Honoring Beirut Veterans

October 23, 1983, terrorists struck the Marine Barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, crashing an explosive laden truck into the building. According the the Beirut Veterans of America site, this was the largest non-nuclear explosion recorded. It is said that this was the opening salvo in the Global War on Terror.

It was a shock to Americans and President Ronald Reagan, who had sent the U.S. Marines to be Peace keepers.

Permanent gallery space will not be devoted to the Beirut Marines until Phase 2 of the museum is completed. The Heritage Foundation is currently in the midst of fund raising . So far, a little over $10 million has been donated. Another $75 million is required.

In commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the bombing, a temporary panel display honoring those Marines was officially opened today. They were installed two weeks ago, my photos are not very good. A Beirut veteran was at the museum that day. He had been spared, thanks to having perimeter security duty. The photos and narrative on the wall brought a flood of memories back to him as he began telling his wife and the our Guest Services Manager, Pat, his story.

This Saturday, there will be a Symposium on the event, at the museum. I have my ticket to attend.

The panel display, made possible by the generous donation of H. Furlong Baldwin, Chairman and Director of the Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. and Marine.

The Amazing OBX Weekend

I have just returned from an amazing weekend with my Bible study group. We went to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I feel so relaxed!!!

Our house was awesome! C found this house in the Four Season's community of Duck that rented for weekends during the off season. We each had our own King size bedroom with bathroom and there were still two bedrooms and one bathroom to spare.

We were a 500 yard walk to the beach and a 200 yard walk to a club house with a heated indoor pool and fitness room. We had a hot tub at our house. It was GREAT!

The hot tub wasn't heated up when we got there on Friday and wouldn't heat up Saturday. So, we called for someone to fix it. By Sunday, we were golden! In fact, it was a bit too hot. We started joking about where the little Pygmies dancing in a circle around us were, and we made reference to a few old Elmer Fud and Bugs Bunny cartoons. We did turn it down so we wouldn't boil ourselves. It was fabulous! I slept so well after that!

Besides chic flicks, walks on the beach, shopping and sight seeing, we threw a bridal shower for our friend K.A.

It was a intimates shower where we got her things she would wear on her honeymoon. I think we got her covered for every night of her honeymoon.

I got her this sweet lavender nightie. This tends to be my style as far as these things go. I like the sexy and shy look.

Our house had this perfect little look out sitting area - - perfect for having a bridal shower.

Here are our group shots.

D was not expecting me to lick her face. We were going to do silly faces and she had something all prepared but my lick totally caught her off guard.

The next day, it was sunnier so we took a few outside. Do you see a theme where we do serious and then funny.

K.S., C and I went up to Kitty Hawk, to the Wright Brother's memorial and museum. Its a bit different since I was last down here four years ago.

I did get up early on Sunday to try for some sunrise shots, but the clouds nixed any actual sun sightings. I did get some neat lighting effects.

I do like this Sea Gull flying picture. It was a challenge to track them as the flew.

Sunday afternoon they had no swimming flags flying because the rip tide was so bad. The waves were pretty huge. Here this wave is up to K.S's shoulder.

The lifeguards did ride up on their 4 wheel drive to make sure my friends were just playing in the surf.

Our blanket was a bit close to the high tide.

It is back to work tomorrow - - lots of stuff going on this week. I'm just excited that I was able to sleep.

Update on the Chapel and other Construction at the Museum

In our monthly volunteer meeting, we were given an update on the Chapel and the build out for phase 1A.

Construction will begin in January after the holidays. Good thing as that will mean the place won't be a wreck for holiday visitors. The estimate on Chapel completion is this time next year. Apparently, there have been people asking about its completion date as they want to have weddings there. It will be a very pretty location for a wedding. Completion for the galleries covering the birth of the Marine Corps through World War 1 is still slated for April 2010.

Lots of happening stuff on the calendar for the next three months. If only I didn't have to work...

We have a Parking Lot

The parking lot for the Semper Fi Memorial Park Chapel is in its final stages in mid September (above). Its so exciting to see it at this stage because that means construction on the Chapel will begin soon!

Below this same stretch of parking log in August, 2008.



The same stretch of parking lot in July, 2008.



Below, I am standing across the "Parkway", the road to the Chapel. In front of me are the walls that surround the parking lot. The mound to the center left, where you can see the museum in the background, is where the Chapel is going to be built. When construction starts on the Chapel, I will try to take a picture from this spot almost every month to show the progress.



Below, the artists rendering of what the Chapel will look like. The plan is for this to be completed by next spring.

Disconnect Between Obama's Defense Policy and New US Army Doctrine - - Imagine That

According to Obama's national security adviser Richard Danzig (Secretary of the Navy under Clinton), "Obama would make sure that the Pentagon doesn't become overly focused on fighting guerrillas and terrorists at the expense of traditional air and sea power. 'I think the temptation is to invest in the issue du jour or the cause dujour and to overlook a lot of basics,' Mr. Danzig said. At the same time, there will be a focus on cyber warfare and unmanned aerial vehicles, he said. [Wall Street Journal, October 3, 2008]

Ironically, today, the US Army unveiled its "Stability Operations Field Manual" which declares that nation-building missions will become more important than conventional warfare. [Washington Post, October 5, 2008].

An interesting point the Washington Post article makes is that since the American Revolution, only 11 of the hundreds of U.S. military operations were conventional.

Now, I do think its important that our nation be prepared to fight a conventional war - YES. Russia and China are re-tooling themselves conventionally thanks to all the US money flowing into their countries for oil and cheap manufactured goods. Who do you think they are preparing themselves to fight? Possibly each other - - always a possibility. But most likely, to fight us, the United States. However, most of the conflicts we've been involved in have been insurgencies or low intensity conventional. While I applaud the Obama campaign with putting cyber warfare out there as a threat to be reckoned with - - its hardly conventional but can be a chaos driver -- we need to be prepared to fight what we are most likely to face. Terrorists and guerillas are hardly "issue du jour".

I actually started laughing at the contrast between what the Obama adviser thinks and is advising and what the "In the Fight" Army thinks and is advising its own. I laughed until it hit me that this opposite ends of the spectrum thinking between an actual military branch and the possible future defense policy of this nation was really quite scary.

At first it sounded like more of the "Do more with greater technology and less numbers," until I read the WSJ article further where Danzig said one way to control costs may be to change the focus to buying greater numbers of less sophisticated weapons systems.

Hmmm, sticks and stones....

"Don't Be Discouraged with the Media"

One of three key points Lt. Col Oliver North (ret) made to Marines was to not become discouraged with mainstream media.

"You have to understand, the Press doesn't understand the vernacular, don't understand the history [of the Marine Corps or military]," he told an audience of about 120 Marines and civilians at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, Thursday night.

"If its bad news, its good news for the media," he said.

Oliver North was the featured speaker at the Museum's monthly speaker series. Every month they bring in someone who has been key to the Marine Corps either historically or currently. North was asked to speak on the role of the media.

North, a Marine made famous by the Iran-Contra scandal in the 1980s is now a correspondent with Fox News, hosting "War Stories". He has the unique experience of being on both sides of the media fence.

He told the Marines and the military in attendance that hte Press was intimidated by them, "They can tell there is something different about you, they are in awe of you."

"They [press] realize you [military] are the very best of this generation. They realize that you volunteer to serve in a time of war."

He also pointed out that this is the first war where our [US/Western] media is getting most of its war images from the enemy.

In this environment, where journalists don't know the military culture and are prepared to assume the worst, where the enemy is shaping the public opinion battlefield through its use of mainstream media and the internet, North advised the military personnel to, "Put out the straight scoop and let the chips fall where they may."

The reality of the current wars he said was that the U.S. military has been successful but the media and even U.S. politicians have not recognized this. Again, North cited the lack of practical military knowledge of the media and politicians.

He illustrated this lack of knowledge in a slide presentation. A photo of a Navy Corpsman was carrying a wounded combatant down a road. This Corpsman had run out into the middle of a fire fight and grabbed a wounded Marine and carried him to safety. Then the Corpsman ran back out into the fire fight and grabbed another wounded man and carried him to safety. North's Fox news crew was there along with a crew from Reuters, filming the action.

As the Corpsman ran back to the fight, one of the Reuters crew yelled out, "Hey, mate, why'd you do that, can't you see he's an Iraqi?"

The Corpsman paused and flipped the Reuters crew off with the response "Hey, can't you see he was wounded?"

"The media doesn't understand about Marines and what Americans are about," North said.

Another observation North has made over the years of covering the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan has been the number of men willing to profess their faith. He showed numerous images of men at field church services and being baptized.

"Never have I see so many young people willing to profess their faith in combat, " he said.

The second point that North made to the military personnel present was that there is a life after the Marines.

In 1990, North founded a not for profit organization called Freedom Alliance which provides scholarships to children of wounded and deceased military members; money for housing for family members coming to the DC area to support their wounded soldiers; Troop appreciation dinners and events; care packages; and a leadership academy to introduce teens to the opportunities available in the military.

Prior to the dinner, North's book, American Heroes: In the Fight Against Radical Islam, was available for purchase with all proceeds going to the Freedom Aliance. Here, he autographs copies for attendees.

The final point he made to all of the military present was to write down their stories and experiences of combat, save the photos and video they had taken so they can tell their children and grandchildren what they had done. What they were doing he said was opening the door to freedom, freedoms that people in that area of the world had never experienced.

After he spoke, those who had not had a chance to meet him prior to dinner got their chance.

Oliver North has a quiet voice so those talking to him made a tighter circle to hear what he had to say, therefore, it made it difficult for me to get pictures of everyone talking to him.

Side story:

Pre-dinner, North was speaking with a group of us from the museum to include Col. Camp's daughter. When Col. Camp introduced his daughter, he said, "Just to warn you, she's a liberal." To that North responded with his own story about his college aged daughter.

"I drove past our house [in the college town where his daughter attends school] where our daughter lives and we rent rooms out to several of her friends and there were five Obama signs in the front yard. Well, I hit the breaks and pulled over, looked around to make sure no one was around and I pulled all of those signs up and ripped them up, shoved them in the garbage can an put the can at the curb. My daughter comes home for a visit a few weeks after this and we get in a discussion about politics and she's going on about 'Dad, don't you want change? This country needs a change.' Well, he said he told her what he thought and she responded, ' You don't know how bad its gotten,dad. Mary [roommate] was home a few weeks ago and some old man stopped his car in front of our house and pulled all the Obama signs out and ripped them up. '

He said he didn't say anything, he was a little wounded that he'd been described as an 'old man'. His wife later pulled his daughter aside and told her that he had been that 'old man'. He said his daughter hasn't talked politics with him since."

We all laughed. Col. Camp's daughter commented, "I was going to ask you which candidate you endorsed but I guess I know."

By the way, any opinions Oliver North expressed while talking with guests were his own and not those of Fox News or the Marine Corps.

The Smallest Victims of the Economic Chaos

I live next to one of the counties with the highest foreclosure rate in the United States. There have been news articles all summer about the influx of pets at area shelters and rescue organizations. Those were the responsible pet owners. There have also been horrible stories of abandonment, dogs left chained in backyards without food or water, cats or dogs locked in homes without food or water (Which I think is even worse because no one knows they are there), or just left to fend for themselves. I won't even go where I think these pet owners should go.

Meet Gracie.

She is between 2 and 3 years old and was abandoned by her owners. They lived in a Condo complex not far from my work. One of my co-workers moved there in August. She had noticed Gracie hanging out at the door to one of the buildings. Neighbors told my co-worker how Gracie's humans had moved and just left her. Gracie had sat outside the building door crying for four days. The woman who lived across the hall from Gracie's humans began feeding her but couldn't take her in. Gracie also spent time on the porch of another cat owner in the complex, there she could curl up on a padded bench.

My co-worker, who is a dog owner, at first decided to not insert herself into the neighborhood situation, until Hurricane Hannah blew through.

Co-worker noticed Gracie huddled on the landing to her former building, trying to make herself as small as she could so she wouldn't get pelted by the driving rain. Co-worker put her dog inside and walked over to the building to check Gracie out. Gracie was so excited that a human was showing interest in her. Despite the driving rain, she weaved in and out of Co-worker's legs, cooed and purred, even rolled over to have her belly rubbed. Co-worker's heart broke for this sweet, little cat. She called me at 11 p.m. asking me what to do.

Of course I told her to bring the poor thing inside and to put her in her spare bathroom, that I would come out and get her in the morning.

When Co-worker went back outside, Gracie was no-where to be found.

So, Operation Cat Snatch went into effect. Unfortunately, Co-worker's Scottie doesn't like other animals that are not of the dog persuasion so whenever they were out on a walk, Co-Worker's dog would see Gracie and start barking. Gracie would often appear, watching at a safe distance from under cars or bushes. A week ago, Co-worker had taken her dog to the groomer so when Gracie saw her, she came out of hiding to get petted. Co-worker simply picked Gracie up, brought her inside and popped her into my cat carrier. I got the call at work, met co-worker in the parking lot and we made "the exchange".

Once at my house, the Fuzz welcoming committee wasn't very warm. Scout and Stryker hissed and hid. Ranger looked in the carrier and then up at me as if to say, "What the hell, not another one!"

Up in the safety of the spare bedroom, I opened the carrier. Gracie hid under the bed, initially, but 10 minutes later she came out and loved me all up. I think she may have a shoe fetish, like Ranger.

Oh! A scratching pad! I haven't seen one of these for a long time!

And a Bed! I think I've died and gone to heaven!

As you can see from the above photos, she made herself at home pretty quickly. She was not a feral cat, she had clearly been an indoor cat. She has not made any indications that she is interested in going outside.

By day two, Ranger had busted her out of the spare bedroom. I swear that cat knows how to open every door in my house. So much for keeping everyone separate. Without hesitation, she claimed the middle of my bed as "hers". Scout was a little annoyed by that as that is usually her spot.

Gracie has been defending the bed. Whenever Scout or Ranger tries to jump up on it, she growls and hisses. Of course the first night she slept in the bed, between my knees, and Ranger came to take his normal spot over my right shoulder, she hissed and growled and he looked at her as if to say "Uh, ya, whatever, talk to the paw." and he plopped down. Gracie was not happy. She has learned to share the bed with me, Ranger and Scout.

One thing I noticed and couldn't figure out was why the tip of her left ear had been cut off. I asked my co-worker and she asked her neighbors. Gracie had been rounded up with all of the feral cats in the Condo complex and fixed by another cat rescue organization. For future reference, they clip the cats ears so they know the cat has been fixed. She was then brought back and re-released. My co-worker was so upset by this. It is very obvious that Gracie is not a wild cat, so Co-worker was just so upset that the rescue group wouldn't notice and try to help her. All I have to say is the summer of 2008 did not go down as a good summer for Miss Gracie.

She is a sweet, loving cat and could sure use a good home. She has adjusted well and quickly to my home. She was checked out by my veterinarian and found to be in perfect health. I did have her vaccinations done just so she'll be up-to-date for a new home.

I will not be keeping Gracie. I know, how can I give up this sweet little face?

It will be hard because she is very cuddly and playful and photogenic. If I only had Ranger, I would keep her, no hesitation. Since she has such a wonderful personality, I'm sure someone will want to snap her up and add her to their family.

BTW, the men at work did joke with me about being that single lady with 100 cats. That will not happen. I am all about sharing the Fuzz wealth.