The Pride of Our Country...Our Armed Forces

Hi Patti,

You were referred to me by Christina S-------. I have put together a two page section to give (support and honor) to our troops. As you certainly know, they are going through a tough and dangerous time in the Middle East. The link to the first page of what I call "The Pride Of Our Country ... Our Armed Forces" is just below.

I have been working with different groups of Military Mothers over the last couple of years and they are sending the link, or copies of the two web pages through the mail. I was wonderfing if you have any different suggestions, or can help in any way. My whole mission is to just try and get them something positive to have. I hope you will go to the two pages by way of the link and let me know what you think.

Thank You Patti,
God Bless You,
Roger J. Robicheau
Former SP5 US ARmy

http://www.geocities.com/thepoeticplumber/armedforcesone.html


Year in Photos:
This one is from the Army's website:
http://www.army.mil/yearinphotos/

Hi,
The wedding was beautiful and it was so wonderful to have happiness again in our lives. Everything was donated, even the honeymoon suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown. The day before the weddding, therapy taught Joey how to get in and out of an automobile and how to use a bathroom; therefore he was able to leave the hospital and go celebrate this special occasion. There is no stopping Joey; he is determined to live a happy life. He is talking with John Gonsalves, president of Homes for Our Troops about building him a home when he decides where he wants to live. This organization is only 9 months old and operates like Habitat for Humanity, lots of local volunteers for materials and labor. Please visit the web site and help this worthy cause: www.homesforourtroups.org. This is a picture of Joey receiving his right leg the day before the wedding.

The older gentleman in the back is Tom Porter, a double amputee who comes to encourage the soldiers. He stook for 30 seconds with lots of help and a crutch. I asked him how he felt and he replied, "It felt funny and it was painful." So, Dec. 30th was the first day he stood since Oct. 27th. Also it was the first day he used a portable potty, first day he got into an automobile and sat on a seat. Monday, tomorrow, he is back to therapy all day. His day starts at 6 a.m. with medicine and doctors visiting, 7:30 with breakfast, bath and dress, down to therapy at 10 a.m., lunch is 12 to 1, then to occupational therapy 1pm till 3 or 4, back to bed to rest, supper at 5:30, phone calls and visitations till bedtime. In the meantime, he has interviews with media and lots of visitors to squeeze in. I will let you know the followup on his left leg tomorrow after Dr. Hampton check it. Thank you for your love and support. Keep praying for us.
Love, Joey & Jayme & Gail (Mom Bozik)

From all of us at Soldiers' Angels, our most heartfelt congratulations to the newlyweds, and our most sincere wishes for nothing but the best.

U.S. Navy Lt. Rebecca Hagemann from Washington, D.C. stands onboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln after it arrived in Hong Kong December 24, 2004. Taiwan played down on Thursday remarks by a senior U.S. official who described the island as the biggest land mine in Sino-U.S. ties and said Washington was not required to come to Taiwan's defense if attacked by China. (REUTERS/Kin Cheung)



U.S. navy engineers work on an VAQ-131 surveillance plane onboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln after it arrived in Hong Kong December 24, 2004. Taiwan played down on Thursday remarks by a senior U.S. official who described the island as the biggest land mine in Sino-U.S. ties and said Washington was not required to come to Taiwan's defense if attacked by China. (REUTERS/Kin Cheung)



U.S. navy engineers stand on a VAQ-116 Hawkeye E2 surveillance plane onboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln after it arrived in Hong Kong December 24, 2004. Taiwan played down on Thursday remarks by a senior U.S. official who described the island as the biggest land mine in Sino-U.S. ties and said Washington was not required to come to Taiwan's defense if attacked by China. (REUTERS/Kin Cheung)


A
U.S. naval engineer works on a an F-18 fighter jet onboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln after it arrived in Hong Kong December 24, 2004. Taiwan played down on Thursday remarks by a senior U.S. official who described the island as the biggest land mine in Sino-U.S. ties and said Washington was not required to come to Taiwan's defense if attacked by China. (REUTERS/Kin Cheung)



