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Good article at Military Times about the meeting Trump had with some Gold Star families in Florida

Dear Mr. Khan: I, like millions of Americans saw your speech at the DNC on Thursday night. I wish to offer my sympathy for the death of your son, Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in action in Iraq. As a former US Army officer, and a veteran of the Gulf War, I can certainly understand the pain and anguish that you and your wife endure every day. Your son died saving the lives of his fellow soldiers. As John the Baptist wrote, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends....

Donald Trump has asked why I did not speak at the Democratic convention. He said he would like to hear from me. Here is my answer to Donald Trump: Because without saying a thing, all the world, all America, felt my pain. I am a Gold Star mother. Whoever saw me felt me in their heart. Donald Trump said I had nothing to say. I do. My son Humayun Khan, an Army captain, died 12 years ago in Iraq. He loved America, where we moved when he was 2 years old. He had volunteered to help his country, signing up...

Khizr Khan, the father of a Muslim U.S. soldier who was killed in Iraq, kept up his attacks on Donald Trump on Sunday, saying the world is seeing the "blackness" of the Republican presidential nominee's soul. The world is receiving us like we’ve never seen,” Khan said during an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” "They have seen the blackness of his character, of his soul.”

Khan's latest attack on Trump: "Running for president is not an entitlement to disrespect Gold Star families and [a] Gold Star mother not realizing her pain. Shame on him! Shame on his family!" Khizr Khan said, struggling to hold back his anger. "He is not worthy of our comments. He has no decency. He is void of decency, he has a dark heart."

A mother speaking out about her son’s death is “inappropriate” for the RNC, according to The View’s Joy Behar. But will she say the same about the DNC’s speakers? On Tuesday, The View ladies discussed the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. At one point, co-host Whoopi Goldberg asked the panel about an RNC speech delivered by Patricia Smith, “a mom who lost her son in Benghazi [and] still blames Hillary for her son's death.” Fox News analyst Jedediah Bila began by defending Smith: I think she feels that Hillary Clinton – you know, and she said this, wrote...

Donald Trump fired back Tuesday at reports questioning his fundraising haul from a high-profile veterans event in January, releasing an extensive list of charities he said received the donations -- and slamming the media for questioning him. During a press conference at Trump Tower, the presumptive Republican nominee said he's raised $5.6 million and more is coming in. He rattled off the list of charities and the amounts they received, while taking scathing and sometimes-personal shots at the media for pressuring him to disclose the information. “I have never received such bad publicity for doing such a good job,” Trump...

TRICARE should admit wrongdoing and pay past due amounts to the UVP states It is no secret that America’s veterans are getting the shaft. We have seen these troubling headlines: A fatal wait: Veterans languish and die on a VA hospital’s secret list Veteran dies after setting himself on fire outside New Jersey VA clinic The stories behind these and similar headlines reveal that America has not lived up to its promise to “care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphan.” In fact, military families, specifically the children of military families, face similar...

Wife of Air Force officer among the dead in Brussels terror attack POLITICS | MAR 31, 2016 | BY MARTIN BARILLAS Identified among those killed by Muslim terrorists in Brussels was the wife of U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Kato Martinez. Defense Department officials identified Gail Minglana Martinez, 41, of Corpus Christi TX as among the four Americans murdered in a suicide bomb attack at the international airport outside the Belgian capital. Lt. Col. Martinez had been stationed in Brunssum in the Netherlands. The couple had been married 21 years. The Air Force officer, and the couple's four children, were...

Air Force officials have confirmed that the 41-year old wife of an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel was killed in the terrorists attack in Brussels. Gail Minglana Martinez died at the Brussels international airport after suffering injuries from the bombs detonated by Islamic State terrorists. Her husband and active-duty airman, Kato Martinez, and their four children were hurt and are still hospitalized.

