Theodore's World

A large group of Al-Qaeda fighters are moving down a road when they hear a voice call from behind a sand dune:
“One MARINE is better than ten Al-Qaeda fighters “.
The Al-Qaeda commander quickly orders 10 of his best men over the dune where upon a gun-battle breaks out and continues for a few minutes, then silence.
The voice once again calls out:
“One MARINE is better than one-hundred Al-Qaeda fighters.”
Furious, the Al-Qaeda commander sends his next best 100 troops over the dune and instantly a huge gun fight commences. After 10 minutes of battle, again Silence.
The MARINE’S voice calls out again:
“One MARINE is better than one-thousand Al-Qaeda fighters.”
The enraged Al-Qaeda commander musters 1000 fighters and sends them to the other side of the dune. Rifle fire, machine guns, grenades, rockets and Cannon fire ring out as a terrible battle is fought…. Then silence.
Eventually one badly wounded Al-Qaeda fighter crawls back over the dune and with his dying words tells his commander……………….

.

“Don’t send any more men……it’s a trap. There are two of them.”

.

……..LOL thank you so much Lynn.

Patriot Guard Escorts Fallen Soldier form Caddo MIlls, Texas

Sgt. Emerson N. Brand, 29
Sgt. Emerson spent the last nine years of his life in the Army, serving once in Kosovo and this was his second deployment to Iraq. His life was tragically cut short when an IED struck his unit, killing Emerson and three other soldiers March 15, in Baghdad.
He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas.
The song is:
“Go Rest High On The Mountain” by Vince Gill
From Patriot Guard Riders:

“Sgt. Emerson Brand was killed in Iraq last week by an IED. I got a call from an associate asking if I could film the plane arriving yesterday in Greenville, Texas. I was honored. I found out the procession had grown and this was to be an “event” for Greenville and the area, with businesses closing and allowing employees to line the streets in honor of Sgt. Brand. Many people and organizations offered to volunteer their time and assistance to making this a reality.
The Patriot Guard Riders would be present for the procession and the funeral today, but never imagined the patriotic feel I found when watching the Patriot Guard Riders in the procession. Seeing the people lining the streets with American flags and businesses closing down, I found hope for our country that people still care about what our soldiers are fighting for. An emotional day for me as this was the first “real contact” with the war in the Middle East and seeing a fallen soldier.”

“History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid” –
Dwight D. Eisenhower

…..Thank you Tom for sending this to me.

More Than 40 Arrested in Immigration Raid at McDonalds
Fox News
RENO, Nevada
Federal agents raided 11 McDonald’s restaurants in northern Nevada and made dozens of arrests Thursday as part of an investigation into illegal immigration.
Agents for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement made at least 56 arrests in Reno, Sparks and Fernley after raids at the restaurants and a franchise corporate headquarters in Reno, agency spokesman Richard Rocha said.

“They are people suspected of being in the country illegally. As far as I know, they were all McDonald’s employees,” he told The Associated Press.

The investigation began five months ago and was sparked by an identity theft complaint, Rocha said. A local law enforcement agency then gave ICE information that illegal immigrants were working at specific McDonald’s restaurants, he said.
Luther Mack, who owns at least some of the restaurants that were raided, insisted that his businesses require employees to provide documentation.

“As an employer, I do not knowingly hire or employ undocumented or unauthorized workers,” Mack said in a statement.

The raids drew immediate criticism from Reno Mayor Bob Cashell and activists, who estimated the number of arrests to be closer to 100.

“We don’t approve of the Gestapo methods ICE is using,” said Gilbert Cortez, a Latino leader who urged Hispanic workers to stay home from work in protest Friday

Cashell, a Republican and former lieutenant governor, said that if identity theft was involved, that was wrong, and that he opposed a protest that would keep workers at home on Friday.

He said he would contact Nevada’s congressional delegation and ask the city council to look into the raids. He said that he opposes illegal immigration, as well as immunity for illegal immigrants, but that “there has to be a better way to do this.”

