Posts Tagged ‘Marines’

I should have posted this sooner. Better late than never!

Here’s a list of participating businesses:

Applebee’s – free meal, Friday, Nov. 11: Last year, Applebee’s served 1,024,000 million free meals to military veterans and active servicemembers. Applebee’s is again offering a free meal to military veterans and active-duty service members on Veteran’s Day, Friday, Nov. 11, 2011. There will be 7 entrées to choose from. Military ID or proof of service required. Find locations at http://applebees.com/.

Chili’s – free meal, Friday, Nov. 11. Chili’s is offering all military veterans past and present their choice of one of 6 meals. This offer is available during business hours on November 11, 2011 at participating Chili’s in the U.S. only. Dine-in from limited menu only; beverages and gratuity not included. Veterans and active duty military simply show proof of military service. Visit their website to find locations.

Golden Corral – Free meal, Monday Nov. 14: The 10th annual Golden Corral Military Appreciation dinner will be held on Monday, November 14, 2011 from 5 pm to 9 pm in all Golden Corral Restaurants nationwide. The free “thank you” dinner is available to any person who has ever served in the United States Military. If you are a veteran, retired, currently serving, in the National Guard or Reserves, you are invited to participate in Golden Corral’s Military Appreciation Monday dinner. For more information visit http://www.goldencorral.com/military/.

Special thanks to Golden Corral: To date, Golden Corral restaurants have provided over 2.5 million free meals and contributed over $4.3 million to the Disabled American Veterans organization.

Hooters – Free Meal, Friday, Nov. 11. Hooter’s is serving up a free meal to military veterans all day on Veterans Day. Offer good for all veterans and active duty military personnel. Choose one of the new specialty items on the Hooter’s menu. Offer valid at participating Hooters only; open to all active duty and military veterans with valid military ID or proof of military service. Drink purchase required. For more information, visit, www.HootersVeteransDay.com.

Krispy Kreme – Free doughnut. Available only at participating Krispy Kreme stores. Offer available to all active-duty, retirees & veterans on Friday November 11th. Be sure to call ahead to verify your local Krispy Kreme is participating.

McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants – free lunch or dinner, Sunday Nov 13, 2011: McCormick & Schmick’s is celebrating their 13th annual Veteran’s Appreciation Event on Sunday, November 13th. Veterans will be able to choose a complimentary lunch or dinner entrée. Veterans must provide proof of military service. Be sure to contact your local McCormick & Schmick’s as this is valid at participating restaurants only. Also, Space is limited and reservations are highly recommended. For more information visit: M&S Veterans Appreciation Event.

Outback Steakhouse – A week of Free Bloomin’ Onions and Cokes Monday Nov. 7 – Friday Nov. 11. Outback Steakhouse is honoring America’s military veterans by offering active duty military and veterans a free Bloomin’ Onion and a Coca-Cola product during the week leading up to Veteran’s Day. This offer is available to Military Personnel who have one of the following forms of identifications: U.S Uniform Services Identification Card, U.S Uniform Services Retired Identification Card, Current Leave and Earnings Statement (LES), DD form 214 Veterans Organization Card (i.e., American Legion and VFW), Photograph in Uniform, Wearing Uniform. For more information, visit, http://outback.com/companyinfo/veteransday.aspx.

The Outback understands commitment. For the past two years, The Outback, with the help of their patrons, has donated $2 Million to Operation Homefront, a non-profit organization providing everyday and emergency support for active troops, wounded warriors and their families.

Subway – Free Six Inch Sub. Select Subway locations offer a FREE six inch sub to military veterans on Veteran’s Day. However, Subway restaurants are franchises, so this offer may not be available everywhere. Please call ahead.

Texas Roadhouse – free meal, Friday, Nov. 11. Offer varies by location; our local Texas Roadhouse is offering a free meal from opening until 4pm. Other locations may vary in offer, hours, or availability. Call ahead to your local restaurant for more information.

