This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Author: Jonn Lilyea

  • Kevin Kyle; phony SEAL

    Kevin Kyle; phony SEAL

    Our partners at Military Phonies share their work on this Kevin Kyle fellow who claims that he was a Navy SEAL. He made the claims in social media and in his wardrobe;

    Yes, there is a tattoo;

    However the US Navy doesn’t remember him going through any SEAL Training, and he got called out and admitted that he lied;

    But, then he tubed his Facebook page instead of leaving his admission to lies for all to see.

    The truth, according to the Navy, is that he completed twenty years of service, retiring as an Aviation Ordnanceman First Class in the pay grade of E-6;

  • Shulkin out; Jackson in

    Shulkin out; Jackson in

    According to Military Times, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin was fired by President Trump and he’s to be replaced by Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson who has been the personal physician of the past three Presidents, after he completed a tour of Iraq at the peak of hostilities in that war.

    His bio says that Jackson specialized in Undersea medicine;

    After completing his first year of residency training in 1996, he went on to become the honor graduate of the Navy’s Undersea Medical Officer Program in Groton, Connecticut. Uniquely qualified in submarine and hyperbaric medicine, his subsequent operational assignments included, instructor at the Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center in Panama City, Florida; det. officer in charge and diving medical officer at Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 8 in Sigonella, Italy; and diving safety officer at the Naval Safety Center in Norfolk.

    In 2001, Jackson returned to Portsmouth Naval Medical Center to begin his residency in emergency medicine, finishing at the top of his class and receiving the honor graduate designation. Upon completing his residency in 2004, he was assigned as clinical faculty in the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. In 2005 he joined the 2nd Marines, Combat Logistics Regiment 25, in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. From there he deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom as the emergency medicine physician in charge of resuscitative medicine for a forward deployed Surgical Shock Trauma Platoon in Taqaddum, Iraq.

    He’s certainly qualified as a clinician, but his skill as a bureaucrat has yet to be tested.

  • March 29 is Vietnam Veterans Day

    March 29 is Vietnam Veterans Day

    Some statistics in regards to those who served;

    Vietnam Vets: 9.7% of their generation.
    9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the Vietnam Era (Aug. 5, 1964-May 7, 1975).
    8,744,000 GIs were on active duty during the war (Aug 5, 1964 – March 28, 1973).
    3,403,100 (Including 514,300 offshore) personnel served in the Southeast Asia Theater (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, flight crews based in Thailand, and sailors in adjacent South China Sea waters).
    2,594,000 personnel served within the borders of South Vietnam (Jan. 1, 1965 – March 28, 1973)
    Another 50,000 men served in Vietnam between 1960 and 1964.
    Of the 2.6 million, between 1 – 1.6 million (40 – 60%) either fought in combat, provided close support or were at least fairly regularly exposed to enemy attack.
    7,484 women (6,250 or 83.5% were nurses) served in Vietnam.
    Peak troop strength in Vietnam: 543,482 (April 30, 1968)

    25% (648,500) of total forces in country were draftees. (66% of U.S. armed forces members were drafted during WWII.
    Draftees accounted for 30.4% (17,725) of combat deaths in Vietnam.
    Reservists killed: 5,977
    National Guard: 6,140 served: 101 died.
    Total draftees (1965 – 73): 1,728,344.
    Actually served in Vietnam: 38%
    Marine Corps Draft: 42,633.
    Last man drafted: June 30, 1973.

    97% of Vietnam-era veterans were honorably discharged.
    91% of actual Vietnam War veterans and 90% of those who saw heavy combat are proud to have served their country.
    66% of Vietnam vets say they would serve again if called upon.
    87% of the public now holds Vietnam veterans in high esteem!!!!!

    Welcome home.

  • Thursday morning feel good stories

    Thursday morning feel good stories

    From Houston, Texas;

    A homeowner shot and killed a suspected car thief outside his northeast Houston home Wednesday, police said.

    According to investigators, the homeowner heard a noise around 11 p.m. outside his home in the 7400 block of Langley Road. The homeowner told police he saw a man breaking into his pickup truck that was parked in the driveway. The homeowner grabbed a gun, went outside and started yelling at the man, police said. At some point, an altercation broke out and the homeowner shot the man, police said.

    He was pronounced dead on the scene.

    No one else was injured.

    The homeowner was questioned and released.

    From Algansee Township, Michigan;

    Michigan State Police say around 12:30 a.m. three suspects broke multiple windows and tried to get in through the front door of a house in the 1200 block of Berlew Road in Algansee Township, near the Indiana border.

    The homeowner was inside when they fired multiple rounds at the suspects, according to a MSP news release.

    The suspects then drove away in a dark green, four-door sedan with a loud exhaust. Investigators say it may have been a Mercury Marquis or Ford Crown Victoria.

    One of the suspects was later dropped off at Promedica Coldwater Regional Hospital with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound. The suspect vehicle didn’t stay and drove away.

    In Fulton County, Georgia;

    Georgia authorities are investigating a shooting at a home in south Fulton County after an 81-year-old man allegedly shot and killed a man trying to break into his home early Tuesday, police said. It turns out the would-be burglar was the man’s adult son.

