Valour-IT Fundraiser

Valour-IT: Technology for the Wounded: Another successful campaign!

Looks like over $100,000 for this worthy cause.
Many thanks to those who donated. You guys rock!

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Memeorandum Helps Get The Word Out ~ Ooh Rah!

Thanks to Cassandra at Villainous Company, the blog team has made the main Memeorandum page.
Semper Fi!

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What is The Meaning of Semper Fidelis?

Image by wallyg via Flickr

Sometimes it's best to look at the definition of a phrase from a personal perspective.

Found at at Oo-Rah.com by Cam Beck:
"...the Marine Corps has never experienced a mutiny. Marines in England were revered for their loyalty to the crown, just as United States Marines are now revered for their downright fanatical dedication to each other, their service, and their country. Using Latin to characterize this quality represents its legitimization--its codification. Significantly, for Marines at least, it also provides a caste--a group that is separate and unique from any other--a group that has no desire to be like any other.

What is left unsaid in the motto is also notable. The phrase is "Always faithful." It isn't "Sometimes Faithful." Nor is it "Usually Faithful," but always. It is not negotiable. It is not relative, but absolute. Who is always faithful, though. and to what, exactly are they faithful? Interestingly, the simplicity of the phrase and the calculated neglect to specify its parameters seems to strengthen it. Marines pride themselves on their straightforward mission and steadfast dedication to accomplish it."

Don't forget to hit that Valour -IT fundraiser widget at the top right of the page. We may not all be Marines but we can be faithful. Only two days left in the fundraiser!
Semper Fi

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Marine Sgt. John Eubanks...

like so many others I hear of, wanted to go back to Iraq on his own terms to deal with his personal struggle. 

Via the recent USO Newsletter:

"When Marine Sgt. John Eubanks first went to Iraq, he was an infantryman and a weapons specialist. In the middle of his second tour in 2005, he suffered back injuries and a traumatic brain injury when his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device. Since then, Sgt. Eubanks has undergone numerous medical procedures, but perhaps none has been as therapeutic as his recent return to Iraq as a visitor. During his recovery, Sgt. Eubanks wrote about what such a journey would be like for him and other wounded warriors.

In October, when Sgt. Eubanks and six other wounded soldiers returned to Iraq as part of Operation Proper Exit, those written wishes became reality.

"I believe these visits by our Wounded Warriors are important as they allow them to see the improvements in Iraq and that their sacrifices weren't made in vain," said MNF-I Commanding General Ray Odierno of the visit.

This was Operation Proper Exit’s second trip, a new program sponsored by the USO in partnership with the Troops First Foundation. Thirteen wounded warriors have returned to Iraq to answer the questions left there when they abruptly were taken off the battlefield on stretchers. To read more about these healing journeys and watch the warriors' personal stories, please visit: www.USOonPatrol.org. "


More on Sgt. Eubanks and other troops involved in Operation Proper Exit at BlackAnthemMilitaryNews

But before you head off... Don't forget to honor our hero's who have given so much in the service to our country. Please, make a donation to Valour-IT today. 

Granted, I'm mixing charities here but we're all on the same team right? After all, Little Miss Attila was mixing metaphors just yesterday. Can one mix charities with metaphors? Charitaphors? Metapharities?
Now I know it's late.

Armed Forces dates to mark on your calendars:

* The USS NEW YORK -- made from the steel of the World Trade Center -- will be commissioned in New York on November 7.
* Happy 234th Birthday, U.S. Marine Corps (November 10)!
* November 11 — Veterans Day.  (End of Project Valour-IT)

Also, Cassandra at Villainous Company has a tribute you should read. 

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Nubs: A Mutt, A Marine, and A Miracle

From Cassy Fiano's Smokin Hot Blog - Sorry Cassy, I jusst ripped this story completely from your site. I love a good dog story and I've been too busy at work and with family stuff to do any posts on my own. Besides, You and Cassandra are much better writers than I anyway.

"You probably hear a lot about the stray dogs that servicemembers find in the Middle East. The common theme is that our soldiers just love to kill those strays, because they’re bloodthirsty and mean and evil. It seems like that theme is more based in fiction than in reality, especially for one group of Marines. One dog even made such a connection with a Marine, Maj. Brian Dennis, that he searched the country for him, and Maj. Dennis fought to be able to take the dog he named Nubs home.
This is their incredible story.

When Maj. Brian Dennis of the United States Marine Corps met a wild stray dog with shorn ears while serving in Iraq, he had no idea of the bond they would form, leading to seismic changes in both their lives. “The general theme of the story of Nubs is that if you’re kind to someone, they’ll never forget you — whether it be person or animal,” Dennis tells Paw Nation.

In October 2007, Dennis and his team of 11 men were in Iraq patrolling the Syrian border. One day, as his team arrived at a border fort, they encountered a pack of stray dogs — not uncommon in the barren, rocky desert that was home to wolves and wild dogs.

“We all got out of the Humvee and I started working when this dog came running up,” recalls Dennis. “I said, ‘Hey buddy’ and bent down to pet him.” Dennis noticed the dog’s ears had been cut. “I said, ‘You got little nubs for ears.’” The name stuck. The dog whose ears had been shorn off as a puppy by an Iraqi soldier (to make the dog “look tougher,” Dennis says) became known as Nubs.

