Every Day Heroes - Gold Star Mothers

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Gold Star Mother's Day, 2008

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

White House News

Throughout our history, the men and women of the Armed Forces have put our Nation's security before their own, doing their duty in the face of grave danger. On Gold Star Mother's Day, we pay solemn tribute to the mothers of the patriots lost serving this great Nation.

Gold Star Mothers inspire our Nation with their deep devotion to family and country. These extraordinary women serve their communities, dedicate their time to helping members of our Armed Forces and veterans, and bring comfort and hope to families whose loved ones laid down their lives in the defense of our liberty. Nothing can compensate for their sacrifice and loss, yet Gold Star Mothers demonstrate tremendous courage and resolve while working to preserve the memory and legacy of all our fallen heroes.

On this day, we honor our country's Gold Star Mothers and remember their sons' and daughters' noble service and great sacrifice. We offer them our deepest gratitude and our most profound respect, and we ask for God's blessings to be upon them and their families.

The Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 115 of June 23, 1936 (49 Stat. 1895 as amended), has designated the last Sunday in September as "Gold Star Mother's Day" and has authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in its observance.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Sunday, September 28, 2008, as Gold Star Mother's Day. I call upon all Government officials to display the flag of the United States over Government buildings on this special day. I also encourage the American people to display the flag and hold appropriate ceremonies as a public expression of our Nation's sympathy and respect for our Gold Star Mothers.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

GEORGE W. BUSH

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Beginnings

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, George Vaughn Seibold, 23, volunteered, requesting assignment in aviation. He was sent to Canada where he learned to fly British planes since the United States had neither an air force nor planes. Deployed to England, he was assigned to the British Royal Flying Corps, 148th Aero Squadron. With his squadron, he left for combat duty in France. He corresponded with his family regularly. His mother, Grace Darling Seibold, began to do community service by visiting returning servicemen in the hospitals.

The mail from George stopped. Since all aviators were under British control and authority, the United States could not help the Seibold family with any information about their son.

Christmas Eve, 1918, the postman delivered a package to the Washington, DC residence of George and Grace Seibold. The package was marked, "Effects of Deceased Officer, First Lieutenant George Vaughn Seibold, Attached to the 148th Squadron, BRFC." No other information was provided.

Grace continued to visit hospitalized veterans in the Washington area, clinging to the hope that her son might have been injured and returned to the United States without any identification. While working through her sorrow, she helped ease the pain of the many servicemen who returned so war-damaged that they were incapable of ever reaching normalcy.

Grace Darling Seibold

After months of inquiry, the family received official notice. "George was killed in aerial combat during the heaviest fighting over Baupaume, France, August 26, 1918." His body was never recovered.

Grace, realizing that self-contained grief is self-destructive, devoted her time and efforts to not only working in the hospital but extending the hand of friendship to other mothers whose sons had lost their lives in military service.

She organized a group consisting solely of these special mothers, with the purpose of not only comforting each other, but giving loving care to hospitalized veterans confined in government hospitals far from home.

The organization was named after the Gold Star that families hung in their windows in honor of the deceased veteran.

After years of planning, June 4, 1928, twenty-five mothers met in Washington, DC to establish the national organization, American Gold Star Mothers, Inc.

The success of our organization continues because of the bond of mutual love, sympathy, and support of the many loyal, capable, and patriotic mothers who while sharing their grief and their pride, have channeled their time, efforts and gifts to lessening the pain of others. (There IS more, and you can find that here.)

(here)

July 2, 2006, Kent, NY

Peter Allegretta

In 2002, Peter Allegretta, a USMC veteran and president of the Putnam County Joint Veterans Council (NY) accepted the task of creating a monument to honor Gold Star Mothers. Allegretta’s introduction to Gold Star Mothers was when his childhood friend, Howard Bruckner was killed in Vietnam. The planned monument was to be a stone with a small plaque attached. It would be like any other monument to Gold Star Mothers that dot the countryside since the first monuments of the 1930’s. What happened next is an amazing story. A Vietnam veteran, Fred Waterman met Peter and became interested in the project. Waterman was in the same platoon with Howard Bruckner when Bruckner was killed in Vietnam!! Fred felt the “Mom’s” deserved better than the planned single stone monument; he proposed a grand, classical bronze statue be created to properly honor Gold Star Mothers. It would be the first of its kind, and Waterman knew just the sculptor to do the job. Waterman’s Army buddy, Andrew L. Chernak, who was Bruckner’s replacement in Vietnam, was asked to sculpt the first Gold Star Mothers monument.

The first official meeting of the statue committee was in February 2003, in Carmel, Putnam County NY. Gold Star Mother President, Dorothy Oxendine and Pat Butcher were present. There were two designs submitted for the Gold Star Mother memorial. Chernak’s proposed design was of a WWII mother for two reasons. First, it would eliminate discussion whether or not the statue would be a Vietnam, Korea, or current day mother. Secondly, WWII saw the greatest number of Gold Star Mothers. The statue would be of a mother, tears flowing, looking off to memories of her child. Grief stricken and unsteady, she braces herself with one hand on a plant stand at her side. The hand grasps the Western Union telegram read with disbelief a moment before. The table top has a photo of a serviceman and a flower pot knocked to its side, teetering at the table’s edge. The second design presented by another attendee was a copy of a movie scene with a mother lying on a porch in tears. Chernak’s design was chosen by Dorothy Oxendine for the dignity and strength that co-existed with the grief and sorrow. (go here to read more of this amazing story!)

Peter Allegretta and 2 Gold Star Moms await the unveiling of the Statue.

I do not have enough words to share for all that Gold Star Mothers mean to me. Those Gold Star Mothers I am now blessed to know and count as friends, know exactly what respect, love and gratitude I hold in my heart for each of them.

To me, they ARE - and will always be - MY Every Day Heroes.

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Another result of accepting Shar'ia Law

Posted from Monkey in the Middle
Hat tip to Dhimmi Watch

For over 2 weeks now Shar'ia Law has been incorporated into the British legal system. This was done to appease their Muslim minority. The government officials stated that this would not impact on the average Brit. Yet just looking at this report now, we can see the effect of caving into the wishes of the minority, and the impact on the majority.

Muslims try to get alcohol banned at Tesco

Bedford Today, UK September 25 2008
By Sally-Anne Johnson

Petitions handed in as licence hearing looms

More than 150 people have signed petitions imploring Luton Borough Council to deny the new Tesco Express in Bury Park an alcohol licence.

The bid from the supermarket giant has upset Muslims living in the area, some of whom say they find the idea of alcohol being sold offensive.

Next Tuesday councillors will make a decision on the application, which, if successful, would see the store permitted to sell alcohol from 6am until 11pm every day (...)

And what would happen if they did this all over Great Britain? How long will it be until the Muslim minority will close the pubs? Demand women to wear the hajib? Force the full Dhimmitude on the majority? How long would it be until the average Brit would take to the streets and riot?

This is why we in the United States must resist all attempts to incorporate Shar'ia Law into any aspect of our legal system. This is why each and every time groups like CAIR try to force employers and communities into giving special treatment to Muslims, we must oppose it forcefully and with all our means possible.

We must remind our Representatives that:

Shar'ia Law isn't compatible with the US Constitution!

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The Debate: Barack Obama's Most Important Statement

Why bother weighing in with just one more take on Friday night's Presidential Debate? By now, every conceivable angle has been covered. Predictably, both camps have claimed victories. What could be said that hasn't already been said, and said by more astute pundits than myself?
Well, there is one little thing. One little sentence that sticks out in my mind and just will not go away. One small phrase which Obama uttered that to me has more significance than everything else he stated during this contest. And here it is: "America is the greatest country in the world, but--" But. That's the word that matters, folks. That's the word that more than any other reveals the goals of this candidate. America, he goes on to explain, is not the same country it was when his Kenyan father spoke of America with those high expectations. Children around the world no longer look at America the same way. This, then, would be the sacred crusade of an Obama presidency: to restore that faded luster to our American star. To get people around the world to like us once again. To make it possible for his wife to be truly proud to be an American for the first time in her lifetime. Barack Obama sees it as his mission to make it up to the world for all of America's past transgressions. To make America more universalist.

My God. Where has this man learned his American history? From the Reverend Wrights of this world? Is this what we want? What we need right now? Is this the new America? A regretful America, ashamed of itself and of its history? A humbled America, apologizing to the world for its existence and for its success? Do we really want a more internationalist America, an America more beholden to the world's agenda than to our own? Do we really want to relinquish more of our sacred national identity?

Just ask the poor betrayed Brits how they like their new found internationalism. Their merging of cultures and their loss of their own. Ask the Brits how they feel about the EU and Brussels.

What a President Obama would do about the present financial crisis on Wall Street is important, very important. What a President Obama would do about the emerging Russian Bear, or the crazy Atom Bomb-coveting Iranian Mullahs is very important. His views on the best way to manage the GWOT are extremely important. But, to this particular writer, his stated vision of America and what he wants America to be could very well be the most important issue of them all.

Regardless of your party affiliation, if you feel, as I do, that the United States of America owes no one any apologies, and has every right to promote its own interests and to protect those interests, without interference from any foreign powers or organizations of foreign powers, then we just cannot let this man win the presidency. We cannot give away this great nation of ours this easily. - rg

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Myth vs Fact

Myth	Fact
Islam: Religion of peace.	Malik's Muwatta Book 21, Number 21.1.1: Yahya related to me from Malik from Abu'z-Zinad from al-Araj from Abu Hurayra that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said "Someone who does jihad in the way of Allah is like someone who fasts and prays constantly and who does not slacken from his prayer and fasting until he returns."
Tafsir

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Master Gunner has "thoughts" :)

Yes! Master Gunner watched the debate, and he is pissed off (well, as pissed off as he gets...lol) You really should go read why. THEN, tell me if you are as mad as I am..

You know the link: here.

For those who don't know, Master Gunner is the creator, co-author on the milblog Tanker Bros. Tanker Bros was my first milblog home.:) MG has done two tours in Iraq, alongside his brother who is the other Tanker brother...they both have cred, and I ALWAYS respect what they have to say.

Below this post - on both Tanker Bros and my own site - are a couple of other MUST READ posts from Master Gunner. Read them, too..

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