A Christmas Gift From Our GI's

I haven't been posting much due to illness. Charlie the ChiTown Cop sent me this; I read it just after we got off the phone with Soldier Girl this morning. She is currently running missions outside of Kandahar. The MRAP MaxPro is the vehicle she drives as depicted above. It is a 25 ton bruiser.

I had no Christmas spirit when I breathed a weary sigh,
and looked across the table where the bills were piled too high.
The laundry wasn't finished and the dinner I had to fix,
The dishwasher wouldn't work, and now it's all in bits
And so with only minutes till my son got home from school,
I gave up on the drudgery and grabbed a wooden stool.
The burdens that I carried were about all I could take,
and so I flipped the TV on to catch a little break.

I came upon a desert scene in shades of tan and rust,
No snowflakes hung upon the wind, just clouds of swirling dust.
And where the reindeer should have stood before a laden sleigh,
eight hummers ran a column right behind an M1A.
A group of boys walked past the tank, not one was past his teens,
Their eyes were hard as polished flint, their faces drawn and lean.

They walked the street in armor with their rifles shouldered tight,
their dearest wish for Christmas, just to have a silent night.
Other soldiers gathered, hunkered down against the wind,
To share a scrap of mail and dreams of going home again.
There wasn't much at all to put their lonely hearts at ease,
They had no Christmas turkey, just a pack of MRE's.
They didn't have a garland or a stocking I could see,
They didn't need an ornament-- they lacked a Christmas Tree.
They didn't have a present even though it was tradition,
the only boxes I could see were labeled "ammunition".

I felt a little tug and found my son now by my side,
He asked me what it was I feared, and why it was I cried.
I swept him up into my arms and held him oh so near
and kissed him on the forehead as I whispered in his ear.

There's nothing wrong, my little son, for safe we sleep tonight.
Our heroes stand on foreign land to give us all the right,
to worry about the things in life that really mean nothing at all,
instead of wondering each day if we will be the next to fall.
He looked at me as children do and said it's always right,
to thank the ones who help us and perhaps that we should write.

And so we pushed aside the bills and sat to draft a note,
to thank the many far from home, and this is what we wrote,

"God bless you all and keep you safe, and speed your way back home.
Remember that we love you so, and that you're not alone.
The gift you give, you share with all, a present every day,
You give the gift of liberty and that we can't repay. "

Author Unknown
God bless America

Thanks Charlie .

Soldier Girl's Pics

We finally got an idea of Soldier Girl's new digs in COP Caron. Her unit is assigned to support the 4th Infantry Division. It looks pretty grim but she is enjoying her assignment; especially since she was trained as a MRAP driver. Now that is a truck! I wonder if it is good in snow?

In June 2008, USA Today reported that roadside bomb attacks and fatalities were down almost 90% partially due to MRAPs. "They've taken hits, many, many hits that would have killed soldiers and Marines in uparmored Humvees," according to Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Maj. General Rick Lynch, who commanded a division in Baghdad, told USA Today the 14-ton MRAPs have forced insurgents to build bigger, more sophisticated bombs to knock out the vehicles. Those bombs take more time and resources to build and set up, which gives U.S. forces a better chance of catching the insurgents in the act and then attacking them.

This is Soldier Girl in the driver's seat. The first time she took the MRAP out she said she nearly gave the other GI's whip lash but she quickly got the hang of it. This 14 ton MRAP makes my 4,700 pound Explorer look like a pansy.

This is the little village just outside the protective walls of COP Caron.

This is a small view of COP Caron with a 4X4 MRAP parked near some concrete barricades. Soldier Girl was stringing concertina wire while taking these last two pics.

Bravery

Last September I posted a story about the actions of the 101st Combat Brigade in Kunar Province, right on the Afghan border with Pakistan. Then in October I posted another story regarding the return home of Billy Jr. and his participation in fighting off that September Taliban attack. His picture is attached above.

Last night his dad text'd me stating that Billy Jr. has just received the Bronze Star.

