Steven Curtis Chapman recently had the opportunity to visit the Bethesda Naval Medical Center, a guest of the President Bush’s physician. It’s become a regular trip over the last eight or so years, and he counts himself fortunate to be able to meet our brave military men and women, both wounded and medical personnel.

Two Fridays ago he met Corpsman Thomas McBride who’d been wounded in Afghanistan and, tragically, lost part of his leg. Steven was deeply moved by this man and the sacrifices he’s made for our country. In response, and with gratitude to Corpsman McBride and all who have served America, Steven penned a song titled - and dedicated to - Thomas McBride. The song was delivered this week to Corpsman McBride by President Bush.

On this day and all this week we pay tribute to the service and sacrifice of the men and women who in defense of our freedom have bravely worn the uniforms of the United States military. To mark the week, Steven’s made available, via streaming audio, his simple song, “Thomas McBride”.

God bless you Corpsman McBride. God bless our fighting men and women who bravely defend our freedoms at home and abroad. And God bless America.

It’s been seven years. Perhaps the emotions you experienced that day - terror, disbelief, anger - have faded. Perhaps you think that day is a horrible part of our history to be filed away. It’s not. The enemy is reforming and will strike again. The war against evil is now and forever a part of our lives. We must be vigilant. We must use all means to defeat the enemy or he will surely defeat us. That is the nature of war. And make no mistake - we are at war.

We must remember the act of war that brought us here. Take a few moments to watch this video. Do you remember that day? Were you angry? Are you still angry?

We are Americans. We honor our dead and we give aid and comfort to those who have suffered. But then we return to the battlefield to engage and defeat the aggressor. He is still there, plotting, planning to attack again. The war is not over…

Remember those who perished that day. Say a prayer for those who carry on without them. Never forget.

Today commemorates the 63rd anniversary of VJ Day. At 6:10 p.m. EDT on August 14, 1945, the United States received word of Emperor Hirohito’s surrender and declared Victory in Japan - VJ Day - effectively ending WWII. As the news spread, celebrations began throughout the world.

One of the most famous photographs ever published by Life - VJ Day in Times Square - was shot on August 14th, 1945. Alfred Eisenstaedt was in the square taking candids when he spotted a sailor “running along the street grabbing any and every girl in sight,” he later explained. “I was running ahead of him with my Leica looking back over my shoulder… Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse.”

The participants in the kiss were never confirmed by Eisenstaedt, whose notes on the photo were not found until after his death in 1995. Life, however, accepted nurse Edith Cullen Shain’s claim to the honor in a handwritten letter to Eisenstaedt 35 years later. Shain was 27 on VJ Day.

Over 20 men have claimed to be the sailor but none has been positively identified. In August 2005, a team of volunteers at the Naval War College claimed the sailor was George Mendonça of Newport, Rhode Island. And Shain once said she believed the man to be former New York City police detective Carl Muscarello, although she later recanted that statement.

But Houston Police biometrics expert Lois Gibson pegged the sailor in the picture as Glenn McDuffie after conducting a thorough forensic analysis in which she conclusively identified McDuffie and excluded Mendonça and Muscarello.

A couple weekends ago, Dawn and I attended a “going away” BBQ at friends Jerry and Cheryl Glance’s home. Jerry is what I casually call a “bomb tech”; his job is associated with disarming explosive devises. It’s dangerous work and, while I often kid him about it (see my April ‘07 post), I’m well aware of just how serious it really is.

Jerry’s also a Reservist where he does essentially the same thing and, as luck would have it, he was recently called for EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) duty in Afghanistan. He left a week ago Monday for Begram Air Base, a militarized airport located next to the ancient city of Bagram, southeast of Charikar in Parwan province where he’ll do what he does best — disarm and deactivate IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices). If my geography is correct, Begram is about 27 miles from Kabul which puts him right smack in harm’s way.

So the going away party was for Jerry, and many of the guys in his unit and their wives were there to give him a fitting send-off. And it was a grand get-together with wonderful friends and neighbors. Yet despite all the food, laughter and camaraderie, the seriousness of the occasion was also present and weighed heavily on everyone, especially Cheryl.

So we promised to help watch over her until his safe return. We’ll keep Jerry in our prayers and ask that you keep him in yours as well. While he’s in Afghanistan, he’s agreed to send me photos of what he sees — the local people, guys he works with, whatever he finds of interest — and I’ll post them on this site. And when he returns, I’m sure he’ll have lots of stories to share as well!

Be safe, Jerry. And remember: Pray (hard).

I thought some of you military aviation buffs might appreciate this nice photo of a C-17 Globemaster on final…

Via AFP archives.

Today marks the 64th anniversary of the Normandy Landings known as D-Day. Code named Operation Neptune and Operation Overlord, they were the first operations of the Allied Powers’ invasion of Normandy during World War II. The operation was the largest single-day invasion of all time, with over 130,000 troops landing on June 6, 1944.

I had intended to post something worthy of the event and its historical significance but simply ran out of time. Not wanting to let such an important day in world history go by without remembering and honoring the heroes who fought and died there, I’ve provided a link to last year’s post. These champions climbed the cliffs, took the beaches, braved the machine gun nests, took out the gun batteries, did the unthinkable – the unimaginable. Their deeds that day define their valor and deserve our deepest gratitude and respect. They are the heroes we honor today.

This is a Patriot’s Journey post. You may also enjoy visiting the other journeyers: Drumwaster, Larry at The Bastage, the folks at The Line Is Here and Shortbus from The Edge of Reason…

This week’s fly-by features a montage of video clips of the F-22 Raptor’s first full tactical air show demonstration, performed at Langley AFB in April 2007 by pilot Major Paul Mogataken. It includes cobras, backflips, super-high-alpha flight, hovering with its nose pointed straight up, super-fast pitch-ups, and some sonic shock condensation cones and wingtip vortex contrails (“vapor”) at the very end.

As you may already know, the F-22 is essentially invisible to the enemy in combat; in simulated war games, its pilots consistently “kill” the enemy while remaining undetected. In addition, the Raptor has the fastest cruise speed of any aircraft currently flying (MACH 1.5 - 1.75, depending on whom you ask). It’s capable of breaking the sound barrier while in a straight up vertical climb, fully loaded, and is highly sophisticated in how it manages, shares and integrates information and presents it to the pilot.

During this exhibition, the USAF allowed one more thing about the F-22 to be shown to the public: its amazing maneuverability. No other American fighter in history has so empowered its pilot and provided such impressive combat performance capabilities.

The Pentagon announced Thursday that a Navy warship has been tasked with shooting down a failing United States spy satellite that, if left alone, was expected to hit Earth within weeks.

In a joint news conference, NASA administrator Michael Griffin and Gen. James Cartwright, the No. 2 officer at the Defense Department, announced that an SM-3 missile, designed to hit inbound ballistic missiles, will be fired from a Navy cruiser or destroyer as early as this Thursday to obliterate the inbound spacecraft. The idea is to break apart the satellite to rid it of toxic fuel onboard by smashing its tank, which is the largest intact piece left. If successful, it would be the first direct U.S. test against a satellite since 1985, when an F-15 climbed to 80,000 ft. to fire a three-stage missile at a defunct solar-monitoring platform in low-Earth orbit. More…

The odds were in favor of the satellite crashing in the ocean after losing much of its sensitive equipment during reentry. Perhaps the chance to use our ballistic defenses against a real-life target was just too good to pass up.

The Auto Assault 12 Combat Shotgun is the first built from the ground up specifically for the military. “There’s no way that anybody within 200 yards can face this weapon and survive it. It’s just destroying everything in it’s path. …”

How three graphic designers re-created D-Day on a shoestring budget for the Timewatch program “Bloody Omaha”. Due to interest in the “making of” video, the complete program will be repeated January 27 on BBC television. In the U.S., the full production of BLOODY OMAHA will be shown on the Smithsonian Channel HD in May, 2008.

Amazing what can be done with just three actors, some props, a camera, four days and some amazing cgi (computer generated images), isn’t it?

Amazing what interesting trivia you sometimes stumble across on the Internet. For example:

During WWll, the Red Cross delivered special Monopoly games to POWs that included real “get out of jail free” cards, writes Brian McMahon in the November-December issue of Mental Floss, a magazine of far-flung trivia.

In 1941, the British Secret Service asked the game’s British manufacturing licensee, John Waddington Ltd., to add secret “extras” to some sets, which the Red Cross delivered to Allied POWs inside Germany. These specially marked sets included metal files, compasses and silk maps to safe houses in the areas of the respective POW camps (silk, because it folds into small spaces and unfolds silently). Even better, real French, German, and Italian currency was hidden amongst the game’s fake money. Soldiers and pilots were told that, if they were captured, they should look for these “special editions” identified by a large red dot in the game’s “Free Parking” space.

Of the 35,000 prisoners of war who escaped prison camps, “more than a few certainly owe their breakout to the classic board game,” says McMahon.

Here are some more fun facts about Monopoly from the Hasbro site.

Dawn pointed me to this. She’d heard the song on one of our local country stations (I’d re-programmed the radio in her car) and told me I had to hear it. It was written and produced by The Song Trust (Rory Feek and Tim Johnson) and sung by a six-year-old in Nashville who says she doesn’t want to be famous. It’s a poignant reminder that there are still troops serving away from home and that they and their families are sacrificing much this Christmas.

You can purchase a copy of the song and know that half of all profits goes to St. Judes Children’s Hospital.

Steve Imbesi, one of my scuba diving buddies, sent me this Christmas poem a year or two ago. It circulates via email around this time every year, usually incorrectly attributed. It’s a wonderful poem by Michael Marks that deserves another read by us all.

A SOLDIER’S CHRISTMAS by Michael Marks

The embers glowed softly and, in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
my daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white
transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree, I believe,
completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
secure and surrounded by love I would sleep
in perfect contentment, or so it would seem.
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream. …

Continue reading

“…a date which will live in infamy…”. And today we remember. If you’ve not visited the Memorial at Pearl Harbor and stood above the sunken tomb that was the USS Arizona to pay tribute to the men who lost their lives aboard her on that fateful day 66 years ago today, it should certainly be near the top your list of important things to do. It’s a reverent, almost spiritual experience you will long remember.

You may not realize that, every year, the ranks of veterans who lived through that horrific day grows thinner. They are old men now. Their memories are still tinged with the sadness that comes from the realization that soon they will all be gone and, as with other landmarks in American history like Gettysburg and Antietam, it will be up to the rest of us to keep the remembrances alive and never, ever forget what happened on that impossibly beautiful Sunday morning when the world turned upside down and changed all of us forever.

0755, 7 December, 1941.

Air Raid Pearl Harbor. This is no drill.

John Renn sent me a series of photos a couple years ago taken during and immediately following the air raid on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. I’d not seen them before and posted them on my AFP web site. I’m linking to them here as a reminder of the death and devastation that wakened “the sleeping giant” and caused Congress, the following day, to declare war against the Empire of Japan. The war lasted nearly four years and was indeed costly by every measure. But it taught us that, when our cause is just and we possess the will to fight, we will be victorious. We must never forget.

Janet put together this nicely produced tribute video. It’s about five minutes long. Take the time to watch it. And remember.

One day during the last few weeks (it’s all a blur) while Dawn and I were picking up mail at the Royal Oaks Post Office in Sacramento, we noticed a rental truck unloading packages and a news camera taping. We were in a bit of a rush, but I quickly snapped the five images below (click to enlarge) with Dawn’s iPhone and managed to get off one question before we had to shoot back to the office. The packages, they told me, were “for our troops.” I’d hoped to find out more after the fact but so far I’ve come up empty. So, if anyone knows the details - which troops, which theater, organizers - please let me know and I’ll post a follow-up.

In any event, isn’t it nice to know that Americans, despite our political differences, still find it in our hearts to remember and support our troops abroad? It’s part of our culture, part of what makes us Americans and binds us together. And it made me proud.