Wednesday Hero

Thanks to Greta Perry & John Donovan


Second Lt. Perla Kimes


Second Lt. Perla Kimes has her bars of gold pinned on during a commissioning ceremony this summer at the Leader Development and Assessment Course on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington.

Photo Courtesy U.S. Army

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives just so others may get to enjoy freedom. For that I am proud to call them Hero.
Those Who Say That We're In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don't Know Where To Look

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Music Monday

One of the greatest of all time. So how have I not posted them before now? Shame on me. Before I knew anything about Rush I'd always thought that was a chick singing. Hell, I didn't know. I just knew they kicked ass.


Fly By Night by Rush

Fake Military Death Notices

The Oklahoma Army National Guard is warning the families of military personnel of a hoax involving fake death notifications in the Oklahoma City area.

This is sickening. I hope they find the people doing this and that they don't see the light of day for many, many years.

Wednesday Hero

Sgt. Dakota Meyer
23 years old from Greensburg, Kentucky
Embedded Training Team 2-8


On September 15, Sgt. Dakota Meyer was awarded the Medal Of Honor by President Obama for his actions on Sept. 8, 2009 in the Ganjgal Valley of Afghanistan when he and Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez saved 36 fellow Marines when they, and the Afghan military members they were helping to train, came under attack by Taliban insurgents.

Read more »

Missing WWII Airmen Identified

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced that the remains of nine servicemen, missing in action from World War II, have been identified and are being returned to their families for burial with full military honors.

Army Air Forces 1st Lt. William J. Sarsfield of Philadelphia; 2nd Lt. Charles E. Trimingham of Salinas, Calif.; Tech. Sgt. Robert L. Christopherson of Blue Earth, Minn.; and Tech. Sgt. Leonard A. Gionet of Shirley, Mass., will be buried as a group in a single casket on Sept. 21 in Arlington National Cemetery, along with remains representing previously identified crew members 2nd Lt. Herman H. Knott, 2nd Lt. Francis G. Peattie, Staff Sgt. Henry Garcia, Staff Sgt. Robert E. Griebel, and Staff Sgt. Pace P. Payne, who were individually buried in 1985. These nine airmen were ordered to carry out a bombing mission over Rabaul, Papau New Guinea (P.N.G.), in their B-17E Flying Fortress nicknamed "Naughty but Nice", taking off from an airfield near Dobodura, P.N.G., on June 26, 1943. The aircraft was damaged by anti-aircraft fire and ultimately shot down by Japanese fighter aircraft. A tenth man, the navigator and only survivor of the crash -- 2nd Lt. Jose L. Holguin -- was held as a prisoner of war until his release in September 1945.

In 1949, U.S. military personnel in the area were led by local citizens to a B-17 crash site on New Britain Island. Remains were recovered but couldn't be identified given the technology of the time. The remains were buried as unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.

In 1982 and 1983, Holguin returned to the area and located the crash site. A fragment of the aircraft nose art was recovered and is displayed in the War Museum in Kokopo, P.N.G. In 1985, the remains were exhumed and identified as Knott, Payne, Garcia, Peattie, and Griebel. In 2001, a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) excavated the site and found additional human remains and crew-related equipment.

Music Monday

"There's a long road, I've gotta stay in time with, yeah. I've got to keep on chasin' that dream though I may never find it. I'm always just behind it"

This always gets me all worked up when I listen to it. Brad Delp(RIP) makes me wish I could actually carry a tune so that when I sing along I didn't screw it up. And the guitar on "Long Time"... forget about it. They just do it like that anymore. Bitchin' song. And yes Rock and Roll Hall of Lame, induct Madonna, Grandmaster Flash and Run-D.M.C. but not Boston. Morons.


Foreplay/Long Time by Boston

National POW/MIA Recognition Day

To date, there are still over 80,000 Americans still missing. We can never rest until everyone of them is brought back home.

Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office

Wednesday Hero

Seaman Sha'Quanda Jacobs


Religious Programs Specialist Seaman Sha'Quanda Jacobs rings the bell during commemoration ceremony of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States at Naval Air Station Oceana.

Photo Courtesy U.S. Navy Taken by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Terah L. Mollise

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives just so others may get to enjoy freedom. For that I am proud to call them Hero.
Those Who Say That We're In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don't Know Where To Look

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Music Monday

"Would it kill you to play a little Foghat once in a while?" - Jim Carrey at the 1999 MTV Movie Awards. Hell yeah. One of my all time favorite songs. And one of the best endings.


Slow Ride (Live) by Foghat

September 11

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. - Thomas Jefferson

Ten years ago almost 3,000 innocent humans were murdered in a horrible act of terrorism. The images and feelings of that day will never be erased from our memories. Nor should they. So today we remember, and mourn for, those lost. We hold them close to us and let them know that they'll never be forgotten. But it's also a day when we begin to move forward. We are a resilient group of people who are able to come back from anything. It's what's made this country, and it's people, so great. That "You May Hurt Me, But You'll Never Beat Me" spirit. We have risen up from that horrible day, and we will continue to do so. The future is unknown but there's nothing stopping it from being brighter and better. United We Stand.

National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

Read more »

September 10

Kristin Gould White, 56, New York, N.Y.
United Flight 93

Kristin White had sailed down the Nile, seen the ruins of Sicily and visited Turkey. She spoke Latin and ancient Greek. White, a 65-year-old widow, planned to visit San Francisco to visit friends and wine country. Her airplane, United Flight 93, crashed in Pennsylvania. For 40 years, White, a freelance medical journalist, had lived in the same brownstone apartment in New York City. For almost three years, she had been researching early contributors to medicine and science from Ivy League schools. "She was a sponge," said her daughter, Allison Vadhan. "She could tell you everything about current events, ancient history. She was the most intellectual person I ever knew." On the morning of Sept. 11, Vadhan was driving to work when she noticed smoke coming from one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. She pulled over and saw the second plane fly into the second tower. She rushed home. Then Vadhan started wondering about her mother. Was she flying Monday? Tuesday? Wednesday? Vadhan dialed into the Internet and checked the itinerary her mother had sent her on electronic mail. She saw "Flight 93" on the e-mail at the same time the flight number and the crash flashed across her TV screen.

Her Heroes Of Flight 93 page

September 9

David M. Charlebois, 39, Washington, D.C.
American Flight 77

David Charlebois, 39, the first officer on American Airlines Flight 77, died while flying one of his standard routes when his plane was crashed into the Pentagon.

Friends described Charlebois, an Arlington native who graduated from Yorktown High School, as a warm, friendly man who took pride in his job, his appearance and the life he had built.

"He was handsome and happy and very centered," neighbor Travis White said. "His life was the kind of life I wanted to have someday."

Charlebois and his partner bought a large row house two years ago and turned it into one of the best-looking homes on the block, friends said. On weekends when he wasn't flying, Charlebois could be spotted landscaping.

He was very fond of what he called his "pound puppy," a border collie named Chance, and had been a core member of an informal dog-walking club at Meridian Hill Park.

September 8

Timothy Ray Ward, 38, San Diego, Calif.
United Flight 175

Timothy Ray Ward came into the world on Valentine's Day in 1963, and immediately became the love of his mother's life. "He was everything to me," said his mother, Susie Ward Baker.

Mr. Ward, 38, lived in Scripps Ranch, Calif., with his longtime companion, Linda Brewton, and worked for Rubio's Baja Grill, a chain of Mexican restaurants based in Carlsbad, Calif. He was a systems administrator overseeing the chain's computer networks. On Sept. 11, he was aboard United Airlines Flight 175, heading home from a long weekend on the East Coast.

The tall, blond Mr. Ward loved animals, his mother said, starting with his shaggy white West Highland terrier, Sherman. He was a devoted fan of the San Diego State Aztecs, and would travel around to their football games even after he graduated. At the tailgate parties, people knew to check out what Mr. Ward was serving. He was an accomplished cook, who might pack two kinds of caviar in his picnic basket, along with a chocolate confection he had whipped up himself.

You can view his Legacy guest book here.

September 7

Jamie Lynn Fallon, 23, Woodbridge, Va
Pentagon

Petty Officer Third Class Jamie Lynn Fallon's career began with basic training at Great Lakes, Ill. From there, the 23-year-old Woodbridge native spent three months at the Naval Technical Training Center in Meridian, Miss., followed by a stint at the naval Computer and Telecommunications Station in Bahrain.

Fallon spent more than two years on the USNS Concord, a fleet support ship, before moving to the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations Support Activity at the Pentagon.

You can view her Legacy guest book here.

Wednesday Hero

This Weeks Post Was Suggested By Michael

Maj. Albert Brown
105 years old from Pinckneyville, Illinois
Oct. 26, 1905 - Aug. 14, 2011


At 105 years old, Albert Brown was the oldest living living survivor of the Bataan Death March.

In April of 1942, then Capt. Brown and 70,000+ American and Filipinos were marched 66 miles to POW camps on the Bataan peninsula in the Philippines with little food or water. Many were beaten and killed along the way and left where they fell. “One 18-year-old I knew, he fell down,” Mr. Brown said. “A guard came along and put a gun to his head, pulled the trigger and walked away.”

