KUDOS TO THE MILITARY

This picture has nothing to do with this post. A family tradition for many years is to gather on January 1 for Frito boats. I make very good chili (no beans) usually in two batches. Mild and Manly. I also seperate some of the Manly and make it better. It takes two days and is worth the work. This year we decided to name it. After these names were submitted and voted on an excellent submission from Eileen and Ken came in but too late for consideration. We chose two names. "MILD SENSITIVE SENSATION" for the youth chili, and "DAD'S HEAVENLY HEARTBURN" for the manly one. The chili involves Pork roast, ground beef, garlic, 3 kinds of peppers, chili powder, onions, tomato, cumin, etc, and time.

For those deprived persons who are ignorant: Frito boats = handful of fritos in a bowl, chili on top of that, cheese on top of that. Rolaids after for the weaker of us.

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I have been very impressed by the professionalism of our military. They are the best trained and best motivated troops I've seen in my life. There has been errors and excesses but probably less than any other fighting force on earth. I would like to give special kudos to the USMC. As their boss the commander-in-chief has (in my opinion) zero respect for the military I think they need all the support we can give. President Bush caved on too many important issues toward the end of his tenure but at least he understood the importance of the military.

The Marines have several people they hold high in esteem.
Dan Daly who received: two Medals of Honor; Navy Cross; Distinguished Service Cross; three Letters of Commendation; Good Conduct Medal with two bronze stars; China Relief Expedition Medal; Philippine Campaign Medal; Expeditionary Medal with one bronze star; Mexican Service Medal; Haitian Campaign Medal; World War I Victory Medal with Aisne, St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne and Defensive-Sector clasps; Medaille Militaire; Croix de Guerre with Palm; and the Fourragere.
Carlos Hathcock (White Feather) - Sniper in Vietnam. The bounty the enemy put on US snipers was $8.00. They put a $30,000 bounty on him.
Many others like O'Bannon, Butler, Bill Barber but the best know General in USMC history would be General "Chesty" Puller. I have included some of his quotes. You can see why he would be regarded as a real Marine.

• "All right, they're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time."
• "We're surrounded... That simplifies our problem..."
• "Remember, you are the 1st Marines! Not all the Communists in *%&# can overrun you!"
• At Koto-Ri in Korea, when an Army captain asked him for the direction of the line of retreat, Col. Puller called his tank commander, gave them the Army position, and ordered: "If they start to pull back from that line, even one foot, I want you to open fire on them." Turning to the captain, he replied, "Does that answer your question? We're here to fight."
  

To all Jarheads past and present, Semper Fi. The US needs those who are "always faithful"

HTOITA