Wednesday Hero 02/11/2009

This Weeks Post Was Suggested And Written By Brat

Sgt. Patrick Tainsh
33 years old from Oceanside, California
Troop E, 2nd Squadron, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment
February 11, 2004


Five years ago today, Sgt. Patrick Tainsh sacrificed all as the mounted unit he
was part of was hit by an IED in Baghdad. He was posthumously awarded the Bronze and Sliver Stars saving the lives of his commanding officer and other soldiers before succumbing to his own wounds. Also killed in the attack was Pfc. William C. Ramirez from Portland, Oregon.

On Veteran’s Day, 2007, Deborah Tainsh, Sgt. Tainsh's mother, attended a school in Columbia, Georgia, and shared a story she had written called "A Boy Named Patrick."

Here is part of the story :

…a little boy named Patrick who loved football, beaches, surfing, and
skateboarding, and especially reading. Patrick watched his dad be a Marine for
over twenty years. During this time Patrick kept reading not only surfing and
skateboarding magazines, but history books, too. One day when Patrick was a man, he told his dad and best friend, “I want to do something that will make a
difference in the world, I’m going to be a soldier.” And so he did. And in 1999
he went to Fort Knox, Kentucky for boot camp and then went to Fort Polk,
Louisiana where he worked and trained hard to become a United States Army
Cavalry Scout. Then in 2003 Patrick had to say good bye to his mom and dad
because he had to go fight a war in Iraq to protect his country, friends, and
family from terrorists and to help fight for the freedoms of the boys and girls
in that country where they and their families were treated very badly by their
country’s leader. Patrick once wrote a letter to his mom and dad telling them
that he cried for the children because they were hungry and he didn’t have food
to give them. He said he couldn’t understand how a country’s leader could treat
the people so badly and make them live in such dirty conditions with trash and
wild dogs everywhere. And so Patrick's mom and dad keep a photo in their living
room of Patrick surrounded by Iraqi children.

You can read the story in it's entirety here.

Sgt Tainsh came to the military later than some, but rose through the ranks fast. In his last letter to his parents, Sgt Tainsh shared his thoughts about his mission. And in 2006, Sgt. Tainsh's mother wrote a book called Heart Of A Hawk about her son's life and her and her husband's struggles since their son was killed.


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.

A Little Perspective

Gulp!
(Please pause PlayList on right sidebar)

His Star Has Turned From Blue to Gold

Fallen pilot 'just wanted to fly'

OSBORN, Mo. — A U.S. Army helicopter pilot from Osborn, Mo., died Monday while serving with the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, in Iraq. Chief Warrant Officer Matthew G. Kelley, 30, flew Kiowa helicopters, the Army’s armed reconnaissance aircraft.

“He was born on a Monday and died on a Monday,” said Catherine Kelley, his mother.

Family members said Tuesday that Mr. Kelley was killed in action.

“He really just wanted to fly,” said his father, Col. Stephen Kelley, who is retired from the Army. He made the decision to fly Kiowa helicopters because he’d get more flying time, Mr. Kelley said. Matthew had wanted to fly since he was 9, his father said.

His all-time favorite movie was “Top Gun,” said Chris Kelley, Matthew’s older brother, an Army Reserve veteran who returned in June from Iraq and is a firefighter with the St. Joseph Fire Department.

Matthew Kelley enlisted in 2003, joining the 82nd Airborne Division as a paratrooper. He already had completed a tour in Iraq, earning an Army Commendation Medal. Mr. Kelley also got a chance to earn Australian Jump Wings while assigned to the 82nd.

He earned the Combat Infantry Badge and always wore it above his pilot wings. When other helicopter pilots would razz him about the badge, he’d just tell them they were jealous, his brother said with a laugh.

A “military brat” born in Germany, Matthew moved with the family from base to base until his father retired. They settled on a farm southeast of Osborn when Matthew was 11.

Mrs. Kelley, the soldier’s mother, is a teacher, and home-schooled her two sons.

He loved history, and both boys learned to memorize a lot of Scripture, Mrs. Kelley said. He read books about World War II with a voracious appetite, especially if they were about planes, his father said.

He married DaLana Wallace, from Cameron, Mo., in 2001, and they have two children. She was the only girl he ever dated, his brother said.

And their first kiss was when they got married, because he stood for what he believed in, Mrs. Kelley said.

The soldier’s wife and children, Megan, 6, and Tyler, 4, live in New York near Fort Drum, where his brigade was stationed.

Chris Kelley said his brother was a hero, but “he’d lost a best friend.”

The U.S. Defense Department hasn’t confirmed the death. American military officials did say four U.S. soldiers were killed Monday when two helicopters crashed in northern Iraq. Funeral arrangements are pending.

by Marshall White
Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Saturday Ode

Ode: The Soldier

I climbed the barren mountain,
And my gaze swept far and wide
For the red-lit eaves of my father's home,
And I fancied that he sighed:
My son has gone for a soldier,
For a soldier night and day;
But my son is wise, and may yet return,
When the drums have died away.

I climbed the grass-clad mountain,
And my gaze swept far and wide
For the rosy lights of a little room,
Where I thought my mother sighed:
My boy has gone for a soldier,
He sleeps not day and night;
But my boy is wise, and may yet return,
Though the dead lie far from sight.

I climbed the topmost summit,
And my gaze swept far and wide
For the garden roof where my brother stood,
And I fancied that he sighed:
My brother serves as a soldier
With his comrades night and day;
But my brother is wise, and may yet return,
Though the dead lie far away.

By: CONFUCIUS

Newborn Gifts

A nurse helps a US soldier with sterile covers for his boots, during a visit to a maternity hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009. US and Iraqi forces distributed gifts for the newborn babies in the government-owned hospital which reopened on Jan. 18 following refurbishment.
AP Photo by LOAY HAMEED

Humvee

Drew Brown/S&S
Staff Sgt. Antwane Mobley, 29, of Lancaster, S.C., walks ahead of a Humvee on a narrow mountain road near the Gowerdesh Brigde in Afghanistan’s Nuristan province in April 2008. A recent report by the Pentagon’s inspector general stated that the Army and Marine Corps have known its Humvees, like the one pictured, were "deathtraps," particularly when hit by roadside bombs or land mines, since the early 1990s.

Early ’90s report says Humvee was a ‘deathtrap’
Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, February 5, 2009

Army and Marine Corps officials knew nearly a decade before the invasion of Iraq that its workhorse Humvee vehicle was a "deathtrap" even with armor added to protect it against roadside bombs, USA Today reported Wednesday.

The Pentagon’s inspector general wrote that reports distributed throughout the Army and Marine Corps after the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the Somalia conflict in 1994 urged the development of armored vehicles to avoid the devastating effects of roadside bombs and land mines, but the Pentagon failed to act, according to USA Today.

The conclusions of the 1991 and 1994 reports were not included in the one-page summary of the inspector general’s findings released in December, the paper wrote, noting that the inspector general’s full report was later posted on a Web site by the Center for Public Integrity, a government watchdog group.

Troops added makeshift armor to their Humvees and the Pentagon rushed kits to retrofit the vehicles with better protections after the threat from roadside bombs escalated in 2003 and 2004, according to the report. Even so, retrofitted Humvees remained vulnerable to improvised explosive devices, because of the vehicle’s "flat bottom, low weight, low ground clearance and aluminum body," the inspector general found.

The report distributed throughout the Army and Marine Corps in 1994 found that a Humvee "even with a mine-protection retrofit kit developed for Somalia remained a deathtrap in the event of an anti-tank mine detonation," USA Today reported.

Cause I Love You, Angel

Lovely ... Never, ever change.
Keep that breathless charm.
Won't you please arrange it ?
'Cause I love you ... Just the way you look tonight.