Without passion, we have no path. Without commitment, we have no honor. Without conviction, we have lost our way. Without faith, we have surrendered our soul. Without duty, we have forfeited our “six”. Without reverence, we have no passion.

So ask yourselves, without these, what have you? And, what will become of our great country, The United States of America?

[Thanks, Amy and Johnny, for the muse - the words just fell out.]

“Atlas doesn’t shrug, Atlas heaves with cries of agony at our myopia.”

DoD DVIDS Photo by Spc. Ferdinand Thomas, 214th MPAD, Richmond, VA

Your freedom to hate the US Military,
Your freedom to vilify those prosecuting the Global War on Terror,
Your freedom to burn Old Glory, our standard, the banner of freedom,
Your freedom to key my truck because you hate my showing pride in my service,
Your freedom to be born and later carelessly take the life of the unborn,
Your freedom to feel guilt for your own success because others are not,
Your freedom to stand in awe of this great country,

This is your freedom, paid for by 480,000 servicemembers being honored at the WWII Memorial in Washington D.C. Each star represents 100 souls and the memorial has 4,800 stars.

DoD DVIDS Photo by Spc. Ferdinand Thomas, 214th MPAD, Richmond, VA

Will you continue to disrespect this man, someone’s Dad, someone’s GrandPa, someone who truly knows what freedom means? Can you take for granted, with all you have today, the freedom this man’s brothers in arms sacrificed? Are you so bent on being right that you have forgotten the fact that previous governments and regimes would snuff an inconsequential person such as yourself without a care? Has the value of freedom paid by so many been lost on you, ’cause you forgot? Do you not see that freedom is costly, requires commitment and sacrifice, and cannot be taken lightly?

Freedom is earned. It is blood, sweat, tears, and long periods of time alone in foreign lands and at home. It is a path not all take. It is the families left behind that continue to pay the day to day sacrifices for freedom.

Your freedom must be cherished, because you have been given the greatest gift.

God Speed to all before me. God Bless those left behind.

Also posted at US Army: Stand-To!

Also posted at California Conservative

Just to fill you all in, I have been trying to help out the Soldiers’ Angels organization get the word out regarding some folks in need of our help. I know that often times we all can be a bit cynical or get our “knickers in a twist” about the bad feelings, slanted news, and more often than not raw deal the US Military gets. I’m trying to get out there and use my skills to help the Soldiers’ Angels - ’cause I can’t sew and I truly suck at baking! We’d have brave men and women with cool scarves falling apart in front of their eyes or they’d be dropping like flies from those evil cookies that looney toon Milblogger, Fix4RSO, sent them!

Our first person in need is a soldier we’ll call Mr. Olson. He is very close to losing his house, being 3 months back on payments. He was with the 1498th Transportation Company out of Riverside, CA. He was in Kuwait first in 2003 and then was all over Iraq. In 2004 he was injured in Tikrit and sent stateside. Simply put, his injuries were from his foot being caught in a winch and he nearly lost it. This incident also affected his left knee and lower back. He was put on Med Hold until everything came back to normal. Needless to say, he had to go through physical therapy - but in 2005 he was released because the State of California says he’s just hoppin’ ready to get to work. However, his PT Test results say differently and he cannot return to his ANG Active Duty Special Work (Counter Drug Task Force in Southern California). His private sector job opportunities have fallen through as well leaving him without any pay at all. He moved temporarily to Washington State to go to Madigan Hospital for more PT. He has run out of money and wants to get back to California where the job market is improving a bit. He’d at the very least like to just get his electricity, water, and phone bills paid. If he could get some help with his house payment and a job, I think he’d be OK to carry on! It’s a steep hill to climb, but I think we all can help lighten the load.

