Poster from Murdroc Online

H/T: A commenter on Littel Green Footballs of a CNN Report:

Marine to receive Medal of Honor for Iraq heroism

November 10, 2006

President Bush on Friday will announce that the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration, will be awarded posthumously to Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham.

In April 2004, Dunham was leading a patrol in an Iraqi town near the Syrian border when the patrol stopped a convoy of cars leaving the scene of an attack on a Marine convoy, according to military and media accounts of the action.

An occupant of one of the cars attacked Dunham and the two fought hand to hand. As they fought, Dunham yelled to fellow Marines, “No, no watch his hand.” The attacker then dropped a grenade on which Dunham threw himself.

Dunham was critically wounded in the explosion and died eight days later at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Washington.

“His was a selfless act of courage to save his fellow Marines,” Sgt. Maj. Daniel A. Huff of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, was quoted as saying in Marine Corps News that April.

“He new what he was doing,” Lance Cpl. Jason A. Sanders, 21, of McAllester, Oklahoma, who was in Dunham’s company, was quoted as saying by Marine Corps News. “He wanted to save Marines’ lives from that grenade.”

In various media accounts, fellow Marines told how Dunham had extended his enlistment shortly before he died so he could help his comrades.

“We told him he was crazy for coming out here,” Lance Cpl. Mark E. Dean, 22, from Owasso, Oklahoma, said in Marine Corps News. “He decided to come out here and fight with us. All he wanted was to make sure his boys made it back home.”

The Scio, New York, native would have been 25 years old on Friday.

Dunham’s story was told in the book “The Gift of Valor,” written by Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Phillips.

Dunham will be the second American to receive the Medal of Honor from service in Iraq.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith was the other, honored for action near Baghdad International Airport in April 2003, in which he killed as many as 50 enemy combatants while helping wounded comrades to safety. Smith was the only U.S. soldier killed in the battle.

Yesterday was a banner day for the program. I started the day glum, having not slept well the night before, as the numbers were going flat (and the Navy Team was having our “parts” handed to us). By lunch time, I will admit, safe from the public’s eye, I engaged in some snarking via “backchannel” comms to the other teams.

Then the evening settled in, and I saw the meteoric rise of the flag of those who go down to the sea in ships had done something aviators generall cringe at, because, we al know from the good Captain, “speed is life.” The only good part of our journey, is when we have stalled, nose high, hearing the wind nosie silencing itself, we don’t get overcome by the law of gravity that has ended, prematurely, the lives of many good men and women who has tried to slip the surly bonds of earth. We at least hang there.

In any environment, being a stationary target is never good, for it takes the delicate computations of relative motion out of the mix and makes it much easier for the targeter to snipe at the targetee.

This morning’s numbers show us all, stalled short of the goal, just inching past the wonderful preformance of last year.

Let’s redouble our efforts, bolstered by one more tall cup of extra caffinated Starbucks and work the phones and keyboards.

In the meantime, enjoy what “Gazing at the Flag” blog writer sends to us, a story of a sacrifice, small as it is to some, it’s a statement worth considering., Read it here and consider: What’s IT (not an intended pun, but a reference to Valour-“IT”) worth to you?

Can you trade a the date dinner before the movie this Friday or Saturday night (in the $25-45 range for lots of the middle class incomes) to propel someone from a hospital bed, wondering through the phantom pain of a missing limb, just how they will support their spouse and later send their children to a better life than they had, to help this person, whom you will most likely never know their name?

How about a day’s wages? Maybe we could all grab a calculator, do some reasonably quick math, and figure out what we make for a day and pledge (well, pledge via a click on the donation button) that value (gross or net, depending on how you are feeling at the moment) to this nation’s future, because, when you peel this onion apart, layer by layer, it’s about helping people be productive now, and to be there to launch the next generations.

How about it? If not putting it directly into the kitty, maybe figure that much to one of the auction items? And… I would further challenge everyone who bids on any items, that if you are not the winner, no matter if you bid a $1 or $500, that you figure you would have paid that much to get a Challenge Coin, wine goblets, or a hard copy “blogvel,” it’s money you considered putting towards Valour-IT, so when the final gavel drop is heard and “SOLD! TO THE (fill in not you description) WITH THE FUNNY CAMOFLAUGED HAT!” resounds, log in and donate it via the service team you love most (psst! The Navy is ahead…spread the love elsewhere! (I don’t want them feeling left out and Waaaayyyy behind!)).

