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Posted on 10/01/2005 10:03:29 PM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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George C. Marshall Awards Dinner Washington, D.C. October 27, 2004 CSA, Mr. Secretary, General Sullivan, all of our distinguished guests, families and friends of the Army and all our Soldiers.  Tonight we should honor and pay tribute to the legacy of the American Soldier. Before and during our 229-year history as a Nation, millions of Americans have worn the uniform of the American Soldier. Each of those soldiers who have served, have a story as unique as the towns and cities from where they come. Soldiers who come from all across this great country, her territories, and in many cases, other countries, to wear a United States Army uniform in her defense. Tonight I want to take this opportunity to reflect and share a few stories of the men and women who have served our Nation proudly. Some of these stories you may have read or heard about, and some you have not. Some of these are famed stories that have become folklore to our service. The history of the American Soldier transcends officer and enlisted, Private and General, man and women. The history of the American Soldier is filled with countless names and stories, adventures and heroes. The stories I’ll share with you tonight embody the Soldier’s Creed and the Warrior Ethos.  Statue of Deborah Sampson Gannet (Sculptor Lu Stubbs) Sharon Public Library, Massachusetts Take Deborah Samson of Plympton, Massachusetts. She epitomized the first paragraph of the Soldier’s Creed; “I am an American Soldier. I am a warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States and live the Army values.” In October of 1778, motivated by the burning desire of freedom, Deborah disguised herself as a young man and volunteered for service in the American Army. She enlisted to serve in the War of Independence under the name of Robert Shirtliffe. Deborah became Robert, and for three years, she served. She was wounded twice. Inevitably, she was found out and discharged from the Army. Her American soldier spirit was so immense, George Washington himself, along with our congressmen and senators at that time, sponsored and passed a bill to ensure she was afforded the same pension, lands, and benefits provided to the men who served during that war. While touring the White House at the President’s invitation, she was asked if she served as a soldier in an attempt to move forward women’s rights. She stated; “I was heeding the call of freedom. That call, calls to both man and woman alike.”  1SG Powhatan Beatty The story of the American Soldier continues in the spirit of Civil War era, 1SG Powhatan Beatty of the Union Army. 1SG Beatty was a member of Company G, 5th United States Colored Infantry Regiment. 1SG Beatty embodied the spirit of the Warrior Ethos, which is the second paragraph of the Soldier’s Creed; “I will always place the mission first; I will never accept defeat; I will never quit; and I will never leave a fallen comrade.” 1SG Beatty took command of his company during a siege at Fort Harrison, Virginia. With all the company officers dead and while wounded himself, 1SG Beatty ran over 600 yards while under intense direct fire to reach his unit colors. Once he secured the colors, he then organized his unit and led a successful and important raid on this key position. 1SG Beatty knew the importance of sacrifice, and commitment. For his actions that day, he received our Nations highest decoration, the Medal of Honor. Known as an ordinary man, who under extraordinary conditions was immortalized, a hero. That same soldier spirit came by a seemingly and most unlikely hero who embodied the third paragraph of the Soldier’s Creed. I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough. Trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills. I always maintain my arms, my equipment, and myself. I am an expert and a professional.  Sergeant Alvin C. York Born in a log cabin in rural Tennessee in 1887, Sergeant Alvin C. York supplemented his family’s subsistence in farming, by hunting. Sergeant York became an expert marksman very early in his life. He’s quoted as saying he never thought growing up he would have anything other than possum in his crosshairs. Two months after the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, York was drafted. Soon after he was deployed overseas, and on 8 October 1917, he and 15 other soldiers were dispatched to seize a German held rail point. In the fog of war, Sergeant York and his team found themselves deep behind enemy lines. Confronted by a superior enemy force, who were armed with machine guns, half his team; including his commander, were immediately gunned down. Sergeant York reacted and began picking off the enemy machine-gunners one at a time with his carbine. He then individually charged the machinegun nests. The enemy thinking they were outnumbered by the volume of accurate fire and not knowing what to make of this “crazy man,” the enemy commander surrendered. Sergeant York and the remaining six American soldiers took 90 enemy prisoners of war in that one engagement. By the end of that day, Sergeant York had single-handedly taken a total of 132 enemy prisoners. Those heroic actions were also embodied by another group of men and women. You don’t have to go much further than our World War Two veterans to understand and appreciate their contributions. In May this year we dedicated the World War Two memorial here in Washington, D.C., fittingly on Memorial Day. It was a long-overdue thank you to the men and women known as the Greatest Generation.  