Blue Jacket Park Honors Female Sailors

Statue of female sailor at Blue Jacket Park honors Navy legacy, women who served at sea

On Saturday, a bronze statue of a woman in a Navy uniform was unveiled at Blue Jacket Park in Baldwin Park, a community with more than 4,600 homes that sprouted after the 1,900-acre Naval Training Center was shuttered in the 1990s.

The statue, named the Blue Jacket Recruit — a Navy term for an enlisted sailor, honors the 188,000 female recruits whose graduation from the nation’s first coed boot camp proved they were not only as ready as men but also willing and able to serve their country.

read more from Orlando Sentinel here

Vietnam Veterans Remembered in Bushnell

Ceremony at Florida National Cemetery honors Vietnam War vets
WFLA News
Jeff Patterson
March 27, 2018

BUSHNELL, Fla. (WFLA) - Bruce Burnham is a historian and Vietnam combat veteran.

The Tampa native served as an MP in Vietnam in 1972 and 1973.

During his tour of duty, he earned the Bronze Star for bravery.

Tuesday, Burnham was the keynote speaker in a ceremony to honor others who served.

"That was a very, very difficult time for many of us who just wanted to come back and be normal again," said Burnham.

The gathering at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell was small.

Burnham believes it is because many Vietnam vets still shy away from ceremonies and talking about their service in public because of the way they were treated by protestors when they returned from the war.
read more here

America Honors Heroic Men and Woman on Medal of Honor Day

Woman? Yes! Dr. Mary Edwards Walker was presented with the Medal of Honor by President Andrew Jackson.

MEDAL OF HONOR CONTROVERSY

In November 1865, having left government service for good, Walker was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Andrew Johnson, even though she was a civilian who had never been a commissioned officer in military service.

That civilian status is why Walker's medal was rescinded in 1917, two years before she died -- along with 910 others. Walker refused to return the medal, though, and continued to wear it until she died two years later.

Sixty years after that, in 1977, President Jimmy Carter restored the honor in her name, thanks to efforts made by her family.

Commentary: Medal of Honor Day reminds us there’s a hero in everyone
Military Times
Ret. Army Maj. Drew Dix
March 24, 2018

Medal of Honor recipients Mike Fitzmaurice and Will Swenson, center, participate in a wreath-laying ceremony commemorating valor and sacrifice on National Medal of Honor Day at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery on March 25. 2017. (Francis Chung/Defense Department)

On a hilltop in Arlington National Cemetery, servicemen from our nation’s wars, whose names we don’t know but whose service and sacrifice we will always remember, have found their final resting place in the Tomb of the Unknowns.

It’s fitting that these courageous Americans, who represent all who have worn the cloth of our great country, received our nation’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor. In addition to these unknown heroes, for many of us Medal of Honor recipients, and for many veterans, Arlington National Cemetery evokes specific memories of incredible people we served with and long-ago battles we fought.

There are 71 living recipients of the Medal of Honor, and this week, 31 of my brothers are in our nation’s capital to commemorate National Medal of Honor Day, which falls every year on March 25. While they lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and render salutes as a lone bugler plays “Taps,” all of us, no matter where we are, will be paying our respects to the men and women who have served our great nation in uniform.

To a man, the privilege and burden of wearing the Medal of Honor is our opportunity to represent the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen who have served, fought, and in some cases sacrificed their lives to preserve America’s liberty. All 71 of us have witnessed firsthand the ravages of the battlefield.
read more here

US Women:Trailblazers long before their time

Today there is not going to be a lot of posts going up for a very good reason. A friend asked me to do a video on women trailblazers. I thought, OK, should be easy, since I tracked all this stuff for a long time. Plus, hey, I'm originally from New England, and growing up, we were actually taught history.

Needless to say, it turns out I am shocked by how much I forgot, and even more so by what I never knew.

This is a forgot...

Sybil Ludington became famous for her ride to warn the Patriot militia of the British coming, similar to that of Paul Revere, but Sybil was only 16 years old.

