Monday, June 16, 2008

Goodbye Brave Heroes!

The following is an after action report for my time spent volunteering in Ft. Dix, NJ, while attending a ceremony to see off approximately 3,000 National Guardsmen, This past Saturday, June 14th:

After Action Report- Ft. Dix, NJ

6/14/08

My day started way too early, just after 0400 on Saturday morning. This was prior to driving down with to NJ to carpool with Elyse to her folk’s house on Friday night and staying up pretty late hanging out with Rich. Elyse and I stopped by Karl and his wife’s house on the way down, to drop off a megaphone that is almost as big as I am, with which to yell at Moonbats at Ft. Monmouth, NJ, like he does every Saturday. After catching up and settling down, we all got a few hours sleep. Just a few…

We were up at 0:dark-thirty, dressed and hit the road. I was having problems with my contact, which turned out to be defective (and not a scratched eye), and ended up doing my whole day with one in and one out. That was weird! We arrived at the base about 0600, drove around looking for the field for a while, and as soon as we found it, we went to work. Set up behind the bleachers, I started mixing lemonade and iced tea in big Army green coolers and other such stuff. By the time I made it to our tent, Rich was effectively supervising and I helped sort cakes that had previously been cut.

In our tent, we served Keebler and Girl Scout cookies, Home made coffee cake, angel food cake with pineapples and coconuts (sooooo good!) and pound cake, Entenmann’s cakes, pies and pastries and had tubs full of candy and Beanie Babies for the kids. I sort of assigned myself to this task, going back to my southern roots, I decided that these people were too good to serve themselves, but rather, I invited them in and served them whatever they wanted and as much of it as they cared for. They just needed to stick out the place that was handed to them.

I was assigned a few volunteers, the most adorable young men, who were Cadet Airmen, and I taught them the basics of said southern hospitality, and they really got into it. They officially announced the coffee cake was the best thing to try, because it was made with love. They don’t know it, but I say that about home made food all the time. Their names were Cadet Maj. Peter Daigle, Cadet 1st Sgt. Mark Untizs, Cadet Airman 1st Class Dan Krakower, Cadet Sr. Airman Steve Young, Cadet TSgt. Justin Zacher, Cadet Airman Basic Ryan Werner, Cadet Airman Basic John Mane, Cadet MSgt. Mike Cunningham, all under the command of Commander Captain Ulrich Gordon Lewis.

These young men took orders well, I’d like to thank their commander for a job well done there, and they were easy to manage. A big help when we would get several people at a time. I instructed them to hand out the plates and load it up with everything, and they followed my lead where being outgoing and customer service oriented went.

It was fun to get to know the people I was working with, joke around with the Cadets, many volunteers were there, and I was primarily around ARMS and Eagles Up. While I worked, as Rich reported, he handed out flags to so many people, and I loved watching the kids come get candy from us, after having received a flag from Rich, somewhere down the field. Elyse helped load stuff up and did a lot of networking to meet other folks, and get the Eagles Up name out there. I am surprised she didn’t get more sunburned!

After a while, I left my men at the table to continue serving and Elyse and I went to take pictures. Because of my one-eye thing going on, she took more than me, because I couldn’t see (I’m pretty blind). We watched and waited and cheered and yelled when our troops went marching by, and the crowd roared with love and those men and women walked ten feet tall. After standing in the heat for hours and then going to march, they paraded around the field for all to appreciate. It was truly moving.

Watching these brave men and women marching, I was filled with gratitude for them, and was so honored that I was able to be there and help give back to them. They sacrifice so much for our country and for me to be here in my climate controlled environment typing this, and I was just humbled by them. I was also very sad to know that some won’t make it back home alive. Some won’t come back physically whole people, or will be psychologically different people. This is the risk they take for us. They know full well what they’re walking into, and they volunteered to do it. I wouldn’t have taken any amount of money to be out there that day, supporting my men and women in uniform.

When the ceremony was over, we had quite a bit of food left over, and were puzzled over what to do. “Give it away!” Elyse’s mom said. I asked her, “Whole cakes?” She said, “YES!” Well, okay! I loaded up my arms, six and seven boxes at a time, and proceeded to walk all over the field, both behind and in front of the bleachers, handing out cakes to anyone who didn’t have a box in their hands. “Free cakes! Take one, God Bless you!” is what I would tell the soldiers, thanking them for their service (and for taking a cake). I did this over and over until there were no more cakes to give. We then had to deal with candy- donated were tubs of candy but divvied into Ziploc bags with about 7 or 8 pieces in each. Rather than hand a bag of candy out at a time, which could have taken hours, I grabbed a whole tub and walked around looking for kids. When I found them, I yelled, “Free candy!!” They looked at me like I was joking, and I assured them I was not! They came from everywhere, happy to dig into the bucket of sweets, and the parents were very happy about it as well. I did that again, until there were none left.

After cleaning down, being in the sun all day and busy working with very little sleep, we sat around and chatted while watching the Guards come with their huge forklift trucks to get the pallets of ice, bottled water and other soft drinks. Elyse and I watched this girl, who slugged those bags of ice and carried the heaviest things like any other man would. THAT was neat to witness. It was nothing to her- all in a day’s work.

In the end, this was, like Rich and Elyse, one of the most moving things I was ever able to be a part of, and it affected me deeply. The first time I went to DC, March 17, 2007, I felt that feeling; that humble yet proud feeling. I had it again the following September. This was that same feeling, only a bit different, in addition. It was like looking at the ocean or the mountains for the first time; that feeling of being very small, maybe even insignificant, in the grand scheme of things. But the awesomeness of being able to see those things is really something that you take with you. And I had that sort of feeling this weekend. It’s one of those things that you can take with you when it’s your time to go. I got to go there, serve them, to witness the love and admiration from the family and the pride and bravery of those men and women that numbered just under 3,000.

I can’t help but continually admit that I am a lucky person; and especially after taking part in that.

Sincerely,


Jenny Bea

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Who's Your Mommy?

I have been away from my site for a while due to the absolutely disgusting circus that has become our run up to electing a president, and the mess that the media has created with it all.

But I’m here now, and boy am I disgusted! I captured a screenshot of the Drudge Report this morning, I sat here in my chair, staring at the computer screen, wondering, “What is this about, anyway?” Obama has become the Golden Boy and everyone loves this guy, and I cannot for the life of me figure it out! His face is everywhere!

Let’s dissect the tiny amount we know about this man, starting with the most recent events:

One is that that stupid Catholic preacher at his Trinity church got in trouble over his sermon last week. Now this Pfleger guy got up into the pulpit and stated, “You know that I never come up here and talk about politics,” leaving the crowd under roaring and knowing laughter. At least these people know what sarcasm is…that may come in handy in the future. Why hasn’t his tax exempt status been revoked? Isn’t there a separation of church and state? Oh, nevermind, I guess not too many people really get that, anymore.

So they got rid of him, but only temporarily. I guess it has to come down to molesting little boys to be officially kicked out for good, no matter how much he insinuates white people think they’re entitled to things- as if black people don’t think that way. And to be honest, I was more offended by this guy than Wright- I think that Wright is indicative of how a lot of black people feel…Pfleger is just pandering to that emotion, thinking he can belong with them. He has no idea what it’s like to be black, but having been around them enough, he knows the words to say to folks to make them believe he understands what it’s like. What an imbecile. How insulting and embarrassing.

Oh, and for the record, MOST white people do not feel entitled- they want to go to work, pay their bills, feed their kids, make love to their spouse and be left the hell alone. And yes, all except for the making love to spouses part, that includes Hillary. How anyone could think otherwise is beyond me- that woman knows how much people hate her. She may feel privileged, but not entitled, but that ignorant Catholic idiot probably doesn’t understand the difference.

Next you have Wright, and both Pfleger and Wright have had the privilege of mentoring Obama, spiritually speaking, according to Obama. (Unless that was a “slip” like 57 states), this guy who also spouts some of the most hateful rhetoric…I can’t understand why they’re preaching the word of God. God is love. God doesn’t point out hateful things. God wants us to turn away from that and be in love. But boy, these two didn’t get that memo.

I frankly don’t care which church this guy wants to attend, it is telling of his character- the company he keeps, but what gets me most is the politics these people preach. They encourage their parishioners to vote and to vote a certain way- and in this case they aren’t voting for the white girl… What if Mike Huckabee did this? What if Mitt Romney did this? What about McCain? Neither would get away with it without the Drive By Media lashing out at them for the next two weeks. Why, that Huckabee had an ad with a bookcase behind him and people flipped out, thinking of the subliminal message the “cross” in the bookcase was. I understand WHY they flipped out- Huckabee doesn’t have enough bad to say about his country. He’s not dissing it and not playing these race baiting games, or promising he’s just going to take care of everyone, so people don’t want his good intentions. But Obama, with an ungrateful wife and racist pastor (with a part time nut job priest thrown in for good measure) can stand in a pulpit with a GIANT cross in the background, preaching his politics, pandering to that crowd. Obama, who has obviously never felt the LOVE of God, can get away with this. Even Hillary couldn’t.

The media are having not just A field day, but many field days. This must be like multiple orgasms for them, one right after the other, and it just never seems to stop coming for them. Between collecting the most unflattering pictures of the Witch and the most promising ones for Curious George, I mean Obambi…I mean Obama, then making fun of McCain’s age and insinuating he’s too old for the job, they-single handedly have picked both the republican and democrat nominee for the highest job in the land. Which ever channel you chose, you will hear only the opinion they want you to have regarding these people. You will hear the misquotes, the false accusations, false rumors, misstated facts, and it’s all pushed in your lap each and every night in hopes that you will do what they say and vote for whom they want to be elected.

Don’t believe me? How come Ron Paul never gets covered? The last bit of positive news from Hillary was Mt. Rushmore. Before that…I can’t remember- when was her birthday?

What really gets me is that the man hasn’t run a dishwasher. You wouldn’t put your 15 year old behind the wheel of your car. You’d wait until they had enough experience to be trusted driving. So does that mean that America has enough loose screws and utterly nutty people to elect such a boob? Tell me what he’s done that spells Commander in Chief? (and do people really believe him when he says he’s going to get the troops out of Iraq? The Dumbocrats said the same thing in 2006 and lied to the American Public-even admitted to lying…are we really going to fall for it this time?) He promises change…change WHAT? I like my country- a lot. I just hate the politicians. Obambi doesn’t know what it’s like to be a regular Joe. What is he going to change that is so great- how’s he going to do it without making my country unrecognizable to my ancestors? What change will he bring when he can’t even vote on real issues- hell when he does, he votes “present”, but most of the time, he just never shows up for his job!

Meanwhile, this being in your face almost all the time, your elected officials are taking your money and running with it, folks. They’re debating global warming legislation, now. They want to totally destroy our economy with “green” things, raise our taxes for “green” taxes, etc. They want to start taxing the plastic shopping bags in grocery stores, redefining “organic”, give more power to the federal government to regulate green markets, etc. Just what we need when we’re paying $4.50/gallon in gas. More tax. More politicians taking your money and telling you they’re spending it on something to benefit you, whether you like it or not.

And while they’re busy pretending to care about the environment, they’re leaving us screwed on our gas- how hysterical was it that they drug these big shot CEOs from the oil companies into congress last week to find out about their Big Bad Profits (you know, because in a capitalist society, you aren’t supposed to make that much), and what happens to our gas prices? They went up. And what percentage of the money from one gallon goes to the oil company, vs. taxes to the government? What did congress get done? Well, but they didn’t pull out of the war either, just like they said they would.

Aren’t you glad you can count on them???

Folks, we have before us, a wonderfully detailed picture of what our next four years look like, whether our president is the racist, socialist, pandering, inexperienced, lying idiot, or McCain. We will see our taxes go up for one of the biggest scams perpetrated on the American public, amnesty for illegals, more government entitlement programs, socialization of our people, destruction of our culture. We will go broke because of social security. America will have its collective butts wiped by the Feds, and taught that personal responsibility is a burden too great to bear any longer. We’re all a bunch of babies- victims- Why work when you can just have the government steal from the rich to line your pockets? Pretty soon, car payments might even get subsidized. I mean, I know they’re pushing for it for hurricane insurance…

I guess on the upside, when it’s all said and done, maybe I can buy a house. By that time, so many people will have come to foreclosure and the government will have bailed them out- I’m willing to bet an economic stimulus package enabling people to a down payment on a house to give the market a good boost. That could be you or me by that time, with the taxpayer footing that bill. I bet Obama would think that’s exactly the kind of change our country needs!

It won’t be me, though. Government is not my mommy.