A Academy confirmou seu proximo lançamento, trata-se do pequeno tanque ontos, usado pelos marines durante a guerra do Vietnan.

Consta que o kit tera duas figuras, 106mm recoilless rifle muito bem detalhados e esteira e suspenção reproduzidas com grande fidelidade.

An Article 32 hearing is scheduled to begin Monday at Fort Lewis, Wash., for Spc. Ivette Davila, who is accused of killing two fellow soldiers and abducting their baby in March 2008.

A Fort Lewis investigating officer will examine evidence in charges against Davila, who is accused of killing a married couple, both medics assigned to Fort Lewis.

Sgt. Randi Miller, 25, of C Company, Madigan Army Medical Center, and her husband, Staff Sgt. Timothy Miller, 27, of the 47th Combat Support Hospital, 62nd Medical Brigade, were fatally shot at their home off post on March 1, 2008.

Davila, then 22, was arrested the next day by Pierce County law enforcement officials. The prosecutor deferred the case to Fort Lewis.

Davila is charged with two counts of premeditated murder, burglary, breaking and entering with intent to commit murder, kidnapping and obstruction of justice. She may face the death penalty.

Davila, a chemical operations specialist, allegedly shot Randi Miller twice while she was lying in bed and Timothy Miller multiple times as he took a shower. Police found the bodies in a bathtub in the home, doused with muriatic acid. The baby was unharmed.

Davila allegedly disclosed after her arrest that her ex-boyfriend had apparently chosen Randi Miller over Davila, according to court documents.

My cousin Peter Regan had a piece published in the NY Post condemning the ridiculous decision to try terrorists in NYC.   His father, and my uncle, Donnie Regan died on 9/11 in the service of the FDNY.  Peter was in the Marines at the time, took leave to assist in the search for survivors, served two tours in Iraq, and, after finishing his service (and a call up in the IRR!) followed in Donnie’s footsteps as a NYC Fireman.

He wrote, among other things, “I will never be convinced that these terrorists did not commit an act of war. And committing an act of war does not qualify these men to enjoy the rights and liberties of the citizens of this country, rights that so many have died to protect.”

I am proud of Jill and Peter and other 9/11 family members that are standing up to this administration and reminding them that there are public relations and moral consequences for their actions not just in Europe and the Middle East, but here at home too.

I was an average high school student. I had to attend summer school between my junior and senior years just to graduate with my class and even then, on graduation night, I wasn’t sure there’d be a diploma waiting for me. I was always more interested in playing ball and chasing girls. I was more successful at the former than the latter.

After graduation I did manage to earn an athletic scholarship to play baseball at a small Florida college but after two years of playing ball, and earning less than one year’s worth of college credit, I realized I was wasting my time as well as the college’s resources and decided I needed to do something else until I figured out what I wanted to do.

So, being the son of a 20-year retired Air Force Tech Sergeant, I joined the military. I spoke to all the branches and in the end it was the Navy that won me over for a six-year enlistment. They enticed me with visions of advanced electronics training, fantastic marketability in the civilian world and a chance to see the world. Remember the old Navy slogan: “It’s not just a job, it’s an adventure.” Oh boy!

From the moment I arrived in Orlando, Florida for my basic training I realized what a joke it was. If you want to know what military basic training is like just watch any episode of Gomer Pyle, it’s exactly like that. Just as ridiculous.

The military always advertises that it wants the best and the brightest, but the first thing they do is try to break you down and then reprogram you. They want to reprogram you into a person that will follow orders without question; something tantamount to a frontal lobotomy that leaves subjects unable to think for themselves. Well then why do they need the best and the brightest if they are not meant to think for themselves? Given the chaos of battle, to strive to have a force that is not expected to think for themselves is not only ridiculous but dangerous as well yet the military, under the guise of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), regularly prosecutes soldiers who had the courage, intellect and wisdom to do what needed to be done in the field to preserve lives even though they weren’t told to do it. That’s called “disobeying a direct order” from some arrogant, bonehead hundreds or thousands of miles away.

One is taught that there is a right way and a wrong way to do things and the military will teach you the right way. Anyone not doing things the right way then is to be looked upon with contempt and suspicion. The military teaches you how to micromanage life, as if they know how to do this, to the point that you find yourself counting brush strokes when you brush your teeth. Every move is to have purpose and be approved or else you will be prosecuted by the UCMJ.

The military, see, is a complete subculture within America. All soldiers are considered to be government property, no kidding, and there exist regulations in the UCMJ that can mean loss of pay, confinement, and even jail time if that government property is damaged somehow or if it doesn’t do what it is told to do. Again, even though the government says it wants the best and the brightest, if the sidewalks outside are icy during the winter soldiers are not allowed out for fear of them falling and injuring themselves. As ridiculous and asinine as that sounds it is fact; I lived it. So the broken logic is that we want the best to go fight in foreign lands and kill people and operate multi-million dollar equipment but we don’t trust them to walk down an icy sidewalk without hurting themselves like thousands of civilians do daily in the wintertime.

It’s an abusive subculture that demands abject subjectivity and a complete lack of reason, logic and intellect. The military trains people to be killers; puts those people in a war zone where at any moment, at any second their lives could be over and then prosecutes them if they don’t kill someone in accordance with the “rules of engagement.” That is to say: even though you are in a war zone there are rules to killing people and it doesn’t matter that a month earlier you were teaching 8th-grade history and your national guard unit got called to battle in Iraq. You need to pull that trigger and end another human life but only after that person clearly tries to kill you or else you can be prosecuted under the UCMJ for murder. I’ll let you marinate on that thought for a second.

I’ve never killed anyone but I don’t think you have to in order to imagine what that could do to a rational person’s psyche. I would imagine you would have to put yourself into a mental state that disassociates what you’ve always known to be reality and convince yourself that somehow what you are doing is right; that if you don’t kill that other guy, he will kill you, so you pull the trigger.

Then these poor souls come home and are expected to re-associate their minds with the reality of a civilized society because if they don’t then they will be prosecuted under the UCMJ for insubordination or worse: they might kill someone. The whole thing is a study in mind control conducted by the least-educated people in our society.

It still amazes me how parents brag about their children serving in the military in Afghanistan or Iraq. They talk about how some Arabs dropped planes on their heads on 9/11/01 so they are all for going over there and killing as many of those sons-a-bitches as possible and damn proud that their children are helping make the world a safer place. Who’s going to help the make the world a safer place from America?

A few days ago I wrote a post about the F-35 Lightning II is a fifth-generation, single-seat, single-engine, stealth multirole fighter, that will also equip the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force, ItAF) and the Marina Militare, that will use the F-35B from the new Cavour STOVL aircraft carrier. In spite of a carrier variant designated F-35C, the RAF and Royal Navy will use the B variant from aircraft carriers and the U.S. Marines Corps are investigating the use of the Ship-borne Rolling and Vertical Landing (SRVL) method to operate F-35Bs from the aircraft carrier without disrupting carrier operations as the landing method uses the same pattern of approach as wire arrested landings. The F-35C carrier (whose only user will be the US Navy to replace the “legacy Hornets” and complement the Super Hornets) variant will be much similar to the A and B versions, but will have larger, folding wings and larger control surfaces for improved low-speed control. The aircraft will also be equipped with a stronger landing gear and hook for the stresses of carrier trap landings.

