Free Republic

The salute that moved soldiers to tears: Seriously wounded Ranger who was thought to be unconscious defies injuries to raise his arm as he is presented with the Purple Heart A seriously-wounded Army Ranger who was thought to be unconscious has shown an astonishing act of defiance by saluting his senior as he was presented with the Purple Heart in hospital. John Hargis, from Cincinnati, Ohio, has been hailed an inspiration after his wife uploaded an image to Facebook showing him raising his arm to show respect for the higher-ranking officer. The touching moment - which his commander called the...

Good Evening, I've got a AF JROTC Det that wants to send Christmas cards and letters to members of the Armed Forces. I've looked online but haven't had much luck (could be operator error). Would someone kindly provide a link?

The Marines send a not so subtle message to the government.

Four years after risking his life in Afghanistan, William D. Swenson solemnly received the Medal of Honor on Tuesday in a case of battlefield bravery with some odd twists: The young Army captain questioned the judgment of his superiors, and the paperwork nominating him for the award was lost. He left the military two years ago but wants to return to active duty, a rare move for a medal recipient. The nation's highest military honor — a sky blue ribbon and medal — was clasped around Swenson's neck by President Barack Obama at the White House. The president described how...

A booming thunder roared across the clear skies of the Mojave Desert on Oct. 14, 1947, as U.S. Air Force Capt. Chuck Yeager nudged an experimental rocket-powered plane faster than the speed of sound. Though only a handful of people realized it at the time, an aviation record had been set.

In simply Southern terms, Allen West defined President Obama as a “spoiled brat child.” The former Florida Representative said America has given Obama everything he wanted, during an interview on the "The Steve Malzberg Show” show Thursday: “We gave him a state senator position in Chicago, we gave him a U.S. Senate position out of the state of Illinois, unproven, untested, no resume, we gave him the presidency — twice. So if you continue to reward bad behavior, you're going to get more of that bad behavior." The majority of Americans continue to accuse Republicans for the nearly-two-week-long government shutdown....

Join us on October 23, 2013 as we celebrate the Pritzker Military Library’s 10th Anniversary and honor our many supportive members. The celebration will begin with a reception and recognition those who have been members of the Library for five or more consecutive years. The unveiling of James Dietz’s new painting, The Crossing: The 132nd Infantry Regiment at Guadalcanal, will also take place during the celebration. Commissioned by Col (IL) J.N. Pritzker, IL ARNG (Retired) in 2010, Dietz’s painting documents the role of the Illinois National Guard in the pivotal Battle of Guadalcanal. Dietz worked closely with the Library staff...

Culpeper (United States) (AFP) - There was no mistaking the muscular roar of the big radial engine as the most famous trainer to come out of World War II soared above this rural Virginia town. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the North American T-6 Texan, the big tandem-seat warbird in which countless pilots from dozens of countries honed their flying skills. This weekend, some 30 Texans will set off from Culpeper, 70 miles (115 kilometers) outside Washington, and fly up the Potomac River, over the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery, to mark a unique aeronautical milestone.

Real conservative to defeat Mary Landfill...Landrieu. Help us get his name out and noticed. Thanks. http://robmaness.com/

We are over a week into the government shutdown; shouldn't we be looting Target for a flat screen TV by now? Why haven't you joined a marauding street gang? Two things have become apparent: how little we need most of government, and how spiteful public servants can be when they do not get their funding. A turning point in this game of government shutdown brinksmanship happened last week when "our" petulant government went to great lengths to shut down open air memorials in order to intimidate us from ever cutting its funding. ..... This is a vengeful regime. It has...

A video compilation of footage from the Nazi era music by Zack Hemsey Waiting Between Worlds (instrumental)

Days before the government “shutdown” started, the Air Force contracted for an $84,380 upgrade on its “Exit” signs for the Joint Base Charleston-Weapons Station in Goose Creek, S.C. According to the Statement of Work, “approximately 973 existing wall/ceiling mounted exit lighting signs” will be removed and replaced with “0.92 Watt LED lighting signs.” …

Scientists, engineers and policymakers are all figuring out ways drones can be used better and more smartly, more precise and less damaging to civilians, with longer range and better staying power. One method under development is by increasing autonomy on the drone itself. Eventually, drones may have the technical ability to make even lethal decisions autonomously: to respond to a programmed set of inputs, select a target and fire their weapons without a human reviewing or checking the result.

