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I had the pleasure of being asked to stand behind the President as he addressed service members in Baghdad Iraq. After his speech it was awesome to be able to shake his hand and watch him shake hands with, sign stuff for the service members who had stood for hours waiting to see him.

One of my favorite Military Blogs, CDR Salamander, was made one of the finalists for the 2006 Web blogs. I though I would put out a Freep Request on his blogs behalf. Please get out the vote. Heres a discription of his competition below. Voting guide through 15 DEC Ymarsaker, there are three non-voting posts below, so don't get mad. To help everyone review their once a day voting requirements, for "The best 3501-5000 blogs" category I offer the following voting guide. When you click here or the banner to the right side of the page or the bottom of...

By: Laura Limón, Senior Staff Writer Issue date: 1/26/06 Section: Tempo Article Tools:Email This ArticlePrint This Article Page 1 of 1 Media Credit: Courtesy Photo Imagine applying to an educational institution where, on top of keeping up with academics, you're required to do extreme physical training and participate in boxing matches. That's exactly what goes on at the exclusive United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, where only 1,200 of more than 50,000 applicants are accepted. In the new movie, appropriately titled "Annapolis," movie-goers are able to get a glimpse behind the scenes of this cutthroat training ground. "I didn't know...

Missing Navy aircraft found with no survivors The Associated Press - LaFAYETTE, Ga. The crash site of a missing Navy jet with four aviators aboard was found late Wednesday. None of the jet's passenger's survived the crash, Air Force Special Operations Command spokesman Matt Durhan told Atlanta radio station WSB. The wreckage was found more than 24 hours after it failed to make its scheduled landing at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida following a low-level bomb training mission, the Civil Air Patrol said. Walker County Sheriff Steve Wilson would not say if the jet's passengers survived but did say...

BOULDER, Colo. -- Chances are, Joel Klatt will never take another snap for Colorado. The senior's college career was most likely cut one game short after he took a vicious hit to the head from a Texas linebacker in the Big 12 title game after the contest had long been out of hand. But before Klatt moves on, he has a message, not so much for Drew Kelson, the linebacker who delivered the brutal blow, but for the NCAA -- "a terribly run organization" in his mind -- and the other powers that be in college football. "If they want...

As the newest students at the nation’s four U.S. service academies start their classes this month, they may not realize they had a slight advantage — they benefited from a shrinking pool of applicants. All of the schools saw a drop in prospective students, with the Air Force Academy (search) experiencing the most drastic change — a 23 percent decline from last year. The U.S. Military Academy at West Point (search) fared the best with a 9 percent drop in applicants, according to figures provided by the academy. The declines are notable because, with the exception of the Coast Guard...

On Sept. 3, Georgia will host Boise State in football, the most anticipated game in Boise State history. Starting for Boise will be sophomore guard Tad Miller. Tad's father, Dan, is a retired police lieutenant who currently works in Iraq training Iraqi police officers. Dan is planning to fly halfway around the world, at the cost of $2,700, to make the big game. All of this was detailed in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article last week and when Georgia fan Sam Hendrix read it online, he had an idea. "It hit me that he shouldn't have to bear the cost of...

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea (news - web sites) urged its impoverished people Saturday to rally around Stalinist leader Kim Jong Il, after Washington rebuffed the communist North's demand that the two sides hold bilateral talks to curb nuclear tension. Pyongyang's state-run daily newspaper Rodong Sinmun allotted the whole front page of its Saturday edition to an editorial saying "the single-minded unity serves as the strongest weapon," said the official news agency KCNA. "At a time like today, when the situation gets tense, no task is more important than to strengthen our single-minded unity," the editorial said. Minju Joson,...

This is where F-16 fighter pilots train for war. The sleek, pointy-nosed "Fighting Falcons" take off and land 150 times a day. They zoom off to the Barry M. Goldwater Range to practice air-to-air combat and drop real bombs on simulated targets. The Sonoran Desert seems like an ideal, out-of-the-way spot for such noisy and dangerous war exercises. And it was - 60 years ago. "We were out in the boonies," says Col. Robin Rand, Luke's commander. "For many years, we didn't have to worry about community relations." Now, they do. The boonies are fast disappearing, and combat training and...

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - A senior Islamic leader warned foreign relief workers Friday of a serious backlash from Muslims if they bring Christian proselytizing to tsunami-struck Sumatra along with humanitarian help. Masked health workers, meanwhile, fanned out spraying insecticide to kill mosquitos and prevent malaria from breaking out in Aceh province's refugee camps, where poor sanitation and contaminated water pose a health risk to tens of thousands of survivors. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said he would name a special envoy next week to coordinate relief and reconstruction in the 11 countries hit by last month's earthquake...

Report Says Homosexual DOJ Lawyers Complicit in Arrest of Christians Philadelphia Family Advocate Blames Local Clergy, Politicians for Hostile Environment By Jim Brown and Jody Brown January 5, 2005 (AgapePress) - A Christian attorney is expressing deep concern over the latest development in a case involving a group of Christians who were arrested for preaching the gospel at a homosexual pride event in Philadelphia. Four Christians have been bound over for trial and face up to 47 years each in prison after preaching to a crowd of homosexuals at the pro-homosexual "Outfest" event in early October. Michael Marcavage, Mark Diener,...