Former Korean War POW Recieves Diploma from Hometown High School Before it Closes Down Forever

This story is actually a couple of years old, but I recently found out about it and thought it would be worth re-visiting on Memorial Day weekend nonetheless.

Some 56 years after he left high school in his west Texas hometown of Spade to join the Army in the early stages of the Korean War, veteran Sherman Jones was invited to receive an honorary diploma from the class of 2006- the last class that would graduate from Spade's high school before it was closed down forever.



After 2006, students attending Spade's high school were combined with classes from the neighboring Olton school district.

Although Sherman would eventually receive enough credit for a high school diploma and would go to college after his military service, he never had a ceremony where he received his diploma.

Jones was taken prisoner with about 1500 other American soldiers after his unit was encircled and they ran out of supplies and ammunition. As a POW, Jones endured what historians call "Korea's Bataan Death March" where he was only one of 17 survivors. He was found bleeding from gunshot wounds by advancing American forces and would later have to undergo 65 surgeries and would eventually lose his right foot in 1957.

The high school in Spade had to close due to decreased class sizes and lower enrollment. Jones was just one of six members of the 2006 Spade H.S. graduating class

Happy Veteran's Day From Not Another New England Sports Blog

Fort Rosecrans military cemetery overlooking the Pacific ocean in California. Mom to Madre photo

"Happy" seems a little bit of a stretch in light of developments at the VA earlier this year, but some veterans can take heart in the fact that more amd more veterans are getting elected to office after last week's historic midterms, including Senators-elect Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Joni Earnst of Iowa who will become the first Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans to be elected to the US Senate. In fact, Ernst was reportedly incommunicado for a few days after the election to serve the required weekend muster with the Iowa National Guard.

For veterans who have been unhappy with the way things have been going in Washington, it is important that they join a veteran's group such as the American Legion or Veteran's of Foreign Wars to make their voices heard. Feel free to visit them online to enquire about membership or find the nearest Hall.

70 Years Ago Today

On June 6th, 1944, the Allied forces from the USA, Great Britain and Canada turned the tide against the occupying German Wehrmacht along the coast of Normandy.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Shinseki Steps Down Over Ongoing VA Scandal

A day after an internal nationwide audit of Veteran's Affairs facilities presented to President Obama showed widespread dysfunction and putting injured veterans on clandestine waiting lists to mask length wait times, VA secretary Eric Shinseki announced his resignation on Friday.

The president announced that Shinseki would resign after they met at the White House and he received an update on an internal review of the problems at the VA. The review showed the problems were not limited to just a few facilities, Obama said, adding: "It's totally unacceptable. Our veterans deserve the best."

On the heels of those and other findings, Obama said, "Secretary Shinseki offered me his own resignation -- with considerable regret, I accepted."

He said Shinseki told him he did not want to be a distraction. "I agree," Obama said. "We don't have time for distractions. We need to fix the problem."

The president had faced mounting calls from members of both parties to remove Shinseki; those calls accelerated after a damning inspector general report on Wednesday. Shinseki suffered another blow on Friday when Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a former top VA official, called for her former boss' resignation.

Shinseki's departure is likely to calm the political storm, but only briefly. Congressional critics of VA leadership voiced support for the decision on Friday, but urged the administration to quickly get to the root of the problems with VA workers lying about patient wait times.

As recently as a month ago, press reports of systematic problems at the Phoenix, AZ VA center began circulating and it seemed as though the Obama administration wouldn't part ways Shinseki, who was appointed in January 2009. Despite calls from the American Legion and both Democrat and Republican members of Congress, Senate Veteran's Affairs secretary Bernie Sanders [Socialist- Vermont] blamed the mounting pressure for Shinseki to step down on industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch and said in an interview that he hoped Shinseki would remain as the VA secretary.

The findings of the VA's internal audit indicated that employees had been instructed to intentionally misrepresent wait periods for veterans and that the desired 14-day maximum waiting time for appointments was untenable.

In late April, CNN aired an interview with a whistleblower from the Phoenix, AZ VA Medical Center who claimed that some patients were put on waiting lists for appointments with the intent of delaying any substantive medical care until those patients had died- some waiting more then 20 months for care. The whistleblower said that at least 40 had died as the staff manipulated reports on waiting times to make them look more efficient.

Field of Flags- Massachusetts Volunteers Mark Memorial Day By Planting 37,000 Flags on Boston Common

37,000 American Flags on the Boston Common in remembrance of fallen Massachusetts soldiers on this Memorial Day. pic.twitter.com/zHRmshjSaT

— BostonTweet (@BostonTweet) May 26, 2014

For the 5th straight year, the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund honored Bay State veterans by planting nearly 37,000 flags on a gentle slope adjacent to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Boston Common. The number represents every service member from the Commonwealth who was killed in action- ranging from Lexington to today's War on Terrorism.

Volunteers are scheduled to tend to the field throughout the weekend and answer any questions visitors may have. According to the MMHF, the slots for volunteers tending to the Boston Common flag garden filled quickly. The thousands of flags served as a backdrop for a weekend ceremony honoring the 205 individuals from Massachusetts that were killed in the line of duty since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund was established in 2009 as a means to support family members of post 9/11 servicemen and women with ties to Massachusetts who died in combat. According to the Boston Globe the rippling sea of red, white and blue in the shadow of the Soldiers and Sailor's Monument has drawn visitors from Gold Star families throughout New England.