The German machine-gun bunkers were entrenched 50 feet above Nicholas Oresko’s Army platoon and had repelled his men with bursts of fire that frigid January in 1945; they had been pinned down for two days during the brutal Axis offensive known as the Battle of the Bulge. On the third day, Master Sgt. Oresko — 5-foot-4, 28 years old, former New Jersey oil refinery laborer — decided his platoon again would attempt to sneak up on the Germans in the deep snow as the sky darkened.

Government by extortion: Give us what we want, or we'll make your life VERY difficult. Or, we might even think about taking your life to make an example for other uncooperative citizens.

The Defense Department’s Friday night operation to go after an Al-Shabaab commander in Somalia peeled the veil a bit off the Obama administration’s ongoing secret war in Somalia, but left many questions about the story behind the failed raid. Pentagon press secretary George Little confirmed today that U.S. military personnel conducted a “targeted operation” against Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir, a.k.a. “Ikrima,” a Kenyan of Somali origin and a top commander in the al-Qaeda affiliate. Ikrima is “closely associated” with late al-Qaeda operatives Harun Fazul and Saleh Nabhan, who played roles in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.

Comments ranging from outrage to hilarity. Very few are supporting. This is not going well for him. Keep up the pressure! Some excerpts: " YOU are the reason for the shutdown! The Republicans have offered several compromises and you Dems refuse to do just that- compromise. And WHAT is shut down? Only the things that your communist, cruel, self-centered adolescent tantrum- throwing boss Obama wants to shut down to cause maximum pain on the American citizens. We do NOT believe your lies!" "Harry, allow the Senate to vote on all the appropriation bills the House has passed!!!!" "HEY REID....why isn't...

Shortly after dawn on December 2 four men will set out to row across the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean on a fibreglass boat measuring no more than 30ft long and six foot wide. The crew of Endeavour will face mountainous seas, tropical storms and sweltering heat as they attempt to row the 3,000 miles from the Canary Isles to Antigua. That would be a challenge for anyone, but for two of crew the crossing will be particularly tough. Scott Blaney lost much of his right leg after being blown up by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) while serving...

Imagine a small country, the size of Massachusetts, with no arable land, irrigation, or permanent crops, nor any forests. The rocky desert is everywhere, falling all the way to the sea. To ‘cheer one up’, there is the lowest point on land, in Africa (and the third lowest on earth); an eerie crater lake called ‘Lac Assal’ (−155 m). And there are countless rock formations, bare, hostile, and frightening. This tiny country has one of the most strategic locations on earth, at least from the West’s geopolitical interest’s point of view. It lies between Somalia, Ethiopia and what is often...

LAKEWOOD, Wash. - A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier was stabbed to death in a parking lot at the 12500 block of Pacific Highway Southwest around 2:30 a.m., officials say. 20-year-old Tevin Geike was walking with two other soldiers along Pacific Highway SW when a group of men drove by and SHOUTED A RACIAL COMMENT toward the soldiers, the Lakewood Police Department said. "One of the soldiers yelled back something about the suspects treating combat soldiers with disrespect," Lt. Chris Lawler said. . . . ."The initial remark that started the encounter seemed derogatory in nature, said Lakewood police Lt. Chris...

A rousing rock music rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner."

I related an anecdote many posts ago about flying into Jolo in late 1980s to attend a meeting on recent attacks by the MNLF on civilians. In the seat beside me on the plane was a European man, who introduced himself to me as a member of a well known humanitarian NGO. He announced his intention to travel to Patikul, or some such town. I told him, “that’s Indian country. If you try that you’ll be kidnapped before sundown.” His answer was “nonsense. I have humanitarian status. They won’t hinder me.” He mentioned an affiliation with some other International agency...

