A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....01-19-04....Military Monday

Billie, The Mayor

[The Mayor]

A Few of FR's Finest
....Every Day

FR is a Treasure Trove of talented, compassionate, patriotic, wonderful people who gather every day to discuss the latest news and issues; salute and support our military and our leaders;  tell a few jokes;  learn a new word;  write poetry;  pray for those in need;  and congratulate those who are deserving. Thank you, Jim Robinson, for giving us the vehicle in which we can express ourselves.

Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world.

A Few of FR's Finest November 11, 2001

So many people have written me since my original Veteran's Day Tribute, asking how they, or a loved one, could be included in that tribute. Since I could no longer add the photos to the body of the thread, I had been including them in additional posts as I received enough to make another collage.

Still that didn't seem to be enough. I think there's never been a better nor more appropriate time to keep the faces of our own Veterans and Active Military in front of FReepers--every day! That's why I wanted to do yet another Daily Thread .....ABOUT FReepers .....and FOR FReepers. But not only about our Military FReepers; for all FReepers! Wouldn't it be nice to get to know a few of the other FReepers as well? That's why we've created a place for just that. This is a friendly room in JimRob's house where FReeper FRiends can gather every day and just say hello if that's all they want to do.

There's more of course. We sometimes feature different FReepers, with a little background information on who they are and what makes them who they are, along with a few photos you might not have seen on other threads; sometimes others write an essay for us to post as the feature for the day; sometimes our presentation is a human interest story found elsewhere that you might not have read; sometimes special holiday threads; but whatever the topic of the day, it is always with FR's Finest in mind and that is YOU!

If you would like to be featured, or would like to see someone else featured, please send me a private FR mail.

Every Monday we will post the photos of FR's Military Personnel that I have collected and put into groups; these will be available to view through a link the remainder of the week - every day just a click away. :)   If you would like to add a photo of yourself or a loved one in the military, past or present, please let me know; I will hold it until I have enough for a new group.

Thank you, and please have fun with us...every day! ~ Billie

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank You For Serving Our Country!

TOP: Logos, SwedeGirl's hubby, Neil E Wright, FallGuy, 1John, Sneakypete
MIDDLE:  T'wit, COB1, LadyX, Dick Bachert, 68-69TonkinGulfYatchClub
BOTTOM:  YankeeinSC, Delta21, JoeSixPack1

TOP:  Bosniajmc, AFVetGal, Archy, A Navy Vet
MIDDLE:  4TheFlag, Aeronaut, 68Grunt, Xinga
BOTTOM:  Codger, AAABest, Clinton's A Liar, Duke809, dcwusmc

TOP:  mc5cents, Norb2569, LBGA's son, VanJenerette
MIDDLE:  Jim Robinson, KJenerette, davidosborne, KG9Kid
BOTTOM:  gwmoore, Equality7-2521, SAMWolf

TOP:  porgygirl, Phil V., MudPuppy, NorCoGOP
MIDDLE:  RaceBannon, OneidaM, rdb3, jwTexian
BOTTOM:  USMC Vet, TheMayor, Vineyard, rhododogma

TOP:  g'nad, AgThorn's son Justin, SLB, AgThorn's son Brett.
MIDDLE:  fish70, razorback-bert, CheneyChick,Leroy S Mort, Mark17.
BOTTOM:  Terry's Take, Taxman, DinkyDau.

TOP:  ValerieUSA's son Grant, SK1Thurman, kd5cts, RangerVetNam,
dansangel and .45man's son-in-law Tony
BOTTOM:  rangerX, Old China Hand, Trish, Howlin's dad, Mustang

TOP: ohioWfan's son, MamaBear's father-in-law, MamaBear's dad, ladtx
MIDDLE:  The Mayor's niece, M.Kehoe, Beach_Babe's son-in-law
BOTTOM:  deadhead's dad, HiJinx, Severa's hubby, viligantcitizen's granddad.

TOP:  spectr17, RightOnline, SERE_Doc, Tet68.
MIDDLE:  FutureSnakeEater, RightOnline's wife, CIApilot, Clamper1797
BOTTOM:  usmcobra, onedoug, DiverDave, Joe6-pack

TOP:  Q6-God, Scan59, Mama Bear and JKPhoto's son, ofMagog.
MIDDLE:  Big'ol_freeper, JustAmy's great uncle, Prodigal Son.
BOTTOM:  JustAmy's husband, JustAmy's brother-in-law, JustAmy's brother.

