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

Author: Jonn Lilyea

  • Enrique Rodriguez literally steals valor (Updated)

    Enrique Rodriguez literally steals valor (Updated)

    Someone sends us their work on this fellow, Enrique Rodriguez, who claims that he earned a Distinguished Service Cross for his actions in Vietnam. WGN reports that the owner of a car wash franchise in Illinois is one of the most decorated soldiers of the Vietnam War;

    Rodriguez is the face outside Mr. Car Wash most days of the week. While he’s a familiar face to the locals, some have no idea he is also one of the country’s most decorated Vietnam veterans.

    […]

    Rodriguez was just 19 when he went to fight in Vietnam. It was that same year, Sept. 28, 1968, that Rodriguez will never forget. Charging an enemy bunker alone, Rodriguez was credited with rescuing his wounded platoon leader and saving the lives of many members of his squad. He returned home two years later with a uniform covered in medals including two Purple Hearts, the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and a Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second highest honor.

    Here is the 1970 newspaper article from Pharr, Texas that he showed to prove his DSC to the WGN reporter;

    The problem is that the DSC was awarded to Captain Enrique P. Rodroguez, not SP4 Enrique (no middle name) Rodriguez;

    I guess we can’t blame the reporter for not spotting fake news from the ’60s, but you have to ask yourself why Rodriguez was able to get away without showing an actual DSC citation.

    Anyway, he did two tours of Vietnam, both with the 101st Division. He was at Fort Bragg less than a month after his first trip to Vietnam when he deserted. The Army rewarded him with another trip to the war a few months after he returned to duty.

    His MOS was in the 72-series of messengers and the 71-series of clerks.

    No DSC, no Purple Hearts, no Silver Stars, and just one Bronze Star Medal.

    Update; AnotherPat brings up a valid point – that being Rodriguez stole much of his narrative of phony feats from the DSC citation of Santiago Jesus Erevia who we talked about last year when he passed away.

    Both Rodriguez and Erevia were Specialists and both were in 1/501 in May 1969, Erevia was in Charlie Company and Rodriguez was a clerk in Headquarters Company. I guess Rodriguez thought that it would be easy to pull off stealing valor from Sergeant Erevia.

    From the Pharr, Texas newspaper article;

    “During the skirmish, the Pharr Soldier killed seven reds, one when he made a one man assault on an enemy bunker, rescued his wounded platoon leader, and was credited for saving the lives of many members of his squad.

    SP Rodriguez was acting as a point man for his platoon as it swept through a village. He discovered a line of bunkers manned by North Vietnamese Army Regulars and his platoon was immediately hit with automatic weapon fire and command detonated mines.

    Although wounded in the first barrage, SPC Rodriguez began hurling hand grenades onto the enemy positions, killing two North Vietnamese soldiers.

    He sought cover behind a haystack, and from there, saw his squad leader lying wounded and unconscious only 15 meters from the enemy bunkers. With intense firing whining past him, SPC Rodriguez crawled forward, reached the wounded man and dragged him back to the shelter of the haystack.

    Ignoring the pain from his wounds and armed with two M-16 rifles and hand grenades, SPC Rodriguez moved back into the line of fire, crawling toward the bunkers.

    He tossed grenades that wiped that wiped out three of the bunkers and killed more North Viet soldiers, leaving only one enemy bunker operating and inflicting casualties on the U.S. squad.

    With no more grenades left, SPC Rodriguez charged the bunker with both M-16 rifles on full automatic fire. He circled, entered from the rear and killed the final enemy soldier with a burst of fire at his head from point blank range.”

  • Pasco County Fire Rescue save Gene Work’s life twice

    Last weekend, Gene Work was working hard to re-sod his yard ahead of an Homeowner Association fine, when he suffered a heart attack. Pasco County Fire Rescue came and took him to hospital, but, in and out of consciousness during the trip, Work worried about his yard and the HOA fine.

    Gene Work’s brother, Mark Rouco, stayed behind. He was now determined to say as long as needed to replant the sod.

    “Mark knew how important it was to Gene,” said Melissa Work said.

    As Rouco was back at it when he saw the two emergency vehicles that had treated his brother returned to the house. Rouco thought they were coming back to check on him — instead, seven firefighters got out and said they were there to help with the grass.

    They knew that the sod would soon die while Gene Work wouldn’t be able to do anything about it in the hospital.

    Together, they laid out the new lawn in just one hour.

    When Gene Work woke up in the hospital, his wife told him that the firefighters had helped save the sod.

    “They don’t know what family they just helped,” Melissa Work said. “Gene said we had to find them and thank them, we had to tell everyone about this kindness.

    “I mean, they saved his life and then came back to save his grass. That’s just so awesome.”

    Work had surgery for his significant blockage that caused the heart attack, but he’s home recovering now, with no worries about his lawn.

