From time to time we'll post good stories about Veterans on this page. Click on the links to view or download to your device.
Sep 23: The Charles Schulz Philosophy
The following is the philosophy
Aug 21: The Story of the Lost Canteen:This is a link to a Chicago Tribune article so I'm not sure how long it will be valid.
Aug 21: The Sack Lunch on the airplane:
Prayers are always needed for those people who put their lives on the line to keep us safe!
I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned seat. It was going to be a long flight. 'I'm glad I have a good book to read. Perhaps I will get a short nap,' I thought.
Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding me. I decided to start a conversation.
'Where are you headed?' I asked the soldier seated nearest to me.
'Petawawa. We'll be there for two weeks for special training, and then we're being deployed to Afghanistan.
After flying for about an hour, an announcement was made that sack lunches were available for five dollars. It would be several hours before we reached the east, and I quickly decided a lunch would help pass the time...
As I reached for my wallet, I overheard a soldier ask his buddy if he planned to buy lunch. 'No, that seems like a lot of money for just a sack lunch. Probably wouldn't be worth five bucks. I'll wait till we get to the base.' His friend agreed.
I looked around at the other soldiers. None were buying lunch. I walked to the back of the plane and handed the flight attendant a fifty-dollar bill. 'Take a lunch to all those soldiers.' She grabbed my arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with tears, she thanked me. 'My son was a soldier in Iraq; it's almost like you are doing it for him.'
Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and asked, 'Which do you like best - beef or chicken?'
'Chicken,' I replied, wondering why she asked. She turned and went to the front of plane, returning a minute later with a dinner plate from first class. 'This is your thanks.'
After we finished eating, I went again to the back of the plane, heading for the rest room.
A man stopped me. 'I saw what you did. I want to be part of it. Here, take this.' He handed me twenty-five dollars.
Soon after I returned to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he walked, I hoped he was not looking for me, but noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my side of the plane. When he got to my row he stopped, smiled, held out his hand and said, 'I want to shake your hand.' Quickly unfastening my seat-belt I stood and took the Captain's hand. With a booming voice he said, 'I was a soldier and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never forgot.' I was embarrassed when applause was heard from all of the passengers.
Later I walked to the front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A man who was seated about six rows in front of me reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.
When we landed I gathered my belongings and started to deplane. Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man who stopped me, put something in my shirt pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a word. Another twenty-five dollars!
Upon entering the terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their trip to the base.
I walked over to them and handed them seventy-five dollars. 'It will take you some time to reach the base. It will be about time for a sandwich. God Bless You.'
Ten young men left that flight feeling the love and respect of their fellow travelers.
As I walked briskly to my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe return. These soldiers were giving their all for our country. I could only give them a couple of meals. It seemed so little...
A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to his country “for an amount of up to and including my life.”
That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it.' May God give you the strength and courage to pass this along to everyone on your email buddy list....
I JUST DID
Let us pray... Prayer chain for our Military... Don't break it!
Please send this on after a short prayer. Prayer for our soldiers Don't break it! Prayer:
"Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands. Protect them as they protect us Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need. Amen.”
Prayer Request: When you receive this, please stop for a moment and say a prayer for our troops around the world.
There is nothing attached. Just send this to people in your address book Do not let it stop with you. Of all the gifts you could give a Marine, Soldier, Sailor, Airman, & others deployed in harm's way, prayer is the very best one.
GOD BLESS YOU FOR PASSING IT ON!
May 30: The Untold Heroism Behind a Marine's Secret Navy Cross from Benghazi
Apr 22: Check out Atomic bombing of Nagasaki - BBC - YouTube
Apr 11: Post 94 Honor Guard in May 8, 2019 Issue of Your Valley News
Mar 31: Post 94 Member Charlie Fridinger's Veteran Story.
For his story, click here. For the presentation, click here.
Mar 25: Final Salute Article Click here.
Mar 20: A Classic Vietnam Sea Story:
Navy KA-3B vs. Russian Trawler AGI
told by “Zapper” Lanny Cox.
The Russian "Trawlers" (NATO designation: AGI for Auxiliary General Intelligence) with what looked like one thousand "fishing" antennas plied the Gulf of Tonkin on a daily asis...needless to say, it was a cat-and-mouse game to see what havoc they could expend towards our two
carriers operating there 24 hours a day.
Since the U.S. government had proclaimed the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin three miles off the coast of North Vietnam and Hinan Island, People's Republic of China, to be international waters, American ships in the Gulf were bound to obey the international rules of the road for ocean navigation. This meant that if the Russian ship maneuvered herself into the path of an aircraft carrier where she had the right of way, the carrier had to give way even if she was engaged in launching or recovering aircraft.
The navigation officer was constantly trying to maneuver the ship so that
the trawler wouldn't be able to get in position to abuse the rules of the
road and gain the right of way. Sometimes he was successful in sucking the
trawler out of position, but the room available for the ship to maneuver
was limited by our on-station requirements, and sometimes the trawler was
successful interrupting our flight operations.
The pilots of the air wing were strictly forbidden to take any action
against the Russian ship, but one day CDR John Wunche, the commanding
officer of the heavy tanker KA-3B detachment, had finally had enough of the
Russians' antics. John Wunche was a big man with bright red hair and a
flaming red handlebar mustache. He was a frustrated fighter pilot whom fate
and the Bureau of Naval Personnel had put into the cockpit of a former
heavy bomber now employed as a carrier-based tanker. CDR Wunche flew the
tanker like a fighter and frequently delighted the tactical pilots by
rolling the "Whale," as we all called the KA-3B tanker, on completion of a
tanker mission. Consequently, John's nickname was "the Red Baron."
