White House: No pensions for World War II vets

From WorldNetDaily

Amazing sacrifice of unpaid Alaskan heroes not counted as federal military service Posted: October 01, 2009 ~ 1:25 am Eastern By Chelsea Schilling © 2009 WorldNetDaily The Obama administration has advised Congress to cut off pensions for 26 elderly members of the World War II-era Alaska Territorial Guard who served the nation without pay during the Japanese attack. According to McClatchy Newspapers, the administration sent a "strongly worded" message to Congress concerning its priorities for a military spending bill, and the service members didn't make the cut. The Army changed its minimum retirement policy in January to no longer include service in the Guard toward the 20-year service requirement. A Senate military spending bill up for a vote in the Senate lets the 26 former Guard members count their service as active military duty so they may receive retirement pay. McClatchy reported that Alaska state lawmakers passed a bill to compensate the veterans until Congress came up with a permanent solution. But the White House said Sept. 25 that's it's not "appropriate to establish a precedent of treating service performed by a state employee as active duty for purposes of the computation of retired pay." However, Alaska did not become a state until Jan. 3, 1959, and was an organized territory at that time. Sen. Lisa Murkowski called the Obama administration's statements "deeply disappointing, bordering on insensitive." "The administration's justification, which is that the legislation will set the precedent of treating service as a state employee as federal service, defies logic and history," she said in a statement. "Sixty-two years after the Territorial Guard was disbanded, the Obama administration minimizes the contribution of this gallant unit to America's success in World War II by calling its service 'state service.'" [CLICK HERE TO READ MORE]

America: Past, Present and Future...Part II ~ By Glenn Beck

By Glenn Beck July 28, 2009 - 13:30 ET Dear family and friends, Yesterday I shared my thoughts on the challenges and threats facing America as I see them. What I’m going to share today are some examples from history of countries, including our own, which faced similar challenges (to greater or lesser degrees) and how those countries faired while confronting those challenges. I wanted to look at history because too many people call into the radio show or send an email after watching the television show and tell me “not too worry” about America because we’ve faced worse hardships before and have not only overcome them but have emerged stronger. I understand the American spirit. I understand that we are the country that took on the Nazis, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan and won. I understand that we stood toe-to-toe with the Soviet Union over 40 years and defeated them in the Cold War. I know that we are a country of fighters and that Americans are capable of conquering any challenge—but the belief that great things happen to America just because we’re America—that’s just plain wrong. Thrift, hard-work, sacrifice by our parents, grandparents and their mothers and fathers went hand-in-hand with the thrift, hard-work and sacrifice we collectively made as a country—that’s what produced unparalleled strength and success. Today, we face difficult times. We stand at cross-roads as a country. Where we eventually end up will be determined by the decisions each of us makes today and in the weeks and months ahead. Great countries don’t collapse, they transform. [Emphasis mine] The Soviet Union in 1991 didn’t disappear after its political and economic model collapsed, it transformed and is still transforming. Weimar Germany’s government collapsed as did its economy but Germany continued—at first down the national socialist path—and now as a democracy. [CONTINUE READING]

RELATED STORY: Where America stands today ~ By Glenn Beck

Forever young ~ By Don, husband of Patrice Lewis

It was a special request from her husband, and Patrice obliged by posting Don's story about his uncle, who he had never met. Don's uncle was a gunner on a B-24 bomber in WW II, and didn't make it back from a very important mission. Donald Philip Sowers died fighting the greatest evil of our time. A young man of 19 who will never grow old. read more | digg story

This Is the Army - 1943

This is the end scene as the Army goes back to battlefields.

This comes from Irving Berlin's "This time":

[Verse:] 'Twas not so long ago we sailed to meet the foe And thought our fighting days were done We thought 'twas over then but now we're in again To win the war that wasn't won [Refrain:] This time, we will all make certain That this time is the last time This time, we will not say "Curtain" Till we ring it down in their own home town For this time, we are out to finish The job we started then Clean it up for all time this time So we won't have to do it again Dressed up to win We're dressed up to win Dressed up for victory We are just beginning And we won't stop winning Till the world is free [Coda:] We'll fight to the finish this time And we'll never have to do it again

The words above need to be remembered. We must NOT forget, THIS TIME! digg story