I'm not a big fan of Senator John McCain, but I do respect the long tradition of service to our nation that the McCain family has demonstrated over the years.

That tradition continues today.

The youngest son of Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam and a vocal proponent of more American troops in Iraq, will soon report for duty in the Marine Corps, Time Magazine reported today.

Jimmy McCain, 18, will spend three months in boot camp in California this autumn and another month in specialized training.

Depending on his unit, the younger McCain could eventually wind up in Iraq where Marines have experienced heavy fighting, Time reported. Marines are also in combat in Afghanistan.

"I'm obviously very proud of my son," McCain told Time, "but also understandably a little nervous."

Jimmy's older brother, Jack, attends the Naval Academy.

Semper fi, young man. May God watch over you and those with whom you serve.

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I've mentioned once or twice that I grew up in a Navy family. While we did not move as often as many of my fellow military brats (we both actually attended the same high school for all four years -- something virtually unheard of among brats), my brother and I both lived our lives in a very special sub-culture that most folks just don't get. I therefore found this article about a new magazine caled Military Brats.

The first 250,000 copies of Military Brats was distributed free through 258 commissaries worldwide and began disappearing almost as soon as they were put out, said Robert Hansgen, a spokesman for the U.S. Defense Commissary Agency.

"That's a sure sign that it filled a need that people had," said Janice Witte, director of the U.S. Department of Defense's Office of Children and Youth. "There are lots of publications out there for military personnel over age 18 but there isn't really anything that's really connected to the military for our youth."

Misty Burris noticed the void, too. So while she and her husband, now retired Army Staff Sgt. Sean Burris, were driving cross-country three years ago from California to Fort Drum, Burris wrote out a detailed business plan for a military youth magazine.

"We hear all these stories about how military morale is down in these difficult times. I thought the way to fix that is to start with the kids. If the kids are happy, everybody's happy," said Burris, who formed a company, Littlefoot Publishing, Inc., to produce the magazine.

The two hardest things for us brats have always been the uprooting and the deployments. I remember the fear I had every time my father's ship left port -- and when he was stationed in Saigon during the Vietnam War. I see the same fear in the eyes of my students with deployed family members -- mostly the children of reservists, who weren't raised with the expectation that mom or dad would ever be in a war zone.

I think this mgazine is a great idea, and i hope it is successful in every sense of the word.

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When you have someone with needed skills and a desire to serve, something extraneous like sexual orientation should not be a bar. After all, this man had four years of exemplary service.

A decorated sergeant and Arabic language specialist was dismissed from the U.S. Army under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, though he says he never told his superiors he was gay and his accuser was never identified.

Bleu Copas, 30, told The Associated Press he is gay, but said he was "outed" by a stream of anonymous e-mails to his superiors in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.

In other words, he wasn't trying to make a statement -- he was trying to serve his county.

Indeed, this is a case where the command did ask -- in violation of military regulations.

Shortly after Copas was appointed to the 82nd Airborne's highly visible All-American Chorus last May, the first e-mail came to the chorus director.

"The director brought everyone into the hallway and told us about this e-mail they had just received and blatantly asked, 'Which one of you are gay?'" Copas said.

Copas later complained to the director and his platoon sergeant, saying the questions violated "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

"They said they would watch it in the future," Copas said. "And they said, even specifically then, 'Well, you are not gay are you?' And I said, 'no.'"

The accuser, who signed his e-mails "John Smith" or "ftbraggman," pressed Copas' superiors to take action against him or "I will inform your entire battalion of the information that I gave you."

On Dec. 2, investigators formally interviewed Copas and asked if he understood the military's policy on homosexuals, if he had any close acquaintances who were gay, and if he was involved in community theater. He answered affirmatively.

But Copas declined to answer when they asked, "Have you ever engaged in homosexual activity or conduct?" He refused to answer 19 of 47 questions before he asked for a lawyer and the interrogation stopped.

My question is why the Army even takes notice of anonymous accusations of this sort -- and what possible relevance involvement in community theater would have to do with sexual orientation.

But if anecdotal evidence doesn;t prove taht the policy is flawed, consider the statistics that show it.

More than 11,000 service members have been dismissed under the policy, including 726 last year _ an 11 percent jump from 2004 and the first increase since 2001.

That's less than a half-percent of the more than 2 million soldiers, sailors and Marines dismissed for all reasons since 1993, according to the General Accountability Office.

