WEST VIRGINIA

He was my mentor in Special Forces and is my current boss. Secretly known as the DEACON OF DOOM, he has forgotten more than I will ever know about explosives - and that's a LOT. Deacon hails from the Great State he always refers to as "West-by-God"





Here's to you Deacon -

Cheers, Sean





Today's Bird HERE




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WEST VIRGINIA MINE TRAGEDY

West Virginia State Police direct traffic at the entrance to Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Coal Mine Monday, April 5, 2010 in Montcoal, W.Va. (AP Photo)


25 Dead in West Virginia Mine Blast, Worst Since 1984

MONTCOAL, W.Va. (AP) - Rescue teams planned to search again for four workers missing in a coal mine where a massive explosion killed 25 in the worst U.S. mining disaster in more than two decades, though officials said Tuesday that the chances were slim that the miners survived.






Life is hard in the coal country of West Virginia, harder than most of us can possibly imagine. A long-time friend of mine is from the coal country, and his stories of life in that land are sobering to say the least. It is difficult to believe that such poverty exists in North America that we have in the Appalachians.

The miners go down in the ground every day, year in year out, suffer black lung and risking their lives to bring us the fuel that provides an estimated 23% of our nation's energy.

Most electricity (52% in 2000) in the country is generated from coal-fired power plants. Another way to look at it is half the power that's running the lights and the computer you're looking at right this very moment is the result of the labors of men like those twenty five souls who perished yesterday in a horrible accident in Montcoal, West Virginia.

Why do we derive so much of our energy from a source that is so problematic? Why aren't we using more clean energy like wind, solar, and hydro? Why is only a mere 7.3% of our energy from renewable sources - mainly from hydroelectric dams?






Let me tell you something - if it worked, we would use it. It costs a lot of money up front - money that comes from investors willing to take the risk - to get a mining operation going. If there was a more sure way of getting a return on those bucks from, say, the wind or the sun - we would have done it a hundred years ago.

We do it, in fact, with hydroelectric - because it works. The problem is there are only so many geographic sites that are suitable for a dam to be placed to produce hydroelectric power.



The Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River is the largest hydroelectric power-producing facility in the United States and the fifth largest producer of hydroelectricity in the world.


"But oh," you say, "the energy companies are robber barons, and they MAKE us use coal because they make money that way!" Sorry, does not compute. If there was a cheap, guaranteed way of getting money from the wind, the country would be festooned with windmills from sea to shining sea. Energy poor countries in the tropic - where there is plenty of sunshine - would have acres and acres of solar panels.

The coal and oil companies were not able to stop the nuclear power industry - it took government and the environmental movement to put a damper on that relatively clean source of energy. 20% of the nation's total electric energy consumption comes from nuclear power plants, and if the government could manage itself properly, the cost of nuclear-generated electric power would almost be free.


Schematic of a pressurized water nuclear power plant.



And so our lingering dependency on fossil fuels, and continuing human tragedy like what is playing out in Montcoal, West Virginia even now as I type . . .


God rest their souls . . . pray for the miners and their families . . . and pray for a miracle that four missing West Virginia coal miners will be found alive . . .

- Sean Linnane


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A LITTLE MISUNDERSTANDING . . .

We hear about it all the time; the Homeowner's Association tells somebody to take down their flagpole, right? Well, here we go again:


Flag Controversy


In December 2009, the HomeOwners' Association (HOA) of Sussex Square, where 90-year-old Van T. Barfoot lives in Henrico County, Virginia, ordered him to remove the flagpole from which he flies the American flag. The HOA retained a lawyer to help enforce their order. The Association's bylaws do not forbid flagpoles, but the HOA ruled Barfoot should not be allowed to use his "for aesthetic reasons". Mr. Barfoot is contesting the order.


OH BY THE WAY here's who they decided to fuck with:



Van T. Barfoot, Colonel, United States Army (Retired) Medal of Honor (for his actions in World War II) Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart. In addition to his service in the Second World War, COL Barfoot went on to serve in Korea and Vietnam.





Barfoot is one of the country's last living World War II veterans who received the Medal of Honor. He also served in the Korean War and the Vietnam War and earned a Purple Heart. He reached the rank of colonel before retiring from the Army. He currently lives in Richmond, Virginia, near his daughter. On October 9, 2009, the portion of Mississippi Highway 16 which runs from Carthage through his hometown of Edinburg to the border between Leake and Neshoba counties was named the "Van T. Barfoot Medal Of Honor Highway".


