Posted By:
Catherine Moy
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Move America forward has completed our first stop in Santa Nella, Calif., where Gold Star Mom Debbie Lee and Blue Star Mom Deborah Johns laid a wreath to honor those heroes who gave their lives in the Korean War. Now it’s on to San Jose and Walnut Creek!!

Singer Diana Nagy, Debbie Lee and Deborah Johns listen as Move America Forward Vice Chair Buzz Patterson talks about the sacrifices of our military men and women. Patterson, a retired Air Force Lt. Col., has spent many days away from his family at the holidays as he protected America. Deborah has had an empty chair at her Thanksgiving and Christmas tables as her son served in the Marines during three tours of duty in Iraq. Debbie Lee will forever have a pain in her heart and an empty chair at her table; her son, Marc, was the first Navy Seal to give his life in Iraq. All three now travel the country to support our troops and their missions.

“The Work not
of Men
but of Angels...”

-Giraldus Cambrensis c. 1150 A.D.

Honor . . .

Trust . . .

Posted By:
Catherine Moy
Permalink

Good Morning patriots!! Move America Forward has set off for our cross-country tour to celebrate America’s heroes at the holidays. This morning we will hold a solemn ceremony at the San Joaquin Korean Veterans Memorial, then move on to San Jose and make a stop at Rep. Ellen Tauscher’s Walnut Creek office to drop off a stocking loaded with coal.

We will stop at 40 sites across the nation. (See our itinerary at Move America Forward)

We need you all to come out and bring holidays cards - Christmas and Hanukkah - that we will take all the way to Iraq at Christmas.  While most of us are at home with our families, our troops are thousands of miles away protecting our freedoms. This sounds so cliche, but the facts are the facts. Some have given their lives for us.

Every day they work for peace in the Middle East, a place that has for thousands of years warred. We in America have been drawn into the war by hatemongering Muslim jihadists. Our men and women in uniform are on the front lines. They deserve a simple note of thanks - and more.

Here at Move America Forward, school children have been sending cards to us so we can get them to our soldiers. They have simple messages that say so much. “Thank You. We Love You.”

Check our itinerary. Come out to our gatherings. Make cards for our troops. Let’s show them how much we love them. Let’s tell them “thank you.”

The following poem has been around the Internet a few times. But it is fitting as we start our cross-country tour. I don’t know who authored it, but it is very good.

A Soldier’s Night Before Christmas

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,

So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
“What are you doing?” I asked without fear,
“Come in this moment, it’s freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!”

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire’s light
Then he sighed and he said “Its really all right,
I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night.”
“It’s my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ‘ Pearl on a day in December,”
Then he sighed, “That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always remembers.”
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ‘ Nam ‘,
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he’s sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue...an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.”

“So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I’ll be all right.”
“But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,
“Give you money,” I asked, “or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you’ve done,
For being away from your wife and your son.”

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
“Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.”

Posted By:
Catherine Moy
Permalink

It is Thanksgiving and I am cooking for my family. Here in my heart is my extended family, America’s troops who are thousands of miles away from their family’s dinner table. At home, wives, husbands, children, cousins and friends pray for them, but emptiness looms at the table where an empty chair reminds them of their far-away loved ones.

Folks like Debbie Lee, Joe and Jan Johnson, Pat Sheehan, and thousands of others will always have an empty chair. The Gold Star families carry with them in their hearts the ache that comes with losing a child. Many also exude pride that their loved ones gave their lives to make our country stronger and safer.

Soldiers have given their lives for us since before this country was formed. During the Revolutionary War, the men with muskets didn’t know the future. Would the United States stand alone, an individual among countries? Would their blood mean something? Would their lives amount to a better place?

Our soldiers have always had these questions. The War of 1812, the Spanish-American War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, The Gulf War – and every one in between. What are we fighting for?

But the soldier really knows. He suffers, his family’s heart breaks, and yet he hungers for the freedom that America herself offers to the world. He carries on for his brothers and sisters in arms. He wears the flag of the United States on his arm because he believes in her.

America is the purest country in the world with the best political system. We would be nothing without our troops. They formed our country, snuffed out tyranny, destroyed Communism, fought terrorists, fed the hungry, and preserved our Union. They have given us rights to speak, criticize our government, and even stay at home and stuff ourselves with apple pie.

They, too, have an army of strength behind them, just as they are the foundation for our country. Their parents, children, siblings, friends and spouses strengthen their souls so they can protect us. We owe them our lives, too.

This holiday season, Debbie Lee has chosen to leave her family over the holidays so she can spread a message across the fruited plains that our troops are loved. Blue Star mother Deborah Johns, whose son has done three tours of duty in Iraq and is set for a fourth, will also spend the holidays on the round with move America forward’s “Honoring Heroes at the Holidays.”

These women have already given so much, yet their patriotism inspires them to move forward and lift up our troops. MAF’s tour will end at the site of the Twin Towers, a place that forever memorializes the deaths of 3,000 innocents at the hands of radical Muslim Jihadists. (Please go to our home page at Move America Forwardfor the details). Others here at MAf and around the country sacrifice during the holidays to support our men and women around the world.

MAF Chairman Melanie Morgan and others from the MAF family will then go to Iraq to deliver 100,000 holiday cards and other tokens of America’s love for our troops. At this time I ask every U.S. Senator and Congressperson to make a card and send it to us so we can deliver it. Because the people elected you to represent us, you should also collect cards from your constituents. We would be honored to carry them to our troops at Christmas and Hanukkah.

Every soldier must know that we support them not only in words, but in action against our enemies within as they take out our enemies abroad. We are family. We are the United States.

Debbie Lee will always have an empty chair at her table, but next to her sit thousands of Americans, her son’s brothers and sisters, who hold her when she misses Marc.  We thank her for her sacrifice. It is the same for all military families. We love you. I am with all of you in prayer. Pictures of you are tattooed on my soul. You walk with me. I think of you as the sun rises every day.

I am thankful for you.

Posted By:
Catherine Moy
Permalink

We told you so. Military bloggers led by such stalwarts as Michael Yon, have told us. Military commanders have told us. And now – FINALLY – the New York Times is catching up with the news: the United States military has secured much of Iraq and people are shopping, laughing and just plain living in Baghdad.

The security improvements in most neighborhoods are real. Days now pass without a car bomb, after a high of 44 in the city in February. The number of bodies appearing on Baghdad’s streets has plummeted to about 5 a day, from as many as 35 eight months ago, and suicide bombings across Iraq fell to 16 in October, half the number of last summer and down sharply from a recent peak of 59 in March, the American military says.
As a result, for the first time in nearly two years, people are moving with freedom around much of this city. In more than 50 interviews across Baghdad, it became clear that while there were still no-go zones, more Iraqis now drive between Sunni and Shiite areas for work, shopping or school, a few even after dark.

It’ll be a great Thanksgiving for patriots. But.  the biggest turkeys of all – Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Cindy Sheehan, the ladies in stinky Code Pinky, and the rest of the white-flag brigade – will cry into their cranberry sauce. Losers.

Posted By:
Catherine Moy
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Michael Yon has done it again. His reporting from Iraq has been stunning. We have heard that the troop surge coupled with the years of our troops bonding with Iraqis has paid off.

Today, Michael tells the story of how a St. John’s Catholic church reopened for Mass. Brave parishioners, soldiers and Muslims attended the chuch, which was closed after terrorists murdered Priests from a nearby church.
It was the first mass said in St John’s since the church was shuttered after the nearby St George’s was destroyed and clergy in the north were kidnapped, tortured and executed, Yon reports.

Most Reverend Shlemon Warduni, Auxiliary Bishop of the St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Diocese for Chaldeans and Assyrians in Iraq officiated standing directly beneath the dome under the Chaldean cross. Speaking in both Arabic and English, Bishop Warduni thanked those American soldiers sitting in the pews for their sacrifices.  Again and again, throughout the service, he thanked the Americans.

Today, Muslims mostly filled the front pews of St John’s. Muslims who want their Christian friends and neighbors to come home. The Christians who might see these photos likely will recognize their friends here. The Muslims in this neighborhood worry that other people will take the homes of their Christian neighbors, and that the Christians will never come back. And so they came to St John’s today in force, and they showed their faces, and they said, “Come back to Iraq. Come home.” They wanted the cameras to catch it. They wanted to spread the word: Come home. Muslims keep telling me to get it on the news. “Tell the Christians to come home to their country Iraq.”

Michael pays his own way in Iraq, where he does some of the best reporting on the war. Please go to http://www.Michaelyon-online.com to him continue his work.