Another VA Whistleblower Comes Forward- This Time in Florida

As more and more VA Centers throughout the country find themselves coming under scrutiny for mismanagement and intentionally delaying and withholding treatment from veterans, another whistleblower has come forward.

A detective in the VA's police department [yes- the VA has its own police department- NANESB!] has come forward with allegations of abuse and drug dealing on the grounds of the Miami Veterans Affairs center.

Fiore, a criminal investigator for the VA police department in South Florida, contacted CBS4 News hoping to shed light on what he considers a culture of cover-ups and bureaucratic neglect. Among his charges: Drug dealing on the hospital grounds is a daily occurrence.

“Anything from your standard prescription drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet, and of course marijuana, cocaine, heroin, I’ve come across them all,” he explained.

Even inside the hospital, he says he was stopped from doing his job – investigating reports of missing drugs from the VA pharmacy. When the amount of a particular drug inside the pharmacy doesn’t match the amount that the pharmacy is supposed to have, a report, known as a “discrepancy report” is generated. Normally it was his job to investigate the reports to determine if they were the result of harmless mistakes or criminal activity. But all that changed, he said, about two years ago.

“I was instructed that I was to stop conducting investigations pertaining to controlled substance discrepancies,” he recalled.

He said he was personally told to stop investigating them by the hospital’s chief of staff, Dr. Vincent DeGennaro.

“I have no idea why,” he said. “He’s the chief of staff he doesn’t have to tell me why.”

Referring to drug dealing on the hospital grounds, Fiore said, “It’s been a problem for a while, for a very long while.” But administrators refuse to address it.

Fiore said the dealing usually takes place near the front entrance to the hospital, where patients and other gather to smoke. Patients will sometimes sell portions of the prescriptions they just filled. Other individuals will bring illegal drugs onto the grounds to sell. He said he has seen individuals in the drug treatment program time their smoke breaks so they can do downstairs and meet their dealers.

The VA police, who are all sworn federal law enforcement officers, can do little to stop it. The handful of VA police officers who patrol the hospital grounds are easy to spot since they are always in uniform and are well-known to patients.

“The patients know us, they see us every day,” Fiore said. “So I had brought up a plan to bring in somebody from a different facility where these patients don’t know them and basically go undercover into this [drug rehab] program or into this area at least and try to give us some good leads, so we can try to eliminate or reduce the amount of drugs that are coming in there.”

He said it wasn’t simply a matter of trying to make arrests. He said his goal was “to protect the patients.”

Fiore said he even found someone with undercover experience who was ready to do it. He said he presented his plans to his superiors, but never heard back from them.

“I’m still waiting,” he said. “And it’s been a couple of years now.”

Fiore said another reason drug dealing became a problem was the lack of working surveillance cameras inside and around the hospital. The lack of security cameras was an issue the Inspector General raised in its report earlier this year into Cutter’s death. They said the cameras had not been working for at least six months prior to Cutter’s overdose.

In fact, Fiore said, the cameras have not worked for at least four years. In 2010 he was assigned the responsibility of conducting a “vulnerability assessment” of the VA facilities in South Florida. He noted the problem with the cameras back then. As a result of his report, he said the Miami VA was allocated money to improve security. He said he believes the amount was somewhere between $2.5 million and $3.5 million.

But he doesn’t know what happened to the money.

“I can tell you it wasn’t spent on cameras or any of the other recommendations that were made in that assessment,” he said, “because they still have yet to be corrected.”

Fiore said that he's also seen marks and bruises on elderly patients in the VA Center that are consistent with abuse- something he claims the hospital prefers to deal with administratively rather than as a criminal matter. There is also the matter of theft of items ranging from computers to medical equipment inside the facility.

A four year veteran of the Marine Corps, Fiore reportedly came forward after the recent death of one of the VA Center's patients- a 27 year old Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran named Nicholas Cutter who was being treated at the VA drug rehab center. Cutter died from a cocaine overdose inside the center, but Fiore wasn't told about the circumstances behind Cutter's death until two days after the fact. Fiore said that although drug overdoses are to be investigated as a criminal matter, materiel from Cutter's room had already been cleaned out despite the fact that it was supposed to be treated as a crime scene.

Meanwhile, President Obama gave a terse press conference from the White House this week in which he claimed he didn't know about the myriad VA Scandals until reading media reports about it this month. Obama then expressed outrage before defending VA Secretary Shinseki's tenure and flying off to a $35,000 per plate fundraiser for Senator Dick Durbin on Friday.

Navajo Code Talker Tom Jones Jr Passes Away at Age 89

World War II veteran and member of the famed Navajo Code Talkers Tom Jones passed away at age 89 at a medical center in northwestern New Mexico last week. Jones, who worked in the Navajo Mines after his military service, was suffering from pneumonia and admitted to the San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington, NM.

Jones enlisted in November 1943 and was honorably discharged in December 1945 after training in California with other members of the Navajo tribe and serving in the Pacific theater. Throughout World War II, the Code Talkers confounded Japanese code-breakers primarily by sending out military communications in their native tongue. The Navajo language was spoken and understood by very few in the United States outside of the Four Corners region of Arizona and New Mexico, let alone anyone working on behalf of the Axis powers.

The Navajo Code Talker program was credited with maintaining secure lines of communication during the most pivotal battles of the Pacific theater. After the war, an estimated 200 Navajo Marines were sworn to secrecy over the Code Talker program to maintain secrecy- likely because the military thought such a program could see continued use during the Cold War with the Soviets. However, in the early 1970s the Code Talker program was eventually declassified and many of the Navajo veterans belatedly received recognition in the 1990s and 2000s for their efforts and unique contribution to the war effort.

