The Cool Blue Blog  http:// Blogbar Sgt Jack Bodani On a mission in Afghanistan, then-Specialist Jack Bodani was in anup-armored humvee column when a massive explosion ripped through hisvehicle, engulfing it in a fireball. Simultaneously, automatic weaponsfire and well-aimed mortar rounds began hitting dangerously close tothe convoy. Bodani, burned on the face and neck from the conflagration,got out of the vehicle and immediately helped another trapped soldierescape. Safely evacuating the firstsoldier away from the vehicle, Bodani realized there was anotherunaccounted for, so he disregarded his own wounds and again ran back tothe burning vehicle. At the humvee, the heat of the fire reached acritical temperature and ordinance and rifle ammunition began explodingin every direction. From the east, insurgent attacker becameincreasingly accurate with their weapons fire. Ignoring all of this,Bodani, and with the aid of another, extracted the dazed soldier. Still in the height of the ambush and far from safety, Bodani reachedfor a rifle at the casualty collection point and provided vitalsecurity from the brazen enemy fighters. Because of Bodani’s braveacts, the wounded soldiers survived to receive a medevac and receivethe urgent care they needed. Then-Specialist Jack Bodani was awarded the Bronze Star with Valor for his courageous actions. Posted by Frank LoPinto at 12:31 PM in Hero | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) The Big Story Now that things have calmed down in Iraq, it is no longer foremost on the minds of voters. And it is no longer on the hit list of The New York Times. Now it is safe for the Grey Lady to print stories about how we are succeeding there.Two years ago, when I last stayed in Baghdad, Karada Mariam was likethe whole of the city: shuttered, shattered, broken and dead. AbuNawas Park — I didn’t recognize that, either. By the time I had leftthe country in August 2006, the two-mile stretch of riverside park wasa grim, spooky, deserted place, a symbol for the dying city thatBaghdad had become. These days, the same park is filled withpeople: families with children, women in jeans, women walking alone.Even the nighttime, when Iraqis used to cower inside their homes, nolonger scares them. I can hear their laughter wafting from the park. Atsundown the other day, I had to weave my way through perhaps 2,000people. It was an astonishing, beautiful scene — impossible,incomprehensible, only months ago.When I left Baghdad two yearsago, the nation’s social fabric seemed too shredded to ever cometogether again. The very worst had lost its power to shock. To returnnow is to be jarred in the oddest way possible: by the normal, by thepleasant, even by hope....But if this is not peace, it is not war, either — at least not the war I knew. When I left Iraq in the summer of 2006, after living three and a half years here following the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime, I believed that evil had triumphed, and that it would be many years before it might be stopped. Iraq, filled with so many people living so close together, nurturing dark and unknowable grievances, seemed destined for a ghastly unraveling.And now, in the late summer of 2008, comes the calm.But as the nation turns their eyes towards economic crises, it is useful to remember who was right about Iraq and who was wrong.So too with the current economic problem. McCain tried to muster support for regulation that would have revealed the problems at Fannie May and Freddie Mac three years ago, while Obama was silent on the issue: He was too busy taking campaign money from them. Clearly McCain was for sensible regulation before Obama (and his surrogates) said he was against it.Obama, though, is still against the Surge. Posted by Frank LoPinto at 07:05 AM in Analysis | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Sgt. 1st Class Pedro A. Munoz Family accepts Soldier's Silver StarBy Pfc. Benjamin Watson, 49th PAD (Abn.) FORT BRAGG, N.C.(USASOC News Service, Sept. 10, 2008) – The widowof a Special Forces Soldier with the 1st Battalion, 7th Special ForcesGroup (Airborne), accepted her fallen husband’s Silver Star Medalduring a ceremony Sept. 9 near the unit’s headquarters. Gisela and Dalia Munoz, surviving wife and daughter of Sgt. 1st ClassPedro A. Munoz, participated in the ceremony honoring his sacrifice onJan. 2, 2005, when he was fatally wounded at Shindand, Afghanistan, insupport of Operation Enduring Freedom. Munoz was previously awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Valordevice; however, the award was recently upgraded to the Silver Star.The ceremony recognizing the upgrade was held in a commemorative rockgarden designed by his daughter. While clearing a compoundin pursuit of a mid-level Taliban commander, a Taliban fighter openedfire from inside a room containing women and children, said Col. MarkJ. Gorton, deputy commander of 7th SFG(A). Although he was wounded,Munoz returned fire and killed the Taliban fighter, enabling those inhis detachment to proceed in clearing the building. “Sergeant First Class Munoz continued to support his detachment,”Gorton said, “firing selectively, engaging only armed combatantswithout harming any non-combatants. His dedication and his courage areevident through his actions: protecting innocent life, staying in thefight without thought for himself while supporting histeammates—allowing them to successfully accomplish their mission.” Munoz entered the Army in February 1986 as an automated logisticalspecialist. He graduated from the Special Forces Qualification Coursein 1990 and was assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne).Soon after assignment, he deployed in support of Operations DesertShield and Desert Storm. He later deployed to Haiti for seven months in1994 in support of Operation Uphold Democracy. In 1999, he was assigned to the U.S. Army Parachute Team, the GoldenKnights. After completing over 300 static-line and 4,000 free-fallparachute jumps, Munoz returned to the Special Forces community in2002, serving with the 7th SFG(A). “You look at a picture of Munoz,” said Lt. Gen. Robert W. Wagner,commander of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, “and you see a47-year-old senior Soldier who has served our nation with extraordinaryhonor, distinction, pride and accomplishment. I suspect that some ofthe things that he’s most proud of are his wife and his daughter, twoincredible people who have served our nation.” Over the course of his career as a Soldier, Munoz received the SilverStar Medal, the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart, the MeritoriousService Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal,the Army Good Conduct Medal, the Joint Meritorious Unit Award, theArmed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Global War on TerrorismExpeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the ArmedForces Service Medal, the Humanitarian Service Medal, theNoncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon, the ArmyService Ribbon, the Overseas Service Ribbon, the Kuwait LiberationMedal, the Combat Infantryman Badge with 2nd Award Star, the SpecialForces Tab, the Master Parachutist Badge and the Master Military FreeFall Badge. Posted by Frank LoPinto at 07:15 AM in Fallen Hero | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Economic sedition Senator Obama, in discussing the recent problems with the financial markets, diverts attention from his own culpabilitySen. Barack Obama said Tuesday that the country is facing the "mostserious financial crisis in generations" and argued that rival Sen.John McCain would only make it worse....Obama said what's happened in the past few days is "nothing less thanthe final verdict on an economic philosophy that has completely failed."But what philosophy is he talking about? The philosophy that allowed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to engage in unsound financial transactions while members of Congress were paid to look the other way, and in some cases, even block reform? That practice?Well how is Senator Obama going to be able to reform a pratice that he himself was engaged in?David Hogberg of Investors Business Daily reportsFannie Mae ( Next » Tip Jar Powered by you  var _sttoolbar = {}stTypePad.init('http://w.sharethis.com/widget/?tabs=web%2Cpost%2Cemail&charset=utf-8&style=default&publisher=9e7f6a3d-cf20-4fef-bbda-01f120a8bb81&popup=true&embeds=true'); Keating v Ayers: No contest The Ayers-Obama "Charity" What regulation? Lance Corporal Justin McLeese Obama v. the First Amendment Killed in Committee Sgt Jack Bodani The Big Story Sgt. 1st Class Pedro A. Munoz Economic sedition Tetris on The Ayers-Obama "Charity" Cris Ericson on What regulation? Cris Ericson on What regulation? 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