July 04, 2008
Join Us To Celebrate the United States of America's 232nd Birthday
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Independence Day is a uniquely American holiday, celebrating not only the formation of a new country through the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, but the birth of a new culture as well.
Across America, military and civilian families and individuals alike will typically mark the day with picnics and cookouts celebrating American cuisine, singing patriotic songs and telling stories - perhaps even playing a pick-up baseball game - before bringing the day to a close by watching the spectacular flashes and flares of fireworks.
We owe the freedom we have to do this to our Veterans, our troops today and to our Founding Fathers. At Theodore's World blog we celebrate and thank our Veterans and troops every day. And today we give ithem a special thank you from all our hearts!!
Martina McBride - God Bless America
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The fireworks display in Washington D.C. is the backdrop lighting Arlington National Cemetery.
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President Bush Attends Ceremonial Groundbreaking of National Military Medical Center
National Naval Medical Center
Bethesda, Maryland
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Deputy Secretary England, for that generous introduction. I am so honored to be here at Bethesda National Naval Medical Center. This is often called the "President's Hospital." The reason why is this is where the President gets medical care. But I'm relieved today not to be on the treadmill, weighing in and getting a blood test. (Laughte from crowdr.) I also will tell you that the care that the President gets here is extraordinary.
I am so excited to be here for what is a grand occasion. This is a big deal, the breaking ground of a new joint medical facility for the men and women of our Armed Forces. Thank you all for joining us.
In a few years the current campus at Walter Reed will close, and many of its services will be relocated to the new complex here on the grounds at Bethesda. The two hospitals will be merged into one central campus, which will be called the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. At this new center, wounds will be healed, medical knowledge will be advanced, lives will be rebuilt. And those who wear our nation's uniform will be reminded that they have the enduring gratitude of the American people. I thank all who serve Walter Reed and Bethesda. I love being with the healers and caregivers, and incredibly compassionate people who makes our current facility successful and will make this new center a great success.
This morning, we gather in a place that was chosen by another President to be the site of a world-class naval hospital. When President Franklin Roosevelt dedicated Bethesda in the early years of World War II, he placed this facility on the front lines of what he called the "battle against disease, disability and death." The military "surgeons and nurses, scientists and technicians," he said, "are anonymous heroes of this war."
More than six decades later, our nation is engaged in a very different battle for our freedom. Yet our success still relies on these "anonymous heroes" -- the healers who care for the troops, those troops who keep the American people safe. In this new war, giving our troops the care they deserve requires cutting-edge medical facilities. And that is what this new medical center will provide.
Our troops and their families will no longer have to travel between Bethesda and Walter Reed to see multiple specialists. The new complex will also benefit from the good work of the Dole-Shalala Wounded Warriors Commission, which has issued recommendations for modernizing and improving our military health care system. Those recommendations will provide a strong foundation for effective, accountable care here at the new Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Major Walter Reed was the Army doctor who found that Yellow Fever is transmitted by mosquitoes -- a discovery that has saved countless lives. The new institution bearing his name will continue his legacy of lifesaving research.
This new medical center will be a place of compassion. At Bethesda and Walter Reed, volunteers organize holiday celebration, poker nights and field trips. They distribute care packages from thousands of Americans who want to show their gratitude for our troops. Recently, schoolchildren from New York made pillows for soldiers at Walter Reed, and sent letters along with the gifts. The children wrote: "You are everyone's hero." "Thank you for fighting for our freedom." At this new center, the Americans who fight for our freedom will get the compassion and support they deserve.
This new medical center will be a place of courage. Our wounded warriors show that while the human body is fragile, the human spirit is strong. Anybody who has met the wounded at Walter Reed and Bethesda cannot help but be incredibly impressed by the courage and sacrifice of our troops.
Recently, I saw this strength in a young Air Force Staff Sergeant named Scott Lilley. Scott was serving in Iraq when an IED left him with a severe brain injury. I think it was last 4th of July that you came to the White House. Yes, I was one who felt like this guy had no chance. And yet, he -- the doctors here used state-of-the-art technology and aggressive treatment to get Scott better. Their perseverance paid off. And so has his. I welcomed he and his mom and dad to the Oval Office the other day. He was more eloquent than I was, which isn't all that hard. (Laughter from crowd .) He drives a car, he goes to baseball games, he loves to joke.
His doctor calls Scott's recovery "miraculous." And thanks to the extraordinary care he received at Bethesda, as well his own extraordinary resolve, he is now back on active duty in the Air Force. And we are glad you're here.
The greatest privilege of serving as President is to be the Commander-in-Chief of such an extraordinary group of men and women who wear our nation's uniform. And I'm pleased to help start construction on the new hospital that will continue to provide the excellent care our troops deserve. It is fitting that this new facility be built in a place called Bethesda, which draws its name from the Biblical pool of healing. It is there that a lame man was made to walk, and was dispatched with the words: "Behold, thou art made whole."
I pray that this will be the site of many miracles of healing -- where the lame will walk again, where broken bodies will be made whole, and where you'll always know that you're in our prayers and in the hearts of the American people.
May God bless you, and may God continue to bless our country.
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President Bush talks with USMC Pfc. Charles Cozart of Arizona City, Ariz., Thursday, July 3, 2008, after awarding Cozart with a Purple Heart medal and citation Thursday, July 3, 2008 at the National Naval Medical Center. in Bethesda, Md. Joining the ceremony, background, are his father and mother, Kevin and Sharon Cozart, and his grandparents, Arthur and Betty Cozart.
President Bush with Army Staff Sgt. John Borders, left, and Marine Capt. Ray Baronie
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More Than 1,100 Troops in Iraq to Re-enlist in Independence Day Ceremony
More than 1,100 servicemembers stationed in Iraq will celebrate the nation’s birthday tomorrow by re-enlisting, the senior enlisted leader for Multinational Force Iraq said today.
Army Command Sgt. Maj. Marvin L. Hill said 1,157 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines will re-enlist at the Al Faw Palace at Camp Victory, in Baghdad.
This may be the largest re-enlistment ceremony since the all-volunteer force began in 1973, Hill said via phone from Baghdad.
This is becoming an annual blockbuster event for the command. Last year, 588 servicemembers re-enlisted.
“We are extremely proud of the accomplishments we have made in security on the ground as well as proud of all of our great warriors for the work they are doing since they arrived in theater,” Hill said. “We recognize the sacrifices they make and the sacrifices their families and communities make as they serve in Iraq.”
These servicemembers know the cost of war and they are still re-enlisting, Hill said. Some serve in “the most austere conditions -- meaning they are in patrol bases and combat outposts,” he noted. Some of the re-enlisting servicemembers are in places where the troops “hot-bunk it” -- that is, they take turns using limited sleeping space -- and burn human waste because they lack plumbing. Others are based in more comfortable surroundings.
The vast majority of the servicemembers tell Hill and others that they are re-enlisting because “they are doing what they joined the military to do,” he said.
“If they joined to be a rifleman, they’re doing it in combat,” the sergeant major said. “If they joined to fix helicopters, they’re doing it and doing it in combat.”
Often in years past, he said, some warriors probably felt they weren’t doing what they joined the military to do, he said.
“Now, since we’ve been fighting this global war on terrorism … these warriors are doing what they joined to do,” he explained. “They can see the fruit of their labor and see the fruit of the sacrifices of those who have gone before them. It makes them feel good about what they are doing.”
The ceremony will be broadcast on the Pentagon Channel, Hill said. Multinational Force Iraq Commander Army Gen. David H. Petraeus will preside. Hill and Petraeus will speak at the ceremony, then Petraeus will administer the oath of enlistment.
A 50-gun salute will honor of the nation’s birthday, and then all will sing “God Bless America.” The ceremony will end with a medley of service songs.
All components of the military are represented in the ceremony. Officials said 738 active-duty soldiers, 188 National Guard soldiers, and 122 Army Reserve soldiers are re-enlisting, along with 54 Marines, 39 sailors and 16 airmen.
Soldiers in Iraq Give Reasons for Re-enlisting
“I knew I was going to stay. I had already made up my mind about four or five years ago,” said Army Staff Sgt. Dimas Estrada, an air and missile defense operations sergeant for Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 10th Mountain Division.For Estrada, the chance to re-enlist while serving here was a significant event. He comes from a long line of Army veterans, but his father, who served in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm, had also re-enlisted here.
“I was going to re-enlist when I got back,” said Estrada, a Phoenix native, stationed at Fort Drum, N.Y. This is Estrada’s fourth time taking the enlistment oath, having already served 12 years.
With only three years of service thus far, Army Spc. Jeremy Giddings, of Watertown, N.Y., also had an important decision ahead of him.
“I’ve been considering re-enlisting for at least the past year,” said Giddings, a member of a battalion security detail for Headquarters and Support Company, Division Special Troops Battalion. “I realized I wanted to stay in and make a career out of it. Besides, you can’t beat the benefits,” he said with a smile.
Those benefits come with the possibility of deploying again, but Giddings said that had no effect on his decision.