But the GAO also noted that nearly 800 dismissed gay or lesbian service members had critical abilities, including 300 with important language skills. Fifty-five were proficient in Arabic, including Copas, a graduate of the Defense Language Institute in California.

Discharging and replacing them has cost the Pentagon nearly $369 million, according to the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

So when that vital piece of intelligence is not translated, or some other critical task is not accomplished, remembr that it could have been -- if only patriotic Americans were allowed to serve regardless of their sexuality.

After all, this isn't about special rights or political correctness -- it is about national security.

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Once, as a boy, I met Carl Brashear. I didn't quite understand his significance at the time, but I have come to understand it as an adult.

Master Chief Boatswain's Mate Carl M. Brashear, USN (Ret.), has passed away.

He was a MAN worthy of admiration. And in death, Carl Brashear remains a MAN worthy of respect, admiration and emulation. At a time when the place of a black man in society was often subject to question, he made his way by being better than those around him. When a lesser human being might have given up and allowed himself to be defeated when life dealt him a crappy hand, he fought to overcome the obstacles placed before him.

Yes, I say it again. Carl Brashear was a MAN.

Carl M. Brashear, the first black U.S. Navy diver who was portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr. in the 2000 film "Men of Honor," died Tuesday. He was 75.

Brashear died at the Naval Medical Center Portsmouth of respiratory and heart failure, the medical center said.

Brashear retired from the Navy in 1979 after more than 30 years of service. He was the first Navy diver to be restored to full active duty as an amputee, the result of a leg injury he sustained during a salvage operation.

"The African-American community lost a great leader today in Carl Brashear," Gooding said of the man he depicted alongside Robert DeNiro, who played Brashear's roughneck training officer in "Men of Honor." "His impact to us as a people and all races will be felt for many decades to come."

I'd like to correct Cuba Gooding -- all of America has lost a great leader and an exemplary human being. Race should not even enter into the equation, for I believe that Carl Brashear and his example transcend that trivia of skin color. That is a lesson I learned from the Navy man who raised me, and who introduced me to Carl Brashear.

Let us not forget what Brashear was doing when he sustained the injury that cost him his leg.

In 1966, Brashear was tasked with recovering a hydrogen bomb that dropped into waters off of Spain when two U.S. Air Force planes collided.

During the mission, Brashear was struck below his left knee by a pipe that the crew was using to hoist the bomb out of the water. Brashear was airlifted to a naval hospital where the bottom of his left leg was amputated to avoid gangrene. It later was replaced with a prosthetic leg.

The Navy was ready to retire Brashear from active duty, but he soon began a grueling training program that included diving, running and calisthenics.

"Sometimes I would come back from a run, and my artificial leg would have a puddle of blood from my stump. I wouldn't go to sick bay because they would have taken me out of the program," Brashear said in 2002 when he was inducted into the Gallery of Great Black Kentuckians. "Instead I'd go hide somewhere and soak my leg in a bucket of hot water with salt in it - that's an old remedy I learned growing up."

After completing 600- to 1,000-foot-deep dives while being evaluated for five weeks at the Experimental Diving Unit in Washington, D.C., Brashear became a master diver in 1970.

Would you go to such lengths in similar circumstances? More to the point, having achieved the goal of reinstatement, would you continue to excel, striving to be teh best in your field? That is the marking of a MAN.

Not only did he love what he did, Brashear had no regrets.

Despite the battles he faced in the Navy, Brashear had said his passion for military service was unyielding.

"I loved the Navy so much I once tried to get my mother to join the Navy reserves," he said with a laugh. "I would love to do it all over again."

And the tradition of service begun by Carl Brashear continues today -- his son, Philip, was granted emergency leave from his duties as an Army helicopter pilot in Iraq so that he could be with his father during his final hours on this earth.

May God, our compassionate Father, who watched over and preserved Carl Brashear in life welcome him into paradise this day, and grant him the eternal rest he so richly deserves. And may He send out his Holy Spirit to comfort the Brashear family and all who knew and loved this MAN among men. In the name of Christ Jesus we pary. Amen.

OTHER TRIBUTES: Captain's Quarters, Specific Impulse, Below the Beltway, Gantry Launchpad

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Donald Rumsfeld is known for being loyal to those he has served under, served over, and served with. One such loyalty dates back some five decades, and is being played out today -- on behalf of a friend who went missing after being shot down on a spy mission over China in the 1950s.

