Happy Birthday!

Happy 232nd Birthday to the U.S. Marine Corp.! OohRah!

SEMPER FI!!!!!!

Soldier's wife offers to shave head for ad

By Kevin Maurer: Staff writer

	2 Photos
Staff photo by Marc Hall
Grace Russo holds the symbol for the Army Corps of Engineers. Her husband is an engineer from Fort Bragg.

Grace Russo is auctioning off her head.

For at least $500, she’ll let a company draw its logo or slogan on her noggin — which she will shave — and she’ll parade it around Fayetteville for up to five months. Up the bid to at least $100,000, and she’d even tattoo the logo on her scalp.

Russo says she isn’t crazy. She is just a patriot and a loving wife who is willing to do anything in her power to ensure that her husband and his unit mates are welcomed as heroes when they return after a year in Afghanistan.

Her goal is to raise at least $2,500, which she plans to donate to the unit’s Family Readiness Group. She figures the group will need at least that much to pay for food, drinks and entertainment for the 300 soldiers in her husband’s unit.

“Anyone can do a yard sale or a bake sale. Car washes have been done. I’m sick of seeing them,” Russo said.

So she has a page on eBay, auctioning off the rights to advertise on her head.

Russo has some conditions: no anti-military slogans and nothing that bashes the United States.

“I have no shame and am very confident in all I do, so if you are an ad executive from Trojan, yes, I would happily walk around with a condom ad on my head,” she writes on eBay.

Russo, 31, is a self-proclaimed free spirit with tattoos on one shoulder and both arms. She said her husband, Staff Sgt. James Russo, has become accustomed to the unexpected.

He deployed six months ago with a Fort Bragg engineer unit. And he was not surprised when she e-mailed him the eBay link.

“Sometimes I wonder what is going on in your head,” he wrote back.

Russo got the idea for the fundraiser while standing in line at the PX on Fort Bragg. She overhead two soldiers talking in August about a woman with long flowing dark hair walking through the store.

“I’d pay good money to see her head shaved,” one of the soldiers said.

She talked about the idea of shaving her head to raise money at a Family Readiness Group meeting in August. The other wives thought the idea sounded good.

Jennifer Scott, a member of the group, said she was shocked at first, but now she’s behind the idea.

“Grace is very committed to us,” Scott said.

Russo said the unit’s command staff didn’t like the idea, and she agreed to delete any mention of the unit from the eBay site.

By Monday afternoon, about 1,200 people had viewed the auction page, but no one had bid. Scott, for one, wasn’t worried.

“Grace doesn’t know how to fail,” Scott said. “She will do what ever it takes for our soldiers and their wives.”

Staff writer Kevin Maurer can be reached at maurerk@fayettevillenc.com.

Thank you!

THIS IS HOW OUR SOLDIERS SHOULD BE TREATED!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WHAT YOU DO FOR US!

Military Amputees to Get Free Service Dogs

American Forces Press Service | Donna Miles | July 27, 2006

Washington D.C. - Man's best friend is about to become every military amputee's best friend, thanks to the Guide Dog Foundation for the Blind and a new pilot program at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here.

For the past 60 years, the Guide Dog Foundation has provided service dogs free of charge to help people with visual impairments become more mobile and independent. But less well known is the group's work with service dogs for people with other disabilities.

Mike Sergeant, chief training officer for the organization, said he's excited about the potential of a pilot program that will enable amputees at Walter Reed to get their own service dog, without cost. The dogs are trained to help the troops balance as they learn to walk with artificial limbs, to retrieve items the servicemembers drop, and in some cases, to serve as braces as the troops lift themselves from a chair or the floor, Sergeant explained. "The service dog will help the veterans as they learn a new way of mobility with their artificial limbs," he said. Read more.

Remembered and Honored

Downtown parade, concert to honor fallen police officers
Donna J. Miller: Plain Dealer Reporter

In the line of duty, death can strike in many ways.

Gates Mills police Lt. Earl Thomas died at age 55 after battling a Cleveland blizzard that swallowed his police car.

Fairview Park Police Chief Henry Walton was 52 when he died of a heart attack while keeping bystanders away from a burning building.

Much younger men in uniform were killed in the Iraq war while serving with a Marine reserve unit based in Brook Park.

All will be remembered, honored, celebrated and wept for during the Peace Officers Memorial Parade on Friday, followed by a concert Saturday at the State Theatre that will feature five pipe-and-drum bands from the United States and Canada, Irish dancers and the U.S. Marine Corps Quantico Band.

The pipes and drums will accompany a slide show of the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment. The 25th Marines have lost 48 comrades in the last 14 months in Iraq.

More than 80 fellow Marines will attend the slide show.

There will be lighter moments as well, with the Police Pipes & Drums of Bergen County, N.J., belting out pop songs.

The parade Friday is expected to draw 1,000 officers. It steps off from Lakeside Avenue and East 12th Street at 10:30 a.m. and marches west on Lakeside to West Third Street. There, a service will honor the 166 fallen police officers named on the Greater Cleveland Peace Officers Memorial.

"It's most important for the families," Fairview Park Patrolman Paul Shepard said. He researched Walton's death and had the chief's name added to the national police memorial in Washington, D.C. Read more.

Gary Sinise and his Lt. Dan Band Help DoD Kick Off Military Appreciation Month

Actor and director Gary Sinise and his Lt. Dan Band will perform during an afternoon concert at the Pentagon beginning at noon, Friday, May 5, helping the Department of Defense’s “America Supports You” program kick off Military Appreciation Month.

“America Supports You” is an ongoing nationwide initiative that showcases and communicates America’s support for the men and women of the Armed Forces. Since its launch in November 2004 by DoD, the “America Supports You” program has welcomed more than 200 grassroots organizations and more than 20 corporate sponsers to its team. Twenty-seven of those groups will be attendance at the concert. For a complete list of the groups attending the concert, please visit: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/May2006/d20060504sinise.pdf .

Renowned for his role as Lt. Dan in the movie “Forrest Gump,” Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band have performed USO concerts for military men and women at American military bases across the United States and throughout Europe. Gary Sinise recently returned from a trip visiting the troops in Afghanistan.

Other Military Appreciation Month events “America Supports You” will be highlighting are the Joint Open House at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., May 19-20; New York City Fleet Week in New York City, N.Y., May 23-29; and the Indianapolis 500 in Indianapolis, Ind., May 29.

Kids for Our Troops

Kids for Our Troops = Help for our Vets

Introducing Kids for Our Troops!

We know kids of all ages want to get involved in the effort to help and support our American Heroes. Homes for Our Troops has created this website to help parents, children, teachers, students, club leaders and civic organizations find out how they can get involved in our effort to provide specially adapted homes for our most severely wounded soldiers.

How Can You Get Involved?

Here are just a few ideas to help raise awareness and donations for our severely disabled veterans:

• Hold a Fundraiser

Great Fundraiser for Schools This is an easy way to raise money for Homes for Our Troops while getting your whole school involved. We supply the artwork, you supply the containers and the man power! Ask your local stores and businesses to place these cans on their counter, collect the money on a weekly basis or challenge each and every kid in the school to donate and have contests between classes. . Email us if you would like to take part in the School Coin Drive!

• Pass out information at a local event, football game, holiday concert, or church service
• Place Homes for Our Troops flyers in store windows in your town
• Set up a table in front of your local store to take donations, pass out flyers and get volunteers for your effort
• Write letters to your congressman and let them know about our efforts and to ask them to advocate on behalf of Homes for Our Troops to raise awareness about our mission to help our disabled veterans.
• Ask your local businesses to donate building materials, money, or labor to our home building effort.

Read more!