Open letter to Donald Trump: The Purple Heart Medal is not a trophy to be won!

The headstone in this picture is that of my grandfather, Johnnie Lee Conyer, Mr. Trump. If you look closely, you will notice that he received the Purple Heart while fighting in the Korean War.

My grandfather watched his friend, who was walking right in front of him during a patrol, get blown up by a landmine. His friend was killed instantly, and my grandfather and the men behind him were cuts to pieces from shrapnel.

As a child, I always wondered what the weird looking marks on my grandfather's chest and abdomen were. It wasn't until I was in middle school, when he told me where he got them from. He never boasted about his time there, and he never talked about the war to try and prove how tough he was.

He went on to live and amazing life, including being married to my grandmother for 54 years, but he was always haunted by the death of his friend. He lived every day knowing how close he came to dying. He never took life for granted, and he raised me to live life the same way.

War is hell. People die. People get injured. Last week you made the error of criticizing a Gold Star family, and in less than a week, you made a joke about how you 'always wanted' a Purple Heart. Well guess what, no one 'wants' a Purple Heart, and receiving one sure as hell isn't 'easy'! We as veterans raise our hands to defend this nation, knowing that we may one day give our lives in the process. Whether you realized it or not, you dishonored Lt. Col. Louis Dorfman by making a joke about his sacrifice! Did you not think of the horrors he must have seen to receive that medal that you so casually joked about? You made a mockery of what our service members face every day, because someone needs to stand in the breach.

You owe Mr. Dorfman a public apology, Mr. Trump! You owe all the veterans who were injured in battle an apology! You owe the families of the veterans, and those who take care of our wounded when they return home, an apology! You owe our Gold Star families an apology! You owe all of our service members who you want to be Commander-In-Chief of, an apology for making light the sacrifices they will lay in down in defense of this nation! Call a press conference, and just do it!

If you truly want to be president, you might want to show the utmost respect to those who are willing to give everything, including their lives, and whose caskets are draped with the American flag at their funerals.

Sincerely,
Danielle D. Hollars
An Army veteran

Open Letter to Hillary Clinton, from an angry Army veteran

Well, you did it again. You have managed to weasel your way out of another conspiracy. FBI Director Comey tossed you a life preserver, and saved you and your staff from prosecution. Attorney General Loretta Lynch 'conveniently' meets with your husband, and she will also 'conveniently' follow the recommendations of the FBI.

Do you really think that the American people who are honest, are going to believe that you think you should not be charged? You were the First Lady of Arkansas, the First Lady of The United States, a Senator from New York, and the Secretary of State. You have been read in so many times you could fill a book. You knew what you did was shady, but you continued anyway. Feigned ignorance of the rules is no excuse for what you did! Those of us who have held clearances know that you and those that answered to you should have had charges levied against you all, or at the very least, you should NEVER hold a clearance again!

You lied to the American people about your emails, and you lied to us about Benghazi! Worst of all, you looked those families of the men who died in the eyes, and lied to them!

Did you cry when you heard that Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, and Tyrone Woods were dead? Or did you shed fake tears, just like you put on your fake accents when you go down South? No, you were too busy trying to save you and President Obama's so-called legacies! Well let me tell you a little secret: if it was YOU sitting in that consulate, those planes would've been scrambled immediately!!! President Obama would have been in the Situation Room all night waiting to find out your status. I guess Las Vegas and fundraising was more important for you and the President's future political careers, right? Those of us who wear the uniforms of our United States military know the truth! You had a chance to save them, and nothing was done!

Do you honestly want us to believe that all of the various charges against you over these past decades are just a right-wing conspiracy? That the mean ol' Republicans are so hard on little ol' Hillary Clinton, and that everyone else is lying? No, I fully believe that you knew exactly what you were doing, that you feel a sense of entitlement, and you will have to answer for the blood on your hands in the end!

I pray that the American people will see through your blatant lies, and that they will see you for who you really are: a bitter, washed up has-been, who does not deserve one more day in the White House!

Sincerely,
Danielle D. Hollars
An angry American and Army veteran

Open letter to Mr. Donald Trump in regards to issuing unlawful military orders

Mr. Donald Trump,

I write to you tonight with extreme concern about a statement made by you during the Fox News debate on March 3, 2016:



"They won't refuse. They are not going to refuse me."

Really Mr. Trump?!?  Someone in your campaign needs to help you brush you up on some military protocol. You see, I am an Army veteran, and I come from a long line of family members who were also service members. If you were to give me an order to target civilians, I would disobey that order! You sir, are wrong when you imply that just because you give an order, means that it will automatically be followed.

When a person enlists in the military, they are given a book from the training command of their particular branch, and since you say you want to be Commander-In-Chief, you should probably read up on what makes a service member tick. Read Army TRADOC P600-4 Chapter 2-6. Army Values. Read subsections E and F in regards to how service members are to conduct themselves: http://www.tradoc.army.mil/tpubs/pams/p600-4.pdf.

