In 2009, Gen. John Kelly drove from California's Camp Pendleton to Los Angeles to present Sgt. Danny Hernandez with a Silver Star. It wasn't for actions during the then-ongoing wars in Afghanistan or Iraq; it was for heroism on a battlefield in South Vietnam – 43 years earlier.
Hernandez was 20 years old when he hopped out of a helicopter during Operation Utah in South Vietnam's Quảng Ngãi province. He and the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines were reinforcing the 2/7 Marines and South Vietnam's 1st Airborne Battalion, who saw heavy resistance from the start.
It was supposed to be a simple operation to push the North Vietnamese out of the province, but the Americans quickly found they were outnumbered by thousands and were facing a complex tunnel system. The tunnels and spider holes surrounding the Marines' objective, Hill 50, would nearly spell disaster for the Americans if not for the valor of Danny Hernandez.
The Marines spent the night of March 4, 1966, under heavy fire from the NVA, but the next morning, they regrouped and were ready to attack. Hernandez was a machine gunner with Mike Company, who began moving through a rice paddy toward Hill 50 on March 5. Mike Company found itself in an ambush, and the Marines were disbursed as they took cover.
When he found a safe spot to get a picture of the battlefield, Hernandez immediately noticed an American machine gun dueling with an NVA machine gun. In the middle of an open field, in no man's land between the two guns, was a wounded Marine, with blood pooling around his body. He was bait for the enemy, and there was nothing the Marines on the machine gun could do for him.
But Danny Hernandez saw an opportunity from his vantage point. He had adequate cover to approach the wounded man, and when the Marine gunner saw Hernandez was moving to the rescue, he laid down a withering cover fire. Without thinking, Hernandez ran to the wounded. However, by the time he got there, the enemy opened up on the two in the open field. Hernandez shielded the wounded with his own body, taking a hit to the back that "felt like a sledgehammer."
When the NVA machine gun finally stopped, Hernandez dragged his fellow Marine to safety. He then followed his wounded comrade to a medevac zone. When he got there, Hernandez saw guys from his Company that were wounded and dying. Suddenly filled with anger, he refused to be evacuated, picked up a rifle, and went back to the fight.
The fighting was perilously close, and he found himself in a foxhole. By sheer luck, it was occupied by his "A" gunner and his machine gun. Hernandez took up his machine gun, replenished with ammo, as the Marines moved to assault a spider hole. As he moved, Hernandez noticed the NVA was moving too – toward the undefended medevac zone.
By the time he noticed the wounded were about to be slaughtered, the other Marines were too far away to hear his calls. Hernandez jumped out of a ditch, through a treeline, and placed himself between the wounded and incoming NVA soldiers. As the enemy opened up on him, one NVA soldier charged. Hernandez killed the charging soldier amid a hail of bullets, then turned on the main force.
The NVA retreated from Hernandez and his machine gun into a cave-like tunnel as Hernandez poured fire into the mouth of the tunnel and ran in after them. He made it ten feet before the tunnel collapsed in front of him. The enemy had escaped, but the wounded would survive. Danny Hernandez walked out of the tunnel and collapsed from his wound and exhaustion. He recovered in a hospital in Guam.
His Commander, Marine Corps Lt. Jim Lupori, put Hernandez in for a Silver Star but transferred to a new unit. It wasn't until the two men met up again in 2005 that Lupori learned Hernandez never received the medal. Lipori spent the next three years gathering evidence to get Hernandez his much-deserved medal that Gen. John Kelly would present to him in 2009.
The evidence Lupori collected led many to believe the Silver Star wasn't enough for Danny Hernandez's actions that day in South Vietnam. His supporters have started a movement to get his medal upgraded to the Medal of Honor. They formed the Committee to Upgrade Sgt. Danny Hernandez to continue the effort to get him an upgrade.
Read about Hernandez's Silver Star story and his experience in Operation Utah in his book, "Silver Star: An American Story."
After the attack on Fort Sumter in South Carolina, the Union developed an overall strategy to defeat the Confederates. Later dubbed "the Anaconda Plan," it required the Union to capture control of the Mississippi River, effectively splitting the Confederacy in two while blockading Southern ports to cripple the South's economy and prevent it from acquiring supplies.
This plan was derided at first because the blockade wasn't considered aggressive enough by Union generals, but it turned out to be extremely effective. The rebels felt the Union blockade long before they felt the retribution of the Union Army – and almost immediately began finding ways to beat the blockade. On March 8, 1862, a new kind of ship would be put to the test for the first time, hoping to punch a hole in the Union Navy.
