Feedback From The Front

Michelle Rose recently received the attached letter from SFC Weirick a Wayne County native serving in Afganistan. His words say it all!

Veteran's Day Activities 2010

Here is a list of activities and dates the 555th will be involved with.

Sat. Nov. 6, 11:00 A M
Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery
Veteran Day Program, Hal Fulton speaker
555th will post colors.
All personnel needed have volunteered

Mon. Nov 8, 11:30 A M
Community Covenant, supporting those who serve. Sponsored by Army Recruiters
University of Akron, Wayne College Orrville OH.
Student Life Building (lower level)
"FOOD" ALL VETERANS WELCOME! Wearing of unifom is encouraged.
PLEASE PLAN TO ATTENDED!

Tues. Nov. 9, 7:45 A M
Waynedale High School
Veterans needed to talk with classes, lunch will be provided.
Contact Michelle Rose, 330-345-5561

Thur. Nov 11, Wayne County Veteran Day Program, Wayne County Fair Grounds.
10:00 Coffee and donuts served by Cutler Realators.
11:00 Program.

Fri. Nov 12, 7:30 P M Ebenezer Lodge Wooster.
Veteran recognation with posting of colors.
All personnel needed have volunteered.

Thru. Nov. 18, 7:00.
Wayne County Republican Womens, Pines Golf Course.
Posting Colors by 555th, all personnel needed have volunteered.

Military Pay Raises

Military Pay Raises
As a civilian in the business world who, once had nearly 200,000 people reporting to me, I am unable to recall any job where one is on-call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year : where one may be expected at any moment to move anywhere in the world and often to leave one's family behind; where one's children must change schools every two or three years: where one often must live in substandard housing: where one can't simply quit and find another job; and where during one's career, there is almost a certainty that someone will try to kill you. Now, let's see, what civilian job is the equivalent of that .

Norman R. Augistine, retired chairman and CEO, Lockheed Martin, in a speech May 12, 2010

TRICARE Sets Gray Area Retiree Premiums

Week of August 09, 2010
Last year, Congress approved the creation of the TRICARE Reserve Retired program, a premium-paid TRICARE Standard coverage plan for "gray area" Reserve retirees. The program is planned to start in October. The Premium rates were unveiled on Aug. 6. The premiums -- $388.31 per month for single coverage and $976.41 a month for family coverage -- have been set high enough to cover the full cost of the program because the benefit is not subsidized by the government.

Military.com surveys found that most servicemembers and their families are confused by TRICARE. Get the facts and latest news on TRICARE.

A MUST READ FOR ALL!!!!!!

LEGISLATIVE ALERT #10-10 May 17, 2010


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Issue: Reverse the 21% Reduction in Medicare/TRICARE Physician Payment Rates set to occur June 1, 2010



Immediate Action Required: Contact your Senators and Representative and urge them to take immediate legislative action to reverse the planned 21% reduction in Medicare/TRICARE physician payment rates now scheduled to occur June 1, 2010



The temporary Medicare rate reduction fix enacted by Congress last month expires June 1, 2010. This was the second temporary fix this year. Once again we need to act quickly and decisively. Passage of health care legislation on March 23, 2010 left this critical business unattended.



Payment rates in the TRICARE program for our members of the military are tied directly to Medicare rates. To control growth in Medicare payments to physicians, a complicated programmed formula, designed to keep Medicare payments to physicians in line with a targeted Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) is now scheduled to reduce Medicare/TRICARE physician payment rates by 21% on June 1, 2010. Congress must take immediate legislative action to reverse this scheduled reduction.



According to an AARP poll, nearly 90% of people age 50 and older are concerned that the Medicare physician payment cuts will threaten their access to care. Congress must provide more than a short-term fix to this troubling process.



Contact your Senators and Representative again and ask them to take immediate action to permanently reverse the planned 21% cut in Medicare/TRICARE payments now scheduled to occur June 1, 2010.





