Heroes...Alive and Dead

[Ryan Ruck]

Col. Barfoot, MOH WWII Vet Who Fought Neighborhood Association Over Flag, Has Died

March 2, 2012

Medal of Honor recipient Colonel Van T. Barfoot passed away Friday morning at the age of 92, according to his family.

Col. Barfoot was stepping outside of his Henrico County home on his way to visit his daughter early Tuesday afternoon when he fell and hit his head on the masonry walk beside his famous flagpole.

As it turns out, he had suffered multiple skull fractures.

When he didn’t show up, his daughter came looking for him, said Van T. “Tom” Barfoot Jr. of Washington state.

“And she came in the house, lo and behold he had actually picked himself up and was cleaning himself up,” Barfoot said. “She took him to the emergency room and, from there, he was still cognitive and talking. He went in and got a CT scan. Afterwards, he slipped into a coma.”

There’s no doubt Barfoot, of Chocktaw Indian and English ancestry, was a rugged man.

“He was an amazing individual,” Tom Barfoot said. He had a tremendous desire to do what was right and to live.”

That’s what he was doing on May 23, 1944 during a battle near Carano, Italy. Then a sergeant, he took a bazooka to a tank fight and won it, then helped two of his injured men to safety – a mile away.

That’s why he was awarded the Medal of Honor. At the time of his death, he was one of 83 living recipients.

“He knew that people looked at him, having been a medal of honor recipient, as being a war hero,” Tom Barfoot said. “But he never saw himself as being a hero . . . Dad’s legacy was, to me, was family. He was all about his God, his family and his country, in that order.”

Col. Barfoot made headlines three years ago when he fought a battle with his Sussex Square Homeowners’ Association, which wanted him to take down his flagpole. The HOA only allowed angled flag poles to be mounted on homes. Barfoot said that was a dishonor to the flag and insisted on raising and lowering his flag on a free-standing pole in his yard. The HOA eventually backed down.

After a very public battle, one that included a vote of support from the White House, the neighborhood association backed down and allowed the flagpole to stay.

“He was a strong-willed person, but he was a super-compassionate person,” his son said.

During the course of the flagpole fight, a Facebook page was established to support Col. Barfoot. To date more than 54,000 people have “like” the page Let Col. Barfoot Fly the American Flag.

The flag battle led to a new law in 2010 giving homeowners a little more leeway in terms of displaying the flag.

His son said it wasn’t about Col. Barfoot’s right to fly the flag – it was about the flag in general.

Col. Barfoot was a selfless man, Tom Barfoot said. “It was always about somebody else. It wasn’t about him. I’m proud to have him as my dad.”

Last year, during an interview with CBS-6, Col. Barfoot downplayed his fight over the flag and his service.

“I feel satisfied that I performed a usable service to my country,” he said.

Col. Barfoot’s son-in-law, Roger Nicholls, posted a message on Let Col. Barfoot fly the flag page:

“Dear friends, Dad passed peacefully this morning. We are so thankful for your love and support. If you would like to honor him a contribution to the Sitter-Barfoot Veteran’s Care Center 1601 Broad Rock Blvd Richmond VA 23224 would be a blessing. Sincerely, Tom, Margaret, Odell and Jim his children.

[American Patriot]

[MinutemanCO]

And so passes another of the Greatest Generation. Rest in peace Godly warrior.

[Ryan Ruck]

Rhode Island Guardsman Died Saving Afghan Girl

March 29, 2012


Spc. Dennis Weichel, 29, of Providence, Rhode Island, died saving the life of a little girl in Afghanistan.

After the news of a U.S. soldier charged with murdering Afghan civilians, mostly women and children, the story of Spc. Dennis Weichel of the Rhode Island National Guard bears telling.

The official Pentagon news release says he died "from injuries suffered in a noncombat related incident." But there is much more to the story. Weichel, 29, of Providence, died saving the life of a little girl.

According to the Rhode Island National Guard and the U.S. Army, Weichel was in a convoy a week ago with his unit in Laghman Province, in northeast Afghanistan. Some children were in the road in front of the convoy, and Weichel and other troops got out to move them out of the way.

