In June the Defense Department ended its ban on transgender service members. New policies for the Navy and Marines are now being implemented including a time-frame as to when transgender troops will have full military acceptance, care for medical transition inclusive.
According to Navy Times, “…the Navy Department is preparing to provide medical and administrative support for transitioning sailors and Marines, train personnel on the particulars of serving in a transgender-inclusive force and, by next summer, accept transgender recruits into boot camp.”
A transgender service member is described as anyone diagnosed by military personnel as medically in need gender transition, according to ALNAV 053/16.
Both the Navy and the Marine applicants who meet all standards related to service will be admitted by July 1, 2017. Forced separation from other service members or being denied re-enlistment because of ‘gender identity’ will be strictly prohibited.
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus stated, “The gender identity of an otherwise qualified individual will not bar them from joining the Navy or Marine Corps, from admission to the United States Naval Academy, or from participating in Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps or any other accession program.”
“These policies and procedures are premised on the conclusion that open service by transgender Sailors and Marines, while being subject to the same standards and procedures as other members with regard to their medical fitness for duty, physical fitness, uniform and grooming, deployability, and retention, is consistent with military readiness.”
In the works are training handbooks to provide guidance to all involved, from the commanding officers to the rest of the force.
By November 1, instructions outlining procedures, responsibilities and policy will be released that relate to “personnel matters for transgender troops, including retention and accession standards, in-service transition, and medical coverage.”
It’s a new world. Transgender Sailors and Marines who desire to undergo the medical gender change will be able to begin the process by October 1.
Michele Obama was invited by Tuskegee University to give the commencement speech this summer. With racial tensions high many believed her speech to be forceful yet fitting while others believed it to be nothing more than igniting a fire into an inferno.
The Washington Post, for example, stated that “Obama gave voice to the frustrations and hopes of African Americans in this country. Her words were powerful and forcefully delivered without apology. Coming after what we have witnessed in Ferguson and Baltimore, Obama’s speech at the historically black institution has added resonance.”
ClashDaily, on the other hand, wrote, “Michele Obama just couldn’t resist the opportunity to throw some kerosene on the racial tension fire, but not everyone is so willing to simply let her get away with it.”
The full speech is below for you to watch and decide for yourself what you think about it. But, before you do, read a letter from Marine Soldier Mike Shepard who is a writer for the DC Gazette:
Mrs. Obama
It sickens me that I have to take time to write you this letter. I am a Marine who doesn’t recognize color because every color has lived and died for you. You live in a free country to blame your life on the color of another man’s skin. All colors have given their lives for an educated woman to have the freedom to be so ignorant. I don’t blame black people for the ignorance that comes from your mouth. I love all colors because I love all that God creates. I don’t have to like you to love you because we can’t always like the ones we love. Just because I don’t like you today doesn’t mean I can’t like you tomorrow. I don’t like you or your husband today because of what you’re doing to this country. Isn’t it funny how the truth always reveals itself in time. You and your husband never showed this side of yourselves in 2008 before he was elected.
You both live better than 99% of the people in this world because of this country. You said that you are for the first time proud to be an American. Well, I will tell you that most of us are ashamed of you. You and your husband have become millionaires off the people of this country, but demonstrate very little appreciation for all that we give. White, black, brown or indifferent millions have fought and died for you to have the freedom to say the ignorant things you say. You are educated, but clearly have very little common sense. You blame past generations of Americans for the troubles of a few. Stop blaming white people for your misery and take a look at yourself in the mirror. We are responsible for our own happiness and misery. The KKK is ignorance wrapped in a sheet while the Black panthers are raised on ignorance and hate. No different from the teaching of Islam thinking their race is better than all other men. God is love and creates every color to include everyone’s skin. To truly love God is to love all that He loves. For that I love each of you and pray that we all start taking responsibility for our own damned sins.
Martin Luther King had a dream that we would all live in the promise land. He is not remembered for being black. He is remembered for the love, and character he had within his heart. If you don’t like this country get on that plane and never come back. I will stay here and love all Americans, regardless of skin. I will love the beauty of what God created and stand tall with my American friends. Not because of their color but for the character and love they carry within. This country doesn’t owe you anymore than it owes me. So many have thanked me for my service and I will always be grateful. I pray that one day you and your husband might cause me to be grateful for yours.
You will never be remembered as the First Lady of Color but soon forgotten after you leave the White House. You nor your husband shall ever divide us. I wish you no harm, but pray you will take your troubles to a land you no longer hate. Hate shall come and go but His love shall last forever.
If you wish to find me I am now a writer for the DC Gazette. Also on Twitter @mshep08_mike …God bless you and Semper Fi
After 72 years the bodies of 36 unidentified US Marines killed during the Second World War are returning to America.
It was in Japan and on the island chain of Tarawa that one of the bloodiest battles claimed more than 6000 lives, 1000 of which were US Marine lives.
The 36 remains “were recovered by a group called History Flight and were flown to Pearl Harbour where a ceremony was carried out yesterday to mark their repatriation,” according toDaily Mail.
It is the plan of the Marines to return the remains to their families once they have been identified. The identification process has been started by History Flight and completing this process will be done by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, bringing closure to so many military families.
According toMilitary.com, there are approximately 520 US troops still unaccounted for from this battle. “More than 990 U.S. Marines and 30 sailors died during the three-day Battle of Tarawa in 1943. Japanese machine gun fire killed scores of Marines when their boats got stuck on the reef at low tide during the U.S. amphibious assault. Americans who made it to the beach faced brutal hand-to-hand combat.”
There were 1,200 slave Korean manual workers on the island of Tarawa and only 129 survived. Of the 3,500 Japanese troops only 17 made it out alive.
The discovery of the remains was pleasing to Gen. Joseph Dunford, the commandant of the Marines Corps. “This battle demonstrated the indomitable fighting spirit of our Marines. It was also the first contested landing against a heavily fortified enemy, and a turning point in the development in our amphibious capability. The lessons learned at Tarawa paved the way for our success in the Pacific campaign and eventual end to the war.”
After 72 years being away, welcome home brave Marines.
HONOLULU – Tom Gray’s family has waited for more than 70 years to bring home the remains of his cousin who was killed in the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.
On Tuesday, they got a step closer when the military announced it would exhume and attempt to identify the remains of almost 400 sailors and Marines from the USS Oklahoma who were buried as unknowns after the war.
Gray’s cousin, Edwin Hopkins, of Swanzey, New Hampshire, was a 19-year-old fireman third class on board the USS Oklahoma when the battleship was hit by nine torpedoes and capsized on Dec. 7, 1941. His remains weren’t identified and his family was told he was missing.
Gray said Hopkins’ mother never accepted that. She believed he had amnesia and he would show up one day, Gray said.
Hopkins’ parents, Frank and Alice Hopkins, put his name on their headstone in Keene, New Hampshire, thinking he would join them one day, Gray said.
They did so, “just waiting for him to come home,” Gray said.
All together, 429 sailors and Marines on board the Oklahoma were killed. Only 35 were identified in the years immediately after.
Hundreds were buried as unknowns at cemeteries in Hawaii. In 1950, they were reburied as unknowns at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific inside a volcanic crater in Honolulu.
The military is acting now because advances in forensic science and technology as well as genealogical help from family members have made it possible to identify more remains, said Lt. Col. Melinda Morgan, a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency spokeswoman.
Officials plan to begin the work in three to six weeks, Morgan said. They aim to identify the remains of up to 388 servicemen within five years.
In 2003, the military disinterred one casket from the Honolulu cemetery, commonly called Punchbowl, based on information provided by Ray Emory, a Pearl Harbor survivor who has spent years doggedly scouring documents.
Many remains were co-mingled when buried, and the military was able to identify five servicemen from that casket. But the coffin also contained the remains of up to 100 others who haven’t been identified.
Comment by Jim Campbell, Citizen Journalist, Oath Keeper and Patriot.
In the foggy recesses of the liberal mind, which is it? Did he serve with distinction and honor? Or was Chris Kyle, the American Sniper a coward?
Perhaps the second most reprehensible thing that resulted from Obama’s proven inability, as a charter member of the “Gang who couldn’t shoot straight club,” was that tax payers payed $5 million dollars for the release of these murderers.
Of course the first would be the six U.S. Army Soldiers who died looking for Bergdahl.
A United States Marine did something that the phalanxes of America’s military officers are too timid to do.
This is the sign he held up before passing motorists about what his supposed commander in chief did (source):
Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl deserted his post in Afghanistan and was held captive by the Taliban from June 2009 until May 31, 2014 when the Obama administration negotiated his release as part of a prisoner exchange for five high-level Taliban members who were being held at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.
On June 25, 2014, the U.S. Army stated that there is “no evidence” that Bergdahl had “engaged in any misconduct” during his years in captivity.
Nine months later, on March 25, 2015, the Army announced that Bergdahl had been charged with two counts under the Uniform Code of Military Justice: one count of “desertion with intent to shirk important or hazardous duty” and one count of “misbehavior before the enemy by endangering the safety of a command, unit or place.”
Here’s a reminder of what Obama gave up and what America sacrificed in exchange for this deserter.
1. Five High-Level Taliban Terrorists
2. Six U.S. Army Soldiers who died looking for Bergdahl
Staff Sergeant Clayton Bowen, 29, of San Antonio, Texas, and Private 1st Class Morris Walker, 23, of Chapel Hill, N.C., were killed by a roadside bomb in Paktika province on Aug. 18, 2009, while trying to find Bergdahl.
Like Bergdahl, they were part of the 4th BCT from Fort Richardson, Alaska.
Staff Sergeant Kurt Curtiss, 27, of Murray, Utah, died Aug. 26 in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he was shot while his unit was supporting Afghan security forces during an enemy attack. Like Bergdahl, Bowen and Walker, he was part of the 4th BCT.
2nd Lieutenant Darryn Andrews, 34, of Dallas, Texas, died Sept. 4 in Paktika Province when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device and a rocket-propelled grenade. Like Bergdahl, Bowen, Walker and Curtiss, Andrews was part of the 4th BCT.
Staff Sergeant Michael Murphrey, 25, of Snyder, Texas, died Sept. 6 in Paktika province after being wounded by an IED. Like Bergdahl, Bowen, Walker, Curtiss and Andrews, Murphrey was part of the 4th BCT.
3. Tax payers paid $5 million in ransom to the Taliban
Gateway Pundit reports, Dec. 22, 2014, that Lt. Colonel Shaffer told Bill O’Reilly that the Obama administration paid $5 billion and released five top Taliban Gitmo detainees in exchange for deserter Bowe Bergdahl.
Disclaimer: This article was not written by Lorra B.
Three U.S. Marine recruiters jumped into action last week when they heard a woman’s cries for help outside their Washington office.
Sgt. Ricardo Schebesta, Staff Sgt. Ben Shoemaker and Staff Sgt. Bryson Twigg rushed outside and thwarted an attempted robbery, even catching one of the suspects.
On “Fox and Friends” today, Schebesta explained that they were in the office when they heard a car honking.
Shoemaker said that they went outside to see a woman erratically driving over curbs in the parking lot.
He approached her and she said she was being robbed by two men who claimed they had a gun, and she asked the Marines for help.
Twigg said they then ran after the two fleeing suspects, not hesitating even though one had said he had a gun.
“I’ve been shot at before. It’s not as bad as everyone thinks,” Shoemaker said in an earlier interview. “Most people miss.”
Shoemaker said that the Marines gave chase across the street and caught up with one of the suspects.
“That’s when I put him in a wrist lock and Sgt. Schebesta blocked his back,” Shoemaker said.
He explained that he put the suspect in a standing wrist lock so he wouldn’t have to get on the ground in his dress blues.
The First Amendment is the cornerstone of the Bill of Rights. It guarantees every American the right to express their political opinions, no matter how unpopular they are.
However, in this day and age, the First Amendment is under assault. And it’s under assault by the very people who claim to stand for the freedom of speech — liberals.
Brandon Raub is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps who decided to post critical opinions about Barack Obama on Facebook. What happened to him then will strike fear into the hearts of any good American and make them wonder what country they’re living in.
According to the Rutherford Institute, Raub was arrested by “a swarm of FBI, Secret Service agents and local police,” and detained without charges for “mental evaluation.”
The detention, it’s alleged, was done under a federal program codenamed “Operation Vigilant Eagle.” The program is intended to surveil former veterans who publicly express opinions critical of the government.
After ten days of detention, Raub was released, with the presiding judge noting that the government’s case for detention was “so devoid of any factual allegations that it could not be reasonably expected to give rise to a case or controversy.”
Nevertheless, Raub’s lawsuit against the government was dismissed, with the judge finding that censorship concerns were “far-fetched.”
John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, disagrees.
“What may sound far-fetched to the courts is a grim reality to Americans who are daily being targeted for daring to exercise their constitutional rights to speak their minds, worship as they please, criticize the government, defend themselves and their families against over-reaching government surveillance and heavy-handed police tactics,” Whitehead said.
“Ultimately, Brandon Raub’s case tests our tolerance for free speech and those dissidents who keep the First Amendment relevant, because if we cannot proclaim our feelings about the government, no matter how controversial — on our clothing, or to passersby, or to the users of the world wide web — then the First Amendment really has become an exercise in futility,” he added.
Below is one of Brandon Raub’s posts. While not exactly in the mainstream of political thought, it certainly doesn’t seem to represent someone who represents a danger to the community (H/T Teaparty.org).
The Truth by Brandon J Raub on Friday, November 11, 2011 at 10:00 am
America has lost itself. We have lost who we truly are. This is the land of the free and the home of the brave.
This is the land of Thomas Jefferson.
This is the land of Benjamin Franklin.
This is the land of Fredrick Douglas.
This is the land of Smedley Butler.
This is the land John F. Kennedy.
This is the land of Martin Luther King.
This is the land where the cowboy wins. This is the land where you can start from the bottom and get to the top. This is the land where regardless of you race and ethnicity you can succeed and build a better life for you and your family. This is the land where every race coexists peacefully. This is the land where justice wins. This is the land where liberty dwells. This is the land where freedom reigns. This is the land where we help the poor, and people help each other. This is land where people beat racism.
The Federal Reserve is wrong. They have designed a system based off of greed and fear. They designed a system to crush the middle class between taxes and inflation. This is wrong, and it is unjust. It is wrong.
We have allowed ourselves to be deceived and seduced by the powers of the printing press. It is not a good system. It discourages saving: the foundation for all stable economic activity. The Federal Reserve is artificially manipulating interest rates and creating phony economic data.
This thing has deceived our entire nation.
They created it in 1913. They also created the income tax in 1913. They encouraged the growth of debt so they can tax you on it. There is interest on the debt. Your government is in bed with these people. They want to enslave you to the government so that they can control every aspect of your lives. It is an empire based on lies. They operate of greed and fear.
There is a better way. It’s called freedom. Freedom is called a lot of things. But there is a true meaning. It means very simply that you have the right to do whatever you want as long as you are not infringing on the freedoms of other people.
I firmly believe that God set America apart from the other nations of the world. He saved a place where people could come to to escape bad systems of goverment. This system we have created works. It really works.
There is evil going on all around the world. The United States was meant to lead the charge against injustice, but through our example not our force. People do not respond to having liberty and freedom forced on them.
Men and Women follow courage. They follow leadership, and courage. Our example has paved the way for people all around the world to change their forms of government.
Force is not the way because liberty is a powerful concept. The idea that men can govern themselves is the basis for every just form of government.
We can govern ourselves. We do not need to be governed by men who want to install a one world banking system. These men have machine hearts. Machine and unnatural hearts.
They have blocked out the possibility of a better world. They fear human progress. They have monopolies on everything.
This life can be free and beautiful. There are enough resources on this earth to support the world’s population. There are enough resources on this earth to feed everyone. There is enough land for everyone to own their own land and farm, and produce their own energy.
These people have been hiding technology. There are ways to create power easily. There is technology that can provide free cheap power for everyone. There are farming techniques that can feed the entire world.
The Bill of Rights is being systematically dismantled. Men have spilled their blood for those rights.
Your sons and daughters, your brothers and sisters, and Americas best young men and women are losing their limbs. They are losing their lives. They are losing the hearts. They do not know why they are fighting. They are killing. And they do not know why.
They have done some extraordinary acts. Their deeds go before them. But these wars are lies. They are lies. They deceived our entire nation with terrorism. They have gotten us to hand them our rights. Our Rights! Men died for those rights!
September Eleventh was an inside job. They blew up a third building in broad daylight. Building 7.
Your leaders betrayed you.
You elected an aristocracy. They are beholden to special interests. They were brainwashed through the Council on Foreign Relations. Your leaders are planning to merge the United States into a one world banking system. They want to put computer chips in you.
These men have evil hearts. They have tricked you into supporting corporate fascism. We gave them the keys to our country. We were not vigilant with our republic.
There is hope. BUT WE MUST TAKE OUR REPUBLIC BACK.
A recent survey found that only about 55 percent of soldiers and 40 percent of Marines in Iraq would report to a superior officer if a fellow soldier hurt or killed an innocent civilian.
Micheal Barbera, formerly a Staff Sgt. in the Army, was accused of shooting and killing two deaf and unarmed Iraqi boys in March of 2007. It’s not surprising, given those percentages, that of the remaining six team members of Barberas’ unit, not one of them reported the brothers’ killings to their commanders.
The team members were fearful of jeopardizing their military careers or breaking rank, let alone getting retaliation for their actions.
“I think there is a natural tendency among soldiers to band together and not be viewed as malcontent…It’s inherent in the culture,” stated Morris Davis. Mr. Davis is a retired Air Force Col. and, according to Stars and Stripes, is an “officer with the Judge Advocate’s Corps for 25 years and former director of the Air Force legal system.”
Davis reported that, as a commander, divulging bad news wasn’t exactly the thing to do if you planned on moving ahead in your military career.
From September 2005 until his resignation in October of 2007, “Davis was chief prosecutor of the joint military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,” reports Stars and Stripes. Davis said “He quit the post because superiors overruled his policy not to consider evidence obtained through waterboarding.” Davis retired in 2008 but was director of the Air Force judiciary system a year prior to his retirement.
It was almost two years, and not until safety back in the United States, before then-Sgt. Ken Katter came forward about the boys Barbera had killed in Iraq. Katter was the first to come forward but it wouldn’t be until he was ready to medically retire that he felt comfortable enough to do so. It was then that three others from Barbera’s team came forward to testify that it was indeed Barbera who shot and killed the children while they were in the field tending to their cattle, although one of the members only heard the shot but didn’t know where it landed.
Reviewing allegations of bad behavior, the report stated, “Evidence exists that service members at the point of contact, or their leaders, have been reluctant to inform the command of reportable incidents. This reluctance may be attributed to any number of potential factors, including a feeling of justification in connection with the actions taken, fear of career repercussions, loyalty to fellow service members or the unit, or ignorance.”
Although the report encourages that the military make changes in its justice system and how it handles the coverage of abusers, injuries and civilian killings, a member of the subcommittee, Fidell, doesn’t believe the Army is acting on the changes being suggested.
In an interview with the Tribune-Review, Fidell stated that congress was concentrating more on sexual assault issues than on a much-needed overall reform in the military’s justice system. He went on to say “the Defense Department’s former ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy involving gay troops recognized the kind of cohesion in the ranks that contributes to non-reporting of reporting civilian injuries or deaths.”
The Barbera court case is of great importance, according to Fidell. First, “it goes to the overall military justice operation. Secondly, and this is just as important, some people died.”
Comment by Jim Campbell, Citizen Journalist, Oath Keeper and Patriot.
The Silent Soldier 