We were able to send out checks to our partner organizations today. Today we sent:

COPS: $262.00

Operation Gratitude: $246.00

Army Wife Netw: $78.00

Packages From Home: $436.00

Marine Corps Association Foundation: $584.00

Military Order of the Purple Heart: $1016.00

Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund: $2014.00

Gold Star Mothers: $618.00

By Elaine Sanchez

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 11, 2012 – First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, today marked the one-year anniversary of the Joining Forces campaign by celebrating the individuals and organizations that have stepped up in “extraordinary ways” to improve military families’ lives.

In brief remarks, Dempsey noted the importance of supporting troops and their families. Service members are “pillars of American strength … — hardened warriors, unwavering teammates and absolutely selfless citizens,” he said.Speaking from the White House’s South Lawn, the first lady and Biden expressed their gratitude for the nation’s “outpouring of support” for military families to a star-studded crowd that included Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey and his wife, Deanie, as well as military, government and community leaders from all sectors of society and military members and their families.

Today’s warriors, he said, “have fought harder and their families have sacrificed more over the last decade than any of us could ever really know.”

In return, they deserve enduring support that continues long after they transition out of the military and back into their hometowns, the chairman said, which will require community involvement and a nationwide commitment. It will take “each of us and all of us,” he said.

Dempsey lauded the first lady and Biden for their efforts over the past year to improve employment, education and wellness opportunities for troops, veterans and their families, and expressed his “deep appreciation” for the individuals, organizations and communities also stepping up to help.

When Joining Forces launched, the first lady said, she knew the nation would step up to honor and support veterans and military families. “But the outpouring of support that we have seen over this last year — … the hours logged, the services donated, the love and devotion and offers to help that have poured in from every corner of the country — all of that has far surpassed even our wildest expectations,” she said.

Obama ticked off a list of these contributions. Over the past year, she said, more than 1,600 businesses have hired more than 50,000 veterans and spouses, and have pledged to hire at least 160,000 more in the coming years.

Technology and employment companies such as Google, Monster and LinkedIn have stepped up to help connect veterans with jobs, she added, and state leaders are passing legislation to ease employment woes for military spouses with professional licenses moving across state borders. Additionally, medical schools are training health care providers so they can better care for military families.

The Defense, Veterans Affairs, Treasury and Labor departments all have made “groundbreaking” announcements to support veterans, wounded warriors, caregivers and military spouses, she continued. And associations of doctors, nurses, physician’s assistants and social workers are working to improve treatment for post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries.

From the entertainment industry, TV shows such as “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “Sesame Street” and organizations such as NASCAR, AOL and Disney are sharing military families’ stories, “and using those stories not just to shine a light, but to encourage others to serve,” she said. Obama noted her own appearance on the popular children’s TV show “iCarly.” “I am now more popular than the president because I was on ‘iCarly,’” she joked.

The first lady also cited a series of popular public service announcements featuring stars such as Tom Hanks, Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg.

“Over the past year, not a single person that we’ve talked to, that we have approached, has told us that they could not help — not a single person,” she said. “We’ve asked; they said yes.”

Obama cited “Operation Honor Cards,” an initiative that asks Americans to pledge service for military families, as a perfect example of Americans’ willingness to help. The organization had set a goal of 3 million hours of pledged service last year, but had doubled that number by June. “And today, we can announce that we’re at 21 million hours pledged — 21 million hours pledged — with already 30 million total hours served,” she said.

Other examples of the nation’s commitment to help were scattered across the audience, Biden added. Also attending the event were the 20 finalists of the Joining Forces Community Challenge. The Challenge is intended to recognize and celebrate the extraordinary military family support efforts of citizens and organizations across the country.

Biden pointed out a few of the these organizations, such as HeartsApart.org, a network of photographers who take photos of soon-to-be deployed troops and their families, and GreenCare for Troops, which connects local green industry professionals with military families to provide free lawn and landscaping services.

“If I had to sum up what we have seen since launching Joining Forces in one word, it would be ‘inspiring,’” Biden said. “These efforts aren’t always in the headlines, but they support our military families every single day in real and meaningful ways.”