It speaks of honor and integrity. Honor, and integrity!!!

Audie Murphy, Gary Gordon, Randall Shughart, Florent Groberg, and Edward Byers Jr. all received the Medal of Honor. Have you ever heard of a Medal of Honor recipient receiving their award because they kill a house full of unarmed civilians, or because they targeted the family of a terrorist? No? That's because they would be behind bars instead!

The targeting of civilians is a no-no Mr. Trump. Your blustering about what you would command our military to do, will not translate into actionable orders. You cannot walk around and command Soldiers, Marines, Sailors, Airmen, and our Coast Guard, to willfully kill the family members of terrorists. You may think it sounds good with your followers, but IT IS NOT! You would be putting the morals of our military in jeopardy with this type of showing off for the cameras.

Our military members are a proud and honorable group of men and women! Men and women who are willing to give their all! We are not a bunch of mindless drones, that cannot think for ourselves! If you are elected to the presidency, you will have a moral obligation to protect their integrity, the code of conduct, and their moral compass!

They deserve nothing less!!!

Sincerely from a very angry,
Mrs. Danielle D. Hollars
U.S. Army veteran

Open Letter to President Obama - There is nothing wrong with Stay at Home moms!

                        

Mr. President,

I am dismayed at your statement at Rhode Island College on 10/31/14, in regards to stay at home moms! I CHOSE to become a stay at home mother in 2002, and do you want to know why? Because my daughter needed me at home! I had just spent almost three years of her life not seeing much of her because of my military service, and I CHOSE to stay with her after I got out and got married. I CHOSE to continue to stay at home and raise my next 5 children because I don't want the government to raise them! They are the responsibility of my husband and I.

I knew full well what it meant for me to not go back to work right now, and when I come to the end of my life, I thankfully won't have to look back and say, "I wish I could have spent more time with my children!"

I am very well aware that some moms, (or dads) have no choice than to stay at home. However, the solution is not to dump more money into "high quality pre-school", but to not make parents who do stay at home feel like they are not doing enough to support their children just because there is only one income. I know many stay at home moms who, if they went back to work, would make more than their husbands. Many of them with advanced degrees. They CHOSE to stay at home, so their children didn't think that they placed a career over them.

I don't want your government run health care, with premiums that now costs more than my mortgage, and I don't want the government thinking that they now how to better take care of my children! Leave those of us that CHOOSE to stay at home, do it without someone saying, "That's not a choice we want Americans to make."

Mrs. Danielle Hollars

Open Letter to the President: President Obama, all are not free!

                                                


"Because this is a country where everyone deserves the same freedom and opportunities to fulfill their dreams."
~Statement from President Barack Obama on the 41st anniversary of Roe v. Wade


Mr. President Barack Obama,

Those were your words on the 41st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, but that will not happen, will it Mr. President? Sure everyone deserves that right, but your support of the wholesale slaughter of the unborn doesn't help towards that goal does it? You have propped up, cheered on, and championed the right for women to kill their unborn, and hid behind the guise of "choice". Have you never thought about the fact that your own mother could have aborted you without a second thought? Or how about your wife? Does the fact that she could've aborted either one of your daughters, and not told you, her husband, a thing about it, mean nothing to you? How can you campaign on, and support a law that takes the very life of another human being, and still sleep well at night?

You speak of only the woman's body. But it is not her body she is aborting. It is her child's body. Her offspring she is killing. Her future she is losing. This country's future. 56 million and counting Mr. President. 56 million lives lost. 56 million families broken. 56 million legally killed because of our very own government. You are helping put mother against her own child. In the time it takes to read this post, hundreds of the unborn will have been killed.

You will soon be meeting with Pope Francis Mr. President. Are you going to avoid speaking about your support of abortion, or just focus on what you think will make you look good in the press? You proclaim you are a man of faith. Do you think God would tell you, "Well done. You have protected the least among you"? What have you done to save lives???

How will history judge us? I pray that all of humanity will one day see the truth of the horrors that is abortion. But until that day, I will continue to fight for the unborn! I will speak for those who are voiceless and defenseless, just as others fought for the freedom of my ancestors who were bound by the shackles of slavery...

Sincerely,

Mrs. Danielle D. Hollars
Defender of Life

Mr. President, there is nothing affordable about Obamacare!!!

Mr. President Barack H. Obama,

Yesterday morning my husband calls me from work and informs me that our cost for our health care premiums skyrocketed from $550 a month for our family, to $1100 a month!  We cannot afford to pay that much out of pocket!  So he and our oldest will have coverage, but myself and our other 5 children do not.  I do not want to hear how great Obamacare is.  It is government bureaucracy at its worst, and my family and many others are now paying for it. Don't tell me that we should be able to keep my plan.  It's obvious that we cannot!  85% of the country was doing just fine with our personal health care plans. You and the Democrats have trashed the whole system instead of trying to find a way to insure the other 15%. I don't want any part of the Affordable Care Act. My children cannot play sports now for fear of broken bones or other injuries, and I will have to be the one to deal with their disappointment, not you!  

