First Sergeant CJ Grisham is a 14 year career Soldier stationed in Alabama. On this blog he highlights the heroes and success stories of our military, while providing a unique perspective to political issues affecting the armed services and its members.
The guys at Ranger Up are good for more than just creating kick ass t-shirts. My entire dresser is full of them.
With the war in Afghanistan going on eight years, President Obama has declassified some of our best fighting techniques in the military. Tim and Jon painstakingly showcase those techniques for you here. Use caution when practicing any of these! They are highly effective and could potentially cause a lot of damage, or even death!!
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This was not the stock, newsreel or propaganda footage that the world had become all too familiar with seeing. This was provocative footage filmed by those who witnessed the war first-hand. This was the footage deemed ‘unfit’ for civilians to see. Until now. This Veterans Day, Smithsonian Channel premieres an epic presentation that will forever change the way we look at the Second World War, APOCALYPSE: THE SECOND WORLD WAR, a six-part, six -hour series narrated by acting icon Martin Sheen. Comprised of extraordinary footage that has been restored, colorized and transferred to stunning high definition, the series will air over six consecutive nights beginning Wednesday, November 11 at 8pm ET/PT.
As the French evacuated Paris in June 1940, amateur filmmakers documented the exodus as thousands of soon to be refugees lined the roads with their families and possessions. As the British sifted through the rubble, ordinary citizens grabbed cameras to capture first-hand what it meant to stand up to Hitler during the Blitz. When the Nazi army slogged through the mud and snow of Soviet Russia on the way to Moscow, soldiers used 8mm cameras to film war as they experienced it.
At the end of the war, this and other “Top Secret” footage of the war’s devastation was stashed away and forgotten. Now, thanks to the efforts of a few private collectors and archivists, these forgotten films have been rediscovered, restored and featured in Apocalypse: The Second World War.
Apocalypse: The Second World War recounts the battles and atrocities of the most destructive war in history, one that took the lives of millions. The restoration of the footage and its colorization were supervised by historical consultants to ensure accuracy. Researchers pulled and edited over 600 hours of footage from archives throughout the world.
“Smithsonian Channel is proud to be the exclusive U.S. home to this groundbreaking depiction of World War II,” said David Royle, Executive Vice President of Programming and Production, Smithsonian Channel. “The filmmakers’ remarkable discovery of unseen footage, the vivid storytelling and attention to historical detail is exactly the type of programming that we are looking to bring to our audience.”
Apocalypse: The Second World War executive producer for Smithsonian Channel is Joy Galane. The series was directed by Isabelle Clarke, Jean-Louis Guillaud, and Henri de Turenne. It is written by the historian Daniel Costelle and produced by CC&C Louis Vaudeville and France 2 in association with Smithsonian Channel.
Troops to participate in virtual visits over Thanksgiving dinner for free with Skype
SAN JOSE – (Nov. 9, 2009) Skype today announced the Holiday Military Connection program, which will allow hundreds of American servicemen and women stationed overseas to have the unprecedented opportunity to join their families stateside for virtual visits this holiday season, thanks to a partnership between Skype and the USO.
The Holiday Military Connection program will connect troops in the Guam, Yokosuka, and Camp Hansen (Okinawa) USO centers with their families stateside, through live, face-to-face Skype video call conversations during Thanksgiving dinner. For the first time, deployed men and women will virtually share a holiday meal with the ones they love most, but from whom they are farthest.
In addition, the USO and Skype’s Holiday Military Connection program will enable the estimated 140,000 troops visiting the 18 Pacific Region USO centers to make free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls home to loved ones all season long. Troops can also make unlimited[1] calls to family and friends’ cell phones and landlines free of charge through the donation of Skype’s Unlimited World subscription plans.
For some troops, many of whom will be returning from deployments on submarines or aircraft carriers, the live calls will mark the first time seeing their families in more than a year.
Skype’s partnership with the USO and the launch of the Holiday Military Connection program expand upon a successful trial program that started in May 2009, in which Skype donated calling plans to USO Pacific centers.