While a powerful gauge of the nation’s commitment, Joining Forces’ true impact can’t be measured in numbers of hours served, the first lady said. “The true measure of our success lies in the lives that we’ve helped to change,” she said.

Today is a time for celebration, Obama said, but it’s also a time to renew a call to action. She challenged the audience, and all Americans, “to keep raising the bar.”

The first lady reiterated her enduring commitment to military families. Joining Forces isn’t a temporary initiative, but a “forever proposition,” she said.

“We’re going to keep driving forward until all of our nation’s military families feel in real and concrete ways the love and support and gratitude that we all hold in our hearts,” she said. “That is our simple promise to you.”

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, April 17, 2012) — President Barack Obama has announced that Spc. 4 Leslie H. Sabo Jr., a rifleman with the 101st Airborne Division, will posthumously receive the Medal of Honor May 16 for his actions during the Vietnam War.

Sabo is credited with saving the lives of several of his comrades in Company B, 3rd Battalion, 506th Infantry when his platoon was ambushed May 10, 1970, near the Se San River in eastern Cambodia. Sabo shielded a comrade from an enemy grenade and silenced a machine-gun bunker before he was killed.

Sabo’s widow, Rose Mary Sabo-Brown, and his brother, George Sabo, have been invited to the White House for the Medal of Honor ceremony. President Obama recently telephoned Sabo-Brown to inform her that her late husband would receive the nation’s highest award for valor.

“It was a very emotional day,” she said. “A very, very emotional day. I couldn’t even sleep that night. And when I did fall asleep finally and I woke up the next morning, I went, ‘Now wait a minute, did I dream this? Is it really real?’”

“I couldn’t be more proud of him,” Sabo-Brown said. In her home near New Castle, Pa., Sabo-Brown has set up museum of sorts in tribute to her late husband and his comrades who were killed in Cambodia.

Even though his platoon was ambushed from all sides by a large enemy force, Sabo charged the enemy position, killing several enemy Soldiers. He then assaulted an enemy flanking force, successfully drawing their fire away from friendly Soldiers and ultimately forcing the enemy to retreat. While securing a re-supply of ammunition, an enemy grenade landed nearby. Specialist Sabo picked it up, threw it, and shielded a wounded comrade with his own body – absorbing the brunt of the blast and saving his comrade’s life.

Although wounded by the grenade blast, Sabo continued to charge the enemy’s bunker. After receiving several serious wounds from automatic weapons fire, he crawled toward the enemy emplacement and, when in position, threw a grenade into the bunker. The resulting explosion silenced the enemy fire, but also ended Specialist Sabo’s life. His indomitable courage and complete disregard for his own safety saved the lives of many of his platoon members.

Sabo’s unit nominated him for the Medal of Honor, but the paperwork was lost until Tony Mabb, a Vietnam veteran of the 101st Airborne Division and a writer for the “Screaming Eagle” association magazine, came across a thick file on Sabo while on a research trip to the National Archives military repository in College Park, Md.

Mabb contacted his congresswoman, who recommended DOD reconsider a medal of valor for Sabo. Mabb also made contact with Sabo’s widow, Rose Mary Sabo-Brown, who lives in New Castle, Pa.

“The Leslie I know would give his life to anybody,” she said. “He would. He would give you the shirt off his back. That’s the kind of man he was.”

We experienced this last Friday afternoon. It’s an experience that will stay with me forever. I’ve found more on this monthly tradition within the halls of The Pentagon…

Here’s a piece I found from the Wall Street Journal and another piece I found from a songwriter.

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WASHINGTON — Cpl. Kenny Lyon’s mother pushed his wheelchair down a narrow Pentagon hallway, crying as she listened to the applause.

Hundreds of Defense Department employees lined the corridor, cheering for Cpl. Lyon and the other wounded military personnel who walked or rolled past. Some of them patted Cpl. Lyon on the shoulder, while others shook his hand or leaned in to hug his mother, Gigi Windsor.

“I was really humbled by it because I didn’t do anything special,” says Cpl. Lyon, a 22-year-old Marine who lost a leg in a mortar attack near Fallujah. “I went to Iraq to do a job, and I got injured and actually couldn’t do it. So why was I getting honored?”

