Killed in action in 1944.

Returned to his family in 2009.

For two decades after her son's bomber went down in the Pacific Ocean during World War II, Vella Stinson faithfully wrote the U.S. government twice a month to ask if his body had been found — or if anyone was looking.

The mother of six strapping boys went to her grave without the answer that has finally reached her two surviving sons 65 years later: the remains of Sgt. Robert Stinson are coming home.

Military divers recovered two pieces of leg bone from the wreckage of a B-24J Liberator bomber found at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of the island nation of Palau. DNA testing showed the femur fragments belonged to the 24-year-old flight engineer who died in combat on Sept. 1, 1944.

Stinson's remains arrived under U.S. Air Force escort Wednesday and will be buried Friday at Riverside National Cemetery with full military honors. In between, the body will be kept at a mortuary less than 100 yards from the home where Stinson grew up with his brothers.

May Stinson and his fellow crew members rest in peace. A grateful nation honors your sacrifice.

Posted by: Greg at 12:11 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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I've worked with the annual Soldiers' Angel Project Valour-IT for the last several years, always signing on with Team Navy in honor of my fattehr,a retired Navy officer. This year is no exception, and I'm urging all of you to donate to this worthy cause.

For those of you unfamiliar with the program, let me share some information about this program:

Every cent raised for Project Valour-IT goes directly to the purchase and shipment of laptops and other technology for severely wounded service members. As of October 2009, Valour-IT has distributed over 4100 laptops to severely wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines across the country, and is now expanding its mission to include other technology that supports physical and psychological recovery.

Valour-IT accepts donations in any amount to support our mission, but also offers a sponsorship option for laptops.  An individual or organization may sponsor a wounded soldier by completely funding the cost of a laptop and continuing to provide that soldier with personal support and encouragement throughout recovery. This has proved to be an excellent project for churches, groups of coworkers or friends, and members of community organizations such Boy Scouts.

Originally Valour-IT provided the voice-controlled software that accompanies the laptops, but now works closely with the Department of Defense Computer/electronic Accommodations Program (CAP): CAP supplies the adaptive software and Valour-IT provides the laptop.  In addition, DoD caseworkers serve as Valour-ITÂ’s “eyes and ears” at several medical centers, identifying patients in need of laptops and other technological support for their recovery.  Wounded military personnel can also directly request a laptop through the sign-up form or through the Valour-IT/Soldiers' Angels representatives at the following medical centers, and other veterans health care facilities across the country:

* Balboa Naval Hospital

* Brooke Army Medical Center

* Madigan Regional Medical Center

* National Naval Medical Center (Bethesda Naval Hospital)

* Naval Hospital, Camp Pendleton

* Robert E. Bush Naval Hospital (29 Palms)

* Walter Reed Army Medical Center

For the love of the heroes who have spilled their blood for us, give as best you are able.

Posted by: Greg at 04:58 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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It is great to see this wounded vet receive justice – and shocking that it had to come to this for him to get it.

A former Michigan soldier who lost his hand after an explosion while trying to disarm a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2004 won a $4.3 million verdict today against the U.S. Army in a disability discrimination civil case.

“He proved that the Army created a hostile work environment for him because of his disability.” said Royal Oak attorney Kevin Carlson who won the case along with attorney Joseph Golden.

The attorneys represented James McKelvey, 38, of Macomb Township, who said in a discrimination lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit that a boss and coworker derided him as "the cripple, " refused to provide him with computer equipment and door handles to accommodate his disabilities, excluded him from meetings and told him to stay in his office cubicle for months on end.

He said superiors also objected to him parking in a handicapped space at the Warren tank arsenal even though he had a state permit.

Now wait – a medically retired wounded warrior received this treatment while working for the US Army? WTF? Why wasn’t something done to solve this situation?

And at this point, I have an even bigger question – are that supervisor and co-worker still on the government payroll in any capacity? If so, how long until they are terminated for cause and with no government benefits?

Posted by: Greg at 10:11 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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I'm a conservative -- but unlike many of my fellow conservatives, i fiercely object to the "don't ask, don't tell" policy of the US military. I've always found it a bit absurd that we reject the talents of those more than capable of serving our country on the basis of their sexual orientation. That attitude has only been confirmed in my mind by the growing acceptance of homosexuals in society as a whole.

