Veterans' Day 2008

Urban Miyares was stuffed into a body bag in Vietnam and lived to tell about it.

What Miyares, then a 20-year-old Army platoon sergeant, remembers of that day in August 1968 outside Saigon was advancing single file across rice paddy dikes when the silence was pierced by yelling, screaming, gunfire and mortar shells. His last recollection was falling face down into muddy water.

It was like a dream. Everything was spinning. Then I hit the water,” Miyares recalled.

Two days later he woke up in a military hospital. One of his 9th Infantry platoon colleagues checked on him and broke the news: An Army medic had pulled him out of a body bag.

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And this is how you name a warship:

One of the Navy’s largest new surface warships will bear the name of a Navy SEAL who received the nation’s highest award for valor.
“DDG 1001, the second ship in our newest class of destroyers, will be named after Michael Monsoor,” Navy Secretary Donald Winter said remarks prepared for an address to be given Wednesday night in New York.

Garden Grove, California native, Michael Monsoor was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor back in April. Our thoughts at the time, here.

Also, Information Dissemination is encouraging its readers to participate in a fund-raising drive that is operated by Soldiers' Angels. We’ve donated to these folks in the past. They’re a good and worthy outfit. Please read about ID’s experience with Soldier’s Angels.

And finally, a special shout-out to our two older brothers and our brother-in-law who served proudly in this nation’s armed forces. None of what we enjoy today in this, the greatest nation on Earth, is possible without the selfless sacrifices that have been made and continue to be made by the men and women in our armed forces. May God bless all of them.



This picture is a couple years old but remains one of the most moving we've seen. Pearl Harbor survivor Houston James of Dallas embraces Marine Staff Sgt. Mark Graunke Jr. during a Veterans Day commemoration in Dallas. Graunke lost a hand, a leg and and eye when he was injured by a bomb in Iraq.

H/T: BlackFive

Dear God.... Please Just Make This Guy Go Away.

We’re trying. We really are. Our attempt to make peace with the possibility of another Clinton presidency was posted here. But as soon as our heartfelt offering was made to, in a sense, bury the hatchet, we were reminded that Hillary’s absolute waste-of-oxygen husband would be schlepping around the White House and generally making a nuisance of himself for at least 4 years.

Clinton has been stumping in Iowa on behalf of his wife and yesterday he gave a 50 minute speech chronicled in article here. Author notes that in the first 10 minutes of his speech, he uses “I” 94 times and “Hillary” merely 7. No surprise there, but here is where we nearly got ill: while speaking about our armed conflicts in Afghanistan (the “good war”) and Iraq (the “bad war”) Clinton had this to say,

"Even though I approved of Afghanistan and opposed Iraq from the beginning, I still resent that I was not asked or given the opportunity to support those soldiers"

Reversal of Fortune!

Honestly, have you heard anything more self-serving than that statement? Its revolting. But that’s Clinton…. that’s “himself” in a nut-shell… in a single soundbyte. Self-absorbed, self-righteous yet pitiable all in one fell swoop. It’s a knee-jerk reaction among some of the gifted elite to express shock and dismay that they weren’t asked to bestow their blessings upon this or that, but “himself” takes it to a whole other level.

Bill Clinton is perhaps the only man on the face of the planet that can speak from a position of privilege, power and wealth but STILL make himself a victim. Can you feel his pain…. can you feel his hurt that he wasn’t asked or given the opportunity to support the troops?

Hey Bill, ever here of the USO, PVA….. or maybe some lesser-known grass roots organizations like Operation Homefront or Soldiers' Angels Scarves? They’ve been asking for years now.

What a piece of work, this guy. I know what I’m adding to my Christmas list.