BlackFive

Mary Katharine, who already has the cute as a bugs ear thing going for her, adds some artificial sweets to do her story-telling. It's quite comical.

Plus this came from Andy Stewart although I don't know if he made it or someone else did. Bottom line, now that there is funny, I don't care who you are.

Matty can bump the serious stuff back to the top 'cuz I can't, but I figgered we could use a little comic relief as well.

Geoff sent a note about a troubling development (that we hope is just a bureaucratic mistake).  First, here is the citation for the Victoria Cross of Tullbahadur Pun of the Nepalese Ghurkas:

No. 10119 Rifleman Tullbahadur Pun, 6th Gurkha Rifles, Indian Army.

In Burma on June 23rd, 1944, a Battalion of the 6th Gurkha Rifles was ordered to attack the Railway Bridge at Mogaung. Immediately the attack developed the enemy opened concentrated and sustained cross fire at close range from a position known as the Red House and from a strong bunker position two hundred yards to the left of it.

So intense was this cross fire that both the leading platoons of 'B' Company, one of which was Rifleman Tulbahadur Pun's, were pinned to the ground and the whole of his Section was wiped out with the exception of himself, the Section commander and one other man. The Section commander immediately led the remaining two men in a charge on the Red House but was at once badly wounded. Rifleman Tulbahadur Pun and his remaining companion continued the charge, but the latter too was immediately wounded.

Rifleman Tulbahadur Pun then seized the Bren Gun, and firing from the hip as he went, continued the charge on this heavily bunkered position alone, in the face of the most shattering concentration of automatic fire, directed straight at him. With the dawn coming up behind him, he presented a perfect target to the Japanese. He had to move for thirty yards over open ground, ankle deep in mud, through shell holes and over fallen trees.

Despite these overwhelming odds, he reached the Red House and closed with the Japanese occupations. He killed three and put five more to flight and captured two light machine guns and much ammunition. He then gave accurate supporting fire from the bunker to the remainder of his platoon which enabled them to reach their objective.

His outstanding courage and superb gallantry in the face of odds which meant almost certain death were most inspiring to all ranks and beyond praise.

So, when the 84 year old Tulbahadur Pun tries to enter Britain, this happens (Daily Mail link):

His courage in the face of almost certain death earned him the Victoria Cross.

Tul Bahadur Pun single-handedly stormed Japanese machine-gun positions during the Second World War.

The Gurkha’s extraordinary act of valour won him royal admirers and he was invited to the Queen’s Coronation and had tea with the Queen Mother.

Yet, despite his illustrious record, his application to live in Britain has been refused.

The old soldier was told: "You have failed to demonstrate that you have strong ties with the UK."

Lawyers acting for Mr Pun, 84, along with 2,000 former Gurkhas, will appeal before the immigration courts in London in August.

Mr Pun, who has a number of serious health problems, must hope he can survive the intervening months in his home in Nepal.

He has a heart condition, poor eyesight, asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure and he requires daily medication – which is not always available where he lives...

More at the Daily Mail.  The part about "2,000 former Gurkhas, will appeal before the immigration courts in London in August" may have something to do with it.

"I had three of the four guys on the ground that died that day.  I was so heartbroken after I passed out all the flags at the memorial service. I was just thinking about the bagpiper, who is also a retired SEAL captain, standing there literally crying the song out of the bagpipes. We were all so sad.  When I came home my wife said I should write down some words. Tim called me and asked how I was  doing. I told him I wrote this poem and he said well let me have it. We went back and forth on the phone and decided to make it a tribute to everyone from World War II to the present."  Navy SEAL Commander Mark Waddell

Reader Tom G. sends the link to this song by the country group Rushlow Harris about our soldiers past, present and future...

Rushlow Harris is a country music duo.  The song, Bagpipes Cryin, is based on a poem written by Commander Mark Waddell, as a tribute to the SEALS he lost in the Middle East while in command of the SEAL teams in the area.  Tim Rushlow then set the poem to music.

The links are to an amateur video version, and the official Rushlow Harris video. Also, the home page for Rushlow Harris has links to a number of sites that offer services to our military, and an interview with Commander Waddell.

More here at the original post about the song.

Perhaps one of the most amazing things about Blackfive's Fallen, But Never Forgotten series is that soldiers and family members leave messages about those who've given all.

