Free Republic

In June of 1775, citizens acting as merchant mariners captured the British schooner HMS Margaretta around Machias, Massachusetts (present-day Maine). That same month, General George Washington, with the help of merchant ship owner Colonel John Glover of Marblehead, Massachusetts, chartered and outfitted several ships to interrupt the British supplies. The marker at the base of John Glover’s statue in Boston states: “John Glover of Marblehead – A Soldier of the Revolution. He commanded a regiment of one thousand men raised in that town known as the marine regiment, and enlisted to serve throughout the war. He joined the camp at...

It’s borderline abusive, inhumane and unjustifiably despicable. Our troops go and serve proudly for months on end, and return to a situation that sometimes proves to be more emotionally disturbing than what they faced on active duty. Please read the story below, and if you had no idea of this reality, I regret to inform you, this is the new cost of the liberty and freedom we all enjoy.

Sgt. David M. Gerardi, a weapons sergeant with the Army National Guard's 19th Special Forces Group, received the nation's third highest medal for his actions while deployed in 2011 as an active-duty Marine with 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division (Forward), II Marine Expeditionary Force. (Marine photo by Marine Cpl. Jacob D. Osborne) PITTSBURGH (Army News Service, Dec. 18, 2012) — It’s not every day a National Guard sergeant receives a Silver Star for actions performed as a Marine. But that’s exactly what happened in Pittsburgh, Dec. 10.Sgt. David M. Gerardi, a weapons sergeant with the Army National Guard’s 19th...

The Defense funding bill that will get a house vote later this week includes provisions that would protect conscience rights for military chaplains and prohibit same-sex marriage ceremonies from being performed on U.S. military bases. Amendments to the Fiscal 2013 National Defense Authorization Act authored by House Armed Services Committee members Steve Palazzo (R-Miss.) and Todd Akin (R-Mo.) for that purpose were approved in committee last week, but not without a fight. The provisions continued to be a source of controversy as debate on the bill began on the House floor Wednesday. Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.) said the amendment only...

They have kept a rendezvous with death, stiffened their sinews in times of alarm, and made the best of the misery of the battlefield and the tedium of the long watch in wars both hot and cold. He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, will stand a tip-toe when this day is named. —Shakespeare, King Henry V, 1598.Remember them.Give them a thought. Give them your thanks.They are the Guardians. On land, at sea, and in the air they have been the guardians—of our peace and peace of mind.They have been the guardians of what we hold dear, of...

During the 1990s, the U.S. defense debate was dominated by those who argued that advances in technology, particularly information technology, had revolutionized military affairs and changed the nature of warfare. Under former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, this view -- now called transformation -- came to characterize U.S. military planning. Based on the example of the 1991 Gulf War, advocates of transformation argued that our technological edge would allow American forces to identify and destroy targets remotely, defeating an adversary at low cost in casualties. Though the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have largely discredited staunch transformation advocates, a heated...

American Patrol Report Letter to Supreme Court Justices I am writing about a possible threat to all of humanity. Under present law the President of the United States has sole authority to authorize the use of nuclear weapons. The possibility of holding the fate of the entire human race in ones hands is an awesome responsibility. The person to whom we grant that responsibility must be of the highest moral and ethical character. While the popular vote is a necessary prerequisite to assume the powers of the presidency, it should not be sufficient. I have become aware of serious questions...

The media loves the troops -- as long as they are dead, wounded, disfigured, disabled, evicted, disturbed, suicidal, broke, deserting, or otherwise in a category that can be portrayed as a “victim” of the Pentagon or a Republican President. Healthy, squared-away, gung-ho troops who believe in their country, duty and mission, interest the media very little. This is why I’m always suspicious of claims from certain quarters of the press (do the initials “C.M.” and “K.O.” seem to fit?) that they “support the troops.” But for those who would like to support the troops in a way the troops might...

November 04, 2008, 6:00 a.m. Soldiering SuffrageFighting for their votes. By Mark Hemingway Electoral democracy is a very messy and often controversial process. And, as with seemingly every other issue these days, the two political parties are at loggerheads over how to resolve issues complicating voter registration and ballot counting. But some perennial voter problems are so obvious and so easily correctable it’s downright shameful they have yet to be addressed. Nowhere is this more obvious than the issue of absentee military ballots, which are often challenged due to the difficulty of complying with wildly divergent local voting requirements...

On the stump, Barack Obama usually concludes his comments on Iraq by saying, "and it hasn't made us safer." It is an article of faith on the left that nothing the Bush administration has done has enhanced our security, and, on the contrary, its various alleged blunders have only contributed to the number of jihadists who want to attack us. Empirically, however, it seems beyond dispute that something has made us safer since 2001. Over the course of the Bush administration, successful attacks on the United States and its interests overseas have dwindled to virtually nothing. Some perspective here is...

