In 2004, 1/7 Marines on patrol in Husaybah celebrated Thanksgiving huddled around a campfire, eating MREs. This picture was taken by PFC Rael, Bravo Company, 1st Platoon, 3rd Squad.

Five years later, my son Shane Conrad, who deployed three times with 1/7 Marines will be eating turkey and pumpkin pie instead of MREs. He is living in Oregon, halfway through his baccalaureate program, active in his local VFW, and President of the Portland chapter of Team River Runner, part of a national program to bring health and healing through the form of whitewater recreation to military veterans. It's a great program and it deserves your support. Your tax-deductible donations will give the gift of white water recreation to those who have fought for their country and have returned home physically and/or emotionally injured. Contributions are used to purchase equipment, food, gas, and other items necessary to ensure that every returning troop who wants to kayak or raft has the chance to do so. If you target your donation to the Portland, Oregon chapter, it will purchase equipment for weekly roll sessions and underwrite the January 1 trip down the Sandy River. Brrr!

We still have 70,000 troops in Afghanistan, living in conditions which are arguably similar to Iraq back when my son was deployed. And, Thanksgiving may be just another day in wartime but it doesn't stop our Marines from doing what they do best - improvising, adapting, and overcoming. That flames were involved was a definite plus.

Marines' Thanksgiving dinner in Helmand nearly flames out
By JAY PRICE
McClatchy Newspapers

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HASSANABAD, Afghanistan -- Just getting the ingredients for Golf Company's one-day-early Thanksgiving dinner was a military operation.

s consulted their translators. Then the translators persuaded the Afghan border police to go to a market in what may be the most dangerous part of Helmand province.

Buying the $68 worth of chicken and hot peppers and potatoes and rice and flat bread turned out to be the easy part, however. It was the cooking Wednesday night that nearly caused a squad of casualties.

"Hey, you can't put out a grease fire like that!" someone yelled as one of the self-appointed chefs, Cpl. Cody Baird, 21, of Thurmont, Md., yanked a woklike pan full of flaming grease off the fire, which was fueled by broken up shipping pallets.

He swung the pan around, his mitt already on fire, and he had to set the pan on the ground before the rest of him went up in flames.

That was, by a conservative count, grease fire No. 8, including a crowd-pleaser with flames that reached almost as high as the walls of the camp.

And the actual cooking hadn't begun.

Baird and Lance Cpl. Colin Cummings, 21, of Plattsburgh, N.Y., were still dicing peppers and potatoes and trying to figure out how to adjust the fire to a reasonable temperature so it wouldn't light the oil in the pans.

Not that fire was the only potential danger. Sanitation was also called into question.

"Hey, isn't that the knife you use to kill all those mice?" asked a Marine onlooker.

"It's OK, I used hand sanitizer on it," said Cummings, brandishing the wicked, curved blade.

"Dude!" said Baird, sounding as if he didn't seriously object to a little mouse hair.

Read the rest here. And, if you'd like to join the effort to make our Marines a bit merrier at Christmas, check out Operation Santa. Now in its sixth year, Marine supporters all over the United States are filling and shipping Christmas stockings for our deployed troops. And, if you're looking for an end of the year tax-deduction, consider a donation to the Marine Corps Family Foundation. Because MCFF has no paid staff, administrative costs are extremely low and over 95% of your contribution will go directly to support deployed Marines, Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen.

Lee Allton, proud Marine Aunt and moderator at the excellent Marine Moms Online support website passes along the following information for Camp Pendleton area parents:

Camp Pendleton Parents Focus Group

San Luis Rey MCFTB Family Readiness Center Bldg, Camp Pendleton CA 1795
Saturday December 5, 2009 9 AM - 12 PM

All proud parents of Marines are invited to attend the first Camp Pendleton Parents Focus Group. Please join us to discuss topics and ideas to improve the communication and support that you receive as an involved Marine Corps parent. Please call 760-725-9052 to RSVP

Connie Riecke, Marine Mom and exec director of the Marine Corps Family Foundation sent along this appeal:

It never ceases to amaze me...Marines that is. I recently asked an Marine commander what we could ship to his 1100 Marines. It wasn't Game Boys, or a big screen TV, or IPODS. No it was the same request that I received so many years before. I mean five years ago I got the same kind of answer. My son, my Marine asked for the same items, his Marine buddies asked for the same stuff during their deployments and each year my deployed contacts ask for these same items. They are the basics. So, here is the list:

Soap
Toothpaste/Toothbrush
Deodorant
Shaving Cream
Razors
Laundry Detergent
Books
New/used DVDs
Socks (black or green wool)
Snacks (sealable)

How basic is that! Some things just don't change! So to all those people and communities who want to show their support contact me and I will give you an address to ship the basics for a sustainable deployment for a US Marine. It's simple, inexpensive but unattainable in the wilderness of Afghanistan...Email me at info@marinecorpsfamilyfoundation.org and I will help you ship a box of necessities today!

After a wonderful week of celebrating the Marine Corps 234th birthday and honoring our Veterans news of another individual stealing the valor of our military loved ones has made headlines again.

