A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....09-20-04....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, The Mayor, 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.

TOP: Repubmommy's brother, Rose in RoseBear's uncle, BoxerBlues' son Chris, BoxerBlues' son Brent.
BOTTOM: Rose in RoseBear's cousin's hubby, Deadhead's stepdad, Dansy's dad, Misty's brother.

                     

THE WEEKEND THREAD 09-3 thru 9-6-04... 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

[jwfiv]

Good morning, your Honor, Mr. Mayor, sir ... and to all the Finest.

Looks like it's gonna be a good day to be alive.

A good day to be American.

But, maybe not such a good day for CBS and the Kerry Krew ... their krummy karma is katching up with them at last.

It's a wonderful life.

May the Good Lord bless our troops and our President, shield them from harm and guide them all to VIctory.

[Dubya]

'Mom' makes base feel more like home(TEXAS

[Mama_Bear]

(((((((((PIPPIN!))))))))) :-)

I am getting soooo excited about our trip to DC! We have our room reserved and will be arranging for our flight today.

Now, Pip, we are depending upon you to arrange good weather for us. Remember, Californians are a bit soft when it comes to dealing with harsh winters. ;-)

[Mama_Bear]

"Kerry's krummy karma". LOL!!!

[Pippin]

Good afternoon/Morning everybody!

Now after a week away from the news and stuff like that, I find I don't like to be uninformed. I wanna come back to the "fold" so to speek!

Now If only I could ignore Kerry!

[Pippin]

I'll do my best!

You're arranging for a flight today?

For January?

[LadyX]

From what you posred, Dubya:

"At Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Col. Richard Roten, deputy commander, said he hoped to show the group examples of the "spirit and pride and esprit de corps that comes from being a Marine." These attributes, he said, "pay a tremendous dividend in combat" and "set the Marine Corps apart" from its sister services.

Roten said high-tech equipment and technology goes a long way toward building the military's capabilities. "But in the end, our biggest and most important product is the United States Marine," he said.

Master Sgt. John Sterling, noncommissioned officer in charge of the base's Kaneohe Bay Rifle Training Facility, told the group an Army general was once asked what the most lethal weapon was in the U.S. arsenal. "And he said it was a U.S. Marine," Sterling said.

======================

BIG SMILE..:))

[Dubya]

American Forces Press Service

The Pentagon's POW/MIA Recognition Day ceremony Sept. 14 brought back memories of a horrid, week-long march in a scorching malaria-infected jungle, and being starved, kicked and beaten for World War II Bataan Death March survivor Dr. Alex Kelly, 87.

"I'm personally pleased that there's this kind of interest in POWs and MIAs so they have these ceremonies each year," said Kelly, who spent more than three and a half years as a prisoner in Japanese prison camps in the Philippines and Japan. He relayed his experiences in the camps in an American Forces Press Service interview after the ceremony.

Kelly said he was a POW from April 1942, when the Philippines surrendered to Japanese forces, until the end of the war in the Pacific on Sept. 2, 1945. A first lieutenant at the time, he was captured while serving as the battalion surgeon for the 57th Infantry Regiment "Philippine Scouts."

The scouts were native Filipinos attached to the U.S. Army's Philippine Department prior to and during World War II. They were mostly enlisted troops under the command of American officers. However, a handful of Filipinos received commissions from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.

More than 70,000 Filipinos and Americans surrendered to Japanese forces. It was the largest American army in history to surrender.

The Japanese led their captured prisoners on a forced march out of Bataan.

The trek through the Philippines jungles was labeled a death march because so many people died on the march, Kelly noted. "The Japanese marched us from Bataan to the prison camps further north in Luzon, which was about 60 miles for me and much longer for some people," he said.

"Many, many people died along the way. I saw dead people in the ditches along the road all along the way," Kelly continued. Conditions were terrible -- no food, no water, no transportation, hot summer sun -- just a terrible situation."

Kelly said he doesn't know how many pounds he lost during the march, quipping, "I was a skinny guy when we started."

He said his years as a POW were long and full of anxiety, uncertainty and loneliness. "I never had any contact with my family or friends in this country," he noted. "I had malaria a number of times, but otherwise my health remained fairly good.

"It just seemed like a never-ending, dull, boring, miserable existence," he said.

During the march, Kelly said, he only ate a total of one to one and a half cups of rice. He said he received water during the march, but not everyone did.

"The first several months in the prison camp all there was was rice, but more of it," he noted. "We got a canteen cup full of rice every day and some green leafy vegetables, mainly sweet potato leaves. They boiled those into a soup, but they didn't give us any of the sweet potatoes.

At the first prison camp Kelly spent time in, Camp O'Donnell, the Japanese gave the men one cow for roughly 1,000 men every two or three weeks. "I would get a teaspoonful of meat and a bowl of soup, which the meat had been boiled in," he said.

The Japanese transferred the Army doctor to a POW camp in Japan in March
1943. "At that time, there were extra medical personnel in the Philippines, so they sent a detail of 50 doctors and a couple hundred medical corpsmen to Japan," Kelly explained. "When we got to Japan, we were scattered out into various prison camps to treat the POWs."

He said memories of that horrid, haunting experience are long gone. "I don't think about it very much anymore," said Kelly, who earned his Army Reserve commission in the medical corps after graduating from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta in 1938 and was called to active duty in 1941.

He said his Bataan experience caused him to make "tremendous changes in my life, but I can't say that it scarred me."

Though he hasn't been heavily involved with POW/MIA issues, Kelly said he decided to attend the Pentagon ceremony to see what it was like. "I wanted to see if I wanted to become more involved with POW/MIA activities some time in the future," said Kelly, who got out of the Army about a year after returning home. "It was a moving ceremony for me."

[Pippin]

Hi, (((Maggie)))!

[phancypants]

Thanks for the heads-up on this!

[Pippin]

Hi, Phancy!

Welcome to Fr's Finest! :o)

[Dubya]

Great post. SEMPER FI Lady Marine.

[Mama_Bear]

You're arranging for a flight today?

Well, I am calling my travel agent and getting her to work on locating the best price. The earlier the better. :-)

[Pippin]

Agree'd!

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

040919-N-8704K-002 Arabian Gulf (Sept. 19, 2004) - Two Naval Aviators assigned to the “Diamond Cutters” of Sea Control Squadron Three Zero (VS-30) complete pre-flight checks of their S-3B Viking prior to launch aboard the conventionally-powered aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67). S-3B Aircraft are tasked by the Carrier Strike Group (CSG) commanders to provide Anti-Surface Warfare (ASUW), surface surveillance and intelligence collection, electronic warfare, mine warfare, coordinated search and rescue, and fleet support missions including air wing tanking. Kennedy and embarked Carrier Air Wing Seventeen (CVW 17) are deployed to the 5th Fleet area of responsibility (AOR) in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Units in the Kennedy Carrier Strike Group are working closely with Multi-National Corps-Iraq and Iraqi forces to bring stability to the sovereign government of Iraq. U.S. Navy photo by Photographers Mate 3rd Class Joshua Karsten (RELEASED)

040915-N-9593M-011 Pacific Ocean (Sept. 15, 2004) - An F/A-18C Hornet assigned to the “Red Devils” of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron Two Three Two (VMFA-232) launches from the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) with a flash of fire caused by unburned jet fuel. Lincoln and embarked Carrier Air Wing Two (CVW-2) are currently conducting operations in preparation for an upcoming deployment. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Philip A. McDaniel (RELEASED)

040919-N-8704K-004 Arabian Gulf (Sept. 19, 2004) - An S-3B Viking assigned to the “Diamond Cutters” of Sea Control Squadron Three Zero (VS-30), maneuvers the Aerial Refueling Store (ARS) drogue into position prior to refueling another S-3B Viking assigned to VS-30. S-3B Aircraft are tasked by the Carrier Strike Group (CSG) commanders to provide Anti-Surface Warfare (ASUW), surface surveillance and intelligence collection, electronic warfare, mine warfare, coordinated search and rescue, and fleet support missions including air wing tanking. Kennedy and embarked Carrier Air Wing Seventeen (CVW 17) are deployed to the 5th Fleet area of responsibility (AOR) in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Units in the Kennedy Carrier Strike Group are working closely with Multi-National Corps-Iraq and Iraqi forces to bring stability to the sovereign government of Iraq. U.S. Navy photo by Photographers Mate 3rd Class Joshua Karsten (RELEASED)

040918-N-6371Q-036 Naval Station Norfolk, Va. (Sept. 18, 2004) - Line handlers assigned to USS Kearsarge (LHD 3), stand at parade rest as the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD 1) makes her way to the pier. Wasp returned to Norfolk, Va., following a seven-month deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). The Wasp-led Expeditionary Strike Group Two (ESG-2) was the first East Coast ESG to deploy. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate Airman Orlando Quintero (RELEASED)

[dutchess]

Good military monday to my Finest sistahs and friends. God bless our military men and women. I can only imagine what they must be thinking when they hear Kerry's rants as well as those of some of our RINO senators. Let me share one of my favorite pictures.



Have a great evening all.

[Billie]

Thank you to America's Finest and Bravest.

[Billie]

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; Dutchess; Aquamarine, 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.

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

OhioWfan........................son mystery-ak..........son, husband Gogrammy................grandson Inspectorette...................son Blessed American..........nephew Slip18..........................nephew anniegetyourgun...........nephew Diver Dave.......niece, nephew ConspiracyGuy........2 nephews Pippin..........niece, loved one Pippin...nephew & his fiancee weldgophardline.....brotherinlaw jamaly.................brotherinlaw Future Snake Eater..........cousin WaterDragon.............grandson WaterDragon...........son-in-law BeforeISleep...................son kimmie7......................brother Armymarinemom............3 sons american_ranger.............son LadyX.........................grandson fawn796.......................nephew Dubya............................nephew StarCMC......................brother ValerieUSA..................2 sons Lakeside......................2 sons Spruce.....................daughter Philman_36..............2 nephews Warrior Nurse...........active duty SK1 Thurman...........active duty David Osborne.........active duty fc2tomschermuly......active duty Rose inRoseBear...cousin's hubby bkwells..................active duty LongCut..................active duty cjk............................active duty Trish.......................active duty ODC-GIRL.................active duty AF_Blue..................active duty Notwithstanding.....active duty thumperusn.............active duty Q6-God.....................active duty Q6-God...................twin brother Veloxherc.................active duty

Maigrey................cousin WVNan..............friend's son ladtx....................2 sons Mama_Bear.........2 nephews gator girl............husband severa.......husband, brother Hostel..................cousin MozartLover......son, nephew LBGA........................son katykelly.................son cookcounty..............son SpookBrat...nephew, cousin Doug from Upland...son-in-law Himyar.....................son boxerblues............2 sons the piper...................son sheeza...............husband kemathen7...........husband Tiffee4Bob.......boyfriend deadhead................cousin JimRobinson.....2 nephews TexKat..............son, step-son Consort..2 daughters,son-in-law Darheel.....................niece Donaeus...................nephew dixie sass...............nephew BeAllYouCanBe............son Repubmommy...............brother AgThorn...................2 sons homeschoolmama.......nephew kneezles......................son Redhead....step-granddaughter Redhead..step-grdaughter fiance Atomic Conspiracy..half-brother Atomic Conspiracy...nephew Atomic Conspiracy...niece Sunflowergal.........grandson visualops.................cousin Alouette.......................son mrstank.......................husband MrsMike31..................husband eaglesiniowa.................son auboy.........................cousin spotbust1....................husband

[Billie]

But, maybe not such a good day for CBS and the Kerry Krew

I can't say I'm sorry for them - it's been a long time coming. God Bless our President and "Hurry November 2nd!"

[Billie]

Hi, Dolly - send your photo to me for the next group of vets, okay? I'll write you FR mail to give you email addy. Thanks!