Cpl. Lyon was taking part in a little-known event called the Wounded Warrior March, which brings military personnel who suffer serious injuries in Iraq or Afghanistan to the Pentagon for a parade unlike any other.

The events, held roughly every six weeks, are notable for their simplicity. No speeches are given, no dignitaries march alongside the veterans and cameras are banned. The parades are closed to the public, except for friends and relatives of the injured soldiers and Marines taking part. Military officials don’t tout the program to the press.

It’s an example of the ways the military has chosen to honor its own out of public view. The Pentagon has until recently refused to release any photos of the flag-draped caskets of fallen U.S. troops being brought off planes back at home. President Bush doesn’t attend military funerals and meets with bereaved family members only in private settings. Journalists embedded with American forces, meanwhile, must sign a contract limiting their use of photos of dead or wounded service personnel.

The parades also show the evolution of military honors for the dead and wounded. In the Vietnam War, soldiers and Marines wrote the names of fallen colleagues on their helmets and uniforms. Today, some wear bracelets engraved with the names and nicknames of colleagues killed in the two war zones, while others have the information tattooed on their arms and chests.

Far from the front lines, the Wounded Warrior events give employees at the Pentagon an opportunity to pay their respects to soldiers and Marines they have never met.

“When these boys came back, they went straight into hospitals, so they missed out on the homecoming ceremonies we all came back to,” says Maj. Zachary Miller, an operations officer for the Army. “This is a way of giving that back to them.”

Chance Meeting

They began in 2004 after a chance meeting between a young amputee and an Army general. The soldier told the officer that he would like to visit the Pentagon, and the general said he would try to make it happen.

The proposal made its way to Diane Bodman, the wife of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. She volunteers at the Red Cross office at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Ms. Bodman had experience planning and coordinating trips, and offered to take the project on.

The first group of Walter Reed patients visited the Pentagon in the summer of 2004 and the event struck a chord with many of the military personnel and civilians working in the sprawling facility.

“You’re just holding back from breaking down,” says Maj. Lyndon Marshall, whose office is on the parade route. He says he hasn’t missed a single event. “There’s pride, and camaraderie, and even a little guilt. You think, ‘I’ve been there. I’ve done that. And nothing happened to me.’”

Cpl. Lyon’s journey began at a small U.S. outpost near Fallujah. He enlisted in the Marines in fall 2003 looking for adventure. His unit deployed to Iraq in August 2004, but the tour was uneventful. In his seven months in al-Qaim, a region near the Syrian border, Cpl. Lyon says he didn’t once fire his rifle.

His second tour was different. On May 1, 2006, Cpl. Lyon was sitting outside working on an armored vehicle when he heard a whistling sound.

“I looked at my friend and said, ‘Is that incoming?” he recalls. “My ears began ringing and it felt like someone hit me in the back of the head with a frying pan.”

Cpl. Lyon was conscious when fellow Marines raced him to a medical facility in Fallujah. Then, he says, everything went black. When he woke up two weeks later, he was lying in a bed at Walter Reed.

Shrapnel from the mortar had destroyed his jaw, knocked out many of his teeth and torn a small hole in his skull. It also damaged nerves in one of his arms so he couldn’t raise his wrist or open his fingers. His left leg had to be amputated just above the knee.

When Ms. Windsor first saw her son, she thought there was no way he’d survive. “There was no piece of skin that didn’t have a scar or wound,” she says.

But military doctors put Cpl. Lyon back together. They rebuilt his jaw and performed plastic surgery to hide the scars on his face. They transferred tendons from elsewhere in his body into his arm. And they gave him a state-of-the-art prosthetic leg. Cpl. Lyon says he underwent more than 50 operations.

Cpl. Lyon learned about the Wounded Warrior program from a Red Cross volunteer. His mother was eager to take part, but Cpl. Lyon wanted to hold off until he was able to walk into the Pentagon under his own power. One evening close to the ceremony he fell out of bed, leaving him unable to use the prosthetic. With his mother coming to Washington from Marion, Md., he decided to take part anyway.

