Bill O'Reilly turns Nevada tragedy into political attack

Listen to the exchange between O'Reilly and Bob Beckel. When Beckel corrected O'Reilly, he changed the subject. The blog world is frantic this morning and putting up posts all over the place about what Harry Reid didn't say. Guess they can't believe their own ears.

Marine Corps furious with Harry Reid
Did Senator exploit tragic Marine accident in Nevada?
FOX News

Reid was pointing out that sequestration will hurt further training and that was just about it.

Sgt. William Stacey posthumously awarded Bronze Star

Fallen Camp Pendleton Marine Who Wrote Goodbye Letter To Be Awarded Bronze Star On Friday
Thursday, February 14, 2013
By Beth Ford Roth

The military will posthumously award fallen Marine Sgt. William Stacey the Bronze Star at a Camp Pendleton ceremony Friday, according to 1st Marine Public Affairs.

The award citation mentions Stacey's multiple acts of exemplary bravery between September 1, 2011 and January 31, 2012 as the reason for his commendation.

Stacey was killed by an improvised explosive device on January 31, 2012.

1st Marine Division Commanding General Maj. Gen. Ronald Bailey will present the Bronze Star Medal with combat distinguishing device to Stacey's family at the ceremony.

As Home Post previously reported, Stacey wrote a letter to his family to be read if he died while deployed to Afghanistan. On Memorial Day 2012, Marine General John Allen paid tribute to all fallen troops by reading that letter during a Memorial Day service in Kabul.
read more here
Fallen Marine Sgt. William Stacey's last letter, "it was all worth it"

Vietnam War Memorial Dedication At Camp Pendleton

Vietnam War Memorial Dedication At Camp Pendleton
Feb 5, 2013
The Marines and sailors of 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, honor their Marines and sailors who paid the ultimate price for freedom during the Vietnam War with a plaque dedication at Camp Pendleton, CA on November 15, 2012.

U.S. Marine Corps video by Staff Sgt. Philip Grondin

Marine re-enlists at grave of fallen Marine

Marine Keeps Re-enlistment Promise To Fallen Valley Marine
Rich Rodriguez
VISALIA, Calif.
(KMPH)

A Marine Sergeant re–enlisted in the service Saturday next to the grave of a fallen comrade in Visalia. It was a solemn and emotional ceremony as Jonathan Diehm kept a pact he made with Corporal Jared Verbeek.

"He touched a lot of people and inspired a lot of people." Sgt. Jonathan Diehm made a pact with Jared Verbeek when they first met at a Marine base in Missouri. Both planned careers in the Marine Corps and they promised to always attend each other's re–enlistment.

Corporal Verbeek was killed in the war in Afghanistan on June 21st, 2011.
read more here and watch video report

Camp Pendleton Fallen Marine Became Citizen Posthumously

Immigrant Marine in life, U.S. citizen in death
Marine Cpl. Roberto Cazarez is the 144th immigrant military service member to get citizenship posthumously since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
By Tony Perry
Los Angeles Times
December 7, 2012

CAMP PENDLETON — Marine Cpl. Roberto Cazarez applied for U.S. citizenship shortly before he deployed for combat duty in Afghanistan.

The expedited process allows enlistees who are permanent legal residents, like Cazarez was, to go to the head of the line for citizenship.

Cazarez's application was pending at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services when he was killed by a roadside bomb blast in March, just weeks before his battalion was due to return to Camp Pendleton.

On Thursday, in a short but emotional ceremony, Cazarez's widow was presented with a certificate indicating that her husband had been posthumously awarded his U.S. citizenship, retroactive to the day that he was killed.

Cazarez, who was 24 when he died, is the 144th military service member to be posthumously awarded citizenship since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — more than in any other period of U.S. combat, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
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Family honors fallen Marine with patriotic pickup

MILITARY: Family honors fallen Marine with patriotic pickup
North County Times
By Lance Cpl. JOSEPH SCANLAN
1st Marine Division

David Vinnedge, father of Lance Cpl. Phillip Vinnedge, an antitank missile gunner who served with Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, exits his 1951 Chevrolet 3100 pickup during a showcasing at Camp Pendleton on Sept. 13. Photo by Lance Cpl. Joseph Scanlan, U.S. Marine Corps

The parents of a fallen Marine displayed a restored vintage Chevrolet pickup truck, painted with a patriotic mural, for the Marines of 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment in a showcasing aboard Camp Pendleton on Sept. 13.

David and Julie Vinnedge dedicated the truck to their son, Phillip, and the 24 other Marines of the battalion who were killed in Afghanistan in 2010.

