It’s been an exciting 13 days. Lots of interesting blogs discovered, many interesting comments read, but…most importantly the overwhelming support fo the people to show that character trait of comapssion, just because it’s for someone they don’t even know, that stood up for them, not even knowing all of us.

All I’d say if take it to the International Date Line! Beth didn’t say which time zone’s 2359 would determine the final bell…

Thank each and every one, whether your name/blog showed up on a Valour-IT team list, or if yu just took up for the cause and pointed people to the donate buttons…

A commenter on VC’s “get out the fund rasing effort” post (heh! she figured out the “viral” tactic) had this to say:

Cass, it isn’t the fundraiser that bugs me. It is the reason, the necessity for it. We should be at peace with these kids home and making lives for themselves and their families. But the call came and they answered. We can do no less than embrace them and help them to have a life. It is a small thing we do, but having been a bedridden grouch myself, and having needed a laptop with Dragon Naturally Speaking, I know how much this means to them.

It wasn’t until two years ago that I was able to get more function in my left arm, and begin to type again, and that was a year after I was injured.

The first thing the Engineer [husband] did was get me a laptop with the software. I didn’t feel so isolated, hurt or angry. And you will never know how much it meant to me to be able to travel beyond my four walls and the terrible pain.

I have since given the laptop back to DELL, and they sent me a replacement, but they did tell me that they would rehab it for resell. I hope it went to one of ours and it gives him or her the
ability and hope to carry on and know that life is good and sweet.

Cricket knows the value. That’s a testimony to the capablity of technology to lend normalcy to a broken body, and more importantly, an almost broken spirit.

In the future, if you meet/learn of someone who has suffered such injuries in life off any battle field, you know are aware of a method to restore some hope, so, spread the word around!

Maybe I should have known better. The Navy Team puts up Marine donation buttons all over the place and tells people to send money their way, and then the marines act like they just boarded USS GATOR and take over the place. They stand in the passagewas, clogging up traffic, eat all the steak and ice cream and then sit around playing cards all day, when they aren’t doing PT, and all the while thinking the sailors owe them something more.

Seriously: Congrats Marines for getting a second wind and stroking past the Army in fine fashion! I’m sure the Powerline Blog listing yesterday (just which pictures did VC email to them?) didn’t hurt at all…..

Hmmmm…maybe it’s time for a “No Zoomie Left Behind” push thru tomorrow…..

If you haven’t hit the auctions, don’t let that stuff get away. After all, it may be Team Navy’s only hope of coming out on top when all the money is counted!

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.

Great job, to the team and to the many, US and other citizens who have helped out!

Now, let’s shift the focus to getting the other teams over the top!

Best donating link for all services here.

New orders: QUIT GIVING TO THE NAVY!

News Flash: I “dislike” minimums….I like straining to the last moment available. Let’s keep going for only the trrops at the other end of this program win. Word to the wise (meaning the non-Sea Services): The throttle is at Flank III at sea and full military in the high flying go fasts. Next you will fall to the MARINES!

I sure wish I could have lined up the Tampa Bay Lightening Team radio announcer for this moment….

“They shoot , THEY SCORE!”

Oh, yeah the new Army motto for recruiting “Army Strong” went public last night. Does this mean we can roll out the new Navy ad “Navy Stronger” campaign?

Just saying….:)

Good question, however, the correct day to wonder where an Air Force guy went.

Some would call it “AWOL,” but the real term is “UA” for “unathorized absense.”

Last time this happened (Scott O’Grady), it was the MARINES who saved his grounded tail.

How appropriate, on the very day we honor the 231th birthday of the CORPS, that we have to ponder this question. The good news is: We already know how to fix it: Send for the MARINES!

If you’ve seen John, tell him to get back on task and let VC know the MARINES aren’t required to leave the bar and interupt their celebrations!

You’d think he would have come up on distress by now, hollering for th PJs to get him back to the O Club…..

Today, In honor of the 231st Birthday, I’m posting the donation button for Team Marines.

We Navy guys have been hauling them all over the world to get to “the office,” all the while as they are eating all the ice cream and bitching complaining that they’ve seen all the movies.

Once more, it looks like the Marines could use a lift to get to where they can then be successful, and here it is:

Warning to you Grunts: I have no ice cream, the weight room is the pay for gym down the street and where I live and sleep won’t rock you to sleep, but I can offer “support” for your cause.

VC, how about spread the word: Donation Button for TEAM USMC, no waiting line!

(so that the Army can get ashore, too)

It’s a long time in history from Tun Tavern in 1775, but, what began then is a “society” of special men and now women, who proudly display the crimson and gold emblem in far greater numbers than the rest of us services.

The battles fought are burned into our nations history, and now, as the young men and women of “The Corps” bear the brunt of the percentage of casualties in the War on Terror, the USMC has shown it’s ability to operate further from the water, in a more and more technologically sophisticated force, and many more names of battles grace our history.

