Wednesday Hero was started to put a face to the men and women of the American Armed Forces and what they do for us. Vary rarely has there been a member of a foreign military profiled. In fact, in the two years Wednesday Hero’s been going on it’s only been done once before. Here’s the second.
Lance Corporal Matt Croucher
24 years old from Birmingham, England
40 Commando Royal Marines
L/Cpl Matt Croucher is not only one of the bravest men alive, he’s also one of the luckiest men alive. On the morning of February 9, 2008 L/Cpl. and his unit were searching a compound near Sangin in Afghanistan that was suspected of being used to make bombs to be used in attacks on British and Afghan troops. Walking in the darkness among a group of four men, Croucher stepped into a tripwire that pulled the pin from a boobytrap grenade. His patrol commander, Corporal Adam Lesley, remembered Croucher shouting “Grenade!”
As others dived for cover, Croucher did something nobody expected. He lay down on the grenade to smother the blast. Lesley got on the ground, another man got behind a wall, but the last member of the patrol was still standing in the open when the grenade went off.
“My reaction was, ‘My God this can’t be real’,” said Lesley. “Croucher had simply lain back and used his day sack to blunt the force of the explosion. You would expect nine out of 10 people to die in that situation.” L/Cpl. Croucher was that 1/10. Not only did he survive, amazingly he only suffered shock from the blast and a bloody nose. He was saved by the special plating inside his Osprey body armor. The backpack he was wearing was thrown more than 30ft by the blast.
“I felt one of the lads giving me a top to toe check. My head was ringing. Blood was streaming from my nose. It took 30 seconds before I realized I was definitely not dead,” said L/Cpl. Croucher.
For his actions that day, L/Cpl. Croucher was in line for the Victoria Cross, the highest award for a British Serviceman, but it has yet to be awarded.
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.
Greta van Susteren asks what many of us are thinking about the Barack Obama vs. Rev. Jeremiah Wright controversy.
Senator Obama spoke out moments ago in very strong words about Reverend Wright…saying that Reverend Wright is not the man he thought he was … so some people will ask: what took you so long to figure it out? 20 years and only yesterday? are you that oblivious or is this statement political and calculating? and others will applaud him…saying what courage to address the issue…that he is standing up for what he believes even if it means denouncing someone you had admired..and that he is showing candor …
Dr. Aribert Heim tops The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s list of Most Wanted Nazis.
Aribert Heim (Photo)
The Simon Wiesenthal Center is putting out their list of the top ten most wanted Nazis tomorrow, but the Associated Press got their hands on the list today. Dr. Aribert Heim is at the top of the list.
Dr. Aribert Heim, whereabouts unknown: Indicted in Germany on charges he murdered hundreds of inmates at Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was camp doctor. Disappeared in 1962, before planned prosecution.
If Dr. Aribert Heim is still alive he will be 93-years-old. According to the Simon Wisenthal Center there is good reason to believe he is still alive and living in a villa in Spain. He disappeared from his home in Baden-Baden, Germany when he was about to be arrested in 1962 for crimes he committed during World War II when he was the head doctor at Austria’s Mauthausen concentration camp.
Prior to the war, Heim was a hockey pro. During the war he was one of the most fear Nazis and was comparied to Josepf Mengele who was the SS doctor at Auschwitz concentratin camp because of the gruesome nature of the medical experiments he would perform. Heim was known for injecting prisoners with lethal drugs and operating on them without anesthetics. he would use a stopwatch to time how long it took for them to die.
Aribert Heim was also known to remove the tattooed flesh of prisoners and use it for home decor. He once removed the tattooed flesh of a prisoner in order to make seat coverings for the home of the commandant of the camp.
When he was got word that he was to be arrested he disappeared and has not been seen since 1962. His family insists that he died many years ago, however, the Simon Wiesenthal Center insist that there is compelling evidence that he is still alive. They have evidence that he went from Baden-Baden to Southern Spain. There is some evidence that he may have left there to go to Chile via Denmark.
There is no way of knowing what he looks like today. Many Nazis are known to have undergone surgeries to alter their appearance following the war. He is known to have a distinctive scar near his mouth following a duel.
1. Dr. Aribert Heim, whereabouts unknown: Indicted in Germany on charges he murdered hundreds of inmates at Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was camp doctor. Disappeared in 1962, before planned prosecution.