Lance Cpl. Phillip Vinnedge, son of Julie and David, was an antitank missile gunner who served with Weapons Company, 3rd Bn., 5th Marines. He joined the Marine Corps with his parents' consent when he was 17 years old, as he was determined to join the military immediately after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Julie said she hopes the truck will also bring attention to service members who are fighting to keep the nation safe.

"I want people to remember our military," said Julie. "I want people [who] see anyone in uniform to go up and tell them, 'Thank you.' Give them a hug and tell them you appreciate what they are willing to do."
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Slain Marine sensed insider attack was coming

Slain Marine sensed insider attack was coming, dad says
By David Ariosto
CNN
September 17, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Greg Buckley Jr. was gunned down by the forces he had been training
"He told me, if I have to stay here until November... I'm not going to come home," his dad said
The phenomenon is known as "green-on-blue" and is disturbingly more frequent in Afghanistan
Buckley warned superiors an insider attack could happen, his father says; CNN could not confirm

Oceanside, New York (CNN) -- Deployed to a volatile outpost in southern Afghanistan where U.S. Marines routinely face a mix of skirmishes and hidden explosives, Greg Buckley Jr. sensed that an attack was imminent.

And he knew that it would come from within.

The 21-year-old Marine was posted to Garmsir in Helmand Province, where he was training local security forces as part of NATO's planned withdrawal in 2014.

It was during a static-filled phone call to his father over the summer that the Long Island native mentioned a run-in he had with an Afghan trainee while on guard duty.
read more here

Another Afghan police officer kills 3 U.S. Marines

UPDATES August 12, 2012

Son of Santa Clara County judge killed in action in Afghanistan
By Tracey Kaplan
Mercury News
Posted:08/11/2012

Five years ago, a blast from an improvised explosive device slammed into Capt. Matt Manoukian. Even with a debilitating concussion, the Marine leader scrambled to the aid of one of his men, quickly applying a tourniquet to his leg that saved the soldier's life.

But Manoukian's bravery and resourcefulness couldn't save him this week from a surprise attack in southern Afghanistan by an insurgent disguised as an Afghan policeman.

Manoukian, the 29-year-old son of a Santa Clara County judge and state appellate court justice, and two other Marines were fatally shot after a pre-dawn meal and security meeting at a police checkpoint. It was the third attack on coalition forces by their Afghan counterparts in a week.

The meal took place before dawn because of Ramadan, the month in which Muslims abstain from food during daylight hours. Manoukian's father, Judge Socrates "Pete" Manoukian, said Friday that his son was observing the holiday out of profound respect for the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, whom he made a point to get to know during his four tours of duty.

"He was very into their culture," the judge said. "He managed to learn Arabic and worked on opening up a school and setting up a police station and got a courthouse running with some of his people. He even taught little kids to play baseball after one of our friends sent baseballs and bats.
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6 Americans killed in one day in Afghanistan
By Deb Riechmann
The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Aug 11, 2012

KABUL, Afghanistan — An Afghan working on an installation shared by Afghan and foreign forces shot to death three U.S. service members, raising to six the number of Americans killed by their Afghan partners in a single day, officials said Saturday.

The newly announced killings took place Friday, the same day that an Afghan policeman gunned down three U.S. Marines in a separate attack in southern Afghanistan.

Such assaults are on the rise and have heightened mistrust between foreign forces and the Afghan soldiers, police and others they are training and mentoring.

Four of the attacks occurred in the past week, raising questions about the safety of international trainers more than 10 years into the war. The U.S.-led coalition insists the attacks do not represent the overall security situation in Afghanistan and that they have not impeded ongoing work to hand over security to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.

Most of the attacks have been carried out by Afghan police and soldiers or militants wearing their uniforms. There have been 26 such attacks so far this year, resulting in 34 deaths, according to the U.S.-led coalition.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for both attacks on Friday in Helmand province — an area of the south where insurgents have wielded their greatest influence.
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Afghan police officer kills 3 U.S. Marines
By Kay Johnson
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan – An Afghan police officer shot and killed three U.S. Marines after sharing a meal with them before dawn Friday and then fled into the desolate darkness of southern Afghanistan, the third attack on coalition forces by their Afghan counterparts in a week.

Thirty-one coalition service members have now died this year at the hands of Afghan forces or insurgents disguised in Afghan uniforms, according to NATO— a dramatic rise from previous years.

The assaults have cast a shadow of fear and mistrust over U.S. efforts to train Afghan soldiers and police more than 10 years after the U.S.-led invasion to topple the Taliban's hardline Islamist regime for sheltering al-Qaeda's leadership. The attacks also raise further doubts about the quality of the Afghan forces taking over in many areas before most international troops leave the country in 2014.
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also

Afghanistan Sacks Its Security Chiefs: How Will That Affect U.S. Forces?