On the night of April 26, 1777, Colonel Henry Ludington, father of 12, veteran of the French-Indian War, and commander of the militia in Duchess County, New York, (just across the state line from Danbury, Connecticut) received a messenger to his house. The British had entered Danbury and found some American military stores, stolen some, destroyed others and drank the whiskey. Drunk, they began ransacking the town, burning and looting.

Col. Ludington's militia, some 400 men, was on furlough. Whether the colonel asked his oldest daughter or the 16-year-old bravely volunteered is unknown, but around 9 p.m., she set off in the rain to warn the men. discover more here

This is a never knew,

Cathay Williams (1844 – 1892), a.k.a. William Cathay, was the first known African American woman to enlist in the United States Army, and the only black woman documented to serve in the US army in the 19th century.

Born a slave in Independence, Missouri in 1844, Cathay worked as a house servant on a nearby plantation on the outskirts of Jefferson City. discover more here

The thing that keeps getting to me is that women have been fighting for this country all along. So why are they still treated as if they do not belong in the military?

Why is it that members of the military still act as if it was only the males responsible for our freedom?

Anyway, back to work on the video. Just wanted to share some of those thoughts. The more I work on this video, the more proud I am of being a woman in this country. Maybe if more young women would spend time learning about how we arrived at this place, in this time, they'd be even more encouraged to do whatever it is they want to do, no matter what people say.

Military Women: POW, MOH, heroes, nurses, spies and smugglers?

How much do you know about military women?
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 6, 2018

A friend asked me to do a video for an event honoring Women's History Month. I figured it would be easy, since it is one subject that I've been tracking for a very long time. What I didn't count on was the other parts of the stories I did not remember.

The number of female veterans over 2 million according to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Disabled American Veterans has a great report on what these women face when coming home from the same places the males were sent to.

Stunning how if a man and women are sitting together, both wearing a service hat, the male is thanked for his service, while folks just assume she must be wearing her's to support him.

Another stunner is how a woman can talk about having PTSD but people just think about military sexual assaults instead of what causes it most in males.  So here is a bit of history to actually honor females for their service.

Aside from Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, the first and only woman recipient of the Medal of Honor, actually twice. Since Congress took the official award from her, but she refused to give it back, and then President Carter officially gave it back to her, Walker's story is even more impressive!

Over and over again, there are more parts to be discovered of the women we think we know about. 

 Women in the Army

A willingness to assume new roles
"During the Civil War, women stepped into many nontraditional roles. Many women supported the war effort as nurses and aides, while others took a more upfront approach and secretly enlisted in the Army or served as spies and smugglers. Women were forced to adapt to the vast social changes affecting the nation, and their ability and willingness to assume these new roles helped shape the United States."

One of the first women to serve, had to be crossdressers.

"Deborah Sampson wore men’s clothes, served as a man, fought like a man and was wounded. After she died, her husband received 'widow’s pension.'"

Yes, you read that right. Her husband collected her pension as a "widow" instead of the other way around.

"Nancy Morgan Hart, did more than that. She dressed in men’s clothing and pretended to be a crazy man. She was a spy for the Patriots against British forces."

Still Margaret Corbin wore a dress as she helped her husband load the cannon. When he was killed in battle, she replaced him and fired the cannon. Congress awarded her pension in 1779 for her service and being a disabled veteran. It also made her the first servicewoman in the Army.

Fast forward to the Civil War and Dr. Mary Edwards Walker

WALKER, DR. MARY E.

Rank and organization: Contract Acting Assistant Surgeon (civilian), U. S. Army

Places and dates: Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861; Patent Office Hospital, Washington, D.C., October 1861; Chattanooga, Tenn., following Battle of Chickamauga, September 1863; Prisoner of War, April 10, 1864-August 12, 1864, Richmond, Va.; Battle of Atlanta, September 1864

Entered service at: Louisville, Ky.

