OUR MILITARY.

7 Marines Killed in Training Accident ?



At least seven U.S. Marines were killed and seven others were injured during a mortar firing exercise in Nevada, the Pentagon said today.

The Marines were all from the 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and were training at the Hawthorne Army Depot 140 miles southeast of Reno, Nev., when a mortar exploded shortly before 10 p.m. Monday.

The injured were taken to area hospitals, according to a statement from the Marines.

Several defense officials say this incident did not appear to involve a round landing on the troops.

The mountainous desert terrain of the 230 square mile depot is used as a training location for special forces since it "provides a realistic simulation of the situation in Afghanistan," according to the depot's website. The depot is also used as a storage site for ammunition awaiting demilitarization.

"We send our prayers and condolences to the families of Marines involved in this tragic incident. We remain focused on ensuring that they are supported through this difficult time," Maj. Gen. Raymond C. Fox said in a statement. "We mourn their loss, and it is with heavy hearts we remember their courage and sacrifice."

The Marine Corps is notifying families before releasing the identities of those who were killed and said the conditions of the seven injured Marines would be shared as information becomes available.

...                                                REST IN PEACE TO THOSE KILLED...PRAYERS FOR THE RECOVERY OF THE INJURED.
 
As a father of a USMC vet with 2 tours in Iraq and being a Forward Air Controller in SEA 68-69, Hue/Phu Bai I humbly offer a slow hand salute to those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom. You train as you fight, never thought it would happen in NV. Freedom has a price that most people will never understand! And by the way, you send us out into harm's way but the politicians cut the benefits we earned on the battlefield. Difference between a politician and a whore, the whore gives you a price up front, the politician just screws you forever! :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
Great pictures Chief. Thanks.

Sad to think many of the Service members in these pictures were shot down and never made it home.  These crews took terrific losses. 
 
Mike Monsoor,


Was Awarded "The Congressional Medal Of Honor" Last Week,


For Giving His Life In Iraq , As He Jumped On, And Covered With His Body, A Live Hand Grenade,




Saving The Lives Of A Large Group Of Navy Seals That Was Passing By!


~


During Mike Monsoor's Funeral,


At Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery , In San Diego , California ..


The Six Pallbearers Removed The Rosewood Casket From The Hearse,


And Lined Up On Each Side Of Mike Monsoor's Casket,


Were His Family Members, Friends, Fellow Sailors, And Well-wishers.


The Column Of People Continued From The Hearse, All The Way To The Grave Site.


What The Group Didn't Know At The Time Was,


Every Navy Seal


(45 To Be Exact)


That Mike Monsoor Saved That Day Was Scattered Through-Out The Column!


~


As The Pallbearers Carried The Rosewood Casket


Down The Column Of People To The Grave Side.


The Column Would Collapse..


Which Formed A Group Of People That Followed Behind.


~


Every Time The Rosewood Casket Passed A Navy Seal,


He Would Remove His Gold Trident Pin From His Uniform,


And Slap It Down Hard,


Causing The Gold Trident Pin To Embed Itself


Into The Top Of The Wooden Casket!


Then The Navy Seal Would Step Back From The Column, And Salute!


~


Now For Those,




Who Don't Know What A Trident Pin Is,


Here Is The Definition!


~


After One Completes The Basic Navy Seals Program Which Lasts For Three Weeks,


And Is Followed By Seal Qualification Training,


Which Is 15 More Weeks Of Training,


Necessary To Continue Improving Basic Skills And To Learn New Tactics And Techniques,


Required For An Assignment To A Navy Seal Platoon.


After successful completion,


Trainees Are Given Their Naval Enlisted Code,


And Are Awarded The Navy Seal Trident Pin.


With This Gold Pin They Are Now Officially Navy Seals!


It Was Said,


That You Could Hear Each Of The 45 Slaps From Across The Cemetery!


By The Time The Rosewood Casket Reached The Grave Site,


It Looked As Though It Had A Gold Inlay From The 45 Trident Pins That Lined The Top!





This Was A Fitting End To An Eternal Send-Off For A Warrior Hero!


This Should Be Front-Page News!


Instead Of The Garbage We Listen To And See Every Day.
~


Here's A Good Idea!


Since The Main Stream Media Won't Make This News.


Then We Choose To Make It News By Forwarding It.


~
I Am Proud Of All The Branches Of Our Military..


If You Are Proud Too, Please Pass This E-Mail On.


~


If Not, Then Delete This E-Mail.
But, I BET YOU WON'T
=







 
Rest In peace to the crew of U.S.S. Thresher


US sub sinking 50 years ago led to safety changes
By DAVID SHARP | Associated Press ? 6 hrs ago.. .


KITTERY, Maine (AP) ? The first sign of trouble for the USS Thresher was a garbled message about a "minor difficulty" after the nuclear-powered submarine descended to about 1,000 feet on what was supposed to be a routine test dive off Cape Cod.

Minutes later, the crew of a rescue ship made out the ominous words "exceeding test depth" and listened as the sub disintegrated under the crushing pressure of the sea. Just like that, the Thresher was gone, along with 129 men.

Fifty years ago, the deadliest submarine disaster in U.S. history delivered a blow to national pride during the Cold War and became the impetus for safety improvements. To this day, some designers and maintenance personnel listen to an audio recording of a submarine disintegrating to underscore the importance of safety.

"We can never, ever let that happen again," said Vice Adm. Kevin McCoy, an engineer and former submariner who now serves as commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, D.C.

This weekend, hundreds who lost loved ones when the Thresher sank will gather at memorial events in Portsmouth, N.H., and Kittery, Maine.

Built at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, and based in Groton, Conn., the first-in-class Thresher was the world's most advanced fast attack submarine when it was commissioned in 1961.

Featuring a cigar-shaped hull and nuclear propulsion, the 278-foot-long submarine could travel underwater for unlimited distances. It could dive deeper than earlier submarines, enduring pressure at unforgiving depths. It was designed to be quieter, to avoid detection.

On April 10, 1963, the submarine already had undergone initial sea trials and was back in the ocean about 220 miles off Cape Cod, Mass., for deep-dive testing. Some submariners are baffled by the initial message about a minor difficulty because it's believed a brazed joint on an interior pipe had burst ? a problem anything but minor.

The Navy believes sea water sprayed onto an electrical panel, shorting it out and causing an emergency shutdown of the nuclear reactor.

The submarine alerted the USS Skylark, a rescue ship trailing it, that it was attempting to surface by emptying its ballast tanks. But that system failed, and the sub descended below crush depth.

Understanding their dire situation, Navy crew members and civilian technicians would have scrambled to close valves to try to stem the flooding, struggled with a ballast system disabled by ice, and worked to restore propulsion by restarting the reactor, a 20-minute process.

Their deaths would have been instant because of the force of the violent implosion. The sub's remnants came to a rest on the ocean floor at a depth of 8,500 feet.

There was nothing the divers on the Skylark could do.

"It's one of those times when there's silence," recalled Danny Miller, one of the Skylark divers, now 70 and living in Farmington, Mo. "You don't know what to say. You don't know how to feel. You just know something tragic has happened."

The Thresher wreckage covers a mile of ocean floor, according to University of Rhode Island oceanographer Robert Ballard, who used his 1985 discovery of RMS Titanic as a Cold War cover for the fact that he had surveyed the Thresher on the same mission.

"It was like someone put the submarine in a shredding machine," Ballard said in a recent interview. "It was breathtaking. There were only a couple of parts that looked like a submarine."

Word of the disaster spread quickly.

Paul O'Connor, now a union president at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, remembers seeing the bulletin on TV. He was 6. Barbara Currier, whose husband, Paul, was a civilian worker on the Thresher, was shopping with her daughters when she heard the news on the radio in a store.

What followed was a blur of activity for families. Navy officers in dress whites showed up on doorsteps. Friends and neighbors brought food.

After the submarine was declared sunk, President John F. Kennedy ordered the nation's flags lowered to half-staff. International leaders sent condolences.

"The men, they were heroes. Most of them were doing what they wanted to do for their country to keep the country safe," said Currier, 86, who never remarried and still lives in the same house in Exeter, N.H. "They were pushing things to the limit."

For the families, the silver lining is that subs are now safer. The Navy accelerated safety improvements and created a program called "SUBSAFE," an extensive series of design modifications, training and other improvements.

People involved in the SUBSAFE program are required to watch a documentary about the Thresher that ends with an actual underwater recording featuring the eerie sounds of metal creaking and bending as a U.S. Navy submarine breaks apart with the loss of all hands.

"Every job we do, we need to have in the back of our minds that we have the lives of the sailors in our hands. It's that critical and it's that literal," said O'Connor, president of the Metal Trades Council.

Hundreds of family and friends of the Thresher's crew, along with sailors who previously served on the submarine, will gather Saturday for a memorial service in Portsmouth, N.H. A day later, neighboring Kittery will dedicate a flagpole that stretches 129 feet high in remembrance of the number of lives lost.

Because of their tender ages, and the lack of a body or proper grave site, children like Vivian Lindstrom, who lost her father, Samuel Dabruzzi, a Navy electronics technician, were unable to grieve properly.

Thanks to the reunions, they at least know they're not alone, said Lindstrom, of Glenwood City, Wis.

"We've experienced the same things, felt the same things," she said. "We feel like family. We call ourselves the Thresher family."

___

Follow David Sharp at http://twitter.com/David_Sharp_AP



 
Ihave watched the Ballard story about using the Thresher mission to find the Titanic. Ballard did the Navy justice by finding the Thresher.
 
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