The following front, side and top views of the three variants will give an idea of the main differences among the F-35A, B and C.

No worries mates, a Marine has your back while you eat.

UPDATED AND EXPANDED: In the wake of the Fort Hood tragedy, there have been media reports that mental health staff had been concerned about Major Nidal Malik “AbduWali” Hasan, but did not report their concerns to higher authorities. Rather, these staff hoped he would disappear, into Fort Hood and then Afghanistan. The press and pundits have been extremely critical of those professionals for failing on act on their concerns.

Meanwhile, Mark Benjamin today tells of a psychiatrist serving the military who did express his concerns about potential tragedy, and was “disappeared” by firing as a consequence. Benjamin tells the story of Dr. Kernan Manion, a civilian contract psychiatrist at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina who repeatedly warned that Marines recently returned from combat zones were in danger of acting violently, whether toward themselves or others.

“A significant number of Navy medical officials and Marine commanders do not get it,” a frustrated Manion said about the situation at Camp Lejeune. “They do not understand the implications of what happens if somebody loses it,” explained Manion, who has 25 years of experience as a psychiatrist and who also specializes in traumatic brain injury — exactly the kinds of skills needed so desperately at military hospitals, because mental problems and brain injuries are the signature wounds of the ongoing wars. “People either commit suicide, commit homicide, get drunk, beat up the wife, all these things. I’ve seen it,” he added. “That is how serious this is and they just don’t get it.”

Dr. Manion followed procedures and expressed his concerns to the chain of command:

In an April 24 memo to his superiors, including Cmdr. Robert O’Byrne, head of mental health for the Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital, Manion describes a frustrated Marine punching a telephone pole with his bare fists outside a treatment clinic, then storming around, cursing, with a piece of lumber with a nail in it, though nothing was done to ensure he didn’t hurt himself, again, or others. In another case, a severely homicidal and suicidal Marine pounded his fists into a table and stormed out of treatment. Yet the hospital, Manion complained to his superiors, made no efforts to discuss these cases or how to better handle similar events in the future.

Manion was instructed by his contractor employer to shut up:

On June 24, a supervisor for the contractor warned Manion to stop making trouble. “Kernan Manion, it is requested that you cease and desist all further correspondence with the government,” the supervisor with NiteLines, Pamela Friend, wrote to Manion.

When he got no response from his employer or the commanders at the base, he took the next step specified by regulations for complaints. He wrote to the various Inspectors General:

On Aug. 30, he appealed to a series of military inspectors general in a written complaint. He warned of an “immediate threat of loss of life and/or harm to service members’ selves or others” if conditions did not improve. He complained of a “complete disregard for … implications for patient safety and well-being.” He decried that officials at Lejeune had ignored “repeated overt and emphatically stated concerns about the very safety and overall welfare of the affected patients.” And he warned that “many patients’ lives are imminently at risk.”

As a result, four days later Manion was fired, effective immediately, with no reason given. His contractor employer told Benjamin that the firing was at the request of the Navy.

While it may be tempting to see a giant conspiracy at work here, I believe the processes involved are more subtle. There are indications that the top military brass and Pentagon officials are genuinely concerned about the rampant trauma, including Posttraumatic stress disorder among troops returning from combat zones. They have funded studies, instituted screening programs, and increased treatment resources, both on the battlefield and after deployment.

There is, however, little evidence that this concern has filtered down to middle-level officers and officials. The problem is at least partly psychological. Much of the military is still in a “see no evil, hear no evil” mode of massive denial, in which they assume that highly traumatized troops are malingerers. The macho culture of the military, especially the Marines, is threatened by real acceptance that exposure to combat can profoundly damage many otherwise healthy individuals. It is easier to assume that those negatively affected must have had something wrong with them to begin with.  The brass and Pentagon officials would need to take much stronger steps to get officers, NCOs, and officials up and down the chain of command to openly face this serious problem.

Further, to really accept the extent of combat-associated trauma among our troops is to face some of the consequences of our wars without end. The pursuit of these wars depends upon the ability to deny, to oneself and to the public, the immensity of their negative consequences. US officials denied the extent of civilian casualties in Iraq and they deny the extent of trauma their policies are creating among US troops.

Often the denial isn’t total. It is briefly acknowledged and then turned away from with a claim to oneself and to others that the problem is being dealt with. But efforts to improve the mental health of troops while laudable, remain woefully inadequate. The single action that would most improve the situation, to end the repeated deployments to combat settings where the dangers are many and the goals elusive, remains off the table.

In the meantime, Dr. Manion remains concerned about the marines he is no longer allowed to treat:

He still worries. “I don’t like seeing these guys mistreated,” Manion said. “This is akin to somebody dying on the battlefield and not being attended to,” he added. “These guys are saying they are broken and need help, and the system is saying, ‘next, next, next.’”

Mark Benjamin’s article:

Camp Lejeune whistle-blower fired
A psychiatrist who tried to prevent Fort Hood-style violence among Marines about to “lose it” instead loses his job

By Mark Benjamin

Last April, two Marines at Camp Lejeune predicted to a psychiatrist that some Marine back from war was going to “lose it.” Concerned, the psychiatrist asked what that meant. One of the Marines responded, “One of these guys is liable to come back with a loaded weapon and open fire.”

They weren’t talking about Marines suffering from a tangle of mental and religious angst, like news reports suggest haunted the alleged Fort Hood shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. The risk they reported at Camp Lejeune was broader and systemic. Upon returning home, troops suffering mental health problems were getting dumped into an overwhelmed healthcare system that responded ineptly to their crises, the men reported, and they also faced harassment from Marine Corps superiors ignorant of the severity of their problems and disdainful of those who sought psychiatric help.

As Dr. Kernan Manion investigated the two Marines’ claims about conditions at the North Carolina military base, the largest Marine base on the East Coast, he found they were true. Manion, a psychiatrist hired last January to treat Marines coming home from war with acute mental problems, warned his superiors of looming trouble at Camp Lejeune in a series of increasingly urgent memos.

• Continue Reading

But instead of being praised for preventing what might have been another Fort Hood massacre, Manion was fired by the contractor that hired him, NiteLines Kuhana LLC. A spokeswoman for the firm says it let Manion go at the Navy’s behest. The Navy declined to comment on this story.

While military officials and the media examine whether the Army missed warning signs that might have indicated an unhinged Nidal Hasan was capable of killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Manion’s Camp Lejeune story is a cautionary tale of what happens to those who blow the whistle on conditions for military personnel with mental problems.

Manion says the April incident with the two Marines was just one of a series of disturbing events and serious problems with mental healthcare he saw at Camp Lejeune, a base that may be best known for a water contamination scandal that led to high rates of cancer and birth defects among Marines and their families who lived there. He was particularly concerned to see that troubled Marines were stricken with the overwhelming impulse to commit suicide or murder, telltale signs of severe combat stress.