U.S. navy personnel work near an F-18 fighter jet on board aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln after it arrived in Hong Kong December 24, 2004. Taiwan played down on Thursday remarks by a senior U.S. official who described the island as the biggest land mine in Sino-U.S. ties and said Washington was not required to come to Taiwan's defense if attacked by China. (REUTERS/Kin Cheung)



Electrician EM3 Sean Wilmott from Riverside, Calif., stretches a cable from which shiplights will be hung on the flight deck of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, Friday, Dec. 24, 2004. The USS Abraham Lincoln, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is currently on a routine port call in Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Anat Givon)



Crew members aboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln chat as they carry out maintenance tasks on the craft's flight deck Friday, Dec. 24, 2004. The USS Abraham Lincoln, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is currently on a routine port call in Hong Kong. (AP Photo/Anat Givon)



Crew members sort out packages that arrived by mail for some 6,500 servicemen and women aboard the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, Friday, Dec. 24, 2004. The USS Abraham Lincoln, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is currently on a routine port call and is expected to remain in Hong Kong for 3-4 days over the Christmas holiday. (AP Photo/Anat Givon)

by British journalist Tony Parsons

As a lesson in the pitiless cruelty of the human race, September 11 was up there with Pol Pot's mountain of skulls in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like garbage in the Nazi concentration camps.

An unspeakable act so cruel, so calculated and so utterly merciless that surely the world could agree on one thing - nobody deserves this fate.

Surely there could be consensus: the victims were truly innocent, the perpetrators truly evil.

But to the world's eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen as America's comeuppance.

Incredibly, anti-Americanism has increased over the last year.

There has always been a simmering resentment to the USA in this country - too loud, too rich, too full of themselves and so much happier than Europeans - but it has become an epidemic.

And it seems incredible to me.

More than that, it turns my stomach.

America is this country's greatest friend and our staunchest ally. We are bonded to the US by culture, language and blood.

A little over half a century ago, around half a million Americans died for our freedoms, as well as their own. Have we forgotten so soon?

And exactly a year ago, thousands of ordinary men, women and children - not just Americans, but from dozens of countries - were butchered by a small group of religious fanatics. Are we so quick to betray them?

What touched the heart about those who died in the twin towers and on the planes was that we recognised them. Young fathers and mothers, somebody's son and somebody's daughter, husbands and wives. And children. Some unborn.

And these people brought it on themselves? And their nation is to blame for their meticulously planned slaughter?

These days you don't have to be some dust-encrusted nut job in Kabul or Karachi or Finsbury Park to see America as the Great Satan.

The anti-American alliance is made up of self-loathing liberals who blame the Americans for every ill in the Third World, and conservatives suffering from power-envy, bitter that the world's only superpower can do what it likes without having to ask permission.

The truth is that America has behaved with enormous restraint since September 11.

Remember, remember.

Remember the gut-wrenching tapes of weeping men phoning their wives to say, "I love you," before they were burned alive. Remember those people leaping to their deaths from the top of burning skyscrapers. Remember the hundreds of firemen buried alive. Remember the smiling face of that beautiful little girl who was on one of the planes with her mum. Remember, remember - and realise that America has never retaliated for 9/11 in anything like the way it could have.

So a few al-Qaeda tourists got locked without a trial in Camp X-ray? Pass the Kleenex.

So some Afghan wedding receptions were shot up after they merrily fired their semi-automatics in a sky full of American planes? A shame, but maybe next time they should stick to confetti.

AMERICA could have turned a large chunk of the world into a parking lot. That it didn't is a sign of strength.

American voices are already being raised against attacking Iraq - that's what a democracy is for. How many in the Islamic world will have a minute's silence for the slaughtered innocents of 9/11? How many Islamic leaders will have the guts to say that the mass murder of 9/11 was an abomination?

When the news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those freedom-loving Palestinians were dancing in the street. America watched all of that - and didn't push the button. We should thank the stars that America is the most powerful nation in the world. I still find it incredible that 9/11 did not provoke all-out war. Not a "war on terrorism". A real war.

The fundamentalist dudes are talking about "opening the gates of hell", if America attacks Iraq. Well, America could have opened the gates of hell like you wouldn't believe.