“I expect at least two or three more after this,” he calmly said.
For Estrada, the possibility of future deployments was something he took into account.
“I had to really think about it at first,” he said. “I know I’m going to deploy again, but I don’t have much time left [until retirement]. It’s a good thing for my kids. My family, after all, is secure -- not just financially. I feel that my family is safer with me being in the military,” he added, mentioning the presence of military police at Fort Drum, where his family lives.
Soldiers have many reasons for re-enlisting and these reasons often differ whether they’re in the United States or in Iraq. But Giddings said his decision to re-enlist would have had the same outcome either way.
“This is just one of many [re-enlistments] to come,” he said, making it clear that no matter where he hangs his hat at night, he’s staying in the Army.
About 1,200 soldiers are re-enlisting in a mass ceremony at Al Faw Palace tomorrow, with Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, swearing them in for their next term.
Posted by Wild Thing at 04:55 AM | Comments (14)
June 15, 2008
Happy Fathers Day
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Marine, Soldier, Deployments - Dad Through It All
By 1st Lt. George Fowler
1123rd Transportation Company, 1/152nd Cavalry Regiment, 1st Sustainment Brigade
CAMP TAJI, Iraq – Alone with his thoughts, Staff Sgt. Andy Graves, a Paragould, Ark., native, sits quietly in the “Snack Shack” during his guard shift reminiscing. Presently Graves is a squad leader for the 1123rd Transportation Company, an Arkansas National Guard unit, 1/152nd Cavalry Regiment, an Indiana National Guard unit, 1st Sustainment Brigade, in support of Multi-National Division-Baghdad,
His eyes did not always reflect a digital pattern. His military career dates back to 1995, when he enlisted in the Marine Corps out of high school. Deciding to jump behind the wheel, he enlisted as motor transportation operator and enjoyed life at his first duty station in Okinawa, Japan. While there, he went to Norway twice for cold-weather survival training and to Estonia once for the Baltic Challenge until bidding farewell to the Marines in 1999.
“The Marines were the best time of my life,” he recalls.
Despite leaving the Corps, Graves could not put serving his country behind him. A couple months later he enlisted in the Arkansas Army National Guard under the 875th Combat Engineers in Little Rock, Ark. He attended the engineering advanced individual training in 2000 and, ironically, admitted he joined the guard because, “(well) they never go anywhere.”
In February of 2003, Graves was pulled out of the 875th with only a day’s notice to report to the 1123rd Transportation Company.
“They never go anywhere,” consequently landed him in Iraq twice while assigned to the 1123rd Transportation Company.
He spent from April 2003 until April 2004 in Iraq running transportation missions and instead of returning to the engineers he remained with the 1123rd; where he was activated to deploy with the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team in 2007. When asked about both deployments, Graves calmly replies, “It’s just another deployment.”
Yet through the years, deployments, and long training exercises, Graves has the support any Soldier should from his loving wife, Chasity, and his three daughters, Sydney, Madeline, and Adrian. Despite the “Army” way of life his family has become accustomed to, he was able to be home for the birth of his youngest daughter.
“He’s not only my dad, he’s my hero,” says Sydney, the youngest of three girls.
When not serving his country, Graves’ enjoys spending some good old fashioned quality family time camping and boating back in Arkansas. He already has plans in the works upon his return in January.
“The thing I miss most during this deployment are my wife and my kids,” concludes Graves.
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Susan D. Tyree, of Brooklyn, Ark., and daughter of Sgt. 1st Class Michael Mizell, a Bay, Ark., native, shows off her patriotic support at her graduation from Arkansas State University here May 10. Mizell is assigned to the 1123rd Transportation Company, 1st Battalion, 152nd Calvary Regiment, 1st Sustainment Brigade, in support of Multi-National Division- Baghdad, as a platoon sergeant.
Wild Thing's comment........
Happy Father's Day to all of you that are Dad's!
As we celebrate our Fathers on this Father’s Day, please take a moment to say a prayer of thanks to all our “fathers” presently deployed.
And let's also remember all those children of the fallen who feel the pain of that loss particularly painful today. To them, I offer my most sincere gratitude and prayers.
God Bless all our fathers in harms way or away from home as they serve our country. Thank you for all you have sacrificed.
Posted by Wild Thing at 03:55 AM | Comments (8)
June 14, 2008
Flag Day
The pride, the courage and the glory
That binds us to the Stars and Stripes!
Flag Day and National Flag Week, 2008
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America
The White House
The American flag has been our national symbol for 231 years, and it remains a beacon of freedom wherever it is flown. Since the Second Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as our flag in 1777, it has stood for freedom, justice, and the resolve of our Nation.
When Francis Scott Key saw the American flag flying over Fort McHenry in 1814, he believed that liberty would triumph. The flag that inspired Key to write our National Anthem still energizes and emboldens the American spirit today. As our Nation faces the challenges of a new era, Old Glory reminds us that liberty can prevail over oppression.
Since the first days of our Republic, Americans have flown the flag to show their pride and appreciation for the freedoms they enjoy in this great Nation. Every day, Americans pledge their allegiance to the flag of the United States, and our troops carry it before them as they defend the liberties for which it stands.
On Flag Day and during National Flag Week, we remember those in uniform whose courage and sacrifice inspire us here at home. We also remember the rich history of one of our oldest national symbols and reflect on our duty to carry our heritage of freedom into the future.
To commemorate the adoption of our flag, the Congress, by joint resolution approved August 3, 1949, as amended (63 Stat. 492), designated June 14 of each year as "Flag Day" and requested that the President issue an annual proclamation calling for its observance and for the display of the flag of the United States on all Federal Government buildings. The Congress also requested, by joint resolution approved June 9, 1966, as amended (80 Stat. 194), that the President issue annually a proclamation designating the week in which June 14 occurs as "National Flag Week" and calling upon all citizens of the United States to display the flag during that week.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim June 14, 2008, as Flag Day and the week beginning June 8, 2008, as National Flag Week. I direct the appropriate officials to display the flag on all Federal Government buildings during that week, and I urge all Americans to observe Flag Day and National Flag Week by flying the Stars and Stripes from their homes and other appropriate places. I also call upon the people of the United States to observe with pride and all due ceremony those days from Flag Day through Independence Day, also set aside by the Congress (89 Stat. 211), as a time to honor America, to celebrate our heritage in public gatherings and activities, and to publicly recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this sixth day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-second.
GEORGE W. BUSH
Red Skelton's "Pledge of Allegiance" was first introduced on the Red Skelton Show on January 14, 1969. It has since been twice read into the congressional record of The United States and has received numerous awards.
Posted by Wild Thing at 03:55 AM | Comments (12)
U.S. Army Established ~ Thank You from a Grateful Nation
Two hundred and thirty-three years ago, the United States Army was established to defend our Nation. From the Revolutionary War to the Global War on Terror, our Soldiers remain Army Strong with a deep commitment to our core values and beliefs. This 233rd birthday commemorates America’s Army – Soldiers, Families and Civilians – who are achieving a level of excellence that is truly Army Strong both here and abroad. Their willingness to sacrifice to build a better future for others and to preserve our way of life is without a doubt, the Strength of our Nation.
"Call to Duty -- Boots on the Ground -- Army Strong"
Since its birth on 14 June 1775—over a year before the Declaration of Independence—the United States Army has played a vital role in the growth and development of our Nation. Soldiers have fought more than 10 wars, from the American Revolution through the Cold War, the Gulf War, to the current War on Terrorism. This 233rd Birthday is a recognition of The Army's history, traditions, and service to the Nation, a Call To Duty, 233 Years of Service to Our Nation.
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Do I Make You Proud by Taylor Hicks
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As part of a Secretary of the Army-directed initiative to include Army children in the service's 233rd birthday celebration, Army Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command's Child Youth Services developed a new book titled "Happy Birthday U.S. Army!"
"We wanted to highlight for young children the importance of what their parents are doing in the Army, the richness of Army history, and their part in this huge wonderful organization," she said. "And who else loves a birthday and birthday cake as much as children? So why not have a celebration of the Army's birthday that includes the total Army family? That's what this is all about."
Youth at Fort Myer, Va., near the Pentagon, will be among the first to receive copies of the free book, June 9. It is then that Secretary of the Army, Pete Geren, is scheduled to read the book to children gathered at the installation's Child Development Center. Following the reading, children will be given a copy of the book to take home.
This is so cool. CLICK this LINK and then click on corner of page of book. It is so well done. It is a Happy Birthday US Army book.
Posted by Wild Thing at 03:50 AM | Comments (8)
June 06, 2008
D-Day June 6th 1944 Video
"This is a documentary I made about D-Day for my 8th grade school project."
This is an excellent video of D-Day and very well done. - Wild Thing
Posted by Wild Thing at 07:04 PM | Comments (7)
D-Day ~ We Will Never Forget
D-Day is June 6, 1944 — the day on which the Invasion of Normandy began — commencing the Western Allied effort to liberate mainland Europe from Nazi occupation during World War II. However, many other invasions and operations as well had a designated D-Day, both before and after that operation.
