Free Republic

Lt. Col. Walt Pritchard was a combat casualty 41 years ago this week.

“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...

Steve Rasmussen stood earnestly, his voice cracking with emotion describing his father’s love for the U. S. Military Academy and his privilege to witness something that meant so much to his father with the hope it will mean the same to its new owner. His father, James Asa Rasmussen, USMA class of 1945, who died October 26, had a last wish of contributing his class ring to the Class Ring Memorial Program. His ring was included among the 12 present at the ring ceremony conducted at the Pease & Curren Refinery in Warwick , R.I. , March 8. In four...

A tribute to fallen HEROES  from the staff and visitors at FreeRepublic.com, FreedomUSA.org and Veterans for Constitutional Restoration (VetsCoR)  During the course of this country's history brave men and women have stepped forward from time to time, answering the country's call to fight against would-be tyrants, dictators and despots,  and to defend the individual freedom that is our birthright.  Many of these brave men and women have paid the ultimate price. It is to these brave men and women of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine that we dedicate this page, and to...

FRAMINGHAM -- When Collin Kelly arrived at Edgell Grove Cemetery to place flowers on soldiers' graves yesterday, he discovered a crowd of people and decades of emotions buried deep. The cemetery visit by the young boy, whose effort to honor dead veterans has made him a national media celebrity this past week, attracted a large group of onlookers: veterans, reporters, patriotic well-wishers and people grieving the loss of loved ones laid to rest at Edgell Grove.

The recent photo of U.S. Army Major Mark Bieger cradling a wounded Iraqi girl in his arms is one of those indelible images that puncture the often impenetrable fog of the war at the geo-strategic level. (For the story of the photo click here http://komotv.com/news/story.asp?ID=36687). This powerful photo contrasts with the negative media portrayals riveted into our minds about the Viet Nam War. One memorable Viet Nam war photo is the picture of children fleeing down a road from where a napalm bomb was dropped by the South Vietnamese Air Force on the village of Trang Bang where Viet Cong...

Johnny finally came marching home again on a rainy day in late March in the town of Quincy, Mass. The town turned out to pay its respects to Edward Alan Brudno and to 47 other hometown sons who made the ultimate sacrifice in a war no one wanted. Al Brudno was one of the longest-held American prisoners of war during Vietnam: He endured nearly eight years of torture and solitary confinement that began when he was shot down over North Vietnam in October 1965. He was 25 then. He survived to come home with the other POWs who were freed...

Rick Rescorla may be remembered forever as a hero who led hundreds of people to safety from the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, but he will be immortalized at Fort Benning as a young soldier in Vietnam. A portrait of the former Army colonel was unveiled Thursday in a special ceremony honoring Rescorla, a decorated Vietnam veteran who died in the terrorist attack after helping evacuate 2,700 employees from the World Trade Center. The 62-year-old Rescorla, a Fort Benning Officer Candidate School Hall of Famer, was security chief for Morgan Stanley working in the south tower. After the...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DANGER, Iraq, Feb. 20 - The old pilot was recalling a different war in a different place. "Every time we went in, we went in hot," he remembered. "You were fighting your way in and fighting your way out." The pilot, Chief Warrant Officer James G. Freeman, was 23 when he began flying Huey helicopters in the Vietnam War in 1970. His missions with the 116th Assault Helicopter Company often involved dropping into a battleground to unload soldiers after helicopter gunships had "prepped" the zone with a torrent of rockets and machine-gun fire. "There were a lot...

CORPUS CHRISTI -- The creator of a commercial for likely Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry has resigned after a newspaper complained that he used its photographs without permission. The Corpus Christi Caller-Times had accused Armando Gutierrez of Corpus Christi of using copyrighted Caller-Times photos in the commercial without clearance. "He is no longer helping with our advertising," Kerry campaign spokesman Luis Vizcaino told the newspaper for its Tuesday editions. Sunday was the last day Kerry's television ad involving the Hispanic veterans was broadcast, Vizcaino said.

June 6, 2004 -- **BREAKING** Dr. Jerry Corsi and Jeff Epstein of Vietnam Vets for the Truth provide additional context and verification for their May 31 report that John Kerry's photograph is featured in the War Protestors Hall of the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City. Photographer Bill Lupetti returned to the museum on June 2 to more fully document the layout and scope of the hall titled "The World Supports Vietnam in its Resistance." Their new story, Kerry Museum Photo Documented is now available in our Special Features section.

May 31, 2004 -- **BREAKING** Dr. Jerry Corsi and Jeff Epstein of Vietnam Vets for the Truth report that John Kerry's photograph is featured in the War Protestors Hall of the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City -- a clear indication of the value the Vietnamese communists place on Kerry's support of their efforts during the Vietnam War. The photograph was received in response to a general request last week for information documenting Kerry’s activities on behalf of the enemy (May 27 below). See Kerry Honored by Vietnamese Communists in Special Features for the complete story.

<p>WASHINGTON -- In a question-and-answer session before a Senate committee in 1971, John F. Kerry, who was a leading antiwar activist at the time, asserted that 200,000 Vietnamese per year were being "murdered by the United States of America" and said he had gone to the Paris and "talked with both delegations at the peace talks" and met with communist representatives.</p>