HIS reputation is one of a hawkish warmonger with a crusty demeanour and a heart of steel. But Donald Rumsfeld, it seems, has a little-known softer side.

Five decades after one of his US Navy friends was shot down over China during a Cold War spy mission, the US Defence Secretary is still waging a quiet campaign to win closure for the airman's widow. In the finest military tradition, he has vowed that Lieutenant James B Deane will not be left behind.

Leaving his normally hard-line views on communist China to one side, he has persuaded General Guo Boxiong, vice-chairman of China's Central Military Commission, to hand over once-secret papers divulging information previously unknown to the US regarding the fate of the young pilot.

Gen Boxiong ranks second only to China's president, Chairman Hu Jintao.

It was unclear yesterday exactly how much light the documents - which were handed over during a meeting at the Pentagon on Tuesday - shed on what happened to Lt Deane or whether he may even still be alive.

Lt. Deane was listed as presumed dead in 1057 -- only four bodies were recovered of the 16 crewmen who were aboart the plane. One declassified report indicates there may have been two prisoners -- including one who fit Deane's description.

Rumsfeld has been involved in the effort to find out more about his old friend since 1992, when he was in the business sector. His efforts have been quiet -- but intense.

"After her husband's shoot-down, my mother and Mr Rumsfeld stayed in touch, mostly through Christmas cards. When my mother began her search in 1992, Mr Rumsfeld was a business executive in Chicago. She addressed her letters to him as Rummy. He wrote back to Bo Bo, her college nickname," she explained.

He obtained letters to the Chinese government from former US president Gerald Ford, whom he served as a defence secretary, and former secretary of state Henry Kissinger, which called on Beijing to assist in unearthing the truth. His quest was resurrected after he joined the Bush administration as Defence Secretary.

May this act of loyalty and friendship be rewarded with some concrete answers about the fate of this American fighting man who gave his life for his country during the Cold War.

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This letter was posted over at American Thinker. I believe the author makes a very important point about the casualties inflicted on the respective sides in Israel's war of self-defense and survival.

In WW II, the total German dead were 10.82% of the population, and the much lower Japanese rate was 3.61%. But the UK lost 0.94% and the USA 0.32%. Were the Allied defenders of freedom “dis-proportionate”?

What moral or military or historical logic suggests to Chirac and Putin that Israel is “disproportionate”? Since when is the aggressor entitled to suffer only the same losses as the defender ? Did De Gaulle or Stalin make that complaint in, or after, WW II ?

A Just War is not for revenge or reprisal, but to eliminate a deadly threat. The Fanatical Jihadi Fringe is such a threat, and for other Arabs and Muslims as well. The “proportionate” casualties they take are whatever it takes to conquer them thoroughly, and remove their aggressive capacity for good.

Our hopes and prayers are with the “Armed Democrats” of the IDF, on land, sea and air, on whose courage, determination, and skills not only the people of Israel depend, but all those who are, or who seek to be, truly free, including the majority in Lebanon.

Yours etc,

Tom Carew

Israel has a right to exist, safe from attack by barbarians beyond its borders. God and the international community (the UN) have both confirmed Israel's title to the land between the Jordan and the Mediterranean.

Let the smiting continue.

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He is willing to put his life on the line for you -- are you willing to do something to save his?

Rare is the occasion when a Navy SEAL needs help from his fellow Americans. Perhaps even rarer is the day an ordinary American can help a Navy SEAL. But Justin, 27, whose last name is not being disclosed at the request of the Defense Department, is in need, and Americans, especially readers in the Washington area, have an opportunity to help.

Last month, the Iraq war veteran was diagnosed with leukemia, which is normally treated with chemotherapy. Justin, however, has a rare condition that makes his best chance of survival dependent on a bone marrow transplant. Tragically, neither of Justin's siblings -- who often are the best match for transplants -- is a suitable donor. This makes the chance of finding a donor, according to Justin's sister, Jodi, about one in 25,000. Unless a match can be found, leukemia patients often die within months.

So, last week Justin's hometown newspaper, the East Brunswick, N.J., Sentinel, published a story asking local residents for help. While the Navy SEALs are busy conducting their own donor search, the potential donor field could be increased significantly if Washington-area readers are able to drive the three hours to Spotswood, N.J., where on Saturday the local high school is holding a one-day donor search, courtesy of the Defense Department's Donor Program (www.dodmarrow.org).

Testing is painless. Volunteers would be administered a simple swab on the inside of the cheek to find out if they're a match. That's it. In the rare case you are a match, the marrow extraction process itself is also relatively simple. The procedure includes the taking of a small amount of marrow via needle from the back of the pelvic bone, according to the Defense Department's Donor Program, at either Georgetown University Hospital or the University of Maryland's Greenbaum Medical Center in Baltimore. Patients are fully anesthetized at all times. Concerned readers are encouraged to contact Eddy Medina of the Defense Department program (800-627-7693 ext. 223) to learn more about the testing and procedure.

As quoted in the Sentinel, Justin's sister said: "When he was told that there was only a 30 percent chance of recovery, he replied, 'That's good. There was only a 10 percent chance of me becoming a SEAL'.?" The drive is being held at Spotswood High School, 105 Summerhill Road, Spotswood, N.J., this Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Are you the person that Justin -- or someone else in need of a bone marrow transplant -- needs in order to live?

(H/T Michelle Malkin & Conservative Musings)

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I was up at the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library yesterday, on a bus trip with a group from church. While in the gift shop, I bought myself a ball cap for the USS George H. W. Bush, CVN 77 -- because this Navy brat has always had a soft spot for ship ball caps, ever since my father gave me one when he was XO of USS Savannah.

Imagine my surprise -- and my pleasure -- to come across this article today.

David Rushing was perched high above the ground Saturday morning in the cab of the big blue crane at Northrop Grumman Corp.'s shipyard.

He was awaiting orders to lift into place the final large piece of the George H.W. Bush, the aircraft carrier being built at the yard. The section to be moved was the 700-ton "island," the tall structure found atop all carriers that houses each ship's bridge, its main flight control center and radar and communications equipment.

On this day, which marked a major milestone in the construction of the 10th and final Nimitz-class carrier, Rushing waited for his instructions. They came from an unlikely source - the ship's namesake and the country's president from 1989 to 1993.

"David Rushing, this is George H. W. Bush," the former president announced via walkie-talkie, while standing under a ceremonial tent on the ship's flight deck. "Are you receiving me clearly in the 900-ton crane?"

Rushing replied: "Yes, sir, Mr. President."

"David, contact your crane crew and hoist the island house and bring it to the flight deck," Bush said.

"I copy, Mr. President. Hoisting the island house to flight deck," Rushing responded."

In October, the USS George H. W. Bush will be formally christened and launched into the James River. In 2008, she will be delivered to the Navy and join the fleet -- a fitting tribute for the youngest man ever to serve as a pilot in the US Navy, a combat veteran who survived to serve his country as a Congressman, UN Ambassador, Special Envoy to China, CIA Director, Vice President, and President.

The former president looks at the matter with typical humility and grace.

"This may be the nicest thing that's ever happened to me," Bush said, adding that he's had "far more than his fair share of nice things" happen to him. "They've named this ship after me and I'm not even dead yet.

"One thing I want to make clear is that I certainly don't feel entitled to this high honor. I feel no sense of entitlement nor sense of possession - simply pride and honor."

And lest we ever forget that the Bush family, while springing from a background of wealth, privilege, and power, is very much an all-American family, is very much a typical American family, consider this little anecdote.

To remember the day, Barbara Bush used her digital camera to snap pictures of the island as it was moved into position. Her husband and daughter posed in front of the massive structure for some shots.

These are folks who could have had any number of pictures taken and fowarded to them by the official photographers. Consider it one of the perks of being a former President and First Lady of the United States -- and the parents of the sitting President. But instead you've got just another family taking pictures for the family album. It sort of reminds you that we have, since the founding of the Republic, strived to avoid aristocracy and made "Citizen" the most honored and honorable title any Anerican can claim.

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT: Conservative Cat, Outside the Beltway, Bacon Bits, Bullwinkle Blog, Stuck on Stupid, Dumb Ox, Blue Star Chronicles, Third World County, Madman Returns, Uncooperative Blogger, Cigar Intelligence Agency, Stop The ACLU, Wizbang

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If this report is true (consider the sources -- the New York Times and the Southern Poverty Law Center, both arguably extremist hate groups themselves), then I am disturbed.

A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed "large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists" to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks racist and right-wing militia groups, estimated that the numbers could run into the thousands, citing interviews with Defense Department investigators and reports and postings on racist Web sites and magazines.

"We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad," the group quoted a Defense Department investigator as saying in a report to be posted today on its Web site, www.splcenter.org. "That's a problem."

