, PLEASE HELP.” I didn’t help, nor did I give the man a second thought until two blocks later, when I cynically scolded him in my head for using the veteran title to his advantage.

Coming to terms with this permanent state of combat readiness has made me realize just how much I miss war (or parts of it).

“But what if he really is an Iraq vet?” I asked myself. I’d read the statistics — according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, more than 100,000 veterans are homeless on a given night in America; the figure is twice that over the course of the month. Not all of the unlucky ones are dead, after all. So the old platoon leader in me kicked in, and I turned back around, to see if I could verify any of this. Certainly a legitimate vet would remember names, units, places … something. And then? And then I’d help. Or I’d bring him to the people or organizations who could help. Maybe, if he seemed legit and came across as relatively stable, I could talk my fiancée into letting him sleep on the couch for a night or two. Just to get him back on his feet, of course.

He was no longer there. Or anywhere nearby. Maybe someone else had helped him. But probably not. I initially breathed out a sigh of relief, and then a sigh of shame. I thought about how these wars may be coming to some sort of end, but veterans’ issues for my generation are really just beginning. I only deployed for 15 months, and had all kinds of support systems in place upon my return. What about the men and women who have done nothing but deploy, redeploy, rinse and repeat since 9/11? What about those soldiers who return to broken homes, mountains of debt, no professional goals beyond not going to war again? What about them?

I smacked my lips and tasted guilt. Then I walked to a restaurant and ate a cheeseburger.

Like the veterans who came before and the ones who will come after, I walk the streets of New York City forever the soldier I no longer am. Oh, I’m no longer lean, hungry, or clean-cut — I’ve put on a little weight, grown my hair out and sport a patchy beard that can best be described as pirate-fashionable. But I still scan crowds for suicide vests, seek out corner vantage points like a bloodhound and value competency in a human being above all else. Jumping back into civilian life headlong, like I originally attempted, proved both disastrous and shortsighted. And coming to terms with this permanent state of combat readiness has made me realize just how much I miss war (or parts of it), and how lucky — and twisted — I am to be able to even write those words. I miss the camaraderie. I miss the raw excitement. I miss the Iraqi locals, from the kids who walked our daytime patrols with us to the frightened mothers who just wanted us to go away. I miss the soldiers, the N.C.O.’s, and even some of the officers. I miss that daily sense of purpose, survive or die, that simply can’t be replicated in everyday existence. I miss standing for something more than myself, even if I never figured out just what the hell that something was supposed to be.

I don’t miss all of it, of course. I got out of the Army for some very good reasons. Love. Sanity. Bureaucracy. A Holy Trinity for our time. But there is a messy ambiguity at the core of this that must be conveyed, if not necessarily understood.

I’m one of the lucky ones. Unstuck in time. Stuck with chance. Stuck at war. Considering the alternatives, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

WWII hero, 1SG Leonard A. Funk, LAUGHED his way to earning a Medal of Honor....

One of the more darkly humorous episodes of warfare occurred on 29 January 1945, in Holzheim, Belgium. Funk and his paratroopers were assaulting the town, and he left a rearguard of 4 men, while he scouted ahead to link up with other units. Those 4 men had to guard about 80 German prisoners. Another German patrol of 10 happened by and overwhelmed the 4 Americans, freeing the prisoners and arming them. When Funk returned around the corner of a building, he was met by a German officer with an MP-40 in his stomach.

The German shouted something at him, and Funk looked around. There were now about 90 Germans, about half of them armed, and 5 Americans, disarmed except for Funk. The German shouted the same thing at him again, and Funk started laughing. He claimed later that he tried to stop laughing, but the fact that the German was shouting in German touched a nerve. Funk didn’t speak German. Neither did any of the other Americans.

Why would the German officer expect him to understand? His laughter and non-compliance caused some of the Germans to start laughing. Funk shrugged at them and started laughing so hard he had to bend over. He called to his men, “I don’t understand what he’s saying!” All the while, the German officer was shouting more and more angrily. Then, quick as lightning, Funk swung his Thompson submachine gun up and emptied the entire clip into the German, 30 rounds of .45 ACP. Before the other Germans could react, he had yanked the clip out and slammed another in and opened fire on all of them, screaming to his men to pick up weapons.

