Free Republic

CAMP VICTORY – The new “Freedom Rest” facility opened here recently where service members in United States Division - Center can escape from the pressures of their deployment and relax when given a four-day pass. Command Sgt. Maj. William Johnson, USD-C and 1st Armored Division command sergeant major, cut the ceremonial ribbon officially opening the facility, March 30. The Freedom Rest complex consists of two buildings. The first is a three-story guest residence that can house approximately 36 guests, said Maj. Harry Foster, Camp Victory deputy mayor. The second building, a former boathouse, has several amenities on both floors that...

Robert Peters felt guilty. Guilty that he is here while our armed forces risk their lives, worlds away. That's when the idea came to him: Warrior Vacations. Oases of condos line the shores of Amelia Island. Empty condos, including his. Why not loan them out to active military and their families? So, Peters is asking condo owners to donate their property for one or two weeks. The process will be fairly simple one: Fill out a form at warriorvacations.org and wait to be paired with a condo owner. Peters said soldiers must be active duty, in good standing, be married...

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) -- General Motors shareholders blasted the company's chief executive for raking in huge salaries and bonuses while the automaker has struggled financially, but a proposal to give investors a say on executive pay was soundly defeated on Tuesday. Shareholders also defeated a proposal under which at least 75 percent of future stock options and restricted stock awards for senior executives would be tied to the company's performance. John Lauve of Holly, Mich., who sponsored the proposal on performance pay, said GM's market share, stock price and credit rating have decreased in recent years, but management and directors...

Darryl E. Owens | Sentinel Staff Writer February 28, 2008 Ray Combs thought he'd witnessed the wildest fishing action that the world had to offer. But that was before the Orlando videographer hopped a military cargo plane to Baghdad. There, as Black Hawk helicopters flew overhead, he watched soldiers cast lines into a man-made lake near where Saddam Hussein reputedly kept his harem. "I have been on boats shooting video as an 18-foot hammerhead ate a 200-pound tarpon mere feet away from me," said Combs, 32. "But . . . it doesn't compare to the surreal feeling of watching soldiers...

Democrats yesterday touted legislation to guarantee troops time at home between deployments to Iraq. snip The measure would require that regular military units returning from the war receive at least as much time at home as they spent in Iraq. Reserve units would get a home stay three times as long as they spent in the war zone

City of Katowice to honor Ronald Reagan with a monument and a square 09.02.2007 The southern Polish city of Katowice may soon rename its central Freedom Square to Ronald Reagan Freedom Square with a monument of this famous US President in the focal point of the square. A group of hundred local public figures and activists from the former anti-communist opposition in Katowice is petitioning the city authorities for this change. The idea is to symbolize both national and individual freedom, as Ronald Reagan’s contribution to Poland’s independence is undeniable and underestimated, say the proponents of the project. The central...

Opponents of Poland's former communist regime reportedly want to pay a posthumous homage to US President Ronald Reagan by erecting his statue in the place of a Soviet-era monument. In an open letter to the mayor of the southwestern city of Katowice, the former anti-regime activists said that the staunchly anti-communist Reagan had been a "symbol of liberty," the Polish news agency PAP reported. As a result, they said, he deserved to become the centrepiece of the city's Freedom Square, replacing a monument to the Soviet troops who drove out the occupying Nazis in 1945. They also said that they...

Polish admirers of Ronald Reagan say they will erect a statue of the late US president in Warsaw to thank him for helping to end communist rule. They say the 3.5-metre (10.5ft) stone and bronze statue will stand opposite the US embassy in the Polish capital. "The statue is a way for his legacy to live on," said Janusz Dorosiewicz, a businessman behind the private project. In 1989, Poland became the first nation in Eastern Europe to defeat communism. Reagan died in 2004 at the age of 93. "This is an entirely private initiative undertaken by Poles in Poland,...

WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish admirers of Ronald Reagan plan to raise a statue of the former U.S president in Warsaw, where he is revered for his role in the downfall of communism in Europe. The 3.5-meter (3.8-yard) stone-and-bronze statue will stand across from the U.S. Embassy, the head of the group raising money for the memorial said on Monday. The group includes Poles living in Poland, Canada and the United States. "Reagan was the person who defeated the communists and opened the way for freedom in Poland," Janusz Dorosiewicz said. "The statue is a way for his legacy to live...

