The Graying Warriors are getting more scarce

WWI, the first world war, it was called. The Great War. The war to end all wars. Men fought. Men died. A lot of men, a lot of Americans, had their lives taken from them (I hate that phrase "they gave their lives...")while defending their country.

The war to end all wars was followed a couple dozen years later by another world war, WWII. Admittedly, the United States leaders, in my humble opinion, buried their heads in the sand, refusing to recognize the threat of the rapidly advancing nazi army as it marched across Europe. We failed to act even knowing what oppressive acts of depravity were occuring to literally millions of civilians.

When we finally entered this second world war, it was only because of that infamous sneak attack on our most western outpost, Pearl Harbor, on the territory of Hawaii. Once we were in the fight, though, the young men of that day fought tooth and nail to bring an end to the nazi forces. Using modern weapons of that era, along with some leftover weapons from the first war, our men took on the enemy and killed them. By air, by sea, and by land, U.S. warriors stood tall.

For several hundred years, armed forces have utilized marksmen, those men who are "real good" with rifles, to not only kill, but to instill fear in the enemy. They are collectively known as snipers. We have all heard about them, they're a specialized group of highly trained, well disciplined fighters who can seek out and destroy individual enemies from hundreds of yards away. There have been a number of confirmed kills from more than a mile.

In WWII, snipers were typically equipped with the old 1903 Springfield. Some had the semi-automatic M-1 rifles. Both fired a heavy bullet. Its civilian equivalent is caliber 30-06. Many say, and I agree, that the Springfield is one of the most accurate military rifles ever. The "03A3" that I once owned, was a fine rifle, solid and accurate.

Not too long ago, a distinguished sniper from WWII days was awarded a special honor. He was given a ball cap. And, a gun. At 86, a modern day sniper team wanted to see what the old guy was made of. The attached video 'bout says it all. Take a few minutes and check it out. Can he still get the job done?
http://www.wimp.com/veteransniper/

Dancing Star...back to the drawing board

Got another lesson last week. Getting another Wednesday night. If you're just tuning in, I have graciously accepted an invitation to subject myself to all of the ridicule imagineable. I am dancing to raise money for the Onslow (NC) Women's Center. A worthy cause, for sure. The Center operates a shelter, a safe haven, if you will, for female victims of domestic abuse.

I, along with some very distinguished folks in Jacksonville, will be dancing our little toes off, seeking contributions for the shelter. Each participant will have two dances, and we'll strut our stuff at a gala at the Jacksonville Country Club on 13 October. Tickets for that event are $50 each.

And, you can go on line to make a donation, if you choose. Each of us is trying to raise at least a grand. www.onslowwc.org/raefordandkaitlyn will take you to "my" page, and you can contribute there. Thanks to those who have already done so.

Now, to the nitty gritty. My "partner" is an instructor. That is part of my saving grace. She's a pro, and I'm counting on that to make me look good. Actually, if I want to be totally honest, I'm counting on her looking so good that you won't even notice me!!!! Ok, I fessed up. "She" is Kaitlyn, and not only is she a professional instructor, she's a professional belly dancer. And, she's darn good.

I'll be talking with Kaitlyn, soon, on my morning talk show, Live and Local on Thunder Country 96.3.

Thank you, in advance, for your consideration.
www.onslowwc.org/raefordandkaitlyn

I'm Learning to Dance, and my instructor is a professional Belly Dancer!

Another lesson, and my teacher, Kaitlyn, is a great liar. She said I am "doing great". And, she did it with a straight face. Or, maybe she's right, and I am getting better.

For my third lesson, it was a day to learn how to move my feet, backside and arms at the same time, making them go in the prescribed directions, just as Kaitlyn wanted.

I felt pretty good, after 90 minutes, until I discovered that I was less than half way through the song! But, it's a start. And, with a lot of luck, and a lot of between-lessons coaching by my wife and granddaughter, I might even look pretty decent when I next see Kaitlyn. With lots of practice, and a lot of persistence, and a few OTC pain pills for sore muscles that haven't been utilized in a few decades, Kaitlyn will be pleasantly pleased. I'm counting on that.

