"Don't be dismayed at good-byes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends."
~~Richard Bach
Since I have been MIA lately I figure I owe you all some pictures. I asked Toy Soldier for some of his pictures that he could share, and so the following were left for me to post. When he is ready to publish his final video I will definitely post that here. Until then, Enjoy.
IA and a local child
Whose angels?
This can’t be good.
This is not a flying/talking donkey.
This morning I read that the remains of two missing GI’s who were captured last May have been identified. Mournfully, the families of 25-year old Army Sgt. Alex Jimenez and 19-year old Pvt. Byron W. Fouty were informed on Thursday of the deaths.
My thoughts and prayers are with the families today.
I didn’t realize that it was a 4th BCT soldier who won the new Jeep Liberty from Operation Gratitude! Wow! Congratulations to Spc. Gallagher, and to all of the Dragoon Raider Brigade. A special welcome home to my wonderful son who is a soldier in this Brigade. It’s wonderful to know their colors are uncased and they are home from their mission!
Soldiers from 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, will be welcomed home during a ceremony Tuesday at Fort Lewis, Wash.
The brigade, known as the Dragoon Raider brigade, was deployed from April 2007 through June 2008.
During the ceremony, the brigade will uncase its colors to signify the completion of its deployment and its return to Fort Lewis. Silver Star awards will be presented to several soldiers during the awards portion of the ceremony.
Prior to the ceremony, representatives from Operation Gratitude and Chrysler will present a 2008 Jeep Liberty to Spc. Michael Gallagher, who received the keys to the sport utility vehicle in Operation Gratitude’s 300,000th care package while he was deployed.
Gallagher designed a mural for the SUV to honor fallen soldiers from his unit, and the customized SUV will be unveiled during the presentation.
I thought I would post another entry in my humble and very disinterested tone to tell you all that a “certain Specialist” is now a “certain Promotable Specialist” and should be a “certain Sergeant” starting in August once all of this points are tallied and everything is official. Also, said ‘certain Promotable Specialist” did so well in his board interview that his superiors noted to him that his long term goal of earning the opportunity to go before a Sergeant Audie Murphy board is within his grasp if he continues doing as well as he has been doing.
Ok, my moment of non-bragging is over.
Brat posted an ad put out by the same liberal, divisive, group that accused our good General of being a betrayer. The ad shows a woman holding her baby, and she tells Senator McCain that when he says ‘we will stay in Iraq for 100 years if that is what it takes to win’, then he can’t count on her baby.
The ad is pure tripe. If you don’t get caught up in the “warm fuzzies” the ad is constructed to give (actually I figured out later it was a bowl of chili that caused mine…) you will feel insulted that these people think you are stupid enough to be scared that anyone is asking you to hand over your baby. I have said it before, and I will say it again… a wild dingo is a greater risk to your babies than the US Military. They don’t want your little ones. Calm down! [Read more →]
UPDATE & Bump: A certain Specialist has had his Board date postponed because a certain S’gnt Major forgot and overbooked his work day. SOOOOOOO … looks like the exam will be this coming Thursday. Woot. I guess.
There is a “certain Specialist” who is being grilled interviewed by an NCO Board in order to prove he is ready for a promotion to Sargent.
For the record, I am not proud at all. Nope. I won’t brag about how he went from PFC to Spc. in less than a year. I am not going to be a boorish mother who feels the need to announce that her son went from Spc. to the NCO Board in less than a year. I am most certainly, definitely not going to lavish you with the details of what a hard working, handsome, smart, strong, ethical, up-standing, fine young man I have for a son.
See, aren’t you glad that I am not one of “those” moms?
