Free Republic

President Harry S. Truman led the effort to establish a single holiday for citizens to come together and thank our military members for their patriotic service in support of our country. On August 31, 1949, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson announced the creation of an Armed Forces Day to replace separate Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force Days. The single day celebration stemmed from the unification of the Armed Forces under the Department of Defense. Our Deepest Thanks to Our Armed Forces!May God Bless and Keep All.

Every Member of Congress and commissioned officer (civilian and military) in federal service as well as every enlisted service member takes an oath that requires they promise to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic …" This oath is required by statute. The Presidential oath, the only oath in the Constitution, does not contain that language:

Marc Garcia is a trumpet player who moonlights as a bugler at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. He plays taps at the end of graveside services. If you have ever been to such a service, you know that the haunting notes of the melody provide an emotional end to the event. Garcia contacted me recently to say that he and his fellow buglers have been replaced by a battery-operated bugle. He wrote in an email: “When I sound live taps, I put all my spirit and soul into all 24 notes that I play, and that’s the same spirit and soul...

". . . when I served as a Magistrate for the Commonwealth of Virginia, I was intrigued to find out that it was still a misdemeanor in Virginia to impugn a woman's "virtue and chastity . . ."

A VETERANS DAY OATH We on FReeRepublic have not forgotten, nor will we ever Forget those that sacrifice their lives and safety so the rest of us can enjoy FREEDOM. We owe our military family still serving, and those that have served their country and it's grateful people, our lives and our unique way of life. Without our service men and women here and in harms way, all over this hostile world, there would be no AMERICA. YOU HAVE OUR DEEPEST LOVE AND RESPECT. On this, your day, we pray for you and your safety, and fall to our unworthy...

Benghazi-Coward Obama and Pansy Panetta have proven themselves to be unfit to serve in ANY position in the US Military. Vote against the entire Obama Administration, pro-Obama Democrat Candidates in the US Senate and House tomorrow, November 6, 2012.

The preponderance of Benghazi evidence conclusively shows that Obama is a Coward. As a coward, Obama is unfit to be the Commander in Chief of the US Military. His strategic retreat to Las Vegas, Nevada the day after he authorized that 4 Americans were to be left behind to die, has brought indelible shame to his office, and the Democrat Party.

This photo of soldiers guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the rain has gone viral over social media especially Facebook in advance of Hurricane Sandy. Soldiers of the 3rd Inf Reg. continue to stand guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, despite the worsening weather conditions surrounding Hurricane Sandy. The tomb has been guarded continuously since 1948. The photo was taken by Karin Evink Markerton at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington National Cemetery, September 18, 2012, in the rain. Markerton posted a note on her Facebook wall to people tracking the origin of the photo....

Spectators at a children's triathlon in Florida were brought to tears by the sight of Marines carrying a little boy with a broken prosthetic leg across the finish line. Bone cancer-survivor Ben Baltz, 11, was participating in his third triathlon of the summer when he had an accident with his prosthetic leg Sunday during the final portion of the race. "The screws came loose and it fell off and the Marine picked me up and he ran the rest of the way," Ben said. "It was pretty nice." His mother, Kim Baltz, was waiting at the finish line and...

“Call me Ishmael”, is the opening sentence that opens the novel “Moby Dick” authored by Herman Melville. Ishmael, who is telling the story of Moby Dick, recounts that he is sailing to sea out of a sense of alienation and cultural inadequacy. ..... Ever since the days of Napoleon's landing upon the shores of Egypt at the very end of the 18th Century and bringing with him the modern era to the Middle East, Islam has been unable to free itself from the shackles of inferiority and self-destructive primal rage that typifies the hatred of modern day Islamic radicalism against...

WASHINGTON -- About 90 South Mississippi World War II veterans saw the memorial to their war Tuesday, and while there, many said they were thinking of those veterans who never lived to make the trip. The group made up the fourth Mississippi Gulf Coast Honor Flight, a local effort to fly veterans to see the monument, funded by donations. Tuesday, they saw the World War II Memorial, as well as Washington's other sights. U.S. Coast Guard vet Nicholas Hire of Biloxi said he was impressed with the memorial, but while he was there, he was also remembering those lost...

