***Rick T. Call me asap on my cell or work.

Where do I apply for that job?

Hi Lizzy. I do hope you find some relief from the pain and get some assistance with the health insurance. I have had my struggles with my insurance of late. Best wishes and you are in my Prayers. Peach.

The American public has a terriable memory. And all our leaders donkey's and elephants alike are shallow and completely out of touch. bahner and palin are 2 of the biggest jokes on the political landscape right now an obama I wish he had more balls!

This was written by a former Marine I work with last week I feel this is a great time to share!! When this war began, I was the Commander of a small VFW Post in Riverside, OH. The night President Bush gave his “We will not tire, we will not falter, we will not fail..” speech, I was 35 years old and had a wife and 8 year-old boy/girl twins, sleeping safely at home. I addressed the members and guests of our Post that night, and I told them 3 things. I think I was pretty damned close… 1) America will prevail. We will prevail because we are made up of the most courageous people on earth. It matters not if you have ever felt this courage well up in you and push forward in the face of danger. I assure you, it is in each and every one of us. Our ancestors CHOSE to come to this country with only the HOPE of freedom. They left everything that was known to them, both good and bad, and came to the “Land of Opportunity”, as they chose to call it. Not the land of the unknown, not the land of frightening change. With only the idea of opportunity in their sights, they left everything and came here to prosper. They did. What grit? What gumption? What courage that must have taken? That is the kind of people we come from! 2) Before this war is over, we will all be sitting of front our TV sets crying, and begging for it to stop. But it will not stop. It cannot stop until it is done. We must all realize that. We must find the fortitude to let it be done. It will be house-to-house, door-to-door, and room-to-room fighting. But it must happen, until these terrorists learn that we will not be converted to Islam, killed, or owned as slaves. We will fight! And it will be a fight like they have never seen. 3) Lastly, I told them “my son is 9 years old. I promise you that he will be old enough to fight in this war. If that is what is required, then so be it. My son is no better than any other son in this country. I know that it can’t always be someone else’s son. I have been that son.” That was 9 years ago and my son will be 18 in February. He is considering joining the military when he graduates from high school in May. I have told him that I will support him, whatever he chooses to do. I don’t know how I really feel about the prospect of my son being in a firefight in Ramadi, but I do know how I should feel. And so, that is how I feel. I hope that makes sense. It does to me. But, hey, I’m a Marine. I have never been able to explain how I feel. Other Marines understand me, and that’s good enough for me! I then began to wonder to myself, who will fight this difficult war against an enemy that wears no uniform? Who will step into the unknown of these small towns and provinces in Iraq and Afghanistan and knock down doors and walls to flush out these cowards and kill them? Who will win the peace after the scum has been flushed and killed? Who will fight? I’d see teenagers working at McDonalds with fish hooks and roller bearings in their faces and pieces of wood in their ears, their pants hanging off their hind-ends and their underwear showing, and I’d wonder… Can they be patriots? Can they fight? Have they any courage? Then I read stories like the one below and I know that America is intact! Just as I got it, and just as I passed it along. America is still the Land of Free and the Home of the Brave! God, bless America and her fighting men and women around the world who stand watch for freedom. May their sights be true, their guns stay clean, and their resolve stay strong. And God, bless the mothers and fathers of these men and women. For they had the courage to raise their children to be Americans! Brian Mitchell Past Post Commander VFW Post 657 Riverside, OH One battalion in the closing days of their deployment going home very soon, the other just starting its seven-month combat tour. 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. The same broken down ramshackle building was also home to 100 Iraqi police, also my men and our allies in the fight against the terrorists in Ramadi, a city until recently the most dangerous city on earth and owned by Al Qaeda. 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. Had they not joined the Marines they would never have met each other, or understood that multiple America's exist simultaneously depending on one's race, education level, economic status, and where you might have been born. 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. The mission orders they received from the sergeant squad leader I am sure went something like: "Okay you two clowns, stand this post and let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass." "You clear?" I am also sure Yale and Haerter then rolled their eyes and said in unison something like: "Yes Sergeant," with just enough attitude that made the point without saying the words, "No kidding sweetheart, we know what we're doing." They then relieved two other Marines on watch and took up their post at the entry control point of Joint Security Station Nasser, in the Sophia section of Ramadi, al Anbar, Iraq. A few minutes later a large blue truck turned down the alley way-perhaps 60-70 yards in length-and sped its way through the serpentine of concrete jersey walls. The truck stopped just short of where the two were posted and detonated, killing them both catastrophically. Twenty-four brick masonry houses were damaged or destroyed. A mosque 100 yards away collapsed. The truck's engine came to rest two hundred yards away knocking most of a house down before it stopped. Our explosive experts reckoned the blast was made of 2,000 pounds of explosives. Two died, and because these two young infantrymen didn't have it in their DNA to run from danger, they saved 150 of their Iraqi and American brothers-in-arms. When I read the situation report about the incident a few hours after it happened I called the regimental commander for details as something about this struck me as different. Marines dying or being seriously wounded is commonplace in combat. We expect Marines regardless of rank or MOS to stand their ground and do their duty, and even die in the process, if that is what the mission takes. But this just seemed different. The regimental commander had just returned from the site and he agreed, but reported that there were no American witnesses to the event-just Iraqi police. I figured if there was any chance of finding out what actually happened and then to decorate the two Marines to acknowledge their bravery, I'd have to do it as a combat award that requires two eye-witnesses and we figured the bureaucrats back in Washington would never buy Iraqi statements. If it had any chance at all, it had to come under the signature of a general officer. I traveled to Ramadi the next day and spoke individually to a half-dozen Iraqi police all of whom told the same story. The blue truck turned down into the alley and immediately sped up as it made its way through the serpentine. They all said, "We knew immediately what was going on as soon as the two Marines began firing." The Iraqi police then related that some of them also fired, and then to a man, ran for safety just prior to the explosion. All survived. Many were injured, some seriously. One of the Iraqis elaborated and with tears welling up said, "They'd run like any normal man would to save his life." "What he didn't know until then," he said, "and what he learned that very instant, was that Marines are not normal." Choking past the emotion he said, "Sir, in the name of God no sane man would have stood there and done what they did." "No sane man." "They saved us all." What we didn't know at the time, and only learned a couple of days later after I wrote a summary and submitted both Yale and Haerter for posthumous Navy Crosses, was that one of our security cameras, damaged initially in the blast, recorded some of the suicide attack. It happened exactly as the Iraqis had described it. It took exactly six seconds from when the truck entered the alley until it detonated. You can watch the last six seconds of their young lives. Putting myself in their heads I supposed it took about a second for the two Marines to separately come to the same conclusion about what was going on once the truck came into their view at the far end of the alley. Exactly no time to talk it over, or call the sergeant to ask what they should do. Only enough time to take half an instant and think about what the sergeant told them to do only a few minutes before: ".let no unauthorized personnel or vehicles pass." The two Marines had about five seconds left to live. It took maybe another two seconds for them to present their weapons, take aim, and open up. By this time the truck was half-way through the barriers and gaining speed the whole time. Here, the recording shows a number of Iraqi police, some of whom had fired their AKs, now scattering like the normal and rational men they were-some running right past the Marines. They had three seconds left to live. For about two seconds more, the recording shows the Marines' weapons firing non-stop.the truck's windshield exploding into shards of glass as their rounds take it apart and tore in to the body of the son-of-a-***** who is trying to get past them to kill their brothers-American and Iraqi-bedded down in the barracks totally unaware of the fact that their lives at that moment depended entirely on two Marines standing their ground. If they had been aware, they would have known they were safe, because two Marines stood between them and a crazed suicide bomber. The recording shows the truck careening to a stop immediately in front of the two Marines. In all of the instantaneous violence Yale and Haerter never hesitated. By all reports and by the recording, they never stepped back. They never even started to step aside. They never even shifted their weight. With their feet spread should width apart; they leaned into the danger, firing as fast as they could work their weapons. They had only one second left to live. The truck explodes. The camera goes blank. Two young men go to their God. Six seconds. Not enough time to think about their families, their country, their flag, or about their lives or their deaths, but more than enough time for two very brave young men to do their duty, into eternity. That is the kind of people who are on watch all over the world tonight-for you.

just my opinion... but the only sniping that occurs is when some butt head slams dickey then we dickheads come to his defense... so dont bash dickey and things will be cool...

Hey Nic, I remember your crazy day last year trying to get everyone unstuck in snow, including yourself. Great story! Had to turn around and come back home yesterday morn as the roads were skating rinks with accidents at every turn. Considering it took me 45 minutes to go 2 miles and my drive is 28 miles NORTH, my sled(car) said "phooey on this!!". Working in the dialysis field, I had alot of guilt all day in not going.

:birthday: wishes and a Blue Sky Day to Tyler... I hope it was a wonderful day... Got in from work and was hoping to hear from Lizzie... I hope all is ok and she is resting.. thinking of you Liz..:angel: Nic ... running equipment in that kinda of weather is brutal... We had two Caterpillar 1000 horse power engines and lots of pay loaders... something was always needing to be fixed during the winter months 😮 I am glad not to have those headaches anymore... Joseph... :dog: :inlove: you are on my mind..

The mechanic came an informed me there was a second fuel filter I did not know about. Damn!!! It is running fine now and our snow as well as a couple of neighbors is moved. It is colder than a well diggers a$$ here. The wind is dying and life is good!!! 😎 Thanks for the Goodtime Vibes!!! Peach.