A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day....04-05,06-03....Week in Review

Billie and Mama_Bear

[Mama_Bear]

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. I can remember lurking when there were only a few regulars who posted, and now there are over 60,000 who have registered for posting privileges. 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 can no longer add the photos to the body of the thread, I've been including them in additional posts as I received enough to make another collage.

Still that doesn'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, in addition to seeing FR's Finest Military Personnel every day, I thought it might be fun to feature a different FReeper (or FReepers) each day. If you would like to be pictured, or know someone who would, please FReepmail me and we'll turn the spotlight - on YOU - for the day!

And do let me know if you'd like your picture added to the groups of Veterans/Active Military below. I will keep this page updated, and continue to add them to the comment section of the original Veteran's Day thread as well.

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.

We now have eleven groups of veterans/active military; we will post each group of three or four twice a week, with thumbnail/links of the remaining seven or eight groups on each thread. Click on any of the thumbnails below to see the group full-size.

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

GROUP 2A: TOP: Bosniajmc, AFVetGal, Archy, A Navy Vet MIDDLE: 4TheFlag, Aeronaut, 68Grunt, Xinga BOTTOM: Codger, AAABest, Clinton's A Liar, Duke809, dcwusmc

GROUP 3A: TOP: mc5cents, Norb2569, LBGA's son, VanJenerette MIDDLE: Jim Robinson, KJenerette, davidosborne, KG9Kid BOTTOM: gwmoore, Equality7-2521, SAMWolf

GROUP 4A: TOP: porgygirl, Phil V., MudPuppy, NorCoGOP MIDDLE: RaceBannon, OneidaM, rdb3, jwTexian BOTTOM: USMC Vet, TheMayor, Vineyard, rhododogma

GROUP 5A: TOP: spectr17, RightOnline, SERE_Doc, Tet68. MIDDLE: FutureSnakeEater, RightOnline's wife, CIApilot, Clamper1797. BOTTOM: usmcobra, onedoug, DiverDave, Joe6-pack.

GROUP 6A: 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.

GROUP 7A: 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.

GROUP 8A: 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.

To Our FReeper FRiends: We hope you've been having as much fun as we have with our spotlight on various FReepers. We thought we'd kick back on the weekends and simply review those who've been featured during the week. If you missed seeing them and want to say hello to them now, feel free to click on the link to that particular thread. If you'd like to drop in and out of this thread today and tomorrow, please feel free to do that also. One of us will always be around to see the welcome mat is still out, and maybe even put fresh flowers on the table. :)

"Getting to Know You"

THIS WEEK'S THREADS


03-31-03 "Thank You!" ....A SALUTE TO OUR MILITARY

04-01-03 "Courage" ........................................LADTX ESSAY

04-02-03 "The Exclusive Inquisition" ..........................TATZE

04-03-03 "John's Two Cents" ........................JOHNHUANG2
"What our fighting men and women are really all about. "

03-14-03 "The (More er Less) Honorable Billybob" ...............
CONGRESSMAN BILLYBOB






Strangers are just friends waiting to happen

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 an FReepmail and I will gladly do it for you. ~ Mixer

[LadyX]

Yep - what would a woman do without makeup and Google to get through the day?!
lol

Pig and Barkley?
Love it..:))

Was up a good bit of the night, glued to Fox News, watching History unfold - - -

[FreeTheHostages]

[LadyX]

Good match, Free!

Bet that is just how jw felt waking up in a bed in his folks' house this morning..:))

[FreeTheHostages]

Yup. By the way, my family is friends with the Halvorsen's of Bennington, Vermont -- we all grew up together. One of their sons, who is 3 years younger than I, was just killed in the war. All the more poignant because his parents are long-divorced due to their radically different political and religious views of the war. His Mom, Dorothy, opposes this war and didn't want her son to go and fight, I happen to know (from her close friend, my Mom). Here's what Mrs. Halvorsen says about supporting our troops:

"We have to support them. It doesn't mean you have to be in favor of war. It isn't about politics or economics. It's about men and women crawling around in the sand..." her sentence trails off as she breaks down and sobs. Pulling herself together Dorothy says, "we have to support them".

Kinda says it all. StraightVermonter, I'll pray for the family of the other fallen Vermonter, and all our boys too. We all have to support our troops, especially as some families receive bad news.

[SpookBrat]

I knew the Marine thoughfulness of the story was true. God love 'em. I'm so inspired watching the news of them. I pray my children are watching and learning who their "true heroes" should be.

No pop stars or movie stars will be hung on their walls.

[JustAmy]

Have a great week-end.

Thanks for the coffee, but where are the donuts?

Missed you two last night.

[JustAmy]

Prayers for this latest list of fallen heros.

May God Comfort and hold their families.

[JustAmy]

More prayers this morning for all of our fallen heros.
May God bless and comfort their families.

[LadyX]

Thank you, Amy.

Amen.

[FreeTheHostages]

Yes, it will be hard on the family. He was the youngest of the four kids and the only boy. He was totally mothered by all of his 3 older sisters.