TAKE THE FOLLOWING ACTION:

By using the "Write to Congress" feature on the NGAUS Web site at www.ngaus.org/writetocongress, you can IMMEDIATELY e-mail your elected representatives. A sample letter is included in our "Write to Congress" feature. You can e-mail the pre-written message or edit the sample letter as you desire. This is the quickest and most effective method of expressing your views to Congress. Also, contact your friends and family and urge them to "Write to Congress" as well. For more in-depth information and background visit our web site at www.ngaus.org. Please direct any questions concerning this issue to Pete Duffy, NGAUS Deputy Legislative Director at 202-454-5307 or via email at pete.duffy@ngaus.org.

Bill Mauldin Stamp Release

The post office gets a lot of criticism. Always has, always will.

And with the renewed push to get rid of Saturday
mail delivery, expect complaints to intensify.

But the United States Postal Service deserves a
standing ovation for something that's going to
happen this month: Bill Mauldin is getting his own postage stamp.

Mauldin died at age 81 in the early days of
2003. The end of his life had been rugged. He
had been scalded in a bathtub, which led to
terrible injuries and infections; Alzheimer's
disease was inflicting its cruelties. Unable to
care for himself after the scalding, he became a
resident of a California nursing home, his
health and spirits in rapid decline.

He was not forgotten, though. Mauldin, and his
work, meant so much to the millions of Americans
who fought in World War II, and to those who had
waited for them to come home. He was a kid
cartoonist for Stars and Stripes, the military
newspaper; Mauldin's drawings of his muddy,
exhausted, whisker-stubbled infantrymen Willie
and Joe were the voice of truth about what it was like on the front lines.

Mauldin was an enlisted man just like
the soldiers he drew for; his gripes were their
gripes, his laughs were their laughs, his
heartaches were their heartaches. He was one of them. The y loved him.

He never held back. Sometimes, when his cartoons
cut too close for comfort, his superior officers
tried to tone him down. In one memorable
incident, he enraged Gen. George S. Patton, and
Patton informed Mauldin he wanted the
pointed cartoons -- celebrating the fighting
men, lampooning the high-ranking officers -- to stop. Now.

The news passed from soldier to soldier. How was
Sgt. Bill Mauldin going to stand up to Gen. Patton? It seemed impossible.

Not quite. Mauldin, it turned out, had an ardent
fan: Five-star Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower,
supreme commander of the Allied
forces in Europe . Ike put out the word:
Mauldin draws what Mauldin wants. Mauldin won. Patton lost.

If, in your line of work, you've ever considered
yourself a young hotshot, or if you've ever
known anyone who has felt that way about himself
or herself, the story of Mauldin's young
manhood will humble you. Here is what, by the
time he was 23 years old, Mauldin had accomplished:

He won the Pulitzer Prize. He was featured on
the cover of Time magazine. His book "Up Front"
was the No. 1 best-seller in the� United States .

All of that at 23. Yet when he returned to
civilian life and he grew older, he never lost
that boyish Mauldin grin, he never outgrew his
excitement about doing his job, he never
big-shotted or high-hatted the people with whom he worked every day.

I was lucky enough to be one of them; Mauldin
roamed the hallways of the Chicago Sun-Times in
the late 1960s and early 1970s with no more
officiousness or air of haughtiness than if he
was a copyboy. That impish look on his face remained.

He had achieved so much. He had won a second
Pulitzer Prize, and he should have won a third,
for what may be the single greatest editorial
cartoon in the history of the craft: his
deadline rendering, on the day President John F.
Kennedy was assassinated, of the statue at the
Lincoln Memorial slumped in grief, its
head cradled in its hands. But he never acted as
if he was better than the people he met. He was
still Mauldin the enlisted man.

During the late summer of 2002, as Mauldin lay
in that California nursing home, some of the old
World War II infantry guys caught wind of it.
They didn't want Mauldin to go out that way.
They thought he should know that he was still their hero.

