Thank you Hillary & Barack

The Russians are working on a bomber base in Cuba? -- and/or Venezuela. MSNBC once again with an AP story...

Ed Freeman - Got this via e-mail today

Thanks Patti...

This story was made into a movie: We Were Soldiers (2002), staring Mel Gibson. The hero pictured below (Ed Freeman) was portrayed by Mark McCracken. Please read on...

Once they were Soldiers....

Ed Freeman

You're an 18 or 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, 11-14-1965. LZ Xray , Vietnam . Your Infantry unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in. You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out.

Your family is 1 / 2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day. Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see a Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.

Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway. And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board. Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses. And, he kept coming back..... 13 more times...... and took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.

Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman died last Wednesday at the age of 80, in Boise , ID.

.....May God rest his soul.....

The best laid plans...

I had really planned to get to a few items of interest on Saturday so that I could hit the range Sunday afternoon. Nothing quite like plans gone awry. Saturday was blown on tires and Sunday was blown on the washer and dryer. So... for all of you lucky enough (snerk) to check on this stuff, here are a couple of the interesting items from last week...

U.S. troops "stalemated" in Afghanistan - This is an AP story picked up by MSNBC talking about troop levels and requests in Afghanistan. While I have a multitude of opinions about this engagement, I will keep them to myself. What I am having trouble with is how Big Daddy O plans to decrease our military budget yet maintain a viable force in the field. I keep hearing about troop drawdowns, but as other needs escalate... I think you see where this is going.

LaHood's talk of mileage tax nixed - This is another AP story picked up by MSNBC. This one was talking about $0.025 per mile driven tax being applied to us wage-earning, tax-paying mules that continue to keep our collective governements afloat. Now it is, of course, saying how this will not be a policy of the Big Daddy O administration... no shit Sherlock. By the way LaHood is a half-wit for thinking that taxing miles driven is unhinged from taxing gas purchased. And, I am pretty sure this puts the brakes on someone wanting to be frugal and buying a grass-munching Prius. Reckon I might investigate an old school hay burner (read horse) first.

Improvised Explosive Device - A Little Close for Me...

I received this as an e-mail attachment. Thank you Mike and if you (or anyone else) know(s) who originated it, please let me know so that I can give proper credit. This is not gory or nasty, but will give you an immediate feeling of... as chicken as it is... glad it wasn't me. God Bless all of those who are in harm's way. And, if it is from a video game or movie, please let me know also... looks PLENTY real to me.