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Posthumous Silver Star to be presented to the family of U-2 Pilot, Captain Gary Francis Powers on Friday
“Best Father’s Day Present Ever” Capt Gary Powers – See Below for photo creditsWhat does a Silver Star presentation have to do with Father’s Day? To the Power’s family, Friday is a correction to history, a heritage that can be reflected on with pride and a celebration of a father who was a Cold War hero. Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz will present a posthumous decoration to the U-2 pilot who was shot down over the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960. On Wednesday, we spoke with Gary Powers, Jr about the upcoming ceremony and how it had impacted his family during a DoDLive Blogger Roundtable. The…
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Have you Heard about Blue Star Museums?
Blue Star Museums Kicks Off on Memorial Day! What does that mean to you, a member of the military community? If you are an active duty, National Guard or Reserve member or family member, you have access to more than 1,600 museums this summer for free! Right, we agree, what a great program. This is the third year for this program and it started with 900 museums and is growing each year as the Arts open their doors wide open to the military community. FREE entertainment for your family on a crazy summer schedule! Maybe you just PCS’d into a new area and need something for the family to do. …
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VOW to Hire Veterans Act and “WOW” Come Together for Veterans Seeking Employment at Sears!
A VOW from Congress and a big WOW for Sears! Citing Labor Department statistics with 900,000 unemployed veterans in October this year and with more returning from Iraq as the war ends there, David Works, Senior Vice President Talent & Human Capital Services for Sears, excitedly explained to MilitaryAvenue how they were increasing vet hires at Sears Holdings. A Navy veteran of fast attack submarines, David highlighted the efforts of Sears to increase veteran hires by 10% in 2012 with veterans filling positions from hourly associates to store managers, global logistics, corporate level and more with military experience a plus for new hires! Challenging other corporations to support our veterans,…
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He “Refused to be a Burden” and Earned an Air Force Cross – DoD Blogger Roundtable
TSgt (Select) Robert (“Gute”) GutierrezHUMBLE HONORED BLESSING THANK YOU SERVICE BEFORE SELF FIT FOR DUTY TEAM FATHER FAMILY Words heard frequently during the interview… A motto… FIRST THERE … THAT OTHERS MAY LIVEImagine a night time assault on a bad guy stronghold with the best fighters in the world on your side. You are outnumbered and the bad guys have the high ground (never a good thing) but you have A-10s and F-16s overhead and the night is your friend. Plus you have eyes in the sky overlooking the battle situation with an ISR platform. But you are the guy calling in the airstrikes, you control them with your radio,…
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“I Will Not Say Goodbye” An Interview with Josh Gracin
Josh Gracin“I want to take everyBreath I can getI want to live” Josh Gracin “I Want to Live” I watched Dan struggle for breath, his pneumonia and infection making it so hard. He was sweating, the pain meds helping but the pain in his eyes was clear. We had traveled to be near Dan before the surgeons were going to help. Leading a church youth group service trip to Nashville, TN, Dan had fallen ill and needed urgent care. I saw him smile as his 2 year old came into the room and rocked his world… I had been looking forward to interviewing former Marine, Josh Gracin about the “Rockin…
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The Heritage and History of Normandy in the Minds of Our Youth
My dad and father in law are both World War II veterans and are in their late 80s as are most veterans of that war. We share with them and have known their stories but what of those who were killed during the war? Their heritage was left on the beaches of Normandy, at Bastogne, Iowa Jima, over Ploesti, at Midway and other famous WW II battles sites. How do we keep their stories alive? Our children, grandchildren have interacted with those who lived and returned to become our leaders, teachers, steel workers, miners, industry giants and even movie actors. But what of those who died defending our freedoms? I…
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“They Helped Me Up” Staff Sergeant Eddie Peoples – DoD Blogger’s Roundtable
Staff Sergeant Eddie PeoplesHow do I start? This story is about one of our own, a hero for wearing his country’s uniform, a “Defender” in his one words and certainly a model for caring! United States Army Staff Sergeant Eddie Peoples came home on leave from Vicenza, Italy with his family to care for and see his ill father who had had a stroke. Stopping in the branch of the Sarasota, Florida Bank of America, he saw a robbery “go down” and elected to get involved! More defending to do and children to protect (two of his own were with him), he described himself as on call 24 hours a…
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What Are We Sharing with Our Young People?
What a great opportunity! I had been invited to talk to a high school government class about my military service and it turned out to be a fun time! My daughter-in-law Becky is a teacher (so is my wife and another daughter-in-law,). Becky had some high school juniors with a unique assignment to interview someone who was employed or had been employed with the US government. My military experience provided an opportunity to tell the kids about you, our military community! During the class I introduced myself and then they each had questions to ask! They asked some great ones! For example, what was the most traumatic moment you saw,…
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Consider the Army’s electric footprint – DoD Roundtable
I had the opportunity to interview a few key players discussing the Army’s energy security mission. On the call were; U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Howard Bromberg, Commanding General, Fort Bliss; U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Dana J. H. Pittard, Deputy Chief of Staff, G3, United States Army Training and Doctrine Command; Mr. Jerry Hansen, Army Senior Energy Executive, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Strategic Infrastructure; Dr. Kevin Geiss, Program Director for Energy Security. Mr. Hansen defined the Army energy security mission as: “Make energy a consideration for all Army activities to reduce demand, increase efficiency, seek alternative sources, and create a culture of energy accountability while sustaining or…
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“A Little Bit of Hope, Help…” The Engineers in Haiti – DoD Roundtable
“A Little Bit of Hope, Help” … is how US Navy CAPT James Wink, the chief engineer for Joint Task Force-Haiti responded to a question on how the Haitian people are responding to their crisis and what they needed. The resilience of the Haitians according to the Captain is amazing! I have heard this comment repeatedly during other interviews with those involved in the humanitarian assistance efforts since the earthquake on January 12th. I was able to interview CAPT Wink this morning during a Department of Defense Bloggers Roundtable. He had some great facts but his description of a young boy, his own child’s age, sitting on the street, seeing…
