USO Canteen FReeper Style....Night Stalkers Don't Quit.. ..October 9,2002

FRiends of the USO Canteen FReeper Style and Snow Bunny

[Snow Bunny]

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The USO Canteen FReeper Style
Delivering a Touch of Home

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A Touch of Home

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This is how I think of the USO Canteen 
Freeper Style. It is like a cottage down a road,
a place where a weary veteran can spend the night. 

Since it opened, it is magical how so many
Freepers who post here, feel it too. 
It has been so dear how the Freepers
kept making it a cottage - a home-type of 
place that had a huge living room
for them to visit in and a dance floor, 
a library, etc. 

Many Veterans have written to me, 
saying that the Canteen is like home
to them for the first time since they 
served. 

This is your Canteen -
a respite from our busy 
and sometimes troubling world. 
Make yourself at home.

Snow Bunny

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If you know a Veteran, someone in your family, 
friend of the family, neighbor, who served their  
country, take a brief moment of your day to thank 
them. 

Thank them for the sacrifice they made
for the better good of their country.

We at Free Republic, and the USO Canteen FReeper 
Style, are thankful for every service member 
in our military, who has served our great nation.

So, to the men and women who answered the call,
in both times of war and peace, thank you.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields. 

John McCrae 

Night Stalkers

160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne)
"Night Stalkers Don't Quit"
Regiment motto

Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
 whom shall I send, and who will go for us?
 Then said I, here am I; send me.
 Isaiah 6:8

The 160th SOAR (Airborne) provides helicopter
support to Special Operations Forces worldwide.
The members are experts at night missions.

Operation Enduring Freedom
"They and all who are participating in
Operation Enduring Freedom are heroes.
They put their lives on the line on behalf
of freedom and on behalf of America,
and they do it each and every day. I’m
so very proud of them and their
comrades in arms."
General Richard B. Myers

Night Stalkers:The Army's 160th Special
Operations Aviation Regiment ,whose motto
is "Death waits in the dark" gets its nickname
from its focus on operations requiring nighttime,
low-level flying. The Night Stalkers fly aircraft such
as a version of the Army's Blackhawk helicopter,
customized with infrared imaging gear and high-tech
weaponry.

The Army owes its modern night fighting
aviation capabilities to the
160th Special Operations Aviation
Regiment (Airborne) who pioneered
night flight techniques, shared in
the development of equipment,
and proved that…….
"Night Stalkers Don't Quit"
a motto the Regiment lives by.

The unit originally was formed from
attachments from the 101st Aviation
Battalion, 158th Aviation Battalion,
229th Aviation Battalion and the
159th Aviation Battalion, immediately
entered into a period of intensive night
flying and quickly became the Army's
premier night fighting aviation force
and the Army's only Special Operations
Aviation force.

Task Force 160 was officially recognized
as a Unit on 16 October 1981 when it
was designated as the 160th Aviation
Battalion. Since that time, the 160th
has become known as the
"Night Stalkers," because of their
capability to strike undetected
during darkness, and their
distinguished performance around the world.

It is often difficult to describe the many varied
reasons why certain individuals elect to join in
military service to their country. Life in the United
States Army can be arduous and demanding.

It is a lifestyle in which much, often beyond
comprehension, is asked. Rewards, for the most part,
can be no more than a feeling of have done a good days
job, all the while finding yourself sleeping alone in a cold,
dark, dreary foreign land with no more to eat than a 5 year
old dried out MRE (Meal, Ready to Eat), and the fleeting
memory of your wife and kids. Why a handful of select
individuals would desire this life time pursuit is inexplicable.

However, the following photograph may shed some light.

Ceremony marks return of wings

A pair of well-traveled wings found its
final destination Tuesday after serving
a role in America's war on terrorism. The
wings represented the spirit of American
Airlines flight attendant Sara Low, who lost
her life on Sept. 11 when Flight 11 crashed
into the World Trade Center.

