Technicalities

Just for a Change...

After an incredibly bad week of publicity for the Army, I think it's time to see a few stories about the truly great people we have over there. The brilliant, dedicated, brave troops who continue to do a tremendous job in Iraq, under terrible conditions. These are the men who get NO publicity unless they die doing their job. THEN the only publicity they get is that they died - nothing about the job they are doing.

Without waiting another minute - check out these stories that John has posted. Yes we still have a military to be proud of!

Send your email to Indymedia

Before you do anything else - head over to Blackfive and read about the latest Indymedia method to dishearten our troops.

Then send those emails! Our troops don't deserve this - nor do those at Soldier's Angels who are doing wonderful work to send care packages and letters to the soldiers.

Words can not describe the vile, evil, nastiness of these people.

Fallen Heroes

The death of Pat Tillman has provoked a tremendous amount of reportage. This has worried some people. They fear that when the ultimate sacrifice is paid by someone who is "unknown", no one will notice or maybe only the family and friends will care.

Blackfive has a story about Taking Chance Home that is absolutely a must read.

The following is Marine Lieutenant Colonel Strobl's account of escorting the remains of Lance Corporal Chance Phelps. It's a long and beautifully written and it deserves to be read in it's entirety. It's about Valor, Honor and Respect. Thanks to Jarhead Dad for sending it to me.

While Pat Tillman remains Pat to his family and friends who personally grieve, for the country he is a symbol of all the men and women who have given their lives so we can live in safety and freedom. There is no less respect for those who are not garnering headlines. For Pat, Chance, and all of the other men and women who have given all in this war, we honor and salute you. We grieve with your family and friends.

A True American Hero

The news has just been released that Pat Tillman the ex-NFL star has been Killed in Action in Afghanistan.

Complete details about Tillman's death were not immediately released but Pentagon officials said he was killed inside southeast Afghanistan while taking part in a special operations action. The military said there were other fatalities but it was not clear how many.

A true hero by any measure of the word. He turned down a $3.6 million football contract to become an Army Ranger. My deepest condolences to his family and friends.

UPDATE*** Sgt Hook was in attendance at a ceremony honoring Pat.

From Basic to Falluja

Before you finish reading this - have a look at the sidebar. If you haven't donated to Spirit of America - what are you waiting for? Click the link and do it now!

Now that you've done a little something for the Marines. Let's have a look at what Drill Sgt. Rob is up to. He's got a terrific essay that ties in Basic Training to performance in war situations to the situation in Iraq.

I was also having problems with soldiers moving around at the position of attention. They just couldn’t seem to understand the importance of standing stock still, and didn’t grasp how discipline in Drill and Ceremonies translates to discipline in a combat zone. So I stopped using pushups and verbal counseling to correct them. I started “dropping the nuke” every time their eyes or head moved. The nuke is an extra shift of fireguard or CQ duty at night. It’s 2 hours of walking around with a flashlight, instead of sleeping a full night. It took one day for them to stop moving at the position of attention. Once I kept my word and made sure they pulled extra shifts, they knew how serious I was. They knew there was no more tolerance. They knew they paid a heavy and immediate price for a lack of discipline.

As they say - go read the whole thing. Handling the terrorists is as much a mind game as it is physical fighting. This puts it all together beautifully. Well said Drill Sgt!

And We're Off!

It's time to hit the Paypal button, type in the credit card info, do whatever you have to do, but donate to the Spirit of America!

Just click on the picture below and you will be taken to the donation page for the Fighting Fusileers. Let's wipe out the other blog groups! We can do it cause we're the best!

***If you don't know what this is all about, click the link on the picture and all will be explained (yes, before you donate so you can back out if you don't want to)***

*** Just a side note - this is the first time I'm trying delayed posting, so I hope it works and this doesn't post too early. The contest starts at 12:01 am Pacific time.

