Free Republic

Sergeant is rare active reserve drill instructorSubmitted by: MCRD San DiegoStory Identification #: 2004910182837Story by Staff Sgt. Scott Dunn MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO, Calif. (September 10, 2004) -- As he watched paper scraps snowing over Brooklyn, N.Y., Johnson stood security and thought he was going to war. Before the World Trade Center towers fell in lower Manhattan a few miles away, he was making pancakes for his future wife Valentina Drozdova, a Russian immigrant from St. Petersburg. In one of those towers, Johnson said he had attended his most extravagant Marine Corps birthday ball ever with celebrities...

Veterans Affairs Reaches Out to Newest Combat Veterans Special to American Forces Press ServiceWASHINGTON, May 11, 2004 -- The Department of Veterans Affairs is expanding its efforts to reach veterans of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to ensure they are aware of benefits they have earned. VA Secretary Anthony J. Principi is sending a personal letter to more than 150,000 veterans of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom who have recently separated from the military to thank them for their service and to remind them of their eligibility for VA health care and other benefits. "I want these...

I never served. Given the chance to do it again, I would. My Father served. He lived on a glacier during much of WWII. He had three stripes on his sleeve. He was one of many nameless military who worked on the Alkan Highway. My Godfather survived...several first landings in the South Pacific...he would never give me details.My brother served in Berlin during the sixties...he came back broken from having served on the Wall. No one in my family were heroes.