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By Air Force Capt. Amy Hansen, Air Force News Service

WAKE ISLAND AIRFIELD, Wake Island, Dec. 6, 2011 – In a tale straight from an adventure book, contractors on this tiny Pacific island recently stumbled upon a vinyl record collection with an estimated value between $90,000 and $250,000.

he 611th Air Support Group’s Detachment 1 is making a comprehensive effort to preserve the nearly 9,000 vintage vinyl records and ship them to their rightful owner, the American Forces Radio and Television Service in Alexandria, Va., according to Master Sgt. Jean-Guy Fleury, the detachment’s infrastructure superintendent, who took over the project from the former Detachment 1 commander, Maj. Aaron Wilt.

No digging was required to access this treasure, as the records were cataloged and neatly organized on shelves in a small room on the second floor of the airfield’s base operations building. The door was conspicuously stenciled with the name of a radio station, KEAD, and a “Restricted Area Warning” sign, which kept most people out.

“That’s a locked room, normally, but people in my department have known the records were there for years,” said Colin Bradley, the communications superintendent with Chugach Federal Solutions Inc. CFSI is the contractor that manages operations on Wake Island with the oversight of Air Force quality assurance personnel.

“Because of the completeness of the collection, I assumed it was quite valuable,” Bradley said. “I have not run across a collection that well preserved or that intact in my career. It’s a little time capsule.”

The collection includes a variety of vinyl albums and records specially made for military audiences, as well as some commercially available records.

“In 1942, the American Forces Radio Service was starting to get American music out to the troops overseas,” said Larry Sichter, the American Forces Network Broadcast Center’s affiliate relations division chief. “Some of the radio productions were original, like GI Jill and Command Performance, and have significant value.”

The exact operational dates of the low-powered AM station on Wake Island remain unclear, but Bradley shared his estimate.

“I would guess that [KEAD] started in the ’60s, due to the dates on the records,” he said.

According to a 2007 Internet entry by Patrick Minoughan, who was stationed on Wake Island from 1963 to 1964, KEAD was operating in 1963.

“On the second floor of the then-new terminal building was a very small AFRTS radio station,” Minoughan wrote. “AFRTS had no personnel there, but sent in monthly shipments of music. While I was there, one of the communications guys named Steve Navarro would do a daily show for a couple of hours. When it was unattended, anyone could go in and play the records, which were broadcast on the island.”

AFRTS was able to get permission to use the work of many artists, and later actors, for free, Sichter said. Therefore, the records were copyrighted and only to be used for their official purpose of entertaining the troops overseas, and then returned to AFRTS.

Since Wake Island Airfield is on a 1,821-acre atoll located about 2,000 miles west of Hawaii and 2,000 miles east of Japan, it is possible that the cost and logistics of returning the records to the mainland were prohibitive when the radio station was shut down, officials said.

So now, about 30 years after the last record was spun on KEAD, Fleury is spearheading the operation to ship the records back to AFRTS. He has estimated that it will take about 75 16-inch-by-16-inch boxes, and about $10,000 worth of specialized material to properly pack up the records. AFRTS is providing the materials and Detachment 1 will do the packing, he said.

The records will be used to fill any gaps in the American Forces Network’s local museum, Sichter said, and the rest of the collection will be entered into either the Library of Congress or the National Archives to become a permanent piece of U.S. history, accessible to all.

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YONGSAN GARRISON, South Korea (Dec. 2, 2011) — Eighth Army officials and Korean War veterans honored the U.S. Army general who helped to save South Korea by holding the line at the Pusan Perimeter in 1950, during a memorial ceremony today, at Yongsan Garrison, South Korea.

Gen. Walton H. Walker, the first Eighth Army commanding general during the Korean War, was remembered in the ceremony at the Dragon Hill Lodge and at a wreath laying ceremony at the Walker Statue.  The annual ceremony was sponsored by the Memorial Foundation for the Late U.S. Army General Walton Harris Walker and Chairman Kim Ri-jin.

Attended by more than 250 South Korean war veterans and U.S. Soldiers, the ceremony marked the anniversary of his untimely death on Dec. 23, 1950, during a non-combat-related jeep accident. Walker was posthumously promoted to four-star general.

