"future of hope for others, and delivers victory over our enemies"

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:10-12













Warrior Family Members,

On behalf of the Warrior Combat Team I want to extend a special greeting on our Nation’s birthday. I know that this is a special time for families to gather and enjoy all that the summer season has to offer and a time to reflect on our great Nation. As I look at the Warrior Team, I share a deep pride knowing that the Soldiers and their families are the true patriots that make our nation great. As a Warrior Family, we live by a set values that defines us as an Army and as a nation. It is these values that comforts us during times of loss and give us the strength to pick each other up, so that we may continue our mission here in Iraq, so that others may live in freedom. It is this strength that preserves our way of life, builds a future of hope for others, and delivers victory over our enemies.

Many of you are perhaps wondering when we will return from this deployment. I am happy to report with great confidence that we’ll be home by mid November. I can speak for the entire Warrior team and let you know that we are all looking forward to that special day when we can reunite with our families. That day will be here soon; however, as we come to the final quarter of this deployment, I want to reinforce the importance of remaining focused on our mission. We are about to go through some important transitions as we begin setting the conditions for our transfer of authority ceremony in early November. These changes require us all to be alert with no room for complacency. I am charging all leaders to reinforce the standards that have kept us safe these many months.

We are all looking forward to the day we return to Fort Drum. We understand that our way home is through our mission accomplishment and that we must stay focused until that day comes. Your love and support will help us all get to that special day.

Climb to Glory!
Colonel David Paschal

US Commander in Kirkuk lowers profile, raises popularity

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/100/story/43359.html

Maj. Gen. Mark Hertling, the commander of the 1st Armored Division, in charge of all four northern Iraq provinces, said Paschal's program for training the Iraqi army in medical treatment, logistics, supplies, ammunition and fuel "is the model I'm going to try to use throughout the (northern) sector."

Tons of Supplies, Thousands of Desert Miles

10thBSB-

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20871&Itemid=110


Soldiers, of Task Force Warrior’s 10th BSB, have been responsible for re-supplying remote Forward Operating Bases, and Patrol Bases in an area approximately the size of Rhode Island in Kirkuk, Iraq, since September.

WE REMEMBER
John 15:13:13"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

Bodies of 2 missing soldiers found in Iraq
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2008-07-10-missing-soldiers-found_N.htm?csp=34

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/07/ap_2missing_071108/

Downhere - A Better Way
From the album Wide Eyed and Mystified

I'm not alone, I really believe
You never go, You never leave
Here and now, You always stay
“I love you” could not be said a better way

It's everything You've promisedT
here's no greater love than this
From prophets until today
A man laying down His life for His friends
Your sacrifice has spoken, You gave everything
And “I love you” could not be said
A better way

I am forgiven, I clearly see
It's why You came to do all you did for me
Trading earth with heaven, You took my place
“I love you” could not be saidA better way

Because You redeem, I know what's to come
Everything I could lose here, You've already won
So You have my surrender, with passion obey
“I love you” could not be said
A better way

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl13F9mv3Ug&feature=related

Proverbs 1:33 but whoever listens to me will live in safety

http://wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/54474/HOLUTA10TH1

Morning 7/6/08 (CH Spurgeon)

Divine love is rendered conspicuous when it I shines in the midst of judgments. Fair is that lone star which smiles through the rifts of the thunder clouds; bright is the oasis which blooms in the wilderness of sand; so fair and so bright is love in the midst of wrath. When the Israelites provoked the Most High by their continued idolatry, He punished them by withholding both dew and rain, so that their land was visited by a sore famine; but while He did this, He took care that His own chosen ones should be secure. If all other brooks are dry, yet shall there be one reserved for Elijah; and when that fails, God shall still preserve for him a place of sustenance; nay, not only so, the Lord had not simply one "Elijah," but He had a remnant according to the election of grace, who were hidden by fifties in a cave, and though the whole land was subject to famine, yet these fifties in the cave were fed, and fed from Ahab's table too by His faithful, God-fearing steward, Obadiah. Let us from this draw the inference, that come what may, God's people are safe. Let convulsions shake the solid earth, let the skies themselves be rent in twain, yet amid the wreck of worlds the believer shall be as secure as in the calmest hour of rest. If God cannot save His people under heaven, He will save them in heaven. If the world becomes too hot to hold them, then heaven shall be the place of their reception and their safety. Be ye then confident, when ye hear of wars, and rumours of wars. Let no agitation distress you, but be quiet from fear of evil. Whatsoever cometh upon the earth, you, beneath the broad wings of Jehovah, shall be secure. Stay yourself upon His promise; rest in His faithfulness, and bid defiance to the blackest future, for there is nothing in it direful for you. Your sole concern should be to show forth to the world the blessedness of hearkening to the voice of wisdom

"First Brigade- Press on"

1stBCT 10th Mountain Division

- Thank you so much for serving our Nation on this day that we recall our blessing and freedom. Thank you for "standing firm" against all that threaten our freedom and the freedom of the Iraqi people and families. Thank you for being examples in humilty and serving and placing other's interests before your own.



Philippians 2:3-5
3Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=57&chapter=2&verse=3&end_verse=5&version=31&context=context


Stonewall Jackson expressed this affection well for his troops of the 1Bct.