The Chris Plante Show, 630 WMAL, Washington, DC is discussing RIGHT NOW (during the 10:00 - 11:45 ET a.m. hour) what Obama needs to do to earn the respect of Americans and military families. Perfect opportunity for Freepers to call-in and express your thoughts on this matter!!! LISTEN LIVE: http://radiotime.com/program/p_61017/Chris_Plante.aspx http://www.630wmal.com/article.asp?id=632848 CALL: 888 630 9625

US soldiers in Baghdad captured an Iraqi arms dealer and "assassination squad" leader responsible for trafficking Shi'ite extremists in and out of neighboring Iran for training, the military said Sunday. The arrest reinforced long-standing US allegations that Iran arms, trains and funds Shi'ite Muslim militiamen inside Iraq - charges that Teheran denies. It also coincided with a two-day visit to Iran by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, his second such trip in a year. The Iraqi prime minister, himself a Shi'ite, is struggling to keep Washington happy while reassuring Iran, the largest Shi'ite nation, that a proposed US-Iraqi security agreement...

How the classified military documents from Iraq, which named the coordinates of where the Army suspected weapons of mass destruction to be hidden, ended up in an Arabic translator's apartment on Hoyt Street in Brooklyn, is clear. Not likely to be known anytime soon is what, if anything, the army contractor did with the documents. The U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, which is prosecuting the case, appears to have little direct evidence that Noureddine Malki passed information on to the insurgency, either during his time in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, or upon his return to America in 2005. But...

...The purpose of Sunday's instantly notorious feature "alerting" the American people that our Iraq and Afghanistan vets are all potential murderers when they move in next door was to mark those defenders of freedom as "unclean" - as the new lepers who can't be trusted amid uninfected Americans.... The hard left's hatred of our military has deteriorated from a political stance into a pathology: The only good soldier is a dead soldier who can be wielded as a statistic (out of context again). Or a deserter who complains bitterly that he didn't join the Army to fight . . ....

January 11, 2008 -- AS you read these lines, our troops are in the midst of Operation Phantom Phoenix, a "mini-surge" to squeeze al Qaeda and its fast-dwindling band of allies out of their few remaining safe havens in Iraq. Iraqi troops fight beside us against a common enemy. Vast swaths of the country enjoy a newborn peace. Commerce thrives again. At the provincial and local levels, the political progress has been remarkable. As for Operation Phantom Phoenix, our commanders expected terrorist dead-enders to put up a fight. Instead, they ran, leaving behind only booby traps and disgust among the...

There is a repulsive conversation going on in Washington at the moment. Journalists, un-named Pentagon officials and many politicians are discussing, as if true, the precise method by which President Bush intends to exit from Iraq in time for the midterm elections next year. Perhaps future events will reveal me to be naive (not a charge usually posted against me). But for the record, I do not believe that President Bush is cynically looking for an exit strategy. However, most of the Washington political class clearly believes he is planning to pull troops out of Iraq in the next three...

Today is Nov 10th, the Marine Corps birthday, happy birthday Marines! On November 10th, 1775, the Second Continental Congress resolved to raise two battalions of Continental Marines marking the birth of our United States Marine Corps. As Major General Lejeune’s message reminds us, the ensuing generations of Marines would come to signify all that is highest in warfighting excellence and military virtue. Each November as Marines the world over celebrate the birth of our Corps, we pay tribute to that long line of “Soldiers of the Sea” and the illustrious legacy they have handed down to us. This past year...

The 2005 Rally for the Troops, Cleveland is now history, and I have spent enough time beside the fire at home that I am thawed out enough to report that it was a cold, wet, drizzly SUCCESS for every veteran, active duty military personnel, or parent of same that turned out on the late winter day on the North Coast of America. Free Republic's own Nikki Mendicino was there with Mark Mix, a 33 year old soldier from Columbus Ohio who was recently paralyzed in Operation Iraqi Freedom and is confined to a wheelchair. Nikki got a great reception from...

New Emphasis on Insurgencies and Terrorism Is Planned The Pentagon has drafted terms for an ambitious reshaping of U.S. forces that would put less emphasis on waging conventional warfare and more on dealing with insurgencies, terrorist networks, failed states and other nontraditional threats, according to senior defense officials and others familiar with the confidential planning. This proposed shift in strategic focus stems partly from a recognition that U.S. forces were inadequately prepared for the insurgency in Iraq and the wider hunt for terrorists around the world. But officials said it also grows out of a heightened perception of other potential...

Be prepared to get some sand in your eyes over this one... AN ARMED FORCES TRIBUTE God bless, protect and preserve our troops as they do the hard work of freedom.