Category Archives: Patriotism

An Oasis in the desert

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  By Bouhammer | February 25, 2013 - 8:00 am | , , ,
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My good friend, Gina Elise, who is the founded of Pinupsforvets.com recently visited the very remote Marine base of Twentynine Palms to lift the spirits of the Marines and other personnel there. Well now she is heading back out into the desert to visit the soldiers of the National Training Center in Ft. Irwin, CA.

She will be going there on March 9th and just like when she visits VA and Military hospitals, she likes to take gifts for the soldiers to lift their spirits and thank them for their service. Ft. Irwin would like her to bring 300 of her star-studded 2013 Calendars with her to give out, but as of right now she is aiming for 100. She is not sure she can get 300 donated by people at this point.

So to reach 100 she is asking for people to visit her store at  http://pinupsforvets.mybigcommerce.com/2013-pin-ups-for-vets-calendar/ and purchase a 1, 2 or however many you can afford to be given to these soldiers as Thank You gift for their service. You can select to have them donated to Active Duty Soldiers and in the note on your order you can specify this is for her Ft. Irwin trip.

They are only $10 a piece and I would not ask this of you if I would not be willing to do it myself. I just purchased 4 for her trip to be given away as I see $40 as a small price to pay to brighten the day of four warriors for a whole year.

I am hoping that everyone who reads these words can spare $10 to buy at least one, if not more. While on the site, be sure and pick one up for yourself too, if you don’t have one yet. If not for you, for a Veteran you know as I am sure there is someone you know who could appreciate it.

Biting the hand that feeds you

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  By Bouhammer | January 13, 2013 - 3:44 pm | , ,
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On Tuesday of this last week I was asked to be a guest again on the BBC’s World Have Your Say radio program. A show that I have been on more times than I can count. Most of the time it is about Afghanistan and last week was no different.

With Karzai coming into the US last Friday to meet with the President with a beggar’s hand and a slapping hand, they decided to call. They asked me if I had an opinion on him coming into town asking for more money at the same time while he is blaming us for all his country’s woes. They knew darn well I had an opinion and I was more than willing to share it.

I used to be a fan of Karzai a very long time ago, but that respect was lost as I watched him get drunk with power. It is one thing for him to shoot off at the mouth to his own people in order to look tough but something else when he starts talking smack to Americans. I don’t know who he thinks he is, but we have a saying in the US that says “never bite the hand that feeds you”.

Hamid Karzai, who will meet Barack Obama, wants Washington to stump up for planes, helicopters, heavy weapons and other advanced military equipment for Afghanistan‘s still-shaky armed forces. He also wants more aid money to be channelled through ministries rather than spent by western aid agencies.

So when you come asking for something you really should also slam the country and government you want free stuff from.

Karzai’s government in turn has accused the west of fuelling corruption and waste in the way it spends money in Afghanistan. The finance minister, Omar Zakhilwal, is pushing for more money to be put straight through the government budget to be spent by ministries like education and health, rather than channelled through foreign aid organisations.

“We believe that the way the US money is spent here, there’s a lot of waste, particularly money spent through contractors and outside sources,” Zakhilwal told the Wall Street Journal before the visit. Much of the aid cash flowed back to the US through “big consultant salaries and overheads”, he added.

So it is obvious that besides being drunk with power he is infected with stupidity. If he thinks that he is going to stand any chance of convincing an American people and Congress of continuing to give more money to his grotesquely corrupt government after giving them money and blood for the last 11 1/2 years, then he should really try to suck up a little bit.

Karzai has never stepped up to the plate to make his country truly take over the security and running the country the way it should have be. 11 1/2 years ago the SF team ODA574 helped escort Karzai into the country and keep him alive. 11 1/2 years and Karzai hasn’t been able to lead his citizens to truly stand up and care for their country. Even with billions in free money and the assistance of a huge coalition of countries, many of which gave their up their own son’s and daughters.

I think it is clear the reality is that Karzai is NOT the leader of Afghanistan or even the “Mayor of Kabul” for that matter. He needs to keep his mouth shut, take himself back to Afghanistan and do the country a favor, resign.

You can read a lot more at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/07/afghan-president-washington-talks-military

Top Talk launches Jan 16th, 2013

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  By Bouhammer | January 4, 2013 - 5:55 pm | , ,
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I am proud to announce the launch of “Top Talk” on Jan 16th from 8:30-10PM ET. Top Talk is hosted and produced by CJ and myself and will be a show focused on military related affairs, the Constitution, and Patriotism. It will be hosted on BTR and will occur every week on Wednesday nights at the same time. The show’s location to listen live and catch archive shows will be at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/toptalkusa.

We will host guests that fall within the purview of the show’s focus plus we will have some new features on the show like we have never done before. There is a Facebook page established for the show at https://www.facebook.com/TopTalkUSA and a twitter account www.twitter.com/top_talk_usa. We don’t foresee any additional online presence except for these two sites. Be sure and follow the show on Twitter and “Like” it on Facebook to keep up on things with the show.

One feature we will have is a segment called “Ask Top!” The point of the segment is similar to a mix of Dear Abbey and Blackfive.com‘s Ask an Infantryman. We are looking for people to pose real-world questions to us dealing with leadership, leadership issues or how to deal with certain situations from a 1SG’s point of view. We are also looking for satirical or not-so-serious questions that someone may want to ask to get a “comical” reply by a 1SG. We will pick different questions every week from those emailed to us, written on the FB page or tweeted to us and will answer them on air. Who knows we may even respond to some on email or twitter if we know we aren’t going to get to them all on air. You can email questions to admin@bouhammer.com if you would like.