The US is the most militarily powerful nation that ever strode the face of the earth.

The campaign in Afghanistan may have been less than perfect and the planned war on Iraq may be misconceived.

But don't blame America for not bringing peace and light to these wretched countries. How many democracies are there in the Middle East, or in the Muslim world? You can count them on the fingers of one hand - assuming you haven't had any chopped off for minor shoplifting.

I love America, yet America is hated. I guess that makes me Bush's poodle. But I would rather be a dog in New York City than a Prince in Riyadh. Above all, America is hated because it is what every country wants to be - rich, free, strong, open, optimistic.

Not ground down by the past, or religion, or some caste system.

America is the best friend this country ever had and we should start remembering that.

Or do you really think the USA is the root of all evil? Tell it to the loved ones of the men and women who leaped to their death from the burning towers.

Tell it to the nursing mothers whose husbands died on one of the hijacked planes, or were ripped apart in a collapsing skyscraper.

And tell it to the hundreds of young widows whose husbands worked for the New York Fire Department. To our shame, George Bush gets a worse press than Saddam Hussein.

Once we were told that Saddam gassed the Kurds, tortured his own people and set up rape-camps in Kuwait. Now we are told he likes Quality Street. Save me the orange centre, oh mighty one!

Remember, remember, September 11. One of the greatest atrocities in human history was committed against America.

No, do more than remember. Never forget.

A USS Abraham Lincoln crew member gives the thumbs up for a Seahawk helicopter to depart to the tsunami ravaged Indonesian province of Aceh off its northern coast Saturday, Jan. 1, 2005. The U.S. military launched its largest operation in the region since the Vietnam War, ferrying food and other emergency relief to survivors across the disaster zone. (AP Photo/Andy Eames)



US Navy personnel from the USS Abraham Lincoln talk after touching down at the airport in Banda Aceh, a day before they plan to take more water and supplies to victims of last week's killer earthquake and tsunami in Meulaboh, along the coast. The United States said it would deploy up to 1,500 marines for tsunami relief in Sri Lanka as flash floods triggered a new wave of refugees with another 14,000 people reported missing.(AFP)

Indonesian soldiers watch as two US Navy Sea Hawk helicopters from the USS Abraham Lincoln prepare to land to conduct another sortie for relief efforts at Banda Aceh airport Saturday Jan.1, 2005. The US has increased its aid to the earthquake-triggered Tsunami disaster to about $350-Million US dollars. The death toll from the catastrophe soared to some 120,000 with Indonesia accounting for the most number of deaths of more than 80,000 and with Government estimate it could reach 100,000. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is seen in Hong Kong waters Friday, Dec. 24, 2004. The Lincoln, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and four other ships of the carrier's strike group are on their way, Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2004, to the Tsunami affected area and could be committed to relief efforts if necessary. (AP Photo/Anat Givon)

An F-14 Tomcat is towed along the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. The US military said it had diverted an aircraft carrier, other ships, at least 20 aircraft and thousands of sailors and marines to Asian countries struck by devastating tsunami waves. (AFP/File/Leila Gorchev)

A U.S. navy guard stands behind a machine gun onboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln after it arrived in Hong Kong, December 24, 2004. Taiwan played down on Thursday remarks by a senior U.S. official who described the island as the biggest land mine in Sino-U.S. ties and said Washington was not required to come to Taiwan's defense if attacked by China. (REUTERS/Kin Cheung)



U.S. Navy personnel James Wood from Muskegon, Michigan strums on a guitar next to an F-18 fighter jet onboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln after it arrived in Hong Kong December 24, 2004. (REUTERS/Kin Cheung)

FORT DRUM, New York (AP) -- With family members cheering, more than 700 National Guard soldiers were welcomed home in an emotional ceremony after a 15-month tour of duty, including more than nine months on the ground in Iraq.
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Desperate Indonesians from a small village struggle to gather aid supplies being dropped from the Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 2 'Golden Falcons' at Banda Aceh, January 1, 2005 in Indonesia. The helicopter was unable to land because of the extensive flooding that still exists. HS-2 is transporting supplies, bringing in disaster relief teams and supporting humanitarian airlifts to tsunami-stricken costal regions. The USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group is currently operating in the Indian Ocean off the waters of Indonesia and Thailand. A multinational force of aid workers, military aircraft and ships brought aid to stricken areas of South Asia on Saturday. Seven days after the massive undersea quake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered giant tsunami waves, relief pledges edged towards $2 billion with a death toll of nearly 127,000 expected to rise. (REUTERS )


