Taliban Attack Results In Worst American Airpower Loss Since Vietnam

Taliban Attack Results In Worst American Airpower Loss Since Vietnam

What we have had for four years now is a corrupt media working hand-in-hand with the Obama White House to cover up and downplay every kind of bad news. The media's behavior in his regard has only gotten impossibly worse since Obama's reelection campaign began. But over the last few weeks, the media's shilling has devolved into nothing less than dereliction of duty.

We can't even sing that old refrain, What would the media do if Bush… because Bush never scapegoated an American citizen in order to take the focus and blame off of his own security failures. Bush never told the American people that the successful assassination of an American ambassador by al-Qaeda was a spontaneous protest over a film gone haywire.
But it's probably is safe to say that in final days of Bush's reelection bid, had America suffered its worst airpower loss since Vietnam and an ambassador been assassinated due to unforgivable U.S. security failures, the media would've made damn sure the American people knew exactly what happened.

With results that are tragic in both the global and personal sense, an American president's foreign policy is collapsing all around us, and the only stories the American media will tell are those that will help drag him over the November finish line.

Someone You Should Know

We don't do this often enough on this site. I have no excuse other than current events seem to take precedent.

This gentleman was in town visiting this weekend and a friend sent me a photo from this morning. I'm not sharing the photo, but I am sharing this Marine's dedication to country.

Colonel Wesley Fox USMC Ret

Col. Fox was born in Herndon, Virginia, the oldest of ten. He enlisted in the Marine Corps shortly before his 19th birthday, on August 4, 1950. Corporal Fox was wounded in action during the Korean War on September 8, 1951, but returned for a second tour of duty in Korea as a Platoon Sergeant.

After his Korean War service, Fox returned to the United States and served as both a drill instructor and recruiter. He was promoted to First Sergeant in May 1966, and soon after was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant.

Assigned to Vietnam, First Lieutenant Fox's actions in Quang Tri Province during Operation Dewey Canyon on February 22, 1969 earned him the Medal of Honor. Having been wounded in action, along with almost every other member of his unit, Fox personally neutralized one enemy emplacement and directed his men to destroy others. After his executive officer was mortally wounded, Fox continued to direct the actions of his Marines, ordering air strikes and coordinating the advance until the enemy retreated. Fox was wounded again in the final assault, but refused medical attention while he reorganized his troops and prepared the wounded for evacuation. The medal was presented to then-Captain Fox by President Richard Nixon on March 2, 1971.

Colonel Fox retired from the Marine Corps in September 1993. He continued to wear the uniform for eight more years as a deputy commandant of cadets for the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets. During his time at Virginia Tech, Fox spoke of his experiences to America's next generation of military officers, business executives, and civic leaders.

Fox has written a book about his experiences in the military, Marine Rifleman: Forty-Three Years in the Corps (ISBN 1-57488-425-5), and was featured on the 2003 PBS program American Valor.

Supervisor John Jenkins Prince William County

The Gunny Speaks

The Gunny speaks
Posted: 14 Mar 2010 12:24 PM PDT
H/T Blackfive

Military Times recently interviewed R. Lee Ermey, combat veteran of Vietnam and Drill Instructor extraordinaire, on important subjects such as Don't Ask Don't Tell, rules of engagement, tattoos, and stationary. A couple of excerpts (emphasis mine):

Q. What are your thoughts on the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and recent efforts to end the ban on open service by gays and lesbians?

A. I don’t have a problem with “don’t ask, don’t tell.” It works. Now all of a sudden, this illustrious leader of America decided he wants to put openly gay people in the military. But where are they going to live and take showers, and which bathrooms are they going to use?I liken it to putting me in the woman Marine barracks. I would have a great time, but I don’t think they would like it very much.If I’m taking a shower in an open shower bay, the last thing I want is some guy looking at me having sexual fantasies.
I think everybody in this country should have equal rights, but I don’t think we should infringe on someone else’s to give another person more.