Walker led Eighth Army into Korea during the darkest days of the war when United Nations forces were retreating. Eighth Army consolidated its defenses behind a defensive perimeter inside the Nakdong River, in an area that reporters called the “Pusan Perimeter.”

Heavily outnumbered and outgunned by enemy forces around the perimeter, Eighth Army was cornered into an area 50 miles wide by 80 miles long. Through their tenacious defense of the right corner of the country, Walker and his Soldiers enabled Gen. Douglas MacArthur to land a decisive amphibious left hook at Incheon. Within days, Eighth Army broke through the perimeter in a right jab that took them all the way to the North Korean capital of Pyongyang in less than a month.

Hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers soon joined the fight to support the fleeing and nearly defeated North Korea army and the frontlines see-sawed back and forth until they settled near the current Korean Demilitarized Zone. Major combat operations in the war ended with an armistice on July 27, 1953. It has never been followed by a peace treaty.

During the ceremony, Brig. Gen. David G. Fox, Eighth Army deputy commanding general for support, said Eighth Army’s pugnacious perimeter defense saved UN forces from making a precipitous retreat. “Had General Walker not boldly and skillfully maneuvered his scant forces around the chessboard with the adeptness of a master tactician in the late summer of 1950, friendly forces would have had to abandon Korea,” said Fox.

Today, Walton Walker holds a place of high honor in Korea.  The ROK-U.S. Alliance Friendship Society donated a statue of Walker to Eighth Army in June 2010 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Korean War. The 10-foot tall bronze statue stands in front of the Eighth Army Headquarters around the corner from U.S. Naval Forces Korea’s statue of Korean Admiral Yi Sun-shin, who helped to repel a Japanese invasion during the Imjin War.

A monument on the sidewalk in Seoul marks the area where he died in 1950. Walker Hill is the site of a posh hotel in Seoul and a luxury brand in South Korea.

“Walker’s triumph ensured that the longevity of the Republic of Korea would be preserved,” said Fox. “Because General Walker and his Soldiers held the line at the Pusan Perimeter, Korea stands as a model for the world today. A country devastated by war a mere six decades ago is now one of the world’s leading nations.”

Fox added that Eighth Army today upholds the legacy of its legendary first Korean War commander. “American Soldiers here today are the current defenders of a legacy forged in the fire of war more than six decades ago,” said Fox, “and their commitment to the defense of this great nation is just as strong as it was at the Pusan Perimeter.”

At the wreath laying ceremony, Eighth Army Commanding General Lt. Gen. John D. Johnson thanked the South Korean war veterans who came to the U.S. Army post to honor Walker. Some of the veterans had served with Walker at the Pusan Perimeter.

“Every day when I come into work, I see General Walker’s statue and I’m reminded of my responsibilities for the defense of Korea,” said Johnson. “I’m also reminded of the brave people like yourselves who came before us and who fought to make sure that we could be here today enjoying what we have here in Korea.”

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by Tech. Sgt. Mareshah Haynes
Defense Media Activity

ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) – Rescue: to free from confinement, danger or evil. – Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Ten years ago when former Senior Airman David Sharpe adopted a pit bull puppy from a rescue shelter, he thought he was saving her life. In a dramatic twist of events just a few months later, she ended up saving his.

Sharpe was on the verge of taking his life.

As he sat on the kitchen floor of his apartment with a .45 caliber handgun in his hand — “ready to finish the fight with the demons that followed me back from the war” — that pit bull puppy, named Cheyenne, sat down on the floor next to Sharpe and licked his ear. It made him laugh — something he hadn’t been doing much of. He said something clicked for him and his reason for living, in that moment, became clear — to care for Cheyenne.

Sharpe had been suffering from an undiagnosed case of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. As a security forces Airman stationed at Langley Air Force Base, Va., he went on his first deployment in December 2001 to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia. There, he came face to face with a Taliban sympathizer who would change his life forever.

Sharpe said he had been working with the man for a while, though he was mostly quiet and kept to himself. One day he found the man laughing hysterically in the guard shack and asked what was so funny. The local man pointed to a picture in an Arabic newspaper of the planes crashing into the twin towers and he said he praised Allah the day this happened. Sharpe said he got angry with the man and told him to stop talking like that. Then he turned to walk away.

