Free Republic

DENVER -- The simple banner is designed to honor those who served and died in the military. But a national campaign to add the red-and-white "Honor and Remember" flag to official U.S. flag displays on military holidays is creating painful divisions among veterans and the relatives of loved ones killed in action. For lawmakers nationwide, the "Honor and Remember" debate forces an uncomfortable question: Who can say what should be done to honor people who died for the country? The banner -- a red-and-white background with a star, an eternal flame and the words "HONOR AND REMEMBER" -- was conceived...

Sgt. Justin Griffith was furious last month when a mandatory Army test asked him questions about his spirituality and found him lacking. As an atheist, the Fort Bragg soldier didn't see any way he could honestly answer the questions and receive a passing score. Immediately after finishing the test, Griffith wrote a blog about his frustrations. Griffith's complaints soon caught the attention of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which is demanding that the Army stop making soldiers take the test because they say it's unconstitutional.

A proposal to grant medals for "courageous restraint" to troops in Afghanistan who avoid deadly force at a risk to themselves has generated concern among U.S. soldiers and experts who worry it could embolden enemy fighters and confuse friendly forces.

In the cruel way that war sometimes works, Vietnam killed Pete Harrison nearly 36 years after he came home. Elusive as they were, Pete thought he knew his enemies over there. The Viet Cong. The North Vietnamese. Their sympathizers. Nobody ever warned him about parasites in the water he drank, but they were there. Nobody ever mentioned the parasites could cause cancer, but they could. Nobody ever told him that cholangiocarcinoma might kill him some day, but it did. Now his widow, Sheila Harrison of Horseheads, is fighting her own war -- against the disease that took her husband's life....

RALEIGH, N.C. - Lance Cpl. Patrick Malone was relaxing on his bunk at an Iraqi combat base when a direct superior interrupted his late-night movie. It was time for a game Marines sometimes play to build confidence in colleagues: Point a gun at a comrade and ask, "Do you trust me?" Cpl. Mathew Nelson raised his weapon - and the 9 mm pistol went off, striking Malone in the head. The higher-ranking Marine rushed to the wounded man's side and tried to perform CPR, but Malone was mortally wounded. The game, which has cropped up in barracks across Iraq and...

One of New Mexico’s most famous residents is once again telling people in the press that he wants to run for governor. According to The Hill actor Val Kilmer is still thinking about running for New Mexico’s top job in 2010 when the current governor, Bill Richardson, is term-limited out of office. And Kilmer hinted that he has the backing of Gov. Bill Richardson. The Hill reports that Kilmer said the mysterious “they” have asked him to run. He told The Hill at Monday’s Huffington Post party at the Newseum that he has been approached to run for the highest...

In Hopewell Township, N.J., the veterans of American Legion Post 339 have put their building up for sale. "Today's vets don't come out," 82-year old Jim Hall told The Times of Trenton last month. The post is down from 425 paying members in the 1960s and '70s to 202 this year; only about a dozen regularly attend. But it's America that has changed, not vets. Since 1970, the population of the United States has grown by about 50 percent, from roughly 200 million to 300 million. Over the same period, the number of active-duty armed forces has fallen approximately 50...

About 100 Special Forces and Afghan soldiers each were carrying more than 60 pounds of equipment when they jumped from helicopters onto icy, jagged rocks and waist-deep running water in 30-degree temperatures on April 6 to assault a terrorist stronghold in Afghanistan. Seven hours later, the members of Special Forces A-Team 3336 would have encountered a tenacious enemy in the Shok Valley and earned 10 Silver Stars, the Army’s third highest award for combat valor. The award of a single Silver Star is considered a significant combat decoration. The 12-man A-team is the basic fighting unit of Special Forces. The...

In July of 2002, it cost the equivalent of 1.3 grams of gold to fill up your gas tank (15 gal) or about $20 when priced in dollars.* In July of 2008, it still cost only 1.3 grams of gold, but $61 when priced in dollars** - (305% more)! If you priced other necessities in gold such as food, utilities, health care, etc, you would get similar results. It's because of “Inflation” (rising prices due to increase in money supply) and with the way the Fed is printing up hundreds of billions in new money to bail out Fannie Mae,...

Karma In my humble opinion, what we may see in an Obama Presidency is just karma returning the consequences of dishonorable behavior to the American people. Why do I say this? Well, let me remind you of this statement: “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge--and more. To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of...