Funny, the founding fathers had the same thing in mind when writing the Constitution.

Q. You served in Vietnam. What do you think about the rules of engagement today in Afghanistan?
A. We lost Vietnam because a bunch of people in Congress who had never been in the military or never experienced war were calling the shots.

In Vietnam, we couldn’t fire our rifles unless we were fired upon. That seems like chicken s--- because you might not get your turn.

Under this administration, after a firefight, it seems like we just about have to put up yellow tape, conduct forensics and collect shell casings like a crime scene.

It’s gotten to the point where a young man is afraid to shoot his rifle in self-defense because he might be brought up on murder charges. I think we should be above that. We should have amnesty. Higher-ups in Washington have amnesty. How about the poor warrior in the field just trying to do his job?

I've Been Remiss In My Cross-Linking

My other favorite conservative Lady has been busy. Read this very carefully.

Susan Katz Keating
In the Aftermath of Ft. Hood, Marking Veterans Day With a Message of Thanks

I Think Before This Is Over, BF Will Wish He Was Still Jumping Out Of Airplanes

Blackfive is off and running.

From Matt's post:

I went to my mailbox a few days after announcing my campaign. A few interesting notes were found. I received well wishes from Gold Star parents, former soldiers, military supporters, and people who are just tired of what's happening with our Republic. I had a donation from a ETT soldier in Afghanistan who wanted me to have his combat pay "to help the fight" since cleaning up Illinois might be tougher than what he has to do(!). I received one donation from an old paratrooper who wrote on the check "Don't let those legs win!" And I ran into a paratrooper from the 101st in Viet Nam on a commuter train platform. He's dying of cancer and wanted to help me before he passes on (btw, he and his wife did a tandem HALO for their 40th anniversary).

Boehner Tries To Bitch-Slap the Dhimmis

“The current political uncertainty should not be used as a pretext for the White House to back away from the counter-insurgency strategy the President announced in March,” Boehner said in a statement. “General McChrystal’s assessment says that without timely reinforcements our efforts to deny al Qaeda and the Taliban a safe haven in Afghanistan may end in failure. It’s time for the Obama Administration to give our commander on the ground the resources he needs to better protect our troops and achieve the goals the President outlined in March.”

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) had both raised questions about the current government of Afghanistan in the wake of that country’s disputed and reportedly fraud-ridden presidential election.

(Of course, both of these fine individuals, with their vast experience in military tactics, are keenly qualified to second-guess a 4 Star General. After All, Kerry served in Viet Nam, and Rahm was a ballet dancer in Chicago)

Emanuel said on CNN on Sunday that it would be “irresponsible” to decide whether to send more troops if “you haven’t done a thorough analysis of whether, in fact, there’s an Afghan partner ready to fill that space that the U.S. troops would create and become a true partner in governing the Afghan country.”

Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made similar comments on the Sunday talk shows.

Boehner and other top Republicans have been urging the Obama administration to act quickly, while Democrats have generally given the president wide latitude to take his time as he conducts his strategy review.

An Islamic Extremist Is Just That...

An Islamic extremist is an Islamic extremist, regardless of the sect or organization he claims to represent. They all need a one-way, non-refundable pass to paradise and 72 goats.

If there was one fact we learned from Viet Nam, it was this:

Politicians don't win wars; soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen win wars when they are allowed to do their job and provided with the materiel to function as Warriors.
Generals know what to do. Thats how they got to be Generals in the first place.

Stop screwing around. KTALGSIT.

If Afghanistan is a "war of necessity" as the Commander In Chief says, how can any level of leadership allow our men and women to be without the resources to win??

Nothing is more despicable than sending men and women into war and then betraying them while in battle...it would be entirely appropriate for the military chain of command to withdraw all troops to safe areas, expect a victory position within 72 hours from the Commander in Chief with credible proof of resources to win, otherwise, the military chain of command resigns.

Not one more drop of American blood spilled while Washington D.C. leadership cowers in surrender.

A Sky Soldier Gets His Final Wings

8th of November 1965

I will be heading south to attend the Memorial Service for this newly assigned Sky Angel. Even though we only saw each other a few times a year, he was a friend and Brother. He made a difference in the lives of people. He was a Warrior and and a Patriot.

This blog salutes the Warrior and the Patriot and the man Ted Sampley. He is in good company now, as he was before he was called.

KINSTON - Theodore Lane "Ted" Sampley, 62, of 2317 Hull Road, passed away on Tuesday, May 12, 2009, at the Veteran's Hospital in Durham. He was preceded in death by his father, Theodore Higgins Sampley; his son, Tim Sampley; his half-brother, Michael Smith; and his first wife, Wendy's mother, Kiku Uehara Sampley Penley. He was born July 17, 1946, and left Wil-mington in 1963 at the age of 17 to join the United States Army.

He went through Basic Training, Advanced Infantry Training and Airborne School. In June 1964, he was assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade on the island of Okinawa.

On May 5, 1965, Sampley was deployed to Vietnam with the 173rd, where he served as a combat infantryman until April 1966. He participated in combat operations in the Iron Triangle, War Zone D, Ben Cat, the Ho Bo Woods and other areas of South Vietnam.

After being chosen to be trained as a Green Beret (United States Army Special Forces), Sampley was assigned to the 1st Special Forces Group on Okinawa. While in Okinawa, Sampley took advantage of his off duty time to study ceramics and the many traditions, designs, techniques, and forms of handcrafted Okinawan pottery.

Local craftsmen contributed a wealth of knowledge for Sampley, allowing him to eventually create his own distinctive works. In Viet-nam, Staff Sergeant Sampley served as company commander of a B-36 Mike Force, civilian Irregular Defense Group Company (CIDG), assigned to operate along the Cambodian border.

During that year of combat service, Sampley was awarded four Bronze Stars, the Army Com-mendation Medal and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

In 1970, Sampley was reassigned to the 3rd and later the 6th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg where he continued his military training. Sampley's training in the Army included Operations and Intelligence, methods of pris-oner of war interrogations, escape and evasion training, guerrilla warfare training, understanding, the Viet Cong infrastructure and High Altitude Low Opening (HALO) parachuting.

He had a working knowledge of two languages, Arabic and Japanese.

From 1971 to 1973, Sampley worked during his off-duty time as a volunteer for Americans Who Care, a POW/MIA group in Fayetteville, N.C. that was lobbying for the safe return of all U.S. POWs held by the communists in North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

After 10 years of service, Sampley left the Army with a Honorable Discharge in 1973.
Sampley returned to Wilmington where he worked for a television station and then a local weekly newspaper. He eventually succumbed to the lure of pottery and built his own kiln and began teaching pottery. He soon established a production pottery busi-ness called The Potters Wheel and began mass producing good quality functional and decora-tive glazed stoneware.

In 1983, after he became aware that Hanoi had not released all living American POWs in 1973, Sampley became re-involved as a POW/MIA activist demanding for the U.S. government to put more pressure on Hanoi to either release the men or explain what happened to them. Sampley has led many demonstrations in Washington, D.C. demanding that both the U.S. and Vietnamese governments account for the U.S. servicemen known to have been alive in captivity but never released.

He was honored for "Exemplary Service to Veterans" by the Washington, D.C. based National Vietnam Veterans Coalition on May 6, 1985, in New York at the Coalition's Leadership Breakfast.

During Kinston's "All America City" celebration, Sampley was awarded a "Key to Kinston" as recognition for his support for Kinston. Sampley was publisher/editor/writer of the U.S. Veteran Dispatch. He was appointed chairman of the non-profit Last Firebase Veterans Archives Project in 1988. That group created one of the largest collections of privately held POW/MIA files.

