Miasmatic Review

D-Day

Today is the anniversary of D-day. I would like to take a moment to thank all of the men that fought and died during the invasion of Normandy.

I salute you.

Support our Troops!

In order to show support for our troops I am going to send various comfort items to a unit that is in the Middle East. I have talked about doing this before and never have. However every time I do I have had many people tell me they would also like to help out or I should start a collection. Since it is time for me to put up or shut up I have decided to do all I can to help our troops. If you would like to help out, I’m sure the troops would be more then happy.

First let me tell you whom is receiving my good will. One of my very own Mortar Maidens, Lady Moira, has a son who is shipping out on his SECOND deployment; SSGT Troy Hunter, 1st Armored Division, US Army.

These men are going BACK in after serving 30 months there already. I felt this was the perfect unit for me to adopt. I am going to leave this post at the top of my page until August 1st. If you are interested in helping our troops out and want to make a donation. I have set up the below PayPal account to do so. If you want to wish them well, leave a comment in this post. I am going to forward a print out of this post and all supportive comments to the unit when I ship my care package.

I have been told that these young men and women need items like baby wipes and flea collars (They wear them around their ankles to keep the sand fleas off). However Lady Moira has advised me that they do not need any cologne as SSGT Hunter apparently has quite a collection of unopened bottles going.

Thank you to all the men and women that have served and are serving our country. May you all have long rich lives.

Update 06/29/05: I had some of my information wrong. This will be their THIRD deployment. They previously served 18 months in Iraq and 12 months in Afghanistan. That's not counting time in Korea, Bosnia and Germany.

Also my heart and thoughts go out to the troops that where on the Helicopter that crashed in Afghan-Pakistan border.

Update 06/30/05: The donation button is now working. I'm sorry for the inconvenience. PayPal finally got around to responding to me request for help

Update 07/30/05:>Just for the blog crawl I am moving this post back one dayte. I don't want anyone to accidently leave a drunken comment on it. Also You only have two days left to donate!

Have I supported our troops?

Sunday night I watched the movie Black Hawk Down. If you haven’t seen the movie it’s a based on the true story version of what happened to American troops on October 13, 1993 when they captured some Somalian Warlords in the capital city of Mogadishu. I love this movie, it touches me to know that men like that exist. Watching this movie made me realize something about myself.

I never served in the military. In High School I was in the ARMY JROTC program until the school board cut it. Because of that I was on the recruiters lists. I can honestly say I only received approximately 8 calls from recruiters however. The first ones came during my senior year I already had been accepted into the college of my choice and had a free ride. However, I was planning on going into Law Enforcement and I knew that the military would greatly help out that career. I explained to each recruiter my position and they all thought I should go to college first and then I can review military service after I graduate. I then asked a couple of questions and was told that my serving in the military probably would never happen. I have a couple of medical conditions, one being an offset bone with four metal pins holding it together in my left leg. Each recruiter told me the same thing: “You probably wont make it past the physical.”

After college I received the other half of those calls. This time I just started out with my medical conditions and each one thanked me for my time but again told me I would probably never pass the physicals. Oh well, life goes on.

Flash forward to Sunday. I finish watching Black Hawk Down and I’m talking to my wife about the movie. I’m explaining how it’s not the death in the movie that touches me. It’s the bond between the soldiers. How they will put themselves directly into harms way and almost certain death to help someone they may have never met before. The men and women of our US Armed Forces display some of the best ethics and traits one would like to see in a human. This movie exemplifies those attributes.

It’s during my little speech that I realized that… I talk the talk, but I have not walked the walk. I say I support our troops and I’ve donated items and some money, but I haven’t actually sacrificed anything to aid these men and women. I’ve decided it is time for me to stand up and take responsibility for my own inactions. I spent the last couple of days looking for a soldier or unit that I could do something for. I found, in my opinion the perfect unit.

Until August first I am dedicating the top post of Miasmatic Review to this soldier and his unit. See the next post for more details.