World War II service:

After enlisting in the Army from Carthage, Mississippi, in 1940 and completing his training, Barfoot served with the 1st Infantry Division in Louisiana and Puerto Rico. In December 1941, he was promoted to sergeant and re-assigned to the Headquarters Amphibious Force Atlantic Fleet in Quantico, Virginia, where he served until the unit was deactivated in 1943. He next joined the 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, and was shipped to Europe.

During the Italian Campaign, Barfoot participated in a series of amphibious landings: Sicily, July 1943; mainland Italy at Salerno, September 1943; and Anzio, January 1944. His unit pushed inland from Anzio, and by May 1944 reached the town of Carano where they set up defensive positions. A Technical Sergeant, Barfoot conducted several patrols in the vicinity of Carano to scout the German lines. When his company was ordered to attack on the morning of May 23, Sgt. Barfoot asked for permission to lead a squad. Because of his patrol activity, Sgt. Barfoot knew the terrain and the minefield which lay in front of the German position. He advanced alone through the minefield, following ditches and depressions, until he came within a few yards of a machine gun on the German flank. After taking out the gun with a hand grenade, he entered the German trench and advanced on a second machine gun, killing two soldiers and capturing three others. When he reached a third gun, the entire crew surrendered to him. Others also surrendered; Sgt. Barfoot captured a total of seventeen German soldiers. He had killed 8.

When the Germans launched an armored counterattack later in the day, Barfoot disabled one tank with a bazooka, then advanced into enemy-held territory and destroyed an abandoned German artillery piece. He returned to his own lines and helped two wounded soldiers from his squad to the rear.

Barfoot was subsequently commissioned as a second lieutenant. His division moved into France and by September was serving in the Rhone valley. Barfoot learned he would be awarded the Medal of Honor and chose to have the presentation ceremony in the field, so that his soldiers could attend. He was formally presented with the medal on September 28, 1944, in Épinal, France, by Lieutenant General Alexander Patch.




Colonel Barfoot's Medal of Honor citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty on 23 May 1944, near Carano, Italy. With his platoon heavily engaged during an assault against forces well entrenched on commanding ground, 2d Lt. Barfoot (then Tech. Sgt.) moved off alone upon the enemy left flank. He crawled to the proximity of 1 machinegun nest and made a direct hit on it with a hand grenade, killing 2 and wounding 3 Germans. He continued along the German defense line to another machinegun emplacement, and with his tommygun killed 2 and captured 3 soldiers. Members of another enemy machinegun crew then abandoned their position and gave themselves up to Sgt. Barfoot. Leaving the prisoners for his support squad to pick up, he proceeded to mop up positions in the immediate area, capturing more prisoners and bringing his total count to 17. Later that day, after he had reorganized his men and consolidated the newly captured ground, the enemy launched a fierce armored counterattack directly at his platoon positions. Securing a bazooka, Sgt. Barfoot took up an exposed position directly in front of 3 advancing Mark VI tanks. From a distance of 75 yards his first shot destroyed the track of the leading tank, effectively disabling it, while the other 2 changed direction toward the flank. As the crew of the disabled tank dismounted, Sgt. Barfoot killed 3 of them with his tommygun. He continued onward into enemy terrain and destroyed a recently abandoned German fieldpiece with a demolition charge placed in the breech. While returning to his platoon position, Sgt. Barfoot, though greatly fatigued by his Herculean efforts, assisted 2 of his seriously wounded men 1,700 yards to a position of safety. Sgt. Barfoot's extraordinary heroism, demonstration of magnificent valor, and aggressive determination in the face of pointblank fire are a perpetual inspiration to his fellow soldiers.



Click here for the TV news report.



Here's the whole thing on You Tube:




Who are the Communists they have running these HomeOwner's Associations, anyway??? I can't believe this is happening in Virginia, of all places . . .



I love the beautiful flag of this great country, and guys like Colonel Barfoot are part & parcel of everything that is good and worthy in America. We are proud of you, Colonel! Your fight is now OUR fight! This worthless HomeOwners Association has no idea the can of worms they just opened: "Cry Havoc! And Unleash the Dogs of War!!!"


