I read this Hero's book, and believe me this is not a person you would want after you. To bad he didn't get his revenge on these asshats.
April 09, 2009
All it took was the gunshot fired outside his Walker County, Texas, home to trigger training ingrained in former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, the lone survivor of a dramatic battle in Afghanistan in 2005.
He did a sweep through the house. Checked on his mother. And bolted out the door, where he found dead his beloved Labrador retriever, Dasy, a dog given to him to help him recover from his own wounds and the loss of his fellow Navy comrades.
"I could tell she tried to get away because there was a blood trail," Luttrell recalled in a phone interview Wednesday. "When I saw she was dead, the only thing that popped into my head was, 'I've got to take these guys out.' "
Shrouded in darkness, Luttrell, who'd just been released from the hospital after another round of surgery, crawled under a fence, skirted a ditch and sneaked up on four strangers in a sedan who apparently killed the dog on a whim. Luttrell said they were oblivious as he raised a 9 mm pistol from about 25 yards away and had one of them dead to rights.
But as the car pulled away, he didn't fire.
Instead, he scrambled back to his pickup and launched what became a wild 40-mile chase that reached speeds of over 100 mph and crossed three counties.
"I did everything right; I didn't do anything wrong," he told the Houston Chronicle of the April 1 incident. "Make sure everyone knows they cold-bloodily murdered."
Luttrell stayed on the line with a 911 emergency operator as he tried to catch the car, which was just a bit too fast for his four-door truck to overtake.
"I told them, 'You need to get somebody out here because if I catch them I'm going to kill them,' " Luttrell recalled telling the operator.
Wounds still deep
The nighttime killing of a such a special dog played right into Luttrell's deep wounds.
The 4-year-old yellow Lab was given to him upon his return from the war to help him heal. He named it Dasy as an acronym for his SEAL team members lost in a mighty fight in which they were isolated and far outnumbered by Taliban fighters.
He wrote a book, The Lone Survivor, about the experience.
Luttrell said he still wrestles with what he went through. He doesn't sleep at night, usually keeping his guard up until sunrise, just in case.
"I don't talk about it much. I just don't sleep at night," he said. "I am in and out of the house all night, going, moving around."
Luttrell and the men he was chasing were finally stopped by Onalaska Police Department.
Luttrell said he confronted the men. "I was like, 'Which one of you guys killed my dog?' " he said. "They started talking smack."
The police sent Luttrell home, and the Texas Rangers have been working with the Walker County Sheriff's Department.
So far, two men have been charged with felonies that could land them in state jail for at least six months.
Michael John Edmonds II, 21, and Alfonzo Hernandez, 24, both of New Waverly, are charged with cruelty to nonlivestock animals. The driver of the vehicle was arrested on suspicion of not having a license.
Other dog killings linked
There are at least five area dog killings in recent months that could be linked to the case, said Texas Ranger Steven Jeter.
"It could have been worse for both parties involved," he said. "I wouldn't advocate to the general public to do what he has done -- to follow them at that rate of speed."
"Marcus is trained to do certain things; he fell back on his training," Jeter said.
Luttrell said he's left town for now and wants to stay as far away as he can. Talking from a place he described as "the middle of nowhere," Luttrell said he knows the attack on Dasy pushed him to a place where he doesn't want to be.
"I was trying to talk myself out of being who I am," he said. "Talking to myself about not doing the one thing I am good at."
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Ex-SEAL Helps Hunt Dog's Killers
Cyber Spies Infiltrate US Power Grid
Now this is some scary stuff. I would hate to think of the damage that could be done to us if our power grids and water supply were hacked. We have gotten so dependent on computers that you couldn't even go to wally world and buy anything if the computers were down.
April 09, 2009
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
NEW YORK -- Cyber spies from China, Russia and elsewhere have infiltrated the U.S. electrical grid and other key infrastructures and have the ability to disrupt them during a crisis or war.
Quoting current and former national-security officials, a Wall Street Journal report Wednesday said that the intruders haven't sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure yet, but had laid the groundwork to do so in the future.
The cyber-invasion appeared pervasive across the U.S. and doesn't target a particular company or region, the report said. Apart from the country's massive electrical grid, the intrusions target other key infrastructures like water, sewage and financial networks.
The report highlighted the vulnerabilities facing technologically advanced countries that are increasingly networking their most basic service industries. While this offers massive advantages in efficiency and flexibility, it also makes them more vulnerable to catastrophic failure when attackers are able to overcome security measures and gain control of crucial parts of the system.
The report came out just prior to the completion of a far-reaching cyber-security review ordered by President Barack Obama. His administration is weighing whether to expand the pre-existing $17 billion program to protect government networks to also address vulnerabilities in key private computer networks.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Four killed overnight in separate shootings
What the hell is going on in Houston. People are going crazy, shootings all over the place. The wild west is alive and well around here.
Four people were shot dead at four separate and seemingly unrelated scenes around Houston this morning. A total of four others were wounded.
At about 4:20 a.m., a woman's 19th birthday party at B&D Sports Bar at the 12800 block of Bellaire Boulevard, just west of Dairy Ashford, ended whem a guest went outside to take a phone call and was gunned down in the strip center's parking lot, police said.
Houston police Sgt. Brian Harris said people at the private party heard gunfire and found the 22-year-old man with multiple wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
There was no apparent motive, although Harris said it's possible the victim was mistaken for a gang member and might have been targeted.
The partygoers scattered after the shooting, and police are asking anyone who might have more information to call the police department's homicide division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS (8477).
Shortly before midnight, police said three people were shot in southwest Houston in the 8400 block of South Breeze, near the intersection of South Gessner and West Bellfort.
Police said the shootings happened after two men in a white Ford Explorer with large rims chased down two men who were on foot. The men in the car got out and fired, hitting the two pedestrians and a third man who might have been a bystander.
One victim died at the scene, the other two were taken to Ben Taub General Hospital with injuries that weren't considered life-threatening. It wasn't clear whether the dead man was one of the men being chased or the bystander.
Police said they didn't get good descriptions of the shooters.
Shortly before 1 a.m., police said three men entered The Black Widow tattoo parlor in the 2000 block of Mangum near Dacoma on the northwest side of Houston. The store's owner intervened and was shot dead. The customers were not injured.
Also around 1 a.m., a traffic altercation near West Little York and Shepherd on the north side left three people shot, one of whom died at the hospital. There was no immediate word on the conditions of the other two victims.
Wednesday Hero
23 years old from Elkhart, Indiana
6th Engineer Support Battalion, 4th Marine Logistics Group, Marine Forces Reserve
October 1, 2006
With sleet gushing from gunmetal gray clouds, some 30 Marines standing in three trim lines saluted the U.S. flag that four of their brethren used to christen a new pole.
A large engraved stone set at the base of the 38-foot pole explained the occasion: "In memory of Corporal Aaron L. Seal. Who gave his life for our country. 1982-2006."
The Marines from Engineer Company B joined several dozen community residents and well-wishers at a ceremony Wednesday honoring Seal, the 23-year-old Elkhart reservist who died last fall in Iraq. Seal's family also attended the 20-minute tribute at Elkhart Community Schools' administration building adjacent to Memorial High School -- the fallen Marine's alma mater.
Read the rest of the story here.
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Missing girl Sandra Cantu found dead
This is such a hard thing to deal with. It is hard to wrap my head around how some animal could do such a thing to a baby. I hope when he is cought he will not be brought in alive.
An autopsy is scheduled for Tuesday on 8-year-old Sandra Cantu, whose body was found in a suitcase in a dairy-farm pond near her California home.
Sandra Cantu, 8, disappeared on March 27. Her body was found at a dairy-farm pond near her Calilfornia home.
Police found the girl's body Monday, after she went missing March 27 in Tracy, California. Police did not identify a suspect in her disappearance and did not know the cause of death.
News of the girl's death devastated her family, Tracy police spokesman Tony Sheneman said.
"They have just experienced the unimaginable," Sheneman said.
The day Sandra was last seen, she came home from school, kissed her mother and left to play with a friend who lives a couple of homes away. A short time later, she left that home to go to another friend's home, according to a spokeswoman for her family.
The child was last seen by her family wearing a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt and black leggings.
Authorities identified her body by the clothes she was wearing, Sheneman said.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Ed Freeman A True Hero
Anyone see the movie We Were Soldiers Once And Young? Ed Freeman was one of the Chopper Pilots there. May he rest in Peace.
Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2009, 3:43 PM
> You're an 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded, and dying in the
> jungle in the Ia Drang Valley , 11-14-1965, LZ X-ray, Vietnam . Your
> infantry unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense, from
> 100 or 200 yards away, that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the
> MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.
>
> You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're
> not getting out. Your family is half-way around the world, 12,000 miles
> away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and
> out, you know this is the day. Then, over the machine gun noise, you
> faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed
> Huey, but it doesn't seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.
>
> Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac, so it's not his job, but
> he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs
> were ordered not to come.
>
> He's coming anyway.
>
> And he drops it in, and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 2
> or 3 of you on board.
>
> Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire, to the Doctors and Nurses.
>
> And, he kept coming back.... 13 more times..... And took about 30 of you and
> your buddies out, who would never have gotten out.
>
> Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman,died last Wednesday at the age of 80,
> in Boise , ID ......May God rest his soul.....
>
> I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing, but we sure were told a
> whole bunch about some Hip-Hop Coward beating the crap out of his
> "girlfriend."
>
> Medal of Honor Winner Ed Freeman!
>
> Shame on the American Media.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Houston man allegedly tried to beat 'demon' out of son
This is one of our fine upstanding citizens who believes he can set his child right by attempting to kill him. This son of a bitch needs to be castrated, but that would be to easy. Once he is in prison (if the ACLU dosen't get involved.
A Houston man is in jail on felony charges of critically injuring his 3-year-old son while trying to beat a “demon” out of the boy.
Jacky Tran, 35, is being held on $100,000 bond after his son was flown to Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital Saturday night with multiple skull fractures. The boy is expected to survive.
Sheriff’s deputies pulled up to the house on Lone Dove Court in western Harris County just after 7 p.m. to find all the windows open and loud music blaring from within, according to a court document. Through an open upstairs window, they saw Tran yelling and swinging something — possibly the child — up and down. They heard a child screaming, and forced their way into the house.
They ran upstairs and found the 3-year-old’s head severely swollen and maroon with bruising. The boy was unable to speak, and his eyes were swollen shut.
Tran told them he was trying to beat the demon out of the boy, according to the police report.
Tran faces a possible 5- to 99-year prison sentence if convicted of the felony assault charge, which could become a murder charge if the boy dies. The boy’s condition was not immediately available this afternoon.
Child Protective Services officials were interviewing Tran’s wife and the couple’s other child, a 4-year-old girl, this afternoon to find out more about what happened. The family has had no previous CPS involvement, and Tran appears to have no criminal record in the Houston area.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
My Home Computer Is On Vacation
Well it has been working for several years and is only rebooted a couple times a month. Well it decided last week that it didn't want to work anymore, so it gave up it's power supply. Damn. I haven't been able to get on the blogs much due to this problem. I am posting this from work, which I don't even get to do much from here anymore as we are so busy. Now being busy is a good thing, but I don't even get to visit many of my blog friends. I have ordered a new hard drive from Dell and it should be in by next week. Till then I'll sneek on from work when I can. Of course I could call The One and I am sure he could send me a new one.
Sphere: Related ContentWednesday, April 1, 2009
Tax on tobacco goes up Smokers stock up in anticipation of paying more for cigarettes
I don't smoke, but if I did, I guess it would be time to think about quiting. $70.00 for a carton is scary to think about.
Each day Mark Baylor sits downtown rolling cigarettes from tobacco, then takes some deep puffs from his self-made smokes.
But a massive federal tobacco tax slated to take effect today may finally force Baylor to kick his 20-year habit.
“I’ve stocked up in advance though,” Baylor, 45, said Tuesday. “I like smoking.”
Baylor, like many smokers, has been stockpiling tobacco — he’s bought several pounds of rolling tobacco in anticipation of the tax that will make his habit much more expensive.
The new taxes, meant to increase funding for the federal State Children’s Health Insurance Program, are rising dramatically. Now, federal taxes on a packet of rolling tobacco will be about $1 instead of 4.5 cents.
Taxes on cigarettes also will go to a little over $1 from the current tax of 39 cents. Chewing tobacco will be taxed at 11.3 cents per can instead of the previous 4.4 cents.
That’s all on top of existing state taxes — in Texas, $1.41 per cigarette pack for the last two years.
$7 a pack
A typical pack of cigarettes will cost about $7 in Texas after the tax takes effect. As of today a pound of rolling tobacco will cost $60 instead of the current $15.99 at Tobacco Outlet in West Houston.
Houston tobacco shop owners say they are worried the tax increases could drive them out of business.
Previous taxes and restrictions on smoking have eaten into profits at Richmond Avenue Cigar on Fondren Road in West Houston.
Owner Lynn Goodwin said sales fell 30 percent after a local 2007 ordinance banned smoking in many public places. She’s expecting a bigger hit in the coming months.
In the past few days, however, sales have spiked slightly as customers stock up before the tax is implemented.
“I’ve had five people ask me this morning alone whether we were taxing yet,” Goodwin said Tuesday. “Everyone’s trying to beat it.”
Cigar Emporium on South Shepherd has also seen a small increase in sales recently. But manager Van Thai said he’s worried that many of his customers aren’t aware of the tax.
“We’ve put up signs, but a lot of people just don’t know,” Thai said.
Paradoxically, some tobacco dealers think the tax increase could help business.
Maybe a new brand?
Andy Norris, who markets a line of lower-priced cigarettes to retailers, said increased prices could drive consumers to his Seneca brand — but will likely drive the sellers of rolling tobacco out of business.
In the past many smokers have been drawn to rolling tobacco because it has been cheaper than regular cigarettes.
Anti-smoking activists hope the new taxes will encourage people to quit smoking.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids estimates that more than 150,000 children will not start smoking and nearly 75,000 adults will stop smoking in Texas because of the rising prices.
“This is probably the most effective way to reduce consumption and more importantly stop kids from ever starting to smoke,” said James Gray of the American Cancer Society in Texas. “We know what will happen based on similar tax increases before. And it will be positive.”
Wednesday Hero
2nd Platoon, Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment
In the early morning hours of July 13, 2008, Soldiers from Chosen Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment were not thinking about medals as they fought off roughly 200 insurgents attacking their vehicle patrol base in Afghanistan.
No Soldier in combat does.
The Army, however, takes pause afterward to honor those who distinguish themselves in battle and recognizes them before their peers.
Read the rest of the story.
These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived
This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.