Wild Thing’s comment……..
One of my all time favorite illegal alien quotes:
“Why aren’t the authorities out arresting people who are breaking the law instead of these poor undocumented workers?!?!”
For Julie, that misunderstood this post LOL …. Julie… the quote I used above was to show how awful they are, how stupid they are and how they truly do not get it about illegals and how THEY are breaking our laws. —- Wild Thing

Retired Army Chief Warrant Officer 4 Dan Cordell shakes hands with actor Robert Duvall, who spent time visiting wounded servicemembers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington on Sept. 25, 2007. Cordell was injured Sept. 13 while working as a contractor in Iraq. Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Molly A. Burgess, USN

Actor Robert Duvall talks with Army Lt. Col. Gregory Gadson on Sept. 25, 2007, during a visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Gadson, who is recovering at the facility after losing both legs above the knee fighting in the global war on terrorism.

Duval with Army Spc. Brent Hendrix on Sept. 25, 2007, during a visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Hendrix, an outpatient at the facility, lost his right leg below the knee when his Stryker hit a roadside bomb near Iraq’s Anbar province.

Duvall crosses paths with Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington on Sept. 25, 2007. Duvall was on his way into the facility to visit with wounded servicemembers. The commander of 3rd Infantry Division and Multinational Division Center in Iraq was just on his way out after visiting about 50 of his wounded soldiers and their families before returning to Iraq.

WASHINGTON
Sept. 26, 2007
Award-winning actor Robert Duvall certainly wasn’t gone in 60 seconds when he stopped at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here yesterday to visit wounded servicemembers.

He did discover, however, that his 2000 movie “Gone in 60 Seconds,” was a favorite with those he talked to. “What is it with that movie?” he asked after talking with several troops who said they loved the film.

“I think ‘Gone in 60 Seconds’ was on (Turner Network Television) the other day, so I just watched it,” Army Spc. Brent Hendrix, a Walter Reed outpatient, said in providing a possible explanation.

Duvall’s visit was a welcome surprise, said Hendrix, whose right leg was amputated below the knee after his Stryker combat vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Iraq’s Anbar province on June 27, 2006.

“I’m all about him,” he said. “Most times you sit there, and you think about celebrities, … and you wouldn’t ever think they’d come by here and see us. They really do appreciate what we do and what we continue to do.”

That sentiment was echoed throughout the physical therapy room as Duvall worked his way around amid the hubbub of on-going rehabilitation sessions.
Duvall was sincere and heartfelt, said Marine Cpl. Kenny Lyon, also a Walter Reed outpatient, who lost his left leg above the knee when his operating post north of Fallujah, Iraq, was hit by a mortar May 1, 2006.

“I really enjoy it when people visit,” he said. “It’s just good for the patients and other people who have been here less time than me. Some of them think this really sucks and they see people come in. It really puts a sparkle in their eye, and it’s nice to see.”

Despite repeatedly being stopped in the halls by those wanting to meet the screen legend, Duvall also managed to visit servicemembers in the occupational therapy rooms and in Ward 57, an in patient ward housing mostly orthopedic patients. Most of the amputees are treated there.

“We have so many people coming to visit – VIPs, general officers – it just seems like sometimes people walking in off the streets to say, ‘Hi,’” said Retired Army Chief Warrant Officer Dan Cordell after visiting with Duvall in his Ward 57 room. “It’s nice that people care.”

Cordell was injured while working as a contractor in Iraq.

Duvall played down the significance of his visit, saying it was an “honor and a privilege” to be able to talk with these “wonderful young people,” and that he’s impressed with the care they’re receiving.

“I’m just a layman. I don’t really understand the specifics of what you have here, but it seems wonderful what’s being done and the treatment these people are getting,” the actor said. “It’s very thorough and scientific, specific, and loving at the same time.”

The son of a career Navy officer, Duvall marveled at the persistence the wounded warriors displayed. “So many of these young men and women, they want to go back,” he said. “They want to go back to the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s amazing.”

Amazing perhaps, but very telling, said Alan Geoffrion, who accompanied Duvall and his wife, Luciana Pedraza.
Geoffrion, who wrote the western novel “Broken Trail,” said he and his father-in-law, both Vietnam veterans, once had doubts about an all-volunteer military.

“Last night we both … agreed that this is probably — well, not even probably — this is the best military our country has ever fielded,” he said. “They’re brighter, smarter (and) more skilled. They need to keep them back in active duty. I think it’s terrific that the services are willing to do that.”

The former Navy signalman also wrote the screenplay for the television movie version of his book, which recently garnered Duvall an Emmy award for outstanding leading actor.

“I wanted to come and do this,” Geoffrion said. “You come here thinking you’re going to help them, and you wind up they help you a lot more.”

Celebrity visits really do help the servicemembers and their families, though, Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said.
Lynch spent yesterday at the hospital visiting about 50 of his wounded soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division, which he commands out of Fort Stewart, Ga. He’ll soon head back to his other position as commander of Multinational Division Center in Iraq.

“I think — and I’m a fan of Robert Duvall, as well — when they see him on the screen and see him in person they can relate, because he’s always doing action adventures,” Lynch said. “At least on the screen, he’s doing what we do in life. To me, it’s personally inspirational that he takes the time to come and visit these great soldiers.”

Duvall wrapped up his visit with a tour of the new Military Advanced Training Center, which was officially opened during a Sept. 13 ceremony.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
At “Hold Their Feet To The Fire” event that was held a benefit dinner for agents Ramos and Compean and Deputy Gilmer. Duncan Hunter was there and spoke and also Robert Duvall came to support the agents wives, Robert Duval is also in favor of secure borders
Here is a scene from one of his films:
Lonesome Dove: Some Old Men Get Respect

Laurel & Hardy: Great Guns (Jeep Recon)

…..Thank you Jack, Conservative Insurgent, for this video. LOL

U.S. builds military base in Iraq-Iran border
WASHINGTON
The U.S. military is building a base “within shouting distance” of Iran in the border areas of Iraq, ABC News reported Wednesday.
U.S. officials described the move as “an extraordinary step” to curb the smuggling of Iranian weapons into Iraq, but the media sphere already smelled the “odor of war.”
Namely Combat Outpost Shocker, the base hardly comes as a pleasant surprise to Iran that the United States will have a new base just 8 km from their border.

Col. Mark Mueller, of the 3rd U.S. Army Infantry Division, said it is the first time the U.S. military will be that close to Iran.

“Obviously, they probably won’t be very happy about it,” Mueller told ABC News.

The Shocker base will be home to about 200 soldiers, as well as to agents from the U.S. Border Patrol, at a location where about 300 trucks now cross the border each day.
At the moment, the United States can only fully search three or four of them each day, but with more manpower and technology, they will know better where to look for weapons transactions.
The new base is part of a bigger struggle for influence between the United States and Iran in Iraq.
While the United States and Iran are not engaged in a shooting war for now, a “war of wills” has already begun, and Combat Outpost Shocker will be right on the frontline, analysts said.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Tick tock Ahmadinejad! Prayers for our troops and for their safety.

HADITHAH DAM, Iraq– A sailor with Riverine Squadron 1, Riverine Group 1, Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, in support of Regimental Combat Team 2, does an operational check on his night-vision goggles before setting off on a night patrol through Iraq’s waterways. As the first deployed Navy riverine unit since the Vietnam War, the squadron had the responsibility to not only accomplish the mission, but to also pave the way for future riverine forces.
Navy’s MIO joins Corps in ground combat operations
HADITHAH DAM, Iraq
For decades, Marines have protected and fought for the United States and her allies on the ground, utilizing stealth and skill to become known as one of the world’s most elite fighting forces. Now, the U.S. Navy is striving toward that goal in the Corps’ footsteps with their new riverine force.
The Navy officially stood up the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, responsible for fielding a new Riverine force in Iraq, Jan. 13, 2006, in Little Creek, Va. Sailors in the new command began training June 2006, in preparation for their upcoming deployment. Less than a year later, during March 2007, Riverine Squadron 1, Riverine Group 1, Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, deployed to Iraq’s waterways in support of Regimental Combat Team 2, in Al Anbar Province.
The numerous islands, wadis (oases), inlets and coves throughout Iraq’s waterways posed a problem to the naval patrol unit, but they were prepared. The squadron has a Maritime Interdiction Operations Team attached to each of its three detachments as support for ground combat operations.

“Basically, our team covers anything within range of the boat’s crew-served weapons,” said Petty Officer 1st Class Garrick A. Bowles, the lead petty officer with the MIO team attached to Detachment 3. “Our purpose is to deny enemy access to the shoreline and islands, find and destroy caches, and search and sweep buildings near or on the coastline.”

“We’re proud to carry on the tradition of riverine warfare. The last time the Navy had this type of specialized unit, other than the Seals, was during Vietnam, but we’re hoping it sticks around for a while this time,” said Bowles, a Virginia Beach, Va., native.

A Riverine Patrol Boat with Riverine Squadron 1, Riverine Group 1, Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, in support of Regimental Combat Team 2, powers down the Euphrates River as the sun goes down. As the first deployed Navy riverine unit since the Vietnam War, the squadron had the responsibility to not only accomplish the mission, but to also pave the way for future riverine forces.
When the riverines began operations along the Euphrates River, their huge level of success was a surprise even for those within the unit.

“Those guys found so much stuff it was incredible,” said Chief Petty Officer Michael E. Bennett, a boat captain with the detachment. “They got a lot of weapons, huge caches with anti-aircraft guns, arty shells and a lot of dangerous stuff.”

“This is going to sound unbelievable,” explained Bowles, “but we probably destroyed over a ton of weapons and ordinance, literally a ton. We searched over 150 clicks (about 94 miles) of islands and shoreline, all the way from the (Hadithah) dam to the Syrian border.”

As the first deployed Navy riverine unit since the Vietnam War, the squadron had the responsibility to not only accomplish the mission, but to also pave the way for future riverine forces.

“Although we got rid of weapons and did the usual ground combat thing, we also created (standard operating procedures) to help the guys who come along after we leave,” said Bowles, who is serving on his fifth deployment.

Wild Thing’s comment……..
This is great and it is making another differnce for all our troops.

Boulder students to protest Pledge of Allegiance
Rocy Mountain News
Boulder High School students are planning a protest against the Pledge of Allegiance in the courtyard of their school tomorrow morning.
Students with the activist club “Student Worker” organized the protest for 8:30 a.m., when the pledge is recited over the intercom.
They’re concerned that it takes away from school time and that the phrase “one nation, under God” violates the separation of church and state, club President Emma Martens wrote in an e-mail.

“Boulder High has a highly diverse population, not all of whom believe in God, or One God,” she wrote.

She said the group would rather the school hold the recitation — which the school must make available by state law — during lunch break, or at another time when students who don’t participate wouldn’t have to listen to it

Wild Thing’s comment……..
Students with the activist club “Student Worker”
Of course. A pro-commie high school club that allows mini-Maxists to trash patriotism.
Hello parents, what the heck are you allowing your kids to join? I blame the teachers as well, but it does not stop there it is also the parents that allow this shit. Hippie parents perhaps or more followers of the Progressive Party that so many of our leftie politicians belong to.

The “Hero of Chappaquiddick” speaks” …. ????
Ted Kennedy on why he supports amnesty for those sneaking across the Rio Grande

….Thank you Mark for sending this to me.

The US marine Ty Ziegel suffered horrific burns in a suicide bomb attack in Iraq. After months in hospital, he was eventually able to return home — and marry his childhood sweetheart.
When Marine Sergeant Ty Ziegel woke up from his coma, he was still in a fog of drugs. He knew his fiancée, Renee, was there and sensed her love for him. She had been playing with his feet because there was so little of him she could touch. He was told of his injuries but was so out of it, he thought: “Whatever.”
As the scale of his injuries sank in, his heart tightened. One arm was a stump and his remaining hand had only two fingers. Later, his big toe was grafted on in place of a thumb. One eye was blind and milky, as if melted, and his ears had been burnt away. The top of his skull had been removed and inserted by doctors into the fatty tissue inside his torso to keep it viable and moist for future use. He was a mess.
Renee received the news that he had been blown up from his mother and father, who asked her to come over. They didn’t dare tell her until she reached their house. The next morning, on Christmas Eve, they flew together to the Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas and set up a vigil at his bedside.

“He was a strange charcoal colour, but Ty still looked like himself,” says his mother, Becky. By the time his burnt flesh had been removed, he didn’t.

“I don’t remember saying it to Renee, but I’d have understood if she’d said, ‘Yeah, I’m out of here,’” Ty says.

He had seen other badly wounded soldiers and marines get dumped by their girlfriends in hospital. Sometimes they would be cruel to their girlfriends and chuck them pre-emptively to spare themselves hurt. But quietly and with little fuss, Ty, 24, and Renee, 21, resolved to stick it out.
They were married in October, in their home town of Metamora, Illinois, a small farming community in the Midwest. Friends, family and Marines were present: it was as if the whole town had turned out. The wedding was planned to the last exquisite detail by Renee and her mother, Donna, who spoke regularly on the phone because Ty was still undergoing operations in Texas.

“I did the male part of the wedding planning,” says Ty. “They’d ask me questions, but I always gave the wrong answer, so eventually they stopped asking me about it.”

Renee felt sick with nerves before going up the aisle, but she had no second thoughts. She looked radiant in a white dress. “You’re beautiful,” Ty told her. He wore his combat medals and a Purple Heart for being wounded in action.

Donna had been shocked when she found out the extent of Ty’s injuries, but she told her daughter she simply had to “follow her heart, and that we’d make it work, if she wanted it”. Today she is convinced that they will never part.
Ty was on his second tour of duty in Iraq and had been patrolling the streets in a truck with six marines around al-Qaim, an entry point for foreign fighters on the Syrian border. He had been there for five months, and the mission had become routine.

“Mostly we just rode around and came back. The atmosphere was not particularly menacing. They weren’t shooting guns at us any more.”

Suddenly a suicide bomber blew himself up by his truck. “It felt like somebody just blasted me in the face really hard,” Ty recalls. “I was rolling around on the bed of a truck, yelling the whole time I was conscious. The guy next to me kept putting me out – I guess I kept relighting.”

He was put in a helicopter and his clothes were cut off.

“I kept saying I was cold, and they put a poncho liner on me.” He continued to shiver under the flimsy covering.

“I remember saying, ‘Oh, thanks, a poncho liner!’ before passing out.” Ty had taken the full force of the blast. The marines travelling with him mostly escaped injury, though one had to have a foot amputated when it failed to heal.

Ty’s sense of humour kept his spirits up through the long months of recovery. His deadpan wit was one of the reasons Renee had fallen for him. She was just 15 when Ty, an athletic, handsome 18-year-old, began working as a mechanic at her dad’s garage.
They were barely more than children then, and kept their relationship a secret from Renee’s family. It was more of a flirtation. They would mess around at the garage, both in their greasy overalls and T-shirts. It changed when Ty, a reservist, invited Renee to the Marine Corps ball in nearby Peoria. He looked dashing in his dress uniform; she stepped out of a green pick-up truck in a beautiful long, red gown.

“He wouldn’t let me leave his side,” Renee remembers. “I never said, ‘Do you want to go out with me?’” Ty chips in, “but it was clear I wasn’t going to be hanging out with any other girls.”

When Ty was sent to Iraq for the first time, they had just started dating. Renee avoided watching the news and carried on with life as a schoolgirl, while Ty experienced the excitement of the Iraq invasion, storming through the desert to Baghdad. It was thrilling to be part of such a successful operation.

Three weeks after Ty returned home from his first tour, Renee’s father died in a freak quad-bike accident. She was devastated. “I made Ty stay with me, whether he wanted to or not,” she says. “I was sure he’d get sick of me.”

On her 18th birthday, Ty arranged for a single rose to be sent to Renee every hour for four hours. The first note said: “Happy birthday.” The second: “I love you.” The third: “Renee Nicole Kline, will you…” By then, she guessed what was coming. The last words were: “marry me”. And then he walked in with more roses. “They are hopeless romantics,” says Becky, who tended her son with Renee and grew to know her future daughter-in-law inside out.
Becky recalled that on Valentine’s Day in hospital in 2005, Ty was so wounded he could hardly speak. She and Renee taped a pen to the splint on his hand and he wrote as best he could on a dry erase board: “Ty and Renee”.

“Well, we think it said ‘Ty and Renee’,” Becky laughs. “Then doctors removed his ‘trake’ – the tracheostomy tube in his neck that had been feeding him when his lips were too burnt – and he said, ‘Renee, will you be my valentine?’ I cried.” His next words were: “Do you want to make out?” Months passed before they could, but at that moment she knew that he hadn’t really changed.

Renee had feared that while Ty was in a coma, he would emerge brain-damaged. In addition to his burns, shrapnel had entered his brain.

“The only thing that might have changed my mind or made me leave him was if the brain injury had made him into some sort of psycho.”

Ty gets headaches sometimes, but he just takes an aspirin and gets on with it. In hospital he saw soldiers and marines with fewer injuries than him behave more self-pityingly. “Anger has a lot to do with the person,” he says. “I’ve seen guys who had no complaints, really, act pretty pissed off.”

Ty has a plastic skull now, and the old one is still stuck in his insides. He taps the side of his waist, where there is a slight bulge. The lump of bone will be removed one day but he is in no hurry to undergo another operation. There will be plenty of those ahead: he hopes the sight in his blind eye can be restored, though he doubts he is going to rebuild his nose – it involves too many awkward skin grafts.

In Metamora, people know him well enough not to stare a lot, but he gets plenty of looks elsewhere. Mostly he shrugs it off. “I give people the benefit of the doubt. If you were me, I might look at you.” If they are particularly rude, he will turn and say: “So what were you going to ask me?”

On the plus side, Ty claims: “I can be a lot more of an ass and get away with it.” It is also a long time since he has bought dinner. “I tried to take Renee out on her birthday and somebody paid for it. People know you are in the military and they want to thank you.”

He did not join the marines to get thanks and he does not feel strongly about the war one way or the other.

“I’m not political and I don’t complain.” His younger brother is also in the marines and may be deployed in Iraq. Sometimes it bothers Ty, but they both signed up, so that’s that, he says stoically. At one stage he hoped to remain in the marines, but when he thought seriously about it for 10 minutes, he decided to quit. He is living on his pension now while Renee works part-time in a bar. In the spring, he hopes to build a house on a plot of land near his family: “When that’s done, it will be the last house I’ll live in.”

Renee and Ty are thinking about having children soon. “We want to be young, cool parents,” says Rene.

Wild Thing’s comment………
I was born in Peoria, Illinois, and grew up there till I moved to Dallas, Texas. I still have a few distant relatives that live in Peoria. Metamora is just across the Illinois river. It is a very small town and surrounded by a lot of farms. I used to go to Metamora and spend some of my summer weeks of vacation at a farm my sister lived on that my Dad owned. From visiting there and meeting people at the local stores and coffee shop everyone knew someone else that knew someone is the best way to describe the town of Metamora. If you know Joe then Joe knew someone else that you knew…like that.
I am sharing about all of that because even though I have been away from this area for so many years, since my parents passed away, I remember a family in Metamora with the last name of Ziegel. They would never remember me I am sure, but the last name is familar.
Either way the important thing is that this man is a Hero and we here at TW want to thank Ty Ziegel and wish him and his bride all the best in their future as one.
The awesome wedding photos were done by Nina Berman. There are more photos at her site of the couple.