The Navajo nation ordered flags flown at half mast in honor of Jones and his family released the following statement.

"Our father was a private, humble, simple, caring and giving father, grandfather, brother, friend and comrade. His heart was caring, his mind was strict, his life was blessed and his soul was graceful"

Although the Navajo tribe donated a house to Jones and other Code Talkers some 40 years ago, the home fell into disrepair and parts of it became nearly inaccessible when Jones was confined to a wheelchair.

More recently, Jones and other Code Talkers were featured in a March 2014 Los Angeles Times article that highlighted the difficult living conditions for some Navajo veterans who still live on the reservation.

Not Just Phoenix- Treatment Records at Colorado VA Clinic Falsified.

An internal Veteran's Administration probe has found that workers at the Fort Collins, CO VA facility were falsifying patient treatment records to make it appear that the patients were being seen within the agency's 14-day deadline. The findings were compiled by the VA's Office of Medical Inspector and published in the Monday edition of USA Today.

Clerks at the Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Fort Collins were instructed last year how to falsify appointment records so it appeared the small staff of doctors was seeing patients within the agency's goal of 14 days, according to the investigation.

Many of the 6,300 veterans treated at the outpatient clinic waited months to be seen. If the clerical staff allowed records to reflect that veterans waited longer than 14 days, they were punished by being placed on a "bad boy list," the report shows.

"Employees reported that scheduling was 'fixed,' " the findings say.

After enduring a year of criticism that the VA took too long to deliver earned compensation to disabled veterans, a new wave of attacks is building over slow medical care.

In late April, a former doctor alleged that the VA facility in Phoenix, AZ put patients on a secret list and had treatments or preventative screenings withheld to make it appear as though the staff was reducing the backlog. Although the VA denied any wrongdoing, the director of the Phoenix facility and two others were placed on leave.

Meanwhile, the head of the American Legion has called for the resignation of VA secretary Eric Shinseki in light of the recent allegations out of Arizona and Colorado. The American Legion is currently America's largest veteran's organization.

Report- VA Intentionally Kept Veterans Seeking Treatment on Clandestine Waiting List

Let me just say here and now that this shit really pisses me off.

A CNN report alleges that veterans seeking medical care at the VA's Phoenix, AZ facility were instead placed on secretive waiting lists, languishing and in some cases dying as the agency and bureaucrats withheld treatment for months. According to a VA whistleblower, the delays were designed to make it appear as thought the VA center in Phoenix was cutting through its backlog quicker than it really was.

At least 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for appointments at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system, many of whom were placed on a secret waiting list.

The secret list was part of an elaborate scheme designed by Veterans Affairs managers in Phoenix who were trying to hide that 1,400 to 1,600 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a doctor, according to a recently retired top VA doctor and several high-level sources.

Internal e-mails obtained by CNN show that top management at the VA hospital in Arizona knew about the practice and even defended it.

Dr. Sam Foote just retired after spending 24 years with the VA system in Phoenix. The veteran doctor told CNN in an exclusive interview that the Phoenix VA works off two lists for patient appointments:

There's an "official" list that's shared with officials in Washington and shows the VA has been providing timely appointments, which Foote calls a sham list. And then there's the real list that's hidden from outsiders, where wait times can last more than a year.

According to Foote, the elaborate scheme in Phoenix involved shredding evidence to hide the long list of veterans waiting for appointments and care. Officials at the VA, Foote says, instructed their staff to not actually make doctor's appointments for veterans within the computer system.

Instead, Foote says, when a veteran comes in seeking an appointment, "they enter information into the computer and do a screen capture hard copy printout. They then do not save what was put into the computer so there's no record that you were ever here," he said.

According to Foote, the information was gathered on the secret electronic list and then the information that would show when veterans first began waiting for an appointment was actually destroyed.

"That hard copy, if you will, that has the patient demographic information is then taken and placed onto a secret electronic waiting list, and then the data that is on that paper is shredded," Foote said.


"So the only record that you have ever been there requesting care was on that secret list," he said. "And they wouldn't take you off that secret list until you had an appointment time that was less than 14 days so it would give the appearance that they were improving greatly the waiting times, when in fact they were not.".

While the problem of lengthy waits and delays at Veterans Affairs facilities throughout the USA is nothing new, the reports out of Phoenix are among the first by a former VA official to suggest that the prolonged waits are by design.

An outspoken critic of the Iraq campaign during the Bush administration, retired General Eric Shinseki was appointed head of the Veterans Affairs by President Obama in January 2009. However, under Shinseki's tenure, wait times have increased due to delays and red tape involving simple medical procedures. However, the VA claims that the backlog has been reduced by 44% over the last year.

At Least Two Boston Firefighters Killed Battling 9-Alarm Back Bay Blaze

Two Boston firefighters were killed in the line of duty and at least 13 more were injured on Wednesday while fighting a 9-alarm fire in a Beacon Street brownstone. The fire started in the basement of the building but quickly burned all the way up through the roof, although the building's residents were able to evacuate in time using the fire escape. Officials with the Boston Fire Department believe the blaze spread as quickly as it did due to abnormally strong winds coming off the Charles River on Wednesday afternoon.

