Just as no one should be left behind, no one should ever be forgotten

I am posting this today with mixed emotions. Please know that while I still adhere to my stance on not discussing politics, I do feel that our government holds a huge responsibility in our country. We count on them and defer to them in times of crisis to make responsible, reasonable and well informed decisions. Being a paid public figure who sits in such positions is an awesome responsibility and certainly not one that I would want, so I certainly don't mean any disrespect with this post. I just feel that with their job there can not be any room for error. Just as our military is bound by a code of conduct much higher than any other organization in this country, shouldn't our government be held to the same standards? It is because of that immense weight we lie upon their shoulders that I'm torn between what I came across this morning.

On August 1st, 2013 U.S. Representative, Scott Rigell stood before the house and asked the speaker to bear with him for five minutes as he paid honor to the 32 American Heroes lost nearly two years earlier on August 6, 2011 during Extortion 17. Please know that the number 32 referenced above is not an error or typo on my part. That is the number he mentioned twice during his five minute speech. Then he listed the names of those American Heroes, going through the Navy, Army and Air Force personnel until all 30 names were read. Once again, when I wrote 30, that was not an error. If we are counting only American casualties, from Extortion 17 alone, the number would be 30, plus 1 military working dog named, Bart. To read the entire record for that day, please click HERE.

The faces of the 30 American heroes lost in Extortion 17 on August 6, 2011

Please know that I believe Mr. Rigell's intention to be pure of heart and obviously his assistant or whoever slipped him the little piece of paper gave him wrong information. However, I can't help but wonder how quickly someone in the military would be reprimanded (severely) if they made even the slightest error on a mission. Regardless, I will digress as I am neither judge, nor jury. My biggest bone of contention with this is that sadly we lose countless lives every week, month and year and these names do not get mentioned. They do not take five minutes out of their sessions to read their names. My question is why? Now, to the people who are saying to me right now, "but, it was the greatest loss of life for NSW (Naval Special Warfare) in a single day since Operation Red Wings in 2005" I completely agree with you and can't tell you how much my heart hurts for the families that lost loved ones that day. 

Marine Sgt. Daniel J. Patron

However, how many know that on that same day, of the same year, we also lost a Marine? Marine Sgt. Daniel J. Patron was 26 years old and from Canton, OH. He died in Helmand Province, Afghanistan while attempting to disarm a roadside bomb. We've all heard the names of the 31 heroes (including Bart) that were killed during Extortion 17, but how many of you can honestly say they've heard of Marine Sgt. Patron? Did you know that he has a highway which has been dedicated to him? Did you also know that after serving two tours in Iraq in 2005 and 2009 that he voluntarily extended his service? When he was killed, he only had three months left on his tour. In November he would have been home. Home with his family.

Every day on Honor Them the names and faces of the our fallen heroes are shared with everyone who wishes to take a moment to say thank you for the tremendous sacrifice these heroes have made for our country and us. In light of Mr. Rigell's five minutes wishing to pay remembrance to those American heroes lost, I can't help but feel that an injustice has been done to the other families who also grieve on this day. So, please, if you would, join me in a moment of silence while I list the other names that were not mentioned and who lost their lives on August 6th during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation New Dawn.

Army Spc. Zeferino E. Colunga KIA 2003-08-06

Army Pvt. Kyle C. Gilbert KIA 2003-08-06

Army Staff Sgt. Brian R. Hellermann KIA 2003-08-06

Army Sgt. Leonard D. Simmons KIA 2003-08-06

Marine Cpl. Roberto Abad KIA 2004-08-06

Army Spc. Joshua I. Bunch KIA 2004-08-06

Marine Lance Cpl. Larry L. Wells KIA 2004-08-06

Marine Lance Cpl. Chase J. Comley KIA 2005-08-06

Army Sgt. Brahim J. Jeffcoat KIA 2005-08-06

Army Spc. Kurt E. Krout KIA 2005-08-06

Army Sgt. Carlton A. Clark KIA 2006-08-06

Army Staff Sgt. Tracy L. Melvin KIA 2006-08-06

Army Staff Sgt. Stephen A. Seale KIA 2006-08-06

Army Cpl. Jose Zamora KIA 2006-08-06

Army Cpl. Juan M. Alcantara KIA 2007-08-06

Army Sgt. Nicholas A. Gummersall KIA 2007-08-06

Army Cpl. Kareem R. Khan KIA 2007-08-06

Army Spc. Christopher T. Neiberger KIA 2007-08-06  

Army Staff Sgt. Jacob M. Thompson KIA 2007-08-06

Marine Lance Cpl. James D. Argentine KIA 2009-08-06

Marine Lance Cpl. Travis T. Babine KIA 2009-08-06

Marine Sgt. Jay M. Hoskins KIA 2009-08-06

Marine Cpl. Christian Guzman Rivera KIA 2009-08-06

Marine Cpl. Daniel L. Linnabary II KIA 2012-08-06

My final thought is more of a question for Mr. Rigell and every other politician who serves in such an important capacity for our country. I ask you to not forget the sacrifice paid by so many others. We have lost thousands upon thousands of heroes since the global war on terror began. Not just 30, or even 32. I ask you to please make note of every loss of life, not just the ones lost in certain tragedies. It should never be about the number of lives lost. The person who was lost should be what matters the most. 

Since Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation New Dawn has began (and at the time of this post), U.S. Central Command has confirmed 6,714 deaths as the result of these conflicts. They were fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, they were husbands and wives. And more importantly, they were heroes. They served our great nation valiantly, they put duty before self. 

Quite simply, they gave their today, for our tomorrows. 

Let us not forget any one of them.

With respect, and immense gratitude. I thank you for your time in reading this message.
~ Amanda HONOR THEM! 

Has honor and integrity taken a back seat? You be the judge

When I started my mission to Honor Them over 2 years ago, it was a personal one. While I admittedly was still trying to find my niche in how to accomplish this, I knew one thing above all else, Honor would be the prime focus. While I may have begun on Twitter, I soon branched out into Facebook and began this blog. My mission may have begun as a personal one, but not too long after I had people joining me in my endeavors. After some time it didn’t just become important to me, but became a part of who I am. That is why not a day will go by that I will not Honor the sacrifice paid by so many. This brings me to the purpose of this post.

There are some who sadly have chosen to use the death of our heroes for their own ill gotten gains. It’s really become an epidemic in today’s society. As unbelievable as it may seem, there are those who are worse offenders than others. Please, before you read on, I ask you all to consider the fact that I don’t normally call out any company and/or organization. In fact, I’ve never done so. I stick to my mission and ensure the families of the fallen are taken into consideration in all my efforts. Respect for them and all that they've endured is very important to me. However, there is one company who as I understand it, hasn’t done this in the past and my fear is they are repeating the same patterns.

Below you will see some information along with screen shots (please forgive the haziness of the images as I blew them up for ease of reading), which points to a pattern of behavior. It, in my opinion, not only appears to be dis-honorable, but calls into question this company’s true intentions. I’ve chosen to post this on my blog because the owner of this company either ignores or deletes anyone’s comments (on Facebook) who attempt to make an inquiry into the questionable activity. Furthermore, this company usually blocks those inquiring immediately after. So, I ask you to look at the information I’ve provided and draw your own conclusion.

First, as a matter of background, I contacted the publicist for the family of fallen US Navy SEAL, Lt. Michael Murphy and this is what she had to say:

As Publicist for the Family of LT Michael Murphy I was approached by John Stiener, the owner of Infidel USA on July 23, 2011 proposing a Murph The Protector t-shirt with ALL proceeds benefitting Michael’s Foundation.  By all accounts the shirt was a hit, but I would never know exactly because I was never given the sales figures as to what exactly was sold as promised.  After endless emails, text messages and phone calls asking for his payment to the Foundation, of which there had been only a few, I threatened to sue Infidel USA.  That is when John’s Mom called and intervened on his behalf.  She felt that it was unfair that 100% of the proceeds go to that Foundation and that John should be entitled to some.  I explained to her that the agreement had been otherwise and that the memorial tee was bringing him new business. I further explained that it was an agreement that he presented. Also, I reminded her that he was promoting the tee the whole time as benefiting Michael’s Foundation when in fact only a few payments had been made. A year and a half later NO accounting of sales had been made available to me and as it appears from this that John was using all the Murph The Protector profits to expand his company. This is by his own admission in communications with me.  Regardless of John’s promises to the foundation, John’s mom made the following agreement with me. She asked that she be given one week and she would provide me with the amount of shirts sold and the rest of the money owed to the Foundation.  In addition would I allow one last print run of the shirt before I terminated the agreement.  I told her that I would not make a decision on the last print run until the monies were paid and the accounting of all sales was provided to me.  Approximately one week later payment was made for what I was told was the sale figures of all the Murph t-shirts. However, I have no way of knowing this to be accurate or not as I was not provided with an accounting of the sales as promised.  John and his Mom requested that they be allowed to go ahead with one final print run of the shirt and with that we would part ways.  I agreed, with the understanding that the accounting of sales would be forthcoming. As I previously mentioned this still has not happened.   John only paid the foundation for part of this final print run.  I of course sent him countless emails and text messages as well as tried to call and collect the money, but to no avail.  I was forced to reimburse Michael’s Foundation with my own money as I felt responsible for making such a poor business decision. 

You may ask why the above information is relevant. Well, I ask you to read on, as its relevance will soon become clear. 

 On February 7, 2013 Infidel USA came out with a new t-shirt. See the Facebook post introducing this shirt by clicking on this LINK (If for some reason that link becomes invalid because the post has been deleted. I will update this post with a screen shot of the link). The t-shirt depicted the name of US Navy SEAL, Chris Kyle who was recently killed. The company states in their post as well as on their website that 100% of the proceeds with benefit Craft International and FITCO Cares. On the surface this seems like a wonderful idea, and one that I normally would be backing 100%. However, because I am so adamantly against anyone (not including the families) profiting from someone else's death, I simply cannot stand behind an organization which has proven in the past to take money under the pretense of funds going to an organization and then not following through with that promise. Case in point, the below screen shots.

SCREEN SHOT A: In this screen shot, the publicist for the family of Lt. Michael Murphy clarifies any misleading comments made by Infidel USA by explaining that Infidel USA “did NOT give all the money to Michael’s Foundation as promised.” And further she asks a few questions, one of them being, will her comment remain. Please see the next screen shot.

SCREEN SHOT B: As you’ll see here, minutes later not only is her comment removed, but someone else asks if what she wrote is true. Please see the next screen shot.

SCREEN SHOT C: As you can see here, Infidel USA has responded with the comment “Of course not.” However, regardless of their prompt reply, you will see in SCREENSHOT D (below) that Infidel USA deleted the question, as well as their response. Also, it appears they deleted one which states they are working with FITCO and Craft International. 

 

SCREEN SHOT D: Comments referencing any question of misuse of funds have been deleted. You can tell this by the new comments appearing below where other’s comments once were.

 

 

 

 

All of this may not seem like too much cause for concern in some of your opinions. However, I was sent the below screen shot (SCREEN SHOT E) which raises all sorts of red flags for me personally. As someone who supports our military and their families I make it a habit to only give to companies who are truly helping the families of our fallen heroes. Please note the placement of this comment. It was only on the page for a short time and promptly deleted once the publicist for the Murphy family left her comment. In this comment by Infidel USA they claim to have multiple veterans that work for their company. They also claim to have “athletes that worked with Chris in Ramadi.” At which point Infidel USA goes onto explain that those who worked with Chris came to them with the idea to do something. 

SCREEN SHOT E

If what he states is true, then why delete it? Or, as a matter of interest, why delete so many other comments as well? If Infidel USA truly has veterans who worked along side Chris Kyle in Ramadi working for him who asked him to take on this project, then why remove it once question is raised? Further, why would Infidel USA block people who have only asked questions? After all, they are only questions. If in fact Infidel USA’s only motivation is to help the families of the fallen, why not simply address the issues and rebuild their company's reputation? 

These are all things which trouble me and make me wonder where the funds for this shirt will really go. However, to be fair, I must state, I have not personally approached the company. I have chosen not to do so because of the numerous people that have approached them to only receive no response and then be blocked. I further would like to state that I am merely a concerned citizen and also 100% civilian. I do what I do because I choose to and while I normally would 'vet' a charity/organization before I decide to endorse them, sadly I don’t feel confident that any correspondence by me asking questions to Infidel USA would be met with anything other than ignoring and blocking me. 

My only concern is that the family of Chris Kyle is taken care of and this isn't going to be a repeat of what transpired with the Murph t-shirt. Other than that, I have no skin in the game, so to speak. The main purpose of my post is to ask everyone to truly consider the organization they are giving their money to before they do so. Just because someone claims to be on the up and up, doesn’t always mean that they are. This could be said for countless companies or organizations.

Once again, and in closing, this blog post contains what I have witnessed and have been able to ascertain from the events unfolding on a public social networking site. My statements are my own and contain my opinion on a matter that is near and dear to my heart. I do not know without 100% certainty whether or not the allegations against Infidel USA are factual because as best I can tell they refuse to respond to them. Perhaps in the future they will work with the companies they state they support to ensure all funds go where they are promised. I also hope that Infidel USA will make good on their promises made to the Murphy Foundation. If they choose not to do either of these things, I am left with no other alternative but to question their motivations and intentions between making products of this nature and selling them under the guise of "giving back" to charities.