T.G.I. Friday’s – Buy one get one free Nov 11-14. At participating locations for anyone with an old or current military ID. November 11-14.

Uno Chicago Grill, Friday, Nov. 11. Uno’s is offering a free entree or individual pizza with a purchase of an entree or pizza of equal or greater value. Offer good for all military for veterans and active duty military. ID or proof of service required: Show up in uniform (if your service permits), provide military ID, show a picture of yourself in uniform, or have other ID showing proof of service. More info here.

Home Depot and Lowes Coupon Updates

Update: Home Depot and Lowes 10% Military Discount Available Everyday.

Home Depot: The Home Depot(R) is offering all active duty personnel, reservists, retired military, veterans and their families a 10 percent discount off their purchases in honor of Veteran’s Day. The offer is valid on purchases of up to $2,000 for a maximum of $200 and is available at The Home Depot stores, The Home Depot Design Center locations, Yardbirds and EXPO Design Center(R) locations. The 10% discount is available everyday for active duty and retirees, but not all veterans. Home Depot makes this offer available to all veterans on most military holidays. You can also find Home Depot discounts online.

Lowes: Lowe’s Companies, Inc. will offer all active, reserve, honorably discharged, retired military personnel and their immediate family members a 10 percent discount on in-store U.S. purchases made during the Veterans Day holiday. The discount is available Nov. 7 – Nov. 11. The discount is available on in-stock and special order purchases up to $5,000. To qualify, individuals must present a valid military ID or other proof of service. Excluded from the discount are sales via Lowes.com, previous sales, and purchases of services or gift cards. Like Home Depot, Lowes offers this discount daily to active duty military members, but not to veterans. However, they extend the offer to military veterans on military holidays. You can also find exclusive discounts at Lowe’s.com.

Free Park Admissions for Veterans Day

Here’s to the Heroes
Anheuser-Busch Parks. Anheuser-Busch Parks offers Active Duty Service Members free admission for them and up to 3 dependents to any of their parks once a year. Throughout 2011, members of the military and as many as three direct dependents may enter SeaWorld, Busch Gardens or Sesame Place parks with a single-day complimentary admission. The Here’s to the Heroes program is only available to Any active duty, activated or drilling reservist, or National Guardsman. Eligible parks include: Adventure Island, Busch Gardens (Tampa Bay or Williamsburg), SeaWorld (Orlando, San Diego, or San Antonio), Sesame Place, and Water Country USA. Not valid at Discovery Cove and Aquatica. Christmas Town at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Va. is not included as part of this program. For more information and to register, visit: Free admission summary, and ticket application.

Colonial Williamsburg Free Admission. Colonial Williamsburg offers free weekend-long admission tickets to active-duty military, reservists, retirees, veterans, and their immediate dependents from Friday, Nov. 11 through Sunday, Nov. 13th. The complimentary ticket incudes admission to Colonial Williamsburg exhibition sites, art museums, and most daytime programs, as well as free parking and use of the shuttle bus system. Tickets are only available at on-site ticket sales locations. Tickets are also available to families of deployed servicemembers. Tickets available on the following dates: Nov. 11-13.

Historic Jamestowne – Free Admission. The National Park Service commemorates Veterans Day with Fee Free days at Historic Jamestowne November 11-13. Free admission for everyone. See events calendar.

Knotts Berry Farm Military Tribute Days – Free Admission. Knott’s Berry Farm has an annual Military Tribute event in which they offer military members past and present by offering free park admission. This year the Military Tribute Days run from November 1 – 24 November (Thanksgiving Day). Veterans or current serving military personnel plus one guest get in FREE with proper ID presented at Knott’s turnstile (DD214, Veterans Administration Hospital ID or Active Military Service ID). Purchase up to six additional tickets for just $17 each. More info.

Fee Free Day at National Parks. To honor America’s service men and women, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that areas managed by the National Park Service would not charge entrance fees for Veteran’s Day weekend – November 11-13, 2011. Over 100 national Parks will be participating in this event.

