I saw this at D.U.
"Ryan
This is Ryan's family. I met them Saturday at the Peace Rally.
Ryan's aunt told me his story.
Ryan is a Marine serving in Iraq, but Friday September 23, 2005, Ryan was scheduled to return home to his family. He hopped on the plane leaving Iraq (yesterday), excited for his journey home and relieved that he was leaving Iraq in one piece and alive.
Unfortunately, the powers-that-be changed Ryan's plans. As Ryan sat on the plane and waited to take off, an officer suddenly came on board. He called out three names.
Ryan's was one of them.
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See the rest of the article with the pictures at and send a message to Ryan or other soldiers:
http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/archives/2005/10/ryan.html#comments
and MoJo replied,
The same thing happened to my friend, Brian.
He was on a C-130, waiting to go to Germany, and then the U.S. Guess what? "Brian Fish?"
"Yeah, that's me."
"Your discharge was denied. Off the plane, report to Dogwood, ASAP."
"What? I'm on a medical discharge!"
"Well, take that up with the guys at Dogwood."
Brian's convoy was attacked, his Hummer was hit directly with an IED. He was the only one in his vehicle to survive. He's now horribly scarred, and deaf in his right ear. Not to mention God knows how many psychological problems.
But, according to the powers that be, he's fit for continued duty.
Go figure...
MojoXN"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4947194#4947402
"What the heck!" I ask myself in confusion! "How can they do this?"
It's scary isn't it?
Then at afterdowningstreet.org I saw a post Vietnam Vet posted:
"Hang tight, Brother...and watch your back
It's a cruel act to pull someone off a plane to fill in when the Military knew days, weeks, before there was going to be a shortage and had time to fix the problem. There is something else in play beside a troop shortage and you should be covering your ass with Kevlar(TM) at all times.
Volunteer for anything, KP even, that keeps you off the street, because someone is gunning for you. Why else would YOU be pulled off the aircraft instead of someone that had served less time or had more skills?
Don't trust anything or anyone until you get out."
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3292
...The point of all this? How can any war supporter, Bush supporter, or Republican say that the war must continue until it's "successful" when they never had a strategy to win the war? How can anyone believe this war is a noble cause? How many lives are they playing with while BushCo wanders through their war plans with blindfolds on? And how many young soldiers will continue to die for the lie?
Maybe it's through stories like these that people will finally awaken to the idea of taking action--working on getting progressives elected in 06 with the intention of bringing accountablility and common sense back for the people of America and the world, since this is something the Republican Congress refuses to do.
We have to keep sharing the stories--I think. What about you?