From 1986 to 2003, the Last Firebase kept a non-stop, manned 24-hour vigil for POWs and MIAs in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Sampley testified in 1991 before the Senate Select Committee of POW/MIA Affairs.

The Lenoir County Cham-ber of Commerce gave Sampley special recognition in December 1991 for his help in the restoration of Kinston's historic downtown. North Carolina's Raleigh News and Observer honored Sampley on September 28, 1992, as their "Tar Heel of the Week and member of a very special group of North Carolinians who have contributed their time, skills and talents toward making North Carolina a truly great state and a wonderful place to live."
After conducting many hours of research, Sampley found compelling evidence proving that the remains buried in the tomb of the Vietnam War Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery belonged to Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie. It was evidence that Sampley said the Pentagon had deliberately over-looked.

Sampley first made the Unknown Soldier's identity public in the July 1994 issue of the U.S. Veteran Dispatch. Five years later (1999), the U.S. Government, under pressure from CBS television, finally used a DNA sample and confirmed that the Vietnam War Unknown Soldier was indeed Lt. Blassie.

A military honor guard returned Lt. Blassie's remains to his family in St. Louis, Missouri where he was buried again with full military honors in a national cemetery.

In February 1996, Sampley was nominated for the Kinston Free Press "Citizen of the Year" award. The Free Press cited Sampley for the "good work" he was doing in the community. VietNow, a national veteran's organization, named Sampley Veteran of the Year. He was also named Citizen of the Year by the Wheat Swamp Ruritan Club of Lenoir County. He was a founding member of the National Alliance of POW/MIA Families and was one of their annual guest speakers.

Sampley was co-founder of Kinston's annual Salute to Veterans celebration. He led two community service programs in Kinston; the building of a 158-foot replica of Kinston's Civil War ironclad CSS Neuse and the National Walk of Honor for Veterans.

Sampley was currently Vice President of Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Rally in Washington, D.C. He was one of the original founders of the 22-year-old veterans organization. Last year, nearly a half million veterans and Rolling Thunder supporters attended the annual rally in the nation's capital.

Rolling Thunder has developed into Washington's largest annual special event.

Funeral services will be held at 3 p.m. on Sunday, May 17, 2009, from Tanglewood Church of God, 2103 Rouse Road with the Reverend Allen Stocks, Pastor Allen Ham and Robert Register officiating.

The family will receive friends immediately following the funeral service at the church.

Interment services will be held at 3 p.m. on Monday, May 18, 2009, from the Dyson Family Cemetery in Ivanhoe, N.C. with full Military Honors.

Survivors include his mother, Dorothy Pate Smith of Wilmington; his daughter, Wendy Sampley Shehane of Columbus, Ga.; his son, Owen Lane Sampley of Kinston and his son's mother, Robin Owen Goodman of Wilmington; his granddaughter, Chaney Huan Shehane of Columbus, Ga.; his brother, Ronnie Sampley and wife Debra, of West Virginia; his special cousins, Janice Lanier of Leland and April Jones and her son, Kevin Williams of Leland; other cousins, nieces, and great nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Lane Sampley Education Fund, c/o Frances Parrott at First Citizens Bank, 607 Plaza Blvd, Kinston, NC 28501. Garner Funeral Home in Kinston is in charge of the arrangements.

A Warrior Got His Orders

I first met Ted Sampley at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2005. He arrived with a contingent of veterans from Rolling Thunder. The experience was unforgettable.

In 2005, code pink and SEIU thugs were demonstrating their contempt and hatred of our military and wounded soldiers by lining the sidewalk in front of the Main Gate on Friday nights with flag-draped coffins and holding signs with slogans such as " Your son was maimed for a lie" "Sign-up here to die for Halliburton".

Ted detested the anti-war/anti-military crowd with a passion only a Viet Nam veteran could understand completely. But he was particularly disgusted with code pink.

