Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

Welcome to my little part of the Land of the Free, Because of the Brave Blog Hop. I hope you find a way to thank a veteran or many veterans today!

You should have arrived from  Judy's blog and you will go to Groovy Deb's blog next.

John M. Ferguson - Marine Corps Raider

The project I picked to do for this blog hop is a double page scrapbook layout about a man who served our country in the first elite fighting force of the United States Armed Forces - the Marine Corps Raiders. John Ferguson and his wife Avis were our dear neighbors at our last house.  They moved in behind us a year after we moved there and were our neighbors for eleven years. During those years they became our adopted parents.

Until I met John, I had never known about the Marine Raiders. They were only in force for two years during WWII, from 1942 until 1944.  There was controversy about having a group considered the "elite of the elite." In the article I used for my scrapbook page, it says there were about 5,000 Marine Raiders. In an article I found when I Googled Marine Raiders, it said around 8,000.  Either way, when you think of the millions of men who fought in that war, the Raiders were a small group.  Another reason for controversy, many of the men who were trained for this special force were found fighting right along the side Marines they would have fought along side, with or without the special training. So there were those who thought there was not a need to train special forces. That would not be true for John, he saw a lot of action where they sent Raiders in ahead of the rest. He was in a 3-man shooting group with  two men he trained with from the beginning. He spent most of his time with these two men during the war and on the wrong side of enemy lines more often than not. He did missions where just a handful of Marine Raiders would go in, get the information about where Japanese camps were set up, etc. and relay that information back. Then the Marines Corps troops came in with full force.

John is now one of just a hand full of Raiders still living. He is a part of what is called the Last Man Committee, which was formed by younger Marine. Since they were the youngest, they figured they would be ones to outlive the others.  John is 84 now and going stronger than we ever dreamed possible just four years ago, when his doctors gave him 2 to 3 days to live.  What the doctors did not know is they do not tell John when he is ready to die! He will decide that for himself!  He, "still had things at home that needed to be finished."  As he started doing better, a doctor came to talk to him about spending 30-45 days in the rehabilitation unit.  John told him he would stay 30 days. Then he needed to be home.  By staying that long, he would be home just in time for his and Avis' 60th wedding anniversary. They celebrated that anniversary, and on June 1, 2010, celebrated their 64th anniversary.

I am proud to call John my friend and my "other dad!"

Operation Comfort

The other night my husband told me he saved an episode of "Two Guys' Garage" for me to watch with him, because they were showing something he knew I would like.  He was right! They were showing a program that is part of "Operation Comfort" called "Automotivation." The Automotivation program provides a place for wounded veterans to learn about working on vehicles.  In the part they showed the other night, they were learning different welding techniques and making welding tables that would move up and down to be accessible from a wheelchair. It was the kind of show that made you count your blessings and not want to ever complain again. I had tears in my eyes for a lot of it. They were good tears though. I was happy for those veterans for not giving up hope and proud of the attitudes they had. I had written down the web site so I could look at it myself, and later thought of it again when I started to do this blog post.

Blog Hop Order

KarelJ at One By One The Flamingos Are Stealing My Sanity
Celeste at Touched By a Butterfly
Deb at Tidbit’s Place
Michelle at Peanut Butter and Jelly Designs
Jennifer at ScrappingYoung’s
Diane at Crafting This Moment
Judy at Be Present Be Real
Marianne at Life From Marianne’s Table        YOU ARE HERE
Deb at If It’s Groovy
Christel at One Scrappin’ Sista
Belinda at Queen Bee’s Musings
Colleen at Col’s Creative Corner
Summer and Jennifer at Cricut Diaries
Rachel at Suburban Crafter
Gina at Gina Thornton Stamping
Becky at Sew in Stitches
Rebecca at Creations With Becca
Bobbi Jo at Sweet Sassy Diva
Angie at Gypsy Paperie
Linda at The Tulip Collector

Lots of Blog Candy!

You have two chances to win prizes for completing the whole blog! The prizes have been donated just for this special cause, and come from the generous Marlo, who has donated a Scrap’NTote and Anne, from Paper Patch Craft, who has donated a  Spellbinders Nesties in the Crown Circle Shape.  We all thank them both so much! Without their participation this blog hop would not nearly as much for for the bloggers as it will be thanks to them!
The rules for entering are the same for both prizes: Hop along our path and leave a comment AND a way to contact you on each and every stop. On Friday, November 12, KarelJ will use random.org to choose the winners. She will email the winner and then tt is up to the winner to contact KarelJ at ksjennings(at)gmail(dot)com. If she has not been contacted by Monday, November 15, another winner will be chosen.

My Project


Here are the pages I did featuring John:



You can see I cut out the middle of the papers that were being used as frames, to be saved to use in other places in the project



Double Page Layout

Closer look at left page

Another Chance to Win

I will draw a number from random.org on Friday from the comments left on my blog You do not have to become a follower to win this candy. The winner will receive a little bit of red, white and blue blog candy as a part of their prize from me.


A peak at the Candy from my Blog - There will be something added to this.

 



















In Closing
Now, before you go, please leave a comment to let me know you were here, and then you can go check out what Groovy Deb has for you on her blog!


Thank you again for stopping by my blog!  Good luck as you hop around!  Above all today, REMEMBER, THANK, AND PRAY FOR THOSE SERVICE MEMBERS WHO HAVE MADE IT THE LAND OF THE FREE!!