    The estranged son, identified as Troy Fountain, 56, tried “to make forced entry into the father’s home and was shot one time,” Chattahoochee Hills police Chief Stoney Mathis said. “The son is deceased and the case is under investigation at this time.”

    Mathis said Fountain threw a rock through the glass in the front door. Police told WSB-TV that the father shot through the door and hit the son in the head.

    Officials have not filed charges against the father, identified as Lance Fountain.

  • John O’Grady; phony US Marshal

    John O’Grady; phony US Marshal

    Chip sends us a link to the story of John O’Grady in Boynton Beach, Florida who returned to the Best Buy store where he’d stolen a call phone recently. He was recognized by store personnel who called the local constabulary who confronted Mr O’Grady, who in turn, identified himself as a US Marshal;

    The pin on his gray suit, the badge and the gun seemed to confirm that.

    But O’Grady didn’t have identification nor could he name his supervisor.

    He eventually conceded that no, he was not a U.S. Marshal, and the “firearm” on his hip was a BB gun.

    Authorities arrested O’Grady on charges of impersonating a law-enforcement officer and retail theft. They reportedly found the stolen iPhone in O’Grady’s vehicle.

    Mr O’Grady is currently out on bond, but I’m sure he’ll be back in custody soon enough.

    From the Tribunist;

    One of the officers “congratulated” O’Grady for impersonating a law enforcement official, announcing it is a felony. O’Grady was handcuffed and, during the ensuing conversation, claimed he did not know that representing himself as a law enforcement officer was illegal.

  • SFC Peter Simon comes home

    SFC Peter Simon comes home

    Hondo told us last January that Sergeant First Class Peter Simon’s earthly remains had been identified by DPAA. Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that he arrived in Ohio today for his final rest on Saturday.

    A veteran of World War II, SFC Peters was killed in Korea as a member of G Company, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division on September 5, 1950 during the defense of the Pusan Perimeter.

    He was born in Grindstone, Pennsylvania, in 1915, the son of John and Elizabeth Simon, with six siblings (all deceased now). The family later moved to Northeast Ohio.

    Simon’s niece, Dolores Soltesz, of Maple Heights, was contacted by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) earlier this year with news that her uncle had been identified.

    “I was oldest living relative,” she said. “It was a big shocker. I couldn’t believe it. After 68 years of him being dead, it was a very big surprise to me.”

    Graves Registration personnel were guided to his initial grave by a Korean peasant and he was marked as Unknown X-1085 until January this year when he was identified while DPAA were trying to identify other remains.

    Ms. Soltesz is laying her uncle near her planned final resting place;

    “I certainly am so happy,” she added. “I’m glad I lived long enough to see him brought back to the country that he served. I never thought they would find him.”

    Soltesz said she chose All-Saints Cemetery for his burial because “I’m putting him where I’m going, so he’ll be where I’m at.”

  • Florida boy meets Baker Act and Sheriff Grady Judd

    Associated Press reports that Polk County, Florida Sheriff’s deputies found an inebriated 13-year-old boy sleeping on a sidewalk. He claimed that he drank an entire bottle of liquor that he snagged from his parents’ liquor cabinet and that he planned to shoot up his junior high school in retaliation for being suspended for threatening to kill classmates, so the authorities used the Baker Act to involuntarily put him in the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation;

    Investigators searched the boy’s PlayStation at his home in Davenport, which is between Orlando and Tampa, and said they found pictures of the suspected Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz as well as images of the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado.

    They said the boy also made troubling statements — including that he wanted to die and see God, and that he wanted to kill students who had “snitched” on him before he was expelled. He also said he had buried a handgun in a neighbor’s backyard to keep his mother from finding it. The Polk Sheriff’s statement said a gun was not found, but they did learn that the boy had made similar statements in Osceola County, where deputies accused him in an affidavit of making written threats to kill.

    The problem with school safety isn’t guns, it’s the culture that tells folks that it’s OK to shoot up your school to retaliate for perceived slights to your so-called honor.

    Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd doesn’t play when it comes to the safety of Polk County residents. We at TAH are familiar with Sheriff Judd for locking up Kyle Barwan last year. Here are some of his more quotable moments;

  • Pvt. Patrick Armando Vega; Marine recruit found unresponsive in his bunk

    Pvt. Patrick Armando Vega; Marine recruit found unresponsive in his bunk

    Stars & Stripes reports that 21-year-old Marine Private Patrick Armando Vega was found unresponsive in his bunk at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego Saturday night by his drill instructor who promptly tried to revive him with CPR;

    “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Pvt. Vega during this difficult time,” Brig. Gen. William Jurney, commanding general of the recruit depot, said in a press release.

    Vega enlisted in the Marine Corps on March 12, Steven Posy, a spokesman for the recruit depot…He was originally from Ventura, Calif.

    From the Orange County Register;

    Vega was pronounced dead at 11:43 a.m. Sunday after going into cardiac arrest at Naval Medical Center San Diego, where he was being treated.

    Vega, who was in a physical conditioning platoon, was found unresponsive by a drill instructor around midnight Saturday, Posy said. The drill instructor conducted CPR until first responders arrived. Vega was taken to Naval Medical Center San Diego in critical condition.