More interesting facts of honor for Memorial Day...

COINS LEFT ON TOMBSTONES

While visiting some cemeteries you may notice that headstones marking certain graves have coins on them, left by previous visitors to the grave.

These coins have distinct meanings when left on the headstones of those who gave their life while serving in America's military, and these meanings vary depending on the denomination of coin.

A coin left on a headstone or at the grave site is meant as a message to the deceased soldier's family that someone else has visited the grave to pay respect. Leaving a penny at the grave means simply that you visited.

A nickel indicates that you and the deceased trained at boot camp together, while a dime means you served with him in some capacity. By leaving a quarter at the grave, you are telling the family that you were with the solider when he was killed.

According to tradition, the money left at graves in national cemeteries and state veterans cemeteries is eventually collected, and the funds are put toward maintaining the cemetery or paying burial costs for indigent veterans.

In the US, this practice became common during the Vietnam war, due to the political divide in the country over the war; leaving a coin was seen as a more practical way to communicate that you had visited the grave than contacting the soldier's family, which could devolve into an uncomfortable argument over politics relating to the war.

Some Vietnam veterans would leave coins as a "down payment" to buy their fallen comrades a beer or play a hand of cards when they would finally be reunited.

The tradition of leaving coins on the headstones of military men and women can be traced to as far back as the Roman Empire.

TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER


Interesting facts about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Sentinels of the Third United States Infantry Regiment "Old Guard."

Q: How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the tomb of the Unknowns and why?
A: 21 steps. It alludes to the twenty-one gun salute, which is the highest honor given any military or foreign dignitary.

Q: How long does he hesitate after his about face to begin his return walk and why?
A: 21 seconds, for the same reason as answer number 1.

Q: Why are his gloves wet?
A: His gloves are moistened to prevent his losing his grip on the rifle.

Q: Does he carry his rifle on the same shoulder all the time, and if not, why not?
A: No, he carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb. After his march across the path, he executes an about face and moves the rifle to the outside shoulder.

Q: How often are the guards changed?
A: Guards are changed every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year.

Q: What are the physical traits of the guard limited to?
A: For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be between 5' 10" and 6' 2" tall and his waist size cannot exceed 30".

Other requirements of the Guard:

They must commit 2 years of life to guard the tomb, live in a barracks under the tomb, and cannot drink any alcohol on or off duty FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES. They cannot swear in public FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES and cannot disgrace the uniform {fighting} or the tomb in any way.

After TWO YEARS, the guard is given a wreath pin that is worn on their lapel signifying they served as guard of the tomb. There are only 400 presently worn. The guard must obey these rules for the rest of their lives or give up the wreath pin.

The shoes are specially made with very thick soles to keep the heat and cold from their feet. There are metal heel plates that extend to the top of the shoe in order to make the loud click as they come to a halt. There are no wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform. Guards dress for duty in front of a full-length mirror.

The first SIX MONTHS of duty a guard cannot talk to anyone, nor watch TV. All off duty time is spent studying the 175 notable people laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. A guard must memorize who they are and where they are interred. Among the notables are: President Taft, Joe E. Lewis {the boxer} and Medal of Honor winner Audie Murphy, {the most decorated soldier of WWII} of Hollywood fame. Every guard spends FIVE HOURS A DAY getting his uniforms ready for guard duty.

The Sentinels Creed:

My dedication to this sacred duty is total and wholehearted. In the responsibility bestowed on me never will I falter. And with dignity and perseverance my standard will remain perfection. Through the years of diligence and praise and the discomfort of the elements, I will walk my tour in humble reverence to the best of my ability. It is he who commands the respect I protect. His bravery that made us so proud. Surrounded by well meaning crowds by day alone in the thoughtful peace of night, this soldier will in honored glory rest under my eternal vigilance.

Carved on the East side (the front of the Tomb, which faces Washington, D.C.) is a composite of three figures, commemorative of the spirit of the Allies of World War I.

In the center of the panel stands Victory (female).

On the right side, a male figure symbolizes Valor.