They did so, and proceeded to gun down 20 men. The rest dropped their weapons and put their hands up.
Then Funk started laughing again and said to his men, “That was the stupidest F*#!?#* thing I’ve ever seen!”

The Morse Code system was created in the 1830s by Samuel Morse with the assistance of Alfred Lewis Vail and later improved by American scientist Joseph Henry. As telecommunications evolved, this code became a pivotal means of long-distance communication during multiple conflicts.

On this “National Learn Your Name in Morse Code Day,” introduce, or perhaps reintroduce, yourself to this valuable and historical method of communication. The Museum’s website has a student guide to Morse Code here:
nmmc_morse_code_booklet_final_1.pdf (usmcmuseum.com)

As the legacy of the Morse Code lives on, be sure to visit the National Museum of the Marine Corps and tour our galleries to see how.

: Lewis B. Puller’s Pocket Signal Book from 1914.
(Marine Corps History Division)

The incredible story of POW Navy Pilot Dieter Dengler and his escape from a prison camp in Laos.

Dieter Dengler (May 22, 1938 – February 7, 2001) was a German-born United States Navy aviator during the Vietnam War and, following six months of imprisonment and torture, became the first captured U.S. airman to escape enemy captivity during the war. Of seven prisoners of war who escaped together from a Pathet Lao prison camp in Laos, Dengler was one of two survivors (the other was Thailand citizen Phisit Intharathat). Dengler was rescued after 23 days on the run.

Dieter Dengler was born and raised in the small town of Wildberg, in the Black Forest region of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. He grew up not knowing his father, who had been drafted into the German army in 1939 and was killed during World War II on the Eastern Front during the winter of 1943/44. Dengler became very close to his mother and brothers. Dengler's maternal grandfather, Hermann Schnuerle, claimed he refused to vote for Adolf Hitler in the 1934 elections. Subsequently he was paraded around town with a placard around his neck, was spat upon, and was then sent to labor in a rock mine for a year. Dengler credited his grandfather's resolve as a major inspiration during his time in Laos. His grandfather's steadfastness despite the great risks was one reason Dengler refused a North Vietnamese demand that he sign a document condemning American aggression in Southeast Asia.

Dieter grew up in extreme poverty but always found ways to help his family survive. Dieter and his brothers would go into bombed-out buildings, tear off wallpaper, and bring it to their mother to boil for the nutrients in the wheat-based wallpaper paste. When members of the small group of Moroccans who lived in the area would slaughter sheep for their meals, Dieter would sneak over to their lodgings to take the scraps and leftovers they would not eat and his mother would make dinner from them. He also built a bicycle by scavenging from dumps. Dieter was apprenticed to a blacksmith at the age of 14. The blacksmith and the other boys, who worked six days a week building giant clocks and clock faces to repair German cathedrals, regularly beat him. Later in life Dieter thanked his former master "for his disciplined training and for helping Dieter become more capable, self-reliant and yes, 'tough enough to survive'".

After seeing an advertisement in an American magazine, expressing a need for pilots, he decided to go to the United States. Although a family friend agreed to sponsor him, he lacked money for passage and came up with a plan to independently salvage brass and other metals to sell.

In 1956, when he turned 18 and upon completion of his apprenticeship, Dengler hitchhiked to Hamburg and spent two weeks surviving on the streets before the ship set sail for New York City. While on the ship he saved fruit and sandwiches for the coming days and when going through customs the agent was astonished when the food tumbled out of his shirt. He lived on the streets of Manhattan for just over a week and eventually found his way to an Air Force recruiter. He was assured that piloting aircraft was what the Air Force was all about so he enlisted in June 1957 and went to basic training at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas. After basic training, Dengler spent two years peeling potatoes and then transferred to a motor pool as a mechanic. His qualifications as a machinist led to an assignment as a gunsmith. He passed the test for aviation cadets but was told that only college graduates were selected to be pilots and his enlistment expired before he was selected for pilot training.

