The Daily Mail reports that a Polish oil company worker, Jakub Perka, has discovered an “almost perfectly preserved” Kittyhawk P-40 that crash-landed in the Sahara Desert in 1942.

“Despite the crash impact, most of the aircraft’s cockpit instruments are intact,” according to the report.

In 1942 [the pilot] was a member of the RAF’s 260 Squadron, a fighter unit based in Egypt during the North Africa campaign.

By June of that year the Allies were retreating from ‘Desert Fox’ Erwin Rommel and his German forces.

On June 28 Ft Sgt Copping and another airman were tasked with flying two damaged Kittyhawk P-40 planes from one British airbase in northern Egypt to another for repair.

During the short flight Ft Sgt Copping lost his bearings, went off course and was never seen again.
[…]
It was documented at the time that there was a fault with its front landing gear which would not retract and the photographic evidence suggests the aircraft had its front wheel down when it crashed.
[…]
There is also flak damage in the fuselage, which is also consistent with documented evidence of Ft Sgt Copping’s plane.

Full Story from TheBlaze.com

Filmmaker Mike Dorsey grew up hearing remarkable tales of heroism from his grandfather, who was captured by the Nazis during World War II. But when Dorsey realized the ranks of his grandfather’s fellow pilots was dwindling, he knew he had to record their story – fast.

Dorsey’s “Lost Airmen of Buchenwald,” which will screen at 2 p.m. May 20 at the upcoming G.I. Film Festival, makes sure his grandfather’s legacy is captured on film.

Read more

A few months ago, a highly educated elitist professor emailed his university colleagues calling it “shameful” to send care packages to military serving overseas.  He wrote in part “sympathy for American troops in harm’s way is ‘not particularly rational in today’s world.’”  No, the shame lies entirely on this leftist constitutional law professor, who despite his position and title cannot fathom the simple fact that his right to free speech is protected by the very Americans he denigrates.

Today, two stories caught my attention.  Jaci Greggs, wife of an active duty solider, wrote of a talent agency targeting and cold calling military wives and widows, on behalf of CBS, about a reality dating show.

Turns out, not everyone they’ve contacted is a widow. And several of the widows are in relationships, or not seeking one–all facts clearly and openly stated on their blogs. In fact, the person who received that specific email does not run either of the blogs mentioned, and is not a widow. One widow posted in a forum that she replied that she wasn’t interested and asked not to be contacted again. She was then badgered with two subsequent emails. Reports are that neither of these situations is unique.

The overwhelming response from the milspouse blogging community has not been favorable, to put it mildly. We’re at once a diverse group and a uniform one, a worldwide community made up of less than 1% of the American population. And fiercely protective of our own. And when one of our spouses becomes a Gold Star spouse, we all hurt.

So CBS has a talent agency trolling military spouse blogs to exploit their sacrifice and tragedy into a reality show to make a buck.  Whatever fools at CBS thought this was a brilliant idea can’t begin to understand the military family and should be ashamed of themselves.

LA state Representative Ortego, on the floor of the people of Louisiana’s House, recently had the audacity to mockingly question one of his colleagues on attracting military veterans to the state.  The basic premise of the bill author’s intent was that military veterans with two years of active duty service in the United States military would qualify for in-state tuition.

The video is instructive.

Ortego: Why are we trying to attract veterans to Louisiana?
Lorusso: Because I think veterans make good citizens of the state and good members of the community.
Ortego: Okay. Okay. Umm. I’m just wondering also because usually a lot of times veterans come with a lot of issues too and I know the federal government tries to, tries to deal with a lot of those issues. But do you think that we’re gonna be able to deal with them too?
Lorusso (incredulous): I don’t know what you’re referring to by issues Representative Ortego.
Ortego: Homeless rates, and umm,  mental illness rates uh especially when they’re coming back after a war.
Lorusso: Well, if they qualify to enroll in our colleges we hope that’s vetted out through the process.
Ortego (laughing): I would hope so, too.  I’m just, you know, my point is also that we’re at the same time we’re also don’t you think that we need to be investing in our umm hospitals with mental illness?
Lorusso (clearly angry): If you bring a bill we’d be happy to discuss it.
Ortego: For our veterans?
Lorusso: You’re free to file a bill.

I’m not sure that I could have hand-picked a more disrespectful, ungrateful, shameless college kid brainwashed from the aforementioned Professor Avery’s classroom.

Don’t ever, for one second, allow the far left to tell you that they support our heroes.  The American military has been among the few cherished institutions they’ve avoided assaulting directly for the last 30 years.  Since the Vietnam days, they’ve generally stuck to small, crazy lunatic protests and Hollywood films that more often than not lately as Americans have come around to the tactics, are ending in disaster for the studio.  With the election of President Obama and his open support of groups like OWS, the left is growing more bold in their efforts to tear down the country in an effort to remake her in their image.

In my time with Honor Flight, I’ve been very direct with the Vietnam veterans who volunteered with me: “I wasn’t born when you came home, and I’m sorry that I wasn’t there for you.  I’m here with you and these World War II veterans, in part, because what happened to you should never, ever happen again.”

Both men died in the service of their country doing what they loved – flying.  Both men left behind wives and families.  When I come to Washington on the occasion that I do, I make it a point to visit them for a few minutes.

Today, as I stood near Trojan’s grave in Arlington National Cemetery, I found myself between two funerals, conducted nearly simultaneously.  One solider.  One sailor.  Two twenty-one gun salutes.  Two trumpets playing taps.  This is a sobering reminder that our freedom is not free.

(Dallas, WFFA) Maj. Troy Gilbert took off in his F-16 in November 2006 for a mission near Baghdad.

Now that U.S. forces have left Iraq, his family wonders who will look for his body to bring it home to Texas.

The 22nd combat mission for the Texas Tech grad would earn him the Distinguished Flying cross with valor, one of the nation’s highest military awards.

He’s credited with saving about 20 American commandos under fire.

“They say he was very calm,” said the hero’s mom, Kaye Gilbert. “He told this young man on the ground, ‘I will not leave you.’”

According to witnesses, Maj. Gilbert destroyed one gun truck, then turned sharply to attack a second.

“Of course, he was already too low to begin with to do a strafing run,” said his father, Ronnie Gilbert. “He went ahead and did it.”

Kaye finished her husband’s thought: “…because they were calling him from the ground saying, ‘We’re dying down here.’ And when someone says, ‘I’m dying down here,’ you do everything you can.”

The jet’s tail hit the ground. Maj. Gilbert died instantly.

Later, when Ronnie and Kaye Gilbert learned why their son flew so low, it would only add to the cruelty of their ordeal.

It began just hours after the crash.

Insurgents posted a video on the Internet, showing men walking on the wings of the shattered jet. The cockpit canopy lay off to the side.

Three-hundred yards away, the pilot’s broken body lay at the end of his unopened parachute. By the time U.S. forces reached the plane, Maj. Gilbert’s body was gone.

The cockpit contained a tiny bit of tissue — enough for confirmation of death and burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

“We have no reason to believe our son is not dead,” Ronnie Gilbert said. “But we have seen videos of his body intact.”

More pain would follow.

The next year, on Sept. 11, 2007, insurgents released a second video. This time, a produced propaganda piece showed close-ups of Maj. Gilbert’s badly decomposed corpse exhumed from a grave, still in a flight suit. It displayed his military ID, and singled him out as “America’s baby killer.”

It was anguishing proof that his body still existed.

“His whole body is still over there somewhere, buried in a shallow grave,” Ronnie Gilbert said. “All we’re asking for is: Bring him home.”

“For five years! Five years we have been waiting patiently,” Kaye Gilbert cried. “Patiently waiting for the Air Force and everyone over there to do their business. Find our son.”

When the U.S. pulled out of Iraq in December, the family could wait no longer. Maj. Gilbert’s sister in Arlington questioned the Pentagon’s prisoner of war/missing personnel office.

“Well, if our troops are no longer there, who is looking for him?” Rhonda Jimmerson asked. “Who is putting that effort in?”

The answer they got is that no one is looking.

Officials told them there’s no search for Troy Gilbert because he is listed as killed in action, “body accounted for.”

Kaye Gilbert described her reaction. “Shock. Total shock. Anger. I felt just like 100 years of service this family has given to the Air Force. I feel like we have been tossed to the wind.”

The Gilberts spent their lives on Air Force bases — Ronnie as a senior master sergeant; Kaye worked as a secretary.

Rhonda Jimmerson said the family didn’t want to raise the issue during the war.

“I don’t want to say it was swept under the rug, bBut I think it was just forgotten,” Jimmerson said. “Other, more important things, came up at the time. We were fighting a war.”

Now Troy Gilbert’s family fights to have his status changed to “unaccounted for” so the search can be reopened.

And they want his story told.

About how his Christmas presents and a Bible reading for his wife and five children arrived the same day casualty officers knocked on the door.

And about the reason Maj. Troy Gilbert flew his jet fatally close to the ground that day. They say he told radio operators he wanted to avoid hurting innocent civilians who were near the insurgent fighters.

The Gilberts say the Iraqis also owe their son a debt of gratitude.

Kaye Gilbert grimaces as she forces her feelings into words.

“And since my son is partially in the ground in Arlington, one or two inches maybe, but 99 percent is still in the ground over there, please, please help us get him home,” she said.

The Gilberts say they don’t want anyone else to put their life at risk to find their son’s remains. They’ve been told that Americans did search for days after the crash.

But now that the war is over, they believe there is more that could be done to bring Maj. Troy Gilbert back home.

Officials at the Department of Defense have agreed to meet with his family later this month.

Major, you are not forgotten.  Your family is not forgotten.  We remember.

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.