Murphy OShea, an Iraq Veteran, has a hard time re-adjusting to society upon his return from a long tour. His world crumbles when he discovers his father, Bill, a Vietnam Veteran, is dying. Trooper is a story of a father and son, two veterans from two very different Wars, helping each other to get through each day, and heal the wounds of War.
Trailer
“Finally, a film producer that gets it right! Trooper may serve well to educate an unaware public about the epidemic level of emotional trauma that today’s young warriors are living with. It is a dark journey and this film captures its pain—and also gives us a glimmer of hope.” Rev. Bill McDonald Founder The Military Writer’s Society of America.
Lt. Brian Brennan is a walking, talking miracle. There are no other words for it. One year ago today, he lost both his legs to a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, and now his mother is watching him learn to run all over again, reports CBS News correspondent David Martin.
The 44 pounds of explosives which tore off his legs and killed three fellow soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division also left Brennan with a brain injury so traumatic there seemed little hope for recovery.
"He didn’t wake up," said Joanne, his mother. "That's when the real terror struck us all. Oh my, he may never wake up. They said on scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the worst, he was a 1."
Then one day last June he had a visitor. .........
Jesse Unloads on the 'Chickenhawks' who force their 'Wars of Choice' yet refused to fight when those before them, their peers, did same! And making sure their own don't come into the Harms way they have set up!
'Wars of Choice' make enemies of others, damaging national security, creating possible perpetual Guerilla Conflict from the 'Blowback' of Retaliation, Damages Economies, and a Countries Reputation and World Standing!
"I'm Not Ready to Cede the Constitution to This Bunch of Hoodlums!"
As we were organizing Thursday's petition delivery to the FOX building in New York, we put a call out for field producers to help cover the event. Robin Laverne Wilson answered that call, and we’re so glad she did. The following is her account of what happened yesterday, as well as her thoughts on the struggles veterans face and her personal connection to this issue. If you are interested in joining our army of field producers raising hell across the land, go here.
Robin starts her narrative with this:
I put on my brown military thermals, my chocolate chip cammies, my black bandana and my black boots. I was off to represent for my father, my uncle, their army buddies and all the people in my life that I knew and didn't know who had served this country and in some way, often the same way, got the shaft from it.
I grabbed my gear and went into friendly warrior mode to help these vets broadcast their story. And believe me -- their stories are AMAZING.
Which leads in to short descriptions of just two of the Veterans met on that day.
This:
My father served 20 years, including Korea and Vietnam.
leads into what her father went through during life after his 20 year Service To Country and Two Theaters of Conflict Operations.
And what they ran up against
The Freedom of Speech they fought for entitles me to wield my camera and document the truth, from my worldview. But the News Corporation security detail insisted that we stay behind their property line.
At the FOX studios.
Go over and read what Robin Laverne has to say, I don't think you'll be sorry you did, you'll also be able to view the Video of the Homeless Veterans attempting to deliver the petition to the loudmouth 'chickenhawk', with a podium to spew his venom from, getting very wealthy in return!
And sadly many who watch and listen to him are connected in one way or another to others who have Served This Country, either directly or through their family trees, and Don't Speak Out but wave their flags and use wordspeak catch phrases, while hanging onto each venomous word attack he wages against others!!
“They had a GI coffeehouse at Fort Hood, a place called the Oleo Strut. ... The GI movement started at Fort Hood—the Fort Hood Three, three years before I got there, guys who refused to go to Vietnam. That began to plant the seed. The soil was fertile because the reality was that the government was lying to us. Most people are decent people. They don’t want to go kill people and engage in brutality.... I went down there and got involved in publishing an underground newspaper called the Fatigue Press. We were putting out literature against the war and against the military and for GI rights and against racism.” —Dave Cline on organizing inside the U.S. Army, from the bookWinter Soldiers: An Oral History of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (Twayne's Oral History Series)
Well, I guess you could call it our summer of freedom, the year that we both turned eighteen - We hitch-hiked to Denver, fresh out of high school man, we were sights to be seen. And that was the year that you dated my cousin, 'til they took us away in the fall. Now I dearly wish you were standing here with me as I touch your name on the wall.
Touch a name on the wall, Touch a name on the wall. God help us all Touch a name on the wall.
Every time I come here I wear my fatigues, to honor the men that I knew. I touch every name that came from my outfit, and I read them out loud when I do. Now some people say that they all died for nothing, well, I don't completely agree - 'Cause this brother here didn't die for no country - He died for me.
[chorus]
Now, usually walls are made for division - to separate me from you. But God bless the wall that brings us together, and reminds us of what we've been through. And God damn the liars and the tin-plated heroes who trade on the blood of such men. God give us the strength to stand up and tell them - Never again!
[chorus]
You can find out more about Dave, that I have put together Here, collected from various sources after Dave passed away.
Through our community connections, our local VFP chapter has witnessed the devastation that many military families & returning veterans face because of George Bush’s Iraq fiasco. We support our military families and each other, and have a special respect for all those that have served, regardless of where they fall in the ideological spectrum.
So last week, when chicken hawk faker Rush Limbaugh criticized Iraq Veterans who disagreed with the mission and called them “phony soldiers”, we were outraged.
And John has a message on 'Real Heroes'
And also in response, one of our VFP family members, Amy, wrote a letter to Rush expressing her outrage, and explaining what it means to be a real hero.
Dear Mr. Limbaugh:
My son enlisted in the army in December of 2001, after graduating from college. He was in the 82nd Airborne for four years, during which time he served once in Iraq and twice in Afghanistan. During a practice jump at Pope Air Force Base about a year ago, he shattered his right ankle to the extent that it required surgery and physical therapy to heal. He is still undergoing the physical therapy while on duty at a non-infantry base. He is required to take part on in the early morning PT, although allowed some slack due to his injury.
He is a loyal soldier who loves his country and believes in his mission. He could have requested a medical discharge, but he chose to remain in the army. He also believes the war in Iraq is a strategic and military blunder. Perhaps you would like to inform him that, after scouring caves and weapons caches along the Pakistani border, after being away from his young family for a total of more than two years, after waking to the sound of rag’s being fired into his FOB, after losing three friends and fellow soldiers during his second tour in Afghanistan, and never once flinching from his duty, that he too is a phony soldier.
John Autry is running to bring an end the Iraq war, and to support our soldiers when they return. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired of this endless war, and I want our troop’s home now!
A leader, mentor, and friend passes away, 1947 - 2007
David Cline passed away early September 15, 2007. Most of you know that David was a giant in the Veteran’s anti-war and Peace movements. A national coordinator and long time member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War as well as former President of Veterans For Peace, David was a crucial part of the explosion in VFP’s growth and led us in our planning and actions as we have resisted the invasion and occupation of Iraq. David was a giant among people who motivated all of us to action by modeling leadership and providing inspiration.
David was my boss, mentor, friend and I loved him. He recruited me into VFP by simply being the person he was, a veteran working for peace. There are few people outside of my family whose death means such a loss to me personally. There are few in our nation whose loss means so much to our movement.
A quote David loved so much guided his thoughts and actions. He carried it in his wallet so that he could whip it out to motivate us at any time. Of course he also had it memorized.
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." Frederick Douglass
David Cline we Salute You.
Letter from Executive Director, Michael T. McPhearson
Bronze Star with V Device; Purple Heart with two oak leaf clusters; Combat Infantryman Badge; New York State Conspicuous Service Cross; and other medals. Veterans for Peace; Vietnam Veterans Against the War; Jersey City Vietnam Veterans Memorial Committee; Military Order of the Purple Heart; 25th Infantry Division Association; Veterans of Foreign Wars; featured in the documentary “Sir! No Sir!”
He fought alongside you, then
He fought to honor you.
He fought that others like you not suffer your fate.
He has joined you in death but his memory, like yours, lives on.
In memory of Dave, I am linking the four-part series Spearpoint that described the Veterans and Survivors March for Peace and Justice, from Mobile, AL to New Orleans, conducted in March 2006. Dave was the person who put that idea in our heads.
It's great to see such a crowd and so many groups represented. I especially want to thank Veterans for Peace. Dave Cline was a great leader and will be badly missed. We should all go out and do as much as he did with his admirable life.
As we were organizing 