Readers please feel free to email me or comment (below) - I'm looking for support & suggestions how we can lay siege to the mindless idiots at the HomeOwners' Association (HOA) of Sussex Square . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . S.L.

WEST-BY-GOD VETERAN

Harold Payne survived the hard, lean years of the Great Depression and combat operations all across the European Theater of Operations; severely wounded and captured in the Battle of the Bulge, as a Prisoner of War he survived illness and near starvation while men died to the left and right of him. Then he came home and did forty years in the coal mines of his beloved "West-By-God-Virginia".


Like we say in the Army: "Harder than woodpecker lips."


Harold Payne FINALLY recieved due recognition for his service & sacrifice in October 2008 - FORTY EIGHT YEARS after the fact! ! !





Blog STORMBRINGER is Veteran-owned and operated, like the many business ventures I am involved in . . . operations constrained postings to commemorate the week of Veteran's Day / Remembrance Day . . . readers have sent so much Veteran material of friends and family there was no possible way I could post it all on Nov 11th therefore I will present much Veteran-themed postings over the next few weeks up to the Holiday season . . . on behalf of freedom-loving people everywhere:


"ALL GAVE SOME - SOME GAVE ALL - THANK YOU VETERANS!"




World War II Memorial - Washington DC


The following was originally posted in the Charleston Daily Mail a little over a year ago:


Friday October 10, 2008

World War II Veteran Finally Getting Purple Heart Today

by Jake Stump - Daily Mail Capitol Reporter

CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA - A mortar blast had caused a building to collapse on Harold Payne, crushing his ribs and voice box. The other soldier inside was killed.










German forces found an incapacitated Payne and took him and his captain prisoner. Trapped under rubble, Payne was unable to move or speak. But he could hear German soldiers telling his fellow Americans, "Help get him up or we will kill him." That was in January 1945.

After more than 63 years of records mishaps and government red tape, Payne is finally getting a Purple Heart for that attack. Payne, 84, of Cabin Creek, will officially receive his medal at a ceremony today in Charleston. He first inquired about the Purple Heart in the 1970s. Most of his military records were missing, incomplete or flush with typographical errors.

But earlier this year, the Payne family met with representatives from Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito's office, who got the ball rolling in getting Payne his military decoration that's long overdue. Through a series of records searches, officials found documents in the National Archives that verified Payne should receive the Purple Heart. Payne is somewhat relieved.

Severe beatings, starvation and zero degree temperatures under German captivity never destroyed him. He wasn't going to let the obstacles preventing him from receiving his Purple Heart do it, either, although it took decades.

"It's been a mess," Payne said Thursday. Payne was only 19 when he was drafted to the Army in 1943. He'd been working at a coal mine.

A child of the Great Depression, Payne finished school after the sixth grade. Yet he managed to be one of only two soldiers to complete chemical warfare training in a class of 42.

He served throughout European countries such as Italy and England and was ready to come home, but then the Battle of the Bulge erupted. It was the major German offensive launched in December 1944 towards the end of World War II. There were 19,276 Americans killed; 41,493 wounded; and 23,554 captured or missing.

Payne considers himself one of the lucky ones. He had gone through an 11-day period stuffed in a boxcar without any food. "I had no water or food, but I survived it," he said. "They put us in boxcars because the U.S. and British were pushing in and they kept moving us back into Germany further. They huddled us up together like a bunch of dogs in zero-degree weather for 11 days."

Payne remembers an average of five prisoners dying each day. German captors would strip the dead and store the bodies away in a separate room. Payne figures he wouldn't have survived much longer without food or water. Still, the Germans would only feed him an occasional bread morsel and little else during his four months of captivity.

"So many people starved to death," he said. "I don't care if the bread was black, or there was a crumb of cornbread or a cabbage leaf, I went ahead and ate it."

The soldier stood about 5-foot-6 and weighed 175 pounds going into the Army. As a prisoner of war, Payne slimmed down to 112 pounds. During this time, he acquired an unusually extreme desire for pancakes. It was the last meal he had before the Battle of the Bulge. His yearning became so bad that he dissolved noodles into a sort of flour and attempted to make pancakes out of them. These pancakes, however, made him dangerously ill. "I wanted pancakes so bad that I dreamed of pancakes," he said. "I kept seeing pancakes." The lack of food caused long damaging effects on Payne's health. He now suffers from five bleeding stomach ulcers.

