Free Republic

WASHINGTON – Gen. James Amos became the 35th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps on Friday, taking command of a force that has roughly 20,000 Marines deployed at war in southern Afghanistan while at the same time is being tasked to question its own future by civilian defense leaders. "If I said I was about to jump out of my skin, it would be an understatement," Amos said eagerly, as soon as he took the microphone. Amos, who served as Vice Commandant, commanded II Marine Expeditionary Force and an aviation wing in Iraq. He is the first naval aviator to...

Hannity and Repentance It was three years ago this week that I sat before the Secular Tribunal of Mr. Sean Hannity in a Fox News interview and inadvertently became the whipping boy for the Catholic Church's teaching on contraception. In times past, the enemies of the Church would whip and hang a faithful Catholic from a platform with a piece of cord before an angry mob. Nowadays, the whiplashing is more like a tongue-lashing and is carried out on an electronic stage with an audience of millions. I am so happy to prove my love for the Church, though, by...

UPDATE: Obama wants 26 more Growlers for Whidbey By JESSIE STENSLAND Whidbey News Times Assistant editor Feb 03 2010, 5:24 PM · UPDATED The Whidbey Island Naval Air Station will receive an additional 26 EA-18G Growler aircraft under President Obama’s 2011 defense budget. Under the proposal, the Department of Defense plans to purchase the additional 26 electronic attack aircraft over the next two years. U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen made the announcement late Monday. “Buying more Growlers will strengthen our national security and support jobs at NAS Whidbey and in the surrounding community,” said Larsen, who serves as a co-chair of...

Fifteen-month-old Briana N. Porter, daughter of Maj. Dustin M. Porter stares in awe at five-year-old Nubs during his visit to Camp Pendleton’s Country Store, Dec. 5. The wild Iraqi dog is famous for making a 70-mile journey through the Iraqi desert to reunite with Maj. Brian P. Dennis, aircraft maintenance officer, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314, 3rd Marine Air Wing, after the two bonded during Dennis’s 2007 deployment. The recently published story, “Nubs: The True Story of a Marine, a Mutt and a Miracle,” has already made the New York Times’ children’s best seller list and is expected hit...

Commandant of the Marine Corps awarded French Legion of Honour by French Army Chief of Staff 12/4/2009 By Sgt. Rocco DeFilippis, Marine Forces Europe PARIS — Gen. James T. Conway, the 34th Commandant of the United States Marine Corps, was awarded France’s National Order of the Legion of Honour during a military awards ceremony at the historic Les Invalides here Dec. 1. The Legion of Honour, France’s highest decoration, is usually limited to French citizens, however French law allows non-citizens who have served France, or the ideas it upholds, to receive the award. The Chief of Staff of the French...

091126-N-8960W-015 GULF OF OMAN (Nov. 26, 2009) Rainbow side boys render honors to Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68). Nimitz and embarked Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11 are currently deployed to the Central Command area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Robert Winn/Released) 091126-N-9760Z-005 GULF OF OMAN (Nov. 26, 2009) Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander, U.S. Central Command, address the crew before a reenlistment ceremony in the forecastle of the aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68). Nimitz and embarked Carrier Air...

Watch live online at: NASA TV

Remarks to Phoenix Catholic Physicians' Guild I want to talk tonight about the kind of people we’re becoming, and what we can do about it. Especially what you can do about it. But it’s always good to start with a few facts before offering an opinion. So that’s what I’ll do. A number of my friends have children with disabilities. Their problems range from cerebral palsy to Turner’s syndrome to Trisomy 18, which is extremely serious. But I want to focus on one fairly common genetic disability to make my point. I’m referring to Trisomy 21, or Down syndrome. Those...

Health care and the common good Last week a British Catholic journal, in an editorial titled “U.S. bishops must back Obama,” claimed that America’s bishops “have so far concentrated on a specifically Catholic issue—making sure state-funded health care does not include abortion—rather than the more general principle of the common good.” It went on to say that if U.S. Catholic leaders would get over their parochial preoccupations, “they could play a central role in salvaging Mr. Obama’s health-care programme.” The editorial has value for several reasons. First, it proves once again that people don’t need to actually live in the...

Speicher Search Details Announced Story Number: NNS090807-14 Release Date: 8/7/2009 4:11:00 PM From the Department of Defense WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The Navy announced Aug. 7 additional details regarding the recent discovery of the remains of Navy Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher in Iraq. Speicher was shot down flying a combat mission in an F/A-18 Hornet over west-central Iraq Jan. 17, 1991, during Operation Desert Storm. Acting in part on information provided by an Iraqi citizen in early July, Multi National Force–West's (MNF-W) personnel recovery team went to a location in the desert which was believed to be the crash site of...

A FINAL FAREWELL LETTER FROM THE GUNNY TO HIS AUDIENCE Gang: Yes, this is the end of an era. But it also the beginning of a new one. It is hard to know where to start, but I figure I had first better thank you for making the Gunny Bob Show the top-rated evening news-talk program in the Denver Metro region. Without you, my show's ratings would never have been strong enough over all these years to always be the #1 show in that slot, even handily beating the fat cat syndicated hosts with ease. I owe all that to...

