Two things that made me proud and sad

[anyanka_eg]

I think, regardless of if you support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, you've got to support the troops who are serving. Two stories today about service personnel caught my eye. 

The first woman pilot has been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. She got her medal for flying her Merlin chopper into Basra city at night, wearing night vision goggles, in a dust storm, under enemy fire and landing her chopper right next to the wounded man with few visual cues. She evacuated the casualty and the medical team under increasing RPG fire and got him back to the hospital in under 14 minutes. The full story is here

There were a number of military honours announced today and all the stories are amazing but some how Michelle Goodman's struck a chord, probably because she's a woman. She said in the story I heard on the radio that even though she and her crew had been warned of all the dangers (intelligence said the insurgents were going to target a chopper that night) she did it because if she was in trouble she'd want other people to do everything they could to help her.

The other story was about a campaign to get a set of postage stamps produced with photos of all the UK service men and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's a really great project and I'm trying to sign the petition but the site doesn't load properly for me. It does for the 9000 or so other people who have signed so if you want to, it's worth a try. The site is here The photos of the men and women who have died are awful because they're all so appallingly young. They're kids really and it's so very sad.

EDIT: fixed the petition problems by installing Firefox, something I should have done years ago

Comments

[sulien77.livejournal.com]

There is so much true heroism like that going on in the Iraq and Afghanistan theater of operations every day, but it is almost never remarked upon. What bothers me the most is that the press overtly ignores all of the humanitarian work that the troops over there accomplish. Most of the units I was stationed with made it a priority to be involved in the community, whether Stateside (in the US) or overseas and especially in combat zones. There are so many families and children affected by the war and the troops do what they can, with their own money and labor when they are off duty, to help them. Thankfully, there are also some church congregations around military bases which help provide funds and materials for the troops' efforts. I may not have a very good opinion of organized religion for the most part, but that is one thing that I admire and respect very much.

Sorry if that came off ranty. *blushes* Does the press there in the UK do the same thing, or do you get articles and stories about the gamut of things that go on?

[anyanka-eg.livejournal.com]

The humanitarian work does get mentioned sometimes, but not much really. We're also, in the UK, much less prone to church going than in the US so I guess the troops don't have as much support on that front. Although they might but I've never been involved in a church in my life so I'm at a loss on that front. Also a lot of people here are very private in their charity work. It's that whole British reserve thing. We don't shout about charity giving, or about our religious beliefs in general and kind of look askance at people who do.

[sulien77.livejournal.com]

Good grief, I wish people in this country were more reserved about expressing their religious beliefs. You can't go a month here without some yahoo knocking on your door and wanting to convert you to their religion (usually either Mormon or Jehovah's Witness). I've tried being polite, but now I just tell them point blank that they are not welcome and tell them to leave and not return. Proselytizing in general annoys the living daylights out of me, but it gets on my last nerve when they come knocking at my front door.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

ITA about supporting our servicepeople-no matter the country.

[anyanka-eg.livejournal.com]

Quite right.