Free Republic

Strange things happen when the Trooprallys are out of town and I have to fill in. I won't go into detail about what happened last time. This time, sure as space aliens crash landed in Rosswell New Mexico back in '47, the Straight Talking Curvaceous Walking Bus was stopped at the traffic light while we were setting up!        If kburi was there you'd see a photo of the "Shake-things-up Express" bus right here But as luck would have it, kburi, who was in charge of taking pictures, was not there! We had just erected the "Support Our Troops"...

A FOX News cameraman helped save the life of an injured Marine in Afghanistan — and was injured himself — when the armored Humvee convoy he was traveling in was struck by a roadside bomb Sunday night in the Helmand province, a Taliban stronghold. Two U.S. Marines were badly injured when the improvised explosive device detonated near their convoy. Though FOX News cameraman Chris Jackson was injured in the blast, he went back to the burning vehicle to rescue one of the Marines. "The cabin was on fire and I jumped out," said Jackson in a report filed immediately following...

Lt. Col. William Russell returns to Freedom Radio after his stint of active duty. We are overjoyed to speak with him LIVE for an update on the campaign. It is vital that we take back the House folks. It is the grassroots that will return Conservative thought to DC, not from the top down. Join us on Freedom Radio at 8pm est, Sunday August 3 and give this wonderful guy your support.

Eeevil just providing another chat room for this historical and AWESOME movement for our troops! Move America Forward Webthon for the Troops http://www.ustream.tv/channel/from-the-frontlines http://www.moveamericaforward.org/

A US marine has been acquitted of charges that he ordered a cover up of the Haditha massacre, an incident in which 24 Iraqis were killed in cold blood in 2005. Lieutenant Andrew Grayson was declared "not guilty on all charges" by a military courtmartial after his defence accused the prosecution of relying on a botched and politically motivated investigation. The military intelligence official was the sixth of eight accused to be cleared over the controversial incident. The deaths of 24 people in the central Iraqi town ranks as one of the darkest incidents since the 2003 invasion. The killings...

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2008 – Medal of Honor recipient Army Spc. Ross A. McGinnis joined a select group of military heroes during a Pentagon ceremony here today. Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England hosted the event that added McGinnis’ name to the roster of other Army Medal of Honor recipients. Army Secretary Pete Geren and Gen. Richard R. Cody, the Army’s vice chief of staff, also attended the event at the library and conference center. Medal of Honor recipients “are our nation’s most-revered heroes,” England said. “And every time a name is added, that individual’s story enriches the significance of...

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Monday presented the nation's highest military award to a young soldier killed in Iraq when he threw himself on a hand grenade tossed into a Humvee where four other soldiers sat. Ross McGinnis of Knox, Pa., was 19 years old when he gave his life to save the lives of his colleagues. "The Medal of Honor is the nation's highest military distinction," the president said. "It's given for valor beyond anything that duty could require or a superior could command." Bush was joined at a White House ceremony by Vice President Dick Cheney and military...

Gen. David H. Petraeus said he expects to recommend further cuts in the size of U.S. forces in Iraq before he gives up command in September. The military is currently cutting its forces down to 15 brigades, or about 140,000 troops. That drawdown is scheduled to be concluded by July. Last month, President Bush endorsed Petraeus' call for a 45-day pause before the troop reduction. Petraeus noted those further cuts may be small but said that he always intended to make constant reassessments of force level requirements. "My sense is that I will be able to make a recommendation at...

Dem Leader: It's Not 'Practical' to Stop War-Funding Vote By Josiah Ryan CNSNews.com Staff Writer May 09, 2008 (CNSNews.com) - House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told Cybercast News Service Thursday that he does not think it would be "practical" to stop the war in Iraq simply by not allowing a war-funding bill to come up for a vote on the House floor, something that it is within his power as Majority Leader to do. Hoyer also said that the troops in harm's way in Iraq need support from Congress. "I don't personally believe it's a practical alternative not to...

A court-martial panel on Friday found a Hawaii-based soldier not guilty in the killing of an unarmed Iraqi during a raid on a suspected insurgent hideout last year. Sgt. 1st Class Trey Corrales' friends and family erupted in cheers when the head of the military panel, or jury, read the verdict. The jury of nine soldiers acquitted Corrales of all three charges, including premeditated murder, after more than seven hours of deliberation. Corrales would have faced a minimum sentence of life in prison if he had been convicted. Corrales said it feels like a 200-pound weight had been lifted from...

Carrier launches are astonishing events. The plane is moved to within what seems like a bowling alley's length of the bow. A blast shield larger than any government building driveway Khomeini-flipper rises behind the fighter jet, and the jet's twin engines are cranked to maximum thrust. A slot-car slot runs down the middle of the bowling alley. The powered-up jet is held at the end of its slot by a steel shear pin smaller than a V-8 can. When the shear pin shears the jet is unleashed and so is a steam catapult that hurls the plane down the slot,...

Iraq: Democrats insisted the surge couldn't succeed. When it did, they claimed it failed because Iraqis weren't using the "political breathing space" it provided. In fact, Iraq's ongoing political progress is stunning.Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been called an incompetent incapable of achieving consensus in a country that has never known representative government. The nation he tries in vain to run, we've been told for years now, is in a state of civil war. The only thing President Bush accomplished in invading it, they say, was to send American troops into a hopeless quagmire. But speaking Tuesday in Kuwait to...

Well, maybe if it was raining like it usually does and is forecast for this coming Saturday. But we did have plenty of t-shirts. BELOW LEFT: Cindy_True_Supporter. BELOW RIGHT: Lurker Bill's daughter BELOW LEFT: Fraxinus's T-shirt BELOW RIGHT: My T-shirt says "Kill Them All, Let the Devil sort It Out" in case you couldn't read it as it wraps around my winter surge. The roll call of our 9 Patriots included Legionnaires Glenn (USMC - WWII), Newbie Ed (Army - WWII), Halsey (USMC - Korea), Lurker Bill and daughter, Cindy_True_Supporter, Fraxinus, [Mrs] Trooprally and myself, [Mr] T. All Pics by...

Players from competing teams in the Mahmudiyah Soccer Tournament line up on the field April 20. U.S. Army photo by Pvt. Christopher McKenna, 3rd BCT, 101st Abn. Div. (AASLT). FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAHMUDIYAH — The Mahmudiyah Soccer Stadium officially opened April 20 with a 24-team, double-elimination tournament sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development. This was the first in a series of three tournaments scheduled over the next four months. Security for each event will be provided by the 25th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division.“Many people are excited about both the tournament and the stadium,” said Garbi Abbas, the...

A worker in the Mahmudiyah Chicken Hatchery sets eggs into trays April 21 to begin the incubation process. U.S. Army photo by Pvt. Christopher McKenna, 3rd BCT, 101st Abn. Div. (AASLT). FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAHMUDIYAH — Eight months of preparation and planning paid off when the Mahmudiyah Chicken Hatchery received the first of three shipments of eggs for incubation April 21. The first batch contained 35,000 eggs shipped to Iraq from Holland. “The purpose in bringing in eggs from Holland is that they have a faster growing rate and they’re healthier than chickens from within this area,” said Maj. Alaric...

Residents unload fertilizer bags, April 10, at the Zambraniyah community center. Soldiers of Company B, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, delivered 180 bags of fertilizer to the center. DoD photo. FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — Zambraniyah farmers got much-needed assistance for their crops recently with a delivery from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. “Today we conducted a fertilizer distro for the farmers of Zambraniyah and I think this is something that definitely will continue helping to establish the foundation for economic growth in our sector,” said Capt. Cesar Santiago, a...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SHARANA, Afghanistan, April 22, 2008 – Soldiers of Task Force Pacemaker, deployed from Fort Lewis, Wash., celebrated spring earlier this month with an organizational day. Soldiers bear the stains of taking part in a pie-eating contest during the “Spring Break 2008” festival at Forward Operating Base Sharana, Afghanistan. U.S. Army photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Dubbed “Spring Break 2008!,” the event gave soldiers a break from the rigors of their deployment and allowed them a chance to relax, hear live music, eat barbeque and even take part in a pie-eating contest. Soldiers enjoyed live...

WASHINGTON, April 22, 2008 – Army Spc. Pastor Paul Durano, originally from the Philippines, joined the ranks of his comrades and became an American citizen during a naturalization ceremony here earlier this month. Army Spc. Pastor Paul Durano became an American Citizen in Baghdad’s Al Faw Palace on April 12, 2008. Durano, a native of Cubu City, Philippines, assigned to the 10th Mountain Division, participated in a naturalization ceremony for 259 deployed soldiers. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Durano, a member of 10th Mountain Division’s Headquarters and Headquarter Battery, 5th Battalion, 25th Field Artillery Regiment, participated...

WASHINGTON, April 22, 2008 – Coalition forces killed a terrorist, detained suspects, and discovered homemade explosives during a series of operations today and yesterday. In a synchronized effort triggered by intelligence from an April 12 operation, coalition forces descended on targets in Salahuddin province to disrupt al-Qaida foreign terrorist leaders. The coordinated operations seized 21 individuals with alleged ties to the al-Qaida foreign terrorist network. As an operation in Sharqat began, one man rushed coalition forces, who responded to the hostile threat, killing the attacker. Coalition forces also found weapons inside the building and uncovered homemade explosives, which were safely...

BAGHDAD — Iraqi soldiers took control of the last bastions of the cleric Moktada al-Sadr’s militia in Basra on Saturday, and Iran’s ambassador to Baghdad strongly endorsed the Iraqi government’s monthlong military operation against the fighters. By Saturday evening, Basra was calm, but only after air and artillery strikes by American and British forces cleared the way for Iraqi troops to move into the Hayaniya district and other remaining Mahdi Army militia strongholds and begin house-to house searches, Iraqi officials said. Iraqi troops were meeting little resistance, said Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the spokesman for the Iraqi Interior Ministry in...