Tuesday, October 7, 2008 should be remembered as a day when federal judicial arrogance descended to a new low. Apparently, before being appointed to the federal bench by President Clinton, United States District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina (District of Columbia) learned somewhere along his career path—student at Georgetown University and its Law School, practitioner at the DC Public Defender’s Office, teacher at Howard University School of Law, judge at the DC Superior Court—that Articles I (legislative) and II (executive) of the United States Constitution must succumb to the arrogance of unelected, life-tenured Article III federal judges. That’s because on October...

Sometimes, if you want the real answer, you have to ask a dumb question. Alex Blumberg, a producer at “This American Life,” a public radio show that specializes in old-fashioned storytelling about local slices of Americana, has never owned a house or had a mortgage, let alone covered the financial industry. Nonetheless, he was fascinated as he watched the subprime mess unfold. His dumb question? “Why are they lending money to people who can’t afford to pay it back?” In 2006, Mr. Blumberg began bothering his friend Adam Davidson, an experienced business reporter at National Public Radio, about subprime loans....

John McCain, who has risen to political prominence on his image as a Vietnam POW war hero, has, inexplicably, worked very hard to hide from the public stunning information about American prisoners in Vietnam who, unlike him, didn't return home. Throughout his Senate career, McCain has quietly sponsored and pushed into federal law a set of prohibitions that keep the most revealing information about these men buried as classified documents. Thus the war hero people would logically imagine to be a determined crusader for the interests of POWs and their families became instead the strange champion of hiding the evidence...

Leon Quinn got out of prison in New York last year, moved to North Carolina and tried to start a new life. But employers don’t want to hire a convicted felon, and it’s hard to get your own place when you don’t have a job, he said. “It’s like we’re marked as criminals,” Quinn said. “It’s like we don’t have a say.” But, Quinn learned Saturday he does have a say, even with a felony conviction. In North Carolina, people convicted of a felony can vote, once they’ve served their time behind bars and completed the terms of their probation...

Jerry Boykin had lost 15 pounds in the grueling Delta Force selection process, but he faced one more ordeal: a one-on-one interview with an overweight Army psychologist. “Could you spend several days alone in a sniper position with a homosexual?” the psychologist asked. Boykin had to think about that one. Finally, he replied, “If it was my mission, I could. But he’d better understand that I’m not like that.” The story is from the retired three-star general’s book “Never Surrender: A Soldier’s Journey to the Crossroads of Faith and Freedom.” The book’s release date is July 29. Boykin spent most...

In a move that could ruffle the feathers of an Army command that views the Colt Defense-built M4 as the best carbine in the world, a select group of top senate staffers is gathering today to look at what could be the future of the military's standard assault rifle. About 30 legislative aides have signed up to attend a July 11 demonstration at Marine Corps Base Quantico, just outside Washington, D.C., that will feature weapons from various manufacturers vying to end the reign of the M16 and M4 as the U.S. military's most fielded personal weapon. The range day is...

WASHINGTON — Ever since the Army lost its warplanes to a newly independent Air Force after World War II, soldiers have depended on the sister service for help from the sky, from bombing and strafing to transport and surveillance. But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have frayed the relationship, with Army officers making increasingly vocal complaints that the Air Force is not pulling its weight. In Afghanistan, Army officers have complained about bombing missions gone awry that have killed innocent civilians. In Iraq, Army officers say the Air Force has often been out of touch, fulfilling only half of...

Obama and McCain Thomas Sowell Thursday, June 05, 2008 Now that the two parties have finally selected their presidential candidates, it is time for a sober-- if not grim-- assessment of where we are. Not since 1972 have we been presented with two such painfully inadequate candidates. When election day came that year, I could not bring myself to vote for either George McGovern or Richard Nixon. I stayed home. This year, none of us has that luxury. While all sorts of gushing is going on in the media, and posturing is going on in politics, the biggest national sponsor...

Many years ago, one of the jobs I held as a starving writer was selling cars, new and used, at what was called a “Fast track” dealership. It was straight commission and dog-eat-dog. The top salesman there, Bill, made well over $ 70,000 per year in the early seventies. That was a lot of income back then. It was simple: he smiled, turned on the charm, told every customer exactly what they wanted to hear, and then lied through his teeth. I once overheard him respond to a customer who asked about a new Ford Pinto if it would get...

One of the most gallant stands of courage and undying self-sacrifice which have come down through the pages of history is the defense of the Alamo, which is one of the priceless heritages of Texans. It was the battle-cry of "Remember the Alamo" that later spurred on the forces of Sam Houston at San Jacinto. Anyone who has ever heard of the brave fight of Colonel Travis and his men is sure to "Remember the Alamo." Besieged by Santa Anna, who had reached Bexar on February 23, 1836, Colonel William Barret Travis, with his force of 182, refused to surrender...