Important

I’ve just read an article in our newspaper titled “Suicide Hot Line Got Calls From 22,000 Veterans.” It is an AP writer by the name of Katharine Euphrat who wrote it. The figures are startling and come from the VA and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline evidently.

I just want to take this time to echo a thought and a message I left on Aaron’s message board on May 29, 2006 copied below.

I have to go to Heart’s Desire right now, but this afternoon I’m going to try and get in touch with the VA or the suicide hotline to see if there’s any way I can help from where I sometimes feel stranded. I would be honored to volunteer in this capacity.

If someone knows a connection off-hand that I could speak to, I’d appreciate the info. I called the VA and the nearest regional office near me is in Albuquerque, 5 hours away. But I will check further.

Meanwhile: VETERANS: I LOVE YOU MORE THAN ANY PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD. YOUR SACRIFICE IS FOREVER. THAT IS THE TRUE AND UNSELFISH SACRIFICE.

AND WE STILL NEED YOU. MORE THAN EVER—WE NEED YOU. HANG ON. YOU ARE WORTH SO MUCH—MAYBE YOU ARE THE LIFELINE FOR ONE OTHER, ONE OTHER GENERATION, ONE OTHER SOUL IN TORMENT, ONE OTHER BROTHER!!

Much love,
Aaron’s Mom

--the old message follows—it is still true today!


May 29, 2006

Thank you for your sacrifice, son. Everyone in our country, as well as other countries, owes you and those like you such an enormous amount of gratitude. Some don't realize it at all, and others of us can only speculate, but spending five days in our nation's capital, admiring the portraits and statues of those before you who stood for freedom as well-- and not once was the cost small. Korea-54,000 names (imagine the number of families this sorrow reached out and devastated in the clutches of sorrow). Vietnam-50,000. The white crosses of soldiers and infants killed in the Civil War. Presidents, Lincoln and Kennedy, slain in their prime. Other bodies, unknown, unidentified. Blood, tears, blood, tears, over and over.

The haunting portraits of the Holocaust. The young Jewish boys in the museum with their heads covered by the fabric of their faith. America, at first hesitant to get involved, did involve themselves in Hitler's country and affairs. Thank God we went to save the few, fight for their inch of freedom and discover the atrocities of somebody else’s business. Nosed into a terrorist business and put those on trial for their horrible crimes against the persecuted.

So many cultures filled D.C. to visit the memorials of all that has been given to stroll in the land of the free. Koreans, Pakistani, Panamanians, nearly every race in our free world walked those avenues, snapped digital photos of the cost, and enjoyed the benefit of it all, hopefully a tiny bit more at those solemn moments, perhaps stood still a moment and reflected on something about this country that they were thankful for. That they, with me, were not able to find a precious moment in our history to stop and say, There, there. This is where we should have stopped fighting for our freedom as well as the freedom of those we do not even know. Here is the point where we should have stopped caring for humanity and shouted at Washington, no more...we've had enough. No, there was no point in the tours that I thought to myself: I don't care what all you did before, for us, I just care about me. Damn the future generations.

No, I thought none of these things. In awe, I was thankful and I wanted every tourist there, every free South Korean, every free Panamanian and Pakistani, and especially every American there in D.C. and Virginia to know that, My son has joined those who stood for something.

Thank you, Aaron. From the bottom of my heart, on this third Memorial Day without your laughter to fill our homes, I find it in the wind chimes and birds, and I find it on the streets before my home as young men race in their cars down the street, play their music loud and free, and I look at those kids and I think, you don't know how fortunate you are that so many people cared enough about you to die for you. And then I think that in a way, that too, is a great thing. That so many of us have always lived in freedom.

I will never quit missing you. And I will always be proud of you. Semper Fi, Marine,"Mom" (De'on Miller, Mother of Aaron C. Austin KIA, April, 2004)

Support and News on No-Shows!

Thought I'd get out and visit tonight. It's been a century since I've been out running around you know and since I'm doing it here in town more, thought I'd leave the perimeters of my own little gUnZ uP and get out to shoot the breeze somewhere else. Semper Fi Mom was on my mind. I owe her money on Tonya's test. By the way, CONGRATULATIONS, READERS OF MINE (hAVE i ANy?)!! ALL OF YOU WERE 100% IN NoT ShOWInG Up FOr ThE tEST!

Even my own special student has failed me.

jUST JoKING! Tonya (and I know others like Karen, etc) are really pressed right now to get out all the tax stuff for 2007 so last night I took the liberty of filling in as best I could.

But back to the original thought and yes, there was one. Here are two important posts I want you to check out, so just click below on each of their titles. One group needs help and the other is giving help. They are both for our wounded, so please, please see if there is a way you can help or pass on the info to those who may be able to. Here they are.

Lap Blankets (Semper Fi Mom helps with this one and needs our help if we can knit or crochet or know someone who does!)

Wounded Marines Focus on Film Careers

Thanks. I'll probably be back. Have a few more places to jet to. ;)

Important Survey for VFW!

Dear De'on and gUnZ uP readers:

America’s newest combat veterans are returning home in record numbers …
We want to know what you think about the way our newest veterans are treated.

Share your opinion about the critical issues facing returning heroes. Please complete the VFW’s 2008 Help Our Heroes Survey.

Begin by simply answering the first question below.

1. What do you think is the most important issue facing America’s newest veterans?

Battle Injuries
Emotional Trauma
Jobs/Employment/Education
Transitioning Back Into Family Life
Timely Receipt of Benefits

Your immediate reply is urgently needed! As you read this, Congress is debating the Federal Budget. We have to make sure our newest veterans get the benefits and respect they deserve!

Your responses will help us prioritize the key issues facing our newest veterans.

Your support will help us demand better treatment of our veterans!

Please don’t wait - now is the time to let your opinions be heard. Help the VFW and America’s defenders by completing our brief 2008 Help Our Heroes Survey today!

Unite with the VFW to demand proper treatment and respect for America’s newest veterans.

Thank you for your continued support of the men and women who fight to keep us free.

More

Flag Gazer sent us these links as she promised in her comment on the powerful piece Hope Rides Alone written by SGT Eddy Jeffers. Thank you so much, FG. I’m so sorry for this nation’s loss and so very sorry for your own personal loss out of this. I know you’ve sacrificed a great deal and still manage to support so many troops.

Click below for this great share.

1. Freedom Feels Good

2. The Real Deal in Ramadi

3. Eddie's Dad pays tribute

Stockings have been shipped!

Click here to view the photos of Lubbock Marine Parents and their packing party. Because of the generosity of those who gave, 225 boxes have been shipped out to our military that is currently deployed. Wow. Thank you, LMP!

Sisters

I had to make a quick trip to the post office (who all mailed their Christmas cards for Operation Santa?) and I grabbed our camera because I’d been meaning to take a photo of Aaron’s memorial downtown. (We just call it Aaron’s as his name was singular for a very long time.) My sister, Lisa, has taken it upon herself to keep the flowers changed on it. (I love my sister).

In the photos, note the ladies and gentleman adding flowers, wreaths and ribbons to the previous war memorials. I asked to take a photo of them (they gave me their backs!) and told me this is the first year they’ve ever done this. (Now that I think of some of the faces I saw, this must be the Master Gardener’s of Lea County (I used to work in the Extension Office here at the courthouse) and if so, or if not, I do thank them for their efforts. After I got home and loaded the photos, I noticed the wreath and ribbon on Aaron’s memorial, well, I noticed it there too, but it took a while to dawn on me that this was something new to the memorial. I called Lisa to verify and she verified what I had thought. So the crew downtown there put the wreath and ribbon up at Aaron and the Major’s memorial.

It was this summer that the name of Major Tom Bostick, Jr. was added. As you can see from the photo, the Major had been in Afghanistan and I think that was his third trip there. He also had a deployment to Iraq under his belt. He is one of our heroes that enlisted straight out of high school, earned his hard stripes and education in the military, received his commission and led from the front. His death saved the lives of the enlisted that were with him at the time.

I’m still the only Gold Star Mom in Lea County. The Major had gone to school here through junior high and then his family moved to Texas, however, his extended family, grandparents, aunts and uncles still live here in Lovington. I went to school with his Aunt Bobbie and she called me when it happened. When people think of aunts, I sometimes think they view them as someone “a lot lower down the ladder than the mom.” What they may forget is that by merit of being an aunt, someone along the way was a sister or brother, and in our family, that’s major business for sure. I nursed Kayla to my very own breast and there is absolutely nothing Lisa would not have done for Aaron. Aaron adored her and called on her frequently.

Anyway, wanted to share these photos with our readers and while I’m on the sister bit, I wanted to tell everybody that soon, very soon, maybe like twelve days before Christmas, gUnZ uP’s very own “THE ERMA BOMBECK OF CHRISTMAS” (Lisa) will share her very own HELPFUL HINTS FOR THE SEASON. Some of you may remember her comments last year as she carried on her busy schedule and provided us a glimpse of adding more. This year I’ve invited her back but have asked her to do it as a post so it won’t get lost in the comments. She’s agreed, but said she’d just write it down on scratch paper along the way (busy, busy) and give it to me to put up. Something to look forward to as my little sister is quite humorous and has a hideous family to back up Erma’s column of old. Let me clarify, they are precious and hideous. You know, don't you have one? LOL!

Merry Christmas!
De’on

Santas in Stars and Stripes and a MAF Rally in Lubbock!

Semper Fi Mom at Lubbock Marine Parents has some great news on support for the troops. Go here to learn about a non-political MAF rally in Lubbock on Dec. 3rd. And go here to learn about a neat way to send a holiday message to the troops via Stars & Stripes. The deadline for this one is Friday Nov. 30th, so if you're interested in this, better hurry!