Citation: Whereas it appears from official reports that Dr. Mary E. Walker, a graduate of medicine, "has rendered valuable service to the Government, and her efforts have been earnest and untiring in a variety of ways," and that she was assigned to duty and served as an assistant surgeon in charge of female prisoners at Louisville, Ky., upon the recommendation of Major-Generals Sherman and Thomas, and faithfully served as contract surgeon in the service of the United States, and has devoted herself with much patriotic zeal to the sick and wounded soldiers, both in the field and hospitals, to the detriment of her own health, and has also endured hardships as a prisoner of war four months in a Southern prison while acting as contract surgeon; and Whereas by reason of her not being a commissioned officer in the military service, a brevet or honorary rank cannot, under existing laws, be conferred upon her; and Whereas in the opinion of the President an honorable recognition of her services and sufferings should be made: It is ordered, That a testimonial thereof shall be hereby made and given to the said Dr. Mary E. Walker, and that the usual medal of honor for meritorious services be given her. Given under my hand in the city of Washington, D.C., this 11th day of November, A.D. 1865. Andrew Johnson, President (Medal rescinded 1917 along with 910 others, restored by President Carter 10 June 1977.)

Given under my hand in the city of Washington, D.C., this 11th day of November, A.D. 1865.

Yes, you read that right too! She was a POW. 

You can read more of their stories from Women in the Army Oh, no, I didn't forget about the other branches.

History of Women Marines

1953 - Staff Sergeant Barbara Olive Barnwell First female Marine to be awarded the Navy and Marine Corps medal for heroism for saving a fellow Marine from drowning in the Atlantic Ocean in 1952.

1967 - Master Sergeant Barbara Jean Dulinsky first woman Marine to serve in a combat zone in Vietnam. She was assigned to U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam combat operations center in Saigon. 

1973 - Colonel Mary E Bane, first female to become Commanding Officer of Headquarters and Service Battallion, Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton.

The Marines,

Margaret A. Brewer became the first female Marine general when she was promoted to brigadier general in 1978 and made the director of public affairs. Fifteen years later, in 1993, 2nd Lt. Sarah Deal became the first female Marine to be accepted into Naval aviation training. Five years later, in 1998, Carol A. Mutter became the first woman in any service branch to achieve three-star status when she was promoted to lieutenant general. Prior to the promotion, Mutter had been in command of the 3rd Force Service Support Group in Okinawa, the first woman to command a Fleet Marine Force unit at the flag level.

For the Navy

Loretta Walsh: First Woman to Enlist in NavyLoretta Perfectus Walsh was the first woman to enlist in the U.S. Navy (March 17, 1917) and the first woman to reach the rank of chief petty officer. This opportunity also made her the first woman to serve in a non-nursing capacity in any branch of the armed forces. 

Answering the call 1862 

In 1862, Sisters of the Holy Cross served aboard USS Red Rover, the Navy’s first hospital ship, joining a crew of 12 officers, 35 enlisted, and others supporting medical care. Red Rover remained the only hospital ship in the Navy until the Spanish-American War. 

Over 11,000 Navy nurses served at naval shore commands, on hospital ships, at field hospitals, in airplanes, and on 12 hospital ships. Lieutenant Ann Bernatitus, Navy Nurse Corps, escapes from the Philippines just before the Japanese invaded; she later becomes the first recipient of the Legion of Merit award. Eleven Navy Nurses were prisoners of war in the Philippines from 1941 to 1945; they received the Bronze Star for their heroism.  

And you can read more here

Women Trailblazers

• First African American Female Officers
• First Female Flag Officer: Rear Admiral Alene B. Duerk, NC, USN
• Making Dreams Come True
• Navy Women of Courage and Intelligence

Ships Named in Honor of Women

• Higbee (DD-806)
• Hopper (DDG-70)
• Mary Sears (T-AGS-65)
• Roosevelt (DDG-80)

Air Force

In 1948, President Truman signed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act, which allowed women to enlist directly in the military. That same year, the U.S. Air Force let the first female members into its ranks. The first recruit to the Women in the Air Force (known as WAF) was Esther Blake, who enlisted on the first day it was possible for women to do so—65 years ago today. The first commissioner of the WAF was Geraldine Pratt May, who was the first Air Force woman to become a colonel.

Today, the top-ranking woman in the Air Force is Lieutenant General Janet Wolfenbarger, the first female four-star general in Air Force history. According to the Air Force, women make up just 9.1 percent of the general officer ranks. There are only four female lieutenant generals, twelve major generals and eleven brigadier generals.

The American Legion has their first female National Commander, Denise Rohan, and she is an advocate for medical cannabis.

The Disabled American Veterans have their first female National Commander, Retired Army veteran Delphine Metcalf-Foster  and she was the first female to lead a national veterans group.

Vietnam Veteran General Richard Cavazos Passed Away

Army's first Hispanic four-star general, Kingsville native dies
Corpus Christi Caller-Times
Alexandria Rodriguez
October 30, 2017

The man who was raised by a cowhand on King Ranch and eventually became the United States Army's first Hispanic four-star general has died.

Richard Edward Cavazos, 88, died Sunday. He was living in the Army Residence Community in San Antonio. He is survived by his wife, Caroline, said Bill Fee, who served under Cavazos during the Vietnam War in 1967.

"The infantry men he led in Vietnam have been close to him ever since we got back from Vietnam, Fee said. "He's been a tremendous supporter of us ever since we got back. He's a remarkable gentleman."

The general also was the first Hispanic to attain the rank of brigadier general, according to biography.com. Cavazos spent most of his childhood on King Ranch with his father, a World World I veteran and foreman of the ranch's Santa Gertrudis division, the San Antonio Express-News reported in 2016.
read more here

Air Force celebrates its 70th birthday..."making it look easy"

On the Air Force’s 70th birthday, its chief uses the past to guide the future

Air Force Times

Stephen Losey

September 18, 2017

As the Air Force celebrates its 70th birthday, Goldfein is thinking not only about how far the service has come, but where it’s going next. After all, he said, when the old Army Air Corps emerged from World War II and became the modern Air Force, it was primarily a bomber and escort force.

Gen. Dave Goldfein, chief of staff of the Air Force, during an interview in his office at the Pentagon on August 23, 2017. (Alan Lessig/Staff)

Nearly the entire history of flight can be traced while circling Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein’s Pentagon office.

There’s a framed scrap of fabric from the original Wright Brothers flyer, not much bigger than a postage stamp, that was given to the first chief of staff, Carl Spaatz. Goldfein points out the bulky camera used to photograph another Wright plane during a 1908 demonstration for the War Department at Fort Myer, Virginia.

Then there’s the globe Hap Arnold used during World War II — with a gash above Alaska’s Aleutian Island chain that prompts Goldfein to wonder what frustrated Arnold that particular day — plus photographs of legendary aviators such as the Tuskegee Airmen, and photographs, a parachute and a Hershey bar from the Berlin Airlift.

“One of my favorite quotes from Hap Arnold is when he said, ‘The challenge with air power is we make it look too easy,’ ” Goldfein said.
read more here

The desperate fight at Monte Cassino and the veteran who remembers

Soldier who was there wants people to remember WWII battle of Monte Cassino

Pittsburg Post Gazette
Torsten Ove
August 27, 2017

Pearl Harbor. Midway. D-Day. The Battle of the Bulge. Iwo Jima.

The epic battles of World War II still resonate 70 years later.

Yet one of the costliest U.S. campaigns is barely remembered: The war in Italy and its linchpin, the desperate fight at Monte Cassino.

"You never hear anything about it," says Albert DeFazio. "It just boggles my mind. That's why I'm [ticked] off."

Mr. DeFazio is 92 and lives in Penn Hills.

He has two scars on his back, shrapnel wounds he suffered from a German shell burst at Monte Cassino in 1944. He earned the Bronze Star for actions under fire with the 36th Infantry Division and later came home suffering from shell shock — post-traumatic stress disorder in today's lingo — after more fighting on the way to Rome. He says he has symptoms of PTSD, all these decades later.

For years after the war, he rarely talked about his experiences in Italy. It’s a typical pattern among World War II veterans. His late brother Pat was shot in the neck at the Battle of the Bulge. The two brothers went home to live in the same house in Penn Hills, yet they never once talked to each other about what happened to them in the war.

"Never spoke a word," Mr. DeFazio says.

But Mr. DeFazio is talking now.
read more here

Repeating Facebook Non-Facts Makes You Look Stupid

Mark Twain wrote, "There are lies, damned lies and statistics." I wonder what he'd say about Facebook?