It was on 6th June 1944 that Operation Overlord - the long anticipated Allied invasion of Nazi-held Europe - went into action. What came to be known as the 'D-day landings'.
On the French beaches and in those hedgerows, many making the ultimate sacrifice. Over two thousand Americans, British, Canadians, and Australians died that first day, trading their lives for a single ambition...so we could live free.
The allied commander of the D-Day invasion, Gen Dwight D Eisenhower gives the order of the Day.
"Full victory - nothing else" to paratroopers in England, just before they board their airplanes to participate in the first assault in the invasion of the continent of Europe.
….”In some sectors the area was so heavily occupied by the Germans the paratroopers were fired upon while in the plane, in decent, and after landing... Many men were wounded or killed during one phase or another... The illumination created by fires on the ground was a death sentence if you were caught in an open field... This great confusion created by the troopers, moving in all directions, completely baffled the Germans in that they could not establish how many allied paratroopers had landed, or determine where our front line was. The fact that we were scattered over many miles, (mistakenly,) became advantageous to our mission..”
The first wave of assault troops of the 29th Infantry Division, it was four rifle companies landing on a hostile shore at H-hour, D-Day - 6:30 a.m., on June 6, 1944
The long-awaited liberation of France was underway. After long months in England, National Guardsmen from Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia found themselves in the vanguard of the Allied attack. In those early hours on the fire-swept beach the 116th Infantry Combat Team, the old Stonewall Brigade of Virginia, clawed its way through Les Moulins draw toward its objective, Vierville-sur-Mer. It was during the movement from Les Moulins that the battered but gallant 2d Battalion broke loose from the beach, clambered over the embankment, and a small party, led by the battalion commander, fought its way to a farmhouse, which became its first Command Post in France.
The 116th suffered more than 800 casualties this day - a day that will long be remembered as the beginning of the Allies' "Great Crusade" to rekindle the lamp of liberty and freedom on the continent of Europe. They were part of the part of the National Guard
"Members of an American landing party lend helping hands to other members of their organization whose landing craft was sunk be enemy action of the coast of France. These survivors reached Utah Beach, near Cherbourg, by using a life raft".
General Cota was second in command of the 29th Infantry Division. He had little faith in the accuracy of air and naval bombardment, thought it would do little good, and had wanted to make the landing under cover of darkness.
Cota landed at 0730 with the main command group of the 116th, Company K. Several in his LCVP were killed immediately as the ramp went down. When Cota got to the sea wall he made an immediate and critical command decision. He saw at once that the plan to go up the draws was obsolete. It simply could not be done. Nor could the men stay where they were. They had to get over the shingle, get through the heavily mined swamp, and climb the bluff to drive the Germans from their trenches and take the draws from the inland side.
Lieutenant Shea described Cota's actions:
"Exposing himself to enemy fire, General Cota went over the seawall giving encouragement, directions, and orders to those about him, personally supervised the placing of a BAR, and brought fire to bear on some of the enemy positions on the bluff that faced them. Finding a belt of barbed wire inside the seawall, General Cota personally supervised placing a bangalore torpedo for blowing the wire and was one of the first three men to go through the wire. At the head of a mixed column of troops he threaded his way to the foot of the high ground beyond the beach and started the troops up the high ground where they could bring effective fire to bear on the enemy positions."
Although the lead elements of the assault had been on the beach for almost an hour, none had progressed farther than the seawall. Most were clustered under the wall, pinned down by machine-gun fire. The beach was jammed with dead and wounded. General Cota had landed to fine a completely stalled attack. He went to work immediately.
Once on the beach, General Cota did move from group to group, encouraging the men to begin to move.
"Don't die on the beaches, die up on the bluff if you have to die, but get off the beaches or you're sure to die."
Cota found Schneider at his CP. Cota remained standing, even with the German firing; Schneider also stood up to converse. One witness remembers Cota saying to Schneider,"We're counting on your rangers to lead the way."
Father Joe Lacy
Father Lacy was described by one of the Rangers as a "small, old, fat Irishman." But there he was, on the beach that first terrible morning, tending to the wounded.
The Rangers had insisted that he would never be able to keep up with them in combat. They were finely tuned and in great physical shape, he was not. But he had insisted in coming along. On the transport on the night of June 5-6, he told the others:
"When you land on the beach and you get in there, I don't want to see anybody kneeling down and praying. If I do I'm gonna come up and boot you in the tail. You leave the praying to me and you do the fighting."
Once on the beach, the men saw Father Lacy:
"go down to the water's edge and pull the dead, dying, and wounded from the water and put them in relatively protected positions. He didn't stop at that, but prayed for them and with them, gave comfort to the wounded and dying. A real man of god."
On D-Day strange canvas covered bathtub looking vehicles came in from the ocean and landed on the beach. The vehicles were Sherman tanks fitted with a flotation device, which allowed them to drive off an LCT and into the ocean, and then navigate to the beach. One tank driver later said, "I still remember very vividly some of the machine gunners standing up in their posts looking at us with their mouths wide open."
These tanks were the brainchild of Maj. General Percy Hobart of the British Army. The floating tank, These tanks were the brainchild of Maj. General Percy Hobart of the British Army.
The Real "Saving Private Ryan" & Colonel Vandervoort
Ste,-Mere-Eglise was a quiet village with a couple of hundred gray stone houses. It was a village in which nothing much of consequence had happened for ten centuries. The road N-13 ran through the village, heading north to Cherbourg and east to Caen and onto Paris. Without the use of N-13 the Germans to the north would be cut off. If the Americans lost control many paratroopers would be cut off and the 4th Infantry Division would be unable to move off the beach to the west and north. Because of this the battle for the little village took on a great importance.
Colonel Vandervoort, despite a broken ankle during the parachute drop and having to be moved around in a wheelbarrow, moved his battalion into the village. Between them and another battalion, they did not have the men form a complete defensive perimeter so they decided to only defend both ends of the main road.
About 1pm on D-Day a Frenchman rode his bicycle up to them and announced in English that some American paratroopers were bringing in a large contingent of German prisoners from the north. Sure enough, when Vandervoort looked in that direction there was a column of troops marching in good order right down the middle of N-13, with what appeared to be paratroopers on either side of them waving orange flags (the American recognition signal on D-day).
Vandervoort grew suspicious when he noticed two tracked vehicles at the rear of the column. He told one of his men to fire a short machine gun burst to the right of the column. Sure enough the "prisoners" and "paratroopers" both jumped into ditches and began to return fire. The Germans outnumbered the Americans five to one and began to flank his position. He sent for reinforcements and ordered the men to begin a fighting withdrawal.
Finally only sixteen of his forty three men were in a condition to fight and they were preparing for a "last stand". Then a medic volunteered to stay behind and look after the wounded. Pvt. Julius Sebastain, Cpl. Ray Smithson, and Sgt. Robert Niland offered to form a rearguard to cover the retreat of the remainder of the platoon. The three were able to put up an energetic defense that actually stopped the German advance for a time and allowed the others to escape.
The twenty-eight badly wounded men which were left behind along with two of the three volunteers who stayed behind were captured. The third volunteer, Sgt. Bob Niland, was killed at his machine gun. One of his brothers, a platoon leader in the 4th Division, was killed the same morning at Utah Beach. Another brother was killed that week in Burma. Mrs. Niland received all three telegrams from the War Department announcing their deaths on the same day. Her fourth son, Fritz, was in the 101st Airborne and was pulled out of the front lines by the Army.
Lt. Col. Ben Vandervoort, and his 2nd Battalion (505th PIR, 82nd Airborne Division) later saw action at the Nijmegen bridge in Operation Market Garden (movie: A Bridge Too Far). His battalion was assigned to take the west end of the Nijmegen bridge while Maj. Julian Cook's 3rd Battalion took the east end, crossing the river in the small boats.
The 82nd was to then later play a major role in the defense of the allied position during the Battle of the Bulge.
St. Mere Eglise ,was the principal objective of the 82nd Airborne on the early morning of June 6. It was the site of three days of intense fighting as the Germans repeatedly counter attacked in attempts to retake the strategic town from the occupying American paratroopers. The village is perhaps best remembered for its church, in the center of the town square, where Paratrooper John Steel of the 505th PIR became trapped when his parachute was ensnared by a steeple. He watched helplessly as the rest of his company was killed by the waiting Germans.
The stained-glass windows of the church are a tribute to those who liberated St. Mere Eglise:
* At the upper left are airborne wings.
* At the upper right is the parachute and glider that made up the badge of American Airborne Command.
* The lower left cut-out shows the insignia of the 82nd Airborne Division (AA for "All American Division").
* The faint parachutes at the lower right are a constant motif in the windows.
* The symbol of the Free French (the Cross of Lorraine) is shown bottom center.
Wild Thing's comment .......
we remember those special to Theodore's World blog.
Jack's friend who was like a family member an Army Reserve civilian that was severly wounded on D-Day. Jack and his family were his adopted family.
And Rhod that had several Canadian Uncles that served in WW11.
I had five Uncles that served in in various past battles Battle of the Bulge, the Chosin and at Normandy.
We honor their memoryand all those other relatives as well with a connection to this blog and those that enter, and all those brave men that served with them.
We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to those who gave their lives in this giant struggle and to those who were lucky enough to come back home.
We can only imagine the horror and the dying that took place. We need to perpetuate their story of sacrifice and glory for as long as we live.
Can you see the thousands of ships offshore that formed the most powerful armada that the world has ever seen? A huge salvo is being laid down prior to the invasion. Troops climb down rope ladders into landing craft. Many invasion force craft are circling around, grouping up, just before they make their final drive for the beach.
The Germans are entrenched in concrete bunkers and gun emplacements and are shelling the approaching landing craft. Many men never make it to the beach, but instead die in the churning surf. Those who do get to the beach and tumble out of their craft are subject to horrendous machine gun fire from pillboxes that rake the entire shore. There are the dead and the dying.
Valiant army engineers mount a superhuman effort to blow a hole in the concrete barricade so troops can move inland, away from the murderous fire coming from above them.
Those first few hours must have indeed been some of the longest ever faced by bold and courageous men. May their honor and sacrifice not be forgotten, and may this event in history go down not as just about death and dying, but as a turning point for the world, toward peace. God willing, it will never have to be repeated.
With our up and coming elections and also how our world has been changing so rapildy it is more important then ever to not forget these sacrifices our heroes made. We can't betray these men by allowing the world they died for to slip away.
Posted by Wild Thing at 03:55 AM | Comments (16)
April 07, 2008
La la la...
Hi everybodies! Its me, LindaSoG! and... guess what today is?
Yep. That's right, today is Chrissie's birthday!
Yannow... I've known Chrissie for many years, long before we got ourselves our blogs, and I can tell you that every single day has been a treasure for me. We met on another forum, when Chrissie was still living out west, in the land of movie stars. We met on a "support the troops" thread, it seems like yesterday, and yet... so much has happened since then.
From the first day we met, there was a connection between us, a sense of "coming home," a feeling that I had known Chrissie my entire life. More than a friend, Chrissie is the sister I would choose to have.
I put my website up in 2002, and I helped Chrissie put up her own shortly after. We played with our pages, emailed our comments to friends and then, in 2004, my site became my blog. I tried to talk Chrissie into blogging as well, but she was hesitant. I think some of the hesitation was because she didn't want to trouble me (as if!) and I just nodded my head and waited.
And then, one fine day in August of 2006, I came home from work and found a message on my answering machine from Chrissie, and in between the giggles she said.... "Linda.... I want a blog." Theodore's World was born.
Setting up Theodore's World was a joy! Chrissie and I spent hours talking about it, planning it, choosing pictures, colors, layout. "Can I have my bears?" she wanted to know, "and my dolls? Will people take me seriously if I do?" I told her "Hell yeah they will, you can do whatever you want, just be you." And I was right. Chrissie puts a tremendous amount of time and energy into each post, and it shows. Theodore's World has been viewed by over a million people in the two years it has been up, more than my site, and more than many. I would call that a success.
What makes it success? Chrissie does. Her heart and her soul are in every post. Theodore's World is a serious place, and Chrissie is a serious person, but... and this is a big but... Theodore's World is also a happy place, a friendly place, a loving place, and Chrissie is a happy, friendly and loving person. Being here is like sitting on Chrissie's couch, having a cup of coffee and a warm conversation with a dear friend. The bears are part of the scenery.
And today, well, today is our dear friend Chrissie's birthday! Have a piece of cake and join the celebration!
Chrissie! Hurry up and blow out the candles before I burn the internet down!
Happy Birthday my dearest friend, and thank for all you do! I honestly don't know how I would get through my days without having you in my life.
I love you!
LindaSoG
Posted by LindaSoG at 07:40 AM | Comments (40)
September 21, 2007
POW-MIA Recognition Day
National POW/MIA Recognition Day is by law, the 3rd Friday in September every year. This date honors those men and women still held in enemy hands or buried on foreign soil.
On August 10, 1990, the Congress passed a bill recognizing the black and white, POW/MIA flag as “the symbol of our Nation’s concern and commitment to resolving as fully as possible the fate of Americans still prisoner, missing and unaccounted for in Southeast Asia…”
In 1997, bills passed the House and Senate mandating the POW/MIA flag be flown on specific holidays.
The 1998 Defense Authorization act noted that the flag MUST be flown on: Memorial Day, Armed Forces Day, Flag Day, Veterans Day, Independence Day, POW/MIA Recognition Day.In 1998, the Veterans Administration noted the flag will fly EVERY day at their facilities.
A Pentagon ceremony for National POW/MIA Recognition Day will be held on Friday, Sept. 21, 2007. This ceremony will feature troops from each of the military services. The president will issue a proclamation commemorating the observances and reminding the nation of those Americans who have sacrificed so much for their country.
Observances of National POW/MIA Recognition Day are held across the country on military installations, ships at sea, state capitols, schools and veterans' facilities.
POW PrayerPlease hear me ,Lord…..
It’s the dead of night…..It is dark and cold,
the night surrounds me Like a blanket of hope.
As long as it is night, they will stay in their corner.
I lie here wondering ~
how long is it again?
I cling to the dream of my family ~
I see them in my mind.
It is another Independence Day at home.
When will my independence come?
I will NOT believe that they have forgotten me!!
I look in the hole I have dug here,
for the things that I hide from them.
A little smile across my lips~
in all this time they have never found my little stash!I pull out a little scrap of shredded red and white.
For me, it waves in the breeze of home!
It is my salvation ~
it tells me there is hope.
There is a tiny piece of cloth,
a remnant of the uniform worn with the pride
only a soldier knows.
Ah, here is that little corner of the photo I once had!
They think they destroyed it ~
It is my private joke on them.
For I can still see the face of my little boy. But ~~~
he must be almost a man by now...I am not sure?
How long has it been again?
They could not have forgotten me,
as they go from one day to the next without me.
I will not believe that!
If they have, I shall surely be swallowed
up in the mists of this hell!How long has it been again?
No ~
they have not forgotten ~
how could they have?
Have they ?
My God?
Have they?By Joanna Mckenzie Henshaw
If you would like, please visit my POW MIA page at my website.
I have many friends who served in Vietnam. Many that died there, many that died after they came home from Agent Orange. I pray each day for our POW’s and MIA’s that they will be brought home! You are NOT forgotten! As long as I breathe I will be thinking and praying for you. - Wild Thing
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 AM | Comments (12)
September 11, 2007
Where Were You On 9-11
.
Those delivering death and destruction, the terrorists
"I don't think you can overstate the importance
that the rise of Islamic fundamentalism
will have to the rest of the world in the
century ahead-especially if, as seems possible,
its most fanatical elements get their
hands on nuclear and chemical weapons
and the means to deliver them
against their enemies." --Ronald Reagan
.
The USA responds to the terrorist's
Wild Thing's comment........
We were having breakfast and the TV was on in the family room. I had gone back into the kitchen to get something and Nick went to get the paper. As he walked into the family room he looked at the TV and called out to me. As I got to the room he was pointing at the TV....." LOOK Chrissie, we are being attacked!".
We knew one of our nephews would be there, he is a firefighter in New York and his fellow firefighters had been to our home many times. We had all become good friends.
I realize we are only one of many families effected by the attack, the whole country had been attacked. Later we found out that our nephew was safe, some injuries but would be ok physically. The other news of the 11 friends of his that we had gotten to know did not make it. They died in the towers that day, one of them was one of their Chief's. He was decapitated as he tried to help other get down the stairs.
Six years later, our nephew is just now able to talk about all of this.
Six years later we have men and women in our government that care more about their hate for a man that is President then they do about supporting our troops fighting the enemy. Six years later our borders are still not secure.
Six years later there are actually people in our leadership of this great and mighty Nation that complain about the Patriot's Act, profiling, wire taps, doing all they can to make this a PC fought war, complaining about the hassle of flying now, and not being able to just pack like they used to.
Six years later we have had to hear the likes of Murtha lie about our troops. And those in both Houses aiding the enemy in their speeches and actions. Not giving a hoot about the morale of our troops.
Six years later we have more mosques on our soil then ever before. More Saudi schools here then before 9-11.
Six years later we have people that think getting fed, clothed and pampered prisoners at GITMO is not enough and that putting some underwear on the heads of terrorists at GITMO is a freakin war crime.
I could go on longer then this, but we also have this.
Six years later, Saddam is dead, many of the names on the list hunted for are caught or killed. We have won in Iraq and Afghanistan thanks to our awesome troops. We won the war in Iraq, and the Taliban, many have been killed or captured. Schools and so many other things have been built. Water is running where Saddam would not allow it before. People got to vote without their lives being threatened and many Iraqi's now have successful business's up and running. This list also could go on and on.
Is it perfect, is everything all done and ready for our troops to leave. NO sorry but not yet. I don't think it ever will be. Heck we are not perfect here in the USA, we are a divided country more then ever before. But the war the one that is world wide fighting Islam and tracking down terrorists that want to kill us goes on, and that war is bigger then Congress or the Senate and their cowardly terrorist ass kissing agenda of the left. That war is why we can never give up, never back off.
You are invited to visit my Tribute Page for September 11, 2001
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 AM | Comments (8)
December 07, 2006
Remembering Pearl Harbor
"A date which will live in infamy."
Honoring our veterans, praying
for the men and women
in Armed Forces currently defending
our freedoms at home and abroad.
On Sunday, December 7th, 1941 the Japanese launched a surprise attack against the U.S. Forces stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii . By planning his attack on a Sunday, the Japanese commander Admiral Nagumo, hoped to catch the entire fleet in port. As luck would have it, the Aircraft Carriers and one of the Battleships were not in port. (The USS Enterprise was returning from Wake Island , where it had just delivered some aircraft. The USS Lexington was ferrying aircraft to Midway, and the USS Saratoga and USS Colorado were undergoing repairs in the United States).
In spite of the latest intelligence reports about the missing aircraft carriers (his most important targets), Admiral Nagumo decided to continue the attack with his force of six carriers and 423 aircraft. At a range of 230 miles north of Oahu, he launched the first wave of a two-wave attack.
Beginning at 0600 hours his first wave consisted of 183 fighters and torpedo bombers which struck at the fleet in Pearl Harbor and the airfields in Hickam, Kaneohe and Ewa. The second strike, launched at 0715 hours, consisted of 167 aircraft, which again struck at the same targets. At 0753 hours the first wave consisting of 40 Nakajima B5N2 "Kate" torpedo bombers, 51 Aichi D3A1 "Val" dive bombers, 50 high altitude bombers and 43 Zeros struck airfields and Pearl Harbor.
Within the next hour, the second wave arrived and continued the attack.
When it was over, the U.S.losses were:
Casualties
USA : 218 KIA, 364 WIA.
USN: 2,008 KIA, 710 WIA.
USMC: 109 KIA, 69 WIA.
Civilians: 68 KIA, 35 WIA.
TOTAL: 2,403 KIA, 1,178 WIA.
Battleships
USS Arizona (BB-39) - total loss when a bomb hit her magazine.
USS Oklahoma (BB-37) - Total loss when she capsized and sunk in the harbor.
USS California (BB-44) - Sunk at her berth. Later raised and repaired.
USS West Virginia (BB-48) - Sunk at her berth. Later raised and repaired.
USS Nevada - (BB-36) Beached to prevent sinking. Later repaired.
USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) - Light damage.
USS Maryland (BB-46) - Light damage.
USS Tennessee (BB-43) Light damage.
USS Utah (AG-16) - (former battleship used as a target) - Sunk.
Cruisers
USS New Orleans (CA-32) - Light Damage..
USS San Francisco (CA-38) - Light Damage.
USS Detroit (CL-8) - Light Damage.
USS Raleigh (CL-7) - Heavily damaged but repaired.
USS Helena (CL-50) - Light Damage.
USS Honolulu (CL-48) - Light Damage.
Destroyers
USS Downes (DD-375) - Destroyed. Parts salvaged.
USS Cassin - (DD-372) Destroyed. Parts salvaged.
USS Shaw (DD-373) - Very heavy damage.
USS Helm (DD-388) - Light Damage.
Minelayers
USS Ogala (CM-4) - Sunk but later raised and repaired.
Seaplane Tender
USS Curtiss (AV-4) - Severely damaged but later repaired.
Repair Ship
USS Vestal (AR-4) - Severely damaged but later repaired.
Harbor Tug
USS Sotoyomo (YT-9) - Sunk but later raised and repaired.
Aircraft
188 Aircraft destroyed (92 USN and 92 Army Air Corps.)
Posted by Wild Thing at 02:47 AM | Comments (16)
October 13, 2006
Columbus Day Parade A Moment That Says It All
U.S. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shakes hands with a retired Marine during the Columbus Day Parade along Fifth Avenue in New York City, N.Y., Oct. 9, 2006. Defense Dept. photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. D. Myles Cullen
Bagpipers and band members prepared for hours at the annual Columbus Day Parade. At least 500,000 people filed out to watch 35,000 marchers along 5th Avenue.
Wild Thing's comment......
I love seeing things like this happen. A big thank you to the Retired Marine Veteran and to General Peter Pace. And I have always loved bagpipes. I hope America never stop having these parades and never stops thanking our Veterans and our troops today.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:44 AM | Comments (2)
October 12, 2006
Fall With It's Unique Treasures
Earth Tone TreasuresOrange tints fade to yellow rust
and cold fall rains pull them down
and the ground carpeted with summer past
its just the same here all over town
summer fled warm times now bustCrisp crackling leaf piles to jump in,
and wade through in happy moments
in our inner childlike joy long as they last
a vivid gift of the passing season sent
missed until they finally come againwild thing
I love the seasons and Fall has such a clean crisp feel to it. I thought I would share this with all of you.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:47 AM | Comments (10)
September 21, 2006
*~* Thank you ~*~ Blog Is One Year Old Today *~*
One year ago today I started my Blog. Thank you Linda of Something......and Half of Something is my Blog Mom. Thank you Linda for helping me put it all together and for all the support. I could never have had a Blog if it wasn't for you.And to my Blog Uncle Vinnie, at Vince aut Morire the best Blog Uncle a girl could ever have.
Thank you to everyone that has entered the door here at this Blog. Your friendship's and kindness have meant so much to me, more then you will ever know. Your comments and input have made a difference in my life and in this Blog. And all of you that have Blogs I love to visit them and have gotten to know you and that has been fantastic too. Our friendships we have made will be forever.
Thank you to those serving now that peek in and see what is going on. Saying hi when you can in emails and comments and seeing how much all of us here support you and all you do.
Thank you to the girls of the Cotillion, you are all so special.
I love you all soooo much!!
Chrissie aka Wild Thing
Posted by Wild Thing at 01:55 AM | Comments (54)
September 11, 2006
Magnificent Fire Chief's Last Call to Duty
This post will
stay at the top until after midnight of
September 11th
I joined the 2996 Call For Bloggers- to honor a victim of the September 11 attacks. I would like to share with you about a wonderful man and Hero.
Raymond Downey Deputy Chief Special Operations Command Laid to rest on May 20, 2002
After serving with the U.S. Marine Corps in the Middle East, Chief Downey was appointed to the FDNY on April 7, 1962.
Raymond M. Downey, as Deputy Chief for the Fire Department of the City of New York will always be the person recognized as the "Father" of modern Urban Search and Rescue techniques.
In March 1998, Chief Downey testified before Congress about the first attack on the World Trade Center. Requesting additional funding for Urban Search and Rescue, at that hearing he said:
…"We, the fire service, are no better prepared then we were back in 1995. Why? The training that has been given with federal funding is not being directed to the "first responder," and the lack of providing funding for the necessary equipment for these responders is directly related to the lack of our preparedness.…The first responders, the firefighters...performed heroic actions only because they were able to be on the scene within minutes and were properly trained and equipped. "
In August of 2001, he was placed in charge of all SOC (Special Operations Command) operations - Rescue, Squad, Haz Mat and Marine - and promoted to Deputy Chief.
Chief Downey's phenomenal 39-year career with the FDNY was built upon success after success and rescue after rescue. Downey became one of the city's most decorated firefighters and achieved almost mythical status among them for his steely resolve in the face of disaster. Chief Downey received five individual medals for valor and 16 unit citations. Additionally, he was awarded the Administration Medal in 1995 for his efforts on the Bunker Gear Program and interim quartermaster system.
Among the elite rescue firefighters who served under him, Ray Downey was held in awe for his uncanny ability to arrive at a major disaster and size up the mayhem with little more than a glance. In a quiet voice, with no discussion, he would start doling out instructions and assignments and call for equipment no one had thought of. Somehow, miraculously, the chaos would transform itself into a smooth and orderly rescue operation.
That’s why his fellow New York City firefighters called him “God.”
Downey was sitting in his office at the Special Operation Division on Randalls Island, surrounded by photos and mementos of the World Trade Center and Oklahoman City bombings and a long ago blast at a plumbing supply store in Brooklyn.
He harkened back to a blaze he had fought when he was a new member of that big family. A woman had cried out as he and his comrades dashed into the flame and smoke.
"She said, 'You firemen are crazy. You're running in when we're all running out,'" Downey remembered.
He since had become the world's leading expert in responding to terrorist attacks. He spoke of his work as a member of the Gilmore Commission, a congressional advisory panel that last year issued a report called "Toward a National Strategy for Combating Terrorism." The group had briefed Vice President Cheney in May, recommending a greater priority on intelligence and preventing terrorist attacks before they occur.
Downey helped pioneer a national network of eight search and rescue teams under the federal Emergency Management Agency. Many of the members of the eight FEMA teams that searched for him were his trainees. And in his spare time, he traveled across the country preaching the need to prepare for terrorism.
