Amazing Grace and Taps

For those fallen in Fort Hood and all over  the world.   We must never forget that it is the soldier that gives us our freedom.

Armed Forces Day

Armed Forces Day
“United in Strength”
Saturday, May 16, 2009

President Harry S. Truman led the effort to establish a single holiday for citizens to come together and thank our military members for their patriotic service in support of our country.

On August 31, 1949, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson announced the creation of an Armed Forces Day to replace separate Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force Days. The single-day celebration stemmed from the unification of the Armed Forces under one department — the Department of Defense.

The Spirit

thanks to BMEWS

Homes for our Troops

These guys are doing a great job in helping our wounded soldiers when they get home form the battle field.  They are helping reonfigure soldiers that are wounded homes so that it will be easier for them to get around.   This is a good cause and is a great way to repay those that gave their bodies for our freedom and safety .

Sgt David Emery

Centre County, PA

Marine Sgt David Emery was critically wounded in Iraq on February 7, 2007 when a suicide bomber detonated a bomb at a secured checkpoint. Sgt Emery had been assigned to assist with securing the area while high ranking officers were at the checkpoint location. Upon completion of the mission, the bomb exploded, killing 7 people; U.S. Marines, Iraqi Soldiers and civilians among the casualties. Sgt Emery awoke unable to see or move his body.

After being airlifted to Germany, he was eventually flown to Bethesda Medical Center where he spent 3.5 months in the ICU due to injuries and infections that required the amputation of both of his legs. Arriving at Walter Reed in June 2007, David spent months learning to sit up by himself and that August began learning to use his prosthetic legs. David is determined to walk again and continues receiving physical therapy to achieve that goal.

An outdoorsman at heart, David enjoys 4-wheeling, hunting, fishing and shooting. He also is quite talented in the kitchen and enjoys cooking for himself and others.

David’s future goals include being able to walk again, continuing his education, and enjoying his young daughter, Carlee’s childhood.

Find out more at the Official Registration Day Event!

Thursday May 7, 2009 from 1:00PM – 8:00PM
an information session will begin at 6:30pm

Ramada Conference Center State College, PA
1450 South Atherton Street
State College, PA 16801
814-238-3001

Please consider donating supplies or labor or making a monetary donation!

Cross posted at :

Grizzly Groundswell

Heading Right

Reclaim Conservatism

Snooper Report

We were Soldiers Sgt.MacKenzie

Tributes to the Canadian Troops

I got these from one of my Canadian friends on Face Book

Wounded Warrior Care

If you are on Facebook.   Go and Join the Wounded Warrior Care Cause

Or you can go by the Wounder Warrior Project home page

Pear Harbor

Attack on pearl harbor

Pearl Harbor Attack

Help the Wounded Warriors – a Great Thing to Do!

18:05:37

Maria Fleshren, my beautician, has started working with injured soldiers at Jefferson Barracks Medical Center just South of St. Louis, MO & is collecting things the wounded guys need such as:

 

–  Gently used clothes to wear while being treated in the hospital – casual stuff

 

–  Gently used better clothing for possible job interviews.

 

This includes all kinds of things, pants, shirts, jackets, coats, socks, robes, even shoes, underwear must be new. 

 

–  The guys also need personal supplies, such as toothpaste, disposable razors, shaving cream, tooth brushes and the like – particularly deodorant, for some reason.

 

You can bring the stuff to her shop – Rain Tree Salon-  at 219 S. Illinois Street in Belleville, IL across from the downtown YMCA & Maria will take it over or you can take it yourself – building 50 is where they do the sorting.  She says the person in the lobby will call somebody to come and take the stuff to where the sorting occurs.  Map below.

 

**If you aren’t from the St Louis area, you can follow the links below to find VA medical centers all over the US.

 

 

Maria is also teaching a ceramics class and might be doing haircuts. She spends most of her time with the guys with spinal cord injuries. If you are interested in volunteering personally, you can drop by Bldg 50 or call Volunteer Services and ask what they need done.  But especially, since GIs are not paid much, they really need all kinds of personal things – their pay is usually spent in supporting their families.

