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As disasters go, this one was terrible, but not unique, certainly not among the worst on the roster of U.S. air crashes. There was the unusual element of the bridge, of course, and the fact that the plane clipped it at a moment of high traffic, one routine thus intersecting another and disrupting both...

EXCLUSIVE Brits fight off deadly pirates                      By DAVID WILLETTS Published: Today       A TEAM of hero Brits battled back deadly pirates four times in 24 hours armed only with Molotov cocktails and flare guns, The Sun can reveal. The three-man ex-military security team were hired to protect cargo ship S. Venus in the pirate infested waters of the Gulf of Aden off the Africa coast. On four separate occasions between New Year's Eve and New Year's Day Somali pirates – armed with AK-47s and rocket propelled grenades (RPG) – tried...

A hero Royal Marine saved 130 soldiers from certain death when he rugby tackled a suicide attacker before he could detonate a huge motorcycle bomb. The 40-year-old Marine saw the Afghan insurgent reaching for a yellow detonator button on the bike and leapt into action to drag him away.He foiled a cunningly planned attack in which the same motorcycle had been checked by the same troops just hours earlier when its panniers had been packed with potatoes instead of explosives.The suicide bomb contained 70 kilograms of explosives and was so huge it would have destroyed everything within 180 metres...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8, 2008 – Army Sgt. Gregory S. Ruske is quick to call himself an ordinary soldier, but later this month the Army Reserve will single him out for extraordinary heroism in Afghanistan that earned him the Silver Star medal. Army Sgt. Gregory S. Ruske will become the fourth Army Reservist to receive the Silver Star for heroism demonstrated after he and his fellow soldiers were ambushed in Afghanistan’s Kapisa province April 21, 2008. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The 28-year-old Colorado Springs, Colo., native will become the fourth Army reservist to receive the...

Capt. Bruno de Solenni, R.I.P. [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A brother of a friend of mine (Pia) was killed by an IED in Afghanistan this weekend, along with two Afghan interpreters. A fellow soldier was injured. I was just reading a letter Bruno's hometown paper published before he died; what he has to say and who he was and what he sacrificed and the grief his family suffers are reminders of the tremendous burden so few of us bear for freedom: The bad days are when you put your buddy in a body bag and you don't even recognize him because...

September 18, 2008 For G-d's Sake, Give This Deceased American Hero His Medal! By Debbie Schlussel Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta is a role model for all Americans, whether they are immigrants like him or native born. He made the ultimate sacrifice, giving his life to save those of his fellow Marines. Sadly, nitpickers in our military are denying him and his grieving family the Medal of Honor. It's a travesty. This late patriot deserves the honor. He earned it in blood and gutted limbs. This is the kind of one-time illegal alien I wish we had more of in America....

John McCain's Imprisonment in Vietnam: A True Tale of Heroism James Ray Have you ever heard the whole account of John McCain's imprisonment during the Vietnam War? Until recently, I was only aware of the general story; I didn't know the details. But I recently read a couple of pieces on McCain's capture, imprisonment and torture by the North Vietnamese, and it blew me away. Not since Ernest Shackleton's cursed journey to the South Pole have I heard a tale of such courage, mental toughness and physical endurance. The Young John McCain The Crash and Capture In October of 1967,...

Bat-lash By Sharon McGovern The Dark Knight is a box office phenomenon, having beat the following records: • Biggest single day gross (66.4 million).• Biggest opening weekend (155.34 million).• Broke the record for days taken to reach a 200 million dollar gross.• Broke the record for days taken to reach a 300 million dollar gross. And it’s on track to tie Titanic, the biggest blockbuster in history. Now, the sheer profitability of a movie doesn’t necessarily speak to its merit (see Titanic), but TDK’s continuing box office appeal does seem to indicate it’s touched a nerve. Some have proposed (with...

    Major gongs for heroic Our Boys   Award ... Captain Paul Britton is congratulated by Major General Gary Robison    By TOM NEWTON DUNN Defence Editor Published: Today     AN Army officer who led a battle despite a lump of burning shrapnel in his shoulder was one of 19 forces heroes awarded the Military Cross yesterday.   Praise ... Lieutenant General Graeme Lamb  Captain Paul Britton, 28, refused morphine so he could control artillery and air strikes to beat off Taliban attackers in Helmand province, Afghanistan. The Royal Artillery officer was wounded by a rocket-propelled grenade...

The Dark Knight has no use for FISA By Sharon McGovern This is not a review, though I submit The Dark Knight kicks a** so very hard. Instead, this will be a brief look at themes employed in TDK; a sequel to Batman is a NeoCon. If you haven’t already contributed to the movie’s astonishing opening weekend take, you might want to decide right now if you want to read something that gives away a number of its plot points. The Dark Knight begins with “the bat man” having become a fixture in Gotham. He inspires resentment for the toll...

