CENSORED!!!!
This article is a great article in the sense that we should be remembering those who cannot be here this holiday season and a little less of the business that runs this country... just for a few short seconds. Businesses will not falter and customers will not divert from making sound business decisions in the 3 or 4 seconds it takes to read this short and brief article. It is the time for remembrance and reflection for the troops and their families, some who will be spending their first Christmas with with an empty plate set at the table.......Remember!!!! Some of those plates will forever be empty...... God Bless our troops and you read the article and be the judge. Let your comments be heard in the SOSFG Blog.
H.W. Lorenz, CEO, SOSFG
Ken Bradford
Without The Brave, There Would Be No Land Of The Free!
I just wanted to take time out from talking about business insurance and pause for a moment to thank all the brave men and women of our armed forces, who, so unselfishly each day, risk their very lives to see that we might remain free of the attacks from those who would cause us harm. May you all soon safely return home to your friends and family. Thank you for your sacrifice.
As we enjoy this holiday season and the special times we have to spend with our friends and loved ones, we must never forget those who are spending this season in far away lands, not enjoying a baby's first Christmas, a parent's last, or trimming the tree with their first love. On a personal note, my son is spending the holidays in Army basic training and my son-in-law is spending Christmas in
To all of you, I wish you a safe and happy holiday season and may the year ahead bring you the enjoyment of life you've only dreamed about.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS and MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Instantstream for Troops
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Courtesy of Transworld News.com
Free UN and International Collation Troops and their families, | ||||||||
| New York, NY 12/3/2006 8:37 AM GMT (TransWorldNews) New York, NY (Press Release) December 3, 2006 – Instantstream, Inc., launches “Video Furlough™ - Visit Your Spouse and Kids,” a free web-based video conferencing program. This service features Streamphone™, a global 24-hour web-based video conferencing service that is being made available to the US, UN and International Collation Troops and their families. Instantstream™ is offering the Streamphone™ video call and conferencing services free to the International Collation Troops to express the company’s gratitude to the many men and women of the Armed Services. It is Instantstream’s hope that they will bring families together with comfort and closeness to every soldier while they are away serving their countries. To get your free “Video Furlough™” accounts, send an email to Videofurlough@instantstream.com.
For the non-military people and organizations, Instantstream, Inc., offers a free trial to anyone visiting its site. Click here for a free Streamphone Ready™ Account. To find out more and setup up an in person consultation or to chat live with Michael Daly, CEO of Instantstream click here About Instantstream The Power of Instantstream™: It is time to get a good look at the future. It's called Instantstream™ and Streamphone™ 2.5. They will allow individuals to talk face-to-face with anyone, any time, anywhere in the world, with up to 50 participants and more than 50,000 viewers for business or personal needs. Anyone or any organizations receiving a video conference call is Streamphone Ready™ today and they can see, speak and interact with anyone else in the world. Streamphone™ has no contracts, no yearly commitments, no downloads, no technical issues and with no problems! Just Click, Connect, and Collaborate to more than 526 million people, organizations, companies and governments around the world. Instantstream™ operates a voice and video application called Streamphone™, that works effortlessly and flawlessly anywhere in the world on 98% of all computing devices (PC, MAC, SUN, POCKET PC, PDA, UMPC and Smart-Cell phones and over any network, internet, wireless data network). Streamphone™ 2.5 is a next generation video call / conferencing communication solution. Streamphone Ready™ paying customers travel the world with only one Streamphone™, PC or PDA, and make video conference calls to any country in the world for as low as .02 cents a minute in Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, Middle East, the United States and the rest of the world. Streamphone™ 2.5 is factory installed on most computing devices by the manufacturer and 526 million people are Streamphone Ready™ today! Over the last 7 months, the Instantstream Team has traveled the world on a global road show demonstrating this new video conferencing call service to governments, the military, organizations, global corporations and consumers. According to Michael Daly, CEO of Instantstream, "Over the last 12 months, based on our core Streamphone™ and IMLEC Technology, we at Instantstream, Inc. have developed the next generation Video Conference Call Service, Distance Learning, Military and Defense, Homeland Security, Police Protection, Border Patrol and Surveillance, Mobile Video Surveillance and Airline Security Surveillance Applications.” Mr. Daly further stated, "Over the next coming months, Instantstream™ will develop industry partners for the marketing and sales of these new technologies. We are making ready a scheduled release of these new applications with partners, so stay tuned for the next press release. By developing the Streamphone™ video communication technology, Instantstream™ is providing a cost-effective alternative video conferencing solution to organizations, companies and people around the world.” Streamphone™ is now installed on more than 526 million Computers, Smartphone's Lenovo ET960, Samsung i830, Samsung i730, Lenovo i921, HTC P3600 ), Pocket PC's HP iPAQ hx4705 Pocket PC, Dell x51v], Ultra Mobile PCs, (UMPC - Sony ux180p, Samsung Q1, Dualcor ), PDA's and Cell Phones around the world. “Best of all, Instantstream™ customers do not require the services of a computer expert to set up, schedule and run video conference calls. Customers only need a computer, a web-cam, a headset and the desire to be Streamphone Ready™," Mr. Daly concluded. Detailed information on Instantstream is available on the World Wide Web at Instantstream.com, Inc. | ||||||||
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 ceo@instantstream.com www.instantstream.com | ||||||||
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Living The Legacy...A Soldiers View
"electronic paper". I doubt vary much weather I will ever expose this
material to others but maybe there is a time and place for all of that
later on in my life.
I feel that what I do now is a direct reflection on what is to come
with my children and/or the future generations to come, if we flee from our
posts and let the "Enemy" win this war we may never be able to gain
face again.
military as well. I feel pain, it's a pain that hurts but is also
something that gives me a feeling of self gratitude at the end of the
day. I spend my days and nights patrolling a city that I sometimes
think might end up eating us all whole while I am laying in my cot,
sleeping bag, hole, whatever I can provide myself to sleep with for the
night. These streets may not look as bad as they really are, I sometimes
find myself thinking that its normal to see spent AK 47 rounds and
grenade spoons laying around the streets. But the streets like to
remind you when you are least thinking about getting hit. Then the
fight jumps out and bites you in the butt, if you are not quick to react
and swift on your feet you might not make it threw the day.
next to me, the buildings next to me are getting pepperd by nearby
explosions and the choppers above me are spinning there gattling guns
dropping hundreds of spent rounds on the ground leaving a trail of dust
and broken down mud houses in there paths. Sometimes it feels so
natural to exert myself to these levels of stress. Sometimes it almost
feels comfortable.
to? Its one of those stories were I have been away from civilization
and reverted to my most primitive states to survive in the most extreme
situations to avoid becoming pray to the other lions in the world.
my nose is sensitive to gunpowder and smoke, my eyes see the world in a
panoramic view constantly picking up particular signs that may need my
attention. While my hair, nose, and eyes are doing the scanning my
mind is on possible outcomes to situations, probabilities, and most of all
the welfare of my soldiers. I expend all energy keeping the momentum
up and continue on when the energy is gone. The gut instincts have all
become my scences and fear has become my motivation to push forward
threw this battlefield.
make them. You also must know the abilities of each of your soldiers
so you don't put them in a position they may not be able to handle, you
maybe bringing them back yourself.
have made of it, also, what you do to make it better. No one goes to war
knowing that they might loose something in the future, they go to war
knowing that they have already lost something and are willing to fight
to get it back. I understand that there are some that cannot fight for
themselves, and others that choose not to. There is less than 6% of
the American population that has been in the armed forces and much less
currently in it today.
We all eventually will leave this world hopefully with memories of
restoring a country to sanity and bring them there rightfully deserved
freedoms as we promised, not that of the killing and destruction that
it took to make it that way. Although we will never forget the things we
did, we will forever live with the self gratitude knowing that we were
all apart of an on going legacy to make the world a better place and
stood our ground even when the odds were against us 3 fold. Our lives
today were directly reflected on the bravery of our fathers taking
action in the jungles of Vietnam, and that of there fathers in the
beaches of Normanday.
noise a grenade makes when they are thrown at you. When they watch a
movie on past wars they will mistake theatre for reality because they
will not know the difference between the two in a real life situation.
They may read in a news paper of something unfortunate going on, or
maybe deal with the regular life issues that I had as a kid growing up.
But never will I desire them to witness hell in all its purities.
Hopefully they will see what I have done in the past and use it as a
tool to learn from in the future, I want them to view me as a good
example despite my own flaws.
S.O.S. "A Mom Thing"
Well it’s 5:30 in the morning, (05:30 military time) I just got off the phone from my son in Iraq. The third call from him since November of 2003. I try and remember the sound of his voice and how much it has changed.
His voice was exhausted, And with the news that he shared with his father and I hit me like a ton of bricks. He had received a purple heart, but didn’t want us to worry that he was fine. Now as a mother I couldn’t help but feel the vulnerability of my fears. As thoughts race threw my mind of what had happened. To Dan it was no big deal, but to me as a mother my memories of his growing up was is full detail etched into mind. Every hurt and scrapped knee, from his first step to his first love and heartache. Now I am not saying that fathers don’t have the same way of thinking, but as the nurturer of the family my heart aches to hold my son. My mom always said, “A mother will die a thousand deaths for their children.” Oh how true that can be.
Now Dan knows that I surf the internet for any news on the war in Iraq, and do find things that he doesn’t want me to know. But I gotta tell you. It is worse not knowing than knowing. I tell him that it is a “mom thing” and that pretty much sums it up. My “mom thing” is finding strength with other moms and sharing stories and pictures like I did when he was younger. This “mom thing” has given me a sixth sense. I know when he is hurting. I feel his pain, his frustration and his fears. When he left to board the plane I kissed him on the cheek and put the sign of the cross on his forehead and asked God to give him a guardian angle to watch over him and guide him through the battle that he was about to fight.
He told me this morning that he truly felt his guardian angle’s wings around him when the grenade exploded in front of him. Was it instinct that made him use the hatch door as cover or was it his guardian angle protecting him? Was it the rigorous training that he received or was it his guardian angle? Was it the hatch door that protected him and his squad or their guardian angles? I do believe it was both. I am amazed at the spiritual strength that these soldiers have come to, to depend on so sincerely and openly. Dan has told me that there isn’t a day that goes by that he doesn’t thank God for a safe day or a day not started that he and his squad don’t ask for protection. Maybe it’s not just a “mom thing” anymore. May God watch over and guide our soldiers and bring them all home safe.
Pray for peace,
Dorothy Swanson
The Purple Finger of Freedom Prevails
An Incredible Day
Today I got to witness first hand a new democracy take its first steps. My day started early....acutely my day started about 4 days ago because we have been going non-stop since then, hence no updates lately. I was up at 5am and my head was pounding and my sinuses were killing me. I was up and out with my team by 5:30am....I had to get at least one cup of coffee in me before I left. The day started slow and we had some small arms fire, 8 rockets shot at us, and we found one IED.
The small arms fire and the rockets missed us. The IED was another matter, but we called our bomb guys and they took care of it with their bomb robot. Which, by the way, is their third robot. The first two died in the line of duty. The press showed up in droves. It would have been impossible to swing a dead cat and not hit a reporter in our area of operation today. I met Campbell Brown from NBC. She was likeable, but you could tell she did not want to be in Baghdad....she was very jumpy and looked a nervous. I guess we were that way when we first got here too but you get used to the shooting. Later, when we were dealing with the IED, a guy from PBS filmed the whole episode and told me that he was shooting a documentary for PBS. He had the camera in my face for about a half an hour while we got set to blow the IED. It is a little weird trying to get rid of a roadside bomb when guy has a camera in your face. I finally got him to leave me alone when I told him we were going to blow the bomb in place. Since the bomb was on a bridge there was no where to hide so I put him behind my armored hummer and he stayed put. We blew the IED and the PBS guy left. We had very tight security on the polling sites and all around our area of operation. Iraqi police and Iraqi Army soldiers were at every polling site defending them. I have been planning for about 8 days for this mission and it was the largest we have done to date. Infantry, armor, attack helicopters, engineers.... you name it, we had it.
The Iraqi government shut down all traffic in the country so the streets were deserted. At about 10am the streets were packed with large crowds of people walking to the polls. We were on edge waiting for more attacks that never came. By about 3pm we could start to let our hair down and talk to the people. The site was amazing.&We dismounted from our vehicles and were instantly mobbed by about 200 kids. The kids were all over the place playing in the streets while their parents voted. The kids walked with us for about 2 miles while we were talking to the adults. I have never seen anything like it. People everywhere wanted to talk to us and thank us. This is what it must have been like when the Allies liberated Paris. Iraqis of all ages wanted to shake our hands and thank us for allowing them to vote. The kids were proud to tell us that their parents voted. Adult after adult wanted to thanks us for making this day happen. When the Iraqis voted they dipped their fingers in indelible purple ink so that polling officials could tell who had already voted. When we walked the streets the Iraqis would hold their purple finger up in the air as a mark of pride.
They were very proud of their purple finger. The Iraqis statements to us were all the same; "Thank you for your sacrifices for the Iraqi people", "Thank you for making this day possible" The United States is the true democracy in the world and is the country that makes freedom possible", God blessed the Iraqi people and the United States this day", " We have never known a day like this under Saddam", "This day is like a great feast, a wonderful holiday". I shook more hands today then I have ever in my life. If you missed a hand they would follow for a mile to get a chance to shake and say thanks. It was nothing like we expected or have ever seen. The Iraqi people were strong and brave today. The Iraqis stoic to danger, faced fear, and went out and voted. Then after they voted the Iraqis stayed on the streets to celebrate by singing dancing and trying to shake the hand of any American that they could find. Even though today was a great day for Iraq, the Iraqis took their lumps. There were 6 car bombs in Iraq today, 2 of them in Baghdad. One I believe did more for Iraqi moral then any other event I that I have ever witnessed here.
A suicide car bomber drove up to a polling site, which was not to far from us, and blew up. The bomb did not kill anybody but the bomber himself. After the bomb went off the Iraqi voters calmly walked out of the polling site and spit on the remains of the suicide bomber. The polling site stayed open and the voting continued. That incident ran all day long on Iraqi TV. It was a beautiful act of defiance for the Iraqi people.
