Category: book

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Fear is Something Many Soldiers Have to Face Every Day.

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Stolen valor, the term for when civilians pretend that they served in the military, isn’t always bad, at least when it takes down racist dirt bags. Specifically, one Army veteran-turned-FBI-informant named Joseph Moore won the trust of a Ku Klux Klan cell in Florida by coming up with fake war stories and pinning false medals to his hat.

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All U.S. service members, even if they are fully vaccinated, now have to wear masks indoors if they are in an area where COVID-19 is raging. Many troops thought the pandemic was over, but now it’s back to the mask, and just in time for the hottest month of the year.

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The Afghan Air Force is already falling apart, despite President Joe Biden’s claims that the U.S. would make sure the Afghans could maintain it. You need spare parts and bombs to keep an air force running, and Afghanistan is zero on both.

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The Navy has charged a sailor with starting a fire in July 2020 that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard, an amphibious assault ship that became engulfed by an inferno for days as the ship was docked in San Diego, California. The ship cost $1.2 billion to build, but it only took a few days for it to burn beyond repair.

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“We have to be honest with the American people, who pay for this – not only in money but also in blood and treasure.” That’s from John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, who took reporters through all the mistakes the U.S. made in Afghanistan over the past 20 years. The result: a resurgent Taliban and little to show for the thousands of Coalition and Afghan troops and citizens who died there.

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‘You’re gonna keep your A-10 Warthogs and you’re gonna like it,’ is essentially what Senators said to the Air Force after it tried to cut 42 A-10 attack planes from its fleet in its fiscal year 2022 budget proposal, reports yours truly in this piece. The A-10 is a legendary attack plane that has saved the bacon of countless ground troops over the past 45 years, but it is getting older and Air Force officials worry it’s not up to face China in a big war.
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Here may be the last excerpt for a while. Time to send the book off to the publisher.

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F.E.A.R

(1) Forget Everything and Run, or

(2) Face Everything and Rise.

The choice is yours

Fear is one of the inevitable things a soldiers must face. I faced it a few times. The worst time was when I was on a plane ready to fly to the Bay of Pigs. I was ready to serve my country, but not knowing what was going to happen caused the fear.

In the dictionary fear is described as:

  1. A distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil or pain.
  2. Concern or anxiety.
  3. To be worried or afraid.
  4. Reverential awe, especially towards God.

All of us on that plane tried to hide our fear. We were supposed to be men/women. We were not supposed to think about what might happen to us. In reality we all thought about not returning home. We thought about loved ones. We thought about the unknown we were facing.

It is hard to face fear. John Wayne said, ” Courage is being scared and saddling up anyway.” This is the man who played the parts of heroes all his life. Many of his films were military films.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.”

Fear isn’t something that is a cowardly act. It is an honest reaction to what is happening around you.

I have faced my own fears. I was within hours of death when I was rushed to the hospital in and ambulance and had quadruple by-pass surgery on my heart.

When you see a car coming at you, head on, while driving on a highway, You don’t act in a cowardly manner, you react. You take action to save your own life.

If you feel you were fearful too often while you served, don’t let that give you a feeling of failure on your part. It is just an honest feeling that often brings out the best in people.

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How is your day? Did you face fear while enlisted? Did things seem to go belly up for you?

FEAR NOT!

There are over 12,525 fellow veterans subscribed to this site who have your back.

This may not be enough for you. If so, GET HELP!!

Here is a toll free number to call 24/7.

There are highly qualified counselors there to help you. They will not hang up until the know you are OK.

Never face fear alone!

1-800-273-8255, Texting 838255

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Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all….never, ever, give up!

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+If you like what you see, please subscribe at the top of this page where it says, “subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox. Also, if you know some else who could benefit from this site, please let them know.

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Prostitution Can Cause Havoc With Our Soldiers Who Are Deployed

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I am sitting on my patio doing my post today. We just had the patio extended by four feet, and that made world of difference. It is 70 degrees right now with a high of 91. I decided to get out early and do my posts before it gets too hot.