On 21 July 1967 he proved just how appropriate that name was. The "Bonnie
Dick" had nearly completed a recovery. The Russian trawler had been
steaming at full speed to try to cut across our bow, and the bridge watch
had been keeping a wary eye on the intruder. For a while it looked as if
the Russian would be too late and we would finish the recovery before
having to give way to the trawler. But a couple of untimely bolters
extended the recovery and the Bon Homme Richard had to back down and change
course to comply with the rules. The LSO hit the wave-off lights when the
"Whale" was just a few yards from the ramp. John crammed on full power and
sucked up the speed brakes for the go-around. The "Bonnie Dick" began a
sharp right turn to pass behind the Russian, causing the ship to list
steeply, and there, dead ahead of John, was the Russian trawler.
He couldn't resist. He leveled the "Whale" about a hundred feet off the
water and roared across the mast of the Trawler with all fuel dumps open
like a crop duster spraying a field of boll weevils. The Russian
disappeared in a heavy white cloud of jet fuel spray, then reemerged with
JP-4 jet fuel glistening from her superstructure and running lip-full in
the scuppers. The Russian trawler immediately lost power as the ship's crew
frantically tried to shut down anything that might generate a spark and
ignite the fuel. She was rolling dead in the water in the Bon Homme
Richard's wake -- her crew breaking out fire hoses to wash down the fuel --
as the Bon Homme Richard steamed out of sight completing the recovery of
the Whale.
The Red Baron was an instant hero to the entire ship's company.
# # #
Mar 18: BUFFALO SOLDIERS AZ TERRITORY MONUMENT
Website: https://www.buffalosoldiersazterritorymonument.com.
*Please share with family, friends and social media.
Mar 7: From George Pfeiffer.
These pictures are of my Uncle and the crew of the B29 Bomber the Ponderous Peg which was lost in a mid air collision with another B29 on 25 February 1945. They were all listed as missing in action because the search after the collision found no trace of life. This was their fourth mission to bomb Tokyo. As you can tell the photo of the crew with the plane has some years on it. My uncle is the shortest guy in the line up.
Feb 13: Forwarded by Bob Grether - A little history most people will never know.
There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including those added in 2010.
The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it is 61 years since the first casualty.
The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth, Mass Listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps LCpl Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965.
There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.
39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.
8,283 were just 19 years old.
The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years old.
12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.
5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.
One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old.
997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam.
1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam.
31 sets of brothers are on the Wall. Thirty-one sets of parents lost two of their sons.
54 soldiers attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia.
8 Women are on the Wall, nursing the wounded.
244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall
Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons.
West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall.
The Marines of Morenci - They led some of the scrappiest high school football and basketball teams that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop 5,058) had ever known and cheered. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. In quieter moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked deer in the Apache National Forest. And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morenci's mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps. Their service began on Independence Day, 1966. Only 3 returned home.
The Buddies of Midvale - LeRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez, Tom Gonzales were all boyhood friends and lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah on Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues. They lived only a few yards apart They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. And they all went to Vietnam. In a span of 16 dark days in late 1967, all three would be killed. LeRoy was killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Jimmy died less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Tom was shot dead assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.
The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245 deaths.
The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 - 2,415 casualties were incurred.
For most Americans who read this they will only see the numbers that the Vietnam War created. To those of us who survived the war, and to the families of those who did not, we see the faces, we feel the pain that these numbers created. We are, until we too pass away, haunted with these numbers, because they were our friends, fathers, Husbands, wives, sons and daughters There are no noble wars, just noble warriors.
Please pass this on to those who served during this time, and those who DO Care.
Feb 11: Mathematics (submitted by Gene Bogatko
Brilliant!! Thought you'd enjoy this!
What Makes 100% ?
What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?
Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%.
How about achieving 103%?
What makes up 100% in life?
Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:
If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.
Then:
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K; 8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%
And
K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E; 11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%
But ,
A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E ; 1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%
And,
B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T ; 2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%
AND , look how far ass kissing will take you.
A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G; 1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%
So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty, than while Hard work
and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there. It's the Bullshit and Ass Kissing that will put you over the top.
Now you know why Politicians are where they are!
I’ve never seen a better explanation than this formula ………….. how true it is.
Feb 7: (Provided by Tom Metzger): Great photos and narrative regarding the WWII invasion at Normandy. This is a lengthy set of 'impacting' photos of what all was involved in the allies landing at Normandy... As you look at these photos think about what it meant at that time to stop evil and prevail.... And, where are we now in 2019!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/skhcs452bb5x5yq/20190207%20NormandyLanding1.pps?dl=0
Feb 4: Detailed explanation of how Super Bowl Stadium works: Irrespective of how you feel about the NFL or the Super Bowl, I think you’ll find this video interesting; it’s how the $2,000,000,000.00 (that’s 2 billion) Atlanta Super Bowl stadium was built. (5 mins).
Jan 28: Gun Trucks in Vietnam: What follows is quite long. I watched it all unfold but don't expect everyone to do so, however.....after you get an understanding of what its all about, some will skip ahead, and that’s OK but stop every little bit to hear the interviews. The last 10 minutes is a must. God Bless em.
https://www.sho.com/pr/smithsonian/sp/title/gun-trucks-of-vietnam?c=7l1c2p4u2a6u3l2i7v4o7r18290d5i2u
Jan 28: Lt Murphy
Jan 13, 2019: Golf Loving Engineers
Jan 6, 2019: Common Sense For Seniors