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On May 3rd & 4th, 2008 World T.E.A.M. Sports (The Exceptional Athlete Matters), working with the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, The National Navy Medical Center, The Soldiers Angel Foundation, The Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, and others will be hosting our 2008 Face of America Bike Ride, a two-day inclusive bike ride from Bethesda, MD to historic Gettysburg, PA to honor and assist servicemen and women who have been severely injured in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and any and all other servicemen and women as well. If you are interested in participating in the ride itself or...

'One in five US servicemen has brain injury' By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 3:26am BST 18/04/2008 The psychological toll of America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has touched one in five servicemen and its consequences will be long-lasting, a study suggested yesterday. The Rand Corporation, a leading research operation, said that 320,000 soldiers suffered brain injuries on the battlefield, while more than 300,000 suffered mental disorders on returning home. The report said that US veterans are incurring "invisible wounds" of war, most notably traumatic brain injury. A survey of 1,926 soldiers represented a statistically significant sample of...

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA), ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, will be meeting with President Bush today regarding his Wounded Warrior proposal to Congress. During today’s meeting, Congressman Hunter intends to also suggest that State Department personnel who refuse deployment to Baghdad be replaced with wounded veterans at Walter Reed and Bethesda hospitals. “When the State Department appears to be filled with reluctant personnel, let’s turn to those who have bravely followed the American flag in the most dangerous of assignments,” said Congressman Hunter. “The U.S. Marines, soldiers, airmen and Navy personnel presently recovering...

In observance of Independence Day, National Review Online asked a group of servicemen (currently deployed and vets) — those for whom the rest of us are in debt for our freedom — to tell us why they fight. Here’s what they — with a key supporting role from an army wife — wrote. Peter Brookes While the Star-Spangled Banner exalts the land of the free and the home of the brave, the fact is this country is the home of the free because of the brave. God Bless our troops — and all those who came before them. — Peter...

Memorial Day. A holiday where we take time to remember and honor those who gave their lives to defend and protect this nation. Without their service and sacrifice, we would not enjoy the standard of living we do today in these United States, nor, would we be able to pursue our vocations and interests. Including this website. ---------------------------------------------------------------- A number of college football players over the years have served in our Armed Forces, many after their playing days...some even before. Famous names like Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton, Rocky Bleier, Pat Tillman, and others risked their careers and, tragically in the...

Sociologist Jerry Lembcke of Holy Cross [claims]: “Stories of spat-upon Vietnam veterans are bogus.” Contrary to Lembcke’s claims, I quite easily found many accounts published in the 1967-1972 period claiming spitting on servicemen. For example, on October 6, 1967, John F. Geyer and Bill Bowers, two sailors in uniform on a ten-day leave before shipping out, were accosted and taunted by a group of about ten young men while leaving a high-school football game in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Bowers heard one of them say, “We’re going to get a couple of sailors.” Then one of the band of attackers spat at...

Award winning songwriter & upcoming artist, Jenn Harris, with a poignant but simple "Thank you" to the heroic people who have chosen to serve our country in the past and present. Free download - pass it on....http://www.kristyjackson.com/salute God bless you all. Pam

HEIDELBERG, Germany — They came from Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico and the Philippines. They came from Ghana, Micronesia, Albania and … Canada, Great Britain and Egypt? Nearly 60 U.S. soldiers, stationed throughout U.S. Army Europe but originally from all parts of the globe, gathered Tuesday at Campbell Barracks to take the oath renouncing allegiance to “any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty” and become U.S. citizens. “I think it’s the best country in the world."

"Operation Thank You" Offers Opportunity To Send Cards, Letters Or Packages To US Troops In Iraq Or Afghanistan Franklin, TN: Shooting USA Television has launched a new effort to support the troops named "Operation Thank You". The effort is posted on the www.ShootingUSA.com website to connect viewers of the show with one unit each month that's deployed at a Forward Operating Base in Iraq or Afghanistan. Show viewers are invited to send a letter of thanks, a card, or a package of small items to express support for the troops risking their lives overseas. Jim Scoutten, Executive Producer of the...

Missing Vietnam Servicemen to Be Buried By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writer On May 9, 1967, Sigmund and Agnes Tycz of Milwaukee received a letter from their 22-year-old son, Marine Sgt. James Neil Tycz, who marveled at his new "Sarge's growwwl." "Would you believe (with) my squeak??!," he wrote, a reference to his high-pitched voice. The next day, Tycz and three other U.S. servicemen were killed on Hill 665 near Khe Sanh, Vietnam, close to the Laos border, in a battle with North Vietnamese troops. It was too dangerous to recover their bodies, so for decades, they were listed...

For the first time since giving a statement to the Naval Investigative Service, Marine 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano is talking to someone other than his attorneys about that fateful day in Iraq in 2004 when he shot dead two suspected Iraqi insurgents – a wartime deed that has led to him being charged with their premeditated murders. In an interview by Stone Phillips on NBC's "Dateline" program, the embattled Marine, who is facing an Article 32 pre-trial hearing near the end of April at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejuene, N.C., immediately took the offensive – just like the man...

Has anyone else seen this website? These are some real winners here. http://www.forsakethetroops.info Quote of the Day: The fact that the photograph caused so much anger and drama (and apparently caused one marine mother to have a mental breakdown) means that we've served our purpose. Perhaps now, people are realizing that the US military is not all it's cracked up to be, and people don't like that vulnerability. Despite the best efforts of some whiny gun-happy rednecks, this picture does not violate the TOS/AUP of our hosting provider, and we therefore regretfully tell the fine rednecks at the concerned website...

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon (news - web sites) is turning up the heat on the Russian government for ignoring pleas to cooperate in verifying an expanding body of anecdotal evidence that American servicemen from World War II and the Korean War were secretly held in prison camps in Siberia. Russian inaction has made the effort to confirm information about the presence of Americans in the gulag — the network of penal camps that stretched across the former Soviet Union — "a distinctly unilateral U.S. pursuit," Norman Kass, a leader of the Pentagon project, wrote in the introduction to a new...

WASHINGTON — Americans responded almost immediately to early reports that wounded U.S. soldiers in Germany needed clothing, but now the facility as well as the Army hospital in Washington, D.C., are urging donors to hold off for a while. “It seems like every city had a clothes drive for our soldiers,” said Marie Shaw, public affairs officer at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (search) in Germany, which has tended to more than 18,000 servicemen and women wounded in Iraq since the beginning of operations there in March 2003. "We received tons of things over the holidays — we now have a...

To the Editors: My husband is stationed overseas in Afganistan. I wrote a letter to New York Times best-selling author Dean Koontz and asked him if he would mail a newsletter or something to my husband to brighten his day.I received a handwritten response from Mr. Koontz, and I wanted to share it with you. Dean Koontz is truly a great American. Not only is he an accomplished author, but he is a remarkable human being fo caring so much about soldiers and their families. The letter I received read:"Dear Samantha: Today I sent to Bryan a box of my...

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World War II Remains Arrive at Air Base in Hawaii Mar 26, 2004 The Associated Press HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii (AP) - The remains of what are believed to be seven World War II servicemen arrived on American soil Friday, 60 years after their transport plane crashed in Southeast Asia. The remains now go to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command's Central Identification Laboratory, where scientists will attempt to identify them. The remains are believed to be those of a crew whose C-47 transport plane crashed in 1944 during an air supply flight between India and Burma, now called Myanmar....

What's up with all these Kerry football throwing pics?

CRANSTON - - Major General Reginald A. Centracchio, The Adjutant General of Rhode Island and the Commanding General of the Rhode Island National Guard, announced today that on Sunday, 18 January 2004, 45 members of the Rhode Island National Guard will join other National Guard troops from Connecticut and Massachusetts at the AFC Championship Game at Gillette Stadium. These troops will attend the game in recognition of their service to their country. The tickets were donated by the NFL and the New England Patriots through Operation Tribute to Freedom, a continuing campaign to ensure members of the U.S. Armed Forces...

United States Marine Corps Press Release Public Affairs Office United Service Organizations slevine@adviceunlimited.net Sandy Levine Contact: 301-924-0330 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release # 0401-03-0859 April 1, 2003 Operation USO Care Package Enables Citizens to Show Their Support for Troops Overseas WASHINGTON--With thousands of U.S. troops deployed around the world, engaed in the fight against terrorism, the United Service Organizations (USO) is offering a unique way for individuals and corporations to let our nation's defenders know we haven't forgotten them. 'Operation USO Care Package', sponsored by the USO World Headquarters and administered by the USO of Metropolitan Washington (USO-Metro), enables individuals to write a...

A memorial service has been held on board HMS Ark Royal for three British servicemen who died when two Navy helicopters crashed. The accident happened on March 22 when two Royal Navy Sea King helicopters collided over the northern Arabian Gulf. Six British servicemen died in the crash and today's memorial service on the Navy's flagship aircraft carrier was being held for three of the men whose bodies have been recovered. The three men - Lieutenants Tony King, 35 of Congresbury, Somerset, Philip Green, 31, and James Williams, 28 - were from 849 Squadron based at the Royal Naval Air...

10.11.2002 19:16:02 Sixteen U.S. servicemen killed in Afghanistan - source KABUL. Nov 10 (Interfax) - Sixteen U.S. soldiers are reported to have been killed in Afghanistan on Sunday, an Afghan Defense Ministry source told Interfax on Sunday evening. "Three U.S. Hummer vehicles hit radio-controlled landmines in the Paktia province," the source said. In a separate incident, a checkpoint, a military base near the town of Khowst and strong points in the Gardez province, have come under a missile and artillery strike, the source said. "A total of 16 U.S. servicemen are reported to have been killed, five cars and armored...

Soon it will have been one year since 9-11-01. During that year the United States has struck back against those who caused 911 and those who harbored and assisted the 911 terrorists. Also during that one year some citizens (and I will not call them Americans) have continued in their "blame America" pre-911 habits. We who FReep see them every day we FReep. They call America the terrorist and call our military evil. I believe that these people do not understand what they do when they say the things that they say; or if they do understand they do not...

Bill seeks review of chemical, biological testing on servicemen in '60s By DAVID GOLDSTEIN The Kansas City Star WASHINGTON - Two members of Congress on Thursday introduced legislation seeking a review of a former military chemical and biological testing program to determine whether U.S. servicemen were exposed to nerve gas and other dangerous toxins. Called the Veterans Right-to-Know Act of 2002, the legislation calls on the General Accounting Office to oversee the Defense Department's efforts to investigate its testing program from the 1960s. The program has come under fire from veterans concerned about their health. The legislation requires a report...

Thanks for serving your country. Now get a job. Across the nation, hundreds of National Guardsmen are making the difficult transition from the mandates of military life back to the mayhem of the job market, where soldiers like Cpl. Moss Waldock have found themselves searching the want ads. Waldock, a two-year employee at BellSouth, was laid off Monday after his two-month stint guarding Palm Beach International Airport. The 31-year-old career military man from Lake Worth was infuriated by his discharge. "Here I am, doing my duty for our country and then BellSouth comes along and says I'm out of work,"...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ New York's World War II memorial was dedicated Thursday as a permanent tribute to men and women who gave America enduring freedom. Yet the tribute to those who fought and died 60 years ago in battles around the world never strayed far from the terrorist attacks on America eight months ago. ``Liberty survives because of courage and vigilance, a sense of duty and an abhorrence for surrender, a deep and abiding reverence for freedom and equality and, ultimately, in unwavering love of country,'' said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. ``The character that made yours the greatest generation...

Military casinos Uncle Sam's one-armed bandits Depressed, lonely, and thousands of miles away from her family in Arizona, Air Force Technical Sgt. Gloria Calhoun was looking for solace. She found it in the mesmerizing whir of the slot machines scattered around Osan Air Base in South Korea, her overseas post in 1998. "Anytime I wasn't at work, I was gambling," says Calhoun. To finance her gambling habit, Calhoun wrote about $14,000 in bad checks, which eventually led to a demotion and a 60-day jail sentence. The Pentagon might seem an unlikely casino operator. But since 1981, the Department of Defense...

PENSACOLA, Fla. (Reuters) - Rescue crews were searching for seven people missing after a pair of U.S. Navy jets crashed in the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday, Navy and Coast Guard officials said. The two T-39 Sabreliners were on a training flight when they disappeared from the radar about 40 miles south of Pensacola in the northeastern part of the Gulf of Mexico, with three people on one plane and four on the other. "We have not found any survivors or any bodies," said Petty Officer Mark Mackowiak at the Coast Guard's New Orleans rescue center....