Welcome to the Llama Pit

Why I love America, narrated by John Wayne

LiveStrong Challenge “San Jose”

Dear Friends,

Those fighting cancer are in a daily battle that requires them to summon uncommon courage and often to survive on boosts of morale that loved ones and their community can drive.  Janet, Anna, Lucas – these are some of the amazing people in my life who faced cancer and came through victorious. Sharon was a beloved mother of a friend who lost her fight this year. And Brandon is a brave young man in my life who, along with his family, is wrestling today with the unknown of his cancer’s direction.
 
This summer I and Team Alone And Unafraid will join the ranks of those on the front lines of the cancer battle. I will be riding with five friends and thousands of others as part of Team LIVESTRONG in the LIVESTRONG Challenge San Jose, CA. 
 
If you’re not aware, LIVESTRONG seeks to inspire and empower people affected by cancer and through the LIVESTRONG Challenge I’m picking a fight with cancer and uniting with others who are interested in making cancer a global priority.

On July, 11 2010, I’m going to ride my bike at least 50 miles. In addition to this, I’m hoping to raise at least $500 for the fight against cancer.

Asking for donations can be hard, but some things are so important we have to let go of our fears.  Who are the people in your own life that have stood up to cancer or may be coming face-to-face with it right now? Maybe you can’t ride, but you can join with me to help them win their battle as well.
 
To learn more about my participation and contribute to the cause go to http://sanjose2010.livestrong.org, click on the donate tab and help me in my effort to support the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Remember, every dollar counts.

I’d like to thank you in advance for your donation. If you can’t donate, please think about joining me by registering on http://www.livestrong.org/team.

Thanks and LIVESTRONG:
 
Jerran Higgins

Memorial Day

Memorial Day History
Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) — established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.

The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

The ceremonies centered around the mourning-draped veranda of the Arlington mansion, once the home of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Various Washington officials, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, presided over the ceremonies. After speeches, children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home and members of the GAR made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers on both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers and singing hymns.

Local Observances Claim To Be First Local springtime tributes to the Civil War dead already had been held in various places. One of the first occurred in Columbus, Miss., April 25, 1866, when a group of women visited a cemetery to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen in battle at Shiloh. Nearby were the graves of Union soldiers, neglected because they were the enemy. Disturbed at the sight of the bare graves, the women placed some of their flowers on those graves, as well.

Today, cities in the North and the South claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day in 1866. Both Macon and Columbus, Ga., claim the title, as well as Richmond, Va. The village of Boalsburg, Pa., claims it began there two years earlier. A stone in a Carbondale, Ill., cemetery carries the statement that the first Decoration Day ceremony took place there on April 29, 1866. Carbondale was the wartime home of Gen. Logan. Approximately 25 places have been named in connection with the origin of Memorial Day, many of them in the South where most of the war dead were buried.

Official Birthplace Declared In 1966, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo, N.Y., the “birthplace” of Memorial Day. There, a ceremony on May 5, 1866, honored local veterans who had fought in the Civil War. Businesses closed and residents flew flags at half-staff. Supporters of Waterloo’s claim say earlier observances in other places were either informal, not community-wide or one-time events.

By the end of the 19th century, Memorial Day ceremonies were being held on May 30 throughout the nation. State legislatures passed proclamations designating the day, and the Army and Navy adopted regulations for proper observance at their facilities.

It was not until after World War I, however, that the day was expanded to honor those who have died in all American wars. In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by an act of Congress, though it is still often called Decoration Day. It was then also placed on the last Monday in May, as were some other federal holidays.

Some States Have Confederate Observances Many Southern states also have their own days for honoring the Confederate dead. Mississippi celebrates Confederate Memorial Day on the last Monday of April, Alabama on the fourth Monday of April, and Georgia on April 26. North and South Carolina observe it on May 10, Louisiana on June 3 and Tennessee calls that date Confederate Decoration Day. Texas celebrates Confederate Heroes Day January 19 and Virginia calls the last Monday in May Confederate Memorial Day.

Gen. Logan’s order for his posts to decorate graves in 1868 “with the choicest flowers of springtime” urged: “We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. ... Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.”

