Disneyland/California Adventure (Anaheim California):

Through June 12, 2009, each active or retired member of the U.S. military can receive one complimentary three-day “Disney’s Armed Forces Salute” ticket valid for admission to both Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure parks. During the offer period, active or retired U.S. military personnel also may make a one-time purchase of an adult or child three-day “Disney’s Armed Forces Salute Companion” ticket for up to five family members (including spouse) or friends for the price of an adult 1-Day Park Hopper ticket.

Disneyland Resort hotels are also offering special room rates for active or retired military personnel. For example, at Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel, active or retired members of the military and their families may find hotel rooms starting at $119 per night during value season, with great savings during other times of the offer period. This offer is available through June 12, 2009, and the number of rooms available at these special rates is limited.

For information regarding “Disney’s Armed Forces Salute” at the Disneyland Resort, or to make reservations, military personnel may call 714/956-6424

Walt Disney World Resort (Florida):

From January 4 to December 23, 2009, each active or retired member of the U.S. military may obtain one complimentary five-day “Disney’s Armed Forces Salute” ticket with Park Hopper and Water Park Fun & More options. This ticket is valid for five days of admission into the four Walt Disney World theme parks, plus a total of five visits to a choice of a Disney water park, DisneyQuest Indoor Interactive Theme Park or certain other attractions. During this offer period, active or retired U.S. military personnel may also make a one-time purchase of up to a maximum of five, five-Day “Disney’s Armed Forces Salute Companion” tickets for $99 per ticket, plus tax, for family members (including spouse) or friends. Although this ticket for family members and friends does not include either the Park Hopper or Water Park Fun & More options, this ticket can be upgraded to add either such option, or both, for an additional $25, plus tax, per option. All tickets and options are non-transferable and must be used by Dec. 23, 2009.

Let us all thank the generosity of the Disney Company and make sure we use and abuse it.  For those of you that don’t have the pleasure of living in Southern California you can take a week off and see all the great sites out here.  Go to LA and visit Disneyland for three days then take a short trip down the coast to Sea World and take care of the discounts there.  Also Southern California is a baseball fan’s paradise with multiple major and minor league teams in the area.

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1. Veteran’s Day Discounts

Miss Em has some comments on illegal immigration.  She put effort into her argument so instead of hiding it in the comments I will publish this as a post.  I of course asked her if she minded first.  If you leave a comment that I feel is worthy of posting for others to read I will.

The basis of her argument was another comment on the article Obama Immigration Reform: the first line of her argument is from the other comment.

cheaper – faster – less disruptive for the entire country – more beneficial in the long run to figure out a way to make them legal. new taxpayers????

It was not “cheap” for them to come into this country ask those who lost jobs because you could get them to work for 1/2 the wage. So, you could get 2 for 1 but what happen to the guy who lost the job and his family.

“Faster”, oh yes lets by all means get this out of the public eye as quick as possible so their short memory doesn’t have a chance to process it to the long memory and make your life difficult.
It’s has been open season on our Southern Boarder since the last Amnesty that was given by Jimmy Carter, Democrat President, that was trying to end the problem the “Fast” way. I guess taking over 25 years to recognize there is now a problem again is “Fast” enough for you.

Less disruptive for the entire Country??? You don’t seem to realize how disruptive the illegal persons have become to the economy of the medical services, social security, and welfare. Come on get real and think why there are so many hospitals emergency rooms closing down, why the bill for welfare is so high, and how many children that have been born to illegal mothers in the Southern Boarder states that are now collecting social security and welfare. The illegals have been VERY disruptive for the entire Country.

“More beneficial in the long run to figure out a way to make them legal” there already is one. The problem is they do not want to abide by the rules and regulations of it. And the quick way means that You would serve in one of the Military services and take the Citizenship course and learn English as your first language. There was a huge swear-in on many Military bases around the world this year as we gained NEW Americans the right way. To these new Americans I say welcome to our Country.

“New Taxpayers” If you want new taxpayers then back the Fair Tax Bill. There is a book written by the sponser,a US Senator and an independent, non-practicing lawyer. It answers all the questions on how it will work.

Illegal is illegal and it doesn’t matter if they have lived here and made families. They took the chance of being sent back to their homeland when they came here illegally. Now they are screaming about the laws and that it doesn’t apply to them. YES IT DOES. Now everyone is bowing and pandering to illegals…ONLY in AMERICA.

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1. Back From Hell

For those of you unfamiliar with Oki Camp Schwab is possibly the worst camp to be on while stationed aboard that island prison.  It is a 45 minute bus ride from the larger camps (and any type of night life) located in the Southern part of the Island.  Most of the camp is over there under the Unit Deployment Program (UDP) and will only be there for 6 months therefore unless you are a SSgt (E-6) or higher you cannot have a car so you are stuck on the camp or the surrounding area off base.

So now that you know what kind of hell I was in back in 1996 let’s get back to the story.  The day began as any other Friday would begin we awoke at zero dark thirty and went on a little run around the camp.  We then went to work until 1600.  After work a few of us went to the PX and bought as much beer as we could carry (2-3 cases each) back up the hill.  That beer lasted out group of about 10 until about 1930 and we decided it was time to head to the bowling alley and play some beer frames. 

For those of you unfamiliar with beer frames it goes like this you get a group together and bowl a regular game.  Before you start the first frame you designate a frame or two or three that are beer frames.  Now whoever bowls the lowest score in this frame must then buy the rest of the bowlers a beer.   Then at the end of the game the low score has to go buy a round as well.  Well beer frames lasted until the bowling alley closed (midnight if I remember correctly) and needless to say we were quite intoxicated at this time, but more important we were HUNGRY. 

Time to go get some Yakisoba down at the quickstop in Henoko the little (4 blocks by 4 blocks) town just outside the gate.  We get down there get our grub on and are all feeling much better at this time so hey lets go further into town and continue this night and get some more beer.  After another three hours or so we decide we need to get back to the barracks so that we can get some sleep and then do it all over again Saturday. 

So our group is stumbling back to the camp (10 minute walk at most).  About 3 minutes into the walk Randy lets everyone know he has to piss.  Obviously there is nowhere for him to piss so we tell him to wait the 7 minutes til we get back because there are guard patrols of Marines (Henoko Patrol) as well the Japanese Police (JP) in the area and as a drunk LCpl in Oki you don’t want to be picked up by either.  He agrees and we go another 50 yards and he is complaining again.  OK we say go over to the fence (yes it is the camp’s fence) we will watch out for you and take care of your business.

Randy walks over to the fence leans against his head against the fence as only a drunk man can do and proceeds to drain the main vein.  We notice him give it a little shake stand up and start back towards us.  Well once he turned around we noticed he missed a very important step before he took care of business.  You see he forgot to unzip and remove his member from his pants before he took his leak and it was obvious as he had a HUGE wet spot all down the front of his pants.

We tease him and what not all the way back to the gate get through the gate with no problems (still not sure how that happened) and proceed back to the barracks.  We all go to our rooms pass out and sleep for a few hours.  We get up go to the chow hall eat breakfast and then another group head down to the PX to pick up the cases so we can start all over again.

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Friday night wasn’t that productive except that I caught up on my sleep.  You see I was on the range last week and was getting up at 430 every morning so when I got home on Friday i took a shower and decided to take a “nap” figuring wifey poo would get me up for dinner.  Well this nap turned into me sleeping through until Saturday morning.

I awoke Saturday feeling very refreshed and rested.  I awoke when my daughter started crying at about 0730.  I got out of bed wet to her room and got my little princess up.  She started laughing when she saw me (common reaction from most people) I picked her up and got her some breakfast.  After feeding her and changing her playing with her for a few and puttin her in her swing for a nap I sat down and wrote some blog posts that are delayed posts for when I am in 29 Palms for 2 weeks and doubtful that I have any internet connection.

