AMVETS Remembers WWI Veteran Frank Buckles

Over the weekend, Frank Buckles, the last surviving "doughboy" of World War I, died at his farm in Charles Town, W.Va., at 110 years old.

Buckles' remarkable journey started at age 16 when he attempted repeatedly to join each of the armed services. Upon seeing the fresh-faced young man, claiming to be 18, Buckles said recruiters often told him to "go home before [his] mother noticed [he] was gone."

Buckles finally made a successful case to an Army recruiter, enlisting on Aug. 14, 1917--nearly a year and a half shy of his requisite 18th birthday. During the war, Buckles served as an ambulance driver in Europe, where his service would take him across France and England. Following the Armistice that effectively ended the war, Buckles guarded and transported German POWs on their return to Germany. A corporal by age 18, Buckles was honorably discharged in 1920.

During World War II, Buckles worked as a civilian in the Philippines, where he was taken prisoner by the Japanese at the fall of Manila. He was interned for more than three years in Japanese prison camps, where he led his fellow prisoners--including American service members--in morning calisthenics.

Upon his release and his subsequent return stateside, Buckles married and raised a family on the same West Virginia farm he called home until the day he died. Buckles was the last of more than 4.7 million Americans who served in the conflict.

AMVETS leaders were honored to join Buckles for a special reception in his honor at the U.S. Capitol in 2008, where Past National Commander John P. "JP" Brown III presented Buckles with a plaque acknowledging his uniformed service in WWI and his leadership as a captured American prisoner in World War II, along with an American flag to fly over his ranch in West Virginia.

AMVETS Riders from the Department of Tennessee also made a special journey to Buckles' farm in 2008 to spend some time trading war stories with Buckles.

AMVETS Riders National Commander Victor “Dutch” Stivason presented Buckles with a letter of appreciation, and then-Tennessee Road Captain Bruce McElhaney presented Buckles with a framed certificate honoring his service. The Riders also presented Buckles with a his own embroidered AMVETS Riders vest and a custom WWI patch on behalf of AMVETS Riders across the country.

In 2007, Buckles received the Légion d'honneur from French President Jacques Chirac. Buckles has also been honored by President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. A portrait of Buckles is on display at the Pentagon as part of a tribute to WWI veterans.

Earlier this month, American Veteran highlighted Buckles' 110th birthday.

"Frank Buckles lived a long, fulfilling life; selflessly sacrificing for the land he loved, seeing through some of our nation's most trying times and still grasping hold of the American dream," said AMVETS National Commander Jerry Hotop. "Today we have lost a tremendous link to our nation's history, so let us honor the memory of Frank Buckles and let us never forget the tremendous sacrifices of his generation, which helped to build the foundations of our strong and prosperous nation."

Buckles will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., with more details about memorial services available this week.

According to the Associated Press, family have asked that memorial donations be made in Buckles' honor to the World War One Legacy Project, managed by the non-profit Survivor Quest, which seeks to inform school children about WWI and the sacrifices of American service members in the conflict.

(Images: Top: Frank Buckles discusses his experiences in both world wars with AMVETS Riders at his Charles Town, W.Va. home. Photo courtesy Tennessee AMVETS Riders. Middle Right: Official Army portrait of Buckles while assigned to the U.S. Regular Army 1st Fort Riley Casual Detachment at age 16. Photo maintained by the Library of Congress. Middle Left: AMVETS Past National Commander John P. "JP" Brown III presents Buckles with a plaque and an American flag during the 2008 Capitol Hill reception. Photo by Ryan Gallucci. Bottom: AMVETS Riders join Buckles for a photo at his ranch in 2008. Photo courtesy Tennessee AMVETS Riders.)

Bradley Manning, Wikileaks, Berkeley and Hypocrisy

Please read my thoughts on the Bradley Manning situation, but also please feel free to take the poll or leave your comments:

Do you believe Bradley Manning should be hailed or jailed for leaking classified documents to Wikileaks?

Jailed. He aided our enemies and violated the UCMJNot Sure. Will wait for his day in courtNot Sure. He was manipulatedHailed. He spoke up against injustice

pollcode.com free polls

Yesterday, I spoke with Fox News on a recent proposal by the Berkeley, Calif., City Council to hail disgraced soldier Bradley Manning as a hero for allegedly leaking more than 250,000 classified documents to the self-proclaimed watchdog Web site Wikileaks.

In response to the proposal I labeled Manning a traitor with blood on his hands for our Afghan allies sought out by the Taliban as a result of the leak.

Though Manning has not been convicted, he bragged in online chats to reformed hacker Adrian Lamo that he had copied the files to expose what he perceived as wrongdoing by the American government. Regardless of what Manning perceived to be his benevolent purposes, copying the files was a crime and distributing them for use against the United States was treason.

Manning's security breach was indiscriminate. He didn't simply target documents he had reviewed or thought contained questionable actions; he copied everything he could get his hands on and blindly turned it over to a subversive anti-American group without consideration for the contents.

Since the leaks, American lives in the combat zone have been compromised, American diplomatic ties have been weakened, and allies have been killed. Immediately following the irresponsible publishing of documents related to Afghanistan--a country in which Manning had never set foot--the Taliban began to scrub records for names of informants to, as Newsweek reported, hunt down and "punish" them.

Whether Manning thought he was serving a greater good, the wet-behind-the-ears private severely violated the terms of his security clearance and utterly disgraced the U.S. Army uniform he had volunteered to wear on one short year before. He has given aide and comfort to enemies of the United States, which, to me, makes Manning a traitor.

Though I certainly do not pity the boy who now sits in the brig at Marine Corps Base Quantico awaiting his Article 32 hearing, I do feel he may have been manipulated by a greater enemy of the United States, Wikileaks and its ego-maniacal front man Julian Assange.

What's curious to me about Wikileaks and the operations of self-proclaimed activist-journalist Assange is that he and his company rely on similar security protocols and secret operations which they rail against in the U.S. government.

For example, the paranoid Assange would routinely change his appearance and travel under aliases and Wikileaks continues to conceal its operational infrastructure, boasts military-grade encryption and even distributed a failsafe code should Assange or the Web site be compromised. I must ask Assange that if such protocols are critical to his success, wouldn't it follow that similar protocols would be necessary in government operations to ensure security and success in an unstable world?

We all have secrets. How would you feel if every candid, private moment of your life was available for public consumption? (I've seen the indignation on Facebook each time the site's security settings are updated, so I know we'd all be at the very least perturbed.)

But keep in mind, we're not simply talking about publicizing gossip, we're talking about classified exchanges critical to preserving national interests. When I was enlisted in the U.S. Army, I sat through briefings on the nuts and bolts of the classification process. It's serious business.

Classification levels do not exist to propagate some nebulous sweeping government conspiracy. They exist to protect lives; the lives of covert informants, the lives of American service members, and, most importantly, the lives of American citizens.

For American interests, the information stolen and distributed by Manning was not Top Secret in nature. Though some of the information is salacious--such as candid diplomatic cables--the information may not directly compromise national security. Unfortunately, for our allies in Iraq and Afghanistan, the consequences from some of the leaked information have been dire, as indicated by the Newsweek story.

It's very confusing to me why anyone could hail Manning or Assange as cult heroes, as these pariahs and their supporters launch cyber attacks on entities that disagree with their tactics. (Seems hypocritical that cyberterrorists would seek to silence dissenting ideas in the name of "free speech.")

This whole situation is appalling; and Berkeley, in particular, should be ashamed for openly endorsing such ridiculous and dangerous behavior. It’s tragic that the same rights and liberties afforded to Berkeley’s citizens through the sacrifices of our service members and veterans can be manipulated and exploited for such an absurd purpose.

AMVETS has tangled with the bastion of ultraliberal thought in the past, when Past National Commander J.P. Brown III stood up for the Marine Corps recruiters being harassed by the city. The Berkeley City Council ultimately rejected the proposal to tell the Marines they were unwelcome in the city. Hopefully in this instance city counselors will once again act reasonably and reject Bradley Manning as their hero.

-Ryan

AMVETS PNC Brown Presents Prestigious Scholarship to Maryland Student

Over the weekend, Marwah Ahmed, a senior at Gaithersburg High School in Gaithersburg, Md., accepted the prestigious James H. Parke Memorial Fund Scholarship Award from AMVETS Past National Commander John P. "JP" Brown III during an awards banquet in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Ahmed, who plans to use the scholarship toward pursuing a major in pre-medicine and becoming a doctor, has volunteered at the Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center since she was 13 years old.

The $20,000 scholarship award is presented each year by the James H. Parke Memorial Fund to a noteworthy high school senior who has distinguished him or herself through scholastic achievement and service to the nation's hospitalized veterans. The award is named after VA's first director of voluntary services, or VAVS, James H. Parke.

VAVS offices from VA medical centers across the country may nominate youth volunteers for the annual award. This year, Ahmed was chosen from a pool of more than 30 distinguished candidates.

PNC Brown currently serves as president of the Parke Board and presented the award to Ahmed during the closing banquet of 64th annual VAVS National Advisory Committee meeting in Cincinnati.

(Photo: Marwah Ahmed accepts the 2010 James H. Parke Memorial Fund Scholarship Award from PNC Brown, alongside VAVS Director Laura Balun; Washington, D.C., VAVS Program Chief Stephanie Burns; and Ahmed's mother and brother. Photo by Beryl Love.)

VA launches suicide-prevention chat room

Today, the VA launched its new chat room to assist veterans who may be thinking of committing suicide. Military.com reported on the new chat room this morning.

Veterans and their loved ones may now seek council 24 hours a day, seven days awake digitally through the live chat room. Veterans can remain anonymous while speaking in the chat room. Should counselors feel that the veteran is at a significant risk, the online counselor will encourage the veteran to call the hotline.

Accoring to Military.com, VA launched a pilot of the online chat room in July and has already produced positive results.

Since VA launched the veterans' National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (1-800-823-TALK) in 2007, AMVETS has helped to raise awareness of the free service by posting the hotline information on the AMVETS National Web site, American Veteran Online, and in numerous print materials.

Past National Commanders John C. Hapner and John P. "JP" Brown III both vocally touted the merits of the hotline, something new AMVETS National Commander Duane Miskulin says he will continue. In his year as national commander, Miskulin says his top priority will be addressing the mental health issues many veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been facing--something with which the suicide-prevention hotline plays an integral role.

Since its launch in 2007, VA said that the suicide-prevention hotline has received more than 150,000 calls from veterans and concerned loved ones, helping refer at-risk veterans to proper counseling and possibly preventing thousands of suicides.

If you are a veteran thinking about taking your own life, or if you think a loved one is at risk, call 1-800-823-TALK (8255) and press "1" for veterans.

(Image: Screengrab of the veterans' page for the National Suicide-Prevention Lifeline. The link to the new chat room is located at the bottom right.)