One of the keys to Union seapower during the Civil War was the development of ironclad warships. The development of heavier naval guns and explosive shells made wooden-hulled ships extremely vulnerable to these weapons, and the United States was an early adopter of armored hulls. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles had decided to build ironclads when the Civil War started but had yet to complete one.
When Virginia seceded from the Union, the Commander of Gosport Navy Yard in Virginia (now the Norfolk Navy Shipyard) burned all the ships he could tow to friendly waters as they sat in the Navy yard. The destruction of the yard was far from complete, and when the Confederacy took control of Portsmouth on the south side of Hampton Roads, it also took a number of critical stores.
As a result, the rebels were able to rebuild the yard and use its supplies, which included heavy naval guns, gunpowder, and the hull of a Union steamship, the USS Merrimack. They raised the Merrimack and converted it into an ironclad steamer with 12 guns of various types. In little less than a year, the Merrimack was rechristened the ironclad CSS Virginia.
But while the rebels controlled the southern side of Hampton Roads, the Union controlled the mouth of the James River and the exit to the Chesapeake Bay. To complicate matters for the rebels, the Union knew they were building an ironclad and were rushing to complete one of their own, the USS Monitor.
The Confederates would finish the Virginia first, however, beating the Union to the punch by a matter of days. On March 7, CSS Virginia and its five support ships steamed out of Portsmouth to engage the Union Navy. On March 8, Virginia got into a shooting match with the USS Cumberland before ramming the Union warship on its starboard bow, sinking it.
The USS Congress, attempting to flee to shallow water, ran aground and was forced to surrender to the Confederates but would catch fire and burn. USS Minnesota would also run aground while fleeing but was spared from destruction. The USS Monitor, still unfinished, was rushed from Brooklyn, New York, to Hampton Roads to meet Virginia's firepower.
On March 9, 1862, the first Union ironclad and the first Confederate ironclad engaged in the first battle between armored warships. Virginia was slower, and its heavy guns had a hard time hitting the Monitor. Monitor engaged the rebel ironclad at point-blank range, but neither was able to strike a decisive blow. Virginia had been damaged in ramming the Cumberland, and Monitor's captain had been blinded by a gunpowder explosion.
Ultimately, the Virginia was forced to retreat back to the navy yard, unable to break the Union blockade. Virginia would never be seaworthy and was more of a floating battery of guns in the James River. When Union troops descended on Norfolk in 1862, the Confederates scuttled the ship rather than let it fall into Union hands.
I have met old friends here, as well as made new ones. I actually linked up through TWS with the FAC that helped save my life when our camp was being overrun on June 20, 1969.
Linking up with old friends helped me bring closure to a few loose ends. The new friends have helped me expand my world of knowledge and understanding of those things that happened over four decades ago.
Together We Served has also helped me bridge the generation gap. I have connected with soldiers from other eras. Some of my friends here have already passed on to Fiddlers' Green, but they shall continue to live here as long as the website stays up and running. I appreciate that.
The photo combines my team from 1969 with the same guys in 2000, just as Together We Serve unites the old and young. Together, we did indeed serve.
Sgt Robert Pryor US Army Veteran
Served 1967-1969
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, they came with an estimated 190,000 troops across Ukraine's border with Russia. Minutes after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the Russian invasion, Russian aircraft from Belarus struck the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. The Russians had launched a northern front across the border with Belarus. The target of the north front was Kyiv, and Russian forces were trying to break the will of Ukraine's people and its armed forces.
But stories began to spread about a mystery jet fighter that had fought seemingly for days in skies above Kyiv, downing at least six Russian fighters, maybe more. The mystery pilot became known as "The Ghost of Kyiv," Though it was later found to be nothing more than a story, it inspired the Ukrainians to fight off the attack on their capital and defeat the Russian offensive.
Russia's northern push from Belarus was an estimated 30,000 strong, with hundreds of attack helicopters, ground vehicles, airborne assault units, not to mention Spetsnaz special forces. The only thing keeping them from capturing Kyiv and forcing an early end to the unjust invasion was 18,000 irregular Ukrainians and what air forces Ukraine could muster. The opening days of the Russian invasion were very grim for Ukraine.
Stories about Ukrainian fighter pilots who relentlessly attacked Russian forces in the air and on the ground began circulating almost immediately. Videos circulated on social media of fighters in dogfights in the skies over and around the city. One of the jets, a MiG-29 Fulcrum, was said to be piloted by a man who had downed six Russian fighters within 30 hours of the invasion. No one knew who he was, except that he was dubbed "The Ghost of Kyiv."
If he were real, the Ghost would have been the first fighter ace of the 21st Century, a heroic stand for a country fighting for its life against overwhelming odds. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence said the pilot was one of the reservists who had answered his country's call to arms but could not confirm his name, though they did confirm six Russian planes had been shot down.