After his discharge Dengler joined his brother working in a bakery shop near San Francisco and enrolled in San Francisco City College, then transferred to the College of San Mateo, where he studied aeronautics. Upon completion of two years of college he applied for the US Navy aviation cadet program and was accepted.
Dengler would do whatever it took to become a pilot. In his inaugural flight at primary flight training, for example, the instructor told Dengler that if he became airsick and vomited in the cockpit that he would receive a "down" on his record. Students were only allowed three downs then they would wash out of flight training. The instructor took the plane through spins and loops causing Dengler to become dizzy and disoriented. Knowing he was about to vomit and not wanting to receive a "down", Dengler took off his boot, threw up into it and put it back on. At the end of the flight the instructor checked the cockpit and could smell the vomit, but couldn't find any evidence of it. He didn't get a "down".

After his completion of flight training Dengler went to the Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas for training as an attack pilot in the Douglas AD Skyraider. He joined VA-145 while the squadron was on shore duty at Naval Air Station Alameda, California. In 1965 the squadron joined the carrier USS Ranger. In December the carrier set sail for the coast of Vietnam. He was stationed initially at Dixie Station, off South Vietnam then moved north to Yankee Station for operations against North Vietnam.

On February 1, 1966, the day after the carrier began flying missions from Yankee Station, Lieutenant, Junior Grade Dengler launched from the Ranger with three other aircraft on an interdiction mission against a truck convoy that had been reported in North Vietnam. Thunderstorms forced the pilots to divert to their secondary target, a road intersection located west of the Mu Gia Pass in Laos. At the time, U.S. air operations in Laos were classified "secret". Visibility was poor due to smoke from burning fields, and upon rolling in on the target, Dengler and the remainder of his flight lost sight of one another. Visibility was poor, and as Dengler rolled his Skyraider in on the target after flying for two-and-a-half hours into enemy territory, he was hit by anti-aircraft fire.

"There was a large explosion on my right side," he remembered when interviewed shortly before his death in 2001.

It was like lightning striking. The right wing was gone. The airplane seemed to cartwheel through the sky in slow motion. There were more explosions—boom, boom, boom—and I was still able to guide the plane into a clearing in Laos.
He said: "Many times, people have asked me if I was afraid. Just before dying, there is no more fear. I felt I was floating."

When his squadron mates realized that he had been downed, they remained confident that he would be rescued. Immediately after he was shot down, Dengler smashed his survival radio and hid most of his other survival equipment to keep Vietnamese or Lao search parties from finding it. The day after being shot down Dengler was apprehended by Pathet Lao troops, the Laotian equivalent of the Viet Cong.

He was marched through the jungle, was tied on the ground to four stakes spreadeagled in order to stop him escaping at night. In the morning his face would be swollen from mosquito bites and he was unable to see.

After an early escape attempt he was recaptured while drinking from a spring. According to Dengler he was tortured in retaliation:

I had escaped from them, [and] they wanted to get even. He was hung upside down by his ankles with a nest of biting ants over his face until he lost consciousness, suspended in a freezing well at night so that if he fell asleep he might drown. On other occasions he was dragged through villages by a water buffalo, to the amusement of his guards, as they goaded the animal with a whip. He was asked by Pathet Lao officials to sign a document condemning the United States, but he refused and as a result he was tortured as tiny wedges of bamboo were inserted under his fingernails and into incisions on his body which grew and festered.

"They were always thinking of something new to do to me." Dengler recalled. "One guy made a rope tourniquet around my upper arm. He inserted a piece of wood, and twisted and twisted until my nerves cut against the bone. The hand was completely unusable for six months."

After some weeks Dengler was handed over to the Vietnamese. As they marched him through a village, a man slipped Dengler's engagement ring from his finger. Dengler complained to his guards. They found the culprit, summarily chopped off his finger with a machete and handed the ring back to Dengler.

