Qualifying for the US Open is known as ‘the longest day’ in golf because you have to play 36 holes of competitive golf in one day. It is truly a test of stamina and nerves…
Mason Howell may not be done with high school, but he’ll be headed to the 2025 U.S. Open.
The 17-year-old high school junior from Georgia punched his ticket to the 125th edition of the PGA Tour major after magnificent play in the qualifiers.
“That was one of the greatest moments of my life,” Howell said after the event.
Kudos to him for taking the challenge and persevering!!! HERE is another link that shows all of the qualifiers and those (including the pros) that didn’t make it.
Even if he doesn’t make the cut, he will still have those memories at Oakmont to take with college with him in two years. And a helluva story for what he did this summer!
Bono is truly off his meds, or high on ‘something’…
U2 frontman and longtime global activist Bono took a swing at the Trump administration disbanding the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, blaming the cuts for a staggering 300,000 deaths.
And he was swiftly fact-checked by Rogan and Elon Musk in a takedown that lit up social media.
“This will f— you off,” Bono warned, claiming tens of thousands of tons of food are “rotting” in warehouses from Djibouti to Houston because of recent USAID cuts, and that the people who ran those warehouses have been fired.
His ‘data’ came from the hypotheticals from this study HERE. Now if you go look at their methodology, they seem to base it on WHO, UN, and various articles/models. I tried to ‘follow’ what they were doing, but it didn’t click for me…
So Bono took a ‘study’ that is nothing more than a ‘model’ of what ‘may’ happen and translated that into 300,000 deaths laid at Trump/Doge feet…
He seems to have cherry picked ‘which’ data he wanted to use. From Fox, HERE, is a fairly clear statement of what is going on and why.
I don’t think anybody actually believes that ALL of the USAid programs were good, and there is no question that the mission has ‘drifted’ from the original concept. That is one reason to realign it and put it under State, who has better controls and, IMHO, a better boots on the ground feel for what is necessary.
Now there was some truth in what he said, in that thousands of tons of food is missing/rotting in various places. We’ve mentioned before how you can go to the souks in the 3rd world and find US Aid food for sale, still in the original packages. It is also proven the warlords in Africa are known to wait until food/aid is delivered, then stealing it for their own use, leaving the natives to starve.
When the hurricane hit Puerto Rico a few years ago, the US Aid provided pallets of water, desperately needed by the locals. Two years later, that same water STILL sat in warehouses where it had been unloaded because there was never a distribution system set up to actually deliver it!
And who knows how much money has gone to organizations/people/countries that never got to the people it was supposed to help? I doubt we will ever know…
Back in the day, this was called ‘homesteading’, allowing people to extend tours, especially overseas or in areas with multiple bases in the same geographic area.
Military members should be moving less frequently for greater stability — and to save taxpayers’ dollars, according to defense officials who have set the process in motion for those reductions.
In a memo announced Wednesday, Pentagon officials ordered the military service branches to cut in half the amount of money they spend on permanent change-of-station, or PCS, moves by fiscal 2030. DOD spends about $5 billion a year on these moves, which include the physical moves of household goods as well as allowances and other entitlements related to moving.
Of course, after a few years, the complaints started coming from folks who ‘wanted’ to go to these locations from ‘less’ popular locations…
Or folks that needed one of those locations to put a check in the box for a particular billet that somebody had been camping in for 6, 8, or 10 years, going from E-6 to E-8/9 because those billets got extra rating points.
There are benefits, especially for family members who work and can get promoted, or have school aged kids who want to stay with their friends or graduate from a particular location.
I will admit it will be better than what has happened in the past where ships/squadrons changed homeport or bases while deployed forcing dependents to shoulder the entire responsibility for moving, selling a house, buying a house, moving the kids, getting multiple vehicles across country, etc.
If this succeeds (for now), I expect to start hearing grumbling in 5-6 years about camping on good billets, yada, yada, yada…
I moved 8 times in 20+ years, not counting deployments. I knew folks that were moving every two years on the average, and others who just bounced base to base to base (Mayport, NAS Jax, NAS Cecil) and lived in the same house for their entire careers.