Soon, the number of aerial victories attributed to the Ghost of Kyiv jumped to 10, and the mystery pilot had captured the attention of the rest of the world, from Detroit to Donbas. Ukraine began to share photos of the mystery pilot in the cockpit, helmet on, claiming it was the Ghost himself. But the Ghost of Kyiv, it turns out, wasn't real.
As world media worked to uncover the identity of the mystery pilot and routinely came up short, they began to speculate that it was a myth. By the end of April 2022, Ukraine admitted the Ghost of Kyiv wasn't real but was made up as "a superhero-legend, whose character was created by Ukrainians… [he] embodies the collective spirit of the highly qualified pilots."
Although the downed aircraft were real, the Ukrainians created the Ghost of Kyiv to raise morale at a time when Ukrainian defenders needed it the most. They were right. Ukrainians fighting for their freedom and abroad shared the story of the Ghost of Kyiv, giving a major morale boost to the resistance against the Russian invasion.
Although the Russian invasion was initially successful, the attack on Kyiv quickly turned into a stalemate. Ukrainian reservists flocked to the city's defense, inflicting heavy losses on the Russians and forcing them to withdraw. By April 2022, the Russians were cleared from Kyiv Oblast, and by September, the front was united in the south, far from the Ukrainian capital.
The sky was red above Gloucester, MA, when fishermen on the swordboat Andrea Gail set out from their harbor with ominous flashes of lightning far away to the northwest that late autumn of 1991. At the 1 hour and 21-minute mark in the movie "The Perfect Storm," the first distress call to USCGC Tamaroa (portrayed by CGC Vigorous) is transmitted from USAF Pave Hawk "Jolly 110" assigned to the NYANG 106th Rescue Wing.
Sailing from her homeport at Newcastle, NH, Tamaroa had been coordinating air and sea operations looking for vessels caught in three violent Atlantic storms converging south of Nova Scotia when it was diverted. On a fourth HC-130 refueling sortie, 30 attempts to meet the drogue failed due to extreme turbulence of up to 100 knots; the Jolly 110 went dry and was forced to ditch. The Satori yacht passengers had been brought safely into a USCG rescue helicopter by then; at no time were they set aboard the Tamaroa. After five hours adrift in the tempest, seas sometimes reaching 80-100' swells, all but one of the five Jolly 110 crew had been brought alive onto Tamaroa, which often endured extreme rolls, nearly reaching the righting arm. She was a 48-year-old former US Navy fleet tug, operated by the Coast Guard since the end of World War II as a medium endurance cutter. Injured and having fallen away from grasp on the cargo net, Pararescue jumper TSgt Arden Rick Smith was never found. By the time of filming, Tamaroa had been decommissioned.
TWS member DC3 William Doherty recounted, "I served on the Tamaroa in the '60s. We performed what were then known as SAR/LE Patrols… areas where there was a lot of traffic and the cutter's mission over the years, including rescues, stopping smugglers and enforcing fisheries treaties. I reported on board in 1967, my first assignment out of boot. I was in the deck force. There are three main divisions on a cutter such as ours: Deck, Engineering, and Operations. Regardless of one's division, we stood watches four on eight off around the clock."
The ship was built by Commercial Iron Works in Portland, Oregon, commissioned in 1943 by the US Navy as the Zuni (ATF-95), then by the Coast Guard in 1946. She was 205' in length, 39' beam with an 18' navigational draft displacing 1730 tons full load. Her range was 13,097 miles at 10.1 knots. Tamaroa (WMEC-166) was stationed at New York, NY, from 1946 through 1985, conducting law enforcement, oceanography, and International Ice Patrols, as well as search and rescue operations.
Her spectacular and long record of service came to an end when, facing a $1-3m overhaul, the "Mighty Z," "The Tam" was forced to shut engines for good. She was decommissioned on 1 Feb 1994, transferred to and berthed beside the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in NY harbor, and ultimately donated to the Tamaroa Maritime Foundation of Richmond, VA. It was DC3 William Doherty, then working in Manhattan, who early noticed his ship tied up beside the Intrepid, resulting in a 10-year group effort to save her. Since 2017 USCGC Tamaroa lives on in waters between Delaware and New Jersey as an artificial reef for Marine life.
I'm stating the obvious by allowing me to find shipmates I haven't seen or heard from in years. The outstanding cross-referencing work performed by TWS connects you with Marines and squadronmates who served in the same units during the same time period. Additionally, TWS provides a superb venue for posting my own unique and personal Marine history on a military-friendly website that I can share with family, friends, and my fellow Marines.
