2/3 Marines

Please pray for the 2/3 Marines currently deployed to Karmah, Iraq. They lost three of their brothers and two interpreters in a suicide bombing yesterday. Iraqi community and tribal leaders who were working with U.S. forces to better the area were also killed.

When you can, offer a prayer or kind words. This battalion took the place of the 3/3 Marines we supported who were in Karmah in the fall and winter of last year and the early spring of this one. Article

Tips for dealing with the VA

For those on Active duty now in bad places where you might get hurt:

If you get hurt in a war zone...any kind of hurt...make sure you get it documented and KEEP A COPY OF THE PAPERWORK! Don't trust clerks to keep anything in your file...keep a copy yourself. Also: Get sworn statements from others with you when you got hurt...no matter how stupid the hurt is.
Don't assume that even if you get really hurt that the paperwork will keep up with you. If you can't take care of the paperwork (like you got blown up and knocked out and wake up in Germany) make a deal with your battle buddy, or supervisor etc that they will gather the paperwork and sworn statements and send them to you.

Why? Because someday you'll have to deal with the VA with your injury. Now, don't get me wrong...the VA has a few good, dedicated, hard working people. That's the problem...they only have a few people. They have not added enough staff (medical and clerk types) to keep up with the injuries coming in from Iraq, etc.

If you go to the VA for what you think was a War service injury, make sure you tell them that and they write it down (that it's a war injury). Why? Because if some clerk messes up later, you'll get a bill from the VA for a lot of money. Trust me on this. If the current knuckelheads in power put one tenth the money they spend in Iraq in a month into the VA medical system...they would double what it gets now. The VA medical (and educational) system is so short of money and staff, they are bound to make mistakes.

If you try to get a disability from the VA for a war injury, you'll need all the paper work I told you about above. Trust me on this shit... It took me several phone calls to the VA to get them to stop sending me a bill for getting treated for my little bo-bo. (it wasn't anything like a purple heart, so it wasn't that big of a deal...but I'm never going to be the same.)

Another post from the Major aka Letter from an Insurgent

Comments and thoughts from http://www.onemarinesview.com/

· "Eighteen American soldiers died in May, the lowest total of the war and an 86 percent drop from the 126 who died in May 2007."

· It will be an interesting campaign if the Dems continue to pull the get out of Iraq because we are losing schpeel - - just wonder if any journalist will have the guts to say, "Um, excuse me, last we checked, we're winning."

· The surge didn't work in Iraq…………….no really, they said that, or should I say continue to say that.

Local Sheiks in our area have continued to tell of stories about how life was with Al-Qaida present. The evil that existed and now, its not a new way of life, it's a new era. Economy growing, shops opening, insurgents are now the outcast, not the shop owner, not the Iraqi Policeman, the insurgents. I remember how it was on my previous deployments; it was not a good way of life for any of the above, except for the enemy. Now things are back in the peoples hands. Why can't some Americans see this? Why can't they see the growth of the Iraq's, their leadership taking steps, their cohesion? May be those that deny it see it but ignore it. The insurgents see this, and they hate it. Maybe a letter from one insurgent to another would read like this:

Dear Fellow Scumbag,

How is your mother? Oh yes that's right you killed her.

Anyways I was looking to find that prime spot to plant that IED in the city yesterday you know that hole your cousin dug last week just before he pre-detonated?? I couldn't help, but notice those dang Marines are everywhere, what is an insurgent to do? I can't even go get my insurgent unemployment card because they are in all of the streets. Arrrghh!!

I was trying to intimidate the local sheik but he told me to come by this afternoon to see him and when I got near his village. AArrrgghhh more Marines. You don't think he was trying to trick me do you? No of course not I am too intimidating for that…right?

I remember the old times when we could scare the silly Americans with threats, but those days are gone my fellow scumbag. AArrgghh!

Now I have this silly IED vest on that your brother made, you know I have to tell you he isn't all that smart, there is no kidding explosives in this thing. I mean I could be getting out of my car smoking a cigarette looking at the new line of sheep in the area and boom dang detonator gets hung on the seat belt. Did I mention its cumbersome, how do I attend your funeral wearing this? It doesn't go with my latest attire. AAArrgghh.

Well I must go my fiend, those pesky Marines are approaching and I have to run before they come here and I snag my fashionable detonator on the door handle on the way out. It will ruin the carpet…..AArrrgghh..

Want to be notified of OMV newest posts???? Of course ya do! Go to www.onemarinesview.com, look to the right and enter your email. Its that easy. AAAAArrrgghh!!

While You Were Sleeping

I came across this post on a blog called Fifteen Months. It's a blog journaling an Army wife's journey while her husband is on deployment in Iraq. If you have time, it wouldn't be wasted reading her posts from the beginning. Pictures for this post I am reprinting here with her permission, can be found on the original post here.

Thank you, Stella. Thank you for lending us your eyes, ears, heart. Thank you for you and your husband's service.

Monday, May 26, 2008

While You Were Sleeping
Today seems like the right day to share an R&R memory from months ago. At the time, it felt too raw to write about because my husband had just left back to the sandbox after being home for 17 days. That 17 days of joy was just what we needed after being apart some 8+ months--it recharged and reinvigorated us for the second half of the deployment. I found it much tougher to "let" him go back after R&R, but I tried not to cry too long when we went to bed that night.

He had an 6 am flight out of San Diego the day he had to go back, so we woke up around 3:15 to have our last morning together. After, I made coffee while he laced up his boots and gathered everything. Our son woke up and stumbled out of his room to say goodbye again. I got dressed and cursed the person whose idea it was to start flying planes before the sun was even peeking out from the horizon.

When we got to the airport, there was a few piles of young Marines sleeping in the hallways near the USO, which wouldn't open for several more hours. They either arrived on a red eye or were there to make sure they caught their own flight back I'm sure. It broke my heart to see these young men without a send off that befitting to their service. No a wife or parent or volunteer or camera....just some lady riding up an escalator with her husband at the end of R&R taking a picture with her cell phone. Did America know the USO isn't always open?

Moments later, I was standing quietly with my husband, waiting for the moment when I would have to let go of him again to go do what he does when I am safely asleep. I held my emotions in as I strained to see out the window, hoping to somehow see his head in one of the plane's windows. It was too dark, but I pressed my face against the glass anyway hoping that somehow he was looking out the window and could see me still there for him as long as I could be. It was so dark that I lost sight off the plane as soon as it taxied off.

When I came home, our son was sitting on the couch, crying softly which he said he'd been doing since he pretended to go back to bed that morning. We didn't say much, he just hugged me and we stayed on the couch the rest of the day, indifferent to the tv and napping intermittently.

America, while you were sleeping, thousands of soldiers and Marines were getting up early to catch their their early bird flights back to Iraq. While you were sleeping, America, a young marine was sleeping next to his cargo bag to catch his flight out to someplace far away. Before dawn cracked on your horizon, men were getting up at 3 AM to make love to their wife one last time and kissing away her tears. They were hugging their half-asleep kids, feeding the dog, and buttoning up their ACUs as if today were just another day of work.

While you were sleeping, America, your military was already awake and keeping watch over you.