The movie industry no longer aspires to portray genuine heroism—even though that's precisely what audiences want to see. A spate of movies about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terror came out last year, all of them hostile to U.S. involvement and all of them box-office flops. At the time there was a certain amount of soul-searching in the media as to why, when most Americans told pollsters they thought the Iraq war, at least, had been a mistake, they didn't seem to want to go and see movies that sought to show them just how...

<p>REPUBLICAN US presidential candidate John McCain has got some unexpected support from his former Vietnam War jailer, who said he would vote for the former navy pilot if he could.</p> <p>Speaking to the BBC from Haiphong, Tran Trong Duyet also insisted that Senator McCain's assertions that he was tortured during his time at the prison were lies, and that no one held there was ever subjected to torture.</p>

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2008 – Medal of Honor recipient Army Spc. Ross A. McGinnis joined a select group of military heroes during a Pentagon ceremony here today. Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England hosted the event that added McGinnis’ name to the roster of other Army Medal of Honor recipients. Army Secretary Pete Geren and Gen. Richard R. Cody, the Army’s vice chief of staff, also attended the event at the library and conference center. Medal of Honor recipients “are our nation’s most-revered heroes,” England said. “And every time a name is added, that individual’s story enriches the significance of...

The White House announced Friday that a Pennsylvania soldier who jumped on top of a grenade in Iraq and saved the lives of his comrades will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor. The nation's highest military honor will be given to 19-year-old Army Pfc. Ross McGinnis of Knox, Pa., on June 2. McGinnis "distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism," said White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto. McGinnis was perched in the gunner's hatch of a Humvee when a grenade sailed past him and into the truck where four other soldiers sat. He shouted a warning to the others, then jumped...

Dramatic rescue from creek saves four children By Jeff Raasch and Erika Binegar and Erika Binegar jeff.raasch@gazettecommunications.com erika.binegar@gazettecommunications.com ANAMOSA — Along the shore of Buffalo Creek, Phillip Horak heard the screams of 2-year-old Tatum McGloghlin inside his car, upside down and almost fully under water. Just 4 miles from home on a winding gravel road, Horak had spotted a raccoon or a dog, jerked the wheel and was soon filled with regret. The two-door Honda, carrying his girlfriend, Holly Winders, and four toddlers spun off Buffalo Road and down an embankment. It flipped end-over-end, landing on its top in 5-foot-deep...

Charlton Heston died this week at the age of 84. He had two careers, and both were “larger than life.” His family used that phrase in the statement they issued about his death. They spoke the simple truth. With his furrowed brow, his chiseled chin, his stentorian voice, he was cast in heroic roles from early in his career. But he took on similar roles in life, as the head of the National Rifle Association for five years, but also as a campaigner for issues that mattered to him, such as color-blind rather than color-driven civil rights. He was a...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FENTY, Afghanistan, March 10, 2008 – Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael Loetz recently received a Bronze Star Medal for Valor for saving the life of an Afghan truck driver in 2007. Army Sgt 1st Class Michael Loetz, of Company F, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, is awarded a Bronze Star Medal for Valor for rescuing an Afghan truck driver during an ambush in eastern Afghanistan. Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Eric Hendrix, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The story behind the rescue is both harrowing and heartwarming. The Distribution Platoon of Company F, 2nd...

Frank Woodruff Buckles was just 15 years old when he joined the U.S. Army. Soon, he was deployed to war and headed overseas on the Carpathia -- the same ship used in the rescue mission of the Titanic. He drove ambulances in Britain and France for soldiers wounded during World War I. A few decades later, Buckles was in the Philippines as a civilian, on December 7, 1941, the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. He was taken as a prisoner of war for 39 months in Manila, eating his meals out of a single tin cup. More than 60 years...

(Edit) James Kelley, 22, was in the Richmond Hill pizza parlor where his mother works about 3:30 p.m. when he heard screaming. "I ran outside and saw two girls screaming from the second floor" of a neighboring building, Kelley said. "All I could think was, 'I need to help.' I was just thinking, 'Save those kids.'" Unable to break through a wall of fire and smoke on the second floor, he rushed to an adjacent laundermat and grabbed a fire extinguisher. After discharging it, he ran outside for another, but by then Police Officer Joe Amato had arrived, Kelley...

Second Lt. Bryan Jackson was eight months into his first tour of duty in Iraq and out on patrol in Anbar Province in September 2006 when the Humvee he was towing behind a Bradley Fighting Vehicle got stuck in the mud.It was a mundane mishap, but it made Jackson and his crew nervous. Not only did they fear the Humvee would roll over, but they also knew the stall made them a naked target for insurgent fire. Just a month earlier, a comrade had been seriously wounded at the same spot near the town of Hit. What happened next...