“In the Army of the Shenandoah, you were the First Brigade! In the Army of the Potomac you were the First Brigade! In the Second Corps of this Army, you are the First Brigade! You are the First Brigade in the affections of your general, and I hope by your future deeds and bearing you will be handed down the posterity as the First Brigade in this our Second War of Independence. Farewell!” (Thomas Stonewall Jackson)


Jackson was truly a modest man. He would blush like a school-girl at a compliment. He was easily confused in the presence of strangers, especially if they were ladies. It is well known that the noisy demonstrations which the troops always made when they saw him were painfully embarrassing to him. This was usually attributed to his innate modesty; but that was not the sole cause. It had its origin in a higher source. In the last interview I ever had with him, he said: "The manner in which the press, the army, and the people seem to lean upon certain persons is positively frightful. They are forgetting God in the instruments he has chosen. It fills me with alarm." What a lesson is here to flatterers!

"Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, tried to reassure his wife in the same manner, he wrote in 1682, "but all my times are in His hand...& no harm can come to me unless it is wisely & kindly ordered so." (though wounded six times, twice thought fatally, he survived them all and lived out his years to four score and six"

(For Cause and Comrades, page 65)

Gettysburg
Hold at All Costs - Iced Earth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsW3i9rY58k

We'll know what we're made of.
When up against all odds we hold our line
For the cause that we so love
We must hold at all cost
We'll know what we're made of
When our nation needs us
We'll stay the course, for the union we so love
We must hold at all costs!

Wave after wave, they are coming
Their power must be waning!
We're out of ammo, we can't fall back, no !
A desperate measure, a means to end

On their next wave we charge at them
There is no other option
Disconcert them, force submission, on my command, fix bayonets!

We'll know what we're made of
The burden lies with us
When up against al odds we hold our line
We can't fail
For the cause that we so love
We must hold at all costs
We'll know what we're made of
With courage in our hearts
When our nation needs us, We'll stay the course
We won't fail
For the union we so love
We must hold at all cost!!

"Undeserved Bounty-"

Psalm 86:8 "there is none like Thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works"

Psalm 71: 19 "Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast done great things: O God, who is like Thee!"

2 Cor 4:7 (NIV)

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

2 Cor4:7 (The Message)
If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us.

"Be encouraged, ordinary Christian. You are appointed, precisely in your ordinariness, for the greatest work in the world: showing the Treasure of Christ." (John Piper)

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByScripture/20/2723_Im_Sending_You_to_Open_Their_Eyes/

Tons of Supplies, Thousands of Desert Miles

Monday, 30 June 2008
By Spc. Jason Jordan1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division

SHERPA Battalion- Proud to Support

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=20871&

looking forward to the beach

Star- Spangled Banner - And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"

Star- Spangled Banner
composed by Francis Scott Key, "In Defense of Fort McHenry" in September 1814. Congress proclaimed it the U.S. National Anthem in 1931

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars,thro' the perilous fight,

O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.

O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,

What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,

In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:

'T is the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion

A home and a country should leave us no more?

Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,

Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation;

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land

Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us as a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause. it is just,

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall

wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

History: In 1814, about a week after the city of Washington had been badly burned, British troops moved up to the primary port at Baltimore Harbor in Maryland. Francis Scott Key visited the British fleet in the Harbor on September 13th to secure the release of Dr. William Beanes who had been captured during the Washington raid. The two were detained on the ship so as not to warn the Americans while the Royal Navy attempted to bombard Fort McHenry. At dawn on the 14th, Key noted that the huge American flag, which now hangs in the Smithsonian's American History Museum, was still waving and had not been removed in defeat. The sight inspired him to write a poem entitled Defense of Fort McHenry; later the poem was set to music that had been previously composed for another song by a Mr. Smith. The end result was the inspiring song now considered the national anthem of the United States of America. It was accepted as such by public demand for the next century or so, but became even more accepted as the national anthem during the World Series of Baseball in 1917 when it was sung in honor of the brave armed forces fighting in the Great War. The World Series performance moved everyone in attendance, and after that it was repeated for every game. Finally, on March 3, 1931, the American Congress proclaimed it as the national anthem, 116 years after it was first written.

America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee)
Text: Samuel F. Smith, 1808-1895 Music: Thesaurus Musicus Tune: AMERICA, Meter: 664.6664
1. My country,' tis of thee,

sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing;

land where my fathers died,

land of the pilgrims' pride,

from every mountainside let freedom ring!

2. My native country, thee,

land of the noble free, thy name I love;

I love thy rocks and rills,

thy woods and templed hills;

my heart with rapture thrills, like that above.

3. Let music swell the breeze,

and ring from all the trees sweet freedom's song;

let mortal tongues awake;

let all that breathe partake;

let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong.

4. Our fathers' God, to thee,

author of liberty, to thee we sing;

long may our land be bright

with freedom's holy light;
protect us by thy might, great God, our King.

D- Day Tribute - Lamentations 3:21 "Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope"

Lamentations 3:21-23:
21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;great is your faithfulness.

We remember all the men and women serving in the U.S. Military.

We remember those who died or were wounded in WW II and all the wars including the War on Terrorism in Iraq and AFghanistan, and we pray for the families .

1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment- Hawijah, Iraq.

1st Brigade Combat Team Soldiers killed during assault on enemy forces in Iraq June 4

http://www.drum.army.mil/sites/installation/pao/releases/newsItem.asp?id=2008/0806-05

D-Day Payer

-Franklin D. Roosevelt - June 6, 1944

My Fellow Americans:
Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our Allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.
And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.
Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.
They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.
They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest -- until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war.
For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.
Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them -- help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.
Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.
Give us strength, too -- strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.
And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.
And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keeness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment -- let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.
With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace -- a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.
Thy will be done, Almighty God.
Amen.
Franklin D. Roosevelt - June 6, 1944

FDR's original writing;

http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/04DD010.HTML

Speech

Listen to the entire speech - 6:33

Source:

http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/04DDhome.HTML