PFC Martin All my buddies at Fort Bragg regularly tell, the tale of a young 325th Glider Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division soldier named PFC Martin. PFC Martin epitomized the forth paragraph of the Soldier’s Creed; “I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat. I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life. I am an American Soldier.” During the Battle of the Bulge on 23 December, 1944, many units positioned in the Ardennes Forest were forced to pull back to subsequent fighting positions. These units pulled back in an attempt to get ahead of, and stop the bulge created by the German Army’s attack to split the Allied Forces and capture the Port of Antwerp. A Sergeant in a tank destroyer spotted an American digging a foxhole. The tank destroyer pulled up beside the foxhole to speak to the young paratrooper. That lone GI, PFC Martin, looked up and asked the commander of the tank destroyer; “Are you looking for a safe place?” The commander of the tank destroyer simply replied; “Yeah” in a rather timid voice. PFC Martin quickly replied; “Well buddy,” he said with a North Carolina drawl, “Just pull your vehicle in behind me. I’m the 82nd Airborne and this is as far as those bastards go!” PFC Martin was a source of pride and inspiration to generations of paratroopers that followed. A story they still love to tell to this day. Through Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, the Gulf War, Somalia, and the Balkans, our soldiers continued the proud traditions of their forefathers. As our Army met the coming of the new millennium with optimism and hope, it soon found itself changed forever. 11 September 2001, a day that is frozen in our memories and equaled only by the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. This attack came not by a state, a territory, or an official government. This attack came from a new enemy that lives to hate our freedoms. This enemy was met head-on by the greatest Army the world has ever known. Our Army met this enemy in the mountains of Afghanistan and in the streets of Baghdad. The enemy was met by our soldiers today just as the enemy was met by soldiers from eras gone by. Every generation has their heroes and ours is no exception. Our soldiers today embody the Warrior Ethos just as those stories I have told of the past.  Master Sgt. Anthony S. Pryor Master Sergeant Anthony Pryor, a team sergeant with company A, 1st Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, deployed to Afghanistan in the early days of Operation Enduring Freedom. On a cold Thursday morning, MSG Pryor’s unit was conducting a mission to flush out Al Qaida and Taliban members held up in a small Afghan town in the eastern mountains close to the Pakistani border. During a raid of a suspected enemy stronghold, MSG Pryor single-handedly eliminated four enemy soldiers, including one in unarmed combat, all while under intense automatic fire and with a crippling injury. His commanding officer described the events that day. He said at the end of the mission, MSG Pryor came running up wanting to know if everybody was okay. The man was bleeding and broken and all he wanted to know was if his soldiers, were ok. Asked what his thoughts were about the engagement, MSG Pryor said, “I just did what I had to do”.  PFC Jessica Lynn Nicholson, 21, a 1st Armored Division soldier with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 40th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade, was recently awarded the Army commendation medal “for valor and courage in the face of enemy action” in Baghdad, Iraq. Without knowing, without intent, MSG Pryor upheld the proud and courageous traditions of the American Soldier. MSG Pryor was awarded the Silver Star for his actions that day. Soldiers like PFC Jessica Nicholson, a 21-year old with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 40th Engineer Battalion, 1st Armored Division serving last year in Baghdad, Iraq. Like Deborah Samson over 200 years ago, PFC Nicholson demonstrated she was a warrior and a member of a team. While manning a checkpoint with members of her unit, PFC Nicholson single-handedly apprehended a man twice her size trying to get into the Green Zone in the center of Baghdad with hidden grenades. Later, as the word spread of her heroic actions, she told reporters; “I just reacted, and the training took over.” PFC Nicholson was trained and proficient in her Warrior Tasks and Drills. She is an expert and a professional.  Maj. Gen. Walter Wojdakowski, V Corps deputy commander, pins the Soldier Medal on to Staff Sgt. Eric Hartman during a ceremony at Wiesbaden Army Airfield Oct. 5. Sgt. Douglas Holm stands at attention to his left. The enemy was also met by soldiers like SSG Eric Hartman and SGT Douglas Holm, assigned to V Corps’, 159th Medical Company (Air Ambulance), of the 421st Medical Evacuation Battalion. On 19 August 2003, the United Nations building in Baghdad was destroyed by an enemy truck loaded with explosives. Just minutes before the bombing, SSG Hartman and SGT Holm had just returned from another MEDEVAC mission. When these professionals received the call of this explosion, both soldiers grabbed their teams and took off to help. Without regard for their personal safety, the soldiers entered the dangerously unstable building to search for victims trapped under the rubble. These soldiers spent the next six hours pulling victims from the collapsed structure and performing life-saving triage on-site. When asked about their bravery, SGT Holm said; “We would have done the same for anybody.” SSG Hartman’s quote; “I didn’t do anything another crew member wouldn’t have done.” These Sergeants were awarded the Soldier’s Medal for their actions on that day. Two extraordinary soldiers who embodied the Soldier’s Creed and the Warrior Ethos.  Maj. Matt Breeding, an activated Army Reservist assigned to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as the anti-terrorism force protection officer, works around the clock in Baghdad to help train the new Iraqi Army. Breeding is working with the U.S. Department of Justice and the new Iraqi government to put more police on the streets of Iraq in hopes of bolstering the security of the country. We have heroes in many ways in the Global War on Terror. Finally, we have Soldiers like Major Matt Breeding, a citizen soldier out of Oldtown, Maryland. Major Breeding is a 27-year veteran of the Military Police Corps and a 22-year veteran as a Maryland State Trooper. Major Breeding was originally mobilized and deployed here, to the Washington, D.C. area as an Anti-terrorism expert. His extraordinary work drew national attention from law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Department of Justice. Following his D.C. experience, Major Breeding volunteered to deploy to Iraq to help coordinate Military Police training and aide in the stand-up of Iraqi Security Forces. Major Breeding knew his civilian experience would help keep American Soldiers safe. Soldiers were the centerpiece of his formation. At this moment, this American Soldier is probably still on-duty after a 16-18 hour workday in Iraq. He is working hard to work his soldiers out of a job, one Iraqi recruit at a time. Major Matt Breeding is a guardian of freedom, and the American Way of life. There are millions of stories throughout our history as important and meaningful as the ones I’ve shared with you tonight. Their cast of players line the fields at Arlington and Normandy, and countless other memorial grounds around the world. As I speak to you right now, soldiers man the Demilitarized Zone in Korea, stand at checkpoints in Afghanistan and help the victims of hurricanes in Florida. Some of these soldiers’ names are lost to history and some to war. Their efforts . . . will never be forgotten. The Association of the United States Army has made a superb choice in making the American Soldier this year’s recipient of the George C. Marshall award. I accept the award on behalf of the American Soldier, past, present, and future. God bless the American Soldier, God bless America’s Army, and the country we so dearly love, our United States of America. God bless you all. Thank you. SMA Kenneth O. Preston
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Bicyclespankentruppen recruit?
I'm no one special, just consider myself an American and appreciate it more than a lot of people do today.
I know what it cost those before us to start this Country and keep it Free, Snippy and I just wanted to share their stories with others.
LOL! "Soldier" in this sense is the generic "American Military" ;-)
Good morning EGC.
Good morning Gail.
Thank you Mayor.
Sam Serling and his son, Rod
Rod Serling Was A Seasoned WWII Veteran And Was Awarded The Purple Heart
Joined the United States Army on January 16th, 1943
Was a paratrooper and served in the 511th Parachute Infantry Regiment in the Pacific theater
Was disappointed at being sent to the Pacific [Being Jewish, he wanted to fight the Germans instead]
Was wounded by a Japanese anti-aircraft artillery weapon while on the ground
The weapon was converted by the enemy for close quarters city fighting
Experienced ghastly and bizarre incidents during combat in WWII
Shot and killed a Japanese soldier who was standing on third base in a baseball stadium
The incident occurred at the Rizal Baseball Stadium in Manila, Philippines
Manila was the 2nd worst city, behind Warsaw, Poland, in all of WWII for civilian mortality
Removed thousands of pounds of dynamite from elaborate underground tunnels constructed by the Japanese
Saw his best friend decapitated by a food crate dropped on him from a U.S. resupply plane
Returned home from active duty January 13th, 1946 with the following decorations:
Purple Heart
Philippines Liberation Medal [w/battle star]
Asiatic Pacific Theater Medal [w/battle star]
American Campaign Medal
National Defense Medal
Overseas Service Bar
After WWII, he tested experimental parachutes for the U.S. Army at $500 per jump!
This side out.
ooh, that would be good to know.
Geez Louise. You'd have to pay me a million and I'd still have to think about it.
Good morning, folks. Just got back from shopping. Took our black lab out to the lake. He had a great time.
Thanks for serving Bump!
I've got to get our yellow lab to behave better or find a deserted lake. LOL. I know he'd love it but at only 13 weeks old he just isn't taking to behaving yet.
Oatmeal? We don't need no stinkin' oatmeal!
LOL. And all they were doing was sowing their oats.
Ya' let folks put a pile of stuff on a tennis court, and see what happens? Gotta be Darksheare's fault.
I've been trying to read any of the markings, without luck.
Dunno, what're the military applications?
LOL
Gotta be Darksheare's fault.
Well?
/troublemaking :-)
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