Music and Me

B*N*S*N Haiti

01/18/2010 - A U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III aircraft airdrops humanitarian aid into Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and surrounding areas Jan. 18, 2010. The U.S. military is conducting humanitarian and disaster relief operations as part of Operation Unified Response after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the country Jan. 12, 2010. (DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. James L. Harper Jr., U.S. Air Force/Released) [An article on this drop here...h/t Harold]



01/17/2010 - U.S. Sailors from the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) and Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division prepare for transit at an airport in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 17, 2010. The U.S. military is conducting humanitarian and disaster relief operations as part of Operation Unified Response after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the country Jan. 12, 2010. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Candice Villarreal, U.S. Navy/Released)

01/18/2010 - From left, U.S. Navy Cmdr. Jerry Berman, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Lt. Cmdr. Kathryn Berndt prepare a 12-year-old Haitian girl for surgery Jan. 18, 2010, aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) while off the coast of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. During the procedure, the doctors removed a piece of concrete from the child’s brain, an injury she sustained during the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck the region Jan. 12, 2010. Berman and Berndt are surgeons aboard Carl Vinson and Gupta is a CNN medical correspondent and practicing neurosurgeon. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Michael C. Barton, U.S. Navy/Released)


Getty Images 13 hours ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - JANUARY 21: Surgeons take a quick rest between operations on board the USNS Comfort, a U.S. Naval hospital ship, on January 21, 2010 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Comfort deployed from Baltimore with 550 medical personnel on board to treat victims of Haiti's recent earthquake, and arrived on January 20.

Getty Images 14 hours ago

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI - JANUARY 21: A boy walks with an umbrella at a golf course converted into a camp for the displaced

U.S. Navy and Coast Guard medics treat an earthquake victim at the Haitian Coast Guard base Amiral Killick in Carrefour, Haiti, Jan. 16, 2010. Carl Vinson and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 17 are conducting humanitarian and disaster relief operations as part of Operation Unified Response after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake caused severe damage near Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12, 2010. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Adrian White, U.S. Navy /Released)

01/17/2010 - U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Nicholas Wentworth adjusts the intravenous solution for an earthquake victim inside a U.S. Navy MH-60S Seahawk helicopter Jan. 17, 2010, prior to being flown to the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70). Carl Vinson and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 17 are conducting humanitarian and disaster relief operations as part of Operation Unified Response after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake caused severe damage Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 12, 2010. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Joel Carlson, U.S. Navy/Released)

01/17/2010 - U.S. Sailors from the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) load water to be airlifted to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Jan. 17, 2010. The U.S. military is conducting humanitarian and disaster relief operations after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake caused severe damage near Port-au-Prince Jan 12, 2010. (DoD photo by Master Sgt. Russell E. Cooley IV, U.S. Air Force/Released)

Haiti Maternity Ward

The Maternity Ward outside the General Hospital in Port au Prince.
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

This last picture is from Team Rubicon, and is just one of many pictures and reports that I gaurantee you wont find in the msm. (Well, apart from CNN following Jesse Jackson around. But I digress....lol) Team Rubicon is a private group comprised of former military, firefighters, surgeons, doctors, nurses etc. etc... ALL volunteers who have used their own money to get to Haiti. They also NEED your donations...Please go to Team Rubicon's home page HERE, read their reports, and help with $$ if you can. Thank you.

Haiti picture of the day!

01/19/2010 - U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Jose Estrada, an information technician aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma, rushes an injured Haitian girl to an awaiting helicopter Jan. 19, 2010, at Haitian Coast Guard base Amiral Killick in Carrefour, Haiti. The Coast Guard and Navy provided aircrews to evacuate Haitians with injuries caused by the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck the city Jan. 12, 2010. (DoD photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Brandyn Hill, U.S. Coast Guard/Released)

I believe in miracles...

In the troop support community when the call goes out, prayer warriors from around the the world join as one to surround our warriors who wear combat boots.

As our wounded begin their journey from the sandbox, to Landstuhl and home, on the long road to recovery, every tenacious step is accompanied by faithful prayers.

Oftentimes, we don't get to hear the outcome of these home-front battles. Today, a story that should make a believer out of almost any cynic:

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

What A Difference A Year Makes...

Time is a brisk wind, for each hour it brings something new... but who can understand and measure its sharp breath, its mystery and its design?
~~~~~Paracelsus


Y'all remember this time last year when I requested prayers for one of our local Marine's, don't ya? If not, go here and here to read the original story.

Brandon has spent these last 12 months recuperating from his injuries. He's endured numerous operations as well as a grueling physical rehabilitation regimen. Last Memorial Day, I wrote how Florence, Ky. had honored him with a Brandon Bailey Day. I was honored and tickled pink to be there in attendance to meet Brandon and his wife, Kristie.

I've kept in touch with Brandon's and Kristie's grandparents; Jim and Christine. Jim has been emailing me updates with Brandon's progress. Over Christmas, he emailed a picture that is more precious than gold. I requested permission from Jim to post on here so that you all could see what your prayers wrought. Jim had to ask Brandon first before giving me the go ahead. In typical man fashion, he wanted to make sure that I had a good picture of him.

I don't know if I would call it good... what do you all think? Is it good or not?...

What follows is a picture and a story which demonstrates how amazing our troops are. Go HERE now, follow the links to the original events, and then marvel at the progress of another of our finest. Go, go!

I so believe in miracles.

Wednesday Hero

This Weeks Post Was Suggested By Toni

Stephen Cochran
2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force


Stephen Cochran had it all in front of him. Collage, a fiancée and an offer for a professional recording contract. But life had other plans for him. The day was September 11, 2001. "It was just so horrific," Cochran said. "It's like I'd been called. I'd never been pulled so hard to do something."

It may have been the audacity of the attacks, but more likely it was his family's long history of military service that drew him to enlist, he said. Both grandfathers served, as did an uncle and several other relatives.

So he dropped out of college, walked away from the record deal and joined the United States Marine Corps. "I've always been raised very, very patriotic. It's just what I had to do."

After serving in Iraq, he and his entire battalion volunteered to go to Afghanistan with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit where Cochran was injured in an ambush. 20 yards inside Kandahar, the vehicle he was riding in hit an anti-tank mine and he was thrown from the vehicle and broke the five vertebrae in his lower back.

Read The Rest Of The Story

stephencochranmusic.com
@stephen_cochran
facebook.com/stephen.cochran1

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Martin Luther King Jr..

Pentagon Honors Civil Rights Leader’s Legacy

By Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael J. Carden
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2010 – Defense Secretary Robert
M. Gates today challenged the Defense Department and all
Americans to honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy during a
Pentagon observance in advance of the Jan. 18 holiday that
marks the civil rights leader’s birth.

“Remember and honor the great example Dr. King was,” Gates
said to an audience of defense employees and military members
at the Pentagon’s 25th annual observance of King’s life and work.
“Celebrate all that we have accomplished together. … Keep working
toward Dr. King’s dreams with all our might.”

King spent his life advocating for equality and eventually became a
world figure in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. The Baptist
minister led peaceful demonstrations and marches throughout the
country and gave thousands of memorable speeches until his
assassination in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968.

The path of service and equality led by King paved way for
desegregation and better opportunities, not just for African
Americans, but for all citizens. He sought a society “founded and
fueled on equality, justice, dignity, freedom and strength that can
come only from being a truly united country,” Gates said.
... Read more here)

(Photograph by Donald Uhrbrock/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images - National Geographic)

Haiti: "Shabbat from hell. Everywhere, the acrid smell of bodies hangs in the air....

From Monkey in the Middle:

Sunday, January 17, 2010

"Shabbat from hell. Everywhere, the acrid smell of bodies hangs in the air. It's just like the stories we are told of the Holocaust - thousands of bodies everywhere."

Are the words ZAKA headquarters in Jerusalem read in the e-mail sent by Mati Goldstein from Haiti.


The large field hospital established by the IDF Medical Corps at 10 a.m. Shabbat local time was already treating dozens of patients four hours later, when its commander, Lt.-Col. Dr. Itzik Reiss, was able to take a breather and speak to Israeli health reporters via a conference call.

Children with severe fractures set only with cardboard arrived at the hospital for treatment. Some young patients had been freed from rubble but had to have limbs amputated due to severe gangrene, he said. Within a few hours, operations were performed.

The hospital has an emergency room, pediatric, orthopedic, internal medicine, obstetrics and surgery departments, clinics and other facilities. The delivery room and premature baby unit are prepared to function but have not yet received any women or infants.

The patients started arriving after a local hospital, unable to function normally, announced the IDF facility's existence....

There is much more about Israel's immediate contribution to Haiti, here.