And then they got into action

Hello all!

I was searching the internet for video's of our guy's (173rd ACBT) hoping to find something new that i have not seen yet and low and behold I came across two. It seems the first one here is an uncut version and then a second that has been edited and posted by Blackfive. I like the later as it has my boy in it scanning with his M-4 which really surprises me as he is the one that usually runs the tube gang under the direction of SSG Upp. Well you decide which one you like so here goes. The unedited can be found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJHBq8aX-4Q and the one I think is cool is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmEDe-UOGOE

Life after injury

Hello everyone.

It has been awhile since I last posted. The 173rd have are training pretty hard getting ready for there next deployment. I am sure they are getting the best possible training available. I attended a business event this past weekend and they had an awesome speaker there. Ron Heagy really moved me and after watching a video on him supporting our Military. Please support Ron in all he does. You can see his video supporting our soldiers here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGmG8TQV098

You all will be hearing a lot more me in the very near future.

National Medal of Honor Day

Hi all,

A fellow blogger recently sent me her blog update and I am in agreement with her. This is just a copy and paste of her blog site. You can find her site at www.tankerbabelc985.vox.com the following is from her blog.

A couple of days ago when I posted this story about Sgt Walter Singleton, MOH Recipient I had no idea that National Medal of Honor Day was this week.

My friend, Major Pain at One Marine's View posted this story recently about a flight attendant who asked the passengers to ring their call button if they could name one of the Medal of Honor recipients from the current Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Only one man rang his call button and was able to do so. The flight attendant then asked if any of the passengers could name an American Idol winner. The call buttons went off like crazy. I don't know about you all but when I read the story it made me sad, angry, disgusted and bewildered at the state of our nation.

Defenselink has a great site honoring Army SFC Paul R Smith, Marine Corporal Jason L Dunham, Navy Lt Michael P Murphy, Army Specialist Ross A McGinnis and Navy Petty Officer Second Class Michael A Monsoor. Medal of Honor Recipients from Iraq and Afghanistan engagements.

The Congressional Medal of Honor Society site is probably one of the most comprehensive sites I've found with information about all recipients. Did you know there have been 19 Double Recipients of the Medal of Honor? I had no idea until I spent time at the site.

I doubt any of the major media outlets will make a big deal - daresay even mention it at all - about Wednesday being National Medal of Honor Day. But I'll sure take a few minutes to revist the sites about and to say a prayer of thanks for these great American Heroes.

Just sharing another friends work,

Larry Arnone

San Francisco

AKA Bluestardad (and I want to keep it that way)

A recon Marine in Afghanistan

This is a post that a friend sent to me by a Marine in Afghanistan. This soldier definitely has a way with words. I know it has been awhile since I have posted but I want you to know I have not given up and I will not be going anywhere. Our fine soldiers are off in Germany preparing to take the next fight for them to take to the enemy. They have conducted some successful airborne operations recently and I know that my soldier had some hair raising experiences during these jumps. I promise to stay in touch with each of you through this Blog but it just may not be as often as before until the actual deployment begins.

Bluestardad Out!



It's freezing here. I'm sitting on hard, cold dirt between rocks and
shrubs at the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains along the Dar 'yoi Pomir
River watching a hole that leads to a tunnel that leads to a cave. Stake
out, my friend, and no pizza delivery for thousands of miles.

I also glance at the area around me every ten to fifteen seconds
to avoid another scorpion sting. I've actually given up battling the
chiggers and sand fleas, but them scorpions give a jolt like a cattle
prod. Hurts!!. The antidote tastes like transmission fluid
but God bless the Marine Corps for the five vials of it in my pack.

The one truth the Taliban cannot escape is that, believe it or not,
they are human beings, which means they have to eat food and drink water.
That requires couriers and that's where an old bounty hunter like me
comes in handy. I track the couriers, locate the tunnel entrances and
storage facilities, type the info into the handheld, shoot the coordinates
up to the satellite link that tells the air commanders where to drop the
hardware, we bash some heads for a while, then I track and record the new
movement.