Our second person in need is a sailor we’ll call Mr. McCutchen. He, too, is very close to losing his house. Without having any income at all, the weekly food bill is truly breaking the bank. The mortgage company has told him he needs to at the very least make one payment by June 5th - but he has no funds due to his injury and separation from the Navy.  He was injured in Iraq when the rear portion of the vehicle he was riding in ran over an IED. He struck his head during the explosion and has since been suffering extreme pain in his head and neck. He has been having blackout spells. His legs also swell to the point that he has difficulty bending legs to get dressed or to shower and walk. He cannot drive because of blackout periods nor can he do any form of exercise. His civilian job is driving an 18-wheeler. Because of the blackout periods, he cannot safely drive any vehicle. He was taken off active duty since his return from Iraq and has not been able to work. He has not had a paycheck since April and is getting behind in all his bills. Now, the Navy is trying to get him processed back on active duty so that he can continue and then complete medical treatment. He is currently being treated by a neurologist - does not know final results yet. The Navy cannot tell him when he will actually be back on active duty - has to wait for processing. He has 5, yes five, kids and his wife is a stay at home Mom (something I am happy to hear, and is very honorable!). They have lots of bills, as you all can imagine! We need to raise some very serious money to help the McCutchen Family!

Both these men are staring down the worst of all paths ’cause they’re gonna have to go on public assistance. Ouch! US Military personnel should never have to go on public assistance! If we could keep these families afloat just a bit longer, manage their runway so to speak, I think that they can get back to a normal life. I hope you can help, or maybe you know someone that can help both these families?

The best way to help is to either go to the Soldiers’ Angels web site and make a donation. In the “notes/comments” field be sure to mention your donation is for either Mr. Olson or Mr. McCutchen - or BOTH! And, if you just want to have me get my coordinator from Soldiers’ Angels to get in touch with you directly so you can best direct your gift, no matter what it is, we can do that too! Just be sure to leave a comment in this post with your e-mail address in the short registration process. That way I can send your contact info on. You can also just send me an e-mail. Use the following e-mail address:

Fix4RSO AT fix4rso DOT com

Last but not least, at a minimum, please say a prayer for both these families. Prayer is a power way beyond all understanding. Take a chance!

God Bless you all. God Speed to all our brave men and women!

I just got pinged by LinkedInUSAF about this program. It seems that the state of Illinois has implemented a program supporting the US Military. Folks that are residents of Illinois before and plan to return after their tour can get an MBA through the University of Illinois, for free! Now, that four letter word is pretty important, wouldn’t you say?! Here is the info from LinkedInUSAF’s blog post:

Here is a link that provides the background on this program:

Illinois Veteran Grant (IVG) Program

Here is the quick version of eligibility from his site and the link above:

To be a qualified applicant, you must:

Have served at least one year of federal active duty service in the Armed Forces of the United States, unless you:

• served in a foreign country in a time of hostilities in that country, or
• were medically discharged and the medical reason for discharge was service related, or
• were discharged prior to August 11, 1967.
• Have received an honorable discharge for each period of federal active duty service, and/or be honorably serving.
• Not be a member of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC).
• Have resided in Illinois within six months before entering federal active duty service or within six months prior to entering the service.
• Have returned or plan to return to Illinois within six months after leaving federal active duty service unless you are residing with a spouse in continued military service and establish or plan to establish Illinois residency within six months of his/her leaving federal active duty service.
• Be enrolled at an Illinois public 2 or 4 year college.
• Reside in Illinois unless you are serving federal active duty service at the time of enrollment in college or residing with a spouse in continued military service who is currently stationed outside of Illinois.
• Not be in default on any student loan, nor owe a refund on any state or federal grant.
• Maintain the minimum grade point average (GPA) required by your college.

If you are currently serving in the Illinois National Guard you may also be eligible for the Illinois National Guard Grant Program.

If you receive benefits from the IVG Program while serving federal active duty service, upon discharge you will be required to verify that your service has been characterized as honorable.

Now some of you may be asking, “But, isn’t this a statewide program?”

Yeah, but I was contacted directly to help spread the word, by two very dedicated gentlemen looking to help our brave fighting men and women. I believe that the University of Illinois deserves the bulk of this post for that alone. It took a cold call to me, a short conversation, and some exchanging of LinkedIn connecting to seal the deal. No other college or university has done that with me, until now. Lion’s share goes to the one to execute and follow through.

Ya know the saying, “To the victor goes the spoils.”

Well, I have to agree, if the University of Illinois contacted me directly, they’d get the bulk of the page too.

I did a little extra hunting and found out that there is another place actively promoting this program. When I did a web-search I found a company called Bradley/Wiltjer, a marketing firm. They are trying to help U of I get the word out, too. You can go here to see their post about the program. And they also encourage you to read more about the Executive MBA Program at www.mba.illinois.edu/veterans.

So, get the word out and help some of our brave fighting men and women an MBA. I wish this was around when I was serving, as I suspect some of you do as well. Just because it wasn’t around when we were serving doesn’t mean we cannot help everyone else today!

It hit me while I was reading a short history of Yamamoto’s demise in the current issue of Air Force Magazine: intel is something that makes or brakes a war. While I was amazed at the bravery and commitment of those P-38 pilots, the fact that we knew when and where Yamamoto would be was astounding. Questions ran through my mind:

• Who lost their life collecting this information (HUMINT)?
• Was anyone’s position given away as they transmitted the information (SIGINT)?
• Weren’t we close to having decoders for Japanese Communications (SIGINT)?
• Was a position overrun during a battle and we recovered information (HUMINT)?

And, what’s truly an example of the US Military’s commitment to the mission is that many men took a huge chance to strike back at the man who hit Pearl Harbor. Admiral Nimitz was in no mood to let this man escape - Nimitz wanted Yamamoto.

As it turns out, the US was working very hard at decoding Japanese communiques. Here’s a tiny snippet from Air Force Magazines article “Magic and Lightening” by Rebecca Grant, contributing editor of Air Force Magazine:

“Since well before Midway, Navy cryptographers had been breaking elements of the Japanese code through a secret program known as Magic. Even when the Japanese ciphers changed, the code-breakers could usually catch at least 15 percent of the contents of a message and decode more with the help of early IBM computing machines.”

“In April 1943, the chief of code and translation at Fleet Radio Unit, Pacific Fleet, usually scanned the messages. The American cryptographers knew that this message, while just partially decoded, was of immense value.”

“It fell to Cmdr. Edwin T. Layton, Nimitz’s fleet intelligence officer, to bring the news to the boss. There were definite risks in acting on partially decoded information, but Nimitz did not hesitate. The intelligence was sent to the area commanders, including Mitscher.”

The following image is the decoded transmission:

The source of the image is from “Lightning Strike: The Secret Mission to Kill Admiral Yamamoto and Avenge Pearl Harbor” by Donald A. Davis.

One last little snippet is here:

“‘What a damn fool thing to do,’ said an enraged Japanese commander when he saw the telegram.”

That my friends is the biggest argument for the secrecy of intel. No matter how confident you are, no matter how battered you think the enemy may be, no matter how few members of the opposition you face, keep intel close to the chest! Even the smallest bit of information can blow a hole so wide in your operation that you’ll wish you never woke up that morning.

I want to thank Amy Proctor, again, for the lively comments in the thread titled “Media Ignores Bush Exoneration”. I know, I seem like a broken record here, but she really has a Hot LZ going on over there! And when comments in that thread started to smell like the old conspiracy about Bush hiding all the information, I got to thinking about this story of Yamamoto being shot down because intel was compromised. There are so many bloggers out there without the experience of, or drive to learn about, relatively recent history and the role intel plays in a war. We all need to repeat to the unwashed masses out there that intel is always kept secret to save lives.

Remember, “Loose lips sink ships”!

No matter how hard a person tries to resist repeating the past, it just seems to happen. And if history is to repeat itself, why not choose the history that you’d like to repeat, thereby controlling the future?

Eh, I digress … these kids’ll never learn!

Oh! And you really need to read your Air Force Magazine this month! The fact that we sent just 18 P-38s up against Yamamoto’s 2 bombers and tons of Zeros as escorts - and we still bagged ‘im. The P-38s had to fly 30 feet off the water for over 500 miles (and no air conditioning in that black painted glassed in enclosure! Commitment? You betcha!

Ahhh, what a fine old bird she was - and FAST! Boy howdy, gimme a P-38 or a P-51. Hmmm …