The Veteran Thread

[LeftWriteFemme]

President Obama has pledged to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", and I just added my name to the growing list of Americans in support of repealing this discriminatory law.

Will you join me?

http://my.barackobama.com/repeal_DADT-EMS

[Cougar]

United States Marine 83-88
Military Police
Almost got nailed during the 87 witchhunt - I hope Maldonado and Baum burn in hell for squealing and ruining peoples lives.

My Mother was Army
Three Uncles in the Air Force
One Uncle in the Navy
One Uncle in the Coast Guard
One Grandfather was retired Navy
One Great Grandfather was was both Army & Navy

[Tommi]

Send a Soldier a CARD Red Cross here.

Holiday Mail For Heroes is back for a fourth year! The American Red Cross and Pitney Bowes will collect holiday cards from regular citizens all across the country and distribute them to service members, veterans, and their families. Many active service members must spend the holidays apart from their family. Give back this holiday season by sending a card to thank those who have given a great deal to their country.

Send cards to the address below, and please read the guidelines carefully!

Holiday Mail for Heroes
PO Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD
20791-5456

All cards must be postmarked no later than Friday, December 10th. Cards postmarked after this date will unfortunately be returned to the sender. This deadline ensures enough time to sort and distribute cards before the holidays.

After the mailbox closes, the cards we received will be screened for hazardous materials by Pitney Bowes and then reviewed by Red Cross volunteers working around the country.

[Corkey]

Today is December 7, on this date in 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, HI.
Remembering our fallen, and our Veterans.

[Greyson]

It appears the late actress Bea Arthur served as a Marine for a little over one month.

See her military file at the link below.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/bea-arthur-marine-file?page=0
__________________________________________________ _______________

December 9, 2010

Celebrity Bea Arthur Was A Truck-Driving MarineDespite denial, records detail star’s military career


While she strangely denied serving in the armed forces, military records show that the actress Bea Arthur spent 30 months in the Marine Corps, where she was one of the first members of the Women’s Reserve and spent time as a typist and a truck driver.

The "Maude" and "The Golden Girls" star, who died last year at age 86, enlisted in early-1943 when she was 21 (and known as Bernice Frankel). In a February 1943 letter included in her Marine personnel file, Arthur gave military officials a brief account of her prior employment as a food analyst at a Maryland packing plant, a hospital lab technician, and an office worker at a New York loan company.

Arthur was due to start a new job, but she “heard last week that enlistments for women in the Marines were open, so decided the only thing to do was to join.” While she hoped for an assignment in ground aviation, Arthur noted that she was “willing to get in now and do whatever is desired of me until such time as ground schools are organized.” She added, “As far as hobbies are concerned, I’ve dabbled in music and dramatics.”

As part of the enlistment process, Arthur underwent interviews that resulted in the production of “personality appraisal” sheets. One such analysis described her conversation as “Argumentative” and her attitude and manner as “Over aggressive.” In a handwritten note, the Marine interviewer remarked, “Officious--but probably a good worker--if she has her own way!”

Arthur is pictured here in an official Marine photo taken shortly after her enlistment. A second undated portrait can be seen above.

Arthur, who was fingerprinted during enlistment, started basic training in March 1943 and was initially assigned as a typist at Marine headquarters in Washington, D.C.. Over the following two years, Arthur was stationed at Marine Corps and Navy air stations in Virginia and North Carolina. During her military career, Arthur’s rank went from private to corporal to sergeant to staff sergeant, the title she held upon her honorable discharge in September 1945, according to one document.

On a Marine qualification card that included a section titled “Talent for furnishing public entertainment,” Arthur is credited for “piano & organ 13 years” and “contralto-orchestra.” Her “active hobbies” included hunting with a .22 caliber rifle and “bow and arrow.”

A year after her enlistment, Arthur married a fellow Marine, Private Robert Aurthur, in a ceremony presided over by a city judge in Ithaca, New York. She then formally had her named changed in military records to Bernice Aurthur. It would change again, to Bea Arthur, as she started her post-military career as an actress.

The military records, released in response to a Freedom of Informaton Act request, include a single “misconduct report” filed against Arthur while she was stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, North Carolina. That misconduct determination stemmed from Arthur’s contracting of a venereal disease, which left her “incapacitated for duty” for five weeks in late-1944. As a result, her pay was reduced for that period.

For some reason, Arthur did not speak about her time with the Marines. In fact, in a videotaped interview (excerpted below) conducted as part of an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences archives project, Arthur flatly denied serving in the military. When an interviewer said that she had read somewhere that Arthur had once joined the Marines, the actress answered, “Oh, no. No.” She then continued a chronological review of her life by noting that, in 1947, she enrolled in dramatic school in New York. (5 pages)


http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documen...driving-marine

[Tommi]

I sit here watching it live on CNN.

Tears stream down my face for those who know, and those who do not. For those who ended their careers and their lives for coming out in the military.

For those who fought for this for years, and for those that have risen above and know our truth. Now we can serve openly and proud.

Honorably Discharged, but by the grace of God.

[theoddz]

Originally Posted by Tommi

I sit here watching it live on CNN.

Tears stream down my face for those who know, and those who do not. For those who ended their careers and their lives for coming out in the military.

For those who fought for this for years, and for those that have risen above and know our truth. Now we can serve openly and proud.

Honorably Discharged, but by the grace of God.

I couldn't have said it better, Tommi, thank you!!!

I wholly share your thoughts and sentiments on this important day. I am keeping, in my thoughts, all the good Marines and Sailors (and Airmen, Soldiers and Coasties), especially, whom I knew, who lost careers and lives to an unfair and discriminatory policy. I hope they can all find some kind of resolution and peace that another good Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine or Coastie won't have to endure and lose what they did.

Semper Fi......for ALL of us.



~Theo~