Can I count on you? Ok, forget me, can they, our wounded and their families and families to be, count on you for one day?

Think about it…

VALOUR-IT NEWS FLASH!

Whoda thunk it? From “Tail End Charlie” (man, the view was UGLY back there!) to “Leader of the Pack” (how’s it looking now?) in a few hours….

Oh, and that’s Capt Lex in the chase F/A-18…

This stunt was brought to you by the cold, calculating, strategic thinking idea people of Team NAVY (lay back and let them wear themselves out, then smoke by them like you hair’s on fire!) …$5500+ in the lead and accelerating towards the finish line!

Grab an auction to bid on and see if you ground pounding, movie watching, golf and bowling “experts” can catch us!

Trackbacked to: Mudville Gazette

Revillie, REVILLE! All hands heave out and trice up!

Today is a decision day. Yes, local and national seats are up for election, but the inertia imparted in that mess rolling downhill has been imparted and with minor exception, the die is cast. We will jst have to wait out today to see the results.

My directive of the day: Do something constructive and forget about chewing your fingernails down to the quick, trying to figure out which party will control the House and the Senate, or the 30+ governorships.

What to do? Get back on task, because, Sgt Hook told us a few days ago, there is a more important mission. Nothing like a crusty old senior enlisted, tempered in the fires of the school of hard knocks to get he “Os” back on focus.

Valour-IT. Huge success last year. Beth said “Goal of $22K.” The Type As among us took that to read “$22K per service team.” Wisely she kept her mouth shut and kept us in the dark until the end, then told us what she really meant, about $108K later. we didn’t have a lot of press coverage, we had bloggers contacting everyone they knew and posting about it. My point? This year, we’re not on the flight path for a smooth landing.

Smadanek’s blog has been tracking our progress, as a whole and as teams. Capt Lex, with all his years of staring at “ROGER, BALL!” on the blunt end of a big gray thing (called “Mother” and kept afloat by those unnamed heroes wearing black shoes), would, metaphorically see himself looking at a red lower half of a circle and be hearing a frantic Landing Signal Officer on the radio yelling “Power! POWER!” if his plane is where we are now.

It comes down to this: We need to consider the warrior pledge, where soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines know no one gets left behind. We can’t afford, after the sacrifices these wounded men and women have made, to psychologically leave them on that battlefield where their wounds reshaped their lives forever. we have the means to help them see they can be productive in the job market, and they are no less important than Steven Hawking. We can give them a voice to express their ideas, to write reports, to carry on conversations, to tell their stories, to rech out to others, to provide hope where there seems to be none.

Enough for now. get to the polls, cast your vote and get back on task. If you’re signed on as part of the Navy Team and you don’t have a lengthy email titled “A few days left” from me, get me your address, and I’ll forward it.

One idea has come in overnight worth sharing: Enrevanche says try matching funds. For those who can afford it, it may pull a few more dollars through the door.

The last thought: Make contacts, today and throught the end of this drive, like some service member”s future depends on you.

Update: 8/11/2006: More thoughts here.

Trackbacked to: Outside the Beltway, Sgt Hook.

I’m not going to pull up a bunch of links, for much of my post is commonly known information.

Premises:

Liberals don’t like the military
Liberals think military members are too stupid to get a job “in the real world”
Liberals don’t want the Military recruiting on college campuses
Military recruiting goals continue to be met (which drives liberals crazy)

My analysis:

jfk (for he is not worthy of large letters like the man of stature with those initials who preceded him) last week on a college campus was just out there, using a different tactic to knock back recruiting numbers.

I guess he’s never head of “blowback.”

I’ve commented many times, the Democrats are chasing off the very people who would comprehend strategy and tactics…but, hey, they won’t take my advice.

If you want some real recruiter gouge, check out Station Commando, especially this post! It’s a hoot!