But this attitude by the Veterans Administration is not necessarily confined to Confederate soldiers. An article in the most recent issue of Civil War News explains that the current V.A. has "reinterpreted existing law." This flies in the face of a policy which has been in place since 1906 and which allowed--even encouraged--the placing of appropriate headstones, without preference, for both Union and Confederate Veterans . . .

A VILLAGE council in India has issued a Taliban-like diktat banning women under the age of 40 from falling in love, using mobile phones or going out in public unescorted. The “fiat” issued by the Asara village council in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh province, 40km northeast of the capital New Delhi, has outraged women’s rights activists across India. It also requires women to cover their heads while away from their homes. Anyone defying the order would be ostracised and then expelled from the village, council member Mohammad Mokam said yesterday. He added there were “other ways” to make the...

I'm An American, AND PROUD AS HELL!Thankfully I was born an American. Born in the greatest nation in the history of the world. But I became an American, slowly and decisively over my entire life, and these were but a few of my moments of decision; When my 92 year old great Grandfather, an immigrant for the bowels of depravity in Italy stood in a crowded church basement and took the pledge of allegiance to his beloved country to finally become a citizen, after struggling to overcome illiteracy and poverty, and raise a fine and honorable family. He had to...

There are photos of 139 Arizonans — of which seven are from Cochise County — who are part of the Remembering Our Fallen From Arizona traveling memorial, which begins a nearly two week display at The Mall at Sierra Vista Thursday. At 11:30 Thursday morning a public event at which Army Maj. Gen. Jennifer Napper, commander of the Network Enterprise Technology Command on Fort Huachuca, will open the display to the public near the Sears entrance inside the mall during a short ceremony, which will include a ribbon cutting. The opening is part of recognizing the 237th birthday of the...

Bogalusa gas station at center of protest. Witness account of Guardsman's treatment prompts picket; Owner claims misunderstanding BOGALUSA, La. - Dozens of protesters gathered outside a gas station near Bogalusa on Thursday to voice their outrage over what they consider an insult to Americans in uniform. Exactly what happened to spark the furor isn't clear. The protest followed a fast-moving campaign on social media that spread the word about a member of the National Guard who was reportedly refused service at the station. The Washington Parish Sheriff's Office confirmed that some sort of dispute did take place, but the office...

NORMANDY BEACHHEAD, June 12, 1944 – Due to a last-minute alteration in the arrangements, I didn’t arrive on the beachhead until the morning after D-day, after our first wave of assault troops had hit the shore. By the time we got here the beaches had been taken and the fighting had moved a couple of miles inland. All that remained on the beach was some sniping and artillery fire, and the occasional startling blast of a mine geysering brown sand into the air. That plus a gigantic and pitiful litter of wreckage along miles of shoreline. Submerged tanks and overturned...

From MichaelSavage.com: This is one of those stories that just wrench your heart: a little boy who fought the good fight and loved the Marines. And the Marines reached out, and loved him back. As a former Army paratrooper, Ranger, Pathfinder, and combat infantry commander, I continue my lifelong admiration for the United States Marines. There is something in their esprit de corps the Army can only achieve in local unit bursts. They are a national treasure, and I thank God they’re on our side. “If the Army or the Navy ever get to Heaven’s scene, they will find those...

“Honour was honour, it clothed a man better than a fine jacket before the eyes of his neighbors.” This passage from John Prebble’s Culloden explains why Barack Obama has lost the south and may from that lose reelection. Prebble was writing about Scottish Highlanders in the age of Jacobite revolution. Among the tribes of Scotland, and in their modern mindset, honor is elemental. In societies that rely on mutual trust to survive, honor is essential to commerce, neighborly relations and commitments. To live in a land where one protects his honor and demands honorable actions from all others, to forsake...

I want to thank all of you who have extended condolences to me upon the death of my dear Father. I ask you to indulge me here, as I reveal something of my own life. I believe He should be properly eulogized, and have been burdened to do so. My Father, Bruno Wilbur Randles was born on January 17, 1928, in Hutchinson Kansas, and died on May 13, 2012. He was preceded in death by my mother, Suzanne, who passed away in 1978 at the age of 49. He is survived by his ten children, 23 grandchildren and twenty-five great-grandchildren....

The politics of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars is not the issue here. This is about thanking the men and women who have seen two, three or four deployments to faraway places. It’s an opportunity to show our appreciation to folks who have missed Christmases and weddings and even the births of their children so that our families can sleep safely at night.