2. John Demjanjuk, in United States: Ukrainian immigrant alleged by U.S. authorities to have been guard at Nazi camps. He denies that. Extradited to Israel in 1986, where he was sentenced to death for allegedly being Treblinka camp guard “Ivan the Terrible.” Verdict overturned in 1993 and Demjanjuk returned to America. U.S. citizenship restored in 1998, then removed in 2002. Seeking to appeal court’s January rejection of challenge to immigration judge’s order that would send him to Germany, Poland or Ukraine.
3. Sandor Kepiro, in Hungary: Former Hungarian gendarmerie officer accused of involvement in wartime killings of more than 1,000 civilians in Serbia. Convicted twice in Hungarian courts, in 1944 and 1946, but never punished. Kepiro, who moved back to Hungary in 1996 after decades in Argentina, denies accusations. Hungary reinvestigating.
4. Milivoj Asner, in Austria: Police chief in Croatia’s wartime Nazi puppet regime, he is suspected of active role in persecution and deportation to death of hundreds of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies. In 2005, Croatia requested his extradition from Austria, which refused, saying he is unfit to stand trial or be questioned.
5. Soeren Kam, in Germany: Former member of SS wanted by Denmark in assassination of journalist in 1943. Extradition from Germany was blocked in 2007 by Bavarian court that found insufficient evidence for murder charges.
6. Heinrich Boere, in Germany: Admitted hit man for Waffen-SS accused of killing three Dutch civilians. Sentenced to death in absentia in 1949 in Netherlands, later commuted to life in prison. German courts refused to extradite him, then declared conviction invalid. Prosecutors in Dortmund, Germany, brought new murder charges against him this month.
7. Charles Zentai, in Australia: Former Hungarian soldier has been under investigation by Hungary’s Foreign Ministry since December 2004 on suspicion of killing Peter Balazs in Budapest in 1944 for failing to wear a yellow star identifying him as Jew. Zentai denies charge and fighting extradition.
8. Mikhail Gorshkow, in Estonia: U.S. officials and Jewish groups accuse Gorshkow of helping kill Jews while serving as interpreter and interrogator for German Gestapo in Belarus. He returned to native Estonia in 2002 just before federal court stripped him of U.S. citizenship for lying about his war record. Prosecutors in Estonia investigating case.
9. Algimantas Dailide, in Germany: Convicted in 2006 in Lithuania of helping round up Jews for Nazis as officer in Vilnius security police. Sentenced to five years in jail, but judge ruled he was too frail to serve sentence. He had been deported from U.S. to Germany in 2003 for lying on immigration application. Lives in Germany, but went voluntarily to Lithuania for trial.
10. Harry Mannil, in Venezuela: Former officer in Estonia’s political police and German security forces during Nazi occupation of Estonia. U.S. authorities investigating Mannil’s 1990s visa application concluded he took part in murder of hundreds of Jews, barring him entry. Was cleared in 2005 by Estonian investigation into allegations of crimes against humanity.
High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) is an innovative, non-invasive prostate cancer treatment. This treatment uses ultrasound waves to target specific cancerous cells without affecting the surrounding tissue. You can read more about The Sonablate 500 treatment of prostate cancer at Internationalhifu.com. The website provides a wealth of information about prostate cancer and the treatments available. It also provides a directory of doctors who perform the treatment with profiles of those doctors.
The Sonablate 500 is not approved for use in the United States. It is currently being studied and evaluated through clinical trials as required to get FDA approval. The FDA FDA has made no decision as to the safety or efficacy of the Sonablate 500 for the treatment of prostate cancer. Currently, the device is approved for the treatment of prostate cancer in Canada and the Dominican Republic, authorized in Argentina, and available in the Bahamas and Mexico.
Bagpipes are a sound that many of us associate with our ancestry. Its part of the Scottish heritage, but Brussels is telling Scotland to quieten down the pipes!
Bagpipes: Scotland the Brave (Video)
Oh, for the love of Socialism!!!! The European Union has decided to put a ban on noise. As with most Socialist organizations, they know what’s best for everybody and make it their business to dictate behavior and common sense. I think they’d control people’s thoughts if they could.
I read at Boston Maggie they have put a ban on noise and have sent word that the bagpipes of Scotland are going to have to tone it down.
THEIR high-pitched skirl has put fear into the hearts of Scotland’s enemies and sent sensitive tourists reaching for the cotton wool.
Now, however, the bagpipes are to be quietened by an edict from Brussels.
From this month, pipers must adhere to strict volume limits or risk breaking European Union health and safety laws. Bands have been ordered to tone down or wear earplugs to limit noise exposure to 85 decibels.
Typically, a pipe band played at full volume peaks at 122 decibels outdoors, noisier than the sound of either a nightclub or a chainsaw, which rises to 116 decibels. [source]
When the English conquered Scotland they tried to eradicate any elements of Scottish culture. They outlawed kilts, bagpipes and Gaelic. The English hunted the Scots down throughout the highlands to enforce the laws in a real effort to completely wipe out their national identity so they’d quit giving the English so many dadgume problems!
The Scots managed to hang onto they’re culture even under those dire circumstances. They even overcame the discrimination to the point that they became the most elite military force for England …. wearing kilts!
As the bagpipe players say, you can’t play bagpipes quietly. I hope they win their argument and keep the bagpipes playing. Do we really want to live in such a vanilla world that we can’t tolerate the loudness of color, sound and culture? I don’t.
There was a time when propaganda was a real art form. People used to really work at it and you had to have a sharp eye to detect it. Its just not what it used to be.
What does something like that even mean?? Seriously. What does it mean? Its just nonsense. I’m right and you’re wrong? Okay. So?
And these ….
It seems that any one with a paint shop pro program thinks that can slap a few copy/pastes on a paper and write some phrase on it and that’s propaganda. Used to people had to spend hours and hours doing a good propaganda piece. They were true pieces are art.
What has happened to the leftists of the world? Have they gotten fat and lazy or are they too busy gaming to take the time to produce quality propaganda anymore? What’s with THAT?
They have to use images from previous propaganda pieces. Take the cover of Time that used the image of the Marines at Iwo Jima to make a statement about the environment. Instead of coming up with something unique and new, they take a classic image and run it through a photo program and manipulate it to make a statement about whatever cause they are trying to promote at any given moment. Its just pathetic.
I know what the problem is actually. The problem is there’s not enough angst in the artistic left. You have to have angst to create great art. The great poetry that made the great music of the 1960s came out of a deep sense of angst on the part of the a generation embroiled in a war and a major social revolution. Hemingway and the lost generation came from the social upheaval of the Great War. Then in social revolutions and the uncertainty and changes brought about by World War II had the same effect. Great works of art inspired by a sense of change, sacrifice, uncertainty … angst.
This generation doesn’t have that edge. Instead they have iPods, trust funds and wii. There’s a war, but they aren’t involved in it. Its ‘over there’ and its really not affecting life here. There’s not a draft, so they don’t have to worry about it at all. It doesn’t stop them from their school activities or weekend parties. Its someone else’s problem.
That’s why the propaganda the left is trying to put out is mostly updated copies of propaganda that was created in times of true angst. The words are just put on newer pictures or newer words are put on the older pictures. The creativity isn’t there, because the angst isn’t there.
Its a sad state of affairs when the idealists and artists of the left can’t create any decent propaganda.
John McCain visits Gee’s Bend, Alabama as part of his ‘It’s Time For Action Tour’ of America.
John McCain Gee’s Bend, Alabama (Video)
I’m LOVING John McCain’s tour of America. He has done his ‘Service to America’ tour and now he is doing his ‘It’s Time For Action Tour’ of America. He has been to all sorts of small towns, rural areas and disused/misused urban areas. He’s introduced himself to the people of those areas in intimate settings and listened to those people with an ear for the concerns of what is referred to as Middle America (fly over country). That part of America that politicians and people of power and influence rarely, if ever, visit. Those people of America that politicians and people of power and influence rarely, if ever, hear.
He gives every appearance of wanting to see and hear the people of America - not just the power brokers. I think he’s a man who truly loves his country and the people who inhabit it. We are America and John McCain seems to realize that.
He really is a different kind of candidate. I think he’ll be a different kind of President.
Kristie Brown was raped by Marcus Dixon while they attended high school together. He spent some time in jail, but became a cause celeb and now has NFL dreams while Kristie was run out of town and accused of racism and ruining Marcus’ life.
