November 2009 - Argghhh!

...living Holders of the Medal of Honor. There are 100 Senators. When I joined the Army, there were 293 living Holders. There's good news and bad news in that - the good news is... we haven't had to fight the kinds of wars that produce large numbers of Medals. The bad news, is that empirically, the Services seem to be gravitating to making it harder and harder to earn a Medal without dying during the act. But that's a different rant. From the American Legion:Comrades: Col. Lewis Lee Millett...

We are, you know.Homeless kitties, homeless puppies, the occasional itinerant Denizen. We shelter them all.And homeless veterans, too. We actaully shelter a lot of homeless vets. Those who served, many long and hard and were put up wet, find their way here, to be properly sheltered, fed, and cared for.One such homeless vet showed up yesterday, begging to be allowed to stay until his family could accomodate him in their home.We took him in, and he immediately found his place with fellow veterans of...

There are 11 Medals awarded for actions on this day - pretty much right on the daily average. Eight for two fights during the Civil War, one lifesaving naval Medal in the 1871-1898 era, and two Medals during World War II. It is a good day in that all recipients lived to attend their award ceremony!Civil War. 5 naval Medals to the crew of the USS Lehigh, and three Army Medals for engagements at Lenoire and Campbell Stations, Tennessee. Interesting tidbit about Lehigh - she served in the Spanish American...

Or "first Pacific President" (Heh, Nixon and Reagan would be surprised, as might Taft - Governor-General of the Philippines, or Eisenhower, who served in the Philippines and the Canal Zone, all of them in policy positions vice just living in Hawaii or being a student in Indonesia) is busily rearranging our protocol status to that of... tourist. Apparently, no matter where we are, we Americans are to adopt a servile status.At least, that's what I gather from the President's leadership...

Bad Cat Robot has a comix jones, and she's taken a page from John's playbook by mercilessly and continuously busting my chops gently chiding me from time to time, so in order to get her off my %$#@! case enliven her Sunday morning, we present, without further ado, Number Ten in the Series.Yeah, yeah, I *know* what "Numbah Ten!" connotes in a certain SouthEast Asian cultural context.Accuse *me* of eating cheesy bean burritos, will ya?...

[Part 1 here ] To say that the appearance of General Petraeus was not the highlight of the day is to give you some sense of how extraordinary were the day's other events, but I'll start with Petraeus. His time took the form of a brief statement, and then questions and answers moderated by Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institute. This isn't my best writing, but I wanted to get it out there ASAP... The little theatre where we gathered was packed wall-to-wall, with people lining...

It's Friday - I'm both busy and lazy. Was this a great week or what? We had two two-day weeks with a full half-weekend in the middle!Well, some of us did.So - a whatziss!I suspect someone will get this pretty quick, if they've been paying attention to the things I pay attention to....

On yesterday's Medal of Honor Moment post, LaMigra posed this question in response to a Vietnam-era Medal where PFC Barnes threw himself on a grenade:" I don't remember hearing such instruction, but has _anybody_ ever snatched that awful old steel pot off his head and put it between himself and one of those damned persistent grenades?"The answer is, yes, with mixed results.Specialist John Baca, who survived: BACA, JOHN P. Rank and organization: Specialist Fourth Class, U.S. Army...