Free Republic

This is a True Christmas Story.

As his M1 Abrams tank, nicknamed Bonecrusher, rolled through Fallujah, Iraq, Gunnery Sgt. Nick Popaditch thought about the trail of dead insurgents left in its wake: “Fight and you die. Run and you die. Hide and you die. Hey, this works for me.” Popaditch, or “Gunny Pop” as his Marines called him, commanded a tank platoon during the first Battle of Fallujah in April 2004. Fighting only a week after four American contractors from Blackwater USA were captured, killed and their bodies hung from a bridge, Bonecrusher and Popaditch’s other tank were working with Marine infantry in clearing insurgents out...

Christmas is a wonderful time to celebrate with family, friends and supper at Grandma's house.

MAPLEWOOD, Minn. - Arrangements have been made for a traditional, three-day Hmong funeral for Pfc. Kham Xiong of St. Paul who was among 13 people killed in the Fort Hood Army Base shootings. The funeral service for Xiong will start at Legacy Funeral Home's Maplewood chapel starting at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 28. The service will run through the afternoon of Monday, Nov. 30. Xiong will then be buried with military honors at Fort Snelling National Cemetery. "Pfc. Kham Xiong came to America from Thailand as a small child," President Barack Obama said during a memorial service at Fort...

OTTAWA — A lesbian soldier who deserted the U.S. army won a key court victory Friday when a judge ordered the refugee board to reconsider her failed asylum claim and take into account compelling evidence that she was persecuted and that her sexual orientation could mean stiffer punishment for going AWOL. Federal Court Justice Yves de Montigny's order for the board to consider a gay U.S. soldier as a credible refugee candidate is believed to be a first, said a spokesman for the U.S. military. "I have never heard of anybody attempting to do that before," said army spokesman Lt.-Col....

In a final call home, Army Sgt. Benjamin Sherman told his sister to tell everyone he loved them, “because I don’t know if I’ll get that chance again.” Sadly, his fears proved true. Sherman was laid to rest yesterday in his hometown of Plymouth in a funeral Mass attended by hundreds. Sherman, 21, was eulogized as a selfless soldier who did what came naturally to him when he jumped into a river in Afghanistan to try to rescue a comrade in distress. “He jumped into that river because he loved deeply, he was pure of heart, and he exhibited the...

Daring soldier was awarded Medal of HonorBy Adam Bernstein Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, November 18, 2009 Lewis L. Millett, 88, a career Army officer who was briefly and somewhat misleadingly court-martialed for desertion during World War II and went on to receive the Medal of Honor for leading a bayonet charge during the Korean War, died Nov. 14 at a veterans hospital in Loma Linda, Calif. He had congestive heart failure. Col. Millett, who sported a red handlebar mustache, cut an audacious and unconventional path during his 35 years of military service. He led daring attacks in two wars...

US wounded Soldier, interviewed about shooting incident at Fort Hood. Video at link...

Slain Bolingbrook soldier comes home November 13, 2009 By STEFANO ESPOSITO sesposito@suntimes.com Holding American flags, solemn crowds gathered today to pay their respects to U.S. Army Pfc. Michael Pearson — a 22-year-old Bolingbrook resident killed in a mass shooting at Fort Hood last week. Shortly after 10 a.m., a white Learjet carrying Pearson’s body arrived at Chicago’s Midway Airport. A dozen soldiers lined up near 63rd and Long as the Patriot Guard Riders pulled out of the south entrance to the airport. “Amazing Grace” played in the background as Dames Funeral Home’s silver Cadillac hearse carrying Pearson’s flag-draped casket pulled...

A former soldier who handed a discarded shotgun in to police faces at least five years imprisonment for "doing his duty". Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday – after finding the gun and handing it personally to police officers on March 20 this year. The jury took 20 minutes to make its conviction, and Mr Clarke now faces a minimum of five year's imprisonment for handing in the weapon. In a statement read out in court, Mr Clarke said: "I didn't think for one moment I would be arrested. "I...

