Veterans

“Beating the Dead Grass . . . .” – Revisiting Ft Rosecrans Cemetery

June 10, 2013 by Judi Curry

This article has several messages I would like to discuss. Last year I wrote about the deplorable condition of Ft. Rosecrans. Just a few weeks ago I was quoted by the “editordude” in an article regarding the condition of Ft. Rosecrans during the Memorial Day holiday.

To briefly recap that quote, several of the women from my widow support group went up to Ft. Rosecrans to visit our husbands. Even though we know they are not “there” – talking to them is no different than when they were with us – they don’t listen and they didn’t respond. However, whereas we used to be able to sit under a tree on the green grass and have a picnic, the green grass and the trees are gone.

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Military Sexual Assault – It’s the Culture

June 5, 2013 by Source

By Kathleen Gilberd / On Watch

The military is once again in crisis over sexual assaults. In recent weeks, it has become more apparent than ever that the military’s sexual assault policy is a failure, and that sexual assault in the services has become epidemic.

In early May, the Department of Defense (DoD) released new figures showing a significant increase in reported and unreported assaults – DoD estimates that over 26,000 servicemembers were assaulted in 2012, with only 3,374 of these cases reported to the military.

Just as the figures were released, the Air Force was rocked by news that the head of its Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program had been arrested for sexual battery. More recently, the Sexual Assault Response Coordinator for Ft. Hood was charged with sexual assault and pandering.

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Politics Trumped History on Memorial Day in San Diego

June 3, 2013 by Source

Press covers ceremony honoring death of paid mercenaries, traditional military sacrifice honors ignored

By Fran Zimmerman

Now that Memorial Day 2013 is over, let’s record how the red/blue politics of the day trumped history and tradition and every lemming newspaper in this Navy town went along.

Apparently the Los Angeles Times, U-T San Diego, San Diego Reader and La Jolla Light forgot that San Diego is home to Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, final resting place for more than 115,000 servicemembers and their families from all branches of the armed forces and site of the largest Memorial Day commemoration in the city.

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Ft Rosecrans Cemetery Still Having Irrigation Problems? Director Says It Won’t Be Up to Standards Till August

June 3, 2013 by Staff

Questions have arisen of late by Ft Rosecrans visitors about the conditions of the trees and the grass at the National Cemetery. Trees are gone and the grass is all brown. The recent Memorial Day threw the situation at the cemetery into high relief.

Our own Widder Curry recently commented:

The widows and I went up to Ft. Rosecrans today to visit our husbands.

We were shocked to see that all the trees near their burial wall were gone. Uprooted. Patches where they used to be. And the grass was brown. All brown. No shades of green.

The cemetery is depressing enough, but seeing it in this condition was heart rendering. What is going on?

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Discussion on PL Democrats Website: Is the ACLU “Subversive” Because They Oppose Cross at Mt Soledad?

May 17, 2013 by Judi Curry

The Widder Curry Weighs In

An interesting question appeared today on the Point Loma Democrats website in regards to an article announcing the 80 year celebration of the San Diego ACLU.

To say that I was nonplussed to read the question which can as a comment to the article, would be a minor revelation. At the risk of being censored – do you think that Democrats would do that to their own? – let me tell you something about it.

On June 7th, there will be a 80 year celebration of the San Diego ACLU. As the article read, this function is not a

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Sex in San Diego: Pentagon Study Finds 26,000 Military Sexual Assaults Last Year, Over 70 Sex Crimes Per Day

May 9, 2013 by Source

Editor: The following is a transcript of Amy Goodman’s program on Democracy Now from yesterday, May 8, that aired highlights from Tuesday’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on military sexual assaults . We also include the video – see below. Democracy Now!

NERMEEN SHAIKH: A shocking new report by the Pentagon has found that 70 sexual assaults may be taking place within the U.S. military every day. The report estimated there were 26,000 sex crimes committed in 2012, a jump of 37 percent since 2010. Most of the incidents were never reported.

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The Last Letter – A Message to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney From a Dying Veteran

March 21, 2013 by Source

To: George W. Bush and Dick Cheney
From: Tomas Young

Originally posted at Truthdig.com

I write this letter on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War on behalf of my fellow Iraq War veterans. I write this letter on behalf of the 4,488 soldiers and Marines who died in Iraq. I write this letter on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have been wounded and on behalf of those whose wounds, physical and psychological, have destroyed their lives. I am one of those gravely wounded. I was paralyzed in an insurgent ambush in 2004 in Sadr City. My life is coming to an end. I am living under hospice care.

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Saving Veterans’ Plaza in Ocean Beach

February 22, 2013 by Source

The tragedies of 9-11 were several years away when Obceans who knew that patriotism was consistent with the community’s laid-back, do-your-own-thing ethic decided it was high-time to do something big.

An idea to honor those who have served our country in the armed forces took hold and, with the help of the since-vacated Ocean Beach VFW, the Ocean Beach Mainstreet Association (OBMA) and others, the idea came to fruition.

In a nutshell, that’s how the Veterans’ Plaza at the corner of Abbott Street and Newport Avenue – with two its flagpoles, 6 ½-foot-high piece of granite rock and adorning plaque, and dozens of inscriptions engraved onto a brand-new, concrete sidewalk – came to be in the mid-1990s, organizers say. Ocean Beach was ahead of the curve.

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Ocean Beach Antique Shop Owner’s Wounded Nephew Gets Visit from President Obama for being “Hero”.

December 27, 2012 by Frank Gormlie

Teresa Mallory’s nephew Quinn Rogan receives surprise visit after saving lives in Afghanistan

The owner of an antique store in Ocean Beach has her nephew’s photo propped up in her consignment shop on Newport Avenue. The picture has her nephew, Quinn Rogan – wounded in Afghanistan when he blocked suicide bombers from attacking his base – along with the President – who made him a surprise visit recently at Walter Reed Army hospital.

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Veterans’ Help Center Opens at Point Loma Library

November 27, 2012 by Staff

For three days a week, volunteers will staff a brand new ‘help-center’ for American veterans that just opened at the Point Loma branch public library. Now opened just a week, the Veterans Resource Center will connect vets with services and benefits – and just plain, old-fashioned information passed on by a one-on-one basis.

These are services and benefits already earned by the veterans. The Center will be staffed by volunteers on Mondays, Tuesday and Fridays – these are volunteers trained by the California Department of Veterans Affairs. It’s all part of a one-year pilot program that has also opened similar centers this month in Bakersfield and Redding, California.

Ever since the local Point Loma branch of the VFW was forced to close down its chapter clubhouse,

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Romney’s Job Creation Plan That No One Is Talking About

October 29, 2012 by Source

By John Lawrence / San Diego Free Press / Oct. 27, 2012

Mitt Romney has a jobs creation plan if he becomes President, alright. But no one, including Mitt Romney himself, is talking about it.

Remember the $2 trillion he wants to spend on the military? That $2 trillion he wants to spend on the military which the Pentagon doesn’t even want (but Defense contractors certainly do) translates into a huge jobs program.

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Occupy San Diego: A Year Later

October 9, 2012 by Source

By Nadin Abbott

Occupy San Diego reached an important milestone this weekend. Occupy San Diego is now one year old, and like all children, it has learned a lot this year, but also achieved quite a bit.

The weekend saw a series of events, some low key, some going back to it’s roots in the streets, celebrating the fact that OSD is still here. The first event was at Balboa Park on Saturday afternoon.

When I reached the Park I was no longer surprised to see San Diego Police coming in to talk to an Occupier. Well, so what is new? Same old, same old – right? This time, the officers had cause. No, not the usual we saw over the course of last year. They had a call, from another occupier, reporting what can best be described as a domestic dispute. Given the Occupier in question wore a Guy Fawkes costume with knives (which I could not tell at a distance were plastic either), the cops showed up in force. This is standard.

Moreover, while the Police kept an eye on Occupy, like they do on every demonstration that happens in this town, they also kept their actual contact to a minimum, and kept their distance.

