Photography by John Michael

US Air Force Began Here

First known as Fort Whipple when it was part of the Defenses of Washington DC during the US Civil War, Fort Myer, Virginia  is key in the US Air Force’s history. A significant milestone, actually the cornerstone, as the first military aviation flights occurred on Post in September 1908 when the Wright Flyer ascended the skies above the drill field.  In response to the US Army’s Signal Corps request, the fledgling craft would spend the days of the next week that September circling the acres where the US Army’s cavalry and field artillery trained and General Philip Sheridan deemed a showcase for the Cavalry.

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The Old Guard on a Mission 2011

For weeks, the 3d Infantry Regiment of the US Army – The Old Guard – has been on a mission within Arlington National Cemetery …  The prestigious ceremonial unit, which calls Fort Myer their home since 1948, has been photographing each of the headstones within the hallowed ground of what was once the Custis-Lee estate.

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The long road back

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.
–Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 I’ve kept this hidden from most of you, since I felt it wasn’t appropriate to air what I’ve had to endure for a rather long time.  It was suggested that I share, share to relieve some of the pain.

It’s been a rather challenging year and then some.   For those who have been there to support in many ways, I thank you.   At times, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to continue on given that I was constantly surrounded by the death of  several loved ones and close friends and rejection once again by my daughter.

I’m not out of the woods yet… but it’s getting better.   The  therapeutic release that I’ve been working on has had a positive effect and I know I will go on despite all these sorrows… mourning is really not any fun.

Thank you my friends!

Leadership

“The day Soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them.  They have either lost confidence that you can help them or have concluded that you do not care.  Either case is a failure of leadership.”

GEN Colin Powell,  USA (Ret.)

Former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

The Ongoing Fight

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. ~e.e. cummings

In God We Trust

The Cape Henry Memorial commemorates the first landfall at Cape Henry, in Virginia Beach, Virginia, of colonists bound for the Jamestown settlement. After landing on April 26, 1607, they explored the area, named the cape, and set up a cross before proceeding up the James River. A stone cross, set up in 1935 by the Daughters of the American Colonists, stands in the quarter-acre site. The memorial marks the First Landing, the very beginning of what would become British North America and subsequently Anglo Canada and the United States of America.

Standing Up

“You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.”
- Abraham Lincoln

Come alive

A man without ambition is dead. A man with ambition but no love is dead. A man with ambition and love for his blessings here on earth is ever so alive.
–Pearl Bailey

Who Are These Men?

Written by someone who has been there, the following is a “guest” posting from a dear friend:

During the past decade since the attacks of September 11, 2001, we have been a nation at war.  In Afghanistan, our enemy has been the Taliban, Al Qaida and countless foreign fighters whose only goal has been to kill Americans, in great numbers.       

It has–and continues to be–a long war.  Against an amorphous, enduring enemy.

The centerpiece of that war has been a single, elusive icon of terror who personally directed the mass killings of innocent people around the world. 

From the first day, we fought back.  And we continue to fight.

We have lost friends, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, mothers and fathers.  We have heard the sound of Taps echo and linger in the distance.  Many courageous men and women have returned with grievous wounds—sometimes invisible to the naked eye.

Despite the many obstacles, dangers and threats, we continue to fight.

In a long war, the sacrifice is often spread across generations.

Many of those operators who raided that compound 30 miles outside Islamabad were likely too young to drive when the 9/11 attacks occurred. 

And yet, these volunteers most certainly remembered that fateful day, and were thinking about it as they were being transported into Pakistan via Special Operations helicopters in the dead of night.  The images were likely decisive in their decision to take their oath– to defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Fueled by adrenalin, a healthy dose of fear, and a supreme confidence in their equipment and training, warriors like these know well that things can and likely will go wrong.  That’s why they rehearse.  Whether they are on their target or supporting from afar, it’s why they look after one another, and will never leave a fallen comrade behind.

They are the best living definition of a team. Because they operate as a single unit toward a common, understood objective.  They never quit.  When the conditions change, they adapt.  They can communicate intuitively, with silent hand and arm signals through the green glow of night vision goggles, or single syllable transmissions spoken into a whisper mike. They often follow orders delivered a continent away.  They are brothers–closer to one another than their own immediate families.

When they are in pursuit of a target, political boundaries are irrelevant.  Moving as a synchronized team, they act decisively and selflessly, and inform their hosts later.

Mission first.

Fortunately, these operators are ours.

It is these remarkable men who are deployed forward in a land they do not seek to permanently occupy, and who, in the most desperate circumstances, continue to fight — for all of us.

–John Fenzel, May 2, 2011

John is a dear friend, a patriot who wears the uniform and author of the outstanding book  “The Lazarus Covenant”

Persistence

Persistence

“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.” – Emile Zola