One woman who lived in the building and was home when the fire started said, "I was in the apartment and I heard shouting and yelling and the people that were in the building next door were going down the fire escape and two seconds later, the firemen were there. So I looked out the window and I saw the smoke and I was like I gotta get out of here so I grabbed my laptops and this box and I left. And then, as I was leaving the smoke was coming into the building, into the apartment and the firemen were there yelling, 'Everybody get out.'"

She was on the second floor of the building when the fire started. Once out of the building, she saw smoke and people throwing suitcases out of the windows.

Another man, who was on the first floor of the building when the fire started, said, "I saw the smoke start coming up, I saw people climbing down from the top floor. The fire and police were there almost right away. There was a lot of smoke, there was a small explosion at the beginning of the fire, and it just got worse and worse."

Honoring the firefighters lost: Firefighter Michael Kennedy (left) and Lieutenant Edward Walsh http://t.co/qxBphTp6bR pic.twitter.com/OzVRZkfoaS

— Boston.com (@BostonDotCom) March 27, 2014

The cause of the blaze hasn't been determined yet, but a Boston Fire Department spokesman identified the two firefighters who were killed as Lt Ed Walsh and fireman Michael Kennedy. Walsh, 43, had been with the department for nearly a decade and was married with three children. Kennedy was a 33 year old combat veteran in the Marine Corps and resided in Hyde Park. Both firemen were with Engine 33- Kennedy was pulled alive from the building but later died at Massachusetts General Hospital while Walsh was found in the basement of the building.

Wednesday's fire is the deadliest fire in Boston since the 1972 Vendome Hotel Fire along Commonwealth Ave killed nine firemen when a portion of the hotel collapsed on the men and their truck.

Auld Ang Syne Sports Chowdah Update- Winter Classic Big Time Hit in Ann Arbor; Fenway Freezes Over for New Incarnation of 'Holy War'; A Star for the Ages, Marine Veteran and Padres Broadcaster Jerry Coleman Passes Away at 89

My understanding is that there's been some football games of significance taking place lately- I'll get caught up on that as best I can, but for now here's some of what's happening with the non-pigskin sports.

Brian Babineau- Getty Images

NHL- As much as I'm not a fan of either team involved, I gotta say that the 2014 Winter Classic went off without a hitch.

Before a crowd of 105,491 at the University of Michigan's Big House in Ann Arbor, the 'home' Red Wings faced off against the Toronto Maple Leafs, kicking off 2014 with an Original 6 matchup.

After a scoreless first period, former Senator Daniel Alfredsson put Detroit on the board first with a goal about midway through the second period before Toronto's James van Reimsdyk got the equalizer for the Leafs in the dying seconds of the 2nd.

Less than 5 minutes into the 3rd, the Leafs took their first lead of the day on a Tyler Bozak goal to put Toronto up 2-1. With less than five minutes to go, the 'home' team got the equalizer in the form of a goal from Justin Abdelkader to knot things up at 2-2. With nothing resolved late in regulation or in OT, the Winter classic headed for a shootout for the second time in its history.

Pavel Datsuk got the first shootout goal of the game for Detroit, but Joffery Lupul and Tyler Bozak would get back to back goals for the Toronto shootout win. Toronto's Jonathan Bernier stopped 41 of 43 shots faced in regulation and OT while the Wing's Jimmy Howard faced 26 shots on goal and successfully turned aside 24 of them.

This game was actually slated to take place on New Year's Day 2013, but was cancelled due to the lockout and abbreviated season. Interestingly, this will be the first of many outdoor games scheduled for the 2013-2014 season.

In a move that was likely designed to offset the loss of the 2013 Winter Classic, there are at least five more games in four more venues scheduled this season in what's been dubbed the NHL Stadium Series. On January 25th, the LA Kings and Anaheim Ducks will face off in Dodger Stadium. The following day, on the other side of the country the New York Rangers will host the New Jersey Devils at Yankee Stadium. Three days later, hockey returns to Yankee Stadium when the Rangers and Islanders go head-to-head. On March 1st, the Stadium Series resumes at Chicago's Soldier Field when the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks will take on the Pittsburgh Penguins. The NHL's stadium series is slated to wrap up the following day north of the border in Vancouver when the Canucks will host the Ottawa Senators at the BC Palace in the 2014 Tim Horton's Heritage Classic.

As for the New Year's Day Winter Classic, the Washington Capitals are slated to host the game next year, although a venue or opponent haven't been formally announced. There has also been speculation since the inaugural 2008 Winter Classic that Beaver Stadium on the Penn State campus in State College, PA would host an outdoor matchup between Pennsylvania's two NHL franchises- the stadium boasts an even larger seating capacity than Michigan's Big House and is roughly halfway between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL- Meanwhile, the Boston Bruins are getting off on the right foot for 2014. After a 3-2 win against Nashville at home the day after the Winter Classic, the Bruins hosted the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday.

Although the Jets got on the board first thanks to a Dustin Byfuglien goal midway through the first, Danny Paille tied it up at 1-1 with a tally for the B's less than 3 minutes later.

The second period was all Torey Krug as he scored two goals a little over four minutes apart for what would turn out to be the game-winner, putting Boston up 3-1. In the 3rd, Reilly Smith would add to Boston's total midway through the period making it a 4-1 game....which would also be the final. Tukka Rask turned aside 35 of 36 shots faced and the Bruins are now in sole possession of first place in the Atlantic division.

The Bruins will hit the road and next play on the west coast on Tuesday night when they take on the Anaheim Ducks- a team that has yet to lose at home in regulation this season- from the Honda Center in Orange County, CA. This one is a pretty late start at 10:00 PM ET and it will be televised on NESN.

Frozen Fenway- the Holy War on Skates. Matthew J Lee photo via @BostonGlobe #NDvsBC #NotreDame #BostonCollege pic.twitter.com/JOvQg6yCxA
— Fenway Nation (@Fenway_Nation) January 6, 2014

NCAA HOCKEY- Ann Arbor's Big House wasn't the only outdoor hockey venue this week. With an outdoor rink set up at Fenway, America's Favorite Ballpark hosted an NCAA Hockey doubleheader over the weekend.

After a 1-1 tie between Providence College and Merrimack, #6 Boston College and #14 Notre Dame took to the ice for the Holy War (on skates!). The Eagles jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Brendan Silk and Johnny Guardeau before Mario Luca scored late for the Irish to cut the lead to 2-1.

The Irish tied it up early in the second with a power play goal from TJ Tynan- the only scoring that would take place in the second period. In the 3rd, the re-took the lead on a shorthanded goal from Bill Arnold, but less than 3 minutes later, the Irish's Bryan Rust tied it back up at 3-3.

Less than a minute later, Johnny Guardeau got his second goal of the night and Eagles netminder Brian Billett would hold off a furious late surge by the Irish for the 4-3 win.

Saturday's game is actually the first of two NCAA Doubleheaders at Fenway- UMass Lowell is slated to take on Northeastern on the afternoon of Jan 11th while Maine will take on the BU Terriers that evening.

Andy Hayt- Getty Images

MLB- Former Yankees 2nd baseman, WWII Marine fighter pilot and Hall of Fame Broadcaster Jerry Coleman passed away at a California hospital on Sunday at the age of 89. A California native, Coleman reported to the Yankees minor league affiliate in Wellsville, NY after graduating high school at the age of 17. At age 18, he joined the Marine Corps and was flying Dauntless SBD dive bombers on missions in the pacific theater in WWII.

After World War II, Coleman made his major league debut with the Yankees in 1949 and was named the AP's Rookie of the Year that season. Starting in 1951, Coleman missed the bulk of two seasons serving in the Korean war where he served alongside Ted Williams. Coleman, the only big-leaguer to fly combat missions in WWII and Korea [Williams served as a flight instructor during WWII- NANESB!] recounted a harrowing close call Ted Williams had, crash landing after returning from a mission over North Korea.

After returning to the Yankees, Coleman was beset by vision problems and broke his collarbone in 1955. His last season with the Yankees was in 1957, when the Bronx Bombers lost to the Milwaukee Braves in seven games in the World Series. After retiring as a player, Coleman worked in the front office for awhile before making his way to the broadcast booth.

In 1970, Coleman returned to California and broadcast games for the then-California Angels for two seasons. By 1972, Jerry made his way down Interstate 5 to San Diego and would work in their broadcast booth for the San Diego Padres every year except for 1980- which marked an uneventful stint as the Padres manager. The following season, he returned to the broadcast booth and remained there through the 2013 season, earning the Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C Frick award in 2005.

The veteran broadcaster was known for peppering his play by play with phrases such as "Oh doctor!" and "You can hang a star on that one!" after a particularly impressive play as well as frequent malapropisms. In recent years, Coleman was working a reduced schedule, covering select daytime home games and doing pregame interviews with Padres manager Bud Black.

Coleman was admitted to a San Diego-area hospital around Christmastime with cerebral hemorrhaging and his condition had worsened over the next several days.



Prior to his being hospitalized, Coleman appeared in a video message filmed in front of the USS Midway  museum for Veteran's Day that was released by the San Diego Padres. Coleman is also one of only two people the Padres organization erected statues at PetCo Park to honor- the other being Hall of Fame outfielder Tony Gwynn.

Happy Veteran's Day

Tom Story- photo

It is the soldier, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to assemble.

It is the soldier, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the soldier, not the politician, Who has given us the right to vote.

It is the soldier who salutes the Flag, who serves under the flag.

And whose coffin is draped by the flag, Who allows the protester to burn the flag.

Obama Warns Disabled Veterans That Sequester Cuts Could Endanger Their Benefits Before Having His Dog Flown to Martha's Vineyard

Before flying off to Martha's Vineyard for vacation, President Obama addressed the Disabled American Veteran's convention in Orlando, FL this weekend and warned attendees that veteran's benefits would be jeopardized by a prolonged fight between the White House and GOP led House of Representatives over budget sequestration.

President Obama took his case for ending the sequester to hundreds of disabled veterans Saturday, saying he protected their benefits from the “reckless” cuts to the federal budget but suggesting next year might be different.

“It’s hurting our military. I made it clear that your veteran’s benefits are exempt from this year’s sequester,” the president said to the applause of hundreds at the Disabled American Veterans' convention in Orlando, Fla. “But I want to tell you going forward the best way to protect the VA care you have earned is to get rid of this sequester altogether.”

The president but the blame squarely on Congress, which returns in about four weeks to work on a new federal budget and increasing the federal debt limit.

“We’ve got these reckless, across-the-board budget cuts called the sequester that are hitting a lot of folks hard,” Obama said. “Congress needs to come together and agree on a responsible plan that reduces our deficit and keeps our promises to our veterans and keeps our promises to future generations.”

The cuts went into effect in March after Congress and the White House failed to agree on a more balanced plan to cut government spending.