Kristie Brown (Photo)
In the interest of full disclosure, I will state up front that I have personal knowledge of this case and know some of the people peripherally involved. I also know the community very well. Lindale, Georgia is a community that suffered economically as a result of NAFTA. The cotton mill in town shut down leaving the community without an economic base and turning it into a bedroom community for surrounding areas. To some extent, the people there have used an exceptional football team as a central element that maintains a sense of community.
That being said, the entire case is outrageous and angers me at a very deep level. I know that I’m a cynical person and I have known that the news media slants things in whatever way they choose to slant it. This case was the first time I saw the slanting up close knowing that the way the case was being presented on the national news was just flat out not true.
I am compelled to write about this today because I saw an article that reports that Marcus Dixon is finishing up his college education and is hoping to get picked in the NFL Draft on Saturday.
I will pass on repeating everything that’s been written about Marcus Dixon and the incident that resulted in his being put in prison on a ten year sentence. He only served part of that sentence. His supporters claim that his accuser had claimed she was raped because she was afraid of her racist father when in fact it was consensual sex. She HAD claimed she was afraid to tell her father, but never claimed it was anything other than rape.
The facts that supported her claim of rape that are rarely, if ever, reported in the news are the fact that she was hospitalized following the attack on her at school because she was so badly beaten and torn as a result of the attack. From that perspective it didn’t have the appearance of a consensual act.
Another factor that supported the rape charge was that Marcus Dixon was known to have had incidents of sexual misconduct in the past. He was never charged and the incidents were kept out of the news because Marcus was a star football player. Do you think that sounds ridiculous? It does unless you know the mentality at that school. Football is everything there and a star player is well protected by his teachers, coaches and the administration of the school.
Two alleged incidents got him suspended from school for a total of 10 days. In March of his sophomore year, Dixon exposed himself in a classroom, and a year later he allegedly touched a 14-year-old girl inappropriately after track practice. Neither situation was reported to the Floyd County police despite his suspension.
The previous incidents weren’t reported because of the protection of his mentors. All of those people, as well as the adoptive parents of Marcus, jumped to his defense as soon as his behavior went too far for them to keep it under wraps. He had to face trial.
The first thing his defenders did was declare that it was an issue of race. Kristie Brown is white and Marcus is black. Kristie Brown’s father had made some racial statements. Even more incriminating, it happened in Georiga. It was a piece of cake to paint the entire incident as racially motivated and an attempt to keep a black boy from doing well by a bunch of white racists in a Southern town. After all, you know how we keep our black people down (that’s sarcastic - so don’t get all huffy on me!).
Bryant Gumbel came down and took Marcus’ part. He stood in front of an old raggedy barn with a huge Confederate flag painted on the side of the barn to do his report. I have been in that area a lot and have NEVER seen that barn. I have no idea how or where he managed to find a barn painted as a Confederate flag, but the visual point he was making was right there. This is the South and WE KNOW HOW THOSE RACIST SOUTHERNERS ARE!!! They will do anything to keep this gifted black boy from making it big.
The problem with that point is that there are a lot of gifted black people in the South who do quite well for themselves - so why did the entire State of Georgia line up to stand in the way of this particular black kid? Hmmm …. Its a mystery. But apparently we all stood in line to stand in the way of Marcus Dixon making it in football and getting to go to Vanderbilt University. It was a vast White Southern Conspiracy against Marcus Dixon. Meanwhile, please take a look-see at how many people at Vanderbilt or any other university are black and southern before you tell me that Southerners go out of their way to keep black people from being able to go to college. The accusation against the community was ludicrous and insulting. No one has every apologized for making such reckless accusations against the community.
Oprah Winfrey and Marcus Dixon (Photo)
Oprah Winfrey took up the cause of Marcus Dixon. The claim was that his ‘real crime’ was being black and having sex. That plays well with the rest of the country that thinks the South is full of characters straight out of Deliverance. The rest of the country eats that stuff up … and worse, they believe it. Oprah told Kristie Brown that Marcus had told her he forgave her.
Oprah: He says he forgives you.
Kristie: Forgives me? How could he forgive me if I didn’t do anything?
Oprah: What would you want to say to him if he were sitting here right now?