Looking at the group's website, the following claims are made.

"Last year, for the first time, they didn't make their recruiting goals. They don't want to start making a big deal again about neo-Nazis in the military, because then parents who are already worried about their kids signing up and dying in Iraq are going to be even more reluctant about their kids enlisting if they feel they'll be exposed to gangs and white supremacists."

Barfield, who is based at Fort Lewis, said he has identified and submitted evidence on 320 extremists there in the past year. "Only two have been discharged," he said. Barfield and other Department of Defense investigators said they recently uncovered an online network of 57 neo-Nazis who are active duty Army and Marines personnel spread across five military installations in five states -- Fort Lewis; Fort Bragg, N.C.; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Stewart, Ga.; and Camp Pendleton, Calif. "They're communicating with each other about weapons, about recruiting, about keeping their identities secret, about organizing within the military," Barfield said. "Several of these individuals have since been deployed to combat missions in Iraq."

Every year, the Army's Criminal Investigation Division conducts a threat assessment of extremist and gang activity among army personnel. "Every year, they come back with 'minimal activity,' which is inaccurate," said Barfield. "It's not epidemic, but there's plenty of evidence we're talking numbers well into the thousands, just in the Army."

There are a number of specific instances of scuzzy individuals documented.

This closely follows a report six weeks ago in the Chicago Sun-Times about signs of street gang activity in the military.

These reports are disturbing, to say the least -- but I wonder if they are really accurate.

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Over at the Jawa Report and Ace of Spades note a report that the North Korean missile the other day may have been headed to Hawaii as a warning of the vulnerability of the Pacific Fleet.

North Korea targeted waters near Hawaii when it test fired a long-range missile this week, according to a Japanese newspaper.

Japanese and US defence officials, after analysing the missile's path from intelligence data, have concluded that the Taepodong-2, had been targeted near the Pacific island, the conservative daily Sankei newspaper said.

The test missile was one of seven test launches launched on Wednesday that fell into the Sea of Japan, causing no damage.

The determination was reached by analysing the angle of its nose cone immediately after its launch and the altitude it reached, the newspaper said.

Defence experts analysed the missile target based on data collected by Aegis-equipped destroyers and RC-135S electronic reconnaissance aircraft, it said.

Do we need any additional basis to take action against the North Korean dictatorship?

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Well, the total number of missiles fired by the North Koreans appears to be seven.

All the missiles landed in the Sea of Japan.

North Korea test-fired a seventh missile Wednesday -- amid international furor over the regime's launch of six missiles just hours earlier.

The Japanese Defense Agency said one ballistic missile was fired from southeastern North Korea around 5:20 p.m. (4:20 a.m. ET), landing in the Sea of Japan about 10 minutes later.

The range of the missile has not been confirmed by CNN. However, Japanese news agencies said it was medium-range.

The seventh test came after North Korea launched one long-range and five shorter-range missiles shortly after 3:30 a.m. Wednesday (2:30 p.m. Tuesday ET). Those tests lasted about five hours.

But the closely-watched Taepodong-2 missile, which some analysts say is capable of hitting the western United States, failed after about 40 seconds and landed in the sea about 200 miles (321 kilometers) west of Japan, U.S. officials said.

So what we have here is a failed missile test of the Tapeodong-2, but successful tests of the short and medium range missiles. It is clear that the tests of the more limited range weapons were intended to serve as a warning to the US and its allies that the North Koreans can do significant damage in Asia, even if they lack the capacity to reach the United States.

Captain's Quarters notes that the Taepodong-2 fell into the sea off Hokkaido 42 seconds after launch. This indicates a polar course designed to send teh missile towards Alaska -- a provocation of the first order, coming as it did on the Independence Day. Were we prepared to shoot it out of the sky? Were we prepared to retaliate had the missile continued further along that trajectory?

Clearly, this test shows that the North Koreas are still some way from deploying the Taepodong-2 -- and that concerted efforts by the United States and the international community must be taken to prevent the North Koreans from doing so.

UPDATE: The UN Security Council is meeting this morning.

The United Nations Security Council met in emergency session this morning to respond to North Korea's test-firing of seven missiles, as Japan and South Korea imposed economic penalties and nations around the world denounced the launchings.

The American ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton, said as he arrived for the meeting that he hoped for "a strong and unanimous signal from the council that this kind of behavior is unacceptable."

And we all know how effective that will be, given in bringing Saddam Hussein to heel in Iraq.

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