Check out this style!!!!

This is for a good cause. The Dancing Stars of Jacksonville (NC) is coming to the Jacksonville Country Club on 13 October. Tickets are $50 each. It's for a great cause, the Onslow Women's Center. They support a shelter for battered women in the area, a safe haven for vicitms of domestic abuse. You can also support the center by logging onto www.onslowwc.org/raefordandkaitlyn and make an online donation. I'm shooting for at least a grand, and your support will be greatly appreciated.

Dancing Fool

Well, I'm the "fool" part of that title, for sure. But, with any luck, I'll be the dancer by mid October.

The Onslow (NC) Women's Shelter is raising money to support their safe haven for battered women. Yes, I know, men get battered, too, but they generally have better "escape" resources than do women.

What I'm doing now is outright solicting for a good cause. And, I'm subjecting this old fool's body to some interesting maneuvering in order to convince folks to cough up some bucks. Go to www.onslowwc.org/raefordandkaitlyn to get more info and to make a donation.

Now, for the dancing thingie. I have been partnered with a nice lady. And she knows her stuff, let me tell you. Forget about me on the dance floor. Kaitlyn, my partner, will be the shining star on this team. She's a pro, an instructor, a belly dancer.

(Pause for gut busting laughter)

Get it out of your system. I am gonna look good on the floor. With help from my wife (she's been a dancer since we first met more than a half century ago) and Kaitlyn, how could I be anything but good?

I'll be posting pictures here and on www.thundercountryonline.com in the coming days and weeks. All of this leads up to the Big Event, Dancing Stars of Jacksonville (NC) on 13 October. It will be held at the Jacksonville Country Club, and you might want to get your tickets sooner than later.

For now, go to the web site, and reach deep into your pockets. The Onslow Women's Shelter will thank you.

An e-mail buddy sent me one of those nostalgia-oriented emails. The kind that makes us (old fools) reflect back to what we perceived as a much nicer time. Those yester-years, where everything was ahhh, so cool. The days of almost innocense, where having a weapon on the school grounds meant you had brought your slingshot from home. A time when our milk was DELIVERED by a milkman to our door, and it came in a glass bottle.
The good old days.
But, were they actually so good?
Taking the bad and comparing it to the good...well, you decide.

 

Unfortunately, back then, we had only 2 or 3 TV channels to watch.

Fortunately, we didn't need more because we were playing outside, or hunting, or fishing, or just walking in the woods, or down the street to see a friend, or...in my case...talking on my ham radio to people all over the world.

Unfortunately, we didn't have cell phones in case of an emergency.

Fortunately, because we didn't have cell phones, there were fewer emergencies. Maybe because there was no texting while driving.

Unfortunately, we didn't have burglar alarms and codes to remember.

Fortunately, we could leave our doors unlocked and the only non-family visitors were friends or neighbors who didn't need to knock.

Unfortunately, we didn't have computers and the internet.
Fortunately, we had paper and pencils, encyclopedias, and newspapers. And, we could actually read and write.

Fortunately, it's a long way to the sewer.

Unfortunately, we have come a long way.

Gun Control or People Control

Gun nuts, watch out! They're preparing, one more time, to come after our guns. Sure seems that some crazy, liberal, unrealistic white people sit around and wait for any tragedy or disaster to start up their gun-grabbing agenda before a weakened society.

Take Hurricane Katrina, for instance. National Guardsmen were going door to door, seizing all guns, for a reason that still escapes me. Thank goodness for some intelligence in North Carolina's Legislature. That will not happen here. During disasters, even if you have to evacuate, you can take your guns AND pets with you.

And, of course, the horrific mayhem caused not by a gun or guns but by a yet-to-be-diagnosed-deranged, self-centered loner in Aurora, Colorado has set them off again. Twelve dead, 58 wounded by a lone gunman, armed "to the teeth", who chose a movie theater full of UN-armed citizens to show how big a man he wanted to be. That's a problem with some gun owners, I'll readily admit. They use a gun to impress others, to make up for some inferiority they have.

