Newsletter 3-22-19

The Medal of Honor  

The Medal of Honor is our nation’s highest and most prestigious personal military decoration that may be awarded to recognize US military service members who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor.  The medal is normally awarded by the President in the name of the Congress. Because the medal is presented “in the name of Congress”, it is often referred to informally as the “Congressional Medal of Honor”. However, the official name of the current award is “Medal of Honor.”

There are three versions of the medal, one each for the Army, Navy, and Air Force.  Personnel of the Marine Corps and Coast Guard receive the Navy version. The Medal of Honor was introduced for the Navy in 1861, soon followed by an Army version in 1862. The Medal of Honor is the oldest continuously issued combat decoration of the US armed forces.

The President normally presents the Medal of Honor in Washington, DC at a formal ceremony that is intended to represent the gratitude of the US people, with posthumous presentations made to the primary next of kin. According to the Medal of Honor Historical Society of the United States, there have been 3522 Medals of Honor awarded to the nation’s soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen since the decoration’s creation, with just less than half of them awarded for actions during the four years of the American Civil War.

In 1990, Congress designated March 25 annually as “National Medal of Honor Day”.  Due to its prestige and status, the Medal of Honor is afforded special protection under U.S. law against any unauthorized adornment, sale, or manufacture, which includes any associated ribbon or badge.

Note that one properly refers to those who have received this award as “Medal of Honor Recipients.”  One does not say they “won” the medal—they received it.

Here are the recipients and their stories:  https://themedalofhonor.com/medal-of-honor-recipients

Official website of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society: http://www.cmohs.org/

Official website of the Medal of Honor Foundation: https://themedalofhonor.com/

Note: March 25th is National Medal of Honor Day.

Note: This is the first in a series focusing on awards for valor (heroism) presented by our armed forces.  In the next edition of this newsletter we’ll feature the 2nd highest award for valor; for the Army it’s the Distinguished Service Cross; for the Navy it’s the Navy Cross; for the Air Force it’s the Air Force Cross.

H.R. 445, Help Hire Our Heroes Act

On January 10, 2019, Representative Julia Brownley introduced H.R. 445, the Help Hire Our Heroes Act. This bill would make permanent the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP).

The VRAP was started in 2012 to provide training assistance to unemployed veterans between the ages of 35 and 60 who are no longer eligible for the GI Bill. It provided up to 12 months of training benefits at community colleges and technical schools in occupations that the Department of Labor has identified as “high demand.”   Since funding for this program expired in March 2014, the VA has not been able to enroll new veterans in VRAP.  This program gap means that thousands of older, qualified veterans have been unable to access the resources which could help them find work.

This bill would strike the end dates of the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program and would replace it with year to year authorizations.

Troops, please write to your Representative to cosponsor and support passage of H.R. 445, the Help Hire Our Heroes Act.

The VA is Inviting Comments

The VA didn’t just release its new standards for accessing non-VA care, it also opened public comments on those guidelines.  Learn more about how you can submit a comment letting the VA know more choice is great for veterans.

Read More HERE

Movie Assignment Remember, this month’s film review; I assign a film to watch each month—and give you a link to it; you’re invited to email in your comments—and we’ll review it on the last show of the month.  Share the link with your friends or tell them that they can find the link on the Blog section of FrontlinesOfFreedom.com. The movie for the month of March is Thailand Untapped. Here’s the link; you can watch it for free. Please send me your thoughts about this movie to Denny@FrontlinesOfFreedom.com

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Features

General retaliating against Green Berets?

The Pentagon inspector general is investigating allegations that a two-star Army general is retaliating against active-duty Green Beret instructors under his command who have voiced concerns over his lowering of standards for Green Beret candidates, three sources familiar with the matter told Breitbart News.

Read More HERE

Five Weird Service-Member Fears

Yeah, yeah, yeah… Enemy artillery and bayonet duels and concentrated machine gun fire are all terrifying and all, but those are to be expected, and most people can develop fears of those things after watching a few movies about Vietnam. But actual service members have a lot of fears that aren’t exactly intuitive.

These are the little things that make their lives crappy, and usually for dumb reasons. Things like Changing Batteries and—well, here they are.

Read More HERE

Venezuela

Nicolás Maduro’s regime in Venezuela is fortified by Russian mercenaries, Cuban paramilitary elements, Hezbollah, and Iranian Basij and Quds Force operatives. Even if the Venezuelan military defects to support interim President Juan Guaidó, they would still have to face up to the foreign irregular forces supporting Maduro. What is behind Iranian and Hezbollah penetration into Venezuela and other parts of South America?

