A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....02-16-04....Military Monday

Billie, The Mayor

[dixie sass]

It's a teeth chattering 41 degrees here in Summerville!

[dixie sass]

You sound like me, Nicmarlo.

[dixie sass]

I know Calpernia. Maybe I just resent the way that the liberal sense of humour seems to have taken root and is flourishing. I don't know...

[dixie sass]

What a wonderful story Dave. I am so cheered to hear it. I hope you don't mind, but I would like to send this to a lot of people.

[LadyX]

" I've read how people can pick out all kinds of aircraft from watching them overhead....that amazes me, as I can't even distinguish vehicles apart, except by color, lol!"

Had you been a child of WWII like Dubya and MEG and Nan and me, you would have known most of the planes in operation.
We took pride in being able to distinguish them by shape, ever aware of the need for us to watch for foreign ones attempting to bomb our cities.

Although it was not likely those would have reached our shore, they could indeed be launched from aircraft carriers.

All major cities routinely held air raid practices - block areas had volunteer air wardens, scanning the skies. We had 'blackout' curtains to pull over the windows, filled the bathtub with water to use if electricity was interrupted, flashlights and lanterns and batteries for radios and food on hand, etc.

I can remember in the third grade loving to draw endless P-38's!!

Living in Coral Gables then, a suburb of Miami, now and then inflated lifeboats with German saboteurs tried to land on uninhabited stretches up and down the East Coast of Florida. One day from a barber shop in a downtown high rise building, my Dad actually saw a German submarine surface briefly in Biscayne Bay!

[Aquamarine]

It's 32 degrees here. Think I'll go get me a quilt and watch a movie.

[Aquamarine]

God Bless Our Military ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Below are names of some of our FReepers' loved ones who are serving our country. If you have someone you would like to add, please address a post to Billie; Mama_Bear; Dansangel; Dutchess; Aquamarine; deadhead and we will add their name to this list. As we pray for them, we pray also for all our nation's leaders, and military personnel, and their families and friends. May God hold them close to His heart.

~~~~~~~~~~   ~~~~~~~~~~

We ask Lord, that You guide the leaders of our great country in their hour of decision. The burden that has been placed on their shoulders is overwhelming. We ask that with Your infinite wisdom You guide them gently to the right decisions.

Please give us the strength, Lord, to get through each difficult and devastating day that faces each of us and our country. Protect and guide our Military that are now being called to duty, strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OhioWfan........................son mystery-ak..........son, husband Gogrammy................grandson Inspectorette...................son Blessed American..........nephew Slip18..........................nephew anniegetyourgun...........nephew Pippin....niece,nephew,loved one Doug from Upland......son-in-law weldgophardline.....brotherinlaw Future Snake Eater..........cousin WaterDragon..son-in-law,grandson BeforeISleep...................son The Mayor........................niece LadyX.........................grandson fawn796.....................nephew ValerieUSA................2 sons Warrior Nurse...........active duty SK1 Thurman...........active duty David Osborne.........active duty fc2tomschermuly......active duty bkwells..................activve duty LongCut..................active duty Trish.......................active duty StarCMC.........brother Atomic Conspiracy............half-brother....niece....nephew TexKat......son.....and stepson ODC-GIRL............active duty cookcounty................son Donaeus..............nephew thumperusn...........active duty katykelly..................son

Maigrey................cousin ladtx....................2 sons Mama_Bear...........2 nephews gator girl............husband severa................husband, brother Hostel....................cousin MozartLover......son, nephew LBGA........................son SpookBrat...........nephew Himyar.....................son boxerblues............2 sons the piper...................son sheeza...............husband kemathen7...........husband Tiffee4Bob.......boyfriend Diver Dave.......niece, nephew deadhead................cousin JimRobinson.....2 nephews Armymarinemom.....3 sons Consort..2 daughters,son-in-law Darheel..................niece dixie sass.............nephew BeAllYouCanBe.........son AgThorn...............2 sons homeschoolmama.......nephew kneezles.................son kimmie7...........brother Spruce.............daughter visualops....cousin, adopted Marine Dubya..............nephew SunflowerGal.......grandson RoseBear......cousin's husband

[Billie]

Good evening on this Presidents' Day and what a great crowd greeted our President yesterday at the Daytona 500!

Thank you to all our men and women in uniform for serving our country. Special thanks to our Finest Military Family! God Bless you all!

[dixie sass]

Everytime that I have received that, I have thought of my Uncle Joe and the three years that he was in the South Pacific and of my Cousin on the Fowler/Whiteside side of the the family who was on the Bataam Death March when he was captured at Clark.

I think of my Daddy stationed in China and the atrocities that he saw that the Japanese had committed. I cry because somehow I think we have lost whatever it is that made these men so committed to perserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the United State.

I don't know how to explain it exactly, I'm not articulate enough to put it in words so that it is understood.

Thank you for putting it up.

[dixie sass]

I am so glad to hear that. It does my heart good to hear and read it.

[LadyX]

"Up here at the Rainbow Bridge, I can have anything be anything I want it to be.

Gertie is a purple GORILLA!"

Thank you - thank you - thank you, Weinie!

I was having a terrible identity crisis....

[LadyX]

Beautiful, beautiful comforting message, Dubya.
Thank you.

[dixie sass]

Thank you Maggie.

[LadyX]

I remembered who this was instantly, Dubya, and followed his life as a movie star.
We had many, many heroes around the world in WWII, and patriotism was at a level never equaled since in America..

[dixie sass]

As long as we have Nixon's great silent majority who sit in there homes and do nothing, we will be on that tight rope. I think that the most impressive thing I see each year, is the number of young people who attend CPAC.

[dixie sass]

Audi Murphy?

[LadyX]

Just getting to your reply about your relatives engaged in WWII. Everyone had a father, brother, son, uncle, friend, or neighbor serving in the military, if of age and qualified. If not, they served in some capacity in the United States to assist in the common War Effort. Anyone who was not outright patriotic and supportive was considered a pariah, and accounts for our generation's dislike of those who protest our involvement elsewhere, who believe just saying, "Peace, Man!" will achieve anything with ill-intentioned societies.

Might just as well spit in the face of a charging lion, eh?

[dixie sass]

Told you so - monkey's have tails and gorilla's don't!

[LadyX]

- - In honor of Presidents Day - -

12 Things You Didn't Know About U.S. Presidents

Not only were these men leaders of our country--they were multitalented, unique, and even downright quirky. We've heard a lot about their contribution to United States history. But would you have guessed the following...?

1. First U.S. president George Washington rejected a movement among army officers to make him king of the United States.

2. Andrew Jackson, 7th U.S. president, dueled with Charles Dickinson after he insulted Jackson's marriage. Jackson let his opponent fire first, giving himself time to take aim. Jackson took a bullet in the chest and, without flinching, calmly killed his man.

3. James Buchanan, 15th U.S. president and the first unmarried man to be elected president, reportedly took great pride in his tiny feet, although he was a large robust man.

4. Often depicted wearing a tall black stovepipe hat, 16th president of the United States Abraham Lincoln carried letters, bills, and notes in his hat.

5. The 18th U.S. president, Ulysses S. Grant was born Hiram Ulysses Grant, but he changed his name because he did not like his monogram, HUG.

6. Both ambidextrous and multilingual, 20th president of the United States James Garfield could write Greek with one hand while writing Latin with the other.

7. William Taft, 27th president of the United States, weighed more than 300 pounds and had a special oversized bathtub installed in the White House.

8. The 28th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson allowed sheep to graze on the White House lawn during World War I; their wool helped raise money for the Red Cross.

9. The 38th president of the United States, Gerald Ford turned down offers to play professional football for the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions.

10. As a young lifeguard at a riverside beach near Dixon, Illinois, future 40th U.S. president Ronald Reagan rescued 77 people from drowning.

11. An avid golfer, 42nd U.S. president Bill Clinton was infamous for taking a high number of "mulligans," or "do-overs" while playing. The only Rhodes-scholar president also developed a reputation for creative math skills in tallying his score; according to one report, Clinton once took some 200 swings to record a score of 82.

12. The 43rd U.S. president, George W. Bush was head cheerleader at Phillips Academy, a prep school in Andover, Massachusetts, where his father had been a legendary student leader and athlete. Nicknamed "Lip," George W. also organized an intramural stickball league at the school.

[The Mayor]

I'm showing that it's February 16, 2004. How do I correct it to November 11, 2001?

Boy wouldn't it be nice to be able to jump back a couple years.
You had me confused, I kept on going back and forth looking for what I did wrong.
Then I started at the top and saw 2001. I clicked on the link which of course brought
me back to the first thread for the finest. I didn't find my name till almost the end.
I thought I was here on that 1st thread, I guess not..

Beautiful pictures of AirForce One.

I was crusing around last night and picked them up from other threads thinking
you all would like to see them. Thanks!