Patriotism

Army.mil – The Year in Photos

This powerful QuickTime presentation shows many of the facets of the Army’s activities in 2005; The Call to Duty. You may have to install the QuickTime plug-in application in your browser, but it’s definitely worth the effort.

THE YEAR IN PHOTOS 2005

This annual year-end special features the best of Army.mil’s feature photos, drawn from a variety of Defense Department sources. These photos capture the essence of our Soldiers, living the Warrior Ethos and answering the Call to Duty.

Check it out at Army.mil – The Year in Photos.

via DEFEND AMERICA

Pearl Harbor Remembered

I found a fairly good rundown of the terrible events of December 7, 1941 at Infoplease: Pearl Harbor Remembered.

Excerpt:

Dec. 7, 1941—at five minutes to eight o’clock, 183 Japanese warplanes ruined a perfectly fine Sunday morning on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. The first attack wave had reached the U.S. Pacific Fleet stationed at Oahu’s Pearl Harbor and for all intents and purposes, World War II began for the United States

Although the U.S. military forces in Pearl Harbor had been recently strengthened, the base was not at a state of high alert. Many people were just waking when the first bombs were dropped. No one was prepared to do battle.

One Marine’s View

This Marine is in Iraq. Somewhere close to Fallujah. These are his takes on American Media and CNN in particular. If you think the media are fair and ethical about what they report in Iraq and elsewhere, think again . . .

America if you didn’t believe us in the past, this should do nothing but reinforce how we are saying that the enemy is trying to get to you all at home to go south and demand us to come home before the job is done and that the media is soooo off mark. This just proves we are making huge gains here. Why? Because the real blind sheep, the big time news agencies, bought the trick, line and sinker from the terrorists. They fell for the oldest trick in the book, taking news tips from the enemy and paying them big cash to allow camera men to tag along with them. Yea great idea because a camera might look like an RPG to a Marine far enough away. It’s a clever technique that the US invented. Counter psyops is one way to buy out ‘reliable’ sources to submit stories to the press. This is now proof of how desperate the big time news agencies are for bad gauge on the US campaign in Iraq. They have no news so they pay for whatever may come down the line. Lowering their contacts and standards they knowingly purchase news reports and film events from the enemy.

Be sure to visit One Marine’s View for the complete article.

Thanksgiving Thoughts from a Soldier in Iraq

Putting Thanksgiving in perspective, I present an excerpt from an email I got today from a soldier in Mosul, Iraq.

As I sit here and write this on Thanksgiving, although I have a lot to be thankful for this year, I thought I would share a little with you about what I am thankful for today. I am thankful for my family, they have been there for me, and without their guidance, I would be completely lost. I am thankful for God, that he has seen fit to protect me this last year, that he helps my battalion make it safely back home, that he continues to protect the troops that will still be here, and that he has taken into heaven with open arms, the men and women who have given their lives in this war, who he just couldn’t live without in heaven. I am thankful that I was born in America, and not a country like Iraq. As strange as it may seem, I am thankful that Americans still have the right to voice their opinions about this war (whether I agree with them or not), if America still has the right to voice it’s opinion, that means we’re doing our job over here, and doing it well! Most of all, I am thankful for my fiancé, who has braved one of the most ultimate in hardships this last year, and stuck with me throughout it all. For certain, true love does exist. Finally, I am thankful that there are people back home who understand what we are fighting for, and proud of us.

God Bless!

Sincerely,
Sgt. Furman
Mosul, Iraq

And now you know why I’m so proud of these guys; let’s support them any way we can.

Inset photo credit Army Combat Training Centers

Thanksgiving Day

Damsel asked what I am thankful for on this day. Here’s a few things, although the list is certainly bigger than this.

  • As I look at other places in the nation and the world today, I am thankful for the climate in California.
  • I am thankful for technology and the ability to sit here and view pictures from Mars and deep space; to share thoughts, images, music and humor with others.
  • I am thankful to have been given the talent and motivation to succeed in my career.
  • I am thankful for our home and the shelter and comfort we enjoy.
  • I am thankful for jazz, blues, classical, and symphonic music; and to have good taste in my preferences.
  • I am thankful for and proud of our men and women serving in the armed forces, and the protection they provide.
  • I am thankful and proud to be a right-thinking American.
  • I am thankful for and proud of the United States of America and the freedom we enjoy.
  • I am thankful for food, family and football on this day.
  • Most of all, I am thankful for Damsel and the life and love we share together.

Over One Million Served

As of now, there have been over a million hits on the Never Forget animated graphic, since I started counting!

The animation was originally inspired by an anonymously-produced PowerPoint slideshow making the rounds on the internet and via emails after 9/11. I gathered some of the graphics and produced the prototype of the graphic to display on my personal website. After refinements and improvements suggested by Damsel and others, it appears as it does today.

Last August, I made an offer to display the Never Forget Animated Graphic to anyone wishing to display it. This is the graphic seen in the right sidebar depicting the attacks on America by terrorists. The offer was only taken by a few sites at first, but since then, many more have begun displaying the animation. In fact, there are currently about 200 sites showing the graphic, and that number has been growing by about three a day. Sites in the US, Canada, Australia, the UK and Italy (maybe more) have it on their pages.

After appearing on a couple dozen websites, I looked at the bandwidth that it was consuming, and decided to close the offer for new websites since I am limited in bandwidth by my ISP. When I published my intent to close the offer, Wonder Woman from North American Patriot made me an offer I couldn’t refuse: her webmaster would host the graphic on a non-bandwidth-limited server! Of course, I accepted and am still very grateful for their generosity.

Damsel and I believe that the War on Terror is the most important issue before the American People and our Allies. The presence of this graphic on our site indicates our unwillingness to forget what happened and what still needs to be done. It makes us very proud to see our graphic on so many sites (getting 20,000 hits a day) and gives us comfort knowing there are so many like-minded people in the blogosphere willing to display the graphic.

Thanks to all who display it and thanks again to North American Patriot.

You can get the script to display the graphic on your website at the Never Forget page.