TOP:  dakine's wife, MeeknMing's dad, Auntbee's nephew, MilitiaMan7, AlasBabylon.
BOTTOM:  Joe Brower, Temple Owl, Temple Owl's wife, dutchess' dad, Aomagrat.

TOP:  ladtx #2 son; DiverDave's twin Don; petuniasevan and husband
poorman; Mustard; ladtx #1 son;
BOTTOM:  AlamoGirl's brother Floyd; AG's dad; AG's brother Jim (inset);
WVNan's husband; ladtx' Aunt Eva.

TOP: Mo1's dad; BuffyT's Uncle (right, w/ her dad & grandmother); Armymarinemom's 3 sons.
MIDDLE: ru4Liberty's dad; SheLion's husband, MaineRebel; wirestripper.
BOTTOM: fivetoes; bigghurtt; hurricane; ladtx' dad; Pippin's brother.




                     

THE WEEKEND THREAD 01-17-18-04 Week in Review

Opinions by our own 'King of Ping' The guy's good, folks!

Thanks, Mixer!

1) Click on the graphic to open the Calendar.
2) Once there you can click on any month and even click to the right to go into next year. Once you are in the month that you joined FR you will need to click on the number in the calendar and then an add item screen will come up.
3) In the next box enter your name in the "Calendar Text" field and then click on submit.
4) If any of the screens fail to load simply click on refresh in your browser and that will usually fix it.
5) If all else fails or simply if you want me to do this for you send me a FReepmail and I will gladly do it for you. ~Mixer

Click on the photo to view the album. To
submit your photo, please contact dansangel or .45Man
at
danbh59@yahoo.com
and include Freeper Photo Album in subject line.

[The Mayor]

[The Mayor]

The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. —James 3:18

The best peacemakers are those who know the peace of God.

[Aeronaut]

Good morning Mr. Mayor.

[knighthawk]

Hello all! How is everyone in this new week?

[The Mayor]

Morning Aeronaut, Happy MLK Day

[Aeronaut]

Happy MLK Day

Dittos!

[The Mayor]

Morning knighthawk, alls well in Buffalo, justa little chilly and snowy.

[The Mayor]

January 19, 2004

A Work Of Peace

Read: James 3:13-18

The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. —James 3:18

Bible In One Year: Genesis 46-48; Matthew 13:1-30

---

The small church in Umbarger, Texas, was an unlikely place for an international work of art. But toward the end of World War II, seven Italian prisoners of war, who were being held at a large camp nearby, were chosen to help decorate the church's plain brick walls.

The prisoners were reluctant to aid their captors, but they agreed on the condition that their efforts be considered a contribution toward Christian brotherhood and understanding. But as they worked on their paintings and a woodcarving of the Last Supper, one of the POWs later recalled, "A spontaneous stream of good feelings began almost at once to flow among us." No one spoke of the war or the past because "we were here for a work of peace and love."

Our lives are filled with unlikely settings for introducing God's peace. We can feel imprisoned by hard feelings, strained relationships, and confining circumstances. But peace has the power to break out anywhere. James reminded us that "the wisdom that is from above is . . . peaceable, gentle, willing to yield . . . . The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace" (James 3:17-18).

Wherever we are today, let's ask the Lord to use us as His peacemakers. —David McCasland

O Prince of Peace, keep us, we pray,
From strife and enmity;
Help us to speak with loving words
That calm hostility. —Branon

The best peacemakers are those who know the peace of God.

[MeekOneGOP]

Mornin', everybody ! Happy Monday !

[The Mayor]

Mornin Meekie

Texas ready for the SuperBowl next week.
I hope you guys treat my Patriots well..

[ladtx]

In memory of my fellow Vietnam helicopter pilots who were killed in that war the following pilot was lost on JAN 19. God bless them all.

1971 CPT Wilbur D. Latimer (USAR) -- C/2/17 CAV, Age 26, Married, Searcy, Arkansas

This memorial from CPT Latimer's uncle is taken from "The Wall" website:

''NOT A DAY GOES BY THAT MY THOUGHTS AREN'T WITH WILL, I AM THE ONLY LIVING LATIMER THATS LIVING, AND I AM 76. GOD BLESS YOU WILL. WILL WAS PART OF THE BOOK ''FIREBIRDS'' BY CHUCK CARLOCK.
Thursday, May 25, 2000

The following information is from the Vietnam Helicopter Pilot's Association Online Museum wesite concerning CPT Latimers aircraft. The VHPA Online Museum is a particularly interesting website for anyone interested in the history of the helicopter in the Vietnam War.

