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This is what Shakey Walls did for me with a montage of Chesty Puller – remember in USMC Boot Camp having to scream out just before rack time? "Goodnight Chesty Puller, Wherever you Are!"

Thanks Shakey, awesome job! If you would like a montage of your "hero" contact Shakey by clicking on the Shakey Walls link above.

Semper Fi!

My friend Shakey Walls creates photo memory montages for families and friends of fallen soldiers. If you like what you see here contact him at Bwalls36@gmail.com and have him build a memory montage for your military hero.

As a disabled vet I am eligible for the Veteran Administrations MOVE program, a national weight management program designed by the VHA National Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention to help veterans lose weight, keep it off and improve their health. I am all over that!

A Partner With Your Healthcare Team

This little device here is my new friend, it greets me every morning with all kinds of cool suggestions on how to make healthy food choices. It attaches to a scale that I can send in my weight with and is connected to the nursing center at the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix where I have been assigned my own personal nutritionist. I weigh in once a week but check in daily for tips, helpful suggestions and questions designed to motivate me. Check out the one here on How Do I Get Started With Changing My Eating Habits

How Does A Veteran Get Into The Move Program?

I wasn't kidding about the saving my life part. Since leaving the Marine Corps in 1972 I have struggled and fought a mostly losing battle to maintain my marine corps weight or some semblance thereof! Even accounting for my age (61) I am way over the line for any kind of healthy outlook, pre-diabetic and fed up with the way I look and feel. I have tried everything but I think this time between the support I get from the Viterion 100, my VA nutritionist, the follow up MOVE Forward programs, and the staff of the VA MOVE Program in Phoenix, I may just have a shot at becoming human again! The good news is that a low carb approach works great with the MOVE program – so stay tuned for progress reports!

Hispanic Man Impersonates As Marine Hero – Flees U.S. After Being Found Out

I read about this guy recently in the Arizona Republic about how he impersonated a marine hero, wearing the Navy Cross, crashing Marine Corps Ball's and who, as it turns out, is not only NOT a marine hero but a complete phony! Seems he never got any closer to serving in the miltary than the one time a corporal ate in the same Taco Bell he worked in. Do you find that statement offensive because our "hero's" name is hispanic? Am I guilty of racial profiling? Maybe, but it's not nearly as offensive as what he did, claiming falsely the honor of wearing one of our country's highest military awards. One thing the story didn't touch on at all was, is this buy even in this country legally? Being from Arizona, a state in the throes of racial hell and with immigration problems out of control, I have a right to know.

"Sgt." John Rodriguez, a hispanic man convicted this month of up to 12 counts of forgery and fraud for impersonating a marine hero and Navy Cross winner, has flown the coop. This after posting bail and then not showing up in court to answer his accusers. Just a tad suspicious behavior for a "hero" with the Navy Cross.

My Dog Is A Marine Corps General

I sit here stunned that someone like this could have gotten away with with impersonating a marine but the really shocking thing about it is how long he was able to perpetuate the charade.  Now you know ol Duke (my choc lab) here is pulling your leg with his impersonation of a marine general officer, pretty obvious actually because after all, he is a dog.  Has racial profiling infiltrated the military? Were other marines afraid to question the heroism of a hispanic man? Excuse me, wasn't it profiling that the FBI used successfully in investigations that lead to the capture of serial killers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy? Havn't all of our police officers been trained in profiling so that crimes can be prevented before they happen. I see nothing racial about profiling, law enforcement lives by it.

Seems Mr. Rodriguez here went a bit deeper than your ordinary military hero impersonator, he did just a bit more than don a hero's medals on a surplus marine blouse. No, he actually went as far as to gain access and train with real marines at Camp Pendleton! AND he even crashed the Marine Corps Ball. But c'mon, somebody must have engaged him in a conversation somewhere?It didn't take these cops in the video long to figure out Eddie Murphy's gag in the movie Trading Places.

You Can't Fool A Real Marine For Long

It beats me how he got away with it becuase if he ever had a one on one conversation with a real marine they would have figured him out in a heartbeat. marines know how to spot other marines, it's in the eyes, body language, especially marines who saw combat. Heck, there is this guy in my support group of PTSD addled Vietnam combat vets, name of Jim. Heck of a nice guy and even though he was an officer I like the guy. This military impersonation thing really gets to Jim, makes him see red. And if he sees a guy in the airport or anywhere in public sporting the colors, regardless of branch, Jim sidles up to say howdy, and just like that – in about 30 seconds Jim either has a new friend or the guy will wish he had never even thought of putting on those medals!

I think the Vietnam vets (me included) get offended a bit easier than other war vets because we had to hide what we did just to try and live a normal life once discharged. World opinion was against what we had done and it was the best course to just lower your head and go forward. Just becuase my dog wears the uniform of a marine hero does that make him one? No disrespect for the Marine Corps intended, I just use it to emphasize my point and the ridiculousness of what this guy did by wearing the uniform and medals of a marine hero – when in fact he was a total fraud – never served at all! How could this guy slip by undetected with a NAVY CROSS around his neck at a MARINE CORPS BALL?!

Duke, my chocolate lab here is my best buddy, he saw my uniform hanging in the closet and just had to have one of his own. But jeez Duke, don't you think you overdid it a little? When Jim M. sees this sacrilege off to doggy prison you must go! Does this impersonation thing have to go as far as the outragious behavior of Eddie Murphy's hilarious performance as in Trading Places.

