American Patriot/Hero of the Week

This weeks American Patriot and Hero gave his life to save his fellow Marines in Iraq. For his heroic actions, Corporal Jason Lee Dunham was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. I have heard many unsubstantiated stories about men who dove onto live grenades to protect their brothers-in-arms during war. These stories are so pervasive that they have become part of the national mythos and the stuff of war movies. Despite this, I have never seen a confirmed instance of this story, not one, until now. Here is Cpl. Dunham's MOH citation:

Rank and Organization: Corporal, United States Marine Corps
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Rifle Squad Leader, 4th Platoon, Company K, Third Battalion, Seventh Marines (Reinforced), Regimental Combat Team 7, First Marine Division (Reinforced), on 14 April 2004. Corporal Dunham's squad was conducting a reconnaissance mission in the town of Karabilah, Iraq, when they heard rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire erupt approximately two kilometers to the west. Corporal Dunham led his Combined Anti-Armor Team towards the engagement to provide fire support to their Battalion Commander's convoy, which had been ambushed as it was traveling to Camp Husaybah. As Corporal Dunham and his Marines advanced, they quickly began to receive enemy fire. Corporal Dunham ordered his squad to dismount their vehicles and led one of his fire teams on foot several blocks south of the ambushed convoy. Discovering seven Iraqi vehicles in a column attempting to depart, Corporal Dunham and his team stopped the vehicles to search them for weapons. As they approached the vehicles, an insurgent leaped out and attacked Corporal Dunham. Corporal Dunham wrestled the insurgent to the ground and in the ensuing struggle saw the insurgent release a grenade. Corporal Dunham immediately alerted his fellow Marines to the threat. Aware of the imminent danger and without hesitation, Corporal Dunham covered the grenade with his helmet and body, bearing the brunt of the explosion and shielding his Marines from the blast. In an ultimate and selfless act of bravery in which he was mortally wounded, he saved the lives of at least two fellow Marines. By his undaunted courage, intrepid fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty, Corporal Dunham gallantly gave his life for his country, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.

GOD BLESS AMERICA AND DEATH TO HER ENEMIES!

American Patriot/Hero of the Week

This week's honoree, is Gunnery Sergeant Michael "Iron Mike" Burghardt. "Iron Mike" was an EOD tech. Pictured above, we see the sergeant, having just been blown up by an IED trap, expressing his sentiments to the bomber. Here is his story:

Leading the fight is Gunnery Sgt Michael Burghardt, known as "Iron Mike" or just "Gunny". He is on his third tour in Iraq. He had become a legend in the bomb disposal world after winning the Bronze Star for disabling 64 IEDs and destroying 1,548 pieces of ordnance during his second tour. Then, on September 19, he got blown up. He had arrived at a chaotic scene after a bomb had killed four US soldiers. He chose not to wear the bulky bomb protection suit. "You can't react to any sniper fire and you get tunnel-vision," he explains. So, protected by just a helmet and standard-issue flak jacket, he began what bomb disposal officers term "the longest walk", stepping gingerly into a 5ft deep and 8ft wide crater. The earth shifted slightly and he saw a Senao base station with a wire leading from it. He cut the wire and used his 7in knife to probe the ground. "I found a piece of red detonating cord between my legs," he says. "That's when I knew I was screwed."

Realizing he had been sucked into a trap, Sgt Burghardt, 35, yelled at everyone to stay back. At that moment, an insurgent, probably watching through binoculars, pressed a button on his mobile phone to detonate the secondary device below the sergeant's feet. "A chill went up the back of my neck and then the bomb exploded," he recalls. "As I was in the air I remember thinking, 'I don't believe they got me.' I was just ticked off they were able to do it. Then I was lying on the road, not able to feel anything from the waist down."

His colleagues cut off his trousers to see how badly he was hurt. None could believe his legs were still there. "My dad's a Vietnam vet who's paralyzed from the waist down," says Sgt Burghardt. "I was lying there thinking I didn't want to be in a wheelchair next to my dad and for him to see me like that. They started to cut away my pants and I felt a real sharp pain and blood trickling down. Then I wiggled my toes and I thought, 'Good, I'm in business.' As a stretcher was brought over, adrenaline and anger kicked in. "I decided to walk to the helicopter. I wasn't going to let my team-mates see me being carried away on a stretcher." He stood and gave the insurgents who had blown him up a one-fingered salute. "I flipped them one. It was like, 'OK, I lost that round but I'll be back next week'."

Copies of a photograph depicting his defiance, taken by Jeff Bundy for the Omaha World-Herald, adorn the walls of homes across America and that of Col John Gronski, the brigade commander in Ramadi, who has hailed the image as an exemplar of the warrior spirit. Sgt Burghardt's injuries — burns and wounds to his legs and buttocks — kept him off duty for nearly a month and could have earned him a ticket home. But, like his father — who was awarded a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for being wounded in action in Vietnam — he stayed in Ramadi to engage in the battle against insurgents who are forever coming up with more ingenious ways of killing Americans.

This man exemplifies the fighting spirit of our armed forces in Iraq, and makes him this week's American Hero. Ooh-rah Marine.

GOD BLESS AMERICA AND DEATH TO HER ENEMIES!

American Patriot/Hero of the Week

I delayed Patriots and Heroes to brag on catching my criminal, but now back to business. This week's hero is a Marine, but I will not hold that against him. Sergeant Jeremiah Workman was born on August 26, 1983 in Marion Ohio. Sgt. Workman enlisted in The Corps prior to graduating high school, and became a mortarman. Workman fought in The Second Battle of Fallujah (Operation Phantom Fury), where his battery bombarded many an insurgent. After the battle, Sgt. Workman's platoon patrolled the streets as part of the security force subduing the city. During a patrol, a squad commanded by his friend, Sgt. Jarrett Kraft, was ambushed by insurgents. Sgt. Workman performed many acts of bravery during this encounter, and the citation for his Navy Cross can be found here. These actions make the Sergeant both Hero and Patriot in my view, but there is more to his story.

Sgt. Workman has somewhat of an "aww shucks" attitude about his brave actions that day, something that is much more common in television and movies than in real life. Sgt. Workman openly admits to being frightened, having to will himself into combat, PTSD, shedding tears, depression and the weakness of using alcohol to deal with his problems. All of these things violate the cult of manhood in general, and the attitude that the general public expects of a United States Marine in particular. His openness about these issues raises him immeasurably in my esteem, as it should in yours. Sergeant Workman shines the light on PTSD, drags it out into the light and strangles it with both hands. He aides others in their efforts to deal with this often debilitating disorder, and is brave enough to be candid about his own struggles with this disorder and the effects it has had on his family. Many featured in "American Patriot/Hero of the Week" are good, brave men, but I can not think of anyone else I have featured quite as brave as Sgt. Workman.

It is often far easier to be brave under fire, when all you have to do is look out for yourself and your mates, and all you risk is death. A more difficult task, is to openly, and publicly, face your demons when you do not have to, and risk stigmatization and humiliation which is often worse than death. This is especially true for men. We are expected to be brave and to deal with the worst life can throw out with noting more than a witty quip, and this holds doubly true for one as "tough" as we expect a Marine to be. Sgt. Workman rejects this image that society has forced upon his brothers, and tells the sufferers of this most "unmanly" of disorders to get help. In his recent book "Shadow of the Sword" Sgt. workman exhorts us all, "We need to reframe the debate, change the perception of PTSD in the country at large, and find ways to show the real consequences of combat in Hollywood epics. Until that happens, there will be plenty of good men and women who live in despair, unwilling to reach out and admit they can't battle this demon on their own. The stereotype and the stigma associated with PTSD must be destroyed. There are lives at stake."

GOD BLESS AMERICA AND DEATH TO HER ENEMIES!

Joke of the Week 2.0

I saw this on Z's blog and I could not help myself:

ZOO STORY

A Harley biker is riding by the zoo in Washington , DC when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents. The biker jumps off his Harley, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.

A reporter has watched the whole event. The reporter addressing the Harley rider says, 'Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I've seen a man do in my whole life." The Harley rider replies, 'Why, it was nothing, really, the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger and acted as I felt right.'

The reporter says, 'Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist, you know, and tomorrow's paper will have this story on the front page . . . . . . . So, what do you do for a living and what political affiliation do you have?' The biker replies, 'I'm a U.S. Marine and a Republican.' The journalist leaves.

The following morning the biker buys the paper to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads, on the front page:

U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT THEN STEALS HIS LUNCH

GOD BLESS AMERICA AND DEATH TO HER ENEMIES!

American Patriot/Hero of the Week

Last night I was watching Family Guy and during the break there was a commercial for the DVD release of GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra. The anger at what has happened to one of my earliest inspirations for who I eventually became, flooded back into me. When I heard, about a year ago, they were making a movie of one of my favorite childhood cartoons, I was thrilled. Later when I found out that instead of being "A Real American Hero", GI Joe was now some namby-pamby Globally Integrated Joint Operational Entity, a piece of my childhood was stolen from me. I talked this over with G-Man at lunch one day and found out that his childhood was also stolen by GI Joe, but in his case, by MY beloved childhood heroes. G-Man, as always a good teacher, pointed me in the direction to find the roots of my heroes, and, as always, left the research and learning up to me. For all of those in my generation, the root and truth of GI Joe is even more inspirational than the animated patriots and heroes we grew up with.

The original GI Joe was based, and modeled, on a true life "Real American Hero," a United States Marine Platoon Sergeant named Mitchell Paige. At the Battle of Guadalcanal in the Solomons, Sergeant Paige single-handedly fought back an entire Japanese Regiment after his entire platoon had been killed. Paige proved that one American Marine was equal to an entire regiment of Japan's infantry. Paige is a hero in the finest traditions of our Armed Services. Paige's story has returned the missing piece of my childhood that was stolen by the liberal Hollywierd elites. We all owe our heroes a debt we can never repay, and I am proud bring this brave man's story back to a generation that has forgotten too much of our past, and has idolized thugs who can handle a ball and idiots who look good on a screen for too long. Mitchell Paige's Medal of Honor citation can be found here.

GOD BLESS AMERICA AND DEATH TO HER ENEMIES!

Marine Tells It Like It Is

This Marine might very well be my new personal hero. Everyone should listen to what this Veteran had to say at a town hall meeting. I highly recommend this video. It is funny, poignant and He really tells off Representative Brian Baird. By the way Congressman.....Don't touch my health care and stay away from my kids as well.

Tip O' the Hat to Lars Larson for bringing this to our attention.

GOD BLESS AMERICA AND DEATH TO HER ENEMIES!