The current resident of the White House, in a closer-than-he-wanted race to stay there another four years (and send his wife and her friends on taxpayer-funded vacation after vacation after vacation) has not voiced his position on gun control or gun confiscation. He's a sneaky little guy, that's for sure. He rightfully sees gun control as political suicide. However, he has set the stage so that he can achieve what many of us believe will be part of his next term: stricter gun control. He is taking his guidance from another man. A man named Adolph.

"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non (An essential condition) for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let's not have any native militia or native police. German troops alone will bear the sole responsibility for the maintenance of law and order throughout the occupied Russian territories, and a system of military strong-points must be evolved to cover the entire occupied country." --Adolf Hitler, dinner talk on April 11, 1942, quoted in Hitler's Table Talk 1941-44: His Private Conversations, Second Edition (1973), Pg. 425-426. Translated by Norman Cameron and R. H. Stevens. Introduced and with a new preface by H. R. Trevor-Roper. The original German papers were known as Bormann-Vermerke.

That should be loud and clear to all of us. If you've legally purchased a gun since the Gun Control Act of 1968 was adopted, you had to fill out an ATF form proclaiming that you weren't nuts, on drugs, or an at large crook. In recent times, a section was added to that form, section 10a. It wants you to declare whether you are Hispanic or Latino or whether your are Not Hispanic of Latino. And, this from a FEDERAL government that takes shots at local cops for profiling?

Oh, but this is not new, either.

Regulations Against Jews' Possession of Weapons

11 November 1938

With a basis in §31 of the Weapons Law of 18 March 1938 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, p.265), Article III of the Law on the Reunification of Austria with Germany of 13 March 1938 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 237), and §9 of the Führer and Chancellor's decree on the administration of the Sudeten-German districts of 1 October 1938 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, p 1331) are the following ordered:

§1
Jews (§5 of the First Regulations of the German Citizenship Law of 14 November 1935, Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 1333) are prohibited from acquiring, possessing, and carrying firearms and ammunition, as well as truncheons or stabbing weapons. Those now possessing weapons and ammunition are at once to turn them over to the local police authority.

§2
Firearms and ammunition found in a Jew's possession will be forfeited to the government without compensation.

§3
The Minister of the Interior may make exceptions to the Prohibition in §1 for Jews who are foreign nationals. He can entrust other authorities with this power.

§4
Whoever willfully or negligently violates the provisions of §1 will be punished with imprisonment and a fine. In especially severe cases of deliberate violations, the punishment is imprisonment in a penitentiary for up to five years.

                                                          §5
For the implementation of this regulation, the Minister of the Interior waives the necessary legal and administrative provisions.


Pay close attention to section 5. Does this sound anything like a version of today's Executive Orders that our president has been signing? With a stroke of a pen, Obama can implement all sorts of restrictions on the people of this great nation. With a single stroke of a pen. No guns. No talk radio. No right to speek out. No right to gather together. No rights, no freedoms.

6 November 2012 cannot come soon enough.  

Raeford Brown                               

A Brave "Marine", this 12-year old named Cody Green

I come across stories from time to time that are worth repeating. Like this one of a 12 year old Indiana kid who lost his lifelong battle with Leukemia back in April. Cody Green is his name. He suffered over the years, but he was a hero, a brave youngster to the end. His courage was no less great than that of any man or woman, military or civilian.

Cody loved the marines. He would have made a great one.

From our friends across the pond comes this report in the UK's Mail Online. There has been a lot written about this story, both in the US and abroad. I particularly like Mail Online's report. You can read the whole thing by clicking here. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138308/Heartbreaking-story-terminally-ill-boy-12-marine-honour-guard-hospital-night-died.html

The "Mail" writes (remember, they're writing in British):

Throughout his short life, young Cody Green had admired the bravery of the U.S. Marines.

But after years spent battling leukaemia, it was the youngster's courage fighting cancer which inspired his heroes to honour his bravery.

The 12-year-old from Indiana had suffered from the disease throughout his life. First diagnosed just before his second birthday, he had beaten leukaemia three times - but the chemotherapy had reduced his immune system and, (in April), he died from a fungus which attacked his brain.

And standing guard outside his hospital room that night was a local Marine named Mark Dolfini who was so moved by Cody's continued cancer battle that he decreed the 12-year-old to be a honorary member of the elite military unit.

Close family friend Keristen Ford told MailOnline that Cody was a 'witty' and determined child who never let his continued battles with cancer hurt his spirits.

'He was very aware of his illness he knew exactly what medications he was on and what time he should have them,' Ms Ford said.

'He knew that by him knowing when he had to take his medications and what they were, his mom had to worry less. He was very worried about anyone losing sleep over him.

His mother Tracy Green certainly had a lot on her mind over the past few months, as Cody had two younger brothers and two older stepbrothers.

On top of that, Ms Green was seriously injured at the Indiana State Fair as the country band Sugarland's stage fell. Seven people were killed, and Ms Green was one of the 58 injured. She had to have 30 staples in her skull and had steel rods and pins placed in her leg.

As she recovered, Cody was characteristically caring, helping his mother wash her hair when she had trouble moving in the months following the August 2011 stage collapse.

'When I started walking again after the incident, he was so worried about me, saying "you need to keep your feet up Mom! You have to watch your step,"' Mrs Green told MailOnline.

'He never complained, he never said "why me?" or "I don't want to do this".

'If he got sick, he would finish and say "I'm sorry" because you were holding the bucket for him. I always told him that he had nothing to be sorry about.'

Cody's repeat cancer battle inspired the local Marines, who thought 'he’s fought as hard as any marine has and because of that we’re going to honour him'.

They planned to give him a complete colour guard spectacle, but because Cody's condition was less stable following a stem cell procedure on March 12, they had to suspend those plans for fear of infecting Cody's sensitive immune system.

'He had a passion for our country and our military and it was more the marines got sparked in Cody and they heard of his battle,' Ms Ford told MailOnline.

The youngster's father David Snowberger told local station WLFI: 'They decided Cody, with the strength and honour and courage he showed through the whole thing, he should be a Marine.'

When Cody's condition took a turn for the worse, his family got in touch with a local Marine who said that he would rush to the hospital to be with the boy during his final hours.

Former Marine Mark Dolfini, 39, who was introduced to Cody through Mr Snowberger, presented the boy with a flag and Marine navigator wings.

'Unfortunately, Cody was not awake, he was on a ventilator, but we believe he knew,' Ms Ford said, having been at the hospital at the time of the ceremony.

In keeping with the Corps motto of Semper Fidelis, latin for always faithful, the Marine stood post outside of Cody's door all night, saluting Mrs Green as she went in and out of the room, right up until Cody passed on Saturday.

'The night before Cody passed, he stood guard at Cody's door at the hospital all night long for eight hours straight,' Mr Snowberger said.

Mr Dolfini, who was initially hesitant to go public for fear it would take away from Cody's story, spoke with MailOnline, telling how he knew he had to spend the night guarding Cody's door because it was what he deserved.

'There was no question that was my calling that night,' he said.

'I didn’t give myself a time constraint and I knew I was going to be there as long as I could be.'

The Marine Corp's website states that the title of 'Honorary Marine' reinforces the special bond between the American people and the Corps by 'recognising individuals in the civilian community who have made extraordinary contributions to the Marine Corps.

'The title Marine is a revered designation that affords a special distinction to those who earn it.

'Therefore, only the Commandant of the Marine Corps (CMC) can officially designate an individual as an "Honorary Marine".'

Cody - described by his father as 'a comedian' - was a fifth grade student at Carroll Elementary School in Flora, and his friends spent the first day back at school after his death honouring his memory.

Balloons in his favourite colour of green were released, carrying messages into the sky; green ribbons were tied round the trees and friends hugged each other while wearing green T-shirts and chanting his name.

'He was very witty,' Ms Ford told MailOnline.

'He was very comical. He always made you laugh, and he would always one up you because you couldn’t come up with good comeback quick enough for him! It was as if he had a whole book of them or something!'

His obituary on Jconline reads: 'He never asked "Why Me," and fought the illness with grace and humility, never complaining about his treatment or care, saying "Thank you" to the many health care professionals that cared for him.

.
All contributions will be donated to the cancer unit at Riley Children's Hospital.