LtCol Carl Reynoso US Marine Corps (Ret)
Served 1975-2010
Learn how expanded benefits could impact Veterans you know
You’ve likely already heard about how the PACT Act could impact your care and benefits, but did you know it also expands healthcare eligibility for many Veterans?
When President Biden signed the PACT Act on Aug. 10, 2022, it initiated one of the largest expansions of VA benefits in history. This includes extended VA healthcare enrollment eligibility to Vietnam-era, Gulf War-era, and Post-9/11 Veterans.
You can help spread the word about expanded eligibility to enroll in VA health care for your Veteran friends who have not previously enrolled. Here are all the details you need to know to help them get the care they earned and deserve.
For Vietnam-era Veterans
Vietnam-era Veterans who served in the following locations and time periods are eligible to apply for enrollment beginning now:
Republic of Vietnam between Jan. 9, 1962, and May 7, 1975
Thailand at any U.S. or Royal Thai base between Jan. 9, 1962, and June 30, 1976
Laos between Dec. 1, 1965, and Sept. 30, 1969
Certain provinces in Cambodia between April 16, 1969, and April 30, 1969
Guam or American Samoa (or their territorial waters) between Jan. 9, 1962, and July 31, 1980
Johnston Atoll (or a ship that was called there) between Jan. 1, 1972, and Sept. 30, 1977
For Gulf War-era Veterans
Beginning Oct. 1, 2022, Gulf War-era Veterans who served on active duty in a theater of combat operations after the Persian Gulf War may be eligible to enroll in VA health care.
This also includes Veterans who, in connection with service during such period, received the following awards or recognitions:
Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal
Service Specific Expeditionary Medal
Combat Era Specific Expeditionary Medal
Campaign-Specific Expeditionary Medal
Any other combat theater award established by Federal statute or Executive Order
For Post-9/11 Veterans
Post-9/11 Veterans discharged before Oct. 1, 2013, can enroll in VA health care during a special 1-year enrollment period between Oct. 1, 2022, and Oct. 1, 2023. To be eligible, one of the following must be true:
They served on active duty in a theater of combat operations during a period of war after the Persian Gulf War, or
They served in combat against a hostile force during a period of hostilities after Nov. 11, 1998.
How to talk to your friends about VA healthcare
If you have eligible Veteran friends who aren’t currently enrolled, they may be hesitant to apply for any number of reasons. Consider sharing your own experience to help demystify the process. Remind them that they earned the right to this care through their service and point them in the direction of resources to help – like visiting their nearest VA medical center or clinic.
Plus, it’s free and easy to apply. Read on for more details about VA health care and the four simple options for applying.
Fast facts about VA health care
Enrollment is free, and health care may be free as well.
VA health care for any illness or injury determined to be related to your military service (called “service connected”) is free. The PACT Act added more than 20 presumptive conditions, expanding benefits to Vietnam-era, Gulf War-era, and Post-9/11 Veterans.
Check out the complete list of new presumptive conditions at www.va.gov/PACT.
Tell your friends to apply for VA health care in one of four ways:
Online: https://www.va.gov/health-care/apply/application/introduction.
By calling the toll-free hotline: 877-222-8387.
By mailing VA Form 10-10EZ to:
Health Eligibility Center
2957 Clairmont Rd., Suite 200
Atlanta, GA 30329
In person at their nearest VA medical center or clinic
Learn more about the PACT Act
Visit www.va.gov/PACT to get the latest information and updates. You can also follow the Veterans Health Administration on Facebook and Twitter for real-time updates.
PACT Act Resources for download
While wearing a bit of personal flair on your uniform might be enough to send a sergeant major into hysterics, it was once common. The men who fought and won the Spanish-American War sometimes added to their uniforms. In one case, the Rough Riders of San Juan Hill carried a distinctive polka dot pattern.
And none other than Teddy Roosevelt himself started it.
The Rough Riders land in Cuba
The 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry mustered in 1898 with a mix of Ivy League athletes, cowboys, Native Americans, Texas Rangers, and more. "More," in this case, including "recent Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt." The eccentric mix gained notoriety before they even shipped to Cuba.
Volunteer units typically formed quickly with inexperienced, rookie soldiers. They often fought secondary to more professional, regular units. And their chances to fight were restricted. But the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry made it into the party from the start. Commanders respected the unit for its tight administration, led by Col. Leonard Wood and Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt.
The 1st fought as part of Fifth Corps after it landed on Cuba. In the first battle of the war on the island, about 1,750 Americans and Cuban Allies assaulted 1,500 Spanish troops. About 500 Rough Riders took part in the June 24, 1898, battle and helped defeat the Spaniards.
