Heading to Haiti - Military - SunHerald.com

This is the news article on my neighbor, Buzz about his battalion going to Haiti......

Heading to Haiti

GULFPORT — Some 85 Seabees with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 7 were expected to arrive in Haiti Tuesday to clear paths for aid workers in the country rocked by an earthquake that killed at least 150,000 earlier this month.
Seabees were loading supplies Tuesday afternoon in Gulfport and were expected to make the roughly four-hour trip in U.S. Air Force C-17 planes and arrive Tuesday night. The Seabees expect to find the country’s transportation infrastructure still in rough shape, even though the port facilities are just being reopened after the Jan. 12 quake. Seabees are expected to do debris removal, clear roads, make bridge repairs, and may also fix piers, among any other tasks.
An advance party of a few Seabees arrived in Haiti a few days ago to get a look around before the full contingent shows up. The unit, which specializes in construction, engineering and other jobs, is well suited for clearing streets so aid can make it to needed areas, said Lt. Beau Brooks, officer in charge of the contingent of NMCB 7 headed to Haiti.
“Supplies are making it there, it’s just hard getting them into (Port-au-Prince) because of all the damage to the infrastructure that has been sustained,” Brooks said. “We’re thinking that’s where we’re going to play a key part.”
Petty Officer 1st Class Zachary Vaughan was part of a group of Gulfport Seabees that arrived back in Gulfport from Iraq on the day after Hurricane Katrina hit, but he is aware Haiti may be worse than any disaster he’s seen.
“I have heard it is about ten times worse than Katrina,” Vaughan said as he was preparing to leave Tuesday. “...All our hearts and prayers go out to them. They need help.”
Reports from Haiti have been startling. Sunday, Haiti’s government reported 150,000 quake victims had been buried. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are expected to be displaced. More than 50 aftershocks have rattled the country since Jan. 12.
Brooks said it might not have been a good idea for the Seabees to arrive earlier, particularly when the massive search and rescue efforts were under way.
He said the contingent’s heavy equipment lumbering around and pushing things out of the way may have made matters worse while crews searched for injured quake victims trapped inside damaged buildings or under the rubble. Seabees are anxious to pitch in now.
“Everybody is very motivated and excited about getting down there and being part of the team to do what we can do when our country calls us,” Brooks said.
Providing relief following natural disasters is nothing new for Seabees.
Base officials said 125 Seabees deployed to Pakistan following a significant earthquake there that killed 75,000 in 2005. Over 130 Seabees were sent to Indonesia, Thailand and Sri-Lanka after the massive earthquake and tsunami there in 2004, which killed 226,000 people in 12 countries, according to the New York Times. About 3,000 Seabees worked along the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina, repairing schools, moving 20,000 tons of debris and clearing hundreds of miles of roads, as well as delivering fuel and water.
Once they’re on the ground in Haiti, Seabees will get about 25 pieces of heavy equipment that are on the USNS 1st Lt. Jack Lummus, a Navy cargo ship sometimes used to preposition supplies for deploying forces. Equipment Officer 1st Class Van Johnson said he will operate bulldozers, and other pieces of heavy equipment, while he’s in Haiti.
“I think our impact there will be pretty tremendous,” Johnson said.


Heading to Haiti - Military - SunHerald.com

BYE BYE BUZZ!!

My next door neighbor is a SeaBee. His name is Buzz. He and his wife have have 3 kids, ages 7, 2 and 1. Buzz is leaving in the morning for a year deployment. First he is going to Haiti to help aid with the earthquake victims, not sure after that. He will definitely be gone a year. They knew he was to be leaving soon but I guess the horrific earthquake really sped up his deployment. Only one days notice! His wife doesn't have any family that lives near. I feel for her....her kids are the same age difference as my Patrick, Bren and Katie and when they were that age I cringe to think of what it would have been like to live somewhere without Brian or at least my Mom or a sister or two! I am very thankful and supportive of all of our troops no matter where they are. But I'm also thankful for the families that they leave behind, because they sacrifice for us too.....those poor babies will have to be without their dad for a whole year.....Shanae will have to be a single mom for a whole year.....And for that I am so grateful. I told Shanae the other day that she is married to a TRUE HERO but she is also a HERO! She has the most important job of all.....to take care of his family so that Buzz can serve OUR country for us! I feel honored to be their neighbor and I look forward to helping out in any way possible that can make this year go by as painless as possible. As a matter of fact......I feel it is my duty to help out in any way that I can!
THANK YOU BUZZ AND STAY SAFE!!! TRY NOT TO WORRY TOO MUCH ABOUT YOUR FAMILY!! I PROMISE TO DO WHATEVER I CAN TO HELP THEM OUT!!

Christmas Lights In Honor of Our Troops

There is a new neighborhood in development behind my house. The houses haven't been built yet but the lots are separated, there is a paved road and they already have landscaping around the cul de sac and alongside the road. The new development is called Penny Lane Estates. They put on an awesome Christmas Light Show each year. They have the lights synced to music and when you drive thru it you can listen to the music on the radio in your car. It really is a sight to see. The best part of all is it is dedicated to the Men and Women Who Serve This Country! Driving thru it, seeing the beautiful light show, listening to the wonderful Christmas music....... it really makes your heart swell and gives you cold chills. It makes you proud to be an AMERICAN!

I love my country very much and want to thank http://www.estatesofpennylane.com/ for putting on such a fantastic show that honors our troops. I look forward to it every year and hope it continues in the years to come!

Thanks!

I hope everyone had a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hero's Welcome

Nightline made me cry tonight. It was a story on all the different ways our military daddies have surprised their kids when they returned home and how people have been posting on youtube all the different ways they would do it......either showing up at their school, dressing up as Santa, wrapped up in a box, just all different kinds of ways. It was heartbreaking seeing the kids faces, and the daddy's faces too. It just really hits home the kind of sacrifice that our great men and women in the military do for us. They sacrifice for us so that we can be safe, so that we can have freedom........all for us! So I am dedicating this post to all of our Brave Men and Women who are having to spend Christmas away from their families this Christmas. In a far land, in a scary land...... I'm sending out my Christmas wish to them...........that they all have the Merriest Christmas possible and that they come home safe and sound very very soon!! Thank You!

I like to teach my kids to treat the military like a celebrity.....and to always thank them for serving our country. They ARE a big deal and deserve the respect! THEY are our HEROS! THEY are the REAL celebrities!

Here is the clip from Nightline..........

Hero's Welcome

A TOAST!

This was penned by someone from Forest, Ms who has been a pilot in the military for many years. He is a True Hero and I am proud to be able to say he is from my home-town!

By Eric Chancellor:
I HAVE A TOAST; born of a warrior spirit, dedicated to men and women in our armed forces:
"Here's to fighting, lying, cheating, stealing, and drinking. If you must fight, fight for a worthy cause; if you must lie, lie for your best friend; if you must cheat, cheat death; if you must steal, steal your lover's heart; but... if you must drink, lift a glass in honor of those in harm's way on our behalf". May God bless them!

This is our Wounded warriors. Our nations finest being loaded onto a C-17 Globemaster III. They were wounded in action. We pick them up in Iraq under the cover of night. We patch them up and fly them to safety and hospitals out of harms way.-Eric Chancellor

THANK YOU ERIC!!!! And THANK YOU to all of the men and women who serve us everyday in our armed forces! WE LOVE YOU!!!

My Papaw, My Hero

It's no secret how proud I am of my Papaw, Harvey H. Wallace. I only wish I was a fraction of how brave he was. He was a true American Hero. But, he wouldn't have agreed with that title. None of our brave soldiers ever think that they are hero's. That is what makes them so special. They are so humble...I guess that is what the true American Spirit is all about. I know that if it were me, and I had medals, newspaper articles, awards or anything like that...I would have them displayed and everybody would know about it within the first few minutes of talking to me. But that is not the way that our great troops roll...they are modest in their heroism.

I recently came upon a few pictures of my Papaw from his war days. I scanned and cropped them and made copies for my Dad for his Father's Day gift. Like I have mentioned before, he was a bombardier for the United States Army Air Force during WWII. He was a member of the 351st Bomb Group...511th Squadron, stationed at Polebrook, England.


A bombardier is the one who sits in the little glass bubble and drops the bombs on targets. They are the ones who yell..."BOMBS AWAY!!!" I can only imagine how frightening that was like. I have found pictures that were classified at one time, of bombs actually being dropped on targets. Just thinking about the excitement they must have felt, with machine guns shooting, air blowing, shrapnel and flak flying all over, gives me chills.

Cap. Harvey H. Wallace

One of his war buddies did this picture for him, many years ago, before photo-shopping! This is one of my favorite photos of photos of him, he looks so handsome!

This was taken right after one of his missions.

My Papaw also served in the war with Clark Gable. They even flew in a mission together. My dad has a dollar bill with his autograph on it.

One of the coolest things about the Internet is the research and wealth of information you can find. All my life, I always knew that my Papaw had served with Clark Gable and that Clark Gable was filming some kind of movie while at Polebrook. We even had tons of pictures of filming. I never knew just what was being filmed though. My Dad didn't know either. I researched and researched and finally found what it was. It was a movie called COMBAT AMERICA.

Combat America was a propaganda movie filmed by the USAAF in 1943. It was a film that showed what everyday day to day life was like on the base in England. The purpose of the film was to get more volunteer enlistments. By the time the film came out though, there was more than enough volunteers. It was still an interesting movie, especially for us today so that we can see what life was like back then for our soldiers.It was pretty cool for me to finally get to see what these pictures was all about. The whole time I was watching the movie, I was thinking about which picture I had seen before in certain shots.

This was a mansion that was used by the Red Cross as a place for injured soldiers to recuperate.

My Papaw was in a ton of missions. His last mission he was hit by flak (shrapnel flying in the sky), and lost his right arm. Thank God that is all he lost, because had he lost his life I wouldn't be here!:-)

Thank A Soldier

Here is a link that you can go on to say Thanks to a soldier. We definitely need to remember to be grateful for them around this time of year. I know it has to be hard for them being away from their family and friends during the holidays. I bet it would make their day just to get a little note of thanks.

http://www.letssaythanks.com/Home1024.html