USO Canteen FReeper Style ~ Mission Statement 101 ~ April 16, 2003

68-69TonkinGulfYatchClub and FRiends of the Canteen

[Bethbg79]

I was an angel! LOL

[Radix]

Here is a stupid cartoon potato story.

[radu]

DANG!! CAUGHT ME!!! LOL!

When ya get to be my age (29 and holding and I won't say how long I've been holding. *giggle*) ya kinda try to ignore it and pretend ya didn't get a year older. I almost got away with it. *giggle*....my birthdate was Monday.

THANK Y'ALL for the birthday wishes. That's sooooo sweet. *HUGS* And the chok-lit cake was yummy!

Much as I hate it, I must get back outside. I was praying for rain today (so my poor achin' back would have a break. hehe) but the sun's shining brightly. So it's back to work I go. I'll see everyone later this evening. Love y'all! Love our fighting men and women, past and present! We wouldn't enjoy the freedoms we have without them.

[Radix]

That is an outrageous example of cheating.

You should go sit in a corner.

[Bethbg79]

Nuh-uh! You said you wanted to race!

I raced!

No corner for me, I served my time as a child..lol

[Radix]

[Bethbg79]

hehehehehehe....You gonna sit right here and watch me?

Cuz I'll run if I get the chance..lol

[Pippin]

LOL!

BUSTED!!!

[larryjohnson]

Thanks to all Canteen Froopers for your support to Our Troops,Veterans and Their Families. Herein are news and entertainment. Oh yeah sports too. Something for everyone. It's a good idea to keep in mind the original USO.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thank you, thank you.

[Radix]

1922 Annie Oakley sets record by breaking 100 clay targets in a row

 

 

 

Later that same day she threw a lamp at her husband because he did not object to the Canteen's swimsuit edition. 

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thanks for stopping in today, armymarinemom. Please thank your kids for their service to our country.

[Kathy in Alaska]

The eyes of Cpl. Harold Carmen peer into the crevices of a civilian contractor’s truck at the front gate of Camp Arifjan in central Kuwait. Carmen, a New York transplant now working as a police officer in Plainfield, N.J., is serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom with the 340th Military Police Company, Army reservists out of Jamaica, N.Y. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Frank N. Pellegrini

NYPD on the beat in Kuwait

By U.S. Army Sgt. Frank N. Pellegrini
U.S. Army Reserve Public Affairs Office

CAMP ARIFJAN, KUWAIT — The 340th Military Police Co. is made of diehard New Yorkers, city cops and subway motormen and firemen from Manhattan and Brooklyn and Queens. But when the planes struck the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, this unit of Army Reserve MPs out of nearby Jamaica could hardly have been farther from home.

“ We were deployed to Kosovo on a peacekeeping mission,” said Staff Sgt. Natalie Robinson, a NYPD police officer in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwood. “We’re coming back from a mission, and suddenly hearing all this stuff going on in our own backyard. But we’re all the way over there. It felt so strange -- like a dream.”

These days, the 340th is away from home again, serving their country again by leaving it far behind. But the job here – manning the towers and entry gates of Camp Arifjan in the middle of Kuwait – feels a lot like their chance to make up for a painful absence.

“All those news stories before the war about Al Qaeda targeting U.S. military installations in Kuwait – that’s us,” said Staff Sgt. Leonard King, Jr. “The war may be winding down, but we’re always going to be a target. Terrorism is a constant threat – here and back at home.”

In his civilian life, the Harlem-born King has been driving the B train for the Metropolitan Transit Authority since 1992. But since September 2001 he’s been an MP full-time. “I utilize my military awareness when I’m working my civilian job,” he said. “It gives you that extra sense, that extra eyesight that keeps you looking out for trouble.”

So far, the Entry Control Point that is Arifjan’s front gate has been quiet – busy, but quiet.

“ We haven’t had any trouble yet,” said Massapequa, Long Island police officer Staff Sgt. David Clements, as he worked his way through a long line of civilian contract workers that staff Arifjan’s basic operations, “wanding” each one with a hand-held metal detector. “But every morning and every night, this place clogs up. It’s always tempting to just pass them through – they’re just here to do their jobs, make their money and go home. But you never know – it only takes one slipping through.”

“Sometimes you find a contraband knife or something,” said Cpl. Harold Carmen, a New York transplant now working as a police officer in Plainfield, N.J. “It doesn’t mean anything, necessarily, but we have to confiscate it.”

“I love this work,” said Sgt. Basdeo Rugga, a police officer in Harlem back home. “We do it all – pat people down, search their vehicles, check Ids, watch the perimeters,” he said. “We’re security guards – security guards for our country.”

