Posted on 06/17/2007 9:06:15 PM PDT by The Mayor
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HALL OF FAME #19 THE WEEKEND THREAD T.G.I.F. at the Finest |
Every Thursday at the Finest  |
LOL! Thank you!
We should have just left them guessing! ;D
Yeah, that would have been more fun huh?
070615-N-0780F-003 SOUDA BAY, Crete, Greece (June 15, 2007) - Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Scranton (SSN 756) departs Souda harbor following a routine port visit to Greece's largest island. Scranton is on deployment as part of the Bataan Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG), which returned earlier this month to the 6th Fleet area of responsibility. Bataan ESG has the capabilities to support maritime operations, combat operations and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief. U.S. Navy photo by Mr. Paul Farley (RELEASED)
070615-N-4014G-231 ATLANTIC OCEAN (June 15, 2007) - A Sailor aboard amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) directs a CH-53E Super Stallion assigned to Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron (HMM) 261. Kearsarge is underway in preparation for an upcoming deployment. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Patrick Gearhiser (RELEASED)
070614-N-0120A-052 GULF OF THAILAND (June 14, 2007) – Guided-missile frigate USS Ford (FFG 54) and USS Jarrett (FFG 33) transit together during a practice underway vertical replenishment with dock landing ship USS Harpers Ferry (LSD 49). Ford, Jarrett and Harpers Ferry are currently participating in Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) 2007. CARAT is an annual series of bilateral maritime training exercises between the United States and six Southeast Asia nations designed to build relationships and enhance the operational readiness of the participating forces. Harpers Ferry is the flagship for CARAT 2007 with Commander Destroyer Squadron 1 embarked onboard. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Mark R. Alvarez (RELEASED)
070618-N-5387K-025 PACIFIC OCEAN (June 18, 2007) - USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) Honor Guard bow their heads during a burial at sea ceremony. The cremated remains of World War II veterans retired U.S. Navy Chief Hospital Corpsman Wyllis H. Fox and retired U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. William F. Nichols were committed to the Coral Sea from a HH-60H Seahawk helicopter. Kitty Hawk operates from Fleet Activities Yokosuka, Japan, and is in the first month of its summer deployment. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Juan Antoine King (RELEASED)
Good idea it may help.:^)
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Hey!.. want to hear an update about one of our FAVORITE marines from a few years back...?
I recieved a note from his wife .. here are a few "clips"
. Nick has been very busy this past year working on a book with a writer. It is due to come out around the holiday season. It is one of the most humble books you will ever read about a Marine. We know with confidence most people will absolutely love it. Our Military families will be proud, It is so much more than a story of one man, but the life of all of us and our dedication to our country and each other. I will keep you posted.
Nick is on his 3rd year of college. He will attend San Diego State University this fall. He has consistently held straight A’s even with a visual impairment. He is loved by his teachers; he will make a wonderful High School Teacher.
Since the Fall of the Statue in that memorable photo, everyone at FR have been there for us.
The love and support of all the bloggers, were more than we could have ever imagined and our wish is that any serviceman or women could feel as valued and cared for as you all made us feel. When times were tough, reading the messages from everyone, made us stronger and ready to take on any battle..........Once more, thank you from the bottom of our hearts...for being there with us.
I just wanted to share a new story about Nick and his progress with you. He has at story that is currently running on the San Diego Union Tribune web page.
Thank you again for being there for us.
Here is a thread from the Finest on Cee-gar Guy done a few years ago. Click here
June 19, 2007
READ: 2 John 1-6
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart. —Matthew 11:29
During World War II, a fellow soldier said to me, “Herb, you seem to be happy. But if I had to live the way you do, I’d just as soon be dead.” He was implying that my life was so moral that it had to be boring. But I had never thought of it that way. In fact, I often felt guilty because of my many failings.
I grew up in a Christian home where I was taught that I was a sinner in need of salvation. But I also learned that God in the person of Jesus Christ had paid the price for my sins.
Then, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, I recognized the truth of this teaching. And as a child, I placed my trust in Jesus and committed my life to Him. From that day on, I tried to live out the command to love God and my neighbor (Matt. 22:37-40). My obedience to God was a natural response for one who had truly believed.
In 2 John the word commandment is used four times to remind us that we are to walk the path of truth and to love one another (vv.4-6). Christians who do this will find joy and freedom, not boredom and bondage, as some people mistakenly think.
I love the words of Jesus in Matthew 11:30, “My yoke is good to bear, My load is light” (NEB).
May God bless our Military and the United States of America.
Thank you, Dolly.. I am so glad ot read this..He was our symbol , our”pin-up” on the “war” thread. God bless you Cee-Gar guy.
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The Boys of Iwo Jima
By Michael T. Powers
From the book: Heart Touchers “Life-Changing Stories of Faith, Love, and Laughter”
Each year my video production company is hired to go to Washington, DC with the eighth grade class from Clinton, Wisconsin where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I always enjoy visiting our nation’s capitol, and each year I take some special memories back with me. But this fall’s trip was especially memorable.
On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial. It is the largest bronze statue in the world and depicts one of the most famous photographs in history — the W.W.II image of the six brave men raising the American flag at the top of Mount Surabachi on the Island of Iwo Jima, Japan. About one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and headed toward the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base of the statue, and as I got closer he asked, “Where are you guys from?”
“Wisconsin,” I replied.
“Hey, I’m a Cheesehead, too! Come gather around Cheeseheads, and I will tell you a story.”
James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, DC to speak at the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say goodnight to his dad, who has since passed away. He was just about to leave when he saw the buses pull up. I videotaped him as he spoke to us, and received his permission to share what he said from my videotape. It is one thing to tour the incredible monuments filled with history in Washington, DC but it is quite another to get the kind of insight we received that night. When all had gathered around he reverently began to speak.
“My name is James Bradley and I’m from Antigo, Wisconsin. My dad is on that statue, and I just wrote a book called Flags of Our Fathers which is #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is the story of the six boys you see behind me. Six boys raised the flag.”
That’s when he pointed to the guy putting the pole in the ground and told us his name was Harlon Block. “Harlon was an all-state football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football team. They were off to play another type of game, a game called ‘war.’ But it didn’t turn out to be a game. Harlon, at the age of twenty-one, died with his intestines in his hands.”
Bradley shared that detail with us because he said that generals stand in front of the statue and talk about the glory of war. “You guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen years old.”
He pointed again to the statue. “You see this next guy? That’s Rene Gagnon from New Hampshire. If you took Rene’s helmet off at the moment this photo was taken, you would find a photograph in the webbing. A photograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there for protection, because he was scared. He was eighteen years old. Boys won the battle of Iwo Jima. Boys. Not men.”
The next image on the statue was that of Sergeant Mike Strank, we learned. “Mike is my hero.” Bradley exclaimed. “He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the ‘old man’ because he was so old. He was already twenty-four. When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn’t say, ‘Let’s go kill the enemy’ or ‘Let’s die for our country.’ He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he would say, ‘You do what I say, and I’ll get you home to your mothers.’”
The next man on the statue was Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from Arizona who lived through the terror of Iwo Jima. “Ira Hayes walked off Iwo Jima. He went into the White House with my dad and President Truman told him, ‘You’re a hero.’ He told reporters, ‘How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and only twenty-seven of us walked off alive?’”
“So you take your class at school. Two hundred and fifty of you spending a year together having fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only twenty-seven of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind.”
We learned that Ira Hayes died dead drunk, face down at the age of thirty-two, ten years after the famous photo was taken.
“The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop, Kentucky, a fun-lovin’ hillbilly boy,” Bradley continued. “Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of nineteen. When the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his mother’s farm. The neighbors could hear her scream all night and into the morning. The neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away.”
Finally Bradley pointed to the statue’s image of his father, John Bradley from Antigo, Wisconsin. His dad lived until 1994, but declined all interviews. “When Walter Kronkite, or the New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say, ‘No, I’m sorry sir, my dad’s not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we don’t know when he is coming back.’ My dad never fished or even went to Canada. Usually he was sitting right there at the table eating his Campbell’s soup, but we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn’t want to talk to the press. You see, my dad didn’t see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes, ‘cause they are in a photo and a monument. My dad knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsin was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died, and when boys died in Iwo Jima, they writhed and screamed in pain.”
Bradley recalled his third grade teacher calling the elder Bradley a hero. “When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, ‘I want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who did not come back. DID NOT come back.’”
“So that’s the story about six nice young boys, Bradley finished. “Three died on Iwo Jima, and three came back as national heroes. Overall, seven thousand boys died on Iwo Jima in the worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps. My voice is giving out, so I will end here. Thank you for your time.”
That number boggled my mind as I tried to comprehend how many lives those deaths altered back on American soil so many years ago. How many hearts of loved ones left behind were seared? Loved ones like this proud son who had so graciously shared part of his history with us.
Suddenly the monument wasn’t just a big old piece of metal with a flag sticking out of the top. It came to life before our eyes through the heartfelt words of a son who did indeed have a father who was a hero then ... and now.
Michael T. Powers, Copyright © 2000 HeartTouchers@aol.com
Write Michael and let him know your thoughts on his story!
Michael T. Powers, the founder of HeartTouchers.com and Heart4Teens.com, is the youth pastor at Faith Community Church in Janesville, WI. He is happily married to his high school sweetheart Kristi and proud father of three young boys. In his spare time he loves coaching the JV Lady Cougars basketball team in Clinton, Wisconsin.
He is also an author with stories in 20 inspirational books including many in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. To preview his books or to join the thousands of world wide readers on his inspirational e-mail lists, visit: http://www.HeartTouchers.com
Most importantly, Michael believes that life is not about religion, but about a relationship — a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Happy are they who love the Lord,
Whose hearts have Christ confessed,
Who by His cross have found their life,
Beneath His yoke their rest. —Bridges
Joy is the result of walking with God.
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AMEN!!!
Thank You Meg for ALL of Your Pings,every day/night!
I have to apologize for being AWOL lately. As many of you know I am once again running for office, Erie County Legislature. That combined with the amount of work this time of year brings has had my head spinning.
Plus my BLOG that is rated in the top 5 in NY State http://albanysinsanity.com/ keeps me very busy too. Needless to say, my cup runneth over. But, that’s nothing new either.
A real answer to Prayer comes our way too. My sister who lives in Massachusetts has had what some might say a bad stroke, but.... Because she had the stroke the doctors became aware how serious her health really was. She is now better than she has been in 5+ years. Her meds were cut drastically, she was taking way to much. It makes us all wonder what the doctors were thinking, or not thinking.
She is home, on a regular schedule, taking little meds, has got her Diabetes under control and is eating & sleeping normally. Thank God Almighty for His healing powers. We have been Praying for her for so long and our Prayers have been answered.
Thank you all for your posts and great graphics. I have to hit the sack as morning comes early. G’Night all and God Bless.
We understand how busy you are. I just hope you are successful at your bid for this office you are running for. Erie County needs you!
Thank God for the good news about your sister. I pray that He continues to bless her with better health.
Nite, Rus! Sweet dreams. See you next time. Thank you for Military Tribute!
Good Night Mayor. It’s good to hear that you sisters health has improved.
God bless you! Good luck on your office run..and your work. I am so thrilled about your sister’s vastly improved health..Thank you, Father.
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