Haole_Wahine’s Neighborhood

Thank you to Maryann Phillips Soldiers' Angel at Landstuhl for providing these accounts and being there for the wounded. You are truly a wonderful angel. Let's get the truth of this out there folks..repost!

"I just hope these guys' wives and their children understand how courageous their husbands and dads were. They fought like warriors." - SGT Jacob Walker

"It was some of the bravest stuff I've ever seen in my life, and I will never see it again because those guys... well, normal humans wouldn't do that. You're not supposed to do that — getting up and firing back when everything around you is popping and whizzing and trees, branches coming down and sandbags exploding and RPGs coming in over your head... It was a fistfight then, and those guys held ' em off." - SPC Tyler Stafford

"When you ask for volunteers to run across an open field to a reinforced OP that almost everybody is injured at, and everybody volunteers, it feels good. There were a lot of guys that made me proud, putting themselves and their lives on the line so their buddies could have a chance." - SSG Jesse Queck

Im Memoriam:

1LT Jonathan Brostrom
SGT Israel Garcia
SPC Matthew Phillips
SPC Pruitt Rainey
SPC Jonathan Ayers
SPC Jason Bogar
SPC Sergio Abad
SPC Jason Hovater
SPC Gunnar Zwilling

All Sky Soldiers of Chosen Company, 2/503 Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team.
 
*  *  * 
 
 
The real story is NOT that this was a "base" - it was a small outpost of 45 men surrounded by concertina wire, with a few vehicles and fortified fighting positions.
 
The real story is NOT that the outpost was "overrun" - the truth is that 45 Heroes successfully fought off an organized attack by hundreds of heavily-armed Taliban and al Queda.
 
The real story is NOT that the outpost was "abandoned" after the attack - it was a temporary patrol base.
 
 
 
 I spent days talking to the wounded paratroopers who were
 at Wanat during
 their stay at Landstuhl hospital and can vouch for
 everything in the
 following articles:
 
 Interviews with several wounded
 http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=63479&archive=true   Soldiers of
 Chosen Company while at Landstuhl hospital describing the
 attack.
 
 Multimedia version of above
 interviews.  http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=63490&archive=true
 
 Interview with an additional wounded
 Soldierof
 Chosen providing further information on the fight. http://hamptonroads.com/2008/07/soldier-eastern-shore-recounts-deadly-battle-afghanistan
 
 Interview with the
 commanderof
the 173rd ABCT
 
 An Alamo with a Different
 Ending:   http://jeffemanuel.net/an-alamo-with-a-different-ending Overwhelmingly
 Outnumbered Coalition Forces Repel a Complex Attack in NE
 Afghanistan
 
 
 This writeup can be found at my blog here  (MaryAnn Phillips)
 http://soldiersangelsgermany.blogspot.com/2008/07/heroes-of-wanat.html
 

-
MaryAnn Phillips
Vice President, Warrior Medical Support Europe
www.soldiersangels.org

:
 

Michelle has given me an opening to start blogging this event. Of course, Micelle's column is about LtCol Bill Russell, candidate for the 12th District of Pennsylvania, but since Somerset is in the 12th, the segue works.

On Saturday 2 August, at 1000 hours in Somerset PA, a hearing will held on the proposed design of the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, PA. We are encouraging all Americans who oppose the design as submitted to be in Somerset on 2 August to lend support to Alec Rawls in his effort to eliminate all aspects of Islam and muslim symbology from the proposed design.

If you watch the video I have linked above, you will see the current Flight 93 Memorial as it was in 2006. This memorial is being built by freedom loving people who understand the heroic efforts made by the passengers on Flight 93 that bright September morning.

No matter where you were, or what you were doing during those three hours, the events of that day affected you. Nothing since has been the same. To even consider a design that looks remotely like it contains islamic symbols is spitting on the memory of the 41 ordinary Americans who became extraordinary heroes in the space of hours. Faced with the certainty of their own death, they acted to save the lives of tens of thousands of Americans.

Their memory should be preserved with a design befitting their sacrifice.

Woopie and and many African Americans think using the "N" word is ok.  But, African Americans do not want European Americans to use the "N" word.  And, many Democrats defend Woopie's position. 

Commonsense would dictate that if a word is offensive, it should not be used by anyone.  However, it appears that Political Correctness may dictate that the "N" word can be used by African Americans but not anyone else. 

This is goofy logic.  Oh well, Jimmy Carter still supports Rev. Mugabe in Zimbabwe.  Wonders never cease.  

I think McCain needs a new strategy.  It seems he's thrashing around trying to find his footing against a newcomer that has the benefits of not having to make tough decisions. 

McCain needs to distance himself from Bush, present and pass legislation to support health care and education for military men and women, and tell us where he is going to take America when he is elected president.

There is a debate in Republican politics—and inside the McCain campaign—about what's plaguing the GOP contender. A central question is just how much time McCain should spend attacking his opponent.

Rich Lowry and Ramesh Ponnuru in the National Review argue that he needs to get more aggressive in raising doubts about Obama, whose advantages put him in a position, they fear, to run away with the race.

Other longtime McCain allies argue for an almost opposite approach. One suggested McCain ignore Obama for a month so that McCain can spend time explaining to voters where he'd like to take the country.