So one would think that I would be turning handstands over this announcement.

President Barack Obama pledged to end the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the military in a speech Saturday, but acknowledged to a cheering crowd that the policy changes he promised on the campaign trail are not coming as quickly as they expected.

"I will end 'don't ask-don't tell,'" Obama said at the annual dinner of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay civil rights advocacy group.

Why no excitement? Because he gives no timetble, only a vague commitment. And he made the same commitment during the campaign, only to sit on his hands for the first nine months he's been in office, despite the fact that most Americans would support him on this one.

In other words, it really isn't a priority to Barack Obama -- any more than winning in Afghanistan or promoting human rights in China are priorities for him.

Wake me when Obama actually tries to carry through on this promise -- if he ever gets around to it.

Posted by: Greg at 01:58 PM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
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Are our men and women in uniform deployed abroad being denied their pay? If this report over at Red Ink: Texas is true, it appears that the unthinkable may be happening.

Nasty Rumor that I HOPE is not true.

But I'm afraid it might well be...

This morning, a woman called in to Edd Hendee's show on KSEV and informed Edd that her friend's husband, who is deployed to Iraq, has not been paid in a month, and that he had been ordered not to discuss it. The wife of course was under no such obligation to keep quiet. When I heard that I thought to myself that it could not possibly be correct, or if it is, it can't be widespread. So I asked around. I discovered that a woman here at work has three cousins in Iraq, two Army, one Air Force, and none of them have been paid in over 5 weeks as well. This no longer sounds like a rumor, this is starting to sound like fact. And if it IS a fact, someone's head needs to roll. This is UNACCEPTABLE.

These men and women have signed a blank check for their very lives in service to this country. They often have spouses and families back home that depend on that income to eat and pay the rent. Soldiers are not paid a great deal for their sacrifice to begin with. To screw them out of a paycheck their families need to survive is simply unconscionable. If you know of anyone who is deployed to Iraq who has not been paid. Please let me know. I've been in contact with Congressman Ted Poe's office and they will ask around, but at this juncture no constituent who has not been paid has contacted them so their ability to look into it is limited. I urge all servicemen and women who's paycheck is in arrears to contact their respective congressmen and let them know about this.

Check with your friends and loved ones in the war zones about this. If there is any truth whatsoever to this story, then We the People need to raise some Hell about it -- Barack Obama and the Democrats can try to screw the American people all they want, but we will not tolerate them screwing our troops.

UPDATE: Perhaps less than meets the eye to this one -- a fellow-blogger with lots of military connections sends me this:

From what I'm hearing, it's not uncommon for combat pay/benefits to lag a couple of months, and it gets corrected eventually, but I've heard of no mass missing of paychecks in theater. In fact, no commander worth his salt would tolerate that, and you couldn't possibly enforce a gag rule on it.

Posted by: Greg at 01:27 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I grew up in a military family.

One of the benefits of that upbringing was that I met some extraordinary men and women during my childhood. And as a teenager I had the privilege of meeting a living recipient of the Medal of Honor. I learned that day exactly how special these men really are, and the sort of heroism they exhibited in the course of their duty. And so it is with that in mind that I read this commentary this morning about attempts to change the requirements – in effect to water them down – in an effort to award the MoH more often.

More than a dozen groups and lawmakers are lobbying the Defense Department to award this honor more frequently -- in effect, to lower its standards -- and to upgrade to the Medal of Honor other decorations that soldiers have received. In debate over the National Defense Authorization Act for 2010, the Pentagon was criticized for setting decoration standards too high. The "low numbers" led Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) to insert a conference report in the authorization act "to review the current trends in awarding the Medal of Honor to identify whether there is an inadvertent subjective bias amongst commanders that has contributed to the low numbers of awards of the Medal of Honor." It directs Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to report back to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees next March.

I’m sorry, but no matter how dearly one wishes to honor our men and women in uniform, this is not the right vehicle for doing so. This award is special – its recipients a mere handful among all those who have ever served – and so rarely bestowed that meeting a living recipient is rare. That is as it should be. If there is a desire to give more recognition to special acts of valor, then there is a case for creating a new award – but Congress should keep its hands off of this one.

Posted by: Greg at 01:24 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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