We hit it off immediately.

He confronted moonbat protesters on their turf and he scared them. (Hell, he scared me, sometimes.) He made our favorite moonbat, nicknamed Squeegee Boy, cry and run to the code pink hags for protection.

In October of 2006, we re-united at the BootMurtha rally in Johnsown PA. and had a great time.
In 2007, at the first GoE event, Ted was taking moonbat prisoners and performing early morning wake-up calls on the code pink hags at their rally point.

That was the last time I sw him. Ted Sampley called me friend and Brother. I will miss him.

WRAL
POW advocate, Vietnam veteran Ted Sampley dies :: WRAL.com

ENCToday

National and local political activist, decorated veteran, POW advocate, businessman and master potter Ted Sampley passed away Tuesday. He was 62.
Sampley, who was recovering from heart surgery a week earlier, was experiencing difficulties from the surgery at the Veteran's Hospital in Durham on Tuesday. He died while being rushed to surgery.
His sudden passing surprised many in Kinston.
"This is a shock to me," said master shipbuilder Alton Stapleford, the architect of the CSS Neuse II, which Sampley helped bring to fruition. "It's really hard to comprehend right now."
Sampley served several tours of duty in Vietnam in the U.S. Army and won four Bronze Stars, the Army Commendation Medal and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, among other honors. He was honorably discharged during 1973.
His work with prisoner of war and missing in action groups didn't start in earnest until 1983, when he led groups demanding that the United States put pressure on Vietnam to release POWs or explain what happened to them.
Sampley was well-known on the national stage. He formed Web sites and led veteran groups against the candidacies of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry and Republican presidential nominee John McCain.
Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh mentioned Sampley on his national radio broadcast in 2004 for an incident with Kerry when the senator from Massachusetts allegedly gave Sampley a vulgar finger gesture in front of school children at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. Sampley also helped create the Web site "Vietnam Veterans against John McCain."
Sampley was also busy on the local front. During the past decade or so, Sampley helped found the local Salute festival, started construction on the CSS Neuse II and helped begin the National Walk of Honor at Neuseway Park that also honors veterans.

Should Iran Last Another Year

My friend and former Marine door gunner has some interesting observations about Monkey Boy Imeanajihad.

From the Talon

Suppose John McCain becomes president next January.
Suppose Iran is still training special hit squads to enter Iraq to kill our troops? The stated purpose of this tactic is to keep adding to the American casualty count as the Iraqi Army gets better at its job, with Iran hoping the US will leave before the Iraqis are capable of holding their own.
I ask about McCain because he apparently is the only presidential candidate who has plans to smoke Iran if necessary, offering neither remorse nor apologies.
It is an important question because Iran is acknowledged by just about every thinking person in our solar system to be instigating the violence against us in Iraq, with the ultimate goal of forcing us out of the region, obliterating Israel and eventually ruling the entire Middle East.

Yes, I Remember You

Yes, I Remember You

Yes I remember you
I saw you on the screen today
Your words I remember
You in a doper’s haze for all the world to see

You knew more than me in sixty-eight
Still smarter than me now
Screaming stop the war again
Trade the rifle for the plow

We were better men than you back then
Our sons are better still
Once again they go to fight and die
While you talk of the Bill

You damned the draft in sixty-eight
Heck no, you wouldn’t go
We stopped the draft just for you
But the patriot you don’t know

Don’t claim to care about our sons,
Your words are never true
You claim I don’t know you now,
But, yes I remember you

You burned my flag, damned my name
Your story so untrue
Today in the halls of power you stand
But I remember you

Hand over heart and eyes closed
You stand before my flag
But I remember way back then
When you treated her like a rag

So prattle on about honor boy
Tell how war makes you blue
Avert your gaze as I stare you down
Because, yes I remember you

Major Mark "Zippo" Smith, USA, Ret.

Eagles Up!