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Military news…

About 70% of soldiers have received the COVID-19 vaccine, but some of the ones who haven’t may have baseless concerns about it. Three Army doctors took to a podcast this week to debunk some of the common myths about the vaccine, like whether it causes infertility, erectile dysfunction, or miscarriages. There is no evidence that the vaccine causes any of those issues.

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The first 2,500 Afghans evacuated were the easiest to get out. What about the rest? There are still an estimated 70,000 interpreters and their families at risk of being killed by the Taliban, and the 2,500 coming to Virginia are “not nearly enough,” according to one expert.

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An Air Force commander at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma took serious heat from airmen on social media this weekend for berating his crew when they decided not to fly a training mission in dangerous conditions. A recording of the commander’s speech went viral on Reddit and Facebook, where many airmen identified with “the push for a mission by those who aren’t putting their lives at risk,” as one airman said.

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Two of the four soldiers killed during an October 2017 ambush in Niger have been symbolically inducted into the Special Forces Regiment to recognize their bravery during the hellish battle. Becoming an honorary Green Beret is an extremely rare honor reserved for those who distinguish themselves through their service to the Special Forces community.

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No, Russia’s new fighter jet can’t fly at twice the speed of light, despite Fox News reporting to the contrary. While a Fox anchor likely made a mistake in saying that the upcoming Sukhoi Checkmate can fly faster than light and thereby break the rules of physics, who knows? Maybe the Russians have something up their sleeves.

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I will share another excerpt with you from my upcoming book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.

Iriwaba Means Come Here in Korea

After I was in Korea for a while, I had time to go for walks in the village of Uigongbo, Korea. At the time it was a broken down village that didn’t seem to find any industry to support it. Today it is a thriving town.

I soon found out that the industry was prostitution. There were women of all ages waving at me and yelling Iriwaba.

Iriwaba means come here in Korean. These women were all trying to to entice you to come over to their little parlor and have sex with them for a fee. I was such a naive young man I didn’t respond for the first few trips there.

One night the guys decided I needed to get drunk and party. I ended up waking up and saw an elderly lady on top of me buck naked, and I was too. She was having sex with me, and I didn’t know it. As my eyes cleared, I saw she was eating an apple like I was one o the people she would please while she was on a break!

I was told she was a “Mommason,” A mommason is the boss of the prostitutes, and I was delegated to an old pro who thought she cut eat an apple while she was performing her act for me.

I asked her the fee. She told one of the guys paid it and the going rate was a cartoon of cigarettes. She said one cartoon of cigarettes, which was worth $2.99, would get her family enough food for a week. The cartons were a hot commodity in the “Black Market.”

I thought I would try to go out and “test,” the market one night. A mommason beckoned to to me to come into her shack. I thought she was the one providing the services, but she walked me into her bedroom, and lying on the bed naked was a little girl that couldn’t have been more then twelve years old. She looked very frightened and wouldn’t even look at me.

I was very angry and wanted to punch the mommason in the face. I left quickly.

Later learned that having so much sex in that village can be deadly. One of the soldiers, who bragged about being with a woman every night, caught some serious infection in his gentiles and eventually had to have them cut off to save his life.

That vision cured me of any other trips to the village for pleasure.

The experiences I had in Korea changed my life. Some of the experiences I am not proud of, but I learned so much in the thirteen months I was there.

With This particular lesson I learned is that something may look enticing, and could give you pleasure, but it also could be something that is very serious and could lead to a “dead end.”

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This is just a part of this chapter in my book. If you want to read more, come back often to see more excerpts. Better yet… Go to the top of this page and click on “subscribe.” When you do all future posts will come directly to your inbox.

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Breaking news… As I am sitting here typing this post, humming birds are coming in to feed at our bird feeder. They can’t be more than six feet away from me.

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OK, time to check in. How are you doing? Have you had some scary nights dreaming? Does the world seem to be closing in on you?

