Monthly Archives: July 2010

TAH busts Kansas’s War “Hero”

My good friends over at the Blog “This Ain’t Hell But you can see it from here” work very hard at exposing frauds and phonies who try to pass themselves off as decorated war heroes. Well they bagged a good one this time, his name is Dick Stoops and he was very close to being inducted into the Kansas National Guard Hall of Fame. That is until TAH jumped in and informed some people of this guy’s questionable past.

Go read the story and some of the links to earlier posts written about Dick Stoops at thisainthell.us/blog/?p=19840

Preview of Battle for Hearts and Minds

I was just made aware of this upcoming documentary today by the boys over at VAMC and after watching it I can say I like what I see so far.

This is the third in a list of movies that follow the Cinema Verite style of film-making. The first was Scott Kesterson’s AT WAR, and the second was the recently released RESTREPO by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger.

This movie, Battle for Hearts and Minds was filmed by Danfung Dennis while he was embedded with the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade in 2009.

The expected release of this documentary is slated for 2011. Keep an eye out for it and know you heard about it here first, on Bouhammer.com

Battle for Hearts and Minds Trailer from Danfung Dennis on Vimeo.

Never get complacent

This is an interesting story on a topic I have talked about several times. The shooting of Americans by Afghan soldiers and police is rare in the grand scheme of things, but it still happens and happens much more than it should.

The reality is that if they don’t have US ARMY on their chest then they need to be watched and suspect. I really hope our warriors deployed to Afghanistan keep that in the back of their mind while deployed. Never let your guard down, never get complacent.

The second shooting of Western troops by one of their Afghan counterparts this month has highlighted the potential hazards of a push to speedily expand Afghanistan’s army and police forces in the next few years.

On Tuesday, an Afghan army sergeant opened fire at an army base in northern Afghanistan, killing two American civilian trainers before being shot dead. That followed an attack in the south on July 13, when a soldier killed three British troopers, including the company commander, with gunfire and a rocket-propelled grenade in the dead of night.

www.deseretnews.com/article/700049982/Afghan-shootings-cast-doubt-on-2014-goal-for-Western-troops.html

A great statement by a great person

A very good friend of mine on Facebook who is a veteran herself, married to one of my closest friends who was also with me in Afghanistan and she is carrying my future God-child right now put up one of the best Facebook status messages I have ever seen.

I mean I am also guilty of putting up dumb stuff every once in a while, so I can’t criticize people too much for putting up useless and dumb things on Facebook. But this posting really says a LOT in just a few words.

Her Facebook comment was…

I can’t believe the news coverage being given to a spoiled 20-something yr old. Here are a few 20 year-olds worth knowing about: Justin Allen 23, Brett Linley 29, Matthew Weikert 29, Justus Bartett 27, Dave Santos 21, Chase Stanley 21, Jesse Reed 26, Matthew King 23, Christopher Goeke 23, & Sheldon Tate 27. These 20-somethings gave their lives for you this week. Repost if you support the Military. Lindsey who??!!

Thanks Mrs. Prophet, as always you are awesome.

Another great review of RESTREPO

I stumbled across this other review of the movie RESTREPO that was written on the USO’s website. I thought it was fitting to post this one today since today marks the anniversary of the day that PFC Juan “Doc” Restrepo was killed in the Korengal Valley.

blog.uso.org/2010/07/12/the-story-and-the-soldiers-behind-restrepo/

As anyone who reads this blog knows, I hosted a screening of this movie along with SGT Brendan O’Byrne and Director Tim Hetherington a few weeks back at the Albany. Be sure to check the movie’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/restrepothemovie?v=app_4949752878 to find where the movie is playing around the country.

Trying to Predict Petraeus

I just saw this story hit the wire…

Gen. David Petraeus plans to ramp up the U.S. military’s troop-intensive strategy in Afghanistan, according to some senior military officials, who have concluded that setbacks in the war effort this year weren’t the result of the strategy, but of flaws in how it has been implemented.

…and I was pretty amazed that news organizations are trying to predict what GEN Petraeus is or isn’t going to do. How about everyone just calm down and quit trying to force stories that have not even happened yet.

Read the whole story at

www.foxnews.com/world/2010/07/21/petraeus-sharpens-afghan-war-strategy/

Videos from RESTREPO Q&A Session

The videos below were produced and edited by the New York State Museum and posted on their page at youtube.com. They are broken up by questions/topics. If you liked the movie, or are interested in it, or views of Afghanistan by past soldiers and an embedded reporter take some time and watch these.

Restrepo Q&A – The importance of the movie Restrepo.

Restrepo Q&A – Tim’s year in Afghanistan

Restrepo Q&A – Comparing Vietnam and Afghanistan

Restrepo Q&A – Sgt. O’Byrne’s hard return home.

Restrepo Q&A – Coming home from war and battling PTSD

Restrepo Q&A – The desire for making Restrepo

Restrepo Q&A – Gaining access to the 173rd Airborne Brigade

Restrepo Q&A – The metrics for success in Afghanistan

Restrepo Q&A – How do we win in Afghanistan?