His mom is a peach. She's just naive. She's been opposing the war in our hometown, actually. But she's a very nice person -- more evidence, I insist, that not all Democrats are evil, that some Democrats will go to heaven, and that inside some Democrats is a Republican just waiting to get out. Mrs. Halvorsen, to her credit, as been saying since the war started that we should all support our troops. Since the war started, my intelligence is she stopped going to the downtown streetcorner of Bennington, Vermont ("Four Corners" -- where Main Street intersections with North and South Street!) where the real crazies still hold up anti-war signs every weekend.

Erik fought in the Gulf War too. He'd been a helicopter pilot for over 16 years and loved the military life. I didn't know him well, but I knew the family and my little brother knew him well. The two used to play tag and hide-and-seek in the large corn field behind the Halvorsen's old home out on Route 67A, just north of the Bennington Battle monument. I have trouble thinking of him as an adult: I remember him being 7, with sun-kissed hair, running through cornfields.

[Aquamarine]

Very sad news about these brave Heroes today.
May God bless them and their families.

(click on graphic)

[LadyX]

Oh, Aqua - please save that one to play often.
It so captures the agony of loss coupled with the respect for the fallen. The Scots excelled at that, didn't they?

Makes me think of my older son, Steve - a military brat until he was 15.
Assistant Professor, Physician Assistant Program
Associate Director, Master of Medical Science Program
Director, Physician Assistant Postgraduate Program in Family Medicine
College of Allied Health, Nova Southeastern University
Ft, Lauderdale, Florida

Now that sounds busy enough, right?
But he also is a Physician Assistant who volunteered for the:
Florida-5 Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT)
United States Public Health Service

Was scheduled to go to Ground Zero after 9/11, but they stood down, not needed after all; went to assist in Hurricane Lili in Louisiana; and his team is one of only three in the U.S. designated "International Insert" Disaster Medical Assistance Team.
They can be sent anywhere in the world where insertion of a civilian surgical/medical team (hostage situation, for example) is needed, or to a general disaster - earthquake, floods, etc..

Very busy, as you can see; however, he in November will complete his Doctorate studies, maintaining a 4.0 average, and begin his dissertation.

Since every little boy has to play, he and his wife have joined the area's Police Drum & Bagpipe Corps, getting proficient enough on the snare drum (which he had never played in his life) to soon be able to travel with them to perform at funerals (as in those after 9/11) and appearances.
He qualifies because he at one time was a police officer in Florida.

Sent a picture of himself in kilts, and was cracking up because after practice the group went to IHOP and he discovered kilts are indeed a 'chick magnet!' Never thought of himself as that, married for 24 years.
He is 6' 5" tall and weighs 180, and kilts become any man - the Mel Gibson effect..:))

He once was a jewelry store manager; volunteer fireman and volunteer sheriff's deputy; EMT; Emergency Medicine Research Assistant Director at Richland Memorial Hospital in Columbia, SC for 10 years - and Assistant to the Director of Health Care Ministries in Lakeland, Florida, putting together medical mission teams to go around the world. He went with them three times to South and Central America, and once with his University to Guatemala.

See what his having been a 'military brat" with no real place to call home can create?!
A fine Christian productive and caring human being....

He paid for every dime of his education, he and his wife working to put him through college, beginning at age 26; and then going to The School of Medicine at the University of Florida.

Guess you can tell I am actually grieving for all those Mama's little boys and girls in harm's way this day - and those who will not return.

Hold them all close to You, Lord.

[Aquamarine]

Had forgotten about your son joining the area's Police Drum & Bagpipe Corps. That's very brave of him to play with the bagpipes at funerals, most of us break down and cry at that point in the service.
Children are blessings from God on loan to their parents. Never really belonging to anyone but God; He entrusts all parents to cherish and cultivate these loans from Him. It's a huge resposibility but when parenting is done correctly it can pay off in spades. Your son is proof of that.

[jwfiv]

A perfectly timed calendar page...thank you, FTH...)

I hope this day finds you well, and resting, and lovin' life.

[dansangel]

Happy weekend to you all. Just wanted to stop in and say, Hi!

Still feeling the sting of the bad news I received yesterday, so will probably keep a low profile for the next couple of days.

Love and {{{{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}} to everyone.

{{{{{{{{{Louie_Wolfie_Man}}}}}}}}}

[JustAmy]

Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

[GailA]

Be careful traveling. We went to the Olive Branch, MS rally this morning, and I'm just getting caught up on the news. About a 1,000 people showed up to Rally for America and Support Our Troops. Even the Rat gov of MS changed his schedule at the last minute and showed up to glad hand and say a few encouraging words about the troops. Kept his speech short, and up beat focused on the troops. That won him brownie points.

[GailA]

>Ya'll are gonna LOVE this link. HUNDREDS of DOD photos of Operation Iraqi Freedom (I posted it as a thread so all could have a chance to go look.

Operation Iraqi Freedom Images

[deadhead]

Just a reminder :-)

[Aquamarine]

Great link Gail. Went and had a look and found this.