Phil Lepre of Lower Southampton came to terms with death 20 years ago Thursday. Oct. 3, 1993. Mogadishu, Somalia. Lepre, a 24-year-old demolition specialist in the U.S. Army, was moments away from bloodshed and death. Bullets ricocheted off his tank and explosions rocked in the background as he and others moved into downtown Mogadishu to rescue Rangers pinned in the city after a routine mission turned messy when Somalis shot down two Black Hawk helicopters. Lepre took off his helmet and pulled out a photo he kept there of his 1½-year-old daughter Brittany. He said a prayer and kissed the...

CAMP RIPLEY, Minn. (WCCO) – It’s 4 a.m. on a Tuesday and breakfast is sizzling on the griddle. The hunters are clad in blaze-orange and preparing for a day in the woods. But in this deer camp of sorts, hunters come in wheel chairs, braces and scooters. Their appetite is for little more than to get out into the woods. “It’s nice to come and have people help you do the things you need to do to hunt,” said Ed Ohmann. Vietnam cost Ohmann both of his legs and left him a double amputee. But the land mine that he...

In WWII, Japan's highest ranking naval officer was Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto. Although he was Japanese, and his loyalties were unquestionably with The Empire, he studied for many years in America, graduating from Harvard University. There is an oft-repeated (and sometimes disputed) quote attributed to him regarding the possibility of any nation taking a war to American soil: "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass." Here is why he was correct: The state of Wisconsin recently completed an entire deer hunting season without someone getting killed. That's great, considering there were...

Spies & Secrets: 4 True Stories From Tom Clancy's Novels Sometimes truth may be stranger than fiction, but for best-selling author Tom Clancy, the two are often more closely paralleled. Clancy died Tuesday (Oct. 1) at the age of 66, but his thrilling, espionage and military-inspired novels helped him become one of the most well-known American authors. From a dramatic Soviet-era defection to a high-profile assassination plot, here are four true stories from Clancy's novels. • The Hunt for Red October Clancy's first novel, "The Hunt for Red October," was published in 1984. The book introduced Clancy's most famous fictional...

A YOB who urinated on a memorial to the war dead was yesterday branded “despicable” when he appeared in court.Daniel Orrell, 24, was caught relieving himself on the stone memorial in Bolton, Greater ­Manchester, at 1am while drunk. Local magistrates’ chairman Norman Morlidge told him: “This as a despicable offence. To do it on a war memorial is incredibly offensive to all those veterans who gave their lives for this country.” Orrell was said to have told police officers “Prove it, prove it” when they arrested him on July 27. But in court shamefaced Orrell, who lives in Bolton, admitted...

GONZALES "COME AND TAKE IT" CANNON. The Gonzales "come and take it" cannon was a Spanish-made, bronze artillery piece of six-pound caliber. The gun was the object of contention in late September and early October 1835 between a Mexican military detachment from Bexar and Anglo-Celtic colonists. The disagreement produced the battle of Gonzales, considered to be the first battle of the Texas Revolution. On January 1, 1831, Green DeWitt initiated the new year by writing Ramón Músquiz, the political chief of Bexar, asking him to make arrangements for a cannon to be furnished to the Gonzales colonists for protection against...

DURING the Battle of France in May-June 1940, French Army commanders complained that German aircraft attacked their troops without interference by the French Air Force. French generals and statesmen begged the British to send more Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter squadrons to France. Reporters on the scene confirmed the German domination of the skies, and the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Luftwaffe came to be accepted as one of the principal causes of the French collapse.1 The air force was a convenient scapegoat for the French Army generals who dominated the Vichy regime that ruled France under the Germans. By...

Schwerpunkt at Fismette, August 27, 1918 August 27, 2010 By Shane Reilly, Army Heritage Education Center The forest for the trees: Soldiers of the 28th Division are shown in hiding among trees during service in France in World War I(WWI Signal Corps Collection). Related Links A Working Bibliography of MHI Sources: 28th Infantry Division A Working Bibliography of MHI Sources: World War I- AEF Overview In the early morning hours of August 27, 1918, 230 Pennsylvanians of the 28th Division trudged across the Vesle River into their defensive positions in the rubble- strewn village of Fismette, France. Less than an...

