Dear Friends and Neighbors,
On this Memorial Day I wish to honor all the indomitable Blue Star and Gold Star families and our heroic Service members, Reservists, Veterans on this Memorial day and pray that God protect them and bring them glory in life and in the final moments of their lives in uniform in the service of their Country to protect and defend our Constitution.
My main message is this: We must redouble our efforts to address the horrendous loss of life from suicide of our heroes who survived their tours of duty in the defense of our country. These two links offer authoritative information for further proactive advocacy work.1. Department of Defense Releases Annual Report on Suicide in the Military: Calendar Year 2022 > U.S. Department of Defense > Release 2. Military Suicides Outpace Deaths In Operations Since 9/11 : NPR A new report on U.S. military deaths contains a stark statistic: An estimated 7,057 service members have died during military operations since 9/11, while suicides among active-duty personnel and veterans of those conflicts have reached 30,177 — that's more than four times as many as the operational fatalities of our heroes. The data highlights the divide between the dangers posed by war and the persistent mental health crisis in not only the military but the country at large. "Even the very conservative estimate that I came up with, it's horrifying," Thomas Suitt, who wrote the paper for Brown University's Cost of War Project, said in an interview with NPR. "We should really, really care."
In Section I A. 2. There is information about Crisis Help Line. This is a quick summary The veterans, their dependents and active-duty service members experiencing MH struggles must be urged by everyone across our America the beautiful must promptly without delay, time counts, Text 838255 or dial 988 and connect by pressing# 1 when they observe a family member or friends or neighbor experiencing significant MH burdens. This website has useful information Home (veteranscrisisline.net) When it was being set up I tested the system. I am Psychiatrist with considerable experiences in managing Crisis who worked on ensuring this iteration of the Crisis Line system. The staff in the system is ready.to engage when they decided to make the call [critical phase of the helping process] and make the urgently needed referrals. I know that if I or any of my staff or people answering crisis calls spend for even a few minutes and listen to the caller at any time of the day can help alter the trajectory of the thoughts that can end the life of service member in an hour or two especially if they have access to a firearm.
I offer these reflections on the historical narrative about the process of honoring our fallen Heroes who answered the call of duty and gave their all and how we might serve their urgent needs .
I.
A. WATCH LIVE: 2024 PBS National Memorial Day Concert | PBS NewsHour These two songs were among the wonderful songs evocatively rendered during the Broadcast this evening.05 26 24
1. “God Bless America,” These beautiful words keep ringing in my ears as I reflect of the sacrifices of our fellow Americans through the past 200 plus years. (49) FEMALE MARINE PERFORMS GOD BLESS AMERICA - YouTube this superb prayer offering gratitude and seeking intercession form our Loving Almighty God to “Stand beside her and guide her Through the night with the light from Above.”
“ … God bless America
My home, sweet home
God bless America
Land that I love
Stand beside her
And guide her
Through the night with a light from above…”
“…God bless America
My home, sweet home.”
2. Reach out and touch somebody’s hand. Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand) by Diana Ross (Lyrics) (youtube.com).
Thes words also echo through many intense experiences when I engaged with people in distress over the decades including some peers and friends.
“Reach out and touch
Somebody's hand
Make this world a better place
If you can
Reach out and touch (why don't you reach out?)
Somebody's hand (somebody's hand)
Make this world a better place
If you can”
For this message to save lives and begin the healing process we must do all that we can to urge all those who are trudging on the edge of the precipice and especially isolated to text 838255 or dial 988 and hit #1, The veterans, their dependents and active-duty service members experiencing MH struggles must be urged by everyone across our America the beautiful must promptly without delay, time counts, dial 988 and connect by pressing# 1 when they observe a family member or friends or neighbor experiencing significant MH burdens. This website has useful information Home (veteranscrisisline.net)
I believe this can be life line for many: At times of heightened crisis think of using this website. Home (veteranscrisisline.net) Dial 988, and press 1, or Text 838255. People need to know they don’t have to enrolled in the VA or any other Govt program.. Also this Website has very helpful information to be used by families and the services members on. a.. i. Signs of Crisis, ii Self-Check assessment, iii Learn to read and respond to the signs. Iv. These are signs of really urgent crisis: Thinking about hurting or killing oneself, Looking for ways to kill yourself, Talking about deaths, dying or suicide, Self-destructive behavior, such as drug abuse, risky use of weapons. b. There is section on Resources and Support: i. Local resources, ii Sources of support for Veterans, and iii. most importantly this website encourages each of us to make a difference in someone’s life, plus that we don’t need to be an expert to make a difference—All we need to, must do all we can to support Veterans by sharing or using the downloadable resources and information on the site. There is section that describes the 988 Crisis Line. This page will be continually updated as new materials become available. Please encourage both Service members and Veterans and their family members to visit this website and utilize the resources to save their own or another loved one’s life..
During my voluntary service on Community Health Center team of Psychologists, APRN’s, LCSW’s on stand Down events at the Rocky Hill VA Hospital in sept I got to assess the resources available in State Govt agencies and Federal/Veterans Service to service members and veterans as well as check out the Crisis lines and how the Ambulance crews on Duty on Site. Thousands of Veterans, Service members and family members came to Annual Event to meet their various personal needs and medical goals. It is also important to join hands with members of the Veteran Community, as well as the Blue star and Gold star families who are also at risk of suicide, and work on legislative measures to better address their emotional struggles and overcome major issues with HC access, housing insecurity. Young, enlisted service members are at highest risk. These two links offer authoritative information for further proactive advocacy work.1. Department of Defense Releases Annual Report on Suicide in the Military: Calendar Year 2022 > U.S. Department of Defense > Release 2. Military Suicides Outpace Deaths In Operations Since 9/11 : NPR
3. To these wonderful songs I add this very uplifting song, “ America The Beautiful” I would like to share this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRUjr8EVgBg
I would love for us to salute the sacrifices of those who answered the call of duty and have sadly paid the supreme sacrifice to protect their buddies and safeguard our freedoms. by answering the call from Brother Ray to join him as he provides us a unique evocative, heartwarming, inspiring rendering of America the Beautiful. “All gave some, Some gave All”
“Oh beautiful, for heroes proved,
In liberating strife,
Who more than self, their country loved,
And mercy more than life,
This America, sweet America, may God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain devined.
You know, I wish I had somebody
to help me sing this
America, I love you America, you see,
My God he done shed his grace on thee,
And you oughta love him for it,
He, he, he, he, crowned thy good,
He told me he would, with brotherhood,
From sea to shining sea
Oh,yea Jesus, I want to thank you Lord.”
II.
I offer you these reports of the heroic actions of our heroic service members to honor the memory of all those who made te Ultimate Sacrifice.
Besides writing listening and viewing broadcasts we can visit the Wall and the Arlington, walk by the headstones of those who served with your sons and daughters or peers in the military campaigns and take pictures and send it to their surviving relatives and assure them their loved ones is not forgotten and is being honored in the best traditions of the Semper Fidelis Tradition going back to 1775.
A. Lawmaker brings fellow 'Lucky Lima' Marines to State of the Union (msn.com)
Lawmaker brings fellow 'Lucky Lima' Marines to State of the Union
Story by Patty Nieberg • 6h • 4 min read
An Arizona Congressman will bring two fellow Marines with whom he fought during some Iraq's deadliest days as guests at the annual State of the Union speech given by President Joe Biden Thursday in Washington D.C.
Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Marine Corps combat veteran, will bring John and Cheston Bailon, two Navajo brothers who the lawmaker fought alongside with during some of the most violent fighting of the Iraq war in 2005. All three served together in Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment as infantrymen. Gallego was a mortarman by training but in Iraq he was part of a line company.
Gallego chronicled his wartime experience in a book titled, “They Called Us ‘Lucky’ The Life and Afterlife of the Iraq War's Hardest Hit Unit.” Lima 3/25, as the company was known, suffered some of the highest casualties of any U.S. unit in Iraq while Gallego and the Bailon brothers were in its ranks.
"I’ve known John and Cheston for 20 years. They introduced me to Navajo culture, and we went through the grinder together in Iraq," Gallego told Task & Purpose in a statement. "Because of the relationship and experiences I have with them, I’ve made Tribal and veterans issues some of my top priorities. This year I wanted to honor them for their leadership and underscore my steadfast commitment to keep fighting for people like John, Cheston, and their families."
In January 2005, 180 Marine reservists were mobilized as part of Lima 3/25 for Operation Iraqi Freedom. The unit got through its first two months in Iraq without one casualty, earning the nickname "Lucky Lima." But in May 2005, their fortunes flipped as the al Anbar region had become an al Qaeda stronghold.
An ambush in a house killed two of Marines, including a platoon sergeant. Two days later, Gallego’s best friend and several others died in an IED attack. Then an August operation in Haditha led to the deaths of 13 Marines in an IED attack. By the time Lima returned home in November, 46 Marines and two Navy Corpsmen serving with the battalion were killed in nine months, 23 of them from Lima.
John is the Board President at Hesperus, a nonprofit that fosters educational and employment opportunities for Native youth and veterans through technological initiatives. Both brothers work at Sandia National Laboratories, a federally funded research center in New Mexico.
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The Bailon brothers will be among a number of guests of lawmakers at the State of the Union who are connected to ongoing global conflicts including families of Israelis who are being held hostage in Gaza and a Ukrainian soldier who came to New York to receive medical treatment.
While Gallego’s office confirmed there’s no familial relation between the brothers and the famous Navajo Code Talkers, the tribe has had a long history of service with the Marine Corps. The "Original 29" Navajo Code Talkers used their native language as an unbroken code that Marines used to communicate with one another during World War II combat.
Code talking was first used during World War I with soldiers from the Choctaw tribe, who began speaking their native language to confuse the Germans. But the Navajo Code Talkers of World War II revolutionized the practice as U.S. Marines in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945, including Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Peleliu, Okinawa, and Iwo Jima.
Though the Navajos who served in the Pacific are well known for their service, Comanche soldiers served as code talkers as well in Europe. Thirteen Comanche Code Talkers landed on Utah Beach during the Normandy, France invasion and maintained wire telephone lines to send secure messages by field telephone or radio.
Code Talkers worked in pairs with one man on the radio while the other translated and kept an eye out as security.
Gallego sits on the House’s Armed Services Committee and Natural Resources Committee. He was former chair of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indigenous Peoples, where he authored a bill to reauthorize and expand programs for tribes to investigate, treat, prevent, and prosecute child abuse. The bill passed the House last year and is being considered by the Senate.
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II B
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marines_marinecorps-usmc-semperfi-activity-7171233102042648576-bs7W
II.C
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/marine-corps-league_assistant-commandant-of-the-marine-corps-activity-7125942813921312768-oXnk?trk=public_profile_like_view
II.D
https://www.professionalmilitaryeducation.com/248th-marine-corps-birthday/
II. E
https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/03/21/alfred-gray-al-gray-marine-corps-commandant/
II.F
https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2024/03/21/this-marine-ruled-as-the-king-of-a-haitian-island-for-three-years/ II.
II. G
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdputZoWI8Q : How Marine Corps Officers Survive The 7-Month Basic School | Boot Camp.
II H.
https://www.businessinsider.com/marine-corps-officer-basic-school-quantico-training-2024-3 : We got an inside look at how new United States Marine Corps officers are trained at The Basic School, a seven-month program that challenges newly commissioned second lieutenants physically, academically, and tactically.
II. I
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/XSiETeCZkgyn4i6j/?mibextid=WC7FNe
II. J.
CMC Gen. Smith's Latest Guidance to the Marine Corps - USNI News https://news.usni.org/2024/04/02/cmc-gen-smiths-latest-guidance-to-the-marine-corps
II. K
Remembering a Legend: Deadliest Marine Sniper Dies (msn.com)
Remembering a Legend: Deadliest Marine Sniper Dies
Story by Ethan Anderson • 21h • 2 min read
Chuck Mawhinney, a Marine Corps veteran who became the deadliest sniper in that branch’s history during the Vietnam War with 103 confirmed and 216 probable kills, has died at age 75.
Mawhinney attended sniper scout school and was deployed to Vietnam in 1968, where he primarily used a Remington M40 rifle from 300-1,000 yards away.
One legendary engagement saw Mawhinney kill 16 enemy soldiers crossing a river in a single volley of headshots on Valentine’s Day 1969, intimidating the rest to withdraw.
II.L.
News - Marine Corps Corporal is Awarded the Meritorious Service Medal https://www.dvidshub.net/news/470798/marine-corps-corporal-awarded-meritorious-service-medal
II. M.
The Marine officer who saved 8,000 lives at the ‘Frozen Chosin' (msn.com)
Semper, Fi.
May God Bless our Service members, Reserves, Veterans and their families especially the Blue Star and Gold Star families and may they be sustained in their travails.
May God Bless our beloved United States of America, the Land of the Free because of the Bravest of All who laid down their lives for their buddies and their Home Sweet Home.
Velandy Manohar, MD
2024 Memorial Day commemorative message .docx