As you go into this Memorial Day holiday with the cookouts and concerts and such, remember to raise a glass to absent friends.


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Lift a glass once again to fallen brothers.  One of our own.

SPC King was a SIGINT-er killed along with SGT James Pirtle during the attack on COP Bari Alai in Konar Valley shortly after our team left Afghanistan.  His wife was SGT Rachel King, was the NCO who ran the TOC next door to us.  Our team in the Jalalabad Fusion Cell interacted with her ( Read more... )

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free ( Read more... )

The 323rd MI Battalion had its first casualty last Friday. At 1000 hrs on 13 November, SPC Christopher J. Coffland was killed by an improvised explosive device while on patrol in Afghanistan as part of Operation Dark Knight. Chris enlisted after 9/11, was cross-leveled to the 321st MI Battalion, and will receive the Bronze Star and Purple Heart ( Read more... )

Every soldier knows the risk of being killed in battle.  Giving one's life in the service to your country is an occupational hazard.

But for soldiers to lose their lives at the hands of one of our own is inexcusable.  If someone wants to commit suicide, please go forth and blow your brains out.

But do not take down your brothers and sisters in arms ( Read more... )

When the Navy changed the status of Scott Speicher, the first pilot to be shot down during Operation Desert Storm, from KIA to MIA I decided to wear a memorial bracelet in his honor.  I received word today that Capt. Speicher's remains were found on 2 August and have been positively identified.  He has now been laid to rest in Jacksonville, FL.  ( Read more... )

Thanks to my friend Paul for emailing this to me.  I rarely forward such emails but do appreciate receiving them.  Occasionally ones like this one make it to my blog.

Being one of those emails, I have no way of knowing if this story is true, but SSG Darrell "Shifty" Powers did indeed pass away on 17 June this year.  The fact that we hear about such ( Read more... )

In Flanders Fields
By: Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now ( Read more... )

I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day.  I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it.  We honor them in a joyous, thankful, ( Read more... )

In Flanders Fields ( Read more... )