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Military/Veterans (General/Chat)

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  • Today my son began the process of entering the US Army

    10/17/2012 6:41:14 PM PDT · by Badabing Badablonde · 61 replies
    He struggled in school, crying during math, throwing tantrums during reading, and required a nightly headlock to get his schoolwork completed every night. In 2009 his father deserted us and completely cut him off financially, his sophomore year in community college. Since then he has held down numerous jobs to scrape together tuition, did a stint in Job Corp, and currently works partime in an automotive shop, while helping me care for my adult disabled daughter. He is a good man. Drug and alcohol free, proud that for him true love continues to wait. Attends church every week, shares his...
  • Concerned Veterans for America launch Bus Tour

    10/16/2012 2:45:45 PM PDT · by gonzo · 9 replies
    e-mail ^ | 10'16/2012 | bevpearl/ExTexasRedhead
    Dear Supporter, This Friday, Concerned Veterans for America will launch the "We Can Do Better" ten-day East Coast bus tour (October 19-28) that will travel through campaign 'swing states' prior to Election Day to generate awareness of the mounting challenges facing service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and veterans of all generations. CLICK HERE to learn more about the Tour and RSVP to join us along the way. The bus tour will allow veterans and voters in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Ohio - and across the nation - to hear directly from leaders in the veterans'...
  • Gurkha ignores knife wound to trap his mugger for 15 minutes while blade was stuck in his arm

    10/14/2012 5:44:05 PM PDT · by Daffynition · 54 replies
    DailyMail ^ | 13 October 2012 | Emma Clark
    Anyone with any knowledge of military history knows the golden rule – don’t mess with a Gurkha. But the knife-wielding mugger in this drama clearly had no idea what he was messing with. He pushed Taitex Phlamachha, a former member of the famous fighting force, up against a wall and demanded money.
  • VANITY - Anyone Remember Michael Patrick McManus?

    I was doing some web surfing on the Stolen Valor Act and was looking at articles about him when I ran across the link to the above obituary. I think this is him. Everything the description fits him perfectly (e.g., lived in Houston; studied Tibetan Buddhism; his "cherished friend" Alvin Chan) and the photo pretty much looks like him (minus the glasses, soul patch and goatee, of course). Does anyone know whether or not he really is dead? I couldn't find anything else on the web except this obituary. If he really has died, you would think that all the...
  • Soldier Songs; Using Music to Heal Veterans

    10/10/2012 9:49:52 AM PDT · by GSWarrior · 6 replies
    NBC 11 News ^ | 7/11/11
    GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - Coming home from war can be one of the most difficult experiences any person goes through. But one local group says music has the power to heal even the darkest of hearts -- which is why they're on a new mission to connect soldiers to songs. Jared Midgley spent seven years of his life serving in the U.S. Army, during which he was deployed to Iraq. He says the transition to civilian life has gone well, but admits it hasn't always been easy. "You build a wall and you're kind of hard-headed," said Midgley. "Military...
  • Tortured WWII British Soldier Tracks Down Japanese Tormentor And Forgives Him

    10/10/2012 8:13:22 AM PDT · by trailhkr1 · 24 replies
    The Daily Mail ^ | 10-9-12 | Robert Hardman
    Beaten to a pile of broken bones, caged, starved and tortured, Eric Lomax was convinced he would never see Britain ever again. He had already experienced the lottery of death among the chain gangs on the Burma-Siam Railway. Now things were even worse. Accused of being a spy, he had been left to the mercies of the Japanese army’s secret police. Among their specialities was what is today known as ‘waterboarding’, when a prisoner undergoes near-drowning. It was surely only a matter of time before he would be put out of his misery.
  • FReep the vote for our wounded, ill and injured veterans.

    10/09/2012 5:00:54 PM PDT · by Steve Newton · 1 replies
    Please help us get a Presidential Proclamation.
  • Forgotten Hero Finally Home

    10/09/2012 9:38:02 AM PDT · by pfflier · 4 replies
    Yahoo News ^ | 9 Oct, 2012 | DAN ELLIOTT - AP
    "For 37 years, Delouise Guerra never knew for certain what happened to the young man she called her baby brother, an 18-year-old Marine from Colorado who was missing and presumed dead after a helicopter crash on the other side of the world. The Defense Department, however, told Guerra two months ago it had positively identified the remains of the man who disappeared so long ago, Pfc. James Jacques. The Colorado Marine was killed during the rescue of the crew of the S.S. Mayaguez, an American cargo ship seized by Cambodia's Khmer Rouge two days earlier on May 12, 1975.
  • Declassified documents reveal Air Force’s plan to build a UFO

    10/08/2012 8:09:58 PM PDT · by DogByte6RER · 41 replies
    IO9 ^ | October 8, 2012 | Cyriaque Lamar
    How to Build a FLYING SAUCER Declassified documents reveal Air Force’s plan to build a UFO Here's a quirky find from the National Archives: the United States Air Force's 1956 plan to build a saucer-shaped aircraft that would zip across the skies with the greatest of ease. As the Archives explain of "Project 1794, Final Development Summary Report": The Air Force had contracted the work out to a Canadian company, Avro Aircraft Limited in Ontario, to construct the disk-shaped craft. According to the same report, it was designed to be a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) plane designed to reach...
  • Let This Be A Warning America: When the Riots Start the Government’s Response Will Be Brutal *Video*