Once the posts were written I watched some college football and just hungout while I waited for the wife to get ready to go (yes I was able to watch almost a full game while she was getting ready).  Once the wife was ready we gathered up the crew and headed out to try and find her some scrubs for her clinical this semester (no go on that one).  Then we went over to base and exchanged the Coach purse that I bought her for our anniversary so that she could get a Nintendo DS (I can’t complain about that as it saved me $30).

We then drove up to Lake Elsinore for a Storm baseball game (single A affiliate for the Padres).  You can’t beat minor league games as the 3 tickets cost me $24 and we were in the first row down the left field side.  It was a good game that saw Allan Dykstra (the Padres 1st round pick this year) crush a grand slam over the right field fence.  That in itself made Saturday a good game as that cinched the game for the Storm and I am a huge baseball fan.

Sunday was a trip out to Costco to get household essentials and all that good stuff.  After that we went over to my In-laws house for a great dinner.  My Father-in-Law BBQ’s some ribs which were complimented with potato salad, deviled eggs, and some shrimp.  Was quite a spread and I can’t complain (never can when he cooks actually).  the rest of the evening was spent just hanging out in the living room shootin the shit with my wife’s family (not as bad as it sounds).

Since I had been pretty lazy all weekend as far as working out goes when I got up this morning I decided it was time to jump on the bicycle and get a good long ride in for some PT.  I rolled out about 0900 and 40 miles and almost 2 1/2 hours later I returned from my spandex tour of the Temecula Valley completely exhausted.  I ate a bowl of cereal got showered up and again went out shopping with the wife.  We went to the mall and just spent the day together which is always nice.  Got the baby some clothes, wife bought some undies, and got myself a pair of shoes.  We then came home where I cooked the family a dinner of meatballs in cream of mushroom soup, rice and corn (quite delicious I must say.)

All in all it was a very good weekend.  I got to spend some quality time with my family which always makes me feel good and I was able to get some other things done.  I still have tomorrow off that I can spend doing pretty much anything that I want.  Probably going to wash and wax the classic Pontiac that I have out there so it is pretty and clean.  Hope you all had a great weekend and have a great week.

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Unfotunately I was not able to leave work directly following the range as is the norm because my shop is preparing for a upcoming field op so I ended up working till 1600 or later almost every day last week.  that made for a tiring two week period so this 4 day weekend will be a good break before heading out on another two week field op starting the 7th.

This weekend will be spent with family doing some activities such as attending a baseball game Saturday and having a BBQ at my in-laws on Sunday.  I hope to get a ccouple of good bike rides in and on Tuesday I will get to spend some time with my 5 1/2 month old daughter as my stepson and wife go back to school that day.

All in all I should be well relaxed and ready to hit the road running (literally) Wednesday when I go back to work.

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On July 31st most of you probably missed the anouncement for the venue of the semi-finals and finals for the World Basball Classic.  This will be the second such tournament that has been put on by Major League Baseball.  The first was won by Japan in 2006.

That tournament the semi-finals and finals were held at PetCo park in San Diego and I had the distinct pleasure to attend the tournament with my dad, brother and brother’s friend.  I have been to a few hundred professional baseball games in my life but that experience was definately a first for me.

The final four teams left in the tournament were Cuba, Dominican Republic, Japan, and Korea.  The electricity in the stadium was beyond anything that I had ever seen or felt.  The support the national teams recieved from their fans was simply amazing and they had the entore stadium rocking from before the first pitch all the way through the last out.

The fans weren’t the only ones going all out.  The games were absolutely amazing, the players went all out the entire game.  Japan beat Korea and Cuba beat the Dominican in the semi-finals and then Japan beat Cuba in the finals.

My brother and I are already planning for March 21st and 23rd of next year to be at Dodger Stadium.  Hopefully we will be cheering for the US team but regardless of who is playing we will be there watching some really great baseball and having a great time.

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I don’t think it is going to be a very enjoyable 5 days though. You see these guys are going to RUN from Philly to DC. Yes you read that correctly they are going to put on some shoes and hit the pavement on Oct 22 and begin a run of 177.5 miles over 5 days.

These Marines will finish the run when they cross the finish line of the Marines Corps Marathon in DC on 26 Oct. The Marines are running in order to raise funds for the Injured Marines Semper Fi Fund which was established in May of 2004 by a Camp Pendleton naval hospital nurse.

She organized a group of Marine Corps spouses to provide financial grants to returning OEF/OIF injured Marines and Sailors, and their family members. The fund is dependant on the generosity of people making contributions.

The Marine runners’ site can be found here:

http://1775.weebly.com/index.html

Please visit them and if you can afford it drop a few bucks there way. 

GOOD LUCK GUYS AND SEMPER FI

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Since the beginning of Oct we have lost 19 Marines to motorcycles.  Can you believe it we have lost almost 1/2 of a rifle platoon not to bullets in Iraq or Afghanistan but to bumpers and asphalt in San Diego and Jacksonville.

How?

Many Marines are coming home from Iraq with money burning a hole in their pocket and they go out and spend it on a bike.  Also more and more people want bikes due to increased prices at the gas pump.

Not a problem with that but Marines are buying too much motorcycle for first time riders.  The majority of these deaths are happenning to young inexperienced riders losing control and traveling at high rates of speed on sport bikes (crotch rockets), or the riders are not wearing helmets and other safety gear.

What has been done?

Well the boss (Gen Conway) has published an ALMAR (014/08) laying out the rules and regulations for motorcycle ownership. 

All Marines regardless of rank were to report ownership of a motorcycle to the command (whether ridden on base or not) and all Marines are required to inform the command if they are considering the purchase of a motorcycle. 

Also all DOD personnel are already required to attend a Basic Motorcycle Safety course prior to operating any motorcycle or ATV whether for street use or off-road use.

What else can we do?

Leadership must take an active role in ensuring that all motorcycle riders are abiding by the rules and regulations set forth.

Marines that are going to purchase a new bike need to do their research and again we as leaders need to help them research the bikes that are available and ensure they pick a bike that is not too big or powerful for their skill level.

What’s Next?

I don’t know what HQMC will do next but I am sure that it will make getting a motorcycle a pain in the ass.  You will probably have to get counseled by your CO before purchasing a bike and other such nonsenses. 

If that doesn’t work they may make it so that you have to be a certain age or rank to lawfully ride a motorcycle.

Maybe they outlaw the crotch rocket or bikes with certain size engines.

These are just my thoughts but nothing would surprise me especially if we kill the rest of that platoon on the streets of the US and not the streets of Iraq.

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1. Do You Trust Me

Sea World- Military Members can receive up to 4 free tickets for themselves and their dependants (discounted tickets after your four free for those of you with many rugrats) each year.

Knott’s Berry Farm- Show your military ID and receive adult tickets for 29.99 a savings of $20 and kids (age 3-11) for 19.99 (that is regular price).  Also in November (first 2 weeks or so) Knott’s will let one military member and guest in for free and extra tickets are discounted.

San Diego Zoo/Wild Animal Park- The zoo and wild animal park are free to active duty military all the time.

Neither Disneyland nor Magic Mountain offer any ticket discounts at the park but you can buy discounted tickets at ITT and save a few bucks that way.

USS Midway Tour- Tour the USS Midway (a great piece of WWII history) for free with your Military ID.

Deep Sea Fishing- Deep sea fishing is available in San Diego and Oceanside and offer great rates for military members sometimes up to half off.

ITT- ITT offices on Camp Pendleton, Miramar, and MCRD offer great rates on tickets to many of the other attractions throughout the area.  You can also get vouchers for hotels I Las Vegas and Primm through the ITT ticket offices.

Many restaurants, stores and shops offer military discounts in the San Diego area (large military population) you just need to ask for it many times.

There are plenty of opportunities to take advantage of in Southern California as long as you look around and do some research.  Also don’t be afraid to ask if there is a military discount the worst they can do is say no.

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