Gordon Dillow, a columnist for the Orange County
Register, put out the call in Southern California
for people in the area to send their best wishes
to Mauldin; I joined Dillow in the effort,
helping to spread the appeal nationally so that
Bill would not feel so alone. Soon more than
10,000 letters and cards had arrived at Mauldin's bedside.

Even better than that, the old soldiers began to
show up just to sit with Mauldin, to let him know
that they were there for him, as he, long ago,
had been there for them. So many volunteered to
visit Bill that there was a waiting list. Here
is how Todd DePastino, in the first paragraph of
his wonderful biography of Mauldin, described it:

"Almost every day in the summer and fall of 2002
they came to Park Superior nursing
home in Newport Beach , California , to honor
Army Sergeant, Technician Third Grade, Bill
Mauldin. They came bearing relics of
their youth: medals, insignia, photographs, and
carefully folded newspaper clippings. Some wore
old garrison caps. Others arrived resplendent in
uniforms over a half century old. Almost all
of them wept as they filed down the corridor
like pilgrims fulfilling some long-neglected obligation."

One of the veterans explained to me why it was so important:

"You would have to be part of a combat infantry
unit to appreciate what moments of relief Bill
gave us. You had to be reading a soaking wet
Stars and Stripes in a water-filled foxhole and
then see one of his cartoons."

Mauldin is buried in Arlington National
Cemetery . This month, the kid cartoonist makes
it onto a first-class postage stamp. It's
an honor that most generals and admirals never receive.

What Mauldin would have loved most, I believe,
is the sight of the two guys who are keeping him company on that stamp.

Mrs. Pamela Murphy

Pamela Murphy, widow of WWII hero and actor,
Audie Murphy, died peacefully at her home on
April 8, 2010. She is survived by sons, Terry and
James. Pam established her own distinctive 30
year career working as a patient liaison at the
Sepulveda VA Hospital, where she was much
beloved. Services were held at Forest Lawn
(Hollywood Hills) on Friday April 16.

[]

October 7, 1923 - April 8, 2010
Pam Murphy, the widow of Audie Murphy, was
involved in the Sepulveda VA hospital and care
center over the course of 35 years, treating
every veteran who visited the facility as if they
were a VIP. Pam Murphy died at the age of 90.


[]


After Audie died, they all became her boys. Every last one of them.

Any soldier or Marine who walked into the
Sepulveda VA hospital and care center in the last
35 years got the VIP treatment from Pam Murphy.
The widow of Audie Murphy – the most decorated
soldier in World War II – would walk the hallways
with her clipboard in hand making sure her boys
got to see a specialist or doctor ­ STAT. If they
didn't, watch out. Her boys weren't Medal of
Honor recipients or movie stars like Audie, but
that didn't matter to Pam. They had served their
country. That was good enough for her. She never
called a veteran by his first name. It was always
"Mister." Respect came with the job. "Nobody
could cut through VA red tape faster than Mrs.
Murphy," said veteran Stephen Sherman, speaking
for thousands of veterans she befriended over the
years. "Many times I watched her march a veteran
who had been waiting more than an hour right into
the doctor's office. She was even reprimanded a
few times, but it didn't matter to Mrs. Murphy.
"Only her boys mattered. She was our angel."

Sepulveda VA's angel for the last 35 years died
peacefully in her sleep at age 90.

"She was in bed watching the Laker game, took one
last breath, and that was it," said Diane Ruiz,
who also worked at the VA and cared for Pam in
the last years of her life in her Canoga Park
apartment. It was the same apartment Pam moved
into soon after Audie died in a plane crash on
Memorial Day weekend in 1971. Audie Murphy died
broke, squandering million of dollars on
gambling, bad investments, and yes, other
women. "Even with the adultery and desertion at
the end, he always remained my hero," Pam told me.