The following week, the Americans pressed on to San Juan Ridge.
San Juan Hill
On July 1, American cavalry and infantry began their assault. The 1st didn't receive a briefing or their orders for the battle. But Roosevelt recognized the value of Kettle Hill and repeatedly pushed for his unit to take part in the assault.
When permission came, Roosevelt immediately leapt onto his horse and led the 1st past the confused 10th Cavalry Riders and into history. The cavalrymen charged until they hit barbed wire 40 yards from an enemy trench. Roosevelt dismounted, closed the gap on foot, and shot a defender. The unit lost 89 men.
This risky and costly charge broke an hours-long stalemate. Soon, the Spaniards gave in, and the hill was taken.
Roosevelt, a skilled writer, and orator, happily described the heroism of the 1st Cavalry and built the legend. His men happily followed his lead.
The Polka Dots
Indeed, the men were big fans of their intrepid leader. And the unit saw Roosevelt's scarf from the charge, a blue one with white polka dots, as a symbol of their battlefield success. Soon, the polka dot pattern became an almost required uniform item for Rough Riders.
The scarf is visible in one of the more famous Teddy Roosevelt photos, just peeking out from his uniform. It wasn't the last fabric pattern that Roosevelt made famous, though, as his 1912 campaign featured a red scarf with images of the slouch hat the Rough Riders wore.
The blue scarf with white polka dots is also oddly reminiscent of another neck ornament that connects Roosevelt to San Juan Hill: The Medal of Honor he would posthumously receive in 2001 for his actions.
Original Article
We Are The Mighty (WATM) celebrates service with stories that inspire. WATM is made in Hollywood by veterans. It's military life presented like never before. Check it out at We Are the Mighty.
"It's just a damn mess — full of old bookkeeping errors and typos," historian Hal Barker told the New York Times. He and his brother Edward maintain the Korean War Project, an information database that keeps the history of the Korean War. They say the newest addition to the Korean War Memorial has thousands of spelling errors, typos, and unrelated names.
In 2022, the Korean War Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. received a new addition: a 380-foot black granite wall that was supposed to hold the names of 36,574 Americans and around 8,000 Korean Augmentation to the United States Army forces (KATUSAs) who were killed during the war.
The $22 million slab is an addition to the original memorial, first dedicated by President Bill Clinton on Korean War Armistice Day, July 27, 1997. Legendary sculptor Frank Gaylord created the centerpiece of the memorial, 19 statues of a Korean War-era unit on patrol called "The Column," along with a mural wall created by industrial designer Louis Nelson.
The names on the Remembrance Wall were added to the existing memorial over the summer of 2022, but the care taken to etch those names doesn't match the reverence and care of the original designers. Hal and Edward Barker estimate that the wall includes 1,015 spelling errors and the names of 245 service members whose deaths were unrelated to the war. There are also 500 missing names that should be on the wall.
They are forgotten names of a forgotten war, and the Barkers blame various federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, along with the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation. In response, the DoD released a statement saying, "We encourage all family members or concerned citizens to notify the Department of any names that were omitted, misspelled, or included in error."
The idea of adding a list of individual names to the National Korean War Veterans Memorial dates back to 2010 when the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation began lobbying for such an addition. They turned to Hal and Edward Barker for the complete list of names. The Barkers said they could provide a list, but it would need to be checked and proofread before etching those names.
Since the addition was announced and funded, both brothers have repeatedly voiced their concerns over proofreading and transcribing the names, but those concerns fell on deaf ears, and the result is the thousands of errors that will need to be fixed. Hal and Edward Barker believe the project should be scrapped and started over from the beginning.
The National Park Service, which runs the memorials and maintains them, was opposed to adding a list of names from the start. When the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall was first conceived, the debate about whose names qualified to be included on the wall sparked immediate controversy. That controversy persisted long after the Vietnam Veterans Wall was completed and led to more than 300 names being added in the decades following its dedication.
The National Park Service insisted that the legislation authorizing the Korean War Veterans Wall to give sole responsibility for the names and the criteria for including those names to the Secretary of Defense to avoid another controversy. The DoD's list of names had more inaccuracies than the Barkers' list, and that list is what is engraved on the wall today.
Story link
We Are The Mighty (WATM) celebrates service with stories that inspire. WATM is made in Hollywood by veterans. It's military life presented like never before. Check it out at We Are the Mighty.
If it had not been for Together, We Served, I probably would have never put my military experiences in writing. Going back and remembering my time in the military has been a joy. I hope that some of the people I served with will see this and be inspired to capture their military experiences in writing before it's too late. Thank you for allowing me to do this.
