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

Category: Holidays

  • Merry Christmas

    Merry Christmas

    I’ve got family visiting today, so please don’t expect much attention from me here, but I’m thinking of you and your families, nonetheless.

    Here are some Christmas offerings for you. The folks at We Are The Mighty send you this video about “How the Sergeant Major Stole Christmas”

    MCPO sends this Christmas message;

    The truth

    Now go spend time with your own families or whoever isn’t us, and don’t forget about the people who can’t spend the Holiday with theirs in your prayers and thoughts.

    Speaking of whom, Eggs sends us holiday greetings from Africa;

    Eggs in Africa

    Also, thanks to everyone who sent packages, cards and baskets this year – some of you didn’t give your names (and I understand that), but I want to send you thanks. Also, thanks for hitting the tip jar especially hard – my holiday is brighter because I have such friends.

  • I believe…

    I believe in Father Christmas.

    A few years ago, I realized that if a man is lucky he will go through the three stages of Santa Claus.  I have been fortunate in my life, I have hit each stage and am a better man for it.

    For those of you that don’t know what those three stages are, I will explain.

    Stage 1.  I believe in Santa. As a child, the belief in Santa is absolute, we know that there is a Santa, and we thrive in the wonder and spirit of Christmas.

    Stage 2. I don’t believe in Santa. I remember when I found out there was no Santa, it changed my life, innocence lost.  For a while I still wanted to believe. Then I pretended it did not matter. Later, I became jaded and scoffed at the whole idea, how could I have been so foolish? Later was the acceptance, Christmas had lost its magic, it was all about the gifts I could get.

    Stage 3. I am Santa Claus, I have been Santa for almost 30 years, and with the birth of my first son I inherited the title. Christmas had its magic again, I saw the wonder of it all again, through the eyes of my children. I have loved every second of it.

    I can remember one or two Christmases as a child, I remember every one as an adult. Those are the most special. Any parent who has ever watched A Christmas Story and remembers the dad saying “What’s that over there?” will understand that it’s about bringing joy to the kids. I have held many titles in my life, but the one I liked the most was Santa. One Christmas as an adult stands out in my mind, we had five kids under the age of twelve, the oldest two knew the deal with Santa but they were under orders not to ruin it for the younger ones. Over a period of days we had manages to smuggle five bikes and other things into the house and hid them in every possible location.  Christmas Eve: getting everything out was a logistical work of art.  

    I admit I am at a bit of a loss this year, my kids are all grown and getting on with their own lives.  I have a beautiful granddaughter, but she lives on the other side of the country, facetime and skype are nice but its not the same as being there. So I guess I need to add another Stage.  I used to be Santa.

    For those of you with young kids, please remember to buy batteries for all the toys, and I promise in the years to come you will look back on putting toys together, and then not getting any sleep fondly. I can honestly say that in my days as Santa I enjoyed getting up on Christmas morning to see the kids open their gift more than any gift I ever received.  I admit I pretend to be a bit of a Grinch at Christmas, but it’s just a front I use to hide my real identity as one of the millions of retired Santas in the world.

    Merry Christmas to you, my TAH friends and “God bless you every one.” 

     

  • Happy Thanksgiving

    Happy Thanksgiving

    Thanksgiving was the only holiday that I could count on being some sort of day off while I was in the Army. For some reason I was always working, on duty, or in the field the rest of the year. Well, I said “some sort of day off” because I was always in the mess hall in my blues serving the troops. probably because I was one of the few who had blues.

    Thankful? I’m thankful that my wife hasn’t abandoned me yet and I’m thankful for the 3,258,614 unique visitors that we’ve had so far this year who seem to like this thing I’ve created. I’m thankful that you’ve wasted almost 12,000 days worth of time here since January 1st.

    So enjoy your day with your families, if you can, but remember that there are still troops deployed who won’t be with their families. I’m thankful that they stepped into the breech for me.

    The picture was provide by MCPO who will be having turkey sandwiches tomorrow.

  • What Veteran’s Day Means To Me

    My favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird.  Close to the end of the book, after Scout has walked Arthur (Boo) Radley home is this passage;

    “Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them, just standing on the Radley porch was enough.”

    I was sent the essay below by someone very close to me.  It offers a different perspective, one that is shared by all too many people. In short it offers us the chance to stand on her porch.

    What Veteran’s Day Means To Me

    Holidays are always hard on me.  I dread them with a passion.  If it weren’t for giving my 8-year old son memories and teaching him what they are about, I would disregard them altogether.

    I have never served in the military, but my brother did.  He was killed in an accident while serving aboard the USS Coral Sea in 1988.  He died on my 14th birthday.  Even though it has been 26 years, that pain is still very real and very raw.  Especially on holidays.