From CNN:

Civilian pleads not guilty to wearing Navy medals

By Alan Duke, CNN

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- A California man faces a federal trial in January because of what he allegedly wore to his 20th high school reunion earlier this year -- a U.S. Marine uniform decorated with some of the nation's highest military medals.

Steve Burton, 39, never served in any branch of the U.S. military, but he was seen and photographed several times wearing a Marine uniform and various medals, including the Navy Cross, the highest medal awarded exclusively by the U.S. Navy, federal investigators said.

The Palm Springs, California, bank officer entered a not guilty plea Thursday to a charge of "unauthorized wearing of military medals or decorations." The federal misdemeanor charge carries a maximum penalty of a year in federal prison upon conviction.

When Burton made his initial appearance in federal court in Riverside, California, a magistrate set his bond at $10,000, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Akrotirianakis. He posted the bond and was released. A trial was set for January 10, 2010, Akrotirianakis said.

"He has been charged, but these are only allegations," Burton's lawyer, Michael DeFrank, said Wednesday.

The Marine dress blue uniform with lieutenant colonel insignia on the epaulets and a chest full of colorful ribbons may have impressed some old classmates, but one person at the reunion was suspicious, according to an FBI agent's affidavit.

Lt. Cmdr. Colleen Salonga, a U.S. Navy supply officer, recognized the Navy Cross and knew how rarely that honor is awarded, the sworn statement said. She posed with Burton for a photo, which she sent to the FBI in June, it said.

The FBI agent said Internet research showed that Burton had blogged in August 2009 about being a Marine and receiving many commendations and awards. His postings also discussed engaging in combat and serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, the documents said. He said he'd served in Falluja, a city in Iraq's largely Sunni Arab Anbar province where Marines and militants battled for years.

Burton posted a picture of himself online standing on a beach at Coronado Island, California, wearing a Marine dress uniform, the affidavit said. In the picture, he is wearing the rank of gunnery sergeant and is displaying medals including the Navy Cross, the Legion of Merit, the Navy and Marine Corps medal, the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart, among others.

An American flag flew on a pole on the front lawn of Burton's Palm Springs home Wednesday.

Burton, who was off work because it was Veterans Day, would not come to the door, and a man who came to the door referred CNN to Burton's lawyer, DeFrank. The man said he was Burton's partner for 18 years and retired from the U.S. Air Force.

A next-door neighbor described Burton as "quiet and nice." She said she saw agents carry away several boxes from the home two weeks ago.

A search warrant was executed at Burton's home, said Akrotirianakis, who did not divulge what was found there.

Akrotirianakis also would not say where authorities believe Burton obtained the medals. However, an Internet search showed several medals -- or possibly replicas -- for sale online, despite a law banning their advertisement or sale. Even if a medal is a replica, wearing it still violates federal law, Akrotirianakis said.

The Navy Cross is the second-highest award a sailor or Marine can be awarded for valor, behind only the Medal of Honor. It is comparable to the Army's Distinguished Service Cross and the Air Force Cross. It is awarded for "extreme gallantry and risk of life, beyond the call of duty, performed in combat with an enemy force," according to the prosecutors' statement.

The Bronze Star is awarded for "heroic and meritorious achievement or service," while the Purple Heart is awarded "for being wounded or killed in action against an enemy of the United States."

One of the highlights of a recent trip to Camp Pendleton was taking an afternoon to drive a few hours east to visit the oldest living Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. It was an impulse - Connie Riecke and I had flown down to help Andi and her team with this year's west coast SpouseBuzz - and we had a few hours to kill before her late afternoon flight home. The conversation started out, as so many of our conversations do with an hare-brained idea that didn't have a chance of being successful . . . and by putting two never-say-die minds together, we figured out a way to make it happen. She does that to me.

We gave him a call, he was delighted to have us visit and we spent a wonderful afternoon listening to his recollections of Pearl Harbor . . . but he was just as interested in hearing about my father's service as a Navy officer (they shared the same rank) and my son's deployments in Iraq with 1/7 Marines.

The official citation, read on board ship, nine months later, with his beloved wife Alice in attendance reads:

For extraordinary heroism distinguished service, and devotion above and beyond the call of duty. During the first attack by Japanese airplanes on the Naval Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, on December 7, 1941, Lt. Finn promptly secured and manned a .50-caliber machinegun mounted on an instruction stand in a completely exposed section of the parking ramp, which was under heavy enemy machine gun strafing fire. Although painfully wounded many times, he continued to man this gun and to return the enemy's fire vigorously and with telling effect throughout the enemy strafing and bombing attacks and with complete disregard for his own personal safety. It was only by specific orders that he was persuaded to leave his post to seek medical attention. Following first aid treatment, although obviously suffering much pain and moving with great difficulty, he returned to the squadron area and actively supervised the rearming of returning planes. His extraordinary heroism and conduct in this action were in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

	His wife Alice on board the USS Enterprise during the Medal of Honor ceremony nine months after Pearl Harbor. He said he still doesn't know how they got her on board the ship

ite drink is a Sioux City Sarsaparilla and he's an accomplished story-teller. We listened to stories of his childhood and distinguished Naval career.