To honor our brave men and women in the military, we list below the names of the fallen. This post identifies these wonderful souls by name, listing the heroes who sacrificed everything for you and I. This is the list author and Conservative American talk radio star Mark Levin spoke of and listed on his website. They gave their lives to protect and preserve our freedom. We thank them, we remember them and we honor them. Unlike other lists you may see, our list includes deaths from both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as well as other military deaths (including...

Video Linky Here

Let us not forget that Veterans Day is also the birthday of one of America's greatest veteran warriors, General George S. Patton, Jr. THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY by George S. Patton, Jr. Through the travail of the ages, Midst the pomp and toil of war, Have I fought and strove and perished Countless times upon this star ... So as through a glass, and darkly The age long strife I see Where I fought in many guises, Many names, but always me. ... So forever in the future, Shall I battle as of yore, Dying to be born a fighter,...

SOLDIER (shake the hand of a soldier) POWERFUL Short Rock Video Guns blazin, bullets all around, watch your best friend go down You're a Soldier....

Army PFC Kham Xiong, 23, came from a St. Paul, Minn., family with ties to military life that spanned hemispheres. His father, Chor Xiong, battled Communist insurgents in Laos during the Vietnam War, according to Minnesota Public Radio, and his younger brother Nelson is enlisted in the Marines. In a phone interview, his 8th grade teacher, Tim McGowan, recalled Xiong's positive energy and his commitment to supporting his family. "Kham was just a person of sound character, and his greatest attribute was his ability to make everybody smile," said McGowan, now a principal at Community of Peace Academy, a St....

An Army private first class from southwest suburban Bolingbrook was one of the 13 people killed in the rampage at Fort Hood, his family said. Michael Pearson, 21, joined the Army slightly more than a year ago and was training to deactivate bombs, said his mother, Sheryll.

Man charged in soldier's death seeks trial delayPosted: October 27, 2009 - 12:40pm LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Attorneys for the man charged with capital murder of an Army soldier at a Little Rock recruiting station are asking for a delay in the start of his trial. Lawyers for 24-year-old Abdulhakim Muhammad say in a motion filed last week that they need more time to go through evidence in the case. The current trial date is Feb. 15. Muhammad was born Carlos Bledsoe. He's charged in the June shooting death of 23-year-old Pvt. William Long of Conway and in the wounding...

U.S. SOLIDIER

TAMPA - The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office will lead a full escort on Thursday for the procession carrying the casket of U.S. Army Spec. Eric Lembke, who died last month while serving in Afghanistan. Lembke was raised in Plant City and graduated from Plant City High School. He was 25. The casket will arrive at MacDill Air Force Base at around 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) – Gunmen with automatic weapons burst into a Mexican strip club on the U.S. border, opened fire on patrons and killed six people including an American soldier, the army said on Wednesday. The hooded gunmen stormed into the bar in Ciudad Juarez as strippers were dancing for customers, sought out the six men and shot them each several times. A 26-year-old off-duty U.S. soldier who had crossed over from El Paso, Texas, was among the dead, army spokesman Enrique Torres said. "It appears drugs were being sold at the place," Torres said of the strip joint....

For 64 years, Norton Anenberg guarded a present. He kept it in the attic. Or tucked in his desk. But one day in 1990, acting on a longtime desire, the then-vice president of an oil company pulled open his office's file cabinet and declared it was time to act. "You know something," the now-76-year-old Covina resident remembered saying. "I'm gonna find this family." The present was the war flag of a World World II Japanese soldier, given to Anenberg by a family friend returning from fighting in the South Pacific in 1945. And it wasn't until August, after nearly twenty...

A civil judge in Dallas ruled late Wednesday that the real estate arm of the Subway sandwich chain violated the rights of an Army reservist when it stripped him of his two restaurants while the reservist was serving in Afghanistan. Grant Walsh, an attorney for Leon Batie Jr., said the ruling settles the biggest legal issue in a case that has dragged on for more than two years – that the chain's real estate affiliate broke the law when it terminated leases at two central city Subway franchises without a court order.

