Saturday, February 25, 2006
Can you guess who this is?
You have to search through our media to see this story but the truth is out there.
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Respect for our Fallen Heroes!
This is from an e:mail from a friend.
I need to express a few thoughts before you all check out these sites. Cpl Peter Wagler is from my home town of Hutchinson Kansas. I did not know him but I am humbled by his sacrifice. As I am looking at the pics I noticed a picture labeled 05.the battlefront1.jpg and I noticed the bastards with the hate signs protesting the funeral and I could not help myself from crying.
Maybe it is because I spent time flying a lot of these young men and women out of Balad and feel a strong bond with them. Apparently there is this “pastor” that travels around the country protesting at the funerals of our heroes.
Now, the part of this I also want y’all to see is the web page for the patriot guard. These guys ride around the nation and place themselves between the families of our fallen heroes. I would like y’all to check out both links and then it is up to you. I am throwing full support behind the patriot guard. (just wish I had a bike to ride with them). Thanks for your time to read this.
Scott
Ps I wanted to say thanks to Bonnie our Texas State Captain for the Patriot Riders.
Attached are links to the Patriot Guard and the funeral in Hutchinson
honoring Cpl. Peter Wagler.
Great photos showing a great hero and wonderful organization.
http://www.patriotguard.org/
http://test.patriotguard.org/photos/listpics.asp?dir=Cpl++Peter+Wagler++Hutchinson++Kansas
I need to express a few thoughts before you all check out these sites. Cpl Peter Wagler is from my home town of Hutchinson Kansas. I did not know him but I am humbled by his sacrifice. As I am looking at the pics I noticed a picture labeled 05.the battlefront1.jpg and I noticed the bastards with the hate signs protesting the funeral and I could not help myself from crying.
Maybe it is because I spent time flying a lot of these young men and women out of Balad and feel a strong bond with them. Apparently there is this “pastor” that travels around the country protesting at the funerals of our heroes.
Now, the part of this I also want y’all to see is the web page for the patriot guard. These guys ride around the nation and place themselves between the families of our fallen heroes. I would like y’all to check out both links and then it is up to you. I am throwing full support behind the patriot guard. (just wish I had a bike to ride with them). Thanks for your time to read this.
Scott
Ps I wanted to say thanks to Bonnie our Texas State Captain for the Patriot Riders.
Attached are links to the Patriot Guard and the funeral in Hutchinson
honoring Cpl. Peter Wagler.
Great photos showing a great hero and wonderful organization.
http://www.patriotguard.org/
http://test.patriotguard.org/photos/listpics.asp?dir=Cpl++Peter+Wagler++Hutchinson++Kansas
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Again, let's understand who our enemy is.
OUTRAGED MUSLIMS! OH MY!**We wake up this morning to see video on CNN showing rampaging Muslims around the world <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4676930.stm>. In Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific Rim ...
Muslim Mobs spreading mayhem. It seems that these mighty mad Muslims are rioting and firing their ever-present AK-47s into the air because of cartoons. Yup ... this latest epidemic of Muslim outrage comes to us because some newspapers in Norway and Denmark published some cartoons depicting Mohammed.Muslim outrage huh. OK . let's do a little historical review.
* Muslim officials block the exit where school girls are trying to escape a burning building because their faces were exposed.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims cut off the heads of three teenaged girls on their way to school in Indonesia. A Christian school.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder teachers trying to teach Muslim children in Iraq.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder over 80 tourists with car bombs outside cafes and hotels in Egypt.
No Muslim outrage.
* A Muslim attacks a missionary children's school in India. Kills six.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims slaughter hundreds of children and teachers in Beslan, Russia. Muslims shoot children in the back.
No Muslim outrage.
* Let's go way back. Muslims kidnap and kill athletes at the Munich Summer Olympics.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims fire rocket-propelled grenades into schools full of children in Israel.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder more than 50 commuters in attacks on London subways and busses. Over 700 are injured.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims massacre dozens of innocents at a Passover Seder.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder innocent vacationers in Bali.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslim newspapers publish anti-Semitic cartoons.
No Muslim outrage
* Muslims are involved, on one side or the other, in almost every one of the 125+ shooting wars around the world.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims beat the charred bodies of Western civilians with their shoes, then hang them from a bridge.
No Muslim outrage.
* Newspapers in Denmark and Norway publish cartoons depicting Mohammed.
Muslims are outraged.Dead children. Dead tourists. Dead teachers. Dead doctors and nurses. Death, destruction and mayhem around the world at the hands of Muslims .. no Muslim outrage ... but publish a cartoon depicting Mohammed with a bomb in his turban and all hell breaks loose.Come on, is this really about cartoons? They're rampaging and burning flags. They're looking for Europeans to kidnap. They're threatening innkeepers and generally raising holy Muslim hell not because of any outrage over a cartoon. They're outraged because it is part of the Islamic jihadist culture to be outraged. They don't really need a reason. They just need an excuse. Actually they don't even need an excuse - Wandering around, destroying property, murdering children, firing guns into the a crowd, blowing up women and children is a sure entry to paradise.
Muslim Mobs spreading mayhem. It seems that these mighty mad Muslims are rioting and firing their ever-present AK-47s into the air because of cartoons. Yup ... this latest epidemic of Muslim outrage comes to us because some newspapers in Norway and Denmark published some cartoons depicting Mohammed.Muslim outrage huh. OK . let's do a little historical review.
* Muslim officials block the exit where school girls are trying to escape a burning building because their faces were exposed.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims cut off the heads of three teenaged girls on their way to school in Indonesia. A Christian school.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder teachers trying to teach Muslim children in Iraq.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder over 80 tourists with car bombs outside cafes and hotels in Egypt.
No Muslim outrage.
* A Muslim attacks a missionary children's school in India. Kills six.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims slaughter hundreds of children and teachers in Beslan, Russia. Muslims shoot children in the back.
No Muslim outrage.
* Let's go way back. Muslims kidnap and kill athletes at the Munich Summer Olympics.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims fire rocket-propelled grenades into schools full of children in Israel.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder more than 50 commuters in attacks on London subways and busses. Over 700 are injured.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims massacre dozens of innocents at a Passover Seder.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims murder innocent vacationers in Bali.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslim newspapers publish anti-Semitic cartoons.
No Muslim outrage
* Muslims are involved, on one side or the other, in almost every one of the 125+ shooting wars around the world.
No Muslim outrage.
* Muslims beat the charred bodies of Western civilians with their shoes, then hang them from a bridge.
No Muslim outrage.
* Newspapers in Denmark and Norway publish cartoons depicting Mohammed.
Muslims are outraged.Dead children. Dead tourists. Dead teachers. Dead doctors and nurses. Death, destruction and mayhem around the world at the hands of Muslims .. no Muslim outrage ... but publish a cartoon depicting Mohammed with a bomb in his turban and all hell breaks loose.Come on, is this really about cartoons? They're rampaging and burning flags. They're looking for Europeans to kidnap. They're threatening innkeepers and generally raising holy Muslim hell not because of any outrage over a cartoon. They're outraged because it is part of the Islamic jihadist culture to be outraged. They don't really need a reason. They just need an excuse. Actually they don't even need an excuse - Wandering around, destroying property, murdering children, firing guns into the a crowd, blowing up women and children is a sure entry to paradise.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Our Military Men and Women Deserve our Utmost Respect
A Different Operation For U.S. Doctors In Iraq
Severe Cases, Grueling Hours Are Norm
By Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post Staff Writer
BALAD, Iraq, Jan. 31 -- Maj. Hans Bakken and Maj. Brett Schlifka were bone-tired as they sipped bad coffee from foam cups on a chilly morning in a U.S. military tent. The men, both neurosurgeons, had worked on two serious head wound cases the previous evening and then, after going to sleep about midnight, were awakened at 1:30 a.m. to treat a soldier flown in with a gunshot to the head.
The night before that, Sunday, they operated on ABC News anchorman Bob Woodruff and his cameraman, Doug Vogt.
"They all get the same quality of medical care -- a soldier, an Iraqi, a journalist," said Schlifka, a big-armed man from Philadelphia.
They didn't want to discuss specifics about Woodruff and Vogt. "We can't give you any details" for privacy reasons, said Bakken, a native of Decorah, Iowa.
But they did talk plenty about who they are and what they do in this, the Air Force Theater Hospital, which recently was designated as the medical receiving center in Iraq for the handling of all head and neck wounds by the U.S. military. The wounded ABC journalists were flown here by helicopter from Baghdad. They were eventually taken to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, where a doctor said their prognosis was "excellent," according to news reports.
Back home, Bakken said he saw "maybe half a dozen" gunshot head wounds in six years of practice. Here, about 70 miles north of Baghdad, he handles one or two "penetrating brain injuries" a day, either from gunfire or roadside bombs.
The two neurosurgeons also have become experts in particular varieties of head trauma. The majority of head injuries they saw in the United States involved external trauma, but most of their cases here involve penetration of the brain. What's more, the pistol shots they generally saw in the United States were far less lethal than higher-velocity rifle shots that traverse the skull and are nearly impossible to survive, they said. Also, their patients here arrive with far more complex wounds than the typical victim back home. Bomb victims arrive with eardrums blown, cheekbones smashed, eyes ripped apart, as well as deep brain injuries.
The extraordinary becomes routine. "I would say without exception almost everyone who has a penetrating injury has a craniectomy," said Bakken, referring to the operation in which part of the skull is removed to relieve swelling of the brain. Other military officials here have indicated that such a procedure was performed on Woodruff, who along with Vogt was injured on Sunday in a roadside bombing near Baghdad that caught them standing in the open hatch of an Iraqi army armored vehicle.
Understanding the effects of roadside bombs -- what the Army calls IEDs, or improvised explosive devices -- is an art in itself. "The shrapnel pieces from an IED seem to do more damage than a bullet," Schlifka said. The velocity of the fragments varies much more than do the velocity of bullets, and the greater the velocity, the worse injury to the brain, he said.
Working with another Army doctor, Maj. Gerald Grant, Schlifka and Bakken are still learning about blast effects -- the unseen damage caused by pressure on the brain, in which some people appear unhurt by a bomb attack only to suffer headaches, disorientation or lapses in short-term memory later on. "We see a lot of guys that are in a Humvee. They get knocked out but they, quote, don't sustain any serious injuries, unquote," Bakken said. Then when that soldier gets back to his unit, he doesn't feel quite right, but his problems are hard to discern except by those who already know him.
But the doctors have also learned to limit their intervention. They said they don't necessarily try to extract every piece of shrapnel from a head wound, because digging deep can occasionally do more harm to the brain than good.
The men are clearly proud of the quality of the care they provide, working in tents connected by a plywood corridor while Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters are landing just a few feet away. "I think we provide Level 1 trauma care comparable to any center in the United States," Bakken said.
He said he also likes the clarity of purpose involved in his work, with little time for administrative work or patience for bureaucratic obstacles. Bakken and Schlifka are Army officers, but said they are working in an Air Force facility with almost no friction or rivalry. "This is kind of a rank-free environment, and almost a service-free environment," Bakken said.
Bakken appeared to have little interest in discussing his brush with celebrity for having treated Woodruff and Vogt. He joined the Army last year at age 37 specifically to serve in Iraq, abandoning his private practice in Tacoma, Wash., and obviously taking a huge cut in pay.
He has no complaints. "They're paying me plenty," he said. "I'm a single guy." He and Schlifka are uncomfortable with being cast in any special light. Every night they see soldiers who they say made far greater sacrifices.
"I'm just another 61 Zulu," said Bakken, using the military classification for a neurosurgeon. (The infantrymen on which he operates, by contrast, are "11 Bravos.") "Just an asset. There are no prima donnas here."
Severe Cases, Grueling Hours Are Norm
By Thomas E. Ricks, Washington Post Staff Writer
BALAD, Iraq, Jan. 31 -- Maj. Hans Bakken and Maj. Brett Schlifka were bone-tired as they sipped bad coffee from foam cups on a chilly morning in a U.S. military tent. The men, both neurosurgeons, had worked on two serious head wound cases the previous evening and then, after going to sleep about midnight, were awakened at 1:30 a.m. to treat a soldier flown in with a gunshot to the head.
The night before that, Sunday, they operated on ABC News anchorman Bob Woodruff and his cameraman, Doug Vogt.
"They all get the same quality of medical care -- a soldier, an Iraqi, a journalist," said Schlifka, a big-armed man from Philadelphia.
They didn't want to discuss specifics about Woodruff and Vogt. "We can't give you any details" for privacy reasons, said Bakken, a native of Decorah, Iowa.
But they did talk plenty about who they are and what they do in this, the Air Force Theater Hospital, which recently was designated as the medical receiving center in Iraq for the handling of all head and neck wounds by the U.S. military. The wounded ABC journalists were flown here by helicopter from Baghdad. They were eventually taken to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, where a doctor said their prognosis was "excellent," according to news reports.
Back home, Bakken said he saw "maybe half a dozen" gunshot head wounds in six years of practice. Here, about 70 miles north of Baghdad, he handles one or two "penetrating brain injuries" a day, either from gunfire or roadside bombs.
The two neurosurgeons also have become experts in particular varieties of head trauma. The majority of head injuries they saw in the United States involved external trauma, but most of their cases here involve penetration of the brain. What's more, the pistol shots they generally saw in the United States were far less lethal than higher-velocity rifle shots that traverse the skull and are nearly impossible to survive, they said. Also, their patients here arrive with far more complex wounds than the typical victim back home. Bomb victims arrive with eardrums blown, cheekbones smashed, eyes ripped apart, as well as deep brain injuries.
The extraordinary becomes routine. "I would say without exception almost everyone who has a penetrating injury has a craniectomy," said Bakken, referring to the operation in which part of the skull is removed to relieve swelling of the brain. Other military officials here have indicated that such a procedure was performed on Woodruff, who along with Vogt was injured on Sunday in a roadside bombing near Baghdad that caught them standing in the open hatch of an Iraqi army armored vehicle.
Understanding the effects of roadside bombs -- what the Army calls IEDs, or improvised explosive devices -- is an art in itself. "The shrapnel pieces from an IED seem to do more damage than a bullet," Schlifka said. The velocity of the fragments varies much more than do the velocity of bullets, and the greater the velocity, the worse injury to the brain, he said.
Working with another Army doctor, Maj. Gerald Grant, Schlifka and Bakken are still learning about blast effects -- the unseen damage caused by pressure on the brain, in which some people appear unhurt by a bomb attack only to suffer headaches, disorientation or lapses in short-term memory later on. "We see a lot of guys that are in a Humvee. They get knocked out but they, quote, don't sustain any serious injuries, unquote," Bakken said. Then when that soldier gets back to his unit, he doesn't feel quite right, but his problems are hard to discern except by those who already know him.
But the doctors have also learned to limit their intervention. They said they don't necessarily try to extract every piece of shrapnel from a head wound, because digging deep can occasionally do more harm to the brain than good.
The men are clearly proud of the quality of the care they provide, working in tents connected by a plywood corridor while Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters are landing just a few feet away. "I think we provide Level 1 trauma care comparable to any center in the United States," Bakken said.
He said he also likes the clarity of purpose involved in his work, with little time for administrative work or patience for bureaucratic obstacles. Bakken and Schlifka are Army officers, but said they are working in an Air Force facility with almost no friction or rivalry. "This is kind of a rank-free environment, and almost a service-free environment," Bakken said.
Bakken appeared to have little interest in discussing his brush with celebrity for having treated Woodruff and Vogt. He joined the Army last year at age 37 specifically to serve in Iraq, abandoning his private practice in Tacoma, Wash., and obviously taking a huge cut in pay.
He has no complaints. "They're paying me plenty," he said. "I'm a single guy." He and Schlifka are uncomfortable with being cast in any special light. Every night they see soldiers who they say made far greater sacrifices.
"I'm just another 61 Zulu," said Bakken, using the military classification for a neurosurgeon. (The infantrymen on which he operates, by contrast, are "11 Bravos.") "Just an asset. There are no prima donnas here."
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