Merry Christmas from Iraq & Afghanistan

Don't keep it to yourself, pass it along. Pray for our warriors who are in harms way so that we may celebrate the joy of Christmas in safety and with our own families and friends while they do not. Remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice and give thanks for them. Reach out to the families of our military and let them know they are not alone, that there are those that care.

A True Veterans Day

I just found this video that is a "MUST SEE"! It will touch you I know. It's about what Vegas Billionaire, Sheldon Adelson, is doing for our Troops.

WELCOME HOME MARINE

I have been asked to share some of the homecomings that we have been a part of so I will start now & possibly go back to a few of the others. We do these homecomings as members of the Patriot Guard Riders. If you ever have the opportunity to welcome any of our Heroes home I strongly suggest you do it. It really is the best thing ever. Supporting Our Troops is more than sticking a magnet or bumper sticker on your car. Welcome Home's are the best ever...something I could do 24/7 if I had the chance.

We arrived at the staging area about 6:15 pm....we left the house early as the traffic was supposed to be horrible....the Marine was expected abut 7:30 pm or so. When we got there there was already a good group in attendance.


"The Chaplain" wanted his picture taken.


More riders coming in...

This was a group shot we took tho more riders showed up afterwards....

Getting ready to ride.....

Waiting.....

They finally arrived at 9:15pm. They had driven up from Camp Pendleton & took longer than anticipated due to traffic.... Mom was really ready to burst waiting at home.

The LCpl was seriously surprised...


Welcome Home, Marine!! We love you......

"Hey! Can I check out the bikes?"

LCpl checking out the bikes. Poor Mom & Dad waiting at home....

KSU (Kick Stands Up) & ready to roll...

Escorting the LCpl home....

A whole lot of people waiting....

Bryan Weldon of Lafayette Flag Brigade & Sgt Major of PGR shaking LCpl's hand...

Sloopdog & Spike of PGR with LCpl....

Steve, LCpl & Debbi....

Was an absolutely awesome nite tho a very long one. Watch for more postings....

FROM THE FRONTLINES

As of end of the 8 hour telethon Move America Forward collected $1,055,719. (which was more than double their goal) to send care packages to the troops in Iraq & Afghanistan. If you would like to make a donation you have until July 2nd to help with this historic event.

This is the re-broadcast of the event......


TV Show hosted by Ustream

WHAT A WEEK

Well this has been an interesting week for sure. This past Wed. we had a busy day planned & it got even busier. It was to start out with Diane & I going to lunch & shopping at Jack London Square....a nice girls day out. About the time I was getting ready Steve came home from work with bad case of heartburn. He felt he would be ok but was supposed to meet us later in Oakland for a photo exhibit by a friend of ours....he would let us know. When Diane arrived she tried to get Steve to go to Dr. but he said he was fine....we took off.

Arrived at Jack London Square...it was a gorgeous day.

After we wandered around a bit we had a fabulous lunch at Kincaid's....complete with Margarita's of course. I had a Hot Crab Sandwich which was to die for & Diane had French Onion soup & Salad. We finished up with Key Lime Pie at the suggestion of our serverAfter lunch we did a little more sightseeing & shopping & decided to stop in to Cocina Poblana for a final Margarita before we needed to go to the photo gallery. The Restaurant was very nice tho not the best Margarita I've ever had.

After we finished up at JLS we headed up Broadway to the College of the Arts for the first gallery showing of Sean Donnelly's photo's. There was absolutely no parking so we had to park in the lot of a nearby shopping center & walk up the hill to the college. Steve met us there. Also attending were 2 members of East Bay Blue Star Mom's...Tami & Michelle. The show was great...we loved his work. After about an hour or so we need to leave as we still had to stop off in Fremont to pick up Sonja & then head to to San Jose Airport to welcome home the daughter of one of the South Bay Blue Star Mom's. We said our goodbye's to all and left.

We flew down the freeway...making a quick stop in Fremont to pick up Sonja & got back the freeway & headed for the staging area...a Chevron station near the airport. A nice group was there when we arrived...some of the usual attendees plus a new Motorcycle club from the area. They asked me to take their photo. Time came to head out...

Shortly after that last photo was taken Diane grabbed me & told me that Steve was down....at first we thought he was having a sugar drop (he's diabetic) ....luckily we had 2 nurses in the group that took care of him til the EMT's arrived. After the EMT's did their thing they said he was most likely having a heart attack & needed to go to hospital. They started getting him ready for transport. When all this started happening the Patriot Guard moved the flag line to shield the view of Steve so that the soldier would not see him when she arrived.

When the SSgt arrived everything went off without a hitch....lots of hugs from Mom

Got a pix of her with Diane & gave her a Challenge coin before Diane & Sonja took me to the hospital.

More to follow....

Getting the word out......

Today we took a break from Fleet Week to get the word out about Operation: MOM & meet some wonderful people. We set up at WalMart on Albrae Street in Fremont & handed out flyers about the Organization plus the Spaghetti Feed & wish lists for our upcoming Holiday Packing. We had such a wonderful response that we stayed an hour plus longer than planned. We will be back next month on November 4th if you are in the area. In case you would like to help with items for the packing here is the Troops Holiday Wish List.

Steve, Debbi & Leslie

Tom

Our Information Table

Packing for the Troops

Another packing is over & done with. We sent off about 350 boxes yesterday to our wonderful troops overseas. Alot of the boxes were done on Friday by employees of Mervyn's who donated product & packed the boxes too. So appreciated for sure. I didn't take alot of photo's as we were busy trying to get done as most of us wanted to go to the POW/MIA Recognition Day Ceremony which was being held later in the morning. We were able to finish packing early so we could lock up & go. Some of us then came back to clean up & take what was leftover back to the storage containers. Diane & Bill both took pix & I will post some of those when I get them.

Sonja & her son, Cory....active duty Army

The only students who came to this packing....thanks so much girls for all your help. Hope you come next time too.

Livermore, CA

After we went to the CTMH Open House on Saturday we decided to take a drive thru downtown Livermore as we had heard about the tree that was smack dab in the middle of it & we wanted to see. Well I was so touched......this tree is covered with Yellow Ribbons as you can see. As you walk around all the light poles have banners hanging from them with the name of different service members along with the branch of service below their names. Our Local Paper doesn't put anything in about the accomplishments of Our Local Service Men & Women. This is Hayward, CA which calls itself the "Heart of the Bay".......... Does you town do something like this to honor our Service Members? If so can you please send me photo's & name of town/city with em by email so I can forward on to the Hayward City Council. I would greatly appreciate it.

As we roamed around we found a nice shop, "Country Morning", which had this fabulous print hanging on the wall. It's called "Liberty Awake" by Timothy Wistrom. The original painting is waiting to go into a Memorial Museum for 9/11. May have to save up for this one.

Fight for Victory Tour

At about 4:15 PM (an hour early) Dotty & I arrived at 450 Golden Gate Ave. in San Francisco (in front of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office) in anticipation of the Move America Forward Chairman Melanie Morgan, Vice Chairman Lt. Col Buzz Paterson, Blue Star Mom Deborah Johns & Gold Star Mom Debbie Lee along with any other surprises there would be. We were early but we met some great Patriots who came from all over the Bay Area to support the troops. Did my heart good. There was quite a crowd......no problems whatsoever.....and no anti-war protesters came at all. We had 2 local news crews there....KNTV-11 (NBC affiliate) who interviewed one of the Blue Star Mom's from the East Bay.....& KPIX channel 5 (CBS) who interviewed me. Didn't get all in what I had to say but they didn't make me sound like I said something else either so I guess I am pleased. If you would like to take a look at all the photo's I took........here ya go. Debbi's Picassa Web Album