I've geard tons of patriotic Country music, But never rock And this guy ROCKS...and it is exceptional Best of All---he smacks the "crown of thorns" off Maobama's inflated head. Kinda like Mark Levin with a guitar... This video is call MR NOBEL - Can U Hear Us Now He also has one called SOLDIER.... a very powerful tribute to our Military Heroes Meet Joe Dan..the Patriot Rocker.  We need to push this guy.

They became good buddies during the war, the young American soldier and his invaluable Iraqi translator, an easygoing guy who could spot dangers in the shadows and calm jittery nerves in the streets. When it was time to go home, Joey Coon, then an Army National Guard sergeant, set up an e-mail account for Bandar Hasan. He gave his friend a quick lesson on how to use it so they could stay in touch. Joey didn't expect much; Bandar wasn't familiar with computers. But he did call on occasion, and the two joked about him coming to America one day,...

CORNWALL — Thirteen-year-old Megan Gagnon is killing time outside her middle school on Thursday afternoon, waiting for police and federal agents to finish a sweep of the building. This is a big deal. Gen. David H. Petraeus is about to arrive. He grew up here, she says, graduated from Cornwall High, then West Point. “Now he runs Iraq and Afghanistan.” Gagnon's dad is in the Army too, deployed to Iraq for the past nine months. She told him, over a webcam, that Petraeus was visiting on Thursday so the town could name a street after him. The band was going...

JOINT FORCES HEADQUARTERS, LATHAM, N.Y. (10/07/09) - Members of the New York National Guard welcomed a new "recruit" to the Army National Guard Oct. 6 when the National Guard helped fulfill the dream of a local area boy battling Leukemia. Nine-year old Jacob Kaminski was surprised by his family with a day-long visit with the New York National Guard as the state's "Soldier for a Day." The event was arranged, in part, by New York Army National Guard Sgt. Mathew Starr, assigned to the Joint Forces Headquarters staff and a long-time fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Starr, a...

Before soldiers leave on missions in Iraq or Afghanistan, they often are ordered to do everything in their power to bring their buddies back. "Leave no man behind" is the motto. But does that military ethos apply to soldiers heading out for a rowdy weekend in the United States? That question is being raised at an unusual court-martial on this massive Army base, where a young paratrooper who struggled to bring a combative, drunk soldier back to the barracks has been accused of causing his death. Pfc. Luke Brown died after a night of drinking at the Ugly Stick Saloon...

Yes, The Ticker is formally calling for a national bank boycott on Bank of America. I'm serious. And this has nothing to do with the fact that I believe they're hiding losses, that they're under investigation 7 ways from Sunday regarding the Merrill merger, or that BofA likes to bang you in the backside with usurious "overdraft fees", even though any of those standing alone is more than enough reason to run this bank into the ground. Nope. It is about this: A South Carolina Bank of America branch is drawing criticism Thursday after an employee reportedly ordered the removal...

Freepers check this out and let me know what you think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvALDJu9yDU

The best friend of a fallen Black Watch soldier has mourned his death wearing a dress and stockings, to honour a pact made with his mate. Barry Delaney kneels weeping as mourners gather at Barnhill Cenetery for the funeral of Black Watch soldier Kevin Elliot.

A Moore High School graduate who attended the University of Oklahoma on a track scholarship before joining the military has died in Afghanistan. Featured Gallery Advertisement Army 1st Lt. David Timothy Wright II, 26, died Monday. Details of his death were not available from the Department of Defense. His parents, Tim and Michele Wright, issued a statement through Primrose Funeral Service. "We want to say how much we appreciate the prayers and support that has been shown to our family during this very difficult time. David was a true soldier, who cherished the opportunity to fight for his country. "We...

Forward Operating Base Shank, Afghanistan - The soldiers in his New York-based combat unit call Staff Sgt. Brandon Camacho the "Bullet Magnet." Camacho - either the luckiest or unluckiest soldier in Afghanistan - is on his second tour here with the Fort Drum-based 10th Mountain Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team. The reason for the nickname: He's just earned his fifth Purple Heart after being shot in the left knee in a firefight 100 miles south of Kabul, military officials said. "One of my friends said, 'You're the luckiest unlucky person I know,'" said Camacho, 24, who grew up in Saipan...