Streamed live on Sep 19, 2013 Taped in September 2013, this show is a look into the lives of Billy & Karen Vaughn, parents of fallen SEAL Team 6 warrior, Aaron Vaughn. The United West meet the Vaughns' back in 2011, right after the horrible loss of Extortion 17, Chinook helicopter that was shot down by the Taliban in Afghanistan. This show gets our viewers and listeners caught up with the very busy Vaughns as they battle with Congress, the Obama Administration and any others who get in their way to hold the US Government responsible for the failed ROE...

In 1972, the United States was embroiled in an unpopular war in Vietnam, and the USS Kitty Hawk was headed to her station in the Gulf of Tonkin. Its five thousand men, cooped up for the longest at-sea tour of the war, rioted--or, as Troubled Water suggests, mutinied.Disturbingly, the lines were drawn racially, black against white. By the time order was restored, careers were in tatters. Although the incident became a turning point for race relations in the Navy, this story remained buried within U.S. Navy archives for decades. With action pulled straight from a high seas thriller, Gregory A....

Called US senator bob corker's office this morning, greeting was due to gov't shut down we are not taking calls, leave a message...voice mail full. US senator lamar alexander another YES to 0'care vote has office staffed and they were answering the phones. I suspect a lot of the RINOS will pull corker's trick so they don't have to hear how ANGRY we are on 0'care's REPEAL.

Different strokes, different folks. Different guns, different countries. Here's a map showing the military issue rifle for each country in the world. You'll see familiar M4s, AK-47s, AK-74s, some M16s and tinkles of other weaponry. Judging by the map's choice of colors, it seems to group weapons that are of a similar family together by color. To be sure, there are more guns used by the military than just these but this map gives a general gist of each military's standardization.

I just read this on the website: Active military, Reserve and National Guard members: Active military, Reserve and National Guard members will be paid on time for pay entitlements earned September 30th or earlier. Military members cannot be paid for duty performed after the expiration of the FY 2013 CRA on September 30th. Once another CRA or an appropriations act is signed into law, normal disbursement of military pay will resume.

Subbing for mylife'''

The project, which got underway in October 2011, was implemented to save and preserve the historic WWII era submarine, which is located at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, Hampshire. The project has so far seen the ship’s outer structure repaired and maintenance access around the site improved. Phase One of the project, which reached completion in summer 2012 focused on the construction of a cofferdam around the base of the submarine, ensuring easy access for regular maintenance. Phase Two, meanwhile, restored HMS Alliance’s exterior which had corroded so badly that sections of the submarine were in danger of...

If the government shuts down Oct. 1 commissaries stateside will be closed starting Oct. 2, according to officials with the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA). Read more: http://spousebuzz.com/blog/2013/09/stateside-commissaries-close-government-shut.html#ixzz2gBT8PNJy SpouseBUZZ.com

SALT LAKE CITY – Only a sole surviving sibling has a distant memory of a World War II pilot whose recently identified remains will be buried Saturday with full military honors in Utah. U.S. Air Force 2nd Lt. Vernal J. Bird had more than a dozen brothers and sisters when he crashed over a Pacific Ocean island nearly 70 years ago. He disappeared over Papua New Guinea on a 1944 bombing run of Japanese airfields there. He was 25. The crash site was discovered 12 years ago, but it wasn't until this summer that the Air Force was able to...

For three years, Shalom Yoran survived the German occupation of Poland even as he saw his fellow Jews slaughtered by the Nazis. When he and his family inevitably became targets themselves, his mother knew she would not escape. “Go, my beloved children,” she told Mr. Yoran and his brother, Musio, as they fled into a field to escape German gunfire. “Try to save yourselves and take vengeance for us.” That was in September 1942. The brothers disappeared into the woods and went on to spend the rest of World War II fighting the elements, injury, illness and the Nazis. After...

