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.

William has grciously showcased Valour-IT on a web site he works, The Carrier Page. To clarify, this is a site about aircraft carriers. For your aviation buffs….try a click!

Thanks, William!

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

A young women, who raised her right hand, went to Parris Island, but found out she had a conditon that precluded her from becoming a Marine, is staying in the game. Now volunteering at the USO, and working to fill boxes for the Marines for the holiday season. Here’s her request:

Most of you know how I support the military, particularly the Marine Corps. This year I was asked if I would adopt some deployed Marines for Christmas. I was like “Sure!” expecting two or three… Well, I have a platoon of 25 Marines in my care. At first I was overwhelmed and said “I can’t do this!” but then it hit me that I CAN and WILL. Everything has to be shipped by Thanksgiving is the part that is going to be the most difficult.

For the platoon, we provide Christmas decorations–a small Christmas tree, Santa hat and beard, Christmas CD, etc. Things to make their little area festive. I know that may sound dumb, but I can also see how it would help to boost their morale.

Also for the platoon, we provide group gifts–things they can enjoy together. Suggested ideas were DVD’s (no war movies) and games… I am not the most imaginative of people so if you have any ideas, don’t hesitate to let me know!

Individually, we have a handmade stocking (my grandmother is making those) filled with small wrapped gifts for each person in the platoon. I’m having trouble with ideas for those, as well.

The Operation Santa USMC website is: http://www.marinecorpsfamilyfoundation.org/santa.html

And I’ve blogged about it here: http://politicsofapatriot.blogspot.com/2006/10/not-so-trivial-pursuits.html

If you are willing to help in any way, please drop me an e-mail ASAP at [email protected] or give me a call. Thank you!

Sounds like an easy thing to pitch in for. Please vist Holly’s site and see if you can help out cheering up the men on the front lines in the fight.

And we’re not done yet. I’ve tried to get to everyone’s blog who signed up for the Navy Team. There are some interesting reads out there. How about show these bloggers a little love with a click on their link, then spend a few moments scanning the material they post!

The first team member: Seawitch. From what I can tell, suffered through Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi. She does have a sense of humor, so you Marines, soldiers and airmen should head over there to see how she can snark.

Chapomatic. A great thinker and man of ecclectic taste in music and online videos. Great, thought provoking posts over at Chap’s place. A used to be submariner, who has changed “designators” and will, after having served in a “Joint” billet in the midwest at a major USAF based command, will have a more hands on role in the GWoT.

Ken from Smadanek has become the resident “data geek” for the Valour-IT program drive and he has been gracious enough to track all the teams, coz they need someone who can do math and Chap, the nuke, was buried with real world 0730-2300 work days. Ken’s a “Trade School” grad and prod “Black Shoe” who has the honor of being a Battleship Sailor during his time in uniform. He usually comments on Navy technology issues, and also some local NJ state stuff.

Jason is new at the blogging stuff, but has a site to present history for kids: Superhero Historians. “Protect the Past For the Future” appears to be the motto of the site. Boy, do we need more like him, so the next generations know what has happened before them.

So, spread the love, and click a team member’s link – there might be something there you needed!