Read More HERE

US Army Vet a South Korean Draft-Dodger

Yi, a 40-year-old Ohio restaurant owner who also goes by the name Don, traveled to Seoul last month to attend his father’s funeral.

But airport authorities prevented him from leaving the country on Feb. 6 because he faced a decades-old accusation of draft dodging.

South Korean police detained him for several hours. He was later released from custody but barred from leaving the country until March 2 pending review.

Prosecutors later said he was guilty, but they decided not to pursue the case, according to Yi.

Yi, who was born in Seoul but emigrated with his family at age 9, said he’s not angry about the experience.

“I don’t think anyone meant me harm, and I believe they have these laws in place for a reason.”

He said all the officials he met were “sympathetic to my situation and were very professional.”

Yi said he received American citizenship while serving in the US Army from 2004 to 2012, including tours in Afghanistan and South Korea.

South Korea, which has faced a threat from heavily armed North Korea since their 1950-53 war ended in stalemate, requires all able-bodied men to serve some two years in the military.

It has strict rules governing conscription, including one that compels South Korean-born men to declare plans to remain abroad and change citizenship when they turn 18.

Yi failed to do so. He said he didn’t realize he still had responsibilities in his native land and his detention resulted from a misunderstanding.

Read More HERE

Vet Hoped for 100 Birthday Cards for his 100th Birthday

World War II veteran Joe Cuba got two times what he wanted for his 100th birthday.

The retired Air Force staff sergeant told caretakers at his Texas retirement community that he wanted to receive 100 cards to celebrate hitting the century mark on March 2. After staffers posted a photo of the war hero on social media, birthday wishes came pouring in to Cuba’s Brookdale Retirement Community home.

Cards and letters numbering into the “thousands” found their way to the birthday boy, according to ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“I thank all of you good people for wishing me well. You’re all so gracious to remember me,” Cuba said in a video message to his well-wishers.

He expressed his gratitude not only for surviving the war, but for being thought of on his landmark birthday. Birthday wishes for Cuba reportedly came from as far as England and Poland. Some of those cards came from fellow veterans who served with Cuba during his two years in the military.

Read More HERE

Trash on New AF Tankers

Our Air Force has stopped accepting deliveries of its brand-new KC-46 Pegasus tanker only weeks after the first aircraft was transported from manufacturer Boeing Co.’s Washington state facility to McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas.

The Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) halted deliveries Feb. 20 because of foreign object debris found in the aircraft, Air Force spokeswoman Maj. Malinda Singleton said. The Seattle Times first reported that the debris, which could damage the aircraft, led to a week-long grounding of the tankers and safety concerns from top service officials.

“The Air Force takes Foreign Object Debris (FOD) contamination very seriously,” Singleton said. “The combined Air Force, Defense Contract Management Agency and Boeing team is working together to resolve these concerns as safely and quickly as possible.”

The Air Force will not accept deliveries of the tanker until the production aircraft are cleared, and the service and DCMA have approved a corrective action plan by Boeing “that will prevent FOD in the future,” she said.

Read More HERE

Supersonic Shock Waves Interacting

NASA snaps supersonic shockwaves interacting in flight: Wowza!

The space agency reveals sci-fi-looking views of supersonic jets exceeding the speed of sound.

Read More HERE

Unmanned Fighter Drone

Boeing Co. has unveiled a new concept for an unmanned fighter that would work autonomously alongside fourth- and fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

Dubbed the Airpower Teaming System, the drone-jet hybrid would be a multi-mission craft using artificial intelligence to conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions to supply pilots with more information during a conflict, according to the company.

The aircraft, which Boeing is co-developing with the government of Australia for that country, was unveiled at the Avalon Airshow this week.

The jet is 38 feet long and can fly more than 2,000 nautical miles, the company said. It uses A.I. “to fly independently or in support of manned aircraft while maintaining safe distance between other aircraft,” according to its fact sheet.

Boeing intends to hold its maiden flight sometime in 2020.

The concept is part of the service’s Air Superiority 2030 road map, which the Air Force debuted in 2016. The road map outlines next-generation air dominance, defined as advanced fighter aircraft, sensors or weapons — or all of the above — in a growing and unpredictable threat environment.

Read More HERE

Rules for Rucking

If you’re preparing for a career in special ops, training for a challenging tactical school, or even just getting ready for events such as Bataan or GoRuck, you need to prepare for rucking.