“The USO is focused on lifting the spirits of America’s troops and their families; we are proud that Skype can play a pivotal role with the USO in helping connect military families and in turn make a season that is often challenging for them that much less difficult,” said Don Albert, VP and GM of Skype Americas. “Skype is committed to removing barriers and helping to foster meaningful connections that make a difference in people’s lives. Through the USO and Skype’s Holiday Military Connection program, we are doing just that for thousands of military families.”
As part of the Holiday Military Connection program, Skype is also giving away 2,000 holiday gift sets consisting of a headset, plus Skype calling credit or a Webcam to servicemen and women who visit a participating USO center during the week of Thanksgiving. The gift sets will allow troops to continue making memories with their families even after the holiday season is over.
“The USO is thrilled to partner with Skype on this amazing program. Staying in touch with friends and family is truly the best morale booster for troops who have been deployed. With Skype, we can help troops stay in touch all season long at no cost to them or their families,” said Tom Kolstad, USO Vice President for Pacific Operations. “We cannot wait to see the looks on the faces of the troops and their families when they share their meals face-to-face on Thanksgiving Day.”
Those interested in learning more about the program and how military families can connect with Skype can log onto the Holiday Military Connection program Website: www.skype.com/go/uso. Visitors to the site can also submit their own story of how they use Skype to stay connected.
The media are still quite puzzled by Major Nidal Hasan’s motivations that led him to gun down his fellow American soldiers at Ft. Hood. Yet in the same media’s reporting, the below clues emerge. When gathered together, you would think the dots could easily be connected.
I’m not going to jump to any conclusions, but I’m going to put on my investigator hat and pull information from various MSM reports and let you decide:
1. At the shooting, Hasan first bowed his head in prayer and then shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Great) as he shot over 50 soldiers in a calm and measured manner.
2. Store video the morning of the shooting shows Hasan wearing a traditional Muslim WHITE robe and hat. He had began wearing Arabic/Muslim-style clothing in recent weeks.
3. Hasan handed out Qurans to his neighbors a few days before and the day of the shooting, including giving a Quran to his neighbor at 9 am the day of the shooting, telling her, “I’m going to do good work for God” before leaving for the base. Here is the AP photograph taken on Friday, Nov 6 in Killeen, Texas showing the Quran and the business card that Hasan gave to his neighbor the day of the shooting.
4. A recent convert to Islam described how he frequently prayed with Hasan at the town mosque after Hasan was deployed to Fort Hood in July. They last worshipped together at predawn prayers on the day of the massacre when Hasan “appeared relaxed and not in any way troubled or nervous.”
5. Hasan told the convert that the ‘war on terror’ was really a war against Islam. Hasan also expressed anti-Jewish sentiments and defended suicide bombings.
6. During dinner the night before the shooting, Hasan felt he should not go to Afghanistan, that he was supposed to quit. “In the Koran, it says you are not supposed to have alliances with Jews or Christians, and if you are killed in the military fighting against Muslims, you will go to hell.”
7. Hasan’s deceased parents were Palestinians immigrants from the West Bank/Jordan. Hasan’s father was 16 years old when he immigrated to America and later operated a bar and grill in Roanoke, VA.
8. On a form Hasan filled out at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, he gave his nationality not as “American” but as “Palestinian.” Yet he was born in Arlington, Virginia on 8 Sep 1970. (See Allegiance in a Time of Globalization, DOD PERSEREC, Dec 2008)
9. Hasan has family in the Middle East, including a grandfather, uncle and cousins which he and they would visit each other.
10. Hasan’s cousin in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, Mohammad Munif Abdallah Hasan, said the Army major had wanted to leave the military because he felt disrespected over his religion.
11. His cousin said: “If he had killed one or two, I could say that he was defending himself. I could say that there could have been a problem between two sides which led to the use of weapons.”
12. Hasan visited websites espousing radical Islamist ideas.
13. Hasan made these kinds of statements to coworkers: Muslims have the right to rise up against the U.S. military. Muslims have a right to stand up against the aggressors. He spoke favorably about people who strap bombs on themselves and go into Times Square.
14. Hasan gave a presentation to military masters degree students in which he argued the war on terrorism was a war against Islam. This was in an environmental health class at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD. When challenged about what does his topic has to do with environmental health, Hasan became agitated, sweaty, nervous and emotional.
15. Hasan “made himself a lightning rod by making his extreme views known to everyone.”
16. Hasan was “put on probation early in his postgraduate work” and was “disciplined for proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues.”
17. Hasan was a “very devout” member of and daily visitor to the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Md. Attended prayers at least once a day, seven days a week. (See Saudi Publications On Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques. Important reading for security professionals)
18. A friend who also attended the mosque said, “He was my role model when it came to the Islam life. He was so devout. He would come to the early morning prayers — even in the summer when it began at 4 am or 5 am, the early prayers I wouldn’t go to, he would be there.”
19. Hasan wrote “Allah” on his door in Silver Spring, MD according to his neighbor.
20. Hasan wrote an internet posting defending suicide bombers: “…..Suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers. If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory…..”
21. At the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, MD, he asked for feedback about a talk he had prepared for his Army supervisors on the role of Muslims in the military. Hasan argued that if military duties contradicted a soldier’s religion, the soldier should be released from duty.
22. After 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Hasan seemed to grow more disenchanted with his duties. “He did not talk war or politics, but he did tell me once the war started that what he worried most about was having to fight against other Muslims. He did not feel it was right.”—Friend at Muslim community center
23. Hasan attended two matchmaking events at his Muslim community center to find a “good Muslim woman” for his wife but he “had too many conditions” for his match . He wanted a very religious wife who adheres to the Quran, wore the hijab and prayed five times a day. First preference was an Arab woman followed by someone of Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi descent.
24. Hasan avoided contact with his female coworkers. Refused to be photographed for an office Christmas photo since women were in the photo.
25. Hasan worshiped at the Texas mosque each day at 6 am, and often prayed there five times a day, especially during the holy month of Ramadan. (See Saudi Publications On Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques)
26. Hasan had been mentoring an 18-year old Catholic man on the ways of Islam. Only once during their 12 meetings did Hasan NOT talk about religion. Hasan told this man that Muslims shouldn’t be in the U.S. military, because obviously Muslims shouldn’t kill Muslims. He told him not to join the Army.
27. At the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, Hasan told his fellow military master degree students, “I’m a Muslim first and an American second.” (See Allegiance in a Time of Globalization, DOD PERSEREC, Dec 2008)
28. Hasan gave an hour-long talk on the Koran in front of dozens of other doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington DC. He said non-believers should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats. That non-Muslims were infidels condemned to hell who should be set on fire.
29. Fellow doctors have recounted how they were repeatedly harangued by Hasan about Islam.
30. During a conversation with a leader of the Texas mosque he attended, Hasan seemed obsessed with the question of what to tell Muslim soliders about fighting fellow Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.
31. Hasan attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists.
32. This mosque was led by radical imam Anwar al-Awlaki said to be a ‘spiritual adviser’ to three of the hijackers who attacked America on 9/11. al-Awlaki was born in the US but now lives in Yemen. He is an al-Qaeda supporter who targets US Muslims with radical online lectures on Islam.
33. Hasan’s eyes “lit up” when he mentioned his deep respect for al-Awlaki’s teachings, according to a fellow Muslim officer at the Fort Hood base in Texas.
34. Today (9 November 09), al-Awlaki wrote on his blog a post titled, “Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing.”
“Nidal Hassan is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people.
…..Any decent Muslim cannot live, understanding properly his duties towards his Creator and his fellow Muslims, and yet serve as a US soldier. Nidal opened fire on soldiers who were on their way to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
How can there be any dispute about the virtue of what he has done? In fact the only way a Muslim could Islamically justify serving as a soldier in the U.S. army is if his intention is to follow the footsteps of men like Nidal.
The heroic act of brother Nidal also shows the dilemma of the Muslim American community. Increasingly they are being cornered into taking stances that would either make them betray Islam or betray their nation. Many amongst them are choosing the former.
The fact that fighting against the US army is an Islamic duty today cannot be disputed. No scholar with a grain of Islamic knowledge can defy the clear cut proofs that Muslims today have the right — rather the duty — to fight against American tyranny.
Nidal has killed soldiers who were about to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in order to kill Muslims. The American Muslims who condemned his actions have committed treason against the Muslim Ummah and have fallen into hypocrisy.
Allah(swt) says: Give tidings to the hypocrites that there is for them a painful punishment……May Allah grant our brother Nidal patience, perseverance and steadfastness and we ask Allah to accept from him his great heroic act. Ameen.”
Among the reader comments to his post:
• “May Allah grant our brother Nidal patience, perseverance and steadfastness and we ask Allah to accept from him his great heroic act.”
• “That’s the first thing that came to my mind, may Allah reward this man for his bravery. Allah has enlightened him with his duty unlike the hypocrites of this age and time. May he be accepted as a shaheed.”
• “May Allah give brother Nidal ease and may Allah give pain to the enemies.”
USA Cares has established the Fort Hood Family Emergency Fund in response to the tragic events that occurred last Thursday afternoon on the base of the Army’s largest installation. The fund, which serves to assist the immediate families of those wounded and killed, will provide for travel, housing and meals.
Bill Nelson, USA Cares Executive Director remarked, “Our goal is to ensure that victim’s family members do not have to worry about the financial hardships of travel at this time—we encourage them to visit our website for information on eligibility and benefits. Further, we ask Americans everywhere to go to www.usacares.org and donate in light of this tragedy.”
Family Resource Coordinator Forest Bruner, a 20-year Army veteran is directly fielding these requests. Visit www.usacares.org for more information or to donate to USA Care’s Fort Hood Family Emergency Fund.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 2009 – Officials at Fort Hood, Texas, released the names of the 12 soldiers and one civilian employee killed in the Nov. 5 shooting incident on the post.
Dead are:
– Lt. Col. Juanita L. Warman, 55, of Havre De Grace, Md. She was assigned to the 1908th Medical Company, Independence, Mo.
– Maj. Libardo Caraveo, 52, of Woodbridge, Va. He was assigned to the 467th Medical Detachment, Madison, Wis.
– Capt. John P. Gaffaney, 54, of San Diego. He was assigned to the 1908th Medical Company, Independence, Mo.
– Capt. Russell Seager, 41, of Racine, Wis. He was assigned to the 467th Medical Company, Madison, Wis.
– Staff Sgt. Justin Decrow, 32, of Plymouth, Ind. He was assigned to the 16th Signal Company at Fort Hood.
– Sgt. Amy Krueger, 29, of Kiel, Wis. She was assigned to the 467th Medical Company, Madison, Wis.
– Spc. Jason Hunt, 22, of Tillman, Okla. He was assigned to the 1st Brigade at Fort Hood.
– Spc. Frederick Greene, 29, of Mountain City, Tenn. He was assigned to the 16th Signal Company at Fort Hood.
– Pfc. Aaron Nemelka, 19, of West Jordan, Utah. He was assigned to the 510th Engineer Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, at Fort Hood.
– Pfc. Michael Pearson, 22, of Bolingbrook, Ill. He was assigned to the 510th Engineer Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, at Fort Hood.
– Spc. Kham Xiong, 23, of St. Paul, Minn. He was assigned to the 510th Engineer Company, 20th Engineer Battalion, at Fort Hood.
– Pvt. Francheska Velez, 21, of Chicago. She was assigned to the 15th Combat Support Battalion at Fort Hood.
– Michael Cahill of Cameron, Texas, a Fort Hood civilian employee.
For Veterans Day week, I’m going to try and find a bunch of GREAT stories that will motivate you and inspire you. Our veterans are heroes and many of their actions aren’t well-known. A perfect example of this is the Battle of Attu. In 1942 the Japanese invaded the Alaskan island of Attu – American soil!