From SSG Buehler about SPC Ross McGinnis (who saved his life):

SPC McGinnis was a great soldier and I am alive due to his sacrifice. I was the driver of the vehicle the day we lost Ross to a cowardly enemy. I thank God everyday for blessing me with the opportunity to serve with such a brave man. For those of you that think the award process is moving to slow just know that it is seen and evaluated by many people in our chain of command. I as well would like to see it ASAP. The award requires alot of diagrams, witness statements from all who were there, and those that approve and later send to congress need to see what happened in detail otherwise they would be giving awards based on word of mouth.

I agree with SSG Troy Smith, it is carefully looked over so that no fraudelant cases arise. I have no doubt in my mind that he will receive the nation's highest honor for his heroism. God bless his family and parents for raising such a wonderful person, soldier, friend, and brother!
Rest in Peace Ross.  Gone, but never forgotten!
I love you little brother.  Thank you for my continued life here on earth and I look forward to seeing you in heaven.

From Ken Hayes about Marine Major Doug Zembiec:

It was my honor and privilege to serve with you Sir you were the best leader any one could have ever had, with tears in my eyes I remember seeing tears in yours as we all mourned the losses of E co 2/1. in fallujah of 04 I will never forget those days Sir. with tears in my eyes now I mourn the loss of you, my Skipper, a man among men. our heart have suffered a great loss, I wished every one knew you. I dont know if I can make it to your procession but my heart cries out and goes to you your wife, daughter and family. As your Marine and brother I will always remember what you told us when we suffered a loss "we must keep fighting, we must keep going on, cause thats what they would do for us they would want us to keep fighting" I will keep fighting Sir. You will always be in my heart Skipper I love you brother. I am so sorry for your loss and words cannot express my pain Mrs Zembiec He was a Father to me in the most darkest times of my life he was the figure of hope for Echo company, My utmost resepct and Love goes to your Husband, you and your daughter, I will always be praying for you. It just breaks my heart so much.

From a post honoring SFC Callahan:

SFC Callahan, all i can say is that you will be missed. you lead me through the first invation into iraq and was my unwavering squad leader through good times and bad. your leadership helped make me the NCO that i am today. you tought me how to be a paratrooper and a professional. theres not a day that i don't think back to the Battle for Al Samawa and i can still hear you yelling at us in your squad "GET UP THERE" with you thick Boston accent.

you will be missed by all.
"AIRBORNE"
"ALL THE WAY"
"LETS GO"
"GATORS"
"WAR PIGS!!!"

SINCERELY
YOUR A TEAM SAW GUNNER.

There's more in the series than I can post.

And, at Pundit Review Radio, our SYSK list includes comments from love ones.  I'll close with this one from Jason Cunningham's sister.  Jason made a decision on the side of a mountain that cost him his life, but saved many others, just like a PJ would:

My name is Lori Marquis I am the sister of Jason Cunningham who was recently featured on your show as ”Someone you should know” I have to say I am incredibly proud of Matt he really did his research on my brother and he got everything right and for that I truly Thank him. One of the classroom’s at Lackland AFB was recently named after Jason and that in itself meant so much to his family since the loss of him there have been many memorial’s and sites named after him and each time it is a truly amazing honor but I can not tell how much it meant to and sit and listen to your broadcast and share with the world what a great hero he was. I also think it is so awesome what you do with this segment everyday I watch the news and see a small bleep about a fallen solider my heart sinks for there family for I know the long road they face. So this broadcast is an amazing way to tell people that there son,husband,father or brother will not be forgotten Thank You so much for the comfort you bring to other’s this experinece with be with me forever…
Thank You
Lori (Cunningham) Marquis

Remember Bobby Warns... amazing video tribute is here - http://bobbywarns.com/viewvideo.html.

Remember Windy 25 - this video was sent to me from 12th AVN BDE and is about all of the Fallen Soldiers of the 12th which includes Windy 25.  It was made by Chris Koth and I put it on YouTube for you to see:

Remember my friends from Eagle Flight.

Badger's Forward remembers soldiers lost this year.

The Thunder Run has a post about the Lost Holiday.

Add your links in the Comments.

Most of us here have discussed the increasing role the MSM plays in spreading our enemies message for them, it is one of my favorite topics. They would claim that is not their goal and I would believe most of them, but it is surely the outcome. Lorie Byrd has an excellent piece on this in the Examiner.

An aspect of the war on terrorism that gets too little attention, yet is as important as any other, is the media war. Whether they realize it, members of the mainstream media are participants in the war on terrorism, and nowhere is that more evident than in Iraq.

You go read it now

The excellent, outstanding, and wonderful Chris Muir nails it today. That's got to leave a mark, and maybe they will get a real military reporter someday -- Hey, I can dream, can't I?

