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Faces most of us remember _Hollywood Veterans.pdf

Our president signed a bill, and it looks great for our troops, just a heads up. And it looks great for our NASA program! Please no politics, this is just a heads up for our vets and active duty who may be reading, some new bene's are in town along with a pay raise, and a chance for retired military to transition to recruiting. Any controversial commentary regarding our current president and past administrations will be deleted immediately, this is an FYI only for our troops and interested parties. Please stay away from any commentary positive or negative towards current or past administrations, only commentary on the actual bill itself are allowed. Cheers https://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/12/12/trump-signs-defense-bill-heres-what-it-means-you.html?ESRC=army-a_171214.nl

Introduction Our very own Patriot Woodworker John Mordus, or better known in our circles as @honesttjohn, is an artist on CNC (computer numerical control) woodworking. John was one of the first CNC woodworkers to join our community and helped crowd our new CNC forums. One of John's favorite creations he performs on his CNC machine are the military plaques he enjoys carving. You can see his CNC gallery featuring these very plaques here at: John's Contribution John contacted us and asked us if we could use any of his work to benefit our current project for our Gold Star Widow Nicole Merlo. As you all know we are in the midst of raising funds for the Merlo Family. The carvings below are for sale. All the proceeds from the sale of these items will be used to purchase their Christmas meal for the family, which is a stipulation of our project as assigned to us by Operation Ward 57. Yes I know, 200 dollars is a good fair amount for a Christmas meal, but let's hope the Merlo Family will have a Christmas meal they will never forget! Perhaps they'll invite some friends over, perhaps they'll go a Prime Rib route in addition to the traditional Turkey and Ham. Whatever they decide to do, it will be memorable, and they can shop without worry for their memorable Christmas meal as provided by you, The Patriot Woodworker's. Each plaque has approximately 10 hours of glue up and carving labor into them. These are American Crafts of high quality and workmanship. (shipping will be paid by the TPW community, so that all 200 dollars will reach the Merlo Family) How to purchase Please leave a reply to this topic here if you wish to purchase one or both of these beautiful carvings. Keep in mind, these are also displayed throughout our Merlo Family project portals such as Facebook and Twitter, we reserve the right to sell these carvings outside of our Patriot Woodworker community, all here will be notified immediately if one or both carvings sell outside of our community before they sell here. In Closing We want to thank everyone who has contributed to this project with your raffle ticket purchases, your "getting out the word campaigns", just being here, and all your best wishes for the success of this years Christmas project. And we want to thank John Mordus for his material contribution to the project. You all have come through wonderfully this year, nothing more can be asked of you all, we have some big donors of treasure through our raffle, and we have had some very important smaller donors through our raffle, because even though they don't have much for themselves, they still managed to come up with a few extra dollars to help make a difference in a Gold Star widows Christmas. All contributions hold equal weight, we have all given what we can, and most importantly, it was all done with heart. We truly have the greatest and smallest woodworking community in the cyber world. After all, we are: The Few, The Proud, The Patriot Woodworkers! Thank you Patriot Woodworkers!

While perusing my Facebook friends pages I came across Scott Phillips who was posing in a most awesomely cool picture of himself, and his WWII Veteran Dad. What a great pic!

September 11th 2001, I woke up and went to the living room and asked my mother what movie she was watching. She turned with tears in her eyes and said it's not a movie it's the news. I was going to St Pete Community College to enter the military as an officer. I continue to get ready for the day and went to school. When I arrived the first class we turned on the TV and continued to watch. They then cancelled classes for the rest of the day. I left and immediately went to my recruiter. I told him I no longer want to finish this as an officer application but I want to go in as enlisted now. He processed my paper as fast as he could and next thing I know I was on my way to basic training. I had signed on as a uh60 helicopter repair with the possibility of going flight and being a crew chief door gunner. My first Duty station was Camp Stanley Korea with 2nd Infantry Division. When we arrived we went straight to the sergeant majors office. He asked the five of us "who would like to go into maintenance?". Three of them raise their hands and he said perfect, that's just what I needed, you two are going flight. I then reported to my company and was sent to Green platoon to learn how to be a non-rated crew member. I spent my tour in Korea doing air assault resupply missions Etc. I was then transferred to the general officer platoon due to my ability as a crew chief. I then was the personal crew chief for the assistant division Commander maneuver assistant division Commander support and the division Commander under VIP missions. When I left Korea I was sent to Soto Cano Air Base in Honduras. The main missions were humanitarian Aid and Counter Narcotics. In 2004 we had a major deployment to Haiti for "Operation Secure Tomorrow". The mission was to overthrow and oust Aristide. After 3 months we had completed our mission and preparing to redeploy back to Honduras. We then got word to stand down one week before we were going to leave due to a major incoming storm. We then provided humanitarian Aid throughout the country as it was devastated by said storm. We delivered rice water cooking supplies Etc. This is where I first truly experienced death. Bodies floating in flood waters along with bodies crushed underneath landslides with arms and legs sticking out just to name two things. We then redeployed to Honduras and I continued my missions until I I went to my next Duty station. I then was stationed with the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii. In 2006 we deployed to FOB Speicher, Iraq. We did resupply missions for troop movement missions and air assaults and air coverage for ground assaults Etc. On October 26th 2006 we had a mission to bring VIPs to determine how to repair and guard an oil pipeline that was blown up. We dropped off the VIPs and loitered in the area. Well wheel ordered the wind shifted 180 degrees and our new Landing Zone was in the area of Fallout from the fire. We were approximately 40 ft above ground level when the dust kicked up and stuck to the windows due to the oil in the talcum powder dust. The new pilot that was flying next to the instructor pilot panicked and dumped the collective instead of transitioning to instruments. I was standing up outside the crew window to ensure we didn't contact the pipeline. When we hit the ground I crumpled into the window frame on the side of the butterfly grips of my machine gun and the lower window sill. We then rotated on to the right landing gear and somehow managed to land back on the left. I don't understand how this happened as we were past the point of dynamic rollover. This is when the aircraft is past a certain degree that will not be able to recover and continue and roll. They denied what happened due to not wanting it on record. After about a month I went to my platoon later and told him I cannot fly anymore as I was hurt too bad. I was denied medical care or medical evacuation and immediately transferred to the support battalion. While I was there the same aircraft came in for phase maintenance. I immediately told them not to touch the aircraft and we need to perform a hard Landing inspection due to what happened. they then went to my unit and asked where the records of this hard landing were. I don't know what was said but it was recorded somewhere and when we redeployed I was able to get checked out by the doctors. That's when they found out my neck back hips knees ankles feet and wrists were injured. I was then transferred to the Wounded Warrior Battalion where I received treatment and was in the process of medical retirement. Unfortunately I had a suicide attempt and was inpatient at Tripler Medical Center. If you miss two appointments during your Retirement Board they cancel it and send you back to your unit. I had already been back to my unit as I was told that's where I had to be to finish my paperwork. My unit had already deployed to Afghanistan so I was placed on the rear detachment. The persons in charge were the ones that they didn't trust to deploy or hold a weapon or lead troops. While I was in the hospital the acting platoon Sergeant illegally made appointments for me knowing I couldn't make them due to being inpatient. When I saw the acting Commander he threatened me with a bat and acts, as well as another Soldier to shoot him when we go to the range next time. a short time later my wife who was pregnant with her second child and was having a complicated pregnancy was in the emergency medical care unit on base. I was told to return to my unit and I replied with "I cannot as my wife is here with serious issues". They then sent other NCO's to escort me back. I said under my breath if he threatens me again I will throw them out the window. At the time I was so medicated that I was literally drooling on myself. I was then given uniform code of military Justice punishment. they stripped me of my rank and placed me on extra Duty and as soon as that was finished I was discharged on a personality disorder. I have spent the last seven and a half years fighting the VA to receive treatment and care that was appropriate and to receive my disability. I am still fighting with the Army to receive my medical retirement and that is where I currently stand. I was approved for Social Security disability and now currently waiting on my back pay and check but they have yet to make a decision on how much it should be. Hopefully it is what it should be as this will bring us out of the hole as I support a family of 5 solely on VA disability and a small caregiver check that my wife receives to take care of me. I personally think this is a ridiculous hell veterans! We can provide all sorts of things to illegal immigrants Etc but yet we cannot help homeless veterans and we make it extremely difficult for injured veterans to receive benefits. And that is just a brief summary of what happened during my Enlistment in the army.

HOOAH!!!!!!!!!! Vince Speranza is the real deal, he jumped into Bastogne in WWII, and the rest is bloody. He showed up at this Airborne graduation for the young graduates, and they all had a great time. Links of interest Story of Ceramic Helmet Beer tradition Video on Vince What a treat for the young graduates! Message from the videographer: Recorded on my iPad , the night of 22 October 2016 at the Frederick Army Air Field in Frederick, Oklahoma. It blows my mind to see this has had over 600k views in the last 24 hours and I have been asked to make a public version so here it is. If you see fit to share, please make sure to include my entire message below so nobody thinks we were drinking anytime around Jump Operations. Enjoy! "WWII Jump School is over and it was an amazing experience. We had our Graduation ceremony and celebration party on Saturday and got to party with this bad arse- Vince Speranza NOTE: this has been shared for you bros. pleasure and if you repost, please make sure to include that this drinking occurred hours after graduation and closing of all Airborne Operations. WWIIADT rules require at least 8 hours after drinking before doing anything, but in this case there were absolutely no operations the next day as we were all dragging ourselves through TSA lines and going home."

