please look at these AMAZING photos

When 2nd Lt. James Cathey's body arrived at the Reno Airport, Marines climbed into the cargo hold of the plane and draped the flag over his casket as passengers watched the family gather on the tarmac. During the arrival of another Marine's casket at Denver International Airport, Major Steve Beck described the scene as one of the most powerful in the process: "See the people in the windows? They'll sit right there in the plane, watching those Marines. You gotta wonder what's going through their minds, knowing that they're on the plane that brought him home," he said. "They're going to remember being on that plane for the rest of their lives. They're going to remember bringing that Marine home. And they should."
Photo: Todd Heisler/Rocky Mountain News

and read the amazing story(stories) on the final salute

found via the nyt book review: Bearing Witness to the Fallen and the Grieving

the other day i read about montel williams

losing his job. no big whoop i thought to myself, UNTIL - i read THIS today: Montel Williams Loses Job after Defending Troops on Fox News
By Daily Kos. 04 Feb 2008-->
For just over three minutes on Saturday morning, TV talk show host Montel Williams owned the hosts of Fox and Friends. A former Marine and Naval officer, Montel lectured the stunned hosts on the stupidity of spending air time on the death of Heath Ledger, rather than covering the war in Iraq. It was a spectacle rarely seen on live cable television, as Montel exposed and condemned both tabloid “news” shows and much of American culture for what they have each become: shallow and greedy.
Three minutes into this awkward segment on Fox, one host cut off Montel in order to go to a commercial. Montel did not return after the break. Four days later, after 17 years as a television host, Montel lost his job. Variety reported on Wednesday that the Fate of “The Montel Williams Show” was sealed when key Fox-owned stations opted not to renew it for the 2008-09 season.

(video at the link above)

on our planes, please don't speak

in languages we can't understand. please don't dress differently than we do (although the article doesn't say they were dressed differently). please don't believe in a god with a name that's not 'god' or 'jesus'. please don't be different than us, period!

can't say what happened as i wasn't there, but i'll bet my big fat ass, NOTHING happened. people were just being id-jits about having arabic men aboard an airplane

Plane bound for Chicago held after dispute involving Arabic-speaking men

The Associated Press
9:41 PM CDT, August 29, 2007
SAN DIEGO

All passengers on an American Airlines redeye flight to Chicago were ordered off a plane after complaints about a group of Arabic-speaking men.Local law enforcement questioned the six men and released them quickly, American spokesman Tim Wagner said Wednesday. The Transportation Security Administration did not get involved, said agency spokesman Nico Melendez."They did nothing wrong," said Dave Stephens, chief executive officer for Defense Training Systems, which had hired the men to train Marines at Camp Pendleton.The incident was "an unfortunate situation for all flight passengers," according to a statement from the company, a unit of International Logistics Services Corp. of Anchorage, Alaska.American Flight 590 had been scheduled to leave late Tuesday........