We are so very proud of Billy Jr. and rejoice with his family. He will be rotated home in the Spring.

Until then, LORD, keep him and his comrades-in-arms safe. Bring them all home to their families.

On a personal note, our daughter has finally reached her assigned post, COP Caran. I believe it is about 50 miles from Kandahar. It is a small Contingency Operation Post assigned with a unit from the 4th Infantry Division. She goes out on convoys assigned as a gunner in a MRAP. But this one is different; unlike the soldier who was wounded in the September post, her top mount fifty cal is equipped with a camera and electric drive. She operates it like a video game. I like that very much.

Sweet Home Azerbaijan

Please bear in mind that the highest cause of mortality in Russia is alcoholism and that they also have losts of nuclear weapons.

"When everyone'is super, no one will be."

One of my favorite animated movies is The Incredibles. Remember Syndrome's threat?

Well, the Land of the Lost, formerly known as Great Britain, has brought their game to a new level, "When anything is a faith, then nothing is."

From the Daily Mail Online:

Hundreds of criminals are to be given four days a year off prison work - to celebrate pagan festivals.

Prison governors have been issued with a list of eight annual pagan holidays and told pagan inmates can choose four to celebrate.

The festivals include Imbolc - The Festival of the Lactating Sheep - which falls on February 1 and is dedicated to the goddess Brighid. Another is the festival of Beltane, which falls in early May, devotees are urged to celebrate the Sun God with 'unabashed sexuality and promiscuity'.

The Yule festival involves pagans 'casting spells' and dressing up as ghosts.

[...] Worshippers are allowed to keep tarot cards, a hoodless robe and a twig to use as a wand in their cell.

They can also keep incense, a piece
of jewellery and rune stones.

Skyclad, or naked worship, is banned.

And there is no end to them or their lunacy. Here's one.

Asatru - is the modern reconstruction of the religion of the pre-Christian Germanic peoples. Practice primarily consists of honoring the Gods and Goddesses from a polytheistic perspective, and also numerous honoring spirits and helpful beings. There are Nine Worlds, including the world of humans (Midgard) and the world of Gods (Asgard). The World Tree connects all the Nine Worlds, and binds them together. There are different afterlife options, depending upon which Gods one followed in life, what type of person one was, how one died and other factors.

Not to be left out, there are many others: Discordianism, Druidry, Feri, Gwyddons, Hellenismos, Kemeticism, Religio Romana, Religious Witchcraft, Senistrognata, Thelema and Wicca.

In western civilization's race to abandon Christianity, there are a host of old lies that are re-emerging. The dominance of the west came only after Christianity was universally accepted. Now we see inroads by these and other religions, most notably Islam. As Europe abandons its Christian heritage for other faiths, it abandons the cornerstone of it's culture for the past 1,700 years. Look for more European lunacy as they auger themselves into a moral and cultural morass. It will not be pretty.

UPDATE: This was supposed to be a GNN post. I thought I lost it but it was actually written under my blog. See - No title. I guess there should an amendment to the rule that states "Don't blog when you're drunk." Don't blog when you haven't slept in four days and your temperature is almost 102.

Feeling Better

Friday night I came down with a high fever. I rarely ever am sick, just an occasional cold or so, but this was intense. I spent the entire weekend on the couch shaking like a crack addict. Tylenol helped somewhat but I just had to let it run its course. My wife took care of me and I am ever so thankful for her. I still have to go to the doctor tomorrow but at least I feel almost normal again.

UPDATE:
That didn't last long. Same thing last night, chills and sweats and fever, oh my!
So it's off to the doctors today.

Why I Do Not Own A Dog

I've seen a few varieties of each.

H/T to Charlie the ChiTown Cop

Awesome Storm Cloud

This is a supercell storm cloud photographed in Montana. It looks like the mothership from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," or a gigantic inter-galactic insect mouth. Is that stuff going up or coming down?

The full story is here.