Here is a video report from CBS News on the death of an American soldier in Afghanistan, and also saying August has become the deadliest month of the war in Afghanistan. Harry Smith also reported that CBS News Correspondent Cami McCormick was seriously injured in the same attack that killed the U.S. Soldier. She underwent surgery and is now in stable condition. . . . . (Watch Video)

(CNSNews.com) - A terror suspect charged with the attempted murder of two U.S. soldiers -- before a judge ruled that his confession was coerced and inadmissible -- returned home to Afghanistan on Monday, the same day news broke of a policy change in interrogations. After many Democrats and some Republican lawmakers called the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation techniques such as playing loud music and waterboarding “torture,” President Barack Obama reassigned interrogation responsibilities from the CIA to the National Security Council – which is run out of the White House, the Washington Post first reported.

Here is video of Anti-ObamaCare protesters in Crystal City, Missouri outside the office of Democrat Rep. Russ Carnahan holding a "Recess Rally" yesterday. "Recess Rally" refers to rallying against socialized medicine through ObamaCare during the August Congressional recess. Rallies were held all across the country yesterday by those against ObamaCare and Tea Party participants. The interesting thing here is that the brief clip shows the reaction of the crowed to a U.S. Soldier who happened to walking along the other side of the street. Spontaneous applause breaks out and calls of "Thank you" from the crowd. That's the way it...

BÖBLINGEN, Germany — Police have located the rental vehicle used by a Special Forces soldier to flee custody after he was convicted in a court-martial of kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault of a German woman. The soldier remains at large. The black Audi Q5 was parked on Waldburgstrasse, which runs parallel to the northern perimeter of Panzer Kaserne’s family housing. A manhunt for Sgt. 1st Class Kelly A. Stewart, 36, began Thursday morning after he failed to show for the sentencing phase of his trial. Late on Wednesday, a court-martial panel in Vilseck found him guilty of several charges in...

VILSECK, Germany — A manhunt is under way for a U.S. Special Forces soldier who fled after being convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a German woman. Sgt. 1st Class Kelly A. Stewart — who was found guilty of multiple charges including kidnapping, forcible sodomy and aggravated sexual assault of a woman in an August 2008 incident — was last seen early Thursday morning by his escort at an on-post hotel. Stewart, 36, is an Iraq war veteran who trains fellow Special Forces soldiers at the International Special Training Center in Pfullendorf. “He’s an angry animal and not a human,”...

CARTHAGE — Forming a fortress of American flags, members of the Patriot Guard encircled St. William of Vercelli Catholic Church of Carthage on Monday afternoon to pay tribute to a fallen soldier. "I never met Alex," said Army Staff Sgt. Miguel Fabbiani of his brother in arms while taking shade under a cedar tree. "But that's beside the point; he's one of us, he's our brother. We're here to pay respect for his service and to his family." Army Staff Sgt. 1st Class Alejandro "Alex" Granado III was among three people killed Aug. 2 during an ambush in eastern Afghanistan....

Man could face death penalty for slaying of soldier in ArkansasBy The Associated Press Story Updated: Aug 1, 2009 at 3:30 PM CDT LITTLE ROCK, Ark., -- Prosecutors say they'll seek a death penalty against a man accused of killing a soldier outside an Army recruiting center. Abdulhakim Muhammad pleaded not guilty on Friday at a Pulaski County court hearing to charges that he shot and killed Pvt. William Andrew Long. The judge set a trial date of Feb. 15. Muhammad's lawyer says his client is in good spirits but wouldn't say whether his client's calls to reporters to claim...

