Virginia disrespecting Military again

This state didn't want to count their ballets & now won't put this Marine's name on their War Memorial. Please read this...

State denies Marine recognition because of how he died

Marine Lance Cpl. Darrell Schumann, a 25-year-old
from Hampton, fought bloody door-to-door battles for three months in Fallujah in late 2004. A few weeks later, he boarded a helicopter for the first leg of his trip home.

The helicopter, carrying Schumann and 30 comrades, flew into
a sandstorm and crashed in the Iraqi desert, killing everyone on board. It remains the greatest single loss of U.S. troops in the Iraq war.

President Bush praised Schumann by name for his valor. But his name will not be found on the Virginia War Memorial in Richmond.

State officials have deemed that only the names of service members killed in hostile combat in the Middle East will be added to the stone-and-glass walls, which bear the names
of 11,600 Virginians killed since World War II.

Recent veterans who died under other circumstances, such as aircraft accidents, are excluded.

The policy has changed since the memorial was erected, and the names of many service members who were killed in accidents are found on the wall.

Rick Schumann, Darrell's father, wants the policy changed again.

The memorial will soon undergo an $8 million expansion, funded mostly by taxpayers.

"We want them to do it right," Schumann said.

The state relies on the Defense Department's classification of deaths: killed in action, hostile casualty or nonhostile casualty. To be included on the Virginia memorial, a service member must fall into one of the first two categories.

According to a Virginian-Pilot review of Department of Defense records, at least two dozen service members with Virginia roots died in accidents (Read more...)

Slain Soldier explained why he served

Army Specialist and blogger Stephen Fortunato was killed earlier this week in Afghanistan when the vehicle he was riding in was s truck by a roadside bomb. His mother shared a blog entry with the Boston Globe, which Stephen had written in August. According to BostonHerald.com: "He was killed on his first day back on patrol after a 19-day leave in Massachusetts. Fortunato was in the 26th Infantry Regiment and served as a gunner in back of a Humvee. He had served in Afghanistan since July."

Here`s an excerpt from the blog entry that was shared with the Boston Globe:

If I may …

I'd like to say something....Just to get it out there so it is clear.To all the pampered and protected Americans who feel it is their duty to inform me that I am not fighting for their freedom, and that i am a pawn in Bush's agenda of greed and oil acquisition: Noted, and [expletive deleted] You.

I am not a robot. i am not blind or ignorant to the state of the world or the implications of the "war on terrorism." i know that our leaders have made mistakes in the handling of a very sensitive situation, but do not for one second think that you can make me lose faith in what we, meaning America's sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers in uniform are doing.

I am doing my part in fighting a very real enemy of the United States, i.e. Taliban, Al Qaida, and various other radical sects of Islam that have declared war on our way of life. Unless you believe the events of 9/11 were the result of a government conspiracy, which by the way would make you a MORON, there is no reasonable argument you can make against there being a true and dangerous threat that needs to be dealt with. i don't care if there are corporations leaching off the war effort to make money, and i don't care if you don't think our freedom within America's borders is actually at stake. i just want to kill those who would harm my family and friends. it is that simple. Even if this is just a war for profit or to assert America's power, so what? Someone has to be on top and I want it to be us. There's nothing wrong with wishing prosperity for your side.

You can read the entire story here.

Just a Dream

Saw Carrie Underwood's new video today...tissue is needed.

I AM BACK.......DID YOU MISS ME?

It really was a busy week for me.....sorry I didn't get a chance to post much. Will try to catch up a bit on my wayward activities. Last Thursday Dotty (co-founder of Operation: MOM) & I delivered some food to Alice.....she got out of the hospital & recuperating. She was in alot of pain but she did show up last nite at Operation: MOM's meeting. I can't believe she was able to get up & about so soon. Was great to see her. On Friday I spent the day with our dear Diane to help her learn a few things on her computer. We got her to send photo's in email & uploaded pictures to order prints plus a few other things but we made plans to do again on Tuesday of this week. She did great.

Our weekend was nice......Saturday was pretty quiet. We had planned on going to SF for the day but changed our minds as we didn't really have any solid plans & didn't want to just go over to spend money. That's a first for me. On Sunday we went to the Balsley's to help with enlarging their patio area (concrete work). . Actually Steve did that...I don't do wheelbarrows. I worked with Bev on teaching her how to do a few things on her computer. We also got her learning how to upload photo's to order online. Notes were taken & all went well. We finished up the day & headed on home to watch "Army Wives" & then off to bed. Steve was exhausted but he was planning to take Monday off. Steve went back over on Monday morning & helped remove the forms from the concrete job. He then came home & got our new patio set together. Now that it's up we can get rid of the old one. Maybe we should hang on to it for when we can have some parties. That evening The Balsley's took us to Harry's HofBrau for dinner.......Jim's most favorite dining establishment in the whole world. It was our first time there.....very good too. If there is one in your area I recommend you give it a try.

Tuesday was spent with Diane again.....first we stopped to deliver some gifts for all the lovely ladies at the salon who gave us our pampering. From there we headed to Grocery Outlet to purchase more of the wonderful Chocolate Covered Cream Puffs & that wonderful Verdi Raspberry Sparkletini that they had served us at the Salon.......we both bought 5 bottles of that each. Then back to Diane's home. More computer lessons were to be had but problems arose when I tried to uninstall her expired Norton Anti-Virus. Her ISP comes with it's own online protection but couldn't finish that install until the Norton was gone. Well then they both had a conflict so computer could no longer go out to the Internet. She was so calm......I of course was freaking out that I had broke her computer. Plans were for me to return on Wed to see if I could figure it out. Later that evening we stopped by to help Bev order more photo's online as I had a code for Winkflash for 6¢ that expired that day. She should have all her pictures soon.

Wednesday I started out trying to do system restore & checking Internet options for changes that may have needed to be changed.....nothing helped. I then called her ISP & they said they couldn't help until the Norton was uninstalled then suggested I call Norton for help. After 45 min plus on hold I finally got a tech to talk me thru this uninstall. She had me opening folders all over the computer to delete Norton files. I went down into the bowel of her computer. After I got off the phone I checked to see if I could get out to anything & low & behold Diane's email opened! HALLELUJAH!! I had her check some of her mail for a bit while I jumped up & down for awhile. Then I see her sending an email to someone who's email addy is that of the company who makes Norton! OMG! They prolly could have gotten this taken care of much easier than I did but I'm thinking it's all fixed anyway so that's ok. After she got done with email I figured I better get the ISP online protection installation completed so I sat down to finish up the virus portion when it tells me I have to uninstall Norton first. WHAT??? I was on the phone with them for over an hour working on that earlier. So she will be asking her friend for help as this is beyond me now. After we finished up with that Dotty arrived & the 3 of us went to visit the grandparents of another Fallen Warrior.....this time a Marine. They are here with no other family in the area. We visited with them for awhile & offered our help with anything they needed. They plan on having a Memorial Mass locally in his honor.

Yesterday I did a few things around the house & tried to get caught up with my email & such. Lots more to do for sure. Then last nite we had Operation: MOM meeting which we had planned a surprise party for Bev & Dotty. Was a great evening for sure.....good cake too! I put this picture of Jim here because I told him I would. This is him wearing the butterfly hat I got for Bev's party hat. Cute huh?

Now the weekend is here....hopefully will get some more items off that to do list that is ever growing. Will post some pictures of cards I have received too. Hope ya'll have a great one.