MBVD: Robert Stokely

Showing posts with label Robert Stokely. Show all posts

Monday, March 2, 2009

Dover: If it bleeds it leads

Dover is where our fallen first touch down on American soil on their final journey home. I recently posted pieces from two men more than qualified to have an informed firsthand opinion about the president overturning the long-time ban of the media from Dover; one was my friend Robert Stokely, Gold Star Father, and the other was Old Blue, active duty military, and blogger par excellence.

I have been listening the last few days to the furore over this latest "mistake" of the current White House resident. I am having a hard time deciding if he is just being disingenuous when he declares that it is now up to individual families whether or not to allow the media to photograph the Dover ceremonies; I am trying to figure out if he is merely callous or just plain stupid in the ways of the media machinations....

Read the rest at Assoluta Tranquillita here.

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Keep the media OUT of Dover!

YOUR mission. TODAY.

Seems that this new American administration is really into this whole "change" thing. I am sure most of you are aware that when our fallen heroes are brought home, they come through Dover. President George W Bush barred the media from documenting their arrival, to allow the families private moments with their precious loved ones.

Now President Obama is reviewing this policy. Other blogs have voiced their opposition to this far more eloquently than I. MY opposition is that this msm has proved that they have NO respect for the fallen or their families. Even as they bleat that showing the fallen heroes returning would show the "true cost of war," they completely ignore the many, MANY other stories that show the 'real' war. Rarely do we see stories in the msm showing the realities, the progress of what our military is accomplishing. Having said that, I do not trust the msm to be respectful of our newly grieving Gold Star Families.

I could go on and on, but - as always - our military families say it far better. One such Gold Star father is Robert Stokely. Father of Sgt. Mike Stokely, Mr Stokely stands on guard for the respect and honour for our fallen. He sent an email and I am going to post it in its entirety. Once you have read it, you will know what to do. Please, do this for Mike, Patrick, Kory, Don, John, Josh and for Sean. Our fallen, and their families, have more than earned this small gesture of respect:

Please read and help Keep the Media out of Dover when our Fallen arrive home

Senator John Kerry / Democrat of Massachusetts and Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, and if you take the statements of then Senator Biden (who stated the soldiers are snuck in under cover of darkness), want Dover to be open to media coverage of arriving and departing flag draped caskets of our fallen and their unashamed purpose is to "show the real cost of war...". During his speech on the economic crisis on Monday, Feb. 9, 2009, President Obama, in answering the question of Ed Henry of CNN, stated he was ordering a review of the policy. The links below cover the interview with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wherein he alarmingly states he is open to the policy being changes, stating it might show "more honor" for the fallen.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBAMA_COFFINS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/us/11bodies.html?_r=2&hp

I take the stand that Dover is too special a place for our fallen to be made a spectacle of for many reasons, but I will offer these as the most important:

1. Just as the families should be the first to get the "call" that their loved one has died, so should the first non-military required handling and view of the fallen be their's to have rather than having it splashed about in the media for a political statement of "showing the real cost of war."

2. Our military personnel do not decide when, where or how long war is waged; such decisions are for political leaders to make and constitutional duty of any military personnel is to carry out the lawful orders of the Commander in Chief / President. Thus, the only purpose of the media and the above stated politicians desire to "show the real cost of war" is for a political purpose. Just for settling the debate, the real cost of war is already known for it is a little hard to hide the impact of a fallen has on his / her family, community and entire country and they are not snuck back in under cover of darkness to hide their loss, but if any use of cover of darkness is had, it is to shield them from being used as a political photo op.

I urge your action to contact your U.S. Senator and U.S. Congressman to have them exercise their contacts and leverage to keep Dover a private place for the fallen and the families who are about to receive them home for burial. And it is important to contact President Obama, Defense Secretary Gates, and others on the list below. I know it is a long list, but think about the time you spend in writing a letter, sending a fax, sending an email, or making a call versus the lifetime of love the fallen and their families have given for America.

The White House
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Phone Numbers
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461

TTY/TDD
Comments: 202-456-6213
Visitors Office: 202-456-2121

SCTY Defense Robert Gates:
Dr. Robert M. Gates
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000
Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen:
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
9999 Joint Staff Pentagon
Washington, DC 20318-9999
General James E. Cartwright:
Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
9999 Joint Staff Pentagon
Washington, DC 20318-9999
General George W. Casey, Jr.:
Army Chief of Staff
200 Army Pentagon
Washington, DC 20310-0200
Admiral Gary Roughead:
Chief of Naval Operations
2000 Navy Pentagon
Washington, DC 20350-2000
General Norton A. Schwartz:
Air Force Chief of Staff
1670 Air Force Pentagon
Washington, DC 20330-1670
General James T. Conway:
Commandant of the Marine Corps
Headquarters USMC
2 Navy Annex (CMC)
Washington, DC 20380-1775
Senator John Kerry:
http://kerry.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

218 Russell Bldg.
Second Floor
Washington D.C. 20510
202-224-2742 - Phone
202-224-8525 - Fax

Boston
One Bowdoin Square
Tenth Floor
Boston, MA 02114
617-565-8519 - Phone
617-248-3870 - Fax

Springfield
Springfield Federal Building
1550 Main Street
Suite 304
Springfield, MA 01101
413-785-4610 - Phone
413-736-1049 - Fax

Fall River
222 Milliken Place
Suite 312
Fall River, Ma 02721
508-677-0522 - Phone
508-677-0275 - Fax
Senator Frank R. Lautenberg:
http://lautenberg.senate.gov/contact/index1.cfm

Newark Office
One Gateway Center
Twenty-Third Floor
Newark, NJ 07102
Phone: 973-639-8700
Toll Free: 1-888-398-1642
Fax: 973-639-8723

Camden Office
One Port Center
Suite 505, Fifth Floor
2 Riverside Drive
Camden, NJ 08101
Phone: 856-338-8922
Fax: 856-338-8936

Washington, DC
Hart Senate Office Building
Suite 324
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3224
TTY: 202-224-2087
Fax: 202-228-4054

thanks,

Robert Stokely
proud dad SGT Mike Stokely
KIA 16 AUG 05 near Yusufiyah Iraq
USA E 108 CAV 48th BCT GAARNG

THIS is the very least we can do. Get on it.