What is a Ruck? Great Question tackled some of the training/pacing strategies that you should consider as you progress into rucking. There are many paths to take when preparing to ruck, but start by understanding the rules.

Read More HERE

New USAF Handgun

The Air Force has started deployment of its new M18 Modular Handgun System.

The Air Force Security Forces Center and the Air Force Small Arms Program Office is fielding the gun to Security Forces units, according to a statement. The move is part of the Reconstitute Defender, which aims to modernize the service’s weapons.

The M18 replaces the M9 pistol, which has been used by the Air Force for more than 30 years. The handgun will also replace the Air Force Office of Special Investigations’ M11 handgun and the M15 revolver, which is used for Military Working Dog training and dates back to the Cold War.

Read More HERE

The US Constitution

When members of our Armed Forces are sworn in, we all take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the US against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  The entire document, including all amendments, takes slightly less than 7600 words.  We veterans and, indeed, all patriots, should read this document over and over again.  It’s not complicated.

Members of Congress are not our leaders—they’re our representatives. Are you happy with the way your representatives treated Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh—or the way the House held a committee meeting to bash the President while he was in Vietnam negotiating with the North Korean leaders?  In our Constitutional Republic it’s our job to critique our representatives.

There are two national organizations that are focused on making our nation aware of, and practicing, the Constitution—and I’m active in both of them.  First is Concerned Veterans for America (cv4a.org).  Then, there’s Combat Veterans for Congress (CVC.org).

Garden State Film Festival

The GSFF, a partner with Frontlines of Freedom, presents movies for consideration every month, is about to have their annual festival, on March 28-31, in, of course, New Jersey.  They’re looking for volunteers—they need ushers, and ticket sellers and takers, etc.  If you’d like to be a part of this great event, email volunteer@gsff.org.  And, even if volunteering won’t work for you—do plan to attend if you can.

Service Academy Career Conference (SACC)

If you are a graduate of a US Service Academy and are considering a career transition, a new job field, or just exploring your options, don’t miss the Service Academy Career Conference on March 28-29 in Jacksonville, FL. SACC job fairs are exclusively for service academy alumni and are a great way to learn about the current job market or advanced degree options, and discover employment opportunities across the US. SACCs allow candidates to connect face to face with companies and universities.
* Over 80% of jobs are secured through networking!
* 60% of SACC candidates had on-site interviews during the conference
* 75% of SACC candidates had follow up interviews
The odds are in your favor! We look forward to seeing you at the next SACC.  Register by Friday, March 22.

Read More HERE

Not All Thieves are Stupid

1.  LONG-TERM   PARKING

Some people left their car in the long-term parking at San Jose while away, and someone broke into the car.

Using the information on the car’s registration in the glove compartment, they drove the car to the people’s home in Pebble Beach and robbed it.

So, I guess if we are going to leave the car in long-term parking, we should NOT leave the registration/insurance cards in it, nor your remote garage door opener.
This gives us something to think about with all our new electronic technology.

2.  GPS:

Someone had their car broken into while they were at a football game.

Their car was parked on the green that was adjacent to the football stadium and specially allotted to football fans.

Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS that had been prominently mounted on the dashboard.

When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen. The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house.

They then used the garage remote control to open the garage door and gain entry to the house. The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean out the house.

It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents.

Something to consider if you have a GPS – don’t put your home address in it.  Put a nearby address (like a store or gas station) so you can still find your way home if you need to, but no one else would know where you live if your GPS were stolen.

3.  CELL PHONES:

This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her cell phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag, which contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet, etc., was stolen.

Twenty minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says, “I received your text asking about our PIN number and I’ve replied a little while ago.”  When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.

The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text  “hubby” in the contact list and got hold of the pin number. Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.

4.  PURSE IN THE GROCERY CART SCAM:

A lady went grocery shopping at a local mall and left her purse sitting in the children’s seat of the cart while she reached for something off a shelf.

Wait till you read the WHOLE story!

Her wallet was stolen, and she reported it to the store personnel.

After returning home, she received a phone call from the Mall Security to say that they had her wallet and that although there was no money in it, it did still hold her personal papers.

She immediately went to pick up her wallet, only to be told by Mall Security that they had not called her. By the time she returned home again, her house had been broken into and burglarized.

The thieves knew that by calling and saying they were Mall Security, they could lure her out of her house long enough for them to burglarize it.

Global Warming

We’ve been told many times that the biggest threat to our nation and the world is Global Warming (or its new name, Climate Change).  Here’s a historic report:

From a June 29, 1989, Associated Press dispatch:

UNITED NATIONS (AP)—A senior U.N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000.

