Archive for September, 2009
And You Thought Your Job Was Hard
by admin on Sep.30, 2009, under Non-Combatant Heroes
At least you don’t have this guy’s job!
But seriously, this takes the term “talented” to whole new levels. According to the website where I found this incredible image, the pilot is in the Guard and flies EMS helicopters in his civilian time.
Amazing.
Chinoook helicopter touching down to receive Afghan Persons Under Control (APUC) captured by members of the U.S. 10th Mountain Division.
Freedom Has Its Cost
by admin on Sep.29, 2009, under Tribute
They will always be heroes, because only heroes can give so much. And we will always remember those gifts that they ultimately gave.
The Price of Freedom from Chuck Holton on Vimeo.
On August 16, I posted a blog called “They Call them Heroes” about a medevac mission to Wardak province. On that mission, two men from the 101st Airborne were killed and three more wounded in an IED blast during a combat resupply mission. I related that the dead are referred to over the radio net as “Heroes”, and rightly so.
Later, I found out that the hero who was carried back to Bagram Airfield on my aircraft was a 29-year-old 1st Lieutenant named Donald C. Carwile. Donnie was formerly a policeman from Oxford, Miss., and joined the Army because he believed it was the honorable thing to do. Donnie left Jennifer, his wife of four years and two daughters, ages 3 and 5.
I told the story of this mission when I was asked to speak at a church in Columbus, Ga., a few weeks ago. For that service, I put together the above video from that mission. Donnie’s feet are the last thing you see.(source)
SEAL Gave His Life In Iraq
by admin on Sep.23, 2009, under Combat, Rescues
March 2008
SAN DIEGO — A California-based SEAL who threw his body on a grenade to save his comrades in Iraq will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor, a Defense Department official has confirmed.
Master-at-Arms 2nd Class (SEAL) Michael A. Monsoor, of Garden Grove, Calif., was holed up on the roof of a Ramadi house with three other SEALs on Sept. 29, 2006, when an insurgent grenade landed nearby.
Monsoor, a 25-year old with SEAL Team 3, grabbed the grenade and clutched it to his chest. The blast killed him, but his actions, officials said at the time, saved the men on the rooftop.
Monsoor will be the second member of the Navy to receive the Medal of Honor since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, and the first sailor to receive it for combat in Iraq.
Michael Fumento, who’s written about Monsoor and combat operations in Ramadi, reported on his Internet blog over the weekend that Monsoor’s family would receive the posthumous award on the fallen SEAL’s behalf during a White House ceremony April 8. (source)
I can’t imagine what must go through a person’s head when they make such a life-shattering decision. What would it be like to know that your comrades’ lives are in your hands, and only you can save them – but at the expense of your own life? And to know, in those last few seconds as you hug that live explosive, that soon you will be discovering that last great mystery? For a person to make such a choice is truly the bravest and most selfless act a human being can perform.
Michael Monsoor gave no less than his greatest gift. Until that moment, he had lived helping his comrades. Monsoor had received the Silver Star in 2006 for risking his life to save a fellow SEAL who was injured during a firefight in Ramadi.
“Mad Jack” Churchill
by admin on Sep.22, 2009, under Historical Heroes
Ok, wow. Why haven’t I heard of this guy before? He was a machine! They sure broke the mold when they made him, then threw out that mold. “Mad Jack” Churchill certainly marched to the beat of his own drummer.
So yeah, he’s the guy in front carrying a freakin’ sword. That’s right. Leading a charge with a sword. In a war that had advanced projectile weaponry to a horrific point that hadn’t even been dreamed of only a few years before. According to him, “any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed”.
I’ll let Wikipedia tell you all about him.
He resumed his commission after Poland was invaded, and volunteered for the Commandos after fighting at Dunkirk. Churchill was not sure what Commando Duty entailed, but he signed up because it sounded dangerous. In May 1940, Churchill and his unit, the Manchester Regiment, ambushed a German patrol near l’Epinette, France. Churchill gave the signal to attack by cutting down the enemy Feldwebel (sergeant) with his barbed arrows, becoming the only known British soldier to have felled an enemy with a longbow in the course of the war.[2]
A longbow, for heaven’s sake. First he signs up for something simply because it sounded dangerous, then signals battle by shooting someone with a longbow. Can it even get better than that?
He led two companies in Operation Archery, the raid on the German garrison at Vågsøy, Norway on December 27, 1941. As the ramps fell on the first landing craft, Churchill leapt forward from his position playing The March of the Cameron Men on bagpipes,[2] threw a grenade, and began running towards the bay.
For his actions at Dunkirk and Vaasgo, Churchill received the Military Cross and Bar. He received the Distinguished Service Order in 1943 for capturing the battery at Salerno, while commanding Number 2 Commando. Leading from the front, Churchill infiltrated the town with only a corporal in support. He kidnapped a sentry and forced him to make his comrades surrender. Churchill and the riflemen walked out of town with 42 prisoners and a mortar squad.
