20 September Is POW-MIA Day

We still have men missing from Korea through Afghanistan.

8th of November-We Will Not Forget

On the 8th of November the angels were crying. Good post at this link.


The originalo video can be seen at this link.

Gates On the F-35

Uncle Jimbo has a piece in the WashTimes trying to decide who won this debate between SecDef Gates and SecDef Gates:

Robert M. Gates is on his farewell lap as secretary of defense and is making his final speeches to the service academies. He also seems to be debating himself in the process. He made the following remarks to Army cadets at West Point:

“And I must tell you, when it comes to predicting the nature and location of our next military engagements, since Vietnam, our record has been perfect. We have never once gotten it right, from the Mayaguez to Grenada, Panama, Somalia, the Balkans, Haiti, Kuwait, Iraq and more - we had no idea a year before any of these missions that we would be so engaged."

“The need for heavy armor and firepower to survive, close with and destroy the enemy will always be there, as veterans of Sadr City and Fallujah can no doubt attest.”

As Jimbo so eloquently states, "Thats common sense right there"

He [Gates] also said this:

“In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as Gen. MacArthur so delicately put it.”

So now we've eliminated two whole continents and the center of Islamic extremism.

Now Lets hear the SecDef at the Air Force Academy:

“That includes the requirement for more sophisticated, high-end capabilities. I’ve said before that it would be irresponsible to assume that a future adversary - given enough time, money and technological acumen - will not one day be able to directly threaten U.S. command of the skies.

“So even as I’ve touted the need to incorporate the lessons of the current conflicts, I have also committed the Department of Defense - and this country - to the most advanced and expensive tactical fighter program in history - the $300 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The department is programmed to buy 2,400 of these aircraft, and the first Air Force training aircraft will arrive at Eglin Air Force Base in just over two months. Having a robust, large quantity of fifth-generation tactical air fighters is something I view as a core requirement, and in this era of increasing budget constraints, my goal has been to ensure that core capabilities for all the services are protected. This has meant increasing development funding for the F-35, scaling back or cutting other programs that are not as essential and intervening directly to get the program back on track, on budget and on schedule.”

Honor Vietnam Vets With Jane Fonda and Anti-War Protestors?!

Honor Vietnam Vets With Jane Fonda and Anti-War Protestors?!

The mayor needs a history lesson or a bitch-slapping for even considering this.

Fayetteville, North Carolina, home of Fort Bragg, is planning a 10-day celebration and homecoming this November to honor Vietnam Vets. Its a honor well deserved. These soldiers, marines, and other vets served our nation honorably. It’s not their fault that we had lousy leadership in Washington that lost the war.

But Fayetteville Mayor Tony Chavonne decided to “honor” the Vets by reaching out to Quaker House, an anti-Vietnam war protesting outfit. And Quaker House said they are glad to participate and intend to show two anti-war films that include Jane Fonda. As in “Hanoi Jane.” This is how they plan to “honor Vietnam vets.”

Welcome Home, Brothers and Sisters

Never forget

8th of November 173DABN

On the 8th of November the angels were crying.
Good post at this link.


The originalo video can be seen at this link.

Morning Reads from the DCExaminer

Byron York - Sestak a no-go for any job. So what was the deal?
The bottom line is Sestak, as a member of Congress, could not have served on most, if not all, of the boards the White House claims it considered for him. Did the politically savvy Obama team really not know that? Or is the White House not telling us something?

Julie Mason - Obama, Ariz. governor still at odds on immigration after meeting
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer pressed President Obama in a private meeting to step up border security efforts, saying later that "we agreed to try and work together."

Sara Carter - Mexican plan to distribute IDs to illegals in California draws fire
Mexican officials and a California congressman engaged in a verbal battle Thursday over whether it was appropriate for Mexico to set up a consular office on Catalina Island to issue ID cards to illegal immigrants.

Susan Ferrechio -Senate front-runners survive bumpy starts
Rand Paul and Richard Blumenthal are apparently facing a very forgiving electorate.
Despite recent controversial comments made by the two men, who are running for the open U.S. Senate seats in Kentucky and Connecticut, respectively, they remain significantly ahead in the polls and seem to have survived any immediate political damage.

More Stories
On Romanoff, Obama has no ideaevidence

Biden gleefully proclaims that the stimulus has created INFINITY JOBS!

Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., says ‘white supremacists hate groups’ behind Ariz. immigration law
I knew it was those damn white supremacists. They're so ....supreme. Sanchez is a party line spouting idiot.

Two Virginia Heros Talk About the Museum

From the earliest days of this project, we were filled with huge reservoirs of hope, ambition, and purpose. It really did start with a small group wanting to tell a very big and important story. We dedicated ourselves to honoring our service members and their families, and to educating our citizens. What strides we have taken! Surely we have had angels on our side. I imagine those angels to be the voices of American servicemen and women and their families, urging us: "Tell our story." I am gratified and humbled to be able to do just that. This facility will be a must‐go destination for all ages.

Susan Keating,
The Wartime Museum Board of Trustees
Author and Journalist, specializing in national security

We see The Wartime Museum as a favorite destination for school children with its interactive displays, oral histories of soldiers and civilians, outdoor landscapes of war, and hands‐on exhibitions featuring tanks, armored cars and other vehicles actually used in our conflicts. Who says education has to be boring?

During four decades as a war correspondent, I accompanied our troops into battle from Vietnam to Iraq, and it is a privilege to be associated with the creation of a museum to tell their stories and honor their sacrifices and that of their families. We have an obligation to remember the service of millions of Americans who have protected our freedom and defended our country. This museum will honor that obligation.

Joseph L. Galloway, (We Were Soldiers Once...and Young)
The Wartime Museum Board of Trustees

Virginia has some amazing folks. We always have. The Wartime Museum perfectly aligns with the tenets of Gathering of Eagles, EaglesUP, and Warrior Legacy Foundation. As a member of GoE, a Board Member of EaglesUP, and an unpaid volunteer for WLF, I will assist this endeavour in any way they ask.

Open Letter to NM Republicans, WST-9/12 and Oathkeepers

We are writing to you to express our grave concerns about Adam Kokesh, who is aspiring to become the Republican nominee for US Congress from New Mexico’s 3rd district. Mr. Kokesh has an extensive, and well-documented history of affiliations with radical leftist groups. In concert with these groups he has engaged in numerous anti-America and anti-military demonstrations and protests. Moreover, Mr. Kokesh does not appear to have any personal qualifications that would recommend him for serious consideration as a candidate for the Republican Party. He has a significant history suggestive of poor character and judgment, and he has notable incidents of direct activism against Republican office holders.

Affiliations with radical leftist groups
Mr. Kokesh joined the Iraq Veterans Against War (IVAW) in February 2007, at which time he was 25 years old. The IVAW was formed by the Vietnam Veterans Against War (VVAW), the now infamous group, formed by John Kerry in 1970, and responsible for the fraudulent maligning of our Vietnam veterans at the Winter Soldier Conference in 1971. It will be recalled that John Kerry now stands exposed as having repeated false accusations from that conference, during Congressional testimony in 1971. Similar to the VVAW, the IVAW is a virulently anti-military, anti-America group. It holds the view that our country is an imperialistic and expansionistic “One World Order” government, and that our military is but a tool of this government. Further, they believe that our soldiers are little more than marauders and murderers who, in the words of John Kerry, behave “in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan”.

Mr. Kokesh was active in the IVAW from 2007 to 2009, at which time he announced his candidacy for Republican Congressman from New Mexico. There are no indications that he has revoked his affiliations with the IVAW. As an active member of the IVAW, Mr. Kokesh was involved in numerous anti-military, and by explicit extension, anti-Bush/Republican activities and actions. While executing these actions, Mr. Kokesh knowingly and gladly, made common cause with a wide array of other well-known, radical anti-America and communist groups. The list of these other groups includes, but is by no means limited to, the following:
SDS
Code Pink
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
United for Justice and Peace
Communist Party of America
Muslim Brotherhood
Black Panthers
In cooperation with the above-named groups and the IVAW, Mr. Kokesh: participated in multiple anti-war demonstrations in Washington DC, and other cites throughout the country; organized and incited violent demonstrations at military recruiting stations; participated in an initiative to encourage active duty soldiers to desert their military post; organized and participated in a Winter Soldier Conference 2, an effort designed to malign and undercut the moral of our soldiers who were fighting and dying on the battlefield. Even a most cursory search of the Internet will yield a plethora of documents attesting to the veracity of these assertions.



Personal character questions, and anti-Republican Party activities
Apart from his considerable radical leftist affiliations and activities, there many concerns about Mr. Kokesh’s general personal qualifications for congressman; and we have specific concerns about the appropriateness of his being considered for being a Republican congressman. Mr. Kokesh has no history of personal accomplishments or achievement, yet he does have a notable history of poor judgment and illegal behavior. Moreover, he has no history of supporting the Republican Party, and in fact has been actively unsupportive and undermining of the Party

Mr. Kokesh’s personal accomplishments and achievements appear to be limited to his having served in the Marine Corps from 1999 until 2006, and his political activism with the IVAW from 2007 until 2009. His MC service was basically unremarkable, in terms of citations, medals, and commendations, and it was ultimately marked by a demotion in his discharge rank, from Sergeant to Corporal, and a downgrading of his discharge status from honorable to general. Mr. Kokesh’s tenure with the IVAW has been noted above and need not be repeated here.

There are no indications that Mr. Kokesh has ever maintained any private sector employment, and unless otherwise proven, it might be assumed that his ‘work’ with the IVAW was financed through contributions to that organization, finances that often originated in leftist organizations such as MoveOn.org. Other than an undergraduate degree in Psychology, there are no indications that Mr. Kokesh has achieved any academic standing that might, given his young age and his otherwise lack of general accomplishments, recommend him for serious consideration for Congress.

There are numbers of incidents in Mr. Kokesh’s personal life that suggest that he employs poor judgment, and that he has trouble coping with stress. Examples of his poor judgment include the following: he smuggled a gun home from Iraq, and then was apprehended when he bought it onto a college campus; he has incited protestors to engage in violent actions against military recruiting stations, and; he incited unrest on a college campus by hanging racist poster around the campus, and signed the posters as being a member of the college conservative Republican organization.

Given the above, it is our position that Mr. Kokesh is in no way qualified to represent the Republican Party in Congress. In fact, if his history is any indicator of his future performance, it is most likely that he will behave in a manner that is antithetical to the positions and values of the Republican Party. In our view, a Kokesh candidacy will at best, precipitate much conflict within the Republican Party, and, at worst, invite derision from outside of the party.

Like you, we are interested in maintaining the integrity of the Republican Party. We understand that this is a time when the party leadership is striving to reconcile disparate ideas within the party, and to clarify its unified voice. A Kokesh candidacy would be completely at odds with those strivings and ideals.

We are urging the Republican Party to withhold any endorsement of a ‘Kokesh for Congress’ candidacy. We look forward to hearing from you.

Nick from Ranger UP on HOA's

I buy a lot of stuff from Ranger Up. Its a good oufit, run by veterans, and they are a class act. I met them last April at the milblog conference, and we went out and got drunk together. They are a lot of fun to hang with, and quite frankly, very intimidating in a friendly sort of way.

Nick has weighed in on the Sussex HOA/Colonel Barfoot flagpole issue with the usual sarcastic wit you would expect from someone who has spent some time downrange and understands sacrifice and the importance of honor and tradition.

I offer it here, in its entirety, for your reading pleasure. Please remove all drinks from the area of your computer. We accept no responsibility for damge to any electronic equipment.

Homeowner’s associations are un-American.

I may not agree with my neighbor, Bob, who thinks that having a plastic deer family in his yard is the height of lawn fashion, but I sure as sh** think it is his right to do it. After all, he paid for his home. He pays his taxes. Who cares what I think?

