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Ilario Pantano -- Marine. As in “No better friend, no worse enemy”

Don't miss Mr. Pantano's Hot Air interview here, Bryan Preston's short Warlord book review here,  or Kit Jarrell's interview here (Hat tip: Blackfive).

I'll try to add more links to this post later. This is a man who deserves a great deal of recognition and whose message needs to be heard far and wide.

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Blackfive has more here.

Posted by Bill Faith on June 12, 2006 at 05:24 PM in The American Warrior | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Click here, here and here.

Posted by Bill Faith on April 28, 2006 at 07:10 PM in The American Warrior | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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RIP "Col." Robert L. Scott
Laughing Wolf

Brigadier General Robert L. Scott, who wrote the famous book God Is My Co-Pilot has passed away. ...

[Read on here.]

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Fox has more here.

Posted by Bill Faith on February 28, 2006 at 03:28 AM in The American Warrior | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

As I noted in my earlier post, HEROES Act Improvements!, the FY 2006 National Defense Authorization Act (PL 109-163) corrected what I considered to be a glaring error in the Original HEROES Act. The original act provided improved benefits for the survivors of military personnel killed in the line of duty in designated combat zones but not for the survivors of others who died on duty but not in combat zones. I could never see any reason why the survivors of a Sailor killed when a sub hit an undersea mountain or a Paratrooper who died when his chute didn't open over Ft. Benning should be treated any differently than survivors of deaths in the Mideast.  PL 109-163 fixed that discrepancy. Unfortunately, the government has done an absolutely pathetic job of getting information out to the survivors affected by the improvements. I'm still getting frequent emails from people who know they have money coming but have no idea how to get it, and I'd hate to guess how many people have money coming and don't even know it. I find it absolutely scandalous that information is so scarce that people are having to turn to little sites like mine to find anything out. Is this how we honor the sacrifice our warriors have made for our country?

Julie left the following comment on my earlier post a little earlier today:

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I have some information on the Hero Improvement Act. The Benefits are retroactive to Oct 7, 2001 for all military Deaths that have occurred since that date.I have researched this extensively. My son was stationed at Camp Pendleton and pass-away Mar 1, 2002 from a brain aneurysm. I found several DOD references as to how the disbursement is supposed to be done. The respective branch will send out some forms to be filled out by the beneficiary. I have also called the USMC, and was told as of today 2/24/06 that the forms have not been sent yet, but will be as soon as they get the green light to send them. I made sure and updated my address info because I had moved since my son passed. I hope this information will help out. I found some contact information at the NMFA National Military Family Association

http://www.nmfa.org/site/PageServer?pagename

Below are Service casualty contacts,
Army: LTC John O’Brian: 703-325-9201
Navy: Mrs. Dale Armstrong: 1-800-368-3202  (Mon - Fri 7:30 am - 4:00 pm (CT)) or (901)874-4292
Marine Corps: Mr. Gerry Castle: 703-784-9580
Air Force: Mr. Scott Hand: 210-565-3505
Coast Guard; Lt Terrance Walsh: 202-267-1648

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Thank you, Julie. I think it's absolutely disgraceful that people like you are having to dig for information like you have but I'll do what I can to spread the word.

If you're reading this and know anyone who might possibly be affected by this situation won't you please pass Julie's information on to them? Fellow bloggers, please help me spread the word; you are hereby granted permission to use any information in this post or my prior posts on the subject without regard to any copyright or plagiarism concerns. Just help me spread the word, please.

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Don't miss Greyhawk's latest Open Post, Argghhh!'s latest H&I fires or James Joyner's Beltway Traffic Jam.

Posted by Bill Faith on February 24, 2006 at 07:36 PM in Brianna, The American Warrior | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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Saluting the 3rd ACR
Greyhawk

Via email from a family member, a letter from the Mayor of Tall 'Afar, Iraq to the men and women of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and their families.

In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful

To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall’ Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life.

To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets for many months.

To those who spread smiles on the faces of our children, and gave us restored hope, through their personal sacrifice and brave fighting, and gave new life to the city after hopelessness darkened our days, and stole our confidence in our ability to reestablish our city.

[...]

[Read on here. Hat tip: Powerline via William Page.]

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Posted by Bill Faith on February 14, 2006 at 12:18 AM in The American Warrior | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Click the picture to see an absolutely awesome slideshow. I'd meant to link to it after George Mellinger sent me the link but hadn't gotten around to it yet when Blackfive posted a link to the same slideshow, and to the news article that goes with it. Read it here. Semper Fi, Lone Eagle. Where does America get such men?

Posted by Bill Faith on February 6, 2006 at 11:11 PM in The American Warrior | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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American Strength

An American Soldier was laid to rest today. He was eulogized, honored and buried with full Marine military honors.

The ceremony was spectacular and heartbreaking.

He had served his country for over 20 years as a Marine. He had served his community as a law enforcement officer. And in the last year, he had served his country again, training Iraqi soldiers. He was killed in Iraq by an IED. It took 11 days to bring him home.

He was buried in a cemetery next to a church a long way down a country road on the outskirts of a very small southern town.

This middle-of-no-where place is familiar to most of us Americans. You probably have a place very similar to it down the road and over the hill from where you are. Hundreds of people came to this middle-of-no-where place to pay respects to the man who was killed in service to his country.

[...]

Flags fly on the houses around there. The people believe in God and country. They love their families, their friends and help their neighbors. They believe in integrity, honor, decency and carrying their own weight. They believe in traditional American values.

These people are the character and strength of America.

My friend, her family, her friends and her community have made a very personal sacrifice for love of their country. Americans have been making these sacrifices since the Revolutionary War. One family at a time. One person at a time. One community at a time.

It’s the extraordinary common man who holds this country together. It’s the guy who loves his country, his family, his community and his God. It’s the wife who waits for him, understands him and loves him.

You probably know these people. They are probably down the street from you, living in your community.

They are the threads that make up the fabric of American society and the cloth of the American Flag.

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Read the whole thing here. Hat tip: John Donovan.

Posted by Bill Faith on January 30, 2006 at 05:35 PM in The American Warrior | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

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Saints in Armor
By Ben Stein

[...]

The most heroic, ethically courageous, morally resolute men and women in the world today are the Americans, British, and other forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are fighting the most evil men and women currently on the world scene. The American Army soldier, Marine, Navy sailor, Air Force warrior, and Coast Guardsman fighting in Ramadi or Mosul is fighting men and women who kill children and old people for sport. The men and women of the United States military are fighting the remnants of a regime so evil that it pioneered the use of torture against children -- just for the amusement of Saddam and his family. The men and women whom Joel despises rid the world of a dictator so twisted and murderous that he openly admired Stalin and Hitler and sought to match their level of atrocities. The men and women who wear the uniform fought, bled, and died to rid the world of the most dangerous man on the planet in the most flammable place on the planet. They died to save a slave people from the genocidal control of a mad killer who thought nothing of gassing his own people, of wiping out entire regions, of setting up special rape rooms to allow his henchmen and his sons to rape women at will, who amused himself by pouring gasoline down the throats of totally innocent people and setting them on fire.

[...]

Do I support men and women who are fighting Nazis who call themselves insurgents or Islamic militants? Do I support men and women who offer up their lives to fight the very same terrorists who killed three thousand totally guiltless Americans on 9/11? Do I support the troops who have more moral decency in their toes than I do or anyone I know does in our whole bodies? I support them, pray for them, am humbled just to be on the same planet with them. With every morning I wake up, every meal I eat, every walk I take in freedom, every night I sleep in peace, I ask God to look after the men and women who guard the ramparts of this blessed island of peace and decency called America. Without them, we would be nothing. Without them, Joel Stein would have his head sawed off. Saints in armor is what I call them and what they are. They are God's gifts to a wayward world.

[Read the whole thing here.]

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Hat tip: Greyhawk. Read his post here. I couldn't agree with Greyhawk more when he says that the greatest thing worthless little twit Joel Stein has ever done or will ever do was to cause Ben Stein to write what he did. Anyone who's followed my blog for any length of time knows I agree with everything Ben said and then some.

Posted by Bill Faith on January 30, 2006 at 04:54 PM in The American Warrior | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

My thanks to Jackie Ferguson for letting me in on some good news she received recently. Here's a very important section from an email she forwarded to me summarizing the FY 2006 National Defense Authorization Act (PL 109-163):

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Enhancement of Death Gratuity and Life Insurance Benefits.  Increase SGLI coverage to $400,000 and raise death gratuity to $100,000 for all deaths in the line of duty, retroactive to 10/7/01.  $150,000 free SGLI coverage in combat zones.  Require spousal notification if member elects less than maximum or changes beneficiary designation.

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As my long-term readers may recall from last spring, I expended a lot of blogging effort trying to do what I could to help get the HEROES Act passed. You may also recall that one of my few complaints about the Act was that it increased benefits for survivors of servicemembers killed in designated "combat zones" but not for survivors of servicemembers dying in the line of duty in other areas. I recall using the examples of the Sailor who died when the USS San Francisco hit that undersea mountain and a Paratrooper killed in a training jump as two examples of people whose survivors, I thought, should receive the same treatment as survivors of combat zone KIAs. I am pleased to be able to announce, thanks to Jackie's remembering that I cared, that the FY 2006 National Defense Authorization Act corrects that shortcoming in the original bill, retroactively to 7 Oct 2001.

Insert HUGE smile here.

Here's the relevant portion of Public Law 109-163 from http://thomas.loc.gov. I couldn't find a way to link directly to it so I guess you'll either have to take my word for it or dig it out yourself:

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SEC. 664. ADDITIONAL AMOUNTS OF DEATH GRATUITY FOR SURVIVORS OF CERTAIN MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES DYING ON ACTIVE DUTY.

(a) Increased Amount of Death Gratuity-

(1) INCREASED AMOUNT- Subsection (a) of section 1478 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by striking `$12,000' and inserting `$100,000'.

(2) AMENDMENTS- Such section is further amended--

(A) in the first sentence of subsection (a), by striking `(as' and all that follows in that sentence and inserting a period; and

(B) by striking subsection (c).

(3) EFFECTIVE DATE- The amendment made by paragraph (1) shall take effect as of October 7, 2001, and shall apply to deaths occurring on or after the date of the enactment of this Act and, subject to subsection (c), to deaths occurring during the period beginning on October 7, 2001, and ending on the day before the date of the enactment of this Act.

(b) Retroactive Payment of Additional Death Gratuity for Certain Members not Previously Covered- Such section is further amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:

`(d)(1) In the case of a person described in paragraph (2), a death gratuity shall be payable, subject to section 664(c) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006, for the death of such person that is in addition to the death gratuity payable in the case of such death under subsection (a).

`(2) This subsection applies in the case of a person who died during the period beginning on October 7, 2001, and ending on May 11, 2005, while a member of the armed forces on active duty and whose death did not establish eligibility for an additional death gratuity under the prior subsection (e) of this section (as added by section 1013(b) of Public Law 109-13; 119 Stat. 247), because the person was not described in paragraph (2) of that prior subsection.

`(3) The amount of additional death gratuity payable under this subsection shall be $150,000.

`(4) A payment pursuant to this subsection shall be paid in the same manner as provided under paragraph (4) of the prior subsection (e) of this section (as added by section 1013(b) of Public Law 109-13; 119 Stat. 247), for payments pursuant to paragraph (3)(A) of that prior subsection.'.

(c) Funding- Amounts for payments after the date of the enactment of this Act by reason of the amendments made by subsection (a) with respect to deaths before the date of the date of the enactment of this Act, and amounts for payments under subsection (d) of section 1478 of title 10, United States Code, as added by subsection (b), shall be derived from supplemental appropriations for the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2006 for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Global War on Terrorism, contingent upon such appropriations being enacted.

(d) Coordination of Amendments- If the date of the enactment of this Act occurs before the date specified in section 106(3) of Public Law 109-77--

(1) effective as of such date of enactment, the amendments made to section 1478 of title 10, United States Code, by section 1013 of Public Law 109-13 are repealed; and

(2) effective immediately before the execution of the amendments made by this section, the provisions of section 1478 of title 10, United States Code, as in effect on the day before the date of the enactment of Public Law 109-13, are revived.

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Greyhawk's latest Open Post is up.

Posted by Bill Faith on January 16, 2006 at 02:35 AM in Brianna, The American Warrior | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

For regular readers of my blog, George "Rurik" Mellinger should need no introduction. If you don't recognize his name and know a little about his past, please read Decisions and come back here when you're done.

Now, if you haven't read The Vietnam Generation, go do that. I'll wait.

Rurik left this comment on The Vietnam Generation. It's too good to let it languish there and be seen by only a handful of people so I'm promoting it to it's own post.

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We can always count on Barrett to find a significant topic, and to go right to the heart of it. For those of you who don’t know him, Barrett Tillman is one of the truly great aviation writers in the world. And if you narrow that to Naval Aviation History, he’s never had an equal. So he knows what he’s talking about.

For my part, I have to admit to a more nuanced reaction to his topic. I distinguish between the troops and the civilians, and even among the civilians I distinguish between different generations.

I do not, and never have resented our troops for their recognition. I do resent the sometimes made invidious comparisons between the current noble, all volunteer military and the, somehow less worthy, Vietnam generation of draftees (I, myself was a volunteer, though be it reluctant), but that is a criticism I have never heard from the troops themselves, only from weenie radio-journalists, and sleazy politicians trying to score points on the cheap. Which is nobler, the one who serves because he desires, or the one who does his duty when called, that is a misbegotten debate.