Your boots have endured everything you’ve thrown at them. Drilling. Marching. Combat. Miles upon miles through never-ending plains, scorching deserts, and urban jungles. Whatever your boots’ story may be, we want to see ‘em.
The Converse Military Boots For Life Contest is searching the planet to find the oldest, most worn-out set of boots. The more battered and tattered, the better. Whether you’ve crawled through swamps or scaled mountains, you could own the winning pair…and score a LIFETIME SUPPLY OF CONVERSE BOOTS!
Submit a photo of your boots along with a brief story telling us why your boots are in the world’s worst condition. Send your entry to contest@militaryboots.com by March 31, 2010.
Show the world what it’s been like to walk a mile or 20 in your boots. And be rewarded for your effort!
Win a free pair of Converse military boots every year for the next 20 years, courtesy of Militaryboots.com.
Although the Apache Indian tribes may be known for their historical conflicts with the Mexicans throughout much of the 17th and 18th centuries, Master Sgt. Gabriel Fierro Sr. is proud of his blended heritage. Tracing his family’s roots back to the Apache and Aztec Indian tribes, his parents’ ancestors set foot on American soil long before the creation of our nation and the Army. His father, who is part Apache Indian and part Mexican, and mother, who is part Mayan and part Aztec Indian, raised Fierro to be proud of his heritage and devoted to the land in which he lived. The Soldier, who is the fourth family member to serve in the Army, uses his blended background to help others, including the younger enlisted Soldiers in his unit and his own children.
The self-proclaimed “cultural chameleon” has been able to use his blended American Indian and Hispanic heritages to better relate with both cultural groups, speaking Spanish to Hispanic Soldiers and discussing the warrior ethos of the Indian tribes with American Indian Soldiers. However, regardless of a Soldier’s heritage, Fierro is committed to helping them prepare for life within the Army. In addition to mentoring and leading the Soldiers in his unit, Fierro is also a dedicated father, striving to instill Army Strong values in his children.
“Everything I teach my Soldiers, I teach my kids, and vice versa. I want everyone to be treated for who they are, not what they look like,” said Fierro.
Drawing on his own blended cultural heritage, Fierro emphasizes to both his fellow Soldiers and children the importance of being open-minded and accepting, as well as teaching them to base opinions on others’ actions, not their race or heritage.
When Fierro enlisted in the Army in the late 1970s, he was following in not only a tradition of excellence for Noncommissioned Officers (NCO), but his family as well. With Fierro’s father and two brothers serving as NCOs in the Army, he joined right out of high school, thinking he would serve for a few years before starting a civilian career. However, he has continued to serve, knowing that his Army service provides him with a meaningful career and enables him to do what he loves most – helping others.
An extension of Fierro’s commitment to helping others, the Soldier deployed to Balad, Iraq in 2007-2008 to serve as a Civil Affairs Team Sergeant. While deployed, the 431st Civil Affairs Team successfully completed more than 130 combat missions working with local provincial government to improve employment options for Iraqis. One of the most notable projects during his deployment was helping to institute the first micro-loan program in the Salah- Ah-Din region, to create economic stability. For meritorious service throughout his deployment, the NCO was awarded the Bronze Star Medal. True to his commitment as a leader and mentor, Fierro took it upon himself to maintain the morale of the unit, frequently sharing care packages with other Soldiers who didn’t have an active support system at home.
Fierro, along with his wife and children, currently lives in Charlotte, N.C., where he serves with the 108th Training Command (Initial Entry Training) as a Human Resources Manager. In that role, he works to prepare Soldiers for mobilization, as well as help them balance their roles as citizens and Soldiers. With more than three decades of Army service, the Reservist has plans to retire in the fall of 2010, and feels confident that the Army has provided him with skills transferable to many civilian occupations.
I’m not at liberty to discuss the incidents at Fort Hood this week. At the risk of a professional conflict of interests, I’m holding my tongue. However, I do want to share a GREAT article written by Ralph Peters on Friday.
On Thursday afternoon, a radicalized Muslim US Army officer shouting “Allahu Akbar!” committed the worst act of terror on American soil since 9/11. And no one wants to call it an act of terror or associate it with Islam.
What cowards we are. Political correctness killed those patriotic Americans at Ft. Hood as surely as the Islamist gunman did. And the media treat it like a case of non-denominational shoplifting.
This was a terrorist act. When an extremist plans and executes a murderous plot against our unarmed soldiers to protest our efforts to counter Islamist fanatics, it’s an act of terror. Period.
When the terrorist posts anti-American hate-speech on the Web; apparently praises suicide bombers and uses his own name; loudly criticizes US policies; argues (as a psychiatrist, no less) with his military patients over the worth of their sacrifices; refuses, in the name of Islam, to be photographed with female colleagues; lists his nationality as “Palestinian” in a Muslim spouse-matching program, and parades around central Texas in a fundamentalist playsuit — well, it only seems fair to call this terrorist an “Islamist terrorist.”
But the president won’t. Despite his promise to get to all the facts. Because there’s no such thing as “Islamist terrorism” in ObamaWorld.
And the Army won’t. Because its senior leaders are so sick with political correctness that pandering to America-haters is safer than calling terrorism “terrorism.”
And the media won’t. Because they have more interest in the shooter than in our troops — despite their crocodile tears.
Maj. Nadal Malik Hasan planned this terrorist attack and executed it in cold blood. The resulting massacre was the first tragedy. The second was that he wasn’t killed on the spot.
Hasan survived. Now the rest of us will have to foot his massive medical bills. Activist lawyers will get involved, claiming “harassment” drove him temporarily insane. There’ll be no end of trial delays. At best, taxpayer dollars will fund his prison lifestyle for decades to come, since our politically correct Army leadership wouldn’t dare pursue or carry out the death penalty.
Maj. Hasan will be a hero to Islamist terrorists abroad and their sympathizers here. While US Muslim organizations decry his acts publicly, Hasan will be praised privately. And he’ll have the last laugh.
But Hasan isn’t the sole guilty party. The US Army’s unforgivable political correctness is also to blame for the casualties at Ft. Hood.
Given the myriad warning signs, it’s appalling that no action was taken against a man apparently known to praise suicide bombers and openly damn US policy. But no officer in his chain of command, either at Walter Reed Army Medical Center or at Ft. Hood, had the guts to take meaningful action against a dysfunctional soldier and an incompetent doctor.
Had Hasan been a Lutheran or a Methodist, he would’ve been gone with the simoon. But officers fear charges of discrimination when faced with misconduct among protected minorities.
Now 12 soldiers and a security guard lie dead. 31 soldiers were wounded, 28 of them seriously. If heads don’t roll in this maggot’s chain of command, the Army will have shamed itself beyond moral redemption.
There’s another important issue, too. How could the Army allow an obviously incompetent and dysfunctional psychiatrist to treat our troubled soldiers returning from war? An Islamist whacko is counseled for arguing with veterans who’ve been assigned to his care? And he’s not removed from duty? What planet does the Army live on?
For the first time since I joined the Army in 1976, I’m ashamed of its dereliction of duty. The chain of command protected a budding terrorist who was waving one red flag after another. Because it was safer for careers than doing something about him.
Get ready for the apologias. We’ve already heard from the terrorist’s family that “he’s a good American.” In their world, maybe he is.
But when do we, the American public, knock off the PC nonsense?
A disgruntled Muslim soldier murdered his officers way back in 2003, in Kuwait, on the eve of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Recently? An American mullah shoots it out with the feds in Detroit. A Muslim fanatic attacks an Arkansas recruiting station. A Muslim media owner, after playing the peace card, beheads his wife. A Muslim father runs over his daughter because she’s becoming too Westernized.
Muslim terrorist wannabes are busted again and again. And we’re assured that “Islam’s a religion of peace.”
I guarantee you that the Obama administration’s non-response to the Ft. Hood attack will mock the memory of our dead.