A member of the US Navy from the USS Abraham Lincoln guards relief supplies at the airport in Banda Aceh, a day before they plan to take supplies to victims of the killer earthquake and tsunami in Meulaboh, along the coast. (AFP/Str)



Aviation Anti-submarine Warfare Operator Second Class Timothy Sullivan from the Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 2 'Golden Falcons' views Banda Aceh after a supply drop, January 1, 2005 in Indonesia. HS-2 is transporting supplies, bringing in disaster relief teams and supporting humanitarian airlifts to tsunami-stricken costal regions. The USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group is currently operating in the Indian Ocean off the waters of Indonesia and Thailand. A multinational force of aid workers, military aircraft and ships brought aid to stricken areas of South Asia on Saturday. Seven days after the massive undersea quake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered giant tsunami waves, relief pledges edged towards $2 billion with a death toll of nearly 127,000 expected to rise. (REUTERS)



Sailors from the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln load a truck with supplies to be distributed by United States Navy helicopters throughout the island, January 1, 2005. A multinational force of aid workers, military aircraft and ships descended on Asia as global tsunami relief pledges topped $1.85 billion. The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group is currently operating in the Indian Ocean off the waters of Indonesia and Thailand. (REUTERS)



Sailors from the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, with the help of militants from Indonesia and Australia, load a truck with supplies to be distributed by United States Navy helicopters throughout the island, January 1, 2005. A multinational force of aid workers, military aircraft and ships descended on Asia as global tsunami relief pledges topped $1.85 billion. The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group is currently operating in the Indian Ocean off the waters of Indonesia and Thailand. (REUTERS)



Helicopters from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 2 (HS-2) Golden Falcons and Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron (Light) 47 (HSL-47) Saberhawks depart from USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) en route to Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia, in the Indian Ocean, January 1, 2005. The helicopters are transporting supplies, bringing in disaster relief teams and supporting humanitarian airlifts to tsunami-stricken coastal regions. (REUTERS / U.S. Navy)



Lt. Commander Jeff Vorce, a helicopter pilot from San Diego, Calif., speaks aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln, on a humanitarian mission to the tsunami ravaged Indonesian province of Aceh off it's northern coast Saturday Jan. 1, 2005. 'There is nothing left to speak of at these coastal areas,' is how he described the first day's operations. The U.S. military launched its largest operation in the region since the Vietnam War, ferrying food and other emergency relief to survivors across the disaster zone. (AP Photo/Andy Eames)



US Navy personnel from the USS Abraham Lincoln talk after touching down at the airport in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Disaster survivors swarmed US Navy helicopters bringing emergency rations to isolated communities in Indonesia as aircraft carrying international aid began streaming in to the devastated region (AFP/AFP)



A Seahawk helicopter departs the aircraft carrier, USS Abraham Lincoln, to the tsunami ravaged Indonesian province of Aceh off it's northern coast Saturday, Jan. 1, 2005. The U.S. military launched its largest operation in the region since the Vietnam War, ferrying food and other emergency relief to survivors across the disaster zone. (AP Photo/Andy Eames)



U.S. Naval officers give a presentation co-ordinating humanitarian assistance for the tsunami ravaged Indonesian province of Aceh aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, off the northern coast of Sumatra Saturday, Jan. 1, 2005. the U.S. military launched its largest operation in the region since the Vietnam War, ferrying food and other emergency relief to survivors across the disaster zone. (AP Photo/Andy Eames)

Land mine leaves combat engineer looking for better life

DUNBAR, Pa. (AP) -- Sam Ross Jr. has three laundry hampers in the bedroom of his sparsely furnished trailer. One for jeans, one for T-shirts and the other for underwear. They're always in the same place and same order.

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