Navajo Code Talker Thomas H. Begay wanted to be a gunner. Here's how he became a Code Talker
Arizona Republic
Shondiin Silversmith
Aug. 29, 2019
ONE OF THE LAST SURVIVING NAVAJO CODE TALKERS THOMAS H. BEGAY SHARES HIS STORY ABOUT HIS SERVICE IN THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS.
Ronald said his father suffers from a post-traumatic stress disorder and has flashbacks of his time during his service at Iwo Jima. "It's still with him," Ronald said. "He still thinks about it."
Navajo Code Talker Thomas H. Begay (right) before the start of the Navajo Nation Code Talkers Day parade on Aug. 14, 2018, at the Navajo Nation Fairgrounds in Window Rock.
(Photo: Mark Henle/The Republic)
About a month after the battle of Iwo Jima in 1945, Navajo Code Talker Thomas H. Begay was flown to Pearl Harbor for a week. He wasn't told why and he didn't ask questions.
He was taken to the United State Naval base on Pearl Harbor with fellow Navajo Code Talker Wilson H. Price. Once they arrived, they met a Navy lieutenant at the communication center. He led Begay and Price to a round building filled with various vaults.
The vaults were opened. From inside, wagons full of paper were brought to the Code Talkers.
"It was all the messages sent (and received) on Iwo Jima," he said.
Begay said the lieutenant kept an eye on them and took notes of the entire process. After hundreds of messages, they were told the purpose of their task: to determine if there were any mistakes in any of the messages the Navajo Code Talkers sent and received throughout the Iwo Jima operation.
"800 messages we went through," Begay said. "There were no mistakes."
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New immigration policy withholds automatic citizenship for some children of troops overseas, but not all
Military Times
By: Meghann Myers
August 28, 2019
“This country cannot place them in harm’s way and then punish their children and families by requiring them to undertake a years-long adjudication from an agency that is already over-tasked.” Shaun May of the Federal Practice Groups
The agency in charge of approving U.S. citizenship has updated its definition of residence as it relates to eligibility to become a citizen, according to a policy memo released Wednesday.
A change in immigration policy withholds automatic citizenship for some children of troops overseas. The new policy does not affect children born to U.S. citizens serving abroad. Those children are still entitled to automatic citizenship.. (MC3 A.J. Jones/Navy)
It might affect the foreign-born children of some service members when it takes effect on Oct. 29.
Children born to — or adopted by — some U.S. service members overseas are no longer automatically considered U.S. residents or entitled to U.S. citizenship, according to the policy.
“This policy update does not affect anyone who is born a U.S. citizen, period," Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigrant Services, said in a statement.
“This only affects children who were born outside the United States and were not U.S. citizens.”
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Disabled veteran helps nurse with confrontational patient
Your Sun
By ELAINE ALLEN-EMRICH
Community News Editor
Aug 27, 2019
ENGLEWOOD — A disabled veteran was deemed a hero after he helped tackle a man allegedly trying to harm a nurse.
Bill Tracy smiles recently with Englewood Community Hospital nurse Angie Bonakoske. Tracy received flowers and thank yous from nurses after he helped restrain a confrontational patient at the hospital. PHOTO PROVIDED
After undergoing a five-hour operation to save his right leg, 64-year-old Bill Tracy was recovering last week at Englewood Community Hospital when he heard a nurse screaming.
“I was on bed rest and attached to an IV and have two stents, but heard a ruckus going on near my room, I got up and went toward the nurse who was screaming,” said Tracy, a retired Army Paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne.
“It looked like this man was coming off of some kind of drugs. I came up behind him. I didn’t know he hit her. I helped pin him down until Tess (the nurse) could call the head nurse Cindy and security came too. Tess wasn’t hurt, just shaken up a bit.”
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Veteran carries fellow Marine to Utah mountain summit: 'We're all a band of brothers'
FOX News
By David Montanaro
August 27, 2019
Phil Casper wrote, "They sought no special attention. The disabled vet said he weighed 135 lbs. They were committed to reach the summit. Having just exhausted myself to reach the summit with less than 5 lbs on my back, it was hard to fathom the drive that the pair possessed to achieve their goal. To have arrived where I met them was already an incredible accomplishment. It was a powerful and inspiring experience to see them on their way."
When it comes to the U.S. Marines, one of their core beliefs is to leave no man behind.
That motto was on full display last week when retired Marine Sgt. John Nelson was caught on video carrying his friend and fellow Marine, Staff Sgt. Jonathon Blank, to the summit of Utah's Mount Timpanogos.
Blank lost his legs in an explosion in Afghanistan in 2010, with Nelson nearby when the blast occurred. The two, who served together on long-range reconnaissance missions, joined "Fox & Friends" Tuesday to detail the inspirational journey, which spanned 14 miles and 4,500 feet of elevation.
The sight of Nelson carrying Blank, who weighs about 135 pounds, on his back left two fellow hikers in awe and one shared the video on Facebook.
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Did Department of Veterans Affairs Head Lie to Veterans?
It appears that the Secretary of the VA does not know the history of the VA or he would not have tried to blame Obama for religious groups being shut out of the VA.
I went to Walter Reed as a Chaplain and was not allowed to give certain items to the wounded. I handed them over to Chaplain Services and they gave the gifts away for me.
The practice started before President Obama got into office.
But this issue had nothing to do with the Obama administration, Snopes.com found.
The VA chapel in Iron Mountain had been found to be in noncompliance with Spiritual and Pastoral Procedures that were established by the Department of Veterans Affairs and most recently revised in July 2008, six months before Obama became president.
Those procedures require chapels at VA facilities be maintained as “religiously neutral” whenever they are not being used by chaplains for services associated with a particular faith: The rules state that no permanent religious symbols are to be incorporated in the construction or renovation of chapels.
But this is the headline from The Washington Times and shows what happens when a news source does not care if something is true or not.
VA secretary rejects Obama religious expression rules: 'They did not know the makeup of the force'
Robert Wilkie, the soft-spoken and managerial-minded secretary of Veterans Affairs, went public in a big way this summer when he said he refused to be “bullied” by a federal lawsuit claiming a Bible on display at a New Hampshire VA hospital violated the separation of church and state.
In an interview with The Washington Times in his office at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Mr. Wilkie said displaying a Bible in a VA hospital is a matter of liberty and that the Obama administration erred in trying to eliminate religious symbols from the veterans health care system.
Not so much on reliable reporting on that one!
