Free Republic

U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Melvin Rector long carried Britain in his heart after he helped defend it during World War II, but 70 years passed without him stepping foot in the country. The 94-year-old finally decided to leave his home in Barefoot Bay, Fla., to visit Britain earlier this month. The National World War II Museum in New Orleans conducts a travel program through which interested parties can visit certain sites of the war. He signed up for one, in hopes of visiting the Royal Air Force station Snetterton Heath, in Norfolk. He served there with the 96th Bomb...

Favorite "Flower" Songs *Video* Killswitch Engage - Rose Of Sharyn Numb and broken, Here I stand alone, Wondering what were The last words I said to you Hoping, praying that I'll find a way To turn back time, Can I turn back time? What would I give to behold. The smile the face of love, You never left me, The rising sun Will always speak your name. Numb, i'm broken Here i stand alone. Wondering the words, The last words i said to you It won't be long We'll meet again... What would i give, to behold The smile,...

Link only. Illegal immigrant stole ID of deceased veteran and got, among other things, a VA Choice Card

Like a lot of other Americans these days I’m spending too much time pissed off about way too many things in this great nation of ours. I’m not perceptive enough to fully understand how we got ourselves into such a mess but I do know it’s gotten me to thinking about Memorial Day this year. And that’s another thing that pisses me off. As a veteran, I’m angry that this day will be passed by most of my countrymen with not one thought about the millions of Americans who lost their lives in our nation’s wars or undeclared conflicts. As...

Documents show that slain Navy Seal and “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle misrepresented the number of medals he received. Navy documents obtained by an online magazine through an open records request show that Kyle earned one Silver Star and three Bronze Stars with valor. In his best-selling book, Kyle wrote that he had received two Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars. A Navy spokeswoman confirmed the validity of the documents and says the armed services branch is investigating the discrepancy. The Intercept first reported the discrepancy and posted the documents. Kyle’s widow, Taya Kyle, didn’t immediately return a phone call...

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) has called on Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald to resign because of his remarks comparing wait lines at a Disney park to VA health care. “Secretary McDonald’s preposterous statement is right out of Never Never Land,” Blunt said Tuesday. “I call on him to resign because it’s clear he cannot prioritize getting our veterans the health care they deserve and have earned in a timely manner. Dismissing wait times when veterans can often wait months for an appointment is negligent and a clear sign that new leadership is needed at the VA.”

The secretary of veterans affairs, Bob McDonald, refused to apologize for comparing VA wait times to Disneyland wait times earlier today on MSNBC. "Wait times are important but it is not the only measure of veterans experience. That's what veterans are telling us. We talked to a lot of veterans. It is important and if I were misunderstood or said the wrong thing, I am glad i have to correct it," said McDonald.

It seemed like an outpouring of veteran anger against Donald Trump: over a dozen former service members protesting outside Trump Tower. But the reality was more complicated. The protest was actually a coordinated effort, led in part by the Hillary Clinton campaign, to embarrass her Republican rival for his failed efforts to raise money for veterans. It only looked like a grassroots demonstration. A spokesman for the demonstrators insisted they had no affiliation with any campaign. Later he said the protesters had reached out to the Clinton campaign for press contacts, but that’s all. Then the activist finally admitted that,...

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald on Monday compared the length of time veterans wait to receive health care at the VA to the length of time people wait for rides at Disneyland, and said his agency shouldn't use wait times as a measure of success because Disney doesn't either. "When you got to Disney, do they measure the number of hours you wait in line? Or what's important? What's important is, what's your satisfaction with the experience?" McDonald said Monday during a Christian Science Monitor breakfast with reporters. "And what I would like to move to, eventually, is that kind...

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald on Monday compared the length of time veterans wait to receive health care at the VA to the length of time people wait for rides at Disneyland, and said his agency shouldn´t use wait times as a measure of success because Disney doesn´t either. "When you got to Disney, do they measure the number of hours you wait in line? Or what´s important? What´s important is, what´s your satisfaction with the experience?" McDonald said Monday during a Christian Science Monitor breakfast with reporters. "And what I would like to move to, eventually, is that kind

This to me, is a total disgrace to America and our Veterans that served during Viet Nam. We have a wall with names of fallen Veterans that served this Country for it's freedoms and making it safe, and this President goes there and offers them weapons and other things... Maybe I am upset because a lot of people I knew served there, people I grew up with, boys that I dated, men that I rode with, that never came back home... I was privledged to see the "Viet Nam Wall" when I went with the Rolling Thunder out of PA....

