"Stormin' " says:

The following is the very touching personal expression of Tom Marone, Secretary of Island X-1 PA (Harrisburg), of the Navy Seabeee Veterans of America, Inc. It is a timely reminder that all who volunteer to serve in our military forces do make sacrifices worthy of recognition even without loss of life or limb!

Seabee outfits are able to perform their very difficult and widely varied missions through the hard work and dedicated service of many personnel of non-SEABEE ratings. Every member of a SEABEE unit is a SEABEE, regardless of actual rating.The "CAN DO" spirit does not reside in the SEABEE uniform which is traded for another type when the tour with the SEABEES is over. It resides in the person who has lived and served in the SEABEE spirit. That never goes away! "Once a SEABEE, always a SEABEE!"

--"Stormin' "

Ultimate Sacrifice?

It's always a very sad day when one of our Soldiers or Sailors die in the line of duty, and the news of the death of Pat Tillman was no different. For those of you who may not know who Pat Tillman was, Pat was a young man, so greatly effected by the events of 9-11, that he gave up his career as a professional football player, just at the time he was offered a lucrative multi-year contract worth several million dollars, and enlisted in the U.S. Army and became one of the elite U.S. Army Rangers.

All the media reports that Pat made the Ultimate Sacrifice, I say he didn't. The big mistake that most people make is that they judge our Veterans after the fact. They base their opinions on whether a veteran stormed the beaches at Normandy, or ran the projector at the base movie theater, never giving thought that the tasks we perform in the military can change at a moments notice.

And so, I say Pat didn't make the Ultimate Sacrifice on that April day in the mountains of Afghanistan, I say that Pat made that sacrifice 2 years earlier, when in some remote recruiters office, he raised his right hand and pledged his life to protect and defend our great country. The same pledge that every great American Veteran made.

If Pat could speak to us now, I believe he would ask us not to grieve for him, but for our wretched citizens who have so lost their moral compass and values, that they would have other men fight and die to protect the very freedoms and liberty's they now enjoy.

No, Pat's death wasn't the Ultimate Sacrifice, it was his Just Reward! For now Pat gets to live Eternal Life with the God that this great Nation was founded under. Eternal Life with the God in which we all Trust.

God Bless those who serve.

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