    Thanks to AW1Ed for the link.

  • 15 soldiers treated for lightning strike

    Clay sends a link to the news that 15 Fort Jackson, South Carolina soldiers were treated for being near a lightning strike. None were actually injured, but they were sent for treatment as a precaution;

    The Fort Jackson PAO’s office says the lightning strike happened in a field where 200 soldiers in the 2nd Battalion of the 13th Regiment were conducting training around 3:45 p.m. near the Percival Road side of the post.

    Officials say 15 of those soldiers were taken to the hospital as a precaution, but there are no injuries. The soldiers are back in training.

    The soldiers were underneath a lightning-proof structure 50 to 60 meters from the location of the strike and felt it, but there were no injuries.

    Lightning hates the Army.

  • Norks show up for repatriation talks

    According to Stars & Stripes, a North Korean delegation showed three days late for talks about repatriation of missing US servicemen at Panmunjom;

    The North Korean side was led by a two-star general, according to the Yonhap News Agency, which said it was the first military talks between the U.S.-led United Nations Command and the North in more than nine years.

    More than 7,700 U.S. troops are still missing in action from the brutal, three-year war, with an estimated 5,300 believed to have been lost in the North, according to the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

    The agency says that North Korean officials have indicated they have “as many as 200 sets of remains” already recovered that could be ready for return.

    The meeting was supposed to be on Thursday, but the North Koreans rescheduled the meeting for today.

  • Will Nguyen; American arrested in Vietnam

    Will Nguyen; American arrested in Vietnam

    Reuters reports that Will Nguyen, an American citizen of Vietnamese extraction, has been arrested in Vietnam for participation in protests against the communist government;

    The police statement cited the indictment as saying that Nguyen incited people to protest and tried to overturn a police truck in the city, Vietnam’s economic hub.

    His lawyer is not immediately available for comment.

    Nguyen’s sister, Victoria Nguyen, said in a letter sent to the Department of State earlier this month that her brother was not violent and was a man of integrity.

    “I think we all understand that he is being condemned for something that we all know is our universal birth right: freedom of speech and expression,” Victoria Nguyen said.

    Yeah, who would have thought that a communist government would arrest people who speak freely?

    Nguyen is a grad student at the National University of Singapore, now he’s worried because he is supposed to graduate this month.

    From CNN;

    Nguyen was arrested after he asked officers to move police vehicles blocking the crowd’s path, authorities said.

    When “his request was not met,” Nguyen climbed on a police car urging others to cross through, VNA reported.

    He may be book smart, but he’s not street smart.

    Of course, it’s Trump’s fault he’ll be standing trial later this week, according to his sister;

    While Secretary Pompeo concluded his visit without commenting publicly on this case, Heather Nauert, State Department spokesperson, said in a brief statement Monday that Pompeo discussed the case with Vietnamese leaders.

    But the family of Nguyen, an American of Vietnamese descent, worry that may not be enough.

    Victoria Nguyen, William’s sister, has spearheaded a social media campaign titled ‘Free Will Nguyen’ in the weeks since her brother’s arrest. She had hoped that Pompeo’s visit would conclude with Nguyen’s release, and she is upset that this was not the case.

    “The most important part is that the State Department refused to demand his release,” she told ThinkProgress via Facebook Messenger. “Human rights are blatantly being ignored.”

    Oh,no! It’s the first time in human history that a communist government ignored human rights.

    The phony Vietnam War veteran, demands that Vietnam release Nguyen;

    Nguyen was forced to make a public apology, according to the Washington Post;

    On Tuesday, the Agence France-Presse reported that Nguyen confessed on state-controlled television.

    “I understand that my acts violated [the law] .?.?. I regret that I caused trouble for people heading to the airport. I blocked traffic and caused trouble to my family and friends,” Nguyen said, according to the report. Vietnamese authorities have been accused by human-rights groups of extracting forced public confessions, the AFP reported.

    William and Victoria’s mother, Vicky, fled Saigon four years after Vietnamese communist forces captured the city in 1975 and settled in Houston, Victoria Nguyen said. Their fraught family history inspired William Nguyen to study Vietnam at Yale University and to visit the country numerous times.

    Extra dumbass points are awarded for returning to a country his mother fled.

  • Sunday morning feel good stories

    Sunday morning feel good stories

    From Salisbury, North Carolina;

    Police say the incident began about 11:30 p.m. Thursday, when officers were called about a suspected armed robbery, said a statement.

    “Officers made contact with the suspect, who was armed with a handgun and attempted to negotiate his peaceful surrender. While negotiating with the suspect, he presented a clear threat to harm one of the hostages with the handgun,” said a statement.

    That’s when one Salisbury officer fired a single shot, hitting the man, police said in a statement.