Former President Bush Visits Namesake Aircraft Carrier Story Number: NNS090527-04 Release Date: 5/27/2009 10:50:00 AM From USS George H.W. Bush Public Affairs USS GEORGE H.W. BUSH, At Sea (NNS) -- The USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) namesake -- former President George H.W. Bush -- and the ship's sponsor visited the Navy's newest aircraft carrier May 26-27 to observe flight operations during the ship's underway period in the Atlantic Ocean. "It is the greatest honor of my life to be the [ship's] sponsor, so thank you for letting me have that opportunity," said Doro Bush Koch, the former president's daughter...

090519-N-7656T-124 ATLANTIC OCEAN (May 19, 2009) An F/A-18C Hornet assigned to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 passes by the landing signal officer on the way to making the first arrested landing aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77). George H.W. Bush is the tenth and final Nimitz-class aircraft carrier and is underway off the coast of Virginia conducting flight deck certification. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Michael Tackitt/Released) 090519-N-6125G-116 ATLANTIC OCEAN (May 19, 2009) An F/A-18F Super Hornet assigned to Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23 makes the first...

Turkey retires first squadron of F-4 Phantoms By Tolga Ozbek Turkey has disbanded its first squadron of McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom strike aircraft, under a transition plan leading to its future operation of Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The Turkish air force's 172nd Sqn, based in Malatya Erhac, had flown the F-4E for more than 32 years. It is planned to reform in 2014 following first deliveries of the JSF. Ankara expects to receive its first two F-35s that year, although these will first be used at a training centre in the USA. The air force's first conventional take-off...

Navy Decommissions USS Kitty Hawk Story Number: NNS090512-08 Release Date: 5/12/2009 5:37:00 PM From Kitty Hawk Public Affairs BREMERTON, Wash. (NNS) -- The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) was decommissioned May 12 at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard & Intermediate Maintenance Facility in Bremerton, Wash., after more than 48 years of service. Members of the final crew lowered the ship's commissioning pennant from the main mast and the U.S. Flag and First Navy Jack from their staffs after Kitty Hawk Commanding Officer Capt. Todd Zecchin closed out the ship's deck log. "It's hard to capture the feeling in words,"...

New York Palace Hotel boss Niklaus Leuenberger gets the door after Ash Wednesday slur BY Kerry Burke And Oren Yaniv DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS Wednesday, March 25th 2009, 4:00 AM Niklaus Leuenberger no longer runs the New York Palace Hotel. The manager of one of the city's most luxurious hotels was given the boot after ordering a Catholic employee to clean up his forehead on Ash Wednesday. "Wipe that f-----g s--t off your face," managing director Niklaus Leuenberger told a bell captain at the New York Palace Hotel on Feb. 25, sources said. The unholy ultimatum ended up costing Leuenberger...

"As a teacher, your responsibility is to challenge dogma and orthodoxy, not to just accept it." Really? Says who? In this case, it's remorseless left-wing terrorist Bill Ayers. The co- founder of the murderous Weather Underground was in Boulder last week at a rally to defend his soulmate, Ward Churchill, in advance of Churchill's court date to overturn his firing from the University of Colorado. It should be recalled that Churchill wasn't fired for challenging dogma, nor was he fired for his defamatory ravings against this country and the victims of 9/11. He was fired for academic fraud after an...

Monday March 2, 2009 Cherie Blair Says Catholic Church Sexist, Credits Personal Success to Contraception By Hilary White and John JalsevacLONDON, March 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Church "marginalizes" women and keeps them "virtually invisible" in its public face, says Cherie Blair. Speaking on a BBC television program, the wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair said that "ambivalence" towards women is a "fundamental weakness" of Christianity and of Catholicism in particular. The controversial remarks were made during the final installment of a documentary, Christianity, that was aired on BBC's Channel 4 on Sunday night. During a section of...

This Lent, live as if Jesus Christ is indeed Lord of your life This week’s column is adapted from Archbishop Chaput’s Feb. 23 comments at St. Basil’s Church, University of Toronto. Read the archbishop’s full address at archden.org. Seventy years ago the great French Catholic writer Georges Bernanos published a little essay called “Sermon of an Agnostic on the Feast of St. Théresè.” Bernanos deeply loved the Church, but he could also be brutally candid when it came to himself and his fellow believers. Above all, he had a piercing sense of irony about the comfortable, the self-satisfied and the...

Reconciliation, forgiveness, hope – and Lent It was Mardi Gras night, 1995, and I found myself sipping bourbon at 40,000 feet over the Atlantic, en route to Rome where I’d been asked to address an international symposium on the recent Cairo World Conference on Population and Development; there, you may recall, adroit Holy See diplomacy prevented the Clinton Administration from getting abortion-on-demand declared a fundamental human right, equivalent to religious freedom or free speech. On Ash Wednesday morning, I set off in search of an English-language Mass and soon found myself at Santa Susanna, Rome’s American “parish” near the Piazza...