Coastal flooding and crop failures would create an exodus of “eco-refugees,” threatening political chaos, said Noel Brown, director of the New York office of the UN Environment Program, or UNEP.

He said governments have a 10-year window of opportunity to solve the greenhouse effect before it goes beyond human control.

As the warming melts polar icecaps, ocean levels will rise by up to three feet, enough to cover the Maldives and other flat island nations, Brown told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday.

Coastal regions will be inundated; one-sixth of Bangladesh could be flooded, displacing a fourth of its 90 million people. A fifth of Egypt’s arable land in the Nile Delta would be flooded, cutting off its food supply, according to a joint UNEP and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study. . . .

Shifting climate patterns would bring back 1930s Dust Bowl conditions to Canadian and U.S. wheat lands, while the Soviet Union could reap bumper crops if it adapts its agriculture in time, according to a study by UNEP and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.

I thought this might have been plagiarized from a grade school essay written by AOC, but then realized she wasn’t even born in 1989.

Please Participate

On Veterans Day we began a new program—and I still need your help—I need more stories.  On each show we honor a deceased military person—not the super stars, but the average soldier, sailor, marine, airman or coastie.  They don’t have to have served in combat—but must have served honorably, on active duty or in the guard or reserves. Send me about 250 words summarizing his or her service—that I’ll read on the show.  Sent the info to me at denny@FrontlinesOfFreedom.com.

Military Music

A song from the Vietnam era:  Leavin’ on a Jet Plan

Listen HERE

Frontlines of Freedom Gear

If you’d like to have a Frontlines of Freedom shirt or hat or whatever, we do have it for you.  Check our store at   http://fof.logoshop.com/

Two quotes to consider.

Courage isn’t havinng the strength to go on – it is going on when you don’t have strength. 

Napoleon Bonapart

A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others.  He does not set out to be a leader but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.

Douglas MacArthur

Programming:  You’ll want to tune into the show (live or by podcast).

23-29 Mar: Retired Army General Karl Horst, the CEO of the Medal of Honor Foundation will discuss National Medal of Honor Day, which is 25 March.  Musician and activist Ted Nugent will discuss challenges to our nation’s security

30 Mar-5 Apr: SpartanNash and Purple Heart Homes have partnered up; we’ll discuss how they’ll be helping vets. Author Adam Makin will discuss his book on WWII, Spearhead.  And Diane Raver, from the Garden State Film Festival, will discuss the Movie of the Month.

Advertising on Frontlines of Freedom’s Website and Newsletter:

We encourage you to patronize our advertisers—they are keeping Frontlines of Freedom alive and well.  You can advertise on-air (as a show sponsor) or only on our website and in this newsletter.  If you or someone you know would like to advertise on Frontlines of Freedom please contact me at denny@frontlinesoffreedom.com.

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Churchillian Gems

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, was a prolific speaker.  However, he also had the ability to get to the point and didn’t mince words.  Each week we’ll share a quote of his for you to enjoy.

Humor

These comments are from a very old artilleryman.

1. The meaning of opaque is unclear.

2. I wasn’t going to get a brain transplant but then I changed my mind.

3. Have you ever tried to eat a clock? It’s very time consuming.

4. A man tried to assault me with milk, cream and butter. How dairy!

5. I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. I can’t put it down.

6. If there was someone selling marijuana in our neighborhood, weed know about it.

7. It’s a lengthy article about ancient Japanese sword fighters but I can Sumurais it for you.

8. It’s not that the man couldn’t juggle, he just didn’t have the balls to do it.

9. So what if I don’t know the meaning of the word ‘apocalypse’? It’s not the end of the world.

10. Police were called to the daycare center. A 3-year old was resisting a rest.

11. The other day I held the door open for a clown. I thought it was a nice jester.

12.. Need an ark to save two of every animal? I Noah guy.

13. Alternative facts are aversion of the truth.

14. I used to have a fear of hurdles, but I got over it.

15. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

16. Did you know they won’t be making yardsticks any longer?

17. I used to be allergic to soap but I’m clean now.

18. The patron saint of poverty is St. Nickeless.

19. What did the man say when the bridge fell on him? The suspension is killing me.

20. Do you have weight loss mantras? Fat chants!

21. My tailor is happy to make a new pair of pants for me. Or sew it seams.

22. What is a thesaurus’s favorite dessert? Synonym buns.

23. A relief map shows where the restrooms are.

24. There was a big paddle sale at the boat store. It was quite an oar deal.

25. How do they figure out the price of hammers? Per pound.