Veterans Day, 2018: Remembering Our Beloved Veterans

America is a singularly different nation where it concerns our military veterans, and not just on Veterans Days. We love them. We even have a national holiday to honor them. This is not so in most of the rest of the world. Elsewhere soldiers are not as loved as they are here in these great United States.

Is that because the United States is the Sparta of the world, loving war more than anything else? Hardly. In fact it’s because our soldiers bring peace wherever they go, not perpetual war.

In other countries, soldiers are often the dregs of society, living off the people while at the same time lording over them with machine guns and violence.

In other countries the military is feared by both the people and the government because all too often the army is used to take power and steal away the government for its own aggrandizement. There is no accident that the word “coup” is one rarely spoken in the USA unless when viewing foreign news.

In other countries when people see soldiers they fear them, they loathe them. In other countries they don’t want to sit near soldiers on public transportation, they avoid eye contact. Here we shake their hand and ask if they need anything.

In the USA we respect our soldiers because as a rule they respect We The People as much as they respect the law.

When an American sees a soldier an American feels pride, not fear. When an American leans of another’s service, an American is compelled to thank him for that service.

So, from us to you, our dear military veterans, we thank you. We thank you for putting your lives on hold while serving us, while making sure we are safe and able to go about our business unafraid of danger, and time and again for putting your own safety at risk.

Happy Veterans Day to you all.


Happy Memorial Day, 2018

As we take the day off to celebrate Memorial Day, we wish you and your family a great day.

Please Enjoy Our Other Memorial Day Posts


Remembering Thousands of Americans Buried in U.S. Military Cemeteries Across the World

-By Warner Todd Huston

“From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.”–Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

As we prepare to celebrate Memorial Day to pause in thanks for the sacrifices made by millions of Americans who died while fighting to preserve freedom, a documentary called “These Hallowed Grounds” reminds us that our war dead are not just interred here at home, but are spread across the world on battlefields almost lost to the memory of far too many of us.

When we think of our military cemeteries, those final resting places of so many American heroes, we usually think of Arlington National Cemetery, certainly. But do we think of the hundreds of American military cemeteries in such places as France, the Philippines, and other nations across the world? Sadly, not many of us do.

If you are like many of us, you may not be very well informed about all the many American cemeteries erected to memorialize our legions of war dead. To correct that deficit the PBS documentary “These Hallowed Grounds” is an excellent way to learn about these bucolic and solemn memorials.

Most Americans know of the World War Two cemetery at Omaha Beach, Normandy, site of one of the 1944 D-Day landings. But there are some twenty-one other cemeteries in eight other countries memorializing our dead from World Wars One and Two and the documentary tells the powerful tale of many of them.

Our many war cemeteries are maintained by the U.S. government’s American Battle Monuments Commission and contain monuments to some 125,000 American war dead. The names of another 94,000 missing soldiers are inscribed into the Walls Of The Missing at these locations and this film takes viewers on an important journey across the world to see and learn about them.
Continue reading


Remembering Thousands of Americans Buried in U.S. Military Cemeteries Across the World”


Memorial Day Special: Do Not Forget What American Troops Are Made Of…

-By Warner Todd Huston

To honor our troops for this year, I am going to share this story about their mettle. What follows are excerpts from remarks by Marine Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly made to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis on November 13, 2010. While leading his platoon on a combat patrol, Kelly’s son, Marine 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, had been killed in action four days earlier in Sangin, in southern Afghanistan. Lt. Kelly was only 29-years-old.

Giving Thanks for Our Warriors

“Those with less of a sense of service to the nation never understand it when men and women of character step forward to look danger and adversity straight in the eye, refusing to blink, or give ground, even to their own deaths… No, they are not victims but are warriors, your warriors, and warriors are never victims regardless of how and where they fall. Death, or fear of death, has no power over them. Their paths are paved by sacrifice, sacrifices they gladly make… for you….

