Happy 229th Birthday USMC

Thanks, georgeob1 ... never was at Beafort - Cherry Point, New River, El Toro, and Alameda, but never Beaufort - but I knew a few Shamrocks ... mostly from sea cruises. When you flew with 'em were they operatin' Corsairs, Panthers, Furys, Crusaders, or Phantoms? i ask just to narrow down your age ... and realize I've prolly just disclosed my own (well, I wasn't there for the Corsairs, Panthers or the Furys). And no, no point tryin' to tell a jarhead much.
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Phantoms, on JFK ... mid '80s huh? Then I guess you're just a puppy yet :wink:

Tell ya what, though .. the old F-4 was a helluva warrior. Sucker had a payload greater than its dry weight.

I was at Alameda about 20 years before that.

What ship in Alameda?

Photograph of eastern Kentucky Marine hits front pages

PIKEVILLE, Ky. -- The mother of a Marine from eastern Kentucky now fighting in Iraq said she was thrilled to see her son's photograph on the front pages of newspapers this week.


Maxie Webber of Robinson Creek in Pike County said the close-up of Lance Cpl. Blake Miller, his face covered with dirt and a cigarette hanging from his lips, let her know that her son was OK.

Miller, 20, a graduate of Shelby Valley High School, is serving with Charlie Company of the U.S. Marines First Division in Fallujah, an insurgent stronghold.

Fallujah has been the site of some of the most severe battles with the Iraqi insurgency, and this week U.S. troops began a fierce battle for control of the city.

The photo, taken by Los Angeles Times photographer Luis Sinco, has appeared in newspapers across the nation. Webber said she first saw it when CBS News anchor Dan Rather showed it to viewers on Wednesday. Photo editor Alan Hagman confirmed Friday that the photo was of Miller.

"I just sat here and I thought, that's my son," Webber said. "I couldn't believe it. To me, it's just God's way because Blake is a Christian. It's just like God saying, 'I'm letting you know he's OK.'"

Webber said she stays home as much as possible in case her son calls.

"I don't want to miss his call because you never know if that call will be the last one," she said.

Webber said she also bought an answering machine for her phone just in case Miller, the oldest of her three sons, calls while she's out. She has one message on the answering machine from Aug. 1.

"And when I get lonely, and it's been a few days, I play that tape," Webber said.

Webber said her son's decision to join the Marines has changed the way she thinks about America.

"Until my son went into the Marines, I never really realized what that flag stood for, but now I do," she said.

Pike County soldier is the new ?'Marlboro Man'
BY RACHEL C. STANLEY
STAFF WRITER

The Pike County soldier whose picture is grabbing headlines nationwide was able to use the media attention to get a message to his mom last week. Blake Miller, 20, who graduated from Shelby Valley High School last year, is now a lance corporal serving with Charlie Company of the U.S. Marines First Division in Fallujah in Iraq.

"He said for me to stay OK, to stay safe ?- and that he was going to come home safe," said his mother, Robinson Creek resident Maxie Webber, of the message she received from Miller through a Los Angeles Times reporter.

Webber was contacted by representatives of several national news organizations after a close-up photograph of Miller ran on the front page of the Los Angeles Times and was later shown on CBS News.
It then ran on several other newspaper front pages and was shown on Fox News yesterday afternoon.

In the message, Webber said Miller also asked after his two brothers, 18-year-old Todd and 17-year-old Michael, and asked for cigarettes.
Because he was smoking in the photograph, Miller is being referred to as "The Marlboro Man."

Webber also said Miller told her how difficult things are in Fallujah, the site of a fierce battle U.S. soldiers began last week for control of the city.
"He's cold, he's tired, they're out of water and they're out of power," Webber said.
But she said he also reported that U.S. forces have seized about 80 percent of the city and that he expects the worst to be over in a couple days.

"I just want it to be over with," Webber said.
While Miller is expected to receive a Purple Heart for injuries he received earlier this year, "I don't care about that heart ?- all I care about is his heart, and it beating, and him coming home," Webber said.

The word of Miller's growing fame has spread fast across the small Jonancy community where he was raised, said Miller's cousin, Bobbi Jo Childers.

"It's really big," she said. "I've heard about it from everyone ?- everyone's calling my house."

Webber was also able to get a message back to her oldest son, telling him that she was OK, that his brothers were fine and that everyone is proud of him.

She also sent him some cigarettes.

Today, Webber is flying to New York for an interview with CBS News
about the growing fame of the photograph.

She said she will keep a copy of the tape along with a record of everything else to show Miller when he gets home.
"I really believe he's coming home," Webber said. "God is keeping him safe."