Friday, September 18, 2009

A Giant Rests




15 September, 2009, Medal of Honor recipient Major Everett Pope, USMC, was buried at Arlington Cemetery. He died in July, on his 90th birthday.The Citation.
POPE, EVERETT PARKER
Rank and organization: Captain, U.S. Marine Corps, Company C, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division. Place and date: Peleliu Island, Palau group, 19-20 September 1944. Entered service at: Massachusetts. Born: 16 July 1919, Milton, Mass.
Citation:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as commanding officer of Company C, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division, during action against enemy Japanese forces on Peleliu Island, Palau group, on 19-20 September 1944. Subjected to pointblank cannon fire which caused heavy casualties and badly disorganized his company while assaulting a steep coral hill, Capt. Pope rallied his men and gallantly led them to the summit in the face of machinegun, mortar, and sniper fire. Forced by widespread hostile attack to deploy the remnants of his company thinly in order to hold the ground won, and with his machineguns out of order and insufficient water and ammunition, he remained on the exposed hill with 12 men and 1 wounded officer determined to hold through the night. Attacked continuously with grenades, machineguns, and rifles from 3 sides, he and his valiant men fiercely beat back or destroyed the enemy, resorting to hand-to-hand combat as the supply of ammunition dwindled, and still maintaining his lines with his 8 remaining riflemen when daylight brought more deadly fire and he was ordered to withdraw. His valiant leadership against devastating odds while protecting the units below from heavy Japanese attack reflects the highest credit upon Capt. Pope and the U.S. Naval Service .

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Ad Memorium Carl Asaro




Carl Asaro chose to be a protector, a defender. He chose to enter the heart of darkness to try to save others on September 11, 2001. Because of men and women like Carl, the people of this great country now look very differently on those who willingly risk everything for their safety and well being.

I cannot pay tribute to Carl without also honoring his 343 brethren firefighters who gave their lives on that terrible day. If he’s reading this, and I believe he is, he’s smiling approvingly right now.

Other very important people made great sacrifices on 9 11 and I honor them as well. God bless and keep you Helozia, loving wife, and children; Philip, Carl Jr., Matthew, Rebecca and Marc. Your Father loves you and always remember, (John 15:13) “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

2,996 lost their lives on 9/11, never forget.

Monday, September 07, 2009

What Torture is.

The prelude to the "response" below, from Colonel Bud Day, Medal of Honor recipient - prisoner of war survivor Reads:

"I didn't expect to be reminded of my treatment some 36 years ago on this holiday weekend but our politicians find it worthy to
ignore what some have tried to recount to them, who have actually been there."

I got shot down over N Vietnam in 1967..as squadron commander. After I returned in 1973.. I published 2 books that dealt a lot with "real torture" in Hanoi . Our=2 0make-believe president is branding our country as a bunch of torturers when he has no idea what torture is. As for me.....put thru a mock execution because I would not respond...pistol whipped on the head...same event.. Couple of days later...hung by my feet all day. I escaped and got recaptured a couple of weeks later.. I got shot and recaptured. Shot was OK...what happened after was not.

They marched me to Vinh.. put me in the rope trick....almost pulled my arms out of the sockets. Beat me on the head with a little wooden rod until my eyes were swelled shut, and my unshot, unbroken hand a pulp.

Next day hung me by the arms...rebroke my right wrist...wiped out the nerves in my arms that control the hands..rolled my fingers up into a ball. Only left the slightest movement of my L forefinger. So I started answering with some incredible lies.

Sent me to Hanoi strapped to a barrel of gas in the back of a truck. Hanoi ..on my knees..rope trick again. Beaten by a big fool.
Into leg irons on a bed in Heartbreak Hotel.
Much kneeling--hands up at Zoo.
Really bad beating for refusing to condemn Lyndon Johnson.

Several more kneeling events. I could see my knee bone thru kneeling holes.
There was an escape from the annex to the Zoo. I was the Senior O fficer of a large building because of escape..they started a mass torture of all commanders.
I think it was July 7, 1969..they started beating me with a car fan belt. In first 2 days I took over 300 strokes..then stopped counting because I never thought I would live thru it.
They continued day & night torture to get me to confess to a non-existent part in the escape. This went on for at least 3 days.
On my knees. fan belting.. cut open my scrotum with fan belt stroke. They then
opened up both knee holes again. My fanny looked like hamburger..I could not lie on my back.

They tortured me into admitting that I was in on the escape..and that my 2 room-mates knew about it. The next day I denied the lie.
They commenced torturing me again with 3 – 6 - or 9 strokes of the fan belt every day from about July 11 or 12th..to 14 October 1969. I continued to refuse to lie about my roommates again. Now, the point of this is that our make-believe president has declared
to the world that we ( U.S. ) are a bunch of torturers.. Thus it will be OK to torture us next time when they catch us....because that is what the U.S. does.
Our make-believe president is a know nothing fool who thinks that pouring a little water on some one's face, or hanging a pair of women’s pants over an Arabs20head is TORTURE. He is a meathead.

I just talked to MOH holder Leo Thorsness who was also in my sq in jail .... as was John McCain ... and we agree that McCain does not
speak for the POW group when he claims that Al Gharib was torture .. or that "water boarding" is torture.

Our president and those fools around him who keep bad mouthing our great country are a disgrace to the United States . Please pass this info on to Sean Hannity. He is free to use it to point out the stupidity of the claims that water boarding ....which has no after effect... is torture. If it got the Arab to cough up the story about how he planned the attack on the twin towers in NYC ... hurrah for the guy who poured the water.

BUD DAY, MOH(Medal of Honor)
George Everett "Bud" Day (born February 24, 1925) is a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and Command Pilot who served during the Vietnam War.

He is often cited as being the most decorated U.S. service member since General Douglas MacArthur, having received some seventy decorations, a majority for actions in combat. Day is a recipient of the Medal of Honor.