"I realized right there and then that you don't fool around with the Viet Cong", he said.
Dengler had trained in escaping and survival at the Navy SERE survival school, where he had twice escaped from the mock-POW camp run by SERE instructors and Marine guards and was planning a third escape when the training ended. He had also set a record as the only student to gain weight (three pounds) during the SERE course; his childhood experiences had made him unafraid of eating whatever he could find and he had feasted on food the course instructors had thrown in the garbage.

Dengler was eventually brought to a prison camp near the village of Par Kung where he met other POWs. The other six prisoners were:
Phisit Intharathat (Thai)
Prasit Promsuwan (Thai)
Prasit Thanee (Thai)
Y.C. To (Chinese)
Eugene DeBruin (American)
Duane W. Martin (American)

Except for Martin, an Air Force helicopter pilot who had been shot down in North Vietnam nearly a year before, the other prisoners were civilians employed by Air America, a civilian airline owned by the Central Intelligence Agency. The civilians had been held by the Pathet Lao for over two and a half years when Dengler joined them.

"I had hoped to see other pilots. What I saw horrified me. The first one who came out was carrying his intestines around in his hands. One had no teeth - plagued by awful infections, he had begged the others to knock them out with a rock and a rusty nail in order to release pus from his gums". "They had been there for two and a half years," said Dengler. "I looked at them and it was just awful. I realized that was how I would look in six months. I had to escape."

The day he arrived in the camp, Dengler advised the other prisoners that he intended to escape and invited them to join him. They advised that he wait until the monsoon season when there would be plenty of water.

Shortly after Dengler arrived, the prisoners were moved to a new camp ten miles away at Hoi Het. After the move, a strong debate ensued among the prisoners with Dengler, Martin and Prasit arguing for escape which the other prisoners, particularly Phisit initially opposed.

As food began to run out, tension between the men grew: they were given just a single handful of rice to share while the guards would stalk deer, pulling the grass out of the animal's stomach for the prisoners to eat while they shared the meat. The prisoners' only "treats" were snakes they occasionally caught from the communal latrine or the rats that lived under their hut which they could spear with sharpened bamboo. At night the men were handcuffed together and shackled to wooden foot blocks. They suffered chronic dysentery and were made to lie in their excrement until morning.

After several months, one of the Thai prisoners overheard the guards talking about shooting them in the jungle and making it look like an escape attempt. They too, were starving and wanted to return to their villages. With that revelation, everyone agreed and a date to escape was set. Their plan was to take over the camp and signal a C-130 Hercules flare-ship that made nightly visits to the area. Dengler loosened logs under the hut that allowed the prisoners to squeeze through. The plan was for him to go out when the guards were eating and seize their weapons and pass them to Phisit Intharathat and Promsuwan while Martin and DeBruin procured others from other locations.

"I planned to capture the guards at lunchtime, when they put down their rifles to get their food. There were two minutes and twenty seconds in the day when I could strike." In that time Dengler had to release all the men from their handcuffs.

Escape
On June 29, 1966 while the guards were eating, the group slipped out of their hand-cuffs and foot restraints and grabbed the guards' unattended weapons which included M1 rifles, Chinese automatic rifles, an American carbine and at least one sub-machine gun as well as an early version of the AK47 automatic rifle, which Dengler used during the escape from the POW camp. Dengler went out first followed by Martin. He went to the guard hut and seized an M1 for himself and passed the American carbine to Martin. The guards realized the prisoners had escaped and five of them rushed toward Dengler, who shot at least three with the AK47. Phisit killed another guard as he reached for his rifle. Two others ran off, presumably to get help, although at least one had been wounded. The seven prisoners split into three groups. DeBruin was originally supposed to go with Dengler and Martin but decided to go with To, who was recovering from a fever and unable to keep up. They intended to get over the nearest ridge and wait for rescue. Dengler and Martin went off by themselves with the intention of heading for the Mekong River to escape to Thailand, but they never got more than a few miles from the camp from which they had escaped.

"Seven of us escaped," said Dengler. "I was the only one who came out alive."
With the exception of Phisit, who was recaptured and later rescued by Laotian troops, none of the other prisoners were ever seen again. DeBruin was reportedly captured and placed in another camp, then disappeared in 1968.

Rescue
Escape proved to be hazardous. Soon, the two men's feet were white, mangled stumps from trekking through the dense jungle. They found the sole of an old tennis shoe, which they wore alternately, strapping it onto a foot with rattan for a few moments' respite. In this way they were able to make their way to a fast-flowing river.

"It was the highway to freedom," said Dengler, "We knew it would flow into the Mekong River, which would take us over the border into Thailand and to safety."

The men built a raft and floated downstream on ferocious rapids, tying themselves to trees at night to stop themselves being washed away in the torrential water. By morning they would be covered in mud and hundreds of leeches. When they thought they were on their way to the Mekong, they discovered that they had gone around in a circle. They had spotted several villages but had not been detected. They set up camp in an abandoned village where they found shelter from the nearly incessant rain. They had brought rice with them and found other food, but were still on the verge of starvation. Their intent had been to signal a C-130 but at first lacked the energy to build a fire using primitive methods of rubbing bamboo together. Dengler finally managed to locate carbine cartridges that Martin had thrown away and used their powder to enhance the tinder and got a fire going. That night they lit torches and waved them in the shape of an S and O when a C-130 came over. The airplane circled and dropped a couple of flares and they were overjoyed, believing they had been spotted. They woke up the next morning to find the landscape covered by fog and drizzle, but when it lifted, no rescue force appeared.

Martin, who was weak from starvation and was suffering from malaria, wanted to approach a nearby Akha village to steal some food. Dengler knew it was not a good idea, but refused to let his friend go near the village alone. They saw a little boy playing with a dog and the child ran into the village calling out "American!" Within seconds a villager appeared and they knelt down on the trail in supplication, but the man swung his machete and struck Martin in the leg. With the next swipe, Martin's head came off. Dengler jumped to his feet and rushed toward the villager, who turned and ran into the village to get help.

I reached for the rubber sole from his foot, grabbed it and ran. From that moment on, all my motions became mechanical. I couldn't care less if I lived or died.

Dengler recalls, it was a wild animal who gave him the mental strength to continue.
"I was followed by this beautiful bear. He became like my pet dog and was the only friend I had."
These were his darkest hours. Little more than a walking skeleton after weeks on the run, he floated in and out of a hallucinatory state.

"I was just crawling along," he said. "Then I had a vision: these enormous doors opened up. Lots of horses came galloping out. They were not driven by death, but by angels. Death didn't want me."

Dengler managed to evade the searchers who went out after him and escaped back into the jungle. He returned to the abandoned village where the two had been spending their time and where he and Martin had signaled the C-130. That night when a C-130 flare-ship came, Dengler set fire to the huts and burned the village down. The C-130 crew spotted the fires and dropped flares, but even though the crew reported their sighting when they returned to Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, the fires were not recognized by intelligence as having been a signal from a survivor.

Deatrick has long marvelled at the fact that had he stuck to his original flight schedule on the morning of July 20, 1966, Dieter would not have been at the river to be sighted at that earlier hour. "If God put me on the earth for one reason," Deatrick says, "it was to find Dieter over there in the jungle." As it was, Deatrick describes it as "a million-in-one chance."
-Excerpt from Dengler biography regarding the role of pilot Eugene Deatrick

When a rescue force again failed to materialize, Dengler decided to find one of the parachutes from a flare for use as a possible signal. He found one on a bush and placed it in his rucksack. On July 20, 1966, after 23 days in the jungle, Dengler managed to signal an Air Force pilot with the parachute. A 2-ship flight of Air Force Skyraiders from the 1st Air Commando Squadron happened to fly up the river where Dengler was. Eugene Peyton Deatrick, the pilot of the lead plane and the squadron commander, spotted a flash of white while making a turn at the river's bend and came back and spotted a man waving something white. Deatrick and his wingman contacted rescue forces, but were told to ignore the sighting, as no airmen were known to be down in the area. Deatrick persisted and eventually managed to convince the command and control center to dispatch a rescue force. Fearing that Dengler might be a Viet Cong soldier, the helicopter crew restrained him when he was brought aboard.

