Free Republic

He is a veteran. He was thinking about committing suicide. But when he called the suicide hotline for veterans, he says he wasn’t helped — he was put on hold. Ted Koran experienced deep depression on Saturday night, so much so that he considered killing himself, the Florida Air Force veteran told WFTS-TV. “I was missing my wife,” he said of his life partner Karen, who died of cancer six months ago. In his pain, he turned to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Barack Obama's time as a sitting American President is running out. If he plans to do something big and bold, now, or within the next 19 months will be time to do it. We already see that he has softened the borders, in definition and in purpose. There are tens of thousands of illegal aliens pouring in across the southern borders of our country, day after day, week after frustrating week. Operation Choke Point quietly continues to convince banks to refuse the accounts of gun stores, resulting in these stores being shut down. Lois Lerner is still free to walk...

News reel of the surrender ceremony on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. Background music is "With Honour Crowned"

One of the most enduring symbols of the Cold War’s destructive potential is the intercontinental ballistic missile. But during the 1950s, the U.S. Force developed a strategic cruise missile known as the Snark. The Snark was highly unusual at the time. Almost forgotten today, the flying branch developed the missile as a nuclear-armed “pilotless bomber” that would herald a new era of robotic warfare.

n the not-too-distant future, drivers in Washington state could cross the Sinclair Inlet on a bridge made of two or three decommissioned aircraft carriers. ... No aircraft carrier is available for the project—not yet, at least. Currently, the backers of the project have their eyes on the USS Independence, which was commissioned in the 1960s and could go to the salvage yard later this year, and the USS Kitty Hawk, a carrier that sailed in the Vietnam War after its 1958 commission.

"The strangest aspect of being paralyzed is that nobody ever, ever asks you what it’s like. This may be from concern over not hurting your feelings. Or not wanting to bring up the issue. Or superstition that your paralysis might be contagious if discussed. It’s still odd that nobody inquires. It’s the elephant—the screaming banshee—in the room, and it’s mighty big..." "...Q: Where do you find an invalid? A: Where you left him. You find yourself, unavoidably, living in the past. Happiness isn’t is, but was. You try not to contemplate the future too much. Nor the future of the...

This time lapse, shot at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego, of the Los Angeles class nuclear fast attack sub USS San Francisco entering drydock is pretty awesome. Not only do you get to see how they bring in one these amazing machines for repairs, but you also see some pretty cool ship traffic in the background. I can see a cruise ship, a Joint High-Speed vessel, some destroyers, a car carrier, the brand new USS America, and a bunch of civilian boats in the video. Not to mention a gaggle of security vessels and a couple of force...

The TURN: Washington’s Spies Season 2 premiere airs this Monday, April 13 at 9/8c. Looking for ways to get ready? Here are 10 suggestions: 1. Catch up with a marathon of all 10 Season 1 episodes starting this Monday, April 13th at 10:30am/9:30c, leading directly into the two-hour Season 2 premiere event at 9/8c. You can also watch the cast and crew talk about where Season 1 left off. 2. Watch four sneak peek scenes from the two-hour Season 2 premiere. 3. View behind the scenes videos from Season 2 to get a preview of the upcoming season, meet this...

Jerilynn Robinson feared the worst when she initially saw a note left on her car. However, upon closer inspection, she realized it was actually a note thanking her husband Tom for his service in the armed forces. Georgia teenager James Dorris, 13, had seen the veteran license plate on Robinson’s car and decided to leave a note,WSB-TV reported. “I was surprised,” Tom told WFLA-TV. “This is one of the very first notes I’ve ever gotten left on my vehicle, just thanking me for being a veteran, or for serving. And that did it. It brought joy to me.”

Well, it’s finally over with… The United States Marine Corps for the past three years, at the direction of those in the Department of Defense, following the direction of the Commander-in-Chief, Barrack Hussein Obama, have completed their experiment attempting to integrate women into combat arms positions and units. The final result?… Epic FAIL! The effort came to an end on April 02, 2015, when the last of two female volunteers participating in the current Infantry Officers Course at Quantico, Virginia, were dropped during the grueling Combat Endurance Test. The unimaginably difficult course is the gauntlet that every Marine Corps Officer...

When military aviation buffs pack into the Marine Corps Beaufort Air Show in South Carolina, they'll be wowed by the Navy's Blue Angels. But a new kind of history will also take flight in the team: a woman in the cockpit. U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Katie Higgins is the first female pilot in the team's 69-year history. Michelle Miller took to the sky to see how Higgins got her wings.

Political correctness is a disease. It’s a cancerous growth on the posterior of America that continues to grow. One of the prime examples of that is this week’s controversy surrounding the University of Michigan, and it’s screening of American Sniper. Long story short, American Sniper was going to be shown on campus, some Muslims at UofM complained, got a petition going and got the screening canceled. They claimed that the film was “racist” and that it would make students feel “unsafe”. Jeez. Then one girl, one brave girl, named Rachel Jankowski, got a counter-petition going to get the screening back...

Military officials in Kazakhstan have introduced a Miss Army competition in the hope of encouraging more recruits. The Kazakhstani Ministry of Defence has chosen 123 of its prettiest female soldiers and posted their photos online where viewers can vote for their favourites. The pictures show the women in three set poses – in military uniform, with weapons and in civilian clothing – and they have already been viewed more than 30,000 times.

If there’s any weapon that deserves the most credit for beating back Nazi Germany, it might be the legendary bolt-action Mosin-Nagant rifle. The Soviet Union made them in absolutely huge numbers — and they’re still available and rather cheap compared to their contemporaries. What’s more extraordinary is that the basic design is more than a century old. Even now, rebels carry Mosin-Nagants alongside more modern weapons as in conflicts from Ukraine to the Middle East.

He had three drill sergeants, two of whom were sadists. Thank God it was the easygoing one who saw it. He was reading a magazine, when he slowly looked up and stared at Everman. Then the sergeant walked over, pointing to a page in the magazine. “Is this you?” It was a photo of the biggest band in the world, Nirvana. Kurt Cobain had just killed himself, and this was a story about his suicide. Next to Cobain was the band’s onetime second guitarist. A guy with long, strawberry blond curls. “Is this you?” Everman exhaled. “Yes, Drill Sergeant.”

This was just posted by the Ted Cruz campaign on Facebook. Thank you, Senator, for remembering the victims of Islamic terrorism at Fort Hood. I hope that the victims of the Boston terror attacks can find some solace and closure following today’s verdict. It should not be overlooked that in the same week a jury brings justice to Boston Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, we are also preparing to finally honor the victims of the Fort Hood terror attack with the Purple Heart. These both mark the most terrible domestic attacks by radical Islamic terrorists since 9/11, and are a stark reminder...

A Jefferson Parish jury rejected an Iraq war veteran's insanity defense Wednesday (April 8), finding he knew right from wrong when he shot a Terrytown rapper in the head during a dispute outside a Harvey bar last year. Devin Bonilla was convicted as charged of second-degree murder for killing Bowie Richard, 21, a local entertainer who used the stage name Yung Kaptin. Bonilla, 25, who served in Iraq and was discharged as a private from the Louisiana Army National Guard after his arrest last year, faces spending the rest of his life in prison. The jury of seven women and...

This would be the poll that would already have Hillary and the Liberals in panic mode. Conservatives would be gloating if Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and at least Colorado had "Nuclear Iran" at the top of the list when it comes time to vote, and average polling in all the five to seven purple states show Cruz with a 15 Point Lead over Hillary because of their fear of a Nuclear Iran and Hillary wont do anything about it. Hopefully some of our more credible pollsters will start taking these "Nuclear Polls".

Perhaps no other firearm is so closely associated with the Vietnam War — or pop culture spin-offs — as the M-60 general purpose machine gun. Portrayals of the M-60 in the hands of American soldiers range from the sublime dignity expressed by the “Three Soldiers” statue in Washington D.C., to the over-the-top destruction of the fictional town of Hope, Wash., by Sylvester Stallone’s character John Rambo in the film First Blood.

A sobering tale of the massacre of 22,000 Polish officers and Poland's intellectual elite - all of POW status - by the Red Army in 1940, and the subsequent propaganda that masked the truth for the next fifty years. Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2008.