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~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ DAUGHTER DELIGHT An Army soldier embraces his daughter while being recognized at a welcome home ceremony on Fort Campbell Army Airfield, March 1, 2013, when he returned from a deployment to Afghanistan. He and soldiers in his unit returned after about six months rather than the full nine months due to the progress of Afghan forces, which are conducting operations independently. U.S. Army photo taken by Sgt. Alan Graziano Canteen Mission Statement Showing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the...

Wounded, bandaged and hooked up to tubes in an Afghanistan intensive care unit, a U.S. Army Ranger, thought by hospital staff to be unconscious, heard his commander’s voice and addressed him with the iconic symbol of respect: a salute. Josh Hargis, a Purple Heart recipient with the 3rd Ranger Battalion, was injured after 13 improvised explosive devices went off while he was conducting a mission in Afghanistan to capture a high value target, according to the website Guardian of Valor. Several members of the unit were killed by a woman wearing a suicide vest and others injured by the IEDs...

(CNSNews.com) - Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, a spokesman in the Office of Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, is refusing to say whether the Department of Defense would attempt to stop a civilian Catholic priest, who had been a contract chaplain for the military, from administering the last rites to a serviceman on a U.S. military base. “I feel no particular compulsion to answer outlandish, hypothetical questions in a yes/no fashion nor does the Department, generally, answer hypotheticals at all,” Breasseale said in an email. “Further, it is a matter of long standing Department policy to not address matters that are...

~ Freeper Canteen ~ Canteen Mission StatementShowing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. Today We Want To Know.... What Autumn Drink Are You? Click here and take the quiz! To share your results, click on the pink "HTML" button, then copy and paste the code into a "Reply" box. Have fun! Please remember that The Canteen is here to support and entertain our troops and veterans and their families, and is family friendly.

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

Defense: The firing of two nuclear commanders in a week adds to a body count that suggests we have either the most corrupt and incompetent general staff in history or our military is being reshaped for other purposes. The Obama administration, which has fired no one over scandals such as its Fast and Furious Mexican gun-running operation, its criminal negligence in the terrorist attack on our Benghazi diplomatic mission, or the use of the IRS to target and intimidate political foes, seems to have a curious obsession lately about ethics and competence in the U.S. military. Last week the Air...

The Army's controlled burn has jumped past its containment line and is now burning a 72-acre parcel south of where it was supposed to stay. The fire is still within the Army's secondary containment line but has required York School's students and faculty to be evacuated... The fire is the latest in a long series of controlled burns intended to clear heavy brush so crews can find and remove hidden explosives left over from active operations at the base...

Time to Back Up World War II Vets as They Continue to Storm ‘Obama Beach’ First Honor Guard Shift: Wed., October 16 to Sunday, October 20 Every Day, Dawn till Dusk (you pick the day(s) you can serve) World War II Memorial, Washington D.C. (and other D.C. area war memorials, if we have enough volunteers) To Volunteer, RSVP by posting a comment to this article, giving us at least your first name, and telling us what day(s) and times you can be there, at the WWII memorial. See below for more details. In yet another intolerable act, the Obama Administration...

The troops will get paid on Tuesday, but the check after that could come in the form of an IOU if the nation defaults on its debt obligations, Treasury Department officials said. Default on top of the government shutdown would cancel out the hastily-crafted legislation that brought back furloughed Defense Department civilian employees and allowed for the payment of back pay, death benefits, incentive pays, re-enlistment bonuses, veterans disability benefits and survivor benefits. All would be eliminated if Congress and the White House fail to reach agreement on raising the debt ceiling to avoid default on Oct. 17, Treasury Secretary...

“You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel” . . . For the battle is the LORD's 1 Samuel 17:45 / 47

In 2004, the Army decided to scrap the two traditional camouflage uniforms that had long been used by the military—one meant for woodland environments, another for the desert—and claimed to have come up with a universal pattern that could be worn anywhere and blend in with any environment. The $5 billion dollar experiment with the universal pattern is over as the Army is phasing out the uniform after less than a decade of use. But many soldiers and observers are wondering why it took this long and cost this much to replace an item that performed poorly from the start...

In the wake of the government shutdown, despite provisions in the Pay Our Military Act, Catholics at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia are being denied religious services. The Catholic priest who serves this community has been prohibited from even volunteering to celebrate Holy Mass without pay, and was told that if he violated that order, he could be subject to arrest. Protestant services continue to take place. Only Catholic services have been shutdown. This is an astonishing attack on religious freedom by the federal government, and the latest affront towards the military since the beginning of the shutdown....

At a stately White House ceremony on Tuesday, President Barack Obama will extol former Army Capt. William Swenson's courage and award him the country's highest military decoration. But beyond the pageantry is a convoluted tale not told in the official Army narrative detailing Swenson’s heroics when he and his troops were ambushed in Afghanistan more than four years ago. Even as Swenson receives his Medal of Honor, a Pentagon investigation is unfolding into why the former Army officer’s award nomination once vanished. It has been alleged that military brass may have derailed the approval process because Swenson pointed blame at...

  Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do! For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.   Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ~ Hall of Heroes ~ Vernon McGarity Info from here.             Vernon McGarity (December 1, 1921 – May 21, 2013) was a United States Army soldier and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. Born...

Pray For Our American Heroes and Our Nation Stand Firm Joshua 24:15 New American Standard Bible (NASB) 15 If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Judge Jeanine delivered another fantastic monologue, blasting the administration for denying death benefits to military families. But not only that, she went after Congress as well over this entire debacle and said that every one of them needs to be thrown out for letting it come to this. Watch:

        DISCOVERING GOD Tomorrow many will enjoy a day off to celebrate Columbus Day. Columbus day is a legal holiday that we, as North Americans along with Latin Americans, celebrate the landing of Columbus in the Bahamas in 1492. Because of this discovery, a country, the United States of America, would come into existence based upon a pursuit of God Jehovah and the right to worship as we please. "Admiral Byrd, the explorer, one day was passing through the lobby of a hotel when a large company of people commenced cheering him. Two men were joining...

You care for the land and water it; you enrich it abundantly. The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain, for so you have ordained it. You drench its furrows and level its ridges; you soften it with showers and bless its crops. You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the desert overflow; the hills are clothed with gladness. The meadows are covered with flocks and the valleys are mantled with grain; they shout for joy and sing. (Psalm 65:9-13)

Here is where we’re at: The Republican establishment — the guys who told us that for a trillion dollars and several thousand American casualties, we could build “Islamic democracies” that would be reliable U.S. allies in the War on Terror — say it is Ted Cruz who is “delusional” and the effort to stave off Obamacare that is “unattainable.” These self-appointed sages are, of course, the same guys who told us the way to “stabilize” and “democratize” Libya was to help jihadists topple and kill the resident dictator — who, at the time, was a U.S. ally, providing intelligence about...

   ***** ~ Tunes For Our Troops ~ ***** ~ Support The Artists ~   Support the artists you hear throughout the Canteen! Click on the links below! Keep the music going! ArtistDirect l  Internet Radio l  AOL Music l  Sonique (Lycos) l  Real Radio Live365 l  971TheRiver  l  GotRadio  l  Wherehouse  l  Target  l Shoutcast AFRTS l  VH1 l XM Radio l  BET l  audiophile l  Virgin Radio l  Soma (Alternative) Acaza l AudioRealm l VH1 l  Yahoo! Launch Music l  Radio Disney l  Live-Radio Net ITunes l Amazon l Salsa Radio l MTV l CMT l Ticketmaster...

A combination of budget cuts and escalating compensation costs will reduce the U.S. military’s fighting forces by at least 50 percent by 2021 and threaten national security, according to a report released Friday. The report by the Bipartisan Policy Center also said that the nearly $1 trillion in defense funding reductions over the next decade, known as the sequester, would cripple the readiness and modernization of military forces. The report pushed back against the notion that the sequester cuts have not been as debilitating as originally thought and actually helped to curb the nation’s mounting debt. While the cuts...

According to news reports, they expected 100,000, accommodated for 35,000 but less than half of that showed up. Another march without marchers, a.k.a. the story of the immigration movement these days. When is this movement going to realize that they need new leaders, or people who understand how to speak to a nation in the middle of a huge recession? You can't demand "legalization" for 10 milion people when there are millions of US citizens and legal residents who can't find work. Have any of these immigration leaders walked down the streets of Hispanic districts in the US? Are they...

- Rep. Duncan Hunter was on with Megyn Kelly again tonight to discuss the fact that Obama and Harry Reid had a change of heart and tonight Obama signed a bill to ensure military families get the death benefits they so deserve. Megyn Kelly made a great point during this, that if it was really a concern for the DoD that death benefits weren't going to be paid out to military families, that they would have come back to Congress 9 days ago and said fix it. But they never did, according to Hunter, who says that someone made a...

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allied military and the family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe Come on in, we're open Need a place just to hang out? This is it. We serve coffee, tea, and conversation. And music. Our AWESOME military, our AWESOME allies, and their families are welcomed and honored here. No worries in the FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe. Grab a cup and start a conversation. You never know who you might meet in the Cafe. Glad you...

President Obama opposed passage of funding for veterans' death benefits because the Fisher House Foundation has agreed to cover the costs, according to his spokesman.

(CNSNews.com) - President Obama was "very disturbed" to learn that the Defense Department would not pay death benefits to the families of fallen soldiers, a White House spokesman said Wednesday. But if the Defense Department knew this several weeks ago, why didn't the president? When did President Obama learn about the problem? White House spokesman Jay Carney was asked that question at least six times on Wednesday, but he wouldn't or couldn't say.

The MSM and the conservative media are treating the scandal very differently. To read about the story in the MSM, the Pentagon had no choice about withholding payment of the death benefit from the grieving families and denying them a plane ride to Dover AFB to meet the bodies of the soldiers killed in battle. It seems that some unknown entity we'll call "Mr. Government Closer" found a rule that said that death benefits can't be paid, but that the Pentagon can keep the military golf course open so that President Obama can play. Of course nobody told Obama anything,...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)The federal shutdown has found its angry prophet. Senate Chaplain Barry Black is usually a calm, pastoral presence on Capitol Hill, doling out spiritual wisdom and moral counsel to his high-powered flock. But the Seventh-Day Adventist and former Navy rear admiral is mad as hell about the shutdown — and he’s letting the Senate, and the Lord, know about it. “Lord, when the federal shutdown delays payments of death benefits to the families of (soldiers) dying on far-away battlefields, it’s time for our lawmakers to say enough is enough,” Black said in his prayer opening the Senate on Wednesday. “Cover...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ GREEN GIANTS Giant parachutes descend onto Fort Bragg’s Sicily Drop Zone after conveying Humvees and other heavy equipment to the ground during a mass-tactical airborne training exercise on Fort Bragg, N.C., Feb. 25, 2013. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod Canteen Mission Statement Showing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. HAWKEYE MOVE Navy Sailors move an E-2C Hawkeye off of an aircraft elevator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower,...

President Obama has ordered officials to resume paying death benefits to the families of fallen soldiers and was "very disturbed" they had been halted due to the government shutdown, said White House spokesman Jay Carney. Carney said Obama had ordered the Office of Management and Budget to work with White House lawyers to find a way to restart the benefits and expects a fix Wednesday. "He was not pleased to learn of this problem," Carney said, adding it was "unthinkable" that those who had lost family members would go without benefits. The White House said that Congress was warned that...

In a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel obtained by CNN, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, shares the news that Fisher House Foundation has stepped in and offered an advance grant to families of the fallen during the government shutdown, “to ensure there is no funding gap during the most difficult of times, with the understanding that reimbursements would be made at an appropriate time.” The Pentagon has said it cannot pay death benefits to families of troops killed in Afghanistan. This afternoon Manchin spoke to Fisher House CEO Ken Fisher to discuss what could be done to help these...

WASHINGTON — The families of four soldiers killed in Afghanistan last weekend will not receive death benefits or the money to pay for their funerals because of the government shutdown. The bodies of Sgt. Patrick C. Hawkins, 25; Pfc. Cody J. Patterson, 24; Sgt. Joseph M. Peters, 24; and First Lt. Jennifer M. Moreno, 25, will arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Wednesday. The four soldiers were killed Sunday in the Zhari district of Kandahar Province when enemy forces attacked their unit with explosives. But if their families want to meet the plane, they will have to...

Five U.S. service members died over the weekend in Afghanistan, and now the government is refusing to shell out a $100,000 benefit to their families to help with the immediate costs of burying a loved one killed while serving their country. A “death gratuity” is usually wired to the families within 36 hours. It’s intended to cover funeral costs, time lost at work, and travel expenses to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to witness the return of their loved ones in flag-draped coffins. But no. The government is shut down, so we must do things like keep geriatric heroes...

~ Freeper Canteen ~ Canteen Mission StatementShowing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. Today We Want You To Take.... The Snow Test Click here and take the quiz! To share your results, click "Get HTML", then copy and paste the code into a "Reply" box. Have fun! Please remember that The Canteen is here to support and entertain our troops and veterans and their families, and is family friendly.

The government shutdown may be keeping furloughed federal workers at home, but on Monday the U.S. Army contracted to buy a mechanical bull. The $47,174 contract was awarded on Oct. 7 to Mechanical Bull Sales Inc. of State College, Penn. … Lt. Col. Hank McIntire of the Utah National Guard tells CNSNews.com that the mechanical bull is regularly used as a tool by recruiters at fairs and other events. …

OLLIE NORTH RAISING MONEY TO SEND FAMILIES TO DOVER TO RECEIVE THE REMAINS OF THE KILLED SOLDIERS TOMORROW I called Ollie North when I learned that Pentagon won’t pay for the families of the killed soldiers to travel to tomorrow’s transfer of remains ceremony on Dover Air Force Base. Ollie – like you, like I am – is outraged. He is scrambling to see if he can locate the families of the killed soldier and to raise money to get them to Dover. Time is running out (the remains of our heroes arrive tomorrow) but we are trying. This is...

Father Ray Leonard, a Catholic priest who serves a Georgia military base, was not allowed to celebrate mass at the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay this weekend. “Shutdown: No Catholic service till further notice,” a sign posted on the chapel said. Leonard — who is contracted with the Department of Defense to minister the military on the base — is not allowed to work on the base during the federal government shutdown. In fact, the general counsel for the Archdiocese for the Military Services USA has warned that — under current law — some military priests under contract could even

Military veterans will lose many of their veterans’ benefits in “late October” if the government shutdown persists, according to newly-released U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs documents. The VA has been continuing to make payments to veterans in the days since the Oct. 1 government shutdown, but agency officials say the pool of available money is dwindling. “Claims processing and payments in the compensation, pension, education and vocational rehabilitation programs are anticipated to continue through late October. However, in the event of a prolonged shutdown, claims processing and payments in these programs would be suspended when available funding is exhausted,” said...

The United States will move about 200 Marines to a U.S. base at Sigonella, Italy from one in Spain in the next day or so, U.S. military officials said on Tuesday, bolstering the U.S. ability to respond to any crises after its raid in Libya.

So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper . . . Hebrews 13:6

Three black soldiers arrested for stabbing white comrade to death 'called him a cracker' - so why are police now so sure it was NOT a hate crime? Police today said the stabbing death of a white Army soldier allegedly at the hands of a group of African American comrades was not a hate crime - despite witnesses claiming they called him a 'cracker' during the confrontation. Tevin Geike, 20, was left for dead in a parking lot near his base in Lakewood, Washington, in the early hours of Saturday morning and three soldiers have been arrested over the killing....

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Fort Greely, AlaskaFort Greely is a United States Army launch site for anti-ballistic missiles located approximately 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. It is also the home of the Cold Regions Test Center (CRTC), as Fort Greely is one of the coldest areas in Alaska, and can accommodate cold, extreme cold, or temperate weather tests depending on the season.Fort Greely has a proud history. Because of its location and environment, it has been the site for cold-weather training and testing of operations and equipment through the past half century. Until the...

In a stunning development, some military priests are facing arrest if they celebrate mass or practice their faith on military bases during the federal government shutdown.

Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you. I Peter 5:7

  Our Troops Rock!  Thank you for all you do! For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces.   Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today!     ~ Hall of Heroes ~ Nicholas Oresko Info from here.             Nicholas Oresko (January 18, 1917 – October 4, 2013) was a United States Army veteran and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions on 23 January 1945, during World War II. Born on January...

Matthew 6:6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret.

The International Security Assistance Force did not identify the nationalities but the four were Americans killed by a bomb in the early hours of Sunday, U.S. defense officials said. Also in southern Afghanistan, a security guard shot a soldier dead in a separate incident, Reuters reported. It wasn't clear what nationalities of the guard and the soldier were.

Remember when the media rushed to talk about transparency in the Barack Obama “Hope and Change” era? Good times, good times. Leonard Downie, who once worked as the executive editor of the Washington Post and wrote a novel about Washington corruption and the Iraq War, finds a bigger and non-fictional problem in the successor to George W. Bush. Downie gives the Post a preview of his report from the Committee to Protect Journalists which outlines the Obama war on reporters and their sources: “A memo went out from the chief of staff a year ago to White House employees and...