    Most people enjoy Veteran’s Day for many reasons.  Some of those reasons are selfish, such as a paid day off of work, or going to a parade, or even the great Veteran’s Day sales.  Very much like Christmas, the true meaning is lost on many.

    I live in a small community.  We only started having Veteran’s Day parades in the past few years.  I took my son for the first time last year because he was in the Boy Scouts and they were part of the ceremony.

    Going to a Veteran’s Day ceremony is torture for me.  I see all these fine men and women in their uniforms and listen to the speeches about time served and lives lost.  I have yet to hear Taps played and a 21 gun salute without totally losing every ounce of dignity I have left and bawling like a little girl.  Luckily, a retired Navy man who knows my circumstances saw me last year and came to basically hold me up while I tried to keep from making a total fool of myself.  Even though I would never disrespect those who have served in any way, I go somewhere else in my mind while all of this is going on, so that I don’t have to think about my tremendous loss.  I leave as quickly as humanly possible so I can go home and mourn in private.

    There are two ways I look at Veteran’s Day.  First, I am eternally grateful to all who have served and continue to serve.  I have many, many friends who are veterans.  My boyfriend is a veteran.  His son is currently serving. Two of my best friends are veterans. I am friends with at least fifty of my brother’s shipmates.  I honor them and all veterans on this and every day. To me, there are few things in this world more honorable than defending this country.

    The second way I view Veteran’s Day is it yet another day of mourning and remembering what I have lost. To be honest, I hate it like I hate all other holidays and days of significance.  Yes, it has been almost 27 years.  But I have lost much more than a sibling.  I lost my protector, years of spending time with him, his wedding, his children, his contribution to our family and society.  And yes, he was my hero, but he was much more.  I have not read ONE negative word about him on any blog or website. He was known to be a hard worker, a great guy, a comedian.  But he was so very much more.  He was my only brother. He was my hero. He was my defender. He was my world.  And he is gone.

    So every time these fake pieces of shit put on a uniform and medals they didn’t earn, they are disrespecting him and everything he lived and died for.  I have no doubt there is a special place in hell for them, along with the Westboro Baptist Church members. All I can say to them is karma is an evil bitch with PMS.  May God not have mercy on their souls.

     

    The lady that wrote this is one of the kindest and most honest people I have ever known.

    I have seen the pain and anguish that the loss of her brother has caused.  I have seen the genuine passion that she has in supporting all  current and former members of the military.

    I cannot think of a better example of true strength and real courage than that of a Gold Star Family.

  • Mykel Hawke on Memorial Day

    Mykel Hawke on Memorial Day

    Mykel Hawke

    TV personality and TAH fan, Mykel Hawke, sent us a link to his speech that he gave in Sterling, Colorado the other day;

    Hawke said he has seen a lot of combat and lost many friends. “I try to take a lesson from their death in how to live my life,” he said.

    Every morning when he wakes up, he said he remembers each of those fallen friends during his morning prayers. “I pray for the strength to live each day well and worthy of their sacrifice.”

    While he said he had prepared a lengthy speech remembering many of those friends, he said the main point he had to share was this: “Live well, and remember to laugh, because that’s what makes life worth living.”

    He said he talked with his wife, who is British, about why Americans have a special holiday honoring soldiers who have fallen in combat. “For those who paid the ultimate price there’s no greater sacrifice and nothing we can honor more than their memory,” he said. “One of the best ways that we can keep the memory alive of our fallen loved ones is we have to remember how they died. We have to remember that pain, because that makes us appreciate the sacrifice.

  • Every day should be your Memorial Day

    Every day should be your Memorial Day

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    The other day, my friend, Matt Burden, wrote on Facebook that this weekend should absolutely include barbeques and picnics because that’s how our fallen warriors would want us to spend a weekend remembering them – that we can push all of the worries in the world to the side because of their sacrifice. His point was that we don’t need to visit graves, plant flags and flowers in veterans’ cemeteries to honor their last full measure of devotion. All we need to do is live a life worthy of their sacrifice, and the sacrifice of their families.

    Most of those warriors would be embarrassed by the attention, well, I know I would. But then, I’m embarrassed when someone thanks me for my service. It’s not that I’m not grateful for their verbal expression of gratitude, it’s just that I never know what to say. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of every one of my friends and soldiers who have been lost because of their service to the American people. In my mind, what I’ve done doesn’t even approach that which they’ve done for this country and I honor their memory by living a life that they would consider worth what they gave to us.

    In that regard, every day is Memorial Day for me. I don’t need to visit Arlington Cemetery and stand among the headstones. Everyday, I stand among the headstones in my mind.

