GOOD NEWS!!

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A general dropped all charges Thursday against a Marine who had been accused of killing three Iraqi brothers in response to a roadside bomb attack in Haditha in 2005.

“The evidence does not support a referral to a court-martial,” Lt. Gen. James Mattis wrote in his written decision.

Lance Cpl. Justin L. Sharratt, 22, had been charged with the murder in the deaths of three of those killed after the bomb attack Nov. 19, 2005.

The decision to drop the charges followed an earlier recommendation from a hearing officer who listened to evidence in the case. Under military law, a commanding general has total jurisdiction over a case.

In his recommendation, Lt. Col. Paul Ware said murder charges brought against Sharratt were based on unreliable witness accounts, poor forensic evidence and questionable legal theories.

“The government version is unsupported by independent evidence,” Ware wrote in an 18-page report. “To believe the government version of facts is to disregard clear and convincing evidence to the contrary.”

Now let’s clear the other Marines of this bulloney and let them move on with their lives.

Reason 19,857 why I love the Marines:

Bad ass indeed.

From the 1st Marine Division:

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — The Marine Corps activated a battalion Wednesday assigned to assist wounded and ill Marines and sailors and their families on the West Coast.

The Wounded Warriors Battalion-West will be part of the Wounded Warrior Regiment, which is headquartered in Quantico, Va., and was established to help service members transition from care by the Defense Department to the Veterans Administration.

Members of the battalion will remain in contact with wounded veterans to make sure they’re getting the care they need.

A ceremony marking the activation featured the 1st Marine Division band and comments from Sgt. Maj. Bradley Kasal, who was shot seven times and suffered 40 shrapnel wounds while trying to save a wounded Marine in a house in Fallujah, Iraq. Kasal received the Navy Cross, the Marine Corps’ second-highest award for valor.

“You can break your body, but you can never break your spirit,” Kasal told the assembled Marines.

Sgt. Kasal knows all about being wounded, and his story is one of heroism at it’s best. A bad ass he is, too.

Read this, and be in awe of these men who have overcome tremendous wounds and long healing processes, who have made a choice.

Here are some quotes from the Marines in this article:

“They remind me why it’s good to be an American - and it’s better to be a Marine.”

“You used to put on your shoe, now you put on your leg,” he said. “It saves you money. You only gotta wear one sock. And you don’t have to cut your toenails anymore.”

“Five Marines were saved,” he said. “This is why God put me in the Marine Corps.”

“Any time you hear Marine, especially with U.S. in front of it, people don’t want to fight with you.”

Rather than sit around and mope and feel sorry for themselves, they chose to move forward and be active AND help their fellow Marines. These guys are an inspiration for ALL. The Semper Fi team will be participating in the Nation’s Triathlon in September. It’s amazing: these guys have lost limbs and have under taken the task of brutal training schedules, other marathons and events, ON their own time, with no assistance from the US Government.

Please donate some cash to the Semper Fi Fund.

All the money they raise in these endeavors is given right back to other injured Marines. Only a few and only some proud could do this. The spirit of the Marine Corps lives on through these men.

Reason 19,856 why I love the Marines. (Hint: Dress blues make me horny) (and so do cammies)

GM’s FED up with the current crop of candidates…on both sides. So he is running for President.

H/T to Linda

Pixy Misa is setting up a new shop over at mee.nu (I guess an apparent offshoot of mu.nu). Anyways PM was offering some FREE accounts for those who would like to beta test his software. Well, I am taking that challenge and also taking advantage of the free account, something that drove me from my old site… So, without any further ado.. I am unveiling my new blog:

Sure. it is kinda skin and bones right now, but darn it, I am going to continue to throw some spit and polish until it starts looking good! So please, feel free to stop by from time to time.

And I would be a real jerk if I didn’t thank Raven for letting me stay over here at ARS, complete with my dirty socks, soiled briefs, stinky shoes, used beer cans and empty pizza boxes everywhere as I got back onto my feet. Hopefully I can still stop in and cross-post from time to time if she’ll be gracious. Either way…..