We are also planing to sell advertising spots for the show. So if your business or one you know of is interested in buying radio advertising time on a show that already has a huge military-focused fan base before it even launches please don’t hesitate to contact us.

We hope you will join us on our first and many other shows. We really think the new show, format, etc. are going to be a big hit with past fans of radio shows and new ones. Of course anything you can do to help spread the word through your contacts, Facebook, twitter, blogs, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

If you would like a little history of the First Sergeant rank and why it has some of the nicknames it does, check out http://usmilitary.about.com/od/theservices/a/firstsergeant_3.htm

 

Happy Veteran’s Day

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  By Bouhammer | November 11, 2012 - 12:18 am | , , ,
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I wrote this the the other day for a Veteran’s Day tribute on VeteransUnited.com. I would like to share it here too.

There is a difference between wanting to go to war and willing to go to war. Veterans Day is all about recognizing and thanking those who were “willing” to do the tough job that may be asked of our military. This day is for everyone who has served, from the airman who served three years in the 1980s and never saw combat, to the Soldier who served 20+ years and maybe spent a couple of years in combat. Regardless of branch, time spent serving or where they served, every man and woman who raised their hands and swore the oath to defend our country deserves to be thanked.

So please take a moment and thank anyone and everyone you know who ever raised their hand to “defend this country against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

For those veterans who read this blog, be sure and check out the links below in order to find great deals and offerings for you, on your day.

Happy Veteran’s Day…

From Bouhammer.com

I am so sorry, but please read this for now

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  By Bouhammer | October 15, 2012 - 8:11 pm | , ,
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First let me apologize to my faithful readers. I have not blogged in a really long time for me and for that I apologize. I cannot begin to (nor do I have the time or energy to) express the amount of pressure and stress I am under right now with work and the multiple hats I wear in my life. I simply do not have any free time to commit to blogging.

However in the mean time I wanted to share this post from the Rhino-Den. Everyone has heard about the oxygen thieves at Westboro Church and what they do, so this is a great first-person account of the patriotism demonstrated when great Americans come together.

Once we pulled into town, the first thing I noticed was a quiet solitude with those who had already gathered. There were about 500 or so already gathered when we arrived 2 hours early. It was not a festive atmosphere but more of a quiet respect; with people of all walks of life, united by the cause and a desire to pay respects to a fallen soldier quietly talking within their small groups.

Take time to read the entire post at http://rhinoden.rangerup.com/ru-meets-westboro-baptist-church/

Madison Rising needs your help

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  By Bouhammer | September 6, 2012 - 11:43 am | ,
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Dave, Alex, Sam, Steve and Rich from the awesome band Madison Rising (www.madisonrising.com) need your help. These guys are as patriotic as they come in the world of Rock and Roll. This past weekend they came down from New York City to San Antonio to play for all of us at the 2012 Milblogger Family Reunion. They are not only awesome rockers but very down to earth guys who became friends with everyone in attendance. These are guys that care about America, our rights and freedoms and where our country is heading.

Madison Rising with some of the care packages they help build this past weekend for our deployed soldiers

Right now they are working hard to put out a second CD and put together a national tour, neither of which is cheap. To help support this they are running a kickstarter.com campaign to raise enough funds to do both. They have 5 days left and a lot of money to raise. The way kickstarter works is that you pledge money, but if they don’t achieve their goal within the timeline they established (remember only 5 days left), then you don’t get charged anything and they don’t receive anything. It is a “all or nothing” money-raising method. For each level of contribution they offer a token of appreciation with the more you pledge being nicer and nicer things they provide.

Please go to http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1533684542/madison-rising-the-new-album-and-american-tour and check out their kickstarted project and if you can, throw some money to them. Of course the more people you share this with the better as the word needs to get out there.

While you are checking out the kickstarter page, I encourage you to scroll down and watch the 3 videos from their songs. All of them are awesome but I challenge you to watch Walking through that Door and not feel a swelling in the back of your throat or watch their awesome version of the Star Spangled Banner and not feel an immense swelling of pride in this great country.

So please donate some to this awesome band and let others know about them, their music and this kickstarter campaign.

R.E.D Friday & Valour-IT

  By Bouhammer | August 17, 2012 - 2:18 pm | , ,
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Hey, its RED Friday, do you have your RED shirt on today to Remember Everyone Deployed? Also, have you helped out (donated) the Valour-IT Project run by Soldiers’ Angels yet? They need anything you can spare so they can help out as many wounded warriors as possible with voice-enabled Laptops and other rehab technology devices.

To learn more about RED Friday check out: http://www.redshirtfridays.org/

To learn more about Valour-IT check out: http://soldiersangels.org/index.php?page=project-valour-it

Pinupsforvets.com featured on GSFJ last night

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  By Bouhammer | July 10, 2012 - 11:05 am | , ,
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Someone who I am honored to call a good friend was featured last night on A&E’s Gene Simmons Family Jewels. Gina Elise who runs the non-profit organization Pin-Ups for Vets (www.pinupsforvets.com) was given great publicity last night as the show featured Shannon and Gene going to the Long Beach, CA VA Hospital to visit the veterans being treated there. Shannon went along with Gina to “Kiss a Vet” and deliver T-shirts, calendars, etc. Gene also ran into a program ran by the Hospital called “Rock with Vets”.

Gina has been running this non-profit for seven years and putting out calendars for just as long. She has raised well over $50,000 for VA hospitals through the profits she has made from selling T-shirts, calendars, etc. I have personally went with her to visit wounded and sick warriors at Walter Reed Military Hospital and have seen the smiles she has brought to the troops and how she has lit up the room. Continue reading →