[threat matrix]

God bless his wife, child and family.

[Heff]

BUMP, Amen, and God bless his family.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

NEVER FORGET


On C-SPAN TV's 'Washington Journal' early this morning I was blessed to be able to call in and publically thank PAT TILLMAN for his protecting us and making us the HOME OF THE BRAVE in Time of War.

I was further blessed to be able to call this Modern Day Hero a mirror of all American Soldiers who are fighting for our Freedom and the Freedom of others, as always so unselfishly.

I called both them and their mission...

...HOLY.


There is a reason why:


MEL's -PASSION- sparked by -WE WERE SOLDIERS-

http://www.TheAlamoFILM.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=39081




Signed:

"ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer / Veteran-"WE WERE SOLDIERS" Battle of IA DRANG-1965 http://www.lzxray.com

http://www.lzxray.com/guyer_collection.htm
(Battle of IA DRANG-1965 Photos)



NEVER FORGET

[Smartass]

A Soldier's Prayer

Almighty Father, Whose Command is over all and Whose Love never faileth,
let me be aware of Thy presence and obedient to Thy will.

Keep me true to my best self, guarding me against dishonesty
in purpose and in deed, and helping me so to soldier and to live
so as to stand unashamed and unafraid before my fellow soldiers,
my loved ones, and Thee.

Protect those in whose love I live.

Give me the will to do the work of a man and to accept my share
of responsibilities with a strong heart and a cheerful mind.

Make me considerate of those entrusted to my leadership
and faithful to the duties my country has entrusted to me.

Let my uniform remind me daily of the traditions
of the Service of which I am a part.

If I am inclined to doubt, steady my faith;
if I am tempted, make me strong to resist;
if I should miss the mark, bestow upon me courage to try again.

Guide me with the light of Thy truth ~ and keep before me
the life of Him in Whose example and deliverance I trust.

In the name of my Lord,
Amen.

God Bless You Pat, and All of Our Troops World Wide

[paul in cape]

Please visit and sign Pat Tillman's guestbook.

Very heartfelt and touching.

LINK HERE

[Ramonan]

Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood.
George S. Patton

[Travis McGee]

It sounds like he died pursuing his enemies in close combat, a hot weapon in his hands. For some reason, that's what I would have expected.

[Aaron_A]

The attack was similar to hundreds US troops have faced on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border - terrorists come over from Pakistan, attack US troops and then go back over the border to Pakistan. Time to get our heads out of our assess and set this straight.

[HoustonCurmudgeon]

My father played for Baltimore for two years after three years in the Navy during WWII. He was far more proud to have served in the Navy.

God Bless Specialist Tillman and his family.

[Havisham]

Another ambush. I see two obvious problems: 1) American patrols and convoys moving without close air support and 2) intelligence treachery. Something in their shared history tells British command just how far and not beyond to trust the Arab. Given America's cultural and language handicaps in this theatre, she cannot afford one more week of fighting on the enemy's terms.

[Swede Girl]

Compare his sacrifice to the behavior of Bill Clinton and John Kerry concerning anything military. Tillman was a hero. Clinton and Kerry were and are cowards. All three of Kerry's "purple hearts" can't even begin to compare with the purple heart won by Tillman and all of the others who have given the ultimate sacrifice for this country. And, as for Clinton, the Colonel Holmes letter tells it all.

[swarthyguy]

http://orbat.com/

US media reports the death of a well-known football star in action in Afghanistan. This gentleman walked away from a $3.6 million for three years contract offer after 9/11; along with his brother, also a well-known athlete, he joined the Army instead.

But then, this man already marched to his own drummer: he had earlier refused a $9 million offer from another teams, preferring to stay loyal to his own despite much more money.

In a country where a person's worth is judged solely by her/his bank balance, and where the elite is unprepared to make any sacrifice for the country, it is refreshing that a young man was not ashamed to be patriotic.

He served with the 75th Infantry Regiment, the US Rangers.

[Boot Hill]

(Be sure to check out the special link in the last paragraph of this reply!)

MSNBC reports:   "He said it occurred at 7:30PM Thursday on a road near a village of Sperah, about 25 miles southwest of a US base at Khost."

Sperah (native spelling: Speyrah) is located (according to information from the GEONames database) 40.3 km (25.0 mi) WSW 248º from Khost (native spelling: Khowst). Distances denoted are direct mileage, and not road mileage.

On Map #1, below, Khowst is located in the center, Peshawar, Pakistan is in the upper right corner (barely), and Wana, the center of the recent Wana campaign, is on the center/south edge of the map. Speyrah is located (but not shown) along the red road WSW of Khowst on this map.

On Map #2, Speyrah is shown along that same road, WSW of Khowst (look for a very small town spelled "Spera"). Note distance scale at the bottom of the maps.

Map #1...

&nbps;

Map #1...

These and other maps can be found at...

Further maps and information regarding the land, the people and the fighting in the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been archived at "The Wana Campaign -- Maps, Place Names and Participants An FReference Thread".

Check out the following link...

There was an excellent thread, posted by FReeper "neverdem" back in March, with both article and replies describing the exploits of the units and soldiers assigned to this exact area where Pat Tillman was killed, complete with photos and maps. You might want to check it out, as it may even contain a photo of Pat Tillman in the field. Here is the link to that thread... "G.I.'s in Afghanistan on Hunt, but Now for Hearts and Minds".

--Boot Hill

[John Lenin]

God bless ALL the troops wifes/husbands and children, Tillman is getting way too much publicity, it's sad because it makes the other deaths look insignificant.

[dalebert]

Tillmans death does draw attention to the fact that our very best, bravest and brightest are putting all they have on the line to win this war against terror and protect us. We owe them a debt that we can never do enough to repay.

[freedumb2003]

Here is wat they are saying over at DU:

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treepig (1000+ posts) Fri Apr-23-04 05:27 PM
Response to Original message

33. gotta give this guy credit


for jumping at the chance to find a way to engage in some legal murder and mayhem, rather than taking the route of a good proportion of his peers in the nfl - who also have a propensity for violence but are also at risk for criminal prosecution if they remain in the usa:

A new book claims that 21 percent of NFL players have committed serious crimes and that the league takes little note of the questionable backgrounds of its players.

In "Pros and Cons; The criminals who play in the NFL," Jeff Benedict and Don Yaeger used public access records to examine the nearly 1,600 players on NFL rosters in 1996-97 and did extensive research on a sample of 509 players whose backgrounds they were able to check. Of that group, 109, or 21 percent, had criminal histories with 264 arrests for everything from homicide (2) to domestic violence (45).

Asked if it was fair to expand the statistics from the sample they examined, Benedict defended the study. "It's absolutely fair," he said.

http://www.onlineathens.com/1998/102998/1029.s1viol.html

on the other hand, go to a far away country and kill few towel heads, and you're a hero!

usa! usa!! usa!!!

[freedumb2003]

Oh yeah, and this (2 posts):

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treepig (1000+ posts) Fri Apr-23-04 08:26 PM
Response to Reply #40

46. so one of bush's willing executioner's is a true hero of yours?

Edited on Fri Apr-23-04 08:59 PM by treepig
yeah, whatever.

personally, somebody who volunteers to go use our $450 billion war machine to slaughter innocent third world, poverty-stricken civilians (while the real terrorists are airlifted out of the country - or never were in afghanistan in the first place - courtesy of pakistan's isi) is no hero of mine.

thankfully i'll be dead, but in 20 years all the orphans that he and his ilk have created - i.e, the new crop of terrorists, will be over here killing my kids, and possibly even yours. a true patriot hero indeed.

in the past i've taken shit on this board for mentioning that the troops "volunteered" to go be part of the imperialistic american war machine. i was told in no uncertain terms that they were all naive troops who signed up during the benign clinton administration in hopes of getting an otherwise unobtainable college education. well, this guy definitely does not fit that mold at all.



everyone i know who joined the military after 9-11 did so out of pure bloodlust - gotta go even the score by blindly lashing out at whatever convenient target presents itself. in no cases was their any sentiment to obtain justice in any meaningful sense of the word - nope, we just gotta go nuke somebody, anybody (if that were only possible) - to show how tough we were. and anybody, even well intentioned, who had an iq above 35 or so should have been able to figure out with the head-up-their-asses cold-war leaders this country had after 9-11 - military interventions were sure to occur and be disastrous. anybody who walked into aiding and abetting these criminals with their eyes wide open, as this wonderkid did, deserves nothing but scorn.


so what have i done for my country? damn little - but at least i'm not all gung-ho to spawn a future generation of terrorists. on the positive side, i've paid enough taxes to pay for a least a bit of depleted uranium amunition - which i've been told will go on killing the evil, evil people over in afganistan for 4.5 billion years or so. perhaps it'll take even take out a few more wedding parties now and again - maybe even a few morecanadian infantrymen, sure, it's not much, but consider it baby steps. baby steps for america




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SkeptyCal (699 posts) Fri Apr-23-04 09:35 PM
Response to Reply #46

52. Thanks for saying what I wanted to say.


He looked like a bloodthirsty maniac to me. I think he also had a death wish cause he was into skydiving and other daredevil stuff.

I don't see a hero unless you want your kids to emulate him by taking people's lives for oil or some other dumbreason. Blind patriotism is not heroic imho.


"In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upward mobile." -HST

[VOA]

(with apologies to the forum...I'm putting this on the Pat Tillman threads for
publicity and to bump the threads. My apologies in advance if this is already
common knowledge.)

I just heard on ABC Radio News that a sports agent informed Pat Tillman of the
interest that the Seattle Seahawks had in him (last year?).
Tillman told the agent that he (Tillman) could have get his release from the service
but that he had made his committment and would stay in the military.

If true as reported, the Tillman legacy just got a little larger.