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

Category: Support the troops

  • Iowa Senate retools the “Stolen Valor ” Act.

    Iowa Senate is working on creating a Bill, S.F. 397, that would make it a misdemeanor with fines up to $1,875 dollars and up to a year in prison. Sen. Dennis Black, D-Grinnell address the States Bill against the original 2005 Act.

    “It does not really go as far as I’d like but constitutionally I think it goes as far as we can,” Black said before senators voted 48-0 to approve an amended version of Senate File 397 and shipped it to the Iowa House for consideration.

    Which is important since that more people may will to abuse the new car license plate honoring those who have CIBs, CABs, CMBs, and CARs.

    Legislation that cracks down on unauthorized use of military decorations and medals also unanimously passed the Senate. Senate File 397 has been dubbed “Stolen Valor” because it protects those who’ve answered the call to military service from theft of the honor they’ve earned.

    This bill makes it a serious misdemeanor to impersonate a decorated military veteran to deceive another person with the intent to receive monetary gain, such as a job, promotion or political office.

    Both of these bills now go to the House for further consideration.

    The State Government of Texas will be looking into a similar Bill 431 in the near future.

    “It’s easy to fool the general populace,” says McEntyre. “They’re not going to question you.”

    And that’s why McEntyre doesn’t want to let the issue rest. Neither should lawmakers. The proposal next goes before the House Defense and Veterans Affairs Committee.

    “With the right amount of public awareness, it might make people (who are lying about a service record) think and realize that what (they’re) doing is wrong.

    “People think this is a victimless crime,” McEntyre said. “But (the liars) are victimizing all of us in our good nature, our willingness to help other service members.”

    Which is something that many people do not understand.

  • School names field after fallen soldier

    Just A Grunt sends a link to his hometown paper about a school who has just named their athletic field for a fallen soldier and former student;

    The field at North Cobb Christian School off Old Highway 41 in Kennesaw was renamed the Jacob Dennis Field during a ceremony conducted at halftime in a soccer match between NCCS and Woodstock’s River Ridge High School. A bronze, fallen soldier monument featuring a helmet, rifle and a pair of boots was also unveiled in his memory at the field.

    A 2005 NCCS graduate, Army Private First Class Jacob Dennis was 22 years old when he died of injuries suffered while serving in Afghanistan last summer.

    His parents, Tony and Renee Dennis, brother, Sam, and sister, Molly, a sixth-grader at the school, accepted replicas of the monument and an American flag flown over the school at around the time of his death. His mother is an administrative assistant at the independent Christian school.

  • Airman 1st Class Zac Cuddeback comes home

    Airman 1st Class Zac Cuddeback was killed on a bus at Frankfurt Airport last week. Brig. Gen. Mark Dillon,
    the 86th Airlift Wing commander, took him home this week and recounts the final miles;

    We missed Zac’s arrival by a couple of hours but later that night, as we approached the town of O’Fallon, we started seeing them — American flags — hundreds upon hundreds of them.

    Perhaps it was because we have been living outside the United States for a while, or maybe it had been a long flight from Germany, or maybe it was a pure patriotism. Whatever the reason, as we started passing the flags our car fell silent.

    For miles we passed flags on both sides of the road. And then as we entered O’Fallon, we didn’t just see flags, we now noticed the billboards too. Yes every billboard — churches, schools, and businesses — all had a message honoring Airman Cuddeback. Dozens of them.

    Needless to say, these symbols of a community’s support — American flags and billboard messages dedicated to Zac — put a lump in my throat.

    And then, when we thought we couldn’t see any more outpouring from this community, it happened. It happened as we began our 4-mile drive to the cemetery. It happened as we drove through neighborhoods and along country roads.

    It was on the drive we saw them; hundreds; no, not hundreds, but thousands. Thousands of O’Fallon citizens lining the route to honor Airman Cuddeback.

    They stood silently on both sides of the road. They stood with American flags in hand. They stood holding up homemade signs. They stood saluting. They stood in their front yards. They stood next to an industrial-sized crane flying a massive American flag above the procession.

    Thanks to Tankerswife for the link.

  • Meadowlark Lemon visits the troops

    The most memorable Globetrotter of my youth…on the rare occasion they appeared on our 3-network television…Meadowlark Lemon talks about his visit recently to Walter Reed and the tour his daughter gave him of the Pentagon.

  • Bob Barker donates $3mil to care for TBI warriors

    Former naval aviator and game show host, Bob Barker, helped a service organization make up the last 3 million bucks in it’s struggle to raise money to help warriors suffering from brain injuries and for the new construction at Bethesda Naval Hospital;

    Bill White, president of the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, got on the phone with Barker. The two spoke for 40 minutes about Barker’s service experiences and the difficulty of raising money in a recession, White said.