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SOLDIER"S ANGELS NEEDS YOUR HELP!

The Veterans Hospital in Tucson needs our help!!! They have contacted Soldiers' Angels with a list of needs for their patients. Soldiers Angels needs your help in making some of these come true.

Below you will find just a small portion of needs that are immediate. You can also find this list posted on the Soldiers Angels Forum at www.soldiersangelsforum.com you will be able to find lots of great information there for our deployed and vets.

If you are sending a monetary donation please follow the link and indicate the State you are in.

Donate here;
Ttp://soldiersangels.org/index.php?page=veterans-support

COMFORT ITEMS- $350/MO
Dry Skin Cream
Slipper Socks-No skid
Catheter bag covers
Shaving Cream
Hand Lotion
Baby Shampoo
Hand Soap
Roll on/Spray Deodorant
Denture Cleaner
Underwear (men and women (all sizes)
Toothbrushes
Denture Grip
Socks (white)
Talcum Powder
Nail Clippers
Toothpaste
Ladies hand and body lotion
Backpacks
Disposable Razors
Comb/Brushes
Shawls
Shaving Cream/small
Knitted Caps
Travel Alarm Clocks
Ball Caps
Tote Bags
Shower Shoes
Pocket Size Needle and Thread Kit
Heart pillows for cardiac patients
Lap Robes (3x5 or 5x7)

GUEST SERVICES
30 cup coffee makers
Coffee supplies (reg. & decaf)
Music CDs
Stamps
Writing Paper and Envelopes
Prepaid Phone Cards for patients’

RECREATION
Puzzle books
Crossword Puzzles
Pencils
Video tapes & DVDs (movies, educational)
DVD Player

Sports equipment (basketball, tennis rackets &
Tickets for entertainment & sporting events
Balls, badminton set, Frisbees, football)

If you can send just one item that would be great!!! If each person sends one thing we will make a difference! They are also needing those who can volunteer time at the hospital just contact the Voluntary Services Dept. For information.

Mail Items to:

Department of Veterans Affairs Southern Arizona VA Health Care System – Voluntary Services 9-135, 3601 S. Sixth Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85723

PLEASE HELP US HELP THOSE WHO FOUGHT FOR OUR FREEDOM!

My Favorite Speeches and Other Items of Interest

George Bush's March 28, 2007 Discusses Economy, War on Terror During Remarks to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association;http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/03/20070328-2.html
Mitch McConnell's March 15, 2007 Funding For Troops, Not Timelines for Retreat; http://mcconnell.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=270747&start=1
Ronald Reagan's June 12, 1987 Tear Down This Wall Speech; http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/speeches/wall.asp
Vice President Cheney's March 12, 2007 Remarks at the AIPAC 2007 Policy Conference; http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/03/20070312.html

Winston Churchill Quotes

A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.
Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement.
Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.
Danger - if you meet it promptly and without flinching - you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!
I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality by contact with this great novel land of yours which sticks up out of the Atlantic.
I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
I like a man who grins when he fights.
I was only the servant of my country and had I, at any moment, failed to express her unflinching resolve to fight and conquer, I should at once have been rightly cast aside.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time-a tremendous whack.
In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.
It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
Moral of the Work. In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Never, never, never give up.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.
One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
The first quality that is needed is audacity.
The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting go.
The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.
There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
These are not dark days: these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived.
They are decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.
True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.
War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.
When the eagles are silent the parrots begin to jabber.
When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

Ronald Reagan Quotes

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant: It's just that they know so much that isn't so."
Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.
All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.
Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources
Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.
Double, no triple, our troubles and we'd still be better off than any other people on earth. It is time that we recognized that ours was, in truth, a noble cause.
Facts are stupid things.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.
History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
How can a president not be an actor?
How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.
I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.
I will stand on, and continue to use, the figures I have used, because I believe they are correct. Now, I'm not going to deny that you don't now and then slip up on something; no one bats a thousand.
In Israel, free men and women are every day demonstrating the power of courage and faith. Back in 1948 when Israel was founded, pundits claimed the new country could never survive. Today, no one questions that. Israel is a land of stability and democracy in a region of tryanny and unrest.
Let us ask ourselves; "What kind of people do we think we are?".
Man is not free unless government is limited.
My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win out.
No mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology.
Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.
Our forbearance should never be misunderstood. Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will. When action is required to preserve our national security, we will act.
Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.
Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.
The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas - a trial of spiritual resolve: the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideals to which we are dedicated.
The United Sates has much to offer the third world war.
There are no easy answers' but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world's strongest economy.
Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.
We are never defeated unless we give up on God.
We have the duty to protect the life of an unborn child.
We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.
We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.
Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.
You know, if I listened to Michael Dukakis long enough, I would be convinced we're in an economic downturn and people are homeless and going without food and medical attention and that we've got to do something about the unemployed.