Most of the children moved, but one little girl went back to pick up some brass shell casings in the road. Afghan civilians often recycle the casings, and the girl appeared to aim to do that. But a Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicle was moving toward her, according to Lt. Col. Denis Riel of the Rhode Island National Guard.

MRAPs, as they are known, usually weigh more than 16 tons.

Weichel saw massive truck bearing down on the girl and grabbed her out of the way. But in the process, the armored truck ran him over, Riel said.

The little girl is fine. Weichel died a short time later of his injuries.

"He was a big kid at heart. He always had a smile on his face, and he made everyone laugh," 1st Sgt. Nicky Peppe, who served with Weichel in Iraq, is quoted as saying in an Army story. "But as much as Weichel was funny, he was also a professional. When it was time to go outside the wire for a combat patrol, he was all business."

Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee has ordered flags in the state lowered to half-staff until Weichel, who was posthumously promoted to sergeant, is laid to rest Monday.

Weichel is survived by his parents, his fiancee and three children. His family will receive Weichel's Bronze Star and other awards for his sacrifice.

[MinutemanCO]

What a selfless act of bravery.

[American Patriot]

I know this is really supposed to be about military personnel...or at least in general it has been, but I thought this was cool:

Upper West Side dad rescues an unconsious woman at 72nd St. subway station

Exclusive: Greg Wetzel jumped into action as screaming kids looked on in disbelief

Comments (34) By Joe Kemp AND Larry Mcshane / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Published: Sunday, May 20, 2012, 2:26 AM

Updated: Sunday, May 20, 2012, 3:00 AM




Print


New York Daily News

Greg Wetzel, with his young sons and daughter, in the W. 72nd St. subway station where he rescued a woman on the tracks on Saturday.






Do as superdad says, not as superdad does.
An upper West Side father who repeatedly warned his kids about subway safety jumped to the tracks and rescued an unconscious woman Saturday as his three screaming children watched in disbelief.


“I guess it’s mildly ironic — to do the exact opposite of what I’m preaching,” said Greg Wetzel, 40, a few hours after the dramatic 12:45 p.m. rescue.


Wetzel hoisted the woman to the platform, where other straphangers helped pull her to safety just 60 seconds before an uptown No. 1 train roared into the station.
“He didn’t hesitate,” said witness Trish O’Sullivan. “The guy was really amazing. This guy was like a real hero.”


The upper West Sider was out with his sons, ages 6 and 7, and his 4-year-old daughter when they went into the W. 72nd St. subway station.


He spotted some commotion out of the corner of his eye, and walked down the platform to see the woman lying on the tracks below.


“It was just the right thing to do,” he said of his heroic decision. “If you see someone on the tracks, it’s hard not to do something.”


The 50-year-old woman was taken to Roosevelt Hospital.


The self-effacing Wetzel said the incident probably reinforced the message of subterranean wariness better than any lecture.


“The lesson, I guess, is they saw first-hand what happened,” he said. “That should give them a healthy fear of the platform.”


jkemp@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/...#ixzz1vVlnzXow

[American Patriot]

June 15, 2012 11:58 AM

U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers honored with Silver Star at Pentagon

By

David Morgan

U.S. Air Force Pilot Captain Francis Gary Powers is pictured before his U-2 spy plane on June 1, 1959. While flying a joint Air Force-CIA mission, Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union and held for nearly two years. (AP Photo)




(CBS News) Capt. Francis Gary Powers, the Air Force pilot whose U-2 spy plane was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, was posthumously honored Friday in a medal ceremony at the Pentagon.



Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz presented the Silver Star Medal to Capt. Powers' children, Gary Powers Jr. and Dee Powers, in the Hall of Heroes, in tribute to Powers' "heroic action and his loyalty to the United States of America during a pivotal time in our nation's history."


"My sister, myself, my wife, my son, aunts and uncles, cousins, the Powers family is deeply grateful and deeply appreciative for the awarding of the Silver Star to my father," said Gary Powers Jr. "It goes to show that it's never too late to set the record straight."
18 Photos

U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers

View the Full Gallery »






Powers, whose reconnaissance plane was shot down over the U.S.S.R. on May 1, 1960, was honored for demonstrating "exceptional loyalty" while enduring harsh interrogation in a Russian prison for nearly two years.


After taking off from Pakistan and flying at an altitude of 70,000 feet, Powers was more than 1,200 miles inside the Soviet Union's border when he was shot down by surface-to-air missiles.



He parachuted safely to the ground and was captured by Soviet troops. The plane's camera and film was also captured - a propaganda boon for Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev.


Under intense interrogation, Powers was threatened with death and suffered sleep and food deprivation. He was eventually tried in Moscow.
U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers (right) sits in the dock in a Moscow court, August 17, 1960, at the opening of his espionage trial. At left is his defense counsel, Mikhail Griniev.


(Credit: AP Photo)
"Captain Powers steadfastly refused all attempts to give sensitive defense information or be exploited for propaganda purposes," the medal citation reads.

In August 1960 Powers was convicted of espionage and sentenced to three years in prison and seven years in a prison colony.



After 21 months in prison Powers was exchanged was turned over to U.S. officials in Berlin in 1962, exchanged in a prisoner swap for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.


After returning to the U.S., Powers was exonerated by a CIA board of inquiry, and he was awarded an Intelligence Star.



But many criticized him for not destroying the plane and its sensitive surveillance instruments - and for allowing himself to be taken alive.


Powers' daughter, Dee, that the trauma of her father's detention and show trial was exacerbated by a teacher in third grade, who voiced the sentiment of many over the pilot's capture: "A teacher told me my father should have killed himself," she told CBS Radio's Howard Arenstein.


Powers later worked as a test pilot at Lockheed and wrote a 1970 memoir, "Operation Overflight." A TV-movie was made in 1976 about the U-2 incident starring Lee Majors.



Powers died in 1977 when the helicopter he was piloting for KNBC crashed in Los Angeles.


Documents declassified in the 1990s revealed that the U-2 spy flight had been a joint operation of the CIA and the Air Force, making him eligible for military honors. Powers was awarded a posthumous POW medal - and now, the Silver Star.

[American Patriot]

Mystery man pulls driver from flipped, burning car

Posted: Jun 01, 2012 10:13 AM MDT Updated: Jun 15, 2012 10:16 AM MDT By Doug Delony, Senior Web Producer - bio

• View the real-time Houston traffic map

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Police say the man who helped pull a woman from her burning car on Beltway 8 simply drove away after carrying out the good deed.

According to Chief Randy Johnson with the Harris County Toll Authority Police, the accident happened just before 11 a.m. Friday on the South Sam Houston Tollway near Wayside.

Views from Houston Transtar showed the woman's white sedan on its side sitting in a toll booth drive through. It was completely engulfed in flames.

Investigators say the sedan's driver was heading west when she suffered a medical emergency. Her car struck a protection barrier at the toll, flipping the vehicle onto its side.

A passing motorist, identified only as a male, stopped and broke a window on the car to pull the woman to safety. Emergency responders then worked to stabilize the woman and load her into an ambulance. She was taken to Memorial Hermann with a broken hip.

Officials say the man who helped save the woman left the scene before they arrived, and he was never identified.

Family friends were driving behind the victim and witnessed the whole scene. They were on the way to a graduation when the crash occurred.

No other vehicles were involved in the incident, but the fire burned a coin collector at the toll booth. One lane is expected to remain blocked indefinitely.

[American Patriot]

Note in the above story, the "Hero" was a US Military person. I didn't find his name yet, but he was a Guardsman I believe.

[American Patriot]

SSG Mitchel Corbin, Texas National Guard. The guy who pulled the lady from the burning car.

[American Patriot]

July 17, 2012 8:12 AM

• Print
• Text

Watch: NYC bus driver Steven St. Bernard catches 7-year-old girl after 3-story fall





(CBS) NEW YORK - A quick-thinking New York City bus driver is being praised as a hero after catching a 7-year-old girl who fell out of a third-floor window in Brooklyn.
Saleema McCree told WCBS-TV that her daughter Keyla is autistic and was supposed to be asleep in her bedroom at the time of the incident. But she apparently slipped out of the window and climbed onto the family's newly-installed air conditioner. Witnesses at the scene said she started dancing on top of the unit before falling.
The episode was caught on video.
"I heard somebody banging on the door, stating that my daughter was outside on the air conditioner, but I had no idea what was going on because I had my son," McCree said.
Steven St. Bernard was arriving home from work moments before Keyla fell.
"Basically she was dancing and I just - I was just praying that I would get there and that if she [fell] that I would catch her," he told WCBS.
"She was shocked, because she moaned a little bit," St. Bernard later told 1010 WINS.
The girl was transported to Coney Island Hospital, but suffered no major injuries. St. Bernard suffered a torn tendon in his hand.
"He has a heart, a very good heart -- kids, adults, anybody -- he would do anything for anybody," neighbor Jessica Aleman said of St. Bernard.
Police spoke with the girl's parents but determined that no charges would be filed in the incident.

[American Patriot]

Tuesday, July 17, 2012
The Two-Way

VIDEO: Hero Neighbor Catches 7-Year-Old Girl Who Falls 3 Stories

"I'm not a hero — anybody would have done it. I did it out of normal instincts," says Steven St. Bernard. But he saved a little girl from death or serious injury. The autistic child had been dancing on top of a window air conditioning unit.

[American Patriot]

He's not dead... and he's no Robin Williams.

But he was an icon to the guys in Vietnam and he's a Republican

The real life of Adrian Cronauer

Mar 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Jim Barthold
Adrian Cronauer is no Robin Williams. He knows Robin Williams; they're friendly. But he's no Robin Williams.


Cronauer, who keynotes this year's IWCE 2005, will be forever linked with the manic comic thanks to the brilliant riff Williams turned on Cronauer's military service memories in the movie “Good Morning Vietnam.”


“If I were half as funny as Robin Williams, I'd be out in Hollywood going na-noo, na-noo and making a million dollars,” said Cronauer in a mellifluous voice that immediately identifies him as a veteran of the radio booth. “Once people get to know me, they realize very quickly that I'm not Robin Williams, and it doesn't seem to bother them after that.”


Unlike Williams' disruptively manic disk jockey, Cronauer is a “lifelong card-carrying Republican” who took active roles in both the Dole and Bush/Cheney presidential campaigns. Another big difference between the two:while the movie's Cronauer character always seemed a hairline from full military establishment ostracization — or worse — the real-life Cronauer played within the bounds of the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) format.


“I was faced more with apathy than opposition,” recalled Cronauer, who developed his morning radio shtick listening to Rege Cordic's radio shows in Pittsburgh in the 1950s. “That meant I wasn't doing exactly what Robin Williams did. He did a lot of one-liners. Mine was more situational humor.”


Cronauer honed the morning gig at Iraklion Air Station, evolving a “calm, matter-of-fact ‘Good Morning Iraklion’” into the Howard Dean-like primal yell immortalized by the movie.


Cronauer's deadpan delivery hides a quiet sense of humor that will never be confused with Williams' mania. That sense of humor seeped through the material he compiled about his Vietnam experiences and drew the attention of the comic actor and his agent, Larry Brezner, who bought an option on a 1979 screenplay Cronauer wrote as a TV sitcom.
Before Brezner and Williams stepped in, rejection was a general rule for the project.


“I guess it was just a little too close in time; nobody believed you could do a comedy about Vietnam,” he said.
But Williams saw the potential.


“He read it and said, ‘Oh, disk jockey, [a] chance to do all my comic shtick,’” Cronauer said. “Every year they'd renew the option. About four years later, they called me up and said, ‘We've decided to throw away the original and start over again.’”
Cronauer went to Hollywood, spilling his guts about his experiences in Vietnam.


“It went through five different versions. I'd noodle some suggestions for additions and deletions and changes; a few of them they accepted; most of them they ignored,” he said.


The end product had audiences laughing, and Cronauer, sitting in a screening room watching it, amazed.
“‘Son of a gun,’” he recalled thinking, “‘they actually made a movie out of this thing.’”


Perhaps most important, the movie gave the disk-jockey-soon-to-turn-lawyer a bully pulpit for his job today as special assistant to the director of the Pentagon's POW/MIA Office. It's a job he took because of his political connections and his desire to help his fellow veterans and their families.


“When the [first term George W. Bush] administration came in, they asked if I wanted to join them. Their thinking was that I'm a high-profile veteran and well-known in the veterans' community,” he said.


He was mulling the offer when terrorists brought down the World Trade Center towers and got him thinking about rejoining the military. Instead, he says, he followed his wife's advice and entered public service.


The work has rewards and frustrations. There are still approximately 88,000 people missing from all the wars. While many will never be located, there is always hope, he said.


“Just last year we retrieved the remains of four Americans from two different airplane crashes in Tibet,” he said. “We're still retrieving remains from World War II.”


Even though he “decided it was time to finally get into an honest profession and went to law school and graduated when I was 50,” Cronauer still has more than a passing interest in broadcasting. That's why he's somewhat obsessed with how the airwaves are used, abused and obtained.


“It's not written in the Constitution or anything else. … Congress, just out of the clear blue sky, said the airwaves belong to the people, which means, in essence, that it belongs to Congress,” he said. “The electronic spectrum is the only natural resource in which there's no such thing as private property rights. You can't own a piece of the spectrum.”


This has caused “all sorts of problems” because Congress first decided it would lease, but never sell, the airwaves back in the 1920s. Broadcasters buy licenses but don't own them, he said.


“Within the past decade or so, they have been selling frequencies, selling licenses to use those frequencies and one day somebody is going to get a high-powered lawyer and go into a federal court and say, ‘Your honor, my client paid a lot of money to use this piece of spectrum … and he therefore should have some rights to use it,” Cronauer said.
And that could shatter the whole underpinnings of the broadcast industry as it has evolved.


“The concept that you cannot own the airwaves has caused far more harm than good,” he said.


It's not really a surprising direction that Cronauer has taken over the past 40 years since he left Vietnam. In those days, he was fighting the constraints of a boring radio format that had lost its relevance in a modern war era where the electronic media was becoming a player.


Perhaps what is ignored by the movie is the most telling part of Cronauer's character. He never stopped working from within the establishment to better the lives of military personnel. Today's challenges — working to find service personnel missing for decades — are no less difficult and no less important.


“I guess the most rewarding part of the job is family updates,” he said. “We rent a hotel room on Saturday morning and invite anybody who lives within a 300-mile radius who's a family member of somebody who is missing to come in. For some of these family members, this is the first time in decades they've heard anything.”


It might not be much, but, like the change from easy listening to morning mania, it makes a difference.
“It means so much to them, and they are so grateful,” said the man who will forever be linked to Robin Williams but has done so much more as Adrian Cronauer.

[Ryan Ruck]

Marines Receive Silver Stars For Afghan Heroics

September 5, 2012

Two Marines have received the nation’s third-highest award for combat valor in recognition of their heroic actions during separate battles last year in Afghanistan.

Cpl. Jason Hassinger and Staff Sgt. Alec Haralovich were presented with Silver Stars during ceremonies in late August. Though the incidents were unrelated, both men were hit with enemy fire multiple times and kept fighting.

Hassinger, 24, was recognized for his actions in northern Marjah on March 5, 2011, while with 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines. While he was serving as fire team leader during a patrol, Hassinger’s squad was ambushed by insurgents. Air support was not immediately available, and some of the Marines were trapped.

Hassinger said those trapped were pinned down, faces in the dirt. So he led his section through the gunfire to reach them.

“We split off into two teams, and I was in what we called ‘peanut butter fields’ — just really heavy, sticky brown mud that is hard to walk through after it rains,” he said. “You try to stay out of that, so I was walking down this dirt path and was shot right in the chest. I checked myself to make sure it didn’t go through my plate.”

Hassinger was shot three more times in the chest, protected by his body armor, he said. He wasn’t going to give up, he added, his muscle memory and training taking over.

“I eventually got behind a wall and loaded a 203 into my grenade launcher,” Hassinger said. “I said a prayer and popped out to fire. I aimed straight for the murder hole they were firing from and got back behind the wall. I popped back out to return fire and everything just ceased from there.”

Hassinger then reorganized the squad, repeatedly refusing medical evacuation, his award citation states. Eventually, he collapsed, having suffered internal bruising and bleeding, he said.

Maj. Gen. John Toolan, the former commander of 2nd Marine Division, presented Hassinger with his Silver Star on Aug. 23, aboard Camp Lejeune, N.C.

On Oct. 4, nearly seven months to the day after Hassinger’s battle, Haralovich, then a team leader with 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, was on foot patrol when his unit was engaged by multiple insurgents. Haralovich took charge, splitting his team in two and maneuvering toward the enemy, according to his award citation.

As the Marines moved, the insurgents — still concealed — began firing machine guns from less than 250 feet away, the citation states. Two rounds slammed into Haralovich’s body armor and gear.

His Marines responded instinctively, moving toward him to help, the citation states. But he ordered them to get to covered positions as enemy fire intensified.

While his Marines moved, the staff sergeant did, too. He found a position that gave him an advantage and launched a rocket at the ambush position, destroying it. The Marines were then on the move again. As the insurgents withdrew, Haralovich led his Marines to flank their first position, forcing them to withdraw further. For two more hours, he led his platoon in pursuit of the enemy forces.

Haralovich could not be reached for comment.

Neither Haralovich nor Hassinger has remained on active duty.

Last September, Hassinger changed over to the Individual Ready Reserve. He is living in Philadelphia, where he works as a national service officer with Disabled American Veterans.

Haralovich is also on the reserve side, serving with 4th Reconnaissance Battalion.

[Ryan Ruck]

Marines Help A Young Boy Finish A Triathlon

October 7, 2012



CNN PRODUCER NOTE bkruggel, whose son participated in the Sea Turtle Tri kids triathlon on Sunday, was watching the other kids cross the finish line, when 'the race announcer told everyone over the loudspeakers about the boy's problem with his prosthetic limb and that the Marines were carrying him to the finish,' he said. 'As the group came into view, everyone started cheering louder than usual, and I saw more than a few people crying as they crossed the finish line.'

The boy was 11-year-old Ben Baltz of Valparaiso, Florida. At six years old, Ben was diagnosed with bone cancer in his right leg and had his fibula and tibia removed. He walks with a mechanical knee and prosthetic walking leg, which he switches out for a running leg to play sports including soccer, baseball and children's triathlons. (See more photos of him competing in Sunday's triathlon here.) On Sunday, Ben completed the 150-yard swim and 4-mile bike ride and half the one-mile run when a screw came loose and his running leg broke in half.

His mom was standing at the finish line, wondering what happened. 'It was only a mile, I knew he was tired, I was like, 'Where is he, where is he, where is he,' his mother, Kim Baltz, told CNN iReport. 'All of a sudden the announcer just said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to turn around and look at what's happening on the course' ... Everybody was crying. It was just very touching that the Marines were there. They picked him up and everybody was cheering and just giving them support and Ben support.'

Ben's mom said he was a little discouraged he wasn't able to finish on his own, and a bit embarrassed that he had to be carried, but his parents told him that he was an inspiration to a lot of people that day. 'We want to give him the message that he can do anything, and he has an inspirational story, and he just needs to be thankful that he is able to do it because there are a lot of kids out there that are still fighting cancer. We just want him to get out there and participate in life.'

Read more about Ben's story here.

The Marine who carried Ben is Matthew Morgan, Private First Class at Marine Detachment Corry Station, a training command in Pensacola that brought 22 students to help at the triathlon. Capt. Frank Anderson, the commanding officer, said everyone is very proud of PFC Morgan. 'It's great to see what Marines do – not leave anybody behind – is exemplified in our youngest members of our institution,' he told iReport. 'He's not a very big guy ... he picked that young boy up quick, threw him on his back and ran the rest of the course ... We're pumped.'

[American Patriot]

Cool!

[Ryan Ruck]

Boys Track Down Owner of War Medals

November 12, 2012



When his sons do well in school, Michael Mazzariello of Wallkill, N.Y., takes them to Newburgh's Antique & Collectible Shop for a special treat – G.I. Joes.

A trip in late April brought an even greater reward when a bin of soldiers' medals caught the boys' eyes. Rifling through them, Michael, 11, and Mauro, 8, came across three honors bearing the same soldier's name: Charles George.

The purple heart, bronze star and good conduct awards they found in the tiny New York shop belonged to the namesake of Asheville, N.C.'s Veterans Affairs Medical Center and a recipient of the United States' highest military honor, the medal of honor.

"We went in looking for a G.I. Joe Real American Hero and came out with a real American hero," the 6th grader Michael said.

The Mazzariello boys got to see the awards united with George's family at a Veteran's Day ceremony in North Carolina on Monday.

"It was the most satisfying moment of my life, to finally give the medals back to them," Michael said.

Terrance Berean, one of the store's owners, estimated the medals' worth at $800 because of their good condition and their unique circumstances of their origin.

"They were from a Cherokee Indian who died supposedly from a grenade, so that escalates [their value] way up," Berean said.

However, Berean's son agreed to give the Mazzariellos the medals for free on one condition -- that they find their rightful owner.

Using a combination of state senators, veterans and YouTube, the boys were able to determine that these were the medals of an American hero.

On Nov. 30, 1952, George, whose Cherokee name "Tsali" means self-sacrifice, threw himself on a grenade that killed him, but saved those fighting in his company during the Korean War. His legacy was honored not only by his local Eastern Band Cherokee community, but also by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, according to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs website.

Eisenhower invited George's parents to Washington D.C. to receive the honors on their son's behalf and though they held tight to the Medal of Honor, their son's other awards somehow got lost.

Sixty years after George died serving the United States, the medals honoring his service were finally reunited with his family. Michael and Mauro spoke to a crowd gathered to honor veterans, bringing both tears and smiles to attendees' faces.

"There were standing ovations, crying, crazy emotional. And it was wonderful for us to meet Charles George's family – nieces, nephews, crazy," the Mazzariellos' father Michael said.

After this journey, young Michael has decided he too wants to serve his country.

"I want to be a doctor for the military so I can help fix them," he said.

[American Patriot]

Navy SEAL Team Six member killed rescuing doctor from Afghanistan

Published December 10, 2012
FoxNews.com

A U.S. official has told Fox News that a member of the Navy SEAL Team Six -- the same special ops group used for the raid on Usama bin Laden's compound -- was killed during a weekend rescue mission in Afghanistan that freed an American doctor abducted by the Taliban outside of Kabul five days ago.



President Barack Obama praised the special forces on Sunday, saying the mission was characteristic of U.S. troops' "extraordinary courage, skill and patriotism."


A spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan said Dr. Dilip Joseph of Colorado Springs, Colo., was rescued early Sunday, local time, in eastern Afghanistan. Joseph, a medical adviser for Colorado Springs-based Morning Star Development, was rescued after intelligence showed he was in imminent danger of injury or possible death, according to the U.S. military.


The U.S. did not immediately identify the SEAL Team Six member killed in the mission.


"He gave his life for his fellow Americans, and he and his teammates remind us once more of the selfless service that allows our nation to stay strong, safe and free," Obama said in a statement.


In a separate statement Sunday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, "In this fallen hero, and all of our special operators, Americans see the highest ideals of citizenship, sacrifice and service upheld."


Morning Star, a relief group that helps rebuild communities in Afghanistan, said in a statement that Joseph was uninjured and would probably return home in a few days. The group also said two of his co-workers were freed by their captors about 11 hours before the rescue, after hours of negotiations were conducted over three days.


Morning Star said the three workers were abducted by a group of armed men while returning from a visit to one of the organization's rural medical clinics in eastern Kabul province. The group said the three workers were taken into mountains about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the Pakistan border.


The relief group said it would not reveal the identity of the other two men because they live and work in the region. The group said it did not pay ransom to obtain their release.


Morning Star praised those who helped get their workers back unharmed, singling out "courageous members of the U.S. military who successfully rescued Mr. Joseph as they risked their own lives doing so."


The group also offered thanks to local Afghan elders "who made visits and appeals to the captors advocating for the release of the hostages."
Joseph was captured by Taliban insurgents on Wednesday in the Sarobi district of Kabul province.


The rescue operation was ordered after intelligence showed that the doctor was in imminent danger of injury or possible death, according to a statement by the U.S.-led military coalition.


"This was a combined operation of U.S. and Afghan forces," said 1st Lt. Joseph Alonso, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. "Information was collected through multiple intelligence sources, which allowed Afghan and coalition forces to identify the location of Joseph and the criminals responsible for his captivity."


Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said the joint force planned, rehearsed and successfully conducted the operation.
"Thanks to them, Dr. Joseph will soon be rejoining his family and loved ones," Allen said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/10...#ixzz2EfKFPywI

[American Patriot]

CBS/AP/ December 10, 2012, 6:27 AM
Obama lauds special ops forces for Afghan rescue; Killed Navy SEAL identified

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Updated at 12:04 p.m. Eastern
WASHINGTON A member of the same elite U.S. special operations team that killed Osama bin Laden was himself killed during a weekend rescue mission in Afghanistan to free an American doctor abducted by the Taliban. CBS News National Security correspondent David Martin reports the member of SEAL Team 6 killed in the rescue mission has been identified as 28-year-old Petty Officer First Class Nicolas Checque of Monroeville, Pa.
He was killed by a single shot to the head during the mission to rescue Dr. Dilip Joseph, Martin reports.
Martin reports seven alleged Taliban militants were killed in the operation to free the doctor, who was captured outside of Kabul five days ago. There was no further information available on the operation.
President Obama praised the special forces on Sunday, saying the mission was characteristic of U.S. troops' "extraordinary courage, skill and patriotism."
A spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan said Dr. Joseph, of Colorado Springs, Colo., was rescued early Sunday, local time, in eastern Afghanistan. Joseph, a medical adviser for Colorado Springs-based Morning Star Development, was rescued after intelligence showed he was in imminent danger of injury or possible death, according to the U.S. military.
"He gave his life for his fellow Americans, and he and his teammates remind us once more of the selfless service that allows our nation to stay strong, safe and free," Mr. Obama said of the fallen American service member in a statement.
In a separate statement Sunday, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, "In this fallen hero, and all of our special operators, Americans see the highest ideals of citizenship, sacrifice and service upheld."
Morning Star, a relief group that helps rebuild communities in Afghanistan, said in a statement that Joseph was uninjured and would probably return home in a few days. The group also said two of his co-workers were freed by their captors about 11 hours before the rescue, after hours of negotiations were conducted over three days.
Morning Star said the three workers were abducted by a group of armed men while returning from a visit to one of the organization's rural medical clinics in eastern Kabul province. The group said the three workers were taken into mountains about 50 miles from the Pakistan border.
The relief group said it would not reveal the identity of the other two men because they live and work in the region. The group said it did not pay ransom to obtain their release.
Morning Star praised those who helped get their workers back unharmed, singling out "courageous members of the U.S. military who successfully rescued Mr. Joseph as they risked their own lives doing so."
The group also offered thanks to local Afghan elders and local leaders "who made visits and appeals to the captors advocating for the release of the hostages."


In September, "60 Minutes" correspondent Lara Logan reported on the increasing danger from "insider" attacks in Afghanistan and a Taliban comeback in some parts of the country. To see her report, click on the video at left.
"This was a combined operation of U.S. and Afghan forces," said 1st Lt. Joseph Alonso, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. "Information was collected through multiple intelligence sources, which allowed Afghan and coalition forces to identify the location of Joseph and the criminals responsible for his captivity."
Gen. John Allen, the top commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said the joint force planned, rehearsed and successfully conducted the operation.
"Thanks to them, Dr. Joseph will soon be rejoining his family and loved ones," Allen said.

[MinutemanCO]

Praise for the SEALS from Obama isn't worth the air he breathed while offering the false sentiments. There not a person alive that can convince me that Obama didn't murder the SEAL team members following the OBL raid when the helo was shot down.