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Thread: What Honor Looks Like

  1. #11
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    Marine veteran helped dozens escape Orlando shooting...

    Marine Vet Hailed as Hero for Helping Dozens Escape Orlando Shooting
    Jun 15, 2016 | A U.S. Marine Corps veteran is being recognized as a hero for helping dozens of people escape the mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub.
    Imran Yousuf, a 24-year-old Hindu and former Marine who served in Afghanistan, was working as a bouncer at the Pulse nightclub when he heard the familiar sounds of gunfire. "That was a shock. Three or four shots go off and you could just tell it was a high caliber," he told CBS News. "Everyone froze." As patrons raced to flee the gunfire, they packed into the back staff hallway where he was, Yousuf said. He instructed them to open a latch on a nearby door to exit the building, but they froze in a state of panic, he said. "I'm just screaming, 'Open the door! Open the door!' and no one's moving because they were scared," Yousuf told the news organization. "There was only one choice: Either we all stay there and we all die or I could either take the chance and get shot and save everyone else. And I jumped over, opened that latch and we got every one that we can out of there."

    When correspondent Mark Strassmann asked him how many people exited the door, Yousuf estimated between 60 and 70. Strassmann told him he saved a lot of lives. "I wish I could save more, to be honest. There's a lot of people that are dead," he said, his voice breaking. "There's a lot of people that are dead." A total of 49 people were killed in the attack, including Antonio Davon Brown, a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve. Another 53 people were injured in the shooting, several of whom remain hospitalized with serious injuries. The deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history began around 2 a.m. Sunday at the nightclub, which caters to the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender, or LBGT, community, and lasted until around 5 a.m. when a SWAT team raided the building.


    A survivor of the attack was 24-year-old Imran Yousuf, a Marine veteran of Afghanistan and a bouncer at the club, who leaped over a bar during the shooting to unlatch a door and allow dozens to escape.

    The shooting is also the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001, when al-Qaida militants crashed airliners into the World Trade Center in New York City; the Pentagon near Washington, D.C.; and a field in Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people. The gunman was identified as Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, a 29-year-old U.S. citizen and Muslim who lived in Fort Pierce, Florida, and whose parents were of Afghan origin. While he was apparently acting alone, he had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. The FBI has acknowledged Mateen was under surveillance for a time. Yousuf is a native of Schenectady, New York, near the state capital of Albany. After graduating from Niskayuna High School, he served for almost six years in the Marine Corps, from 2010 to 2016, achieving the rank of sergeant, or E-5, according to his service records.

    He served as an engineer equipment electrical systems technician and completed a seven-month tour of duty in Afghanistan in 2011. His last duty assignment was with the 3rd Marine Logistics Group. His awards include the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon (2), Korean Defense Service Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, and NATO Medal, according to his service records. On his Facebook page, Yousuf said the television interview has brought "closure." "It created such closure for me that I believe I am finally able to move on from this and get focused back on my goals and my life," he wrote. "I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for their kind words, prayers and support. It means more than you realize!"

    http://www.military.com/daily-news/2...-shooting.html
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    FBI Eyes Wife of Orlando Shooter as an Accomplice
    Jun 15, 2016 | The FBI is looking into whether jihadi killer Omar Mateen's wife helped him scout out Orlando's Pulse nightclub before the massacre and knew he planned to commit violence, according to published reports.
    Noor Zahi Salman told investigators she had driven Mateen, 29, to Pulse nightclub on prior occasions, and tried to convince him not to go through with the attack, according to NBC News, which cited law enforcement sources. Mateen was killed in a shootout with police early Sunday after killing 49 people and injuring 53, authorities say. A grand jury has now been impaneled to determine whether Salman will be criminally charged in connection with the attack, according to Fox News. As heartbroken victims recalled in grim detail the horror of the slaughter yesterday, investigators continued to gather information on the New York-born Muslim -- and took a close look at his wife, too.

    An official who was briefed on the progress of the case, but insisted on anonymity, said authorities believe Salman knew about Mateen's plot ahead of time but are reluctant to charge her on that basis alone. The investigation also has now extended to Afghanistan, where Mateen's parents were born, and Saudi Arabia, which he visited on pilgrimages in 2011 and 2012, the Los Angeles Times reported. In Washington, President Obama said investigators had no information to suggest a foreign terrorist group directed the attack. Obama said it was increasingly clear Mateen "took in extremist information and propaganda over the internet" and appeared to be "an angry, disturbed, unstable young man who became radicalized."


    Omar Mateen, right, with his wife, Noor Zahi Salman, and their son.

