ARLINGTON, Va. – Sgt. Ruben Troyer, senior horse trainer, Caisson platoon, 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), uses his Amish upbringing to help train horses in the Caisson platoon.

Within the area of Holmes County, Ohio, rests the world’s largest Amish community, a community which taught Sgt. Ruben Troyer, from an early age, the true value of horses.

“There were 20 to 30 horses specific to my family,” said Troyer. “Horses were our transportation and our means to farm. They were our livelihood.”

Read the rest of the story

29 November 2006:
The whereabouts of a Texas Tech graduate remain unknown after the F-16 he was piloting crashed in Iraq. Military officials say Major Troy Gilbert was firing on targets at a low altitude when his jet went down near Falluja in Iraq Monday. The jet was based out of Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis, New Mexico, which is about 100 miles from Lubbock. DNA samples taken from the scene are being tested.

The 34-year-old has been stationed at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona since March 2004. That’s where family and friends made statements today. NewsChannel 11′s Jennifer Vogel shares the story.

Major Troy Gilbert is a well decorated soldier who was selected to become a Presidential Advance Agent. He would often travel to classified locations to meet Air Force One. But the one thing friends, family and colleagues tell NewsChannel 11 he is most proud of is his time as a father and a husband.

“Troy was first and foremost a wonderful husband and father.” That was the first message family members wanted the public to know about their own personal hero, Major Troy L. Gilbert.

This Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for the sacrifices of Major Gilbert and his family, Captain Giglio, and the 30 soldiers lost one day not so long ago.  We are the home of the brave and the land of the free because of people like these.

Military members and their families on twitter. Please take a minute to say thank you to some of them today.

For a months, often a year or more, life at home has kept moving.  There are still carpools for school, soccer games, ballet lessons, birthdays, bedtimes, bike rides, bandaids, broken bones, and more.

You manage to keep the house running as a single parent.  You hear the little ones say, “I miss dad, when’s he coming home?” and your heart breaks just a little each time.  You miss him too but have to be strong and brave for him, for them.

Like your solider man, you volunteered for this assignment.  You knew what you were getting into, but no one ever remembers you.  No one ever says “thank you.”  You’d be grateful if they just remembered him every now and again.  For your family, the yellow ribbon isn’t just a magnet – it is your husband, the father of your children, your best friend.

You have the hardest job in the world.  You are a military wife and mom.

from Flyover Country, thank you.

Video c/o @ajenable and family.

Air Warrior Courage Foundation
Special Operations Warrior Foundation

Update 12 Aug: Special Operations Warrior Foundation has announced they will offer full college scholarships to all children of those killed in the crash. Please consider a donation to either of these organizations.
 

I thought this was going to be a post about seeing a little bit of ourselves in each of A.A. Milne’s characters.  The outgoing Tigger; Owl always with some bit of knowledge; high-strung Rabbit worried about his garden; Pooh ever-conflicted between finding some honey and helping his friends; Eeyore who struggles to see that there is anything in the glass at all, never mind whether it is half-empty or half-full.

Sometimes, I want to see a movie without thinking about drugs, sex, violence, lie upon destructive lie that tears apart people and relationships, people cheating on their girlfriend/wife/boyfriend/husband, really nasty people like Carolyne in ‘The Other Woman‘ with ugly hearts who take pleasure in hurting other people.

Sometimes, I want to remember something good from when I was a kid – a time when life wasn’t so complicated.  It was, but I try to pretend that it wasn’t.

Sometimes, I want the world to stop for a few minutes so I can try – despite knowing better – to fix the things I’ve broken, and repair the things about me that are broken.

Sometimes, I want to forget for a time this is not how life was supposed to turn out.

…

That was last night.  Today, a very serious reality check that I don’t believe is at all a coincidence.

I sat down this afternoon to watch Lt Dan Band – For the Common Good, a documentary about Gary Sinise’s work for the USO and on behalf of the troops.  The movie opens with scenes from the morning of September 11, 2001.  I’d very nearly forgotten that two wars we’re in started with planes flying into buildings.

As I’m watching this, there are parts that make me cry.  The song one of the Lt Dan Band singers wrote for the troops, and just how she felt like she wasn’t worthy to write it, who was she?

I am your son, I am your daughter
I stand for freedom and for honor
And I am brave, my love is pure
And I’d sacrifice my life for yours

I completely fell apart and wept openly when they interviewed Ginger Gilbert, wife of fallen Air Force major Troy Gilbert.  He was an F-16 pilot killed in theatre just after my brother-in-law, also a viper pilot, arrived for his first tour in Iraq.  As Ginger tells it, her husband saved 22 lives on the ground and lost his own.

As I put last year’s Honor Flight videos together, I wanted to honor Major Gilbert and Capt Giglio, killed on a night training mission while my brother-in-law was working the flight in the control tower.  Yet, who am I?  To see some of the same images in this documentary that I used was extremely humbling to say the least.

It isn’t that life doesn’t suck in a lot of ways, and there aren’t things I wish I knew how to change.  A father lost two sons on 9/11 – one a NYPD cop, one a FDNY fire fighter.  Ginger lost her husband, their kids lost their father, and the country lost a hero.  I can imagine at some point she must have thought “…this isn’t how life was supposed to turn out.”

He was repeatedly rejected by military recruiters and got into uniform at 16 after lying about his age. But Frank Buckles would later become the last surviving U.S. veteran of World War I.

Buckles, who also survived being a civilian POW in the Philippines in World War II, died of natural causes Sunday at his home in Charles Town, biographer and family spokesman David DeJonge said in a statement. He was 110.

Read more

My sister’s husband, a fellow F-16 pilot, was in the tower as the ATC liaison that night – SOF or “supervisor of flight” in military parlance.  I remember her calling me, telling me something was wrong.  Her husband had sent her a terse text message, saying he would be home late. Subsequent texts didn’t provide any details to the evolving situation, but from the tone she knew it was bad.

For the next several days, search and rescue teams scoured the Atlantic off the coast, but came up empty.  This is part of what my sister wrote publicly a few days later:

Thursday night while talking to my dad on the phone, I got a text from my husband, Eric, saying he would be late coming home from work. I would not normally think much of this except that on Thursday night he was sitting in the tower on base sitting SOF (Supervisor of Flying) and usually that job didn’t require you to stay late. He was supposed to be home around 10 and I got the text about 930. So I waited an hour or so and replied asking if he had an update on the time he’d be home. He said he’d be late and that he’d update me when he could. I knew there wasn’t much weather around and something still wasn’t sitting well with me. I texted him back and said “Is everyone or everything okay?” All I got back was “I can’t answer that right now”. My heart began to race and by the time he got home at 230 am (I waited up b/c what else was I going to do) it had been on the news that 2 F-16s (both pilots from the squadron my husband is in here in SC) had collided during a training mission not far off the coast of South Carolina. One pilot had landed his jet back in Charleston and the other, Captain Giglio was missing. I have never felt emotions that I felt that night, but I found myself saying to other pilots wives the next day, we have to believe in miracles, just look at what God did for my dad.  This all began Thursday night around 830 and by Saturday night, they called off the rescue and said the chances of Capt Giglio having been able to eject from the jet was slim to none.  Fox News carried the story.

Due to everything going on with my dad’s lung transplant in the past month or so, I had not gotten a chance to meet Capt Giglio’s wife as they had only been here for a few months. Captain Giglio left behind a 14 month old daughter Grace and his high school sweetheart (graduated in 1995) turned wife in 2000 expecting their second child in February. The wives in our squadron have done our best to support his wife, Leigh and one of those ways is having a 77th Fighter Squadron wife at her house with her and her family. My shift was this morning.  I had never met Leigh formally. She joined MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) 2 weeks ago and I was involved with it last year. At the beginning of the year, something had to give for my family and that was what I had to give up, but my fellows MOPS gals promised to pray for my dad and keep him on their prayer list even though I wasn’t there.

This morning as I drove to the house leaving my husband at home, I had many different emotions. I had just been able to kiss my husband goodbye and what in the world could I say to this wife who had just lost her husband? I was scared that I would say the wrong thing and she would just break down. I’m a social person, but it was an extremely uncomfortable position for me to be in. I walked to the door and knocked quietly not knowing if Grace was sleeping. Leigh opened the door, I introduced myself saying, “Hi, I’m Christy Music, we are in the 77th, my husband is Eric” (or something like that, it was somewhat of a blur). But before I had stepped foot past the front door and after saying who I was, the first thing out of her mouth was not “good morning” or “hi, nice to meet you”, it was immediately “Oh, Christy, how is your dad?” WHAT?