Kristie: I would want to know why he would even want to think about raping anybody.
At the height of the publicity of this incident there were rumors in town that Jesse Jackson was coming to town to stage a rally and march to protest the conviction of Marcus Dixon. His basic assumption appeared to be that the whites in the town were racist and keeping the blacks down and the blacks in the town were just too kept down to stand up for themselves. The black community insisted that Jesse Jackson stay out of town. They made it clear they didn’t want him here. One thing I heard frequently was that people were insulted that people seemed to think that Southern blacks were so ignorant and weak they couldn’t speak for themselves.
Did it ever occur to anyone to question whether or not MARCUS was lying? Did it ever occur to anyone that this girl who was badly beaten might be telling the truth? Apparently not. Her family ended up having to leave town because of threats against them. All the while, Marcus’ defenders claimed he was the one being threatened. Oddly, even with him being ’scared for his life’, when he was released from prison and returned to town he was given a big party. He went on to college on a football scholarship and now may get the opportunity to go on to play for the National Football League.
Please, tell me … who suffered from this incident? Who was the victim and who was the perpetrator? Who has gain notoriety and money from it? Who had to leave town due to threats on their lives? Who has been consistent in their story and who has had a history of writing off bad sexual behavior to the ever popular, ‘boys will be boys’.
There is a reason that the people in town were not as outraged about this as people from other parts of the country. Its a close community and people know the people involved. People here knew that the justice system had worked and that it wasn’t about race.
This entire case is NOT about race. Its about football. Pepperell High School in Lindale, Georgia is all about football. The football players there can and do get away with bad behavior. The students who are NOT involved in football there, in one way or the other, do not have the privilege of students who are involved in the sport. I’ve seen it up close and personal and I know it to be true. When a football player there is injured and is of no use to them anymore he is thrown into the heap with the other students who are not of value.
On the other hand, a football player that has the ability to play the game on a level that might draw the attention of universities and even someday the NFL is immune from consequences regardless of his behavior.
I once had a football coach at Pepperell High School tell me not to worry about my son’s grades or studying. I was told he’d get all A’s …. regardless. After all, he was breaking records for the school at the time and they had big plans for him. I protested and said I had big plans for him too. I wanted him to build his mind as well as his body. The coach looked at me as though he was confused. He said, ‘He’s breaking records, he doesn’t need to study. Don’t worry. We’ll make sure he makes A’s. We’ll take care of him.’
There are twelve researchers stranded on a remote Pacific island. Palmyra Island is 1,000 miles southwest of Hawaii.
Palmyra Island (Photo)
The story about the researches stranded on an island in the south Pacific caught my interest because that is the general area my father was during World War II. Its also interesting that there are people stranded on a tropical island. I guess we don’t think of that sort of thing happening these days! At least they are able to communicate with the outside world as opposed to just being there and no one knowing where they are!
It seems that a certain type of plane is needed to transport people back and forth between Hawaii and Palmyra Island. The plane that is used to do that has broken down and needs a new engine. This isn’t good for the people who are currently on the island. The special plane is needed because Palmyra has a coral runway.
The island is a wildlife refuge and nature preserve that is owned by the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii. Scientists, environmentalists and researchers go there from all over the world to study the wild life and nature. This group of twelve trustees from Louisiana went down there last Saturday to do whatever it is they do. Now they are stuck there.
The Nature Conservancy is working with Pacific Air Charters based at Honolulu International Airport to use a twin-engine Cessna to retrieve the stranded travelers. they have to fit the Cessna with a special 75-gallon fuel tank so that they can get the plane to Christmas Island which is about 300 miles from Palmyra. From there they will shuttle the trustees from Palmyra in two trips. Before it can make the trip they have to go through the bureaucratic paperwork necessary for Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) clearances and approvals. I’m sure they prefer to wait for the plane to be airworthy!
Meanwhile, the trustees are waiting on the island. Fortunately, the island is set up to be a research outpost and therefore has running water, cabins and other supplies.
At least it looks like a lovely place to be stranded!
Cpl. Markbradley Vincze gives students from al-Raqhaa School backpacks in the Monsouri area of Iraq. Soldiers from Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 1-76th FA, 4th BCT, 3rd Inf. Div., delivered backpacks, soccer balls and notebooks.
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.