Downey also helped teach some of his techniques to senior commanders of the Marine Corps and the Navy, running combat scenarios in high-rise buildings and sewers, some of them in the trade center neighborhood, in 1997.
"Unfortunately, it's not a question of if, but when the next one comes," he said.
“The general consensus in the current atmosphere is that the next war we fight will be in an urban area,” Downey told Newsday in 1997.
The commission was meeting as Downey sat in his office. He called them to explain he was occupied with the aftermath of an explosion triggered when two kids spilled some gasoline whose fumes were then ignited by the pilot light of a water heater in the basement of a hardware store.
Downey said he had arrived at the scene to find two firefighters dead in the street and a third one trapped. He had employed the same strategy as at Oklahoma City.
"Basically what I do is size it up," he said. "I find out where he was last seen and picture in my mind the force of the explosion."
The rescuers had reached the firefighter too late, and now there would be three funerals. The third found Downey wearing and hurting, but unshaken in his resolve.
"Everybody will just go back to work," he said. "They are aware of the dangers we get involved in, but they will go out the door again. It's just not going to stop them."
Even so, three funerals in two days seemed almost too much for even him to bear.
"We always say, hopefully, that's the end of it," Downey said.
"He approached a fire straight on," said Lee Ielpi, a recently retired firefighter from Rescue 2. "The easy thing to do would be to unscrew your head at a major incident. But he knew exactly what had to be done."
Downey also made frequent trips to Washington, serving on a congressional advisory panel on domestic terrorism and lobbying politicians to give local firefighters more money. In an interview with Newsday in 1997, Downey warned that the next war would be fought in an urban setting.
His knowledge of how buildings fall apart was so legendary that at national firefighting conferences, whole rooms would go quiet when he walked in.
"He was kind of like a rock star. He was idolized," said Hal Bruno, chairman of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
In New York at 8:48 A.M., a Boeing 767 jetliner crashed into the North Tower 1 of the World Trade Center. A mission that was planned and carried out by followers of Islam.
The first plane had no sooner struck the World Trade Center on Tuesday morning, September 11th, 2001, than Downey was on his way. Then, the second tower. Flames and smoke erupt from # 2 World Trade Center. As the second Boeing 767 jetliner crashes from left to right into the 110- story tower, heavy smoke was visible venting from several floors of #1 World Trade Center.
That morning there was more action than anyone could have foreseen or wanted. Downey's unit was among the first to be called in when the World Trade Center Towers were attacked. Downey went to lead his men. When the towers fell, he was leading the evacuation.
"He had been warning everyone of this for years," said Joe Allbaugh, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. For Downey, "it wasn't a matter of if, it was a matter of when."
Exactly what transpired is still not clear, but according to one version, Hatton and Brown were inside the first tower when it collapsed. This account has Downey moving up the tower and toward where he hoped some of those trapped could be rescued.
An Air Force F-16 banked overhead, the engine's roar echoing off the surviving buildings, a sound of power and impotence as the rescuers searched for life in the smoking ruins they call the pile.
Firefighters, cops, paramedics and construction workers labored together as they had after the first World Trade Center attack and the bombing at Oklahoma City, only the horror was magnified a thousand fold and the magnificent Fire Chief Ray Downey was not in command.
This time, Downey was himself one of the victims. He had, as always, been right there with his men, once again trying to will away the mortal danger.
"You say to yourself, 'Not me,'" he said three months earlier. "But, when the unexpected happens there's nothing you can do about it."
He paused.
"I guess that's the fate we all live with."
Chief Downey's body has not been found.
On Friday, October 22nd, 2004, the United States Marine Corps Chemical Biological Incident Response Force Command (CBIRF) dedicated their Training Facility in memory of Deputy Chief Raymond M. Downey. The dedication was at the CBIRF Training Facility in Stumpneck, Maryland.
Congress unanimously approved to name the Deer Park, Long Island, post office after New York Fire Chief Raymond Downey.
John Barbagallo worked in Rescue 2 with Downey…."He was the best fire officer I've ever known," Barbagallo said. "And when you have a good leader, you'd follow him into hell."
"He approached a fire straight on," said Lee Ielpi, a recently retired firefighter from Rescue 2. "The easy thing to do would be to unscrew your head at a major incident. But he knew exactly what had to be done."
To his five children - fire Lt. Chuck Downey of Commack, fire Capt. Joseph Downey of West Islip, Ray Downey Jr. of Babylon, Marie Tortorici of Deer Park and Kathy Ugalde of Deer Park….. Downey was a strict yet loving father who kept his work separate from his family life and encouraged them to channel their energy into sports. When they were growing up, Downey would sometimes work longer shifts just so he could make it to a son's wrestling match or a daughter's soccer game.
"He always had that Marine attitude - that tough exterior," said his son Ray, a physical-education teacher. "But once you got behind that, he really was a softie."
It may seem darkly ironic that a man who achieved international acclaim for his familiarity with rubbled disasters would himself die in one.
To his family and friends, it makes perfect sense. When a situation turned deadly, Downey would often order his men out just as he was running in.
Some things you learn about people only after they've gone. For the family of Raymond Downey, the manila folder was like that.
He never boasted about his accomplishments to his family, never reveled in the praise that seemed to follow him wherever he went.
Except for the manila folder he carried in his briefcase, that is. It was the only indulgence Downey allowed himself; He stuffed it with letters and accolades from a 39-year career and gave it a label in a small, tidy script: "That A Boys."
His wife, Rosalie, found the folder after Downey, 63, was lost in the World Trade Center attack. "He never complimented himself," she said. "He always just did what he had to do."
Sometimes, Rosalie Downey says, she still talks to her husband, a man she met more than 40 years ago when they flirted through a glass partition in a Manhattan bank. She asks him why he didn't stay out when he led other firefighters to safety that day.
But, she says, she knows better than that. "Then I tell myself, Ray would have never lived with himself."
OUR ANGEL By Kathy Downey UgaldeOn that dreadful day
We huddled in prayer
Hearts joined in sorrow
Pain difficult to bearOur angels climbed up
As they helped others down
The towers may have fallen
But our BRAVEST
Never touched the groundThey kept soaring up
To that heavenly cloud
Shining strength down on us
We are grateful & proudSo please say a prayer
As a tribute to those
Whose love never faltered
And eternally grows
Wild Thing's additional comment.............
One of my nephews is a firefighter in New York. He was there that morning, as all of them were. He lost 11 of his fellow firefighters including 2 Chiefs. I was honored to meet 4 of his friends that lost their lives on September 11th, 2001. They were in our home and they will never be forgotten, just as Chief Raymond M. Downey will never be forgotten.
And this is my tribute at my website, to all the lives lost that day when Islam rode into our world on planes destined to destroy us, but Islam did not know what Americans are about. They never will, but they do know our response to their evil....and that part I can smile about.
You can read Chief Raymond M. Downey's speech to the Federal Response to Domestic Terrorism Involving WMD Training for First Responders Witness Statement ...........
Federal Response to Domestic Terrorism Involving WMD Training for First Responders Witness Statement
By Chief Raymond M. Downey, SOC, FDNY
FAS.org, (New York, NY), 03/21/98
Good morning Mr. Chairman and committee members. My name is Ray Downey and I'm the Chief of Rescue Operations for the Fire Department in the City of New York. First I would like to thank you for holding this hearing today. The Fire Service greatly appreciates the fact that your committee has concerns regarding WMD. The fire service is greatly concerned being first responders that will eventually have to deal with the issues of WMD.
My intent today is to speak not only as a member of the FDNY, but for the entire Fire Service. I have had the unique experience to respond to incidents of WMD both as a first responder and as a federal asset that arrived on the scene some twelve hours after the incident. This is one of many concerns that the fire service has about the training and expectations of both the fire service and federal support that is being promised in the event of an incident involving WMD.
During the World Trade Center bombing I was on the scene immediately after the bombing had taken place. Unless you have been their; you cannot fully appreciate what firefighters face during an incident of WMD terrorism. The fire service has always been respected by the public for their immediate response capability to the calls of those in danger. With that response comes the dedication and fearless courage displayed by these firefighters. It wasn't any different at the World Trade Center. As a result of this terrorism incident, firefighters that operated at this incident still question what would have happened had that bomb been a "dirty" bomb. Would we take the same actions today, if a major bombilic, were to occur in our response district? Five years later, we are better prepared, have more knowledge about WMD, but still see many short falls in the area of First Responder capabilities for dealing with and mitigating incidents of WMD. The fear of Chemical or Biological terrorism is foremost in the minds of every firefigther. What we read and hear about regarding the nations preparations and training for these incidents does not go far enough.
During the World Trade Center bombing firefighters not only faced a difficult fire operation, but had to evacuate almost 50,000 occupants from the Trade Center complex. More than 500 victims were treated for various injuries, while another 600 responded to hospitals on their own. What would have happened if they had been contaminated by a chemical agent? In 1993 not a fire department in the United States could have handled an incident involving a chemical agent affecting this many victims. Can the fire service handle the same potential incident in 1998 after five years of additional preparation and training? The answer in most cases is a "NO". Why? Lack of sufficient funding and training for WMD.
Two years after the Oklahoma City bombing 9 Chief Gary Marrs of the Oklahoma Fire Department providing witness testimony stated that we, the fire service, are no better prepared than we were back in 1995. Why? The training that has been given with federal funding is not being directed to the "First responder", and the lack of providing funding for the necessary equipment for these responders is directly related to the lack of our preparedness, My experience of working for sixteen (16) days as the Operations Chief for the Urban Search and Rescue Teams in Oklahoma City only reinforces my feelings about the needs of the first responders. The Oklahoma City Fire Department has not received the real credit they deserve for the heroic actions they took during those first few hours before any help or support arrived from outside their jurisdiction. As was the case in the rescue effort during the World Trade Center bombing, the same results occurred during the Oklahoma City bombing. Not one victim in either incident died as a result of awaiting rescue by the firefighters after the bombing. The first responders, AKA, the firefighters in both cases performed these heroic actions only because they were able to-be on the scene within minutes and were properly trained and equipped. But, what if that bomb had an additional chemical agent dispersed with the explosion. Would the success rate been the same" Not likely. What would happen if it occurred today? Would we be prepared? Some fire departments have increased their capabilities, but the majority of the country is still not prepared for these type incidents.
In Atlanta the experience gained by the fire service after the bombing of the Family Planning Center, undoubtedly saved lives of firefighters and other emergency personnel that responded to the bombing of the Gay and Lesbian Nite Club. They had learned their lessons from the previous incidents. We have not had this opportunity when dealing with chemical, biological or nuclear terrorist incidents. What is it that the fire service needs to be prepared for these type incidents'? The preparation, training and equipment requirements should be approached from a bottom up planning process. Permit the first responders to get involved with the many various agencies at the Federal level that are preparing terrorism training programs that will ultimately affect them. This can be accomplished by reaching out to the first responder and finding out exactly what the needs of the fire service are. The federal government needs to provide assistance and funding, for training, detection equipment, personal protective equipment and mass decontamination capabilities. The realization by the federal government that the resources that they will supply to local jurisdictions during a WMD incident will be of support role and work under the direction of the local incident commander. If these goals can be reached the fire service will be much more capable of dealing with WMD incidents.
I want to thank you again for this opportunity to appear as a witness before you today and express to you on behalf of the entire fire service our sincere gratitude for the all the work and accomplishments that have benefited the fire service through your efforts. It is the first responder that will be facing the challenges that WMD presents, they are the ones that need the funding and assistance that the Federal Government can provide.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 AM | Comments (65)
July 02, 2006
2,996 Voices…
2,996 is a tribute to the victims of 9/11On September 11, 2006, 2,996 volunteer bloggers will join together for a tribute to the victims of 9/11. Each person will pay tribute to a single victim.
We will honor them by remembering their lives, and not by remembering their murderers.
If you would like to help out, either by pledging to post a tribute on your own blog, or by offering your services to promote this cause, just leave a comment here and I’ll email you the name of a victim.
Then, on 9/11/2006, you will post a tribute to that victim on your blog.
But, and this is critical, the tributes should celebrate the lives of these people–kind of like a wake. Over the last 5 years we’ve heard the names of the killers, and all about the victim’s deaths. This is a chance to learn about and celebrate those who died. Forget the murderers, they don’t deserve to be remembered. But some people who died that day deserve to be remembered–2,996 people.
Thank you,
Wild Thing's comment.......Thank you Mr. Roe for this very touching and meaningful event to pay tribute to those no longer with us. To celebrate their lives and giving us a chance to join in.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 AM | Comments (2)
June 14, 2006
~ * ~ Flag Day ~ * ~
I am the flag of the United States of America
I was born on June 14, 1777, in Philadelphia.There the Continental Congress adopted my stars and stripes as the national flag.
My thirteen stripes alternating red and white, with a union of thirteen white stars in a field of blue, represented a new constellation, a new nation dedicated to the personal and religious liberty of mankind.
Today fifty stars signal from my union, one for each of the fifty sovereign states in the greatest constitutional republic the world has ever known.
My colors symbolize the patriotic ideals and spiritual qualities of the citizens of my country.
My red stripes proclaim the fearless courage and integrity of American men and boys and the self-sacrifice and devotion of American mothers and daughters.
My white stripes stand for liberty and equality for all.
My blue is the blue of heaven, loyalty, and faith.
I represent these eternal principles: liberty, justice, and humanity.
I embody American freedom: freedom of speech, religion, assembly, the press, and the sanctity of the home.
I typify that indomitable spirit of determination brought to my land by Christopher Columbus and by all my forefathers - the Pilgrims, Puritans, settlers at James town and Plymouth.I am as old as my nation.
I am a living symbol of my nation's law: the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.
I voice Abraham Lincoln's philosophy: "A government of the people, by the people,for the people."
I stand guard over my nation's schools, the seedbed of good citizenship and true patriotism.
I am displayed in every schoolroom throughout my nation; every schoolyard has a flag pole for my display.
Daily thousands upon thousands of boys and girls pledge their allegiance to me and my country.
I have my own law—Public Law 829, "The Flag Code" - which definitely states my correct use and display for all occasions and situations.
I have my special day, Flag Day. June 14 is set aside to honor my birth.
Americans, I am the sacred emblem of your country. I symbolize your birthright, your heritage of liberty purchased with blood and sorrow.
I am your title deed of freedom, which is yours to enjoy and hold in trust for posterity.If you fail to keep this sacred trust inviolate, if I am nullified and destroyed, you and your children will become slaves to dictators and despots.
Eternal vigilance is your price of freedom.
As you see me silhouetted against the peaceful skies of my country, remind yourself that I am the flag of your country, that I stand for what you are - no more, no less.
Guard me well, lest your freedom perish from the earth.
Dedicate your lives to those principles for which I stand: "One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
I was created in freedom. I made my first appearance in a battle for human liberty.
God grant that I may spend eternity in my "land of the free and the home of the brave" and that I shall ever be known as "Old Glory," the flag of the United States of America.
Posted by Wild Thing at 01:05 AM | Comments (2)
June 06, 2006
D-Day ~ Never Forget
It was on 6th June 1944 that Operation Overlord - the long anticipated Allied invasion of Nazi-held Europe - went into action. What came to be known as the 'D-day landings'.
On the French beaches and in those hedgerows, many making the ultimate sacrifice. Over two thousand Americans, British, Canadians, and Australians died that first day, trading their lives for a single ambition...so we could live free.
The allied commander of the D-Day invasion, Gen Dwight D Eisenhower gives the order of the Day.
"Full victory - nothing else" to paratroopers in England, just before they board their airplanes to participate in the first assault in the invasion of the continent of Europe.
….”In some sectors the area was so heavily occupied by the Germans the paratroopers were fired upon while in the plane, in decent, and after landing... Many men were wounded or killed during one phase or another... The illumination created by fires on the ground was a death sentence if you were caught in an open field... This great confusion created by the troopers, moving in all directions, completely baffled the Germans in that they could not establish how many allied paratroopers had landed, or determine where our front line was. The fact that we were scattered over many miles, (mistakenly,) became advantageous to our mission..”
The first wave of assault troops of the 29th Infantry Division, it was four rifle companies landing on a hostile shore at H-hour, D-Day - 6:30 a.m., on June 6, 1944
The long-awaited liberation of France was underway. After long months in England, National Guardsmen from Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia found themselves in the vanguard of the Allied attack. In those early hours on the fire-swept beach the 116th Infantry Combat Team, the old Stonewall Brigade of Virginia, clawed its way through Les Moulins draw toward its objective, Vierville-sur-Mer. It was during the movement from Les Moulins that the battered but gallant 2d Battalion broke loose from the beach, clambered over the embankment, and a small party, led by the battalion commander, fought its way to a farmhouse, which became its first Command Post in France.
The 116th suffered more than 800 casualties this day - a day that will long be remembered as the beginning of the Allies' "Great Crusade" to rekindle the lamp of liberty and freedom on the continent of Europe. They were part of the part of the National Guard
"Members of an American landing party lend helping hands to other members of their organization whose landing craft was sunk be enemy action of the coast of France. These survivors reached Utah Beach, near Cherbourg, by using a life raft".
General Cota was second in command of the 29th Infantry Division. He had little faith in the accuracy of air and naval bombardment, thought it would do little good, and had wanted to make the landing under cover of darkness.
Cota landed at 0730 with the main command group of the 116th, Company K. Several in his LCVP were killed immediately as the ramp went down. When Cota got to the sea wall he made an immediate and critical command decision. He saw at once that the plan to go up the draws was obsolete. It simply could not be done. Nor could the men stay where they were. They had to get over the shingle, get through the heavily mined swamp, and climb the bluff to drive the Germans from their trenches and take the draws from the inland side.
