Redstate

Posted at 8:39pm on May 23, 2008 Ross McGinnis, KIA at age 19, to receive the Medal of Honor

By Jeff Emanuel

Readers of RedState and Townhall met Private First Class Ross McGinnis on December 27, 2006. Unfortunately, by that time, the 19-year-old had been deceased for just over three weeks.

At that time, the word of McGinnis's heroic final moments in Iraq was just beginning to creep back to the people of the United States. Unfortunately, that word never got much past the "creeping" stage; McGinnis was the Army representative of the four-person profile that I wrote for Memorial Day 2007 entitled, "The Lost Heroes of the War on Terror," and for good reason -- because he, like the others profiled, was still as far from being a household name here in America as he had been before going to Iraq, before fighting for his country and his friends...and before, on December 4, 2006, at the age of 19, voluntarily giving his life to save both by throwing himself on a grenade that had been lobbed into his team's Humvee.

The turret-mounted gunner, had been the one man on the team perfectly positioned to escape with his life. Instead, he chose to send the rest of his teammates home with theirs.

Read on.

Posted in Heroism | War — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:00pm on Oct. 24, 2007 Coming in the Nov 2007 American Spectator: The Exclusive Story of Heroism and Loss against Impossible Odds in Samarra, Iraq

By Jeff Emanuel

The November issue of The American Spectator magazine will feature as its cover story the exclusive recounting of a chilling tale of heroism, courage, and loss one morning in Iraq -- an article by yours truly, which was only made possible by the fact that I was there at the front lines in Iraq (thanks in large part to your help) to cover it.

Here's the skinny:

Six weeks ago in Samarra, as a small American sniper team was set upon by dozens of al Qaeda terrorists who had but one goal in mind: to humiliate America in front of the world, only days before General Petraeus's internationally televised testimony before Congress, by kidnapping and slaughtering these American soldiers.

Four U.S. paratroopers faced impossible odds, against dozens of dedicated enemy fighters.

Not all would survive -- but all would become heroes.

Read on . . .

Posted in embedded reporting | Heroism | Iraq | War — Comments (13) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:17pm on Sep. 14, 2007 Re: Bud Day.

By Jeff Emanuel

There's a reason why the Air Force SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) school is named after Col. Day (photo below featuring yours truly).

Of course, the "support the troops" Left takes his heroism as a reason to bash him all the more -- case in point, the LA Times editorial from earlier this year in which Col. Day (the most decorated living US serviceman) was called "discredited," "unprincipled," and a "right-wing extremist."

Nice support for the troops.

Posted at 10:53pm on Mar. 10, 2007 Go Tell the Spartans…

By BooBooKitty

Go Tell the Spartans… that a tale of bravery and the price of freedom, a film about an innovative culture that birthed democracy will not be looked upon kindly by “progressive” movie critics. But wait, I will get back to the big-city boobs after I give you the low down on Zack Snyder’s rendition of Frank Miller’s graphic novel 300 that chronicles the ancient battle of Thermopylae.

More below the fold...

Posted in Heroism | History | Hollywood | Thermopylae — Comments (32) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:54am on Mar. 10, 2007 LA Times smears America's most highly decorated living serviceman

By Jeff Emanuel

...but it sure does defend John Murtha!

The LA Times, no great speaker of the truth, and no friend of America, has crossed the line. "Columnist" Rosa Brooks, in a fit of continued rage over the 2004 swiftboating* of John "I'll pander to make the whole world love us (except the 38 countries I'm pretending didn't join us on our invasion of Iraq)" Kerry, lashed out at a panel which appeared at CPAC last week to discuss "The Left's Repeated Campaign Against the American Soldier," calling participants "key" members of "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the right-wing goon squad whose defamatory insinuations helped sink John Kerry's presidential campaign."

Her column, "The lunatic right returns," continues:

What's depressing about the reemergence of the Swifties, though, is that it's symbolic of the increasing takeover of the "conservative" movement by unprincipled, right-wing extremists.

Among these "extremists" Ms. Brooks so loathes (and lumps in as a "key discredited Swift boater") is George E. "Bud" Day (pictured at right; perhaps you recognize the medal around his neck). Who is that, you ask? Well, you might remember the name if you were alive during Vietnam, or if you pay any attention whatsoever to military history. But I'll let Jason of the blog Iraq Now take it from here:

Amazing. Here's the Los Angeles Times' vaunted layers of vetting and fact-checking at work for you: Bud Day's not even a swift boater**

Of course, the Los Angeles Times can't be bothered to tell the reader who Bud Day is, and what he's actually done.

So I will.

And he does, posting a portion of the unbelievable service record of Colonel Day, who earned "nearly 70 decorations and awards of which more than 50 [were] for combat" (and one was the Medal of Honor), and whose career included 5,000 flying hours, and combat duty in WWII, in Korea, and in Vietnam. After being shot down in 1967, Day suffered as a POW for 67 months (that's five and one-half years, for the mathematically challenged), with a two week "respite" after escaping from the North Vietnamese, during which, despite serious injury, he evaded the enemy all the way back into South Vietnam, "earning the distinction of being the only prisoner to escape from North Vietnam" - only to be recaptured and imprisoned until March 1973.

Read on . . .

Posted in Anti-war liberals | Heroism | Liberals | Media | Swiftboating — Comments (36) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:13am on Mar. 9, 2007 Meet Rambo

By streiff

With that he whistled his only son, that dropped from a mountain-crest --
He trod the ling like a buck in spring, and he looked like a lance in rest.
"Now here is thy master," Kamal said, "who leads a troop of the Guides,
And thou must ride at his left side as shield on shoulder rides.
Till Death or I cut loose the tie, at camp and board and bed,
Thy life is his -- thy fate it is to guard him with thy head.

Posted in Heroism | War — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Read More »