Veterans Day 2010

This picture is a few years old but remains one of the most moving we've seen. Pearl Harbor survivor Houston James of Dallas, Texas embraces Marine Staff Sgt. Mark Graunke Jr. during a Veterans Day commemoration in Dallas. Graunke lost a hand, a leg and and eye when he was injured by a bomb in Iraq.





The following is excerpted from a post from a couple years back:

"Where do we keep finding these people..?"

California…. Garden Grove to be exact.

Coronado-based Navy SEAL, Michael Anthony Monsoor was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor today. He is the first Navy recipient of the award in the Iraq war. Story from U-T, here.

Monsoor fell on a grenade and saved the lives of 3 American snipers and several Iraqi soldiers in Ramadi on Sept. 29, 2006. He died within a half-hour.

Monsoor’s remains lay at the Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery out on Pt. Loma here in San Diego. His headstone will be replaced with one that will reflect his award.

Were not psychologists and we don’t have any supporting data in front of us but the description of Monsoor’s personality by family, friends and colleagues appears to fit a pattern we observed in this nation’s bravest: quiet, unassuming guys who were never the BMOC or the best athlete on the high school football or wrestling team but were always the hardest workers who led more by deed than word. They’re all business at work but good-naturedly rambunctious away from it and never turn down an opportunity to play a practical joke on a mate. And perhaps ironically, they never seem to wear their patriotism on their sleeve but all of them, of course, are held in the highest esteem by everyone with which they come into contact.

The 2nd ship of the Zumwalt-class Destroyers (DDG-1001) is named the USS MICHAEL MONSOOR.

B-Daddy has Monsoor's Summary of Action as well as some other related thoughts, here.

A special shout-out to our two older brothers who served honorably and with distinction in the submarine force of the U.S. Navy and the 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army.