Posts Tagged: afghanistan

Kimmy Kirkwood & Will Stacey’s Love Story

February 5th, 2014
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The social media giant, Facebook, marked its tenth anniversary yesterday.
Big deal, you say?  It’s just a place for people to go online and post the silly and sometimes significant happenings of their life?
Yes.  That’s exactly it.
Facebook is the world’s largest social network, connecting 1.23 billion people to each other and Kimmy Kirkwood is especially grateful that on Facebook she can find a priceless record of pictures and status updates she had with the love of her life, a Marine named Will Stacey.
Kimmy Kirkwood and Will Stacey
Photo Courtesy of Kimmy Kirkwood
Here’s a classic Will Stacey … Read More

Arlington Cemetary Allows Personal Mementos

October 18th, 2013
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Arlington National Cemetery has a heart. Officials at the cemetery recently talked to families about their months long practice of leaving personal items on soldier’s headstones and Arlington is now compromising on its policies about leaving the personal mementos at gravesites. Today’s post is an update of a story I  wrote about on October 3 discussing how staff at Arlington National Cemetery were collecting and discarding personal mementos left in Section 60 of the cemetery an area where soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.  This area of the cemetery is where each visitor’s grief is… Read More

Changes At Arlington Cemetery

October 3rd, 2013
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A cemetery is an intimate place. For me, it is a place where I let down my guard and become vulnerable to my feelings.  Sometimes I raise my arms to the sky as if saying that I am ready to let it all wash over me but other times I sit silently and close my eyes and try to center my thoughts. In the summertime when I visit my husband’s grave, I sometimes love to lay in the grass that covers where he is buried.  As I lay on my back looking up at the sky, I love to let… Read More

Niall Coti-Sears’ Bravery

July 2nd, 2012
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Niall Coti-Sears Courtesy of Fox 5 News As we prepare to celebrate the Fourth of July by setting off fireworks, grilling hot dogs and hamburgers and mixing the traditional summer potato salad, let us pause and quietly remember the bravery of one young man who heroically fought overseas for his country, making it possible for us to celebrate this patriotic holiday. One young man by the name of Niall Coti-Sears. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Sadly, in pursuit of protecting those ideals, Lance Cpl. Niall Coti-Sears, 23, was killed in Helmand province, Afghanistan, two weeks ago while conducting… Read More

Dogs Are Making A Difference for Veterans

February 1st, 2012
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Dogs are perceived as completely accepting of humans who treat them well and therefore dogs are incredible stress reducers for their owners and those who also spend time with them.  Don’t you just love the picture above??? Research shows that people who are facing a stressful situation or coming out of a traumatic combat event have lower heart rates, blood pressure and anxiety levels when they are with a dog. Now NBC News has aired a wonderful story about an 89-year-old U.S. veteran who has raised millions of dollars to train dogs to help the more than 40,000 service men… Read More