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The Maimed – On Eleven Years of War In Afghanistan

October 8, 2012 by Source

Chris Hedges gave this talk Sunday night – October 7th – in New York City at a protest denouncing the 11th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan. The event, at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, was led by Veterans for Peace.

By Chris Hedges

Many of us who are here carry within us death. The smell of decayed and bloated corpses. The cries of the wounded. The shrieks of children. The sound of gunfire. The deafening blasts. The fear. The stench of cordite. The humiliation that comes when you surrender to terror and beg for life. The loss of comrades and friends. And then the aftermath. The long alienation. The numbness. The nightmares. The lack of sleep. The inability to connect to all living things, even to those we love the most. The regret. The repugnant lies mouthed around us about honor and heroism and glory. The absurdity. The waste. The futility.

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A Thanks to the Veterans of Peace for a Nice Day

October 1, 2012 by Ernie McCray

This past Thursday was a mellow day for me, mainly due to a visit I made to a ribbon cutting ceremony for the grand opening of the Veterans Service Center at San Diego City College.

But I was already feeling pretty good before I got there, starting with being picked up by my girlfriend, if that’s what a 74 year old has. Anyway the ride, with that beautiful woman, on such a nice warm sparkling soothing easy San Diego day, had me ready for a good time.

Not to mention that it was nice to just cruise into a reserved parking place awaiting our arrival, the only space open, seemingly, for miles. That, in keeping with my upbeat mood, made me smile, because such a perk is not part of my lifestyle. Well, maybe every once in a while.

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Hiroshima / Nagasaki Remembered by Veterans for Peace

August 6, 2012 by Source

By Barry Ladendorf
In many parts of the world, people will pause to commemorate what happened 67 years ago on August 6, 1945, when the United States unleashed the most diabolical weapon in the history of mankind on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. Three days later on August 9th, the same hellish fire consumed the city of Nagasaki. It is estimated that 250,000 people died as a result of the bombs.

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Memorial Day 2014

May 28, 2012 by Staff

(originally posted May 26, 2008.)

Editor: As the text within the graphic above states this was produced in 1963 by Dana Junior High School students who were in print shop. It is interesting to note that Steve Zivolich and Frank Gormlie were both involved in the anti-Viet Nam war movement at their respective college campuses back in the late sixties and early seventies.

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No Country for Young Men as Old Men Play for Time: The End in Afghanistan is Totally Predictable

May 24, 2012 by Source

Editor: Last Sunday outside the NATO conference, dozens of American Iraqi and Afghan veterans threw their medals away in protest of the wars. A very similar protest by veterans was held during the anti-Vietnam war days in 1971. .

By Dave Lindorff / Nation of Change and This Can’t Be Happening / May 22, 2012

Once again American troops are being asked to keep fighting for a mistake — this time the 2001 fantasy of the Bush/Cheney administration that it could make a client state out of Afghanistan.

John Kerry, back before he was a pompous windsurfing Senate apologist for American empire, back when he wore his hair long and was part of a movement of returned US military veterans speaking out against the continuation of the Vietnam War, famously asked the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at a hearing, “How do you ask a man to be the last one to die for a mistake?”

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UPDATE: Police More Violent Than Demonstrators at Anti-NATO Protests in Chicago

May 21, 2012 by Source

Protest Roars to Life at Chicago NATO Summit in Face of Violent Police Crackdowns

_____

Veteran Scott Olsen returns his medal, nurses fight for their rights, and police crack skulls in the latest demonstration of 99% outrage.

By Matt Reichel / AlterNet / May 21, 2012 |

For weeks, people have speculated over the potential for a blooming “American Spring” this weekend in Chicago, when thousands were expected to come protest the meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In the end, it might be more appropriate to speak of a newly born American Summer, as demonstrators were dosed with unseasonably warm 80- and 90-degree weather in a weekend that felt more like July than May.