Even as I write that and remember the words coming out of her mouth I get chills and it brings tears to my eyes. Someone who 3 days earlier had lost her husband and had only been told 36 hours prior that they were ending the search and rescue that it would now be in recovery mode was asking me how my dad was? Someone who had yet to meet me. Someone who has a 14 month old and a baby boy growing in her belly that won’t even get to know his father was asking me how my dad was. I was blown away and stood there for a few seconds not able to say a word but finally was able to get out the words “He’s doing great, thank you for asking”. We talked for a few more minutes about my dad with Leigh letting me know she and Nick had been praying for and she will continue to pray for my dad before moving into the kitchen where we began the rest of the day. Let’s not talk about how I felt when I cooked eggs for her and asked her if she wanted me to put milk in them so they would be fluffy. She came over and put her arm around me and said, oh thank you, Nick always used to ask if I wanted my eggs fluffy. You can DEFINITELY see a woman very sure of her faith and she knows where her husband went. It was amazing to spend the morning with her even though she was in and out trying to get dressed to go shopping for clothes for the memorial service and on the phone with various offices. I couldn’t let go of her first statement to me and couldn’t wait to be able to call my dad and share the news with him.

All this after calling him over the weekend after the F-16 accident to share with him that another one of our friends in the F-16 community that were stationed with us in UT, they are now in Italy, lost his wife just hours after she gave birth to their second baby boy. I’m trying to make a deal with God where he doesn’t give me any more bad news b/c while everything with my dad has been a complete blessing and miracle, I’m kinda spent. Within 2 weeks I think I’ve experienced just about every emotion humanly possible, but I know that someone always has it worse than me.

I am so blessed to have a husband that played an important role in the way things played out after the collision occurred and still walked in the door that night. I am blessed with so many things but I am blessed to know that I know a God who watches out for each and every one of us no matter where we are. He puts certain people in our lives and has them say certain things to know he’s there with us at all times. That’s what I feel he was doing with Leigh. We still have a long week ahead knowing there is a service for a young mother in Italy on Wednesday and the memorial service here Thursday for Captain Giglio but God is in control of all of it just as he was with my dad’s transplant.  Please just pray for these families as you continue to pray for my dad. They both have long roads ahead of them.

Capt Giglio and his aircraft were never found.  He was presumed to have perished in the initial impact.  Buried in Arlington National Cemetery, the lost aviator leaves behind a wife and two young children.  Not just another nameless family that made the ultimate sacrifice, this one is personal and close to home.

If you would like to help the families of fallen heroes, please consider the Air Warrior Courage Foundation.

♣

Lord, guard and guide the men who fly
Through the great spaces of the sky;
Be with them traversing the air
In darkening storms or sunshine fair

Thou who dost keep with tender might
The balanced birds in all their flight
Thou of the tempered winds be near
That, having thee, they know no fear

I’ve heard a couple of Carly’s interviews, and at least one debate between all three of them.  After the debate, I walked away feeling like Fiorina was a little bit immature – having listened to her petulantly repeat several consecutive times “Did you hear what I said?”

As far as I’ve been able to tell, Carly has mostly been going after Campbell in her negative ads, demonsheep being the most obvious.  Today, however, from the Fiorina campaign came this gem:

. @chuckdevore predicted doubling in polls due to deceptive ballot title. It worked, but he’s still a distant third. @carlyforca in lead!

I believe what her campaign is referring to is this:

“Ballot titles matter a lot in California,” DeVore said at a Family Action PAC luncheon at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach. “They called me a California state assemblyman. That’s like saying Chuck DeVore’s a thief. My actual title is assemblyman/military reservist. In our internal polling, that change alone doubled my support, when people found out I was not merely a scum-sucking politician.”

I’ve said “campaign” twice because I don’t want to impune the character of Fiorina herself if she wasn’t the one who wrote the tweet knocking Devore’s military service.  However, it is completely unacceptable and out of line.  My guess is that the staffer who was running her twitter feed this afternoon got the bright idea to attack Devore on his military credentials, because it seems to be working in Connecticut.

Richard Blumenthal, running for US Senate in CT, and currently the Connecticut AG, has been lying about having served in the Vietnam theatre of operations.  At the very least, he has on multiple occasions misplaced prepositions to suggest he was actually in country and never bothered to make any attempt to correct the record.  Until the NYT called him out.

Just a guess, but I think someone from the Carly campaign saw this going on, and decided to make a nasty comment about Devore’s service, hoping it would get some attention from the media and knock him down a peg or two.  I don’t want to make too big of a deal out of a single tweet, but you better have some damn facts if you want to question the military service of one of our men still in uniform.  The Fiorina campaign should use this as a teachable moment, and the staffer should be made to personally apologize to Devore.  Anyone unable to see how incredibly offensive and disrespectful it is to refer to Devore’s military title as “deceptive” should be fired.

Update 1: The Devore campaign has responded to the tweet.

Update 2 (5/21): Redstate has a post, with additional information about this – and it seems to be getting worse for Firoina

See, in California people get to put a descriptor on their ballot line item describing who they are. Carly put “business executive”, even though she hasn’t been one since 2005. She really does not want Chuck DeVore to have “military reservist” on his line.

Fiorina’s campaign, when contacted, said DeVore is not a military reservist.

This is no longer a teachable moment.  This is classless and contemptible denigration of our brave military from someone who aims to serve in the chambers of the United States Senate.

I’m not able join you on the march on Washington on 9/12 because I have commitments here at home. However, I would like to ask that anyone going as part of the 9/12 project please share this with anyone outside the central Ohio 9/12 group that is planning to go.

On Saturday, 9/12, there will be a group of veterans in DC from Ohio, New York, Colorado, Alabama, Florida and perhaps other places as well. These aren’t just any vets, they’re World War II veterans. Honor Flight, at no cost to the vets, flies them to DC for the day so that they can visit the World War II memorial and a few other sites. Most have never had the chance to see the memorial built in their honor, and this is their only opportunity. I’m not here to promote Honor Flight, as worthy an organization as I believe it is.

I’m writing you because in my discussions with the flight organizers, they’re aware of the march on Washington and while I don’t speak for them, I think it would be fair to say they’re a little bit concerned about the crowds and maybe even a bit skittish about the idea of “protesters” running amuck. My and the flight directors’, guardians’, and ground crews’ only mission and concern is for the vets under our care. I know quite a few of you, and know that of anyone, you are the most willing of any crowd – without a thought – to stand and honor the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, to call them heroes. You are also the least likely of any large group I know to be obnoxious or disrespectful to our country.

I believe I can speak for the 9/12 group when I say the whole reason for the march is not because we believe that America is a bad place and needs radical change, or that we think this latest president is a bad man. We believe our liberty is under attack from years of an ever-growing, ever-consuming, increasingly oppressive, and unbounded federal government who would burn the Constitution if they could figure out how to get Sandy Berger to smuggle it out of the archives. Yelling at the TV hasn’t worked. Bold questions, protests, and marches are absolutely our right and if necessary, our responsibility, to ensure the Constitution and our liberty is preserved for future generations.

However. Your path as a group, or perhaps your personal path, will almost certainly at some point intersect with Honor Flight, perhaps at the airports or during your march, as the World War II memorial is directly between the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol building. (Map: http://tinyurl.com/lwl3jb) Please, as you’re in Washington, if you see an old guy in a gray t-shirt (picture: http://tinyurl.com/l6e3he), be respectful. Taking a minute to say thank you would be nice, but if not, please be patient. I ask you humbly with no authority, out of respect for the veterans – the living, the ones who have gone on, and the 400,000 marked by the field of stars who never came home: be aware of your surroundings. Try to save the shouting, yelling, chanting or other overt displays for areas not near and around the war memorials, especially the World War II memorial.

Thank you in advance

Honesty | Reverence | Hope | Thrift | Humility | Charity

1. America Is Good.
2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

Sincerity | Moderation | Hard Work | Courage | Personal Responsibility | Gratitude