    The president went on to blast presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's anti-Muslim rhetoric as dangerous and contrary to American values while challenging Congress to reinstate the assault weapons ban. Obama also mocked Republicans for urging him to describe the attack as "radical Islam," saying: "If someone seriously thinks we don't know who we're fighting, if there's anyone out there who thinks we're confused about who our enemies are -- that would come as a surprise to the thousands of terrorists we've taken off the battlefield." In the days since the horrific mass shooting, a number of possible explanations and motives for the bloodbath have emerged. Officials say Mateen professed an allegiance to the Islamic State terror group in a 911 call during the attack; his ex-wife said he was mentally ill; and Mateen's father suggested he was driven by a hatred of homosexuals.

    But despite his apparent hatred for gays, several patrons told news networks yesterday they had seen Mateen at the bar prior to the attack -- and some even admitted chatting with him on a gay dating app. Jim Van Horn, 71, told The Associated Press that Mateen was a regular at the bar. "He was a homosexual and he was trying to pick up men," Van Horn said. "He would walk up to them and then he would maybe put his arm around 'em or something and maybe try to get them to dance."

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    Did Islamic State Claim Credit for Latest Attacks Too Soon?
    Jun 15, 2016 | It took just a few hours for the Islamic State group's opportunistic propaganda machine to capitalize on the latest bloodshed in Florida and in France, with messages claiming the two attackers as its own. It may take the group longer to sort through the implications of a killer whose backstory of conflicted sexuality and heavy drinking is at odds with a carefully crafted public image of its fighters.
    But whether the links were direct or merely aspirational, they were enough to thrust IS to the center of the U.S. presidential race and the debate over the role of Islam in the world. They were enough to cause France to re-examine who should be expelled over links to extremism. The group's apocalyptic message is aimed as much at Muslims living in the West as it is at non-Muslims, hoping to persuade an undecided audience to adopt its extremist views -- and reject Western ideals of pluralism and tolerance, preferably with bombs and bullets. Facing defeat on the battlefield, it is taking victories where it can find them.

    The attack on a gay nightclub in Florida by an American-born Muslim during Ramadan and the stabbing of two police officials in France two days later would initially appear to dovetail perfectly with that worldview. Omar Mateen's killing of 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando tapped into deep fears that extremists are lying in wait to prey upon the West at home -- fears that Islamic State fans at every available opportunity. "The uncomfortable reality is that attacks such as the one in Orlando become 'Islamic State attacks' simply because the attackers declare them as such. The validity of their assertions matters less than the consequences of their actions," according to an analysis Tuesday by the Soufan Group security consultancy. "Mateen may have sought to catapult his reputation from that of a homophobic mass-murderer to a 'soldier of the caliphate,' merely by parroting the group's name."

    President Barack Obama said Mateen was inspired by the group's internet propaganda, and during the attack, Mateen called 911 to offer allegiance to Islamic State. "With the tyrants closing the doors of migration, you should open the doors of jihad, and let them regret it," Islamic State spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani said in a message late last month directed to Muslims living in the West. But Mateen's messy life shows the hazards for an extremist group that hinges its credibility on its faith. Pulse customers have described him as a regular at the gay nightclub, someone who drank heavily and could be disruptive when intoxicated. Islamic State has reserved one of its most gruesome methods of killing for suspected gays -- throwing them to their death from rooftops. Alcohol is banned in the group's territory, and anyone caught with it gets whipped, lashed or fined.

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    Last edited by waltky; 06-15-2016 at 11:29 AM.

  2. #12
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    A police officer in PA fought frantically to get two kids out of the back of a vehicle on fire. No dash cams then, witness' said he had to climb half way through the window while the car was on fire, he pulled one child out and went in for the second, he got the second kid but his uniform caught fire, that $#@! polyester goes up like plastic and sticks to you as it burns. He held the child arms extended he passed the child off and fell and just ignited. By the time they put him out the entire top of his body was scorched he couldnt work anymore.

    You come across horrific things on the road.
    LETS GO BRANDON
    F Joe Biden

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    waltky (06-15-2016)

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    Two heroes get due recognition...

    Green Beret Awarded Silver Star for Defending Fallen Comrade
    Jun 18, 2016 | The small team of Army Green Berets riding on all-terrain vehicles had just passed through the village in Afghanistan’s Wardak Province when they ran into a well-planned, enemy ambush. About 25 insurgents armed with AK-47 rifles, PKM machine guns, and RPG-7 rocket propelled grenades opened fire.
    The air around the operational detachment-alpha assigned to 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) exploded with deadly enemy fire. The insurgent force was set up in staggered positions along the ambush line that stretched approximately 180 meters. The ODA's team sergeant, Master Sgt. Danial “Slim” Adams and Sgt. 1st Class Richard "Rich" Harris both got low and gunned their ATVs, attempting to accelerate through the kill zone, according to an account in an Army press release. Almost immediately, Adams took a burst of PKM fire -- suffering wounds to his wrist, thigh and neck – and was thrown from his ATV within meters of the enemy line.

    Harris recalled the area around them suddenly came to life with the sounds and flashes of close gunfire. "My mindset was, 'Holy crap. We're in deep trouble,'" he remembered. "At the time, I didn't know what happened," Harris said. "I just saw him kind of dive off/fall off his ATV." Harris aborted his path and veered up a small hill to take cover between two buildings. Harris, under intense enemy fire, fired his M-4 rifle and grenade launcher at the enemy, all the while calling out to his team sergeant below. Adams died of his wounds on that Sept. 13, 2011, but Harris spent the rest of the battle aggressively attacking the ambushing insurgents while guarding the body of his team sergeant at significant risk to his own life, according to the release.


    Sgt. 1st Class Richard Harris (right) shakes hands with Lt. Gen. Ken Tovo, commander of U.S. Army Special Operations Command, after receiving the Silver Star Medal

    Nearly five years later, Harris' heroic actions from that day were formally recognized when he was presented the Silver Star medal, the nation's third highest award for valor, June 3, 2016. After returning fire, Harris soon found himself the target of concentrated enemy fire. Undaunted, he continued to fight. "That's when an RPG came and just … streamed right up at me," said Harris. The enemy rocket exploded against a wall approximately seven feet behind him, throwing him to the ground and knocking him unconscious. Chief Warrant Officer 2 Bell, who was a sergeant first class at the time, was one of the three operators fighting about 40 meters away. He was preparing to throw a grenade when he happened to look up at Harris' position and witnessed the explosion.

    Bell described his first thoughts as, "I'm pretty sure Rich is dead." The explosion had knocked his radio system earbuds from Harris’ ears, leaving him unable to communicate with his fellow Green Berets. Not knowing when or even if he would get reinforcements, Harris said he had only two priorities: return fire and find Adams. Harris resumed his attack on the enemy line. Harris finally spotted Adams laying face-down approximately 25 meters away. He had been partially dragged by enemy insurgents who had advanced while Harris was unconscious. Harris tried making contact by calling his team sergeant's name, but Adams did not move. Fearing Adams may fall back into the hands of the enemy, Harris had a decision to make.

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    Deputy Helps Save Man From Fiery Wreck
    June 17, 2016 - Dallas County Deputy Paul Lee risked his life to save a man trapped inside a burning car Friday.
    Deputy Paul Lee was only a mile away when the fiery crash occurred around 5:30 a.m. on Interstate 30 near Hampton Road, according to KDFW-TV. Officials said that a speeding Toyota Scion clipped another vehicle before it hit the wall of the highway and rolled four times, landing on its side before it caught fire.


    Driver rescued in fiery crash

    Lee drove up as close as he could, exited out of his patrol car and ran across I-30 to the burning car, when he discovered the driver was trapped inside. He went back to his cruiser for a fire extinguisher and tried to put the fire out and was able to calm the man down and move him to the rear of the vehicle.

    At that point, Dallas firefighters arrived on the scene and were able to help pull the man to safety. "Myself? I'm second. Whoever is in this car is first to me. That's the way we're trained, you know? You go to danger, take care of it," Lee told the news station. The driver was transported to Parkland hospital in serious condition.

    http://www.officer.com/news/12222148...om-fiery-wreck

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    Brazilian-born U.S. Marine Gunnery Sergeant Awarded Medal for Rescue...

    Gunnery Sergeant Awarded Medal for Rescue: 'That's What Marines Do'
    Jun 27, 2016 | A Brazilian-born U.S. Marine who came to this country as a child was awarded a medal for heroism Thursday for saving troops and civilians from a helicopter that crashed in Afghanistan last year.
    "I don't see myself as a hero. I happened to be in the right place at the right time. I happened to be the first person on the scene," said Gunnery Sgt. Geann Pereira, 33, to a gathering at Oakland Park City Hall after a general presented him with Navy and Marine Corps Medal, the ribbon and citation. The place he was talking about was an office where was working at Camp Resolute Support in Kabul -- and the time was the afternoon of Oct. 11. A British Puma helicopter carrying multinational passengers as part of a NATO mission crashed as it came in for a landing. Pereira grabbed some gear, got there first.

    Five people on board were killed, including two American airmen, two British troops and a French contractor. But Pereira crawled through the wreckage for hours, at times with fuel sloshing around, to pull people from the aircraft, both dead and alive. "Instincts took over" the Marine told the small gathering, after a formal reading of the medal citation described him as using bolt cutters to cut his way through the wrecked airframe, and tunneling his way inside again and again. At one point, the citation said, he spent nearly an hour with one trapped, wounded passenger, "stabilizing him and trying to free him from the wreckage while the fire department attempted to cut through the skin of the helicopter."


    Navy and Marine Corps Medal

    Said Pereira: "I just happened to be the little guy inside the helicopter pulling people out... There were Marines, sailors, airmen, Army, coalition forces out there -- and we all came together with one common cause, just to save peoples lives that day. And everyone did a phenomenal job." None of the survivors were at the ceremony. But Pereira said in an interview later that, after a Marine Times article reported about the decoration, an Air Force officer who was on board friended him on Facebook. Pereira, who lives in Coral Springs, currently serves with a Fort Lauderdale unit that supervises Marines who guard U.S. embassies and consulates in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America.

    His boss, Lt. Col. Zachary Schmidt, called the medal ceremony -- which brought together Broward police, fellow office mates, family and civilians -- a celebration of a man who, "faced with the sights and sounds of people in trouble, ran to it." His wife, mother, aunt, daughter and 6-month-old son were on hand for the occasion, as honored guests. And in his brief remarks Pereira described the Corps as family, too. "When people are in harm's way, when people are asking for help, we step up to the plate," he said. "That's what Marines do."

    Marine Brig. Gen. Kevin Iiams, commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces South, presided at the event, which presented Pereira with the blue, gold and red ribbon -- described as the highest noncombat decoration for heroism in the Marine Corps today. Pereira displayed "character" on a "tragic day," the general said, something that most people "pray that we would have the courage to do." The citation honored the gunnery sergeant's "bold leadership, wise judgment and selfless dedication to duty." Afghanistan was Pereira's second overseas tour of duty for the Marine whose assignment is as an administrative specialist. His first was in Iraq in 2008. He came to the United States at age 10 in 1993, grew up on Martha's Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast, and enlisted eight years later.

    http://www.military.com/daily-news/2...arines-do.html
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    Vietnam War Captain Recalls Trick that Faked Out Enemy
    Jun 25, 2016 | Army Capt. Paul "Buddy" Bucha faked out the enemy while leading his troops during the Vietnam War.
    The Medal of Honor recipient was hailed as a hero after he made North Vietnamese fighters believe his 187th Infantry Regiment was much bigger than it really was. The combination of bravery and cunning helped him earn the nation's highest military honor, an award bestowed upon him by the president. On March 16, 1968, soon after the Tet Offensive, Bucha's 89-man company took part in a counterattack designed to push the North Vietnamese away from Saigon. A helicopter dropped his team into an enemy stronghold, and for two days they destroyed camps and fortifications. On March 18, after they found a clearing and resupplied, Bucha directed his troops to push into the jungle, where it was getting dark. A soldier spotted a group of Vietnamese water carriers and women, which usually indicated an established enemy location. Bucha gave him permission to fire a few rounds to test what was out there. "The entire mountain returned fire.... I said, 'Oh, my God,'" Bucha recalled.

    An entire North Vietnamese Army battalion hit Bucha's unit with heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and Claymore mines, pinning down the lead group of 12 Americans. The Viet Cong had a machine gunner at ground level and a fighter with an automatic weapon up in a tree, and "I figured the easiest thing to do was to just blow the tree up," Bucha said. "I just ... started throwing hand grenades," he said. "When the weapons stopped, I looked around and no one was firing at me. There was a calm, and I'm not sure if the calm was in my mind or if it was actual calm." Bucha ordered his troops to withdraw to a more defensible position, and for the next several hours they were in a fierce firefight. He feared his group would be overrun, and a dark thought crept into his mind: "What a hellhole to die in."


    Medal of Honor recipient Paul Bucha was hailed as a hero after he made the enemy believe the 187th Infantry Regiment was much bigger than it really was.

    He decided to give every soldier a number, and when he called out a number over the radio, the soldier who'd been assigned that number would throw grenades from his position, giving the illusion of a much bigger force. An Australian pilot came over the radio and offered to drop two 750-pound bombs, and Bucha asked him to level a couple of nearby hills. He did, and the bombs rocked the soldiers. "We bounced ... and when I turned around, my men were all laughing, and I started laughing, and we realized we're not in this alone," he said. "[I thought] we might make it." A U.S. helicopter finally arrived, and Bucha directed the evacuation of the wounded. When the enemy withdrew the next morning, he learned that his team had killed more than 150 North Vietnamese. But 10 Americans in his platoon had also died.

    When he learned he would receive the Medal of Honor, Bucha told a sergeant, "I don't deserve it." But the sergeant convinced him he would wear the medal on behalf of his men, and on May 14, 1970, Bucha accepted the award from President Richard Nixon.Still, Bucha said, "Every day of my life, I think back to what I could have done better that night ... to bring those 10 [Americans] home." Today, Bucha makes speeches to military groups, including at his alma mater, West Point. "I try to go somewhere one day a week, 52 times a year, to where troops are.... When I see them and listen to them, I come away grateful ... for the privilege to be among them," he said.

    http://www.military.com/daily-news/2...out-enemy.html

  6. #15
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    Giving credit where credit is due...

    Officer Lauded for Protecting Photographer
    July 11, 2016 - Dallas Police Officer James Dylan Smith is being hailed a hero for protecting a photographer who became stranded in Dallas' West End after the first shots were fired Thursday night.
    A 25-year-old Dallas police officer is being hailed a hero for protecting a photographer who became stranded in Dallas' West End after the first shots were fired Thursday night. Officer James Dylan Smith's bravery, in Dallas' darkest hours, is captured in a set of photos that has gone viral on social media. At first, most of the people who saw and shared his photo didn't know his name. Neither did Robert Moore, the photographer and former publisher of the Dallas Voice. "I don't know his name, but I won't forget him," Moore wrote in his caption for the photos. They show Smith crouching behind a car with a shotgun in his hand. The officer's face is covered in sweat and his brows are raised. "That photo is not technically perfect. But emotionally, it's there," Moore said. Smith's family did not respond to The News' request for comment on Saturday.

    Ashley Boling, a family friend, said Smith grew up in Rowlett and has been on the Dallas police force for only a few years. His teenage sister was at Boling's apartment in downtown Dallas at the time of the shooting, unaware that her brother was under fire with his fellow officers, Boling said. "We just knew that he was going to be OK," Boling said. By Friday night, Smith had become a social media sensation. Moore, who was photographing Thursday night's rally, took cover behind cars after the shots rang out about 8:40 p.m. Officers rushed toward the pops, and Moore wanted to get away.

    But police cordoned off the area and weren't letting people in or out. They weren't sure who was shooting or where the shots were coming from. "Automatic fire, automatic fire," the officers shouted at each other. They told Moore and other civilians to "get small" and stay down. The photographer suggested ways he could get to his condo a few blocks away, but Smith urged him to stay put. "You cannot get into the open, sir," said Smith, holding a shotgun, his eyes fixed on the street. Moore, whose brother is the chief of police in Hurst, photographed the officer while he waited for permission to leave. "I am shoulder to shoulder with somebody who is calm, who is collected," Moore said, referring to Smith. "He's on. He's very much professional." Moore got the OK to leave after two hours of crouching behind a car. But he didn't have to do it alone. Smith shielded Moore by standing in front of him, shotgun still in hand, as they walked about a half block to the edge of the police perimeter.

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    Woman Shielded by Officers Thanks Police
    July 11, 2016 | Shetamia Taylor -- one of two civilians injured in the attack that claimed the lives of five police officers -- recounted the terror she and her sons felt at a tearful press conference at Baylor University Medical Center on Sunday.
    Shetamia Taylor wanted her four sons to experience a peaceful march. That’s why she had brought them to downtown Dallas on Thursday to take part in the Black Lives Matter protest. They were headed to their car to beat the traffic back to their home in Garland and were about to cross the street near Belo Garden when the shooting began. First one shot, then a second. Wounded and falling to the ground, a tall, hefty, white police officer yelled: “He has a gun. Run!” The crowd scattered. In the pandemonium, Taylor told her sons to run ahead of her. The 38-year-old mother, one of two civilians injured in last week’s shooting, recounted the terror she and her sons felt at a tearful press conference at Baylor University Medical Center on Sunday.


    Shetamia Taylor, far right, tears up while describing the accounts of Thursday's attack that killed five police officers and wounded seven others, including herself, during a press conference at Baylor Scott & White Health Center in Dallas on July 10.

    She felt something tear through the back of her right calf and exit her shin. A bullet. Her son, Andrew, turned around to grab her. She tackled him. They lay between a parked car and the street curb. An officer jumped on mother and son. "There was another [officer] at our feet, and another over our head," she recalled. "Several of them lined against a wall and stayed there with us." She remembered mostly white officers protecting her and Andrew. More shots, and another officer fell. "I'd never been in a situation like that before," she said. "It was just hundreds of rounds. I've never heard anything like that before. It was just shots all around." As the shooting continued, Andrew, 15, lifted his head. Taylor pushed him back down. She didn't want him to see her bleeding.

    She watched her son, Kavion, 18, grab her 12-year-old, Jermar. The two brothers sought protection near the entryway of a parking garage. An officer yelled at Kavion: "Go! I'll cover you!" The boys followed the crowd toward Union Station. Taylor's fourth son, Jajuan, 14, had followed his mother's orders: To run. He became separated from his family. On the street, he sought the help of a stranger with her family. He asked her what to do. "Just get to safety," the woman said. "Can I come with you?" Jajuan asked. "I don't know Dallas." The woman's name was Angie Wisner. The Oak Cliff woman was with her cousin's wife and their three kids. They and Jajuan managed to stay at the apartment of a Good Samaritan, near Main and Field. There, Jajuan stayed until a cousin picked him up. Near Belo Garden, police officers put Taylor and Andrew into a police car riddled with bullets. The tires were flat, down to the rims. They sped toward Baylor. At the ER, Taylor saw a fallen officer being carried in on a gurney.

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    Texas Trooper, Deputy Help Deliver Baby
    July 12, 2016 - Texas State Trooper Dylan Duke was assisting Grimes County Sheriff’s Deputy Steven Siracusa in a routine traffic stop around Saturday night when they heard a dispatch that a woman was in labor at a Shell gas station.
    It has been a dark and difficult week in Texas, especially for the brave men and women who wear the badge. So this good news really delivers at the right time. Texas State Trooper Dylan Duke was assisting Grimes County Sheriff’s Deputy Steven Siracusa in a routine traffic stop around 7 p.m. Saturday when they heard a dispatch that a woman was in labor at a Shell gas station in nearby Navasota, a town about 25 minutes southeast of College Station. An ambulance was enroute, but they were closer.


    Trooper Dylan Duke, left, and Grimes County Sheriff’s Deputy Steven Siracusa

    So Duke and Siracusa dashed over to the parking lot to help. They made sure the woman was comfortable in the backseat and they called nearby St. Joseph’s hospital, where staff members helped walk them through the steps of delivering the baby. Oscar Jr. was born at 7:19 p.m., healthy and loud, the officers said. Soon after, an ambulance arrived and took the family to the hospital. DPS posted the story on Facebook on Monday, and it was flooded with positive comments.

    Duke told KBTX in College Station he was nervous about delivering a baby, but he had been trained at the academy on the procedure and he said those skills kicked in. He also said the timing of this happy-ending story couldn’t be better, as the police community continues to grieve for the five officers killed in an ambush-style shooting in Dallas on Thursday. “This was a light to the darkness that's been going on recently,” Duke said, “so this is definitely something that we needed.”

    http://www.officer.com/news/12231313...p-deliver-baby

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    Hats off to Rome police...

    Rome police cook pasta for elderly couple crying in apartment
    Monday, August 8, 2016 - For this elderly Italian couple, a visit from the police ended in a plate of spaghetti.
    Last week, officers responded to an apartment complex in Rome after neighbors reported loud crying from one of the residences. Police found Jole, 84, and Michele, 94, alone in their apartment crying at the news after Jole asked why everything was so negative.

    The couple, who’ve been married almost 70 years, told officers that they rarely had visitors and police wrote on Facebook that the kitchen table had just a few old grapes and no semblance of a real meal. So, after calling an ambulance to check on the husband and wife, the officers cooked Jole and Michele dinner: spaghetti with butter and parmesan.

    “There is not a crime. Jole and Michele are not victims of scams and no thief entered the house — there is no one to save,” the police force wrote on Facebook. "This time, for the boys, there is a more daunting task — two lonely souls who need reassuring. They understand that just a little human warmth will restore tranquility to Jole and Michele."

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/worl...icle-1.2742673

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    Peter1469 (08-09-2016)

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    Giving credit where credit is due...

    Officer Helps Boy Trying to Sell Toy for Food
    August 13, 2016 - Franklin Police Officer Steve Dunham found a 7-year-old boy Sunday afternoon in front of a CVS store at Second and Main streets trying to sell his stuffed animal.
    "Serve and protect" took on a new meaning recently in Franklin. Officer Steve Dunham found a 7-year-old boy Sunday afternoon in front of a CVS store at Second and Main streets trying to sell his stuffed animal. Police had responded to the scene after dispatchers were contacted by a resident. The boy told Dunham he hadn't eaten in several days. So the police officer took the boy across the street to a Subway restaurant, where he bought him something to eat before taking him to the police station.

    Two other officers, Amanda Myers and Kyle O'Neal, went to the child's home on Main Street, where they reported finding the boy's two siblings living in a home full of garbage, cat urine and liquor bottles. In her initial report, Myers wrote that the parents created "a substantial risk of health and safety by neglecting the cleanliness in the residence, having a large amount of bugs and spoiled food throughout the residence, not having properly prepared and packaged food for the minor children to eat, and allowing a 7-year-old child to wander from the residence without their permission or knowledge, in an attempt to locate food."


    Officer Helps Boy Trying to Sell Toy for Food

    According to the police report, Tammy and Michael Bethel told police they had a 7-year-old son and did not realize he was not in the house. Warren County Children Services did an emergency removal of all five of the Bethel's children and placed them with relatives. Judge Rupert Ruppert ordered that the parents were not to have any contact with their children. Tammy and Michael Bethel are charged with five counts each of child endangering, all first-degree misdemeanors.

