[Image originally found here, but it seems to be gone now.]
All posts in category Heroes
Never Forget: 11 September 2001
Posted by Jake on September 11, 2012
http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2012/09/11/never-forget-11-september-2001/
Memorial Day
Remember
Every year we set aside a day to remember those who have fallen in service and defense of our country. The purpose of this day tends to get forgotten amidst the bustle of the summer three-day-weekend, but the reminders are usually easy to see. Here in Blacksburg, because of Virginia Tech’s Corps of Cadets, we have the War Memorial Chapel, with it’s Pylons honoring former cadets who have fallen.
Memorial Court atop War Memorial Chapel at Virginia Tech.
Each pillar is engraved with the names and class year of VT alumni who have died while in service.
Remember
Posted by Jake on May 28, 2012
http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/memorial-day-2/
Is it dusty in here?
Posted by Jake on December 19, 2011
http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/is-it-dusty-in-here/
Presented without comment
The policeman stood and faced his God, Which must always come to pass.
He hoped his shoes were shining just as brightly as his brass.
“Step forward now, policeman. How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek? To my church have you been true?”
The policeman squared his shoulders and said, “No Lord I guess I ain’t,
because those of us who carry badges can’t always be a Saint.
I’ve had to work most Sundays, and at times my work was rough.
Sometimes I have been violent, because the streets are awfully tough.
But I never took a penny, that wasn’t mine to keep.
I worked a lot of overtime when the bills just got too steep.
And I never passed a cry for help, though at times I shook with fear.
And sometimes, God forgive me, I’ve wept unmanly tears.
I know I don’t deserve a place among the people here.
They never wanted me around except to calm their fear.
If you’ve a place for me here, Lord It needn’t be so grand.
I never expected or had too much, but if you don’t I’ll understand.”
There was a silence all around the throne Where the Saints had often trod.
As the policeman waited quietly for the judgment of his God.
“Step forward now, policeman, You’ve borne your burdens well.
Come walk a beat on Heaven’s streets You’ve done your time in Hell.”
Author: Unknown
Deriek W Crouse, VTPD
Deriek Wayne Crouse
August 17, 1972 – December 8, 2011
Fallen in the Line of Duty
Posted by Jake on December 12, 2011
http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/presented-without-comment/
Support your overseas soldiers
Just in case you haven’t seen it elsewhere, or as a reminder if you have, Linoge is doing a fundraiser for Soldiers’ Angels, a non-profit charity supporting our soldiers abroad and at home.
“May No Soldier Go Unloved,” encapsulates the motivation behind Soldiers’ Angels. The volunteers of Soldiers’ Angels work tirelessly to demonstrate active care and concern for veterans, the wounded, deployed service members and their families.
To date, our volunteers have sent hundreds of thousands of care packages and letters to “adopted” deployed service members; we have supplied the wounded with over 25,000 of our First Response Backpacks directly at the Combat Support Hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan and the major military hospital in Germany, as well as provided care and comfort to those in stateside military and VA facilities; we have provided emergency aid to military families in need; we have partnered with the Department of Defense to provide voice-controlled/adaptive laptops to over 6,000 severely-wounded servicemembers, as well as other technology that supports rehabilitation; we have provided flights to soldiers on leave or in emergency situations, and to their families wanting to be with them upon return from overseas; we provided Level III KEVLAR armored blankets to give personnel extra protection in their vehicles when it was needed early in the Iraq war; and we help to honor and uphold the families whose loved ones have paid the ultimate price for our freedom and safety. With the assistance of our generous supporters , the many volunteers of Soldiers’ Angels have accomplished this and much, much more on behalf of the grateful citizens of the United States of America.
What Linoge is doing is a drawing and prize giveaway, where every five dollars to Soldiers’ Angels nets you one “ticket” towards the prizes – and he has a lot of really good prizes, including one of the new (as yet unnamed) pocket holsters from Dragon Leatherworks and 3 Crimson Trace LightGuards! Go to Walls of the City for a complete list and the rules, then go check out the Soldiers’ Angels shops he links to – or just donate directly!
It’s a good cause, and you might even win some good stuff out of it. And we should all thank Linoge for making the effort.
END OF LINE
Posted by Jake on December 2, 2011
http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/support-your-overseas-soldiers/
Quote of the day – 2011-09-11
Yes, I know that’s yesterday’s date. I didn’t post it yesterday, because yesterday was a day for remembering those who were murdered ten years ago, and for honoring those who gave their lives trying to save as many as they could. A day to firm our resolve that it will never happen again, and to remind ourselves that we must work to reclaim the freedoms we lost in a panicked and futile bid for an illusory “security.”
It was a day in which I gave these people the greatest remembrance an honor I could: I got on an ambulance and worked to help others.
It was not a day for politics, or for the particular anger that inspired this quote.
You see, the service at the site of the very tragedy it purported to memorialize had a very glaring omission – NYC mayor Bloomberg and his staff decided that there wasn’t “enough room” for firefighters. The very people who knowingly risked their lives that day to help others – and in hundreds of cases lost those lives. To this insult, which fills me with rage every time I contemplate it, I can only respond by quoting blogger Kathy Shaidle:
343 of them managed to fit into the exact same space 10 years ago…
To be more specific, three hundred and forty-three firefighters, 37 Port Authority police officers, 23 NYPD officers and three court officers.
You’re a bastard, Bloomberg. Every surviving responder who was there on that horrible day deserved to be there yesterday more than you did. They deserved to be there more than Obama, or Giuliani, or Bush, or any of your other high-profile VIPs and their retinues who might have been there. Until you had at an absolute minimum, one representative of every single station and shift that responded that day, you should have told those VIPs – yes, even Obama himself – to go pound sand.
So go sodomize yourself with a rusty chainsaw, Bloomberg.
END OF LINE
Posted by Jake on September 12, 2011
http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/quote-of-the-day-2011-09-11/
Remember the heroes
[Edit: Found here.]
Posted by Jake on September 11, 2011
http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2011/09/11/remember-the-heroes/
Props to the cops
in this story.
Shortly after we were seated I noticed a man come in and act pretty rudely to the hostess. He took a seat on the far side of the room facing the door, mostly with his side/back to me. Nothing abnormal about this, as I do it all the time [.] I was watching as he sat down and I saw him print pretty clearly when his grip caught on the spindle of the chair – he adjusted quickly and it was gone. [...] I probably wouldn’t have given it much more thought as FL is a CC only state, but I’m not a big fan of a rude people to begin with, and as many of you like myself spend a lot of time watching other people you understand when I say something was just off about him. He seemed almost like he was nervous, but that doesn’t quite describe him correctly. If I had to use a word I would say “shifty”.
As our food was being delivered another man entered and took a seat by the windows where my family and I were. I noticed that he was watching the first man, and at some point he became aware of the fact that I was watching both of them. We smiled politely at each other after making accidental eye contact once. The alarms in my head were really going off, because the second guy had come in already interested in the first guy. I was pretty uncomfortable with the situation, and urged my wife to hurry up so we could hit the road again (a nearly impossible task, she’s a very slow eater). I remember turning slightly in my chair so I could clearly draw if I needed to.
We started to leave and while my daughter was collecting her purse and sandals from the floor (don’t ask me why she loses her shoes every time) the first guy got up and went to the register to pay. The second guy made a noise that caused me to glance in his direction – he looked sharply down at his waist and in his hand was a badge, then he glanced at the register and motioned me to wait. The Officer got up and headed towards the register. I quickly shook my head slightly no, turned my body to block my strong side from the register, and pulled my shirt back slightly to expose my Glock and nodded my head towards the register (I was really hoping he would understand that I was trying to tell him the first guy had a gun, and not anything else). I let my shirt fall back and slid my hand back to where the first guy had his weapon. The officer shook his head slightly and continued to leave.
I waited until they had both left the building before paying for our own meal and sent my wife to take my daughter to the bathroom one last time so I could head out to the parking lot first. When I walked outside there were several Florida Highway Patrol cars parked near mine, I could see them searching the vehicle parked next to me. One of them walked over towards me and said “Howdy Tex” (alluding to my hat) and held out his hand. I shook it, and he told me he just wanted to say thanks for the heads up. He said he couldn’t provide any details, just that he had been asked to say thanks[.]
Not a word was said about my carrying. Not once was I asked to produce my license(vehicle or weapon). Good for them.
This was a well handled situation, both by the police and the concealed carrier. The police did well both by the officer in the restaurant noticing the carrier’s attention to the suspect, warning the carrier, and not reacting negatively on seeing the carriers firearm, and the other officer with the “thank you” outside afterward, and by recognizing that the carrier was a ‘good guy’ and they didn’t need to harass him outside. The carrier did well by noticing a suspicious person and his weapon, and by acting to notify the officer once he realized that he was probably going to confront the suspect outside.
There are some suggestions, in the forum and at Robb’s, that a hand signal may have been better than flashing his gun – and the carrier acknowledges this later in the forums. I would tentatively agree, since it could have been mistaken as a threat (though that’s less likely since he had his wife and child with him). There was also always the chance that he could have been one of those anti-armed-citizen cops who would have had the carrier eating pavement at some point. On the other hand, I wonder if a hand signal might have been visible enough from the register to tip off the suspect, since they were both taking pains to keep things hidden. The bottom line, though, is that everything worked out okay in the end, and an officer who may or may not have known beforehand that the suspect he was after was armed was warned before confronting him – it might have saved someone’s life.
Good job all around, and a great learning experience for everyone to pay attention to.
END OF LINE
[Source: GeorgiaPacking.org thread, retrieved 8/29/11]
(h/t Sharp as a Marble)
Posted by Jake on August 29, 2011
http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/props-to-the-cops/
Fighting back works!
Even if your assailant is armed and you are not.
A robber messed with the wrong man in Florida on Thursday night. 63-year-old, 5-foot-7 Fred Kemp used a foot sweep and a rear naked choke to disarm a robber who pointed a gun at Kemp and his wife.The couple was getting into their car in Boynton Beach when a man came out of the darkness and approached them with what turned out to be a pellet gun. Wanting to keep his wife safe, Kemp returned to the skills that he learned as a wrestler for Hofstra University.
“He started to hit me, so I reacted from there,” a bruised but smiling Kemp said Friday. “I got him out into the street and held his arm. I foot-sweeped him down and I was trying to get a hold of the gun. He banged me up a little bit but my main concern was the gun.”
Kemp’s quick thinking led him to apply a rear-naked choke, then when the robber was weakened, he took the gun from him. The police report mentioned that Kemp held the robber down until the police arrived.
Fight back. Be as vicious and brutal as necessary. Remember, they are threatening to kill you if you don’t comply – do you want to trust that someone willing to do that is going to honor his word and not kill you if you do comply? There’s plenty of evidence that criminals are often willing to kill even if you comply.
To those who would say “It’s only stuff, is it really worth a life?” I say that the robber is the one who made that decision – he made that decision when he decided to place you in fear of yours in order to steal from you. You have no way of knowing what his decision was until he either leaves or kills you. He may not even know what his decision is until he either leaves or kills you. So the only question you should ask at that point is whether it’s going to be your life or his.
Fighting back does not guarantee success – but it does give you a better chance than not fighting back if he was planning on killing you.
Fighting back works. Concealed carry works. CARRY YOUR GUN!
END OF LINE
[Source: Yahoo! Sports article, retrieved 8/14/11]
Posted by Jake on August 15, 2011
http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/fighting-back-works/
Portraits and names of Seals released – Is this normal?
The Pentagon has publicly released the names of those killed in the helicopter crash in Afghanistan last weekend.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the names of SEALs killed in action – especially those in DEVGRU, a.k.a. SEAL Team 6 – normally not associated with the SEAL team, in order to protect the families from retaliation, and to protect operational security? Again, I could be completely wrong – I’m not really familiar with how this kind of thing is normally doen – but it just seems to be unusual.
With allegations that Vice-President Biden’s comments may have already compromised security in a way that resulted in their deaths simply by confirming that it was DEVGRU that conducted the Bin-Laden raid, I have to wonder at this, which would seem to be a much more massive security breach. After all, with a name and a picture, someone can start digging to see who they associated with and when, and start to build a picture of who else – people who are still living – may be part of the same team.
Does this administration have no respect for operational security, and the safety of our soldiers and their families? It seems not.
END OF LINE
Posted by Jake on August 12, 2011
http://cursesfoiledagain2.wordpress.com/2011/08/12/portraits-and-names-of-seals-released-is-this-normal/
