Latest news with #NavySeabees
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Lima's Memorial Day parade draws thousands
May 26—LIMA — From the fighter jet flyover to the Abrams M1 tank rolling down North Main Street flanked by crowds waving U.S. flags, Monday's Memorial Day Parade in downtown Lima was a celebration of the U.S. military and those who served in it who made the ultimate sacrifice. Monday's parade included nearly 200 entries, according to organizer Aaron Poling, and according to early accounts after the parade, the number of attendees also saw a sharp rise this year. "We had about 14,500 people this year," he said. "Last year, we had about 10,000 people." Not only were veterans groups and agencies associated with military families represented, but other community agencies and organizations participated in Monday's parade, including law enforcement and other first responders, schools and area labor unions, with many participants tossing candy to the delight of younger spectators. Others passed out U.S. flags to spectators lining the streets to aid in promoting a spirit of patriotism at the gathering. One person receiving a flag was Norm Grigsby, a 96-year-old Lima native who served in the U.S. Navy from 1952 to 1956 during the Korean conflict. "I was actually affiliated with the Navy Seabees, the construction battalions," he said. "And I stayed in the reserves for about 20 years." While Grigsby said he did not personally get into any "hot spots," as he described them, he knew several people who lost their lives while serving, and he expressed appreciation for events like Monday's parade to commemorate the memory of those lost. "I think we should have more of this," he said. "I think we've got a country now that is really divided. We need more occasions like this to bring us together." Memorial Day observances continued after the parade with a wreath laying ceremony at the American Legion Post 96 as well as a hog roast celebration at the Social House at Lima's Central District. Featured Local Savings
Wall Street Journal
30-04-2025
- General
- Wall Street Journal
After Saigon Fell, My Family Rose
Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Black April was more than a historical marker; it's the root of my family's story. My Vietnamese mother fled South Vietnam seven days before the communists took over. My maternal grandmother escaped on one of the last C-130 aircrafts six days later. My father was a member of the Navy Seabees stationed in Da Nang before the Tet Offensive. Half a century later, this anniversary is a reminder of tragedy but also of triumph, a testament to what rises from ashes when freedom takes hold. I grew up hearing their stories: The Viet Cong dominated dinner table conversations. My father talked about jumping into a mortar pit full of scorpions and described sleeping on the roof so he would be the first to spot anything incoming. My mother recounted frantically packing five dresses and pretending to be engaged to an American family friend to secure her last-minute escape to a refugee camp in Guam.
Hindustan Times
30-04-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
After Saigon Fell, My Family Rose
Vietnamese refugees evacuated by helicopter arriving aboard the USS Midway during the fall of Saigon, April 29, marks the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Black April was more than a historical marker; it's the root of my family's story. My Vietnamese mother fled South Vietnam seven days before the communists took over. My maternal grandmother escaped on one of the last C-130 aircrafts six days later. My father was a member of the Navy Seabees stationed in Da Nang before the Tet Offensive. Half a century later, this anniversary is a reminder of tragedy but also of triumph, a testament to what rises from ashes when freedom takes hold. I grew up hearing their stories: The Viet Cong dominated dinner table conversations. My father talked about jumping into a mortar pit full of scorpions and described sleeping on the roof so he would be the first to spot anything incoming. My mother recounted frantically packing five dresses and pretending to be engaged to an American family friend to secure her last-minute escape to a refugee camp in Guam. The fall of Saigon was a tragedy—lives lost, a country fractured, families like mine clinging to helicopters or braving the seas. Their exodus reminds us of the lengths people will go to escape the scourge of communism and build something from nothing. Look at Little Saigon in Westminster, Calif.—the largest Vietnamese population outside Vietnam—or at Eden Center in Falls Church, Va. These are hubs of small businesses born from resilience and extraordinary tenacity. More than 300,000 businesses in the U.S. are owned by Vietnamese-Americans, including the billion-dollar company that makes Sriracha hot sauce. Fifty-five percent of U.S.-born Vietnamese-Americans hold bachelor's degrees or higher, well above the national average of 38%. Young Americans today have known peace for decades. But from Saigon to Kabul, we've seen how freedom's promise can vanish in an instant. With distance comes danger: the fading of memory. On this anniversary, we must remember that the gifts of the U.S. are fragile, precious and worth defending. Americans' most powerful adversary is now communist China—the same regime that bankrolled and armed the Viet Cong—and we face a different kind of battlefield. National power is no longer measured by military strength alone. It's exercised through economic leverage, technological dominance and strategic investment. Our freedom is being tested not only in war rooms but in boardrooms. It's being shaped not only by soldiers but by the choices of everyday social-media users. So how do we preserve it? Can we give up TikTok, knowing its ties to a totalitarian regime? Will we invest in building the next generation of trusted technology—designed not only to win markets but to uphold freedom? My father often repeated a simple Seabee motto: 'Can Do.' Fifty years after Black April, as new threats challenge liberty, that same spirit must guide Americans to meet this moment. Ms. Giuda is CEO of the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue. She served as assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, 2018-20.
Chicago Tribune
10-02-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Column: Don't forget the ‘Riviera of the Midwest' when doling out cash
If President Donald Trump wants to spend trillions turning Gaza into the 'Riviera of the Middle East,' there's the 'Riviera of the Midwest' that needs some tending. A good billion dollars should be enough to transform empty lots and fallow fields along Lake County's shoreline into a flashy mecca. That is if Trump is serious about the U.S. taking over the Gaza Strip and turning it into a resort destination for the rich and famous as he suggested last week at the White House while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who backs the proposal, stood nearby. Trump also suggested American troops might be needed if the U.S. wants to use the 141-square-mile territory for development. After the president — known for his building skills in numerous regions across the globe prior to his presidential terms — floated this trial balloon, members of his administration have spelled out there is no true commitment to putting U.S. troops, possibly battalions of Army engineers or Navy Seabees, in Gaza to remove Palestinians and raze the uninhabitable rubble left from repeated Israeli bombings during the past year while battling Hamas terrorists. Was the president just continuing to chum the waters of official Washington? If changing the Gaza Strip's 25-mile-long beachfront along the Mediterranean Sea into a jet-set destination complete with golf courses with plenty of sand traps, and providing new towns for some two million displaced Palestinians, then the 'Lake Illinois' shoreline, as Gov. JB Pritzker has christened Lake Michigan, from Zion south to North Chicago surely deserves consideration. It should be included as part of Trump's 'America First' pledge made during the runup to last fall's presidential election. The first Waukegan mayor, Robert Sabonjian, dubbed the city's then-industrialized Lake Michigan lakefront with the potential to be the 'Riviera of the Midwest.' With the largesse of federal money, let's enlarge that footprint to include the lake's shoreline to include the tri-cities for a continuous string of commerce. Sabonjian was mayor from 1957 to 1977, and again from 1985 to 1989. Like other Waukegan mayors, he saw the potential of development on property abutting Lake Michigan. His son, also named Robert, was mayor from 2009 to 2013. The Waukegan Harbor area, with significant marina facilities, already is a popular spot for recreational boating and fishing. Just think what the infusion of a mere billion dollars of federal funding would do to jumpstart development. That type of cash could introduce a grand mixture of low- and high-rise housing, retail and restaurants, sharing vistas of the Big Lake with a series of interspersed open lands, parks and trails. Even Elon Musk, our shadow president, and his Musketeer followers (or do you prefer Muskrats?) should be able to see a future lakefront flanked by majestic structures if the U.S. will be dishing out funds to develop Gaza. Perhaps done via the Department of Magical Thinking, which could replace the U.S. Agency for International Development. Bringing development to the lakefront, with Waukegan being the linchpin, should be in line for Trump funding, although some don't believe him calling for a U.S. takeover of Gaza is realistic. Like 10th District Congressman Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park. 'President Trump's proposal to forcibly remove two million Gazans is not just unworkable — it is immoral and illegal,' Schneider said in a statement last week. 'Mass displacement violates fundamental human rights, international law, and the very values for which the U.S. and Israel stand.' Schneider pointed out that such 'population transfers,' aka 'ethnic cleansing,' bring suffering and long-term insecurity. He called on the administration to work with regional allies and European partners to help rebuild Gaza, 'in a way that ensures lasting security for Israel, dignity for Palestinians and stability for the broader region.' Democrats aren't the only ones to question the wisdom of occupying Gaza. 'I think it's a really dumb idea to talk about having U.S. troops in Gaza. It's the last place on Earth I'd send U.S. troops and I won't support it,' said U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky. Echoed Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, 'The idea of Americans going in on the ground in Gaza is a nonstarter for every senator.' As for the Palestinians, U.N. representative Riyad Mansour said they won't be leaving. 'There is no power on Earth that can remove the Palestinian people from our ancestral homeland, including Gaza,' he said. That isn't a problem if Trump wants to issue funding to develop the 'Riviera of the Midwest.' Few houses exist close to the lakefront sites that are ripe for rejuvenation, so displacing people wouldn't be a problem. Like in Gaza, developers would be lining up to break ground on the lakefront. Let's make it happen in our own backyard.