The rodeo was in town over the weekend. My wife, dad and I went to it Friday and Saturday nights. Saturday night is always Patriot Night and they do something like this every year. Very Awesome and very Moving. I tried to video when the Rodeo Queen brought in the American Flag, but I hit something other than record and I didn't get it. I hope this works, I have never posted a video before, here or elsewhere:

Just now saw John's link for one such program in FL. In my working life as a Speech/Language Pathologist, I was privileged to witness the amazing results of Hippotherapy with cerebral palsy afflicted kids, Autistic children and adults, behavioral disorders and children with fetal alcohol syndrome. There's no doubt this type of therapy would benefit many of our vets with PTSD and various other related traumatic injuries. Here is LINK to the AHA site showing the certified therapists in each state. Most of the hippotherapists I knew were not only skilled in the techniques but also in the navigation of the various bureaucratic paperwork necessary to get folks the help.

So for practice in woodworking i was thinking due to lack of materials using scap to design build functioning ancient weaponry. Such as a trebuche mult arrow launcher guitine ets. Great way to annoy coworkers hahaha and suggestions or input? Will make vid but will take time due to not knowing how to make them or vid yet. What should i attempt first? Also after this weekends retreat i saw this come across my fb feed. This is SO true. Like a duck under water and upstairs is 58809 it r32 24th 557889 miles per second. Im a 4 time surivor. We have to much pride and to much drink water and drive on habit we dont do anything untill its to late....Reach out to anyone. One may be a vet and even if not its still helping someone who has invisible wounds.....

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2017/03/president-trump-signs-vietnam-war-veterans-day-act-honor-nam-vets-flying-flag-march-29/ Welcome Home.

This morning I saw a blurb from Gov. Rick Perry of Texas supporting an organization Advance the Colors. I went to the website https://advancethecolors.org/ and I could not find anything on the site other than it's a place for veterans to tell their stories. The site lacks any content whatsoever except for a donation button. There is no "About Us", or "Contact Us" or "Mission Statement", nothing. I was hoping someone here may visit the site and put another set of eyes on it and see if I am missing something, another link or button somewhere? I was going to install the site in our Links Directory, but I would rather not at this point given the state of the website.

Veterans Day for Americans, and Remembrance Day for our Canadian and Commonwealth friends. In both of our countries they are recognized on the same day, and both days are just as important to each others nations. The Patriot Woodworker's would like to wish our Canadian and Commonwealth friends a memorable and thoughtful Remembrance Day this Friday, November 11th. For more information on Remembrance Day please see Remembrance Day Wikipedia. To our own veterans here in the U.S. The Patriot Woodworker's want to thank you for your service and sacrifices, many of you have returned home from conflict whole, and many of you have returned home wounded. And many of you served during peace time. We can never repay our veterans for their service to our nation and our people, we stand on the shoulders of our veterans and active duty as we go about our daily lives living free and taking for granted the security and protections our veterans and active duty have afforded us. Without our military, we would be a nation under attack constantly, it is because of our service members we sleep soundly at night, knowing that the life we went to bed with, will be the same life we awake with. That same certainty cannot be guaranteed to our active duty and veterans alike. The lives of our active duty change daily, and the lives of our veterans contain memories and nightmares of their service and constant reminders of their own sacrifices in the form of physical scars and PTSD. Please know you are not forgotten! Thank you Veterans! To our Patriot Woodworker's here today, many of you are veterans as well. Thank you for your service, in honor of your service to our nation and for our veterans as well from Canada, we ask that you reply to this topic by answering the following. What branch of service were you in? Where did you serve? What unit, group, were you in? What was your MOS or occupational military skill and job? What was the time frame of your service? Are you disabled as a result of your service? Also please feel free to honor friends and family who have served, are serving, or may no longer be among the living today. We'd love to hear your stories, memories, and your experiences. Thank you all, and thank you Veterans for your service!

While not the greatest discount...probably would cover shipping for small items...at least they're thinking about our men & women who've served! Grizzly Offers Military Discount

I saw this on my news feed last night. Too awesome not to share. It makes me proud to be a Hoosier and to see young people value our American heritage, freedom and the price for having it! God bless you Shayla! Pumpkins for Freedom

Good morning folks, just wanted to direct your attention to a really wonderful blog written by our friend Frank Byers of Woodcraft and Woodworking Adventures fame about the Hand Tool Coach, Rob Cosman. Rob has opened up a place in his business and in his heart for our veterans in disability. Please read up on Rob and his efforts, and about the Marine who influenced Rob in a big way. And, if you are a veteran with a disability, Rob has opened up a free membership for you as well. Please read all about it here at: