BlackFive

Oh it has been too long, but now I have Photoshop again. Mwah ha ha.

So the lummox screws up and actually mouths a few words of truth. It took less than a day for the House Harridan to beat him back into line. We have not and cannot win, SAY IT! SAY IT!.

Sitting in his home, Nov. 17, Medal of Honor recipient Silvestre Herrera sat down to discuss his actions during his time with the Texas National Guard's 36th Division in World War II. Herrera was the first Arizonian to receive the highest military medal in the United States. Herrera passed away at his home in Phoenix, Nov. 26. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Benjamin Cossel, Operation Jump Start - Arizona Public Affairs). Date Taken: November 17th, 200. Location: Arizona, US. Photographer: Sgt. Benjamin Cossel, Arizona National Guard Public Affairs.

Thought I would share this excellent article by Sergeant Benjamin Cossel:

Profile in Heroism; Medal of Honor Recipient, Silvestre Herrera

By Sgt. Benjamin Cossel
Operation Jump Start - Arizona Public Affairs

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Combat - the ultimate proving ground where service members put to test their years of training. Fear - the natural reaction to unnatural situations where the mind tells the body to go into survival mode and flee. Courage - the mind ignoring its natural reactions and pushing forward in the face of certain disaster.

On the morning of March 15, 1945, near the village of Mertzwiller, France, a young private first class with the Texas National Guard's 36th Division was faced with all three; combat, fear, and overwhelming courage when his platoon came under a heavy machine-gun attack. Mexican-born Silvestre Herrera faced down his fear and the enemy when he charged the source of the rifle fire, suppressing the German assault, and allowing his platoon to continue.

Later that same day, Herrera would walk through a minefield drawing deadly rounds away from their intended mark. He lost both his legs in the engagement, all the while keeping his M-1 Garand Rifle trained on the source stronghold thereby allowing his brothers-in-arms to flank and overrun the enemy position.

For his actions, Herrera was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. But that is just the beginning of the story...

Representatives John Murtha, Pennsylvania; David Hobson, Ohio; Norm Dicks, Washington; and Sanford Bishop, Georgia, met with Lt. Gen. R. Steven Whitcomb, Third Army/United States Army Central commanding general, and dined with service members from their respective states on Nov. 22.

[Reminder: "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood."]

If any of you in Iraq met with Congressman Murtha, send me an email about it.

Staff Sgt. Andrew Pearce, from Lewistown, Pa., a squad leader in Company B, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment gives a situation report during a nighttime air assault mission, Nov. 25, in Sayafiyah, a small village southeast of Baghdad. Co. B was able to detain 13 suspects for questioning during the mission. One of the suspects was believed to be a key insurgent on the 3rd Brigade Combat Team’s most wanted list.  Date Taken: November 27th, 2007.  Location: FORWARD OPERATING BASE HAMMER, IQ, Photographer: Spc. Ben Hutto, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division Public Affairs.

This comes from Buzz Patterson of Move America Forward:

Beginning November 26, Move America Forward, the nation’s largest pro-troop organization, will launch its most extensive cross-country effort to date. In the span of less of than three weeks, MAF will be holding rallies in 40 cities across the nation, sending more than 100,000 holiday cards to troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and holding a holiday concert in our nation’s capitol to honor wounded warriors and support U.S. troops fighting overseas.

Debbie Lee, mother of the first Navy Seal killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom, is traveling with the MAF caravan and knows all too well the sacrifices made by our men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. She says, “As a way of honoring my son’s service, I am pledging to let soldiers serving overseas know that we support them and recognize their sacrifices. I hope Americans will put aside their political differences and stand united in their support.”

 

MAF invites members of the public to bring holiday cards for the troops to the rallies (city dates and times can be found on the website – www.MoveAmericaForward.org) which will be sent from local post offices along the tour route to help MAF reach its goal of sending more than 100,000 holiday cards to Iraq and Afghanistan. Over 10,000 holiday cards have already flooded into MAF’s headquarters! The rallies will also have card-making stations, live music, speeches, and much more.

<...>

Nearing the conclusion of the tour, MAF will hold “A Song for Their Service” pro-troop holiday concert at 8:00 pm on December 14th at the Lincoln Theatre in DC. Performers include chart-topping country music star Mark Wills, American Idol Finalist Jessica Sierra, Christian singer Russ Lee, singer/songwriter Melanie Dekker, singer/songwriter Christy Ann, inspirational vocalist Lloyd Marcus and singer Diana Nagy. Special guests will include America's wounded warriors from Walter Reed Medical Center and Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Once the tour concludes in New York City on December 16th, a delegation from MAF will travel to Iraq to personally deliver the remaining cards to our troops.  This will mark the 3rd trip to Iraq that MAF has made.

