Wednesday Hero

Sgt. 1st Class Gregory A. Rodriguez & Jacko
35 years old from Weidman, Michigan
K-9 unit of the 527th Military Police Company, 709th Military Police Battalion, 18th MP Brigade
September 2, 2008


"I asked Greg if anything ever happened to him where he'd prefer to be buried," Sgt. Rodriguez's wife, Laura, told the Morning Sun of Mount Pleasant, "and he told me Arlington, as he wanted to be among the best and the brave."

"Rod," as he was known to his Army buddies, was a Red Wings fan who loved to hassle fans of other hockey teams he met during his military career, said Laura. "Greg loved to push everyone's buttons and get people going with his rare, unique sense of sarcasm," she said. At the same time, her husband, a military police dog handler whose dog, Jacko, survived the fatal ambush, was "a very committed, loyal individual and could be counted on whenever needed."

Sgt. 1st Class Gregory A. Rodriguez died of wounds suffered in Ana Kalay, Afghanistan, when his mounted patrol came under small-arms fire.

"My brother liked to be the law," said Lisa Dombrowski. "He liked justice. If it wasn't right, he made it right."

He is survived by his sister, wife and three children.

All Information Was Found On And Copied From MilitaryCity.com

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Wednesday Hero

Cpl. Reynold Armand
21 years old from Rochester, New York
2nd Assault Amphibian Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force
August 7, 2007


Reynold Armand didn’t want to wait until he turned 18 to join the Marines. He persuaded his adoptive mother to sign papers allowing him to sign up a year early.

"I'm very proud of him," said his father, Carl Armand. "When he was home, he gave no sign of being afraid." Armand didn’t speak much about his experiences in Iraq, according to family members, saying only that most Iraqi civilians he encountered were very nice.

"We used to send him a lot of candy," said his mother, Alma Armand. "He would pass it out."

Manny Rodriguez, 21, of Rochester met Armand five years ago at New Day Church in Rochester, where both young men were members of the youth group. "He was such an amazing all-around person. He was so easy and comfortable to be around. He liked people for who they are."

No definitive report could be found on how Cpl. Armand died. Some report that he was killed when shot and others report that he was killed by an IED that exploded near his vehicle in Balad, Iraq.

All Information Was Found On And Copied From MilitaryCity.com with help from Kathi

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Soldiers Angels Web Surfing

Another random 'surf' of the web for news by, and about,
Soldiers Angels

From My Trip to BAF ( a milblog I recently stumbled across) comes a post
June bug! with several nice mentions of Soldiers Angels.

From Between the Sandhills and the Sea , Wendy, a ..."Volunteer with Soldiers Angels for 5 years"....has a very good post here called Truth,Lessons and Deployment

My friend over at Little Drops....Into the Pool of Life had a post back on June 27 called
Help For Landstuhl's Wounded Warriors


Soldiers Angels New York posted Freedom is not free: Aaron Fairbairn
and for more on that story, the DOD has released Pfc. Aaron Fairbairn's name, and the name of the soldier who was killed along with him , Pfc. Justin A. Casillas , Here

Our thoughts and prayers are with both their families, and the Soldiers Angels
Living Legends Team will be supporting both families.....(as we do for the families of all our Fallen Heroes from Afghanistan and Iraq, on behalf of Soldiers Angels.)

A "new-to-me" Angel online Dian's Soldiers Angels blankets

and a new blogging Angel had this as her beginning post Well Hello There at Just A Soldier's Angel

That's the surf!

Happy 4th of July!

Comments by ZingerBug.com


Wishing everyone a Happy 4th! and,as always,
God bless our Troops!

Wednesday Hero

Force Protection Team


Members of the force protection team at Camp Eggars, Afghanistan, assess damage resulting from an explosion near the gate. A vehicle-born improvised explosive device exploded near the German Embassy and a U.S. base. Eliminating threats such as the VBIED is the focus of Army's 3rd Counter-IED Conference that was scheduled July 28-30.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

A few items that might be of interest.....

Old Soldier has a good post over here
Old soldiers take care of their own, keeping watch on VA cemetery


Here's another book to add to my Amazon wishlist

from the New York Time Book Review Father’s Tribute, Fulfilling Son’s Wish


A fellow Angels' blog that I've been meaning to pass on for awhile
D-Day Daughter


and lastly, as a nurse, and a military supporter, I wished to say "Godspeed" after I read the obituary of COL. Patricia A. Stemm

"When Death comes...."

A most excellent and thought provoking read on Examiner.com

When death comes-celebrity deaths

not what you might expect, given the title......well worth the time to take a look.

Wednesday Hero

Band Of Brothers


Something a little different this week. Instead of profiling a service member, Wednesday Hero will be profiling a movie. Band Of Brothers. It was a miniseries tha aired on HBO in 2001. It follows Maj. Richard Winters, Cpt. Lewis Nixon and the men of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment assigned to the 101st Airborne Division, aka E-Company or Easy Company on their march to Germany. From their training to their battles at Normandy and Bastogne, their liberation of the Kaufering IV concentration camp to their taking of Hitler's Eagle Nest. A great cast and great writing make this one of the best war movies ever made. But it is graphic in visuals and language. And parts of it may be hard to watch, but it is worth it.

What the men of E-Company did will never be forgotten. They are the heroes that helped the cause of freedom.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.

We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.