Cotillion sister and blogging friend Chrissie passed this BLOGGING AWARD to me yesterday. I was very surprised and it really made my day. I haven’t been able to place a lot of effort into blogging lately, due to school and work and life. When one gets something like this, it reminds us why we do this- blogging. To cause others to think.

This is actually a meme of sorts. The idea is to THINK of 5 other bloggers who have made YOU THINK. There are so many excellent bloggers out there and a few of them I call friends. In that, I am PROUDLY passing this onto to these fine people who DO make me THINK and who do deserve this award much more than I do:

Read the rest of this entry »

Looks like it is time to lock the doors and close the shades… a new contributor to ARS is now in town. Don’t ask me how I talked Raven into letting an USAF weenie in here. Maybe I just told her I was a Marine that is smarter and better looking than normal.

(Bracing for impact of Raven’s hand to back of my head….. shew.. nothing…. )

Well, as long as I am here, I’ll try to behave myself and still somehow, hopefully, be able to write something intelligent and insightful. Maybe even throw some of this testosterone around…

“That’s right, I make this look good!”

Don’t know how I missed THIS one. But I did.

Semper Fi US Marines.

Ilario Pantano is about to embark on his new career.

Ilario Pantano’s third tour of duty will be in the service of the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office.

Pantano and 15 other proud graduates of the Cape Fear Community College’s basic law enforcement training course stood front and center Thursday night during a ceremony in McKeithan Hall on the CFCC North campus.

Each graduate demonstrated commitment to a law enforcement career by successfully completing the rigorous course. But Pantano’s path to becoming a deputy assigned to corrections duty at the New Hanover County jail is notable for its highly publicized twists and turns.

The former U.S. Marine Corps officer was exonerated of wrongdoing in 2005 for his role in the April 2004 shooting deaths of two Iraqi civilians. Following the resignation of his commission as an officer, Pantano co-authored a book titled “Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy.”

Pantano’s service in Iraq came during his second term of enlistment. The New York City native also served in the first Persian Gulf War and subsequently became a successful Wall Street trader and later a television producer. He re-enlisted at age 31 after witnessing the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center.

Pantano was and still is a hero, in my eyes. I’m so happy to see him moving on to new and exciting life. He deserves it.

Pantano and his family now call Wilmington home. Articulate and well-spoken, Pantano recently said he had potentially lucrative job opportunities with cable TV networks and private sector firms, but chose to serve New Hanover County residents.

That put him among the group of rookie officers Thursday night at CFCC. The 35-year-old may be the star pupil in terms of outside attention, but Pantano took pains to deflect recognition to his classmates.

“This is where I want to be and these are the people I want to be around,” he said.

Pantano said eight members of the basic law enforcement training graduating class are veterans, including several who were in Iraq.

Pantano’s last tour of duty may have been marked by controversy, but the loyalty of those he served with is not in question. In addition to his family, attendees at the graduation ceremony included a Marine who served in Pantano’s platoon in Iraq, along with the platoon leader of a special operations unit Pantano served with as a young Marine.

The widow and son of a Marine who served in Iraq with Pantano also were present.

I’m also happy to read that Pantano is still in contact with his fellow Marines he served with. He has every right to be proud.

Good luck and Semper Fi

For those who are recovering from battlefield wounds, it can be a very boring and depressing time. Many who reside in the Wounded Warriors Barracks at Camp Lejeune are in a stage of recovery where they are able to get out and DO things; they’re just not ready to be on their own yet. Activities are what keep these young men going. Here is just one such activity they do:

NEWPORT - At first glance, they could have been mistaken for a troop of Boy Scouts as they piled out of a big passenger van.

Except that most Scouts don’t walk with canes, limp or smoke cigars or dip snuff.

They were Marines from Camp Lejeune, each wounded in Iraq and rehabbing back home. They also were the guests of the Cape Lookout Flyfishers, who hosted the Wounded Warriors on Saturday at Lilly’s Fish Ponds near Newport, a four-pond operation that grows hybrid striped bass commercially and allows catch-and-release fishing for a daily fee.

The outing was the anglers’ way of saying “thank you” to these young men, and it didn’t fall on deaf ears.

The Marines, 15 men in all, came from the Wounded Warriors barracks at Camp Lejeune, where wounded Marines live and work while they convalesce.

“This is great. It makes you feel good to have people with open arms to help,” Sgt. Robert Holzinger, 24, of Huntington, Ind., said. “It makes you proud to be an American. It’s great to be around real American people.”

Activity is important to everyone. Keeping busy with meaningful things makes us all feel valuable and needed and wanted. Rehab specialists realize this and use every trip and outing as an opportunity to assist the wounded with adapting their skills to one day live in their communities.

Reynolds has no feeling in his left hand, which made operating a spinning reel difficult. Instead of turning the reel upside down so he could use his right hand, he glanced down frequently to make sure his left hand was doing what he wanted it to do. He offered no excuses.

“I can do more with one hand than most people can do with two,” he said. “I credit the Wounded Warriors barracks for that.

Occupational therapists help these guys with these tasks…whether it’s an adapted reel or an adapted thought process, constant assessment and evaluation keeps these events fun and worthwhile, and therapeutic at the same time.

The barracks has helped about 110 Marines return to active duty or civilian life.

“The purpose is to get the Marines out of Mom’s house and get them back into an environment they know,” said Chief Warrant Officer 4 Chris Hedgcorth, who is one of the managers of the facility. “After a couple of weeks, you don’t want to be home on convalescent leave. Nobody here is getting false sympathy. We call ‘em BUGs — blown-up guys. We’re a barracks full of ‘em. I can joke about it because I’m one of them.”

Yep. The barracks are full of life and crudeness and rudeness that only a Marine understands. It’s great that these Marines have this place- otherwise they would probably be at a Vet Center…which is a nursing home for all intense purposes.

The Wounded Warrior Barracks is an in-between place- the Marines are not acutely ill so they don’t need hospitalization or other medical attention; but they are able to do much for themselves with a little assistance. They really don’t qualify for a nursing home…so this place is really good. In the near future a similar barracks will be opening at Camp Pendleton; and rumor has it maybe another one at Lejeune. I think the other services might follow suit here as well.

People always recover best when they’re needs are being met: Physical, emotional, spiritual. The very important other need is to get out into the community and be a part of society. Without this, recovery can and usually does take MUCH longer.

Ilario Pantano stood up to the USMC brass and fought back the awful and untrue allegations presented against him. Pantano is an honorable man and I wish him nothing but the best in his new venture in life:

He served his country during a controversial military career, and Ilario Pantano will soon wear the uniform of a New Hanover County sheriff’s deputy.

Pantano, who as a U.S. Marine Corps officer was exonerated of wrongdoing in 2005 in connection with the April 2004 shooting death of two Iraqi civilians, was hired on Nov. 21, 2006, by Sheriff Sid Causey, according to county Human Resources Department records. Pantano should finish basic law enforcement training in three weeks and be assigned to work at the county jail, Causey said.

“I find him a very intelligent young man with a ’service heart,’ as I call it,” Causey said this week. “Most of us are not in it for the money. Some of us like that kind of work and I think he does and I think he will do very well.”

Pantano, 35, has been in the national spotlight in the past year following the publication of his book, Warlord: No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy. The Wilmington man has made the rounds of cable television talk shows and other public appearances to promote the book.

The New York City native said its publication and the subsequent contacts he made created employment opportunities in the private sector, including offers from cable networks. Instead, the former Wall Street trader took the job as a deputy sheriff, at a starting salary of $33,446 per year.

I’m not sure he would appreciate a Semper Fi at this point. Instead, we’ll just wish him the best of all worlds. Pantano is a hero to me. He should be to everyone. Not for standing up to the brass so much (although this is an admiral thing in itself); but for standing up for the right thing and never ever giving that up.

Now that’s one tatoo I WANT TO SEE, TOUCH, FEEL…EXPERIENCE.

Damn.