In a telephone interview from his Surf City, N.C., home, Manion talked of overburdened staff and inadequate resources at the Naval hospital at Camp Lejeune. The psychiatrist charged that medical officials failed to study and discuss violent events among returning Marines in an effort to prevent further, similar events, and did little planning to improve handling distraught Marines who were killing themselves and others in shocking numbers. In 2008, for example, 42 Marines committed suicide and 146 attempted to do so, according to the Marine Corps.

Coincidentally or not, within 12 hours of Hasan’s shooting spree, Camp Lejeune officials discovered the body of one Marine and took into custody another Marine, Pvt. Jonathan Law, who is accused of killing his colleague. Law, who had served a seven-month tour in Iraq, was suffering from self-inflicted wounds when arrested.

Mirroring reports from military installations across the country, Manion also reported harassment of Marines seeking mental help. The psychiatrist began to worry about the possibility of a major outburst of violence on the base.

“A significant number of Navy medical officials and Marine commanders do not get it,” a frustrated Manion said about the situation at Camp Lejeune. “They do not understand the implications of what happens if somebody loses it,” explained Manion, who has 25 years of experience as a psychiatrist and who also specializes in traumatic brain injury — exactly the kinds of skills needed so desperately at military hospitals, because mental problems and brain injuries are the signature wounds of the ongoing wars. “People either commit suicide, commit homicide, get drunk, beat up the wife, all these things. I’ve seen it,” he added. “That is how serious this is and they just don’t get it.”

Manion believes he likely prevented a “Columbine-style attack” late last April after the two Marines who warned that someone might “lose it” directed him to a third Marine who seemed on the verge of violence. Manion also provided his superiors with documentation showing troubling incidents and neglect for the needs of returning Marines that could easily precipitate violence. Maybe not on the scale of the massacre at Fort Hood, but more like the rampage by a frustrated Sgt. John Russell, who gunned down five fellow soldiers at a military mental health facility in Baghdad last May.

Manion provided to Salon a stack of correspondence with superiors, a virtual crystal ball predicting dire consequences if mental healthcare at Camp Lejeune isn’t immediately improved.

In an April 24 memo to his superiors, including Cmdr. Robert O’Byrne, head of mental health for the Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital, Manion describes a frustrated Marine punching a telephone pole with his bare fists outside a treatment clinic, then storming around, cursing, with a piece of lumber with a nail in it, though nothing was done to ensure he didn’t hurt himself, again, or others. In another case, a severely homicidal and suicidal Marine pounded his fists into a table and stormed out of treatment. Yet the hospital, Manion complained to his superiors, made no efforts to discuss these cases or how to better handle similar events in the future.

“There was — and continues to be — no means of discussion of high-intensity/dangerous cases such as this,” a desperate Manion wrote on April 24. He warned of “immediate concerns of physical safety” at the base’s mental health facilities. Manion wanted to set up special protocols for handling intense situations, such as having specially trained MPs ready to intercede if things got bad, and a plan to hospitalize potentially violent patients quickly. “They dragged their feet on that,” he told me.

Within days that April, Manion intervened with the two Marines who’d warned of colleagues potentially losing it. They directed him to a third Marine who they believed was going to go on a shooting rampage. Manion worked hard to get that Marine into treatment, possibly averting bloodshed. The two Marines involved also reported harassment for working limited duty while seeking mental healthcare for themselves. They heatedly claimed that two noncommissioned officers had recently told them, “I don’t care why you are on [limited duty]. You are nothing but worthless pieces of shit,” according to an April 29 e-mail Manion sent to O’Byrne and others, complaining about such attitudes.

Like many healthcare providers at military bases across the country, Manion technically worked for a military contractor, Spectrum Healthcare Resources, a subcontractor for  NiteLines Kuhana LLC.

On June 24, a supervisor for the contractor warned Manion to stop making trouble. “Kernan Manion, it is requested that you cease and desist all further correspondence with the government,” the supervisor with NiteLines, Pamela Friend, wrote to Manion.

But Manion was still frustrated that Camp Lejeune did not seem to be taking these risks seriously. On Aug. 30, he appealed to a series of military inspectors general in a written complaint. He warned of an “immediate threat of loss of life and/or harm to service members’ selves or others” if conditions did not improve. He complained of a “complete disregard for … implications for patient safety and well-being.” He decried that officials at Lejeune had ignored “repeated overt and emphatically stated concerns about the very safety and overall welfare of the affected patients.” And he warned that “many patients’ lives are imminently at risk.”

Four days later, the contractor fired Manion “effective immediately,” according to his termination e-mail. The note provides no reason for the firing. Manion was directed to clean out his office the next day, under the watchful eye of a chief petty officer, and have no further contact with his patients.

In a statement to Salon, NiteLines said the Navy wanted Manion fired, but did not explain why. “The treatment facility at Camp Lejeune notified (Nitelines) that Dr. Manion did not meet the Government’s requirements in accordance with the contract, and they directed he be removed from the schedule,” it reads.

Salon e-mailed the spokesman for the Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune, Raymond Applewhite, with details of this story and then described some of these facts with him in a follow-up telephone call, requesting an interview with O’Byrne. The Navy did not respond further.

Manion left Camp Lejeune after he got fired, but he did not stop worrying about the potential for violence there. In mid-September, Manion filed a 14-page complaint with the Department of Defense inspector general. On Sept. 29, he warned the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery inspector general in writing of “serious mismanagement of post-deployment mental health services that was both endangering patient, staff and community safety as well as severely compromising the quality of care” for returning Marines. Manion noted that the poor care at Camp Lejeune continued despite “the ever present threat of life-threatening violence by distraught service members towards themselves or others.”

Finally, Manion wrote President Obama that same day. “Frankly, in my more than 25 years of clinical practice, I’ve never seen such immense emotional suffering and psychological brokenness — literally a relentless stream of courageous, well-trained and formerly strong Marines deeply wounded psychologically by the immensity of their combat experience,” he wrote to the president. Manion added, however, that at Camp Lejeune, that immense problem was being met with “inadequate treatment” and “callous indifference.”

He still worries. “I don’t like seeing these guys mistreated,” Manion said. “This is akin to somebody dying on the battlefield and not being attended to,” he added. “These guys are saying they are broken and need help, and the system is saying, ‘next, next, next.’”

Introduction

World War II saw some of most rapid technological advances impacting military forces in history. The advances in technology impacted the organization and tactics of major power military forces, especially those of the United States, Germany, the Soviet Union and Great Britain.  These advances combined to revolutionize the way wars were fought and military forces have been organized to the current day.

Heinz Guderian’s Theories of Mechanized and Combined Arms Warfare and His Organizational Genius Revolutionized  Land Warfare

The technical developments and their relationship to military organization and tactical applications began in the years following World War I as various writers began to analyze that war and formulate ways not to repeat the grist mill of trench warfare that dominated it.  The writers looked at tactical innovations, new technology and enunciated ways that technology and tactics could be combined with organizational changes to revolutionize the ways that wars were fought.  Chief among these writers were General Fuller and Captain B.H. Liddell Hart in Britain, Colonel Heinz Guderian and Erwin Rommel in Germany.  Airpower theories were dominated by the strategic bombing theories of Italy’s Guido Douhet and tactical air theories of American Marine General Roy Geiger as well as the pioneers of tactical air support in the Luftwaffe.   In the United States General George C. Marshall helped initiate doctrinal changes that would change the way that the U.S. Army would fight.

Among the common elements found in the works of these men was the necessity to apply technology to overcome the pitfalls that all of the armies which fought in the First World War found themselves.

The Mechanization of Ground Forces

Mass Speed and Firepower: The Germans Would Pioneer the New Style of Warfare

There were a number of major technological advances between the wars and during the war that helped change the nature of warfare.  One of the earliest was the mechanization of armies which began toward the end of the First World War and continued between the wars to varying degrees in each country.  All the major armies experimented with mechanized forces to one degree or another. In Britain these got the earliest start with some formations being 100% mechanized by the early 1930s.  France was more circumspect about mechanization only slowly converting forces as they were focused on a defensive strategy based on the Maginot Line.  Many in the German high command resisted Guderian and other innovators regarding the mechanization of the Wehrmacht as well as the development of the Panzerwaffe.

The Soviet Union Would Turn the Tables on the Germans using their own Tactics

The Soviet Union had a large number of mechanized and armored formations prior to the war though they were not proficient in their use and had not developed doctrine to match the forces that they controlled.  The Untied States also resisted efforts to mechanize its Army but seeing the results of the German Blitzkrieg quickly overcame years of resistance to become an Army that save for 2 Cavalry Divisions was 100% mechanized.  The development of Airborne formations added the possibility of vertical envelopment to ground operations. These developments impacted nearly every campaign in Europe and North Africa and to a much lesser degree the Pacific theater. German performance in the early Polish, French, North African and Balkan Campaigns as well as the initial foray into the Soviet Union were all successful due to the proficiency of their combined mechanized, Panzer and tactical air forces.  The Soviets would develop and become very effective at this type of warfare on a much large scale than the Germans could have imagined beginning with the Stalingrad counteroffensive and especially in the destruction  of the German Army Group Center in the summer of 1944.

Though Using Lighter Armored Forces the Americans Would become Proficient in the New Type of Warfare by the Summer of 1944

The Americans became proficient at mobile operations during the war, especially during the “dash across France” and the breakout in the Saar-Palatine campaign in 1945,  but many times uninventive commanders squandered the advantage and allowed themselves to be sucked into battles of attrition that their forces were not made for.

Communications

A key development that accompanied and accentuated the mechanization of ground forces were advances in tactical wireless communications which made it possible for commanders to keep up with fast moving formations and react in near real time to changing tactical situations.  The Germans were the first to become very proficient in this as they not only developed communications for ground forces but also for coordination between tactical air forces and ground forces.  This made the German Blitzkrieg the first example of modern air-ground combat cooperation.  The Americans, British and Soviets would follow suit but it was the German Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe that pioneered the communications revolution.  As the war went on communications capabilities increased and armies became more dependent on tactical and long range wireless communications.  The dependency of military forces on communications networks became a major factor in operational planning and the success of the Allies in breaking Japanese and German codes gave them an advantage in anticipating German or Japanese moves.

Armor, Firepower and Mobility: The Tank Comes into its Own

World War Two Saw Tanks become Deadly Instruments of Modern Warfare

Mechanization was a major factor in the war and the most decisive component of the mechanization of ground forces was the development of the tank as well as specialized formations which employed tanks in close cooperation with other arms, such as mechanized infantry and artillery.  The development of such forces really began with the British but the best example of this was the German Panzer Division.  The Panzer Division was a totally mechanized and integrated force of all arms which was employed in mass and capable like all German units to be task organized into Kampfgruppen to optimize tactical flexibility.  British Armored Divisions were tank heavy and infantry light which made them far less flexible organizations.  Soviet Armored forces were slow to develop but they became masters of large level operational maneuver using mechanized and tactical air forces to a deadly effect against the Wehrmacht.  The Americans delivered a light and flexible armored formation and became very proficient in combined arms warfare though the divisional structure often proved too light and not as resilient as German formations.  It was in this environment that the tank truly came into its own to dominate the battlefield in a way that many could not have imagined prior to the war. Firepower, protection and mobility advantages gained through technological advances increased the lethality and survivability of the tank and forced each side to develop better ways of neutralizing tanks through more powerful anti-tank guns, sabot rounds and shaped charges.

Tactical and Strategic Air developments

The Americans and the British Would Develop the Concept of Strategic Bombing against Germany

With the technical revolution came revolution in the skies both at the strategic and tactical levels.  Modern bombers with good navigational gear guided by radar and assisted by modern bombsites such as the Norden developed by the United States would wreak havoc on industrial and civilian centers. Advances in aircraft technology saw fast and more lethal aircraft being fielded by all powers as the war progressed and while Jet propulsion developed during the war would doom piston powered aircraft as first line assets.

The P-47 Thunderbolt Would Serve as both a Long Range Bomber Escort and as Seen Here as an Excellent Ground Attack Aircraft

Tactical air developments would be led by the Germans but as the war went on the Allies developed sophisticate tactical air forces that dominated battlefields when the weather permitted. The Germans pioneered the use of ballistic missiles as well as the cruise missile while the United States and Britain developed the Atomic Bomb.  Specialized types of tactics and organizations were developed for strategic, tactical and naval air forces. At the strategic level there were the dueling schools of precision versus area bombing while at the tactical level the developments were as much predicated on air-ground communications as they were the aircraft flown.  Specialized aircraft were developed or modified as tank-killers while fighter forces became more specialized to into interceptors, bomber escorts and night fighters.

The Obselecent Junkers JU-87 found New Life on the Eastern Front as a Tank Killer armed with 2 37mm FLAK cannon

The influence of air assets, especially at the tactical level would become more pronounced as the war went on.  Allied air superiority ensured that the landings in France and the breakout in Normandy succeeded and tactical air dominance by US Navy and Marine air forces in the Pacific aided ground operations as well as sea battles.

Amphibious Warfare developments

The US Navy and Marine Corps Would Perfect Amphibious Operations in the Pacific

Technology came to the fore in amphibious operations with the development of specialized landing craft, beach clearing equipment and naval gunfire support.  This effort was led by the United States with the most advanced force being the Marines.   The combined use of air, land, sea and naval air forces to include the use of Aircraft Carriers revolutionized how the campaign in the Pacific would be fought to a conclusion long before anyone thought that it could be.

General Naval Developments

At sea ship design advanced new and better classes of warships as technologic advances in radar, sonar, gunnery systems, torpedo and ant-aircraft technology made warships far more formidable than those built only years before the war.  This was nowhere more apparent than in submarine development especially that of Germany’s U-boat arm with the development of streamlined hulls and “schnorkel” technology.  The use of U-Boats and later American submarines in the Pacific into “Wolf Packs” increased the lethality of submarine forces to a near decisive state in the war.  Naval tactics were influenced by the use of air and surface search radar as well as sonar.

US Fast Carrier Task Forces Would Dominate the Pacific War and Naval Warfare to the Present Day

The development of the US Navy into the dominant Naval Power of the next 65 years was built upon the success of the Navy in the Second World War.  The largest and some of the bloodiest sea battles in history were fought in the Pacific with decisive results in that theater of operations.  Operationally the major Navies all were influenced to one degree or another by the theories of Alfred Thayer Mahan.

Summary and Conclusion

The course of World War Two was determined by the strategic and operational theories developed in the inter-war years. These were applied correctly by some powers and not by others.   The use technological advances and more effective organizational structure developed in the inter-war years and refined by the experience of war impacted the war on land, at sea and in the air in every theater of war.  The use of combined arms and joint operations revolutionized the manner in which wars would be fought.  If the technology, theory and force structure had not come together when it did the war might have been fought much as the First World War.  Instead warfare became faster and more lethal than ever and would lead to even more advances in the years to come.

My post on the IAR solicitation continues to get hits, so when I saw this article in the Marine Corps Times I thought you would be interested:

Marine acquisition officials are considering a high-capacity magazine that could hold 50 or 100 rounds and fit numerous 5.56mm weapons, raising questions about the Corps’ plans to move forward with development of the controversial infantry automatic rifle.

Marine Corps Systems Command, based at Quantico, Va., is “seeking potential commercial sources for a high capacity magazine for use in a semi or fully automatic rifle,” with responses that were due by Nov. 17, according to a new advertisement to industry. The magazine would need to fit “the M16/M4/HK 416 family of weapons,” which includes the new 5.56mm auto-rifle SysCom is considering as a replacement for the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon in most fire teams.

Marine officials did not respond to requests for comment, but adopting a high-capacity magazine for the IAR would address concerns posed by some grunts worried that replacing the SAW with the IAR would cut firepower in situations where a sustained rate of fire is needed.

The SAW typically holds a 200-round drum of 5.56mm ammunition, while the IAR is designed for use with 30-round magazines.

Maj. John Smith, the weapon’s project officer, said in September that the Corps was “close to having a decision” on the IAR contract competition, which pits one rifle from FN Herstal, two variants from Colt Defense and one from Heckler & Koch against each other. At the time, Smith acknowledged that Commandant Gen. James Conway had questioned how the IAR will fit into fire teams, but said that his concern was “answered in short order.” Smith declined to elaborate, and Maj. David Nevers, a spokesman for Conway, said the commandant was unavailable for comment.

At the Modern Day Marine exposition held at Quantico in October, FN Herstal displayed a high-capacity magazine for its IAR variant that can hold 100 to 150 rounds. Another contractor, Armatac Industries, has approached the Corps about a 150-round magazine it makes and says is compatible with each of the finalists’ weapons.

Early in the evaluation process for the IAR, the Corps’ requirement called for the weapon to use 100-round magazines. That was eventually eliminated in favor of using the same 30-round magazines, as Marine officials sought to cut weight from the SAW’s replacement.

According to Darren Mellors, LWRC had been developing a high-capacity magazine like this for its candidate as well. I am not sure what this bodes for the IAR or the SAW, but I would be curious to see how well they perform in the field. To say the least, the BETA C-Mag has not gotten very flattering reviews. In theory, I like the idea of a system like the RPK that can alternate between drum and box magazines. However, drum magazines are much more complex and getting them ‘right’ is no easy task. It might be worth looking into 40- and 50-round box magazines akin to the RPK and Galil as another option. (For more information on Kalashnikov drum magazines, see this thorough article in Small Arms Review.)

With all this talk of high-speed low-drag mags, it is worth noting that soldiers could always use more regular vanilla 30-round magazines. These things are intended to be disposable items, and their springs wear out from repeated compression and decompression. Bad magazines are a top culprit of M16/M4 malfunctions, and they are a lot cheaper than a brand-new weapon system–particularly when the new system uses the same mags a la the SCAR. I have heard too many stories about warfighters not having enough, good-quality mags, and it is a pretty sorry commentary. I do not have an exact figure for what the DoD pays for a plain Jane STANAG magazine, but I have to imagine its less than $10. That’s $10 for truly life-or-death equipment.

HEMET, Calif. — A former Marine Corps recruiter has been sentenced to 10 years in prison in Southern California’s Riverside County after pleading guilty to child sex charges.

Prosecutors say former Staff Sgt. Bryan Damone Cunningham pleaded guilty Friday to felony charges of committing lewd acts and sodomy with a child under 14.

The girl told police she met Cunningham online and had sex with him and two other men. She also told police Cunningham wanted her to work as a prostitute and had tried to take her to Los Angeles County against her will.

Cunningham could have faced life in prison if convicted of a kidnapping for rape charge, in addition to an attempted pimping charge and two other felonies that the district attorney’s office agreed to dismiss.

Eric and I been discussing our memories/experiences in the Gulf War. I thought I’d share some of our conversations.

The Marine Corps, with the support of Navy air power, was tasked with going for the jugular. Afte rperforming their own deception by shifting both Marine divisions some 40 to 50 miles northeast from their original staging area, the Marines stepped off into battle. The 1st and 2nd Marine Divisions, each more than 18,000 strong, and the U.S. Army 1st Brigade (“Tiger Brigade”), 2nd Armored Division, plunged into the attack. They were supported by the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and thousands of combat service support staff from the 1st and 2nd Force Service Support Groups, and by Navy air forces.

On their way, the Marines had to cross two belts of minefields, 12-foot high sand berms, barbed-wire defenses, booby traps and fire trenches, all the while under sporadic attack by Iraqi artillery. These “impenetrable barriers” were quickly breached by the Marine teams. As the two Marine divisions advanced, two Saudi and Qatari task forces moved up Kuwait’s east coast in a similar drive. The initial Marine advance was described by Schwarzkopf in his 27 February briefing as follows:

“It was a classic, absolutely classic military breaching of a very, very tough minefield, barbed wire, fire trench-type barrier. They went through the first barrier like it was water. Then they brought both divisions steaming through that breach. Absolutely superb operation — a textbook, and I think it will be studied for many, many years to come as the way to do it.”

Overhead, Cobras, Harriers and Intruders provided close-air support as the Marines pushed forward meetingoccasional resistance. Navy A-6 Intruders laid down heavy barrages. Marine aircraft attacked in waves as engineers continued to shoot line charges and drop bundles of plastic pipes near trenches so the blade tanks could form makeshift bridges. Even though the 1st Division Marines encountered artillery fire and a mechanized counter-attack, their attack proved unstoppable. Most Iraqis fought for only a few minutes before surrendering. Massive artillery and air support from Navy and Marine aircraft sparked a frenzy of surrender that, at times, slowed the progress of advancing Marine units.

The 2nd Marine Division enjoyed equal success. With the Army’s Tiger Brigade on the west flank, the 8th Marine Regiment to the east, and the 6th Marine Regiment in the center, the division kicked off its attack. Within hours they too had breached both defensive belts. Facing enemy mortar and small arms fire, the 2nd Division drove into Kuwait and took more than 5,000 EPWs by the end of the first day.

As Marines continued their attack the sea-based arm of the Navy-Marine Corps team continued to provide support. The battleships continued rapid, responsive gunfire on targets designated by Navy and Marine spotters on the ground and in the air. The amphibious task force in the Persian Gulf continued to demand difficult decisions from the Iraqi generals. Because of the threat of an amphibious landing and the uncertainty of where and when it [word/words missing in text] to ten divisions, totaling 80,000 men, to the defense of the Kuwait coastline. In addition they garrisoned troops and equipment on Bubiyan and Faylaka Islands which command sea approaches to vital areas.

About 7,500 Marines from the 5th MEB were off-loaded from amphibious ships at Saudi Arabian ports at the beginning of the ground attack to serve as the 1st MEF reserve force. Marine AV-8B Harriers, AH-l Cobra helicopters and special operations units from the 4th MEB aided the Arab forces in the east coast drive. On the second day of the ground war, both Marine Divisions faced sporadic resistance as they pushed further into Kuwait. They fought some intense battles along the way, and by the time Kuwait’s International Airport was secured on the fourth day of the ground war, the two Marine divisions had defeated an Iraqi force of 11 divisions.

Al Khafji

In the early evening of 29 January 1991, Iraqi armor and mechanized infantry in
eastern and southern Kuwait attacked US Marine Forces, Central Command
(MARCENT) and Arab Joint Forces Command-East (JFC-East) units at several points
along the Kuwaiti-Saudi Arabian border. The Iraqi offensive lasted a little over four days,
continuing until 2 February. Known collectively as the Battle of Khafji, the series of
engagements between Iraqi forces and the US-led anti-Iraq coalition represented the first
significant ground action of the Gulf War.
At the time it was fought, the Battle of Khafji was viewed as a small and relatively
inconsequential attack on an abandoned Saudi border town. In fact, Khafji was a very
significant engagement, since described in one highly regarded study as the “defining
moment” of Operation Desert Storm. Other than Scud attacks, Khafji was the only major
Iraqi offensive of the war and its outcome demonstrated the impotence of the Iraqi army
in the face of Coalition (primarily American) airpower.1

Read more: Here and Here

Article by Bishop David Epps

What does Santa Claus look like? He may just look like a United States Marine. In 1947, according to the national Toys for Tots website, when Major Bill Hendricks, USMCR, and a group of Marine Reservists in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys to needy children, Toys for Tots was born. The idea came from Bill’s wife, Diane.

In the fall of 1947, Diane crafted a homemade doll and asked her husband to deliver the doll to an organization, which would give it to a needy child at Christmas. When Hendricks determined that no agency existed, Diane told Bill that he should start one. He did. The 1947 pilot project was so successful that the Marine Corps adopted Toys for Tots in 1948 and expanded it into a nationwide campaign. That year, Marine Corps Reserve units across the nation conducted Toys for Tots campaigns in each community in which a Marine Reserve Center was located. Marines have conducted successful nationwide campaigns at Christmas each year since 1948.

The initial objective that remains the hallmark of the program today is to “bring the joy of Christmas to America’s needy children”. In 1948, Walt Disney designed the Toys for Tots logo, which remains in use today. Disney also designed the first Toys for Tots poster used to promote the nationwide program. There has been a long list of celebrities who have given their time and talent to promote Toys for Tots. First Lady Nancy Reagan served as the national Spokesperson in 1983. First Lady Barbara Bush served as the national Spokesperson in 1992 and in her autobiography named Toys for Tots as one of her favorite charities.

From Christmas 1980 through the present, Marines have collected and distributed only new toys. The goal is to deliver a message of hope, which will assist in building self-esteem and, in turn, motivate less fortunate children to grow into responsible, productive, patriotic citizens and community leaders. A shiny new toy is seen as the best means of accomplishing this goal.

In 1995, the Secretary of Defense approved Toys for Tots as an official activity of the U. S. Marine Corps and an official mission of the Marine Corps Reserve.

Despite the trauma the nation experienced as a result of the September 11 th attacks in New York City, Washington, DC and Pennsylvania, the economic downturn and the anthrax scare, the 2001 U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Campaign was the second best in the history of the program. Local campaigns were conducted in 388 communities covering all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Over the 62 years of the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program, Marines have distributed more than 400 million toys to more than 188 million needy children. This charitable endeavor has made U. S. Marines the unchallenged leader in looking after less fortunate children at Christmas. The Marine Toys for Tots Foundation has supplemented local toy collections with more than 81.3 million toys valued at more than $487 million; plus has provided promotion and support materials valued at over $6.3 million.

Around the community, Toys for Tots boxes are waiting for new toys. Be generous this Christmas–the Marines are looking for a few good men and women to bring joy to the nation’s children! Semper Fi!

David Epps is the founding pastor of The Cathedral of Christ the King, 4881 Hwy 34 E., Sharpsburg, GA between Peachtree City and Newnan. He is also the Chaplain for the local detachment of the Marine Corps League. For more information about Toys for Tots, or to request toys for needy children, log on to www.atlantatoysfortots.com.

Giles Whittell / Times Online – November 19, 2009 

American soldiers are committing suicide in the greatest numbers since official records began in 1980, with the US Army at a loss to explain the phenomenon since a third of the dead have never been deployed in combat.

Suicides in the army alone have passed last year’s record of 140 — 141 in 2009 so far — in what campaigners called a “perfect storm” of stress, poor co-ordination between the branches of the Pentagon’s healthcare apparatus and the stigma attached to seeking psychiatric help in the military.

The upward trend has defied efforts to improve access to appropriate counselling for veterans returning from combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The figure for the first ten months of the year excludes 71 suicides among troops taken off active duty in 2009, and 42 in the US Marine Corps.

“This is horrible, and I do not want to downplay the significance of these numbers in any way,” General Peter Chiarelli, Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, said at a Pentagon briefing held to mark one of the bleakest statistical landmarks in eight years of war.

The Tonka Report Editor’s Note: Think maybe war crimes or fear thereof are the reason?! – SJH 

Link to entire article below…

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6922396.ece

“Long ago, men went to sea, and women waited for them, standing on the edge of the water, scanning the horizon for the tiny ship. Now I wait for Henry. He vanishes unwillingly, without warning. I wait for him. Each moment that I wait feels like a year, an eternity. Each moment is as slow and transparent as glass. Through each moment I can see infinite moments lined up, waiting. Why has he gone where I cannot follow?”-The Time Traveler’s Wife

Carlos Norman Hathcock II May 20, 1942 – Feb 23, 1999

Listverse has up a Top 10 Snipers in History list that I found interesting, a couple of them that I hadn’t even heard of…

Legendary Marine Corps Snipers Carlos Norman Hathcock II comes in at number 2 and Charles ‘Chuck’ Mawhinney at number 8 in this particular discussion and compilation on the subject.

I have no answer!

With a month and a half remaining in 2009, , the number of suicides in the Army’s active duty ranks already equals last year’s record high of 140 and is expected to climb, an Army official said today.

Furthermore, the 71 suicides among Army National Guardsmen and reservists not serving on active duty has already surpassed last year’s total of 57. The Army’s active duty numbers includes National Guardsmen and reservists who are currently serving on active duty.

As with last year’s record high suicide numbers, a third of this year’s 140 suicides have been among soldiers who have never deployed.

