Damn …
Check out Team Marines. As of 1:30 p.m. the scrappy little ocean-going, beach-hitting, mud-and-dust-loving service commands 59 percent of the Valour IT take to date … $20,866 of the $50,737 raised for laptops and specialized electronics for the war-wounded of all service branches.*
You know what they say. Get on board for the Big Win. Donate via Team Marines.
Big inspirational Marine roundup via Marine Team meistress Cassandra, whom we all obey without hesitation:
Wolff has a great Valour IT post up:
One of the bloodiest Battles in the South Pacific. My Sire was there, Silver Star, Two Bronze Stars and Three Purple Hearts…..Still can’t get through a metal detector at the age of 89……..
This is what He, and Momma, looked like back then…..
Marines at the Washington Post!
The deadliest day of the war - Marine Women in action
Just as Padmore reached the scene, he saw Saalman staggering toward him, her charred, flayed hands held up before her, her eyes vacant in a blackened face. She’d lost her rifle during the explosion. “Sally, pull yourself together,” he said. <strong>”You are not going to die. I promise: You are not going to die. But we need some leadership.”
He watched her expression change instantly from shock to rage. “Somebody give me a f**king weapon!” she screamed. “I need a f**king weapon!” The adrenaline pumping through her body obviously masked her pain. Padmore handed her his own M16 and headed off to find other wounded marines, with the sound of Saalman firing her gun toward the insurgents ringing in his ears…
This is, perhaps, one of the oddest love stories you will ever read.
There is an old saying: “Handsome is, as handsome does.” Had she done nothing else in her lifetime, Corporal Diana Kavanek, USMC would be, by any measure you care to name, a handsome woman.
“I found out I was going to be doing entry-control-point duty three days before I went out,” said Lance Cpl. Diana L. Kavanek, engineer, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Headquarters Group, II MEF (FWD). “It was a little shocking to me because I didn’t know I would ever be pulled for a duty like that. But I was ready to do my part.”Headquarters and Service Company, II MHG, was chosen to fill spots on the ECP female search team after a vehicle-born improvised explosive device killed five Marines and a Sailor, three of whom were female, and injured several more on June 23.
Major Michael J. Corrado, company commander, H&S Company, II MHG, II MEF (FWD), knew of the empty billets only days before the females were scheduled to leave.
“My initial thought was to accomplish the mission by supporting Regimental Combat Team 8, 2nd Marine Division, and not let those bastards who bombed that seven-ton think they would weaken our resolve,” explained Corrado. “My next thought was ‘Where are we going to find the Marines to replace them’? Many of the H&S Company Marines are wearing two and three hats already.”
Headquarters companies companies traditionally concentrate on administrative and logistical support. But war has caused the Marines to invoke one of their oldest mottoes: “Every Marine a rifleman.” Little did Cpl. Kavanek know how severely the qualities that got her through Marine boot camp were about to be tested.
From Iraq, A Mutt, A Marine and a Miracle
“Every couple of weeks, we’d go back to the border fort and I’d see Nubs every time,” says Dennis. “Each time, he followed us around a little more.” And every time the men rumbled away in their Humvees, Nubs would run after them. “We’re going forty miles an hour and he’d be right next to the Humvee,” says Dennis. “He’s a crazy fast dog. Eventually, he’d wear out, fall behind and disappear in the dust.”
Gotta read that one.
* How does $20,866 become 59 percent of $50737? Well, it’s simple … I’m a math moron who wasn’t paying attention while knocking this post. Reader Alison, who is an accountant, emails to note that the 59 percent the Marines’ progress toward the team’s individual $36,000 goal, not the total. OK, OK. I’m a tabloid newspaperman, dammit, not a nuclear physicist! I’ll just have to take her word for it, I guess.
Topics: everything
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 1:34 pm on Wednesday, November 4, 2009
2 Responses to “Damn …”
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November 4th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
BAH!
Infidel! How can you let a woman order you this way and that? She should be walking three steps behind you, as is proper!
This Pachysandra she-demon should be beaten upon the soles of her feet thrice daily and made to wear the chador until she is properly subservient to your male will!
AAAAAAA la la la lalalalalala!!!!
November 4th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Quoting a Pogue Colonel isn’t gonna win you any friends, son.
And why is there a peace symbol on your flack jacket?