The flight attendant wings were given to
Sara's father, Mike Low, by Karyn Ramsey,
Sara's friend and co-worker, as a remembrance
of his daughter. The same wingspan medallion
took flight on more than 20 combat missions with
a 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment
flight crew in Afghanistan. A Tuesday ceremony,
attended by about 500 people, embodied a father's
fight to keep his daughter's memory alive in the hearts
of family, friends and American aviators.

The event to return the symbolic memento was the
first time a large number of media and television
cameras were allowed onto the heavily guarded
special ops compound at Fort Campbell.

"As Americans we are so thankful
for what you have done for us,"
Mike Low told the flight crew. "
After 9/11 my family and I struggled
to focus on positive things. You are heroes
in the purest definition of the word. You
have given us a great gift of brightness in
very dark times."

The 160th SOAR (Airborne) provides helicopter
support to Special Operations Forces worldwide. <>br> The members are experts at night missions. Flight
engineer Staff Sgt. Mark Baker, 27, volunteered to
wear the gold-colored wings above his heart during
every mission when he heard about the father's request.

He and the MH-47E Chinook helicopter flight crew
returned from their mission about mid-March.

"If my daughter died that way,
I would want someone to step up
and do the same thing," said Baker
who's been with the "Night Stalkers"
for six years.

The look of gratitude was sincere in Low's eyes
as he transferred a necklace with Sara's photo
and an Army coin to Baker. The ceremony also>br> solemnly reflected on the nine 160th soldiers
who lost their lives fighting terrorists since
Sept. 11.

"This is a great healing process for everyone,"
said 160th commander Col. Richard L. Polczynski.
"We had this ceremony because we want to show
that U.S. soldiers are doing something good. I've
got 1,600 people that are Night Stalkers and every
one is proud to have done this
~ to have payback for the nation."

Thursday, 7 March 2002, soldiers hurry to load
ammunition onto a waiting CH-47D Chinook
helicopter at Bagram Air Base.

The tarmac at Bagram Air Base, 65 km (40 miles) north
of Kabul, Friday, 8 March 2002, near CH-47D Chinook
helicopters belonging to A Company, 7th Battalion, 101st
Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, Kentucky, that are
ready to take off for Gardez to participate in the campaign to
flush out Taliban and al-Qaeda holdouts in the mountains
of eastern Afghanistan

At least 9 people, 7 of which were
U.S. troops, were killed 4 March 2002
when an American Army special forces
MH-47E helicopter was shot down in
Afghanistan as Afghan and Western
forces pressed their biggest attack of the
war against regrouping al-Qaeda and
Taliban fighters. The map shows a
perspective view of the area of eastern
Afghanistan where the offensive was concentrated.

The nine people were killed in ferocious
exchanges with al-Qaeda and Taliban
fighters in the mountains of eastern
Afghanistan

10th Mountain Division load into a Chinook helicopter
as they prepare to return to Bagram Air Base on Sunday,
10 March 2002, from fighting near the villages of Sherkhankheyl,
Marzak and Bobelkiel, Afghanistan. The towns were an al-Qaeda
and Taliban stronghold which came under intense bombing and
firefights as the coalition forces battled to root them out. As there
we not enough seats available, soldiers climbed aboard and sat
down anywhere they could.

Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Battalion
prepare to get on a Chinook helicopter Sunday, 17 March 2002,
in the Shahikot valley region of eastern Afghanistan. The helicopter
is one of the many operated by B Company - "Hercules", 159th
Aviation Regiment, from Hunter Army Airfield, near Savannah, Georgia.

A lone U.S. Army MH-47E Chinook, assigned to the
160th Special Operation Aviation Regiment
(SOAR) – "Nightstalkers", Fort Campbell,
Kentucky, patiently
awaits the next assignment in the back
country of Afghanistan
while ground crews check the security
of the camp perimeter.

A CH-47 Chinook prepares to land for the extraction
of Canadian ground security forces from 1st Platoon, A
Company3rd Battalion Princess Patrichas Canadian Light
Infantry, as well as U.S. personnel on 11 April 11 2002.

[Soaring Feather]

Good Morning Snow Bunny, I hope you are getting some sleep.

Bunnies, especially Snow Bunnies, have to be fast on the feet!

[tomkow6]

All my "voices" are conferring..................

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

U.S. Probes Al Qaeda Link to Kuwait Attack
The Pentagon identified the slain Marine as
Lance Cpl. Antonio J. Sledd, 20, of Hillsborough, Fla.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good Morning Troops, families, veterans, and Canadian and Israeli allies (and everybody else). Thank you for taking such good care of the USA.

Today in Anchorage, Alaska:

Sunrise 8:28am
Sunset 7:03pm

Hi 46F
Lo 26F
Plenty of sunshine; 22F at my house this morning

Actual yesterday in Anchorage:

Hi 47F
Lo 41F

State Hi 55F Annette
State Lo 12F Anaktuvuk Pass

[Mudboy Slim]

"Telegraph Road"
(Dire Straits)

A long time ago came a man on a track
walking thirty miles with a pack on his back
and he put down his load where he thought it was the best
made a home in the wilderness
he built a cabin and a winter store
and he ploughed up the ground by the cold lake shore
and the other travellers came riding down the track
and they never went further, no, they never went back
then came the churches then came the schools
then came the lawyers then came the rules
then came the trains and the trucks with their loads
and the dirty old track was the telegraph road

Then came the mines - then came the ore
then there was the hard times then there was a war
telegraph sang a song about the world outside
telegraph road got so deep and so wide
like a rolling river. . .

And my radio says tonight it's gonna freeze
people driving home from the factories
there's six lanes of traffic
three lanes moving slow. . .

I used to like to go to work but they shut it down
I got a right to go to work but there's no work here to be found
yes and they say we're gonna have to pay what's owed
we're gonna have to reap from some seed that's been sowed
and the birds up on the wires and the telegraph poles
they can always fly away from this rain and this cold
you can hear them singing out their telegraph code
all the way down the telegraph road

You know I'd sooner forget but I remember those nights
when life was just a bet on a race between the lights
you had your head on my shoulder you had your hand in my hair
now you act a little colder like you don't seem to care
but believe in me baby and I'll take you away
from out of this darkness and into the day
from these rivers of headlights these rivers of rain
from the anger that lives on the streets with these names
'cos I've run every red light on memory lane
I've seen desperation explode into flames
and I don't want to see it again. . .

>From all of these signs saying sorry but we're closed
all the way down the telegraph road

Soon to be known as "DemonRAT Whore'd!!"

LOL...MUD

[William McKinley]

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[Kathy in Alaska]

Bless This House hummed along with this morning, twice because I love this song for our USO Canteen, and Prayer of Protection said for all who enter the USO Canteen Freeper Style, including our troops, our veterans, their families and our allies. Welcome to all who come to honor our troops, for whom this USO Canteen was created.

A PRAYER OF PROTECTION

The light of God surround you

The love of God enfold you

The power of God protect you

The presence of God watch over you

Wherever you are, God is,

And all is well.

Amen.

Wherever you are, God is, And all is well.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Today's transportation for you and the Girlz.

[Kathy in Alaska]

RIP Lance Cpl Sledd

[Kathy in Alaska]

Wonderful to see you Diagonal FRiend. Mr Gator is AT WORK! WHAT?

[BeachBelle]

Wow... Tonkin- you really know the way to a lady's heart!

And this lady thanks you very much!

[headsonpikes]

Click the LINKS in #84. Do it today.

Let it become a habit. ;^)

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thank you for my morning cup of hot chocolate, Meekie. Very needed this morning.

[larryjohnson]

It was down to 29 in Maine this am but now up to 50. Looks like that coolfront Spooky wants is stalled out.