On a cool day last fall, a fleet of buses and vans made the short trip to the Pentagon. Cpl. Lyon and the other wounded veterans gathered in a narrow hallway and waited for their cue. When a military band began playing, they slowly made their way through the crowd.

Surprise Appearances

“It reminded me of that scene in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ when all of the people step in to say goodbye to Dorothy,” Ms. Windsor recalls. “The more you walked, the more people you saw.”

After the parade, the military personnel and their families were taken to the spot where a hijacked plane crashed into the building on Sept. 11, 2001, and then to a small dining room for lunch. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, made surprise appearances.

On his way back to Walter Reed, Cpl. Lyon said he spent a lot of time marveling at the number of Pentagon employees organizing and attending the events. It was, he believes, their way of trying to forge a connection to a war that otherwise seemed distant and abstract.

“Some of them make important decisions but never get to see their decisions being carried out,” he says. “When they applaud us, it gives them a little bit of closure for what they do every day. It makes things real for them.”

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Friday the 13th turned out to be very lucky.

We were invited to a private tour of The Pentagon.

We were in DC on other business and a good friend’s mother works in the Pentagon. She’s a Lieutenant in the Air Force and she was able to give us time for the full tour.

And we just happened to be there on the monthly welcome to the Wounded Warriors. Every month a group of combat wounded Service Members are brought to The Pentagon for a welcome and luncheon.

It was, perhaps, one of the most powerful things I’ve ever experienced. As we got to the floor where the welcome was to begin, we saw the wide halls lined with what could have been thousands of people. Because of the shape of the building, halls bend ahead and behind you, but on both sides of the wide halls, uniformed Pentagon personnel were lined up, shoulder to shoulder, clapping.

We took out place and before long, an honor guard of three appeared coming around the counter, very slowly walking backwards. They’d stop for a few seconds, then continue to walk lockstep backwards… They were the front guard for several dozen wounded Veterans. They came rolling in wheelchairs, walking on crutches, being pushed. As they walked past, those lining the halls would step forward to thank them and shake their hands. A young man with two prosthetic legs was pushing another young Soldier in a wheelchair.

Seeing these young men and women tore my heart out. I reached out to thank them as they came by, one of hundreds that had done so as they made their way entirely around The Pentagon. It was on one hand a solemn procession and on the other hand, a show of joy. I will never forget one young soldier. He was sitting in a wheelchair with both legs and one arm missing, his left arm badly damaged. He had a big smile on his face, his body bobbing back and forth to the rhythm of the clapping.

The march wound its way completely around The Pentagon and ended in the dining room opposite the large food court. The wounded and their families sat down for a lunch with many Generals coming to talk to each. We were invited in and we set up a table covered in black Memorial HeroBracelets. We met some pretty amazing people including some of the Soldiers and Marines who were being honored. We noticed that the Secretary of Defense Panetta was there, taking time with each Service member. He eventually came by and stood for a moment, looking over the neatly lined up black Memorial HeroBracelets on the table. We thanked him for talking to each of the Veterans at the lunch and he answered quickly “I couldn’t do my job without them.”

As the luncheon ended, the wounded filed out and we offered them to take a bracelet. They looked over the names to see if any of the HeroBracelets were honoring a friend lost in combat. Many took bracelets with them.

We’d met several people from the Red Cross. As we got to talking, we learned they worked in the hospitals that cared for these men and women. As we talked, we learned of what they needed to support their recovery. Some interesting things came up. For instance, electric razors. So many of them are on blood thinners as they heal and a nick from a regular razor could be a problem. They also need iPads to read and communicate with their loved ones. There was quite a list and we’re going to start working with them to get the word out about how we can all help.

The facts and figures of The Pentagon are pretty impressive. I don’t have them all but apparently there are somewhere around 30,000 people working there. It’s hard to imagine one building with that many people but it seems to work. And being there, you got the sense of purpose that is in every hallway. Everyone is taking their job seriously. Most are in uniform and I noticed it’s probably the fittest group of people I’d ever seen. Everyone was in excellent shape. During my conversation with our gracious guide, I learned that everyone, from the Generals down, had to pass a physical. No excuses. You had to be in shape and ready to deploy on a moments notice. Our guide also told us that its the hardest working group of people she’d ever seen. Long hours and great work ethics are the norm. I was impressed. Very impressed. I was glad to have so many dedicated people working on my behalf.