Polish admirers of Ronald Reagan plan to raise a statue of the former U.S president in Warsaw, where he is revered for his role in the downfall of communism in Europe. The 3.5-metre (3.8-yard) stone-and-bronze statue will stand across from the U.S. Embassy, the head of the group raising money for the memorial said on Monday. The group includes Poles living in Poland, Canada and the United States. "Reagan was the person who defeated the communists and opened the way for freedom in Poland," Janusz Dorosiewicz said. "The statue is a way for his legacy to live on." Many Poles...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31, 2006 -- A U.S. railroad freight firm has earned the right to blow its locomotives’ whistles in celebration of Defense Department recognition for superb support of its employees in the National Guard and Reserve. BNSF Railway, with headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, is one of 15 U.S. businesses selected to receive the Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award for 2006. “BNSF is very pleased to have been nominated and selected to receive this award,” said Connie McLendon, BNSF’s military staffing manager. “This is an important distinction that very few companies receive, recognizing outstanding support for our...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, July 5, 2006) – Department of Defense ID cardholders are eligible for weekly condominium rentals at 3,500 resorts in 80 countries worldwide. Provided by Morale, Welfare and Recreation and sponsored by Resort Condominium International, the Armed Forces Vacation Club offers space-available condominiums for $299 a week. The program gives Soldiers and other DoD workers affordable accommodations in condominiums that would otherwise go empty, according to Verlin Abbott, RCI director of AFVC. While the program provides low-cost accommodations to vacation resorts across the globe, Abbott stressed that the condos are “space available” only. “Don’t expect to go...

On the flight home this morning, I was unfortunate enough to have a bleeder sit next to me. By bleeder, I mean he was invading my space because he was large and his body was spilling over into my seat. I've seen worse cases than what I had today but let's hear your experiences.

ANNIVERSARIES always bring forth memories, some of them dark and conflicting, and this 60th year since the end of World War II demonstrates that there is no agreed-upon narrative of the 20th century's epic conflagration. We have seen China's violent demonstrations against Japan's teaching of its war history. Even though Japan has apologized many times for its war crimes, it cannot resist whitewashing its World War II past. Contradictory narratives run all through Europe as well. President Bush skillfully navigated the tricky shoals of Russia's commemoration of the ''Great Patriotic War" against Hitler, and the sensibilities of the Baltic States...

“Memory n. 1. The mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experience; the ability to remember. 2. An act or instance of remembrance; a recollection… see smer in Appendix.” “smer – to remember. In Germanic murnon, to remember sorrowfully, in Old English murnan, to mourn.” I remember Chuck Meerholz and the day I was supposed to drive. After four months with B Company, 1st Battalion, 69th Armor; four months of on-the-job-training for a guy trained as an infantrymen, I was being taught to drive our tank. B Company was to participate in a big operation centered on the village of...

A dialogue between two important members of the FARC (Colombian revolutionary Armed Forces), appears to be among the evidence submitted by the Colombian authorities to the Venezuelan Government according to Colombia’s Radio Caracol. Here is the translation of the only written report I have seen on the issue, which suggests that more than one hundred members of the FARC guerillas were in Caracas in early December for the II People’s Bolivarian Congress, financed and organized by the Chavez Government.. I had talked to two reporters who had mentioned this to me, but said they could not talk about it and...

A week ago, Noel Borden was sleeping in a bunker in Baghdad. On Sunday night, he and his fiancée, Sarah Harmon, slept on a pillow-top bed in a luxurious third-floor suite at the Ann Bean Mansion Bed and Breakfast in Stillwater. They lit a fire, tried out the hot tub and ate a gourmet meal — poached pears with a berry compote and vegetable quiche — for breakfast. Borden, a radio operator in the Minnesota National Guard's Delta 216 unit, is home on a two-week leave, and his St. Croix River Valley getaway was free, compliments of the innkeepers. "It's...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California High Speed Rail Authority officials unveiled a tentative map of routes for the proposed statewide bullet train on Wednesday - a plan that includes a 120-mile, nonstop stretch between Bakersfield and Fresno. That Central Valley section of the line, which was recommended by the authority's staff, bypasses Visalia despite the city's pleas for a stop. The 700-mile system, with 200 mph-plus trains, would cost about $35 billion and carry as many as 68 million passengers a year by 2020. Voters will decide a bond measure in 2006 to pay for part of the project. Construction on...

The old sergeant had been granted leave and it had come as sort of a surprise for the men in his platoon. Even though they had been fighting in Iraq for over a year they had never seen the sarge take leave. “I never even realized sarge had anyone to visit on leave,” one young trooper said. “Yeah, another said, the army is his family. He even has camouflaged blood.”

It will have been 30 days since the death of RR on the 4th of July. We have mourned him and have shown him respect with our Flags at half-staff. Now on the Fourth of July let us once again raise them to the top and celebrate the birth of this great nation.