Hello, I my name is Kevin M Bradley, and I am a Sergeant [E5] in the United States Army, currently stationed at Ft. Hood, TX. Below is the list of my duty stations thus far, as well as my deployments.

I came in the Army as a PFC (college is good sometimes), made Specialist on 01SEP95, and made Sergeant on 17NOV99. The awards I have earned so far:

I take being a soldier very seriously. And nothing upsets me more than someone who has never experienced what I have, telling me what's better for me. Just take a look at this Email, sent to me by my sister (who's husband served in the Army also)

"This is a letter written by an individual deployed to the desert to his Senator who voted against our pay raise. Quite a letter. It was forwarded to me by my daughter-in-law who is now deployed. Read on"
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MSgt Foster

Subject: FW: I have a question Mr. Senator

Dear Senator Voinovich,

Attached are some exerts from an AP news article dated 26 Feb, 1999.

As an 18 year military veteran I found the article enlightening. As I write this letter while deployed (again) to Saudi Arabia, I must admit that I am shocked, and appalled at your recent vote against the measly 4.8 percent pay raise for military members. I invite you to peruse the statements recorded by the AP as well as my response which follows.

AP NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Senate Votes To Boost Military Pay
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to give the nation's military the biggest benefits increase since the early 1980s, including an across-the-board 4.8 percent pay increase with further boosts in future years.The pay raise for the nation's 1.4 million active-duty military is half a percentage point more generous than one proposed earlier this month by President Clinton. It was approved 91-8. Republican leaders said they wanted the first Senate bill passed this year to telegraph support for U.S. troops, particularly in light of a possible new deployment to Kosovo - even if it wasn't known exactly how the package would be financed. "This is the right way to begin this year," said Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss. "It comes at a time when we're asking more and more of our military with less and less. It would be insanity for us not to do this bill, and do it now." The pay increase, which would take effect next Jan. 1 for the nation's 1.4 million active-duty military, is about half a percentage point higher than a military pay increase President Clinton proposed in the fiscal 2000 budget he submitted earlier this month.

Voting no on the final bill were five Democrats and three Republicans: Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.; Richard Durbin, D-Ill.; Russell Feingold, D-Wis.; Graham; Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.; Judd Gregg, R-N.H.; Don Nickles, R-Okla.; and George Voinovich, R-Ohio. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., did not vote.

The legislation would also:
-Provide a special subsistence bonus of $180 per month for needy military families who are forced to rely on food stamps. Between 8,000 and 16,000 U.S. military service members are receiving food stamps. Supporters cited low morale of troops, the difficulty the military has meeting recruitment goals and a disparity of pay between the military and civilian work force as reasons for the benefits package.

Unless you are planning on this being your last term in the senate, I cannot for the life of me figure out why you would attempt to undermine a much deserved although paltry 4.8 percent pay raise to military men and women that make sacrifices that you cannot even comprehend! As a registered Republican voter, born and reared in the Buckeye state, I have a few questions I would like to ask you.

1. When was the last time you spent months on end in some god forsaken country, separated from family and friends.

2. Has your service to the nation ever required you to go beyond 100 days without a real shower?

3. Has any of your senate duties required you to lie awake at night in a tent with a dozen other sweating senators, gagging at the wretched smell of oil well fires, and listening to desert winds beat your tent into submission?

4. Have you ever been neglected the basic freedoms most Americans take for granted? Have you ever forgotten what a real cheeseburger tastes like?
You are so quick to try and squash a pay raise that would still leave a large portion of military families below the poverty level in our nation. Please remind me again of the last time you voted and lobbied against a pay raise for yourself and fellow senators? Have you ever refused a pay increase to help balance the budget? I dare to compare the percentage of pay raises voted by senators for senators since my career began in 1981!

The AP article stated that between 8,000 and 16,000 military families are on food stamps. Even though I believe this to be a very conservative estimate, it is not a shame for hard working Americans to get much needed assistance.

The real shame is that thousands and thousands of military families are even eligible for food stamps but are too proud to accept a hand out! The majority of our military families require both parents to work, while the military member works an additional part time job just to make ends meet. I anxiously await the reunification with my family in mid March. The operations tempo and family separations are something I don't expect you to understand without experiencing it first hand. However, with your political pull I'm sure you could arrange to return to Saudi with me this November. The rotation in November will make it the third time in two years I've left my family to proudly support the country that I love. Yes Mr. Voinovich, we could spend Thanksgiving and Christmas together enjoying meals hard to identify by the appearance and taste. You could help me write a letter to my wife on our 19 anniversary in January. Possibly you could bring one of your speech writers and assist me with a letter to my twins explaining why dad had to miss yet another birthday, explaining it's for the good of our country. Before we go home Valentine's Day will roll around and by now maybe even you will be missing your family. I could help you make that hand made card expressing your longing to be with them again. After all I've had plenty of practice and I'm sure we could come up with something appropriate.

Should I reserve you a cot? Tent space can be a real premium during the holidays so you may want to make your reservations early. I'm sure I can round up a an extra flak vest and helmet for you. Even better yet, you can borrow my friend Billy Marshall's gear. He won't be needing it, however, he would sure like to have his left hand and leg back that he lost in an explosion while deployed over here. Look on the bright side, you will get an extra $3.50 per day, while it may not be what you're used to, it adds up after 120 days! I have a feeling that you would re-think your vote after our vacation together.

