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It is Thanksgiving. I am searching for things to be thankful for. This year it is hard. So many negative things happening around us.
I will whine a little more here and then show some reasons we should be thankful.
The rioting, the pandemic, and the messed up election, would cause anyone to complain. What can we find to be thankful for?? I have found it by searching and doing research:
- We are thankful we live in a free nation. That is because of our brothers and sisters who are deployed today as we speak. They are in Iraq, Afghanistan, and all over the world. There are away from their loved ones. They can’t hug their families. However, they are proud of what they are doing and I say God bless them.
- What follows is an actual story about Marines saving a woman’s life. They jumped into action and moved quickly.
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Whenever an emergency arises, people in danger have no better friends than motivated Marines.
Such was the case when a woman on a scooter was struck by a car recently near Marine Barracks Washington, D.C.
With the woman pinned under the car, Marines with Guard Company quickly had to come up with a plan to free her.
Cpl. Denny Bohne and Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Belko quickly realized that they needed to find a way to raise the car so that the woman could be pulled to safety.
Bohne said he and another Marine opened the car’s trunk and found a jack.
“As soon as I grabbed the tire iron, I started jacking the car up from the rear, and Staff Sgt. Belko proceeds to run over to a civilian’s car, grab their jack from their vehicle, and then start jacking up the front of the car,” Bohne said.
Their actions significantly cut down the time it took for emergency responders to pull the woman from underneath the car and start treating her, said Washington, D.C., firefighter Lt. Leo Ruiz, of Engine 18.
“Honestly: If they hadn’t done what they had done, it could have delayed care for that patient,” Ruiz said.
With the help of the Marines and others on the scene, the woman survived.
Belko noted that a lot of people came together to make sure the woman was freed and treated as quickly as possible.
“Marines run to the sound of the guns, so it didn’t surprise me at all that the Marines were there,” Belko said.
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Here is another update of ne equipment the military is getting for the future:
After years in development, soldiers are officially putting the Army’s next-generation short-range air defense system through its paces ahead of its eventual delivery and fielding in Germany.
Soldiers from the 5th Battalion, 4th Air Defense Artillery Regiment out of Ansbach, Germany traveled to the White Sands Missile Range to conduct training and operational testing of the Army’s Initial Maneuver Short Range Air Defense (IM-SHORAD) system, the service announced last week.
The IM-SHORAD system consists primarily of a Stryker-mounted 360-degree Avenger air defense turret loaded up with Stinger and AGM-114 Longbow Hellfire missiles (the latter of which are traditionally used in air-to-surface roles), an XM914 30mm cannon, and a 7.62mm machine gun.
The 5-4 ADA will be the first unit to receive the IM-SHORAD system in Germany to replace its aging Humvee-mounted Avenger systems, a move that comes amid the U.S. military’s resurgence in Cold War-style tactics in Europe in the aftermath of the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014Top of Form
Bottom of Form”There’s a lot of equipment on this machine that will change a lot of aspects for the Air Defense Artillery,” Spc. Andy Mendoza, an air and missile defense crewmember with the 5-4 ADA, said in a statement.
The operational training and testing come just weeks after General Dynamics Land Systems announced that the Army had awarded the defense contractor a $1.2 billion contract award to produce, test, and deliver 28 Stryker IM-SHORAD Strykers to the service.
The Army had previously selected an IM-SHORAD solution engineered by Leonardo DRS back in June 2018.
The service plans on eventually spreading 144 systems across four battalions by as soon as fiscal year 2023. According to Army budget documents, the service plans on spending an additional $1.575 billion through 2025 on acquiring a total of 180 IM-SHORAD Stryker vehicles.
The IM-SHORAD system “provides the Army improved capabilities for defense of maneuver formations and other tactical echelons from low altitude air attack and surveillance,” according to the service’s fiscal year 2021 budget documents.
At the moment, however, the IM-SHORAD is “not quite ready for full production,” hence the soldier testing by the 5-4 ADA, according to the Army statement.
Soldiers “need to get their hands on the system, learn to use it, and then use it just as they would, including trying new things, making mistakes, and otherwise doing the sort of thing that the system designers may not have prepared for,” per the Army.
“Everything might look good on paper, on the board, but until we get through the testing and putting it through its paces, understanding what it’s actually capable of, we won’t know if we’re producing the right system for the Soldier,” Steven Powell, acquisition logistics lead with the IM-SHORAD Program Office, said in a statement.
Sorry the small print here. This old soldier can not figure out how to enlarge.
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I would be unforgiven if I didn’t check into how everything is for you. How are things going for you? Is the world turning too fast? You are not alone. There are over 10,160 fellow veterans here and they all have your back.
BUT! If it is too overwhelming for you GET HELP!
Here is a toll free number for you to call 24/7 and the help is free.. There are highly qualified counselors there to help you, and they will not hang up until they know you are OK.
1-800-273-8255 Option # 1
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Remember:
You are never alone.
You are never forsaken.
You are never unloved.
And above all….never, ever, give up!
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