OUR MILITARY.

PRESIDENT TRUMP TO AWARD THE MOH.....Trump to award Medal of Honor to Army Ranger for Iraq hostage rescue: report
By Yaron Steinbuch
September 4, 2020 | 1:59pm


Sgt. Major Thomas Payne ...... Lori Egan/U.S. Army via AP


Trump awards Medal of Honor to Iraq War hero
President Trump plans to award the Congressional Medal of Honor to an Army Ranger who helped rescue more than 70 hostages who had been held by ISIS in Iraq in 2015, according to a report.
Sgt. Major Thomas Payne will be presented with the nation’s highest military award on Sept. 11 for “conspicuous gallantry,” according to the White House, CNN reported.
Payne led a combined assault team during a “daring nighttime hostage rescue” in Kirkuk province.
His “extraordinary heroism and selfless actions were key to liberating 75 hostages during a contested rescue mission that resulted in 20 enemy fighters killed in action,” the White House statement said.
Mass graves had been discovered during surveillance, a US official with direct knowledge about the raid told CNN at the time.
The freed hostages later said they had been told they would be executed after morning prayers.......EXCELLENT !
 
THE 70th ANNIVERSARY OF THE END OF THE KOREAN WAR...... THANK YOU TO ALL WHO SERVED !.....
Korean War 70th Anniversary: Remember the lives a ‘Forgotten War’ took
By J. Alex Tarquinio
September 26, 2020 | 9:48am



A look back at the Korean War for its 70th anniversary

In 1951, Gen. Douglas MacArthur quoted an old Army ballad in his farewell address to Congress: “Old soldiers never die. They just fade away.”
But on the 70th anniversary of the Korean War, it seems the veterans of that conflict have faded faster than most.
Seventy years ago today, a company of US Marines pulled down the North Korean flags flying in front of the South Korean capitol building, helping our allies recapture Seoul for the first time. Yet, so far, there has been barely a peep about the anniversary in the press or in Washington. The war that raged from 1950 to 1953, killing more than 36,000 Americans and millions of Koreans, continues to live up to its reputation as the forgotten war.
The war is also “sometimes remembered as ‘die for a tie,’ because it ended rather unsatisfactorily in an armistice, not in a unified Korea,” said Kathleen Stephens, who served as the American ambassador to South Korea a decade ago and now chairs The Korea Society in New York.
Americans hate a stalemate. We will play extra innings throughout the night, if necessary, to avoid a baseball game ending in a tie. Yet after three years of combat against North Korean and Chinese forces armed with Soviet equipment, the boundary between the two Koreas stands more or less where it began before the conflict.
After North Korea invaded the South on June 25, 1950, Americans’ support for the war effort was initially high — but wavered as it dragged on. President Harry S. Truman relied on a decision by the United Nations to enforce South Korea’s sovereignty without seeking a war declaration from Congress, which set a questionable precedent that contributed to his ouster from the White House in 1952.
Enlarge ImageSome 36,000 US soldiers lost their lives defending South Korea from the North in a war America would rather forget. But the South remembers our sacrifices, which helped shape their democracy.Carl Mydans/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images
Hollywood, which had whipped up support for WWII, made only a handful of films about the Korean War, and many of those were ambivalent. It’s hard to see much glory in the death of William Holden’s pilot at the end of 1954’s “The Bridges at Toko-Ri,” for example, as he dies in a Korean ditch after being shot down, having bitterly complained that he had already done his duty in the Second World War.
Yet without the sacrifices made 70 years ago by American soldiers, who fought alongside allies under the United Nations flag, South Korea would not exist in its present state. In 1950, North Korea had more heavy industry than in the South — a legacy from the long-standing Japanese occupation that ended in 1945 — and was better equipped for war. “Had the US not intervened, I think Korea would have been unified under Kim Il-sung,” said Stephens of Kim Jong-un’s grandfather, who was North Korea’s leader at the time.
Without the war, South Korea wouldn’t be the prosperous and democratic nation that has grown in recent decades to become the world’s 12th largest economy. South Korea now ranks among the top 25 percent of countries in the global press freedom index of Reporters Without Borders. In April, the country demonstrated its commitment to democracy by holding a national election shortly after the global pandemic struck and it also boasts one of the best track records of fighting COVID-19.
Enlarge ImageWithout the war, Korea would have been unified under Kim Il-sung.Getty Images
What’s more, without South Korea, we wouldn’t have Samsung or K-pop. We wouldn’t have the eminently watchable Academy Award-winning film “Parasite,” which is filled with metaphors of the Korean War.
While many Americans enjoy these South Korean exports, South Koreans themselves hold one of the most consistently positive attitudes toward Americans, with 77 percent telling Pew Research that they viewed the US favorably — the fourth-highest ranking in the world after Israel, the Philippines and Poland. Support for the nearly 30,000 US forces stationed in South Korea remains high, too, with nine out of 10 of their citizens expressing support for the defensive alliance in a December survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
I felt this gratitude firsthand two years ago during a visit to the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea, where a Korean woman thanked me when she learned that I was an American. To be clear, I had no family who served in the war and I was there on a press tour.
Enlarge ImageUS soldiers’ struggles are remembered at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.Alamy
Seoul has shown its appreciation of the war veterans who secured their liberty in more tangible ways. The federal government has paid to bring veterans back to South Korea, many of them for the first time since 1953, to participate in anniversary ceremonies. When the pandemic hit, it sent 500,000 face masks to American veterans of the Korean War to help them fend off the coronavirus.
The 70th anniversary of the Korean War is not a trivial date. As the ranks of its veterans continue to thin, their time to stand up and be recognized is running out. South Koreans have not forgotten their sacrifice. Nor should we.
J. Alex Tarquinio is past national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, and a German Marshall Fund fellowship recipient to cover another divided land, Cyprus. She has made two reporting trips to South Korea.
 
