I AM Thankful

I read about a little fund raiser over at LL’s, she is replicating the idea from Major Pain. Basically the idea is to list 3 things you are thankful for each week from now until Thanksgiving and with each post give a little to a charity. They are donating to anysolder.com. A very worth cause. Their posts will be on Sundays, mine will be on Mondays.

I’ve decided to hi-jack this idea and bring it a little closer to home.

Flo and Jim are from North Indiana. They are IPGR (Indiana Patriot Guard Riders) members, Veteran supporters, Jim is a Vet and their son is serving in the Army.

During the floods surrounding the passing of hurricane Ike a couple weeks ago, these fine folks lost everything....

“Everything”, An interesting word. Seems to be thrown around a lot these days. Let me quantify their loss for you.

Home - still standing. Uninhabitable. Lived some time in a camper/trailer without electricity. Still in the camper but now with a generator. Some time soon they will move into an apartment. Mortgage AND rent, that’s effectively two house payments. On a fixed income.
Food - if it wasn’t canned, it’s gone. And even some of that floated away.
Clothing - if they weren’t wearing it, it’s gone. Mold, mildew, rot.
Cars - still own them. Their full of water, mud and crud. It’s amazing how fast things rust away when they get water where they’re not suppose to.
Health - Jim is a disable Veteran. What he physically can do, he’s not allowed to do. He has been ordered to not enter their home again until it is cleaned up. Flo has lost her voice from breathing all of the mold and mildew filled air in the house.
Stuff - furniture, pretty must all water logged, guess they didn’t loose it but it is useless. What was left someone tried to loot. Yes, I said loot. They were stopped but still...
Family - Their son was home on leave from Iraq. The military has seen fit to not send him back to Iraq immediately but they have recalled him to his base in Texas. That didn’t help much.

So.

I’m thankful for;
1 - My home. As frustrating as it can be sometimes, without it, I would be lost.
2 - Friemily (Friends and Family). Not just blood relatives but these (you) people that I call friends. You are a support structure I know is there.
3 - My job *urp*. Seriously, I am paid well. I live well. And because of it, I can help.

With this post starts my pledge of $10 a week. If you’d like to join me, go to Independent Veterans Society of Indiana and click on the donate button (lower right of page). $10 bucks isn’t a lot but if 10 of us do it, that’s $100 a week and by Thanksgiving...

Please join me, won’t you?

Respect,

DNR

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Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman

For the younger folks and those who are unfamiliar with the story below, the movie ONCE WE WERE SOLDIERS, with Mel Gibson told the story of this epic battle and the incredible courage of all those who participated.

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You're an 18 or 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, 11-14-1965. LZ Xray, Vietnam. Your Infantry Unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the Medi-Vac helicopters to stop coming in.

You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.

Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see a Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway.And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2 or 3 of you on board. Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses.

And, he kept coming back......

13 more times.....

He took about 30 of you and your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.

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Medal of Honor Recipient Ed Freeman died 20AUG08 at the age of 80, in Boise, ID.

May God rest his soul!

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