Shadowscope

All Information Was Found On And Copied From MilitaryCity.com

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

I haven’t done much in the way of blogging in the last several days. Worked a ton of hours this past week but I have also been pretty sick. Some kind of bug has been going around, both girls were out sick at the end of the week and I guess I got the bug as well. Friday night I worked a double but I ended up sleeping in my car from 7pm on and the waitresses cooked. Had shit coming out both ends.
Since the girls had been sick Pete missed her field trip to the Georgia Aquarium on Thursday. She was not very happy. She’d been up most of the night previous blowing chunks so we wouldn’t allow her to go to school. To make up for it we took the girls to the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga on Saturday. I was feeling pretty weak when we got out of bed but it’s not often that I get a full weekend off so we decided to go anyway.
Chattanooga is a couple of hours from the house so it makes a nice day trip. I figured we could go check out the Aquarium and then maybe go see the Chattanooga Choo Choo and hopefully go to Chickamauga. I’ve been to the battlefield but it’s been about 30 years or so.
We met Eric and Fiona for a nice lunch at a place called Big River. It was a pretty decent place. The beer was good too. They brew their own. The food was good but I couldn’t eat very much. For that matter I haven’t managed to eat much since Thursday. After lunch the girls and I parted ways with Eric and his bride and we went ahead to the Aquarium. Pretty cool. I’ve posted some of the pictures over at Flickr. The links are below in my Action Stream if you want to check them out. This one’s not the best shot but it is one of my favorites.

Cpt. Gussie Jones was born in Arkansas and was one of eight children. She began her Army career by enlisting in 1988 as a personnel clerk and climbed to the rank of a sergeant.

In 1986, Jones earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Arkansas Central University. She was selected to attend the Army Enlisted Commissioning Program and earned her second bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University in 1998. It was in nursing.

Her career as a registered nurse and a commissioned officer began in September 1998 at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. In 2002, after completing a course in critical-care nursing, she was assigned to Beaumont Army Medical Center, where she became a mentor.

“She was a very dedicated person and was always smiling, said a co-worker and friend, Capt. Susan Gilbert. If anyone asked her to do something, she would do it. And she was very kind and gentle and patient with the patients.”

Cpt. Jones died of a heart attack while on duty in Baghdad, Iraq. During her 15 years of military services, Jones received a Joint Service Commendation medal, four Army Commendation medals and three Army Achievement medals.

“She was so much a part of their team, and so her death must really affect their morale,” Gilbert said. “I’m very worried about the other soldiers because they’ve lost their battle buddy.”

All Information Was Found On And Copied From MilitaryCity.com

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

So tomorrow is the day. I unfortunately have to work until about 9pm tomorrow night so I went and voted on Friday morning. Had to wait a little while but it was pretty much painless. Compared to how long I stood in line in 2004 it was great. One thing I noticed was that there were a LOT of young people there. more than I had ever seen in an election. A lot more minorities represented as well. Overall I think it’s a great thing but unfortunately this is a pretty shitty election to bring them all out.
Hmmm…a liberal or a communist. Damn. Lesser of two evils anyone? Needless to say I voted for the old dude and the sexy librarian but that’s about it for Republicans. I did vote for Gingrey though as my congressman. He voted against the bail-out bill so unless he just fucks up and starts speaking in tongues or screwing his pages I’ll keep voting for him.
I went pretty much Libertarian down the board otherwise and if there was an incumbent with nobody running against him/her I voted Dax Montana! What the fuck, vote your beliefs and I believe that Dax would be a better choice than most of the thieving lying sonsabitches out there.

So glad I can be one of them.
So my Internet connection is down as I am writing this although by the time you read this it will be back up 🙂
This has been one of the hardest weeks I’ve had in quite some time, hell really the last month. The week prior to my vacation and the blogmeet was extremely long. Most of the days were 12+ hours. Since I got back to work I have had one day off in the last fourteen and that was eleven days ago. Each of them has been 10-14 hours and I don’t think a single day has gone by that someone hasn’t called in on me. Yesterday I was hung all three shifts and just barely managed to avoid working a triple shift. I’m too old for that shit. Today was the last day on one of my manager’s vacation, one of the other store managers is off and the third one fucking called in. Called in. What a crock of shit.
I spoke with her this afternoon and after reading her the riot act about her fucking employees jacking their jaws on their cell phones all day I let her know that she had to make up the hours that I had to pay out to cover the shift she should have been cooking. She wasn’t too happy about that but she was even less happy about the phone thing because she is just as bad as her employees. I told her they could no longer be on the phone at work and she tried to tell me that it was OK when they were outside smoking, at which point I had to tell her, NO it is not OK, they are to leave them at home and if I see them they will be confiscated. Lately a couple of them have had bluetooth devices and I just want to snatch them off of their fucking ears. Luckily common sense came to me just before I grabbed one yesterday.
Oh well, I’ve had a smoke and a cup of coffee and now the connection is back up. Time to find some crimes to blog about.
later, dudes and dudettes

Wednesday Hero was started to put a spotlight on the men and women of the United States military and the bravery their show day in and day out. But on a few occasions a service members of an allied nation has been profiled. Such is the case this week.

Despite being shot twice during an ambush in Afghanistan, an SAS (Special Air Service) soldier from Australia lashed himself to the front of his patrol vehicle so he wouldn’t be left behind if he passed out from loss of blood and kept on fighting.

The Digger is expected to be recommended for a high level bravery award.

Suffering from serious upper body wounds, the soldier struggled on to the front of his SAS long range patrol vehicle (LRPV) and, under heavy fire, used a rope to attach himself firmly between the vehicle’s bull bar and radiator.

Once he was secured, and there was no chance that he would fall off if he fainted, he picked up his rifle and resumed firing at the enemy during a two-hour fighting withdrawal.

SAS troops and their special forces comrades from the Commando Regiment are well aware of the slow and painful death that awaits them if they are captured by the Taliban.

The Digger, who cannot be identified, faded in and out of consciousness, emptying several magazines as volleys of enemy rounds and rocket propelled grenades, rained down around him.

He was finally evacuated from the battle field at high speed still lashed to the front of the LRPV.

A source told The Courier-Mail the Digger was now “up and about” and would recover fully from his serious gunshot wounds. His heroic deeds will be recognised when he is recommended for a high level bravery award.

Several others engaged in the do-or-die battle on September 2 are also in line for top honours.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Back at the beginning of the year I wrote several posts about Meredith Emerson, her murder and the man who decapitated her, Gary Michael Hilton. He is currently in prison and was extradited to Florida back in the summer to face charges in the murder of Cheryl Dunlap. This isn’t about him though, it’s about Meredith Emerson.