Brainy Quote

There are facts we talk about all the time and they are backed up to other sources. We know the truth but then find ourselves in a altered world where non-facts get all the attention. Then they keep wondering why nothing changes. 

We wonder when they'll get a clue so maybe they'll help find the best thing to do to actually make a difference in this world.

I gave up on them hearing us since we're "old" but there is much to be said about what comes with age. We have the wisdom to know the difference between what is truth and what is not.

Here's a start on what they are getting wrong and it spreads wide all the way up to POTUS who has been saying that we've been at war for 17 years in Afghanistan. 

FACT
NUMBER OF YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN
It has been almost 16 years of war in Afghanistan and not 17.

On September 11, 2001, we were attacked. In October of 2001, troops were sent to Afghanistan in response to it as War on Terror was declared by President Bush.

FACT
Rate of PTSD in Veterans

• Vietnam War: About 15 out of every 100 Vietnam Veterans (or 15%) were currently diagnosed with PTSD at the time of the most recent study in the late 1980s, the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS). It is estimated that about 30 out of every 100 (or 30%) of Vietnam Veterans have had PTSD in their lifetime.
• Gulf War (Desert Storm): About 12 out of every 100 Gulf War Veterans (or 12%) have PTSD in a given year.
• Operations Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Enduring Freedom (OEF): About 11-20 out of every 100 Veterans (or between 11-20%) who served in OIF or OEF have PTSD in a given year.

FACT
DEADLIEST YEAR 

Deadliest Year in Vietnam Claimed the lives of more troops than all years of Afghanistan and Iraq combined. 

1968

Bloodiest year of the war ends

The bloodiest year of the war comes to an end. At year’s end, 536,040 American servicemen were stationed in Vietnam, an increase of over 50,000 from 1967.
Estimates from Headquarters U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam indicated that 181,150 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese were killed during the year. However, Allied losses were also up: 27,915 South Vietnamese, 14,584 Americans (a 56 percent increase over 1967), and 979 South Koreans, Australians, New Zealanders, and Thais were reported killed during 1968. Since January 1961, more than 31,000 U.S. servicemen had been killed in Vietnam and over 200,000 U.S. personnel had been wounded.

According to ICasualties.org 2,403 US servicemembers lost their lives in Afghanistan, 4,523 lost their lives in Iraq since 2001.



FACT
LONGEST WAR
Afghanistan is not the longest war in US history. That would be Vietnam, however it depends on who is doing the counting. Reporters using chosen dates, or families using family members who lost their lives.

Vietnam War

1945 First American soldier killed in VietnamLt. Col. Peter Dewey, a U.S. Army officer with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Vietnam, is shot and killed in Saigon. Dewey was the head of a seven-man team sent to Vietnam to search for missing American pilots and to gather information on the situation in the country after the surrender of the Japanese.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall has,  The first American soldier killed in the Vietnam War was Air Force T-Sgt. Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr. He is listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having a casualty date of June 8, 1956.  

And Last,  The last American soldier killed in the Vietnam War was Kelton Rena Turner, an 18-year old Marine. He was killed in action on May 15, 1975, two weeks after the evacuation of Saigon, in what became known as the Mayaguez incident.Others list Gary L. Hall, Joseph N. Hargrove and Danny G. Marshall as the last to die in Vietnam. These three US Marines Corps veterans were mistakenly left behind on Koh Tang Island during the Mayaguez incident. They were last seen together but unfortunately to date, their fate is unknown. They are located on panel 1W, lines 130 - 131.

FACT
VA Suicide Report
It is not now, nor has it been "22 a day" or "20 a day" as the definitive number of veterans across the country committing suicide.

First study of Veterans committing suicide in 2012,  reported with the number of "22 a day" was from just 21 states using limited data taken from death certificates that indicated military service.

The follow up study released in 2016 used more data from more states as well as from the CDC. The fact is, not all states have military service on their death certificates. States like California and Illinois would not have been able to supply accurate data.

FACT
Suicide
Military suicide numbers are not in the numbers of veterans committing suicide. They are separated.

For charities out there refusing to help any veteran other than OEF and OIF, majority of veterans committing suicide are over the age of 50. (see above report link)

There is continued evidence of a high burden of suicide among middle-aged and older Veterans. In 2014, about 65 percent of all Veterans who died by suicide were age 50 or older. 

If you are among the Facebook users thinking you are doing some good sharing what you think are facts, please remember to check to see if you are sharing a "non fact" because people like me are all over the country sharing the real facts.

 

Beyond The Call Of Duty WWII Veterans "Titanic Sacrifices" and PTSD

Beyond the call of duty

The Augusta Chronicle
Editorial Staff 
August 19, 2017

“Many of the stories have such great impact that I would reread them again and again during the editing process even when I didn’t have to. These were not extraordinary people. They were ordinary folk who accomplished extraordinary things.”

A World War II veteran Gehle went to interview in a motel room had hung sheets on the wall. Some 70 years after imprisonment and torture by the Japanese, the veteran still wet his bed at night.

This is the Grand Canyon of awareness looming between generations. The younger may have little conception of the great struggle to defeat tyranny on two sides of the world and the titanic sacrifices made to do it. The older lived it.

We need to make sure members of the Greatest Generation lay down their often agonizing memories before they’re gone completely, so that present and future generations, like them, never forget.

Problem is, back in the days before we knew anything about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder – back when a general like George Patton might slap a “shell-shocked” soldier for supposedly being a coward – you didn’t talk out your trauma. You buried it with the honored fallen, came home and quietly tried to somehow integrate back into a civil society where the guy around the corner wasn’t out to get you and the customer walking in a restaurant wasn’t looking to shoot you.

read more here

Gene Hackman Out of Retirement for "We The Marines"

Raw Emotion, Gripping Visuals in New 'We, the Marines' Film

Military.com
by Hope Hodge Seck
28 Jul 2017 

These scenes are narrated with warmth, and often wry humor, by Gene Hackman, a Marine veteran who came out of retirement at age 87 to participate in the project.

The biggest challenge in filming a documentary about Marines for the giant screen wasn't getting the breathless aerial shots of troops jumping from the back of aircraft or rappelling from mountainsides.

It was learning to work with leathernecks and their capricious and unpredictable training schedules, said Brad Ohlund, director of photography for the film.

Last week, the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, Virginia, christened its new giant-screen Medal of Honor Theater with the debut of "We, the Marines," a 40-minute journey from boot camp to the Corps' most rigorous and dynamic training locations across the country.

Shot almost entirely digitally, the film is visually sumptuous and constantly entertaining, with wide vistas and up-close views of the dirt, sweat, tears and snot that go into the making of a Marine.

The film was the result of years of work and proved a daunting task, Ohlund told Military.com at its premiere Saturday.

read more here


We, The Marines - Official IMAX Trailer - UHD

Veterans Remember Forgotten War

Korean War not forgotten by veterans
Winona Daily News
Kilat Fitzgerald
3 hours ago

With the Korean War overshadowed by World War II beforehand, and the Vietnam War coming shortly after, many failed to see the Korean War's impact. People were sick of war, and the conflict on the small Asian peninsula faded from public memory.

WINONA -- Veterans of the Korean War recognized the 64th anniversary of the armistice that brought about the ceasefire on Thursday.

Often cited as the Forgotten War, the conflict still casts a long shadow over current international politics.

Winona native Neil Hinkley was among the first to be deployed when war broke out in late June 1950.

“We got right in the thick of it right from the start,” Hinkley said. He was among the first three divisions to be deployed at the outbreak of war.

Hinkley’s unit, the 10th Infantry Division, was en route to Japan from Alaska, halfway across the Pacific, when North Korea “started that ruckus” in late June of 1950.

The North Korean blitz across the border was supported by the Soviet Union with weaponry and equipment, pushing back United Nations forces into the Busan (pronounced Pusan) Perimeter.
read more here

How Korean War Started

The forgotten war

Vietnam Veteran Remembers "A Few Good Angels"

Death called more than a dozen times, but this soldier didn’t answer
WPRI 12 News
By Walt Buteau
Published: October 21, 2016

“I was 19 years old. I don’t believe a ring or a set of rosary beads are going to save my life. But my life was saved at least 12 times in Vietnam and twice at Camp Lejeune.” Michael Montigny

COVENTRY, R.I. (WPRI) — Even the author of “A Few Good Angels” didn’t initially believe the luck connected to how he survived more than a dozen brushes with death.

