For one reason or another I’ve fallen into a melancholy mood tonight and decided to see if I could induce the same feeling into others. Hey I’m just a sharing kind of guy. Actually I was checking out a few ‘you tube’ videos and was hit rather hard by this one. It took me back to when a friend was in Iraq and every morning before I went to work I’d turn on the computer to see if the little green light was on near his name on the gmail chat box. Seeing that small green dot of a light let me know he was safe and was one day closer to coming home. He wasn’t always “available” but had made it through another day. Every day after getting home from work the first thing I'd do was see if I had received an e-mail. It's funny how just a simple "We had a quiet day today" can make one smile. The video also brought back memories of the hundreds of pictures that he “narrated” for us while sitting on our couch after his return. What I’d like to do is have anyone who would like to, add a video that makes you think, makes you remember and reminds you that we owe so much to those who give of themselves. [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgTNKAYpVd4&feature=fvw[/YOUTUBE]
So, you got your own dose of "closure" for the evening I see. Yours was at the keyboard, and the sister's was in a B-17.
I have to admit, that video was touching. ive seen the captions on the pictures because one of my friends got almost the exact same thing as a text on their cell phone and read them off to the people who came at the memorial day program at my school. but, very nice video. salute to you.
Biak you succeeded in sharing your melancholy. At least with me. I love this song but I hate it. God bless all the troops, from all nations, walking the line for us tonight. RIP SFC Blaskowski-KIA 9/23/07 FOB Vegas, Korengal Valley, Afghanistan.
Aw Shucks Guys, Thanks. I'd like to see some videos that others find especially poignant. Any out there?
I'm always touched by "If you're reading this" by Tim McGraw. They played that song at my buddy's service. Also, "Til the Last Shot's Fired" by Trace Adkins...I love that one as well.
just out of curiosity i looked up If Your Reading This, and Til the Last Shots Fired. if anyone else is curious about it, dont lift a finger to the google, here they are. [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEjz-wAQLSA[/YOUTUBE] [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LuLvlp1Pao[/YOUTUBE]
ive always thought this one was a little touching [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t19np6iKs2Q[/YOUTUBE]
Thanks for posting those, Kyle...Going to go up to my bud's grave site tonight. I like to take the kids up there every now and again, just to reinforce the cost of freedom to them.
1917. Ypres. Huge Artillary barrage. The s**t came down big time!! My Grandfather hunkered down and made a pact with God. 'Get me through this & I'll never swear again'. He never did..................... There is life after................ ..................anything!!
Thanks for posting those, Kyle...Going to go up to my bud's grave site tonight. I like to take the kids up there every now and again, just to reinforce the cost of freedom to them. thats always good to do, to remind people of what soldiers did during the war, and the risks they gave to give freedom to our country
In between Belen and Los Lunas New Mexico, there is a place called Tome. Tome is famous for it's hill. Atop the hill you will find three crosses. The crosses were placed there by three World War 2 veterans. The veterans, locals of the area, had been Marines on Okinawa during the famous assault there. Pinned down by Japanese fire, the three made promises to each other that if they survived the island assault, they would carry to, and erect crosses as an act of contrition to the God that let them survive the battle. They survived the battle and made good on their promise. Every Easter, people will make the seven mile trek, on foot, from Belen (Spanish for Bethlehem) to the hill. It's not an easy trek, and as you can see from the pictures, the last mile is quite challenging. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3458/3394139516_d2c307dbbe.jpg Tome Hill
[video=youtube;9GTXkW2oCsI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GTXkW2oCsI[/video] Johnny Cash owns the airwaves in Canada right now. - The Official Johnny Cash Website - JohnnyCash.Com His hit version of I Won't Back Down is the new anthem for our NHL Hockey promotional advertizements. Fitting right in are very touching photos of very, very professional troops in Afganistan and Iraq. Bless their hearts, one and all. I salute whoever posted this. YouTube - I Won't Back Down‏ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Captain Kim "KC" Campbell, USAF, is assigned to the 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group at Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina. To open the lecture series, Captain Campbell gave a firsthand account of her combat missions during the 23rd Fighter Group's deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in spring 2003. She shared highlights of her encounter with enemy fire while patrolling the Iraq "no fly zone," as well as her 20 combat missions while posted to Afghanistan. While flying a mission over Baghdad on April 7, 2003, her A-10 Warthog was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire, rolled left, and pointed toward the ground. The A-10 sustained damage to one engine and to the redundant hydraulic systems, disabling the flight controls, landing gear and brakes, and horizontal stabilizer. More pics at http://www.tonyrogers.com/images/weapons/a10/index.htm However, Captain Campbell found that the manual flight controls still worked and she was able to fly her crippled A-10 back to base, 100 miles away. On the ground, an inspection of the aircraft revealed hundreds of holes in the airframe and that large sections of the stabilizer and hydraulic controls were missing. - By the way, "KC" stands for "Killer Chick.">
Well here's my two favorites. The first is a tribute to a 1st Sgt, beloved within the Marine Corps. 1st Sgt. Ed "Horsehead" Smith was a hell of a man and an outstanding Marine. He was killed in the march-up during the initial invasion of Iraq. The sad part is his time was up, he could have gotten out but decided to deploy with his boys and he was killed. The song is very appropriate, and the clips where they gently and carefully, remove his mortally wounded body from the AAV and load him on the CH-46 are touching. [video]http://www.grouchymedia.com/videos/2006/07/sacrifice.html[/video] This second one is my older son's Iraq video. I think the second song is melancholy and fits well with the pictures. I guess this one makes my eyes water up because I know most of the Marines in it and know the back stories. They've all stayed at my house, many have gone on vacation with us, we were with one when he met his wife, have attended their weddings, one is just finishing up college and has completed OCS to become an officer. He's promised to let me be the first to salute him! One of the Marines shown was on his third tour and had tried to handle his PTSD by self medicating with alcohol. He finally decided to get help and had checked himself into the base hospital at Quantico but committed suicide in the hospital before he could get help. Only a couple were actually assigned to the unit, most had recently returned from Iraq and volunteered to augment. They didn't have to redeploy with this unit, they chose to do so because that's what Marines do. The two Marines listed as KIA at the end, I attended LCpl Warren's funeral and knew Roberts because he had been my son's roommate prior to deploying. Sgt. Tompkins (5:28 mark) had a sniper round find the seam between this front and side ESAPI plates the bullet got in and couldn't get out, it bounced around shredding his insides. The Corpsman took his internal organs and packed each individually with gauze to try and stop the bleeding but he died several times before he was finally stabilized enough to send to Germany. The picture at 5:53 of my son in a flight suit with dirty face and mussed up hair was taken after a mission that was originally supposed to have taken 8 hours but ended up taking nearly 36, they lived on beef and cheese sticks we'd sent them in a care package. The wire the Marine is holding at the 8:48 mark is the wire an insurgent had used to set off a triple stack IED, composed of 3 155mm howwitzer rounds aimed at my sons vehicle. The Marines in the vehicles to the front and rear said they saw and felt a massive blast and a column of smoke, dirt and flame shot 300 feet or so in the air, the truck just disappeared and they knew the truck was vaporized along with the Marines in it. They said it was one of the greatest feelings they had ever had when the little truck came driving out of the smoke. The insurgent had used a motorcycle battery instead of a car battery as he had been instructed to use, the fractions of a second difference saved the men. The Haditha Dam, Fallujah, and Ramadi are all shown. The pleasant little town shown at the 5:08 mark is Baghdadi, this day a woman ran out and warned them that the insurgents had a complex ambush set up ahead. They would have been trapped between high cliffs and the river. Forewarned they surprised the insurgents and helped them become martyrs. Other insurgents returned to the town that night and beheaded the woman and her children. Well here's the video: YouTube - cplprice1062's Channel‏ Here's a newspaper article about Sgt. Tompkins Originally Published: 4/30/2010 Wounded warrior from Maxatawny serving once again Man severely injured in Iraq to officiate run to benefit veterans Ron Devlin Reading Eagle Reading Eagle: Lauren A. Little Jonathan E. Tompkins, who as a Marine sergeant in Fallujah, Iraq, was hit in the lungs by a snipers bullet, now attends Kutztown University. This weekend he will help the Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit organization that helped him. Forty days before he was scheduled to come home from Iraq, Marine Sgt. Jonathan E. Tompkins went to check out a roadside bomb while on patrol near Fallujah. The device was a dud, and Tompkins returned to his Humvee. As he reached to open the door, a sharp pain stung the pit of his right arm. It felt like an electric shock, but Tompkins would quickly realize the pain was inflicted by a sniper's bullet. It was April 5, 2007, and in an instant Tompkins had become a wounded warrior. Three years and 40 surgeries later, the 27-year-old is studying at Kutztown University to become a high school science teacher. As he adjusts from military to civilian life, Tompkins is assisted by the Wounded Warrior Project, a Florida-based nonprofit that helps with medical expenses and organizes activities to support wounded veterans. On Sunday, Tompkins will give something back to the Wounded Warrior Project when he officiates at a 5-kilometer run at Alvernia University. "Anytime I need support, they're there to help me," said Tompkins of Maxatawny Township. "I want to do whatever I can to help." Fighting to live Despite the wound under his arm, Tompkins managed to climb inside the Humvee. Gasping for air, he sent out a plea for help on the vehicle's radio. "I'm hit," he said, coughing blood. "I'm hit." "How bad?" came the reply from the crew of a MedEvac helicopter hovering in the distance. Tompkins had not yet unzipped his protective body armor vest. When he did, blood flowed from the wound. The bullet had ripped through both lungs and zigzagged through internal organs, venting on Tompkins' right side a few inches above the belt line. A Navy corpsman in a nearby Humvee heard Tompkins' call for help and rushed his aid. The medic, known to Tompkins only as "Doc" Ferrer, pulled him from the Humvee. There, in the sands of Iraq, he performed battlefield surgery that saved the wounded soldier's life. The bullet had shattered Tompkins' right rib cage, and every time he took a breath, fragments punctured his lung. Without an anesthetic, Ferrer stuck his hand inside Tompkins' chest and pulled out the fragmented ribs, preventing them from further damaging his lung. As Tompkins fought for his life, a firefight raged around him. Fellow Marines encircled him with Humvees for protection. Ironically, one of Tompkins' duties was to call in a MedEvac when a fellow Marine was wounded. With access to radio transmissions, he heard the MedEvac pilot radio, "Too hot LZ (landing zone). Can't land." Two Cobra attack copters, however, provided cover for the MedEvac to land and get Tompkins out about 40 minutes after he'd been hit. "I was coherent for most of it," he recalls. "Toward the end, I flat-lined, but I was revived in the helicopter." Treatment and recovery Tompkins was flown to a hospital in Fallujah, then transferred to others in Iraq and Germany. Four days after he was wounded, he arrived at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md. Over eight months, he underwent 40 surgeries. He has little memory of the 90 days he spent in a medically induced coma. Occasionally, doctors brought him out of the coma to update him on his condition. Surgeons removed his gall bladder, 70 percent of his liver and part of his stomach and intestines. They replaced his ribs with an artificial material. In rehabilitation, he would have to learn to walk again. No regrets Despite the ordeal, Tompkins has no regrets about joining the Marines, serving in Iraq or America's commitment to fighting terrorism. "People ask me do I regret it. And I say, 'No, we're doing the right thing,' " said Tompkins, who's originally from Pennsburg, Montgomery County. "In many situations, if we were not there, women and children would have been raped or killed." Tompkins understands he'll always bear the scars of war, physical and emotional. His plans for a law enforcement career, for example, have been all but eliminated by his injuries. He suffers migraine headaches and has post-traumatic stress disorder. Yet, Tompkins approaches the future with optimism. He's looking forward to getting his college degree, and he's buying a house. His military experience, he insists, has made him a better person. "I have a better outlook on life," he said. "Things mean a lot more to me now." Contact Ron Devlin: 610-371-5030 One last picture, this looks like a picture from Mars or Hell but it's an IED blast the other son got a picture of in Afghanistan. To judge the scale the little bitty vehicles are MATV's and MRAP's huge trucks.
Here is one song that never fails to stir me into realizing how much was paid by those lost in any war for our freedom..... [video=youtube;yZkE6ksNEEo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZkE6ksNEEo[/video]
Dunno if this is appropriate for this thread or not, but this short movie (12 minutes, for those watching at work) never fails to moisten my eyeballs a bit. REVEILLE
Here are a couple I have. First one showing SFC Blaskowski doing his job, the second one showing the day he was killed. 2007 seems a long, long time ago. [YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkeMclsHxrs[/YOUTUBE] YouTube - US forces face daily perils east of Afghanistan - 30 Sep 07‏
we will never forget those who gave there lives in defence of their country or the soldiers, sailors and airmen who are currently serving around the world to keep global peace, Lest we forget