Once a Marine, Always a Marine is a truism you can count on.

As a beginning blogger, in 2004, I tried to say it well in this posting:

You just have to love an institution that breeds a loyalty with humility, and a strength with purpose, that then has benefited this Nation and all who have come in contact with these remarkable few and proud people.

I salute you, Marines, old, young, retired, veterans, male and female, for your timeless dedication to something worthy of preservation, the UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS!

Larry at Last Refuge of a Scoundrel blog has a great tribute up here.

Also read the words of a young Marine, I tracked down last January in this post: “I am a Marine.” He gets it…\

Update 11/10/2006 (Lifted from Villanous Company), the words of a Marine:

MARINES come in all shapes, shades, weights, sizes, & states of sobriety, misery, & confusion. He is sly as a fox, has the nerve of a dope addict, the stories of an old sailor, the sincerity of a politician, & the subtlety of Mt. Saint Helen. He’s extremely irresistible, totally irrational & completely indestructible.

A Marine is a Marine all his life. He is a magical creature. You can kick him out of your house but not out of your heart. You can take him off your mailing list but not off your mind. Marines are found everywhere… in love…in battle… in lust… in trouble…in debt… in bars & behind them. No one can write so seldom and yet think so much of you. No one else can get so much enjoyment out of a letter or clean clothes or a 6 pack.

A Marine is a genius with a deck of cards. A millionaire without a cent and brave without a grain of sense. He is the PROTECTOR OF AMERICA, with the latest copy of Playboy in his back pocket. When he wants something it’s usually 30 days leave, music that hurts the ears, a five dollar bill…or A WOMAN HE CAN COUNT ON.

Girls love them, mothers tolerate them, fathers brag about them, the government pays them, the police watch out for them & somehow they all work together. You can beat their bodies but not their minds.

You can tame their hearts but not their souls. He likes girls, females, women, ladies. He dislikes small checks, working weekends, answering letters, eating chow, waking up, maintaining a uniform, & the day before payday.

You may as well give in. He is your long distance lover… He is your steel eyed, warm smiling, blank minded, hyperactive, over reacting, curious, passive, talented spontaneous, physically fit, good for nothing bundle of worry…..

And will always be there for you regardless of how long it’s been since you’ve last talked.

News you can use about the Marines: The Marine Corps Museum is opening this weekend, well, the VIPs will be in there, but you can visit it beginning November 13th!

Yessiree, Ladies and Gentlemen! The Valour-IT fund drive is not over!

In addition to the two books from Richard Lowry Team USAF posted on eBay, the shopping option of many, now you can bid on Thunderbird Memorbilia!

John of Castle Arrggghhh! put up two copies of “Blood Brothers,” which will be signed by the author, at the mini-auction site of NZ Bear.

Please don’t forget the Navy items, only of the highest quality, for the discerning auctionee, are still listed here. I discussed thes Navy items in an earlier post, if you’d like a few details.

First of all, mea culpa for not getting this up as the sun went past the yard arm. My apologies. Hammer up those great trackbacks and get some readership from my small stable of transient visitors!

During most weeks, I load up the old mental VHS tapes and surf thru them and see which story tickles my fancy (and hoping it will do the same for your fancy), but I was a little preoccupied.

Just at this moment, I recalled the end of a Combined Federal Campaign on my second ship. There’s a story here about sacrificial giving that fits the theme:

It was the last day and the goal wasn’t met, but it was not much more than propbaly $100 away from a successful mark in my “Fitness Report” (FITREP). Back in those days, such things were “challenges” to be faced and defeated, where,. later in life, I have come to understand it’s about us actually considering much more about the comfort of our fellow man.

AS I stood up on the bridge (we were inport), one of the operations specialist’s came up the centerline ladeer from Combat Information Center (CIC). I knew he was one who’s name wasn’t on the division’s envelope, so I asked him if his “division representative” (the division’s chief petty officer in his case) had given him the chance to donate. He started tap dancing, and I knew the Chief was anyting but a supporter of the CFC campaign and had grudginly taken the assignment, but I could tell he didn’t really want to give anything because of something the Chief had said. I was crest fallen, so near, yet so far from a third campaign of my career going in the “Collected 100%” column on the next FITREP. Then he asked a question:

“Does the money go where you write on the card?” “Yes, Didn’t the Chief tell you that?” “No, he said they let you do that to feel good, but they send it where they want to.”

I assured him the money went as designated. I said it with a false confidence then, but found out later I was correct.

He took a card and filled it out, indicating a pretty good sized dollar amount, particularly for an E3. He turned the contribution card over and wrote one charity for the approved listing, and handed it to me. I met goal. He put his money to something he knew was a good place. Win (Command looked good), win (I looked good), win (for his conscience) and for the charity and those it served, a win, too.