    Both parents were arraigned Tuesday in Franklin Municipal Court and have pre-trial hearings set for Sept. 16. "Officers see this nationwide everyday and they do go above and beyond to feed homeless, feed children ... they treat people like their own family," said Police Chief Russell Whitman. "You can look at your local police departments wherever you're at and you can find stories like this." There have been 11 child neglect reports filed in 2016 with three that warranted investigation in Franklin, according to Whitman. The other eight were unfounded, he said.

    http://www.officer.com/news/12244311...l-toy-for-food
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    Chicago Officer Helps Save Wounded Boy
    August 11, 2016 - Sgt. Bryan Topczewski responded to a call of a child shot on Monday night and found 10-year-old Tavon Tanner lying face down inside a house with blood coming from his nose and mouth.
    The end of a busy shift approached. Three people had been killed in two hours in the Harrison District on the West Side Monday night. Sgt. Bryan Topczewski left the scene of the second homicide and was headed back to the station, an easy ride down Jackson Boulevard east toward Kedzie Avenue. "I was heading into the station to finish up reports, start approving reports, just administrative stuff with everything that was going on last night, everything kinda got pushed aside," Topczewski said. As he approached Independence Boulevard shortly after 10 p.m., a dispatcher calmly read out a new job: "All right units in 011 ... now getting a person shot at thirty-nine forty-five Polk, 3-9-4-5 Polk, cellphone caller says her child's been shot with no further information, 11th District."

    The call was less than two blocks west of the boulevard. "Put it on my box," the sergeant radioed, telling the dispatcher he was responding. "As a parent, you don't like to hear a kid shot. It is what it is out here, but this is a kid," Topczewski said. "So I raced over there, found the address." The street was empty when he turned from Independence. It wasn't like other scenes that can be chaotic, with people waving down officers and pointing toward the victims. Nobody was out. The sergeant parked in front. The door was open a little. The child, 10-year-old Tavon Tanner, was lying face down inside the house, blood coming from his nose and mouth. Topczewski radioed in. The dispatcher didn't hear him at first and asked him to repeat himself. "Is EMS rolling?" "It does look like Ambulance 64 is en route." The dispatcher asked for more information, trying to see if this was related to a shots-fired call a few minutes earlier a few blocks away.


    Chicago Officer Helps Save Wounded Boy

    Tavon had been playing on his porch when someone on the street fired at least nine shots. He collapsed as he followed his mother through the front door. When Topczewski arrived, Tavon's twin sister was holding the boy's hand and telling him, "Twin don't leave me, twin don't leave me," according to her family. Tavon kept beating the floor with his hands, then went limp. "I see the little guy lying on the floor," Topczewski said. "That's when I go out and grab my pack and start rendering aid." The boy's mother and twin sister were crying as the sergeant kept asking, "Where's the wound? Where's the wound?" They started taking the boy's clothes off and found a gunshot wound at the small of his back, "right next to his spinal cord," Topczewski said.

    He radioed in again. "Bona fide, we got a little kid shot over here. . . . Keep the street clear over here." A woman can be heard screaming in the background of the radio call. "Keep the street clear." Another officer came on the radio. "Younger child, no offender info . . . One lower, gunshot wound lower back." Topczewski said he applied pressure to the wound, covering it with a compression bandage. Paramedics arrived within a few minutes, scooped up the boy and rushed him to Mount Sinai Hospital. Topczewski stepped outside. "We tried to find the crime scene, trying to estimate . . . where was he when he got shot. So once we figured where he got shot, we tried to visualize where those came from."

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    To protect and serve. Thank you.

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    The misery and human wreckage that many officers see on a daily basis would flat-out paralyze the average human being. They see the chance to do something to help an individual or family, above and beyond the call of their normal duties, as an opportunity rather than a burden. It makes what they see and can't do anything about more bearable.
    Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing.” - Robert E. Howard

    "Only a rank degenerate would drive 1,500 miles across Texas and not eat a chicken fried steak." - Larry McMurtry

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    Cool

    Dying Marine Gets His Wish...

    Marine Gets His Dying Wish: A Uniform To Be Buried In
    Aug 18, 2016 | Normand Dupras sat at the Dighton Nursing Center, amazed to hear from his granddaughter, Dona Silva, that a group of people was there to see him. "We've got a surprise for you," Silva told him Wednesday.
    That's when Glenn Dusablon, of the Veterans Memorial Museum, in Woonsocket, presented Dupras with a full Marine Corps dress uniform, including the white hat, belt and gloves. "I love this," Dupras said, looking over each item. Dupras, of Swansea, Massachusetts, a former reserve police officer in that town, served in the Korean War. At 86, and now suffering from dementia, it was his dying wish a few years back to be buried in the uniform, he said. Asked what happened to his former uniform, Dupras said he did not know, but believes it was taken at a hospital. "I got wounded in action," he said, when a grenade sent shrapnel into his back. Dupras received the Purple Heart. "It brings back some memories, believe me," Dupras said, both good and bad. "I was in there when it was really hot."

