Archive for the ‘Someone You Should Know’ Category

Daniel Foster at The Corner had a link to a photo essay of EOD teams from Iraq and Afghanistan which reminded me of one of the most outstanding photo’s of the Iraq War and that is……

Injured Marine Defies Attackers (1 finger salute)

Once Marine Gunnery Sgt. Michael Burghardt realized he could wiggle his toes and fingers, he had one message for the insurgents who wounded him – defiance. Burghardt, of Huntington Beach, Calif., disarmed two bombs that were found – quick action that probably saved the lives of several Nebraska soldiers. But he couldn’t get to a third.

Photo by Jeff Bundy of The Omaha World-Harold on assignment with Dave Kotok in Iraq. September 2005

There is no actor who can or could portray the heroic and defiant action of Marine Gunnery Sgt Michael Burghardt.

Also see: Gunnery Sgt. Michael “One Finger Salute” Burghardt Update

Iraq, EOD, Marine Gunnery Sgt Michael Burghardt, Hurt Locker, Oscars

JR Salzman knows PTSD and he knows Ward 57 at Walter Reed Hospital. JR exposes the hypocrisy of the media pushing this farce as an excuse for Major Nidal Hasan’s terrorist attack at Fort Hood.

I’m more than a little angry right now. Yes, I’m irate that some sh-tbag Major (“sh-tbag” is often used as a technical term in the Army) opened fire on a group of his fellow Soldiers killing 12 and wounding 30. But that’s not even what is under my skin right now. What is bothering me is the general reaction of our media and those stupid enough to think this was not an act of terrorism, but was caused by supposed PTSD caused at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

You want to know what PTSD is like? I’ll tell you.

JR definitely cuts through the bs. Go read about his PTSD.

PTSD, Major Nidal Hasan, JR Salzman, Fort Hood attack

Courage in the heat of battle, another amazing Soldier – Lt. Col. Tray Ardese.

‘It was “game on” when you walked out’ – Travis J. Tritten, Stars and Stripes

“It was going to be a reconnaissance patrol. We thought we would sneak out and see what was going on,” he said. “Somebody was watching the base and caught us leaving.”

It was just before midnight when Ardese got an uneasy feeling, a kind of sixth-sense tingle.

The attack opened with the detonation of a homemade bomb — artillery shells buried in an embankment. The blast shot shrapnel through the air and seemed to slow down time, Ardese said.

The unit’s corpsman and communication specialists were hit, and a piece of metal tore into Ardese’s shoulder, breaking it before lodging in his shoulder blade.

“I came back to my senses, and there was a lot of gunfire and people fighting,” said Ardese, who was knocked off his feet.

There was an indescribable ringing in his ears, and his nose was bleeding.

Attackers bore down with small-arms fire, while a member of the unit tried to suppress the fire with an M-240 medium machine gun, he recounted.

Ardese called to his dazed radio operator to get ready. He requested a fire-support mission from an artillery battery, followed by close air support from F-16 jets.

Meanwhile, he and the rest of his unit kept up the fight.

“My arm just wouldn’t work very well. It was kind of stuck to my side,” he said. “I had an M-4, so it wasn’t really heavy, and I could prop it with my other arm.”

Ardese said the firefight against about a platoon of insurgents lasted about 40 minutes. It is unknown how many of the attackers were killed, he said.

“It was going back and forth. We were gaining fire superiority with machine guns,” he said. “We didn’t stay behind. At the end, we had to get out of there.”

Read the rest of the story.

Lt. Col Tray “Tonto” Ardese, 2006 Anbar Province, Iraq

On Sunday, my friends (Mary Anne and Larry) and I left for Conway, Ark to stand with the Arkansas Patriot Guard to honor Pvt William Long and his family. Pvt Long was killed in a terrorist attack on our land, his memory needs to live on. The injustice by the media in the coverage of this attack on our soil left little coverage on this Soldier’s death. You can read other postings of mine on this attack here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

KATV7 has a short write up on the funeral. It was nice to see that a Democrat Governor (Bebe) attend the funeral. He even came around to the Patriot Guard flag line and shook each of our hands thanking us for being there. In the over 3 years I’ve attended KIA funerals in Tennessee, I’ve never once seen Democrat Governor Bredeson attend a funeral. He didn’t even attend the funeral of 1LT William Eric Emmert who was killed in Iraq, Tn National Guard, 269th MP Co 117th MP BTN, spent more than a decade with THP, worked for the Governor’s security detail and most recently started with TBI.

Turnout for the funeral by Patriot Guard was awesome with members coming also from Missippi and Oklahoma. One of the Oklahoma members was the Gold Star father of Cpl Michael E. Thompson ,who died in a helicopter crash in Iraq on September 16, 2008. Cpl Thompson’s father has memorialized his son’s truck. The truck is such a wonderful memorial.

There was also a Veteran who has this cool memorial he has mounted on his motorcycle trailer.

I couldn’t go without taking a picture of the Tn PGR Mascot on the Memorial

I have some video footage of the long flag line and the PGR Motorcycle escort to the cemetery, however due to my ineptness, I can’t seem to figure out how to convert 3gp files to wmv files. Actually, I don’t think I have the correct codec, so in the conversion process the program crashes. Hopefully, I’ll get this figured out.

Keep the Long family in your prayers, they’ve got the youngest son deploying in the next few weeks to the Middle East while also trying to grieve for the loss of their other son.

Pvt William Long, PGR, Patriot Guard, terrorist attack on Little Rock recruiters, Abdul Hakim Muhammad, Carl Bledsoe

This is such a cool story that the Tennessean wrote about John Hall. I’m not a fan of the Tennessean but John is an acquaintance of mine and I am so thrilled they wrote this story. John is just such a sweet man and I wish I would have been in town to join in the Patriot Guard escort for his drive to Huntsville but I’ve been in DC myself for the Milblogging Conference. I can’t believe they arranged for a “trike” to take John to Huntsville. What an awesome experience for John at 94 years of age. Rachel is definitely an angel for John and her Mom Susan is right up there with Rachel. Kudos to the Tennessee Patriot Guard for this wonderful and amazing mission.

94-year-old veteran to visit WWII Memorial in D.C.

MURFREESBORO — Ninety-four-year-old John “Red” Hall is on the trip of his lifetime.

“I’m excited about the whole thing, from one end to the other,” Hall said. “I never thought I’d see the day to do this.”

Hall, an Army Air Corps sergeant in World War II, left Murfreesboro on Friday afternoon in the passenger seat of a three-wheeled Honda Gold Wing motorcycle on the first leg of a journey that will take him all the way to the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

“I haven’t ridden a motorcycle since I got out of service” in 1945, said Hall, who was as excited about the ride as he was about the landmark he will be visiting.

Hall was fitted with a helmet and motorcycle sunglasses by Sloan’s Motorcycle and ATV Supercenter earlier in the week. After a slathering of suntan lotion, he was ready to go.

Members of the Patriot Guard Riders and Rolling Thunder, two motorcycle groups that support U.S. veterans and troops, pulled out of Sloan’s parking lot Friday afternoon, escorting Hall and Nick Petty, the Patriot Guard member who chauffeured him to Huntsville, Ala.

There, Hall was to board an Honor Flight jet with up to 200 other veterans bound for today’s one-day visit to the nation’s capital.

Go read about John’s story.

Honor Flights, John Hall, Murfreesboro TN, Patriot Guard Riders

Spc. Ross A. McGinnis
19 years old from Knox, Pennsylvania
1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division
December 4, 2006

His mission was to patrol the streets of Adhamiyah in northeast Baghdad and find a place to put a 250-kilowatt generator that would provide electricity for more than 100 homes. But it’s a mission he wasn’t able to accomplish.

Shortly after Pfc. McGinnis’s convoy left the compound, and less than a mile from FOB Apache, an insurgent standing on a nearby rooftop threw a grenade into the sixth, and last, Humvee. “Grenade!” yelled McGinnis, who was manning the vehicle’s M2 .50-caliber machine gun. He tried to deflect the grenade but it fell into the Humvee and lodged between the radios.

“McGinnis turned and looked down and realized no one in the truck knew where the grenade was,” said Capt. Michael Baka, his company commander. “He knew everyone had their doors combat-locked and they wouldn’t be able to get out.”

Instead of jumping out of the truck to save his own life, like he had been trained to do, McGinnis threw his back against the radio mount, smothering the explosive with his body. The grenade exploded just as Pfc. McGinnis covered it. The blast filled the vehicle with black smoke and debris and blew the driver’s door and right passenger’s door wide open and blew the machine gun off its mount. The explosion hit McGinnis on his sides and his lower back, under his vest. He was killed instantly.

The other four soldiers in the Humvee suffered relatively minor injuries.

On the morning of December 4, 2006, before his convoy had left, Cpt. Baka has signed a waver promoting Pfc. McGinnis to Specialist and he was posthumously promoted to E-4.

For his heroic actions on that day, McGinnis was awarded the Silver Star and was nominated for a Medal of Honor which he received on June 2, 2008.

All Information Was Found On And Copied From MilitaryCity.com

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday.

For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

SPC Ross A McGinnis, Medal of Honor nominee, Silver Star, Wednesday Hero, Support the Troops

Here is someone who sacrificed fame, fortune and life for you. His name is Stephen Cochran, he’s a country music singer who gave up all to voluntarily join the United States Marine Corp! He gave up so much from a career to his personal life to join the USMC. He was badly injured and yet persevered on to support and give back. In a time when we hear so much about the young of today who are so self absorbed and clueless there are still those who step up and serve and continue to serve after there time has passed.

Stephen Cochran was a normal 19-year-old with a dream of making music his life when the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks led him down an unplanned path to the Marine Corps.

“

I dropped out of college. I walked away from a record deal,� he said. “I was engaged.� He didn’t discuss his decision with his parents, or even his then-fiancée, who broke the engagement when he announced he’d enlisted. “It was really the first grown-up decision I’d ever made,� Cochran said.

The musician, born in Pikeville, Ky., grew up in Nashville’s songwriting and recording community. There, he learned the art of songwriting from his father. He made his musical debut on the radio at age 3 and had his first band by 15. At 17, he was offered a record deal, but he and his parents agreed that he needed to go to college first. If this offer had been made now, they reasoned, there would be others after college. While at Western Kentucky University, Cochran played lacrosse and continued to write songs and play music. True to his parents’ prediction, he was offered another record deal. But he wanted to finish school. The company offered a promissory note, but then Sept. 11 happened.

“It was just so horrific,� he said. “It’s like I’d been called. I’d never been pulled so hard to do something.� It may have been the audacity of the attacks, but more likely it was his family’s long history of military service that drew him to enlist, he said. Both grandfathers served, as did an uncle and several other relatives. “I’ve always been raised very, very patriotic. It’s just what I had to do,� Cochran said of his decision to join the Marines.

It wasn’t long before he found himself in Kuwait with the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, part of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, waiting to cross into Iraq. He was 20. Once the unit crossed the Kuwait-Iraq border, contact with the enemy was a daily ocurrence, Cochran said. When the unit’s tour was finished, the Marines had fought their way to Tikrit and back. “We brought every man home with us,� he said. “They said we did 111 missions. That was more missions than any other unit had done since Vietnam.�

But daily battle takes its toll. Cochran said he thinks every Marine in his section showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. Four months later, however, the entire battalion volunteered to go to Afghanistan with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit. They figured nothing could be worse than Iraq.

They were wrong.

“In Afghanistan, everything was just dead. There was no foliage. The people wouldn’t look you in the eye,� he said, adding that he and his buddies had learned that usually meant they had something to hide. In fact, after several months of daily fighting in Afghanistan, the Marines began to wonder just how wrong they’d been about nothing being worse than the fighting in Iraq. “Some of us came up with a theory that maybe we had been killed in Iraq and now we were in hell,� Cochran said with a chuckle that belied the seriousness of the thought. That theory may have been conceived during a mission where the Marines were outnumbered more than 2 to 1 and he lost one of his best friends. “It was a suicide mission,� Cochran said. “We 100 percent knew there was going to be a casualty on this mission. We knew it.�

The mission initially sent a five-man team into what Cochran described as very hostile territory. When 26 insurgents ambushed the team, another seven-man team responded. Despite killing 14 insurgents before the fight was over, they’d lost one Marine. “If you wanted to pick one man to represent the entire military, it was him,� he said about the Marine. “We were all trying to figure out different ports we could get drunk in. He was trying to get us into Bible study.� About a month later, on July 14, 2004, Cochran was on his last mission, working security for convoys carrying equipment back to Kandahar, when he was injured.

Just 20 yards inside Kandahar, the vehicle he was riding in hit an anti-tank mine. He was thrown from the vehicle and broke the five vertebrae in his lower back. When he woke in the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., a month later, he discovered he was paralyzed from the waist down and most likely never would walk again.

To add insult to injury, the record company that had offered Cochran the deal dropped him, saying they couldn’t put $1 million dollars into a paraplegic. “I understand. It’s a business,� he said. “[But] I never believed I was never going to walk again.� The doctors at Bethesda weren’t so hopeful. Despite the fact that Cochran’s spinal cord was intact, the bone and cartilage were severely damaged and were pulling on his spinal cord. The doctors’ best suggestion was to fuse the bone together to alleviate the pain.

Another option surfaced, however. Though his doctors in Bethesda, who were just beginning to see the types of injuries that became typical with servicemembers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, were vehemently against the idea, his mother — and first sergeant — pushed for the procedure. They finally won. Kyphoplasty, a procedure used to restore fractured vertebra, usually is reserved for older patients suffering from degeneration of the vertebrae and cartilage. However, six months after an orthopedic surgeon at Vanderbilt Medical Center used essentially 4 pounds of cement to fix the crushed vertebrae in Cochran’s back, he was up and walking with the help of a walker.

Today, he’s back on the country music scene and has a deal with Aria Records. His debut album, “Friday Night Fireside,� has received more than favorable reviews.

While music is his passion, Cochran said, he found room for a second passion after his recovery: working to make sure wounded veterans have what they need to recover and live the fullest life possible. He does this is by working with the Independence Fund, a nonprofit organization that, among other things, provides robotic wheelchairs to veterans confined to wheelchairs. The high-tech chairs can walk stairs and give the veterans their height back, Cochran said. “They can look everybody in the eye,� Cochran said. “That’s the biggest thing. When I was in a wheelchair … I had to look up at everybody. It was a big shock to your confidence. This raises them up to where they can have a conversation and look you in the eye.� It has the same technology as the Segway personal transporter, so it won’t fall over, he added. As amazing as that piece of technology is, Cochran said, bigger things are on the horizon and he’ll do everything he can to make sure veterans have access to them.

“My goal is that the bigger I get in music, the bigger my pulpit can get to preach on my soapbox … and really get more people involved,� he said. “There’s a lot of people in the music business who talk a lot. We just need them to get their checkbooks out now.�

What Cochran said he would really like, however, is for veterans to never have to worry about what comes next.

“I want to have a foundation that covers you from the time you enlist or from the time you’re commissioned until we put you in the ground,� he said. “There is no reason a man shooting a basketball should have to not worry about anything in life, and a man that is ready to take a bullet should.�

Country Music Star Earned Stripes in Iraq, Afghanistan
By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service

Stephen Cochran, Someone You Should Know.USMC, Pikeville KY, Country Music, Friday Night Fireside, Independence Fund, robotic wheelchairs veterans,

This Weeks Post Was Suggested By Cindy

Petty Officer 2nd Class Mike A. Monsoor
29 years old from Garden Grove, California
September 29, 2006

In April 2008, Michael Monsoor (who had already been posthumously awarded the Silver Star for his actions in a May 9, 2006 incident, when he and another SEAL pulled a wounded team member to safety amidst gunfire) was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. His funeral, attended, in the words of President Bush, by “nearly every SEAL on the West Coast,” was held on October 12, 2006 at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego. During Monsoor’s funeral service, as the casket was taken from the hearse to the gravesite, fellow SEALs lined up in two columns to slap and embed the gold Tridents (a pin awarded for successful completion of SEAL Qualification Training) from their uniforms onto the top of Monsoor’s coffin.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Mike A. Monsoor’s Summary Of Action.

“The procession went on nearly half an hour, and when it was all over, the simple wooden coffin had become a gold-plated memorial to a hero who will never be forgotten.” - President George W. Bush

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday.

For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Wednesday Hero, Petty Officer 2nd Class Mike A Monsoor, Medal of Honor, SEAL

I’ve been following Christian’s lawsuit against this case of discrimination by Temple University in Pennsylvania. While this latest ruling by the 3rd US Circuit Court affirms Christians win in District Court, he is still in limbo.

To read the background on this case of discrimination on speech by Temple University against Sgt Christian DeJohn go here.

From Kathleen Willey at WND – Clash with university over beliefs strands student

Clash with university over beliefs strands student
Seeking resolution of master’s degree work at Temple

A university student who challenged his school’s “speech code” and won a ruling in federal court that it was vague, overbroad and stifled student speech, including his Christian views, is continuing his battle with Temple University because the school has – three years after he completed it – declined to provide a grade on his master’s thesis, thus effectively denying him his degree.

The Alliance Defense Fund recently announced that the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had affirmed the district court victory by Christian DeJohn, who is a sergeant in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.

snip…..and here’s the however for Sgt Christian DeJohn

DeJohn’s career, however, is not advancing as he planned. He told W ND the judge’s order did not include instructions for Temple to grade his thesis, so more than three years after he completed it under school supervision, it still sits.

So even though Christian has won the war he still hasn’t won the battle. Temple University’s anti military crusade is a disgrace and all military personnel should be forewarned. Be sure to read the full story of Sgt Christian DeJohn’s assault by the anti-military liberal professors at Temple University.

Sgt Christian DeJohn

This is just such a great story. Danny Gilyeat and his children were the recipients earlier this year of an Extreme Makeover form ABC. Now, his friends took his old 1981 Ironhead Harley-Davidson bike and did an extreme makeover which included customization to accommodate his artificial leg. I didn’t even know this could be done. In some of the missions with Patriot Guard we’ve encountered disabled Iraq/Afghanistan Veterans who lament their inability to ‘ride’ now.

‘Extreme makeover’ recipient receives extreme chopper

There’s video at the link above.

Completely stripped and without any kind of body work, the bike was in rough shape. Furthermore, it had to be custom-fitted to accommodate Gilyeat’s artificial leg.

Miller approached mechanics at Bear’s Hiway Classics, a Kansas City motorcycle dealer, and asked for their help. Beginning in March, they donated their time and began their work that, among other things, included a stirrup for Gilyeat’s artificial leg and a hand-controlled gear shift and clutch in the shape of a grenade.

Last Sunday night a friend called to tell me to watch ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover because it was for a disabled Marine Corps Veteran. It was a repeat showing. It really was an emotional show to watch and Danny Gilyeat was such an inspiration. Just an awesome Marine!

Thanks to the Kansas City Star for a story. h/t Free Republic