“I turned around and I heard a couple of ‘clicks’ and ‘clacks’ and this little guy is pointing his MP-5 (submachine gun) right at me,” Sharpe said. “I froze for a few seconds, but it felt like days. I looked at him and pulled my M-16 (rifle) up and charged it. We were yelling at each other and then a U.K. guard came in and pointed his weapon at the guy, and then a French guard came in the side door and pointed his weapon at the British guard.”

Once the incident was de-escalated, Sharpe had to recount the incident to his unit leaders numerous times. With the official procedures for debriefing such an incident completed, Sharpe was referred to the chaplain.

“I went and saw the chaplain and that lasted for all of about two minutes,” Sharpe said. “(The chaplain said) ‘Tell me what happened, Airman Sharpe.’ I said, ‘I don’t even want to talk to you right now, sir. No offense — I just want to be left alone.’”

Sharpe said the chaplain told him to come back when he was ready, but Sharpe never went back. He finished the rest of his deployment without incident and returned home to Virginia, but things did not go back to “normal” for Sharpe.

“I started having nightmares about this guy taking his weapon and pointing it in my face,” he said. “I had visions of the bullet going through my head and coming out the other side. I woke and I started crying and then I started calling myself a bunch of names and saying to myself, ‘Suck it up.’ ‘What’s wrong with you?’”

Sharpe said he began having violent outbursts with his family and friends over the simplest of questions, especially about his deployment. He began starting fights with strangers and even turned on his friends. One friend in particular continued to reach out to Sharpe.

“One of my friends came to check up on me and said, ‘Hey, there’s this pit bull rescue I want to check out. Do you want to come with me?’” Sharpe said. “I said, ‘Absolutely. I want to get a fighting dog — I’m a fighter.’ So I went, and there were about eight puppies running around in a pen, and all of them were all over me. But there was one that was off in the corner, and that was the one I chose.”

Sharpe said when he took Cheyenne home he felt better immediately. Though he was happier since he had gotten his new companion, he continued to have violent outbursts. During a particular outburst in the kitchen of their apartment, Cheyenne watched and waited for Sharpe to calm down.

“I picked her up and took her to back to my bed and I just lost it — started crying, bawling,” Sharpe said. “She didn’t say anything. She inched her way up (to my face). She knew something was wrong. She just started licking the tears off my cheek. It makes you laugh, it tickles, and I immediately starting feeling relief because I didn’t have anyone (saying) to me, ‘How do you feel now? Are you glad you got that off your chest?’ She never asked. I told her on my own terms.”

Sharpe didn’t realize it at the time, but he and Cheyenne were engaging in a form of animal assisted therapy, commonly known as pet therapy. She would be his confidant on the road to recovery from that lonely night on the cold linoleum floor when he considered suicide to being a champion for other veterans with the same struggles.

“(Pet therapy) helps people (who have PTSD) to reconnect and come back to this world versus the world that they had been in,” said Megan O’Connell, a clinical nurse specialist at Kimbrough Ambulatory Care Center at Fort George G. Meade, Md. “It helps to create a routine, a sense of connection, when you have to feed the dog and make sure the dog is watered, that it has all of it’s shots. It helps you, it forces you to become part of this world and to start to reintegrate.

“Especially dogs, they react to body language,” O’Connell said. “If your body language is stressed, they want to come over because they want you to stop being stressed, so they pay a lot of attention to you. It makes you feel like they care and they’re listening, and that makes you feel comfortable to want to open up more.”

In the meantime, Sharpe separated from the Air Force after six years of service. A few months later, after watching a TV news special about service animals, Sharpe came up with the idea to pair up shelter animals with veterans living with PTSD. He called the program Pets 2 Vets.

Sharpe took $3,500 of his personal savings to get started. Unlike other programs, P2V provided companion animals to veterans versus other programs that provided service animals to perform physical tasks for disabled veterans.

Initially, Sharpe would pick up veterans who were recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and take them to local shelters to interact with the animals. As the program grew, P2V provided an avenue for veterans to adopt their own companion animals as well as give veterans at WRAMC an opportunity to visit shelter animals during their recovery.

About one year after Sharpe founded P2V, he reached a milestone. He was finally ready to talk to a human about his experiences while deployed. After meeting with doctors from the Veterans Administration, Sharpe was diagnosed with PTSD and depression — five years after he separated from the military and nine years after the incident in Iraq.

“One of the problems with PTSD is that it really destroys people’s trust,” O’Connell said. “They feel disconnected. One of the things a dog can do is help to be that bridge to trust. Unless you’ve had a bad experience, most people have very positive feelings toward pets, so people are more willing in a lot of ways to talk to the dog or relate to the dog than they are to another person, especially if they’ve been through a traumatic experience.”

Although the battle with PTSD is never over, P2V has placed more than 50 shelter animals with veterans and Sharpe is now married to his long-time friend, the former Jenny Fritcher. Later this year, David, Jenny and Cheyenne will welcome a baby boy into their family.

“I always say Cheyenne brought me to Jenny,” Sharpe said. “If it wasn’t for Cheyenne, I wouldn’t have this beautiful wife and beautiful life. She saved me.”

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By Terri Barnes, for Stars and Stripes, Spouse Calls Column

Turkey leftovers in the fridge are a reminder that Thanksgiving is behind and Christmas giving is ahead. Here are some ideas for gifts that give back to our military community and some that remind us why we love being a part of it.

Let’s start with a few books – tailored for military family giving and receiving – and finish with some other shopping ideas.

For everyone: “1001 Things to Love About Military Life,” by military wives Tara Crooks, Starlett Henderson, Kathie Hightower and Holly Scherer is good reading for active duty, spouses, kids or retirees. This book is just what the title says, an extensive list of things to love about the military, from AFN commercials to Zulu time.

Spaces are provided to write personal reminiscences. Another gift idea for this book: Personalize it with your own military experiences and give it to your children.

Full disclosure: Many military members and spouses contributed to this book, including me, but I don’t have a financial interest.

For the kids: Kimberly Willis Holt, grown up Navy daughter and author of the “Piper Reed, Navy Brat” series has a new edition. “Piper Reed, Rodeo Star” joins several other chapter book titles, all about a girl growing up in a mobile military family. Kids from all service branches can relate to Piper’s adventures for middle grade readers.

For the romantic: Marine wife and New York Times bestselling author Robyn Carr has added a title to her “Virgin River” novels. Her latest, “Bring Me Home for Christmas,” is about “reuniting with the one person you just can’t forget.” Of course that would be a military man. What’s more romantic than that?

For the poetic: The work of Navy wife and poet Jehanne Dubrow takes a more cerebral approach. Her book “Stateside” is an honest examination of her military life through poetry. The author says: “It helps me to order the universe if I can put a difficult problem into fourteen lines and call it a sonnet.” Even if wrapping up your problems is more complex, put a bow on this book.

For the practical: A series of books about common parenting issues, “Good Parent Good Child” was written and developed by, Rebecca Jackson, Dr. Robert Pressman and Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman, a team of authors with experience in the military community. Although the topics apply to most families – homework, bedtime, friends – the unique situations of military families are also highlighted. We don’t find that in a lot of family books, so this is worth checking out.

The series includes companion books – age-appropriate book for kids, guidebook for parents – to approach each issue from both perspectives.

For the recycle or retro enthusiast: How about shopping at your spouse club thrift store or craft bazaar? Treasures are waiting to be uncovered there, and a gift does not have to be new or machine-made to be useful and thoughtful. Also shopping in these outlets puts money back into your community. The scholarship you help to fund might be for one of your children.

For the humanitarian: Peace Cord bracelets made by Afghan women from parachute cord and U.S. military buttons give back in two ways. Arzu Studio Hope, which created this project, gives proceeds back to the artisans and their communities, which also agree to certain parameters, including education for all children, in order to participate in the program.

Sales of these bracelets also support “Spirit of America,” a non-profit organization donating humanitarian materials for American military members to distribute in Afghanistan.

Providing “whatever our troops need to help the local people,” says the Spirit of America website, builds good will and helps people in need. The materials to make these bracelets are purchased from U.S. suppliers.

For those in need: Take your kids shopping for gifts that are not for them.  Military exchanges often have an “angel tree” or “giving tree” program for local kids in need. Let your children choose clothing or toys to buy and donate – perhaps with their own money. Another good way to give is through the U.S. Marine Corps program Toys for Tots.

For the troops: Purchase care packages from the USO Wishbook. Buyers can order with a few clicks online. The USO sends the gifts to service members stationed overseas or to their families at home. These gifts, from phone cards to recordable children’s books, are easy to send, requiring no shopping or wondering what items are needed or appropriate for various locations.

For families of heroes: Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors has an online store. Purchasing any of the books or gifts offered there provides funds for TAPS, a non-profit organization serving families of fallen soldiers. TAPS provides grief counseling and many other types of support for bereaved military families.

If it’s better to give than to receive, it’s even better to give gifts that give twice. Happy shopping and happy giving.

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By U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jared Marquis, Defense Information School Public Affairs

Bone Marrow testing.

FT. MEADE, Md (NNS) — A Sailor assigned to the Defense Information School is home recovering after a surgical procedure on Nov. 21 in which he donated live-saving bone marrow to a person he does not know.

During the holidays, people all over the country spend time with family, eating, watching football and enjoying the opportunity to reflect and give back. John T. Schofield is doing much the same thing, save one difference. Three days before Thanksgiving, Schofield was in a hospital undergoing a procedure to extract his bone marrow to save someone else’s life. That someone is a seriously ill 57-year old woman who may die without Schofield’s donation.

While the procedure itself is usually no more than two hours, the path to the hospital bed started for the 15-year veteran and Navy lieutenant commander more than two years ago.

In July 2009, Schofield was stationed aboard the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77). Schofield was asked by the ship’s senior medical officer to market a marrow-donor registration drive for the C.W. Bill Young Department of Defense Marrow Donor Program. The goal was to add to the more than 622,000 people already in the system. An already regular donor of blood and platelets, Schofield was not only willing to help publicize the event, he also registered. Nearly three years and two moves later, the instructor and Navy Element Commander at the Defense Information School here got the call he never expected.

“They called me early last month and told me I had been identified as a potential match for someone in need of a bone-marrow donation,” he said. Until that call, Schofield said, he had completely forgotten he had registered in the system. But that did not change his willingness to give.

“From the second I received that call 2 1/2 months ago until this very moment, it has been hard for me to think of anything else,” said the Salt Lake City native. Schofield said donating a part of himself to someone for a lifesaving procedure is one of the most meaningful things he has done. He knew from the moment he got that phone call he wanted to donate. His only fear was not being able to. This fear followed him throughout the next couple of phases of the process.

Being matched in the database does not guarantee a donor’s marrow will work, said Schofield. It takes several more tests before the donor is identified as both physically and medically capable of donating. Just getting a preliminary match to a non-relative is a one in a million chance, said Schofield. It was still a one-in-a-hundred chance he would actually be able to donate. But, after all the follow-up tests, Schofield got the news he hoped for: The donation was a go.

Once the surgery was on, there was nothing to do but wait, something he didn’t have to do much of. From the time he got the first phone call to the time he went into the operating room, a little over a month had passed. That didn’t give Schofield much time to worry, which he said he didn’t do a lot of. His wife and kids were a different story. His wife, Susan Schofield, who is also on the registry, was concerned at first because she wasn’t really sure what was involved, she said. But, her husband put her at ease with his assurances that the surgery was not dangerous and he would be fine. His wife’s fears calmed, it was time to focus on the children. Schofield and his wife have three boys. At ages 3, 5 and 7, they were not particularly aware of what was taking place, said Schofield.

“They knew daddy was going to the hospital, and would be home in a couple of days,” said Susan.”The only question they really had was ‘Will it hurt?’” said Schofield. “Once I assured them it wouldn’t, they were fine.” In addition to easing their concerns, Schofield used the opportunity to teach his kids it is important to help out those in need. “I feel that this transplant sets a good example for my kids in that I want them to see at a very early age that kindness and service are very good things,” he said. “It doesn’t take a lot of work. Sometimes just being available and being willing is sometimes all it takes to save someone’s life.”

That lesson, and motivating people to do their part, is why Schofield volunteered for the registry. Now that he is out of the hospital, he said he was humbled by all the appreciation he received from the doctors and nurses following the surgery. But as much as he appreciated it, it was not necessary This 57-year old patient needed his marrow for a chance at life. There never really was a choice for him, he said. “The act of being a donor doesn’t seem to me that it’s something you should be thanked for,” he said. “It is something you should do.”

Post-surgery, Schofield’s goal is to raise awareness for the marrow-donor program. “The process is so simple,” he said. “It took mere minutes to register. There is nothing about this that was difficult.” As far as the pain, Schofield, who spent one night in the hospital, said it was minimal.

“At its worst, the pain was no more than what I would have after a day spent raking leaves,” said Schofield. The average recovery time is approximately two weeks, but he said he is able to do pretty much everything he could do before the surgery.He added that he hopes more people come forward to volunteer their marrow. The experience has impacted him profoundly, he said. “When you break it down, you are availing yourself to someone for a lifesaving procedure,” Schofield said. “I really don’t think I’ll have that opportunity to do something that special again.”

For her part, Susan said the experience has motivated her to be a donor. She was already on the registry, but after experiencing the process through her husband, she hopes to get the same call. Her aunt was a marrow donor recipient, but they were never able to find a complete match. She hopes to be that complete match for someone else, Susan said.

Now, as he continues to recover, and follow through with his Thanksgiving plans to participate in a 5K run/walk, cook and deliver a turkey to junior service members and enjoy time with family, Schofield has something else to be thankful for: that his marrow is giving someone else the opportunity to do the same.

To find more information on the C.W. Bill Young Department of Defense Marrow Donor Program, or to request a registry recruiting trip, visit http://www.dodmarrow.org.

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What makes the holiday season special for most Americans is the combination of virtues that bring out the best in people. The appreciation and care that are manifested in Thanksgiving and the benevolence and selflessness that are hallmarks of Christmas and Hanukah spread joy and bring loved ones together. These qualities are also the bedrocks of the newest initiative focused on supporting our troops called USO Wishbook.

With USO Wishbook, people are able to choose gifts for any occasion – not just the holidays – while also providing support for our nation’s servicemen and women.

USO Wishbook is an alternative giving catalog that allows customers to tailor their contributions by interest or by recipient or by price. By interest, the selections include deployed troops, military families and wounded warriors. By recipient, the choices are male, female, children and colleagues. By price, the amounts range from $25 and under to $500 and over.

When orders are completed, contributors are given the opportunity to also send an e-card greeting to the gift recipient to celebrate the special occasion and to outline how troops are benefiting from their tax-deductible gift.

This new way of giving to the USO affords Americans the flexibility to give something as small and meaningful as sending comfort foods to the frontlines or to bestow a larger offering of, for example, building a bike for a wounded warrior.

“Every year, the USO delivers what we call ‘goodness’ to men and women in uniform and their families. It’s how we lift the spirits of troops and their families,” said USO President and CEO Sloan Gibson. “Now, through the USO Wishbook, every American can find a gift that gives twice — honor friends and family with a gift that will go around the world to support those who give so much for our country.”

So as the holiday seasons approach, keep our nation’s armed forces in mind when giving thanks and showing appreciation for all our country has to offer.

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Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
Thursday, November 24, 2011
The White House

From my family to yours, I’d like to wish you a happy Thanksgiving. Like millions of Americans, Michelle, Malia, Sasha and I will spend the day eating great food, watching a little football, and reflecting on how truly lucky we truly are.

As Americans, each of us has our own list of things and people to be thankful for.  But there are some blessings we all share.

We’re especially grateful for the men and women who defend our country overseas. To all the service members eating Thanksgiving dinner far from your families: the American people are thinking of you today.  And when you come home, we intend to make sure that we serve you as well as you’re serving America.

We’re also grateful for the Americans who are taking time out of their holiday to serve in soup kitchens and shelters, making sure their neighbors have a hot meal and a place to stay. This sense of mutual responsibility – the idea that I am my brother’s keeper; that I am my sister’s keeper – has always been a part of what makes our country special. And it’s one of the reasons the Thanksgiving tradition has endured.

The very first Thanksgiving was a celebration of community during a time of great hardship, and we have followed that example ever since. Even when the fate of our union was far from certain – during a Civil War, two World Wars, a Great Depression – Americans drew strength from each other. They had faith that tomorrow would be better than today.

We’re grateful that they did. As we gather around the table, we pause to remember the pilgrims, pioneers, and patriots who helped make this country what it is. They faced impossible odds, and yet somehow, they persevered. Today, it’s our turn.

I know that for many of you, this Thanksgiving is more difficult than most. But no matter how tough things are right now, we still give thanks for that most American of blessings, the chance to determine our own destiny. The problems we face didn’t develop overnight, and we won’t solve them overnight. But we will solve them. All it takes is for each of us to do our part.

With all the partisanship and gridlock here in Washington, it’s easy to wonder if such unity is really possible. But think about what’s happening at this very moment: Americans from all walks of life are coming together as one people, grateful for the blessings of family, community, and country.

If we keep that spirit alive, if we support each other, and look out for each other, and remember that we’re all in this together, then I know that we too will overcome the challenges of our time.

So today, I’m thankful to serve as your President and Commander-and-Chief. I’m thankful that my daughters get to grow up in this great country of ours. And I’m thankful for the chance to do my part, as together, we make tomorrow better than today.

Thanks, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

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Recently the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Prince William County (home of the future Americans in Wartime Museum) and the American Festival Pops Orchestra presented a wonderful concert of music to honor veterans.  One of the highlights of the concert was the “Veterans Salute March,” conducted by the 92 year-old composer Robert Rice, with his son Gary Rice on drums. Robert Rice has previously served as an arranger and composer with the U.S. Army Band during the Second World War.  The “Veteran’s Salute” is dedicated to all veterans, but particularly to John Shepherd, a Revolutionary War soldier who was America’s longest-lived veteran (117 years).  Below is an excerpt from column written by Gary in honor of Father’s Day for the Lakewood Observer in Ohio.  To read the entire column, http://lakewoodobserver.com/read/2011/06/15/my-oath-of-enlistment-has-no-expiration-date-robert-ricethe.

by Gary Rice

This is one column that is both easy and yet incredibly difficult to write. I really don’t care to write anything that might seem in any way self-serving. Dad and I really do want to help others as best we can, and the cause of service to others is what this column is all about.

There is one group of people who never complain about my writing. They are silent and respectful, because they must be. They are the dear honored departed who once lived as we do now, but now lie at rest in our nearby cemeteries. Among those whom all of us have most recently revered are our veterans, and particularly those who have gone on before us. I’ve heard one astonishing statistic, for example, that puts the number of veterans lying in Lakewood Park Cemetery at over 3,200…

That our veterans are one of our most valuable national resources is a given. The passing of America’s last WWI veteran reminds us that America’s WWII veterans are now leaving us at an estimated rate of over a thousand lives every day. With my 91-year-old WWII vet dad, that point comes home to me daily in no uncertain terms. Others have noted that Dad’s generation saved a world from tyranny and dictatorships, and went on in the post-war era to build a national economic juggernaut second to none. Whatever happened on the beaches of Normandy or in the forests around Bastogne (or for that matter, on those deadly chemical weapons training grounds where my father served) was all left behind, as families were raised and lives were rebuilt.

As human beings, we want to believe that we can compromise and come to agreement with others. We believe, we must believe, that there has to be some way, somehow, that people can learn to get along in peace…and yet, sometimes…there comes that line in the sand where principles are involved that cannot and must not be compromised. That’s where our soldiers come in. They stand between us and many others who, quite frankly, would like to see our country vanquished…

My dear late mom, Betty Rice, passed away nearly seven years ago. She and Dad were married for nearly 60 years. I knew that I had to get Dad busy very quickly after she died. Because he was a retired band and orchestra director, with musical composing and arranging experience going back to the days before WWII, I thought that if I could teach him about the computer and a music-writing program, maybe that could help him pass the time and ease his grieving.

We loaded up a music program into a laptop computer and started from square one. Dad had to learn that a “mouse” doesn’t necessarily squeak. He learned how to get online, read e-mail, and how and why he should save his work. He found that lesson out rather abruptly when he was on about page 35 of writing his autobiography when the computer ‘s power failed, and he lost every bit of his project. Still, he took to writing music on computers like ducks take to water. When the laptop’s screen began to dim over time, we found him an over-sized screen to ease his eyestrain. In the past seven years, Dad has created many compositions on the computer, and, with my help, has created full band marches for Garfield School, Lakewood High School, St. Edward High School, Lakewood Catholic Academy, and for the All-Ohio State Fair Band…

We discovered that the veterans of this country apparently had no song of their own. There were any number of songs honoring our Armed Forces, but songs for veterans? None that we could find. Now, here was a mission that was right up Dad’s alley!

In an incredibly short period of time, “The American Veterans’ Last Salute March” was born. This was a full band march written to be played by any number of small ensembles, as well as for a large band. We enjoyed doing it together as a father-son project. Basically, Dad created the music, and I wrote the words.

During WWII, Dad noticed that during a march-past, the melody of a song was often carried by only one section of instruments. For most of the march-past, the reviewing stand would hear only the other parts of the piece. Dad came up with a brilliant system that is still in use today in the services, where all parts are written for all main sections of the band, so that not only will the melody not be lost in a march-past, but virtually any small combo can form, and be given melody and harmony parts to play, when deployed in the field or at a hospital…

“Glorious gifts” indeed come in many packages. They comprise the summation of the positive time and talents that everyone, everywhere gives to others, every day of our lives, both in this country and around the world. These gifts are especially apparent when they come from ordinary people who do extraordinary acts of kindness that benefit others, with little or no hope of return for themselves…

Hats off to America’s veterans, and to you all, especially those of you who serve others in whatever way that you are able…Hats off, too, to all dads everywhere, and especially to you, Dad. Happy Father’s Day. Thank you for your own glorious gifts to the pulse of this city, and to our nation.

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ARLINGTON, Va. (Nov. 18, 2011) — Three days after the death of President John F. Kennedy, Sgt. Maj. Francis Ruddy, a Special Forces Soldier, laid his “Green Beret” upon the grave of the fallen president.

That was Nov. 25, 1963, and the event occurred at Arlington National Cemetery, Va., as Kennedy was laid to rest — 43 Green Berets by his side.

Nearly 50 years later, Soldiers of the Green Berets gathered at Kennedy’s grave site Nov. 17, 2011, to once again honor the man who lauded the Army’s Special Forces.

Soldiers from each of the Army’s seven Special Forces groups stood silent alongside Kennedy’s grave site as Secretary of the Army, John McHugh, Brig. Gen. Edward M. Reeder Jr., commander of U.S. Army Special Forces Command, and Army 2nd Lt. Christopher Kennedy McKelvy, great nephew of the fallen President, laid a wreath at Kennedy’s grave in a ceremony to honor the fallen president’s commitment to the Special Forces Soldier.

Following the symbolic event by Sgt. Maj. Ruddy, the Green Berets would honor Kennedy by laying a wreath at his grave annually. That tradition continued until the late 1980s.

“Our purpose today was to re-establish the tradition that began when a very special contingent of Green Berets was requested from the Kennedy family to perform the honor guard for President Kennedy’s funeral,” said the Special Forces commander, Reeder, during a luncheon following the ceremony. “Our intent is to honor Kennedy’s unparalleled advocacy of the Green Berets.”

The newly commissioned McKelvy, 24, said the ceremony was “truly a special experience.”

“It was an honor to be invited by the Green Berets to be here. They are great Americans and great heroes,” he said.

During Kennedy’s tenure as president, the Special Forces regiment grew by seven Special Forces groups.

Not long after a visit to Fort Bragg in 1961 with then-Special Forces commander, Brig. Gen. William P. Yarborough, Kennedy authorized the Green Beret as the official headgear of the U.S. Army Special Forces.

Kennedy sent a message to Yarborough after the capabilities demonstration he received on the visit Fort Bragg. The message in part read: “The challenge of this old but new form of operations is a real one and I know that you and the members of your Command will carry on for us and the free world in a manner which is both worthy and inspiring. I am sure that the Green Beret will be a mark of distinction in the trying times ahead.”

Special Forces Soldiers train at the school which bears Kennedy’s namesake, the United States Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.

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