The parliamentary denoucement of the ministers of defense and the interior may be a sign of Afghan democracy at work but it makes the security situation much more volatile for U.S. forces preparing to withdraw

Camp Pendleton Marine to get Navy Cross posthumously

MILITARY: Camp Pendleton Marine to get Navy Cross posthumously
By TERI FIGUEROA
North County Times

A Camp Pendleton Marine will be posthumously awarded the Navy Cross ---- the nation's second-highest award for combat heroism ---- for his efforts, while under enemy fire, to save three injured service members in Afghanistan's Sangin province in 2010, a military spokesman said Thursday.

Sgt. Matthew T. Abbate's family will accept the award on his behalf at a ceremony at Camp Pendleton next week, said Capt. Justin Smith, spokesman for the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
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Marine's brain taken to examiner's house for family show and tell

We just assume the fallen servicemen and women are shown the utmost respect when they gave their lives for the sake of others. One of the biggest reasons we are shocked by a story like this is when we discover some people put in charge of taking care of them do not hold the same level of respect for them. He didn't think about the family of this Marine when he decided to let his own family have some fun with part of someone they loved.

Records: Navy Doc Let Family Handle Marine's Brain
PORTSMOUTH, Va.
July 14, 2012
(AP)

A Navy medical examiner took a Marine's brain out of a specimen jar and let his children handle the organ, records show.

Dr. Mark E. Shelly has been fined $2,500 by the Virginia Board of Medicine and fired from his part-time job with the state medical examiner's office. A spokeswoman said the Navy was also taking disciplinary action but has not yet decided what to do.

Shelley was taking the brain from a naval hospital in Camp Lejeune, N.C., to Portsmouth Naval Medical Center in Virginia when he stopped at his home in Virginia Beach. He let his children handle the brain and his wife took pictures.

In an April 3 letter to the Board of Medicine, Shelly acknowledged he used "extremely poor judgment," The Virginian-Pilot (http://bit.ly/OBInOr) reported Friday. He said he realized the impact his actions had on the family of the deceased and wrote that it was not his intention to be disrespectful to the Marine sergeant or his family.
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Marine laid to rest before holding newborn son

Detroit marine, new father will have his final salute today
By Gina Damron
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer
July 2, 2012

U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Steven Stevens II, left, with his wife Monique. Family photo

Nearly every day, U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Steven Stevens II would open his email and find pictures of his newborn son.

His wife sent photos and videos when baby Kairo started cooing, laughing and focusing on objects.

Kairo listened to Stevens’ voice across a phone line, and Stevens watched his son over Skype. The last time, when Stevens said his son’s name, Kairo reached toward the computer camera.

“That was like, the best feeling of his life,” Monique Stevens said of her husband, who told her: “Oh, he knows me. He understands me. He knows my voice.”

But Stevens, a 23-year-old stationed in Afghanistan, was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade last month and never got the chance to hold his now 3-month-old child, born eight days after he deployed.
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Fallen Marine Sgt. William Stacey's last letter, "it was all worth it"

Fallen Marine Sgt. William Stacey's last letter, "it was all worth it" became famous. Today, the LA Times brought back his story but it is a story that has been told one way or another since this country was born out of the actions of others willing to lay down their lives for it and their friends.

They live for their families but they die for their friends. It is something that we never seem to fully acknowledge. This country sends them as a whole to fight on foreign lands. Some believe in the reason they go, some don't, but when the men and women they serve with are in danger, they are ready to lay down their own lives to save them.

If we say they did it for their country, that is only part of the story. The most magnificent part of the story is how deep their love is.

Christ said, "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) but Stacey wrote how he was not just willing to do that, but to lay down his life for total strangers so they could have a better life.

They serve no matter who is president at the time or which party controls congress. They serve in good economic times as well as bad. They serve in times of peace just as they serve in times of war. They are less than 1% of the population today and veterans are about 8% with disabled veterans the percentage is even lower yet this country keeps finding excuses to not do the right thing for them. A beautiful letter home from a Marine gets the nation's attention proving we do care. So how is it we never seem to prove it all the way?

William C. Stacey dies at 23; Marine sergeant from Seattle
'If my life buys the safety of a child who will one day change the world, then I know that it was all worth it,' Marine Sgt. Will Stacey wrote in a final letter to his family.

By Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times July 1, 2012

At Marine Sgt. William Stacey’s burial at Arlington National Cemetery, Gunnery Sgt. Christopher Albright, center, speaks with Stacey’s loved ones. From left, parents Robert and Robin Stacey, sister Anna Stacey and girlfriend Kimmy Kirkwood. (Jacquelyn Martin, Associated Press / March 13, 2012)

Multi-star generals attended his Arlington National Cemetery funeral. His name adorns a fighter jet. His words echo in the halls of Congress.

Since Marine Sgt. William C. Stacey, age 23, was killed Jan. 31 on a remote hillside in Afghanistan's Helmand province, a letter he wrote to his family has gained much attention from politicians and the news media.

"It's quoted by liberals, conservatives and generals and people across the political spectrum. They use it in different ways. But I think Will would be proud of them all," said Robert Stacey, Will's father and interim dean at the University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences.

The letter was intended only for Stacey's family. It was opened shortly after two Marines appeared outside the Staceys' Seattle home as Will's sister, Anna, was heading to school. Will's mother, Robin, was already teaching her UW history class. Robert Stacey said that before a word was spoken, the family knew why the Marines were there.

"My death did not change the world; it may be tough for you to justify its meaning at all," wrote Will Stacey, who left behind college baseball at Shasta College in Redding to join the Marines in 2006. Military personnel often leave behind a final letter for their families in case they are killed.

"But there is a greater meaning," Stacey continued. "Perhaps there is still injustice in the world. But there will be a child who will live because men left the security they enjoyed in their home country to come to his. And this child will learn in the new schools that have been built.... He will grow into a fine man who will pursue every opportunity his heart could desire."

"He will have the gift of freedom, which I have enjoyed for so long. If my life buys the safety of a child who will one day change the world, then I know that it was all worth it."
read more here

Florida Marine has been killed in Afghanistan

Florida Marine killed in Afghanistan
The Associated Press
Published: Monday, Jun. 25, 2012

MIAMI -- Officials say a Florida Marine has been killed in Afghanistan.

The Department of Defense reports that Pfc. Steven P. Stevens II, 23, of Tallahassee, died Friday while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

Stevens was assigned to the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Did Sgt. Rafael Peralta's actions deserve MOH or not?

Sgt. Rafael Peralta’s Medal of Honor case shifts again
JUNE 22ND, 2012
POSTED BY DAN LAMOTHE

Sgt. Rafael Peralta’s case for the Medal of Honor has shifted again, according to a congressman who has pressed the Pentagon to review new evidence that he says shows the Marine chose to smother a grenade to save his buddies in Iraq.

Peralta, 25, died Nov. 15, 2004, in Fallujah. He was awarded the Navy Cross in 2008 for disregarding his own personal safety while already mortally wounded, pulling the grenade to his body, “absorbing the brunt of the blast and shielding fellow Marines only feet away,” according to his award citation.

Despite the extraordinary heroism, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates shot down Peralta’s case for the Medal of Honor in 2008, leading the Navy Department to authorize the Navy Cross instead.

Pentagon officials cited “contradictory evidence” on whether he had the cognitive ability to choose to cover the grenade despite already being mortally wounded in the head, outraging his family, fellow Marines and veterans.

The Navy Department acknowledged in March that it was reviewing new evidence — two videos recorded shortly after the blast by fellow Marines and a new pathology report — but declined to characterize the move as a “re-opening” of the case.
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Sgt. Daniel Angus' family await apology after Air Force mortuary scandal

Tampa Marine's arm sawed off to be "dressed" for funeral?
Family of slain Marine await apology after Air Force mortuary scandal
By Robbyn Mitchell
Times Staff Writer
In Print: Friday, June 1, 2012

TAMPA
Silently, the Angus family waited.

The mother, father and sister of Sgt. Daniel Angus bided seven months to see what punishment would come for the morticians and supervisors responsible for sawing off the arm of the Marine killed in Afghanistan.

Last week, a reporter — not the Pentagon — called the family with the news.

And they grieved for Daniel Angus yet a third time.

This time, they wanted to be heard.

"More than anything, we deserve an apology that doesn't start with 'I'm sorry, but …' " said his mother, Kathy Angus, in a news conference Thursday. "Everyone involved needs real consequences for what they did."

The Air Force said in a statement last week that Dover Air Force Base Port Mortuary supervisors Col. Robert Edmondson and Trevor Dean were punished for retaliating against employees who complained about the way servicemen and servicewomen's bodies were being handled.
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Hundreds gather to remember fallen heroes

Memorial Day 2012: Hundreds gather to remember fallen heroes
Posted: Thursday, May 31, 2012
Amy Binkley Assistant managing editor
Camp Lejeune Globe

Photo by AMY BINKLEY Memorial Day 2012 A woman visits her fallen service member at the Coastal Carolina State Veterans Cemetary in Jacksonville, N.C., Monday.