As I near the 20 year mark and become eligible for retirement. (I could speak awhile on the minimum of 20 years required to receive 40-50 percent of BASE pay for retirement) But then again with a senators eligibility and retirement plan you wouldn't know where I was coming from.)

It's political decisions like your recent voting record that drive me toward retirement and the pursuit of other areas of interest. With the thought of returning to Ohio as a civilian there is one thing that I will not throw the towel in on. My family and I will continue to vote our beliefs and convictions for the direction of our country. Mr. Voinovich you obviously have lost touch with your constituents and have decided to throw in the political towel yourself.
I have stood on the simple leadership philosophy "A LEADER KNOWS THE WAY, GOES THE WAY, AND SHOWS THE WAY!" You obviously do not know the way since you've never been there yourself. I do not see you volunteering to go any time soon, and you will never show the way to deficit reduction when voting down a deserving military raise and heaping bountiful blessings upon yourself.

I INVITE ALL PARTIES RECEIVING A COPY OF THIS LETTER TO MR. VOINOVICH TO GIVE IT THE WIDEST DISSEMINATION POSSIBLE. SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY, EVEN NEWSPAPERS. IN ALL FAIRNESS TO SENATOR VOINOVICH AND HIS FELLOW SENATORS I WILL ALSO FORWARD ANY RESPONSE I RECEIVE IN THEIR DEFENSE.

In closing I invite those of you with family and friends serving in the military to remember the eight senators voting no. Remember them when our brave men and women celebrate holidays away from their loved ones. Remember our senators when you hear of the growing peace keeping missions springing up around the world. But, above all else remember our senators when you go to the polls and vote!

Proud to Serve,

MSgt Rocky Dunlap
Chief, EOD Flight
Eskan Village, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

To Those Who Want To Burn the Flag
Just ask permission

Does the first Amendment gives us the right to desecrate the American flag?
Or is the flag a sacred symbol of our nation, deserving protection by law?
Tough call?

"The Solution"

For those who want to light Old Glory on fire, stomp all over it, or spit on it to make some sort of "statement," I say let them do it. But under one condition: they MUST get permission from three sponsors.

First, you need permission of a war veteran. Perhaps a Marine who fought at Iwo Jima?
The American flag was raised over Mount Surabachi upon the bodies of thousands of dead buddies. Each night spent on Iwo meant half of everyone you knew would be dead tomorrow, a coin flip away from a bloody end upon a patch of sand your mother couldn't find on a map. Or maybe ask a Vietnam vet who spent years tortured in a small, filthy cell unfit for a dog. Or a Korean War soldier who helped rescue half a nation from Communism, or a Desert Storm warrior who repulsed a bloody dictator from raping and pillaging an innocent country.
That flag represented your mother and father, your sister and brother, your friends, neighbors, and everyone at home.
I wonder what they would say if someone asked them permission to burn the American flag?

Next, you need a signature from an immigrant. Their brothers and sisters may still languish in their native land, often under tyranny, poverty and misery. Or maybe they died on the way here, never to touch our shores. Some have seen friends and family get tortured and murdered by their own government for daring to do things we take for granted every day.
For those who risked everything simply for the chance to become an American ... what kind of feelings do they have for the flag when they Pledge Allegiance the first time?
Go to a naturalization ceremony and see for yourself, the tears of pride, the thanks, the love and respect of this nation, as they finally embrace the American flag as their own.
Ask one of them if it would be OK to tear up the flag.

Last, you should get the signature of a mother. Not just any mother.
You need a mother of someone who gave their life for America. It doesn't even have to be from a war. It could be a cop. Or a fireman. Maybe a Secret Service or NSA agent. Then again, it could be a common foot soldier as well.
When that son or daughter is laid to rest, their family is given one gift by the American people; an American flag.
Go on. I dare you. Ask that mother to spit on her flag.

I wonder what the founding fathers thought of the American flag as they drafted the Declaration of Independence? They knew this act would drag young America into war with England, the greatest power on earth. They also knew failure meant more than just a disappointment. I meant a noose snugly stretched around their necks. But they needed a symbol,something to inspire the new nation. Something to represent the seriousness, the purpose and conviction that we held our new idea of individual freedom. Something worth living for. Something worth dying for.
I wonder how they'd feel if someone asked them permission to toss their flag in a mud puddle? Away from family, away from the precious shores of home, in the face of overwhelming odds and often in the face of death, the American flag inspires those who believe in the American dream, the American promise, the American vision...

Americans who don't appreciate the flag don't appreciate this nation.
And those who appreciate this nation appreciate the American flag.
Those who fought, fought for that flag.Those who died, died for that flag.
And those who love America love that flag. And defend it.

So if you want to desecrate the American flag, before you spit on it or before you burn it ... I have a simple request. Just ask permission. Not from the Constitution. Not from some obscure law. Not from the politicians or the pundits.
Instead, ask those who defended our nation so that we may be free today. Ask those who struggled to reach our shores so that they may join us in the American dream. And ask those who clutch a flag in place of their sacrificed sons and daughters, given to this nation so that others maybe free.
For we cannot ask permission from those who died wishing they could, just once ... or once again ... see, touch or kiss the flag that stands for our nation, the United States of America ... the greatest nation on earth.

If you like what you see, please go to my homepage and sign the guestbook. I would appreciate it!

music is a Patriotic Medley: America ~ Battle Hymn of the Republic ~ God Bless America
Sequenced by Don Carroll, Houston, TX