MOH grave site and dog park

In the town of Ventura, California a lush, well-manicured hillside patch of green on Main Street just a few blocks east of downtown Ventura has pine, thickets of overgrown junipers and a magnificent view of the Pacific Ocean and Ventura Pier.

The small patch of land is the grave site of a 1860s Army hero awarded the Medal of Honor. Today it is now a popular dog park with dog poop soiling the sacred ground.

Pvt. James Sumner, who was awarded the nation’s highest military honor for gallant actions after a band of Apache Indians kidnapped a settler’s child, died in 1912 and he was buried in what was then St. Mary’s Cemetery.

Most of the flat grave markers have been hauled away, but a few dozen markers still pepper the 7-acre Cemetery Memorial Park that was home to about 3,000 permanent residents.

Retired Marine Sgt. Craig “Gunny” Donor, who served two tours in Vietnam and is a state captain for the Patriot Guard Riders is bent on getting the soldier’s remains moved.

Army records show Sumner was a 28-year-old immigrant from London who led the 1869 chase after the kidnapped child into a remote canyon in the Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona. There was an ambush and a fierce firefight, but Sumner held off attackers until reinforcements arrived.

President Ulysses S. Grant awarded Sumner the Medal of Honor in 1870. Donor believes the medal is buried with him.

Sumner died in 1912 at age 72. He never married and there are no heirs, Donor said. “I’m trying to get him moved to Bakersfield National Cemetery. He needs to be moved to a place of respect. Cemeteries are solemn places,” said Donor.

But Ventura leaders have so far balked at moving Sumner. “We are treating him pretty darn well, except for the poop,” parks and recreation commissioner Sharon Troll told the Ventura County Star.

The commission voted July 21 to postpone for two months Donor’s request to unearth Sumner. Park commissioners have told Donor they’re committed to a long-delayed effort to commemorate the area pioneers and military dead in the park.

“He has no family, no one else to stand up for him, except for his brothers and sister in arms,” Donor said.

Editor’s note:

Thank God for people like “Gunny” Donor for doing the right thing.

If you wish to express your views to the City Manager of Ventura here is their contact information.

City Hall
501 Poli Street, PO Box 99
Ventura, California 93002-0099
(805) 654-7740
email: citymanager@cityofventura.net

Resource: excerpts from AP

Specialist 2nd Class Jarod Newlove

Logar provincial police chief Ghulam Mustafa told Reuters that his captors had probably dumped the body after the sailor died from wounds received in the incident that led to his capture.

“The body was spotted by villagers,” he said.

A U.S. defense official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, earlier also reported the recovery and it comes two days after officials announced they had the remains of the first sailor.

The two U.S. Navy service members went missing on Friday after failing to return in a vehicle they had taken from their compound in Kabul, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Saturday.

The alliance had no immediate comment on the latest report.

On Sunday, the Taliban said they were holding prisoner one of the two sailors, who had strayed into territory controlled by the insurgents just south of the capital, and that the other had been killed.

ISAF scrambled helicopters and planes to look for the pair after they went missing, but officials have declined to give anything but scant details since, prompting speculation that the two had been acting outside the chain of command.

Leaflets depicting photos of the men were distributed in Logar province where the two went missing, less than 100 km (60 miles) south of Kabul and announcements on local radio stations offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to a rescue.

On Sunday, a spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location that the group’s leadership would decide later on the fate of the second sailor.

Resource: AP

Arlington National Cemetery

Officials who ran Arlington National Cemetery for nearly two decades before hundreds of unmarked and mismarked graves were discovered last month have been served with subpoenas to testify Thursday before a Senate subcommittee investigating contracting irregularities, according to the committee’s chairwoman.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee on Contracting Oversight will require John C. Metzler, 62, and Thurman Higginbotham, 68, the cemetery’s longtime superintendent and second in command, to testify at a hearing on Thursday morning, said Maria Speiser, spokeswoman for committee chair Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).

Neither man has spoken publicly since Army Secretary John McHugh last month announced that the Army’s Inspector General had found more than 100 unmarked graves, scores of grave sites with headstones that are not recorded on cemetery maps, and at least four burial urns that had been unearthed and dumped in an area where excess grave dirt is kept.

On Sunday, The Washington Post reported that it found problems with another 130 graves between one of Arlington cemetery’s least-known sections and one of its most popular. In a historic but little visited area of the cemetery, three rows of graves of freed slaves and black Civil War soldiers are missing. The 70 graves are listed on the cemetery’s master map, but on the ground there are no headstones marking them.

Steps from President John F. Kennedy’s grave and memorial, there are more then 60 discrepancies between the cemetery’s map and what appears on the ground in a prestigious area where eight Supreme Court justices are buried. In many cases — including the plot where former Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and a Vietnam War veteran are buried — two of the VIPs are buried where the map notes just one. Another grave that appears occupied on the map has no headstone. And seven graves that appear empty on the map are filled.

The Post also reported that thousands of pages of internal records and interviews with dozens of current and former Army employees reveal that the Army has launched multiple investigations into Arlington over the years.

Not only did they turn up chronic problems with record-keeping, but they also revealed a dysfunctional management structure that operated with limited and fractured oversight and a contracting system that appeared to operate outside the normal structure for the federal government. Repeated attempts to correct the situation fell short.

Congressional investigators are examining how far up the chain of command responsibility should rest as well as why, among other issues, cemetery officials frittered away at least $5 million for computer upgrades with little to show for it.

