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Police-Fire Post 456 News

February 1, 2012
Greg Corrales

“We had to remind them that you don’t mess with American Marines”    

- Gunnery Sgt. Brian Blonder, who led his Marines in a fierce battle in Afghanistan in 2008, earning him a Navy Cross.

 

            Silvis, Ill., is a small town by the Mississippi River, just outside the Quad Cities area of Illinois and Iowa. With a population of about 10,000, most people know, or are acquainted with, the Soliz family of Hero Street, reports Laura Edwards in The American Legion Magazine.

            Immigrant workers from Mexico settled in Silvis in the early 1900s to work for the Rock Island Railroad Company. They were allowed to rent boxcars on Second Street, which they turned into living spaces for their community.

            Since the start of World War II, more than 100 residents of Second Street have volunteered to serve in the U.S. military, a statistic thought to be unmatched by any area of comparable size in the United States, and one that led to Second Street being renamed Hero Street, USA, by the city of Silvis in 1967.

            The Soliz family played a big part in building Hero Street. Margarito Soliz, a Korean War Army veteran, says that 14 of his relatives have served their country, and two of them are among the eight from Hero Street who made the ultimate sacrifice. Claro Soliz, Margarito’s uncle, was killed in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II, and Joe Gomez, a cousin, died during the Korean War. “Eighty percent (of residents) on the street were cousins somehow,” Margarito says.

            Veterans staged an “eat-in” at an Iraqi restaurant in Lowell, Mass., to show support for its immigrant owners after their place was vandalized. Around 50 veterans of WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq ate at the restaurant one evening recently in solidarity with the Al-Zubaydi family, who immigrated to the U.S. in 2010. Vietnam vet Patrick Scanlon coordinated the response to let the family know they were welcome in the community.

            The Department of Veterans Affairs will soon launch a new suicide prevention campaign that focuses on heading off potential suicide before it reaches the crisis point, and is asking the American Legion to help spread the word. The “It’s Your Call” campaign revolves around the formerly named National
Veterans Suicide Prevention Hotline (800 273-8255, press 1). The new name, the Veterans Crisis Line, establishes a unique identity and is designed to get veterans and their families to make a call for help long before suicide is considered.

            The rebranding is a national outreach effort to increase awareness and use of the Veterans Crisis Line and confidential online chat service; support and promote broader VA suicide prevention efforts; and promote help-seeking behaviors among veterans at risk of suicide and other mental-health problems. The American Legion has been actively involved with VA’s suicide prevention efforts, and now Legionnaires will have the opportunity to spread the word about the new campaign and the crisis line.

            The Tough Guy of the Week Award goes to former Marine George Hood (not to be confused with the former SFPD Officer with the same name) after surviving his recent grueling pain-a-thon to break the world record for longest plank. A plank is the core-crunching, back-breaking test of strength familiar to anyone who has ever lingered on the top end of a push-up.

            With sweat pouring off his body, Hood held his plank for one hour, 20 minutes, and 5.01 seconds. He beat the previous official record by 30 minutes. “The last five minutes was pretty brutal,” Hood told onlookers at his event shortly after collapsing. “It was one minute at a time trying to control the spasms and shaking.”

            Hood, a 54-year-old former Marine Corps officer, Naval Criminal Investigative Service detective, Drug Enforcement Administration special agent, and hired gun for a military contractor in Afghanistan, is a personal trainer in Illinois. He has broken four other Guinness world records, all feats of endurance, including riding more than 220 hours on a stationary bike in 2010.

            While serving with First Force Reconnaissance Company in Vietnam in 1968, I hounded the Company Gunnery Sergeant to allow me to attend Scuba School. At that time, almost all Force Recon Marines were parachute-qualified and scuba-qualified. Although a jumper, I was not scuba-qualified. The Company Gunny’s response was always the same, “When we start communicating underwater, I’ll send communicators to scuba school.” That is why I read with special interest a report in Marine Corps Times that, “The Marine Corps has fielded a new full-face mask to its most elite troops that is safer, easier to maintain and allows Marines to talk underwater.”

            Until now, Marines had to communicate underwater through hand signals and alternative means. Now, they can talk with one another as if they were on the surface. Called the Combat Divers Full Facemask, it will be used by reconnaissance and special operations Marines for missions such as beach mapping and surveillance, and clandestine infiltration for “direct action.”

            Police-Fire Post 456 meets on the second Tuesday of every month at the Veterans War Memorial Building, 401 Van Ness Avenue, Room 212. Meetings are at 1800 hours and refreshments are served at the conclusion of business. Any veteran interested in joining should contact me at gc1207@comcast.net, or at the Airport Bureau, my new assignment.