 

 

Here’s the link to the volunteer page  http://www.stlouis.va.gov/giving/index.asp  You can also donate cash. 

 

Here’s a link to a list of suggested things to donate and a form to fill out that you can use for tax deductions, if you want.  Maria doesn’t bother with the form so you would have to take things yourself if you want the form for your tax return. They will sometimes even accept mini refrigerators, CD players and other things, but call first for things like that to make sure there is a current need.    http://www.stlouis.va.gov/giving/Suggested_Donations.asp

 

 

And here’s a link to a map of the Jeff Barracks grounds showing Building #50 where Volunteer Services are located and donations accepted. 

 

http://www.stlouis.va.gov/images/JBGroundsMap.pdf

 

If you or your male family members need an incentive to clean out the closet – here’s a way to help out the guys who would really appreciate their clothes in good shape.  All sizes welcome.  You never know what Good Will does with clothing you give them – I know some of it goes straight to the rag buyers.   

Feel free to pass this along to anybody you think might help out. 

 

NB  Maria says they don’t need women’s clothing.  I think there are local women’s groups who take care of that.

 

Little nugget of trivia:  Lt. Robert E. Lee was stationed at the Jefferson Barracks before the Civil War where he functioned as an engineer doing surveys of the Mississippi River and other such things.

 

Here’s an arial showing the grounds of the Jefferson Barracks compound on the West bank of the Mississippi.

There is a big military cemetary there containing graves back to before the Civil War.

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=38.4868861&lon=-90.2662468&z=15&l=0&m=a&v=2

 

And here’s a link to the Fisher House that is going to be for the families of soldiers being treated at Jeff Barracks.

http://www.fisherhouseinstl.org/

 

Sent the Troops Some Holiday Love

Via Honor Duty Email

Would you like to send a postcard, card or letter to our troops? How about sponsoring an entire 1 lb. package of holiday mail for just $5? Now you can through the 7th Annual “Holiday Love” project. Send your cards, letters or notes to eMail Our Military and we’ll send them out in our holiday care packages to the troops. Everyone is welcome to participate!

Get Everyone Involved!

Holiday Love is a great project for schools, churches, boy scouts, girl scouts, women’s groups, clubs, etc. Get the kids involved in coloring pictures and making their own cards too! Teachers, this is a super class project!

Get everyone to bring in cards, postcards or write short notes. Place a drop box in your place of business to make participation easy! Remember, the more the merrier. Try to get everyone to contribute at least 1 card, postcard, note or letter.

Kids can make their own holiday cards too! Get your children’s classrooms or schools involved. This is a great class project and the student drawings and cards are always appreciated by our troops.

Maybe you’d like to make a banner for our heroes. Use a vinyl tablecloth (try red, white or blue) and sharpies (or any permanent marker) and create a thank you or support banner. Have your friends, co-workers, family, church members, etc sign it with their message. You may see it appear on the eMOM Flickr photo page at a later date with our heroes holding it up!

Make a poster for our heroes. Take poster board (try red, white or blue) and colorful markers (sharpies are great for this) and create a thank you or support poster. Have your friends, kids, classroom, co-workers, family, church members, etc sign it with their message. You might see it appear on our site at a later date with our heroes holding it up! It’s easy to ship too, just stick it in a mailing tube to us!

Shipping Information

Please send your holiday mail, checks and/or money orders made out to:

eMail Our Military
Holiday Love Campaign
Suite 344
8004 NW 154 Street
Miami Lakes, FL 33016

Try to get all your cards and letters in the mail by Monday, Dec. 1st so we have plenty of time to pack and ship to our troops.

Become a Postage Patriot™

You can be a Postage Patriot™ by sponsoring a 1 lb package of holiday mail to our troops for just $5! That’s a whole lot of support for just $5 bucks. Click here to chip in.

Official Holiday Love Flyer