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Veterans Throw Medals Into the Street as Protest Against Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

May 21, 2012 by Source

See here for Chicago braces for final day of anti-NATO protests as demonstrators march on Boeing HQ

Reuters / May 20, 2012

Nearly 50 U.S. military veterans at an anti-NATO rally in Chicago threw their service medals into the street on Sunday, an action they said symbolized their rejection of the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of the veterans, many wearing military uniform shirts over black anti-war t-shirts, choked back tears as they explained their actions. Others folded an American flag while a bugle played “Taps,” which is typically performed at U.S. military funerals.

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Craziness in Chicago: NATO, Protests, Nurses, Vets Throw Away Medals, and Trumped Up ‘Terrorism’ Charges?

May 19, 2012 by Frank Gormlie

This weekend is the crazy weekend for Chicago. NATO is meeting about Afghanistan, protests are happening, nurses storm the streets demanding taxes on the rich wearing Robin Hood masks on, Iraq and Afganistan veterans are throwing away their medals in protest of the wars – and now, an attempt to trump it all, we have “terrorism” charges against some activists which are being met with swift denials and charges of “set up”.

President Obama had a sleep-over for world leaders at Camp David, getting ready for a G8 meeting on Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, dozens of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars plan on leading a march of thousands on Sunday, May 21, alongside Vietnam veterans, and will be presenting their medals to NATO officials during. This anti-war march will proceed through Chicago’s downtown area to the convention center where NATO is holding its summit.

And of course, inside the summit will be President Obama and other world leaders. The City of Chicago is bracing for major protests. Organizers are hoping the rally, which caps a week-long series of anti-NATO actions, will draw thousands. The Iraq and Afghanistan and Vietnam veterans will hold a reconciliation

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After Continued Bogus Arrests and Harassment of Occupiers, San Diegans Call for Resignation of Police Chief William Lansdowne and For a Protest March Today – Friday -at 4pm

December 23, 2011 by Frank Gormlie

The bogus arrests of Occupy San Diego activists continue. Within the last 24 to 36 hours, a man was arrested for burning sage in the Plaza, a man videotaping another’s arrest was grabbed by the neck, choked, and brought down by three officers, a veteran carrying an American flag had the flag taken from him, two others awake in sleeping bags were roughly arrested.

Freedom Plaza has now been “cleared” of those demonstrators. And we have Police Chief William Lansdowne to thank – as well as his boss, Mayor Jerry Sanders. Sanders is a lame duck and a burnt out politician.

Lansdowne takes his orders from Sanders, but Lansdown could object to the ridiculous and unconstitutional manner his troops are ordered to harass and arrest peaceful demonstrators trying to exercise their First Amendment rights.

Bradley Manning and the Fog of War

December 21, 2011 by Source

By Amy Goodman / Nation of Change / December 21, 2011

Accused whistle-blower Pvt. Bradley Manning turned 24 Saturday. He spent his birthday in a pretrial military hearing that could ultimately lead to a sentence of life … or death. Manning stands accused of causing the largest leak of government secrets in United States history.

More on Manning shortly. First, a reminder of what he is accused of leaking. In April 2010, the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks released a video called “Collateral Murder.” It was a classified U.S. military video from July 2007, from an Apache attack helicopter over Baghdad. The video shows a group of men walking, then the systematic killing of them in a barrage of high-powered automatic fire from the helicopter. Soldiers’ radio transmissions narrate the carnage, varying from cold and methodical to cruel and enthusiastic. Two of those killed were employees of the international news agency Reuters: Namir Noor-Eldeen, a photojournalist, and Saeed Chmagh, his driver.

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San Diegans Rally to Support America’s Soldier of Conscience – Bradley Manning

December 19, 2011 by Rocky Neptun

Julia Glover pulls on her knitted gloves, wraps her scarf tighter around her shoulders as the chilly breeze whips through San Diego’s newly named Freedom Plaza. Fixing her eyes grimly on the costumed patrons of the ballet in tuxedos and firs as they line up for the annual Nutcracker presentation at the Civic Theatre, across the square from the Occupy San Diego base camp, she shivered and said sadly, “there they go, the fools of empire, the subsidiaries of the 1 percent, they will never understand, much less appreciate what Bradley Manning did for us.”

From Florida, she was visiting a friend in San Diego and was determined to spend her 68th birthday marching for Pfc. Manning on their shared birthday, December 17th. As she waited for the Saturday march to begin, listening to San Diego Occupiers discuss strategy at their daily General Assembly gathering in the plaza, she commented “we need to occupy Ft. Meade; all of us, thirty or forty thousand from across the nation, marching upon the base, requiring our government to release this young hero.”

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70th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor – December 7, 1941 : What It Means to Us Today – Open Thread

December 7, 2011 by Frank Gormlie

While recalling my father in WWII, I wonder what he would think of our lack of First Amendment rights today?

Today is the 70th anniversary of the attack at Pearl Harbor which pushed the U.S. into World War Two. The Japanese surprise dismantled a good part of the US Pacific Fleet. Whether FDR knew about the coming attack is not our concern today.

Our concern today – expressed by an Open Thread – is what it means for us so many decades later, when most of that generation have taken their leave from this world.

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A Full Day of Events Scheduled Today in Appreciation of Veterans

November 11, 2011 by Patty Jones

There are a multitude of events scheduled today to honor our Veterans, a few of those are noted here. Come inside for more information!

8 AM until dark: The San Diego Veterans For Peace, Chapter #91, will be honoring the fallen soldiers/sailors/airmen from Southern California killed to date in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars by the installation of our “Arlington West” Memorial on the lawn of the USS Midway Museum near the intersection of Harbor Drive and Broadway. Newly produced markers, similar to those found in Arlington National Cemetery, will honor those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, whose home of record was in San Diego County, Imperial County, Orange County and Los Angeles County, approximately 250 to date.

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Calling All Quilters! Veterans Day “Quilting Bee” to Support Veteran Women

October 27, 2011 by Staff

Amikas, a San Diego non-profit organization that helps house homeless U.S. military veteran women, will be raising crucial funds with a fundraising twist on an old-fashion idea – the quilting bee. On Veterans Day, San Diegans who care about our veteran women will have the opportunity to view and bid on antique quilts, provided by Martha Sullivan. There will also be a unique silent auction of quilt squares that will be assembled at the event into a crazy quilt to be displayed in the first Amikas home for female veterans and their children.

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9 Months Later and Ocean Beach VFW Post Still Not Settled

October 12, 2011 by Andy Cohen

Future of the 28 year old post remains very much in limbo, and members fear they may have to close their doors for good.

Last January, The Rag featured several stories (here, here, here, here, and here) and follow ups on a meeting between post members and a community group that vehemently opposed the potential new location of the VFW post on the corner of Pt. Loma Ave. and Ebers St. Nine months later the post remains in limbo as they have not been able to open the canteen that provides the primary source of revenue and allows the post to operate.

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National news you may have missed … postal workers, Obama feared coup, Army base on the brink

September 12, 2011 by Staff

Here is a set of national news posts – articles you may have missed in the nation’s rush to commemorate 9-11:

Postal Workers: The Last Union

Obama Team Feared Coup If He Prosecuted War Crimes

Army Base on the Brink : At an Army base near Seattle, soldiers are committing suicide, murdering their families—and in one case, waterboarding their own kids.

(Go inside for the links)

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Memorial Day

May 31, 2011 by Staff

(originally posted May 26, 2008.)

Editor: As the text within the graphic above states this was produced in 1963 by Dana Junior High School students who were in print shop. It is interesting to note that Steve Zivolich and Frank Gormlie were both involved in the anti-Viet Nam war movement at their respective college campuses back in the late sixties and early seventies.

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Vets for Peace to Banner on 6th Avenue Overpass – Thursday, May 12th

May 12, 2011 by Frank Gormlie

On Thursday, May 12th, from 3:30 PM to 5:30 PM, veteran members of all five military services and friends of the San Diego Veterans For Peace (Hugh Thompson Memorial Chapter #91) will be bannering on the 6th Avenue overpass of I-5 against the continuance of the unjust and budget-breaking wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With […]

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