A young Iranian soldier, arrested late last week for allegedly stealing weapons for opposition groups, was killed in custody and his body returned to his family on Saturday, sources in Teheran said. The sources said the bodies of several dissidents, arrested in the course of anti-regime protests in Iran in recent weeks and evidently killed in detention, had also been returned to their families in the past few days. Several of the bodies bore signs of beatings, the sources said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y98HxYbsdBM A US Soldier demands an apology from Claire McCaskill. He absolutely NAILS her with very respectful and educated questions. Its BRILLIANT!

Savannah, NY (--The parents of a Central New York soldier who recently finished training at Fort Leonard Wood are seeking to block her overseas deployment, alleging that an Army recruiter misled the family. the parents of Hillary J. Poole of Savannah, filed a federal lawsuit Friday in Springfield, Mo. Poole is scheduled to be shipped Thursday to St. Louis. From there, she is slated to go to Germany before arriving in Afghanistan in October. The suit says Poole's mother signed her name and her husband's name to enlistment papers in February after being told that the paperwork simply allowed the...

The U.S. soldier kidnapped by Taliban forces in Afghanistan may have been taken across the border to Pakistan, complicating efforts to obtain his release, according to two people involved in U.S. and Afghan military efforts to locate him, and three Afghan soldiers captured with him.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon has identified the American soldier who went missing June 30 from his base in eastern Afghanistan and was later confirmed to have been captured. The Defense Department said in a statement Sunday that the soldier is Pfc. Bowe R. Bergdahl, 23, of Ketchum, Idaho. The statement also says his status is now classified as missing-captured, rather than whereabouts unknown. In a video posted online by the Taliban on Saturday, he's heard saying he's "scared I won't be able to go home." Before the Pentagon released Bergdahl's identity, two U.S. defense officials confirmed to The Associated...

Please keep this young man and his family in your prayers every day. Dear Lord grant him strength and mercy. May your divine light reside in his his soul and please keep him free from harm.

KABUL (Reuters) – The U.S. military denounced on Sunday the release of a video showing a soldier captured in Afghanistan, calling the images Taliban propaganda that violated international law. The video shows the soldier in traditional Afghan dress, being prompted in English by his captors to call for U.S. forces to be withdrawn from Afghanistan.

A Taliban commander in southeastern Afghanistan today said that a captured U.S. soldier was being held unharmed by insurgents, but warned he would be killed if efforts were made to find him. The soldier has been missing in Paktika province since late June, just before thousands of U.S. Marines began a major new offensive. The U.S. military has said he was presumed captured. Taliban commander Mawlavi Sangin said the group's leadership would decide the soldier's fate, but accused U.S. soldiers of harassing and arresting Afghans in Paktika and neighbouring Ghazni province. 'They have put pressure on the people in these...

U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook, set to deploy to Afghanistan, says he shouldn’t have to go. His reason? Barack Obama was never eligible to be president because he wasn’t born in the United States. Actually, Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961, two years after it became a state. Cook’s lawyer, Orly Taitz, who has also challenged the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency in other courts, filed a request last week in federal court seeking a temporary restraining order and status as a conscientious objector for his client. In the 20-page document — filed July 8 with the U.S. District...

If you want a dose of inspiration as well as confidence in America, watch this 12 minute film clip. It is moving and beautiful. It shows a 30 mile car procession from the small airport at Peachtree City, Georgia to a funeral home in McDonough, Georgia. Killed in action the week before, the body of Staff Sergeant First Class John C. Beale was returned to Falcon Field in Peachtree City, Georgia, just south of Atlanta, on June 11, 2009. The Henry County Police Department escorted the procession to the funeral home in McDonough, Georgia. A simple notice in local papers...

A day before New York Rep. Peter King called Michael Jackson a “pervert” unworthy of nonstop media coverage, the aunt of a U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan on the same day Jackson died asked why her nephew's death went virtually unnoticed while the King of Pop got memorial shrines across the country. "Mr. Jackson received days of wall-to-wall coverage in the media," Martha Gillis wrote to the Washington Post. "Where was the coverage of my nephew or the other soldiers who died that week?" Gillis' nephew, Lt. Brian Bradshaw, 24, died in Kheyl, Afganistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised...