Tag: excerpts

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Fear is Something Many Soldiers Have to Face Every Day.

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Stolen valor, the term for when civilians pretend that they served in the military, isn’t always bad, at least when it takes down racist dirt bags. Specifically, one Army veteran-turned-FBI-informant named Joseph Moore won the trust of a Ku Klux Klan cell in Florida by coming up with fake war stories and pinning false medals to his hat.

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All U.S. service members, even if they are fully vaccinated, now have to wear masks indoors if they are in an area where COVID-19 is raging. Many troops thought the pandemic was over, but now it’s back to the mask, and just in time for the hottest month of the year.

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The Afghan Air Force is already falling apart, despite President Joe Biden’s claims that the U.S. would make sure the Afghans could maintain it. You need spare parts and bombs to keep an air force running, and Afghanistan is zero on both.

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The Navy has charged a sailor with starting a fire in July 2020 that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship that became engulfed by an inferno for days as the ship was docked in San Diego, California. The ship cost $1.2 billion to build, but it only took a few days for it to burn beyond repair.

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“We have to be honest with the American people, who pay for this – not only in money but also in blood and treasure.” That’s from John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, who took reporters through all the mistakes the U.S. made in Afghanistan over the past 20 years. The result: a resurgent Taliban and little to show for the thousands of Coalition and Afghan troops and citizens who died there.

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‘You’re gonna keep your A-10 Warthogs and you’re gonna like it,’ is essentially what Senators said to the Air Force after it tried to cut 42 A-10 attack planes from its fleet in its fiscal year 2022 budget proposal, reports yours truly in this piece. The A-10 is a legendary attack plane that has saved the bacon of countless ground troops over the past 45 years, but it is getting older and Air Force officials worry it’s not up to face China in a big war.
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Here may be the last excerpt for a while. Time to send the book off to the publisher.

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F.E.A.R

(1) Forget Everything and Run, or

(2) Face Everything and Rise.

The choice is yours

Fear is one of the inevitable things a soldiers must face. I faced it a few times. The worst time was when I was on a plane ready to fly to the Bay of Pigs. I was ready to serve my country, but not knowing what was going to happen caused the fear.

In the dictionary fear is described as:

  1. A distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil or pain.
  2. Concern or anxiety.
  3. To be worried or afraid.
  4. Reverential awe, especially towards God.

All of us on that plane tried to hide our fear. We were supposed to be men/women. We were not supposed to think about what might happen to us. In reality we all thought about not returning home. We thought about loved ones. We thought about the unknown we were facing.

It is hard to face fear. John Wayne said, ” Courage is being scared and saddling up anyway.” This is the man who played the parts of heroes all his life. Many of his films were military films.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.”

Fear isn’t something that is a cowardly act. It is an honest reaction to what is happening around you.

I have faced my own fears. I was within hours of death when I was rushed to the hospital in and ambulance and had quadruple by-pass surgery on my heart.

When you see a car coming at you, head on, while driving on a highway, You don’t act in a cowardly manner, you react. You take action to save your own life.

If you feel you were fearful too often while you served, don’t let that give you a feeling of failure on your part. It is just an honest feeling that often brings out the best in people.

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How is your day? Did you face fear while enlisted? Did things seem to go belly up for you?

FEAR NOT!

There are over 12,525 fellow veterans subscribed to this site who have your back.

This may not be enough for you. If so, GET HELP!!

Here is a toll free number to call 24/7.

There are highly qualified counselors there to help you. They will not hang up until the know you are OK.

Never face fear alone!

1-800-273-8255, Texting 838255

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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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When You Are Deployed, Getting There Can Be Very Hard

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Military news…

A known white supremacist serving in the Air Force is still in the ranks more than two months after his extremist views were first widely revealed. Airman 1st Class Shawn Michael McCaffrey, 28, has a track record of espousing white supremacist, anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic beliefs on social media.

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For the first time in decades, service members who have suffered due to negligent medical care now have the chance to file a claim against the Department of Defense The Pentagon’s brand-new rules for doing so represent a turning point for service members and their families.

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The military is going ahead and doing sexual changes for trans dressers. The many changes that the military is making does not go well with me.

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I have some recommended military books to share with you. I have read them all, and they are all excellent:

  1. D-DAY: The Climactic Battle of World War II. A New York Times Bestseller. by Stephen E. Ambrose. Complete coverage from the first moment to the end.
  2. We Were Soldiers Once…And Young. By Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (ret.) and Joseph L. Galloway. The story of the battle at Ia Drang. It change the war in Vietnam
  3. Band of Brothers by lt. Lynn “Buck” Compton Great personal stories of the Band of Brothers. (Had two of them live right in my hometown.) Met Buck. Great guy and signed his book for me.

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One of my interesting times in the military, was getting ready to shipped out to korea.

I signed up on the buddy plan. There were three of us. Two of us had one last party before we were to go to San Francisco, California to board a ship heading to Korea.

It was just two of us buddies doing the party. I was definitely not a drinker, but on this night I was going to party.

It turned out to be a big mistake. I drank far too much. I went into some kind of blackout after a couple of hours. I woke up once in the shower. My buddy was alternating hot water with cold water to try to bring me back. That was the worst thing he could do. It made me pretty sick.

The next time I woke up was on the bed. I was stark naked, and they were two girls there giggling. I was so embarrassed.

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We finally got to San Francisco, and spent the night at a USO hotel.

There was dancing, etc, going on in the ballroom, but I had enough partying, and headed up to my room.

I was waiting for the elevator when a guy came up to me and put his hand in my crotch. He said, “You are very gifted. Would you like to come to my room?”

The fear was overwhelming. My first experience with a gay guy.

I quickly got on the elevator to safety.

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The actual trip on the ship is another whole story. Thousands sick, but I wasn’t…

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These are some actual excerpts from my upcoming book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the trenches of life.

Be sure to come back to see more excerpts.

BETTER YET... Go to the top of this page and click on the subscribe button. When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox.

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How is your world today? Things not going to plan? Too much helter skelter?

FEAR NOT!

There are over 12,300 fellow veterans here who have your back.

If they aren’t enough right now, GET HELP!

Here is a toll free number you can call 24/7. There are highly qualified counselors there to help you. They will not hang up until they know you are OK.

Never face this not so friendly world alone.

1-800-273-8255 Option # 1 for texting…838255.

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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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+If you like what you see, please subscribe at the top of this page where it says, “subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox. Also, if you know some else who could benefit from this site, please let them know about it.

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Bad Memories Can Haunt People in The Military From Deployment

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Military news…

A disturbing number of Americans still believe the stereotype that veterans are ticking time bombs ready to explode at the first provocation, a new survey which shows that the stereotype of the unstable, violent veteran is still alive and well among U.S. adults. 23% of adults also said that PTSD is not treatable, which is far from the truth.

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A pregnant specialist in the Oregon National Guard is back home on Thursday after staying in her unit armory for an unclear amount of time while her battalion was gone for annual training this week. It is about the Guard failing to build “cohesive teams” and push “people first” the way the Army wants to do. The unit commander is still trying to figure out out how many nights she spent in the armory.

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“I could ask what color the sky is and even though we can all see the sky is blue, they’ll still need everyone and their lawyer to sign off on a statement confirming as much.” That’s what one Army public affairs officer said about the branch’s transparency problem. Haley writes about how Army commanders fail to recognize the importance of communicating with the public. That failure not only disrupts the branch’s connection to the people they serve, but also takes away its “information advantage” as one source said.

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It is getting very disturbing to me the things that are going on with national government.

There still is no plan on how to save the lives of interpreters of Afghanistan. They are going to be put out like last night’s trash if we do not protect them.

The latest is that the chief of staff said that, “We are working on it.” Well, the September 11th withdraw day for our military is coming closer and closer.

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I may be repeating myself here, but a thought about South Korea came to my head right now.

I had a day off from work, and a courier driver invited me to ride with him up to the DMZ zone. (Demilitarized zone.)

I was excited to do that. Never been up there. We headed out and along the way we came to some rice paddy fields. The driver told me,”Let’s have some fun.” I wasn’t sure what he meant, but we came up on a old man carrying two buckets on his shoulders with the help of a strap across his back.

My driver said, “Let’s give him a spin.” Again, I was too naive to know what was coming next. He told me to lean out of the jeep and tap the old man’s bucket on his left side.

I did that, and the man spun around and fell to the ground. I looked in horror, while my driver laughed his head off.

The old man was covered with the contents of his bucket which was human waste that they use to fertilize their crops.

I looked back to see him shaking his fists in anger. I got very angry with the driver and his thought was, “He’s only a gook!”

We finally got to the DMZ. The driver went off to deliver his packages. He left right on the edge of the DMZ. There were soldiers there with guns, and they were observing the other side of the DMZ, which is enemy territory.

They allowed me to use their binoculars to look across. I could see a North Korean soldier looking back at me.

I asked the soldier if I should wave. He said, “NO!” That guy would rather see you dead then to wave at you.

This excerpt from the book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life, and many more are in the book.

Be sure to come back to read more excerpts.

Better yet… Go to the top of this page and click on the subscribe button. When you do that all future posts will come directly to your inbox.

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Last bed check for this week…. How are you doing? Did you have some not so fun things happen while you were deployed?

FEAR NOT!

There are over 12,195 fellow veterans here who have your back.

However, if your memories are getting the best of you, GET HELP!

Here is a toll free number to call 24/7. There are highly qualified counselors there to help you. They will not hang up until they know you are OK.

Never let your bad memories overcome you!

1-800-273-8255 Option # 1 For texting..838255.

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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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+If you like what you see, please subscribe at the top of this page where it says, “subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox. Also, if you know some else who could benefit from this site, please let them know about it.