At a Pentagon briefing to talk about the Army’s suicide prevention efforts, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli didn’t mince words.

“This is horrible, and I do not want to downplay the significance of these numbers in any way,” he said. “We talk about these incidents of suicide using figures and percentages. However, the grim reality is each case represents an individual, a person with family and friends and a future ahead of him or her. Every single loss is devastating.”

The Ten Tenors …. Beautiful  and will only
take a minute of your  time to watch.

It will remind you of why America is a Great  Nation.
 
God bless those that serve…Amen!

Happy birding and carving, Bill

Semper Fi

There are millions of blogs on the world-wide web covering every possible topic.  How is this one any different?  My hope in creating this blog is that it will serve as a valuable resource for those on activity duty contemplating whether or not to get out and for those that are already engaged in separating.   I will also include my own personal experiences with separation from the Marine Corps – both good and bad.  I love to research, and so as I find useful information to aid those in one of the two above mentioned situations I will post it here.

After separating in 2004, I quickly realized that I probably should have done more preparation prior to getting out.  (Probably should have paid more attention to those Transition Assistance Program (TAP) Classes!)  I had no idea what I wanted to do for a job let alone a career. Should I go to college?  If so, would I go full-time and have my fiancé work, or would it be better to go part-time?  I had failed to plan for my future so the learning process became a “take it one step at a time” exercise.  “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail” – Benjamin Franklin.

I hope you enjoy this blog and comment often.  I’m a strong advocate of our US Military and I hope that this blog and the resources that it will hold serve our servicemen and women well.  God bless and Semper Fi!

A woman’s ear was nearly severed at a Temecula bar early Wednesday when a 22-year-old Marine struck her in the head with a glass object, authorities said.

About 12:30 a.m., police were called to Aloha J’s at 27497 Ynez Road, where they found Jackson Gabriel Reyes, of Camp Pendleton, detained by security. They also found a Murrieta woman, who is in her early 20s, suffering from serious injuries, Temecula police Sgt. Mike Canizales said.

The woman was treated at the scene, then taken to a hospital, a news release said.

The woman did not know Reyes, Canizales said. It appears she might have bumped into him, prompting him to turn and strike her once in the head, he said. Canizales said it was not clear what the weapon was because it shattered.

Canizales said Reyes had been drinking and might not have been aware he was attacking a woman.

A brief scuffle ensued, during which the woman fought back before realizing she was badly injured, Canizales said.

Reyes was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated mayhem, the release said. He was booked into the Southwest Detention Center with bail set at $1 million, jail records show.

Neither Camp Pendleton officials nor Aloha J’s management responded to requests for comment Wednesday.

Reach Sarah Burge at 951-375-3736 or sburge@PE.com

MarSOC looks to women for new mission

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command is making women an integral part of spec ops teams in Afghanistan, where they’ll be used to develop a rapport with Afghan women and, it is hoped, build broader support for the frail Afghan government.

MarSOC’s first female engagement team — comprising a captain, two corporals and a Navy corpsman — will spend about nine months with 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion, which is scheduled to take command of a task force later this year that will oversee U.S. spec ops forces in northern and western Afghanistan.

By attaching female troops to spec ops teams, officials hope to better navigate local Afghan customs that often prohibit interaction between women and men who are not members of their families. Just as soon as MarSOC was notified that 1st MSOB would deploy as a task force, officials made preparations for an engagement team.

“The whole goal is recognizing that the battle in Afghanistan is getting the people to buy into the idea of a state,” said an operations officer with the Marine Special Operations Regiment, a lieutenant colonel who asked that his name be withheld for security reasons. “You’re not going to get that buy-in by appealing to half the population.”

Federal law bars women from serving in ground combat units, including front-line spec ops forces such as MarSOC teams. But in Afghanistan and Iraq, where the front lines are often blurred, female service members have found themselves dodging rounds and joining firefights alongside men.

Officials said only that “a lot” of women expressed interest in joining the team after a word-of-mouth campaign alerted them to the opportunity.

Those selected had to meet specific criteria, which included having a first-class physical-fitness test score of 225 or higher and prior combat deployments.

They train to the same standards as MarSOC “enablers” — everyone from radio operators to engineers — who deploy with spec ops companies or adviser groups. That training requires them to master two weapons, the M4 carbine and 9mm pistol. Once they join their units, they’ll do unit-specific training, learning how to approach an Afghan village, for example, and how to respond to an ambush.

Hosptial Corpsman 2nd Class Jessica Ramon, a member of MarSOC’s support group, was selected for the first engagement team. She said she and the other women have learned some Urdu and Pashto, common languages in Afghanistan, but will rely on interpreters to communicate.

“I’m kind of a little nervous just because I haven’t been there before,” Ramon said. “But I want to go, and I’m ready to go.”

Sunday, November 15, 2009
Opinion
A belated Veterans Day salute

It was all that we are, all we will ever be, members of the warrior class who still believe that there are some things worth dying for.

MASSOUD HOSSAINI/AFP/Getty Images

By Stephanie Ramage

My father, a U.S. Marine, was a World War II veteran. He served in the Pacific, and later he served in the reserves during the Korean War.

He was rough. Growing up in his house was hell. I am the youngest of eight children, six of whom survived. (The loss of two of my four brothers wasn’t Dad’s fault: Chris was a baby with something called Hyaline membrane syndrome, and 16-year-old Phillip died after a failed kidney transplant—it was Dad’s kidney that was transplanted.)

My other two brothers, Jim and Lyndon, served in the Marines and the Army, respectively. Jim served during the Vietnam era, and Lyndon was a lifer. He retired last May, after serving in every combat zone in which the U.S. Army has showed its helmeted head since 1979, with the exception of the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He just came home from Afghanistan a little over a year ago.

As I write this, I have a nephew named Alex serving in the Army in Afghanistan, who also served in Iraq. [Editor's Note: The print version of this story erroneously omitted Alex's service in Iraq.] And just last week, my niece Samantha’s husband shipped out to Afghanistan. Samantha and her husband are both Marines, both U.S. Naval Academy graduates. They eloped about two months ago after a whirlwind courtship, which is, I must admit, in keeping with family tradition. Samantha expects that she will probably deploy to Afghanistan as well.

[After the paper went to press, Samantha learned that she will be shipping out in January on a destroyer charged with patrolling the shipping lanes off the horn of Africa.]

This is all old, familiar ground to me. My family’s holidays have always included a game of passing the phone around as someone in the military calls home from a combat zone to say “Happy Birthday,” “Happy Thanksgiving,” or “Merry Christmas.”

When I look back on my childhood, it is littered with huge green duffle bags and small metal footlockers with “United States Marine Corps” or “U.S. Army” stamped on them.

Shortly after I graduated from the University of Georgia, while working at a tiny daily newspaper, I had to write a column about Guadalcanal, because the anniversary of that bloody battle had rolled around. My father was at Guadalcanal, but he never spoke of it. The deadline loomed large, and no other Guadalcanal veterans materialized, so I finally mustered the courage to ask him if I could interview him. He said no.

Eventually, I pointed out that I might lose my job and be unable to make my car payment. He then agreed.