The Iraqi people stood up for themselves today and stuck a purple finger in the enemy's eye. Later in the day I thought about our sacrifices that we have made. I wondered if the three men that my unit has sent home in flag draped coffins was worth what I saw today. I am still not sure if that is the case, but when a grown Iraqi man thank me with tears running down his face it made me feel better about what we have accomplished. Much later that night we had two Kiowa attack Helicopters working for us. One of our sister battalions was in contact and needed help. We diverted the helicopters to the other battalion and watched. A unit of the other battalion was under attack by 15 insurgents. The enemy was trying to flee on foot in the open. That was a mistake.
The Kiowa's launched 10 rockets and hammered the enemy. The pilots report after they attacked was two words, "Target Destroyed" !
Why Are We In Iraq?
"Why Are We In Iraq"
The other day, my nine-year-old son wanted to know why we were at
war...My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in
the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend
our Country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good
explanation. My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to
go stand in our front living room window.
He said "Son, stand there and tell me what you see?"
"I see trees and cars and our neighbor's houses." he replied.
"OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the
States of America
Our son giggled and said "OK."
"Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house and
yard on this block is a different country" my husband said.
"OK Dad, I'm pretending."
Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and pretend you see
Saddam come out of his house with his wife, he has her by the hair and is
hitting her. You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face, He
throws her on the ground, then he starts to kick her to death. Their
children run out and are afraid to stop him, they are screaming and crying,
they are watching this but do nothing because they are kids and they are
afraid of their father. You see all of this, son....what do you do?"
"Dad?"
"What do you do son?"
"I'd call the police, Dad."
"OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations. They take your call.
They listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to help. What do you do
then son?"
"Dad.......... but the police are supposed to help!" My son starts to whine.
They don't want to son, because they say that it is not their place or your
place to get involved and that you should stay out of it," my husband says.
"But Dad...he killed her!" my son exclaims.
"I know he did...but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want you
to look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you're
pretending is Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his children."
"Daddy...he kills them?"
"Yes son, he does. What do you do?"
"Well, if the police don't want to help, I will go and ask my next door
neighbor to help me stop him," our son says.
"Son, our next door neighbor sees what is happening and refuses to get
involved as well. He refuses to open the door and help you stop him," my
husband says. "But Dad, I NEED help! I can't stop him by myself!"
WHAT DO YOU DO SON?" Our son starts to cry.
"OK, no one wants to help you, the man across the street saw you ask for
help and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller and puffs
out his chest. Guess what he does next son?"
"What Daddy?"
He walks across the street to the old ladies house and breaks down her door
and drags her out, steals all her stuff and sets her house on fire and
then...he kills her. He turns around and sees you standing in the
window and laughs at you. WHAT DO YOU DO?"
"Daddy..."
"WHAT DO YOU DO?" Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers,
"I'd close the blinds, Daddy."
My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks him. "Why?"
"Because Daddy.....the police are supposed to help people who needs
them...and they won't help.... You always say that neighbors are supposed
to HELP neighbors, but they won't help either...they won't help
me stop him...I'm afraid....I can't do it by myself Daddy.....I can't look
out my window and just watch him do all these terrible things
and...and.....do nothing...so....I'm just going to close the blinds.... so
I can't see what he's doing........and I'm going to pretend that it is not
happening."
I start to cry. My husband looks at our nine-year-old son standing in the
window, looking pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husband's
questions and he says...
"Son"
"Yes, Daddy."
"Open the blinds because that man.... he's at your front door... "WHAT DO
YOU DO?"
My son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up his
tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without hesitation he
says: "I DEFEND MY FAMILY DAD! I'M NOT GONNA LET HIM HURT MOMMY OR MY
SISTER, DAD! I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM, DAD, I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM!"
I see a tear roll down my husband's cheek and he grabs our son to his chest
and hugs him tight, and says... "It's too late to fight him, he's too strong
and he's already at YOUR front door son.....you should have stopped him
BEFORE he killed his wife, and his children and the old lady across the way.
You have to do what's right, even if you have to do it alone, before its too
late," my husband whispers. THAT scenario I just gave you is WHY we are at
war with
greatest atrocities in the world won't affect him. "YOU MUST NEVER BE AFRAID
TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT! EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO DO IT ALONE!" BE PROUD TO BE AN
AMERICAN! BE PROUD OF OUR TROOPS! SUPPORT THEM! SUPPORT
This should be printed in every newspaper and posted in every school in
blinds are closed do nothing with this email. If they are open I do not need
to tell you what to do.
GOD BLESS!
Steven R Chandler, CMSgt
332 ELRS/Vehicle Management
Flight Balad
