Thanks, GeeBee, for opening the doors in The Mayors' absence. Such a beautiful pledge and ping graphic!

21 posted on 09/23/2007 11:48:57 PM PDT by Mama_Bear (My heroes wear camouflage!)

Beautiful graphic, LUV! Our military is awesome!

22 posted on 09/23/2007 11:51:45 PM PDT by Mama_Bear (My heroes wear camouflage!)

You have such a good eye for color and design, MEG. Your table and graphic is exceptional! I know you put much time and thought into your posts and they are appreciated. :-)

23 posted on 09/23/2007 11:55:09 PM PDT by Mama_Bear (My heroes wear camouflage!)

24 posted on 09/23/2007 11:59:35 PM PDT by Mama_Bear (My heroes wear camouflage!)

Thank you, just got home at 3:10 AM

25 posted on 09/24/2007 12:36:09 AM PDT by The Mayor ( A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.—Proverbs 16:9)

Welcome Back Rus! I’ll bet thre were a lot of great stories on gramma

Anxious to hear how all went & some pix perhaps of the gang. Did you all drive together? I’ll bet you all have fun in the car/van on trips.

26 posted on 09/24/2007 1:59:52 AM PDT by DollyCali (Don't tell GOD how big your storm is -- Tell the storm how B-I-G your God is!)

To: GodBlessUSA; Kaslin; The Mayor

Kaslin posted this at the Dose but it is very appropriate here so carrying it over

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2007 – A veritable sea of colors paraded across a field outside the Pentagon today, and military leaders sported uniforms adorned with colored ribbons and shiny medals.

Patricia Scharf, widow of Col. Charles Scharf, addresses the audience during a POW/MIA Recogniton Day ceremony at the Pentagon, Sept. 21, 2007. Defense Dept. photo by Cherie A. Thurlby
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

A line of colorful flags loaded with kaleidoscopic streamers caught a gentle breeze as starched members of color guards in their best dress marked time against blue skies, and a high-hatted drum major led an Army band blowing and beating on polished instruments.

Some military veterans sported scarlet hats, while others donned leather, but both were dotted with patches and pins.

But in contrast to the colorful regalia, it was a lone black-and-white flag that had brought everyone together.

For this annual commemoration, the servicemember-silhouetted POW/MIA flag took the position of honor to the right of the secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and a downed Air Force pilot’s widow who had waited for the return of her husband’s body for more than four decades.

It was clear when she stood to take the podium, though, that Patricia Scharf was not in mourning. Dressed in red and sporting a red-rose corsage, she told a happy, homecoming story of love and hope.

“Like me, many of you have waited and worked hard to learn more about the fate of your missing loved ones,” she said. “My story is a personal one, and I don’t share it often, but this is the right day.”

Scharf met her husband -- Col. Charles Scharf, whom she calls “Chuck” -- when she was 16. They married when she was 18. He later enlisted in the Air Force and became a pilot.

He had two loves, Scharf said: her and the Air Force.

In 1965 he was sent to Vietnam, she said. He was flying an F-4C Phantom II alongside another pilot when he was shot down. His plane crashed and burned in an isolated spot of North Vietnam.

Scharf never remarried. She said the 13 years they had spent together was full of romance and passion, and that Chuck was the one, and only, love of her life.

“Once you love somebody from the beginning who’s good to you, you can’t replace him,” she said. “And I would have never done that until I knew absolutely he was gone.”

In his last conversation with Scharf, the pilot went over the couple’s finances and then made one request.

“Chances are I may get shot down. And if I do, I want you to remarry, because I don’t want you to be alone,” Scharf said.

Still she doesn’t consider the fact she never remarried as not complying with his last wishes.

“I’m never alone. He’s still alive inside of me. I can’t find anybody like him ever,” she said.

After he never returned, Scharf began a 37-year career working at the Pentagon, first at a department store, and finally as a jeweler.

Then, in 1990, Vietnamese officials identified a crash site with two graves. At the site they found the personal remains of Scharf’s husband. There were more excavations of the site in 1993 and 2004, but officials could not make a match to his DNA.

Officials asked if Scharf had anything that might contain his DNA that they could match with.

Remarkably, it ended up being the love letters her husband had sent to her years earlier that Scharf had saved in a box for four decades. She sent 11 letters for the DNA experts to sample.

They matched his DNA from bone fragments at the site to the saliva residue left on the envelopes and the stamps.

“It was time for him to come home,” Scharf said.

In November 2006, Scharf flew to Hawaii to meet the remains, and then buried him just a short distance from the Pentagon at Arlington National Cemetery. His remains were buried with his uniform, medals and a few love letters, she said.

“I feel fabulous. I have a place to go now. I can go up any time I want. I know where he’s at, and I know where I’m going,” Scharf said. She plans to be buried next to him.

Scharf said she visits the grave weekly.

“He’s the soulmate of my heart,” she said.

Scharf thanked officials at the annual ceremony for their hard work in bringing her husband home.

“It was a miracle that brought Chuck back to his beloved country and to me. Mr. Secretary, my thanks to all the DoD agencies that worked together to bring my husband home,” she said.

Scharf compared the agencies to a close-knit flying unit like her husband’s.

“They may wear different uniforms, but they are all part of a military family. You all have sustained me, and others like me, and gave me closure and peace. To all of you I thank you for keeping the promise (of bringing my husband home),” she said.

97 posted on 09/22/2007 5:08:44 PM EDT by Kaslin (The Surge has worked and the li(e)berals know it)

27 posted on 09/24/2007 2:02:10 AM PDT by DollyCali (Don't tell GOD how big your storm is -- Tell the storm how B-I-G your God is!)

Thank you, Mama Bear..I enjoy doing it!(unless I can’t find the right color for the frame..grin)

28 posted on 09/24/2007 5:51:44 AM PDT by MEG33 (GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES)

Great thread and Pledge GeeBee!

29 posted on 09/24/2007 5:57:39 AM PDT by ConorMacNessa (HM/2 USN, 3rd Bn. 5th Marines, RVN 1969. St. Michael the Archangel defend us in battle!)

30 posted on 09/24/2007 7:10:56 AM PDT by MEG33 (GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES)

To: MEG33; LUV W; Lady Jag; JustAmy; All

10 things you didn’t know about the U-2

BY: Kevin Whitelaw, US News and World Report
09/21/2007

1. Early tests of the U-2 were shrouded in such secrecy that many flights were mistaken for UFOs. (Nobody at the time believed manned flight was possible above 60,000 feet.) Indeed, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, more than half of the reported UFO sightings were actually flights by the U-2 or other experimental high-altitude aircraft.

2. For the first few years of the program, U-2 pilots were offered a suicide pill (containing potassium cyanide) in case they were captured. Most declined.

3. Since September 2001, the U-2 has flown some 3,700 missions in support of counterterrorism operations or the war in Iraq, totaling more than 32,900 hours in the air.

4. The early U-2 was so difficult to fly that pilots had a tiny window of 6 knots in which they could safely fly at high altitude. If they went faster, the plane could be buffeted by winds that could tear off the tail or a wing. Too slow and the plane would stall. Later improvements to the plane made it easier to fly.

5. The U-2 remains the world’s most difficult plane to land. With the pilot strapped into a spacesuit, visibility is limited, and the only way to land is to stall the engine a few feet above the runway. A chase car (often a Camaro or Pontiac GTO) races behind the plane to cue the pilot on when to stall.

6. Only about 80 pilots are currently qualified to fly the U-2 in operations. Just over 800 pilots have ever flown U-2 operations.

7. The U-2 was developed, built, tested, and deployed in 17 months—and came in under budget.

8. There are 36 U-2s active in the Air Force today, including five two-seat trainer planes, one test plane, and two operated by NASA.

9. U-2s are permanently stationed at Beale Air Force Base in California; Royal Air Force Akrotiri, Cyprus; Osan Air Base, South Korea; and an undisclosed base in southwest Asia. They can be deployed almost anywhere on very short notice.

10. The U-2 is 63 feet long and 16 feet high, has a 105-foot wingspan, and can reach speeds above 410 mph.

31 posted on 09/24/2007 7:32:41 AM PDT by DollyCali (Don't tell GOD how big your storm is -- Tell the storm how B-I-G your God is!)

Thank you, Dolly..Interesting reading.

32 posted on 09/24/2007 7:43:43 AM PDT by MEG33 (GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES)

To: DollyCali; MEG33

Oh my Gosh, this story is so beautiful. It made me cry when I read it because I can understand a love that survives years.

Ladies, I just figured out we have a mutual friend. My next-door neighbors in Twentynine Palms were SSgt. and Mrs. Nick Popaditch (Cee-gar Man US Marine) When my casualty officer came to our door and told me Don was missing, I ran to April’s house next-door because I knew she would know what to do. How small is this world?

TAKE CARE :)

33 posted on 09/24/2007 9:17:53 AM PDT by debm29palms (Proud Wife of SSgt. Donald C. May, Jr. KIA "Blessed be the Lord my rock who trains my hands for war")

To: ST.LOUIE1; Billie; dutchess; DollyCali; GodBlessUSA; Mrs Mayor; Mama_Bear; Aquamarine; JustAmy; ...

September 24, 2007

All Rise

ODB RADIO: Listen Now | Download

READ: Mark 2:1-12

Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house. —Mark 2:11

When I asked my husband to buy eggs on his way home so I could make cornbread for supper, he said, “I’ve got something better than cornbread.” Coming from Jay, that was a surprising statement. But I learned what he meant when he walked into the house and handed me a fresh loaf of homemade cinnamon bread. A label on the wrapper said, “Thanks for the dough. We kneaded it.” The bread was made by Sue Kehr and given as a “thank you” for a donation to a youth organization.

Sue started making bread after she had to quit her job as a nurse because of a head injury. Instead of letting circumstances pull her down when she could no longer help people in her usual ways, Sue rose to the challenge and created a unique expression of gratitude. She now makes and gives away delicious homemade bread to ministries that can then distribute the loaves to others.

Although Sue did not receive complete physical healing like the paralytic Jesus healed (Mark 2), she did rise up and cause many to be amazed at the work of God in her life.

God has something for each of us to do, despite our limitations. Rise up and ask what He might want to do through you.

When God asks you to lay aside
Some cherished work you loved to do,
Accept His choice of someone else
And let Him give new work to you. —Fasick

Step up to the tasks and do what God asks.

Bible in One Year: Song of Solomon 4-5; Galatians 3

34 posted on 09/24/2007 9:25:13 AM PDT by The Mayor ( A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.—Proverbs 16:9)

(((HUGS)))

Oh my..It is a small world indeed ..Nick was our “poster man” on our ongoing “live” thread ...When he was wounded we were all so very concerned. April was kind enough to keep us informed. I think the poster TexKat was her conduit at first.
I’m glad you had her next door at such a time.

I loved seeing your picture at the breakfast at the White House..I am so glad you could go and be honored!

35 posted on 09/24/2007 9:36:24 AM PDT by MEG33 (GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES)

To: The Mayor; GodBlessUSA; All

Nice to have you back home safely, Rus. Didn't expect to see you here so early in the day! You didn't get enough sleep last night!

Thank you so much, GeeBee, for posting our Military Tribute thread this week. You deserve a rest now, too - after posting THREE threads in less than a week!

36 posted on 09/24/2007 9:38:18 AM PDT by Billie

Gee, why haven’t they fixed it after all these years?

37 posted on 09/24/2007 9:38:46 AM PDT by Lady Jag (The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.)

Amen..Wonderful lesson..Thank you, Mayor..I hope you get some rest.

38 posted on 09/24/2007 9:40:37 AM PDT by MEG33 (GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES)

It was a thrill to see the President again. I met with him at Camp Pendleton in 2004. I gave him photos of the boys in Dress Blues :)

April is just about the sweetest person in the world. I don’t know how I would have made it through everything without her there. And Nick, TRULY, is such an inspiring man. He is a natural born leader.

LOL...I have a funny story about Nick. My kids LOVED “Mr. Nick”. My then 7 year old daughter would knock on Nick and April’s door and ask to see Mr. Nick. April would ask her if she needed anything. My daughter would say “no, we just want to look at him.” So Nick started yelling out the door “Hey, tell the kids there will be a viewing of Mr. Nick at 3:00, when he washes his car!” :)

God puts all us in different places for a reason I believe. I was lucky enough to be put near Nick and April. :)

HUGS

39 posted on 09/24/2007 9:45:14 AM PDT by debm29palms (Proud Wife of SSgt. Donald C. May, Jr. KIA "Blessed be the Lord my rock who trains my hands for war")

The President seems to “glow” when he is with the troops, their families and children..I know he loved your picture.

Now that story about “Mr. Nick” makes my screen blurry..while it makes me smile..

I thank God He placed you there.

40 posted on 09/24/2007 9:54:09 AM PDT by MEG33 (GOD BLESS OUR ARMED FORCES)

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