SMSgt Bob McElwain US Air Force (Ret)
Served 1964-1991
In June 1972, I had only been in West Germany for six months. I was stationed at HHB 1st BN 81 FA near Neu-Ulm, West Germany. We had the Pershing nuclear missiles aimed at the Eastern Bloc countries. The ones made famous by President Reagan to bring down the Iron Curtain and Communism in Eastern Europe. I was a communications specialist and had to keep communications between our mobile rigs and the missiles in the field being moved by mobile launchers. I had to change codes each day and put the codes in a machine that sent my messages garbled to the missiles so that anyone who might intercept it could not make any sense of it.
I took pride in my work and was very perturbed when I was chosen along with 19 other guys to be armed guards to try to find and stop members of the German Communist Gang known as The Red Brigade, along with other things. The officers who chose us said we were handpicked because we were the only ones they could trust with live ammo and under these conditions. That didn't make me feel any better as all I saw it, we, the strict soldiers, were being put on guard duty, like punishment, while the loafers and gold brickers were rewarded for bad behavior by not being chosen and doing anything they wanted to do in their free time.
The other "chosen ones" felt the same way I did, and we were not in a good mood at all when we began to pull our shift. Another guy and I were given the job of guarding the American Bank in Neu-Ulm. Our orders were not to let anyone park a vehicle, walk away, and use whatever means necessary to stop such an act, including lethal force. The other guard and I split up and walked around the bank, him on one side and I on another the whole time we were on duty.
I was furious when at about 03:00 the following day, a W. German pulled up in a car, got out, and asked me for a light for his cigarette. I shoved my rifle into his gut and just stared at him. About that time, the other guard came around the bank and had his rifle on him. The W.German started shaking and asked, "Hey guys, what are the sub-machine guns about?" The other guy lit his cigarette, and I asked him what he would try to do next. He said, "nothing, just wanted a light," and got back in his car and sped off.
It was suspicious, but no reason to shoot him, which made me even angrier.
We split up again, and at about 05:00, I came around the corner of the bank and saw a German riding his bike away with a suitcase by a tree that he had to have left behind. I screamed at him to halt and brought my rifle up, aiming at his head. He didn't respond and kept riding, and I began to squeeze on the trigger, but just a second before it was to go off. I heard a very loud voice that sounded like it came from the clouds say, "Stop!!!? It was the loudest voice I had ever heard and sounded as loud as thunder. I hesitated for a second and then started squeezing the trigger again. The same thing happened that time, and I lowered my rifle for a second and shook my head in disbelief, then brought my rifle back up and started squeezing on the trigger again. Again, the thundering voice came down, "Stop!!!" I lowered my rifle at the last second, wondering why I had not fired.
He was out of range by then, so I walked over to the suitcase. I knew that if it blew, it would get me anyway, and maybe some cars coming by. I put my rifle down and opened it ever so slowly after all cars had passed. I got it about 1/2 inch open and saw something that looked like plastic in it. I closed it back very slowly but didn't put the latch on it. Then I got on the radio and called the MPs. They arrived in a few minutes. They acted like it was no big deal until I told them that I had cracked it and saw plastic inside. 
They freaked and dove behind their jeeps. Weapons came out, and we were huddled there when I saw this same old W. German man coming back. I could not believe my eyes and told them, "that is him coming back!" When he almost reached the suitcase, he reached down to get it, and that was when they and I grabbed him. We slammed him against a jeep and had his arms behind him, coming close to breaking them. We just started to question him when my guard shift changed, and I got relieved by another guard.
I didn't get to see what happened. I asked the other guard if he had heard the voice, and he said he didn't hear anything, even though it had been as loud as thunder. I told another guard what had happened, and he didn't seem to believe me. So, I never told anyone else about the incident.
About a week later, I went by the MP station and asked them what had happened. They said they made him open the suitcase while they were behind their jeeps with weapons trained on him. All it was were some sandwiches in plastic bags that had fallen off the back of his bike.
Almost 50 years have passed since then, and this is the first time I have written or told anyone about it other than that one guard who didn't believe me. I have often wondered if that old man ever realized how close he came to dying that morning and wondered about the family he would have left behind. The voice from the sky saved his life.
SP 4 Charles Kenneth Nesbitt
US Army (1971-1974)
kcrocker112@gmail.com
Like many military members, David Léasure was devoted to his fitness routine. When he joined the Navy straight from high school in 2011, the first thing he did with his paycheck was to join an online exercise program. He adhered to the meal plans, took all the supplements he was supposed to, and generally saw the results he wanted through hours at the gym.
Despite being physically bigger and generally healthier, he began to wonder why he was doing it all. But looking better through all the time spent lifting weights wasn't making him any happier, and it certainly wasn't enough to make him get out of bed early in the morning.
