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On Nov. 29, 1970, 43 U.S. servicemen gathered in the Hoa Lo prison compound, often called the “Hanoi Hilton,” and performed an act of retaliation— a church service. Nine days earlier, after a failed attempt by U.S. Special Forces to liberate the prisoners, the North Vietnamese captors had removed them from their cells and incarcerated them in a single holding area. For several men, it was the first face-to-face encounter with friends they had made through tap-code communication. The first Sunday after they were removed from their cells, they attempted to hold a church service but were threatened with severe...

We no longer have to play at goblins and ghosts on Halloween. We've got real snoops and authentic spooks, and they're plenty scary, reading our mail and tracing us through social media. Safety and security are the crucial domestic interests in the high-tech world where we all live. We feel helpless in trying to keep control over our most minute musings; we're sure that Big Brother is watching us, and not necessarily to watch over us. It's the season when doubts and fears, some real and some not, assail. We're frustrated with the breakout of Obamacare, which betrayed its...

While gridlock is the game in Washington, pilfering and degradation apparently are the pastime of some unpatriotic thugs at war memorials across the country. For me, that is about as low as a nation and its people can go. This past week in Natick, Mass., veterans and other law-abiding citizens were stunned to discover that a soldier's helmet -- from one who died in battle -- had gone missing from the community's prized Fallen Soldier's Memorial. The helmet was cemented atop a rifle that is part of a display that also includes a piece of the twin towers and two...

Next week, "never forget" will resound across America as citizens mark a dozen years since the 9/11 terrorist attack and one year since the bloody disaster in Benghazi. But who will remember the American heroes who came under siege at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan on 9/14/12? Two heroic U.S. Marines -- Lt. Col. Christopher Raible and Sgt. Bradley Atwell -- perished in the monstrous battle last year, and nearly a dozen others were injured. What happened at Camp Bastion and whether the Obama administration has learned from the deadly incident are timely questions as Washington prepares for war again in...

Bystanders Aid Bicyclist Hit by Car in Tonawanda Tonawanda, NY (WBEN) A young bicyclist was rescued by a number of onlookers after he was hit by a car at a busy Tonawanda intersection Thursday afternoon. Angelo tells WBEN's Tom Bauerle he was about to make a turn at Sheridan and Delaware when he saw a car hit a young man on a bicycle. "She says he just came in front of her," says Angelo. He cleared the intersection and jumped into action, and was not alone. "It had to be at least a dozen people, everybody, men, women..." described Angelo....

It made the papers, but was covered far from sufficiently, when Elisha “Ray” Nance died a few years ago at the age of 94. You may never have heard of him, but he was well known around Bedford, Virginia, a picturesque town located at the feet of the Blue Ridge Peaks of Otter. He delivered mail in that neck of the woods for many years. But it was for what he did before becoming a letter carrier that he should be best remembered. Ray Nance was one of The Bedford Boys. In fact, he was the last surviving member of...

I will be at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Monday, and I know I will take many of you with me in spirit. But apparently not everybody. The occasion will be the Texas memorial service for Chris Kyle, an American hero in every sense of the term. But if it is one battlefield where he earned his honor as our most prolific sniper, it is another battlefield that has sprouted since his death. This arena is a war of words, sparked by the strong opinions of a variety of people on what Chris Kyle meant to our nation. To...

During solemn hearings on the floor of the U.S. Senate investigating drugs and terrorism a swarthy Hispanic who landed on U.S. shores with the clothes on his back and was graciously put on the path to U.S. citizenship repeatedly insulted a U.S. Senator who was also a highly decorated war veteran, an Ivy League graduate and a scion of a wealthy and politically-connected American family. The smartmouthed Latino was accused of drug-running and money-laundering to finance terrorists. He was testifying under oath –sneeringly and with a heavy Spanish accent-- upon a subpoena by lawmakers of the nation that had shown...

For just as politics can save the culture, politics can also destroy it. Which brings me to Thomas Lopez, a 21-year old lifeguard in South Florida. Two days before the Fourth of July, Lopez was fired for helping rescue a man drowning 1,500 feet outside of his designated zone. "It was a long run, but someone needed my help. I wasn't going to say no," Lopez told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and other media outlets. When Lopez filed his incident report, he was canned on the spot. "They didn't tell me in a bad way. It was more like they...

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) Saturday night is movie night at No-house. If you're looking for a good one, you'll find it in the "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" starring John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Edmund O'Brien, Vera Miles and Lee Marvin as the most debased villain you've seen since Stephen Hanks. It is directed by John Ford and shot expertly in black and white. From the moment that Marvin snarls onto the screen to rob the stagecoach bringing eastern lawyer Stewart out west, you know you're going to be interested til the end. Stewart intervenes to protect...