Update on 67-16161 previously posted. OH-6 67-16161 as it appeared late Sept.'71 and as it is today. The two lower pictures are the most recent & current as of this writing, May 1, 2002. This is the aircraft in which Cpt. Wilbur Latimer was KIA 71Jan19 while serving with C troop, 2/17th Cav based in Phu Bai. The top photo was taken later that year, shortly after Typhoon Agnes/Supertyphoon Bess (Sept.18-21) struck, which accounts for damage to hangar roof in background. The aircraft is seen delivering a passenger to the 2/17th flight line at Camp Eagle.

IN THE SHADOW OF THE BLADE

SCOUTS OUT!

[LadyX]

Our Mayor is a most versatile fellow..:))

Hosts Football Playoff Party until midnight on Sunday, and now presents our Monday Tribute to the Military!

A sincere Thank You for all your contributions to our Finest threads, and especially the Daily Bread presentations.

Come to think of it, let us never take for granted the tremendous efforts of all our hostesses and hosts to keep America alive and focused, thinking productively, and enjoying life and one another along the way....

As is true every day, it is a Great Day to Be An American!

[The Mayor]

ThankYou Sir for your Tribute to another one of our Hero's..

And Thankyou for your Service to our Country!
God Bless America!

[LadyX]

Thank you, ladtx, for this sober reminder of the price paid for our freedoms by so many caring citizens.
Those who protest aginst our involvement in countering threats from around the world are blind to the reality that merely *thinking* Peace is totally ineffectual aginst those with evil intentions.

Peace through Action is our only moral choice, and involves human efforts; and often, painful sacrifices.

Lord, watch over and protect each and every military person placing Freedom before Self, in Your Name, no matter what their nationality....Amen.

[The Mayor]

That's funny, Hosts a football party till midnight!

I was working in my basement on some custom cabinet doors, watching the game on a little B&W TV, the screen is 5"..

I came up to see the threads, make a quick post and went back to the dungeon.
I'm gonna take some pisc of them and upload them into my website so you can see what I really enjoy doing.

Thanks for the Compliments : )

[MeekOneGOP]

Oh, yeah ! Your Pats will be nice and cozy in the AstroDome in Houston alright !

I saw part of that game yesterday !

Hey, ya'll check this out. HILARIOUS !! hahaha ! ...

The Squirrel Grenade
(EXTREMELY funny article)

[LadyX]

* Good News Department *

101st Airborne Division Starts to Head Home

By U.S. Army Pfc. Thomas Day
40th Public Affairs Detachment

CAMP DOHA, Kuwait, Jan. 16, 2004 — The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), which landed in theatre in February of 2003, is beginning its 10,500 mile, three-month odyssey back home to Fort Campbell, Ky., with a massive transfer of troops and equipment by air and land.

Brig. Gen. Jeffery Schloesser, 101st Airborne Division assistant division commander (support), has overseen the division’s redeployment operations in Kuwait, which serves as the primary staging area for all equipment and personnel returning to the U.S. The 101st Airborne Division’s first redeployment convoys arrived shortly after the beginning of the new year and are currently washing their equipment, vehicles and just a few of the division’s 200-plus aircrafts that will be shrink-wrapped and sent back to Fort Campbell.

“This is the largest operational move of soldiers, Marines and Coalition forces that anyone really remembers, and that goes all the way back to Normandy in World War II,” said Schloesser, who arrived in Kuwait from Iraq in late December.

Roughly 20,000 soldiers with or attached to the 101st Airborne Division are scheduled to be sent home by early March. Approximately 4,000 “Screaming Eagles” who aren’t essential to the redeployment of equipment through Kuwait will fly directly back to the United States from Iraq, with a stop in Incirlik, Turkey.

The next homes for the majority of the 101st Airborne, albeit briefly, will be Camps Doha, Udairi and Arifjan in Kuwait.

Around 6,000 vehicles and 1,600 containers will pass through the bases from the division. There the battle-tested soldiers are readying their vehicles and equipment for U.S. Customs inspections.

“If anybody could be prepared, we are prepared,” Schloesser remarked. “The Kuwaitis on post have bent over backwards for this. They have allowed us to reopen camps that were only open for the first part of the war back in the March-April time frame.

“They have allowed us to take a good amount of the commercial shipping port facilities that they have and dedicated them for our military and the same thing goes for their airports.”

Soldiers who think they are approaching the finish line will find one last steep mountain to climb. No vehicle can board the ship destined for Fort Campbell via Jacksonville, Fla., without having been thoroughly washed, a process that can take around six hours a vehicle.

“I’ve spent a lot of time on wash racks, on aircraft parking positions as well as on the base camps and there is not a Screaming Eagle down here who is not motivated,” Schloesser said. “Its natural as you come down and start washing things and cleaning up that actually you would start to lose a little bit of motivation. I have not yet seen that.”

In addition to washing out all foreign soil from U.S. equipment, helicopters must undergo a special “shrink wrap” process to protect their sensitive equipment from the ocean environment.

“The aircraft that are going to go home through the port on the ships can be exposed to salt water.” The division’s aviation units wrap their aircraft in the cocoon-like plastic wrap and suck the air out, giving the helicopters a protective plastic covering.

“It goes all around the aircraft, protects it from the salt water which could cause corrosion. If it’s going home via the ship - and a large number of our aircraft are, some two hundred - they’re going to be shrink-wrapped,” Schloesser said.

Aircrafts severely damaged in combat, considered a bio hazard, will be properly disposed of in theatre and will not go back to Fort Campbell, according to Schloesser.

One issue that has been resolved is what the division will do with the makeshift armor and “Dohuk” weapon mounts the 101st soldiers have utilized to reinforce their vehicles in Iraq. The “Dohuk” mounts, named after the Iraqi town the division had contracted to manufacture the M249 stands, will be staying in theatre to support the next rotation of Operation Iraqi Freedom units. Any protective armor welded onto the vehicles will go back to Fort Campbell, otherwise it will stay in Iraq.

A team of soldiers from 8th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment,
fold back and secure the rotor blades on a UH-60 Black Hawk
helicopter from the 6th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment so that
it can be loaded onto a ship for the voyage back to the U.S..
A plastic "shrink wrap" coating will also be applied to protect
the helicopter from the sea environment while it is transported home aboard ship. U.S. Army photo by SSG Mark W. Swart, Jr.

Private Sasha Bolt, 8th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment,
installs padding on a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter from the 6th
Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment. The padding is applied prior
to a plastic "shrink wrap" coating which protects the helicopter
from the sea environment while it is transported home aboard
ship. U.S. Army photo by SSG Mark W. Swart, Jr.

[The Mayor]

They have done a Standup Job, God Bless them All!

[The Mayor]

Look at this E-mail, just came from my father.




Some people still don't understand why military personnel do what they do
for a living. This exchange Between Senators John Glenn and Sen. Howard
Metzenbaum is worth reading. Not only is it a pretty impressive and
impromptu speech, but it's also a good example of one man's explanation of
! why men and women in the Armed Services do what they do for a living. This
IS a typical, though sad, example of what some who have never served think
of the Military.

---

Senator Metzenbaum to Senator Glenn: "How can you run for Senate when you've
never held a "real job?"

Senator Glenn: "I served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps.I served
through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane ! was hit by antiaircraft fire
on 12 different occasions.

I was in the Space Program. It wasn't my checkbook, Howard; it was my Life
on the line. It was not a nine to five job, where I took time off totake the
daily cash receipts to the bank.

I ask you to go with me ... as I went the other day... to a Veterans
Hospital and look those men - with their mangled bodies - in the eye, and
tell THEM they didn't hold a job!

You go with me to the Space Program at NASA and go, as I have gone, to the
widows and orphans of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee...and you look
those kids in the eye and tell them that their DADS didn't hold a job.

You go with me on Memorial Day and ! you stand in Arlington National
Cemetery, where I have more friends buried than I'd like to remember, and
you watch those waving flags. You stand there, and you think about this
Nation, and you tell ME that those people didn't have a job?

I'll tell you, Howard Metzenbaum, you should be on your knees every day of
your life thanking God that there were some men - SOME MEN - who held a REAL
job. And they required a dedication to a purpose - and a love of country
and a dedication to duty - that was more important than life itself. And
their self-sacrifice is what made this country possible.

I HAVE held a job, Howard! ---What about you?"

For those who don't remember - During WWII, Howard Metzenbaum was an
attorney representing the Communist Party in the USA. Now he is a Senator!

If you can read this, thank a teacher....
If you are reading it in English, thank a Veteran.......

[ladtx]

Our #2 son, Jeff will be coming home with 101st. Needless to say Mrs ladtx and I are ready for him to come home. He can't wait to get back into school at Lubbock Christian where he was carrying a 3.5 GPA, he's even talking about going on and getting his MBA. We are extremely proud of him, he has come a long way.