Free Republic

A U.S. Navy sailor was sentenced Friday to two-and-a-half years hard labor for raping a Japanese tourist in Okinawa. Justin Castellanos, 24, who was based in the district's Camp Schwab, pleaded guilty in May to raping the 40-year-old victim in his hotel room in Naha, south Japan on March 13. The serviceman had found the woman, who was drunk and asleep in the hotel lobby, and taken her up to his room where he assaulted her. 'I am sorry for what I have done,' he told the court. 'My heart is filled with regret,' Stars and Stripes reports.

Christopher S. Smith, a U.S. Army veteran who was injured in Afghanistan in 2006, died unexpectedly Thursday, Aug. 28, and will be buried with full military honors. Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 2 at the Belton-Stroup Funeral Home, 422 E. Dayton-Yellow Springs Road in Fairborn. The funeral service will be there at 10 a.m. Wednesday, with burial in Byron Cemetery.

Here's the info: Marine Comfort Quilt Group is a not for profit ministry whose objective is to provide a memorial quilt of comfort to the next of kin of our fallen military. Our quilts are made from thirty quilt squares, each containing an inspirational message from it's donor or another serviceman. Our quilts are stitches of love from those who want so badly to bring comfort, but don't know how to help. Our Marine Comfort Quilt Group has now decided to take on a greater project. With the War on Iraq, we have lost many Marines. Our initial project was...

The average age of the military man is 19 years. He is a short haired, tight-muscled kid who, under normal circumstances is considered by society as half man, half boy. Not yet dry behind the ears, not old enough to buy a beer, but old enough to die for his country. He never really cared much for work and he would rather wax his own car than wash his father's; but he has never collected unemployment either. He's a recent High School graduate; he was probably an average student, pursued some form of sport activities, drives a ten year old...

Preamble -- October 18 marks my first shipment of care packages to a Military service-person overseas (specifically to Baghdad). I was going to do it since about summer, but hesitated...partly because I wasn't sure how to proceed. Thus, I now present a (Very) Quick Guide to the sending of care packages. Point #1: Timing IS EVERYTHINGKeep these DEADLINE dates in mind (from the US Navy website at this URL: http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/questions/holidaymail.html The United States Navy Holiday mailing — 2003 The Naval Supply Systems Command's Postal Policy Division, in cooperation with the U.S. Postal Service and military postal officials from all of...

In Basra and in Baghdad, the people celebrate, but in Clio, Mich., and in Rawlings, Md., they mourn. The Pentagon has released the identities of four more American servicemen killed in Iraq. They are from Clio, Rawlings, Pendleton, Ore., and Birmingham, Ala., and they include one man who was on the telephone with his wife 30 minutes before an enemy shell destroyed the command post where he was working. That was Army Spc. George A. Mitchell of Rawlings, who told his wife he thought he might apply for a deputy's job at the county sheriff's office when he returned. "He...