Washington Post: SEAL killed in copter crash had northern Va. links, remembered as man of faith

Aug 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This is a touching story of a hero who lost his life serving our country and the heroic family he left behind. We must and will be forever grateful and by the side of his young children as they grow up without their father. Fortunately, they will have their wonderful mother, family and a grateful nation supporting them.

SEAL killed in copter crash had northern Va. links, remembered as man of faith

The Washington Post

By Associated Press

August 9, 2011

BURKE, Va. — Kimberly Vaughn was a Washington Redskins cheerleader when she first met her husband on a USO tour in Guam. She wasn’t accustomed to approaching men, but when she saw Aaron Vaughn she made the first move.

“Aaron’s hard to miss — 6-feet-4, beautiful guy,” Kimberly told WTTG, the Fox affiliate in Washington, from her parents’ home in Burke, Va., where she was when she learned her husband was one of the 30 U.S. troops, including 22 Navy SEALS, killed Saturday in a helicopter crash in eastern Afghanistan.

Aaron Carson Vaughn was a man of deep faith, insisting to his family that he didn’t fear his job as a Navy SEAL “because he knew where he was going” when he died, his grandmother said.

“Aaron was a Christian and he’s with Jesus today,” Geneva Vaughn of Union City, Tenn., told The Associated Press on Saturday. “He told us when we saw him last November that he wasn’t afraid … he said, ‘Granny, don’t worry about me.’”

“He was a tough warrior, but he was a gentle man.”

Kimberly said she talked with her husband about the dangers inherent in his job, but she usually tried to put it out of her mind.

“You could sit there and worry yourself to pieces, thinking that they’re constantly going to get hurt,” Kimberly said. Aaron believed that “his time, if it were to come early, that it was meant to be. Aaron wouldn’t have wanted to leave this earth any other way than the way he did, and that’s laying down his life serving his country.”

Click here to continue reading

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: ,

Virginia’s Military Families Deserve Better

Jul 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I commend Senator Warner for bi-partisan efforts to bring needed attention to this important issue affecting our military families.  It is unacceptable and deeply troubling that Virginia’s military families are forced to send their children to failing schools.  While our men and women in uniform defend our freedom overseas, we have an obligation to ensure their children receive the highest quality of education worthy of their tremendous sacrifice.  As part of my Blueprint for America’s Comeback, I’m proposing the School Modernization and Revitalization Tax Credit (SMART Credit) to renovate and improve old, deteriorating school buildings and create a learning environment where young minds can reach the fullest potential.  I believe it could be made to work to right this wrong.

Warner: Fix failing military-base schools

Richmond Times Dispatch

By Wesley Hester

July 18, 2011

Prompted by an investigation revealing that military-base schools across the country are falling apart, U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., and a bipartisan group of colleagues are asking new Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to make the issue a top priority.

According to the investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, 75 percent of Defense Department-run schools on military installations are either beyond repair or would require extensive renovation to meet minimum standards for safety, quality, accessibility and design.

The Pentagon has placed 39 percent of its 194 schools in the worst category of “failing,” which means it costs more to renovate than replace them, reports to Congress show. An additional 37 percent are classified in “poor” physical shape, which could require either replacement or expensive renovations to meet standards, the study shows.

Some schools have tainted water and fouled air; others are so overcrowded that teachers improvise, holding class in hallways, supply closets, and in one instance, working in a boiler room. Leaks and mold are common. And outdated? One school in Germany was built by the Nazis.

“It makes no sense that American taxpayers are building schools in Afghanistan while these schools are falling apart here at home,” Warner said Friday. “Our military men and women and their families deserve better than this.”

Click Here to continue reading

Filed Under: Blog, Issues Tagged With: ,

Happy Independence Day

Jul 4, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As Virginians and Americans, we have so much to celebrate and be thankful for on this Independence Day.  Our heritage as a nation began right here on the soil of the Commonwealth of Virginia. 

The wisdom of Thomas Jefferson gave us the Declaration of Independence, and defined for America the founding principles of our nation and the inalienable rights of all human beings.  Those principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are as true today as they were 235 years ago. 

As we reflect on the enduring inspiration of our Founding Fathers, we remember their struggle to be free and the promise that it holds.  It is our responsibility as Americans to ensure that our nation continues to be a beacon of freedom for generations to come. 

Thank you to our brave troops fighting overseas to preserve the freedoms and opportunities that we cherish here at home.  Stand strong for freedom.  God bless America.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , , ,

Virginia’s U.S. Senators Need to Keep the Carrier in Norfolk

Jun 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Virginia’s U.S. Senators must do everything in their power to keep our Navy’s aircraft carrier in Norfolk.  Our military families in Hampton Roads depend on the thousands of jobs that these carriers provide.  Upgrading the base in Mayport, FL to handle nuclear carriers is a waste of taxpayer money.  We need to be compensating our troops and ensuring they have all the resources they need to defend our country, not wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on unnecessary, political expenditures.

Congressman Chide Va. Senator Over Carrier Move

By Bill Bartel

The Virginian-Pilot

June 28, 2011

Hampton Roads’ four congressmen don’t think Virginia’s two senators are doing enough to block the Navy’s plans to move a Norfolk-based aircraft carrier to Mayport, Fla.

The four House members recently sent a letter expressing concern that while the House’s approved 2012 defense budget specifically prohibits spending money to prepare the Florida naval station to base a nuclear carrier, a proposed Senate budget does not.

The Senate version, which was approved by the chamber’s Armed Services Committee this month and is headed to the full body, includes $15 million for Mayport improvements in advance of the proposed 2019 carrier relocation. The total cost of a carrier move is expected to be hundreds of millions of dollars.

Navy officials, with the support of Florida’s congressional delegation, have been working to establish a second East Coast homeport for nuclear-powered carriers at the base near Jacksonville, arguing that dispersing the carrier fleet would protect it from natural disasters and terrorist attacks.

The prospect of losing a carrier has sparked strong objections from state and local leaders. Economists have estimated it would cost Hampton Roads about 6,000 jobs and about $425 million in annual revenue.

Local lawmakers also are concerned that Hampton Roads might eventually lose two carriers to Florida if Mayport is converted to a nuclear base.

The congressmen wrote in a letter dated Friday to Sens. Jim Webb and Mark Warner that they “were surprised to see no attempt to eliminate funds for the Navy’s unnecessary and low priority plans for Naval Station Mayport.” The document was sent by three Republicans – U.S. Reps. Randy Forbes of Chesapeake, Scott Rigell of Virginia Beach and Rob Wittman of Westmoreland County – and one Democrat, Bobby Scott of Newport News. Warner and Webb are Democrats.

Forbes said Monday he was disappointed that Webb, a member of Senate Armed Services, didn’t ask the committee to add the Mayport spending prohibition during its review of the bill.

“The purpose of our letter is to say when this bill comes to full floor, at least do something,” Forbes said, adding that it will be more difficult to make the change during the Senate debate.

“The senators missed an opportunity,” Rigell said Monday. “It should have been stopped at the earliest possible moment.”

Spokespersons for Webb and Warner said the senators have worked hard to block plans to move a carrier.

Click Here to continue reading

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , ,

67th anniversary of D-Day

Jun 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Today, on the 67th anniversary of the D-Day landing, let us pay tribute to the men who made a stand in the fight for freedom on the beaches of Normandy, France. The bravery, sacrifice and leadership of our armed services protected our country from the tyranny of evil and helped bring an end to World War II. Americans, Europeans and our other allies are beneficiaries of the blessings of liberty and freedom for which over 2,000 American soldiers gave their lives to protect on June 6, 1944. The legacy of the greatest generation will continue to inspire and motivate future generations if we resolve to always remember what they did.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , ,

Memorial Day

May 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Our hearts are eternally grateful for our heroes, the men and women of our armed services, who lost their lives to keep our Nation sovereign, free and prosperous.   As President Reagan said “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”  Today we remember and have our flags flying for those who sacrificed their all in the defense and advancement of liberty and thank God for them, and their families.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , , ,

Arlington National Cemetery

May 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

On this Memorial Day weekend visiting Arlington, I’m gratefully thinking of the US and British armed forces who liberated my mother and her family in Tunisia from the Nazi’s in WW2, all our heroes who have lost their lives in the defense and advancement of liberty, and specifically Major Charles Ransom, Jason Redifer, Colin Wolfe, ‘Salty’ Watkins, and Chic Burlingame.

Our hearts are grateful for their families, who sacrificed for our country, too.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: ,

What Obama did to Israel

May 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

President Obama’s policies have undermined Israel’s ability to negotiate and risked the national security and interests of our democratic, longtime ally. The people of America and Israel share a unity of purpose, and the same values and vision. Our country should be standing up to the terrorist organization of Hamas, not undercutting the position of a reliable friend and partner in the Middle East. Mr. Krauthammer provides an insightful analysis.

What Obama did to Israel

The Washington Post

By Charles Krauthammer

May 26, 2011

Every Arab-Israeli negotiation contains a fundamental asymmetry: Israel gives up land, which is tangible; the Arabs make promises, which are ephemeral. The long-standing American solution has been to nonetheless urge Israel to take risks for peace while America balances things by giving assurances of U.S. support for Israel’s security and diplomatic needs.

It’s on the basis of such solemn assurances that Israel undertook, for example, the Gaza withdrawal. In order to mitigate this risk, President George W. Bush gave a written commitment that America supported Israel absorbing major settlement blocs in any peace agreement, opposed any return to the 1967 lines and stood firm against the so-called Palestinian right of return to Israel.

For 21 / 2 years, the Obama administration has refused to recognize and reaffirm these assurances. Then last week in his State Department speech, President Obama definitively trashed them. He declared that the Arab-Israeli conflict should indeed be resolved along “the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps.”

Nothing new here, said Obama three days later. “By definition, it means that the parties themselves — Israelis and Palestinians — will negotiate a border that is different” from 1967.

It means nothing of the sort. “Mutually” means both parties have to agree. And if one side doesn’t? Then, by definition, you’re back to the 1967 lines.

Nor is this merely a theoretical proposition. Three times the Palestinians have been offered exactly that formula, 1967 plus swaps — at Camp David 2000, Taba 2001, and the 2008 Olmert-Abbas negotiations. Every time, the Palestinians said no and walked away.

And that remains their position today: The 1967 lines. Period. Indeed, in September the Palestinians are going to the United Nations to get the world to ratify precisely that — a Palestinian state on the ’67 lines. No swaps.

Note how Obama has undermined Israel’s negotiating position. He is demanding that Israel go into peace talks having already forfeited its claim to the territory won in the ’67 war — its only bargaining chip. Remember: That ’67 line runs right through Jerusalem. Thus the starting point of negotiations would be that the Western Wall and even Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter are Palestinian — alien territory for which Israel must now bargain.

Click Here to continue reading

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With:

Does Tim Kaine Stand with President Obama or Israel?

May 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

May 20, 2011

Does Tim Kaine Stand with President Obama or Israel?

Richmond, VA – George Allen released the following statement regarding President Obama’s calls for Israel to return to its pre-1967 borders:

“President Obama’s call for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations with Israel forfeiting her lands and returning to borders of pre-1967 represents a dangerous shift in U.S. policy concerning Israel.  This proposal would risk the lives of the men, women and children of Israel.  In this unsettled region, Israel’s democracy is a well-spring in the wilderness.   The United States should stand with our ally — not undermine Israel’s ability to negotiate or put its national security at risk.  Virginia and America have a strong, historic friendship with Israel.  Virginians deserve an answer to the question:  does Tim Kaine agree with President Obama undermining the security of our friend and ally, the State of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East?”

###

Filed Under: Issues, Press Tagged With: , ,

The George Allen Record – Immigration – May 18, 2006

May 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

On May 18, 2006, George Allen supported an amendment that would ensure that illegal immigrants could not claim Social Security benefits for work done illegally in the United States.  The amendment failed in the Senate by a single vote.

“I have said throughout this debate that we should not reward illegal behavior and this includes allowing individuals who used fraudulent identification or Social Security information to then receive Social Security benefits,” Allen said in a statement. “I was supportive of [the amendment] and I will support other efforts in Congress to strengthen our security and ensure that only individuals with legal status receive Social Security benefits. If anyone who is here illegally desires the benefits of citizenship they should become citizens legally.”

George Allen went on to vote against the 2006 Immigration Reform Bill that would have extended amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants.  Allen is strong believer that we are both a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws and both ideals can be achieved in a compassionate, appropriate and effective way.  The first priority is to secure the border — a country that cannot control its own borders cannot control its destiny; and second, the nation should never reward illegal behavior – rewarding illegal behavior through amnesty, citizenship or other benefits produces more illegal behavior.

 

Filed Under: Issues Tagged With: , , ,
« Older Posts