"What is it that crumbles away and makes us give up?" Léasure writes in his book, "Truly Healthy Now." "It's our foundations or lack thereof. When a weak foundation falls away, you have to have the courage to build a new, stronger one. We do things for all the wrong reasons: we're told to eat better, look better, and be better. But what is better? When something isn't working, we usually try harder or go faster, when what we need to be doing is to let go and reevaluate."
That kind of reevaluation led David Léasure to realize what he thought he knew about health and fitness wasn't just misguided. It was wrong. It led him to write the book he wished he had when he started exercising. "Truly Healthy Now" is not just a book about health and fitness. It's about the spirituality of accepting your body and prioritizing real health over looking fit.
Léasure was not easily able to "bulk up." In his own words, he describes his body type as "skinny… with a hard time gaining muscle." He believed looking healthy actually meant he was healthy. Compliments on his muscular fitness fed his ego and contributed to a destructive cycle that would help him maintain his looks but kept him from being truly healthy.
He spent three hours in the gym six days every week. He took his body through cycles of fasting and overeating, week after week. He began to forget why he started working so hard and putting his body through it in the first place.
"Not everyone you see who looks great with their shirt off is actually healthy," he writes. "In all reality, a lot of them are probably doing something harmful to their bodies – whether wittingly or unwittingly – to look the way they do. To be considered healthy, you don't have to have two percent body fat or softball-sized biceps."
After much meditation, he decided to shed the ego that led him on that destructive path, focus on accepting himself, and stop comparing himself to others. "Truly Healthy Now" is Léasure's roadmap for how readers can do the same, achieving true health without the negative mindset that makes so many people give up before they ever start.
For many who have struggled in fitness for years, words like "meditation" and "fitness journey" might make it sound like "Truly Healthy Now" is a new-age wellness cash grab, but Léasure's writing is personal, rooted in the years of research he's done as both a gym rat and a true fitness advocate. He writes from his personal experience, admits his failings, and uses what he's learned to redirect the reader's mindset toward an authentically fulfilling and healthy lifestyle.
"Truly Healthy Now" is for anyone who's been struggling to reach true health and wellness while shedding the idea that looking healthy is more important than being healthy. The book is a gift from one sailor who wants to share his epiphany with a world consumed by the importance of style over substance.
"Truly Healthy Now" by David Philip Léasure is available in paperback for $11.99 and on Kindle ebook for $5.99 at Amazon. It's also available at Barnes and Noble for $9.99. Those with other ebook readers can find links at books2read.com
Hernandez was 20 years old when he hopped out of a helicopter during Operation Utah in South Vietnam's Quảng Ngãi province. He and the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines were reinforcing the 2/7 Marines and South Vietnam's 1st Airborne Battalion, who saw heavy resistance from the start.
But Danny Hernandez saw an opportunity from his vantage point. He had adequate cover to approach the wounded man, and when the Marine gunner saw Hernandez was moving to the rescue, he laid down a withering cover fire. Without thinking, Hernandez ran to the wounded. However, by the time he got there, the enemy opened up on the two in the open field. Hernandez shielded the wounded with his own body, taking a hit to the back that "felt like a sledgehammer." 
His Commander, Marine Corps Lt. Jim Lupori, put Hernandez in for a Silver Star but transferred to a new unit. It wasn't until the two men met up again in 2005 that Lupori learned Hernandez never received the medal. Lipori spent the next three years gathering evidence to get Hernandez his much-deserved medal that Gen. John Kelly would present to him in 2009. 
This plan was derided at first because the blockade wasn't considered aggressive enough by Union generals, but it turned out to be extremely effective. The rebels felt the Union blockade long before they felt the retribution of the Union Army – and almost immediately began finding ways to beat the blockade. On March 8, 1862, a new kind of ship would be put to the test for the first time, hoping to punch a hole in the Union Navy. 
As a result, the rebels were able to rebuild the yard and use its supplies, which included heavy naval guns, gunpowder, and the hull of a Union steamship, the USS Merrimack. They raised the Merrimack and converted it into an ironclad steamer with 12 guns of various types. In little less than a year, the Merrimack was rechristened the ironclad CSS Virginia. 
The USS Congress, attempting to flee to shallow water, ran aground and was forced to surrender to the Confederates but would catch fire and burn. USS Minnesota would also run aground while fleeing but was spared from destruction. The USS Monitor, still unfinished, was rushed from Brooklyn, New York, to Hampton Roads to meet Virginia's firepower. 