On the left side stands Peace, with her palm branch to reward the devotion and sacrifice that went with courage to make the cause of righteousness triumphant.

The north and south sides are divided into three panels by Doric pilasters. In each panel is an inverted wreath.

On the west, or rear, panel (facing the Amphitheater) is inscribed:

'HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY AN AMERICAN SOLDIER KNOWN BUT TO GOD'

The Third Infantry Regiment at Fort Myer has the responsibility for providing ceremonial units and honor guards for state occasions, White House social functions, public celebrations and interments at Arlington National Cemetery and standing a very formal sentry watch at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

This weekend is about more than cookouts and the beach...

 Memorial Day 2014

US lawmakers pressure Obama to grant asylum to Christian Sudanese mom sentenced to death for leaving Islam

Robert Spencer / Jihad Watch

 

Why aren’t all the Muslim spokesmen in the West, who claim that Islam has no death penalty for apostasy, such as Harris Zafar, Mustafa Akyol, Salam al-Marayati, M. Cherif Bassiouni, and Ali Eteraz (among many others), jetting to Khartoum now to explain to Sudanese authorities that they are misunderstanders of Islam and must release Meriam Yehya Ibrahim immediately?

One wonders: why, if it is so clear that Islam has no death penalty for apostasy, do so many Muslims misunderstand that? And why is it “Islamophobia” to point out that so many don’t seem to get the memo?

Muhammad said: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him” (Bukhari 9.84.57).

“US Lawmakers Pressure Obama Administration to Grant Asylum to Christian Sudanese Mom Sentenced to Death,” Chinatopix, May 24, 2014:

Lawmakers in the US are calling on the Obama team to provide asylum to a pregnant Sudanese wife of an American citizen after she was sentenced to death for upholding her Christian faith.

Meriam Yehya Ibrahim has been imprisoned with her 20-month-old son for over three months because she refused to recant her Christianity. Last week, a Khartoum judge stirred international condemnation by sentencing the 27-year-old mom to death by hanging after giving birth and nursing her baby for two years, wrote Fox News.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Marco Rubio said he was shocked with the “inhumane verdict” given to Ibrahim. GOP senators Roy Blunt and Kelly Ayotte have already sent two letters to the White House requesting for “immediate action” and political asylum for Ibrahim and her child.

On Wednesday, four senators filed a resolution condemning the death sentence and urging Sudan to respect their people’s religious freedom in order to restore their ties with the US or reduce their economic sanctions. Republican Jim Inhofe and Democrats Chris Coons and Bob Menendez co-sponsored the said resolution.

Ibrahim was raised as a Christian when her Muslim father abandoned the family when she was still a child and has now been charged by the Sudanese court has charged with apostasy, or leaving Islam. In some Muslim countries, this crime has a corresponding death penalty.

Ibrahim was also sentenced to receive 100 lashes after she gives birth, for adultery, for having relations with her Christian husband. Her lawyers said the eight-months-pregnant woman is chained by her feet in jail.

Jen Psaki, the State Department’s spokesperson, said the Obama team is doing their best on Ibrahim’s case.

Daniel Wani, Ibrahim’s husband, is confined to a wheelchair and is fully dependent on his wife for everything, the lawyer explained. Wani said he called the US Embassy in Khartoum before the death sentence, but the embassy showed no interest in their problem.

After stating that his son was an American citizen, he was asked to present DNA evidence. He conceded and provided their wedding documents and his son’s birth certificates as additional evidence, but Wani said the embassy still did not offer any help.

Ibrahim’s case is being further complicated by political forces in her country. According to Sudanese Parliament speaker Fatih Izz Al-Deen, it is not true that Ibrahim was raised as a non-Muslim and added that it was her Muslim brother who filed the complaint against her….

al Qaeda terrorists at Guantanamo treated better than our vets

Pamela Geller Atlas Shrugs

If any one thing best reflects the sentiments of the Obama administration, it is most certainly this. America, her priorities, her morality (or lack thereof), are becoming unrecognizable under this rogue regime.

al Qaeda terrorists at Guantanamo treated better than our vets, By J.D. Gordon, May 23, 2014

FoxNews.com 

President Obama finally addressed the nation Wednesday about the growing scandal at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. After meeting with VA Secretary Eric Shinseki he pledged to hold folks accountable. 