The crowd attending the first Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery was approximately the same size as those that attend today’s observance, about 5,000 people. Then, as now, small American flags were placed on each grave — a tradition followed at many national cemeteries today. In recent years, the custom has grown in many families to decorate the graves of all departed loved ones.

The origins of special services to honor those who die in war can be found in antiquity. The Athenian leader Pericles offered a tribute to the fallen heroes of the Peloponnesian War over 24 centuries ago that could be applied today to the 1.1 million Americans who have died in the nation’s wars: “Not only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions, but there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of men.”

To ensure the sacrifices of America ’s fallen heroes are never forgotten, in December 2000, the U.S. Congress passed and the president signed into law “The National Moment of Remembrance Act,” P.L. 106-579, creating the White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance. The commission’s charter is to “encourage the people of the United States to give something back to their country, which provides them so much freedom and opportunity” by encouraging and coordinating commemorations in the United States of Memorial Day and the National Moment of Remembrance.

The National Moment of Remembrance encourages all Americans to pause wherever they are at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day for a minute of silence to remember and honor those who have died in service to the nation. As Moment of Remembrance founder Carmella LaSpada states: “It’s a way we can all help put the memorial back in Memorial Day.”

Wounded Warriors at the Playboy Mansion

Through a series of strange events, Alone And Unafraid found itself at the one and only Playboy Mansion in Hollywood on May 15th.  Motorcycle Charity Associates put on the event, MCA is a 501 c 3 nonprofit organization who supports other charities and well worthy causes, MCA has been a proud supporter of wounded veteran’s.  We spent a few minutes talking with Billy Gordon, executive director, and discovered a real friend to our wounded vets.  Thanks for all your hard work Billy.
Controlling the madness of any event can be daunting, let alone one at the fabled Playboy Mansion.  Up to the task was Jose Dominquez, himself a wounded Marine, and event organizer.  Jose ran a tight ship and made the extra effort to ensure that everyone, especially the vets, had a great time.  Well done Jose and thank you for all your help. 
It’s always fun to be involved in events that are completely out of your realm of influence, but it’s even more exciting when you see your company logo displayed on the red carpet entrance to the StarsandStripes10 event.  Wow!  Quick strolls down the red carpet, then past the security at the entrance and we were in.  Walking out of the entrance tunnel we were greeted by the legendary Playboy Mansion Grotto.  Nice pool!
Alone And Unafraid, plus guest (11 total) were located at a VIP area just off the main dance floor, just to the left of party host Kaki West.  Once we started getting seated Kaki immediately introduced herself and made us feel right at home.  Turns out Kaki’s older brother and I served together in the Marines (small world).  A further Marine connection is Kaki’s fiancé, Romulus Cojoaca, President of Mannequin Management.  A modeling agency in LA.  Romulus and Kaki helped make the evening a huge success.  Thanks guys.
One tick off the old bucket list and not a bad start for a small T-shirt company run by two Marines.  Despite the location of the party, the famous guests,  and the massive amount of people we were able to do something we set out to do from the beginning.  Donate money towards the welfare of our comrades and show them an outstanding time, and giving them bragging rights for having attended a Playboy Mansion Party.
http://www.starsandstripes10.com

Tim McGrath, 3 Advertising, was our wingman for the entire event.  Thanks for coming Tim and remember.  “What happens at the Playboy Mansion, stays at the Mansion.”

Goodbye to a good woman

Los Angeles Times on April 15, 2010

October 7, 1923 - April 8, 2010
Pamela Murphy, widow of WWII hero and actor, Audie Murphy, died peacefully at her home on April 8, 2010. She is survived by sons, Terry and James. Pam established her own distinctive 30 year career working as a patient liaison at the Sepulveda VA Hospital, where she was much beloved. Services will be held at Forest Lawn (Hollywood Hills) on Friday April 16 at 2:30PM.

Pam Murphy, the widow of Audie Murphy, was involved in the Sepulveda VA hospital and care center over the course of 35 years, treating every veteran who visited the facility as if they were a VIP. Pam Murphy died last week at the age of 90.

After Audie died, they all became her boys. Every last one of them. Any soldier or Marine who walked into the Sepulveda VA hospital and care center in the last 35 years got the VIP treatment from Pam Murphy. The widow of Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in World War II, would walk the hallways with her clipboard in hand making sure her boys got to see a specialist or doctor STAT. If they didn’t, watch out. Her boys weren’t Medal of Honor recipients or movie stars like Audie, but that didn’t matter to Pam. They had
served their country. That was good enough for her. She never called a veteran by his first name. It was always “Mister.” Respect came with the job. “Nobody could cut through VA red tape faster than Mrs. Murphy,” said veteran Stephen Sherman, speaking for thousands of veterans she befriended over the years. “Many times I watched her march a veteran who had been waiting more than an hour right into the doctor’s office. She was even reprimanded a few times, but it didn’t matter to Mrs. Murphy. “Only her boys mattered. She was our angel.”

Last week, Sepulveda VA’s angel for the last 35 years died peacefully in her sleep at age 90.

“She was in bed watching the Laker game, took one last breath, and that was it,” said Diane Ruiz, who also worked at the VA and cared for Pam in the last years of her life in her Canoga Park apartment. It was the same apartment Pam moved into soon after Audie died in a plane crash on Memorial Day weekend in
1971. Audie Murphy died broke, squandering million of dollars on gambling, bad investments, and yes, other women. “Even with the adultery and desertion at the end, he always remained my hero,” Pam told me.

She went from a comfortable ranch-style home in Van Nuys where she raised two sons to a small apartment - taking a clerk’s job at the nearby VA to support herself and start paying off her faded movie star husband’s debts. At first, no one knew who she was. Soon, though, word spread through the VA that the nice woman with the clipboard was Audie Murphy’s widow. It was like saying Patton had just walked in the front door. Men with tears in their eyes walked up to her and gave her a hug. “Thank you,” they said, over and over.

The first couple of years, I think the hugs were more for Audie’s memory as a war hero. The last 30 years, they were for Pam. She hated the spotlight. One year I asked her to be the focus of a Veteran’s Day column for all the work she had done. Pam just shook her head no. “Honor them, not me,” she said, pointing to a group of veterans down the hallway. “They’re the ones who deserve it. The vets disagreed. Mrs. Murphy deserved the accolades, they said. Incredibly, in 2002, Pam’s job was going to be eliminated in budget cuts. She was considered “excess staff.” “I don’t think helping cut down on veterans’ complaints and showing them the respect they deserve, should be considered excess staff,” she told me. Neither did the veterans. They went ballistic, holding a rally for her outside the VA gates. Pretty soon, word came down from the top of the VA. Pam Murphy was no longer considered “excess staff.” She remained working full time at the VA until 2007 when she was 87.

“The last time she was here was a couple of years ago for the conference we had for homeless veterans,” said Becky James, coordinator of the VA’s Veterans History Project. Pam wanted to see if there was anything she could do to help some more of her boys.

Dennis McCarthy’s column appears Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.

The Shield

It has been my honor to come in contact with individuals that have always put their own self-interest below that of the group.  After 21 years of service to this Nation, I have been in awe of the courage, ferocity, and compassion of the citizens that serve in the Armed Forces of the United States of America.  Through my military service I have witnessed first hand, another group, that displays all that is great about this Nation.  This group has allowed me, and thousands like me, peace of mind as I was called forward to fight our enemies abroad.  This group has allowed us to travel far away, and relentlessly pursue those who would do us harm, and leave our most valued possesions in their safe keeping. 

What more noble calling, than to be the shield before the city walls.

I would thank all of you, who nobly pursue Law Enforcement.  Wear your vest and Thank You.

This ain’t no book club, but…...