I thought you all might enjoy this Sestina written by a military mom. Have a wonderful weekend, and check back for your dose of good news from Iraq. [Read more →]
So that I do not dwell on this any further, I feel the need to do a “final purge” of the happenings the past few days on this blog. Some of you know of the huge dump that the Washington Post’s blog “IntelDump” took on my blog the other day. We were an easy target for the blog author Phillip Carter, so we were thrown under the bus and he got noticed. Nice, eh? The funny thing is, Carter claimed in his article that the real issue at hand was the fact that “Stand To” linked to an article that was clearly an anti-Obama piece, but the problem is he did not really make that the focus of the entry. He quotes and talks more about our blog and what Mr. H! wrote. He even made sure to purposely inflame his readership by linking us with Limbaugh and Fox News (accusing us of only using these two as sources of information). He set it up. He forgot to reiterate to his readership that the real issue at hand was the military, not us. Convienent, no?
I got thousands of hits that day from Washington Post and several other sources that had linked to his article. I went to Washington Post and posted on the comment thread twice. I was respectful both times, but I would like my readers to read a couple of comments left on Phillip Carter’s blog for me. These were lifted verbatim, copied and pasted. I refuse to link to his blog, so if you want the source just Google his name and the name of his blog.
may be your son who is on duty in Iraq,, should come in a box,, or some of his limbs blown away,,, or come home with mental problems and are the govt is slow to give proper medical treatment,, then your eyes will be wide open,, isn’t it,,
Posted by: mugambo | June 12, 2008 5:56 PM
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I hope that former army officers’s son doesn’t ever come home
Posted by: madashell | June 12, 2008 9:51 PM
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Thank God that Carter reads and pays about as close attention as his readers do. My son is already home, safe and sound. The crap-weasels who wrote those comments did so believing my son is still in Iraq (because Carter stated so). Aren’t they nice. Aren’t they oh so loving and progressive?
WaPo’s commenting policy states that “… User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site.”
If I follow Carter’s own assertion to its logical conclusion (that linking to something equates endorsement), then I am left to draw one conclusion about his leaving (or linking if you will) comments on his blog that wishes the death of a deployed soldier: The Washington Post and Phillip Carter endorse the wishing death on a deployed soldier and stating such to his parents. If they did not think it was acceptable they would have removed it. As it stands now I really could give a rat’s behind what they do — they can remove it to try and save face, but I don’t think they care. I am sure they support our troops though, right?
I have received emails telling me that I should be dead, that my family should be dead (they are clever enough to not say that they want to kill me, so charges can’t be brought … but duh, it’s obviously a death threat). I have been called a Nazi.
The Nazi comments crack me up. I have never once in my entire life ever tried to silence another American Citizen by threat or intimdation, and yet the amoral asses who write those emails have the audacity to call ME the Nazi! Is that not the most delicious irony you have ever tasted in your life? I exercise my right to free speech, I am threatened and intimidated by fellow citizens because of it, and somehow I am the Nazi? Wow. This right here shows you the mentality I have been up against for the past couple of days.
I have deleted a lot of comments left here on my blog. I immediately came to KDIH once I realized I had been linked to and was a target for flaming, and got rid of my “about the author” page and put the comments on moderation. They will have to remain on moderation for a while. I am going to register my regular readers (those who comment frequently that I know) and erase the rest of the registered readers. You will have to register to comment at will and be approved to do so. All others will go through moderation until I am ready to register them. It’s a safe guard. I do a lot of work from home, I take care of a family, and I am dealing with some very painful orthopedic problems right now — I don’t have time to babysit my blog.
This was never an issue before in the past year that I have been writing, but thanks to Carter it is now. Which leaves me no other option than to award him the Knee Deep in the Hooah!’s official, prestigious “Jackass of the Day Award.”
Mr. Carter earned this award, not for exercising his right to free speech, but because of the unwarranted, unnecessary “bitch slap” we got from him and his readers for exercising our right to free speech. He also earned it for leaving comments on his blog wishing my son death, dismemberment or mental problems, and in doing so indirectly supporting that kind of speech to military members and their families.
So, here’s to you Phillip Carter (aka Mr.Ex-MP, Mr. Ex-Civil Affairs guy, and Mr. I’m all for the Vets.) Here’s to you.
