Tag: interpreters

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So Much Suffering in Afghanistan, and it Didn’t Have to Happen

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Military news…

A U.S. Marine brought an Afghan baby to safety over the walls of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan in video footage that emerged on Thursday. A Marine spokesman called the lift “a true example of the professionalism of the Marines on site.”

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Fox News’ Laura Ingraham says the U.S. is welcoming thousands of ‘unvetted’ refugees from Afghanistan. But know this: she’s wrong. Those Afghans who are coming directly to the U.S. are rigorously vetted under the Special Immigrant Visa system, and those that haven’t are undergoing that process in a third-party country now.

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The worst of times can bring out the best in humanity, as demonstrated by Sher Ahmad Ahmadzai, a former Afghan interpreter who, with the help of non-profit groups, attorneys, veterans and other advocates, overcame countless challenges to make it out of the country. A month ago, Ahmadzai and his family were facing near-certain doom, but now they are safe.

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The Taliban have not a second of remorse for what they are doing to the people of Afghanistan. They had one woman cook for them. They didn’t like how she cooked so they burned her alive.

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There is a story about n American citizen who tried to get into the airport, but a Taliban soldier took her passport and wouldn’t give it back to her. He wanted her to have to stay in his country. A Marine was close and made him give it back to her. A true hero.

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My view…

Things are horrible for civilians in Afghanistan. People being killed for no reason. Women rapped. Children being used as sex slaves. If they didn’t like how you did something they kill you.

Our president(Biden) is denying any of this is happening, and yet you can see it in pictures sent home. He thinks things are going smoothly, and so does Kamala Harris. Are they on another planet?

They are full of denial, and not accepting that they are failing in their duties.

This is not leadership in my opinion. It is the opinion of many people, even many democratic congressmen.

I am thinking Biden may get impeached soon.

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I have been sharing with you that I have stopped sharing excerpts from my upcoming book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.

I may return to that, but If you want to see any of the excerpts you will now have to look through the archives to find them.

One way you won’t miss anything is by subscribing to this site right now. That way all future post will go directly to your inbox. Just click on the “Subscribe button,” at the top of this page.

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Bed check… How re you doing? Are you having bad nightmares because of your deployment? Do you have trouble sleeping?

FEAR NOT!!

There are over 12,840 fellow veterans here who have your back.

However, if the darkness is overcoming you, GET HELP!!

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

Never let the dark side overcome you!

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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Soldiers Need to be Accurate With Their Rifles During Basic Training

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An Army chaplain faces court-martial after being charged with over a dozen counts of rape and child sexual assault. Capt. Jeremy Dunn, of the 3rd Chemical Brigade at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, is expected to plead guilty at his court martial hearing on July 14. (Today)

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With just two months to go until U.S. troops are scheduled to leave Afghanistan, the Biden administration is still figuring out how to get Afghan interpreters out of the country. Despite those interpreters taking on unimaginable risks during America’s long stay in Afghanistan, U.S. officials still don’t know the answers to basic questions such as how many people they can move or what countries they can move them to.

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A few good Marines will start training with the Army in Colorado soon to learn all about space operations. While they won’t be dropping into hell like the Colonial Marines in ‘Aliens,’ these space marines will get schooled in satellite intelligence, jamming enemy communications and other aspects of Final Frontier fighting.

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President Joe Biden’s promise to rescue Afghan interpreters and their families before the Taliban kills them has rung hollow, because no evacuation plan has been finalized and most U.S. troops have already left the country, reports. Now an estimated 70,000 Afghans who worked for the U.S. are in grave danger as the Taliban sweep across the country.

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A battalion of Black women who served overseas in World War II could soon receive Congress’ highest award for distinguished achievements. Hundreds of women served in the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, where they were instrumental in getting millions of pieces of mail to service members in Europe. In doing so, they reversed a huge backlog that was hurting morale, and now they could soon receive the Congressional Gold Medal for it.

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Here is another excerpt from my upcoming book, Signs of hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.

Taking Aim On Perfection

One part of basic training was done on the firing range. We all had to learn how to properly line up the sights on our rifles, and shoot at the targets with some accuracy.

I had never shot a weapon before in my life. It was a little intimating at first. The loud noise each time you shot was one thing, but the kick from the weapon on your shoulder was another. You had to how to “hug” the rifle and keep it tight against your shoulder to keep it from kicking.

The first day was mostly learning how to lie down in the right position, and how to wrap the strap properly around your arm and keep the rifle steady. This got boring pretty quickly, but the leaders were determined to having all of us doing it perfectly.

The second day was more exciting. They had us actually shooting at targets. They targets were pop-up type targets. You waited until one popped up and then shot. It tested awareness and your quick judgment. The targets didn’t stay up very long.

I did my shooting and the soldier assigned to me said I was the fastest of hitting all the targets of anyone in my platoon.

Then they moved targets further away These were about 75 yards away. I again was done faster than anyone else and hit all of my targets.

Then we saw some of the men weren’t shooting any more. I was told they missed too many targets. The targets were moved to 100 yards. (The length of a football field.) You really had to concentrate because the targets went up and down pretty fast. I hit all my targets again.

There were only five of us left. They told us the targets will now be 150 yards way. At this time they taught us about “Kentucky windage. ” This is were you aim a little higher on the target and let the wind bring the bullet down to the target.

I had some miss hits, but the first round was just a practice to get us accustom to shooting at the distance. By the end that round I was hitting most of the targets.

The final round came and I was ready. The targets popped up and I shot them. I hit four our of five targets. The rest of the men didn’t do as well. I was named the champion of the shooting range for that day. From all of that I received an expert medal that I still have today.

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This is a shortened version of this chapter of my book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life. So come back often to see what the rest is. Better yet…go to the top of this page and click on “Subscribe.” When you do all future posts will directly to your inbox.

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Checking your pulse. Are you doing Ok? Have the dreams from your military time been driving you crazy?

FEAR NOT!

There is toll free number to help you if you need extra help. There are highly qualified counselors there to help you. There is no shame to GETTING HELP when you need it.

Never face this world alone!

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

+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.

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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!

____________________________________

+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.