    10/08/2012 4:22:30 PM PDT · by Kartographer · 48 replies
    SHTF Plan ^ | 10/8/12 | Mac Slavo
    Last week, when hundreds of thousands of people in Madrid, Barcelona and throughout Spain protested, rioted, rebelled and called for the forced resignation of every one of their parliamentary representatives and the formation of a new government, the silence from global mainstream media was deafening. With jobless rates for those between the ages of 20 and 35 exceeding 50%, further social spending measures promised by the government, and tens of billions in handouts being transferred to large financial institutions in the broader Euro Zone, those impoverished by the economic collapse of the last four years would not be silenced. They...
  • Newsmax poll to Freep

    10/08/2012 8:05:53 AM PDT · by Chief901 · 14 replies
    Newsmax poll, Who would you vote for today?
  • Entire Cities In World of Warcraft Dead, Hack Suspected

    10/07/2012 6:53:05 PM PDT · by vbmoneyspender · 161 replies
    Slashdot ^ | 10/7/2012 | hypnosec
    "Entire cities in the World of Warcraft have been destroyed with no one spared, not even the NPCs. About 13:00 GMT, forums on WOW started getting the first comments from users regarding players and NPCs dying on the Ragnaros-EU realm in Orgrimmar. Users of the online game started reporting that Draenor had a similar sight to offer. Some of the other realms where this was reported include Tarren Mill, and Twisting Nether." Also at Joystiq, and (with more screenshots) at WCCF Tech, which reports that "it appears the damage is most severe in World of Warcraft European servers."
  • Movie for a Sunday afternoon: "Night Passage" (1957)

    10/07/2012 1:55:18 PM PDT · by ReformationFan · 13 replies
    You Tube ^ | 1957 | James Neilson
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKJ7Tk0sfbc The pick for this week's feature is "Night Passage". This 1957 western features decorated WWII vets and patriots Jimmy Stewart and Audie Murphy as brothers on the opposite sides of the law. I miss patriotic, pro-American actors like Stewart and Murphy. Also features, Hugh Beaumont(a/k/a Ward Cleaver, one of TV's best on-screen dads) as a railroad tycoon.
  • TOW missile hits T-72 at 4.2km away - video

    "Quite amazing video showing how effective the TOW missile is, notice that it explodes with a proximity fuse over the tank and still totally destroys it. TOW-2B top-down attack variant using explosively formed penetrators. It is supposed to detonate above the tank sending a stream of molten metal down on the target in a similar fashion to the NLAW."
  • Why Do Gangsters Aim Their Guns Sideways? Marine Marksman Sheds Light On Gangbanger Tactics

    10/04/2012 8:21:47 PM PDT · by DogByte6RER · 59 replies
    The Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | 4 October 2012 | Damien Gayle
    So why do gangsters aim their guns sideways? Marine marksman sheds light on how gunmen from the 'hood unwittingly use a well-known aiming technique It's an iconic image immortalised in dozens of Hollywood gangster films: the gangster aiming down the side of his pistol before pumping a volley of bullets into his victim. But with most people knowing that the aiming sights are found on the top of a gun barrel, it's also a counter-intuitive way to accurately fire a weapon. So why is it that gangsters are always shown using their guns in this way? According to Jon Davis,...
  • Wreckage Of Two Spitfires Found On Salisbury Plain

    10/03/2012 7:21:16 AM PDT · by trailhkr1 · 29 replies
    The Daily Mail ^ | 10-3-12 | Nick Enoch
    The remains of two Spitfires that were used for peacetime target practice by the RAF have been discovered on the same firing range nearly 60 years later. In 1954, the surplus planes were dumped in the middle of the vast Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire for trainee pilots to strafe to hone their firing skills. The wrecks, which are still worth tens of thousands of pounds in their current state, were left in the remote spot and over the years became covered in long grass and weeds.
  • Amazing video: Spanish Air Force 43rd Group

    10/01/2012 5:32:43 AM PDT · by Carriage Hill · 26 replies
    Vimeo ^ | Sept 1, 2012 | Hidros (video poster)
    A friend, who's a US commercial airlines pilot, sent this video to me, and it's just amazing. The skill of a water take-off, water-dump on fires, a water landing and re-filling, and taking-off again, probably dozens and hundreds of times, is absolutely amazing. Looks like 3+ -aircraft involved. The photography/video is beautifully done. This is the Spanish AF, though I've not see any USAF videos of this, but a few films of private firms dumping a reddish fire retardant on the western fires this past summer. I can't even begin to imagine the skill this takes. Anyway, enjoy it and...
  • "Castle transformed into WWII camp down to the very last detail "...U.K. Reinactment ....

    09/30/2012 8:01:00 PM PDT · by djone · 10 replies
    dailymail.co.uk ^ | 14:45 EST, 30 September 2012
    WWII reinactment in England with photos...
  • {vanity} seeking advice on piston recoil reducer for AR-15

    09/30/2012 1:17:31 PM PDT · by Blueflag · 65 replies
    FOB Salerno ^ | 9/30/2012 | blueflag
    Seeking advice on brands and sources to select and buy a piston recoil reducer in my AR-15 stock.
  • USAF Could Make Mini-Shuttle Operations Exclusive To Florida

    09/30/2012 12:32:56 PM PDT · by garjog · 4 replies
    edOrbit Staff & Wire Reports ^ | Sep 30, 2012 | Staff
    The mysterious US Air Force (USAF) space plane that ended a top secret 15 month mission over the summer could have its base of operations consolidated to the state of Florida, according to recent media reports. The unmanned X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, which departed from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in March 2011 but landed at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in June 2012, could have its third flight both begin and end in the Sunshine State, an Air Force spokesperson told Florida Today reporter Todd Halvorson on Friday. USAF Rapid Capabilities Offices representative Major Tracy Bunko said...