Thanks, Mr. President.

By now most American have heard about the VA’s infamous patient “secret wait lists” which reportedly contributed to the deaths of up to 40 veterans in the Phoenix area alone. Those patriots were American heroes who served our country proudly. Yet they were left to die waiting to see a doctor.

While the Gitmo ratio is 1.5 to 1, for America’s 9 million veterans receiving VA health care and 267,930 VA employees, the ratio is 35 to 1.

Here’s another secret the White House doesn’t want you to know about the VA. Al Qaeda detainees get better medical treatment than our veterans.

Say what?

Yes, it’s true. I know because I served as a Pentagon spokesman from 2005-2009 and visited Guantanamo Bay Naval Base over 30 times during those years.

Despite the fact that Al Qaeda terrorists carried out the Sept. 11 terror attacks, killing 3,000 people in America, the admitted co-conspirators and their roughly 150 fellow jihadists at Gitmo have approximately 100 doctors, nurses and health care personnel assigned to them.

Doctors and medical personnel are at their beck and call.  Got a cold, a fever, a toothache, a tumor, chest or back pain, mental health issues, PTSD?  No problem, come right on in. Military doctors are waiting to see you.

The VA and Gitmo eligible patient-to-health care provider ratios speak volumes.

While the Gitmo ratio is 1.5 to 1, for America’s 9 million veterans receiving VA health care and 267,930 VA employees, the ratio is 35 to 1.

But beyond the Gitmo numbers, the situation at the VA is also a bright, shining example of misguided priorities and terrible mismanagement.

In late 2008, when Obama was  president-elect, he and his staff were warned not to trust the wait times reported by VA health care facilities. But instead of fixing the problem, their focus was closing Guantanamo and improving the comfort of detainees. Even though they already lived under some of the best prison conditions ever seen.

While some who see “2008” may reflexively say, “blame Bush, not Obama” the fact is that the VA’s health system has been fatally flawed for years, regardless of who has been the president.

The VA is a classic example of big government gone wild. It is America’s second largest cabinet agency after the Defense Department. Since civil service promotions are traditionally based more on seniority than performance, and it’s near impossible to fire anyone, there’s a punch-the-clock mentality that’s pervasive. Not surprisingly, there’s little to no sense of urgency. So to instill incentives, the VA shells out high salaries and bonuses, deserved or not.

According to a Fox News report, Phoenix VA hospital paid staff up to $357,000 for doctor executives and $147,000 for nursing staff.  On average, doctors and nurses in Phoenix make just over half those figures.

Meanwhile, the gardening budget at Phoenix VA hospital was over $180,000 in 2013. The facility also spent $211,000 on interior design over the past three years.

If any government entity ever needed a complete overhaul, it’s the VA.  If it were in the private sector, it would have been shuttered long ago.

Today’s VA has near zero accountability, while labor unions fight to protect employees who aren’t doing their jobs. Shinseki and his senior staff should be the first to go.

President Obama needs to refocus his priorities. There must be less time, effort and energy caring for Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees at Gitmo and much more attention put on caring for America’s veterans.

Our veterans have served the nation proudly. In many cases they were gravely wounded during their service and now will require a lifetime of medical support. Every one of them deserves better.

J.D. Gordon is a retired Navy Commander who served as a Pentagon spokesman in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2005-09. He serves as senior adviser to several Washington-based think tanks.

The post al Qaeda terrorists at Guantanamo treated better than our vets appeared first on Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs.

VA approves more private care for veterans

AP News 

WASHINGTON (AP) — More veterans are being allowed to obtain health care at private hospitals and clinics in an effort to improve their treatment following allegations of falsified records and delays in treatment.

In a statement issued Saturday, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki also said VA facilities are enhancing capacity of their clinics so veterans can get care sooner.
In cases where officials cannot expand capacity at VA centers, the Department of Veterans Affairs is "increasing the care we acquire in the community through non-VA care," Shinseki said.

Lawmakers from both parties have pressed for this policy change as the VA confronts allegations about treatment delays and falsified records at VA centers nationwide.

The department's inspector general says 26 VA facilities are under investigation, including the Phoenix VA hospital, where a former clinic director says as many as 40 veterans may have died will awaiting treatment.

Officials also are investigating claims that VA employees have falsified appointment records to cover up delays in care. An initial review of 17 people who died while awaiting appointments in Phoenix found that none of their deaths appeared to have been caused by delays in treatment.

The allegations have raised fresh concerns about the administration's management of a department that has been struggling to keep up with the influx of veterans returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Vietnam veterans needing more care as they age.

The directive announced Saturday should make it easier for veterans to get medical care at non-VA facilities, according to an agency spokeswoman.

The VA spent about $4.8 billion last year on medical care at non-VA hospitals and clinics, spokeswoman Victoria Dillon said. That amounts to about 10 percent of health care costs for the Veterans Health Administration, the agency's health care arm.

It was not clear how much the new initiative would cost, Dillon said.

Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla, chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, welcomed Shinseki's announcement, but questioned why it took so long. Reports about the veterans at the Phoenix hospital surfaced more than a month ago.

"It appears the department is finally starting to take concrete steps to address the problem," Miller said Saturday, calling the directive "a welcome change from the department's previous approach, which was to wait months for the results of yet another investigation into a problem we already know exists."

Miller has accused Shinseki and President Barack Obama of focusing on internal reviews while "overlooking VA's very real, very deadly and very well-documented delays-in-care problem."

Miller has pledged to introduce legislation that would give any veteran who is unable to obtain a VA appointment within 30 days the option to receive non-VA care at the department's expense.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has called for the VA to allow more veterans to receive medical care at private hospitals. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said this past week that she was open to the idea of medical care at private hospitals. She said it was unacceptable to have a backlog of patients waiting for permission to go to a federally qualified clinic.

Pelosi Resorts to "Blame Bush" On VA Scandal

Kevin Glass / Townhall Columnist

 

During the George W. Bush Administration, progressives were hailing the Veterans Affairs health system as a model health organization. Now that it's come out that the VA suffers from the same bureaucratic nightmares that all socialized-style systems do, progressives want to roll back the clock on their rhetoric.

Luckily, Nancy Pelosi has found the real person whose fault it is: George W. Bush. As Joel Gehrke reports:

Pelosi took a shot at Bush while saying that the scandal is a high priority for Obama. "He sees the ramifications of some seeds that were sown a long time ago, when you have two wars over a long period of time and many, many more, millions more veterans," she told reporters during her Thursday press briefing. "And so, I know that he is upset about it."

The Democratic leader never mentioned Bush by name, but she alluded to him early and often in the press briefing.

"Maybe when we go into war, we should be thinking about its consequences and its ramifications," Pelosi said while discussing the scandal. "You would think that would be a given, but maybe it wasn't. And so, we go in a war in Afghanistan, leave Afghanistan for Iraq with unfinished business in Afghanistan. Ten years later, we have all of these additional veterans. In the past five years, two million more veterans needing benefits from the VA. That's a huge, huge increase."

She suggested that Obamacare might hold the key to solving the problem.

So: during the Bush years, progressives loved the VA system and suggested its centralized and socialized nature were what held the key to fixing the rest of the American health system. Now that it's politically toxic, they've moved on - blaming George W. Bush for its problems and suggesting that their shiny new toy, Obamacare, is the solution.

Curing The VA Problems                        

Bruce Bialosky / Townhall Columnist

The last subject we should be engaged in over Memorial Day weekend is the hapless handling of the medical care for the people who have made the most personal sacrifices for this country.

Instead of honoring them properly we are having a national debate about who screwed up and why these venerated Americans are not receiving the services they deserve.