The Mexican countryside is sunny, pleasant, full of stray dogs and in each corner of Russia, you'll find decaying houses containing a samovar. But today, a nation like Mexico or Russia probably wouldn't last two months in a full out military confrontation with tiny Sweden (9.5 inhabitants). But that isn't the real point here, although it is worth pointing out how pathetic nations like Mexico and Russia really are considering the fact they have an abundance of natural resources and border to two of the largest and most successful economies on Earth (USA and the EU). America is presently being...

The Obama Regime has mandated that Americans MUST fund abortion by exactly one dollar per month. This is done by mandating that the service commodity of health insurance must be purchased as a condition of lawful residency in the United States. Caesar Tyrannus Obama, I will not submit. Attached as a separate surcharge to every health insurance policy that covers abortion (and TRUST that the regime will soon mandate abortion coverage - just as they have done with contraception, sterilization and abortifacients) will be an "abortion surcharge" of $1.00 per month, to be billed as a separate transaction from the...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich invoked the spirit of the Founding Fathers by paraphrasing the Declaration of Independence in his speech to supporters following his second-place finish in the Florida Republican presidential primary. Gingrich, a trained historian and author, began his 15-minute speech by noting President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the first national military cemetery when he spoke of “government of the people, by the people, for the people." “And we’re going to have people power to defeat money power in the next six months,” he said in a reference to Florida victor Mitt Romney,...

LAKE FOREST – Hundreds of firefighters and law enforcement officers waved flags from bridges above freeways from Los Alamitos to Laguna Hills saluting a procession carrying the remains of Cpl. Christopher G. Singer, a Marine killed in Afghanistan on Jan.21. Military personnel from the National Guard, Army Reserve and the Marine Corps stood in military formation saluting Singer and his family. Law enforcement personnel representing multiple jurisdictions also took part in the ceremony. Singer, 23, was killed while conducting operations in the Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to the Twentynine Palm-based 3rd Combat Engineer Battalion, an element of Camp...

An Afghan father, his wife and their son have been jailed for life after a jury found them guilty of killing three teenage sisters and a co-wife in what the judge described as a 'despicable' and 'heinous' crime. The jury had taken 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58, his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder. The four bodies were found in June 2009 in a car submerged in a canal in Kingston, Ontario, where the family had stopped for the night on their way home from Niagara Falls.

KINGSTON, Ontario – A jury on Sunday found an Afghan father, his wife and their son guilty of killing three teenage sisters and a co-wife in what the judge described as "cold-blooded, shameful murders" resulting from a "twisted concept of honor." The jury took 15 hours to find Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba Yahya, 42; and their son Hamed, 21, each guilty of four counts of first-degree murder in a case that shocked and riveted Canadians from coast to coast.

In the last few weeks, a videotape of four United States Marines urinating on some dead insurgents in Afghanistan surfaced. Obviously, this is inexcusable behavior in polite society, but ladies and gentlemen, the places we send our Marines are not civilized places. Never in the history of the United States have we sent our troops to a civilized place to wage war. It is disheartening to see how quickly some Americans have turned on the men that provide them safety. Although the methods and weapons of war have changed in the last century, the one thing that hasn’t changed is...

"Rick Perry Will Not Depart From His Conservative Record or Path" - The Real Record, The Real Man Musings of a Rick Perry supporter... I don’t think the American people know Gov. Rick Perry. He burst onto the national stage and seemed like a Texan, okay, a politician with some nerve, some courage, some outspokenness, who was taking on the sacred cows and telling it like it is. But the debates reversed that image...the early ones. Then there are the lies...oh so many, many MANY lies about him. Because of them, people might be forgiven for their confusion, for not...

Mike Colalillo, the last Medal of Honor recipient in Minnesota, has died. He was 86. Colalillo died Friday at a Duluth nursing home, the Dougherty Funeral Home confirmed Monday. He received the nation's highest military honor for bravery in combat for killing or wounding 25 Germans and helping a seriously wounded comrade to safety during a fierce firefight near Untergriesheim, Germany, on April 7, 1945, toward the end of World War II. Forty-six Minnesotans, including Colalillo, have received the Medal of Honor, according to the Minnesota Military Museum at Camp Ripley in Little Falls. According to the Medal of Honor...