She sits alone on the grave, face downcast. Though her thoughts are unheard, the cries of her heart echo as loud as thunder.

She has loved, and she has lost.

Her solace is found among the stars and stripes marking the final resting place of hundreds of brave warriors and knowing she is not alone in her mourning or her memories.

Service members, both past and present, their families and members of the community gathered to remember their fallen brothers during the annual Memorial Day ceremony at the Coastal Carolina State Veterans Cemetery in Jacksonville, N.C., Monday.

“We all have our own reasons for coming today,” said Maj. Gen. Paul E. Lefebvre, commanding general of U.S. Marine Corps Special Operations Command.
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Wounded Times gave you the story first again

Why do I spend so many hours tracking stories across the country? Because the big boy media companies don't seem to care enough to do it. Wounded Times does it again! It took Associated Press all this time to pick up on this story but Wounded Times had it posted back in February. This happens all the time. Because veterans and the troops are all that is posted here, you get the stories first. How about you email them and ask them what took so long to report this.

Friday, February 3, 2012
Fallen Marine Sgt. William Stacey's last letter, "it was all worth it" This is what makes them so different from the rest of us. This last letter to Sgt. Stacey's family tells them that for all the talk for and against what he was doing, he believed he was making a difference in this world. He didn't serve to do anything other than do some good for someone. We can talk about everything else but in the end, this is what it all comes down to. They are willing to die for each other, surrender whatever comforts they have at home to travel around the world but once they do, most of the country moves on, forgetting about them.

Here's the AP story or you can click the link above for the way it was first reported.

Originally published May 28, 2012 at 5:45 AM | Page modified May 28, 2012 at 3:13 PM

Fallen Marine's letter marks Memorial Day in Kabul U.S. Marine Sgt. William Stacey was killed earlier this year by a homemade bomb in southern Afghanistan, a tragedy for which he prepared by writing a letter to his family explaining why he was fighting that was to be read in the event of his death.

By SEBASTIAN ABBOT
Associated Press
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Hundreds of Central Texans attend funeral for fallen Marine

Hundreds of Central Texans attend funeral for fallen Marine
Posted: May 19, 2012
by Adam Shear

CENTERVILLE - Hundreds of Central Texans made their way to Centerville Saturday morning to pay their respects to a Marine who was recently killed in the line of duty.

On May 11, Sgt. Wade Daniel Wilson, 22, was killed while conducting a combat operation for the Marines in Afghanistan. Sgt. Wilson was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, California.
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IRS seeks loan taxes from family of dead Marine

IRS seeks loan taxes from family of dead Marine
By Rick Maze
Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday May 1, 2012

A Tennessee lawmaker is trying to protect a Marine’s parents from having to pay taxes on student loans that were waived after the Marine’s death.

Lance Cpl. Andrew Carpenter died in 2011 in Germany from injuries suffered when he was shot by a sniper in Afghanistan. The 27-year-old, who had attended college before enlisting in the Marine Corps, died with outstanding student loans from a private lender. The lender waived the debt, but family was notified by the Department of Education that the waived debt was considered as income for tax purposes.

While the survivors never expected it, IRS policy holds that forgiven debt on credit cards, personal loans and student loans is treated as income, just like wages — and taxable, just like wages.

Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., a freshman lawmaker representing Carpenter’s hometown of Columbia, Tenn., is trying to help the Carpenter family and ensure similar situations don’t happen to other military families.

“It is simply not right to require the families of deceased veterans, having already sacrificed so greatly for our country, to pay more in taxes for loans that have already been forgiven,” DesJarlais said.
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Marines and family gather to 'Honor the Dead' at Camp Pendleton

Marines and family gather to 'Honor the Dead' at Camp Pendleton
April 12, 2012

His voice quivering, Marine Cpl. Joseph Orr spoke Thursday of the death of his friend and fellow scout-sniper in Afghanistan. “I broke down in tears when I heard about his death,” Orr said. “It hurt, and it’s painful. I love you, and I miss you, Ben.”

Lance Cpl. Benjamin Schmidt was one of five Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment killed during the battalion’s recent deployment to Helmand province, long a Taliban stronghold.

For 90 minutes, other Marines told a memorial gathering at Camp Pendleton of their love for the fallen: Schmidt; Staff Sgt. Stephen Dunning; Lance Cpl. Kenneth Cochran; Cpl. Jonluke Bateman; and Sgt. William Stacey.
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