BTW, SC got a hat tip from Chris Muir, the author of the comic strip “Day by Day,” for getting the “Stuck in IraK” picture.

As we all know, it’s the officers who have to spin the sotiry, but if you want the real gouge, get a senior “Non Comm” and you’ll get the unvarished thruth.

My experience was the Master Chief Petty Officers could deliver a factual, yet blistering report, when necessary, knowing they were in that “place” where the thruth couldn’t be avoided. Sonar Technician Master Chief Petty Officer (Surface Warfare) David Frey was one of those men who I learned early in my career to trust and rely on for straight answers. Later in my service time, I served with him again, with Dave being on many of the inspections I was tasked to run on ships all up and down the East Coast. I watched Dave, on several occassions, resolutely bring the message to officers from the division level, up to ship captains, and also to admirals with various numbers of stars on their collar.

He was polite, yet “professionally insistent” in making sure they got the story right. He was a remarkable shipmate.

This brings me to the words of an Army blogger, one of the early ones, a man of great discernment and one who can tell a story. He’s a Sargent Major now, but his blog is “Sgt Hook.” He’s been there and done it and got a drawer full of t-shirts to prove it all, and most likely has done much more he hasn’t gotten a t for. Listen to him.

He linked this site to his post, but his post, in the post-John Kerry ridiculous remarks era, is worth your careful read, for he says it best in “More Important Missions:”

I went to work this morning more than a little hot under the collar at the implication, whether by botching a joke or not, that your Soldiers were stuck defending freedom because they had somehow failed to work hard in school so I decided to get out of the office and check on my Soldiers. It has gotten quite cold here lately and I thought the crisp air combined with talking to Soldiers would help calm me down and focus on what really matters.

Stopping in the motor pool I came upon a group of mechanics, dressed in coveralls streaked with grease stains, working inside an open bay. The large bay had tall sliding doors on both the front and back of the building and were both wide open. Several mechanics were working on a 40 foot trailer parked in the middle of the chilly bay, while others were attending to a second trailer outside, waiting to be pulled in, and still a third set were atop another trailer outside, on the opposite end having just been pulled out of the bay. When I asked one of them why both sets of doors were open causing them to freeze their asses off. The young mechanic enthusiastically explained that they had devised a system whereby one team worked on the electrical and air systems of the trailer as it waited outside the bay, while another team worked on a trailer that had been pulled into the bay completing services on the undercarriage and wheels, then a third trailer had been pulled out of the bay where another team finished up work on the topside of the trailer. “Kind of like an assembly line?” I asked. “Yes sergeant major, exactly!” he replied going on to explain that they were able to knock out full services on five times as many trailers in this manner than by the three individual teams doing everything on one trailer independently. Pretty smart, I thought. Telling the mechanics to get back to work and stop waisting time talking to the sergeant major, I went in search of more Soldiers.
[…]

Read the entire thing, if you know what’s good for your soul, in these pre-election negative on everything news days.

…report to the West Coast for duty.

OOOOOOOORAH!!!!

Days later, I’m still waiting (not so anxioulsy, becuase I got tired of turning blue in the face, like my mom said I would) for an angry response from the feminists of the US, or anywhere in the world…

I guess that begs the question:

If an Islamic Cleric makes a horribly sexist and clearly misogynic speech and no feminists respond, is it then acceptable to agree with him?

Side note: He also dissed all men, who, as someone on one of the blogs commented, could be looked at as no more than leg humping morons, who cannot resist their animal desires.

But…this story has “legs,” and adds an interesting twist:

Sheik al Hilaly says he won’t quit.

Another side note: Note the caption on the picture for the article. I’d say the media’b’Allah are in their glory, once again, misrepresenting reality.

So, the man who thinks so little of women as to call them uncovered meat, tools of Satan, and wouild be run out of Washingotn, DC, tarred, feathered and torched (if, and only if, he was a Republican) for comments far less extreme, thinks he’s on the right track.

Now, take a look throught the window of an Islamic leaders mind, and, realize he is in Australia, not in the US, or a Middle Easertn country:

After midday prayers today, the sheik was besieged by a group of reporters who asked him whether he would bow to demands and quit.

The Islamic clergyman smiled and shook his head, saying in English: “After we clean the world of the White House first.”

