Sgt. Maj. Brent "The Rock" Jurgersen Headquarters Troop, 1st Squadron, 4th U.S. Cavalry, 1st Infantry Division Active Duty
Not even two near-death encounters deterred Sgt. Maj. Brent Jurgerson's passion and eagerness to serve his country and lead his troops back home.
Jurgersen celebrated his second "alive day" anniversary January 26, 2007. It was a day of mixed emotions for him because on that same day two years ago he was given a second chance to live. It was a day that changed his life forever. While on patrol in Ad Dyuliah, Iraq, two rocket-propelled grenades struck his Humvee. The explosion killed his gunner and left Jurgersen fighting for his life, flat-lining twice on the operating table in Balad.
Afterwards, during a promotion ceremony in August of 2006, Jurgersen was selected for a command sergeant major appointment. Becoming the first full limb amputee student to attend the academy.
You can read the rest of Sgt. Maj. Jurgersen's story here.
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero. We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. If you would like to participate in honoring the brave men and women who serve this great country, you can find out how by going here.
Staff Sgt. Kara Opperman 332nd Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron
Staff Sgt. Kara Opperman performs a quality control check Feb. 13 on fuel coming out of a fill stand at Balad Air Base, Iraq. Sergeant Opperman ensures the fuel is safe and meets Air Force specifications before it is used for aircraft and equipment.
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero. We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. If you would like to participate in honoring the brave men and women who serve this great country, you can find out how by going here.
A football analogy. Are you facing giants of fear and defeat in your life? I used football to make an analogy to not give in and to not give up.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Ellicia Stanley & her husband SPC Reid Stanley
I received and email from Wednesday Hero Blogroll member Mary Ann in which she suggested that I profile the spouse of a soldier. Seeing as I'd profiled one such spouse in the past, I though this was the perfect opportunity to do it again. I hadn't read the entire letter before I said yes, but after reading it I'm glad she sent it to me.
I think military families, especially the spouses, while they sign no contract, serve our country just as much as the service member. They give up familiar home ties and relocate all over the country, all over the world. They give up their civilian lives for something bigger than themselves. Ellicia was a military wife for only two and a half years. Before they married, but after 9/11, Reid came to her and told her of his desire to enlist. He wanted to do his part. He tells part of the story in his blog post http://kafstorm.blogspot.com/2005/07/why-i-joined-army.html
She encouraged him, pushing him so he could meet his goal of serving his country. He did and took his oath in October 2002. By the time they were married in July 2004, Reid was already stationed in Germany. It was 3 months before she could join him there. In a move that, for someone who'd seldom left her hometown in South Carolina, must have come as quite an adjustment. But she did it, as do so many other military wives.
It was in the sixth month of deployment when Ellicia received the news — she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Devastating. However, in an email to me on the day she received her diagnosis, the phrase she used was, "not stellar news". Understated, calm, steady, no hysteria, it was another challenge to face.
I came to admire her because, I too, had been away from home, (not to a foreign country), with a one small child (not three), and my husband traveling (not in a war zone). Knowing what my experience had been like, I was amazed at how she took it all in stride. Even when faced with a terminal diagnosis, she faced it all with grace, dignity and humor. All the while supporting her husband, the mission and the country.
Reid was given compassionate leave back to Germany in November 2005. For the next thirteen months they fought their own personal war with cancer…breast, lung…and finally eleven tumors in her brain.
In November 2006 the Stanley's took compassionate reassignment back to the U.S. to Ft. Eustis, Virginia.
On 31 December 2006, Ellicia lost her battle. But her spirit lives on in her husband, her children, and the many people she inspired with her courage.
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero. We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. If you would like to participate in honoring the brave men and women who serve this great country, you can find out how by clicking here.
I guess I am a You Tube Junkie these days. I seem to be watching videos there just about every day now. I even have 7 vids on there that I have made. If you would like to go watch them you can do so here. And if you do go watch them please rate them and leave a comment. Also you can subscribe to me, I will subscribe to you back. I know I am shameless. LOL!
Even though the 2 videos below this are not mine, please be sure to watch them also.
On May 9th 2004, SFC Lloyd A. Heinrichs Jr was down at the Ocean front in Virginia Beach when a ‘Swimmer in Distress’ call came in to the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Dispatch office about noon. Myself (Gary Couch, Dive 8), SFC Heinrichs and Petty Officer First Class Scott Weil of the U.S Navy, volunteered to respond the call. There were a total of 3 people in the water that were being pulled out to sea by the current. The temperature of the water was only around 65 degrees Fahrenheit with the air temperature at 78 degrees Fahrenheit. The undertow was very extreme that day with the beach already “Red Flagged” due to the strong currents and excessive waves.