You claim to care about this country, but you have done nothing but make promises to give everything to almost everyone, excluding Christians and Conservatives of course!  We are hurting, and there is nothing you politicians are willing to do to make things right!  You say you are not going to negotiate, Harry Reid calls us anarchists, and Barbara Mikulski called us teabaggers. Why did you call for civility in the past, when this is how you treat us? America didn't want this law, and you rammed it down our throats anyway. We are paying a heavy price, and you all on The Hill and in the White House seem to have forgotten that you work for us, not the other way around!  If this law is so great, then why aren't you on it?

How much more must we suffer?

Danielle D. Hollars

The story of an American Patriot...

So back around Memorial Day of this year, while my husband and I were shopping at our local Giant, we ran into an elderly man who was wearing one of those black hats with his war service stitched on the front. I walked over to him to shake his hand and tell him thank you for his service, when I realized that his man's generation will soon be gone forever.  His name is MSG. (R) Howard W. Wickert, and I will forever be proud to have shaken his hand.  He took the time to speak with me for about 25 minutes for a phone interview recently.  This is his story:

Mr. Wickert was born on September 24, 1923, in West Point, Nebraska. There were 9 children born to Penrose Wickert, and Clara Moody, Mr. Wickert's parents. Six boys and three girls. One child, Marvin, died at the young age of 1 1/2.  Howard and the rest of his siblings grew up during a time when the balance of the world teetered on the head of a pin.  Hitler was rising to power, and the world would soon know the atrocities of the death camps in Europe.  Howard and his brothers Lloyd, Irvin and Arnold, all left for the military to serve during World War II. Their brother Richard tried to join, but was not medically cleared because of a leg injury.  

While neither their father, mother, nor sisters served in the military, an uncle, Sam served during WWI. So with the horrible attack of Pearl Harbor not far from their memory, on October 9, 1942 Howard and his brother Lloyd both enlisted.  Irvin enlisted in November 1942, and Arnold enlisted January 1943.  All brothers served during WWII, and all returned home.    



Mr. Wickert continued his service, and was eventually assigned to the USS Bataan (CVL-29) in the Yellow Sea during the Korean War (June 1953). While there, the carrier would carry out missions and drop napalm on the North Korean soldiers, and in one particular incident, were helping a company that was surrounded by NK soldiers.  They were out for 15 days at a time, at the 38th parallel, and would be relieved by part of the Royal Australian Navy to refuel and resupply so there was always someone there for cover support.



Howard returned home shortly after the Armistice was signed that effectively ended the fighting in North Korea and South Korea. He stayed in the Marines, and retired a Master Sergeant in 1969 after 26 years of service.  Lloyd Wickert went on to continue service as well, going on to serve during the Korean War, where he was awarded the Bronze Star, and then served in Vietnam.  Lloyd recently passed away at the age of 92.  Arnold, Richard, Evaline, and Grace are all deceased.  Mr. Wickert's siblings Irvin who is now 91, and Dorothy Fenske (née) Wickert, 80, are still alive as well.

Mr. Wickert met a lady named Margaret Wickert (née) Peters while he was stationed at the Naval Air Station in Oakland, California. Margaret happened to also have an uncle that served during WWI in Germany. Soon after meeting they were married on April 4, 1948.  This year they celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary!  They were blessed with two sons, Howard (64), and Michael (58).

I have always made it a point to reach out and personally thank a veteran or service member, especially the older generations, by shaking their hands. Their honor and sacrifice is something that can rarely be matched. The men and women that lived and served between The Great Depression and the Korean War were called "The Greatest Generation", not because of fortune or fame, but because they sacrificed everything to fight evil, to keep this world safe. Mr.Wickert and those of his generation, have a caliber that I think we as a nation have lost for the most part. Young men who were 16 and 17 years old were lying about their age to enlist back then. There was a sense of shame and failure if you did not at least try to go and fight.  Today many in that same young age group are too busy playing Grand Theft Auto and not caring about history, past or present.  

I asked Mr. Wickert what drove him and his brothers to enlist.  This was his answer.  "We were at war.  We had been attacked at Pearl Harbor, and we wanted to help. We all enlisted. One brother, Richard, could not serve because of a leg injury." 

"We were at war" still rings in my head today.  We now face a new type of enemy where there are no front lines, and the cost is more than we could have imagined.  I pray for Mr. Wickert and his family, and those of his generation.  We can only hope to measure up to what they laid down for us, and we must be willing to give our all if it means freedom for the next generations.  

So next time you see a veteran, esp. one that is of that great generation, please go and shake their hands and tell them two simple words: Thank You!

                                                  Great history of the USS Bataan