I missed the news of the steam line on the USS FRANK CABLE (AS-40) rupturing and burning 8 sailors this past weekend, but I just received an email forwarded by Soldier’s Angels from LTC (Ret) Jim Riley:

From: Riley, James D CONT BAMC-Ft Sam Houston TX < [email protected]>
Date: Dec 5, 2006 1:36 PM
Subject:
To: Soldiers Angels

Patti

I can’t get post or even read most of the BLOGS at work. I thought you might like to update BLACKFIVE on the sailors injured in the boiler explosion. Here is what I would like to say if you’d like to send it to them

Just wanted you to know Soldiers’ Angels is on the ground in San Antonio and in an protective overwatch position & I am personally looking out for the injured sailors and their families. We will support them in any way we can as their treatment progresses. The families have arrived and are being tended by the staff and chaplains.

Thanks to Blackfive and the other MIL Bloggers, Soldiers’ Angels will be providing a new laptop for each of these six heroes as soon as they get out of the ICUs and we hope they will be blogging their story themselves very soon. Our prayers are with them and
their families.

Jim (LTC, Med Svc Corps, ret), Director, Medical Spt Ops Soldier’s Angels

Bubblehead is on the story.

For all who chipped either effort or money or both at the fund drive for Valour-IT, this is the result of your dedication to supporting our troops and, in this case, the sailors in particular.

For anyone else late to the game, Valour-IT donations are accepted year round…. (hint, hint!)

I will be stress testing the aging muscles and the mental ability to efficiently place objects into vehicles to maximize the transportation assets for a friend, beginning in about an hour….so…may not be around this weekend.

Consider this a “bonus trackback” post. If you have something good, help me out! Send your good stuff along.

In the meantime, from the way back machine, here’s a link to my testimony about mail to “any sailor” and how wonderful the experience it was for many of us in the Med off the coast of Libya in 1986.

Please consider sending cards of letters to our service members around the globe. Trust me, a hand written letter, just sharing your day can do wonders for the soul.

Part II left you wondering what the answer is to the condition, where the Islamofascists are turning the crank, gleefully listening to each metallic *CLICK!* and the pawl first backs off, and then engages, one notch higher. The cable being pulled along is growing every tighter, symbolizing our emotional condition in regard to the GWoT.

I postulated before, that the carnage will grow worse. It is. It will, certainly through the installation of the newly elected Congress persons come mid January. “They” (the enemy of all that is western in nature) will continue to turn the crank to make sure we are not turning our gaze away from the humanity being sacrificed for the sake of a few who desire to stay in power…in positions so they may trade in human currency, much cheapened from anything we value it at, here in the civilized world. It is time for “them” to sprint to the finish line, which will be a few months into the Democrats control of both chambers of Congress, long enough to force a showdown (and in their mind a victory over) with the President by the Pelosi/Murtha/Rangel raging idiocy, which calls for more troops, while calling as loudly for the end.

The 21st Century is seeing but the leading edge of the Killing Fields, not witnessed since the mid-70s. Maybe we have forgotten what genocide is. Maybe “we” can turn a blind eye (no, we can’t we’re rubber-necking at the horrific nature of this equivalent of a bad car wreck on the Interstate) to what is more properly termed fratricide – the killing of your own. Mark my words. Short of the President stepping forward and emulating the vision and compassion of John F. Kennedy in the name of freedom, the death of many Iraqis is closer at hand than we care to accept.

We, particularly as an American culture, know exactly how to fathom and manage all of this. We practice it almost daily, some might say religiously, and accept it wholeheartedly for adults. For children, we have paved a road for future mediocrity in the same arena, at the hands of the Liberals and their “touchy feely” mindset.

So, what is it we know? Sports. We know it, we love it, we live it and breathe it. What is there in this analogy that can help us:

• A tough as nails coach is to be revered, for we know the outcome. The results are not today, or tomorrow, but across a lifetime;
• Strength is required. No excuses, get it or crawl to the sideline/bench in tears and get out of our way;
• Endurance is mandatory. Who likes a team who does great for the first period, and then looks like they got run over by a train for the rest of the game?
• Courage. Another ingredient, not in the same vein as in a war, but the desire to take risks when you see an opportunity;
• Refs make bad calls. Shout a few bad words and deal with it. Then, get back in the game, and re-double your efforts;
• We.Love.Winners. We don’t recall the losers, because it’s about winning;
• The “12th Man” can save your butt on a bad day. The fans, wearing your jerseys, the band, the cheer leading squad, the water boys, the managers and the groundskeepers all have a hand in your victory.
• We want to be around winners. We disregard our “personal space” to crowd our bodies together for a glimpse of them, and reach out to get their autographs;
• Entire media outlets, let alone time slots are dedicated to these pursuits. We strain to hear over “those rude people, who don’t get it” to hear the highlights of the game and the latest stats;
• We have people emulate entire league sports in a fantasy world, and use performance statistics (you know, TRUTH!) to estimate the outcome of the teams played in a virtual sense;

Need I say more? From this list, a thinking person could work through it and see where we are not doing that in this war, which, unlike sports, does have an effect on our ability to be able to put this amount of energy into the past-time of sports for a major portion of the population.

Read the rest of this entry »

I picked up the trial to finding this article from a post on Black Five. Matt referenced Joey Bozik, and linked to one picture on the NG website.

Up on the NG site, there are stills and a video with narration of the what writer Neil Shea saw in country, and also followed back home, to the VA and into the homes of those recovering from their wounds.

It’s an insight into the development of care and also the dedication to all of those in the chain providing medical care, and certainly a discussion of the spirit of those wounded and what they are dealing with as well. While the actual pictures used are black and white, some are graphic in nature….there’s your warning before you click.

Iraq War Medicine in 5 parts.

The final video piece, “Pushing Forward” talks about how Sgt Joey Bozik has pushed ahead with his life. Neil’s final statement about this issue is “These people are stronger than most people I have met in my life.” Quite a compliment…

It was Armistice Day at first, but in 1954, President Eisenhower made it “Veteran’s Day.”

Two years ago, as a barely a month old blogger, I posted this.

I still mean it.

I served during the Cold War, and those men who taught me my trade, were Vietnam Vets. Having lived overseas, not as a “brat,” by a civil servant’s son, I grew up with the Special Forces on Okinawa and the Sialors and Marines on Guam. The man across the street most of my beginning days was not an uncle, but he was “Uncle John” to my sisters and I. He had been a Marine in KOrea. One uncle was one of the first C-5 Galaxy navigators, but had flwon with Air-Sea REscue in HU-16s, and later I believe he was in C-141s.

They all had a piece of me knowing I wanted to serve.

I never have been in combat, or any closer than way out in the Med when Khadffi shot missiles at our F-14s, so I stand in awe, and a degree of jeasousness of those who have been there, as I will always wonder how well I had been trained.

In the grand scheme, it took each of us, and all of those who served, whether they stayed stateside the entire time, or ran down the bow ramp of an LCVP, into the surf and onto the sand.

I thank the America taxpayer on this day, for trusting me to protect them. I thank all those who, when by the stroke of fate, did end up in combat, did not shy away and did their duty, regardless of the fear.

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!

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….:)