But stories began to spread about a mystery jet fighter that had fought seemingly for days in skies above Kyiv, downing at least six Russian fighters, maybe more. The mystery pilot became known as "The Ghost of Kyiv," Though it was later found to be nothing more than a story, it inspired the Ukrainians to fight off the attack on their capital and defeat the Russian offensive. 
Soon, the number of aerial victories attributed to the Ghost of Kyiv jumped to 10, and the mystery pilot had captured the attention of the rest of the world, from Detroit to Donbas. Ukraine began to share photos of the mystery pilot in the cockpit, helmet on, claiming it was the Ghost himself. But the Ghost of Kyiv, it turns out, wasn't real. 
Sailing from her homeport at Newcastle, NH, Tamaroa had been coordinating air and sea operations looking for vessels caught in three violent Atlantic storms converging south of Nova Scotia when it was diverted. On a fourth HC-130 refueling sortie, 30 attempts to meet the drogue failed due to extreme turbulence of up to 100 knots; the Jolly 110 went dry and was forced to ditch. The Satori yacht passengers had been brought safely into a USCG rescue helicopter by then; at no time were they set aboard the Tamaroa. After five hours adrift in the tempest, seas sometimes reaching 80-100' swells, all but one of the five Jolly 110 crew had been brought alive onto Tamaroa, which often endured extreme rolls, nearly reaching the righting arm. She was a 48-year-old former US Navy fleet tug, operated by the Coast Guard since the end of World War II as a medium endurance cutter. Injured and having fallen away from grasp on the cargo net, Pararescue jumper TSgt Arden Rick Smith was never found. By the time of filming, Tamaroa had been decommissioned. 
The ship was built by Commercial Iron Works in Portland, Oregon, commissioned in 1943 by the US Navy as the Zuni (ATF-95), then by the Coast Guard in 1946. She was 205' in length, 39' beam with an 18' navigational draft displacing 1730 tons full load. Her range was 13,097 miles at 10.1 knots. Tamaroa (WMEC-166) was stationed at New York, NY, from 1946 through 1985, conducting law enforcement, oceanography, and International Ice Patrols, as well as search and rescue operations. 
When President Biden signed the PACT Act on Aug. 10, 2022, it initiated one of the largest expansions of VA benefits in history. This includes extended VA healthcare enrollment eligibility to Vietnam-era, Gulf War-era, and Post-9/11 Veterans.
And none other than Teddy Roosevelt himself started it.
The Polka Dots
In 2022, the Korean War Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. received a new addition: a 380-foot black granite wall that was supposed to hold the names of 36,574 Americans and around 8,000 Korean Augmentation to the United States Army forces (KATUSAs) who were killed during the war. 
The idea of adding a list of individual names to the National Korean War Veterans Memorial dates back to 2010 when the Korean War Veterans Memorial Foundation began lobbying for such an addition. They turned to Hal and Edward Barker for the complete list of names. The Barkers said they could provide a list, but it would need to be checked and proofread before etching those names. 
I took pride in my work and was very perturbed when I was chosen along with 19 other guys to be armed guards to try to find and stop members of the German Communist Gang known as The Red Brigade, along with other things. The officers who chose us said we were handpicked because we were the only ones they could trust with live ammo and under these conditions. That didn't make me feel any better as all I saw it, we, the strict soldiers, were being put on guard duty, like punishment, while the loafers and gold brickers were rewarded for bad behavior by not being chosen and doing anything they wanted to do in their free time. 
I was furious when at about 03:00 the following day, a W. German pulled up in a car, got out, and asked me for a light for his cigarette. I shoved my rifle into his gut and just stared at him. About that time, the other guard came around the bank and had his rifle on him. The W.German started shaking and asked, "Hey guys, what are the sub-machine guns about?" The other guy lit his cigarette, and I asked him what he would try to do next. He said, "nothing, just wanted a light," and got back in his car and sped off. 
They freaked and dove behind their jeeps. Weapons came out, and we were huddled there when I saw this same old W. German man coming back. I could not believe my eyes and told them, "that is him coming back!" When he almost reached the suitcase, he reached down to get it, and that was when they and I grabbed him. We slammed him against a jeep and had his arms behind him, coming close to breaking them. We just started to question him when my guard shift changed, and I got relieved by another guard. 
Despite being physically bigger and generally healthier, he began to wonder why he was doing it all. But looking better through all the time spent lifting weights wasn't making him any happier, and it certainly wasn't enough to make him get out of bed early in the morning.
After much meditation, he decided to shed the ego that led him on that destructive path, focus on accepting himself, and stop comparing himself to others. "Truly Healthy Now" is Léasure's roadmap for how readers can do the same, achieving true health without the negative mindset that makes so many people give up before they ever start.