LW

I have hesitated to chronicle this story, because almost no one will believe it is true. There are way too many "you have got to be sh**ting me" moments in this for it to all be true, but I will not preface this with "Now this is no sh**" as a matter of fact this is a love story not a war story, so to the extent that I am credible this was my adventure. This unfolds over 9 weeks in 1990 and I will serialize it here by writing it as it happened adding in the bits I have already chronicled such as Spanky & the Shark. Just a few highlights you can expect; a hot Swedish chick in bike shorts, her snooty rich chick girlfriend from Topanga Canyon, girlfriend Hmmm, my first ex-wife's best friend, Tesla, Warrant, XYZ, Riki Rachtman and the Cathouse, Cher and Ritchie Sambora, a water jump that ends up on land, lobster man and peacock sperm. Do I have your attention yet? I will check with Matty and y'all to see if I should move this to unclejimbo.com/blog, but here is the opening round.

People join Special Forces for many reasons, for me the usual desire to see what I had was really the main push, but I'll be honest hot chicks was a close second. So in this tale I am on my way to Key West, FL for a brand new school called the Waterborne Infiltration Course (WIC). It was taught by the same kind-hearted souls who were known as the Scuba Nazis from their role teaching the Combat Diver course for the Spec Ops community minus the SEALS who have this quaint little scuba diving and beach volleyball course out in Coronado.

Now both the SEALS and Special Forces need scuba diver guys to do all the sneak into the harbor stuff that makes such great movies, but there is a requirement that you are able to ignore drowning in order to play that game. So for me and the rest of the folks who learned the hard way that "A breath of water is like no breath at all" they came up with WIC. Basically it was all the other ways to cruise and sneak about in a maritime way, but on the top of the water not under it.

Think of it as Old School meets Animal House...on mescaline...with flamethrowers...

Chuck is trying to raise some cash for his trip to Vegas for the Blog World Expo on November 7, 8 and 9.  We (various milbloggers including the Chuck-meister) are trying to engage several sponsors to throw a milblogger party bash suare kegger meeting.  Froggy suggested the Ghost Bar at the Rio which happens to be a favorite of mine, as well.  Hear that, O' wondrous corporate guys?

All kidding around aside (because Mrs. Blackfive will read this post), Blog World Expo is shaping up to be quite an interesting event - aside from the discussions, classes, exhibits, forums and techno-babble etc., imagine me, Chuck and Uncle Jimbo sharing the same space with DemUndergrounders and Kos-sacks.  (Exclusive Photo of us after the Jump!  Must credit Blackfive.)

Anyway, go see if you can help sponsor Chuck to get him to Vegas.

BTW, the speedo he mentions is for me Jimbo.

"We continue to kick butt on missions and take care of each other, even though we know the American public and government DOES NOT stand behind us." - CW3 Jim Funk, Ramadi, Iraq

Several of you have sent copies of this article from the Des Moines Register.  The author, John Carlson, prints an email from CW3 Funk.  Replicating the tone of the emails I get from soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Chief is pretty @#$%ing fed up with the media:

...Hello media, do you know you indirectly kill American soldiers every day? You inspire and report the enemy's objective every day. You are the enemy's greatest weapon. The enemy cannot beat us on the battlefield so all he does is try to wreak enough havoc and have you report it every day. With you and the enemy using each other, you continually break the will of the American public and American government.

"We go out daily and bust and kill the enemy, uncover and destroy huge weapons caches and continue to establish infrastructure. So daily we put a whoopin on the enemy, but all the enemy has to do is turn on the TV and get re-inspired. He gets to see his daily roadside bomb, truck bomb, suicide bomber or mortar attack. He doesn't see any accomplishments of the U.S. military (FOX, you're not exempt, you suck also)...

Go here to read John Carlson's piece at the Des Moines Register.

Update: Lorie Byrd at the Examiner has a column published about the media and Al Qaeda.  I agree with Bill Roggio that media bashing won't help, but maybe teaching them why they are being manipulated might help:

...Blogger Bill Roggio, who has embedded as a journalist in Iraq and Afghanistan, says the enemy’s documents reveal that much of their strategy revolves around manipulation of the media. An enemy unable to beat us on the battlefield is employing a strategy of attacks planned specifically for maximum media coverage and effect.

Roggio recently told the Christian Science Monitor that most mainstream media reporters “display a lack of knowledge of counterinsurgency and the role the media plays in an insurgency’s information campaign.”...

Lorie quotes other knowledgeable sources, among them, Michael Yon.