usa

Roosters Veterans Message

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:12:45 +0100

Thank You and God Bless you U.S.A.!!

As a Veteran I choose Veterans Day to return the thanks we, as Veterans, get throughout the year.

Every weekend at ballgames, races, Church gatherings, community happenings & about any type of event where people congregate as well as social media sites, web pages, news forums and the many other E-social things that bring this country together Veterans are applauded, thanked, heroed and honored. Anyone who has served deserves those honors!

So first I would like to say thank you to the American People as a whole. Thank you for being the great Nation we are that remembers and respects the men and women who protect you and your neighbors, families and friends! I would like All Americans to know that the vigilance we show in reminding Veterans how much they mean to us by honoring them the way we do nullifies the sacrifices that the American Fighters have made in their lives to offer you that protection. Thank You Americans, for thinking of US, honoring US and Loving US!

Veterans Day was established as a National day of recognition for those that serve or have served our country. Just because you never wore a uniform or took a bullet or pulled a letter out of your best friends breast pocket so that his family could read his good bye does not mean you have not served. Every American Serves! Every American has a Son, daughter, brother, sister, father, mother, aunt, uncle, best friend or some type of acquaintance that either has served or is actively serving now. As a country we gather in prayer groups, take a few minutes a day just to think about them, send them letters and care packages, drop money in a hat……many ways every day we support our troops.

For the wives & husbands raising their Soldiers Children alone, thank you!

For the Mothers who wrench their hands in prayer, thank you!

For the Fathers who beam with pride, Thank You!

Giving your own life for your country is not the greatest sacrifice, it is giving your Sons or Daughters life, giving your brother or sister, your mother or your father, your best friend, your grand child, your niece your nephew your teacher. Many Americans have been lost defending this, the Greatest Nation on Earth, the minute they were gone another great American Fighter stood up in their place on the battlefield and Many great Americans stood up in their place at home. We raise their children, support their families give their wives and husbands a shoulder to cry on. We pray for them and the ones they left behind.

We hold Veterans in the highest regard in the United States Of America; there simply is no higher honor to be had. We, the American People, have made it that way. So on this National day of recognition I say Thank You America for being a Nation and a People worth dying for!

Mornings at The Pentagon

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:51:18 +0100

Mornings at the Pentagon

By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
McClatchy Newspapers

Over the last 12 months, 1,042 soldiers, Marines, sailors and Air Force personnel have given their lives in the terrible duty that is war.
Thousands more have come home on stretchers, horribly wounded and facing months or years in military hospitals.

This week, I'm turning my space over to a good friend and former roommate, Army Lt. Col.. Robert Bateman, who recently completed a yearlong tour of duty and is now back at the Pentagon.

Here's Lt. Col. Bateman's account of a little-known ceremony that fills the halls of the Army corridor of the Pentagon with cheers, applause and many tears every Friday morning. It first appeared on May 17 on the Weblog of media critic and pundit Eric Alterman at the Media Matters for America Website.

"It is 110 yards from the "E" ring to the "A" ring of the Pentagon. This section of the Pentagon is newly renovated; the floors shine, the hallway is broad, and the lighting is bright. At this instant the entire length of the corridor is packed with officers, a few sergeants and some civilians, all crammed tightly three and four deep against the walls. There are thousands here.

"This hallway, more than any other, is the `Army' hallway. The G3 offices line one side, G2 the other, G8 is around the corner. All Army. Moderate conversations flow in a low buzz. Friends who may not have seen each other for a few weeks, or a few years, spot each other, cross the way and renew.

"Everyone shifts to ensure an open path remains down the center. The air conditioning system was not designed for this press of bodies in this area.

"The temperature is rising already. Nobody cares. "10:36 hours: The clapping starts at the E-Ring. That is the outermost of the five rings of the Pentagon and it is closest to the entrance to the building. This clapping is low, sustained, hearty. It is applause with a deep emotion behind it as it moves forward in a wave down the length of the hallway.

"A steady rolling wave of sound it is, moving at the pace of the soldier in the wheelchair who marks the forward edge with his presence. He is the first. He is missing the greater part of one leg, and some of his wounds are still suppurating. By his age I expect that he is a private, or perhaps a private first class.

"Captains, majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels meet his gaze and nod as they applaud, soldier to soldier. Three years ago when I described one of these events, those lining the hallways were somewhat different. The applause a little wilder, perhaps in private guilt for not having shared in the burden ... Yet.

"Now almost everyone lining the hallway is, like the man in the wheelchair, also a combat veteran. This steadies the applause, but I think deepens the sentiment. We have all been there now. The soldier's chair is pushed by, I believe, a full colonel.

"Behind him, and stretching the length from Rings E to A, come more of his peers, each private, corporal, or sergeant assisted as need be by a field grade officer.

"11:00 hours: Twenty-four minutes of steady applause. My hands hurt, and I laugh to myself at how stupid that sounds in my own head. My hands hurt. Please! Shut up and clap. For twenty-four minutes, soldier after soldier has come down this hallway - 20, 25, 30.. Fifty-three legs come with them, and perhaps only 52 hands or arms, but down this hall came 30 solid hearts.

"They pass down this corridor of officers and applause, and then meet for a private lunch, at which they are the guests of honor, hosted by the generals. Some are wheeled along. Some insist upon getting out of their chairs, to march as best they can with their chin held up, down this hallway, through this most unique audience. Some are catching handshakes and smiling like a politician at a Fourth of July parade. More than a couple of them seem amazed and are smiling shyly.

"There are families with them as well: the 18-year-old war-bride pushing her 19-year-old husband's wheelchair and not quite understanding why her husband is so affected by this, the boy she grew up with, now a man, who had never shed a tear is crying; the older immigrant Latino parents who have, perhaps more than their wounded mid-20s son, an appreciation for the emotion given on their son's behalf. No man in that hallway, walking or clapping, is ashamed by the silent tears on more than a few cheeks. An Airborne Ranger wipes his eyes only to better see. A couple of the officers in this crowd have themselves been a part of this parade in the past.

"These are our men, broken in body they may be, but they are our brothers, and we welcome them home. This parade has gone on, every single Friday, all year long, for more than four years.

THANK YOU

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:50:09 +0100

    I named this page "For Those Who Serve", which leaves the question "What about those who "have served"?
    I do not make a distinction between those who serve today or served yesterday, nor the families or loved ones of our Military Members, Police and Fire, Search and Rescue, Doctors and Nurses, Pastors and Priests....anyone who selflessly lives a part of their life for God or Country.
    As one who "has served" I can tell you, you never stop serving. You never live a day without remembering, you never live a week without remorse, you never live a month that at some point your heart is not in your throat and you fight to push back a tear. You never once hear "The Start Spangled Banner" , Lay eyes on "Old Glory", see troops on the television or in person, or hear someone say something side ways that doesn't leave you with your head held high and the thought of "This is MY Land, I earned it, and I will keep it!
From the day you graduate Boot Camp you do not stop serving until the day they lay you in the ground!

So "For Those Who Serve", this part of our lives we here at Cutloose Racing dedicate to you!