It was not meant for public disclosure but a news outlet got ahold of a chilling Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alert warning U.S. military families that they are being watched and confronted by Middle Eastern men. The cryptic FBI memo was issued to law enforcement agencies in Colorado and Wyoming and says that Middle Eastern men are approaching families of U.S. military members at their homes in both states, specifically in Greeley and Cheyenne, Wyoming. The Middle Eastern men have also tried to gain personal information about military members and their families through intimidation, according to the FBI bulletin,...

This video is a moving tribute to honor an outstanding young Marine Officer by his father, Dr. Bill Kristoff. At the age of 61, Dr. Bill Kristoff of Truckee, CA joined the U.S. Navy Medical Corps in order to honor the memory of his oldest son by serving as a surgeon in Afghanistan to treat wounded Marines. While doing some further research on this amazing family, I found this: The outdoor activities were a joy shared by Nathan, his father, and his younger brother, Austin, 24, who joined the Marines shortly before Nathan died.The family kept word of Nathan's death...

This is from Freedom OutPost. Mr Steven R. Hogan I applaud your backbone and your addressing the disgrace that Obama really is. I also greieve with you at the loss of your son and his comrades in arms. I also despise the way Barack Hussein Obama has tied the hands of the military with this bull shi@ rules of engagement. Barack Hussein Obama is strutting around, boasting of his ending the war in Afghanistan. However, let’s be reminded of one United States Marine’s father reply to a condolence letter from Obama, in which he rebuked the idiot-in-chief over the rules...

An Army intelligence bulletin is warning U.S. military personnel to be vigilant after Islamic State militants called on supporters to scour social media for addresses of their family members – and to “show up [at their homes] and slaughter them."

It's about a 4 per cent increase between the benefit increase and the increased expense deduction. Heard about this increase and searched 'Bing News' and Google News' and found nothing. Finally found this Pa. state welfare site that mentions it.

One couple knows all too well the pain suffered by the parents of James Foley, the American photojournalist executed on camera last month by the Islamic State. Billy and Karen Vaughn also lost their son Aaron Carson Vaughn in 2011, when the SEAL Team Six soldier's Chinook helicopter was shot down over Afghanistan. Now the couple are calling on President Barack Obama to step down, citing his reaction to the Foley video and 'lack of leadership' in confronting ISIS.

Tough words from Billy and Karen Vaughn, whose only son Aaron gave his life in a 2011 crash of a SEAL Team Six Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan, perhaps in the shootdown shortly after the mission that killed Osama bin Laden. For years, Barack Obama relied on the success of the bin Laden mission to make the argument that he could lead the nation in war. Now the Vaughns accuse Obama of “a cowardly lack of leadership,” and demand his resignation over the administration’s failure to stop ISIS when it had opportunities to do so: On Monday, the Vaughns wrote...

Despite the economic recovery, more than 46 million Americans — or one in seven — used a food pantry last year. And a surprisingly high number of those seeking help were households with military members, according to a new survey by Feeding America, which is a network of U.S. food banks. The — conducted in 2013 — found that almost 620,000 of the households using Feeding America services have at least one member currently in the military. That's one quarter of all U.S. military households. , who's president and CEO of the Maryland Food Bank in Baltimore, says she isn't...

(CNN) -- As the controversy surrounding Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl release gains growing attention, Bergdahl's family is now the target of recent threats, according to an FBI spokesman. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl family have received threats following his release after five years in captivity at the hands of the Taliban, an FBI spokesman told CNN on Saturday. "We are working jointly with our state and local partners and taking each threat seriously," FBI Special Agent William Facer said in an e-mail. Facer declined to detail the nature and severity of the threats. Additionally, the military spokesperson for the Bergdahl family...

Clare Lopez is a former CIA operations officer, a strategic policy and intelligence expert with a focus on Middle East, national defense, WMD, and counterterrorism issues, and a friend of mine. She emailed me this morning a very poignant analysis that only someone knowing language and Islam could ascertain. She wrote: “What none of these media is reporting is that the father’s (SGT Bowe Bergdahl’s father Bob) first words at the WH were in Arabic – those words were “bism allah alrahman alraheem” – which means “in the name of Allah the most gracious and most merciful” – these...