Dennis fed Nubs scraps from his field rations, including bits of ham and frosted strawberry Pop Tarts. “I didn’t think he’d eat the Pop Tart, but he did,” says Dennis.

At night, Nubs accompanied the men on night patrols. “I’d get up in the middle of the night to walk the perimeter with my weapon and Nubs would get up and walk next to me like he was doing guard duty,” says Dennis.

The next day, Dennis said goodbye to Nubs, but he didn’t forget about the dog. He began mentioning Nubs in emails he wrote to friends and family back home. “I found a dog in the desert,” Dennis wrote in an email in October 2007. “I call him Nubs. We clicked right away. He flips on his back and makes me rub his stomach.”

“Every couple of weeks, we’d go back to the border fort and I’d see Nubs every time,” says Dennis. “Each time, he followed us around a little more.” And every time the men rumbled away in their Humvees, Nubs would run after them. “We’re going forty miles an hour and he’d be right next to the Humvee,” says Dennis. “He’s a crazy fast dog. Eventually, he’d wear out, fall behind and disappear in the dust.”

On one trip to the border fort in December 2007, Dennis found Nubs was badly wounded in his left side where he’d been stabbed with a screwdriver. “The wound was infected and full of pus,” Dennis recalls. “We pulled out our battle kits and poured antiseptic on his wound and force fed him some antibiotics wrapped in peanut butter.” That night, Nubs was in so much pain that he refused food and water and slept standing up because he couldn’t lay down. Dennis and his team left again the next day, but Dennis thought about Nubs the entire time, hoping the dog was still alive.

Two weeks later, when Dennis and his team returned, he found Nubs alive and well. “I had patched him up and that seemed to be a turning point in how he viewed me,” says Dennis. This time, when Dennis and his team left the fort, Nubs followed. Though the dog lost sight of the Humvees, he never gave up. For two days, Nubs endured freezing temperatures and packs of wild dogs and wolves, eventually finding his way to Dennis at a camp an incredible 70 miles south near the Jordanian border.

“There he was, all beaten and chewed up,” says Dennis. “I knew immediately that Nubs had crossed through several dog territories and fought and ran, and fought and ran,” says Dennis. The dog jumped on Dennis, licking his face.

Most of the 80 men at the camp welcomed Nubs, even building him a doghouse. But a couple of soldiers complained, leading Dennis’ superiors to order him to get rid of the dog. With his hand forced, Dennis decided that the only thing to do was bring Nubs to America. He began coordinating Nubs’ rescue effort. Friends and family in the States helped, raising the $5,000 it would cost to transport Nubs overseas.

Finally, it was all arranged. Nubs was handed over to volunteers in Jordan, who looked after the dog and sent him onto to Chicago, then San Diego, where Dennis’ friends waited to pick him up. Nubs lived with Dennis’ friends and began getting trained by local dog trainer Graham Bloem of the Snug Pet Resort. “I focused on basic obedience and socializing him with dogs, people and the environment,” says Bloem.

A month later, Dennis finished his deployment in Iraq and returned home to San Diego, where he immediately boarded a bus to Camp Pendleton to be reunited with Nubs. “I was worried he wouldn’t remember me,” says Dennis. But he needn’t have worried. “Nubs went crazy,” recalls Dennis. “He was jumping up on me, licking my head.”

This is Maj. Dennis with his new best friend, Nubs:

When I read this story, I knew I just had to post it. It really just tugged at my heartstrings. It almost seems like destiny brought the two of them together, doesn’t it? For deployed Marines, the support of their significant other and their family can be what gets them through it. But you also can’t discount the difference a dog can make. Some people say that the dog chooses the owner, not the other way around, and it seems to certainly be the case for Maj. Dennis.

And of course, since we’re talking about a Marine… have you donated to Project Valour-IT? And hey, if you have, maybe you could forward this on to a friend and encourage them to donate. Remember, every little bit helps!"

In case can't get enough canine shenanigans, Cassandra has another dogs of war story at Villainous Company.

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Valour-IT - The Beginning:

Found this at Something... and Half of Something
"Project Valour-IT began when Captain Charles "Chuck" Ziegenfuss was wounded by an IED while serving as commander of a tank company in Iraq in June 2005.

During his deployment he kept a blog. Captivating writing, insightful stories of his experiences, and his self-deprecating humor won him many loyal readers. After he was wounded, his wife continued his blog, keeping his readers informed of his condition.

As he began to recover, CPT Ziegenfuss wanted to return to writing his blog, but serious hand injuries hampered his typing. When a loyal and generous reader gave him a copy of the Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred software, other readers began to realize how important such software could be to CPT Ziegenfuss' fellow wounded soldiers and started cast about for a way to get it to them.

A fellow who writes under the pseudonym FbL contacted Captain Ziegenfuss and the two realized they shared a vision of creating libraries of laptops with voice-controlled software that could be brought to the bedsides of wounded soldiers whose injuries prevented them from operating a standard computer. FbL contacted Soldiers' Angels, who offered to help develop the project, and Project Valour-IT was born"

Remember this: "Every cent raised for Project Valour-IT goes directly to the purchase and shipment of voice-activated laptops for wounded servicemembers."
How many charities can say that?

Read the rest here...
 
HT Mostly Game

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