Washington is full of monuments and hard working people. And The Pentagon is no different. I think we can all rest a little easier knowing the  people who run and manage our defenses are taking their jobs very seriously.

And we should all give thanks to those who are in harms way. And to those with whom harm finds.

President Barack Obama today signed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, which increases active-duty and reserve pay by 1.6 percent and governs Defense Department activities, from procurement to military personnel policy.

Several provisions in this year’s act will potentially affect active-duty and retired service members and their families.

Section 347 requires DOD to finance an independent assessment of overseas troop basing, advising retention, closure, realignment or establishment of U.S. military facilities outside the United States “in light of potential fiscal constraints on [DOD] and emerging national security requirements in coming years.”

Section 402 reduces authorized Army minimum end strength from 562,000 to 547,000. The other services’ authorized minimum strengths are unchanged, with 325,700 for the Navy, 202,100 for the Marine Corps and 332,800 for the Air Force.

Section 512 of the act creates a new member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which currently includes the Army and Air Force chiefs of staff, the chief of naval operations and the Marine Corps commandant. The new member will be the chief of the National Guard Bureau, who will have responsibility for “addressing matters involving non-federalized National Guard forces in support of homeland defense and civil support missions.”

Section 526 extends voluntary separation pay and benefits authority, formerly set to expire Dec. 31, to the end of 2018. Section 530 converts the high-deployment allowance from mandatory to authorized. The allowance currently pays $100 a day, in addition to all other pay and allowances, to a deployed service member who has been deployed 401 days or more out of the preceding 730 days.

Section 701 limits annual Tricare enrollment fee increases for retirees and their family members to an amount equal to the percentage by which retired pay increases that year.

Section 702 sets mental health assessment requirements for service members deployed for contingency operations. The act calls for a series of assessments: one within 120 days before deployment; another during the period between 90 days after a deployment begins and 180 days after it ends; a third within a year after the deployment ends; and a fourth between 18 months and 30 months of redeployment.

The act states assessments are intended to “identify post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidal tendencies, and other behavioral health conditions … in order to determine which such members are in need of additional care and treatment for such health conditions.”

Assessments are not required for service members “not subjected or exposed to operational risk factors during deployment in the contingency operation concerned,” the act states.

Section 954 affirms that DOD “has the capability, and upon direction by the president may conduct offensive operations in cyberspace to defend our nation, allies and interests,” subject to the law of armed conflict and the War Powers Resolution.

Signing the bill into law today, President Barack Obama acknowledging “serious reservations” about parts of the act, particularly provisions that regulate the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of suspected terrorists.

“I have signed the act chiefly because it authorizes funding for the defense of the United States and its interests abroad, crucial services for service members and their families and vital national security programs that must be renewed,” Obama said in a statement released today.

The act also contains critical initiatives to control spiraling health-care costs within the Defense Department, develop counterterrorism initiatives abroad, build the security capacity of key partners, modernize the force and boost the efficiency and effectiveness of military operations worldwide, he noted.

Veterans of the Persian Gulf War with undiagnosed illnesses have an additional five years to qualify for benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“Not all the wounds of war are fully understood,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “When there is uncertainty about the connection between a medical problem and military service, veterans are entitled to the benefit of the doubt.”

A recent change in VA regulations affects veterans of the conflict in Southwest Asia. Many have attributed a range of undiagnosed or poorly understood medical problems to their military services. Chemical weapons, environmental hazards and vaccinations are among the possible causes.

For VA benefit purposes, Gulf War Veterans are defined as those who served on active duty in the Southwest Asia theater of military operations any time during the first Gulf War starting Aug. 2, 1990, through the Iraq War and subsequent reduced operations in Iraq. Military operations include Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom, and New Dawn.

At issue is the eligibility of veterans to claim VA disability compensation based upon those undiagnosed illnesses, and the ability of survivors to qualify for VA’s Dependency and Indemnity Compensation.