Payne attributes part of his survival to living through the Depression. In those days, he learned what he could eat out in nature and how to keep warm. Some methods he used to keep his feet warm included covering them with sand or cow dung.
During the Depression, Payne and his family would gather beechnuts, chestnuts, hickory nuts, dandelions, milkweeds and all sorts of greens for food. They'd hunt anything that moved. Any squirrel, rabbit or raccoon didn't have a chance," Payne said. "We ate them."

One thing they couldn't eat was grass. "We tried that," he said. "I remember me and my dad sitting on the porch and we saw a cow across the field. I was 4 years old. My dad said, 'I don't understand how we can't eat that grass when the cows eat it up in a storm.' He went into the house, grabbed a pair of scissors and we cut off some grass, washed it and cooked it. It dried up in the frying pan."

Food wasn't the only problem for a POW. Payne suffered several beatings. One incident involved German soldiers beating him in the head with their rifle barrels. In a separate incident, Payne tried arranging a trade for coffee and food but was whipped by seven Germans with straps. He had other skirmishes with fate. Payne recalls a time when a bullet skimmed the top of his head, penetrated his scarf and killed a man standing next to him.

British forces took over the German camp and liberated Payne and his fellow prisoners in April 1945. Despite being a free man, Payne was in wretched shape. He spent about a month in an England hospital and was covered in body lice. He got to go home in June.

"It about ruined my life," Payne said of his war experiences. "I reckon I've been a lucky man all my life." The headaches and nightmares weren't over when he reached the States. He'd lost everything in England - his duffel bags crammed with documents, identification, watches and $1,000 in cash. He didn't even have his dog tags.

This created a dilemma for Payne, who struggled to prove his identity to officials back home. Payne managed to keep a hold of one key piece of evidence - a prisoner identification card issued to him and signed by German officers. He received an honorable discharge in October 1945.

But his discharge papers didn't indicate he was a POW. The omission didn't seem to matter to Payne, who wanted to get on with life. He returned to the coalmines, where he worked for more than 40 years, sometimes loading up to 32 tons a day.

There were a few other discrepancies in Payne's discharge papers, which stated he served in the 515th Battalion. That was true, since it was his training unit. When he went to war, he was assigned to the 550th Battalion, which was excluded in his papers.

Thirty-three years later, Payne's former son-in-law, a Vietnam veteran, received a visit from a veterans' counselor about GI benefits. The son-in-law told the official about Payne and his horrific account of World War II. The counselor then met with Payne and encouraged him to seek medals and benefits.

With the lapses in Payne's discharge papers, it was tough convincing officials he qualified for several military decorations. Even worse, his Army records in a St. Louis office were destroyed in a fire. He had lost contact with all soldiers he worked closely with in the war. Most were killed in action.

But something almost unimaginable occurred in 1992. Payne joined a POW group through the American Legion and attended a gathering in North Carolina. There he stumbled into his old captain, the same guy taken prisoner with Payne back in 1945. They started keeping in touch and the captain wrote letters to officials verifying Payne's actions.

Documents found in the National Archives also confirmed Payne's military record. Payne would finally receive four service stars and a Bronze Star. LaDonna Craft, one of Payne's two daughters, said she admires her father for his resilience over the years. "He never gave up hope," Craft said. "He's got a backbone about him. We would keep getting turned down and have more papers to fill out again." Craft never heard her father speak about his war experiences until after he retired as a coal miner.

Payne also has two sons. His wife, Margaret, passed away three years ago. "She's really missed," Payne said. "I really miss her." Despite his firsthand encounters, Payne still ponders the effects of war to this day. "How are these wars going on?" Payne said. "Why can't we get along? In my years of thinking about it, I can't understand it. I'll never get over it. I always think about it and what life is all about."

This information was sent in from my Special Forces mentor and long-time friend, Mike (obliquely referred to in STORMBRINGER
as The Deacon - Mike has forgotten more about weapons, ballistics and demolitions than I will ever know - and that's a LOT). Mike often speaks of the hardscrabble life growing up in the mountains of beloved West-By-God-Virginia - his Uncle Harold is a living example of how the Great Depression hardened the men and women who fought and survived the horrors of the Second World War.





"RESPECT"






- Sean Linnane