THE COUNTDOWN HAS BEGUN

FRIENDS MARY LOU and Dan are heading to Denver next week for a reunion with members of the Rattlers and Firebirds of Company A/501st Aviation Battalion, 71st Assault Helicopter Company, 151st Transportation Detachment, and the 94th Signal Detachment. These are the men who served in Vietnam from 1964 until 1971, moving from their original base at Bien Hoa to Chu Lai in 1967.

They served with Mary Lou's brother Capt. Herbert C. Crosby who was MIA until his remains were repatriated and laid to rest at Arlington a year ago.

The radio call signs “Rattler” and “Firebird” were used by their aircraft during their service in Vietnam. “Rattler” was used by the UH-1D & H helicopters that carried troops, supplies, ammunition, performed command and control, combat assault, medical evacuation and insertion/extraction missions, as well as many others. The call sign “Firebird” was used by the UH-1B, C & M gunships, some of the most feared gunships in all of Vietnam. Mary Lou created a website dedicated to Herby's service and a scholarship in his name. It is attached to the official Rattler-Firebird site.

At last year's Rattlers and Firebirds reunion, guest speaker was author and columnist Joe Galloway (We Were Soldiers... and Young). This year Col. Roger Donlon, the first Vietnam Medal of Honor recipient will take the dais.

"It’s going to be a very emotional and heart-warming experience that I’m so thankful to be a part of. I can’t believe it!" Mary Lou told us. Mary Lou and I traveled to Washington twice last year, first for her brother Herby's Memorial Day funeral service, and again in December to tour the Pentagon and place Christmas wreaths on the graves of our fallen at Arlington National Cemetery.

"I’m so blessed to have met these men who are all part of the 71^st AHC, some knew my brother and flew with him," she said. "They have taken me under their wings and made me one of them."

Mary Lou and Dan will be seated at the head table with Medal of Honor recipient Col. Roger Donlon and his wife Norma, and former Vietnam POW Jim Pfister.

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While Mary Lou and Dan are celebrating Herby's memory with his Vietnam brothers-in-arms, I'll be celebrating the efforts and accomplishments of our military men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan when the pro-troop organization Move America Forward launches the first-ever internet telethon this Thursday, June 26th.

"From the Frontlines", a live 8-hour, star-studded telethon will feature appearances by former First Lady Nancy Reagan, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Mark Levin, Joseph Farah, and so many more (including yours truly).

The Internet Telethon is a cutting edge production to be broadcast live online by UStream.tv and hosted by Melanie Morgan & Michelle Malkin. Live and taped reports will be broadcast from our troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan during this historic event.

This amazing team intends to accomplish a historic feat -- sending each and every military member in Iraq and Afghanistan a care package.

Between now and June 26th we're asking Americans to sponsor personalized care packages that we will then ship over as part of a mass shipment to our troops - just in time for the 4th of July holiday! To sponsor a care package for our troops - JUST CLICK HERE.

And so the countdown has begun. Seven days until we get underway at 4 p.m. ET. More details at Move America Forward's website. And a great write up about it at ThirdWaveDave's.

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O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us 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!

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