Neighbors block new home for injured double-Bronze Star Afghanistan veteran because 'it won't look right' next to their properties He may have served two tours in Afghanistan protecting the freedom of his nation, but double-Bronze Star veteran David Wood has returned home only to battle ungrateful NIMBYS. Gifted a charitable home through the efforts of his local congressman, Aaron Schock, for his wartime efforts, Wood, who has lost the hearing in one ear was told that the property plans for his family's house were opposed by his potential neighbors. Indeed, an unidentified cabal of neighbors in the Peoria suburb of...

America’s soft power, however, is more about what we do at home than what we do abroad...Liberals tend to emphasize what we do in the world over who we are in the world, because they’ve fashioned a culture that denies American exceptionalism.... It is time that conservatives take ownership of this idea and put the emphasis back on what really counts.

I remember seeing clips of it, like the choir, but not the story in it's entirety. Here's you chance.... http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=LemllfcAY8A&sns=em

On September 26, 1983, the world came very close to nuclear war. Shortly after midnight, alarms inside Serpukhov-15 -- a bunker in Moscow where the Soviet Union monitored its satellites over the United States -- began to go off. The satellites had detected the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile from a base in the United States. Then the system reported that five missiles had been launched and were heading toward the Soviet Union from the U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, who was on duty that night, had no way of knowing that it was a false alarm: The satellites...

I was starting my second year in the Navy; 1980. I was a storekeeper Petty Officer 3rd class on The Illusive, a wooden ship (yes wooden!) based in Charleston, South Carolina. The Illusive was about 75 feet long, and purposed to find underwater mines by the use of sonar. I was asked to train a new seaman, recently transferred from shore duty. This guy, I'll call Mike, seemed very smart, very able and easy to train to the routine of ordering supplies or conducting inventories. I soon wondered if he was even over-qualified for this work. That was before that...

Dream Theater's new self-titled album on Roadrunner Records arrives tomorrow (Sept. 24), and to celebrate Billboard is hosting the exclusive U.S. premiere of the video for the song "The Enemy Inside." The clip, which was directed by Bill Fishman (the Ramones, Steve Ray Vaughan), marks the first time in a long while that Dream Theater has created a strictly conceptual video to illustrate one of its songs. Instead of seeing the band, viewers will witness the torment of a soldier who's struggling with reintegrating into his life back home due to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). http://youtu.be/kivbHHazxFQ Guitarist John Petrucci says...

The dream of igniting a self-sustained fusion reaction with high yields of energy, a feat likened to creating a miniature star on Earth, is getting closer to becoming reality, according the authors of a new review article in the journal Physics of Plasmas. Researchers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) engaged in a collaborative project led by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, report that while there is at least one significant obstacle to overcome before achieving the highly stable, precisely directed implosion required for ignition, they have met many of the demanding challenges leading up to that...

Buried for more than 40 years inside the plane they were flying when they were shot down over Laos in 1969, Major James Sizemore and his navigator Major Howard Andre made their final journey home Monday to Arlington National Cemetery, where they were laid to rest just the way they flew: side by side. A single bugler played TAPS as the families of the airmen gathered and two horse drawn caissons made their way through the cemetery. Overhead, eight civilian pilots performed a tribute flyover at their own expense after the Air Force said it couldn’t perform a traditional flyover...

Renowned for its lethal striking power and rugged airframe, the Air Force’s A-10 Thunderbolt has proven its mettle on thousands of combat missions in more than three decades in service. But now it's future may be in question due to budget cuts and shifting missions. Here’s a look.

In Hitler's Reign of Terror the American film-maker visited the town where the Nazi leader was "an unpopular kid" at school.The first American film to warn about the rise of Adolf Hitler has been found in a vault in Belgium after lying unnoticed for 75 years. Hitler's Reign of Terror features footage smuggled out of Germany, showing Nazi party rallies, book burnings and the ransacking of Jewish shops. It was produced by Cornelius Vanderbilt, an heir to the wealthy US industrialist family, who visited Germany as Hitler was voted into power in 1933.