Under long-standing VA rules, any undiagnosed illnesses used to establish eligibility for VA benefits must become apparent by Dec. 31, 2011. The new change pushes the date back to Dec. 31, 2016.

Picked this story up from a UK Website.

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To the troops they are a somber reminder of those who did not make it home, but for their superiors the ‘Killed in Action’ bracelets have been little more than ‘unauthorised jewelry’ – and have to be removed.

Marines have reacted with fury to orders that they remove their memorial wristbands with names of fallen colleagues etched onto them.

Now the commandant of the Marine Corps is changing the rule that bans troops from wearing bracelets commemorating friends killed in action.

Marines were upset after being told by superiors that memorial bracelets like this worn to honor fallen soldiers are unauthorized jewelry and should be removed

Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Gregory Wolf says that Marine Gen. James Amos will announce that Marines can wear the KIA bracelets, usually thin rubber or metal bands bearing the names of the fallen.

Until now the soldiers have been told that the pieces of metal breach the dress code and that they must be taken off.

In letters to soldiers’ magazine Marine Corps Times they revealed that signs of have been put up  telling them to take them off – but they refused, risking punishment or withdrawal or privileges.

The ban is despite the fact that even President Barack Obama wears one on his arm in tribute to a dead soldier.

One soldier wrote: ‘They will have to pry it off my cold dead wrist to take it away from me. Don’t let them take yours away’.

The row relates to KIA bracelets, which are worn around the wrist and contain the name of the person who has been killed, the date it happened and a tribute.

Obama, here in 2008, has worn a KIA bracelet given to him by Tracy Jopek. Her son, Sgt. Ryan David Jopek, 20, was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb on August 2 2006. The bracelet includes the caption: ‘All gave some, He gave all’.

The Marine Corps rules did not specifically address them meaning that in some barracks senior officers have been telling their troops to take them off.

Complicating matters is that the rules allow a few exceptions such as a ring, necklaces, simple earrings for women and a watch.

Cpl. Jack Lipoff, a rifleman with 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines in at Camp Lejeune, refuses to remove his bracelet

Among those who have refused to take off their bracelets is Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Sergio Sanchez, who is assigned to the naval hospital at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California.

He had been asked to take off his bracelet which was a tribute to his friend Cpl. Mark Goyet, who was killed in Afghanistan in June.

Six other marines have also continued to wear theirs, even though it is a breach of the rules.

Corp. Sanchez said: ‘One of the sergeants in my company said it wasn’t authorised and asked me to take it off.

‘I kind of got upset and said something – stuff that I should not have said – but afterwards, I still did not take it off.

‘If they make me take it off, I’ll probably just get it tattooed on my wrist. That is how adamant I am about making sure my buddy’s honor will live in my heart, my spirit and my mind – forever.’

Another who has continued to wear his bracelet despite being told not to is Cpl. Jack Lipoff, a rifleman with 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines in At Camp Lejeune, N.C.

He said the ban was introduced after they returned in August last year from a gruelling seven month rough deployment to Afghanistan.

He said: ‘It wasn’t harshly enforced … but it was still something that you couldn’t wear.

‘A lot of people were pretty offended by that since we had just lost some guys. We took a lot of casualties.

One solider, not pictured, wrote, ‘They will have to pry it off my cold dead wrist to take it away from me. Don’t let them take yours away’

‘It is probably one of the most pivotal things ever to happen in your life – going to combat – and not everyone came back from it. And you won’t forget them.

‘You want other people to understand they mean a lot to you. A huge part of being a Marine is also remembering people who don’t survive combat.’

The wristband worn by Mr Obama was given to him by Tracy Jopek of Merrill, Wis., during his run for President.

Engraved into the metal is the name of her son, Sgt. Ryan David Jopek, the date the 20-year-old was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb – August 2 2006 – and the caption: ‘All gave some, He gave all’.

A spokesman for Sgt. Maj. Mike Barrett, the Army’s top non-commissioned officer said that following the uproar he was looking into the issue of KIA bracelets.

A community salutes 1st Lt. Ashley White Stumpf, who died in Afghanistan

Published: Tuesday, November 01, 2011, 7:32 AM     Updated: Tuesday, November 01, 2011, 7:45 AM

 By Brian Albrecht 
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EnlargeChuck Crow, The Plain DealerThe coffin of Army 1st Lt. Ashley White Stumpf is carried out of St. Joseph Catholic Church with her mother, Deborah White (red dress), and Ashley’s husband Army Capt. Jason Stumpf (in back right, red cap), in RandolphTownship, Ohio on Oct. 31, 2011.Funeral for 1st Lt. Ashley White Stumpf gallery (11 photos)

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MOGADORE, Ohio — They brought covered dishes and cookies with Halloween-orange frosting. It’s how the folks in this rural corner of Portage County say goodbye. 

Monday, they also lined both sides of the street in front of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Randolph Township, waving small American flags; hands covering hearts or mashing tear-crumpled tissues, old veterans giving a trembling salute as the hearse bearing Army 1st Lt. Ashley White Stumpfrolled by. (See earlier version of story.) 

Apron-clad women of the St. Joseph funeral luncheon committee hurried out of the kitchen at the Knights of Columbus hall where a post-funeral fete was set, to catch a glimpse as the procession came to the same church where Stumpf had just gotten married last May.

The fallen soldier was one of their own, and “we take care of each other,” said Joanne Krantz, committee chairperson. This was the group’s first military funeral. She hoped it would be their last.

Stumpf, 24, a native of Alliance, was killed Oct. 22 by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan where she was serving as a member of a cultural support team working with a Joint Special Operations Task Force. The 2009 graduate of Kent State University was one of 135 women of the 6,230 U.S. troops who have died during the war in Afghanistan or Iraq.

A statement issued by the familysaid, in part, that Stumpf “died doing what she loved and knowing she was making a difference in the lives of countless Afghani women and children.

“Our family is overflowing with pride. Pride at the person Ashley was. Pride at the endeavors she chose to pursue, and pride in the service she gave to our country.”

Her military role was frequently cited during the church service.

“She was not just accepted by the Rangers she worked with, but loved, admired and respected,” said Col. Mark O’Donnell, deputy commander of the 75th Ranger Regiment, a unit Stumpf served with on her first combat tour.

After citing Winston Churchill’s quote that “never have so many owed so much to so few,” O’Donnell noted, “Ashley was frequently the only female on the objective. Think about the great courage that took.”

View full sizeAPFirst Lt. Ashley White Stumpf.

The officer in charge of her unit cited Stumpf’s “rare combination of courage, compassion and commitment to each mission.”

Yet there was another side of the soldier that was also commended by family and friends.

One childhood friend recalled Stumpf’s advice on everything from makeup to grilled cheese sandwiches, citing Stumpf’s “unselfish attitude and passion for life that inspired everyone who knew her.

“In the short amount of time that God gave her, she was able to touch thousands of people,” she added.

Stumpf’s brother, Josh White, said his sister “took great pride in the sacrifice that she and her husband Jason [an Army captain] made to help make this world a safe place.”

Dear Friends, As I write to you at this very moment, there are still more than 100,000 American troops in Afghanistan. Another 100,000+ are deployed in foreign countries and on ships at sea — an American ”911 Force” ready to respond at a moment’s notice to terrorist attacks, hostile enemy aggression or natural disasters. We must not forget our courageous heroes.  200,000-plus brave service men and women are away from their families, away from home and in continual danger. THEY ASK FOR NOTHING. BUT THEY DESERVE OUR THANKS. Operation Gratitude sends up to 150,000 care packages per year to those deployed in harm’s way, to their children left behind and to wounded warriors recovering in transition units. Each care package is priceless in its impact, but costs $15 to send. We need your help. With the rush of the holidays it’s easy to forget that our Military’s sacrifices continue. Let them know you remember. Let them know you care. Please send a donation and give an American Hero a hug from home for the Holidays. Read how your efforts are making a difference in “Letters From the Troops” on our website, and then…                                                     Let them know you remember. It only takes a moment to make a difference that will last a lifetime.  Thank you for your generous support this holiday season!