The Justice Department on Thursday formally notified the American Bar Association that it will no longer comply with its ratings process for judicial nominees, the result of what it argues is a biased system and one that “invariably and demonstrably” favors nominees put forth by Democratic administrations.
The letter, sent by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to ABA President William R. Bay, was previewed exclusively to Fox News. It marks the latest escalation in a protracted legal fight that Republicans have waged against the nation’s largest association of legal workers.
It has been known for a long time that the ABA, in collusion with the Dems, were only passing nominees that met the Dems criteria, and any conservatives suddenly had ‘stuff’ that should have been buried being brought to light.
Of course the ABA always denied doing that, but it was amazing how bar records, etc. seemed to just pop out of nowhere…
Yeah, right…
And of course the questionnaires were always just a ‘bit’ slanted… But you couldn’t complain.
Well, now they don’t get access, and the playing field is now much more level!
Obviously a lot of the ‘kids’ today commenting on the latest SpaceX launch DO NOT remember or have not bothered to look at the history of the US space program…
The SpaceX team has shortened the build/test/shoot sequence an amazing amount, and continue to push the development envelope with every test. This time, they confirmed the ‘issues’ projected by modeling high angle booster return (didn’t work), and found more issues with leaks on the payload package.
In the old days, this would probably have been one test a year…
The streets around it do not betray what you are about to experience. The people who direct traffic are just that: men and women who tell people where they’re supposed to go and where they’re not supposed to go.
Upon entering the gates, parking your car, and walking into the Administration Building, you still don’t see indications of the true nature of this place. No, it’s only when you make your way down its tree-lined streets, trailing slowly behind the funeral coach that you begin to see some of what makes this place so special.
You notice the names that grace the street signs: names like Eisenhower and Halsey. You can’t escape the enormity of the simple white grave markers that file into the distance, the gardens of stone. The falling leaves of gold and red ride the wind across the fields of green and past the smaller signs, which read simply: “Silence and Respect.”
There are soldiers, in their dress uniforms, marching along the streets. As you wonder who they are or what they might be doing, you notice that their marching ceases. As the hearse that you follow slowly passes this group of anonymous soldiers, they stop, turn to face it and snap a salute, which they hold until the fallen one passes. Then they turn and resume their lives, their marching.
This happens again and again. No living soldier on this hallowed ground bursting with so many fallen soldiers allows a newly fallen one to pass without the show of proper respect. One wonders if this is a diversion from their other duties, or if this is their duty, and their marching simply a diversion.
As the procession slows, your attention is drawn to a group of eight soldiers standing some thirty yards away. Seven of these bear arms, one holds a sword. Another twenty yards from this group is a solitary soldier, right arm fixed in salute, a bugle in his left hand.
The cortege reaches its destination. It is met by another group of soldiers, these standing silently be-neath a large oak tree, its golden leaves bursting forth in a canopy of protection. There are seven soldiers, in their dress black pants and brilliant blue jackets with polished brass buttons and medals adorning each chest. Another soldier accompanies them, this one older, more distinguished, in the same uniform but with more medals and two shiny silver crosses on his lapels.
The rear door of the funeral coach is opened to reveal a flag-draped coffin. Silently, except for the tap of their polished shoes on the pavement, the group of seven makes its way to their fallen comrade. Mechanically, yet reverently, six of them retrieve the coffin from its temporary home in three precise movements. You sense that they see this as a rescue of sorts. They recognize this as a fallen comrade who is not yet at rest, and will not be so until they make it so.
With the fallen soldier safely in hand, the six escorts slowly march toward the hallowed ground that has been prepared to receive this one. When the flag-draped carrier is placed above its final resting-place, the six remove the flag and hold it above, tightly in their white-gloved hands, while the seventh, too, stands near. They all stand guard, at alert attention, over this grave as if it holds their commander.
Who are these men-boys really? They are so young, so unfamiliar, and yet they seem so affected by their task, as if they are fortunate to have the duty of this honor. History tells us they are members of The Third United States Infantry Regiment, the famed “Old Guard,” one of the oldest and most respected Infantry Regiments in the United States Army. Perhaps they are chosen for their ability to respect, or more likely, their solemnity is earned through their duty.
The older soldier with the crosses on his lapel, the chaplain, steps forward and says words chosen to comfort. He speaks from the heart, not from notes. He sees it as his duty, as his responsibility to speak of the fallen one as someone he knew. He doesn’t pretend that he did, he simply knows their character because of those who sit before him and because of the right they’ve earned to be in this sacred place.
After a few words, the soldier in the distance who holds the silver sword directs his charges to honor the fallen one with the ultimate military salute. On his command the remaining seven present their arms and each fires simultaneously. This action is repeated twice, comprising a salute of twenty-one guns, though not considered an official twenty-one gun salute, this reserved for fallen Commanders-in Chief.
This practice of firing volleys over the grave originated on the battlefields of yesterday. Fighting would cease while each army cleared away its fallen. After the dead had been removed and cared for, each army would fire three volleys to signal that the fighting could resume-an odd sort of respect on a field of conflict. On this hallowed ground, it strikes you that these volleys symbolize the opposite: this gunfire signals that the dead is again cared for but, for them, the end of all fighting.
As quickly as the sound of gunfire came, it retreats, now replaced with the mournful strains of that most familiar of military melodies, “Taps.”
Day is done, gone the sun,
From the lake, from the hills, from the sky.
All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.
As silence again fills the chilly air, the six who watch over the grave solemnly, without even blinking, barely breathing, snap the flag taut while reverently folding it into the triangle of blue and white stars. This takes a few minutes, not because they are unfamiliar with the process, but because they intimately know not only the how of what they are doing but also with the why. This flag represents the nation, as does any other American flag, but this one has graced the coffin of a fallen hero, and just as significant as that is to the defense of the country, it’s even more important for the family member to whom it will be presented. To him or her, the flag not only graced the coffin of a fallen hero, it graced the coffin of a fallen loved one.
The flag is presented by one of the six soldiers to the seventh who has stood watch on their service. He then presents it to the chaplain, who has the honor and the duty to present the flag to the fallen one’s next-of-kin. “This flag is presented on behalf of the President of the United States, and a grateful nation, as a token of appreciation for the honorable and faithful service rendered by your loved one.”
He then presents the Lady of Arlington, one of about sixty volunteers who attend every funeral that occurs in this sacred place. No one worthy of this place should be buried alone. That was the genesis of Arlington’s Ladies. This Lady, escorted by yet another member of the Old Guard, represents the leadership of the branch of service in which the fallen one served. She speaks a few words of comfort to the family and then presents a letter of appreciation and condolence.
As the service ends, the fallen one having found their final resting-place, the family returns to their cars. As they depart they are honored with one more long slow salute from each of the soldiers, all of whom now line the street. The family will attempt to return to life, these fine members of America’s Old Guard will return to their duty of honoring America’s fallen. Paths will likely never cross again, but that’s alright. We’re better for knowing that they were there for us, that they’ll be there for others.
The history of the cemetery tells us that “since 1864, when the first coffin was interred, more than 200,000 burials have taken place in the more than 600 acres of land devoted to America’s honored dead. Privates and generals, astronauts and presidents, civilians with military service or relationships are all ranked in row upon row in the manicured lawns. By the year 2021 the cemetery will be full and the burial ground will be designated a national shrine.”
This fine line of legalese will change nothing for the families of those whose loved ones rest here. What began as hallowed ground is now made even more so by the presence of their mothers, their fathers, their sons and daughters.
Then good night, peaceful night,
Till the light of the dawn shineth bright,
God is near, do not fear — Friend, good night
Hand Salute!
Ready…two.
The above was written following the burial at Arlington National Cemetery, close to the corner of Eisenhower and York, of Joseph S. Bonsall, and later, Lillie M. Bonsall. The author is a friend of their son, Joseph S. Bonsall, author of G.I. Joe & Lillie, the book and the song of his father and mother. Joseph “Joey” Bonsall is best known as a member of the Oak Ridge Boys singing group.
Yes, I blurred it so you can’t see the names…