Note the captilization. Note there isn’t a “White House” thingy in Australia, but, yep, you guessed it, in the US. So, it’s really all about the US.

Clue for the liberals/Democrats/anti-war crowd: Go ahead, get your “Man” (which may include HIllary) in the “White House” and see if the Sheik changes his rhetoric. He didn’t say: “After we clean the world of the George Bush first,” which would have rendered an entirely different meaning to the conflict.

But then, they just hate George Bush, too, and it’s not just for Muslim Clerics anymore!

Trackbacked at: Point Five, Church and State, Woman, Honor Thyself, Right Wing Nation, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns

Scanning remarks on Little Green Footballs this morning yielded a link to a blog discussing emotional reactions and how we differ in the “Western world” from those in the Mulsim world.

“Tribal Emotions” is this offering from Elphidelphi. I think Ben (ths contributor) is onto something.

[…] Seneca and Cicero are describing a habit still very much alive today: the control we maintain over our emotions. Indeed, this is an essential aspect of the civilized world. Modern western readers will at first disagree with the idea that their free and open society is marked by the suppression of emotions. Are we not bombarded on a daily basis with appeals to “open up,” to let our emotions out? But those who have lived their entire lives in the Western Oasis often don’t realize that, even at their most exuberant or their most forlorn, they don’t even approach the extremes of unchecked human emotions. […]

I also think, as I read his short essay, that this ties into “opening up” emotionally here in the “West.” There certainly is a place for emotional displays, but, in a civilized society, it certainly is useful to have your moment, and then get back in the game. Unchecked emotions can, as Ben describes (and the media’b’Allah as well) lead to long term problems, which, would pretty much detail why we see peole burning churches and killing nuns because they have their feeling hurt when discuss the violence endemic to their culture.

My take is we are seeing a crack in the wall here in the West with the angry, foul language filled, high volume, shreiking political and cultural discussions. Scan a few of the left wing blogs, if you have a strong stomach and have “heard those words” before and they do not offend you, but the vicious verbal and typed attacks (records for the rest of civilization in archiving engines) are legend “over there.”

The bad news is I suspect the “touchy feely, get in touch with your inner child” crowd is driving the problem. In doing so, they are asking us to do here, what Ben talks about over there: Opening the old wounds and meditating on them. I think, if you’re strong enough to analyse that event well, then it may moderate your daily living. If you’re not, then it’s just one more seeping, ugly issue that you have re-placed on your plate to operate with the rest of your life. Great….

Many years ago, I was told profanity was used because you couldn’t express yourself. I found, while in leadership postitions, the use of profanity in the process actually made things worse, and not better, thereby either causing things to take longer, or getting less than an acceptable job done, if it got done at all. Sometimes it actually takes some personal discipline to hold your tongue and to think of the proper words before you open your mouth, but it always yielded a far superior result.

In both the international and internal political/cultural arenas, this exercise of self restraint would serve all of us well.

Ralph Peters has an editorial in the New York Post today, titled “SECRETS FOR SALE – CHEAP AND BY BOTH POLITICAL PARTIES.”

In the piece, he wonders if there is such a thing as honor:

After more than two decades in the intelligence world, I know a few secrets. Some would merit brief, trumped-up headlines. But keeping those secrets is a matter of honor.
[…]
What happened to honor? Among our elected and appointed officials? A sense of honor still prevails within our military and among hundreds of thousands of government employees. Honor still prevails in much of our community life. Many Americans beyond the Beltway maintain a strong sense of personal and professional honor.

But honor’s dead in Washington. And at “leading” universities (where patriotism, too, is beneath contempt). And in the media. Honor isn’t hip. It’s as pathetic as a powder-blue, polyester leisure suit.

He makes an interesting point: It’s politics, politics, and oh, yeah, politics. (Side note: and the ACLU wants to wipe the display or teaching of the Ten Commandments off the face of the planet…Why?)

A few months back, I was given a speech by William Bennett named “Does Honor Have a Future?” He gave it to the Naval Academy Mmidshipmen in Nov, 1997.

I think it’s worth your time to read those fine words, and consider where society and the practice of “honor” are headed.