San Jacinto Monument and Museum (La Porte, TX). November 7-13: Free admission to the theatre, Observation Floor, and (on November 12-13) the special exhibit to all veterans and their families. More info.

Bed and Breakfast for Vets
In the third year of the program, B&Bs for Vets has organized over 485 (and counting) participating Bed and Breakfasts and Inns across the US and Canada which will be offering veterans a free night’s stay on November 10th, the night before Veterans Day. This offer is available to both active duty military members and veterans with ID, but space is limited. Each Inn and B&B has at least one
room available for this promotion and reservations must be made directly through the participating Inns and B&Bs. For more information visit B&Bs for Vets.

Free Hugo® Canes for Veterans. Sam’s Club® locations nationwide will distribute 36,000 Hugo® canes free of charge on November 9th, 10th, 11th, 2011 to U.S. military veterans in need of mobility assistance. Limited quantities available, while supplies last. Sam’s Club® Membership is not required, but proof of military service may be required. For more information, visit HugoSalutes.com.

Other Veteran’s Day Discounts

Here are some additional Veteran’s Day Discounts. In all cases, be sure to provide proper ID or proof of service. In addition, some of these stores are franchises, so verify participation before assuming the discount is in place.

Free Car wash. Thousands of car washes around the country are offering vets a free car wash on Veterans Day. Find a list at Grace for Veterans, which helped veterans receive 101,537 FREE Washes on Veterans Day in 2010.

Amazon.com – Discount “Veterans Day Honor” MP3 album download. This downloadable album includes 12 songs as performed by the military bands and ensembles of the U.S. Armed Forces. Visit Amazon on Veteran’s Day to download the album.

Netflix – One Month Free Trial.

Sport Clips – FREE haircut to active-duty military & veterans. Offer only available at select locations. Please call to verify local participation.

Tim Hortons – all US locations are offering a free donut to all veterans (check out the Star Spangled donut!).

This really breaks my heart when a friendly fire incident happens. It is a thing of war. I feel sorry for the families of these fine young men.

My thoughts and prayers are with their families. God rest their souls.

Predator drone may have killed US troops

WASHINGTON – The military is investigating what appears to be the first case of American troops killed by a missile fired from a U.S. drone.

The investigation is looking into the deaths of a Marine and a Navy medic killed by a Hellfire missile fired from a Predator after they apparently were mistaken for insurgents in southern Afghanistan last week, two senior U.S. defense officials said Tuesday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Unmanned aircraft have proven to be powerful weapons in Afghanistan and Iraq and their use have expanded to new areas and operations each year of those conflicts. Some drones are used for surveillance and some, such as the drone in this case, are armed and have been used to hunt and kill militants.

Officials said this is the first case they know of in which a drone may have been involved in a friendly fire incident in which U.S. troops were killed, and they are trying to determine how it happened.

Marine Staff Sgt. Jeremy Smith of Arlington, Tex., and Seaman Benjamin D. Rast of Niles, Mich., were hit while moving toward other Marines who were under fire in Helmand province.

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Other sources:

Visitation Friday for sailor killed in friendly-fire

News Wrap: U.S. Probes Deadly Friendly Fire Drone Attack in Afghanistan

Huge procession brings Arlington Marine home after death by friendly fire in Afghanistan

We, as a nation seem to have forgotten that we are at war.

I lost a good friend to this fucking war. I think about him all the time. One of the last things he told me in an email, was right after he was promoted to major, that I was the reason he decided to stay in the Army and make it a career. I was his platoon sergeant, he was the last platoon leader that I would have in the Army. He was my son’s godfather.

Yeah, it’s personal.

Go read this article from the Washington Post. EVERY American should be required to read it.

