The Cool Blue Blog

Showing the flag on Mercy

USNS Mercy Provides Relief in Southeast Asia
By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 27, 2008 – After a floating hospital known as USNS Mercy steams away from ports across Southeast Asia, the ship’s presence will live on in the host countries it helped along the way.

The ship is about halfway through a four-month humanitarian mission that, once complete, will have taken the crew to the Philippines, Vietnam, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea and the Federated States of Micronesia.

Mercy now is wrapping up a 10-day stay in Vietnam, where Navy Capt. Bill Kearns, commander of the Mercy Pacific Partnership mission, and Navy Vice Adm. Doug Crowder, the U.S. 7th Fleet commander, today held a news conference via video teleconference with Pentagon reporters.

“The lasting impact,” Kearns said, “is in the people-to-people exchanges that we've had -- the interaction with the people of the port where we're operating.

“I believe that the infrastructure improvements that we're making at the clinics will have a lasting effect,” he continued, “or at the orphanages or at the children's rehabilitation center.”

Prior to helping the Vietnamese, the Mercy spent two weeks providing aid to the Philippines, where the official death toll from the June 21 Typhoon Fengshen stands at 163, with about 800 more missing after a ferry capsized off Sibyauan. The typhoon also damaged more than 600,000 acres of farmland.

Medical personnel and other crewmembers aboard the ship already have seen tens of thousands of patients, performed hundreds of surgeries, and also have trained doctors and nurses, and assisted in rebuilding infrastructure.

In addition to training local medical practitioners, the crew of Mercy is helping to repair hospital equipment in host nations, the captain said.

“We have biomedical equipment technicians in hospitals conducting repairs of equipment that might just be sitting in a pile, broken,” Kearns said. “And so they're able to restore them to operation, and it increases the capacity of that local hospital or clinic.”

The crew’s composition -- with representatives from more than 50 nations aboard -- is an example of effective multilateralism, as U.S. personnel operate alongside their counterparts from Australia, Canada, India, South Korea and Singapore, to name a few.

Crowder said that the Mercy’s Pacific Partnership mission also is a cornerstone of the Defense Department’s overall maritime strategy.

“Building relationships and trust, understanding each other, these are the underpinnings to ensuring security and stability in Asia-Pacific,” he said. “That's why this mission is so very important.”

Echoing Crowder, Kearns highlighted the importance of partnership in humanitarian assistance.

“That partnership really pays off when the disaster occurs and we need to come together and we need to understand each other, so that we can get the job done and help people,” he said.

A Christmas Giving Poem

As of this writing, bloggers have raised over 50,000 bucks through the Spirit of America's Friends of Iraq Blogger Challenge. The Fighting Fusilleers for Freedom are currently in second place having raised upwards of $4,500.

But us Fusillers don't like coming in second a whole heck of a lot. We're competitive, Type A bloggers.

We want to raise more money than anyone else on the planet.

Though we'll settle for the blogosphere.

In order to accomplish this goal, we'll do almost anything (so long as we're home by nine to read to the kiddies and pet the kittens).

We'll even write epic Christmas poems full of links that will convince you to donate your hard earned bucks through our stout-hearted crew of really nice people. Any link found in the poem will lead you to a Fighting Fusileer donation point.

So will this.

So, as our fearless Fusileer leader says, just give up the monetary equivalent of one six pack of beer, or bottle of wine (though we would prefer you gave up the cost of a bottle of Single Malt Scotch or a Ferrari) to help the Fusileers rise to the top of the heap (where we surely belong) and cause chagrin to the Northern Alliance.

Yes, chagrin.

Chagrin them Northerners.

Chagrin them now.

For the love of Freedom

Let it be known that the upstanding members of the Fighting Fusileers for Freedom do not party and stay out late at night like some teams requesting donations for Spirit of America...

No way, Jose.

The members of this illustrious and specially trained group of beggers are in bed by nine PM every night...and at home too! They love their wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, children, significant others, dogs.

And Cats! They love cats. Especially Kittens.

Yes they love kittens. Not like some teams requesting donations for Spirit of America they surely love kittens and would never turn one into some fru fru Feline Latte.

Ain't gonna do it no way no how.

So now that I've established our bone fides let me tell you what the money you donate to Spirit of America through the Fighting Fusileers for Freedom (we're bone fide!) gets you.

First, you should know that 100% of the money you donate goes directly to helping Iraqis help themselves. How many other charities can claim this?

Second, look at what they have done with the money you have donated in the past.

• Sewing Centers that employ Iraqi women that are now producing both clothing and self-esteem
• Tool sets for those who have graduated from the Construction Apprentice Program run by the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion's "Seabees" unit
• 10,000 school supply kits and 3 tons of medical supplies distrubuted by the U.S. 1st Marine Division
• Musical instruments for Kurdish children.
• And more projects you can read about here.

And what does Spirit of America plan to do with the money you donate today?

• Help re-equip Iraqi Universities and Technical Colleges
• Buy Library books for Iraqi children
• Support viral freedom by supplying Arabic blogging tools
• Sissy's Sewing Circle
• And other projects you can read about here.

As Eric points out, War is a terrible thing even when it is a war intended to liberate people from a cruel dictator. Help show that Americans do not just make war, they also make lives worth living by helping to give the gifts that bring hope and self-esteem and self-reliance.

Your gift to Freedom half a world away.

Our kids and fathers and mothers are over there doing the tough stuff every day. The least you can do is help them help Iraq by donating your hard earned US American Greenbacks.

And don't forget, it's the Fighting Fusileers for Freedom (we're bone fide!) that are home by 9 reading to their kids and not off carousing somewhere like some other teams we know.

Yes the Fusileers are home by 9 reading to the kidlets and petting kittens...

petting kittens right on top of their cute little furry heads.

No blending whatsoever.

So click on the image below and make your donation via the team that stands for Truth, Justice, and

The American Way.

Generous Folks

Help the Fighting Fusileers for Freedom win the Spirit of America bloggers challenge. Details are here. Stories of America and Americans helping Iraq and Iraqis abound even if you don't hear of it regularly in the media. You can read about Spirit of America's successes here. Remember, 100% of your donation goes to helping in Iraq. And here's a story that is more typical than you might have been led to believe.

Iraqi baby returns home after receiving medical treatment in United States

MANDALI, Iraq – After receiving medical treatment in the United States for a birth defect, a 14-month-old Iraqi girl returned home here recently with her mother.

Initially, military doctors thought Fatemah Hassan would need surgery to remove a cavernous hemangioma the size of two softballs from her neck. But when she arrived last May at Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, physicians there decided against the operation.

Instead, they opted to treat the ailment with chemotherapy. Cavernous hemangioma is a birth defect that’s caused by the abnormal growth of a blood vessel that affects the right side of the face, neck and upper chest. It enlarges between three and eight months.

Days after returning home, Hassan’s mother, Baday Amir Abdel-Jabar, said her daughter, however, would eventually need the operation. Abdel-Jabar said doctors want to wait and perform the procedure after Fatemah turns five. Until then, she said her daughter would continue to take medicine to treat the birth defect.

While in the United States for six months, Fatemah and her mother lived with a Muslim family and commuted back and forth to the hospital for treatment. The mother said her daughter received good medical attention while at Children’s Hospital.

Fatemah’s mother and father, Khaleel, sought help from American Soldiers deployed at Forward Operating Base Rough Rider near their hometown in Mandali, not far from the Iranian border. The couple took its only daughter to the front gate of the FOB ‑ that has since closed – and pleaded for medical attention for their daughter.

After seeing Fatemah at the Troop Medical Center on Rough Rider, Lt. Col. Todd Fredricks worked with the Iraqi Ministry of Defense in Baghdad and the Coalition Provisional Authority to seek medical attention in the United States for the baby. A member of the West Virginia Army National Guard for the past eight years, Fredricks practices emergency and aerospace medicine in Marietta, Ohio. He is the Mountain State’s senior flight surgeon.

A Parkersburg, W.Va., resident, the surgeon for the West Virginia Army National Guard’s 1^st Battalion, 150^th Armor, Fredricks has connections with Ohio State University at Children’s Hospital.  (Story by Spc. Sherree Casper, 196^th MPAD)

Season of Giving

Americans are generous people. In the course of this year alone, Americans have donated over $240 billion dollars to various charities with over 85% of households supporting non-profit organizations.

Many of us pajama folk who inhabit the blogosphere have taken up various causes but none unites us as much as Spirit of America and its efforts to raise money to "assist those advancing freedom and peace abroad". Bloggers get especially interested when Spirit of America calls upon us to raise money for Iraq and Afghanistan. And we are at it again.

I have mentioned before that Sissy Willis has been championing an effort to raise money for sewing machines for the women of Ramadi. If you are partial to this project, go here and help her help them.

But other bloggers have formed teams and challenged each other to see who can raise the most. One of these lead by John of Castle Argghhh! Fighting Fusileers for Freedom is looking for recruits and donations. So if you are so inclined, you can head over there and sign up and/or give what you can.

Another option is to join or donate to one of the teams listed here

Remember 100% of your donation goes to the project of your choice. Look at what we, together, have done in the past. Imagine what we can do now.

Thanks in advance for whatever you do.

Help Iraqi Women help themselves

"What does an Iraqi woman want?" asks Sissy Willis of SISU, "For many of them, a sewing machine of one's own can make all the difference between soul-draining poverty and soul-feeding financial independence."

She has adopted the "Sewing Machines for Women in Ramadi" as her Spirit Of America project of choice and I've decided to hitch my horse that that wagon (since she's done all the leg work and established a place to which you can donate. Yeah, I'm a lazy blogger.)

So go on over to Sissy's place and donate what you can. Or, if you're a blogger, pick your own project and promote it or join one of the blogger team efforts.

Your choice.

But do something if you can.

Spirit of America Update

Defense Link News reports:

A shipment of television equipment is on its way to Iraq to help Iraqi broadcasters offer more balanced news coverage than what is currently available in the region.

Members of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq's Anbar province expressed concerned that extremely negative news coverage by the local media was stoking resentment toward the U.S. military and encouraging conflict.

They turned to Spirit of America, a nonprofit group committed to helping Americans serving abroad improve people's lives, to request television equipment to be used to offer more balanced news.

On April 29 — just three weeks after Spirit of America received the Marines' request — Spirit of America founder Jim Hake delivered $82,687 in television studio equipment to Camp Pendleton, Calif. The Marines packed the donated equipment and prepared it for shipment, and on May 1, the U.S. military flew it from March Air Force Base, Calif., to Iraq.

You can read first hand blogger reports here and here.

Thank you all who donated. It does make a difference.

Why I support the Spirit of America

Why do I support the Spirit of America?

Because the Islamo-fascists, with whom we are at war, are right: America and everything we are, everything we stand for is subversive to tyrants and demagogues everywhere.

Because the very fact that the most powerful nation the world has ever seen can, and will, wage war to free people, not enslave them will live on in legends long after the current crop of civilizations have crumbled to dust.

We are the New Camelot, and the myths of future generations will not speak of a specific mythological hero such as King Arthur.

They will speak of the Spirit of America.

And as a result, the hope of Freedom and Liberty, and the Dignity of each individual will live long after we are gone.

X-Philes for America!

As a full Division Commander (OK, so I'm a private, but what's in a title?) in Castle Argghhh's frontal assault to lead the Fighting Fusileer's for Freedom blog coalition on to victory in raising more money for the Spirit of America than anyone on Earth, I offer the Way Cool X-Files Complete Season 4 to the individual who pledges the most money to Spirit of America by Tuesday at 6pm.

This set is in near mint condition (well I had to view it at least once, now didn't I?).

This set retails new for $149, and used for about 80 bucks. But don't feel limited by these numbers, this is for charity after all!

The set is coded for Region 1 (US and Canada) and is an original US issue set. It is not a copy or a Chinese knockoff.

Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson This seven disc box set features all 24 episodes from The X-Files Season 4. Further testing the relationship between Scully and Mulder, this season sees both the agents struggling with personal demons in their battle against the Government's deepening deceptions. In a thrilling two-parter (Tunguska and Terma), Scully risks contempt of Congress to shield her partner as he battles against the Black Oil and the treacherous Krycek in a brutal Russian experimental camp. One of the central storylines running throughout Season Four is the discovery that Scully has developed cancer, a direct result of her abduction experience in Season Two. Season Four is packed with episodes showcasing The X-Files' ability to confront the inexplicable. Invisibility (Unrequited), Inbreeding (Home), Shape-Shifting (Small Potatoes) and psychic killers (Unruhe) are just some of the challenges facing Mulder and Scully, as the ambiguity of their relationship is further highlighted. In the season finale (Gethsemane) Mulder faces up to the possibility that his whole belief system has been based on a lie, fuelled by the syndicate. Will he finally give up his search for the truth? Or can Scully pull him back from the brink?

Episode List

• 1. Herrenvolk
• 2. Unruhe
• 3. Home
• 4. Teliko
• 5. The Field Where I Died
• 6. Sanguinarium
• 7. Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man
• 8. Paper Hearts
• 9. Tunguska
• 10. Terma
• 11. El Mundo Gira
• 12. Kaddish
• 13. Never Again
• 14. Leonard Betts
• 15. Memento Mori
• 16. Unrequited
• 17. Tempus Fugit
• 18. Max
• 19. Synchrony
• 20. Small Potatoes
• 21. Zero Sum
• 22. Elegy
• 23. Demons
• 24. Gethsemane

DVD Extras

'The Truth About Season Four' featurette. 5 interview clips: Frank Spotnitz, Vince Gilligan, James Wong, Vince Gilligan, Chris Carter. 6 special effects clips with audio commentary. 9 deleted scenes with optional commentary by Chris Carter and white rabbit branching option (extended versions of each to be found on Disc 7). 13 'Behind the Truth' TV Spots. 30 promotional TV spots. International clips from 6 episodes. Alternate audio streams. 24-page collector's booklet.

Bidding starts at 50 bucks (a measly 50 bucks) and will continue until 6pm EST on Tuesday April 27th. I'll even pay for USPS Priority shipping! (such a deal)

Bid by email.

And remember, even if you don't like the X-Files and you don't want to bid, you can still, well, just donate.

Here.

Are You Up to The Challenge?

The Fusileers of Castle Argghh need your help in the Spirit of America challenge.

And Spirit of America needs your help more than ever!!

While the mention in the Wall Street Journal has brought us much more than we need to fulfill the initial request for television equipment, we’re not done yet. It is critical that we all remember that winning the peace is going to be a long process, and that the demands - once it becomes apparent how powerful the volunteer spirit of America really is – will be immense.

We will meet the original request for TV equipment NEXT WEEK, subject to taking delivery of some long-lead time items, and we’re going to work with the Marines on the next phases of the program – including Tools To Rebuild Iraq.

This first phase program – as well as the other programs in which we supply materials requested by our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan – is only a drop in the bucket.

Spirit of America intends to support the Coalition troops – as well as the Iraqi people – by providing the resources needed to turn enemies into allies, and helping our troops and civilians show that we are there to help the Iraqi and Afghan people build their countries toward a peaceful, independent, free future – not to colonize or conquer them. That’s what winning the peace is all about.

The blog coalitions competing to raise money not only will make a big difference in the material support we can offer, but will have a critical role in broadening the community of people who support positive efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who support giving our troops the tools they need to do their real jobs…to help the people there build a strong, free, and peaceful future.

Now, more than ever, those networks of support and action are going to be critical, and it is the energy – literally, the spirit – of those volunteers that will make Spirit of America a success. The problems in front of us aren’t going to be solved by donating funds or buying things alone. It’s going to take a movement – a movement to show the best that America has, and that’s what all of us are hoping to become part of.
We’re looking forward to this, and while we’ll certainly say “May the best blogs win!!”, the winners will be our troops and the people they will be able to serve with what we can all provide.

As before, 100% of the funds raised (net of credit card or PayPal costs)will be used to actually buy and ship the requested goods.

Help stabalize Iraq.

Donate here.