A Soldier Speaks: Taste of Freedom (101st Airborne hero's letter to mom)

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A Soldier Speaks: Taste of Freedom (101st Airborne hero's letter to mom)

Sgt Hook via Michelle Malkin ^ | 11-17-05 | Sgt from 1st platoon

I received an email from a mother whose son is currently fighting in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division. He and his platoon have penned a message to the American public that is a little different from the message we are getting via the MSM. He asked his mom to help get this message out and she asked me. Here it is from the soldiers on the ground…

Mom,

Be my voice. I want this message heard. It is mine and my platoon’s to the country. A man I know lost his legs the other night. He is in another company in our batallion. I can no longer be silent after watching the sacrifices made by Iraqis and Americans everyday.Send it to a congressman if you have to. Send it to FOX news if you have to. Let this message be heard please…

My fellow Americans, I have a task for those with the courage and fortitude to take it. I have a message that needs not fall on deaf ears. A vision the blind need to see. I am not a political man nor one with great wisdom. I am just a soldier who finds himself helping rebuild a country that he helped liberate a couple years ago.

I have watched on television how the American public questions why their mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters are fighting and dying in a country 9000 miles away from their own soil. Take the word of a soldier, for that is all I am, that our cause is a noble one. The reason we are here is one worth fighting for. A cause that has been the most costly and sought after cause in our small span of existence on our little planet. Bought in blood and paid for by those brave enough to give the ultimate sacrifice to obtain it. A right that is given to every man, woman, and child I believe by God. I am talking of freedom.

Freedom. One word but yet countless words could never capture it’s true meaning or power. “For those who have fought for it, freedom has a taste the protected will never know.†I read that once and it couldn’t be more true. It’s not the average American’s fault that he or she is “blind and deaf†to the taste of freedom. Most American’s are born into their God given right so it is all they ever know. I was once one of them. I would even dare to say that it isn’t surprising that they take for granted what they have had all their life. My experiences in the military however opened my eyes to the truth.

Ironically you will find the biggest outcries of opposition to our cause from those who have had no military experience and haven’t had to fight for freedom. I challenge all of those who are daring enough to question such a noble cause to come here for just a month and see it first hand. I have a feeling that many voices would be silenced.

I watched Cindy Sheehan sit on the President’s lawn and say that America isn’t worth dying for. Later she corrected herself and said Iraq isn’t worth dying for. She badmouthed all that her son had fought and died for. I bet he is rolling over in his grave.

Ladies and gentleman I ask you this. What if you lived in a country that wasn’t free? What if someone told you when you could have heat, electricity, and water? What if you had no sewage systems so human waste flowed into the streets? What if someone would kill you for bad-mouthing your government? What if you weren’t allowed to watch TV, connect to the internet, or have cell phones unless under extreme censorship? What if you couldn’t put shoes on your child’s feet?

You need not to have a great understanding of the world but rather common sense to realize that it is our duty as HUMAN BEINGS to free the oppressed. If you lived that way would you not want someone to help you????

The Iraqi’s pour into the streets to wave at us and when we liberated the cities during the war they gathered in the thousands to cheer, hug and kiss us. It was what the soldier’s in WW2 experienced, yet no one questioned their cause!! Saddam was no better than Hitler! He tortured and killed thousands of innocent people. We are heroes over here, yet American’s badmouth our President for having us here.

Every police station here has a dozen or more memorials for officers that were murdered trying to ensure that their people live free. These are husbands, fathers, and sons killed every day. What if it were your country? What would your choice be? Everything we fight for is worth the blood that may be shed. The media never reports the true HEROISM I witness everyday in the Iraqi’s. Yes there are bad one’s here, but I assure you they are a minuscule percent. Yet they are a number big enough to cause worry in this country’s future.

I have watched brave souls give their all and lose thier lives and limbs for this cause. I will no longer stand silent and let the “deaf and blind†be the only voice shouting. Stonewall Jackson once said, “All that I have, all that I am is at the service of the country.†For these brave souls who gave the ultimate sacrifice, including your son Cindy Sheehan, I will shout till I can no longer. These men and women are heroes. Their spirit lives on in their military and they will never be forgotten. They did not die in vain but rather for a cause that is larger than all of us.

My fellow countrymen and women, we are not overseas for our country alone but also another. We are here to spread democracy and freedom to those who KNOW the true taste of it because they fight for it everyday. You can see the desire in their eyes and I am honored to fight alongside them as an Infantryman in the 101st Airborne.