I was able to spend some time with Debbie Lee when the last MAF tour came through Chicago on 9/11.  She is an amazing lady.  If you get the chance, attend one of the pro-troop rallies.

[Here is the link to Blackfive posts about US Navy SEAL, Marc Lee.]

In the third installment of his series, "Men of Valor", we find the Brits surrounded, in combat, with a brand new lieutenant in command of a platoon in country for just four days...24 against 240.

Don't miss this one.

The Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb, an interesting dude, weighs in as well. When the Chinese told the USS Kitty Hawk it could not dock on Thanksgiving in Hong Kong, thereby screwing a bunch of sailor's families who spent their own money to meet the ship there, it had to be a mistake, right?

Guess not

                        BEIJING - China's last-minute cancellation of a U.S. Navy visit to Hong Kong was not the result of a misunderstanding, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday, adding that ties had been "disturbed and harmed" by Congress' honoring of the Dalai Lama and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

Spokesman Liu Jianchao denounced an earlier report from Washington that said Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told President Bush the incident was a misunderstanding.

We need to get our ducks in a line with these guys, because they are starting to cause trouble again. The sheer size of their economy demands it and Wal-Mart can stock it's stores with US products.

I have hated every debate I can ever remember watching, except this one.

This is a brawl, Anderson Cooper is no longer in charge, if he ever was. Guiliani and Romney are throwing bombs, Thompson calls them both wankers, and they let the YouTube questioners smack back. Woo Hoo.

I love seeing all the polished, practiced pols thrown completely off guard. More, more more.

Ron Paul admits he loves the nuttahs.

Johnny McCain takes an unscheduled shot at Ron Paul's Iraq stance, let 'em win.

I can only take this as a compliment. Some Brit journo goes to a seminar to teach him about blogs and ends up giving us an excellent tagline. I just hope he was reading my drivel when he pegged us.

Alan Moore flashed up some examples of blogs and, stretching my multitasking to the limit, I read some of the texts as he spoke. Bob Lutz, a big cheese at General Motors started by apologising for not writing much lately, while the author of a blog about motorcycle locks agonised about what their first posting should be about.

Black Five looked like trainspotting for extreme warmongers and a Korean website OhMyNews appeared to have no news at all, only comment and opinion. I'm all for comment and opinion, but if OhMyNews has any news on it, it certainly isn't mine.

I think he may have been trying to geek slap us by making a reference to the actual hobby of spotting trains and writing down their numbers which Brit geeks actually do. I will take it as homage to the deranged movie of the same title, and gladly accept it. Please add any taglines you feel we ought to consider and I will promote any that create a ha. Oh and you can decide who of us is who, although I know who I am.

Maybe if you are a filthy Wahhabi Al-Qaeda sympathizer.  I guess when the news isn't bad, you just make the story about yourself and how bad you have it.  This from our friends from Al-Reuters;

WASHINGTON, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Nearly 90 percent of U.S. journalists in Iraq say much of Baghdad is still too dangerous to visit, despite a recent drop in violence attributed to the build-up of U.S. forces, a poll released on Wednesday said.  The survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Center showed that many U.S. journalists believe coverage has painted too rosy a picture of the conflict.

I am going to guess that by "poll" they mean, a show of hands of journalists sitting in the Sheraton Hotel bar in the Green Zone.

The Pew people though, managed to pimp slap these cowards for well, the cowards they are.

A separate Pew poll released on Tuesday showed that 48 percent of Americans believe the U.S. military effort in Iraq is going very or fairly well, up from 34 percent in June, amid signs of declining Iraqi civilian casualties and progress against Islamist militants such as al Qaeda in Iraq.

So, average Americans believe things are going better, but reporters believe they are all about to be rounded up and beheaded.  Hmmm.  No bias there....

Al-Reuters was at least truthful about who faces the actual danger in reporting the stories they submit from Iraq.

Much of the danger for journalists is faced by local Iraqis, who often do most of the reporting outside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, the data showed.

As part of a sampling I took, let's just see what has been going on lately, as reported by someone who has not been swilling booze and chasing tail while sending out stringers to get you a story about anything that will put the US in a bad light.

• "Baghdad Day" Celebration
• More AQI Asshats caught
• Iraqi SF and US SOF kicking ass
• Iraqi Intel efforts equaling ours

I wonder what Mike Yon, The B5 embeds, and the PAO's of MNF-I think about how dangerous it is?