FYI - From Cristy Lenz/CNN.com.

#LiveFree

#NeverForget

#BringThemHome

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Captured U.S. soldier's letter revives family's hopes

From Cristy Lenz, CNN

updated 7:41 AM EDT, Thu June 6, 2013

In 2012: Honoring POW Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Letter: "He was no doubt alive"
• "They are being very careful with him," Bergdahl's father writes
• Bergdahl was captured after he finished his guard shift
• His father believes a resolution is "getting closer"

(CNN) -- The family of Bowe Bergdahl, a U.S. soldier captured by the Taliban in 2009, received a letter from him recently -- reviving their hopes that the 27-year-old army sergeant is still alive.

Bergdahl's father mentioned receiving the letter in an e-mail exchange with Dwight Murphy, the spokesman for the local POW/MIA group in Boise Valley, Idaho.

 

"We have received a letter from Bowe through the Red Cross!" the father says in the exchange. "He was scripted and redacted but he was no doubt alive and his faculties fully functioning as of two months ago."

 

He did not say when he got the letter, but Murphy copied and pasted the exchange with the father on his Facebook page after receiving his permission to do so.

2012: Challenges of POW negotiations

2012: Remembering prisoners of war

 

The father's letter goes on say, "They are being very careful with him. He is still highly valued at high levels.

 

"Guantanamo, drones and politics in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Washington are still the big issues."

CNN was unable to reach the father late Wednesday night. The network also reached out to the military and the International Committee for the Red Cross for confirmation, but did not hear back.

Last week, the military told CNN it had no reason to believe Bergdahl was dead.

 

In 2012: Parents of captured soldier lead Washington motorcycle rally

 

Whereabouts unclear

Bergdahl was captured after he finished his guard shift at a combat outpost in southeastern Paktika province in Afghanistan.

 

Since his capture, four videos of the Idaho native have been released.

But the last video was sent in February 2011, and it's unclear where Bergdahl is being held now.

He was a private at the time.

 

The army has been giving Bergdahl promotions that would have come to him had his army career gone as planned. If he returns home safely, the army will give him all the back pay that he has earned while in captivity.

 

His father has rarely spoken to the media.

Bowe Bergdahl, an adventurer and gentleman

 

Resolution close?

In his exchange with Murphy, he said he believed "we are getting closer to a resolution."

But, he added, there seems to be a disagreement among the Taliban about the direction forward.

 

"It appears at least several parties want to arbitrate captive SGT Bowe, several others ... want to keep fighting until every single Westerner is out," the father said.

 

Last year, Bergdahl's parents led the Rolling Thunder ride in Washington, and said the family holds out hope for his safe return.

 

"Bowe, your family has not forgotten you, your hometown has not forgotten you. Your state of Idaho has not forgotten you, and thanks to all of you here today, Washington D.C. has not forgotten you," his father told a cheering crowd.

 

"We love you, we are proud of you. Stay strong, never give up. We pray for the day that we welcome you home," he said.

 

Flanked by riders wanting to offer support for the safe return of his son, Bergdahl spoke separately to CNN. He sported a long beard and wore a bandana imprinted with "POW." His son's official status is listed as "missing/captured."

 

"The beard is a chronology," Bergdahl said, "of my son's captivity since June 30, 2009."

No one has forgotten your dad, Braydon

FYI - From CNN.com.

NEVER FORGET!!!

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Braydon Nichols with his father, Army Chief Warrant Officer Bryan Nichols.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• On August 6, 2011, a U.S. helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, killing 30
• Among them was 10-year-old Braydon Nichols' father. Nichols wrote an iReport about his dad
• Since then, readers haven't stopped commenting on Braydon's iReport
• The story made one Army veteran and father recall his close brush with death

(CNN) -- Monday marks one year since a Chinook helicopter crashed in Afghanistan and killed 30 American service members, 22 of them Navy SEALs. Many of the SEALs belonged to Team 6, the unit whose members were involved in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

A few days after the August 6, 2011, tragedy, a 10-year-old boy in Kansas City, Missouri, composed an iReport on CNN.com. He uploaded a photo of his dad sitting alongside his fellow soldiers.

My father was one of the 30 US Soldiers killed in Afghanistan yesterday with the Seals rescue mission. My father was the pilot of the chinook. I have seen other pictures of victims from this deadly mission and wish you would include a picture of my father. He is the farthest to the left.

Braydon Nichols' heartbreaking letter urging the world never to forget his father, Army Chief Warrant Officer Bryan Nichols, sparked thousands of comments and at least 230 iReports filled with love and support for the boy.

Read the original iReport

Over the past year, readers have continued to post kind notes to Braydon.

"Thought about you and looked at the picture I have and thought to visit this page and letting you know that you were on my mind. Hope you and your family are doing well," Dennis Stahl from Columbus, Ohio, commented July 12.

"Still on my mind buddy. I hope you and mom are doing OK, thoughts and prayers," Bob wrote June 25.

"I found myself remembering your story and tribute to your daddy this morning Braydon. I just wanted to let you know that people are and will always be thinking about him," another reader wrote in June.

Army veteran Shane Farlin told CNN that Braydon's story made him think about how close he came to losing his life and the chance to watch his son grow up.

Shane Farlin during his time in the U.S. Army.

The 28-year-old from Michigan was wounded in Iraq in 2004.

He left this post on Braydon's story:

"I was wounded and holding on weakly, wanting to meet my son. I cry reading this thinking of my Army brothers who didn't get a chance to come home. Peace to the dead and wounded of this country and their families."

Farlin and his unit were returning from Fallujah in May 2004, speeding along a highway back to Baghdad. The machine gunner was looking out of their truck and noticed the gutter running alongside them was black, scorched.

Then a roadside bomb exploded.

"It felt like someone hit me in the face with a baseball bat. My head snapped back. It felt like someone was pouring thick olive oil down my face. I could feel the metal on my face and I fell into my partner's lap screaming," he said this week.

One eye was hanging out its socket; the other socket was shredded.

"It's what they always say happens. I was thinking about my unit but I was also thinking about my high school sweetheart. She got pregnant right before I deployed. And I'm screaming but I'm thinking, 'I never got to see her pregnant, I never got to feel her belly.'"

Farlin knew he was going to have a son.

His face soaked and his buddies screaming, all Farlin could think was: I'm going to have a son. I'm going to be a father.

He started to feel his body go slack. It felt good, this odd sensation of relaxation.

"I was slipping away," he remembered.

While a medivac rushed to the site, Farlin passed out.

He woke up in a hospital bed in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.

It took him a week to regain his sight in one eye. The other was too damaged and he lost it.

Farlin recovered, slowly and agonizingly, and made it back home for the birth of his son. He was working at a base at the time, and wearing his uniform, when he rushed to the hospital to help deliver Shane Farlin II.

Shane Farlin and his son Shane Farlin II

That was years ago. Farlin's boy is 7.

"When I read about Braydon, I just ... felt it.Those who are out there, fighting, they have their last moments, or what they believe is going to be their last moments, and they're thinking about home and their kids. I am so glad I made it."

Little Shane is Farlin's "clone," just as Braydon Nichols was so much like his father.

"My son is off the wall," Farlin said. "Spiderman one minute, Ironman the next minute. He's helpful, always wanting to know how he can help Daddy. He wants to be like me. He wants to know what the Army was like."

Farlin has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and has a traumatic brain injury, he said. Readjusting to life outside the military and his transition to being a college student hasn't always been easy.

He gets sad. He doesn't like that he cannot be in the Army any longer because of his injury -- he has a glass eye. But Farlin is constantly trying to be positive around his son.

"I know to be careful about what I say in front of him," he said. "I don't want my son to see me sad. I am going to keep him from that for as long as I can."

For the Nichols family, sadness is always there. Some days are better than others.

"We all deal with it differently," said Monte Nichols, Brian Nichols' brother. "So many people have reached out and tried to help Braydon over the past year, to let him know that they care and they're thinking about his dad."

Braydon is getting good grades and doing as well as any kid could, Monte Nichols added.

A memorial service for those killed in the Chinook crash was held at Arlington National Cemetery in June.

"Everyone who was lost," Monte Nichols said, "is very much missed. Nobody is forgotten."

My Letter To Senator Webb (D-Va) Concerning The Proposed Cuts To Military And Veterans' Benefits.

I ask that you contact your elected officials concerning these proposed cuts.  Our service members and veterans deserve only the very best!

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

____________________________________________________________________________________

FROM THE DESK OF AARON D. YEARGAN

aaron.yeargan@gmail.com

November 25, 2010

The Hon. James Webb
United States Senate
144 Russell Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510.

Subject: The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform's Proposed Cuts to Military and Veterans' Benefits.

Dear Mr. Senator:

Good afternoon Sir. I hope this letter finds you doing well and having a happy Thanksgiving. I wanted to take some time and write to you concerning your recent statements on the military and defense budget and the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform's proposed cuts to military and veterans' benefits.  I am a fellow Democrat and a 28 year old husband, father and college student.  I am pursuing my degree in Nursing with the goal of eventually becoming a Mental Health Nurse Practitioner so that I can better help our service members and veterans.  I am also a former Marine and four-tour Iraq War veteran.  Currently, I am serving as a medic in the Army Reserve.  With all of that being said, as a libertarian minded Democrat, I applaud the President for forming this commission in order to get rid of wasteful spending and unnecessary programs.  I also applaud your honest assessment of possible hard choices facing the Department of Defense and Veterans Administration concerning their budget and benefit programs.  I truly believe there are numerous wastful, unecesary programs that can and should be cut in order to reduce the deficit and ease the burden placed on taxpayers.  However, a cut in military personell strength and benefits is not the answer.  

As you know, some of the proposed cuts include a basic pay and housing allowance freeze, a reduction in the Cost of Living Allowance, elimination of the 20 year military retirement and/or postponement until the age of 60 for actual retirement pension payments, as well as an increase in TRICARE premiums and co-pays.  As a husband and father of a 20 month old son, my wife and I benefit greatly from our access to TRICARE health insurance.  

While trying to fight two wars, as well as defend against and remain vigilant of numerous other threats around the world, proposing cuts to troop strength and military and veteran benefits is incomprehensible to me.  Not only is a high personnel level necessary for an adequate defense, allowing people to join and stay in the military helps combat unemployment.  Cutting benefits would leave many service members without an incentive to remain in the military, and frankly, it angers me and feels like a slap in the face.  It sends the message that the very people that rely on and expect our service think us undeserving of a rightly earned salary and benefits.  To lump us in with and think of the services that we provide in the same way that one may view those of civilian government agencies and employees is disrespectful.

Mr. Senator, I believe that you are an American hero, and I am very thankful for your service to our country.  If anyone knows the sacrifices made daily by our military and their families, it's you.  Just as you have done for so many years, I ask that you keep fighting for our men and women in uniform.  We can never fully repay the debt of gratitude we owe to the brave men and women who serve our country, but we must always try. We must respect and honor that service by providing them with the best possible pay, benefits, and health care.

In closing, I ask that, as a fellow veteran, a United States Senator and member of the Senate Armed Services and Veterans' Affairs Committees, that you never support or vote to approve any cuts to troop strength levels or military and veterans benefits.  Thank you for your time, and please feel free to contact me regarding this letter.  I hope to hear from you soon.  Semper Fidelis.

Respectfully,

Aaron D. Yeargan      

CC:  The Office of the President

        The Office of the Vice President

        The Office of the Senate Majority Leader

        The Office of the Senate Minority Leader

        The Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives

        The Office of the House Minority Leader

        The Senate Armed Services Committee

        The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee

        The Senate Appropriations Committee

        The House Armed Services Committee

        The House Veterans' Affairs Committee

        The House Appropriations Committee

        The Office of the Secretary of Defense

        The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller)

        The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness

        The Office of the Secretary of Veterans' Affairs

        The Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

        The Office of the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

        The Office of the Commandant of the Marine Corps

        The Office of the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps

        The Office of the Chief of Staff of the Army

        The Office of the Command Sergeant Major of the Army

        The Office of the Chief of Staff of the Air Force

        The Office of the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force

        The Office of the Chief of Naval Operations

        The Office of the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy

        The Office of the Commandant of the Coast Guard

        The Office of the Master Chief Petty Officer of the Coast Guard

        The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform

        Mr. Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

        The Hon. Kay Hagan (D-NC)

        The Hon. Richard Burr (R-NC)

President Obama's Thanksgiving Message To The Troops.

FYI -

http://www.democrats.org/news/blog/1144

-ADY "A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Defending Defense: A Response to Recent Deficit Reduction Proposals | Foreign Policy Initiative

FYI -

Defending Defense: A Response to Recent Deficit Reduction Proposals | Foreign Policy Initiative

-ADY"A Regular Guy On The Issues"

Rep. Ron Paul: "Support the Troops by Ending the War."

Support the Troops by Ending the War

by Rep. Ron Paul

I have never met anyone who did not support our troops. Sometimes, however, we hear accusations that someone or some group does not support the men and women serving in our armed forces. This is pure demagoguery, and it's intellectually dishonest. The accusers play on emotions to gain support for controversial policies, implying that those who disagree are unpatriotic. But keeping our troops out of harm's way, especially when war is unnecessary, is never unpatriotic. There's no better way to support the troops. Since we now know that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and was not threatening anyone, we must come to terms with 3,000 American deaths and 23,000 American casualties. It's disconcerting that those who never believed the justifications given for our invasion, and who now want the war ended, are still accused of not supporting the troops! This is strange indeed! Instead of questioning who has the best interests of our troops at heart, we should be debating which policy is best for our country. Defensive wars to preserve our liberties, fought only with proper congressional declarations, are legitimate. Casualties under such circumstances still are heartbreaking, but they are understandable. Casualties that occur in undeclared, unnecessary wars, however, are bewildering. Why must so many Americans be killed or hurt in Iraq when our security and our liberty were not threatened? Clichés about supporting the troops are designed to distract us from failed policies, policies promoted by powerful special interests that benefit from war. Anything to steer the discussion away from the real reasons the war in Iraq will not end anytime soon. Many now agree that we must change our policy and extricate ourselves from the mess in Iraq. They cite a mandate from the American people for a new direction. This opinion is now more popular, and thus now more widely held by politicians in Washington. But there's always a qualifier: We can't simply stop funding the war, because we must support the troops. I find this conclusion bizarre. It means one either believes the "support the troops" propaganda put out by the original promoters of the war, or that one actually is for the war after all, despite the public protestations. In reality, support for the status quo (and the president's troop surge) in Iraq means expanding the war to include Syria and Iran. The naval build up in the region, and the proxy war we just fought to take over Somalia, demonstrate the administration's intentions to escalate our current war into something larger. There's just no legitimacy to the argument that voting against funding the war somehow harms our troops. Perpetuating and escalating the war only serve those whose egos are attached to some claimed victory in Iraq, and those with a determination to engineer regime change in Iran. Don't believe for a minute that additional congressional funding is needed so our troops can defend themselves or extricate themselves from the war zone. That's nonsense. The DOD has hundreds of billions of dollars in the pipeline available to move troops anywhere on earth – including home. We shouldn't forget that the administration took $600 million from the war in Afghanistan and used it in Iraq, before any direct appropriations were made for the invasion of Iraq. Funds are always available to put our troops into harms way; they are always available for leaving a war zone. Those in Congress who claim they want the war ended, yet feel compelled to keep funding it, are badly misguided. They either are wrong in their assessment that cutting funds would hurt the troops, or they need to be more honest about supporting a policy destined to dramatically increase the size and scope of this misadventure in the Middle East. Rest assured one can be patriotic and truly support the troops by denying funds to perpetuate and spread this ill-advised war. The sooner we come to this realization, the better it will be for all of us.

A Veterans Day Message By A Veteran, For Veterans.

I want to start off by saying Happy Veterans Day, and from the bottom of my heart, Thank You! I am forever grateful for my fellow 3274th USAH Soldiers and my Marine Corps crew from 2ndMarDiv., 7th Comm. Bn., I MLG, RCT-2, and the 24th MEU. I chose the following quotes because I think they, better than any other quotes, sum up what we do and why we do it. Political Policy and Public Opinion will always change. Civilian support will always come and go, but we, and our actions, will always remain. Our bonds will always endure. Even as I write this I think about arguments and disagreements some of us have had with each other. Some of those disagreements and wrongs still linger, but for a brief point in time, we stood side by side and did great things together and for each other. And, these things changed us forever, and they'll always play a part in our lives. That's something I take pride in, and would do all over again without question.

"We who have seen war, will never stop seeing it. In the silence of the night, we will always hear the screams. So this is our story, for we were soldiers once, and young. Some had families waiting. For others, their only family would be the men they bled beside. There were no bands, no flags, no Honor Guards to welcome them home. They went to war because their country ordered them to. But in the end, they fought not for their country or their flag, they fought for each other. "

-Joseph L. Galloway, "We Were Soldiers, Once And Young."

"A man fires a rifle, and he goes to war. And afterwards he comes home and sees that whatever else he may do with his life - build a house, love a woman, change his son's diaper - he will always remain a jarhead. And all the jarheads killing and dying, they will always be me. We are still in the desert."

-Anthony Swofford, "Jarhead"

As for the video, I did not in any way post this as a protest against the war, and I'm not condoning any of the actions in the video or saying that I or anyone I know took part in anything like what's depicted. I decided to use it as a way of saying that being over there changes you and tests you in ways that civilians don't and never will understand. It also makes you question right and wrong, and we all realize that hardly anything there is black and white. Shades of grey abound in so many situations. Civilians back home are in no place to judge or criticize us when they haven't walked in our shoes. Regardless of how I may feel about the legality of one war and the direction of another, WE WENT BECAUSE OUR COUNTRY ASKED US TO, AND WITH YOU ALL BY MY SIDE, I WOULD DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN! HAPPY VETERANS DAY MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS!

Hero of War by Rise Against:

Medal of Honor to be awarded to living soldier - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

FYI -


Medal of Honor to be awarded to living soldier - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times