It's all about intelligence. We haven't even brought in the snipers
yet. These scurrying rats have no idea what they're in for. We are but
days away from cutting off supply lines and allowing the eradication to
begin.

I dream of bin Laden waking up to find me standing over him with my
boot on his throat as I spit into his face and plunge my nickel plated
Bowie knife through his frontal lobe. But you know me. I'm a romantic.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: This country blows, man.
It's not even a country. There are no roads, there's no infrastructure,
there's no government. This is an inhospitable, rock pit ruled by

eleventh century warring tribes. There are no jobs here like we know
jobs.

Afghanistan offers two ways for a man to support his family: join
the opium trade or join the army. That's it. Those are your options. Oh, I
forgot, you can also live in a refugee camp and eat plum-sweetened,
crushed beetle paste and squirt mud like a goose with stomach flu if
that's your idea of a party. But the smell alone of those 'tent cities of the
walking dead' is enough to hurl you into the poppy fields to cheerfully
scrape bulbs for eighteen hours a day.

I've been living with these Tajiks and Uzbeks and Turkmen and even a
couple of Pashtuns for over a month and a h alf now and this much I can
say for sure: These guys, all of 'em, are Huns Actual, living Huns. They
LIVE to fight. It's what they do. It's ALL they do. They have no respect
for anything, not for their families or for each other or for themselves.
They claw at one another as a way of life. They play polo with dead calves
and force their five-year-old sons into human cockfights to defend the
family honor. Huns, roaming packs of savage, heartless beasts who feed on
each other's barbarism Cavemen with AK47's. Then again, maybe I'm just
cranky.

I'm freezing on this stupid hill because my lap warmer is
running out of juice and I can't recharge it until the sun comes up in a
few hours

Oh yeah! You like to write letters, right? Do me a favor, Bizarre.
Write a letter to CNN and tell Wolf and Anderson and that awful,
sneering, pompous Aaron Brown to stop calling the Taliban 'smart.' They
are not smart. I suggest CNN invest in a dictionary because the word they are
looking for is 'cunning.' The Taliban are cunning, like jackals and
hyenas and wolverines. They are sneaky and ruthless and, when confronted,
cowardly. They are hateful, malevolent parasites who create nothing and
destroy everything else. Smart. Pfft. Yeah, they're really smart.

They've spent their entire lives reading only one book (and not a
very good one, as books go) and consider hygiene and indoor plumbing to be
products of the devil. They're still figuring out how to work a Bic
lighter. Talking to a Taliban warrior about improving his quality of life is
like trying to teach an ape how to hold a pen; eventually he just gets
frustrated and sticks you in the eye with it.

OK, enough. Snuffle will be up soon so I have to get back to my
hole. Covering my tracks in the snow takes a lot of practice but I'm good
at it. Please, I tell you and my fellow Americans to turn off the TV sets and
Move on with your lives.

The story line you are getting from CNN and other news agencies is
designed not to deliver truth but rather to keep you
glued to the screen through the commercials. We've got this one under
control The worst thing you guys can do right now is sit around
analyzing what we're doing over here because you have no idea what we're
doing and, really, you don't want to know. We are your military and we are
doing what you sent us here to do.

You wanna help? Buy Bonds, America.

Saucy Jack

Recon Marine in Afghanistan

Semper Fi

A soldier does America proud

I received this link today from my soldiers Mortars section leader. I thought I would share it with you all. http://vicenza.afneurope.net/tabid/242/Default.aspx?aid=4909 I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Larry Arnone (AKA Bluestardad) and I want to keep it that way
San Francisco

Silver Star for Valor

Mortarman awarded Silver Star for valor

By Kent Harris, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Thursday, September 25, 2008

Kent Harris / s&s Staff Sgt. Christopher Upp receives the Silver Star from Lt. Col. Bill Ostlund, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, during a ceremony Wednesday on Caserma Ederle. Upp received the honor for his actions on July 31, 2007, at Vehicle Patrol Base Seray in Afghanistan.

