It was this day 70 years ago when war was first brought to our shores. Unfortunately it would not be the last time it would happen. It happened in 1993 at the World Trade Center and again in 2001.

Map of Pearl Harbor with my son pointing to USS Arizona

For many young people I am afraid that the significance of Pearl Harbor has been lost on them. Besides seeing a movie about it or just hearing about it, I don’t think the up and coming generations of today realize what a significant day this really is. It was 9/11 times 1000 in my opinion. It was not a rogue bunch of idealogical terrorists, but rather a nation-state that deliberately planned and executed an attack against us unprovoked. Our might pacific fleet sat almost defenseless as the Japanese unleashed wave after wave of attack against them and the civilians of Hawaii.

The spot where the USS Arizona was moored up to

It was as noted, “a day that will live in infamy”. I really hope that holds true and does not become a day forgotten and ignored. May God Bless all of those that endured that attack and their families who have and probably still suffer today.

The oil still coming up from the USS Arizona. Also known as the tears of the Arizona

The wall of names of those lost which is inside the memorial

Our good friend Gina Elise has teamed up he organization, www.pinupsforvets.com with www.warriorgateway.org to raise a lot of money for our returning and wounded veterans.

Last year Gina was given a brand-new 2011 VW Beetle by Oprah Winfrey and rather than keep it and use it herself, she is auctioning it off to raise money for our troops. She has the car listed on ebay where you can see many pictures of it, read all the specs about the car and even make a bid on it. You can check it out at http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/?cmd=ViewItem&_rdc=1&item=170712491084#ht_793wt_1167

Also be sure and watch the video below where Gina explains what she is doing and why she is doing it. We here at You Served are very proud to call Gina a dear friend.

Tonight we have returning guest, Scott Mactavish from the documentary Ride For Lance. Scott was last on the show on March 1st, 2011.

The documentary is about Chief Petty Officer Lance Vaccaro, sort of. Lance was a United States Navy SEAL, who gave his life for his country in 2008. On June 17th, 2010, four riders and a support team, all friends of Lance, launched the The Lance Vaccaro Memorial Ride and rode from Virginia Beach to Alaska and back in his honor. They covered 12,000 miles in 31 days, and met folks from large cities and small towns across North America, including active duty troops, veterans, and the families of deployed and fallen troops who shared their stories of pride and heartbreak.

A film crew accompanied them along the way and captured over 100 hours of footage, and nearly 30,000 high definition photographs.

Be sure to join us tonight for what will be a heart-warming and honorable story on You Served Radio. You can listen live starting at 8PM ET at www.youservedradio.com. In case you miss tonight’s show or would just like to go back and listen to it again, you can hit up that same website anytime after tonight’s show to listen to the archive o this one or any of our past 163 episodes.

18 years ago today Operation Gothic Serpent took place in a little unknown (at the time) place called Mogadishu, Somalia. Yes the Battle now known as Black Hawk Down happened.

The interview below is with Keni Thomas who is now a country music recording artist and author, but 18 years ago he was a Team Leader with Task Force Ranger in “The Mog”.

We are working with Keni to have him on You Served Radio soon after he gets back from his current USO tour.  Believe it or not he just ran into our very own CJ Grisham who is currently deployed to Afghanistan while on the tour.

Stay tuned to this blog and You Served Radio as I am sure Keni will join the likes of other great country recording artists like Craig Morgan, Rockie Lynne, Cowboy Crush, Amanda Nourgany and of course Mark Wills as Friends of You Served Radio.

I have read several reports that puts the death rate of WW II vets at around 1,000 per day. In fact based on the death rate of WW I veterans there are predictions that all WW II veterans could be gone by 2020.

To be able to meet and talk with these awesome veterans is quite an honor. They are truly living capsules of history of our country. So needless to say when we get to interview these WW II Veterans like MG Haynes, Ben Steele or Vic Freudenberger it is truly an honor and a privilege. It is even more of an honor when they talk to us and can recount so many minor details.

I can barely remember last week so it doesn’t surprise me when WW II veterans start forget some of the past, like here:
http://www.military.com/news/article/memory-fades-but-wwii-vets-story-in-memoir.html

This is another reason why I am amazed when we have guests like Vic on the show. If you haven’t listened to last week’s hour-plus interview with Vic then you are missing out. He walked through years of history with us on the show, recollecting exact dates, places, etc. Be sure and check out http://www.blogtalkradio.com/youserved/2011/09/28/episode-161-maj-rusty-bradley-vic-freudenberger to listen to the show last week and stay tuned in on Tuesday nights because we will have Vic back on in the near future to continue with more of his career and our history.

Another honorable video put to the great voice of Leann Rimes singing Amazing Grace.

Next week on You Served Radio we will be having a 9/11 Memorial Show. Because of the calendar this year, our show will actually happen on Tuesday Sept. 13th. Our first guest of the evening is former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Needless to say we are very excited about this show and of course this interview.

Later on in the show we will have our good friend Nick Palmisciano, who is CEO of Ranger-UP (www.rangerup.com). However between those two great guests and maybe after the interview with Nick, we are looking to hear from you, our readers and listeners of this blog and the radio show.

We would like you to take a few minutes and record us a short audio recording telling us and our listeners answers to any of these questions:

1. What does this 10th anniversary mean to you?
2. What were you doing that day 10 years ago and what emotions and memories do you have from that time.
3. Any reflections of feelings on our country since that time 10 years ago.
4. Or any other thoughts, opinions or reflections you may have related to the terrible attacks on our country.

You can say your name or not. It is up to you. If you have a personal connection to a family member or friend that was personally affected by the attacks or any of the wars since the attack and would like to recognize them, feel free to mention it in the recording.

After you follow the instructions below, I ask that you email the recording to troy@youserved.com. I will take it from there. I also ask that you send these absolutely no later 5PM EDT on Sept. 12th. The sooner the better so I can make the adjustments I need to in order to merge the files together. Lastly if you don’t have time or don’t want to do this, but would still like to share your feelings, you can call in live next week to our show from 8-10PM EDT at 866-696-9150 and say it live on the air as we get time.

Now there are several ways to do this. If you have a digital audio recorder then you probably know how to use that. I will provide instructions here in case you don’t. Since you are reading this blog, I know you have a computer. Here is how you can use a computer to record yourself talking about one of the above topics. 

Windows Vista:

1. Click START
2. Click ALL PROGRAMS
3. Click ACCESSORIES folder
4. Click on SOUND RECORDER
5. When you are ready (assuming you have either a microphone plugged into your computer or you are using an internal one), click START RECORDING.
6. Record your audio.
7. When you are done, click Stop Recording.
8. Save the file somewhere easy to find it, like your desktop. Please name it 911_YOURNAME.wma.
9. Then you can email it to me at troy@youserved.com

1. Open your APPLICATIONS folder
2. Click on QuickTime Player.
3. On the Menu, click FILE, NEW AUDIO RECORDING
4. Click the down arrow on the right side of the QuickTime player and select where you want the file saved (Desktop is recommended for quickly finding it).
5. Click the red record button and record your file.
6. Click the stop button when complete.
7. Email the file (from where you saved it in step #4) to troy@youserved.com.

No introduction really needed for this one. Just advice to maybe grab a tissue as I am sure the feelings of that morning, the sadness, the helplessness may come back to you as you watch this video.

Even though this whole mess at Arlington is heart-breaking and stomach-turning, it is very encouraging to at least see the soldiers of the “Old Guard” stepping up in the evening hours to try and make things right.

Night after night this summer, troops from the Army’s historic Old Guard have left their immaculately pressed dress blues, white gloves and shiny black boots at home to slip into Arlington National Cemetery in T-shirts and flip-flops to photograph each and every grave with an iPhone.
The sometimes eerie task to photograph more than 219,000 grave markers and the front of more than 43,000 sets of cremated remains in the columbarium is part of the Army’s effort to account for every grave and to update and fully digitize the cemetery’s maps. The Old Guard performs its work at night to escape the summer heat and to avoid interrupting funerals.

It should not have taken this, but Thank God our Soldiers are doing it, even if a bunch of Government civilians and millions of dollars couldn’t. Even though it is a sad duty, it is also a very honor. Not sure when they raised their hands to volunteer in the Army that they would have done it if the recruiter told them they may have to walk through a cemetery at night.

Using head lamps to light their way, they’ve tripped in shallow holes and brushed aside countless spider webs. They’ve paused at seeing freshly dug graves prepared for the next day’s funerals.

One soldier, Spc. Raymond Piron, 22, of Detroit, says he was working one night in an old section of the cemetery when he felt something tap him on the shoulder. He turned around, but he was alone.

Before this summer, Spc. Craig Green, 21, of Dover, Del., a broad-shouldered, tough-looking Iraq war veteran, says that when it came to walking cemeteries at night, “you couldn’t pay me to do it.”

Read more:http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2090594,00.html#ixzz1WRsB0MmU

A little boy from Kansas is having to deal with a lot right now. For one thing he has lost his father in Afghanistan. His dad was one of the crew members on the downed Chinook a couple of weeks ago that took 31 American lives.

But he also is trying to come to grips with why his father’s service seems to be overlooked.

A young boy in Kansas was among millions in America who watched the horrifying news this past weekend about the Chinook that went down in Afghanistan’s Wardak province.

That boy in Kansas soon found out that his father, a U.S. Army pilot, was aboard the doomed helicopter.
In the midst of his world shattering, he could not understand why the Navy SEALs drew so much attention. There were 30 Americans on board that Chinook. Why wasn’t anyone mentioning his father, a chief warrant officer with Bravo Company, 7th Battalion, 155th Aviation Regiment?

To him and his family, units, branches of service, rank or job speciality does not matter. They lost their loved in combat and for a little kid who now has a big hole in his heart and life I can see why he doesn’t understand why some seem to value some lives more than others.

I am glad CNN carried this story so at least little Braydon could see in at least in some media stories that his Dad mattered just as much.

Read the whole story at http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/09/afghanistan.pilot.son/