In a move that is raising concerns among some Vietnam War veterans, President Obama will discuss selling more U.S. arms to Hanoi during his visit to Vietnam that began Sunday night. Top White House advisers said Mr. Obama hasn’t made a decision whether to lift the partial U.S. embargo on sending military equipment to Vietnam, where more than 58,200 U.S. soldiers were killed before the fall of Saigon in 1975. But the administration sees advantages in easing the embargo, both as a warning to expansionist China and as leverage to compel the communist regime in Hanoi to improve its record...

   ***** ~ Canteen Music Dedication ~ ***** Armed Forces Day "Gaurdians of Freedom" Saturday, May 21, 2016 ~ Support The Artists ~   Support the artists you hear throughout the Canteen! Click on the links below! Keep the music going! ArtistDirect l  Internet Radio l  AOL Music l  Sonique (Lycos) l  Real Radio Live365 l  971TheRiver  l  GotRadio  l  Wherehouse  l  Target  l Shoutcast AFRTS l  VH1 l XM Radio l  BET l  audiophile l  Virgin Radio l  Soma (Alternative) Acaza l AudioRealm l VH1 l  Yahoo! Launch Music l  Radio Disney l  Live-Radio Net ITunes l Amazon...

KERNERSVILLE, N.C. — An unusual coalition of largely older and conservative former military men and younger, left-leaning law students are waging a joint campaign for one of the most unlikely causes: clemency for troops convicted of killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. They want to push President Obama to reduce sentences and grant pardons for seven convicted war criminals, ranging from a private who followed an order to shoot unarmed detainees, to the more well-known case of Robert Bales, an Army staff sergeant sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of 16 Afghan civilians in 2012. The...

... There appears to be a troubling trend within the VA. As of December 2015, almost 99 percent of the names listed on the 'mental defective' category for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, otherwise known as the national gun-ban list, are from the Veterans Administration. Once a person's name is on that list, they are banned from owning or possessing a firearm. Their Second Amendment rights are completely null and void...

When Congress rushed in two years ago to fix a chronic delay problem at the Veterans Health Administration, one of the key reforms was a new, $10 billion program called Veterans Choice. The goal was to give vets an option of going to a private doctor if they weren’t able to get a timely appointment with a government-paid VHA doctor.

   ***** Tunes For The Troops ***** ~ Support The Artists ~   Support the artists you hear throughout the Canteen! Click on the links below! Keep the music going! ArtistDirect l  Internet Radio l  AOL Music l  Sonique (Lycos) l  Real Radio Live365 l  971TheRiver  l  GotRadio  l  Wherehouse  l  Target  l Shoutcast AFRTS l  VH1 l XM Radio l  BET l  audiophile l  Virgin Radio l  Soma (Alternative) Acaza l AudioRealm l VH1 l  Yahoo! Launch Music l  Radio Disney l  Live-Radio Net ITunes l Amazon l Salsa Radio l MTV l CMT l Ticketmaster l Billboard...

The Legion’s top brass told The Daily Caller News Foundation that it threw out the survey results because surveys aren’t comprehensive and veterans weren’t savvy enough to know that private-sector doctors don’t always provide perfect care either.

The Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General went “hunting for bugs” in the middle of the night at two VA kitchens Tuesday after a Conservative Review investigation revealed allegations of an infestation so severe that cockroaches were served in patients’ meals. The inspectors descended upon Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in suburban Chicago at 3 a.m. to “conduct an impromptu walk-through of the kitchens,” according to an internal VA email sent to union leaders at 7:24 a.m. “They were hunting for bugs, I believe that’s what they were doing at 3 o’clock in the morning,” said dietician Kelvin Gilkey, who...

A Sanford judge today ruled that Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi does not have to answer defense attorneys' questions under oath in a mammoth Internet casino gambling case pending in Seminole County. Circuit Judge Kenneth Lester Jr. made that ruling this morning.The case involves more than 50 defendants, accused of violating the state's gambling, racketeering and money laundering laws by operating Internet cafes that prosecutors say served as storefront gambling parlors. Each had ties to the non-profit Allied Veterans of the World, a group that provided charity to military veterans but, according to authorities, donated just two percent of its...