Upon arrival to the scene, SFC Heinrichs and PO1 Weil identified the victims. Without hesitation and with total disregard for their own safety each grabbed a torpedo buoy and entered the water. SFC Heinrichs went for the first victim to the South of 36th Street while PO1 Weil went for the second and third victims, which were hanging on to each other to the North of 36th Street. As I observed SFC Heinrichs and PO1 Weil, once they were waist deep, the current rapidly pulled them out. SFC Heinrichs made his way to the first victim and started fighting his way back to shore. Once SFC Heinrichs reached his victim, he calmed her down, making the attempt to head back to shore. Several times SFC Heinrichs and his victim were rolled under by the enormous waves and undertow. His victim was completely exhausted from the ordeal. Once he reached shallow water, he assisted his victim to shore. The victim was an older heavy-set lady, early forties. The Virginia Beach Fire Department Paramedics placed the victim on a stretcher and the Virginia Beach Volunteer Rescue Squad took her to Virginia Beach General Hospital.
SFC Heinrichs was extremely exhausted and fatigued from the rescue. He turned to check on PO1 Weil and notice that PO1 Weil had reached the other two victims, a male in his late twenties and a female in her early forties. PO1 Weil was struggling with his two victims giving a hand and arm signal for ‘Help’. The female was almost passive from near drowning, and the male who had initially swum out to help her was becoming a victim himself. Without hesitation, SFC Heinrichs picked himself up and ran back into the water to assist PO1 Weil while PO1 Weil did what he could to keep them calm and afloat until help arrived.
Once SFC Heinrichs reached PO1 Weil and the other two victims, they were all rolled by several consecutive waves, pinning SFC Heinrichs under the two victims. A few moments later, SFC Heinrichs emerged between the victims with both lanyards of the torpedo buoys wrapped around his neck, gasping for air. As the situation went from bad to worse, PO1 Weil tried his best to help SFC Heinrichs with untangling the lanyards from his neck while trying to hold his passive victim’s head out of the water. SFC Heinrichs took a deep breath and submerged himself in the attempt to free his neck. As each wave came over the top of PO1 Weil and the victims, we kept waiting for him to resurface in bated breath not knowing that the lanyards kept tightening around SFC Heinrichs’ neck. While continuous waves were tossing PO1 Weil and the victims, SFC Heinrichs reemerged on the side of the victims. He had been under for over thirty seconds trying to get loose. We began to worry weather or not he was going to come back up. You could hear the heavy sigh of relief from all the EMS personnel on the beach once he resurfaced. He grabbed a hold of the male victim and started for shore. The victims once, on shore, were taken away for medical attention. PO1 Weil and SFC Heinrichs were taken to an ambulance and checked for possible hypothermia and released.
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero. It Is Foolish And Wrong To Mourn The Men Who Died. Rather We Should Thank God That Such Men Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. If you would like to participate in honoring the brave men and women who serve this great country, you can find out how by clicking here.
With Valentine's Day only 8 days away; I thought I would remind all you men out there to not forget. This video cracks me up, but it does have some good advice men.
Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch and author of "The Truth about Muhammad," took note of the prayer given at the Democratic National Committee winter meeting by Husham Al-Husainy, imam of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center, a shiite mosque in Dearborn, Mich. According to a transcript of the prayer, which can be seen on a video clip provided by HotAir.com, the imam said:
In the name of God the most merciful, the most compassionate. We thank you, God, to bless us among your creations. We thank you, God, to make us as a great nation. We thank you God, to send us your messages through our father Abraham and Moses and Jesus and Muhammad. Through you, God, we unite. So guide us to the right path. The path of the people you bless, not the path of the people you doom. Help us God to liberate and fill this earth with justice and peace and love and equality. And help us to stop the war and violence, and oppression and occupation. Ameen. (Read the whole story here.) This is a clear picture of where the Democratic Party is headed and where their sympathies lay. The Liberals have taken it over. And remember it is these same Liberals who say things like, “Fundamentalist Christians are more dangerous than Terrorists.” Yet this is the Islam that the Democrats seem to embrace.
Two brothers who used to work at a brick kiln have escaped from what they describe as a kidnapping and torture by the business owner, who wanted them to convert from Christianity to Islam, according to a new report from Voice of the Martyrs, a U.S.-based Christian group helping members of the persecuted Christian church worldwide.
The two now have had to move to a new location in Pakistan, since the kiln owner continues to search for them, alleging they owe him a sum of about $750 – or 45,000 rupees The brothers, Shahzad, 18, and Saraj Bashir, 20, were working for the kiln company – at the rate of about 200 to 300 rupees per 1,000 bricks, but were being pressured by the owner to forsake Christianity.
One day their steadfast Christian faith brought their Islamic boss to a breaking point. When Shahzad and Saraj refused to convert, the brick kiln owner took them away," according to a VOM source within Pakistan. "He put them in a small, empty room with a mud floor without a bed, chair or mattress."
The source continued: "He kept them there for a month. He gave them food once a day and beat them with a stick when they refused to convert back to Islam. He also threw acid on their arms, but they remained true to their Christ."(Read the whole story here.)
Is this what the Democrats want for this country? This is what Iran plans for America.
I just can't help it, this video cracks me up. And to all my Aussie friends, you know I still love you; don't hold it against me. *blows kisses to my Aussie friends*