We sat in his den and he told me all that happened there. How his buddies were wounded and killed. How he himself was too injured to go to their aid. Supplies were short and conditions deplorable. And yet, they won.

He was 18 years old on Guadalcanal, just five years older than my son is now.

When he spoke of the dead and his own helplessness, his eyes filled with tears he wouldn’t let spill. He cradled his head in his hands and I sat there, silent as a stone, afraid to move, unable to believe what I was seeing. The monster of my childhood had monsters of his own. I reached out and took his hand and we sat there like that for minute. Then he said gruffly, “Have you got what you need now?”

“Yes, sir,” I said quietly, and slipped away up the stairs to my old room, where I cried.

In February 2003, my father died of lung cancer that had spread to his brain. He’d started smoking on Guadalcanal, to calm his nerves. I was with him three days before his death, in his room at the Veterans Administration hospital in Dublin, Ga.

I was sitting on the edge of his bed, chatting with him, though he couldn’t respond very well, because his tongue was so swollen, bloody and peeling. He started struggling for breath, and I went looking for a nurse. It was a long time before I found anyone who could help, because that huge, rambling hospital was so understaffed. I was frantic by the time I spotted a doctor and led him back to the room Dad shared with three other veterans.

The doctor and a couple of nurses worked on him for a minute. Then Dad lay back, exhausted, and reached up for my hand. I took it and remembered, looking at his gnarled, calloused fingers, all the stories he’d told me about the villages in Guam, the Marshall Islands, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the pretty nurse who took care of him in Australia when he had malaria. I remembered how proud he was of the American flag, how he despised people who used it as an ornament, how voting was something he never skipped—it was what his friends had died for.

His mind was on other things that day, I’m sure, because as he held my hand he managed to get out two words: “I’m sorry.”

I looked around that little room with four old dying veterans packed into it, I heard the silence of the hallway where a nurse or doctor were hard to find, I saw the ravaged mouth that those cigarettes on Guadalcanal had eventually given him, and I said, “Thank you, Dad, and I’m sorry.”

Days later, my nephew played “Taps” on his trumpet as an honor guard presented my mother with the flag that draped Dad’s coffin. The Marines had folded it into a neat triangle, and one of them dropped to his knee, bowed his head and offered it up to my mother like a sacrifice. I looked at it as I held my 7-year-old son on my lap and I realized that it was as if my whole family were wrapped in that flag. It was all that we are, all we will ever be, members of the warrior class who still believe that there are some things worth dying for. SP

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http://www.sundaypaper.com/More/Archives/tabid/98/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/4719/A-belated-Veterans-Day-salute.aspx

I believe I’ve mentioned in the past that I am the choir director at Saint Lawrence Catholic church in North Highlands California.  North Highlands is also home to the U.S. Coast Guard air station who lost 7 crew members as their C-130 Hercules collided with a Marine Corps Super Cobra helicopter.  With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan involving our Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force, our Coast Guard sometimes gets forgotten when it comes time to mention the sacrifice that is being made our military.  Hopefully, one day soon, we will no longer have our military sons and daughters in harms way in the Middle East—but the U.S. Coast Guard will always be ready to risk their lives for our country whenever we need them.  Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the Coast Guard members who died recently…and of course with the families of the two Marines who died in the mid-air collision.  When I’m driving in North Highlands and see the big red and white C-130 in the air, I will say a little pray for the men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard.  Thank you for your service and for putting your lives on the line for us.  

From Eric, Sam’s father:  I’m often touched by the precious exchange that goes on between Sam and Erin when I’m visiting, but every once in a while he says something or she does something for him that just tugs at the strings of my heart. Yesterday, as I sat and visited with Sam while Erin was out of the room, we talked of many things like Thanksgiving approaching, Darfur, (because he was wearing a shirt that says save it) and where he was in his faith walk for healing.  Erin returned and came up behind him to give him a great  big hug. (See the 1st picture) Since the hospital staff loves Sam and Erin so much, it is not uncommon for Sam to receive such a hug from them as well. I asked him, "do you know who is hugging you"? He looked at me squarely and said, "It’s My Wife". He often refers to Erin as "my wife", but didn’t realize until yesterday what he means when he says it. He holds their relationship so sacred and that he is so grateful for the love that she shows him, that he just can’t help but remind himself that this angelic creature is "his wife".  He is thankful for his many God given blessings of which Erin is the foremost one. I said to him recently, that God orchestrated that He and Erin be together many years ago because He (God) knew that he would need someone extraordinary to stand beside him during this season of challenge in his life. He responded, "I know Dad, I Know". Sam knows, his family (Nichols’ & Nerias’) knows, and we want you all to know as well. 

We apologize for starving you all for news and information regarding Sam and Erin. I can say that I am extra busy at work, that I am a newlywed, or that the class I’m taking is time consuming; and all would be true; but when some people ask me when my next update regarding Sam and Erin is coming, then I trust I’ve waited too long. Sam is doing tremendously! The tests show double digit percentage points of improvement in flexibility, strength, eye coordination, speech patterns and volume, and how far he can turn his head and neck. One day during physical therapy, he was in the standing frame. He was given the bicycle wheel to turn with his arm strength alone. He usually can’t generate much volume to his voice while standing because of the straps that hold him in it; but this day he was at full volume. In addition this day he seemed to be having trouble with the exercise. Carrie, (his therapist) asked him if he didn’t feel like it today as he was having trouble turning the wheel. She told him that he always does this so easily and encouraged him to try harder. In his true fashion, he lowered his head and put his whole heart and soul into the exercise and in no time was turning the wheel as always. It wasn’t until after he was done, that they discovered that the resistance was set at 3 time his normal routine. He was a tired boy that afternoon, but got loads of accolades from everyone present. It is further evidence that he has dogged determination to achieve any goal or task set before him, and that his spirit is as strong today for his recovery as it was many months ago…A father’s pride knows no bounds.  The 2nd picture is of Sam on Halloween, where Sam was Clark Kent-Superman, and Erin was Lois Lane. This kind of fun and creative thinking is indicative of the everyday options that Erin provides for Sam. We often stop at our favorite coffee shop on the way over and will call Erin to see if she would like one too; she in turn asks Sam if he wants one also…(Sam can’t drink yet by mouth, but that doesn’t stop her from including Sam in the process) Yesterday he asked for his to be with 3 Splendas…I commit to generating an update on more of a regular basis…until then,

Much love,
Eric

From Tony, Erin’s father:  I wanted to add one more photo to share with everyone.  God actually blessed me and my wife with two beautiful daughters, Erin and Allison.  This past weekend, Allison married Luis.  The photo was taken in the parking lot of the Alta Sierra Biblical Gardens near Grass Valley.  When Allison was a very young girl, my mother took her and Erin to the Biblical Gardens—and during the visit, Allison declared that when she got married, it would be at the Biblical Gardens—and so it was.  It was a beautiful day which was made even more special because both Erin and Sam could be there.  

Peace to all,
Tony

Nassau Tea Party members joined the Patriot Guard Riders, the Gathering of Eagles and many more groups to honor the memory of a brave Marine who gave his life for our freedom.

Read more here.