Archive for the ‘Men’s Issues’ Category

What kinds of people are for gun control?

January 16, 2009

source

H/T to BobF

Rep Bobby Rush was the founder of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. If his law were to pass, you know his constituents wouldn’t be following it.

By Drew Zahn
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., is hoping to pass a firearm-licensing bill that will significantly rewrite gun-ownership laws in America.

Among the more controversial provisions of the bill are requirements that all handgun owners submit to the federal government a photo, thumb print and mental heath records. Further, the bill would order the attorney general to establish a database of every handgun sale, transfer and owner’s address in America.

The bill claims its purpose is “to protect the public against the unreasonable risk of injury and death associated with the unrecorded sale or transfer of firearms to criminals and youth.”

Rush’s proposed bill, H.R. 45, is alternatively known as “Blair Holt’s Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009,” named after an Illinois teenager killed by a gunshot.

According the bill’s text, “On the afternoon of May 10, 2007, Blair Holt, a junior at Julian High School in Chicago, was killed on a public bus riding home from school when he used his body to shield a girl who was in the line of fire after a young man boarded the bus and started shooting.”

The bill then argues that interstate firearm trafficking and children dying from gun violence create legitimate cause for the federal government to monitor gun ownership and transfers in new ways.

If passed, the bill would make it illegal to own or possess a “qualifying firearm” – defined as any handgun or any semiautomatic firearm that takes an ammunition clip – without a “Blair Holt” license.

To obtain a “Blair Holt” license, an application must be made that includes a photo, address, all previous aliases, thumb print, completion of a written firearm safety test, release of mental health records to the attorney general and a fee not to exceed $25.

Further, the bill makes it illegal to transfer ownership of a qualifying firearm to anyone who is not a licensed gun dealer or collector. Exceptions to this rule include transfer to family members by gift or bequest and loans, not to exceed 30 days, of a firearm for lawful purposes “between persons who are personally known to each other.”

The bill also requires qualifying firearm owners to report all transfers to the attorney general’s database. It would also be illegal for a licensed gun owner to fail to record a gun loss or theft within 72 hours or fail to report a change of address within 60 days.

And if a minor obtains a weapon and injures someone with it, the owner of the gun – if deemed to have failed to meet certain safety requirements – faces a multiple-year jail sentence.

H.R. 45 is a resurfacing of 2007’s H.R. 2666, which contained much of the same language and was co-sponsored by 15 other representatives and Barack Obama’s current chief of staff, Rahm Emmanuel. H.R. 2666 was assigned to the House Judiciary committee, where no action was taken.

http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=86039

Don’t ask, don’t tell coming to an end..?

January 13, 2009

I personally could care less what people do to entertain themselves so long as that behavior does not affect others, and is done with consenting adults. Others would disagree with me, and that’s fine.

Here, is what some of those that might be most affected are saying. Hopefully wordpress will not “spam” me for bringing all these different “links” to a single post. I believe that this issue is of such importance though that it needs to have more than one or two players in the games ideas floated.

http://cmrlink.org/HMilitary.asp?docID=339

http://cmrlink.org/HMilitary.asp?docID=337

http://cmrlink.org/HMilitary.asp?docID=332

http://cmrlink.org/HMilitary.asp?docID=326

http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/obama_military_gays/2009/01/08/169333.html
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/surveillance/basic.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/factsheets/msm.htm
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090107/ts_alt_afp/usmilitarygays_newsmlmmd

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1707545,00.html

http://www.heritage.org/research/nationalsecurity/em359.cfm

http://www.health.mil/dhb/meetings/2007-12/


04_Walker_Emergency%20Blood%20Transfusions.pdf

http://www.health.mil/dhb/recommendations/2008/


EmergencyBloodTransfusionCombatTheaters.pdf

http://www.scientificblogging.com/news_account/different_hiv_rates_among_homosexuals_and
_heterosexuals_ignores_risky_behavior_data

http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=JrcYGJ1CQdx8wxjl923nnkQhwy6bbT4BYTZk0dCrG4rwn
L19qGk6!1746175250?docId=5001267771

http://www.avert.org/usastatg.htm

Unconventional Warfare, winning hearts, minds, and…

January 12, 2009

Unconventional warfare comes in many flavors. But little blue pills? I read this in the Patriot Post, and just started laughing…

Talk about Sua Sponte!

With a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, U.S. intelligence officials have started looking for new ways to sway the hearts and minds of the various tribal chieftains who control large swaths of the country and whose assistance is needed to defeat the Taliban. U.S. operatives say that money or weapons are not necessarily the best choice. A variety of services or other items are used, too, including tools, medicinal treatment for family members, toys or school equipment for children, travel assistance, and, in a brilliant display of outside-the-box thinking, occasional pharmaceutical assistance for aging leaders whose spirit is willing but whose flesh, uh, can’t quite keep up. Enter Viagra, the famous little blue pill that has revolutionized “senior moments” and, now apparently, U.S. intelligence-gathering capabilities as well.

In a country where multiple wives are common, along with the implied but unspoken sexual prowess of tribal chieftains and associated tribal authority which that represents, Viagra is using medical technology in a way that the Taliban simply cannot match. Describing a recent encounter, a U.S. operative gave an Afghan chieftain four blue tablets, then returned a few days later to a grinning chief who gladly offered a treasure trove of information on nearby Taliban movements and supply routes, followed, naturally, by a request for more pills. Other operatives report that they are given free rein of controlled areas after making their delivery. As one operative said, “Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people — whether it’s building a school or handing out Viagra.” Indeed, “make love, not war” may be one of the more memorable catch phrases from the hedonistic, anti-war 1960s, but who would have thought that it could ever describe an effective new military tactic?

Another “Top” list

January 12, 2009

I just knew that there had to be more top (ten) lists. Either for this past year, or for the new year. I found another one, and it is great!

2008 in review: Top questions Barack Obama did not answer

By Mark Alexander

Perhaps you’ve noticed an abundance of “Top Ten” lists in recent weeks. As usual, the mainstream media has churned out a variety of year-in-review pieces of late. Two events vied for top billing on all those lists — the financial meltdown and the presidential election. At present, it isn’t clear which of those debacles presents the greater threat to our nation.

The factors leading up to the economic collapse in the last two quarters are clear (see Economics 101). What is not clear, however, is whether we can limit the damage to a mere recession.

On the other hand, we have learned that Barack Hussein Obama (as he prefers to be named for his oath of office) is a charismatic master of deception and deflection. What we haven’t learned, therefore, are the answers to a plethora of questions about his citizenship, his mentors, his faith, his worldview, and his tragic childhood — a childhood which gave rise to the pathological narcissism that launched his political career and guides him to this day.

Not that many of those questions weren’t asked. Plenty of them were posed in our profiles of Obama but were met with obfuscation, prevarication and equivocation.

Who is this guy?

So, who is this guy?

In one sense he answered that question in his political autobiography, “The Audacity of Hope”: “I am new enough on the national political scene that I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.”

That explains who he is in the glassy eyes of his messianic following, but who is he really? Who is Barack Hussein Obama, the president-elect of the United States of America?

In pursuit of an answer, I have compiled a list of some important questions directed at BHO that he did not answer in 2008.

Where to start … how about the beginning: Are you a natural-born citizen, as constitutionally prescribed in Article II, Section 1 and Amendment XX, Section 3, for the office of president?

When the question of citizenship came up a year ago, I presumed that this issue was a “straw man” — that your strategy was to send some adversaries on a rabbit trail to nowhere, only to release your official birth certificate just prior to the election. But you didn’t do that.

I believe that you were born in Honolulu, but I have been to the hospital where you were, ostensibly, born, and they could not produce any birth records or tell me who the attending OB might have been. Of course, 1961 is many years past.

Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle has sealed your on-file birth records, making them unavailable for verification. You refuse to request that the documents in question be made available for examination by dispassionate analysts.

To obtain a driver’s license, one has to provide some proof of citizenship — so why did you not comply as a presidential candidate? Surely you can influence the state of Hawaii to release your original birth certificate for public inspection, so this lingering question can be put to rest before your inauguration.

We know that you hold constitutional rule of law in contempt, but in the unlikely event that it is revealed sometime after your inauguration that you are not a natural-born citizen, we would be faced with a serious constitutional crisis. When do you plan to release your original birth certificate?

Moving on, given your strange childhood and broken family (similar to that of Bill Clinton, the last unmitigated narcissist to occupy the White House), you indicated that your primary childhood mentor was a communist, Frank Marshall Davis.

How did his mentorship shape your understanding of the role of government and economics?

You claim that you never heard any of the anti-American and black-supremacist rants of your mentoring pastor, Jeremiah Wright. However, you spent 20 years in Wright’s church, he officiated at your marriage and the baptism of your children, and you identified him as a “father” figure.

Is it possible that you have been so steeped in his racist rhetoric and hatred for America that you failed to recognize it for what it was?

You claim that terrorist William Ayers was “just a guy in my neighborhood,” and that you were “just eight years old when he was a terrorist.” However, you were 34 when Ayers used his radical celebrity to launch your political career from his living room. You were 40 when this unrepentant terrorist was featured in a New York Times article (on the morning of September 11, 2001) and quoted in the opening paragraph proclaiming, “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.” Ayers added, “America makes me want to puke.” You were working on your second major “philanthropic” project with Ayers at that time, and when interviewed for your first Senate run, you claimed that your primary qualification for public office was your role with the ultra-Leftist Annenberg Foundation — an appointment that you received from Ayers.

So, what is the real nature of your relationship with Ayers?

Regarding your ties to the Socialist New Party, the ACORN crowd, Rod Blagojevich, Tony Rezko, Saul Alinsky, Father Michael Pfleger, Khalid al-Mansour, Kwame Kilpatrick, Louis Farrakhan, Rashid Khalidi, Raila Odinga and other haters, hard Leftists and convicted felons, are we to assume these were just “guys in your neighborhood”?

If you were a Civil Service Employee, could you pass a background check to receive a basic “Secret” clearance? If not, why should the American people trust you as the steward of their security? (OK, I know the answer. “No.”)

When you turned 18 years of age, did you register with the Selective Service System as required by law?

Regarding your “realtor” friend Rezko, how do the unusual circumstances surrounding the purchase of your Chicago mansion differ from the purchase made by former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham (R-CA) of his California house — a purchase that ended with his arrest and conviction?

George Bernard Shaw once wrote, “A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” All committed Socialists understand this principle. In 100 words or less, can you compare and contrast Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations with Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto? In 50 words or less, can you describe any significant difference between International Communism and National Socialism?

Whom do you hold accountable for the economic fiasco, and what is your plan to ensure it doesn’t recur? What is your plan to halt the imminent inflation resulting from the Fed’s printing of money to fund TARP and all the additional handouts?

Why do you think government can provide better and more efficient health care than the private sector? Keep in mind, yours is the same party that was regulating the housing market when it became the first economic domino to fall.

Can you explain how excessively taxing large corporations (which, in turn, pass these “fees” on to the consumer) provides economic “stimulus,” or how this makes lower- and middle-income Americans wealthier?

The motto of your campaign was “change,” but you have never specified what that change means — change from what to what? Based on the goals you have spoken about, it appears that you (and your handlers) would like to change our country from a democratic republic to a socialist/Marxist one. Would you please disabuse me of this notion?

You campaigned about needing “new blood” in Washington. Given this, how do you explain your selection of so many people from the Clinton and Carter administrations?

Our national debt stands at $10 trillion, and rises at a rate of roughly $75 million per hour each day. Do you see any problem with such large numbers, and if so, do you have a plan to fix it?

What is your plan to rein in congressional spending?

Define “rich.” As in “taxing the rich.” The amount appears to have varied depending upon which speech you and Joe Biden made during the campaign. $250,000? $200,000? $150,000? None of these pre-income tax amounts would qualify anyone as being rich, and yet, you voted to increase taxes on the “rich” at the $40,000 level.

During Bill Clinton’s administration, he raised taxes and government revenue collections decreased. George W. Bush reduced taxes and revenue collections increased. Why?

What yardstick will you use to determine when our troops should return home from OIF and/or OEF? How will you measure success? Given that the surge strategy in Iraq has, without question, worked, why is it that you cannot simply admit you were wrong?

What is it about leaders of states who sponsor terrorism and harbor terrorists that makes you believe peace is negotiable with them? What makes you think that Iran, Syria and terrorist entities such as Hamas, Fatah and Hezbollah will adhere to anything they might “agree” to in a signed document?

What is your position on amnesty for illegal immigrants? What is your vision for immigration reform, generally?

Vice president-elect Joe Biden said, “Mark my words. It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama. … Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy. I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate. And he’s gonna need help. … He’s gonna need you … to stand with him. Because it’s not gonna be apparent initially, it’s not gonna be apparent that we’re right.”

What in heaven’s name was he ranting about?

In regard to your so-called “National Service Plan” you stated, “We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded [as the military].” That sounds like a force of like-minded socialists, young pioneers, brown shirts, Obama youth, ready to trade brooms for guns.

What were you talking about?

On the subject of guns, you said of the Second Amendment (the palladium of all other rights), “I believe in the Second Amendment. Lawful gun owners have nothing to fear. I said that throughout the campaign. I haven’t indicated anything different during the transition. I think people can take me at my word.” However, your nominee for attorney general, Eric Holder, reaffirmed in the recent Heller case his long-held position that the Second Amendment confers no rights of individual gun possession by private citizens.

Can we still take you at your word?

What is your position on the Enumerated Powers Act (H.R. 1359), which would require all legislation introduced in Congress to “contain a concise and definite statement of the constitutional authority” empowering Congress to enact it?

And on the subject of constitutional authority, on 20 January, you will be taking this constitutionally prescribed oath: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Exactly what Constitution are you swearing to “preserve, protect and defend” — that which was written by our forefathers and defended by the blood of Patriots for generations since, or its vestigial remains, the so-called “Living Constitution” as amended by Leftist judicial diktat? After all, you said you would nominate Supreme Court Justices who met your ideological test rather than those who were impartial jurists.

If the latter, should anyone take your role as commander in chief seriously?

And a final question: At a Florida rally four days before the presidential election, you asserted: “[W]e want to do this, change our tax code (a.k.a. ‘redistribute the wealth’). … John McCain [calls] this socialistic. You know I, I, I don’t know when, when, uh, when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness.”

For the record, when you were an adolescent (by your own account, smoking dope and snorting coke) John McCain was a POW in Hanoi. Despite being a Naval Academy graduate and the son of a high-ranking admiral, McCain had requested combat duty and was assigned to the USS Forrestal. He was on the flight deck of the Forrestal during the inferno that killed 134 of his fellow sailors. He was flying his 23rd mission as part of Operation Rolling Thunder over Vietnam when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi. He was subjected to more than five years of horrific torture by the Communist NVA, including two years of solitary confinement.

You claim that John McCain has made “a virtue out of selfishness.” When will you issue a public apology for that odious remark?

source

SCI Law Seminar for Hunters

January 12, 2009

ATTENTION HUNTERS:  Please Attend Safari Club International’s Wildlife Law Seminar on Saturday, January 24! For those who are planning to attend Safari Club International’s Annual Convention in Reno, Nevada, at the end of this month, please be advised of a seminar that will be given on Saturday, January 24.  Entitled, “Wildlife Law: Issues and Controversies Regarding Wildlife Management and Use,” this seminar should be of particular relevance to hunters who are interested in the laws affecting the shipment of firearms and trophies across state and international borders, as well as those interested in current issues affecting the management of wildlife.  The seminar will be held from 8:45 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., on Saturday, January 24, at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa, located at 3800 S. Virginia Street, in Reno.  Admittance is $129, which includes the seminar, written materials, and single, same day admission to SCI Hunter’s Convention.  Registration will close on Monday, January 12.  For more information and to complete a registration form, please click here.  To learn about SCI membership and their convention, please visit www.safariclub.com.

Corporate Responsibility, the Gray Lady, and CNN

January 11, 2009

Corporate responsibility, The Gray Lady, and CNN. What do these two organizations have to do with the theme of being responsible business citizens? Not much it seems. They both appear to enjoy exposing secret material. Material that could easily get Americans and their allies killed.

The people that run organizations like those are anything but stupid. They are well aware of what they are doing, and of the possible results. Can their actions be called treason? Possibly. Irresponsible? Certainly! Publishing a story based upon sources that have to remain anonymous for reasons of security, should, to any rational person, be one big flashing light that says not to go there!

They will, and you can bank on this; say that they are protected by the First Amendment. Even as they seek to undermine the rest of the Bill of Rights, at least the parts that they don’t like. Well, you can’t yell fire in a theatre that isn’t on fire. Nor can you use fighting words and not expect to have ramifications result from your actions.

Something tells me that CNN, and it’s unnamed sources don’t want to own up to the responsibility they might incur when / if people get killed as a result of the article about the US refusing to help Israel take out Iran’s nuclear processing plant. If not, why no byline?

Just last week there were all sorts of complaints that Israel was not allowing real time reporting from inside the current war zone in Gaza. Well, the story that follows, is why.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush rejected several Israeli requests last year for weapons and permission for a potential airstrike inside Iran, the author of an investigative report told CNN.

Israel approached the White House in early 2008 with three requests for an attack on Iran’s main nuclear complex, said New York Times reporter David Sanger. His article appears in the newspaper on Sunday.

According to Sanger, Israel wanted specialized bunker-busting bombs, equipment to help refuel planes making flights into Iran and permission to fly over Iraq to reach the major nuclear complex at Natanz, the site of Iran’s only known uranium enrichment plant.

The White House “deflected” the first two requests and denied the last, Sanger said.

“They feared that if it appeared that the United States had helped Israel strike Iran, using Iraqi airspace, that the result in Iraq could be the expulsion of the American troops (from Iraq),” he said.

Full Story Here

Before things get out of hand..?

January 10, 2009

The sheer hypocrisy of the drug war is nothing new. By anyone’s standards it has been a losing battle since President Nixon declared it!  Now, since those in high places have refuse to acknowledge that fundamentally this is an economic battle;  violence has ravaged Mexico, and spilled over into the United States.Please note that in the following article said officials state that they fear that the violence will spill over… Perhaps they should check with the locals in San Antonio and Laredo, Texas for an outdated “update” so that they can get up to speed on this issue.

More to the point though is the absolute garbage tossed out by Michael Chertoff at the very end of the story. Hey! Jerk! Remember Compean and Ramos? The guys that were tossed under the bus by a renegade U.S. Attorney?

Gun Control, the Democrats are out for revenge

January 10, 2009

Ever since the election I have been commenting about how the politics of revenge will become the law of the land. My RSS feed has been going nuts about new taxes, new confiscation, and assorted other schemes that the gun control crowd are coming up with in order to deny you of your Constitutional rights with regard to being able to properly, and effectively defend your self, family, friends, and country.

What follows is among the best that I have come across.


Alan Korwin

Gun law update: Brady Gun-Ban Strategy Outlined

(Prior report with Brady gun-ban lists: http://www.gunlaws.com/newstuff.htm)

The powerful gun-ban lobby has developed its own language to color and disguise its true agenda — the disarming of law-abiding Americans in every way possible, and the end of effective self defense.

Their latest set of plans — used as a fund raiser (outlined below) — is filled with nice sounding terms that put a deceptive spin on their goals. Respect for the Bill of Rights is nowhere to be found, only clever end runs and literal destruction of rights Americans have always had.

Starkly missing from these plans is any direct attack on criminals — the whole game plan is aimed at firearms the public holds. It is a product of abject gun fear — hoplophobia — that afflicts the people behind the plan. They deny they’re hoplophobic, but just look at their plans, directed solely at restricting and eliminating guns — instead of the crime caused by criminals they nominally complain about. I noticed that all mentions of accident prevention, a former holy grail for the group, are gone.

The hypocrisy is unequivocal and self evident. Sarah claims, “We need to get these ‘killing machines’ off our streets.” Well, go ahead. Any person, on any street, operating any “killing machine” belongs in prison immediately under existing law, right? Everyone, even the Bradys, know this. It doesn’t matter if your gun is black, or too short, or holds the right amount of ammo.

The problem isn’t the “machines,” it’s the lack of law enforcement — in the bad parts of town and among the gangs where most of the problems occur (see maps: http://www.gunlaws.com/GunshotDemographics.htm). They will not admit this, and they do not address this.

Instead, they act out on their phobia and attack you and me. The real problem of crime and violence is just an excuse for them to work on disarming people who didn’t do anything.

The Federal Bureaucracy of Investigation, along with the Bureaucracy of Alcohol and Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives are in complete sympathy with the plan. The Brady plan will get them more staff, more office space, more of our money and more power, the acknowledged holy grail of bureaucrats.

Politically Corrected Glossary — of Bradyspeak

(See the entire glossary: http://www.gunlaws.com/politicallycorrect.htm)

Full article here

Al Qaeda Massacred By Ferocious Leathernecks

January 9, 2009

I think that maybe, just maybe, this account will put to rest the “Old Corp” verses the “New Corp” debate that has been going on for as long as I can remember.

Semper Fi Devil Dogs!

Iraq battle yields Navy Cross, 4 Silver Stars

By Gidget Fuentes – Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jan 8, 2009 20:59:38 EST

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — The Marine Corps will present the Navy Cross on Thursday to a junior grenadier credited with saving the lives of 10 fellow infantrymen and decimating a force of insurgents during a deadly 2005 firefight inside an Iraqi home.

Three other members of his infantry squad with 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, will receive Silver Stars during the ceremony at Camp Pendleton, Calif., according to 1st Lt. Curtis Williamson, a 1st Marine Division spokesman. A fourth Silver Star will be presented to the family of their former platoon commander, who died in the battle against 21 heavily armed insurgents in western Anbar province.

Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter recently approved the Navy Cross for Lance Cpl. Joshua A. Mooi, a grenadier assigned to Fox Company’s 2nd Platoon. The Navy Cross is the nation’s second-highest award for combat valor, after the Medal of Honor.

On Nov. 16, 2005, Mooi’s battalion was targeting al-Qaida operatives in New Ubaydi, along the Euphrates River. The missions were part of operation “Steel Curtain.”

Mooi’s platoon came under attack from insurgents firing automatic weapons and lobbing grenades from several fortified homes, officials said. Mooi fought back and helped recover four Marines hit by enemy fire.

Six times, he “willingly entered an ambush site to pursue the enemy and extricate injured Marines,” his award citation states. “Often alone in his efforts, he continued to destroy the enemy and rescue wounded Marines until his rifle was destroyed by enemy fire and he was ordered to withdraw.”

His “relentless and courageous actions eliminated at least four insurgents while permitting the immediate care and evacuation of more than a dozen Marines who lay critically or mortally wounded,” it states.

To date. 16 Marines and one Navy corpsman have been awarded the Navy Cross for their combat actions in Iraq.

Winter also approved Silver Stars for:

• 2nd Lt. Donald R. McGlothlin, the platoon commander who was killed as he laid suppressive fire against insurgents in an effort to shield the evacuation of wounded Marines from the house, his citation states.

• Staff Sgt. Robert W. Homer, 2nd Platoon’s sergeant, who fended off enemy grenades, small-arms fire and serious shrapnel wounds to lob suppressive fire and help treat and evacuate wounded Marines before he was ordered aboard a medevac helicopter, according to the citation.

• Cpl. Javier Alvarez, a squad leader who directed several magazines of suppressive fire as Marines tried to aid and evacuate the wounded and who himself was seriously wounded after he grabbed an enemy grenade before it detonated, the citation states.

• Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Jesse P. Hickey, the platoon corpsman who saved several Marines’ lives, at times running into the kill zone through enemy automatic fire to treat severely wounded members despite suffering injuries to one of his arms, according to his citation.

SOURCE

Marine legend Lt. Gen. Victor Krulak

January 7, 2009

I never met the man while growing up on Camp Pendleton, but I certainly did hear about him from time to time. Everything that I ever heard about him from the mostly older Marines, was that he was a “Marines Marine.”

Rest in peace General, you most certainly earned it.

Marine legend Lt. Gen. Victor Krulak dies

The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Jan 2, 2009 10:14:36 EST

SAN DIEGO — Lt. Gen. Victor Krulak, who headed all Marine forces in the Pacific during part of the Vietnam War, has died. He was 95.

Krulak died Monday at the Wesley Palms Retirement Community in San Diego, according to Edith Soderquist, a staff member at the facility. The cause of death was not immediately known.

Krulak commanded about 100,000 Marines in the Pacific from 1964 to 1968 — a span that saw the United States dramatically increase buildup in Vietnam.

Krulak, nicknamed “Brute” for his direct, no-nonsense style, was a decorated veteran of World War II and the Korean War.

After retirement, he often criticized the government’s handling of the Vietnam War. He wrote that the war could have been won only if the Vietnamese had been protected and befriended and if enemy supplies from North Vietnam were cut off.

“The destruction of the port of Haiphong would have changed the whole character of the war,” he said two decades after the fall of Saigon.

Krulak once summed up the U.S. dilemma in Vietnam by saying, “It has no front lines. The battlefield is in the minds of 16 or 17 million people.”

Before assuming command of Fleet Marine Force Pacific, Krulak served as principal adviser on counterinsurgency warfare to then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and the joint chiefs of staff.

“I never got enthusiasm out of war, and I’m convinced that the true pacifists are the professional soldiers who have actually seen it,” Krulak said many years after retiring from the post.

During World War II on the island of Choiseul, Krulak led his outnumbered battalion during an eight-day raid on Japanese forces, diverting the enemy’s attention from the U.S. invasion of Bougainville.

Krulak’s troops destroyed hundreds of tons of supplies, burning both camps and landing barges. He was wounded on Oct. 13, 1943, and later received the Navy Cross for heroism along with the Purple Heart.

At age 43 he became the youngest brigadier general in Marine Corps history up to that time. Krulak received the second of two Distinguished Service Medals when he retired from the military.

For the next nine years, he worked for Copley Newspapers, serving at various times as director of editorial and news policy and news media president of Copley News Service. He retired as vice president of The Copley Press Inc. in 1977 and contributed columns on international affairs and military matters for Copley News Service.

He also wrote the book “First to Fight,” an insider’s view of the Marine Corps.

His son Charles Krulak served as commandant — the Marines’ top post — from 1995 to 1999.

SOURCE