September 2009 - Argghhh!

Hosers or poseurs ? One thing they don't appear to be... is what they say they are, as artfully laid out at the American Legion blog, the Burn Pit. And while they claim to represent the Voice of Veterans, when I look at their advisors and their candidates... I don't see any bi-partisan evidence anywhere. I see a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party. Which would be fine if they'd just admit it and... move on their org. IAVA is better, in a sense - though both are "progressive"...

The Medal slowed it's pace today, after the burst of awards over the last few days, with only 16 awards on this day in history. We also meet the second of the 19 men who've received two Medals thus far in our series.We start with the Civil War and the battle of Newtonia, Missouri, in 186t2, followed by 5 more Medals from the second day of the fighting at Chapin's Farm in 1864.BLODGETT, WELIS H. Rank and organization: First Lieutenant, Company D, 37th Illinois Infantry. Place and date...

If you need to catch up - click here. It's an Austrian stick grenade. Sanger was probably most correct, overall. This grenade one is a Rohrhandgranate (Alt) or literally, Tube Hand Grenade (Old), as vice the "Neu" or New. The handle is a cardboard tube, with a taped over end that held the fuze string. In the case of mine, this tube is almost certainly a replacement - aside from it's condition for a 90-year old cardboard tube, it also doesn't project through the ball as it should...

Tonight President Obama will award a posthumous Medal of Honor to Paul and Janet Monti, the parents of Sergeant First Class Jared Monti, who earned his Medal as an infantilleryman fighting in Afghanistan. This will be the the sixth Medal awarded during the current war, all of them posthumous. After the award is made, I will add SFC Monti to the 21 June Medal of Honor post, as that is the day he transcended the average soldier.For those of you who are following these posts, I will go back and catch...

Rummaging through the backroads of this information superhighway, I stumbled upon this picture of an Italian 2LT. The caption for this Bersagliero reads: NATO led peacekeepers in Kosovo (KFOR) attend a KFOR change of command ceremony in Pristina on September 8 , 2009. The KFOR command was handed over today at NATO forces from the outgoing Italy Commander Guisepe Emilio Gay to the German commander Markus Bentler. NATO has deployed its peacekeepers in Kosovo after its 1999 air campaign that ousted...

Commence. No hints....

I am in need of some help. A dear friend of the family USAF Captain W is a single mom currently stationed in CA. She was divorced from her husband in 2004 in MD and is now being forced to go to court on the 30th in front of the Child Abduction Unit of Yolo County to fight for full custody of her children because her husband who is now stationed in Germany with his new wife (another USAF Captain) is planning on pulling a Hague convention rulling asking that his daughter be considered a resident of...