What would they think of our winter...

I just finished a book about the Battle of the Bulge and got to thinking about our winter and the one those WWII Soldiers endured. When we get too cold or tired of shoveling, we go inside where it’s warm. They couldn’t….there were no warm places for them. When we get tired, we sleep in our warm beds. They slept where they could, usually standing in their foxhole which was frozen, or muddy with water in the bottom. We get too bummed, we can go to Florida. Their only way out was on a stretcher or a short trip to the rear for a cup of coffee and then right back to the front. The story was pretty much the same for Korean War Soldiers who survived those three brutal winters. Thoughts of the Yalu River and Inchon Valley bring involuntary shudders from those who were there.

Take a minute to think how you would like to be out in this weather all the time with not much hope of getting something hot to eat, let alone people shooting at you day and night. It makes me even more thankful for those men and women who did and paid the price for our freedoms and for the freedoms of people they would never know.

So now what? How do you repay people like that? One way is to help sponsor a three-day trip for them to Washington DC to see their memorial. The Shelby County Vets to DC Committee has done this for two years and is currently raising funds to sponsor our next trip on May 21-23.

You can help get these heroes to DC by donating to this cause. Volunteers will be passing out flyers and taking donations in the next couple of months at various places throughout Shelby county and surrounding areas. Also, donations in any amount can be sent to The Shelby County Vets to DC, PO Box 408, Anna, Ohio 45302 and checks should be made out to “VFW Post 4239/Vets to DC.” All donations are tax deductible. You can even sponsor a Veteran’s trip in memory of someone for only $355.00. We’ve had people pass the hat at family picnics or reunions to get enough funds to “send a Vet in Grandpa’s name.” What a great way to honor a Veteran and Grandpa's memory.

The people of Sidney and the Shelby County area have made it possible for over 90 Vets to take this trip to date. We also have another trip scheduled for WWII and Korean War Vets in September. Our pledge to you and them is that we will continue to do this as long as the people support it. But please don’t put it off…some of these heroes won’t have another chance.

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catchers mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back. (Maya Angelou)

Hooah

Not everything in Washington was shut down...

18", 26", 42" and more. These snowfall totals rocked the wholly unprepared Washington area this past week and our nation's governmental process was shut down. The transportation system -- rails, metro, airlines -- were also all driven to the ground. Basically, the whole shooting match came to a grinding halt, for better or worst.

Well, that's not totally true. There was a group of Soldiers that still performed it's honored assignment, still bore "true faith and allegiance" to those who went before, to those Unknown Three who symbolize the sacrifices our Warriors paid for our freedoms.

Thank God for these Soldiers.
Thank God for their devotion to duty.
Thank God for their message.


I dream of a time, maybe not too far from now, when my grandson will ask me, "Grandpa, what was war?"

HOOAH

He was a pretty lucky guy...

Pam fixed me a really great salad with our dinner tonight, with shredded cheese, celery, nice crisp lettuce, and shredded carrots and a sun-dried tomato dressing. And I don't know what sparked it, but somehow I thought back to one of my early days in Iraq in 2004 shortly after the US had taken over the Baghdad area and the Command moved north to establish operations at the Palace.

Those were the days of the wild west, days where the bad guys were still trying to hold out and IEDs were just beginning to be a threat. Anyway, back to the salad.

Two things were getting in short supply -- food and bullets. I remember one night walking into the mess hall and there was an obvious shortage of food, bread, milk, etc. There had been a problem with the generators used to run the electricity there at the Palace, and it was a spotty thing having electricity all the time. We would go along and then lose all power and then, a couple of hours later, it would come up again. That really played havoc with our electronic operations, briefings, communications, etc. I thought it also could have been responsible for lost food. However, that wasn't the case. We were just running out of things.

The bad guys were becoming very successful at ambushing convoys bringing in supplies, so much so that the local contracted truckers wouldn't drive the routes without a US MP company providing security.

One evening, somewhere around the fourth or fifth day without a convoy making it in, I happened to walk down to the mess hall and saw a group of semis that had just arrived. I looked at one of the trucks, and it had a hole, about nine inches in diameter in one side, with the side of the truck all folded in around the hole, and with black dirt (smoke or powder residue) around the hole. As I walked around to the other side, I saw a hole, about 2 1/2 feet in diameter on that side with the skin around the hole pointing out. The MP told me that he had been hit by an RPG and it went straight through the truck and didn't blow up until it was exiting or just as it exited. In any event, it didn't hit anything in the truck and the driver, who was sitting in a lawn chair reading a paper in front of his truck, sure was a lucky guy. There were others in other convoys who were not so lucky. They risked a lot to deliver these goods and make some money. If they lost their truck, they lost their means of making a living forever. The driver told me this truck had been his father's truck -- it looked like it had been around those desert roads for a long, long time. I shook his hand, thanked him and told him he was a brave man. He seemed a bit confused at me, an American Army Colonel telling him this. Maybe no one had ever told him that before. I was with some other officers and there were lots of enlisted soldiers around looking at his truck. I didn't tell them to, but all the officers and a lot of the Soldiers shook his hand and thanked him too.

It's strange how things like that pop into my mind -- the truck, no salads, remembering the heat and sand -- especially when I look out the window and see it's still snowing here and has been for about two days. We're up to about 13-14 inches in places, with 3-4' drifts. I don't know...I still think I'll take this over that any day. You'll have to excuse me now while I go turn on the fireplace.

The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of tiny pushes of each honest worker. (Helen Keller)

Hooah