According to the documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly Dengler said one of the flight crew who was holding him down pulled out a half eaten snake from underneath Dengler's clothing and was so surprised he nearly fell out of the helicopter. Dengler was stripped of his clothes to ensure he was not armed or in possession of a hand grenade. When questioned, Dengler told Air Force pararescue specialist Michael Leonard that he was a Navy Lieutenant JG who had escaped from a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp two months earlier. Deatrick radioed the rescue helicopter crew to see if they could identify the person they had just hoisted up from the jungle. They reported that they had a man who claimed to be a downed Navy pilot who flew a Douglas A-1H Skyraider.

It wasn't until after he reached the hospital at Da Nang that Dengler's identity was confirmed. A conflict between the Air Force and the Navy developed over who should control his debriefing and recovery. In an apparent attempt to prevent the Air Force from embarrassing them in some way, the Navy sent a team of SEALs into the hospital to steal Dengler. He was brought out of the hospital in a covered gurney and rushed to the air field, where he was placed aboard a Navy carrier delivery transport Grumman C-2A from VR-21 and flown to the Ranger where a welcoming party had been prepared. At night, however, he was tormented by awful terrors, and had to be tied to his bed. In the end, his friends put him to sleep in a cockpit, surrounded by pillows. "It was the only place I felt safe," he said.

Dengler's deprivation from malnutrition and parasites caused the Navy doctors to order that he be airlifted to the United States.

Later life and death
Dengler recovered physically, but never put his ordeal behind him. As Werner Herzog described it in his documentary about Dengler, "Men are often haunted by things that happen to them in life, especially in war Their lives seem to be normal, but they are not."

He remained in the navy for a year, was promoted to Lieutenant, and was trained to fly jets. When his military obligation was satisfied, he resigned from the Navy and applied for a position as an airline pilot with Trans World Airlines (TWA). He continued flying and survived four subsequent crashes as a civilian test pilot.

In 1977, during a time when he was furloughed from TWA, Dengler returned to Laos and was greeted as a celebrity by the Pathet Lao. He was taken to the camp from which he had escaped and was surprised to discover that at one point he and Martin had been within a mile and a half of it.

His fascination with airplanes and aviation continued for the remainder of his life. He continued flying almost up until his death. He took an early-retirement as a pilot for TWA sometime prior to 1985, but continued flying his meticulously restored Cessna 195, putting it on static display at numerous California air shows.

In 2000, Dengler was inducted into the Gathering of Eagles program and told the story of his escape to groups of young military officers. Dengler was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, an incurable neurological disorder; on February 7, 2001, he rolled his wheelchair from his house down to the driveway of a fire station and shot himself. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. A Navy honor guard was present at the burial as well as a fly-over by Navy F-14 Tomcats.

The past couple of decades have been hard on America's Warriors, and their Loved Ones - yet they have never shirked their Duty.
https://www.facebook.com/tim.troup.3/videos/1026957199864
May God Bless America!

Duty, Honor, Country is NOT a military anthem.

It’s an American culture. Where is our leadership? We are in the desert.

Veterans need not fade into the horizon. We need to be curving the American Identity into the raw material of our communities.

NSDQ! & LLTB!

In light of recent acts of violence on US Judges, and other clergy, Fall In will open our protected platform to them and their families. We must protect the rule of law and the courageous Americans that administer the duties that keep us safe from criminal behavior. Their personal data should NEVER be exposed to the public.

Fall In Veteran believes in the social contract agreed upon by those living under our Constitution. We will support those enforcing community accountability.

https://youtu.be/7HV3O3t9hbQ?si=ks6ddrLzN-LUG6kL

Medal of Honor Recipients:
Master Sergeant Woodrow Wilson Keeble (1917-1982) was a U.S. Army National Guard veteran of both World War II and the Korean War. He was a full-blooded member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, a Sioux Native American tribe.