    TV station WSOC is reporting the shooting happened after about 45 minutes of negotiations.

    The hostages were then whisked out of the store as police performed first aid on the man, said a police press release.

    He is in critical condition at N.C. Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, police said.

    From Middletown, Ohio;

    Officers were called to the 1300 block of Woodlawn Avenue on a report of a burglary. An investigation revealed a man entered the house and was lying in bed “with his pants down” and his genitals in his right hand and a hatchet in his left, according to the police report.

    The woman called for her husband to get the man out of the house. The husband then attempted to wake up the man to get him out of his house.

    During a preliminary hearing today in Middletown Municipal Court, the husband testified McClain was asleep on his wife’s side of the bed “propped up, covers pulled to one side and all my pillows behind him.”

    The man’s wife, children and other family members had just returned home from watching fireworks, he said, noting he was at a residence just one minute away.

    When the man bumped McClain and he awoke, that is when he saw the hatchet, he testified.

    “He got up with the hatchet in his hand,” the man said. “I hit him on the head with my gun”

    Then he and McClain fought and struggled through the house, according to the resident.

    The man said he used some boxing skills to keep McClain at arm’s length. Eventually he was able to push McClain out the home’s back door. The man said he believes McClain came in that door, which may have been left unlocked.

    When McClain made a move back toward the man, he said he fired a shot into the ground. He fired a second shot into the ground before McClain left his yard, he said.

    During the incident the man said McClain was “swinging the hatchet.”

    From Tucson, Arizona;

    In the video, the crook can be seen standing behind a counter, armed with a knife and demanding money from employees. However, the workers were not amused and one of them decided to take action by throw a chair at the suspect. At least six employees then start attacking the man and subduing him until police arrive.

    The crook did cut one of the employees with a box cutter which required 16 stitches.

  • Judge says Columbus city council bump stock ban is unconstitutional

    Franklin County, Ohio Judge David Cain ruled that the Columbus city council can’t write it’s own gun ban laws yesterday, according to 10TV News;

    The Ohioans for Concealed Carry and the Buckeye Firearms Foundation sued over what the city has called ‘common sense’ gun laws.

    “This is exactly what we expected,” Dean Rieck, Executive Director of Buckeye Firearms Association, said in a written statement.

    “We told the city that it could not pass any gun laws. But they ignored us and did it anyway. This victory is not a surprise, but it should be a warning to other cities in Ohio. Buckeye Firearms Association will not tolerate infringements against the Second Amendment and will take action against any city that passes unconstitutional laws.”

    In his decision, the judge compares bump stocks to spark plugs;

    Personally, I wouldn’t own a bumpstock – I never fired my AR rifle on full-automatic while I was in the Army, except on the qualification range. I won’t waste ammunition now that I have to pay for it, either. But I wouldn’t ban the useless contraptions.

  • Cohen’s “Purple Heart” comment spurs veteran protest

    Cohen’s “Purple Heart” comment spurs veteran protest

    According to the Tennessean, Steve Cohen’s comment the other day about how he wished that he could award FBI agent Peter Strzok a Purple Heart for the abuse he received from Republicans at a congressional hearing has angered Memphis veterans;

    Army veteran Darien Price, who lives in Memphis, said he was “blown away” by what he heard during the televised hearing.

    “That’s all I can say without cursing,” Price said in a telephone interview with the USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee.

    Price is a Purple Heart recipient. He was injured in 2003 in Afghanistan when he was in a tank that came under enemy fire, he said. Initially denied to be a recipient, Price said Cohen’s office helped him with the congressional investigation that led the award in 2009.

    “It was very personal to hear what he said. It was like a big slap in the face,” Price said. “It is disrespectful to those alive who wear the Purple Heart but especially to families who lost loved ones to who fought for this country. Truly saddening.”

    Air Force veteran and VA whistleblower Sean Higgins is planning to organize a local protest;

    Higgins is organizing an upcoming march in response to Cohen’s remarks and in protest of the hospital’s treatment of veterans. He said he has applied for a permit and that 30 veterans, including Price, so far have committed to joining.

    From Fox News;

    Retired Staff Sgt. Johnny “Joey” Jones, a Marine Corps veteran who received a Purple Heart after losing both of his legs and suffering other permanent injuries in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Afghanistan, told “Fox & Friends” on Friday that Cohen’s remarks were “disgraceful.”

    Following public outcry, Cohen backpedaled on his remarks during a joint hearing Friday.

    “I regret mentioning the Purple Heart medal at yesterday’s hearing,” Cohen said. “My intent was to speak metaphorically to make a broader point about attacks against the FBI and Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation into a Russian attack on our country.

    “I have nothing but the highest respect for members of the armed forces, especially those who have been awarded Purple Hearts, as well as the hard working men and women at the FBI. We are safe because of their service and sacrifice,” he said.