FEAR NOT!

There are over 12,525 fellow veterans here who have your back.

However, if you are overwhelmed, GET HELP!!

Here is a toll free number to call 24/7.

There are highly qualified counselors there to help you, They will not hang up until they know you are OK.

Never face this not so friendly world alone!

1-800-273-8255 , texting 83855

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Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

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+If you like what you see, please subscribe at the top of this page where it says, “subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox. Also, if you know some else who could benefit from this site, please let them know.

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Basic Training Has Some Fun Times, and Some Not so Fun Times.

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Military news…

Troops Get Biggest Raise in Ten years

Active duty troops received a 3.1 percent raise thanks to the passing of the National Defense Authorization Act. It was the largest raise in a decade.

For the military the new Act includes the funding to build:

  • Almost 100 new F-35’s
  • 24 new F/A-18’s
  • 155 new helicopters
  • 165 Abrams tanks
  • Nearly 50 Paladin howitzers
  • 10 new Navy war ships- including two amphibious ships, three submarines, three destroyers, and three aircraft carriers.

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As Congress squabbles over funding, National Guardsmen around the country are bracing for the loss of training time and the paychecks that come with it. The uncertainty comes as Guardsmen are still recovering from an extremely busy 2020 that saw them responding to the COVID-19 pandemic; hurricanes, wildfires, and eventually the U.S. Capitol riots in January.

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The first group of Afghan interpreters and their families arriving in the United States will be housed at Fort Lee, Virginia. It’s not clear when the 2,500 Afghans will arrive, but their numbers include about 700 Afghans still applying for Special Immigrant Visas that would allow them to stay in the U.S.

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The Air Force’s top general delivered a laser-guided kick that emphasizes the branch’s commitment to diversity in its ranks. Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr. talks about how, when he’s in the cockpit of an F-16, nobody knows the color of his skin. He’s just “an American airman, kicking your butt.”

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Another excerpt for you from my upcoming book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.

This is my rifle; this is my gun

When we were in inspection mode in basic, one of the things we had to do was strip down our rifles as fast as we could, clean them, and put them back together again. We were timed. That was in case you were on the battle field, and had to do repairs in a hurry. Our rifles meant a lot to us.

One time our drill sergeant had us in formation, and came in front of each soldier. He would ask us questions to try to trap us into saying the wrong things that pertained to military regulations.

He stepped in front of one of my buddies, and asked him what he had on his shoulder. My buddy said, “This is my gun sir!” That was the worst things he could have said. The sergeant grabbed the rifle and said , “This is your rifle!” The he grabbed my buddy in the groin, and said, “This is your gun!.”

My buddy bent over in pain, but the sergeant wasn’t through yet. He made my buddy step in front of the whole company and yell, “This is my rifle and this is my gun,” as he grabbed his groin. He had to say further, “One of for fighting and one is for fun!” The sergeant made him do this for several days. He also made my buddy sleep with his rifle, to make sure he know the difference.

We need to take our time and think about we are going to say. Often times what we say is something we regret.

When we say something that hurts someone else, all the apologies, or acts to to overcome what you have said will help, but the wounds are still there.

Think about this story when you are getting upset with someone. Is what you are about to say constructive, or are you just going to say something to hurt them?

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This is a shortened story from the book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.

Come back and see other excerpts. Better yet… Go to the top of this page and click on “Subscribe.” When you do all future posts will come directly to your inbox.

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Be check… How are you doing? Did you have some not so fun things happen to you during your basic?

FEAR NOT!

There are over 12,500 fellow veterans here on this site who have your back.

If it is just too overwhelming for you GET HELP!!

Here is a toll free number you can call 24/7.

There are highly qualified counselors there to help you. They will not hang up until the know you are OK.

Never let past dreams over come you!

1-800-273-8255, Texting 838255

__________________________________

Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

+If you like what you see, please subscribe at the top of this page where it says, “subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox. Also, if you know some else who could benefit from this site, please let them know.