Free Republic

The makeshift crosses in Belle Plaine. (Fox 9) A veterans memorial in Minnesota lost one cross but gained more than a dozen others -- and a security detail -- over the weekend after supporters argued that the city caved to the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The memorial at Belle Plaine Veterans Memorial Park showed a silhouette of a soldier kneeling in front of a cross that served as a headstone for a fellow soldier's grave, Fox 9 reported. Workers installed it last summer, but opponents were quick to argue that it violated the separation of church and state because it...

On yesterdays mission, we were standing a flag line to the entrance of the cemetery waiting on the arrival of the coach. This young man, or should I say, Patriot, was skateboarding down the opposite side of the road. He saw all the flags and just had to check it out. He crossed the highway and came up to Peacekeeper to inquire about all the hub-bub. After Paul Anderson explained what we were doing, Paul invited Andrew to join us which he seemed genuinely exited to do. Andrew stood next to me so I offered him my flag. I...

A cemetery is a lonely piece of property, and another hero is coming home. A black hearse carried the body of a veteran, a day that almost didn't happen. Bruce Harris says, "The word indigent and veteran should never go together." But for three months, they did. In a flag draped coffin surrounded by military, is Edward Matheisen. A life that began Christmas day in 1924, and ended this past Halloween. He was 83-years-old when he died broke and alone. Bruce Harris, with the Pantry of Broward, told CBS4's Jim Robinson, "Anyone in that passing phase needs to be accompanied." The Pantry of...

Patriot Guard Riders Honor Troops and Country

Pictures, hopefully, of those countering Code Pink in Orange County California at the Orange Circle. The Patriot Riders are present every week now.

Dear God, please let the Patriot Guard Riders know about this ahead of time. The Phelps gang is ready to strike, and they outline their intent here.

Having heard talk of "God hates Soldiers" protesting the funeral of hero, Matt Maupin, whose remains have been recently restored to his family, I went to the devil's den at Westboro's website and found confirmation. From Phelps' own website, which I won't link to, because I don't want to give him traffic, comes this gem: Great American Ball Park 100 Main This is for the funeral of Army Staff Sgt. Keith M. Maupin. Thank God for another Dead Soldier! Whoohoo! That is some goodness right there! One item that I noticed only recently comes from Matt's family, and is information...

Bay Area Brothers Welcomed Home from Iraq Written by Melanie Morgan    Friday, 11 April 2008 This story makes my heart skip a beat. Two brothers, both Marines, serving their country in Iraq, came home safely to the San Francisco Bay Area last night. And they were greeted as heroes at the airport by the Patriot Guard Riders, EaglesUP West Coast coordinator Doug Lyvere, family and soon- to- be friends. KPIX News covered it here.250 people showed up! The Boy Scouts waited anxiously to say hello.I know that readers of this blog from the South, the Midwest and other parts...

Homophobic Church Group to Picket Navy Air Station Members of a radical Kansas church who say God punished three Navy officers killed in the recent helicopter crash are planning to picket outside Naval Air Station-Corpus Christi. Members of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church believe God punished the officers because of the sins of the nation. Picketing is set to start at noon Saturday at the main gate at SPID and NAS Drive in Flour Bluff. Church members are expected to carry signs that read "God Hates the Nation," and to thank God for the Jan. 16 helicopter crash that claimed...

Decades ago, they came home to a country that had lost faith in them and their mission. "We didn't lose the war in the jungles," Roy Burns said. "We lost it here on our streets." Now Vietnam veterans Burns and Bill Reynolds are making sure that the troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan don't have the same experience they did when they came back to the United States. Reynolds and Burns hosted a "Support Our Troops Rally" Saturday to proclaim their support for the soldiers overseas and the mission in the Middle East. "You can't have one without the other,"...