These thousands of women whose cases go unreported are not just the victims of the fathers and brothers whom they fear. They are also the victims of Western apathy and silence, and it’s only getting worse. Almost no one in the dinosaur media talks about honor killing. All those loud-mouthed charlatans talk big when excoriating and trashing those who fight for these women and recognize their plight, but they cower when forced to report on Islam. Instead, they search for benign euphemisms for this most brutal and ugly ideology. Thus as the Islamic supremacists, the leftist apologists, and useful idiots...

Truth be told, I quickly discounted my initial reaction that Muslims might be involved because the killer was reported to be in a Santa costume. Stupid me. The ‘Santa’ who massacred his family on Christmas morning was a Muslim who was enraged that his daughter was dating a non-Muslim.

Islamic honor killing in Texas: "Santa" who murdered family on Christmas morning was Muslim who didn't like his daughter dating a non-Muslim Aziz Yazdanpanah, a Muslim, didn't like his daughter's non-Muslim boyfriend and was exhibiting stalker behavior. “She couldn’t date at all until she was a certain age, but when he was going to let her date she couldn’t date anyone outside of their race or religion.” Again and again we have seen honor killings in which fathers kill daughters who are dating non-Muslims or have supposedly besmirched the family honor by some sexual indiscretion. Lt. Todd Dearing says that...

Medal of Honor recipient and former Marine Dakota Meyer has signed on as a co-chairman of Veterans for Perry, a group throwing its support behind Texas Gov. Rick Perry in his run for president. "As the only presidential candidate who volunteered to serve his country, the way that I did, I am confident that Gov. Perry will be an advocate for veterans like myself as president of the United States," Meyer said in a statement released by the Perry campaign Thursday. Perry was an Air Force C-130 Hercules pilot from 1972 to 1977. Meyer was awarded the Medal of Honor...

THINK ABOUT YOUR WALK WITH HIM EVEYDAY and EVERY NIGHT!1

In one of the more generous incidents in recent prep sports memory, a Florida girls cross country team voluntarily gave up their runners-up medals and trophy to a school which they felt deserved them more, and they did so entirely of their own volition, without any influence of a coach or other adult.

Anita Perry, the 59-year-old wife of Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, has been very actively campaigning for him on her own all fall. Now, she's taken on a new assignment. Mrs. Perry has launched an online drive to recruit hundreds of volunteers for what she calls the Perry Strike Force. This would consist of Perry fans who would travel to Iowa and work across the state Jan. 2-4, getting out Perry caucus-goers to the hundreds of meeting sites on the evening of Jan. 3. (Don't worry, the BCS Championship Game is not until Jan. 9 this time.) "With over 1,700...

On Saturday, June 2nd, in Committee of the Whole, as James Madison recorded in his Notes of the Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, the Founders were continuing the previous day’s debate regarding a proposed plan for the Executive branch, its constitution, relation to the Legislative branch, method of election, funding, and such. Doctor Benjamin Franklin asked permission from the Committee to read a prepared speech, “being very sensitive to the effect of age on his memory.” Below, without too much editing except to break the paragraphs into smaller segments for easier internet reading, is his speech: It is...

The boyfriend of a woman who was killed by her brothers seven years ago in honor killing has also been shot dead, allegedly by the woman’s father. Güldünya Tören’s brothers... killed their sister in an attempt to “cleanse their family honor" in Istanbul in 2004... Tören's brothers then attempted to kill her. She escaped her brothers’ first murder attempt, but was later shot dead by her brothers at a hospital where she was receiving treatment. ... In her testimony delivered to police at the hospital, Güldünya said her brothers had tried to kill her, but added that she would not...

President Obama has decided to go for the hat-trick. In September, Obama told an interviewer Americans have “gotten a little soft.” That was followed by a fundraiser in San Francisco where Obama said that “we have lost our ambition, our imagination, and our willingness to do the things that built the Golden Gate Bridge.” And over the weekend at an APEC conference in Honolulu, speaking to CEOs, President Obama said this: “But you know we’ve been a little bit lazy I think over the last couple of decades. We’ve kind of taken it for granted – ‘Well, people will want...

  Thoughts on Veterans Day David C. Stolinsky Nov. 10, 2011 November 11 is Veterans Day. Some cities have parades or other ceremonies to honor those who have served their country in uniform, often at the risk of their lives. Other cities ignore the day and its deep meaning. Of course, it is difficult to appreciate the deep meaning of anything if we ourselves are shallow. Some time ago, I accompanied my wife to San Diego for a convention of psychologists. By chance, the hotel where the convention was being held was also the site of another meeting. As...

A few days ago sub-humans desecrated a war memorial in Calgary with an unconscionable act of vandalism. Here's a young Belgian boy who, more than fifty years after Canadian soldiers sacrificed their lives to liberate his nation during World War II, shows more gratitude, honour, and respect than many of our own younger generation.

I’m going to guess that 90% will claim you do, but then do nothing. Sorry, folks, but that’s who we are, and I hope by challenging you, you will prove me wrong. Let me explain: Take a look around you. Are you happy with where our society has gone? Does it bother you to see the amount of violence our society seems to accept as “normal?” Are you uncomfortable seeing children grow up with virtually no concept of right and wrong? Does it trouble you that young adults seem to make up their own rules as they go along, eschewing...

Rofayda Qaoud — raped by her brothers and impregnated — refused to commit suicide, her mother recalls, even after she bought the unwed teenager a razor with which to slit her wrists. So Amira Abu Hanhan Qaoud says she did what she believes any good Palestinian parent would: restored her family's "honor" through murder. Armed with a plastic bag, razor and wooden stick, Qaoud entered her sleeping daughter's room last Jan. 27. "Tonight you die, Rofayda," she told the girl, before wrapping the bag tightly around her head. Next, Qaoud sliced Rofayda's wrists, ignoring her muffled pleas of "No, mother,...

Obama got his 500,000,000,000.00 dollars today from the US Senate, thanks in no small part to Senator Son-of-a-Mitch McConnell, and Robo-Senator Reid-in-the-Wind. Obama had asked last night in his unfinished Jobs give-away bill , (i.e. "targeted") , for only 450,000,000,000.00 dollars. This is an obvious attempt to avoid a financial deadline. This timing of the speech, Joint Session, amount transferred, suggest a pattern of a sudden increase in spending by the Executive Branch of the US Government. It is now time to begin The Articles of Impeachment against President Obama to prevent further dereliction of financial duty and other neglected...

People do stupid things all the time and they do them in all geographic regions, but as any regular viewer of Comedy Central’s "Tosh 2.0" can tell you, there does seem to be an uncanny correlation between certain regions of the country and the kind of risk-taking behavior that could get you seriously hurt or even killed. That’s the premise of a new study out today in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. The three authors, all from the University of Oklahoma, found that states with a “culture of honor” –- in the South, and the West, mainly --...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and his family are spending most of the Fourth of July weekend at Camp David but return to the White House on Sunday. On Monday evening, the first family hosts members of the armed forces and their families on the South Lawn with a barbecue, concert and a good view of the fireworks. The president will also give remarks.

Once again, the military retirement system is coming under the scrutiny of budgeters and deficit reduction task forces. This time the assault comes from various fronts – from outgoing Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and incoming Secretary Leon Panetta to Vice President Joe Biden. Earlier this year Gates stated, “Everything is on the table� for budget cuts. Panetta used the same line during his recent nomination hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, urging more significant, program-specific changes rather than an across-the-board, salami-slice budget cutting approach. Tasked by President Obama with finding over $400 billion dollars in savings over the...

This was absolutely awful. Barack Obama made another horrible mistake today. The president visited the 10th Mountain Division today and congratulated them on their service. Then he told the soldiers that he had given the Medal of Honor to Jared Monti who came back from Iraq alive. Jared Monti was actually killed in Iraq in 2006. How sad. “First time I saw 10th Mountain Division, you guys were in southern Iraq. When I went back to visit Afghanistan, you guys were the first ones there. I had the great honor of seeing some of you because a comrade of yours,...

Here's Lt. Col. Bateman's account of a little-known ceremony that fills the halls of the Army corridor of the Pentagon with cheers, applause and many tears every Friday morning. It first appeared on May 17 on the Web-log of media critic and pundit Eric Alterman at the Media Matters for America Web site. "It is 110 yards from the 'E' ring to the 'A' ring of the Pentagon. This section of the Pentagon is newly renovated; the floors shine, the hallway is broad, and the lighting is bright. At this instant the entire length of the corridor is packed...