Lieutenant Shea described Cota's actions:
"Exposing himself to enemy fire, General Cota went over the seawall giving encouragement, directions, and orders to those about him, personally supervised the placing of a BAR, and brought fire to bear on some of the enemy positions on the bluff that faced them. Finding a belt of barbed wire inside the seawall, General Cota personally supervised placing a bangalore torpedo for blowing the wire and was one of the first three men to go through the wire. At the head of a mixed column of troops he threaded his way to the foot of the high ground beyond the beach and started the troops up the high ground where they could bring effective fire to bear on the enemy positions."
Although the lead elements of the assault had been on the beach for almost an hour, none had progressed farther than the seawall. Most were clustered under the wall, pinned down by machine-gun fire. The beach was jammed with dead and wounded. General Cota had landed to fine a completely stalled attack. He went to work immediately.
Once on the beach, General Cota did move from group to group, encouraging the men to begin to move.
"Don't die on the beaches, die up on the bluff if you have to die, but get off the beaches or you're sure to die."
Cota found Schneider at his CP. Cota remained standing, even with the German firing; Schneider also stood up to converse. One witness remembers Cota saying to Schneider,"We're counting on your rangers to lead the way."
Father Joe Lacy
Father Lacy was described by one of the Rangers as a "small, old, fat Irishman." But there he was, on the beach that first terrible morning, tending to the wounded.
The Rangers had insisted that he would never be able to keep up with them in combat. They were finely tuned and in great physical shape, he was not. But he had insisted in coming along. On the transport on the night of June 5-6, he told the others:
"When you land on the beach and you get in there, I don't want to see anybody kneeling down and praying. If I do I'm gonna come up and boot you in the tail. You leave the praying to me and you do the fighting."
Once on the beach, the men saw Father Lacy:
"go down to the water's edge and pull the dead, dying, and wounded from the water and put them in relatively protected positions. He didn't stop at that, but prayed for them and with them, gave comfort to the wounded and dying. A real man of god."
On D-Day strange canvas covered bathtub looking vehicles came in from the ocean and landed on the beach. The vehicles were Sherman tanks fitted with a flotation device, which allowed them to drive off an LCT and into the ocean, and then navigate to the beach. One tank driver later said, "I still remember very vividly some of the machine gunners standing up in their posts looking at us with their mouths wide open."
These tanks were the brainchild of Maj. General Percy Hobart of the British Army. The floating tank, These tanks were the brainchild of Maj. General Percy Hobart of the British Army.
The Real "Saving Private Ryan" & Colonel Vandervoort
Ste,-Mere-Eglise was a quiet village with a couple of hundred gray stone houses. It was a village in which nothing much of consequence had happened for ten centuries. The road N-13 ran through the village, heading north to Cherbourg and east to Caen and onto Paris. Without the use of N-13 the Germans to the north would be cut off. If the Americans lost control many paratroopers would be cut off and the 4th Infantry Division would be unable to move off the beach to the west and north. Because of this the battle for the little village took on a great importance.
Colonel Vandervoort, despite a broken ankle during the parachute drop and having to be moved around in a wheelbarrow, moved his battalion into the village. Between them and another battalion, they did not have the men form a complete defensive perimeter so they decided to only defend both ends of the main road.
About 1pm on D-Day a Frenchman rode his bicycle up to them and announced in English that some American paratroopers were bringing in a large contingent of German prisoners from the north. Sure enough, when Vandervoort looked in that direction there was a column of troops marching in good order right down the middle of N-13, with what appeared to be paratroopers on either side of them waving orange flags (the American recognition signal on D-day).
Vandervoort grew suspicious when he noticed two tracked vehicles at the rear of the column. He told one of his men to fire a short machine gun burst to the right of the column. Sure enough the "prisoners" and "paratroopers" both jumped into ditches and began to return fire. The Germans outnumbered the Americans five to one and began to flank his position. He sent for reinforcements and ordered the men to begin a fighting withdrawal.
Finally only sixteen of his forty three men were in a condition to fight and they were preparing for a "last stand". Then a medic volunteered to stay behind and look after the wounded. Pvt. Julius Sebastain, Cpl. Ray Smithson, and Sgt. Robert Niland offered to form a rearguard to cover the retreat of the remainder of the platoon. The three were able to put up an energetic defense that actually stopped the German advance for a time and allowed the others to escape.
The twenty-eight badly wounded men which were left behind along with two of the three volunteers who stayed behind were captured. The third volunteer, Sgt. Bob Niland, was killed at his machine gun. One of his brothers, a platoon leader in the 4th Division, was killed the same morning at Utah Beach. Another brother was killed that week in Burma. Mrs. Niland received all three telegrams from the War Department announcing their deaths on the same day. Her fourth son, Fritz, was in the 101st Airborne and was pulled out of the front lines by the Army.
Lt. Col. Ben Vandervoort, and his 2nd Battalion (505th PIR, 82nd Airborne Division) later saw action at the Nijmegen bridge in Operation Market Garden (movie: A Bridge Too Far). His battalion was assigned to take the west end of the Nijmegen bridge while Maj. Julian Cook's 3rd Battalion took the east end, crossing the river in the small boats.
The 82nd was to then later play a major role in the defense of the allied position during the Battle of the Bulge.
St. Mere Eglise ,was the principal objective of the 82nd Airborne on the early morning of June 6. It was the site of three days of intense fighting as the Germans repeatedly counter attacked in attempts to retake the strategic town from the occupying American paratroopers. The village is perhaps best remembered for its church, in the center of the town square, where Paratrooper John Steel of the 505th PIR became trapped when his parachute was ensnared by a steeple. He watched helplessly as the rest of his company was killed by the waiting Germans.
The stained-glass windows of the church are a tribute to those who liberated St. Mere Eglise:
* At the upper left are airborne wings.
* At the upper right is the parachute and glider that made up the badge of American Airborne Command.
* The lower left cut-out shows the insignia of the 82nd Airborne Division (AA for "All American Division").
* The faint parachutes at the lower right are a constant motif in the windows.
* The symbol of the Free French (the Cross of Lorraine) is shown bottom center.
Wild Thing's comment .......
We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to those who gave their lives in this giant struggle and to those who were lucky enough to come back home.We can only imagine the horror and the dying that took place. We need to perpetuate their story of sacrifice and glory for as long as we live.
Can you see the thousands of ships offshore that formed the most powerful armada that the world has ever seen? A huge salvo is being laid down prior to the invasion. Troops climb down rope ladders into landing craft. Many invasion force craft are circling around, grouping up, just before they make their final drive for the beach.
The Germans are entrenched in concrete bunkers and gun emplacements and are shelling the approaching landing craft. Many men never make it to the beach, but instead die in the churning surf. Those who do get to the beach and tumble out of their craft are subject to horrendous machine gun fire from pillboxes that rake the entire shore. There are the dead and the dying.
Valiant army engineers mount a superhuman effort to blow a hole in the concrete barricade so troops can move inland, away from the murderous fire coming from above them.
Those first few hours must have indeed been some of the longest ever faced by bold and courageous men. May their honor and sacrifice not be forgotten, and may this event in history go down not as just about death and dying, but as a turning point for the world, toward peace. God willing, it will never have to be repeated.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:55 AM | Comments (6)
May 24, 2006
Happy Birthday Sebastian ~ 2 Years Old Today
This was written for Sebastian by a friend that writes poetry when he first came got him.
SebastianSuper little pooch as cute as the Dickens,
Eloquent speaker for defending his home,
Best friend for Chrissie,
and her little heartthrob,
A little friend who doesn’t do algebra,
Simple cuddler who fits well in laps or arms,
Tempestuous mischief-making acrobat,
Ineffable cuteness: a fait accompli,
Advocate of hidden bones and toys, aha!
Never underestimate this Sebastian.Copyright © 2004 by AKA Wordsmith. All rights reserved.
If you think dogs can't count,
try putting three dog biscuits in your pocket
and then giving Fido only two of them.
--Phil Pastoret
We have a dog, Sebastian and a kitty Missy. They both are big supporters of the troops. Missy will put her paw on his forehead and wash his face. They are buddies and truly love each other. Of course when we got him 2 years ago, we let Missy decide when it was ok with her to have a brother that was a puppy. But after 10 days they began to sleep and play together.
Posted by Wild Thing at 12:01 AM | Comments (4)
May 06, 2006
Happy Birthday To GUYK
Wishing you a very special Birthday GUYAs most of you know that are regulars here at Theodore's World
GUYK has the blog Charming Just Charming.
He served 22 years in the USAF. Thank you GUY.
Posted by Wild Thing at 09:27 AM | Comments (4)
April 07, 2006
Public Service Announcement from LindaSoG
The party is at Sondra's today. Stop by and say Hi!
Posted by at 07:41 AM | Comments (31)
November 19, 2005
Happy Birthday to My Blog Mom
Happy Birthday Linda, my Blog Mom and best friend. And a gazillion more birthdays.......gazillions that is more then anything! The world is a better place because you are in it. I am blessed to know you and call you my friend.
Wild Thing and Angry Old Salt
Linking to Something.....and Half of Something to say Happy Birthday.
Posted by Wild Thing at 11:28 AM | Comments (2)