When the first green tracers arched across the TV screen in 1991, I probably reacted badly and inappropriately. Immediately I suspended all activity and spent the next two weeks sleeping on the living room floor between news updates, the box on but the sound lowered. For two weeks I went nowhere except the bathroom, and when I finally did go out briefly, it was only to give a pint, and rush back home. It was as if one of our troops were my son or brother - because I felt that each and every one of them was my brother. I knew they could handle the job, but I was scared Kerry-less the home front would stab them in the back again, or the politicians would. Yes, I did ease up and decompress after a few weeks, but when it became clear this time would be different and we would not create an unnecessary self-defeat.

That summer, I went to Washington to attend The Politically Incorrect Conference and had a grand time. But only when I got there did I notice the city was overrun, as I had never seen it before, by vast numbers of young folks, of both sexes and various colors, all of them strangely clean-cut and shiny, and very ebullient but orderly. God had brought me to DC for the very weekend of the Victory parade, which occurred the day after our conference ended. And I had a prime position on Constitution Avenue for viewing. After the parade, I went over to the mall where a display had been set up of all the equipment used in the war, an F-16, a Bradley, an LAV, artillery, a tent full of Special Forces Equipment, engineering equipment personally dear to my heart. And all of it was hands-on with soldiers on duty to explain and oversee so nobody would misuse or damage anything. And masses of kids, a virtual human wave of kids over-running all the military positions, as the troops regulated their paths in and out of hatches. Probably many of those nine and ten year olds playing on the Bradleys in 1991, are crewing them today for real.

I got talking to the young Marine standing post by the display LAV. “Thank you”, I told him, “Thank you for redeeming our honor. Your victory has won it back for my Viet Nam Generation”. And he looked me in the eye, and said, “No sir. Thank you sir. Your generation prepared the way for us.” I couldn’t smell any CS, but there must have been some in the air near me. Or maybe it was the allergies kicking in for a few moments.

So I’ve had no envy or jealousy of our troops for the welcome and gratitude they now receive. And every time I see somebody at the airport in his tan BDUs, I go out of my way to welcome and thank him. My envy and jealousy is strictly for the fact that I cannot go back and join them. Dammit, it isn’t fair that I should be sitting here and posting, when some of those troops have already done multiple tours, and I’ve only done one tour, and long ago. Pretty soon, they’ll have more tours than I had months. I scratch that itch by trying to remain competent and honorable in my personal life, and to do what I can to support them and their mission here at home, politically and otherwise.

As for the civilians, it is somewhat different. For those of an age to have been 1960s–70s protestors, I’ve got a lasting resentment, and when I see the old folks “supporting the troops”, my first thought is always “Where were you in ‘72?” “Are you ‘a brother’ or are you ‘Other’?” And I am suspicious till I learn their past. If they’re Vet, they’re family, and if not.....

I have no problems with those, like our President, who did their honest reserve alternative, or those who received genuine medical deferments. Just as I have no resentment for those who had safer and or more comfortable assignments than I did, while revering those who had more hazardous and dirtier. After my return, I once even wrote a letter in support of a CO request. But I have little patience with the retroactive wannabes, who hid behind easily correctable minor medical conditions, and now thump their chests on the air. And no tolerance at all for the nasty pieces of Saddam-droppings who fake veteran status. And for the real protesters, such as a certain Hollywood Harlot and a Ketchup Consort... there’s nothing I can say about them since we want to keep this blog family friendly.

For the younger generations, those born late enough to have escaped the bad times, You start with a favorable presumption...till I find you are one of the ones who stands by the recruiter’s door and cheers the enlistees, but won’t step through the door for yourself, who considers a car magnet as your own body armor. The sincerest form of support is taking one's own turn.

To those who are only just on your way, God Speed, Good Luck, Great Hunting. To those of you who have been, or are there now... My thanks and blessings, may you make it home safe, and may no one ever forget or dishonor your achievements.

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George, thank you for a great essay. As I've said several times in the past, I envy your way with words and it's always an honor to be able to post some of them here. I could sit here three days trying to find the words to describe my attitude toward today's warriors, toward the scum that went out of their way to punish guys like you and me personally for taking part in a war they disagreed with, and toward those who would stab the current generation in the back, and never come close to doing the job as well as you already have. To those of you currently in harms way or soon to be: Please know I share George's good wishes for you.

Oh, btw, I don't worry a hell of a lot about keeping my blog "family friendly" and you'll never catch me censoring you, or William or Russ, or any other vet or present-day warrior.

Posted by Bill Faith on January 15, 2006 at 01:52 AM in Rurik, The American Warrior | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack