Happy Memorial Day!

An important message from Col. North this Memorial Day.  The RC Blog is a proud supporter of Freedom Alliance and the great work they do for the families of our troops.  Happy Memorial Day!!!!

31 May, 2010

Dear Patriotic American,

Today, on this Memorial Day, let us remember that America's freedom is secured by Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Guardsmen and Marines who risk their lives in the service of our country.

Throughout our history, many of these heroes have made the ultimate sacrifice. This is a time to honor their memory.

Let me tell you about one of these American heroes and how we at Freedom Alliance have tried to honor his service.

His name was Robert Daniel, a Technical Sergeant in the United States Air Force. In 1977, Robert enlisted in the Air Force, and during his 17 years of distinguished service, participated in Operation Urgent Fury, which rescued American citizens from the island of Grenada in 1983. In 1989 he participated in Operation Just Cause in Panama and flew combat missions in Operation Desert Storm in Iraq.

In 1994, Technical Sergeant Daniel was flying a mission to provide support to U.S. ground forces in Somalia when his plane crashed in the Indian Ocean. He was 35 years old, and left behind his wife and two little girls, Savanna and Tamra.

When it came time for his girls to go to college, Freedom Alliance provided them with scholarships to help them receive the college education that their parents always wanted for them. We are proud that we were able to help Savanna and Tamra Daniel with Freedom Alliance scholarships, and we are grateful that you and many other patriotic Americans made it possible with your support of Freedom Alliance.

In fact, Savannah received a scholarship from Freedom Alliance during each of her four years of college. And here is more good news...earlier this month, Savanna graduated from Park University in Missouri with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Interior Design.

Savanna told us: "My father was in the United States Air Force and he was killed in the line of duty when I was five. Honestly, I would rather have my Dad in my life again than having my college paid for, but I am greatly privileged to have a scholarship to fulfill my dreams."

This year, 201 students - each the son or daughter of an American hero - received a scholarship from Freedom Alliance. Our Scholarship Fund is a Living Memorial to America's military heroes, who have sacrificed life or limb in defense of our country.

You can help make education dreams come true for the hundreds of the sons and daughters of our brave defenders of freedom with your special Memorial Day gift to Freedom Alliance today.

In addition to the help we provide through our Scholarship Fund, Freedom Alliance helps and honors America's servicemembers all year round through our "Support Our Troops" program.

Freedom Alliance provides assistance to wounded troops recuperating at military hospitals and those serving on the frontlines of battle. Our goal is to make their rehabilitation or deployment just a little easier.

Throughout the year, we ship care packages - "Gifts From Home" - to troops deployed overseas. These parcels are filled with items that are not available to them in the desert, but make their time away from home a little more bearable. They are filled with items such as candy and snacks, books and magazines, music and movies, and special notes and greetings from caring Americans.

Last year, we shipped more than 14,000 pounds of "Gifts from Home" care packages, to our troops on the frontlines and have sent thousands more already this year.

These Gifts from Home care packages mean so much to our troops in the field. Cynthia, the mother of Army Staff Sergeant William, who was recently deployed to Afghanistan, sent Freedom Alliance this note of appreciation:

"I am writing to thank you from the bottom of my heart. My son is in Afghanistan and again received Freedom Alliance gift boxes and was so thrilled and thankful for everything you sent. There were enough boxes to share the items inside with his troops. Everyone was very grateful and excited about receiving these items from home. Thank you Freedom Alliance for all you do for our troops!"

It is our honor to help. Please know that your support makes it possible for Freedom Alliance to support our troops in this way and in the many other projects and programs that honor those who serve our nation in uniform.

Your special Memorial Day gift today to Freedom Alliance will provide funds for more "Gifts from Home" care packages to our troops and to help and honor our combat wounded service men and women recuperating in military hospitals around the country.

Having made many trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, I can tell you how much these "Gifts from Home" mean to our courageous men and women who are far away from home and their families.

So, I come to you today with an urgent appeal to open your heart with your most generous contribution to Freedom Alliance today. Please CLICK HERE to make your special gift.

As President Ronald Reagan said on May 26, 1986 at Arlington Cemetery: "Memorial Day is the day we put aside to remember fallen heroes ...and for us to remember the splendor of America and those of her children who rest in this cemetery and others."

Will you join Freedom Alliance and me to pay tribute to our fallen heroes, our frontline warriors and their families? May we count on you, as together we honor and thank them for the sacrifices they have made for our country?

Semper Fidelis,

LtCol Oliver L. North, USMC (Ret.)
Founder and Honorary Chairman
Freedom Alliance

P.S. Please join me in commemorating Memorial Day by flying Old Glory and saying "Thank You" to a veteran who you know or a service man or woman who is serving our nation today. Please pray for our troops deployed overseas and for their families

Hillary's Lawyer

Excellent piece from Tom Kilgannon, President of the Freedom Alliance....

Hillary’s Lawyer
by Thomas P. Kilgannon

In this brief, but dramatic reign of Barack Obama, America is, regrettably, entering a post-Constitution phase of our Republic. Four years hence, will “We the People” have the influence in our government that we once did? It’s not looking good. Congress – playing with things such as taxing bonuses paid to bankers – is so unconcerned with the Constitution one wonders if they’ve read the prohibition of Bills of Attainder and ex post facto laws. Obama’s Solicitor General and Attorney General are trying to limit Americans’ rights under the First and Second Amendments, respectively. Private industry has been dramatically redefined. Domestically, the people have little say.

In foreign policy however, President Obama welcomes the input of citizens – foreign citizens, that is. This is where the real danger to our Constitution lies – with globalists who will place America’s fate in foreign hands. It’s the outsourcing of our independence – and it’s about to get worse.

Enter Harold Koh, Dean of Yale Law School, until he was recently nominated by the President to be the State Department’s Legal Advisor. Those who thought they knew all the reasons to detest lawyers haven’t met Harold Koh.

Professor Koh is a legal warrior of the far left and a cancer on American sovereignty. He is a committed transnationalist who, in his own words, “believe[s] in and promote[s] the blending of international and domestic law.” It is the responsibility of American courts, Koh maintains, to “promote the development of a global legal system.”

In Mr. Koh’s mind, our Constitution is but a footnote in a larger, more relevant body of law established and adjudicated by foreign governments, international institutions, the United Nations, and the World Court. This professor, who is about to become America’s lawyer, places more trust in legal theories created in cafe conversations than in the wisdom of our Founding Fathers. Koh’s international outlook mirrors Obama’s domestic philosophy – create equality by limiting and punishing the best and the brightest. His writings outline his belief that America can only be as good as other nations allow us to be.

For example, in a 2002 essay, Koh expressed his opposition to America’s involvement in Iraq by stating that the U.S. should not get involved “without explicit United Nations authorization.” Such notions are limited in their impact when expressed by an Ivory Tower academic. When advocated by the top legal advisor at the State Department, however, they become American policy and have real and dangerous consequences for our national security.

Not only does Koh want the Oil-for-Food Gang determining America’s national security interests, he urges “constructive engagement” with the International Criminal Court (ICC), an unaccountable body that he views as a vital component of a “post-Cold War global justice system.” Toward that end, he advocates sharing information and U.S. intelligence with the ICC; appointing a special envoy to the Court; participating in ICC review conferences; and repealing provisions of the American Servicemembers Protection Act, which was adopted to defend U.S. troops from ICC indictment and prosecution.

Last year Koh argued that the new Secretary of State – the person he might soon be advising – “should withdraw the Bush Administration’s May 2002 letter to the United Nations” which removed Bill Clinton’s signature from the ICC treaty. Each of these steps, Koh argues, “pave the way for eventual U.S. ratification of the Rome Treaty” for the International Criminal Court.

As the Court was created to hear cases involving war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, Americans who are most vulnerable to the ICC’s political whims and show trials are high ranking government officials and our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines. Were legitimate charges ever to surface against U.S. troops, ICC adherents would find the Uniform Code of Military Justice lacking. They believe America’s system of jurisprudence is unable to properly dispose of such cases. They would find it helpful to appeal Supreme Court decisions with which they disagree to a “higher authority.”

Don’t think it won’t happen. Recently, the hostility of international ambulance chasers resulted in a Spanish court entertaining a complaint against six Bush administration officials for the advice they provided the President on matters related to Guantanamo Bay detainees. The Spanish court claims “universal jurisdiction,” meaning its authority knows no bounds. The ICC operates in a similar capacity. Recently, the ICC issued, and is considering, indictments on individuals of nations which are not a party to the Court.

This is the international law to which Professor Koh subscribes – an adherence to multiple and changing standards in an effort to criminalize conservatism. Koh’s views are ruinous to American sovereignty and a danger to U.S. service members. His nomination as State Department Legal Advisor must be defeated before he can put his words into action.


Thomas P. Kilgannon is the President of Freedom Alliance and the author of Diplomatic Divorce: Why America Should End Its Love Affair with the United Nations.

More on Lt. Andrew Kinard, USMC

From Sunday's Washington Times:

Honoring Heroes
Lt. Col. Oliver North (Ret.)

The Freedom Alliance is an educational-charitable foundation that, among other things, provides college scholarships to the offspring of U.S. military personnel killed in action.

Every year, coincident with the Army-Navy Game, the organization presents its Defender of Freedom Award to an individual whose character, courage and selfless deeds inspire virtuous service from the rest of us. This year's recipient, U.S. Marine Lt. Andrew Kinard unequivocally meets these criteria.

On Oct. 29, 2006, Lt. Kinard was leading his Marines on a foot patrol in Rawah, Iraq - searching for a terrorist bomb factory - when a command-detonated IED exploded directly next to his left leg. The blast blew him into the air - and he landed almost 20 feet from the crater. Three other Marines were wounded.

According to those who were there, before the grievously injured officer passed out from loss of blood, he ordered them to set up security, get a head count and start treating the other injured Marines. The platoon corpsman tried to staunch the flow of blood but couldn't find enough undamaged tissue to apply tourniquets and the lieutenant was losing blood - from almost everywhere.

A Cas-Evac helicopter airlifted him to the Marine Air Base at Al Asad, then to the Army trauma hospital at Balad, north of Baghdad. Sixty-seven pints of whole blood - more than 5 times the amount in a healthy adult - were pumped into the failing officer's veins in a 24-hour period.

By the time he was flown to Landstuhl, Germany, in a C-17 Nightingale, he had gone into cardiac arrest -and been resuscitated - twice. Emergency surgeries went on nearly nonstop to plug the seemingly innumerable holes punched in his body. The family was alerted, and a prayer vigil held. Hundreds of people half a world away went to their knees and begged God for a miracle.

Some miracles happen immediately. This one took awhile.

Four days after being blasted to pieces, Andrew Kinard was in the intensive care unit at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., with his family around his bedside - and still praying. By the time I got back from Iraq, just before Christmas 2006, "Drew" as his Marine and Naval Academy friends call him, had already endured more than two dozen surgeries.

His doctor told me the 24-year old lieutenant was "getting better" even though he had
pneumonia, a blood infection and multiple perforations of his intestines from shrapnel. They had just done one of the many skin grafts necessary to prepare his stumps for prosthetic limbs.

When I walked into his room, his mother and his sister Katherine were with him. His dad, a doctor in Spartanburg, S.C., and two younger siblings, Courtney and Will, were all en route to spend Christmas with their badly battered Marine.

Except for all the cards, poster, banners, Christmas stockings, lights, photos and flags, the room would have looked like a scene from a science fiction movie. Monitors, electronic devices, compressors, pumps and assorted tubes, wires and bags of colored fluids surrounded the bed - all connected to Andrew Kinard. Tiny flecks of shrapnel were still visible on the side of his face. He had no legs. His abdomen was an open hole. And he was smiling. "God is good," he said in greeting.

Over the next 11 months of hospitalization, Andrew Kinard was living proof of that statement. When I would ask him or his family, "How can I help you?" The inevitable response would be: "Just pray for recovery." And so, he also became evidence of the power of prayer.

In April 2007 he flew to Camp Lejeune, N.C., to meet his Marines when they returned from Iraq. Wearing his Marine utility uniform for the first time since being wounded, he greeted his comrades in a special "all-terrain" wheelchair.

Asked by a reporter to recollect the day he was wounded, he acknowledged that his memory of the attack had been dulled by shock and pain. Then he said, "A man asks himself, if something happens to me, when I go into battle, how will I react? Will I be brave?"

As they arrived home, the members of "Alpha" Company made it clear: Lt. Andrew Kinard was, without a doubt, their hero.

On Oct. 29, 2007, exactly a year after he was wounded, the indomitable young officer came home. Dignitaries and thousands of well wishers were on hand to welcome Andrew at First Baptist Church, Spartanburg. The following Sunday he spoke at all three services - thanking all for their unfailing prayers.

His recovery will continue for years to come. But on one of my visits to him in the hospital the man who had once played rugby at the Naval Academy said, "I don't need legs. I have my arms. I learned discipline at the Naval Academy. I have my faith - and a desire to serve. Maybe I'll go to law school."

Andrew has all of that - and more. He also has a great sense of humor. He has a T-shirt with the words "Marine For Sale" printed on the front. On the back it reads: "40 Percent Off - Some Assembly Required."

Fr. Lieutenant Andrew Kinard, USMC, Receives the Freedom Alliance's 2008 Defender of Freedom Award

On Thursday night, the R.C. Blog was in attendance for the Freedom Alliance's "Defender of Freedom" dinner in Washington, D.C. The recipient for this year's Freedom Alliance's Edward J. Bronars Defender of Freedom Award was First Lieutenant Andrew Kinard, USMC.

There was not a dry eye in the room as 1stLt Kinard, 25 years old, talked about his battle for life following an IED explosion in Iraq during his patrol and his heartfelt apprection to God and the Marines. Kinard was severely injured resulting in the loss of both of his legs. He spent the next four months undergoing 57 surgical procedures to restore his normal body functions and the next year recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In January 2008, President Bush invited 1stLt Kinard to the State of the Union address, where he sat next to First Lady Laura Bush. Remarkably, 1stLt Kinard is today still serving his country as an active duty Marine.

He inspired the audience with his positive outlook and smile and he expressed how blessed he feels today to be alive. He attributes his ability to still be alive to God, the support of his family, and to the dedication of the Marines and other military and medical personnel who kept him from dying throughout various phases of his injury and recovery.

The dinner event also featured speeches from Freedom Alliance Founder and Honorary Chairman LtCol Oliver North, USMC (Ret.) , Freedom Alliance President Tom Kilgannon, and radio talk show host, commentator, and author Laura Ingraham. A very special "thank you" to the Kilgannons for their invitation to this remarkable event.

As always, the R.C. Blog proudly supports the Freedom Alliance and encourages all readers to visit their web site (freedomalliance.org) and consider making a tax-deductible donation to this extremely worthy cause.