Lt. Gen. John Kelly, who lost son to war, says U.S. largely unaware of sacrifice

Before he addressed the crowd that had assembled in the St. Louis Hyatt Regency ballroom last November, Lt. Gen. John F. Kelly had one request. “Please don’t mention my son,” he asked the Marine Corps officer introducing him.

Four days earlier, 2nd Lt. Robert M. Kelly , 29, had stepped on a land mine while leading a platoon of Marines in southern Afghanistan. He was killed instantly.

Without once referring to his son’s death, the general delivered a passionate and at times angry speech about the military’s sacrifices and its troops’ growing sense of isolation from society.

“Their struggle is your struggle,” he told the ballroom crowd of former Marines and local business people. “If anyone thinks you can somehow thank them for their service, and not support the cause for which they fight – our country – these people are lying to themselves. . . . More important, they are slighting our warriors and mocking their commitment to this nation.”

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60 years later.

I read the book Battle for Korea: The Associated Press History of the Korean Conflict not that long ago. If you are interested, it is an easy read with a lot of AP photos from the war. I recommend it.

The men and women that fought in that war suffered greatly at the hands of the North Koreans, Chinese and the weather. They endured what most people couldn’t even begin to imagine.

I spent three winters in Korea. I know exactly how cold it gets and have a frame of reference when I read their stories of the bitter cold that sweeps across Korea out of Siberia. I don’t complain about the heat anymore.

Here’s a few posts around the web related to this.

God Bless these men and women. They deserve far greater respect and admiration than they’ve gotten.

60th anniversary of the Korean War

June 25, 1950. [Updated]


In loving memory of Major Douglas A. LaBouff, KIA 7 January, 2007 in Iraq. You will not be forgotten my friend.

And to all the other heroes our country has lost in wars past and present.

I salute you.

Stole the following from Ace:

“It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

God rest their souls…

Wednesday my son and I went to the USMC logistics base Barstow and watched the Drum and Bugle Corps and the Silent Drill Team perform. Excellent showing.

Here are some pics (clickable):

Drum and Bugle Corps

Drum and Bugle Corps

Drum and Bugle Corps

Drum and Bugle Corps

Silent Drill Team

Silent Drill Team

Port Arms

Fix Bayonets

Silent Drill Team

Silent Drill Team

Silient Drill Team

Color Guard

Color Guard

Pass in Review

Pass in Review

Pass in Review

Pass in Review

Pass in Review

Pass in Review

Remove Bayonets

Remove Bayonets

All in all, an excellent show.

My son and I really enjoyed it.

If you should ever get the chance to watch these fine young men and women, I would highly recommend it.

This is an old post. Check out this year’s post!

December 7, 1941. A day that will live in infamy.

Check out Castle Argghhh! for this one:

0755AM, December 7, 1941
By
Anonymous Blogger

Air Raid Pearl Harbor. This is no drill.  Stark words clattering from the teletype machine.It was a bad day, 68 years ago, throughout a large swath of the Pacific Ocean, as the Japanese moved to secure their “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.”And kicked a giant in the nuts.  Casualties USA : 218 KIA, 364 WIA. USN: 2,008 KIA, 710 WIA. USMC: 109 KIA, 69 WIA. Civilians: 68 KIA, 35 WIA. TOTAL: 2,403 KIA, 1,178 WIA. ————————————————- Battleships USS Arizona (BB-39) – total loss when a bomb hit her magazine. USS Oklahoma (BB-37) – Total loss when she capsized and sunk in the…

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USS Arizona:

Pearl Harbor Day (2011)…

Happy Birthday USMC

Posted: 10 Nov 2009 in Military, US Marines
Tags: ,

Congratulations Marines. Enjoy your day.

Out of respect, I won’t make any cracks about you jarheads and the Navy.

Since I can’t post my response there, I’m doing it here.

Read this bullshit over at Blackfive:

My guess is, working around a bunch of Marines in the WH there is an example he’s trying to follow.  I’d love to hear who has worked with him on rendering a proper salute.  His salute IS in a more Marine-style than Army (‘official’ Army salutes tilt the hand forward a tad, and slightly cup the palm) so that’s why I’m guessing it’s a Marine influence.

