WE WILL NEVER FORGET

Today marks the anniversary of the attacks by cowards on the twin towers and the pentagon. We will not forget that over 3000 of our fellow citizens, regardless of their politics, died at the hands of the terrorists hell bent on the destruction of America.

They do not care about politics, nor do they care to make peace with us, they want nothing more than to see our destruction.



Today we remember the tragedy. Today we relive the pain. Today we are reminded why our soldiers are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. We took the fight to them so we don't have to fight them here.

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It was 7 years ago, I was getting ready for work and had the TV on for noise as I got dressed. I heard a snippet, and it sent chills down my spine...the newscaster said that there has been a plane crash in New York, and reports were that it hit a building.

I turned around expecting to see a plane crash, and my heart sunk when I saw the smoke and realised, it was the World Trade Center.

I sat on my sofa and just watched.

My jaw open...my heart breaking...disbelief at what I was watching.

As I listened to the news they started talking about possibilities...was it a navigation error? Was it an accident? Was the equipment at a nearby airport malfunctioning. I thought of the movie Die Hard, was it a similar situation where someone has messed with the electronic equipment? Wierd thoughts.

Then abject horror as a I watched the 2nd plane fly into the South Tower.

I had to process that.

Did I really just see what I think I just saw?

The news caster droned on and I was screaming, look at the monitor you bitch!

Then the male came on, and said that a 2nd plane hit the towers.

At this point they rewound and it confirmed what I had just thought I saw.

Tears came fast and furious and I was desperate, I realised what happened, someone purposely rammed 2 planes into the towers. Who could do this? Why?

I was on my knees at this point. Praying to God that his will be done. Praying for the people who I knew would be trapped, hoping they got most of them out.

Phone rings...its my mom. "Dennis, are you watching this?" Her voice is shaking.

"yes Mom, I don't believe it but I see it"

Nothing more is said and somewhere at some time we hung up the phone.

It was time to go to work, I was already late. I get to the office, and the mood is somber, everyone is quiet and watching the tv in the break room. I take my place and we all just watch, not a word is spoken.

The day is a blur from that point on, I did my job, but it was mechanical. My passion wasn't there, it was gone.

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Today as I sit and write this, everything is in full color.

I will not forget, the memory of those who died on 9/11/2001 lives on.

We will never forget

Farewell American Hero

Tucsonan, 20, killed on his last day in Iraq
By Carol Ann Alaimo
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.06.2007

There is never a good time to lose a loved one at war, but for the family of Army Spc. Alan McPeek, fate seemed especially cruel.

The 20-year-old Tucsonan was killed in action Friday on his last day in Iraq — which also happened to be his mother's birthday.

McPeek's family had been planning his welcome home party when word came that the young combat engineer, and the replacement he'd been training, died together in Ramadi last Friday, hit by enemy forces with small-arms fire.

"It hurts so bad," the soldier's mother, 42-year-old Navy veteran Rose Doyle, said late Monday, shortly after the Defense Department announced the deaths.

"I would like for our elected people to stop talking and stop debating, and do something, please, do something. Because it's getting worse over there, and my son saw that it was getting worse," she said.

McPeek, a 2004 graduate of Mountain View High School, was the 27th service member with Southern Arizona ties to be claimed by the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He was the fifth former Mountain View student felled, a sad distinction for the local high school that has seen more war casualties than any other.

Since the weekend, friends and relatives have been converging on the family's Northwest Side home, many travelling from out of town to show their support.

"This is so devastating that, without them, I just don't know what we'd do," Doyle said.

"We're just kind of stunned by this whole thing," added her husband, Kevin Doyle.
Kevin Doyle said McPeek enlisted at age 17 because "he decided he didn't like what was going on over there and he wanted to make a difference."

Asked if McPeek felt he had made a difference, family members said it was hard for the soldier to think so, since he'd spent most of his time at an outpost near Ramadi that was such a hotbed of insurgent activity it had once been used as an al-Qaida hideout.

"He was in a very dangerous place," Kevin Doyle said. "He didn't see a lot of good happening there. He saw a lot of bad things going on."

McPeek was assigned to the 16th Engineer Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, at Giessen, Germany.

In his high school years, he may have seemed an unlikely candidate for the regimentation of military life. McPeek was a nonconformist given to flamboyant self-expression, family members said.

"He probably went through three different hair colors, and the styles went from long to spiky. One time it was gold, another time it was almost pure white.

"At his going away party, his friends and family took turns cutting off locks of his hair, getting him ready for his first buzz cut," Kevin Doyle recalled.

But the Army seemed to agree with McPeek in many ways, and he was about to be promoted to sergeant when he died, family members said.

McPeek worked at an Eegees on the Northwest Side during high school, and was involved in Pop Warner football for several years, they said.

"He had hundreds and hundreds of friends. He was just loved by everybody," Kevin Doyle said. "He was a joker. He always had a smile on his face."

Many were pals from his Mountain View days, Kevin Doyle said in a posting on McPeek's page on myspace.com.

"Every time he was home it was like a Mountain View reunion. Many of you have been in our home, and it was always very clear to me that he had chosen good kids to be friends with. You all are the reason he so wanted to get the hell out of Iraq," he wrote in a message to the fallen soldier's friends.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete, but McPeek will be laid to rest in Tucson, where he had lived since age 2, his family said. He was born in Hawaii while his mother served in the Navy there. He has a 13-year-old sister.

"We were offered the choice of a burial at Arlington National Cemetery," Kevin Doyle said. "But we chose to bring him home."
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A sad story to be sure, but this man is an American hero...and his memory will live on as one who died fighting for freedom and democracy. I salute you sir, may you rest in peace and God receive you in heaven with Glory and Triumph! Let not your death be in vain, may God favor your brothers in arms to finish the tough job we started.

Farewell American Hero

From Arizona Daily Star:

Farewell to able noncom 'walking with God now'

By Stephanie Innes
Arizona Daily Star

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.01.2007

Walking away from the grave where his younger brother was about to be lowered into the ground, 40-year-old Christopher Michael Borea wiped away tears and took off the green camouflage U.S. Army jacket he'd been wearing.

"I'm not worthy," he said, explaining it had been a gift from his brother. "My brother was a better man than me. He's walking with God now."

Borea's brother, Army Sgt. 1st Class Russell P. Borea, died Jan. 19 in the Mosul area of Iraq when an improvised explosive device detonated during combat. More than 200 friends and family members said goodbye to him Wednesday at East Lawn Palms Mortuary and Cemetery in Midtown.

The 38-year-old Catalina High School graduate was the 24th person with Southern Arizona ties to be claimed by the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan; two more have died since. Borea had been in Iraq since November with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, from Fort Bliss, Texas.

Members of the Fort Huachuca honor guard lined the entrance to the chapel where the services were held. Outside, members of the local Patriot Guard Riders held up U.S. flags.

"I can never repay Russell and all the members of our military who have given their lives so that I can walk freely," family friend Jim Bridges said during the service, urging Borea's relatives to hold their heads high and remember him as a hero.

Staff Sgt. Enrique Torres, a member of Borea's unit at Fort Bliss, said the lesson Borea taught fellow soldiers was to appreciate time spent with family. He said members of his unit characterized Borea as one of the most knowledgeable sergeants they'd encountered.

"He will forever be in my heart and part of my greatest memories," Torres said before walking to the front of the chapel and saluting Borea's flag-draped coffin.

Fort Huachuca Gen. Carroll Pollett put Borea's identification tags around the neck of Borea's 10-year-old daughter, Marialena, and then saluted her. Army members presented Borea's widow, Maria, with her husband's Bronze Star and a Combat Infantryman Badge.

As the skies darkened and the wind picked up after midday, mourners gathered around Borea's burial site in the cemetery's veterans section. A Fort Huachuca bugler played taps, and the honor guard fired a salute — sounds of freedom, Army chaplain Steven M. Jones said. He told mourners to celebrate a life that was well-lived and spent in service to Christ and to a "grateful nation."

Before Borea's casket was lowered into the ground, his relatives paid their last respects. Several kissed the casket.

Borea was born in Connecticut to a family that moved to Tucson when he was young. His father was killed by a drunken driver three years ago, which has made coping with Borea's death particularly difficult, said Christopher Borea, who lives in Phoenix. Their mother, Gertrude, lives in Las Vegas.

After high school, Borea spent several years in civilian jobs, including a stint as a manager of a local pizza parlor. He met his future wife in Tucson and joined the Army shortly before the couple wed in 1995.

Borea and his wife, who also goes by her middle name, Nikki, had a home in El Paso near Fort Bliss.

Borea was one of six children — four boys and two girls, Christopher Borea said. Just 11 months apart in age, the brothers played basketball and football together as high schoolers. Christopher was the wild one, he said, and Russell was more conventional.

"I'm the one who was 15 minutes late. He was always 15 minutes early," Christopher Borea said.

Christopher Borea said after they celebrated Russell Borea's birthday in Las Vegas last year, his brother gave him the Army jacket, knowing he'd be in Iraq for a year.

"I think he knew he wasn't coming back," Christopher Borea said. "I'm bitter, but I shouldn't be. He wanted to serve his country, and he did what God told him to do."

Senator DeMint on the resolution to withold a troop surge

HT To Flopping Aces



Senator DeMint puts it very succintly and calls the resolution what it is, "This resolution is a resolution of defeat and disgrace" DeMint gets it, what the hell is wrong with the other Senators that they do not? Are they really that STUPID?

Not only is this resolution being supported by the liberal idiots known as Kerry and Kennedy, but some RINOs have jumped on board to throw their support behind it. Senators Hagel, Warner, Collins, Smith, Voinovich and Brownback all have thrown their voice of support. These people are idiots first class and need to be called on this.

When are the American people going to WAKE UP and see what the hell is REALLY going on in Congress? When are the American people going to PAY ATTENTION to the truth?

Just remember, YOU VOTED FOR IT AMERICA. Congratulations