“Two years ago when I was the commander of all U.S. and Iraqi forces, in fact, the 22nd of April 2008, two Marine infantry battalions, 1/9 ‘The Walking Dead,’ and 2/8 were switching out in Ramadi… Two Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20 years old respectively, one from each battalion, were assuming the watch together at the entrance gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines… Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and daughter, and a mother and sister who lived with him and he supported as well. He did this on a yearly salary of less than $23,000. Haerter, on the other hand, was a middle-class white kid from Long Island. They were from two completely different worlds… But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in the same crucible of Marine training, and because of this bond they were brothers as close, or closer, than if they were born of the same woman.
Continue reading


Memorial Day Special: Do Not Forget What American Troops Are Made Of…”


The Illinois General From the Civil War Who Helped Create Memorial Day

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few years after the Civil War as the nation started upon its long road toward reconciliation, rebuilding, and healing the wife of one of the war’s union generals noticed the touching devotion of Confederate widows, wives and their children as each year they came together to place flowers and little flags at the graves of their fallen. Mary Simmerson Cunningham Logan was so moved by the devotion she witnessed that she urged her husband, Illinois General John A. “Blackjack” Logan, to look into creating what was to become Memorial Day.

General Logan was a Senator from Illinois and eventually became a candidate for Vice President on the 1884 Republican ticket, losing to Grover Cleveland and another Illinoisan, Vice President Adlai Stevenson. But before all that Logan was instrumental in creating Decoration Day, the celebration of the nation’s war dead that eventually became Memorial Day.

The following is the general order that Logan issued in 1868.

HEADQUARTERS GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC
General Orders No.11, WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5, 1868

The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

Continue reading


The Illinois General From the Civil War Who Helped Create Memorial Day”


Over 30 of the Top War Movies to Watch on Memorial Day

-By Warner Todd Huston

With Memorial Day weekend here patriots may want to spend a few hours this weekend remembering some of our greatest war films. Here we will talk briefly about over thirty war films, some stir the patriot’s blood, others are amusing, many harrowing, still more are foreboding with a subtle anti-war message. While everyone has their own favorites list — and yours may not be here — all presented here are a great watch.

Band of Brothers

(2001)

Starring Damian Lewis as Major Dick Winters, the 2001 mini-series Band of Brothers is probably the most faithful film project about World War Two and is a must-see for any war movie fan. At 12 hours in length, it is certainly a commitment to watch, but a viewer is well rewarded at the end and is an experience that will stick with viewers for the rest of their lives. This is as close as you can come to experiencing the camaraderie, deprivation, terror, and hell of war without actually being in one.

Patton

(1970)

Unapologetically patriotic and hardnosed, the George C. Scott vehicle Patton is a tour de force of stirring military action punched by an incredible soundtrack. The nearly three-hour film follows the life, war, and untimely death of WWII General George S. Patton that stands as one of the classic war films of all time.

The Longest Day

(1962)

The Academy Award-winning The Longest Day can’t help but bring you to the edge of your seat as the film follows one of the toughest battles in U.S. history as Allied forces landed on the coast of France during the D-Day landings. It starred nearly every major Hollywood star of the day including John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Henry Fonda, Red Buttons, Peter Lawford, Eddie Albert, Jeffrey Hunter, Rod Steiger, George Segal, Robert Wagner, and many, many more. Filmed in black and white, the lack of color makes it all the more gritty and inspiring as the Allies push the Nazis back beginning the push into Europe that would eventually topple Hitler’s regime.

Continue reading


Over 30 of the Top War Movies to Watch on Memorial Day”


Veterans Day, 2017: This is Why Americans Love OUR Veterans

-By Warner Todd Huston

America is a singularly different nation where it concerns our military veterans. We love them. We even have a national holiday to honor them. This is not so in most of the rest of the world. Elsewhere military veterans are not so loved as they are here.

Is that because the United States is the Sparta of the world, loving war more than anything else? Hardly. In fact its because our soldiers bring peace wherever they go, not perpetual war.

In other countries, soldiers are usually the dregs of society, living off the people while at the same time lording over them with machine guns and violence.

In other countries the military is feared by both the people and the government because all too often the army is used to take power and steal away the government for its own aggrandizement. There is no accident that the word “coup” is one rarely spoken in the USA unless when viewing foreign news.

So, not in America. In the USA we respect our soldiers because they respect us as much as they respect the law.

When an American sees a soldier an American will feel pride, not fear. When an American hears that a fellow is a veteran, an American thanks that fellow for his service.

In other countries when people see soldiers they fear them, they loathe them. In other countries they don’t want to sit near soldiers on public transportation, they avoid eye contact. Here we shake their hand and ask if they need anything.

So, from us to you, our dear military veterans, we thank you. We thank you for putting your lives on hold while serving us, while making sure we are safe and able to go about our business unafraid of danger, and for putting your own safety at risk.

Happy Veterans Day to you all.
Continue reading


Veterans Day, 2017: This is Why Americans Love OUR Veterans”


Memorial Day Special: What American Troops Are Made Of…

-By Warner Todd Huston

To honor our troops for this year, I am going to share this story about their mettle. What follows are excerpts from remarks by Marine Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly made to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis on November 13, 2010. While leading his platoon on a combat patrol, Kelly’s son, Marine 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, had been killed in action four days earlier in Sangin, in southern Afghanistan. Lt. Kelly was only 29-years-old.

Giving Thanks for Our Warriors

“Those with less of a sense of service to the nation never understand it when men and women of character step forward to look danger and adversity straight in the eye, refusing to blink, or give ground, even to their own deaths… No, they are not victims but are warriors, your warriors, and warriors are never victims regardless of how and where they fall. Death, or fear of death, has no power over them. Their paths are paved by sacrifice, sacrifices they gladly make… for you….

“Two years ago when I was the commander of all U.S. and Iraqi forces, in fact, the 22nd of April 2008, two Marine infantry battalions, 1/9 ‘The Walking Dead,’ and 2/8 were switching out in Ramadi… Two Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20 years old respectively, one from each battalion, were assuming the watch together at the entrance gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines… Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and daughter, and a mother and sister who lived with him and he supported as well. He did this on a yearly salary of less than $23,000. Haerter, on the other hand, was a middle-class white kid from Long Island. They were from two completely different worlds… But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in the same crucible of Marine training, and because of this bond they were brothers as close, or closer, than if they were born of the same woman.
Continue reading


Memorial Day Special: What American Troops Are Made Of…”


Never Forget the Many Americans Buried in U.S. Military Cemeteries Across the World

-By Warner Todd Huston

“From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.”–Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

As we prepare to celebrate Memorial Day to pause in thanks for the sacrifices made by millions of Americans who died while fighting to preserve freedom, a documentary called “These Hallowed Grounds” reminds us that our war dead are not just interred here at home, but are spread across the world on battlefields almost lost to the memory of far too many of us.

When we think of our military cemeteries, those final resting places of so many American heroes, we usually think of Arlington National Cemetery, certainly. But do we think of the hundreds of American military cemeteries in such places as France, the Philippines, and other nations across the world? Sadly, not many of us do.

If you are like many of us, you may not be very well informed about all the many American cemeteries erected to memorialize our legions of war dead. To correct that deficit the PBS documentary “These Hallowed Grounds” is an excellent way to learn about these bucolic and solemn memorials.

Most Americans know of the World War Two cemetery at Omaha Beach, Normandy, site of one of the 1944 D-Day landings. But there are some twenty-one other cemeteries in eight other countries memorializing our dead from World Wars One and Two and the documentary tells the powerful tale of many of them.

Our many war cemeteries are maintained by the U.S. government’s American Battle Monuments Commission and contain monuments to some 125,000 American war dead. The names of another 94,000 missing soldiers are inscribed into the Walls Of The Missing at these locations and this film takes viewers on an important journey across the world to see and learn about them.
Continue reading


Never Forget the Many Americans Buried in U.S. Military Cemeteries Across the World”


The Civil War General From Illinois Who Helped Create Memorial Day

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few years after the Civil War as the nation started upon its long road toward reconciliation, rebuilding, and healing the wife of one of the war’s union generals noticed the touching devotion of Confederate widows, wives and their children as each year they came together to place flowers and little flags at the graves of their fallen. Mary Simmerson Cunningham Logan was so moved by the devotion she witnessed that she urged her husband, Illinois General John A. “Blackjack” Logan, to look into creating what was to become Memorial Day.

General Logan was a Senator from Illinois and eventually became a candidate for Vice President on the 1884 Republican ticket, losing to Grover Cleveland and another Illinoisan, Vice President Adlai Stevenson. But before all that Logan was instrumental in creating Decoration Day, the celebration of the nation’s war dead that eventually became Memorial Day.

The following is the general order that Logan issued in 1868.

HEADQUARTERS GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC
General Orders No.11, WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5, 1868

The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

Continue reading


The Civil War General From Illinois Who Helped Create Memorial Day”


Veterans Day, 2016: This is Why We Love OUR Veterans

-By Warner Todd Huston

America is a singularly different nation where it concerns our military veterans. We love them. We even have a national holiday to honor them. This is not so in most of the rest of the world. Elsewhere military veterans are not so loved as they are here.

Is that because the United States is the Sparta of the world, loving war more than anything else? Hardly. In fact its because our soldiers bring peace wherever they go, not perpetual war.

In other countries, soldiers are usually the dregs of society, living off the people while at the same time lording over them with machine guns and violence.

In other countries the military is feared by both the people and the government because all too often the army is used to take power and steal away the government for its own aggrandizement. There is no accident that the word “coup” is one rarely spoken in the USA unless when viewing foreign news.

So, not in America. In the USA we respect our soldiers because they respect us as much as they respect the law.

When an American sees a soldier an American will feel pride, not fear. When an American hears that a fellow is a veteran, an American thanks that fellow for his service.

In other countries when people see soldiers they fear them, they loathe them. In other countries they don’t want to sit near soldiers on public transportation, they avoid eye contact. Here we shake their hand and ask if they need anything.

So, from us to you, our dear military veterans, we thank you. We thank you for putting your lives on hold while serving us, while making sure we are safe and able to go about our business unafraid of danger, and for putting your own safety at risk.

Happy Veterans Day to you all.
Continue reading


Veterans Day, 2016: This is Why We Love OUR Veterans”


Time to Remember The Many Americans Buried in U.S. Military Cemeteries Across the World

-By Warner Todd Huston

“From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.”–Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

As we prepare to celebrate Memorial Day to pause in thanks for the sacrifices made by millions of Americans who died while fighting to preserve freedom, a documentary called “These Hallowed Grounds” reminds us that our war dead are not just interred here at home, but are spread across the world on battlefields almost lost to the memory of far too many of us.

When we think of our military cemeteries, those final resting places of so many American heroes, we usually think of Arlington National Cemetery, certainly. But do we think of the hundreds of American military cemeteries in such places as France, the Philippines, and other nations across the world? Sadly, not many of us do.

If you are like many of us, you may not be very well informed about all the many American cemeteries erected to memorialize our legions of war dead. To correct that deficit the PBS documentary “These Hallowed Grounds” is an excellent way to learn about these bucolic and solemn memorials.

Most Americans know of the World War Two cemetery at Omaha Beach, Normandy, site of one of the 1944 D-Day landings. But there are some twenty-one other cemeteries in eight other countries memorializing our dead from World Wars One and Two and the documentary tells the powerful tale of many of them.

Our many war cemeteries are maintained by the U.S. government’s American Battle Monuments Commission and contain monuments to some 125,000 American war dead. The names of another 94,000 missing soldiers are inscribed into the Walls Of The Missing at these locations and this film takes viewers on an important journey across the world to see and learn about them.
Continue reading


Time to Remember The Many Americans Buried in U.S. Military Cemeteries Across the World”


Memorial Day Special: THIS Is What American Troops Are Made Of…

-By Warner Todd Huston

To honor our troops for this year, I am going to share this story about their mettle. What follows are excerpts from remarks by Marine Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly made to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis on November 13, 2010. While leading his platoon on a combat patrol, Kelly’s son, Marine 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, had been killed in action four days earlier in Sangin, in southern Afghanistan. Lt. Kelly was only 29-years-old.

Giving Thanks for Our Warriors

“Those with less of a sense of service to the nation never understand it when men and women of character step forward to look danger and adversity straight in the eye, refusing to blink, or give ground, even to their own deaths… No, they are not victims but are warriors, your warriors, and warriors are never victims regardless of how and where they fall. Death, or fear of death, has no power over them. Their paths are paved by sacrifice, sacrifices they gladly make… for you….

“Two years ago when I was the commander of all U.S. and Iraqi forces, in fact, the 22nd of April 2008, two Marine infantry battalions, 1/9 ‘The Walking Dead,’ and 2/8 were switching out in Ramadi… Two Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20 years old respectively, one from each battalion, were assuming the watch together at the entrance gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines… Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and daughter, and a mother and sister who lived with him and he supported as well. He did this on a yearly salary of less than $23,000. Haerter, on the other hand, was a middle-class white kid from Long Island. They were from two completely different worlds… But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in the same crucible of Marine training, and because of this bond they were brothers as close, or closer, than if they were born of the same woman.
Continue reading


Memorial Day Special: THIS Is What American Troops Are Made Of…”


The Illinois Civil War General Who Helped Create Memorial Day

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few years after the Civil War as the nation started upon its long road toward reconciliation, rebuilding, and healing the wife of one of the war’s union generals noticed the touching devotion of Confederate widows, wives and their children as each year they came together to place flowers and little flags at the graves of their fallen. Mary Simmerson Cunningham Logan was so moved by the devotion she witnessed that she urged her husband, Illinois General John A. “Blackjack” Logan, to look into creating what was to become Memorial Day.

General Logan was a Senator from Illinois and eventually became a candidate for Vice President on the 1884 Republican ticket, losing to Grover Cleveland and another Illinoisan, Vice President Adlai Stevenson. But before all that Logan was instrumental in creating Decoration Day, the celebration of the nation’s war dead that eventually became Memorial Day.

The following is the general order that Logan issued in 1868.

HEADQUARTERS GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC
General Orders No.11, WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5, 1868

The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

Continue reading


The Illinois Civil War General Who Helped Create Memorial Day”


Happy Veterans Day, 2015: This is Why OUR Veterans Are Different

-By Warner Todd Huston

America is a singularly different nation where it concerns our military veterans. We love them. We even have a national holiday to honor them. This is not so in most of the rest of the world. Elsewhere military veterans are not so loved as they are here.

Is that because the United States is the Sparta of the world, loving war more than anything else? Hardly. In fact its because our soldiers bring peace wherever they go, not perpetual war.

In other countries, soldiers are usually the dregs of society, living off the people while at the same time lording over them with machine guns and violence.

In other countries the military is feared by both the people and the government because all too often the army is used to take power and steal away the government for its own aggrandizement. There is no accident that the word “coup” is one rarely spoken in the USA unless when viewing foreign news.

So, not in America. In the USA we respect our soldiers because they respect us as much as they respect the law.

When an American sees a soldier an American will feel pride, not fear. When an American hears that a fellow is a veteran, an American thanks that fellow for his service.

In other countries when people see soldiers they fear them, they loathe them. In other countries they don’t want to sit near soldiers on public transportation, they avoid eye contact. Here we shake their hand and ask if they need anything.

So, from us to you, our dear military veterans, we thank you. We thank you for putting your lives on hold while serving us, while making sure we are safe and able to go about our business unafraid of danger, and for putting your own safety at risk.

Happy Veterans Day to you all.
Continue reading


Happy Veterans Day, 2015: This is Why OUR Veterans Are Different”


Seattle University Tells Veterans They Can’t Say ‘Controversial’ Pledge of Allegiance or Display U.S. Flag

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week a dust up between Seattle Pacific University and a veterans group was kicked up when the university informed the group that they would not be allowed to say the Pledge of Allegiance and present the colors during their veteran’s day ceremony.

A group called the Military and Veteran Support Club at SPU had scheduled a ceremony to be held in the university’s chapel for the upcoming Veterans Day holiday. The group intended to perform the Pledge of Allegiance and wanted to present the colors during the ceremony. But the plans were nixed by the university because they were deemed too “controversial.”

As the veteran group noted on its Facebook page, “This integral part of veteran support was deemed controversial due to the fact that it may make some individuals “uncomfortable”. It is important to note that University Ministries initially approved the pledge and the presentation of colors, but then rescinded approval of this portion of the service.”
Continue reading


Seattle University Tells Veterans They Can’t Say ‘Controversial’ Pledge of Allegiance or Display U.S. Flag”


Obama’s Answer to Terrorism Against Our Troops: Have Them Remove Their Uniforms

-By Warner Todd Huston

On the heels of a terrorist attack on two military recruiting offices in Tennessee by a Muslim immigrant, the Obama administration announced a policy change to help prevent future attacks. Was it to finally arm our soldiers? Nope. It was to have them take off their uniforms. No really!

According to the Military Times, Obama’s weak-kneed Defense Secretary Ash Cater approved the decree that recruiters should take off their uniforms while performing their recruitment duties from now on.