If you really stop and think about it, you have to be an amazingly presumptuous asshat to think that “you know best” when it comes to someone else’s property, especially when it comes to something as subjective as fashion or trends. Don’t believe me? There was a time when most cars were covered in wood, when parachute pants were the norm, and when most everyone you knew had glasses that changed in the sun. In fact, for all I know, Bob is ahead of his time and there is tangible benefit to having a plastic herd out and about.

Now, I live in a neighborhood with a Homeowner’s Association. I pay them dues. They annoy me. But the thing is that the poor slobs that got sucked into the vortex of the organization are decent people trying to do the best they can. They won’t let Bob build his thirty-two foot tall Pink Flamingo out of balsa wood and clothes hangers, but they look the other way for most everything else. In fact, the reason we, as Americans, haven’t yet rebelled against these communist regimes is that for the most part, reasonable heads prevail.

Not so in Henrico County.

The Sussex Square Homeowner’s Association has launched a smug war of douchebaggery against 90-year old Medal of Honor recipient Colonel Van T. Barfoot.

Colonel Barfoot’s Medal of Honor citation is incredible. I will summarize it:

Machine guns were shooting his guys so he threw himself in front of them and killed everyone without dying. Then tanks charged his men, so he threw himself in front of them drawing their fire and disabling them with a bazooka without dying. When the men in the tanks dismounted and attacked his men, he single-handedly killed them and somehow once again didn’t die. Then he put himself into harm’s way through withering fire and saved two wounded men, Good Lord, still without dying.

In short, after reading his citation, and then learning that Barfoot then went on to fight in TWO MORE WARS, if he wants to build a giant phallus shrine or perhaps a paper Mache goat on his front yard, I am the last guy that’s going to get in the man’s way. Society owes him a debt it will never repay.

The Sussex Square HOA, however, is filing suit against Barfoot for violating the HOA’s strict rules and potentially diminishing their home values. His egregious crime? Placing a flagpole in his yard so he can raise the American flag each morning and lower with honors at night.

Seriously you ask?
Seriously.

Somehow, someway, the spoiled, un-American, self-righteous knob jockeys of the Sussex Square HOA wake up every morning, look in the mirror, and say “I’m doing the right thing”. I want someone to punch every last one of them. In fact, just thinking about the situation, makes me want to drink about five red bulls, watch some commie-inspired Hollywood Iraq PTSD film, put “Let the Bodies Hit the Floor” on my iPod and bust through the HOA door, grab the President of the organization and do my best Col. Nathan R. Jessup impression while every vein in my neck seethes red with rage:

“You weep for your lame rules and you curse that flagpole. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: That your existence while tragic, is also meaningless. And Barfoot’s flagpole, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, is righteous as hell. You don’t want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want him on that lawn. You need him there!”

Right about at this point, with my rage at its apex, I’d be waiting, fantasizing even, for some sort of aggressive rebuttal on their part – perhaps even a violent altercation resulting in me standing over their bloody, barely breathing pathetic bodies, Bruce Lee style…content in the knowledge that they had learned a valuable lesson about life and karma.That would never happen, of course.

They’d simply call their lawyers – Coates & Davenport at (804) 285-7000 and cry about the scary infantryman rambling on in their office. Next thing you know, I’d have to install a flagpole so they could take it away from me. After all, they know best.

Good news, Sussex Square HSA! Douchebagistan just added a sub-division and you’re now running it.
Welcome to Douchebagistan.
Now choke yourselves.

Take the Poll

Gathering of Eagles: NY
Fighting the Insurgency at Home
Should WWII Medal of Honor Hero Be Allowed To Fly His Flag?
December 3, 2009

Col. Van T. Barfoot, Rtd., is a 90 year young veteran of WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Never a shirker from his duty he is fighting one more war today, the Battle of Henrico County.
One note of warning to the Sussex Square Homeowners Association; “I think you picked a fight with the wrong guy!”