We just started a cross-country tour called "Honoring our Heroes for the Holidays" that will take us to New York City at the World Trade Center site. We are collecting more than 100,000 cards of love and support that we did not show our veterans of more recent wars, which I will take to our soldiers in Iraq. Our first stop on Monday was in Santa Nella, Calif., at The Remembrance Memorial for California Korean War Veterans. The names of 2,495 California veterans are engraved there. Our people were overwhelmed with the service of these veterans who gave their lives...

Before you blow your top about the holiday hassle at the airport, the long lines at the grocery store, all the hours you'll spend cooking and cleaning, the uninvited guests who are crashing hubby's football party, and the endless Christmas shopping list that awaits, just stop. Stop and think of the Johnson family. Army Spec. John Austin Johnson of El Paso, Texas, is recovering from massive head wounds sustained in an attack involving an improvised explosive device. Spec. Johnson is a member of Fort Bliss' 4-1 Cavalry. He had survived five previous bombing incidents. That is not all. Earlier this...

Riders recognize troops,familiesNo soldier, Marine, sailor or airman should leave home to serve his country or return home without at least having the chance to be honored by the Patriot Guard Riders, says a local officer of the national organization. "There have been a number of people who've contacted us after the fact to say a family member in the military had come home, and they didn't know how to get a hold of us," said Newburgh resident Rick Williams, of one of Southwest Indiana's four Patriot Guard ride captains. Riding motorcycles or driving cars, the Patriot Guard Riders show...

It was two years ago this month the Kansas Patriot Guard was born. It started with a group of local bikers showing up at the funeral of local soldiers.But since then, the Patriot Guard has become much more, even sparking similar groups in all 50 states.The Funcheon family looks through a photo album of pictures taken in the days after they learned their son Alex died in Iraq. They say it was a very difficult time, and 200 perfect strangers helped them through it. "The experience of having people you don't know honor one of your children," said Bob Funcheon,...

Posted: Aug. 3, 2007 Watertown - They start in many places and gather at one. Dressed in black leather, in fatigues, in jeans, and yellow "Patriot Guard Riders" armbands, they come to honor the dead. And they come to let family members know their loved one's sacrifice will not go unnoticed. On Friday, it was this small southeastern Wisconsin community mourning the loss of a native son to battle. For the men and women on Harleys, Hondas, Yamahas, Kawasakis and even a yellow scooter, their journey to Watertown to take part in Marine Cpl. Matthew Zindars' final journey was a...

A motorcycle ride will be held this weekend to remember three Minnesota National Guard soldiers killed in Iraq and to raise money for a scholarship in their name. The second annual LTD Ride will be held Saturday. LTD stands for Jesse Lhotka of Appleton, Jason Timmerman of Tracy and David Day of St. Louis Park. The three were killed in a roadside bomb attack in Iraq on Feb. 21, 2005. Organizers hope to raise $25,000 for a scholarship fund and $5,000 to send disabled veterans on a deer hunt at Camp Ripley.

Forty years after the March on the Pentagon that Norman Mailer wrote into history in his "The Armies of the Night," a group of anti-war activists is planning a war protest with a large crowd at the same location. Only this time, there will be a difference. A grassroots group of counterprotesters will be on hand at the Mall this Saturday, March 17, to defend soldiers and their service. The Gathering of Eagles, a grassroots group, launched its Web site, gatheringofeagles.org, on February 10. Since that time, it has received more than 200,000 visitors. Organizers say the origin of the...

WBC is going to protest the funeral of Tech. Sgt. Scott E. Duffman at 9:15 PM on Friday March 2nd at Arlington National Cemetary. They are going to display their usual hateful signs and their anti-American antics. These creeps are attacking those who gave their lives defending us all, and their families who are suffering from the loss of a loved one.

if you can, please try and attend this mission..You don't need to ride a bike, simply roll in your cage (car, truck, etc..) God Bless this young man..

Heads up! I just spotted a blurb for the WNT on ABC with Charles Gibson. They're going to do a piece on the Patriot Guard Riders and military funerals. Anybody got a ping list??????