Thankfully, Steven T. Miller has been relieved of duty as a result of the whole affair. Oops, that is the wrong guy who was about to retire and became a sacrificial lamb. He was the temporary head of the IRS who left three minutes early from his job after the IRS fiasco. Dr. Robert Petzel, undersecretary for health at the VA, who announced his retirement a year ago and had a successor picked, is the new fall guy that the Obama Administration thinks is going to assuage the concerns of Congress and the American people. God forbid it works. The healthcare of our veterans is too important.

This is a completely separate issue from the huge backlog of disability claims that the Obama Administration has focused on and partially relieved. This is about the massive medical care system developed during the 20th century which became fully developed in the aftermath of the World War II. It now encompasses 153 hospital and 773 outpatient centers. This system came to fruition during a different time when medical care was less sophisticated and hospital care was less available. Despite this there is a backlog of 344,000 medical claims. The only real solution to this problem is to gradually phase out the segregated health care system for veterans.

There is no doubt that many good people work in the system and many good things are done for the veterans, but the argument ends there. If Americans would had seen in full glory the inadequacy of the system provided for our veterans, they would have erupted and never allowed Obamacare to pass. The poorly operated and politically manipulated system displays in HD multi-pixel glory the inability of the federal government to operate a medical system.

I spoke with Dr. John R. Ammon who is an anesthesiologist. He is not a pedestrian doctor, having trained at both Harvard and Stanford, and then later becoming the President of the American Board of Anesthesiology. Ammon worked several days a month for five years in the recent past at the VA hospital in Phoenix which has come under fire from whistleblower Dr. Sam Foote. Ammon stated “VA medical care is typically for veterans who cannot afford the private health care historically utilized by the majority of Americans. The VA system is commonly used as a teaching facility, utilizing government-employed doctors and frequently physicians nearing retirement.” Ammon believes that the standard of care is definitely below the level provided at nearby private hospitals.

When Dr. Ammon was asked whether he agreed that the VA Health Care System should be ended, he concurred with one proviso. The military has certain facilities that treat soldiers coming from combat areas with conditions like blast and burn injuries which are highly specialized and do a superior job.

The level of care for the average veteran in the VA system is below standard and Ammon believes it would be vastly improved in the private and university health care systems throughout America. Ammon declared that “the VA system, a ‘single-payer,’ government-run bureaucratic system, is exactly where medical care is ultimately headed under Obamacare for all U.S. citizens.”

Ask yourself these simple questions: if a veteran has a medical emergency, why should that person not be sent to the closest medical facility near their home? If a veteran needs continuing physical therapy, why do they have to be located near a VA facility to receive that care and why does their family have to move near the VA facility to be close to their loved ones? Why can’t their care be delivered at a location close to their home or at their home? If VA hospitals are such a quality system, why don’t our seniors have such a system set up for their care under Medicare? The answers are simple: the system is an anachronism and should be dismantled. The veterans should receive vouchers or a medical card that allows them to receive care at the best location for them. The system is dysfunctional and needs to be phased out. It is nothing more than a system of rationing medical care that is resulting in the death of honored Americans.

We can spend the next year pointing fingers and extracting recriminations. General Eric Shinseki has been in charge of the Dept. of Veteran Affairs the entirety of the Obama Administration. He may have been a capable boss when wearing four stars on his shoulders, but he has been an atrocious overseer of the vast bureaucracy that does not snap to attention. For over five years he has presided over a system in decline, but now he tells us he is the man to fix it. He says he is the second most angered person over this matter next to our President, but what will they do? The VA Health System should not be fixed, it should be dissolved.

That is why on this Memorial Day you should think about the various organizations that clean up after the VA. The ones that take care of what the VA Health System does not do for our finest public servants. Consider a gift to the Wounded Warrior Project or the Semper Fi Fund. Or if you want to think of the people currently in the service, consider Operation Gratitude.

Please don’t leave the care of our veterans and current service people in the hands of the government.

It is clearly not up to the job.