Soon, the 340th won’t be watching the gates of Arifjan anymore. They’re combat MPs –meaning they’re trained to use security devices a lot bigger than a handheld metal detector. And when the rest of their gear arrives, they expect to head north to Iraq to provide security for troop convoys and supply shipments along the country’s main roads. These soldiers cringe when word of the checkpoint suicide bombings comes back from the front – they know the next one could be one of them. But in an Iraq getting back to business after a paralyzing war, the job will be more like the one they did in Kosovo. Managing civilian and military traffic, sorting between the threatening and the merely excitable, always keeping in mind that while community relations are an important part of any cop’s job, it still only takes one slipping through.

Master Sgt. Dave Valentin, a luggage-screening supervisor at New York’s bustling JFK airport back in Queens and one of the unit’s elder statesmen when it goes on the road, isn’t worried about this crew.

“After 9-11, some of the higher-ups wondered if we were OK, whether we were still mission-ready,” he said. “But we went right out and we kept on doing our jobs. And we were the best unit out there. We ran the most missions, drove the most miles, confiscated the most weapons of all the other companies combined.

“ These were hard-core, rah-rah active-duty guys out of Fort Bragg, N.C., and places like that,” he said. “When a bunch of New York reservists showed up, they looked at us like we didn’t know what we were doing. But we out-did them all -- and we had the least trouble.

“You know why? Because we’re New Yorkers,” Valentin said. “And we’re reservists. We’re cops and security people and civil servants in a place that has every different kind of person, every different culture that you could possibly imagine. We know that just because somebody’s speaking loudly and waving his hands around, he’s not necessarily angry or dangerous. We learn how to read people, situations, deal with them without things getting out hand. We’ve got the best people skills in the world.”

[tomkow6]

How much time did you spend in the corner,Beth?

[Long Cut]

Hello, everyone! Seems that there's been a bit of the ol' hate and discontent around here lately. I've gotten FReepmails from a couple of people saying "ADIOS, AMIGO!" for good.

I know that some REAL sourpusses have slimed their way through here lately, but can someone bring me up to speed? I'm kind of in the dark.

What giveth, ho?

[Radix]

The Canteen Swimsuit Edition was a big hit.

That seemed to piss a lot of people off.

Go figure.

We all know that Soldiers, Airmen, Marines, and Sailors are so very offended by images of babes, and partying.

So that is it.

The real FReepers made themselves known out here.

No more Babes in swimsuits.

And for any of you females want to see images of masculine sexuality, well then you might just have to go visit the FR Guild or certain other less known threads.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"What giveth, ho?"

I think I pretty much covered it in the opening of the thread.
Bottom line some just thought Monday's thread was indecent etc.
The MAJORITY did not.
SALUTE

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Happy Birthday!



*HUG*

[Radix]

Who Stands Alone:

Eleven thousand soldiers lay beneath the dirt and stone,
all buried on a distant land so far away from home.
For just a strip of dismal beach they paid a hero's price,
to save a foreign nation they all made the sacrifice.

And now the shores of Normandy are lined with blocks of white,
Americans who didn't turn from someone else's plight.
Eleven thousand reasons for the French to take our side,
but in the moment of our need, they chose to run and hide.

Chirac said every war means loss, perhaps for France that's true,
for they've lost every battle since the days of Waterloo.
Without a soldier worth a damn to be found in the region,
the French became the only land to need a Foreign Legion.

You French all say we're arrogant. Well, hell, we've earned the right--
We saved your sorry nation when you lacked the guts to fight.
But now you've made a big mistake, and one that you'll regret;
you took sides with our enemies, and that we won't forget.

It wasn't just our citizens you spit on when you turned,
but every one of ours who fell the day the towers burned.
You spit upon our soldiers, on our pilots and Marines,
and now you'll get a little sense of just what payback means.

So keep your Paris fashions and your wine and your champagne,
and find some other market that will buy your aeroplanes.
And try to find somebody else to wear your French cologne,
for you're about to find out what it means to stand alone.

You see, you need us far more than we ever needed you.
America has better friends who know how to be true.
I'd rather stand with warriors who have the will and might,
than huddle in the dark with those whose only flag is white.

I'll take the Brits, the Aussies, the Israelis and the rest,
for when it comes to valor we have seen that they're the best.
We'll count on one another as we face a moment dire,
while you sit on the sideline with a sign "friendship for hire."

We'll win this war without you and we'll total up the cost,
and take it from your foreign aid, and then you'll feel the loss.
And when your nation starts to fall, well Frenchie, you can spare us,
just call the Germans for a hand, they KNOW, the way to Paris.

 

                                                                                                                                       by  Anonymous

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

From the men in the Military and the Canteen