So, now recruiters will be wearing…. what, shots and a t-shirt? Or better yet, maybe a burkah or maybe some turban-styled head covering. All in order to cringe in front of Islamic terrorists while pleading, “oh, please, please, Mr. terrorist, don’t kill us.”
Continue reading


Obama’s Answer to Terrorism Against Our Troops: Have Them Remove Their Uniforms”


The Illinois Civil War General Who Helped Create Memorial Day

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few years after the Civil War as the nation started upon its long road toward reconciliation, rebuilding, and healing the wife of one of the war’s union generals noticed the touching devotion of Confederate widows, wives and their children as each year they came together to place flowers and little flags at the graves of their fallen. Mary Simmerson Cunningham Logan was so moved by the devotion she witnessed that she urged her husband, Illinois General John A. “Blackjack” Logan, to look into creating what was to become Memorial Day.

General Logan was a Senator from Illinois and eventually became a candidate for Vice President on the 1884 Republican ticket, losing to Grover Cleveland and another Illinoisan, Vice President Adlai Stevenson. But before all that Logan was instrumental in creating Decoration Day, the celebration of the nation’s war dead that eventually became Memorial Day.

The following is the general order that Logan issued in 1868.

HEADQUARTERS GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC
General Orders No.11, WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5, 1868

The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

Continue reading


The Illinois Civil War General Who Helped Create Memorial Day”


Memorial Day Special: THIS Is What American Troops Are Made Of…

-By Warner Todd Huston

To honor our troops for this year, I am going to share this story about their mettle. What follows are excerpts from remarks by Marine Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly made to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis on November 13, 2010. While leading his platoon on a combat patrol, Kelly’s son, Marine 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, had been killed in action four days earlier in Sangin, in southern Afghanistan. Lt. Kelly was only 29-years-old.

Giving Thanks for Our Warriors

“Those with less of a sense of service to the nation never understand it when men and women of character step forward to look danger and adversity straight in the eye, refusing to blink, or give ground, even to their own deaths… No, they are not victims but are warriors, your warriors, and warriors are never victims regardless of how and where they fall. Death, or fear of death, has no power over them. Their paths are paved by sacrifice, sacrifices they gladly make… for you….

“Two years ago when I was the commander of all U.S. and Iraqi forces, in fact, the 22nd of April 2008, two Marine infantry battalions, 1/9 ‘The Walking Dead,’ and 2/8 were switching out in Ramadi… Two Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20 years old respectively, one from each battalion, were assuming the watch together at the entrance gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines… Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and daughter, and a mother and sister who lived with him and he supported as well. He did this on a yearly salary of less than $23,000. Haerter, on the other hand, was a middle-class white kid from Long Island. They were from two completely different worlds… But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in the same crucible of Marine training, and because of this bond they were brothers as close, or closer, than if they were born of the same woman.
Continue reading


Memorial Day Special: THIS Is What American Troops Are Made Of…”


Democrats Tweet Us Another Reason to Loathe Them on Memorial Day

-By Warner Todd Huston

Democrats really know how to celebrate Memorial Day, don’t they? We get another prime example of the hate Democrats have for America with the Party’s Tweet featuring Barack Obama eating ice cream in front of a gaggle of adoring “reporters.” And the troops, you ask? What troops?

At this point, if you are a real American, about all you can muster for Democrats is contempt and this Memorial Day Tweet wholly justifies that contempt.

Without further ado, here is that inappropriate Democrat Tweet

So, I’m guessing that when you think of Memorial Day YOU don’t think of King Barack and his adoring media. You might rather think of… oh, I don’t know… maybe our soldiers?

It was so bad, even CNN’s Jake Tapper slammed the Democrat Party for its stupid Tweet using a photo of Obama eating ice cream in front of a gaggle of reporters to celebrate Memorial Day.
Continue reading


Democrats Tweet Us Another Reason to Loathe Them on Memorial Day”


Creepy Howard Dean Says Fans of ‘American Sniper’ Are Mean, Nasty, ‘Very Angry’ Tea Party Members

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Clint Eastwood directed film American Sniper has been setting records all across the nation. But the longer it sits in theaters, the more that liberals come to hate the movie–and by extension our soldiers–and the film is exposing quite a split between Americans and the left. The latest to attack the film, our soldiers, and the film’s fans is former DNC chief Howard Dean.

A week ago one of Hollyweird’s greatest douchebags, Michael Moore, came out to slam the man American Sniper was based on calling him a “murderer.”

On January 18, Moore took to his Twitter account and said, “My uncle killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. Will shoot u in the back. Snipers aren’t heroes. And invaders r worse.”

Only a few days later, one-note “actor” Seth Rogen came out to claim that the movie was just like Nazi propaganda.

There have been others on the left who have expressed similar anti-soldier sentiments, one of whom is former head of the Democrat National Committee and one-time Governor of Vermont Howard Dean.

Dean’s latest harangue against the movie occurred during his visit to Bill Maher’s political talk show on HBO.
Continue reading


Creepy Howard Dean Says Fans of ‘American Sniper’ Are Mean, Nasty, ‘Very Angry’ Tea Party Members”


Happy Veterans Day, 2014: Why OUR Veterans Are Different

-By Warner Todd Huston

America is a singularly different nation where it concerns our military veterans. We love them. We even have a national holiday to honor them. This is not so in most of the rest of the world. Elsewhere military veterans are not so loved as they are here.

Is that because the United States is the Sparta of the world, loving war more than anything else? Hardly. In fact its because our soldiers bring peace wherever they go, not perpetual war.

In other countries, soldiers are usually the dregs of society, living off the people while at the same time lording over them with machine guns and violence.

In other countries the military is feared by both the people and the government because all too often the army is used to take power and steal away the government for its own aggrandizement. There is no accident that the word “coup” is one rarely spoken in the USA unless when viewing foreign news.

So, not in America. In the USA we respect our soldiers because they respect us as much as they respect the law.

When an American sees a soldier an American will feel pride, not fear. When an American hears that a fellow is a veteran, an American thanks that fellow for his service.

In other countries when people see soldiers they fear them, they loathe them. In other countries they don’t want to sit near soldiers on public transportation, they avoid eye contact. Here we shake their hand and ask if they need anything.

So, from us to you, our dear military veterans, we thank you. We thank you for putting your lives on hold while serving us, while making sure we are safe and able to go about our business unafraid of danger, and for putting your own safety at risk.

Happy Veterans Day to you all.
Continue reading


Happy Veterans Day, 2014: Why OUR Veterans Are Different”


Obama Admits Government is a Failure? VA Allows Vets to Get Private Care!

-By Warner Todd Huston

After several weeks of scandalous failure to provide timely healthcare to our military veterans, some dying waiting for care that would never come, the Veteran’s Administration has now decided to allow veterans to pursue more private healthcare options to improve their treatment. But isn’t government turning to the private sector in stark contrast to the theme of the age of Obama, one that holds that private business “didn’t build that” and that we need to further empower government?

On May 24, the Associated Press reported that VA chief Eric Shinseki has announced a new plan for VA hospitals and healthcare providers to work more with private doctors. Shinseki told the press that the VA is “increasing the care we acquire in the community through non-VA care.”

Shinseki makes this concession as 26 VA facilities thus far have come under investigation for forcing sick veterans to wait for months to receive medical care. Up to 40 or more veterans died waiting for care on these lists.
Continue reading


Obama Admits Government is a Failure? VA Allows Vets to Get Private Care!”


On Memorial Day, We Must Remember That THIS Is What American Troops Are Made Of…

-By Warner Todd Huston

To honor our troops for this year, I am going to share this story about their mettle. What follows are excerpts from remarks by Marine Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly made to the Semper Fi Society of St. Louis on November 13, 2010. While leading his platoon on a combat patrol, Kelly’s son, Marine 1st Lt. Robert Michael Kelly, had been killed in action four days earlier in Sangin, in southern Afghanistan. Lt. Kelly was only 29-years-old.

Giving Thanks for Our Warriors

“Those with less of a sense of service to the nation never understand it when men and women of character step forward to look danger and adversity straight in the eye, refusing to blink, or give ground, even to their own deaths… No, they are not victims but are warriors, your warriors, and warriors are never victims regardless of how and where they fall. Death, or fear of death, has no power over them. Their paths are paved by sacrifice, sacrifices they gladly make… for you….

“Two years ago when I was the commander of all U.S. and Iraqi forces, in fact, the 22nd of April 2008, two Marine infantry battalions, 1/9 ‘The Walking Dead,’ and 2/8 were switching out in Ramadi… Two Marines, Corporal Jonathan Yale and Lance Corporal Jordan Haerter, 22 and 20 years old respectively, one from each battalion, were assuming the watch together at the entrance gate of an outpost that contained a makeshift barracks housing 50 Marines… Yale was a dirt poor mixed-race kid from Virginia with a wife and daughter, and a mother and sister who lived with him and he supported as well. He did this on a yearly salary of less than $23,000. Haerter, on the other hand, was a middle-class white kid from Long Island. They were from two completely different worlds… But they were Marines, combat Marines, forged in the same crucible of Marine training, and because of this bond they were brothers as close, or closer, than if they were born of the same woman.
Continue reading


On Memorial Day, We Must Remember That THIS Is What American Troops Are Made Of…”


No Coverage: MSNBC Ignores Growing Veterans Admin Scandal

-By Warner Todd Huston

MSNBC doesn’t appear to care about our nation’s beleaguered veterans in this mounting medical care scandal. Only one of the left-wing cable network’s prime-time hosts have covered the scandalous treatment of our sick vets and then only once.

The developing scandal has revealed that thousands of veterans have been put on secret wait lists and denied healthcare while VA hospital administrators lie about having done so in order for doctors and administrators to get government bonuses. Many veterans have died while awaiting medical treatment and these months-long wait times only foreshadow what will happen to all of us as Obamacare’s horrid tentacles force its way into our national healthcare system.

But MSNBC doesn’t seem at all interested in news that doesn’t fit its extreme, blindly left-wing bias. The network is completely ignoring the story, even though one administration official has already “resigned” because of the whole thing.
Continue reading


No Coverage: MSNBC Ignores Growing Veterans Admin Scandal”


Vet. Admin Outrage is Harbinger of Obamacare

-By Warner Todd Huston

The scandal at the Veteran’s Administration (VA) is growing every week. As each new VA hospital is revealed to have made sick veterans wait so long for care that many died while waiting, and then subsequently covered up the truth, we all must come to grips with the fact that this is Obamacare writ large.

If you hadn’t been paying attention to how badly Obama’s government healthcare system is treating our elderly and sick veterans, you should. Because with Obamacare this sort of criminal behavior is coming to you and your sick relatives whether you served in the military or not.

Essentially what has been happening is that employees, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare pros at the VA have been allowing themselves to have grueling four-hour work days while wait times for their services have naturally been growing exponentially–after all there are fewer hours in a day that patients can be served if the docs and nurses only work four hours a day!

The cover up is the secondary part of this scandal. The newest report at CBS has only the latest example of this disgusting state of affairs.
Continue reading


Vet. Admin Outrage is Harbinger of Obamacare”


Obama Forcing the Closure of Fast Food Outlets on Military Bases

-By Warner Todd Huston

Four restaurants, three of which are McDonald’s, have closed down on several military bases and a host of other outlets, like Pizza Huts, are also saying they will soon be closing their shops. These closures will seriously damage the quality of life for our soldiers on our military bases and it is all thanks to Barack Obama.

The shocking report from the Military Times has several Republican lawmakers alarmed that the quality of life on our military bases will be diminished thanks to Obama’s meddling.

According the MT, several other contractors who operate restaurants and other small businesses on military bases “have asked to be released from their Army and Air Force Exchange Service contracts to operate fast food restaurants at two other installations.”
Continue reading


Obama Forcing the Closure of Fast Food Outlets on Military Bases”


Obama’s Veterans Administration Prevent School Kid’s Christmas Cards to Troops

-By Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Veteran’s Administration has prevented delivery of hand-made Christmas cards that were to go to wounded veterans because the cards made by kids at a Dallas area grade school have the words “Merry Christmas” on them. The VA claims that this traditional Christmas wish will upset veterans who aren’t religious and so the cards were not allowed.

Fifty-two students at Grace Academy in Prosper, Texas, sent their hand-made cards to the VA hospital in Dallas on Monday, but authorities declined to accept the cards and would not allow the kids visiting to hand them out, Fox 4 in Dallas-Fort Worth reported.

Asked why she was making cards for our wounded soldiers, fourth grader Gracie Brown said, “I’m hoping that it might make their day because their family might live far away, and they might not have somebody to celebrate Christmas with and I’d like them to know they’ve not been forgotten and somebody wanted to say thank you.”
Continue reading


Obama’s Veterans Administration Prevent School Kid’s Christmas Cards to Troops”