She went from a comfortable ranch-style home in
Van Nuys where she raised two sons to a small
apartment - taking a clerk's job at the nearby VA
to support herself and start paying off her faded
movie star husband's debts. At first, no one
knew who she was. Soon, though, word spread
through the VA that the nice woman with the
clipboard was Audie Murphy's widow. It was like
saying Patton had just walked in the front door.
Men with tears in their eyes walked up to her and
gave her a hug. "Thank you," they said, over and over.

The first couple of years, I think the hugs were
more for Audie's memory as a war hero. The last 30 years, they were for Pam.

She hated the spotlight. One year I asked her to
be the focus of a Veteran's Day column for all
the work she had done. Pam just shook her head
no. "Honor them, not me," she said, pointing to
a group of veterans down the hallway. "They're the ones who deserve it."

The vets disagreed. Mrs. Murphy deserved the
accolades, they said. Incredibly, in 2002, Pam's
job was going to be eliminated in budget cuts.
She was considered "excess staff." "I don't
think helping cut down on veterans' complaints
and showing them the respect they deserve, should
be considered excess staff," she told
me. Neither did the veterans. They went
ballistic, holding a rally for her outside the VA
gates. Pretty soon, word came down from the top
of the VA. Pam Murphy was no longer considered
"excess staff." She remained working full time at
the VA until 2007 when she was 87. "The last
time she was here was a couple of years ago for
the conference we had for homeless veterans,"
said Becky James, coordinator of the VA's Veterans History Project.

Pam wanted to see if there was anything she could
do to help some more of her boys.

Doolittle Tokyo Raiders 68th Reunion 2010

On April 18, 1942, 80 men achieved the unimaginable when they took off from an aircraft carrier on a top secret mission to bomb Japan. This spring, we will pay tribute to those brave men whose courageous actions gave Americans a glimpse of victory in the darkest days of World War II.



The Doolittle Tokyo Raiders 68th Reunion 2010
Will be held in Dayton, OH
at the Nation Museum of the United States Air Force
April 15-18th, 2010



The following Raiders are scheduled to attend this year's reunion:

Lt. Col. Richard E. Cole, Co-pilot, Crew #1
Maj. Thomas C. Griffin, Navigator, Crew #9
Lt. Col. Robert L. Hite, Co-pilot, Crew #16
Master Sgt. David J. Thatcher, Engineer/Gunner, Crew #7

Snow Shuts Down Nations Capital

God bless those who value duty and honor above inconvenience...

Air Force, DOD pioneer passes away

WASHINGTON (AFRNS) -- The first woman to serve as major general in
the Air Force, and the Department of Defense, passed away Feb. 15.

Retired Maj. Gen. Jeanne M. Holm is credited as the single driving
force in achieving parity for military women and making them a viable
part of the mainstream military.

The Portland, Ore., native became a two-star general in 1973 after a
career that began 31 years earlier in 1942 when she enlisted in the
Army. General Holm entered Women's Army Air Corps in January 1943
where she received a commission as third officer, the WAAC equivalent
of second lieutenant.

General Holm also became the first woman to attend the Air Command
and Staff School, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., in 1952.

She was promoted to brigadier general July 16, 1971, the first female
Airman to be appointed in this grade. She was promoted to the grade
of major general effective June 1, 1973, with date of rank July 1,
1970 -- the first woman in the armed forces to serve in that grade.

In recognition of General Holm's pioneering career, Air Force
officials renamed the Air Force Officer Accession and Training
Schools at Maxwell AFB the Jeanne M. Holm Officer Accession and
Citizen Development Center in June 2008. Its mission is Air Force
officer recruitment and training within the Air University.

General Holm was also an author of two books about women in the
military. "Women in the Military: An Unfinished Revolution" came
out in 1982 and was updated in 1994. Four years later she wrote "In
Defense of a Nation: Servicewomen in World War II."

During World War II, General Holm was assigned to the Women's Army
Corps Training Center at Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., where she first
commanded a basic training company and then a training regiment. At
the end of the war, she commanded the 106th WAC Hospital Company at
Newton D. Baker General Hospital, W.Va. She then left active
military duty in 1946.

In October 1948 during the Berlin crisis, she was recalled to active
duty with the Army and went to Camp Lee, Va., as a company
commander. The following year she transferred to the Air Force, when
a new law integrated women in the regular armed forces.

General Holm served in a variety of personnel assignments, including
director of Women in the Air Force from 1965 to 1973. She played a
significant role in eliminating restrictions on numbers of women
serving in all ranks, expanding job and duty station assignments for
women, opening ROTC and service academies to women, and changing the
policies on the status of women in the armed forces. During her
tenure, policies affecting women were updated, WAF strength more than
doubled, job and assignment opportunities expanded, and uniforms modernized.

The general retired in 1975. She served three presidential
administrations: special assistant on women for President Gerald
Ford, policy consultant for President James Carter and first
chairperson of the Veterans Administration's Committee on Women
Veterans for President Ronald Reagan

Colonel Robert L. Howard, USA/Ret Dies

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Retired Army Col. Robert L. Howard, a Medal of Honor winner and one of America’s most decorated soldiers, died Wednesday in Waco after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Howard, 70, formerly of San Antonio and father of Waco resident Melissa Gentsch, served five tours of duty in Vietnam and is the only soldier in our nation’s history to be nominated for the Medal of Honor three times for three sep-arate episodes.

Although the Medal of Honor can be awarded only once to an individual, men who served with Howard said he deserved all three, according to a Web site posted to honor Howard and other soldiers.

Howard will be buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Gov. Rick Perry and his wife, Anita, expressed condolences to Howard’s family in a statement Wednesday.

“As one of America’s most decorated veterans, Colonel Howard inspired everyone he met to consider their own commitment to our nation’s essential values, and was the bravest soldier I ever met. His unshakable commitment to freedom, displayed in countless episodes of battlefield gallantry, lives on in the actions of our military men and women who continue to serve in hostile conditions overseas,” Perry said.

Howard grew up in Opelika, Ala., and enlisted in the Army in 1956 at the age of 17. He retired as a full colonel in 1992 after 36 years of service. During Vietnam, he served in the Army Special Forces (Green Berets) and spent most of his five tours in the top-secret special operations forces, which ran classified cross-border operations into Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam.

“He was a national treasure and a great warrior during a time that our country turned its back on our soldiers,” said Howard’s son-in-law, Waco Assistant Police Chief Frank Gentsch. “He always continued working for the soldiers throughout his career and even in retirement. He made trips all over the country and all over the world visiting soldiers.”

3 times nominated

The first of his three Medal of Honor nominations was downgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross, our country’s second-highest honor. His second and third nominations were simultaneous for two separate actions, and the Medal of Honor was awarded for the first of them and was presented to him by President Richard M. Nixon at the White House in 1971.

The other nomination was downgraded to the Silver Star. Howard was wounded 14 times in 54 months of combat duty in Vietnam. He was awarded eight Purple Hearts.

His story is told in John Plaster’s book, SOG: The Secret Wars of America’s Commandos in Vietnam.

twitherspoon@wacotrib.com

Give 'em Hell Harry!

Harry Truman was a different kind of President. He probably made as many, or more important decisions regarding our nation's history as any of the other 42 Presidents preceding him. However, a measure of his greatness may rest on what he did after he left the White House.

The only asset he had when he died was the house he lived in, which was in Independence Missouri. His wife had inherited the house from her mother and father and other than their years in the White House, they lived their entire lives there.

When he retired from office in 1952, his income was a U.S.Army pension reported to have been $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an 'allowance' and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.

After President Eisenhower was inaugurated,Harry and Bess drove home to Missouri by themselves. There was no Secret Service following them.

When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating,"You don't want me You want the office of the President, and that doesn't belong to me. It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale."

Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing, "I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."

As president he paid for all of his own travel expenses and food.

Good old Harry Truman was correct when he observed, "My choices in life were either to be a piano player in a whore house or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference!