"Always do the right thing."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"I got it, I'm gone."

Do The Right Thing, 1989.


I know I am backtracking here. It's almost New Years and I'm still talking about Thanksgiving.

However, I ran across this article while visiting a site I check into often. Scott takes great pictures and knows from first hand experience what it is like to live like they do. He is an embedded reporter for kgw.com, Oregon and SW Washington state.

Operation Drumstick Brings Hot Meals to the Troops
About midway down the page, there is a click here.

December 26th, 2006

On Thanksgiving Day in southern Afghanistan, hot meals were flown to soldiers stationed at some of the most remote firebases. It was a mission conceived and organzed by Command Sgt. Major McClure, an Oregon Army National Guard Embedded Trainer. The mission was appropriately named Operation Drumstick.

On the other hand, other people had a hard time finding someone to sit with during holiday feasts......


Apparently, John Kerry "visited" the troops in Iraq during Christmas and had no soldiers to eat breakfast with.

Remarkably, Bill O'Reilly came .... the same day and the line for autographs extended through the palace and people waited for two hours to shake his hand.....

Now why wouldn't soldiers want to shake Mr. Kerry's hand?


When addressing college students in California, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, John Kerry said people who don't study hard would likely "get stuck in Iraq." Aides say Kerry mistakenly dropped the word "us" from his prepared text and meant to say, "you end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq," referring to President Bush. Uh huh.

Word of what the failed presidential candidate said got to Heather Ward and her fellow members of the Minnesota National Guard in Talil, Iraq, south of Baghdad. Quickly, they knew how to respond: with a sarcastic sign reading "Halp us Jon Carry - we r stuck hear n Irak."

David Ward said his daughter told him that while the picture was meant to be private, her unit is happy their message is getting across.

"When they saw and heard what Kerry said, they were just furious and they were sitting around and one thing led to another," he said. "Kerry is a preening peacock and the best way to respond to him is with humor," he said.

Ward said his daughter was particularly incensed by Kerry's comments because her résumé is nothing like the "stuck" soldier the senator seemed to describe in his comment. Heather Ward has 31/2 years of college credits in chemistry and biology and is about to graduate when she gets back. She hopes one day to be a radiologist, he said. And what's more, she joined the armed forces soon after 9/11 because she wanted to help her country, her dad said.

"These aren't uneducated people with no options in life," he said.

The picture drew heaps of praise, even as the military declared that the soldiers cannot talk to the press about what they did. It is a violation of military rules for service members to get involved in elections, and it was unclear if the members of the unit - the 1/34 Brigade Troops Battalion - would face any discipline for the stunt.

"Thank you so much for responding so eloquently to his uneducated, ill-thought and unwanted gibberish," wrote commentator Margie Lozada, who identified herself as a Navy vet. "I am so proud of you guys."

I hear you. JR Salzman is a member of the Minnesota National Guard.