Honor and Remember Cpl Matthew J. Stanley ~ a New Hampshire Hero

Honor and Remember Cpl Matthew J. Stanley

Date of birth: Dec 26, 1983
Date of passing: Dec 16, 2006
Matt was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas

Following is written by his Mom, Lynn:

Matt was a fun loving guy. Sometimes I think Matt’s whole purpose on this earth was to make people smile. He himself always had a smile on his face. Everyone who knew Matt will tell you about that smile.

I watched Matt mature from a young boy into a brave young man. His courage and bravery still astonishes me. He had a great love for his family and his country and a great zest for life. In my attempts to honor Matt, I remember to keep his fun loving spirit alive, his joy for life and his love.

In 2002, Matt graduated from Kingswood Regional High School where he was well known and well liked by his peer and teachers. He was outgoing and deeply proud and personal about his two tours of duty in Iraq. He always had a good circle of friends.

He was the type of kid that everybody wanted for a friend Matt had been married less than a year Matt married his beautiful wife Amy on December 31, 2005. Such a wonderful time for the whole family to be together. Little did we know that Matt would be gone before his first anniversary.

He was killed along with four others by an IED when the hummer he was in ran over it. That year he missed his birthday on December 26 and his anniversary. Matt is dearly missed by his family and be everyone who knew him.

 

 

Honor and Remember Cpl Nevin Moreira a NH Hero

Honoring and remembering Cpl Nevin Moreira- Died 12-14-2007 died as a result of service to our country. He served 2 tours in Iraq with the Stryker Brigade from Ft. Lewis, WA.

Please pray for his Mom, Joanne, and his family and friends. May God be with them especially today and give them comfort, strength and precious memories of Nevin. He loved his family and friends and was always defending those who couldn’t defend themselves. Joanne recalled a time that Nevin told her about being in the midst of combat and noticing a flower — “a little symbol of hope and happiness,” as she puts it in the midst of chaos.
Never forget….to remember is to honor…

Cpl Nevin Moreira

LCpl Michael Geary a New Hampshire Hero

Always remembered – LCpl Michael Geary – KIA 12-8-10. As you watch this tribute, please keep his mom-Nancy, family and friends in your prayers. May God be with them and give them comfort, especially today. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.; KIA Dec. 8, 2010 in Helmand province, Afghanistan, while conducting combat operations. Michael Geary was so proud to be a Marine he wore his dress uniform to show his Pinkerton Academy English teacher after he completed training. Michael, a 20-year-old from Derry, NH, joined the Marines after he graduated from Pinkerton in 2009 and had risen to the rank of Lance Corporal.

He had started training to be a Marine when he was 14 by running and working out with his recruiters. Being a Marine “was just something he really wanted to do,” his uncle Michael said. Michael had been in Afghanistan since August and was due to come home in January. He had other chances at leave but passed them up to help buddies with families. “If he had leave, he passed it up to someone who was married and had children.” He was serving his first tour in Afghanistan. He planned to become a police officer or border patrolman when he got out of the service. He told teachers when he was accepted into the Marines it fulfilled a lifelong ambition, Pinkerton spokesman Robin Perrin said. Several teachers remembered him as a quiet man who deeply loved his country. Michael’s English teacher, Joseph Dion, issued a statement about his former student, recalling the day Michael told him he had been accepted into the Marines. “He was standing tall, proud of his decision to become a Marine,” Dion wrote. “Right from the start I liked having Mike as a student. He was genuinely interested in learning; he asked honest questions with a real desire to know the truth. When he made the decision to join the Marines, it was clear he had made a decision that would help him achieve a goal he truly believed in.”

Remembering LCpl Ryan McCaughn

Remembering LCpl Ryan McCaughn – KIA on 11/7/06 while conducting combat operations in Anbar Province, Iraq. Ryan, 19, was less than two months into his deployment.

Ryan was born in Jacksonville N.C., the home of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. He spent his early years in North Carolina and Missouri and ultimately settled in Manchester, New Hampshire. There he was raised by his mother Nicole and his stepfather Raymond. Even as a child, friends said that Ryan was clear in his military ambitions. Both of his parents were former servicemen; his mother served briefly in the U.S. Army and his father, Thomas McCaughn was a Marine. His older brother Chris served in the Air Force and his brother Sean Merlin served in the Navy.

Friends described Ryan as an irrepressible comedian who used to torment his school bus driver and sometimes splashed around in puddles just for laughs. He performed on stage with Maskers, his high-school drama club, and wasn’t afraid to dress up as a woman if the part demanded it.

As a high schooler, Ryan took culinary classes at the Manchester School of Technology. He and his friends, Kyle Schmidt and Greg Lake, talked of one day opening a restaurant and bar. Ryan, they said, was going to take business classes so he could be the manager.

Mostly, though, friends and relatives said Ryan spoke of joining the military and, later, becoming a police officer. He worked extra hard during his senior year to complete the requirements necessary for enrolling in the Marines, at one point taking three English classes in a single semester.

At 17, he asked his mother to help him sign up for duty. “He said he was going to sign up anyway when he was 18,” Schmidt said, “but he would feel better if it was with her consent.” He left for boot camp at Parris Island one week after graduating in June 2005 and was then stationed in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

Although he wasn’t allowed to divulge most details of his mission, friends and family members said they knew he was living in Ramadi, the southwestern point of the Sunni Triangle and that he patrolled the region with a grenade launcher and M16 rifle. “He said he needed to do this” his mother recalled. “He said if he could keep one dad from going to Iraq and he could take his place instead, then he’ll feel like he’s accomplished something.”

Ryan occasionally returned to Central High School after graduating. Once, he came to talk to students about life in the Marines. Later, he came as a recruiter.

Ryan is remembered fondly for his sense of humor and serious commitment to the Marines and to his country. His creative writing teacher in high school shared a poem that Ryan had written entitled “Solider”

Soldier

“Many soldiers have had to experience the ultimate Sacrifice”
“Even in death, a soldier will show Pride.
All you can do is hope that they finally found Peace.”

Fellow soldier and friend Cpt Brian Krenzeli was in boot camp with Ryan and “considered his a great friend. He was one the guys there that really made the time go by faster especially with his humor. I don’t thinks there was a single day we spent on Parris Island that he didn’t get me quarter decked for laughing. He was an outstanding Marine and a great friend and he will be missed.”

New Hampshire WWII Casualties

And when he gets to Heaven
To St. Peter he will tell:
‘One more Marine reporting, Sir — I’ve served my time in Hell.’

New Hampshire Korean War Casualties

The Korean War has become America’s “Forgotten War,” and those who fought it have become America’s forgotten warriors.
REES LLOYD

NH Korean War Casualties

To Honor is to Remember….

New Hampshire Vietnam War Casualties

“… In honor of the men and women of the Armed Forces the US who served in the Vietnam War. The names of those who gave their lives and of those who remain missing are inscribed in the order they were taken from us.” —

Inscription at the beginning of The Wall.

New Hampshire Vietnam War Casualties

To Honor is to Remember…….

 

Gold Star Mothers Day Observed ~ September 29, 2013

The United States began observing Gold Star Mothers Day on the last Sunday of September in 1936. It is a day for people to recognize and honor those who have lost a son or daughter while serving the United States Armed Forces.

Mothers of fallen service members began calling themselves “Gold Star Mothers” during the First World War, but the sorrowful bond they share reaches back to every woman who has lost a son or daughter in uniform since our nation’s revolution.

In 1918 President Woodrow Wilson approved the wearing of black armbands bearing a gold star by those who had a family member who died in the military service to the United States. This distinguished them from the blue stars, representing a family member presently serving in the armed forces.

During World War I, families would hang flags in their windows that were white with red borders, inside, a blue star would represent each family member who was serving in the military. The name the Gold Star Mothers was derived from the custom of military families who when a service member was killed, the blue star was changed to a gold star.

Eleven years after the end of World War I, the United States Congress took an unprecedented step in the history of warfare, giving unusual recognition to the mothers of those killed in that war.

American Gold Star Mothers, Inc. was incorporated in 1929, obtaining a federal charter from the US Congress. It began with 25 mothers living in the Washington DC area and soon expanded to include affiliated groups throughout the nation. On June 23, 1936, a joint congressional resolution designated the last Sunday in September as Gold Star Mother’s Day, a holiday that has been observed each year by a presidential proclamation.

In 1947, the Gold Star Lapel pin was designed and created to be presented to eligible surviving family members of service members who died while deployed in support of overseas contingency operations, or who died from wounds sustained in theater. A gold star symbolizes a family member who died in the line of duty while serving the United States Armed Forces. It may be seen on a service flag or in the form of a pin, which is worn by Gold Star mothers. The pin is not limited to mothers and it is awarded by the US Department of Defense.

In the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944:

“There is nothing adequate which anyone in any place can say to those who are entitled to display the gold star in their windows America lives in freedom because of the sacrifices of America’s finest citizens and of the mothers who raised them..”

Honor and Remember ~ A New Hampshire Hero

Remembering Sgt. 1st Class Robert E. Rooney, 43, died Sept. 25, 2003 in an accident in Kuwait. He was struck by a forklift while unloading on a pier in Shuabai Port/Spod.

An Operation Desert Storm veteran and 21-year U.S. Army National Guardsman, he is the first Massachusetts Army National Guard soldier to die in a war zone since World War II.

Robert was a longtime resident of Plymouth, MA but had moved to Nashua, NH with his wife Diane, in 2002, to be closer to family members. He had a passion for NASCAR and was following the circuit and his favorite driver, Jeff Gordon. While he was in Kuwait, a friend taped the races and sent them to him. “Jeff Gordon was his idol,” Diane recalls. “He has so much Gordon stuff in our home it’s not funny! That’s pretty much all we would buy him for Christmas”.

He was a member of the National Guard’s 379th Engineer Company, based in Bourne. His unit was mobilized in January to support Operation Enduring Freedom. The 379th Engineer Company’s primary mission is to construct and recontour secondary and main roadways.

“Sergeant Rooney was a devoted husband, father and a respected colleague. We mourn his loss. He honors his family, his unit and the National Guard with his dedication, service and sacrifice for our nation.”

Sgt. Rooney joined the National Guard in 1982 and for the past 20 years worked full-time at Camp Edwards at the Massachusetts Military Reservation at the unit training equipment site, where he was an operational maintenance shop chief.

The unit training equipment site services all Mass. National Guard units, providing and maintaining vital equipment, such as heavy trucks and self-propelled artillery for training throughout the year.

TO REMEMBER IS TO HONOR….

Sen. Barnes and Rep. Baldasaro join George Lutz in New Hampshire

 Senator Barnes and Rep Baldasaro on June 16, 2010 at the presentation of personalized flags to Jim and Lynn Savage by George Lutz.

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