The first Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor since Vietnam has been honored with a Destroyer being named after him:

Streamers fly during the christening ceremony of the USS Jason Dunham, an Arleigh-Burke Class destroyer, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2009, at Bath iron Works in Bath, Maine. The ship is named after the late Marine Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, of Scio, N.Y. Dunham, 22, of Scio, N.Y., who was mortally wounded as he saved his comrades that day, will be honored Saturday at the christening of the Navy’s newest destroyer, the USS Jason Dunham. The young corporal who threw his Kevlar helmet and his body onto the grenade became the first Marine since the Vietnam War to receive the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A local story on the occasion:

In a solemn ceremony punctuated by talk of courage, service and sacrifice, the mother of a Marine corporal on Saturday christened a warship honoring her son, who died after covering an exploding grenade to protect his comrades in Iraq.

After composing herself and taking a deep breath, Deb Dunham smashed a bottle of champagne over the bow of the 510-foot warship Jason Dunham, then held the bottle aloft before a cheering crowd of more than 1,500 people.

She was joined by the Marines who served with her son, by her husband, Dan Dunham, and their daughter Katelyn Dunham. Two other Dunham boys also were in the audience. Read the rest of this entry »

The remains of Navy Captain Scott Speicher, a pilot who has been missing since being shot down during the 1991 Gulf War, have been positively identified. The Pentagon has released a statement:

The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP) has positively identified remains recovered in Iraq as those of Captain Michael Scott Speicher. Captain Speicher was shot down flying a combat mission in an F/A-18 Hornet over west-central Iraq on January 17th, 1991 during Operation Desert Storm.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Captain Speicher’s family for the ultimate sacrifice he made for his country,” said Ray Mabus, Secretary of the Navy. “I am also extremely grateful to all those who have worked so tirelessly over the last 18 years to bring Captain Speicher home.”

“Our Navy will never give up looking for a shipmate, regardless of how long or how difficult that search may be,” said Admiral Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations. “We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to Captain Speicher and his family for the sacrifice they have made for our nation and the example of strength they have set for all of us.”

The statement goes on to recount the details of how Capt. Speicher’s remains were found, and the likelihood that he died on impact. I am so glad that the remains have been identified, and the mystery solved. Read the rest of this entry »

This is one of those articles that I really REALLY hope people will read before just commenting on the headline or the quoted sections. In fact, I think it’s one of the best articles I’ve seen on this subject in half a decade. Yes, it’s long, detailed, and forces many readers to question their previously held beliefs about regime ties to the Al Queda terrorist network, but it’s not the typical anti-Bush/anti-war piece or a woohoo-Bush-was-right piece either. It is EXACTLY why: members of the 911 Commission, Sen Intel Com, as well as others (and why every investigation into the subject of regime ties) have called for MORE investigation (while specifically saying the matter should not be closed). Mark’s done a fantastic piece of work here, and it deserves reading.
-Scott

During a series of email and telephone exchanges Matthew Degn relayed to www.regimeofterror.com… his vast array of experiences working with intelligence issues relating to the current and former situation in Iraq. Among his responsibilities during his years in Iraq Degn worked as a civilian interrogator attached to the U.S. Army in Iraq before working as a Senior Policy/Intelligence Adviser to Deputy General Kamal and other top intelligence officials with the Iraq’s Ministry of Interior. Degn, currently working on a book about his experiences in Iraq (personal website here), continues to argue against those that feel there was no link between terrorism and Saddam Hussein’s regime based on his involvement with hundreds of interrogations in Iraq and his involvement with many of the Iraqi Intelligence officials with the Ministry of Interior. Degn says that much of the public perception about Saddam Hussein’s regime and terrorism are incorrect.

Degn is currently the Director of the Intelligence Studies Program and a professor at American Military University currently a professor at American Military University whose testimony about events in Iraq has been cited by NPR, ABC News, the Washington Post and elsewhere.

~~~

Another reason for conflicting reports that Degn pointed out is both the chain of command in the U.S. government’s many agencies and compartmentalization of information (”need to know”). Degn said he saw firsthand how these two factors led to vital wartime information being “watered down” before it mades its way to official reports and investigations.

Surely, in the dawn before any theatre action, so much must run thru the minds of our warriors. The scale of D-Day is humbling, and much is captured in this video on the Army’s website. Visit the page for more photos, maps and historic data on the June 6th, 1944 airborne and beach assaults on Omaha, Utah, Gold and June Beaches by American, British and Canadian forces.

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By now, the current POTUS/TOTUS has landed in France… set to address another world audience on the 65th anniversary of D-Day. Regardless of the political scrutiny of Obama’s performance, this is as it should be. Our CIC *should* be there to pay honor to our heroes, resting on French soil.

But I will say this… considering Obama’s track record of speeches across Europe as POTUS, and as a candidate, I’m not looking forward to his D-Day Obama comments, and his half-baked pride in America that gets buried under platitudes during a fence balancing act. This is a day I want a Commander in Chief that delivers. A President who remembers and mourns the “boys” that left for war, and is proud and forever beholding to those same boys who became the “men” who conquered a cliff and saved a continent

Old Trooper has sent me the perfect tribute, with a promise I would post this to remind all FA readers of the honest and heartfelt thanks from a genuine Commander in Chief from decades past. So, together we take you back in time to 1984… President Ronald Reagan’s speech commemorating another anniversary of fallen heroes on sacred ground.

It is fitting, it is a speech worthy of the day, delivered by a Commander in Chief proud not only of his country today, but also it’s history. And today, I want to share it with you… and with heartfelt thanks to Old Trooper for reviving this stirring memory.

Today, as 40 years ago, our armies are here for only one purpose. To protect and defend democracy. The only territories we hold are memorials, like this one, and graveyards where our heroes rest. We in American have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars. It is better to be here, ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea… rushing to respond only after freedom is lost.

President Ronald Reagan, June 6, 1984, Normandy

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link

Thank you Eddie

Here’s my 2009 Memorial Day video:

Most of the photos come from DoD, and are focused on the current conflicts. The editing is a bit uneven, as I haphazardly imported pictures without a lot of discrimination; but ultimately, what I decided I wanted to convey is the sense of sacrifice of not just the soldiers, but of the military families they leave behind who dare to support them and their mission. I wanted to juxtaposition those photos of them reunited/leaving their families with photos of what their service and sacrifice away from home have gained back in return: Purple fingers….admiration and friendships with Iraqis and Iraqi children….. There’s a poignancy there, because these mothers and fathers should be back home with their own families, who need them in their lives; their children deserve to have their parent holding them- not be half a world away, holding someone else’s child in place of them. And yet, what the soldier does by leaving his family behind, he does on behalf of them…and us.

It is the American soldier who is the best ambassador to other nations; who exemplifies nobility and compassion and who exports our values and traditions. It is the American soldier who represents the best and brightest our country has to offer.

When those Iraqi children in the photos grow up, I hope they remember the kindness and friendship of U.S. soldiers.

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60 year old Maj. Steven Hutchison, a Vietnam veteran who re-enlisted after 9/11 was killed in a roadside bomb attack in Iraq on May 10th.

From MSNBC:

A 60-year-old Vietnam War veteran who was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq has become the oldest Army soldier to die in that conflict, the military said Thursday.

An Associated Press database of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan shows that Maj. Steven Hutchison, of Scottsdale, Ariz., is the oldest member of any service branch killed since the wars broke out.

His brother said Hutchison decided to re-enlist after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the death of his wife.

This is a debt we can never repay.

The best we can do is to never forget.

h/t – Larry W for pointing out this story.

h/t – Hawk for the pic link.

Even if this was off the cuff, it’s not going to go over well with the sports bosses at CBS. The network’s golf analyst, David Feherty, writing a column in D Magazine about the George and Laura Bush moving to the Dallas area, says U.S. soldiers would shoot Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid:

“From my own experience visiting the troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this, though: despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Osama bin Laden, there’s a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death.”

I post this to point out that American “troops” that I’ve spoken with are not at all enamored with Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid. It might be because Pelosi worked against their efforts to succeed in Iraq, and Harry Reid flat out said the war was lost at the very same moment it was being won. It might be because they both tried to cut off supplies to American forces in combat just to get some good political PR. There’s probably a lot of reasons, but the point here is that the by and large the “troops” were not supported IN EFFECT or even in rhetoric by Democratic Party leaders, and many people-myself included-often hear from “troops” that the frustration is much much MUCH higher than Democrats and opponents of the American forces efforts to succeed in Iraq might realize.

The Marines’ Infantry Immersion Trainer combines live role-players, virtual characters and pyrotechnics in an intense simulation.

Jamie Glazov had a must read interview in Frontpage Magazine yesterday. Dave Gaubatz, the first U.S. civilian (1811) Federal Agent deployed to Iraq in 2003, speaks out about the barbaric treatment and heinous deaths of US soldiers, and reveals that he kept Congress members – specifically calling out VP Biden – completely informed on the intel they gained, and the lives it saved.

He also notes that never once did the Congress members ask what methods they used to obtain the intelligence.

Gaubatz is disturbed that the current administration, and the Congress members he helped keep informed, now turn their backs on the truth, hamper intelligence gathering, and abandon the US intel operatives in order to throw their support to detainee rights. To this end, he promises to release documents and photos from 2003.

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Strangely enough, this one doesn’t look so political as it does humanitarian, AND (you better sit down for this) it looks like it doesn’t portray American soldiers as Haliburton stormtroopers, imperialists, neocon tools, or war criminals. I know, I couldn’t believe it either. Such a 180 turn in tone couldn’t possibly be because Bush isn’t in power anymore. Nahhh

HE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you, guys. Let me say [damn, no teleprompter...gonna have to go old school and use a notecard or these people will realize I don't know who they are]…Multinational Force Iraq, Multinational Corps Iraq, Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq First Corps, America’s Corp Band: Thanks to all of you.

Listen, I am so honored.

AUDIENCE MEMBER [State Dept Official/appointee who is new in-country]: We love you.
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Last night on MTV’s The Real World: Brooklyn, a cast member and Iraq War vet, Ryan, was called back to serve again in Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was his greatest fear-understandably!

(Ryan is seen here on election night at an Obama Rally wearing an Uncle Sam costume and cheering as Senator Obama is elected President)
“I know that if I vote for Obama, I won’t have to go back to Iraq.”

Ryan was decorated for valor several times in his first tour of Iraq. He seems to be a really nice guy by all accounts and of unusually good character for the MTV series.

Ryan voted for Obama
Ryan voted to end the War in Iraq
Ryan was happy
Obama did not end the War in Iraq.
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