    Mostly, those warriors who went on before us, just want you to enjoy the life that they helped secure for you. Enjoying the time that you spend with your family and friends, doing the things with your life that make you smile is honoring the sacrifices that were made for you. I think “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” were all mentioned in the Declaration of Independence.

    It’s not what you do one day out of the year that honors veterans, it’s what you do the other 364 days. It’s not the “thank you for your service” that matters, it’s what you say to me before you know that I’m a veteran.

    So I hope you have an honorable Memorial Day weekend.

  • Merry Christmas, 1965

    We are all aware of the way Vietnam veterans were treated by some in this country in the 60’s and 70’s. I came across an article in my local fishwrap about a couple of college students here in my home town that didn’t really care for the way protestors were behaving and came up with an idea to show their support for our local soldiers.

     

     

    Operation Michigan Christmas, an idea that came from Jackson's Dave Trotter and Gary Mugg and championed by Gov. George Romney, delivered nearly 7,500 Christmas packages to Michigan soldiers serving in Vietnam in 1965. Nearly 200 students from colleges and universities throughout the state helped pack boxes and make signs for the charter plane delivering the packages.
    Operation Michigan Christmas, an idea that came from Jackson’s Dave Trotter and Gary Mugg and championed by Gov. George Romney, delivered nearly 7,500 Christmas packages to Michigan soldiers serving in Vietnam in 1965. Nearly 200 students from colleges and universities throughout the state helped pack boxes and make signs for the charter plane delivering the packages.

     

     

    “There were a lot of us here that believed regardless of the war, the soldiers in Vietnam were kids like us and our friends and family,” Mugg said. “Dave especially believed we needed to do something to show our support for the troops.”On Nov. 21, 1965, Mugg and Trotter announced in the Citizen Patriot an ambitious project to gather the names of Jackson-area men and women serving in Vietnam so they could mail Christmas packages to them to help boost their morale.

    It was first envisioned as a local effort however, then Gov. George Romney (yes, Mitt’s father) got wind of the idea after returning from a trip to Vietnam and decided to make it a state wide effort.

    News of the effort reached Gov. George Romney, who had just returned from a visit with Michigan troops there.

    On Nov. 26 – the day after Thanksgiving – Romney made Mugg and Trotter’s plan a statewide effort to put Christmas packages in the hands of every Michigan man and woman serving in Vietnam.

    Operation Michigan Christmas was born.

    The Pentagon was unable to provide names and addresses of Michigan soldiers so 9 newspapers across the state put out the call and just 4 days after Gov. Romney made it a statewide effort, over 3000 names and addresses had been submitted.

    Dow Chemical Co. gave bottles of aspirin, tissues and Saran Wrap that covered Michigan apples. Ford, General Motors and Chrysler all contributed model cars so soldiers could give the toys to South Vietnamese children.

    The packages contained candy, nuts, fruit cake, peanut butter, mixed nuts, raisins, apple sauce, gum, canned pop, ballpoint pens and stationery, sewing kits, toothpaste, razor blades, shaving cream, insect repellent and foot powder.

    200 college students helped pack up gift boxes totaling more than 7,400 packages and the newspapers that collected names and addresses pitched in to pay for a charter flight to deliver the goodies.

    The flight left Willow Run Airport on Tuesday, Dec. 14 and the gift boxes were in the hands of grateful soldiers by Christmas. Pentagon officials later called the “gift lift” a “logistical miracle.”

    When I was in Desert Storm the most memorable thing about the holidays for me was an Apache pilot that landed in our AA on Christmas Eve, jumped out with a Santa suit on, and handed out Christmas cards from anonymous folks back home.

    Please feel free to leave your holiday deployment stories in the comments below!

    Merry Christmas everyone, and a special Merry Christmas to those of you spending it away from your loved ones this year.

  • More on the Parade In Richmond

    I’m sure Jonn will be back soon with some good photos from the event, but just wanted to pass along that the parade was a success and had some media coverage as well. From the Military Times:

    Thousands of people turned out for the parade, which ended with a free outdoor concert and what organizers call a veterans’ resource exposition. Active-duty personnel and veterans from all military service branches marched in the parade alongside high school marching bands, Army and Air Force units and the Marine Band.

    “I’m absolutely thrilled that everybody took the time out to support the military,” said Army Staff Sgt. Jason Harich, a parade participant who has served two tours each in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    “In my 17 years, I have never seen an event like this, and I am honored and thrilled that it is being done,” Harich said. “This is how I like to see our community, together as one.”

    There are also some photos at the Richmond-Times Dispatch.