All kidding aside, this is no laughing matter, the FBI estimates that since 911 there are about 50 people a month claiming to be a vet when they wouldn't know the difference between an irish pennant hanging down over maggies drawers! Gives them some respect. My friend Jim, the Army 1st looey I was telling you about, he was shot in Viet Nam, no, not friendly fire, but the real deal, on a patrol commanding a platoon. Heavy stuff and when he suspects a guy to be wearing the uniform falsely, whoo look out!

Click here to view the embedded video.

You don't have to dedicate yourself to any diet plan or low-carb regimen to lose weight. Just substitute what you might eat in carbs with fat instead, bacon vs donuts, cheese vs cereal, or a sandwich with mayo without the bread.  Doing this will have much less impact on insulin levels, where upswings cause weight gain.

Of course, later on when my mouth could handle it I too started eating like my Dad, hogging it down in a way that I convinced myself had me enjoying food more. I didn't just pick up this eating style during my stint in the Marine Corps, although back then I ate fast because I either had to or was in a hurry to get somewhere. The marines have a saying about chow time;  "take all you want, but eat all you take".

Unfortunately, as a result of his bad eating habits,  Dad became extremely overweight, developed diabetes and died at the tender age of 62 from complications of a gastric bypass operation.

After I joined the marines I had to learn how to eat all over again. In USMC boot camp I was always hungry, not because they starved me (just the opposite) but because I was expending so many calories in training I needed the nourishment. And the food was darn good too! Since leaving the marines I have had to watch what I eat and was not always successful, I gained weight and before I knew it had gained more weight than I thought possible. Before I discovered the low-carb lifestyle I was headed toward repeating my Dad's mistakes and fortunately I woke up in time to reverse that trend.

As a low-carb aficionado my sandwiches (I call them roll-ups) now consist of ingredients such as ham, turkey, roast beef, tuna salad, cheese and lettuce, minus the bread and I don't really miss it. I may never be able to give up bread completely but the carbs I have resisted not eating bread with a sandwich allow me to eat other carbs I enjoy, especially pasta (low-carb) and fruit.

What brought all this up was  coming across an article in Men's Health titled Chew on This which brought back memories of Dad's eating habits because the article is about what Dutch researchers discovered;  that big bites (and fast chewing) can lead to overeating. I didn't know about this and was surprised to read that people who chewed large bites of food for 3 seconds consumed 52 percent more food before feeling full than those who chewed smaller bites for 9 seconds. Their findings suggest that tasting food for a longer period of time (no matter how much you bite off) signals your brain to make you feel full sooner.

I wish these Dutch scientists had discovered this in time to help my Dad, he might have lived longer had he been able to change his eating habits by taking smaller bites and chewing longer. If you find yourself doing the same thing, taking big bites and gulping, remind yourself to slow down, try taking smaller bites and see what happens. You might be surprised at what you discover.

Small consolation to the family of Cpl. Yazzie who was from the small Navajo community of Rock Point, just a short drive from where I live in NE Arizona. He is the 11th Navajo warrior to have been killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan since this nonsense started way back in 2001. Cpl. Yazzie was a combat engineer brother who had been attached to the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, CA.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and the Navajo Nation.
Semper Fi "Pancho"

Image via Wikipedia

The Commandant of the Marine Corps does not just Drop In!

When I was in the Marines a visit from the Commandant of the Marine Corps, such as the one featured here by General James T. Conway, would have struck fear into this marine's camo- clad body. Not because of the man himself (although impressive) but the preparations! These Marines seem to think it's just another day in the Marine Corps.

I guess public relations is a much bigger deal than it used to be or maybe it's just that Farjah is a lot safer to visit than Khe Sanh ever was!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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There were plenty of detractors out there saying that Hollywood has done it again, glamorized a dangerous job, Explosive Ordinance Disposal, while real members of EOD teams in southern Iraq said in interviews arranged by the Army that 'The Hurt Locker' is a good action movie if you know nothing about defusing roadside bombs or the military.

One might even suspect Uncle Sam's involvement somewhere along the line, I would imagine that enlistments were up the day after the Oscars.

Sgt. Eric Gordon of San Pedro, an Air Force EOD technician on his second tour in Iraq, has watched the movie a few times with his friends. 'I would watch it with other EOD people, and we would laugh,' Gordon said." And they add, "an EOD team leader in Maysan province, Staff Sgt. Jeremy D. Phillips, said although he was glad the film highlighted their trade, he disliked the celluloid treatment of EOD units. 'There is too much John Wayne and cowboy stuff. It is very loosely based on actual events,' he said. 'I'm honestly glad they are trying to convey to the public what we've been doing, and I wish maybe they had just done it with a little bit of a different spin on it,' he said."

As an EOD Marine in Vietnam I can't remember much of what I did would qualify as glamorous, certainly I didn't have the luxury of wearing a bomb suit, the heat and humidity was so bad anyway that it would have killed me before any bomb would have. Besides, most of what we did with booby traps and mines was to blow them up, not diffuse them.

I like a good story as much as anyone but let's keep it real where war is concerned, it ain't no Hollywood set!

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But I don't have to say a word, Gunney R. Lee Ermey himself, he of the real Marine Corps and Hollywood Marines both, said it for me.  And nobody can say it better than Gunny R. Lee Ermey! Hoo Rah Gunny!