  The tenth anniversary of 9/11 is upon us. Rather than ruminating on pious platitudes or reporting the trite remarks of gaseous politicians, I thought it might be appropriate to update some prior columns that attempt to shed light on the subject. This is this third. A Memory Check for Americans David C. Stolinsky Sept. 5, 2011 Upgrading the memory of a computer can improve performance dramatically. So can upgrading the memory of a nation. But before you upgrade the memory of a computer, it is best to check what memory you have. To do this you can download...

  The tenth anniversary of 9/11 is upon us. Rather than ruminating on pious platitudes or reporting the trite remarks of gaseous politicians, I thought it might be appropriate to update some prior columns that attempt to shed light on the subject. This is this first. Where Do Heroes Come From? David C. Stolinsky Sept. 1, 2011 Army Staff Sergeant Leroy A. Petry earned the ninth Medal of Honor awarded during the current war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and only the second given to a living recipient. Despite prior wounds, Petry picked up an enemy grenade and threw it...

A WAR hero's medals have revealed the untold story of a Scottish soldier who survived three years of suffering building the notorious Burma Railway. Kenneth McLeod, who has died aged 92, was captured by the Japanese in the Second World War and was one of the last surviving veterans who worked on the bridge over the River Kwai. Now his daughter and son are donating his war medals, Glengarry bonnet and sporran to the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders museum at Stirling Castle, where he was based more than 70 years ago. Mr McLeod, of Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire, was...

On the afternoon of Friday, March 11th, Hideaki Akaiwa was at his job, dully trudging out the final bitter minutes of his work week in his office just outside the port city of Ishinomaki in Japan's Miyagi Prefecture. What this guy's day job actually is, I honestly have no idea, but based on the extremely limited information I have on the guy I can only presume that his daily nine-to-five routine probably falls somewhere between the motorcycle chase scenes from the movie Akira and John Rambo's antics in the book version of First Blood on the ridiculousness/badassitude scale. But that's...

CUMBERLAND — Two local mountains need new names, a group of state senators say, and they want a commission created to select new monikers for Negro Mountain and Polish Mountain which “reflect more accurately the history and culture of the region within which they are located.” None of the nine senators sponsoring Senate Joint Resolution 3 represent the region where the two mountains rise in the Allegheny Mountain range, with Negro Mountain in Garrett County reaching a height of 3,075 feet and Polish Mountain in Allegany County climbing 1,783 feet from sea level. The senate resolution isn’t too popular with...

SAN ANTONIO - A real estate agent says she owes her life to five students who helped her escape a client who brutally attacked her. Janice Tisdale says she had just finished showing the man the upscale northwest side home and was reaching for the front door's lock when he struck her head with a pole from inside the house. She described it as a pole used to pull a staircase from the ceiling. Tisdale says the man demanded $4,000 and as she was bleeding on the front porch and still talking to him, a golf cart passed by, followed...

Tango Mike Mike (394 votes, average: 4.35 out of 5) Loading ... Share9774 Sign Up for the Video Of The Day Tango Mike Mike is the story of Green Beret Roy P. Benavidez and his heroic action in Vietnam that earned him the Medal of Honor. His story is truly amazing and is a tribute to all the Vietnam Vets whose stories haven’t been told. Check your library for the book “The Last Medal of Honor: The True Story of Green Beret Sergeant Roy P. Benavidez and His Six-Hour Battle in Hell” if you want to read more about Roy....

Parents Attack Carjacker to Save Their Baby They were standing just a few yards away, talking to family in the final hours of a long road trip, when a man jumped into their idling car at a Kansas City, Mo., gas station and sped off with their 6-month-old daughter strapped in the back seat. Their hearts pounding, Melanie and Aaron Richman ran. She was able to grab onto the passenger side and smash the window with her elbow. He somehow pulled himself inside the car and started punching and kicking the carjacker.

EL PASO — Fernando Espinosa always thought of his Boy Scout experience as a way to learn about leadership and helping others. But he never expected his 10 years of scouting to help him become a hero. On Jan. 22, without thinking twice, Espinosa pushed teacher Glenda Tanner, 47, out of the way of a car at a crosswalk in front of Franklin High School. The car struck Espinosa, who received a head injury from the windshield and hurt his left knee. ... For his bravery, Espinosa, 17, will be awarded the Honor Medal with Crossed Palms on Friday at...

This weekend’s New York Times Sunday Magazine contains a fascinating article that hits quite close to home for me. Centered around the story of a 25-year-old Marine who — despite horrific wounds — had the presence of mind and courage to scoop a live grenade under his body to save the lives of his comrades, the article asks a simple question: Why is the military awarding so few medals of honor? Are we less courageous now? Or is the military stifling valor awards in a labyrinthine bureaucracy dominated by rear echelon second-guessers? The numbers are stunning: Despite its symbolic...