UPDATE - Looks like it worked and now I have the proper donate button. Later today, when I have time, I'll put up the blogroll of bloggers and non-bloggers in the Fighting Fusileers. Right now, if you want to see who's helping us out - go here.

And here is the current list of bloggers in the Fighting Fusileers!

The Imperial Armorer She Who Will Be Obeyed The Imperial Animatrix Right Wingin-it! Loyal Reader Calliope! Un-named Left-of-Center Blogger Not Appearing in this blogroll* Triticale Darthvob A Soldiers Blog Practical Penumbra Road Warrior Rules for Survival Brain Shavings The Bejus Pundit! Blackfive - The Paratrooper of Love! Technicalities The Anti-Idotarian Rottweiler Democrats Give Conservatives Indigestion Bloodletting The Politburo Diktat The Mudville Gazette Geeklog The Common Virtue The Ghost of a Flea Grim's Hall Feste, A Foolsblog! LC Glen, Imperial Longbowman Dawn L, the Non-Commenting Commenter! Loyal Reader "Brass" Loyal Reader "Bill" (Constructive credit for already donating) Marine Corps Moms! Colorado Psycho Wasted Electrons Citizen Smash! A Special Kind of Stupid Aaron's Rantblog Da Goddess Uruloki's Lair The Cool Blue Blog e-Claire Baldilocks Straight White Guy Knowledge is Power Ben's World

Preparing for the Assault

An update on the preparations for the coming blog war (the link is the picture below). Note that the new start time is Wednesday. All volunteers should have credit cards, paypal, or your pay method of choice, ready to fire.

While I've been gone all day working, John's been drawing up battle plans. He gets all the fun jobs!

Choosing Sides

I'm throwing in with the Castle Argghhh!!! Starting Monday Tuesday it will be a 10 day drive to raise funds for the U.S. Marines to equip television stations in Iraq. Let's give them an alternative to Al-Jazeera.

Opposing sides - trying to raise more money will be Dean Esmay and his Liberty Alliance and Michele of A Small Victory who is gathering her own forces.

Remember the battle will commence on Monday Tuesday when the donation buttons are set up. So, hold off until then - links will be posted. Then you can cast your donation in with the Fighting Fusileers.

*** UPDATE **** As noted by Dean in the comments - because of the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing - donations will start on Tuesday.

Go Read Sgt Hook - NOW!

The other day Blackfive, along with many in the blogosphere, pretty much shredded an oped piece by Andy Rooney. I felt that since everyone else seemed to be handling it so well, and even more importantly, it was being handled by people who had been in service to our country, there wasn't much for me to add.

I'm still not going to say anything about the piece itself, but Sgt. Hook has posted answers to the questions that Mr. Rooney was asking. Please go read them - find out what the soldier on the ground in hostile territory is thinking! Then be VERY HAPPY you have men and women like them defending you!

The Other Side of the Story

I spent Thursday and Friday on the road, so I got to listen to quite a lot of radio that I usually don't have time to hear. First was the Condi Rice testimony - since it's been blogged extensively elsewhere and it was a couple of days ago, I'm not going to go back into it. The only thing I have to say is that she made most of the commission panelists look like idiots - especially when they tried to railroad her into making their own case. And she did it without turning a hair. She has my vote for "Woman of the Year".

On the way home on Friday I heard an excellent phone call that Rush had with Dan Senor the spokesman for the Coalition Authority in Baghdad.

If you in March or April of 2003 had told most people that one year from that point, Iraqis would have an interim constitution, a constitution that protects freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, protect minority rights, introduces principles that we know like federalism and basic government accountability, they would have said, "You're crazy, no way in one year would you have a country as purportedly divisive as Iraq, where Kurds and Sunnis and Shi'a and Christians, men and women, would come together in a democratic fashion and reach compromise and draft an interim constitution and make progress in the economy."

Go read the entire transcript it is well worth your time. Find out what is NOT getting to you through the mainstream news media!