Capt. Brown spent 3 years as a POW where he was beaten; thrown down stairs, seriously injuring his back; and struck in the neck by a rifle butt, causing a fracture. When he was finally freed he weighed just 90 pounds. “We were listed in groups of 10. If one escaped out of the 10, they eliminated the rest of them, killed them. So, at night, just before roll call, you tried to find out if your 10 were still there.”


You can read more about Maj. Albert Brown here

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives just so others may get to enjoy freedom. For that I am proud to call them Hero.
Those Who Say That We're In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don't Know Where To Look

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

September 6

Berry Berenson Perkins
American Airlines Flight 11

Hers was a life of almost fairy tale proportions. She was a granddaughter of the French couturier Elsa Schiaparelli. She was an intimate of Halston; a photographer for Glamour and Vogue; a model with Vermeer- blue eyes and golden hair; an actress; the sister of Marisa Berenson; the wife of Anthony Perkins; the mother of their two handsome boys.

But ask friends and family members what Berry Berenson Perkins was, and the answer comes to one word: angel.

"If there was ever a person who could be called a living angel, I think Berry was," said Gale Parker, a friend. Her sister, Marisa Berenson, used the word, too. "She touched everybody who met her," she said.

Mrs. Perkins, 53, was devoted to her two sons, Oz and Elvis. But she had experienced her share of pain, having nursed her husband for two years before his death in 1992.

In 1994, while visiting Jamaica, she met Albert Parchment, whom friends know as Coot. He was guarding the gate to a party, and she didn't have a ticket. She sneaked by, so he went for her and gave her a ticket. "We stayed up all night talking," he said. Then he took her back to her hotel and went home. "I couldn't wait for daylight to come to get to see her in the morning."

The two fell in love, and soon she was living between homes on Cape Cod and in Jamaica, where they ran a bar in Treasure Beach.


You can view his Legacy guest book here.

September 5

Robert Hayes
American Airlines Flight 11

Robert Hayes sported a year-round tan because almost everywhere he went, he also sported his surfboard. It did not matter whether he was headed for business or pleasure.

In fact, his wife, Debbie Hayes, said it was not uncommon to see him walking through Logan International Airport in Boston in a business suit with a briefcase in one hand and his black-and-white surfboard in the other.

"It was kind of funny to see him," she remembered.

It was at Logan Airport that she saw him for the first time, actually, although she did not think he was so much funny-looking as cute, she said.

It was 1989 and he had missed his flight. She was the Trans World Airlines customer service agent who had the pleasure of re- booking him. She said that after he returned from his trip, he began to call her at the ticket counter — and it had nothing to do with air travel.

Twelve years and two children later (Robbie, now 14 and Ryan, 10), Mr. Hayes, who was 37 and lived in Amesbury, Mass., devoted his time to his family, his work in sales at Netstal Machinery, a maker of compact disks, and, of course, surfing.

He walked through Logan Airport for the last time on the morning of Sept. 11, headed to Los Angeles for a business meeting.

You can view his Legacy guest book here.

Music Monday

Big. Over the top. Amazing. I love 70's Rock. It was, I believe, the last decade for truly great music. Classic after classic after classic. It was a time when the way you looked was less important than whether or not you were good. You didn't need auto-tuning or any of that other crap. Most of the stuff now just doesn't have that magic. Even the songs I like sound like they came off an assembly line. Talent. Something that's sadly lacking today. I'm starting to sound like a cranky old man. "Back in my day..." But the music was better.

"My heart is black and my lips are cold. Cities on flames with rock and roll. Three thousand guitars they seem to cry, My ears will melt, and then my eyes". A helluva lot better than "It's Friday, Friday, Gotta get down on Friday, Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend, weekend". Dear God shoot me. Plus that evil guitar.


Cities On Flames (Live) by Blue Öyster Cult

September 4

Jimmie Ira Holley
Pentagon

Martha Jackson-Holley waited seven weeks to bury her husband. Jimmie Ira Holley, an accountant for the Army, was missing after the September 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon. For weeks, Jackson-Holley waited for her husband's remains to be identified, as other families buried their loved ones from the Pentagon, often in proper military ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery. When Holley was finally identified October 18, 2001, by DNA tests on fragments of bone, his widow cried.

Then she started making arrangements. She wanted a heartfelt memorial service at Holley's church November 3, 2001, then burial at Arlington. A fitting tribute to a former Army sergeant who had served in Vietnam and spent almost 30 years working for the government as a civilian.

You can read his Legacy guest book here.

September 3

Shannon Lewis Adams
World Trade Center Tower 1

He had his business card that gave his address as Tower 1, 101st Floor, World Trade Center," Gwyn Adams said of her son, Shannon. "He was so proud of that, coming from a town where his high school class had 34 kids. It doesn't even have a red light. It has a couple of stop signs."

It was his longstanding dream to leave Star Lake, N.Y., population 860, for something a little bigger.

"He was going 100 miles an hour all the time, it seems like," said his father, Lew Adams. "The city seemed to satisfy that a lot better than the northern Adirondacks."

Shannon Adams, 25, a fixed-income accountant at Cantor Fitzgerald, set up the perfect bachelor pad in Astoria with two friends in the finance world.

"They had their huge big TV screen with all their sports, their full music wall," his mother said. "They had a huge fish tank with man-eating fish or whatever they're called." And they had a favorite bar where his friends gathered for an Irish wake. And when they went up north for his memorial service, they filled up all the motels in a 15-mile radius.

September 2

Wanda Anita Green
United Flight 93

For almost 30 years, Wanda Green followed her childhood dream. "As a teenager, she always wanted to fly, so she finally got her wings," said her mother, Aserene Smith.

As a young woman, Wanda Green sought her mother's blessing to become a flight attendant. Though Aserene Smith was hesitant, she finally relented, and Wanda Green became one of the first African-Americans to join United Airlines as a flight attendant, according to her mother.

Green, 49, was aboard United Airlines Flight 93 when it was hijacked and crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001

A mother of two--Jennifer, then 21, and Joe Benjamin, then 18--Green loved to travel and regularly planned trips to Europe.

Her mother spoke to her the night before the doomed flight. "I said `I love you and I'll see you tomorrow,' and that was it."

Missing Vietnam Pilot Identified

Air Force Major Thomas E. Reitmann of Red Wing, Minn., will be buried on Sept. 8 in Arlington National Cemetery. In 1965, Reitmann was assigned to the 334th Tactical Fighter Squadron deployed out of Seymour-Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., to Takhli Air Base, Thailand. On Dec 1, 1965, he was flying a strike mission as the number three aircraft in a flight of four F-105D Thunderchiefs as part of Operation Rolling Thunder. His target was a railroad bridge located about 45 nautical miles northeast of Hanoi. As the aircrew approached the target area, they encountered extremely heavy and accurate anti-aircraft artillery (AAA). While attempting to acquire his target and release his ordnance, Reitmann received a direct AAA hit and crashed in Lang Son Province, North Vietnam. Other pilots in the flight observed no parachute, and no signals or emergency beepers were heard. Due to the intense enemy fire in the area a search-and-rescue team was not able to survey the site and a two-day electronic search found no sign of the aircraft or Reitmann.

In 1988, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (S.R.V.) repatriated remains to the United States believed to be those of Reitmann. The remains were later identified as those of another American pilot who went missing in the area on the same day as Reitmann.

Between 1991 and 2009, joint U.S.-S.R.V. teams, led by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC), analyzed numerous leads, interviewed villagers, and attempted to locate the aircraft. Although no evidence of the crash site was found, in 2009 and 2011 a local farmer turned over remains and a metal button he claimed to have found in his corn field. The remains were a match to Maj. Reitmann's brother.

September 1

It's hard to believe it's already been 10 years since America was attacked and 2,996 innocent men, women & children lost their lives. To mark the day I will, starting today, be profiling a victim of that terrible day everyday for the next eleven days. These post will also be going up over at Hooah Wife if you would head over there and "Like" them that would be fantastic.




Jason Sekzer
One World Trade Center

Jason Sekzer started going to Camp Sussex as a boy, one of hundreds of city children who grabbed the chance to spend part of each summer in the country in New Jersey.

Then, bit by bit, the camp became an ever larger part of his life. He graduated from camper to waiter, waiter to kitchen helper and finally to chef. "He used to say that he could cook for 400 but he couldn't cook for 2," recalled Robert Silver, executive vice president of Camp Sussex.

After he got a job at Cantor Fitzgerald, and could no longer spend summers at the camp, Mr. Sekzer joined its board of directors. "It was something special," said his wife, Natalie Makshanov-Sekzer, 31, whom he had met there; the couple married in January of 2001. "The camp and the friends we made there were a major support to me after Sept. 11," she said.

Mr. Sekzer, 31, the son of a New York City police officer, began at Cantor Fitzgerald as a clerk and worked his way up to vice president. "Every year he got promoted; he was doing very well," his wife said. Once a year, Mr. Sekzer combined his job and his camp: he invited executives from Cantor Fitzgerald to play in a charity golf tournament raising money for Camp Sussex.