65 year ann. of Iwo Jima, the rest of the story.(Vanity)

http://picasaweb.google.com/7thfighter/IwoJima?authkey=Gv1sRgCIW06db_6oth&feat=email#slideshow/5299163150448181842 ^ | 28 Feb 10 | self

[PilotDave]

65 years ago right now the battle for Iwo Jima was raging. We all know the story of the invasion. 6000+ Marines dead. 20,000 Japanese KIA. The flag raising. Ira Hayes. What most aren't aware of is the ongoing ops after Iwo was secured. The main reason for the invasion was to take the airstrip for fighters to be able to escort the bombers to Japan. The only fighter really capable enough to accomplish this mission was the P-51. Limited space for the for the runways and ramps, ops at very high gross weights, 8+ hour missions, volcanic dust, attacking Japs and strong crosswinds made the operations hazardous to say the least. Follow the link for a photo essay.

[PilotDave]

The last Japanse soldiers surrendered around 1950. Amazing...

[freedumb2003]

All gave some, some gave all.

I am amazed at this photo montage — almost every frame had me saying “oh wow!” Iwo Jima was clearly a place of great heroism and a keystone in our WWII Pacific strategy and tactics.

I know everyone knows that but to see these picture is to make it VISCERAL — these were real people with families and loved ones, involved in a complex and messy, and sometimes fatal, situation.

God bless these great men and women who stood so tall in such danger and peril.

[Cheetahcat]

Thank You for posting these great and moving photos.

[ansel12]

So where is the story?

[dfwgator]

So where is the story?

We won.

[ansel12]

I heard about that, the link takes you nowhere.

[PilotDave]

Link is working for me...

[ansel12]

When I get there is a place where you can get a google account, or sign into a picasa account.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

“Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue.”

Admiral Chester Nimitz....

[PilotDave]

Seems to be working for the others. Here’s a slightly different link to the same gallery. Click on the Iwo Jima gallery and then click on full screen view. Hope this works for you.
http://picasaweb.google.com/7thfighter

[ansel12]

You’re right, that link did work for me, thanks.

[Northern Yankee]

Over a thousand B-29's ended up making emergency landings at Iwo once it was secured. (Including my father.) There was at one point a Japanese attack on U.S. airmen that came unexpectedly. The American airmen fought them off until the Marines arrived.

An amazing story.

[Northern Yankee]

Thought you’d like to see.

[GailA]

Thank your Dad if he is still with you. Mine passed away several years ago. He and another man put the US Flag back up on Corregidor when MacArthur retook “The Rock”. He rarely spoke about his service in the Pacific to us girls.

This is how our government is treating our retired Military and Veterans. These NEW BIG Fees need REPEALED!

Capitol Hill switchboard is 202-224-3121

TRI CARE FOR LIFE This from a google search:

http://economicspolitics.blogspot.com/2009/05/tricare-for-life-is-obama-trying-to.html

This option would help reduce the costs of TFL, as well as costs for Medicare, by introducing minimum out-of pocket requirements for beneficiaries. Under this option, TFL would not cover any of the first $525 of an enrollee’s cost-sharing liabilities for calendar year 2011 and would limit coverage to 50 percent of the next $4,725 in Medicare cost sharing that the beneficiary incurred. (Because all further cost sharing would be covered by TFL, enrollees could not pay more than $2,888 in cost sharing in that year.) http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9925/12-18-HealthOptions.pdf

http://www.vawatchdog.org/09/hcva09/hcva110609-1.htm
Bill Would Restrict Veterans’ Health Care Options 11/06/09
Buyer and McKeon Offer Amendments to Protect Veterans and TRICARE Beneficiaries

Congress plans to block Tricare fee increases
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/10/military_tricarefees_blocked_100709w

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/10/military_tricarefees_blocked_100709w/

By Rick Maze - Staff writer, Oct 7, 2009

Tricare fee increases imposed last week by the Defense Department will be repealed by a provision of the compromise 2010 defense authorization bill unveiled Wednesday by House and Senate negotiators.
Snip The fee increases were announced on Sept. 30 and took effect on Oct. 1, but the defense bill, HR 2647, includes a provision barring any fee increases until the start of fiscal 2011.

Snip

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Bill Matz, president of the National Association for Uniformed Services, said the announcement of fee increases was shocking considering that the Obama administration promised earlier this year to hold off on any new fee Tricare fee increases until fiscal 2011.

“President Obama and DoD assured NAUS and the entire military family earlier this year that there would rightly be no increases in any Tricare fees” in fiscal 2010, Matz said. “We took them at their word, and I can’t believe that a co-pay increase like this was allowed to go forward,” he added.