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 10,2020 IS THE 245th Birthday of the USMC.... Thanks to all who have served & those still serving & those who have Passed To A Higher Level while serving or afterwards & especially remembering my Radio Operator 24 year old CPL Manny Neves. MANUEL-C-NEVES KIA 12-6-67 at Con Thien in Quang Tri Province Vietnam. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Con_Thien .....SEMPER FI ! ...."Everyday is a holiday & every meal is a banque......"Everyday is a holiday & every meal is a banquet"........SEMPER FI !......I remember 11-10-65..... we were attending cross training at the US Army Special Warfare School Of The Americas in Panama....for 2 weeks of the school we were camped out in a rain soaked jungle forest eating C rations ...the night of the USMC BirthdayDay we were not even aware of the Blackout that had occurred at home the day before (the '65 one not the '77 Big One) .....suddenly we heard people approaching..... a group of our Special Forces instructors appeared & gave the Platoon a few boxes of raw steaks & a large sheet cake ...they said Happy Birthday Marines & left...we cooked the steaks whole on sticks dangled over a fire & tore off pieces & ate them like cavemen....a nice gesture by our Green Beret Brothers.....some things you never forget .......... United_States_Marine_Corps
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The 245th birthday of the USMC God bless those no longer with us and thank you to those who are still here. Some of us never forget your sacrifice. This was a special year for the USMC Red Blood Black Sand.
 
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Yesterday on the 79th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor great American General Chuck Yeager passed away at age 97. Anyone who did any reading about General Yeager knows what a great American he was and how much he contributed to aviation. Unfortunately we lost too many of these great Patriots. I remember years ago Don Imus recalled speaking to the General and Imus mentioned to him he was in the service (Marine Corps bugler). He said "General you and I have alot in common" The General responded " son the only thing you and I have in common is we're on the same planet". An American Hero Rest In Peace.
 
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