As the Vietnam War was erupting in 1966, Michael Montigny was a teenager in West Warwick, into baseball and hot rods.

But he would soon be in a Marine boot camp, face to face with a gunnery sergeant who let him know how dangerous it was to be the trigger behind a machine gun.

“He was right in my face,” Montigny recalled. “He says life expectancy of a machine gunner is 15 minutes, and I couldn’t swallow. I said, Oh my god.”

Before he found out just how accurate the sergeant was, Montigny was picked out of a crowd of Marines heading into Vietnam by a Marine who was going home.

“He fights his way through 200 of us, comes up to me and takes the ring off his finger,” Montigny said. “He puts it right in my face and says here. This brought me luck and protected me. It’s going to protect you.”
read more here

Survivors of Beirut Bombing Remember Marines Lost

33 years after Beirut bombing, a survivor remembers
WNCT News 9
By Elizabeth Tew
Published: October 21, 2016

CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (WNCT) – The 33rd anniversary of the 1983 Beirut bomb blast is this weekend and in Camp Lejeune it’s a date that hits close to home. Many of the bombing victims were deployed from Lejeune, including retired Marine Dan Joy, who survived the harrowing experience.

“We were sent to Lebanon as peacekeepers to assist the United Nations forces,” Joy said. “We became enemy combatants because different factions thought we were taking sides.”

Joy was a member of the 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment. Early on October 23, 1983, the battalion’s headquarters building was bombed.

“They built car bombs and drove one into our headquarters,” Joy said. “There was rubble and remains of our Marines and soldiers. Marines were just lifting concrete and using crow bars and trying to get to the voices.”

On Sunday, an observance will be held here at the Beirut Memorial in Jacksonville to those men.
read more here

Vietnam Veteran, Retired Lt. Col. James Walker, Discovers Roots Go Back to Civil War

Vietnam veteran finds ancestor who escaped slavery, joined Union Army
Decatur Daily News
By Evan Belanger Staff Writer
October 16, 2016

Retired Lt. Col. James Walker didn’t know his military heritage when he was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

But Walker, an Austin High School teacher who has a passion for history and has written six books, knows how to look back in time and find the stories that matter.

"If you don't know where you're going, you don't know where you've been," he said in a recent interview at Austin, where he is the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps instructor.

Walker served 11 months and 28 days in Vietnam and was well into his 24-year career with the Army before he ever heard the name Thomas Lane.

In fact, he was 39 when his elderly aunt casually mentioned an ancestor of his fought in “the war.” Unsure of which war she meant, he quickly ran through the list: the Korean War, World War II, World I, the Spanish-American War.

“Now I’m getting interested,” Walker recalled when his aunt confirmed it was the Civil War.

On Christmas Eve, Lane ran away from the plantation and walked the 25 miles to Pulaski, Tennessee, where he joined the 111th U.S. Colored Infantry for the Union Army.

Walker speculates today that his ancestor’s sale to a man named Green accounts for the name change in military records.

“When he joined the Union, his last name was Green,” he said. “After the war, you could pick your own name, so he went back to Lane, which was probably also a slave name, but it was his first.”
read more here

Vietnam Veteran Gives Living History Lesson in Worcester

Vietnam vets relive war for students with straight talk at park
Worcester Telegram
Brad Petrishen
October 7, 2016

“We tell them, ‘Your questions are our therapy,’” Mr. Polaski said as Friday’s crop of students – 170 eighth-graders from Lowell – pulled up in four buses. “All’s we do is hope somebody remembers it.”

WORCESTER – “What was it like to kill your first person?” the first student asked Phil Madaio as the morning sun shone on the chiseled slabs of stone that forge the state’s Vietnam memorial.

“Not good,” the Vietnam veteran replied in a deep, gravelly voice. “But you can’t think about that long or you’ll be laying there next to him.”

Grim truths abounded Friday as four veterans shared their experiences at Green Hill Park. The sessions are not always easy, but the men, part of a local group called Vietnam Veterans for the Community, know that while granite lasts forever, they will not.

“It’s living history,” Casey Polaski, 68, told a collection of students gathered in front of the memorial’s seminal structure, a ring of granite slabs bearing the names of the 1,547 dead or missing soldiers from Massachusetts.

Dedicated in 2002, the memorial this summer was approved for $200,000 in repairs and $50,000 in annual maintenance. Mr. Madaio, Mr. Polaski and their friends are always shocked at how many people don’t know it exists; they offer tours here often, speaking for men who cannot, and sharing a burden they will always carry.
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Marine Corps Reserve turned 100 years old

Hundreds gather to celebrate Marine Corps Reserve’s centennial
Stars and Stripes
August 30, 2016

The Marine Corps Reserve turned 100 years old Monday, and hundreds of active-duty, former and future Marines celebrated with a mass gathering in New York City’s Times Square.

“This gathering is a reminder to all Marines who ever served that you are still a member of the Corps.” Lt. Gen. Rex McMillian
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The Marine Corps Reserve turned 100 years old Monday, Aug. 29, 2016, and hundreds of active-duty, former and future Marines celebrated with a mass gathering in New York City’s Times Square.

Hispanic Pilot Flew With Tuskegee Airmen

Once Unknown, Story of World War II Latino Tuskegee Airman Uncovered 
Fox News
by Bryan Llenas
Nov 24, 2015

Among the legendary Tuskegee Airmen, America's first African-American military air squadron which heroically fought in World War II, was a little known about Hispanic pilot named Esteban Hotesse.

(Fox News photo)

Born in Moca, Dominican Republic, but a New Yorker since he was 4 years old, Hotesse served with the Tuskegee Airmen for more than three years before he died during a military exercise on July 8th, 1945. He was just 26.

As a black Dominican, Hotesse was a part of a squadron credited for single-handedly tearing down the military's segregation policies, while helping to change America's perception of African-Americans during the Jim Crow era.

He is believed to be the first Dominican soldier to serve on the well-known squadron. His historic role was recently discovered by a group of New York academics.
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Largo Florida Military Museum Has "Family Funfest" for Memorial Day?

There are certain words that should never go together. Homeless and Veterans at the top of my list, but then again, Memorial Day and "Fundfest" are just as bad.

Military museum distributes veteran photos, introduces new exhibits
Tampa Bay Online
Howard Altman
May 12, 2015

JAY CONNER/STAFF U.S. Rep David Jolly holds a reptile from Croc Encounters at the Armed Forces History Museum in Largo. They were there to unveil new exhibits at the museum. The critter was there to promote the upcoming 7th annual Memorial Day Family Funfest on May 25.

One by one, the veterans or in some cases family members came to the front of the indoor Quonset hut at the Armed Forces History Museum and accepted black and white portraits.

Tampa photographer Ryan Joseph, who took the portraits in November, said his project was designed to “expose my generation and the generations that come after me to these heroes who came before us.”

There were three copies of each portrait, said U.S. Rep. David Jolly, the keynote speaker at an event to present not just the photographs, but also eight new exhibits at the already packed Largo museum.

One copy of each will hang in the Quonset hut. One will hang in Jolly’s Washington office and the veterans, and in some case their families, will also receive copies. Since the portraits were taken, two of the veterans — Bill Allen, an Army sergeant who was taken prisoner during the Korean War and Irving Zeider, an Army corporal who earned two Purple Heart medals during World War II — have since died.

Their families picked up their portraits. Gary Littrell, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroics during the Vietnam War, said he doesn’t buy into the narrative of the woebegone Vietnam veteran. read more here

Cannon fire in Kissimmee

Museum of Military History

Military Appreciation Weekend

This tent was made out of ponchos snapped together

December 7 and 8 from 9am to 5pm

Brown's Farm 4901 Oren Brown Road, Kissimmee Florida

Great day for a celebration like this but it was just too hot to stay. Can't get use to being able to get a sunburn in December.

If you are in the area the Civil War Battle reenactment will be on Sunday.