Freedom is not free, but yet it is everyone’s right to have. Ironic isn’t it? That is why we are here. Though you will always have the skeptics, I know that most of our military will agree with this message. Please, at the request of this soldier spread this message to all you know. We are in Operation Iraqi Freedom and that is our goal. It is a cause that I and thousands of others stand ready to pay the ultimate sacrifice for because, Cindy Sheehan, freedom is worth dying for, no matter what country it is! And after the world is free only then can we hope to have peace.

SGT XXX and 1st Platoon

101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)

The Air Force Uniform Board established an Oct. 1, 2006 mandatory wear date for unit fitness activities and released additional guidance for Airmen wearing the physical training uniform for personal workouts.

Airmen may wear the PTU during personal workouts given the following conditions:

-- T-shirts may be worn out or tucked in;

-- jackets may be zipped, unzipped and worn with civilian clothes;

-- black or navy blue leggings or stretch shorts may be worn under the uniform shorts;

-- white socks of any length and small conservative trademarks are authorized;

-- any athletic shoes may be worn;

-- safety items such as reflective belts, camelbacks and fannypacks are authorized;

-- hats or knit caps are authorized provided they meet military image requirements;

-- headphones are still authorized;

-- bandanas and other similar head scarves are not authorized unless Airmen have a medical waiver; and

-- saluting is not required.

Got this from Ham and Jam over at WBG's forum. Good stuff from a British perspective on the Italian Campaign. Thanks Andy!

James H Hughes - 6th Bn Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers

I join up

I embark

Tangoucha

Sicily

Italy

Still in Italy

Monte Cassino

Rome the Eternal City

To Egypt and back

Greece

Back home

McQueen's Legacy of Laetrile

By BARRON H. LERNER

Steve McQueen's death 25 years ago this month ended a bizarre drama in which he surreptitiously traveled to Mexico for an unorthodox cancer treatment.?

McQueen's bad boy persona extended back to his teenage years, when he committed several crimes and was sent to reform school. After a stint in the Marines in the early 1950's, he moved to New York to become an actor. His rugged good looks helped him land roles in several plays and eventually a television show, "Wanted: Dead or Alive."

Soon, he was starring in movies like "The Great Escape," "The Thomas Crown Affair" and "Bullitt," often playing the rebel, "a nonconformist and underdog, battling to survive in a hostile society," as The New York Times put it in his obituary.

McQueen first developed a cough in 1978. By the next year, when he was 49, he was having difficulty breathing. Finally, in December 1979, doctors made the diagnosis: mesothelioma, an incurable cancer of the lining of the lungs usually related to asbestos exposure. McQueen, an avid car racer, may have been exposed by wearing racing suits.

His doctors gave him a gloomy prognosis, but they treated him with radiotherapy and chemotherapy to try to shrink the cancer. He kept the diagnosis a secret from all but his closest friends.

But on March 11, 1980, The National Enquirer published an article titled "Steve McQueen's Heroic Battle Against Terminal Cancer." McQueen continued to deny the rumors.

In July 1980, McQueen secretly traveled to Rosarita Beach, Mexico, to be treated by Mexican and American doctors using Dr. Kelley's regimen. He received not only pancreatic enzymes but 50 daily vitamins and minerals, massages, prayer sessions, psychotherapy, coffee enemas and injections of a cell preparation made from sheep and cattle fetuses. McQueen was also given laetrile, a controversial alternative treatment made from apricot pits.

In October, after being tracked down by The National Enquirer, McQueen issued a statement saying he had mesothelioma and was in treatment in Mexico. A week later, Mexican television played an audio message from McQueen in which he said he was recovering. "Mexico is showing the world a new way of fighting cancer through nonspecific metabolic therapies," he said, adding, "Thank you for helping to save my life."

Cancer organizations were horrified, warning that McQueen's supposed recovery was a hoax. One doctor called the treatment "rank quackery." But others wanted to hear what McQueen and his new doctors had to say. At a press conference, one Mexican physician claimed that 85 to 90 percent of his patients had improved with Dr. Kelley's treatment. Twelve patients who said they were cured by Dr. Kelley attended as well.

McQueen's resurrection was short-lived. On Nov. 6, 1980, doctors operated to remove cancerous masses from his abdomen and neck. He withstood the surgery, but he died the next day.

Here's two great photos of Lee's Uncle Fletcher. We have several things from WWI that he brought back including an artillery shell, a grenade, his helmet, bag and wallet, etc.

Attached Files

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