Review
In A PatriotÂ’s History of the United States, Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen remind us what a few good individuals can do in just a few short centuries . . . . A fluid account of America from the discovery of the Continent up to the present day. (Brandon Miniter, The Wall Street Journal)

No recent American history challenges the conventional wisdom of academics as aggressively as Larry Schweikart and Michael AllenÂ’s A PatriotÂ’s History of the United States. (Daniel J. Flynn, Front Page Magazine)

There are a thousand pleasant surprises and heartening reminders that underneath it all America remains a country of ideas, ideals, and optimism—and no amount of revisionism can take that legacy away. (John Coleman, Humane Studies Review)

A welcome, refreshing, and solid contribution to relearning what we have forgotten and remembering why this nation is good, and worth defending. (Matthew Spalding, National Review—The Wall Street Journal
Product Description
For at least thirty years, high school and college students have been taught to be embarrassed by American history. Required readings have become skewed toward a relentless focus on our countryÂ’s darkest moments, from slavery to McCarthyism. As a result, many history books devote more space to Harriet Tubman than to Abraham Lincoln; more to My Lai than to the American Revolution; more to the internment of Japanese Americans than to the liberation of Europe in World War II.
Now, finally, there is an antidote to this biased approach to our history. Two veteran history professors have written a sweeping, well-researched book that puts the spotlight back on AmericaÂ’s role as a beacon of liberty to the rest of the world.

We aren’t perfect, but no country is even close….Amen
Schweikart and Allen are careful to tell their story straight, from Columbus’s voyage to the capture of Saddam Hussein. They do not ignore America’s mistakes through the years, but they put them back in their proper perspective. And they conclude that America’s place as a world leader derived largely from the virtues of our own leaders— the men and women who cleared the wilderness, abolished slavery, and rid the world of fascism and communism.

The authors write in a clear and enjoyable style that makes history a pleasure, not just for students but also for adults who want to learn what their teachers skipped over.

Staff NCO Creed

Set the bar high and surprise yourself.

I am a Staff Noncommissioned Officer in the United States Marine Corps.  As such, I am a member of the most unique group of professional military practitioners in the world.  I am bound by duty to God, Country, and my fellow Marines to execute the demands of my position to and beyond what I believe to be the limits of my capabilities.

    I realize I am the mainstay of Marine Corps discipline, and I carry myself with military grace, unbowed by the weight of command, unflinching in the execution lawful orders, and unswerving in my dedication to the most complete success of my assigned mission.

    Both my professional and personal demeanor shall be such that I may take pride if my juniors emulate me, and knowing perfection to lie beyond the grasp of any mortal hand, I shall yet strive to attain perfection that I may ever be aware of my needs and capabilities to improve myself.  I shall be fair in my personal relations, just in the enforcement of discipline, true to myself and my fellow Marines, and equitable in my dealing with every man.

An honor like no other

“Soldiers never die until they are forgotten.
Tomb Guards never forget”

On 21 December 1920, Congressman Hamilton Fish, Jr., of New York introduced a resolution calling for the return to the United States of an unknown American soldier killed in France and his burial with appropriate ceremonies in a tomb to be constructed at the Memorial Amphitheater in Arlington National Cemetery. The measure was approved on 4 March 1921 as Public Resolution 67 of the 66th Congress.

The body of an unidentified soldier, killed in France, was laid to eternal rest in the plaza of the Memorial Amphitheater on 11 November 1921. This soldier represents all the unidentified and missing from World War I.

Since that time an unidentified American service member has been laid to rest, with the highest honors, for World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Marine Noncommisioned Officer Creed

I am an NCO dedicated to training new Marines and influencing the old.  I am forever conscious of each Marine under my charge, and by example will inspire him to the highest standards possible.  I will strive to be patient, understanding, just, and firm.  I will commend the deserving and encourage the wayward.

I will never forget that I am responsible to my Commanding Officer for the morale, discipline, and efficiency of my men.  Their performance will reflect an image of me.

1stSgt Moore comment:  Once we realize that we can, in fact, get by on the minimum amount of effort it becomes incredibly hard to break that habit.  The beauty of the NCO system in the Marine Corps is that it, by it’s very nature it provides pressure to act according to a standard.  When you become an NCO, the institution places it’s most important assets into your care.  Young Marines.  Whether you like it or not, they are always watching.  You have to take the above quote as a template, and everyday is a contest to do the right thing according to that guide.

Combat brings this into reality.  Under fire, as you look around, deciding on a course of action, you suddenly realize all eyes are on you.  Ready to follow your example and your orders.  Not the General, Captain, or Gunny, but you.  It works, take a look back at the battle history of this Nation, and at that moment when the battle turned from defeat to victory, I’ll bet you find an NCO leading the assualt.

Semper Fi