While I generally agree with Blackfive on many things, this particular bit of drivel is a bit offensive. There is no difference in salutes across the services.  It is called the “military hand salute” not the Marine salute, or Army salute mor0n. They are one and the same. For him to imply otherwise shows his bias towards Marines and the typical PR move that the Marines are famous for. Say it often enough and loudly, or just insert Marine in the quote and it must be true.

Marines often get credit for shit the Army did too, that really pisses me off. I have seen this for over 20 years. Am I sensitive to it? Yep. Damn straight. The Army doesn’t “cup” their hand when saluting. Never have, never will.

Here’s the Army’s version

Hand Salute

The Hand Salute is a one-count movement. The command is Present, ARMS. The Hand

Salute may be executed while marching. When marching, only the soldier in charge of the formation salutes and acknowledges salutes. When double-timing, an individual soldier must come to Quick Time before saluting.

a. When wearing headgear with a visor (with or without glasses), on the command of execution ARMS, raise the right hand sharply, fingers and thumb extended and joined, palm facing down, and place the tip of the right forefinger on the rim of the visor slightly to the right of the right eye. The outer edge of the hand is barely canted downward so that neither the back of the hand nor the palm is clearly visible from the front. The hand and wrist are straight, the elbow inclined slightly forward, and the upper arm horizontal.

Anyone see the words “cup the palm” in there? Didn’t think so.

Here’s the NAVY/Marine version (Emphasis on NAVY).

The hand salute usually refers to a salute rendered by personnel in uniform. Except when walking, you should be at attention when saluting. In any  case,  turn  your  head  and  eyes  toward  the  person you’re saluting (unless it is inappropriate to do so, such as when a division in ranks salutes an inspecting officer on command). Navy personnel salute the anthem, the flag, and officers as follows: · Raise the right hand smartly until the tip of the forefingers   touches   the   lower   part   of   the headgear  or  forehead  above  and  slightly  to  the right of the eye (fig. 9-1). · Extend and join the thumb and fingers. · Turn  the  palm  slightly  inward  until  the  person saluting can just see its surface from the corner of the right eye. · The  upper  arm  is  parallel  to  the  ground;  the elbow is slightly in front of the body. · Incline the forearm at a 45º angle; hand and wrist are in a straight line. · Complete   the   salute   (after   it   is   returned)   by dropping  the  arm  to  its  normal  position  in  one sharp, clean motion.

Nice try Mr. Wolf, but you are full of shit on this one.


I know it probably isn’t the bank’s fault, just an over zealous liberal moron that runs this particular branch, but dude, really? Bank of America doesn’t fly the American flag on its property? You’re joking right? America is the name of the bank for Pete’s sake!

You can’t honor a fallen Marine? Are you that pathetic? The manager really needs a good beat down.

His particular branch has already lost over $500,000 in accounts. I hope they lose a hell of a lot more.

What a moron.

Bank of America Draws Fire for Pulling U.S. Flags From Property

When a South Carolina woman tried to honor her next door neighbor, a Marine who was recently in Afghanistan, by planting flags along the route the casket would follow, a Bank of America branch manager pulled the flags from the bank’s property, citing “corporate policy.”

With a name like Bank of America, it was particularly surprising when a branch manager in South Carolina ordered the removal of a U.S. flag honoring a fallen soldier from the bank’s property.

Brenda Earls of Gaffney, S.C., tried to honor her next-door neighbor, Marine Lance Cpl. Christopher Fowlkes, who was recently killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, by planting flags along the route the casket would follow. But a Bank of America branch manager pulled the flags from the bank’s property, citing “corporate policy.”

Bank of America, which has received $45 billion in federal loans as part of the government rescue of the financial industry, apologized for the incident, calling it a “terrible mistake.”

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