Metzler was harshly reprimanded by the Army and retired July 2. Higginbotham, 68, had been placed on paid administrative leave and has also since retired, effective July 3.

By Aaron C. Davis  | WashingtonPost.com

2nd Class Justin McNeley

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a sailor and the identity of another sailor listed as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown (DUSTWUN). The announcement resulted from a July 23 incident in Logar province, Afghanistan, while the sailors were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.

Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin McNeley, 30, of Wheatridge, Colo., died from wounds sustained from the July 23 incident. Coalition Forces recovered his body July 25 after an extensive search. He was assigned to Assault Craft Unit One (ACU-1), San Diego.

Petty Officer 3rd Class Jarod Newlove, 25, of Renton, Wash., is listed as DUSTWUN from the July 23 incident. Search and recovery efforts are ongoing, and the incident is under investigation.

Specialist 2nd Class Jarod Newlove

ENCINITAS – One of two U.S. sailors missing in Afghanistan is the son of an Encinitas deputy fire marshal.

Deputy Fire Marshal George McNeley sent an e-mail to city workers and fire officials today saying his son, Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin McNeley, was killed in action, Encinitas Mayor Dan Dalager told the San Diego Union- Tribune.

The Taliban has claimed they killed a U.S. sailor and kidnapped another on Friday. A massive manhunt has been underway since the sailors went missing.

“People are just pretty much in shock,” Dalager said. “I know our firefighters are already working on some things to help the family.”

George McNeley has worked for the Encinitas Fire Department for five years, Dalager said.

Justin McNeley, was stationed in San Diego before his deployment, but served with a different unit in Afghanistan.

McNeley is believed to have driven into Taliban territory Friday along with Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale.

The two Navy personnel were in the eastern province of Logar, after an armored sport utility vehicle was seen driving into a Taliban-held area. NATO officials were unable to say what they were doing in such a dangerous part of eastern Afghanistan.

The Taliban have said previously that they killed one of the two men in a firefight and captured the other.

Jim Kerr, a Colorado legislator, said the sailor killed was his wife’s nephew, Justin McNeley, 30. He said the family learned of his death Monday. He said McNeley’s mother is in Kingman, Arizona, but declined to give her name.

Kerr told The Denver Post that McNeley, a noncommissioned officer and father of two sons, was due to return to the U.S. in August.

The Taliban have said the captured sailor is in a “safe place” where he will not be found.

In a statement, the NATO-led command said the body was recovered Sunday after an extensive search and that the coalition “holds the captors accountable for the safety and proper treatment of our missing service member.”

Hundreds of fliers, with reprinted photos of the two sailors, have been distributed throughout Logar province where NATO troops were stopping vehicles, searching them and those inside. NATO has offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the surviving sailor’s location.

In another incident, a soldier from San Diego was among those killed Saturday by a roadside bomb attack on their vehicle in Afghanistan.

They are identified as 24-year-old Staff Sgt. Conrad A. Mora of San Diego, Calif.; 23-year-old Sgt. Daniel Lim of Cypress, Calif.; 27-year-old Spc. Joseph A. Bauer, 27, of Cincinnati, Ohio; and 25-year-old Pfc. Andrew L. Hand of Enterprise, Ala.

The four were assigned to 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, 17th Fires Brigade at the Army base near Tacoma, Wash.

The Pentagon also released the names Monday of two high-ranking Camp Pendleton-based Marines killed in combat last week in Afghanistan.

Lt. Col. Mario D. Carazo, 41, of Springfield, Ohio, and Maj. James M. Weis, 37, of Toms River, N.J., were killed Thursday in Helmand Province, according to the Department of Defense.

They were members of Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called the servicemen’s deaths “tragic losses for this country.”

“They devoted themselves to serving our nation with honor and integrity, and their selfless sacrifices will never be forgotten,” the governor said.

Resource: sandiego6.com

USFallen.org and CTS band with Jeff Senour, are proud participants of the Patriot Guard Riders, National Gathering of the Guard 2010.

Sponsor A Wounded Warrior to the “Freedom Rocks” Concert!

By: Jeff Senour

Now you can sponsor a Real Hero to come to the concert. Together we can all make a difference. To sponsor a Fort Hood Soldier or Wounded Warrior to the “Freedom Rocks Experience”, just log in HERE and select one of the three (3) categories of sponsorship to sponsor your real American Hero to this amazing concert. We all can make a difference together. Let’s honor these heroes together and bring them all to the concert.
(URL is http://gotg2010.eventbrite.com/ ; for those who have trouble with the above link)

CTS to headline Gathering Of The Guard Saturday night Sept 11, 2010. It’s official, the local Harker Heights High School Orchestra is now slated to perform with CTS during the “Freedom Rock Experience” concert.

Pictured (L/R): Dave, Jeff,  Eric and Joe  / CTS

CTS Band with Jeff Senour

It will be an honor to have this fabulous group of young musicians along with Urban Quartet performing together to honor our Real American Heroes. Military, Police, Firefighters, Teachers and yes the Patriot Guard Riders will be honored in this rock concert. Please check out the link below for more on the “Freedom Rock Experience”. We are honored to work with the local community near Fort Hood to bring rocking music to the National Gathering Of The Guard 2010. This show is sure to spark even more patriotism to your heart and renew your sense of how proud we all are to be and American.

Can’t wait to see you there!

For more info visit our National GOTG 2010 page.