It did get better. He rode into battle playing bagpipes, and he doesn’t miss a measure when he chucks a grenade back at the opposing party. Then he and one other guy capture almost 50 men. Heck, I can’t even capture a decent photo with an auto-focus camera!
In 1944, he led Number 2 Commando in Yugoslavia, where they supported the efforts of Tito’s partisans. The commandos raided the German-held island of Brač and assaulted Hill 622. Only Churchill and six others managed to reach the objective. A mortar shell killed or wounded everyone but Churchill, who played “Will Ye No Come Back Again?” on his pipes as the Germans advanced. He was knocked unconscious by grenades and was flown to Berlin for interrogation after being captured. He was placed in Sachsenhausen concentration camp.
No words. Too awesome.
In September 1944, he and an RAF officer crawled under the wire through an abandoned drain and set out to walk to the Baltic coast; they were recaptured near the coastal city of Rostock, only a few miles from the sea. In late April 1945 Churchill was transferred to Tyrol together with about 140 other prominent concentration camp inmates, where the SS left the prisoners behind.[3]
He escaped from Niederdorf, Italy in April 1945 and walked 150 miles to Verona, Italy where he met an American armoured column.
As the Pacific War was still ongoing Churchill was sent to Burma, where the largest land battles against Japan were still raging, but by the time he reached India, Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been bombed, and the war abruptly ended. Churchill was said to be unhappy with the abrupt end of the war, saying: “If it wasn’t for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years!”
We will never see a man such as he again. Talk about one in a million.
Comforting Arms
by admin on Sep.21, 2009, under Non-Combatant Heroes
Chief Master Sgt. John Gebhardt cradles an injured Iraqi girl
This is so sweet, even though is has a tragically sad beginning. The young girl in the photo was shot in the head when insurgents attacked and executed her entire family. They intended her to die with her family, but somehow she survived. She was brought to the military hospital on the Balad Air Base, where she received care for her injuries. John Gebhardt is with the McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas, and was at the time stationed in Balad. According to his wife, he has always has a tender place for children, so when the little girl had trouble sleeping and needed a comforting shoulder, John was there for her. The nurses said he was the only one who could get her calmed down enough for her to get her much needed rest.
While deployed to Iraq, the chief tried to help out any way he could. He figured holding a baby that needed comforting that would free up one more set of arms that could be providing care to more critical patients.
…“I got as much enjoyment out of it as the baby did,” he said. “I reflected on my own family and life and thought about how lucky I have been.” (source)
We are most lucky to have men like John serving in the military.
POW/MIA Recognition Day
by admin on Sep.18, 2009, under Support Our Soldiers, Tribute, Veterans
Today is a day dedicated by the United States Air Force to remembering those lost without closure in past and current wars. Throughout our country’s history, many have been simply written off as MIA or POW – never to be found. Families couldn’t have closure on the final whereabouts of a loved one. But the organization JPAC (Joint Pow-MIA Accounting) is hoping to change that. They are engaging in the monumental task of collecting potential MIA victim remains, along with thousands of mitochondrial DNA samples, and comparing them in hopes of finding these lost soldiers. So today let us remember them and hope to one day bring them home.
Is there anything more horrific than burying a loved one felled in a war? Perhaps. Some families of those who have fought overseas have never received closure in the form of their loved ones’ remains or even a small personal memento. In 1947, having calculated that the whereabouts of 78,750 American soldiers remained unknown after World War II, the United States Air Force dedicated the third Friday of every September as POW/MIA Recognition Day.
Over the course of the next six decades, the number of missing warriors rose. The Korean War claimed 8,051; Viet Nam, 1,742. The Cold War took another 165 and the Gulf War, 7. To date, the sole American soldier missing in Iraq is Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie. These numbers do not include personnel killed in action and never brought home.
JPAC (Joint POW-MIA Accounting) is the governmental organization charged with the daunting task of locating, identifying, and returning to their native soil the aforementioned service men and women. Housed in Hawaii, JPAC has been headed, since 2008, by Rear Admiral Donna L. Crisp. Colonel John M. Sullivan serves as Deputy Commander, Johnnie E. Webb as Deputy Public Relations-Legislation Affairs, Sergeant Major Jackie D. Brown Jr. as Command Senior Enlisted Leader, and Dr. Thomas D. Holland as Scientific Deputy Director for the Central Identification Lab. In addition to these officers are teams dedicated to search and retrieval missions, comprising archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists, and deontologists. A quick second read of those job titles is indicative of the enormity of JPAC’s objectives.
…On the third Friday in September, the State of New Jersey honors its POW-MIA‘s with a breakfast sponsored by Assemblymen Jack Conners and Herb Conaway. These public officials invite veterans from all over the state to join in a memorial ceremony dedicated to the men and women who never made it home from the wars. Honored Guests at the 2008 event included WWII POW veteran Joseph O’Donnell, Mrs. Judith Young, who is a Past President of the “Gold Star Mothers,” Mrs. Anna Marko of Cherry Hill, an 84 year old widow of WWII POW Leon Marko, State Adjutant General Glenn Reith, Colonel Stephan Abel, and other veteran dignitaries.
Friend Fulfills Pact
by admin on Sep.16, 2009, under Combat, Tribute
Two young men made a pact. If one outlived the other, the survivor was to wear a dress to the deceased’s funeral. But too soon that pact was honored.
Barry Delaney lost his friend Private Kevin Elliott, who last month was killed in Afghanistan while on foot patrol. He was only 24 years old. Barry went all out in his fulfillment of the pact, donning a lime green dress, pink leg warmers and black boots. As the saluting shots were fired to commemorate a military death, Barry knelt by his friend’s grave and wept.
Navy Medic Shows Courage On The Battlefield
by admin on Sep.14, 2009, under Combat, Non-Combatant Heroes, Rescues
Photo taken moments after Kate Nesbitt saved a soldiers life
COURAGEOUS Kate Nesbitt takes a well-earned breather on the battlefield – her face covered with the blood of the soldier whose life she has just saved.
Navy medic Kate, 21, was snapped moments after a heroic rescue in Afghanistan which has earned her a Military Cross.
The brave blonde dashed 70 yards across a war zone to reach fallen Corporal John List, who was choking to death on his own blood.
An enemy bullet had ricocheted off Cpl List’s body armour into his mouth – smashing his jaw and tongue.
Despite heavy fire from Taliban machine guns, Kate worked for 45 minutes to save his life.
She stemmed the bleeding and then expertly performed a tricky procedure to open a second airway through the soldier’s nose.
Able Seaman Kate, from Plymouth, is the first Wren to receive the Military Cross. (source)
Medics truly are special people. They take their duty seriously, even to the point of risking bodily harm in order to perform it. They are someone who has dedicated themselves to the un-warlike ideals of healing, but who won’t hesitate to throw themselves into the violent fray when needed.
These field medics deserve all the praise and recognition that they can get. I’m glad that this brave woman received the Military Cross. She more than deserved it.
Royal Marine Tackles Suicide Bomber
by admin on Sep.11, 2009, under Combat, Rescues
Words can’t quite describe the awesomeness here. Sergeant Noel Connolly was serving in Afghanistan last November when he spotted a suspicious looking man on a motorbike. The motorcyclist looked lost, and that set Connolly on high alert.
[Connolly] said: ‘I was near the school when I caught a fleeting glimpse of a motorbike. I told all my lads to expect a bomber.
When the man came back for another pass, Connolly challenged him. He stopped the bike and made a move for the toggle switch installed on the bike. Did Connolly go for his gun? Oh no, guns aren’t for real men. Instead he Chuck Norris-style tackles the man sitting on 154 pounds of explosives, bodily removing him from the bike.
Connolly doesn’t think he’s done anything brave or heroic. But we’re all entitled to disagree with him, and this week he will be awarded the Military Cross in honor of his actions.
British Soldier Lost During Rescue
by admin on Sep.10, 2009, under Combat, Rescues
A journalist and his translator had been captured when they were covering the NATO airstrike that resulted in approximately 70 people killed. They were taken by Taliban members and were being held in northern Afghanistan. In the fray of the rescue, a soldier was killed along with the journalist’s translator, Sultan Munadi.
A British soldier serving with the special forces support group has been killed during a pre-dawn raid to free a British journalist being held by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan, it was confirmed today.
The reporter’s interpreter also died in the operation.
Stephen Farrell, a New York Times journalist, and his translator, Sultan Munadi, were captured last Saturday as they reported on the aftermath of a Nato air strike in which at least 70 people were killed.
Early today, Farrell said he had been “extracted” after a helicopter carrying British and Afghan soldiers swooped on a compound near the northern city of Kunduz.
“We were all in a room, the Talibs all ran … it was obviously a raid,” the 46-year-old told his editors in New York.
The Kunduz governor’s office confirmed that the raid had been led by British special forces.
Military officials told the Guardian that the soldier who died was a member of the special forces support group.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed that a British soldier, believed to be a paratrooper, was killed during the operation. Two Afghan civilians were killed in the crossfire, the BBC reported.
“We regret to announce that a British soldier has been killed on operations in Afghanistan,” an MoD spokesman said.
The number of British troops killed in Afghanistan since the start of operations in 2001 now stands at 213, with 41 having died in July and August.
A spokesman for Gordon Brown said the prime minister had spoken to the UK’s leading military commander in Afghanistan, General Jim Dutton, “to thank the [rescue] team for the tremendous effort”.
In a statement, the prime minister paid tribute to the courage of the British soldier who was killed in the raid. “His family has been informed, and our immediate thoughts are with them. His bravery will not be forgotten,” said Brown.
Brown said Farrell was “now safe and well, receiving support from embassy staff and undergoing medical checks.” Read on…