Some Republicans have meanwhile said the president shares in the responsibility, considering he signed the 2011 Budget Control Act that raised the debt ceiling and led to sequester.

The remarks to the DAV were made the same day President Obama flew to Martha's Vineyard. The First Family will be staying at a $7.6 million property owned by Chicago corporate financier and Democrat donor David Schulte until Aug 18th.

However, not everybody in the First Family was able to make it up on the same Air Force One flight. Bo, the President's dog, was apparently flown up from Washington DC separately on a V-22 Osprey along with equipment and additional White House staff. According to the UK's Telegraph this is the first time that the Osprey's have been used for a Presidential vacation of any kind.

Apparently the progressive blogosphere has been patting themselves on the back over how they 'debunked' the Telegraph's story about Bo being flown up when in fact Bo WAS flown up to Martha's Vineyard along with equipment and personnel. Still, the defenders of this Administration seem all to willing to overlook the fact that the President basically told a convention hall full of disabled US veterans that they'll lose their benefits if he doesn't get his way with the upcoming budget before jetting off to Martha's Vineyard where his wealthy donors will roll out the red carpet for him.

More Accusers Come Forward As San Diego Mayor Filner Goes Into 'Therapy'

As San Diego's Mayor Bob Filner entered counseling on Monday, more women went public with accusations that the recently-elected Democrat had groped, harassed or propositioned them. The most recent accuser was a nurse who had sought Filner's help in dealing with the VA for a Marine wounded in Iraq.

Vocational nurse Michelle Tyler and U.S. Marine Katherine Ragazzino spoke Tuesday about a meeting with Filner in which the mayor implied that he would help solve Ragazzino’s issue with the VA only if Tyler agreed to attend a public event with him or have dinner with him.

Ragazzino suffered a traumatic brain injury and PTSD while serving in Iraq.

The two women were meeting with Filner as a follow up to a previous meeting with then-Congressman Bob Filner two years ago.

In the mayor’s office, Filner allegedly asked Ragazzino to leave the meeting and then began giving compliments to Tyler.

Tyler described a conversation with Filner where he asked if she were single and then asked her to meet with him on a personal basis.

“It was extremely disturbing to me that he made it very clear that his expectation was that his help for Katherine depended on my willingness to go to dinner with him, spend personal time with him and be seen in public with him, “ Tyler said.

“I felt that his rubbing my arm and telling me help for Katherine was contingent on my going out with him was extremely inappropriate and unacceptable,” Tyler said.

“I was not there looking for a date.”

Filner had previously served as the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Veteran's Affairs between 2007 and 2011. Tyler is the eleventh woman to accuse Filner of harassing or groping and the third in as many days.

A Marilyn Monroe impersonator said that Filner grabbed her backside while she was at fundraiser late last year.

The incident allegedly occurred in December at a fundraiser to retire the 70-year-old Democrat's debt from the mayoral campaign.

"He grabbed me a little too tight, then proceeded to slide his hand down my arm and then did a little grab on my derriere,” Emily Gilbert told Fox5 San Diego. "I didn’t want to make a scene. There were kids around.”

She tried to laugh it off but was embarrassed by the crude behavior, she told Fox5.

Gilbert's husband, a Marine officer, was furious when he heard of the incident.

Filner "needs to resign," he told Fox5.

Not long after Gilbert and her husband went public, a tenth woman claimed to have had an unnerving encounter with the mayor at a La Jolla, CA church in June where he grabbed her hands and said "I just can't take my eyes off of you" before asking her out. Later that day, she told a co-worker about the encounter before finding out that the mayor was already engaged.

Olga Diaz, a fellow Democrat and deputy mayor of the nearby city of Escondido, CA said that she also had a strange encounter with the mayor at an event where she was asked whether or not she had a husband.

Filner is being sued by former communications director Irene McCormack-Jackson for sexual harassment and at the end of July, the San Diego city council announced that they were suing Filner to recover any costs from a lawsuit or settlement against the mayor.

Homeland Security Chief Napolitano To Step Down

Too little too late.

Head of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced on Friday that she would be stepping down later on this year. Napolitano- a former Arizona governor- was Obama's first-term appointment for the DHS position and will reportedly be leaving to seek the president of the University of California system.

Napolitano's tenure at DHS has been marked with scandals and policies geared towards keeping an increasing number of Americans under suspicion. In 2009, the DHS released an assessment that deemed returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan as potential terrorist threats- an assessment that Napolitano stood by.

As the DHS was putting additional scrutiny towards veterans, Christians, gun owners and pro lifers, the agency ignored red flags leading up to two terrorist attacks on US soil- a June 1st, 2009 shooting at a Little Rock, AR Army recruiting station committed by a convert to Islam who trained in Yemen that killed Pvt William Andrew Long and wounded Pvt Quentin E Ezegwula. In November 2009, a muslim US Army major who had openly proclaimed support for the Taliban and communicated online with Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki opened fire on fellow troops at a processing center in Fort Hood, TX- killing 13 and wounding 32 before being stopped by police gunfire. The shooter survived and is still awaiting trial while the Department of Defense and Homeland Security refuse to acknowledge that it was a terrorist attack, instead referring to it as 'workplace violence'.

A little over a month later, 23 year old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight as it approached Detroit International Airport with plastic explosives sewn into his underwear on Christmas Day. Abdulmutallab was overwhelmed by a quick-thinking Dutch passenger before the bomb could detonate and the pilot was able to land the plane safely. Immediately after the thwarted attack, Napolitano issued a statement proclaiming 'the system worked', despite a number of security lapses, the fact that Abdulmutallab had a valid visa for entering the United States and the fact that it the Dutch passenger who thwarted the Nigerian jihadi's bombing attempt.

While Napolitano's DHS continued warning the public about veterans, on May 1st, 2010 vendors in New York's Times Square alerted nearby policemen to a suspicious vehicle that was parked nearby with smoke coming out of it. The NYPD bomb squad was called in and the area was quickly cordoned off after patrolmen discovered what appeared to be a homemade IED in the back of a Nissan Pathfinder with Connecticut plates. After reviewing surveillance footage of the area, authorities identified Faisal Shahzad as the prime suspect. Shahzad- a naturalized US citizen from Pakistan- was on a Dubai-bound Emirates Air flight at JFK that was moments away from departing the gate.

This time, Napolitano didn't attempt to reassure the public with a message of 'the system worked'- instead, Mayor Bloomberg blamed the attempted bombing on an individual unhappy with President Obama's recently-passed healthcare law.

Another infamous Napolitano moment came when she was questioned by Arizona Sen John McCain in 2010 before a Senate committee. Both Napolitano and attorney general Eric Holder were critical of a recent law passed by state lawmakers in Arizona that would allow local police to check the residency status of anyone they came into contact with and turn them over to federal immigration officials if they're in the country illegally. When the senior Republican senator from Arizona asked Napolitano whether or not she had actually read the law, the DHS head answered "No" [as did Holder, but Napolitano's ignorance of the law seemed even more egregious considering she was governor of that state until recently- NANESB!].

More recently, however, Napolitano's DHS reportedly missed a number of red flags leading up to the Patriot's Day 2013 bombing of the Boston Marathon by two Chechen brothers that killed three and injured more than 170 runners and spectators. Despite being on welfare, the two brothers- Dzhokar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev- had travelled to the Chechnya and Dagestan region of Russia where muslim fighters have been clashing with Russian troops and militia loyal to the Kremlin since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Russian intelligence officials also reportedly warned their American counterparts about the suspicious activities of the brothers, but those warnings went unheeded by the DHS and other agencies- even as whistleblowers came forward with revelations about unprecedented surveillance of Americans by agencies such as the NSA and DHS.

That's to say nothing of the dysfunction along the US-Mexico border. Towards the end of Napolitano's tenure as governor of Arizona, rampant human trafficking from Mexico had given the capital city of Phoenix the dubious distinction as 'America's Kidnapping capital'. The 2010 ambush and murder of a US Border Patrol agent in Arizona by narcos armed with guns from the ATF's ill-advised Operation Fast and Furious was met with- at best- a collective shrug from DHS, despite Homeland Security being the parent agency for the Border Patrol.

Granted the Department of Homeland is a fairly new agency, but I don't think it's that much of a stretch to say that Napolitano has been the worst DHS head the agency has seen. It's also worth pointing out that the new agency also had a number of existing government agencies incorporated into it during its formation a decade ago- including Customs, Immigration, the Border Patrol and the US Coast Guard.

Ordinarily, I would be happy to see Napolitano leave, but if she managed to stay on after her 'the system worked' gaffe in 2009 it was pretty clear that she was only going to leave whenever she felt like it. Apparently the University of California system presidency is Napolitano's golden parachute, overseeing a University system that will continue cranking out sanctimonious progressive dullards with 17th century LGBTQ Literature studies degrees and six-figure student loan debt.

There's also the stark likelihood that President Obama- unencumbered by worrying about re-election- could manage to select somebody who's even worse than Napolitano for DHS, making it yet another government agency at his beck and call to be used on critics and opponents of his administration [if he hadn't already as some claim- NANESB!].

Today's Train of Thought- A Grave Endeavor, March 27th 2013

To this day, working railroads can be found running through a number of unlikely venues- such as the middle of a street or a golf course. Although some rail lines skirt the periphery of cemeteries and burial grounds, it's a little unusual for a line to run right through the middle of one.

One notable exception is the Nashville National Cemetery, however. The burial ground first opened up shortly after the Civil War just to the north-east of Tennessee's capitol. By 1879, nearly 19 additional acres had been conveyed to what is now the Nashville National Cemetery. Not surprisingly, much of this land was to accommodate soldiers from both the Confederacy and Union that were killed during the Civil War.

Yet to this day, the Nashville National Cemetery remains bisected by an operating rail line- an easement was granted to CSX predecessor line Louisville & Nashville in 1912 to operate the line 'in perpetuity'.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Doyle Massey caught a southbound CSX Q649 (Chicago to Birmingham, AL manifest freight) with C40-8 #7643 heading through the 64.5 acre burial ground in April 2009, more than halfway through her journey from the Windy City to the heart of Dixie. According to Massey, the Nashville National Cemetery was closed for burials by the late 1990s and was also added to the National Register of Historic Places around the same time.

MEMORIAL DAY

National Medal of Honor Memorial at the Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, CA

California Sen. Diane Feinstein- No "Assault Weapons" For Veterans, Refers to PTSD as "New"

Congratulations, California- you continue to pick some real winners there.

Feinstein said she wants to make sure that veterans “who are incapacitated for one reason or another mentally don’t have access” to semi-automatic weapons.

Feinstein, at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee last Friday, was discussing an amendment to her gun control bill that would exempt retired military from the so-called “assault weapons” ban:

“The problem with expanding this (exemption) is that, you know, with the advent of PTSD, which I think is a new phenomenon as a product of the Iraq War, it’s not clear how the seller or transferrer of a firearm covered by this bill would verify that an individual was a member, or a veteran, and that there was no impairment of that individual with respect to having a weapon like this. So you know, I would be happy to sit down with you again and see if we could work something out but I think we have to — if you’re going to do this, find a way that veterans who are incapacitated for one reason or another mentally don’t have access to this kind of weapon.”

Perhaps even more alarming is Feinstein's claim that PTSD was a new phenomenon limited to the Iraq War [OMG! Bush's fault!- NANESB!]. However. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder- which was known as Soldier's Heart after the Civil War or Shell Shock after the first World War- was formally recognized by the Committee of Reactive Disorders in 1980.

Also, if Sen Feinstein has such reservations about veterans of the US Military arming themselves, she should perhaps concern herself with veterans not only armed with firearms, but also the power of arrest- as thousands of returning veterans from the Iraq war have found work in local, state, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies nationwide over the past decade [Hmmm....interesting how she apparently left out Afghanistan- NANESB!].

And while nobody is advocating giving away guns to clearly disturbed individuals like Adam Lanza or Jared Loughner, one should also be careful in allowing the progressives in this nation to monopolize the narrative in regards to mental health. There have been serious "academic" attempts to get conservative opinions and outlooks classified as a mental disorder in recent years. In the latter days of the Soviet Union, government psychiatrists would have dissidents involuntarily committed to mental hospitals with vague diagnoses like 'sluggish schizophrenia' or 'philisophical intoxication' on a regular basis. The state-ordered confinement saved Communist Party officials the trouble of putting dissidents through a show trial that could potentially backfire on them- a practice that is seeing an ominous resurgence in Vladmir Putin's Russia.

Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye Passes Away At Age 88

US Senator and Medal of Honor recipient Daniel Inouye passed away from respiratory complications at George Washington University Hospital on Monday. The Hawaiian senator, who became the longest-serving US Senator after the 2010 death of West Virginia democrat Robert Byrd, had held the office since 1963 and has represented the Aloha State in the nation's capital for as long as Hawaii has been a state, having been elected to Hawaii's at-large Congressional district shortly after it was granted statehood in 1959.

Inouye was also a decorated US Army veteran  who served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, an Army unit made up of second generation Japanese immigrants from across the US mainland and Hawaii- many of whom had relatives in internment camps at the time.

In April of 1945, while fighting in German-occupied Italy, Inouye was shot multiple times and severely wounded while charging a trio of German machine-gun nests. Despite being shot in the stomach and leg as well as losing his right arm to a nazi rifle-grenade, a wounded Inouye was able to destroy the first two bunkers with grenades and clear out the third with a burst from his Thompson submachine gun. Inouye's actions would earn him the Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Distinguished Cross. In 2000, President Clinton awarded Inouye and 19 other members of the 442nd Regimental Combat team the Medal of Honor. By 1947, Inouye was honorably discharged with the rank of captain and was said to have been convalescing at the same Michigan Army hospital as future Senator and Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole.

On Thursday, Inouye lay in state at the Capitol building for his Senate and House colleagues before being moved to the National Cathedral for a memorial service on Friday. Inouye's body will then be flown to Hawaii for a memorial service in Honolulu before his burial at the Cemetery of the Pacific.

A letter from the Senator's office has reportedly requested that Hawaii governor Neil Abercrombie appoint Representative Colleen Hanabusa [D- HI 1] to the vacant senate seat once he passed away.

At Least Four Killed as Freight Train Slams Into West Texas Veteran's Parade Float

James Durbin- My West Texas

Four people were killed and at least another 17 people were killed in Midland, TX when a parade float was struck by a freight train on Thursday afternoon.

Two people died at the scene, while two others died at Midland Memorial Hospital, City of Midland spokesman Ryan Stout said. Six people remained hospitalized Thursday night, including at least one in critical condition; the other 11 people injured have been treated and released, hospital officials said.

About two dozen veterans and their spouses had been sitting in chairs on the float, set up on the back of a flatbed tractor-trailer decorated with American flags and signs identifying each veteran. Many seemed to panic as the locomotive's horn sounded, said Patricia Howle, who was waiting in her car at a nearby traffic light as the train approached.

The float was one of two on flatbed trailers carrying wounded and disabled veterans and their families while on their way to an honorary banquet when the disaster struck. According to eyewitnesses, the truck pulling the float was unable to move due to the float immediately in front of it being stopped.

The parade was slated to end at a 'Hunt for Heroes' banquet followed by a deer hunting trip this upcoming weekend. in light of Thursday afternoon's tragedy, both events have been cancelled. Lt Col Tom DiTomasso, a commander during the Battle of Mogadishu, was reportedly scheduled to as the banquet's keynote speaker.

Officials from the Midland Police Department, Midland County Sheriff's Office, Texas Department of Public Safety and National Transportation Safety Board remained at the crash site well into the evening, examining the wreckage. Officials have yet to release the names of the dead, pending notification of family members.

Shortly after word of the fatal collision broke, hundreds of local residents showed up at a local blood bank volunteering to donate blood. An official with United Blood Services said that donations from Midlanders would be needed over the next few days to help replenish stocks that were used to help vitims of the collision.

The Show of Support parade, banquet and weekend hunt was started in 2004 by Midland native Terry Johnson.