    Asked why his dying wish was to be buried in the uniform, Dupras said, "I fought for it," and added, "that's the only Marine uniform I have." Before long, Dupras was wearing the hat and, with the help of Dusablon, slipped into the jacket. Smiling widely, he saluted and then put both of his thumbs up. "Very spiffy!" Dusablon said. Getting the uniform was a challenge of its own. Silva got in touch with her cousin, Melinda Grocott, of Exeter, who said she enlisted the help of her boyfriend, Rodney Santos, who served in the Navy during the Persian Gulf war and now works for the Department of Defense. All started making calls.


    Eventually, a volunteer at the VA Medical Center in Rhode Island heard from the family and called Dusablon. "You can't ignore a request like that," Dusablon said. In November, Dusablon opened the Veterans Memorial Museum, and is now raising money for an elevator so that more veterans can visit. There, he has amassed not only uniforms but also the equipment soldiers used from the Revolutionary War to the present day. The family hoped he had a Marine Corps uniform to spare.

    After he received the measurements from the family (which were a little too large), he realized none was the right size. He then purchased a uniform for about $400 out of his own pocket, and raised money for reimbursement. People from as far away as Florida sent money, he said, many of them veterans themselves. "That's all we are about," Dusablon said. "Preserving the history and honoring the service." Grocott, who was on hand and snapped pictures of the happy event, wiped away tears. "We have to take care of our veterans," she said. "Without them, we have nothing."

    http://www.military.com/daily-news/2...be-buried.html
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    Retired Pennsylvania Marine Seeks Return of Fallen Comrades
    Aug 19, 2016 — Ed "Zimmo" Zimmerman Thursday returned from Vietnam for the third — and hopefully — last time. Zimmerman served with the U.S. Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, having spent 13 months "in country" and participating in some 26 battles during a 13-month tour in 1968-69.
    In 2014, he guided a group of U.S. Military personnel to the exact spot where he last saw two fallen Marines after the 73-day siege at Khe Sanh in April, 1968. Those two Marines — Pfc. Anthony John (Tony) Pepper, 20, of Richmond, Virginia, and Cpl. James Mitchell Trimble, 19, of Eureka, California — were never recovered and never returned home to their families. On Thursday, Zimmerman again returned from Vietnam to a waiting crowd of family and friends after helping a U.S. Military Search Team locate the site where the Marines were left behind.

    Zimmerman said he had no problem directing the U.S. government's Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, or JPAC, search team to the exact spot where he last saw Pepper and Trimble. The search team will now begin excavating the site for up to 30 days to locate the remains of the two soldiers. "They want to find them as much as I do," Zimmerman said of the search team members. "They'll do whatever it takes." The 67-year-old Bear Creek resident, who formerly resided in Edwardsville, left Aug. 10 for Vietnam to assist the recovery effort to search and, hopefully, recover the remains of his two Marine "brothers." As Zimmerman walked slowly through the terminal at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport Thursday, his wife, Cathy, their three daughters, Lori Kosierowski, Leah O'Boyle and Nadine Burney, his grandchildren and several friends waited with open arms. "Welcome back, Marine," said Don Wilmot, of Sterling, a fellow Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam.


    Zimmerman appeared a little weary from the long plane ride and the emotional experience of having the opportunity to get closer to finding Pepper and Trimble, ending a nine-year ordeal during which he managed to convince the U.S. military to undertake the search. "It's really been a journey," he said as his family took turns hugging him. "It's been a non-stop whirlwind from the time I left." Zimmerman was a 19-year-old Marine helping his unit clean up after a battle at Khe Sanh, South Vietnam, on April 6, 1968. A member of F Company, 2nd Battalion of the 26th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, he was with his unit when he saw the bodies of the two Marines in a ravine. They were members of G Company, the other unit in the battle at Khe Sanh. The image of the two Marines lying in that ravine has been with Zimmerman since 1968, and it heightened in 2009 when he learned their bodies had never been recovered. Since then, he has devoted much of his life to convincing the government and the military to return to the site to search for their remains.

    Zimmerman said he has had many restless, sleepless nights and plenty of nightmares over the years. Finding the two Marines will bring peace to him and closure to the families of the two soldiers. "I'm still trying to filter it all," he said. "While I was there, a lot of memories came back to me." Wilmot reminded Zimmerman of the 58,000 Americans killed in Vietnam. "They only got a one-way ticket," Wilmot said. Zimmerman will be notified when the remains of the two Marines are found. He plans to attend their burial at Arlington National Cemetery. The families of Pepper and Trimble have been supportive in his efforts and keep in touch with him. He wishes he could have stayed in Vietnam to aid the search. "They wouldn't let me dig," he said. "I've done all I could. It's up to the search team now."

    http://www.military.com/daily-news/2...-comrades.html

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