    Barker, 84, said he was motivated to make the donation because of his naval service and his desire to help people in his retirement.

    Barker just went up a few points in my estimation. If more of those Hollywood types would pry open their wallets and give back to real causes instead of just the culturally popular causes, maybe people would take them more seriously.

    Thanks to ROS for the link.

  • “Their struggle is your struggle”

    Cortillaen and ROS sent this link to the Washington Post this morning about Lieutenant General John Kelly. Both Cortillaen and ROS included that this type of article is a rare appearance in the Post.

    “Their struggle is your struggle,” he told the ballroom crowd of former Marines and local business people. “If anyone thinks you can somehow thank them for their service, and not support the cause for which they fight – our country – these people are lying to themselves. . . . More important, they are slighting our warriors and mocking their commitment to this nation.”

    Kelly is the most senior U.S. military officer to lose a son or daughter in Iraq or Afghanistan. He was giving voice to a growing concern among soldiers and Marines: The American public is largely unaware of the price its military pays to fight the United States’ distant conflicts. Less than 1 percent of the population serves in uniform at a time when the country is engaged in one of the longest periods of sustained combat in its history.

    You really need to read the entire piece – it’s also rare that I recommend that in the Post, but there’s no way that I can tell the story as well as it’s told by Greg Jaffe, the Post reporter.

    I’ll just say this; there is a huge disconnect between the troops and the rest of Americans. It’s probably the fault of the length of this war and the millions of detractors of the politics leading up to this war and through out the war. It’s certainly not the fault of veterans of previous wars who’ve stepped into the information gap created by petty politics. Not me, of course, but the thousands of real milbloggers, the Gathering of Eagles, the American Legion Riders, the Patriot Guard Riders and so on.

    I’m just a late-comer who glommed on to the rest of these folks.

  • This is a TAH public service announcement.

    With the new promotion system going into affect combined with the reduced time for up or out is good idea to bring up the new online classes and what all Soldiers should know.

    First of the old system ATIA is dead. Any courses taken after January 1st will not count. Considering that most of the classes were taken off ATIA leaving less then thirty classes. But any hours earned before the new year can be grandfathered in. Make sure that you keep a printed or electronic copy for S1. At this time the S1 cannot manually update them to your ERB and to present them prior to your board. At this time the only way that seems to work in added these hours to your ATTRS transcript is to contact the Army Training Help Desk that can be found My Training section. You can sent them screen shots of your old ATIA course list as well as what is current on you ATTRS. You can tell the classes that came from the old ATIA system because they will be taged with a ATSC – LMS identifier. Oh and that Army Warrior University Enrollments will not show any new classes that have been taken not using ATIA

    The current system Army Learning Management System (ALMS) has been going through some changes. The time limit and number of chances you are given to pass your the test for the courses has been removed if registered through Army Training Requirements and Resources System (ATRRS). Instead you are given the option of downloading the class material in a PDF format that can be used when taken the test. Some computers have issues with displaying the course material and test at the same time. For this issue you have to download the PDF before you can be allowed to take the test.

    Also this is a important part. If you want credit for your classes to show in your ATRRS transcripts and ERB, you must register in ATRRS. Signing up for classes in ALMS will not show up after you complete it at this time. This is important because the number of hours listed on your ERB sent directly from your ATRRS transcripts. Also any new classes will automatically be updated to ERB without having to go to your local S1 with the 20 point increase min.

    There are some current issues with ALMS. When you complete a test make sure that you exit out correctly. Because if you do not do this, your exam will be recorded as incomplete. Even if you scored a 100. Some of the classes will have issues and I think I found one. I have taken and passed the exam at least ten times and no dice. I waiting on a reply from the ALMS and ATTRS support staff about this.

    Hopes this helps, I wanted to do this since I spent the good part of January as a acting squad leader and getting my second Soldier of the Month board win. (Don’t get too excited, I was the only one competing this time. ). I am been working on the new ACCP system since that is one of my weak areas. This April will be five years in the Army and I want to become a NCO before my sixth year. Also people have been asking me questions about the new ACCP system so I figured that it would be a good subject to talk about.

  • Chaplain Streuker retires

    Since people follow history here I thought that this might be interested in this.

    The movie Blackhawk downs is one of the most famous military movies based on real events. Check out this from Fort Benning TV to get an inside look at one of the main characters in the movie, Chaplain (MAJ) Jeff Strueker, as he says farewell to his life as a Soldier.