VICENZA, Italy — During the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment’s recently concluded tour in Afghanistan, there was no more dangerous place on a U.S. compound than the mortar pit.

That’s where U.S. soldiers would launch devastating counter attacks if enemy forces fired on the base.

And as a result, "They (the mortar pits) were always targets," said Lt. Col. Bill Ostlund, the battalion commander. "Because they’re what kept [the enemy] off the bases."

Ostlund said soldiers from the 28-member Mortar Platoon from Headquarters and Headquarters Company have received 41 valor awards for their actions in Afghanistan, including three Bronze Star Medals with valor.

On Wednesday, the platoon received its second Silver Star.

Ostlund pinned the medal on Staff Sgt. Christopher Upp in a ceremony on a Caserma Ederle basketball court next to one of the barracks.

"In 25 years, this is the first opportunity I’ve had to present a Silver Star to a soldier," Ostlund told soldiers from the company and other elements of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team gathered around the court.

Upp, a 27-year-old from Sterling, Colo., was on his second deployment to Afghanistan with the platoon and fourth tour downrange overall. He was assigned to Vehicle Patrol Base Seray in the Chowkay Valley on July 31, 2007.

Upp said the first memory that pops into his mind of that day is the mortar round that hit near the mortar pit — killing 1st Lt. Benjamin Hall.

"A great officer was killed," he said, lifting the Silver Star Medal pinned to his uniform. "This is for him really."

Upp led a small group in a charge toward the pit. They were targeted by machine-gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades along the way. More than once, they were knocked to the ground by rocket-propelled grenades that landed close to them. Once they got to the pit, another RPG damaged the tripod that supports the 120-millimeter mortar, and shrapnel tore a large gash in Upp’s left forearm. The wound would eventually require 17 stitches.

With the mortar support damaged, Upp had to use his hands — and shoulders when the tube got too hot — to guide the return fire. He fired 75 rounds back at enemy positions, enduring constant machine-gun fire.

Upp said he remembers much of the battle from a third-person perspective.

"It’s kind of like when your foot goes to sleep and you can’t feel it, but you know it’s still there," he said. "That’s how my mind was. Numb. Human instinct to survive kicks in. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do."

Upp, recently married, said he’ll now join the SETAF staff, keeping him in Italy — and away from any mortar pit for at least a while.

Normalcy, emails and Medals

Hi Everyone,

I know it has been ages since I have written here but felt rather interested in doing so this evening. Like many of you that may have had a soldier downrange I found myself searching news on the Internet or even downloading the Stars & Stripes for any bit of information on the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Since Alex has been home and is now back in Italy it seems I don't have a need to worry. As many of you also know that his Birthday was 9/11 so I tried to keep that day on a positive note.

Today however, I did receive some news in the form of an email from my son's SFC Levy. Jason wrote how his Mortar Team of 28 men have been awarded a total of 41 medals for Valor. Of these two were for Silver Stars for Valor 3 Bronze Stars for Valor and 36 Army Commendations for Valor as well. He informed me that Alex was one of the recipients with a total of 3 Army Commendations for Valor. Yes, you guessed correct, I had a huge grin when I read that piece. His Mortar Pit N.C.O. SSG Upp received one of the Silver Stars. Alex has told me some amazing stories about he and SSG Upp so when I heard he was awarded this countries second highest award for Valor I wasn't surprised. So with that said, I downloaded the Stars & Stripes and sure enough there it was on the second page which I am going to post on my next posting. Well I have to run for now so I can get that posted so until next time, breath easier, they are safe.

Cheers,

Larry Arnone ( AKA A Bluestardad ) and I want to keep it that way
San Francisco