Tribute

This page is dedicated to those who serve! ken

If you have a son, a daughter, or someone you know and love, who is serving our country, I would like to pay tribute to them as well. Send me an email, and a picture or pictures. I'll try to get as many up here as I can. I want to concentrate on the positive. Thanks.

If you are new to my page, Welcome! scroll down and enjoy. If you have been here before, Welcome back! There is some new pictures (as of 7/14 04) on the bottom of the page. Thank You Tad!

Our son HM2 Calvin L Minesinger (Lee) is a US Navy Corpsman. He is currently stationed in Iraq, just outside the city of Falluja. (today is 05/05/04) Nancy and I have always supported our military, and have always supported Lee. I have decided to add a page on this site to, A) share a little of what we hear from Lee, and B) pay a small tribute to him and the men and women he is serving with. Before I started cutting and pasting stuff on this page, I emailed Lee to ask for permission to use the things I wanted to use. I want to share what he sent back.

I only have one reserve, and that is that if I have sent you any pic's of our wounded here it would be greatly appreciated if those didn't get put on. Like the ones of me work on one of the Marines from another unit. I gave them my word that those would not get out. If I had contact with them then I would ask them, but it is my belief that their wounds should not make them targets of anyone's laughter or the running jokes. And I know that that is not what you or any of our friends or family would do, but I hold these Marine in high regard. They came very close to paying the ultimate price for our country and the country of Iraq. I take there care very seriously, if we had been attacked when they where here I would have give myself to protect them. And I will continue to do so. At some point I am sure that I will run into one or both of them and then I will see if I can use there pic's. I really wanted to show them to all of you so that you could see that the news only shows the bad. I have had the honor of having more than one marine who was wounded and lived. I will forever remember them and how close they came to paying the price for my freedom.

Please, don't miss understand I don't want you to think that I am being an ass (I am), but without their permission would forever brake the trust Corpsmen and Marines have. Outside of those pic's I don't mind sending you any pic and having you use them. Please forgive me if I got up on my soap box, and I hope that I did not offend you in any way.

stay safe.

I sure wasn't offended! Nor do I happen to think he was being an ass. I would have expected no less.

This first picture is Lee on the day we took him down to Camp Pendleton, to leave for Iraq. 02/04

To the Navy he is: HM2 Calvin L. Minesinger

To the Marines he works with he is: Doc

To us he is: Lee

Our daughter wrote a poem for him.

Doc
Through the harsh words and rough front
There is something more
A child of God, determined and driven

With solid faith in the foundation of our country
Trust in the Lord and His plan
Belief in others, in the good they have

Though hindered by sorrow, anger and fear
He has courage to stand
To honor God and protect our freedom

Facing the world with pride
I smile in reflection
This is my brother

- Sonja Rachelle Wheeler -

After he left there were a few days that passed before we heard from him. Then we got some email. I thought I'd share an excerpt from the first one.

hello all is well i don't have much time ill try back again later. .... We've spent the past week trying to get to our base of operations. but right now we are awaiting the arrivel of our vehicals from Pen. soo as soon as we get our vehicals we'll be leaving to our base. So far we have been incident free. Hopefully it will stay that way.

Tell Aryn and James I said Hi, i miss you both very much. be good and I love you both.

Let everyone else know i'm doing fine.

Man the army gets all the good stuff. How can these guys be crying about
coming home.

After He got over there we started pestering him for pictures. Nancy has to see the place to know that he is actually in a real place not just in some sort of suspended animation. Lee sent us these.

The first three are just a little glimpse of the actual clinic where Lee patches up the wounded. I'll let Lee tell you about the fourth picture.

"I bought this little flag for a Thailand T-Shirt, and I bought the T-Shirt with a pair of old tattered and torn cammies. I think I need to be a used car salesmen! ;-)

If you look at the inside of the BAS (Battalion Aid Station), and you can
see what a difference the colors make. Now it feels like home. I will have
more pic's of it soon.

May God bless the U.S.A."

Minesinger, Calvin L.
HM2 (FMF), USN
Only those who heal, can truly inflict pain.
9th Comm BAS,
Camp Falluja, Iraq

Last week we got email from Lee that I think makes a statement. He included a email from another of the guys that is over there in the country, and I think they both have a pretty good handle on things.

I do know that allot of you back home do support us and all that the military does. But I also know that there more than likely are a few of you who are sceptical of our real reason. Weather it is oil or not the improvement that the average Iraqi citizen has in their life is amazing. I'm not pro war, but i am pro U.S.A. and i believe that it is part of our duty as one of the great powers on this planet we should help those in need. And yes the issues at home are very important to me as well. I challenge anyone to show me a country that does so much for other countries on this planet.

As far as I am concerned we could all come home close the boarders, and let the rest of the world rot. But the last time we did that Hitler came to power. War is bad....make peace that really works, and put all of us out of jobs.

now i will get off my box and let you read. May God bless you all in all that you do. and may the U.S.A. bless God.

Lee

Here is some positive information about the war in Iraq.

>From a National Guardsman

As I head off to Baghdad for the final weeks of my stay in Iraq, I wanted to say thanks to all of you who did not believe the media. They have done a very poor job of covering everything that has happened. I am sorry that I have not been able to visit all of you during my two week leave back home. And just so you can rest at night knowing something is happening in Iraq that is noteworthy, I thought I would pass this on to you.

This is the list of things that have happened in Iraq recently: Please share it with your friends and compare it to the version that your paper is producing:

- Over 4.5 million people have clean drinking water for the first time ever in Iraq.
- Over 400,000 kids have up to date immunizations.
- Over 1500 schools have been renovated and rid of the weapons that were stored there so education can occur.
- The port of Uhm Qasar was renovated so grain can be off loaded from ships faster.
- School attendance is up 80% from levels before the war.
- The country had it's first 2 billion barrel export of oil in August.
- The country now receives 2 times the electrical power it did before the war.
- 100% of the hospitals are open and fully staffed compared to 35% before the war.
- Elections are taking place in every major city and city councils are in place.
- Sewer and water lines are installed in every major city.
- Over 60,000 police are patrolling the streets.
- Over 100,000 Iraqi civil defense police are securing the country.
- Over 80,000 Iraqi soldiers are patrolling the streets side by side with US soldiers.
- Over 400,000 people have telephones for the first time ever.
- Students are taught field sanitation and hand washing techniques to prevent the spread of germs.
- An interim constitution has been signed.
- Girls are allowed to attend school for the first time ever in Iraq.
- Textbooks that don't mention Saddam are in the schools for the first time in 30 years.

Don't believe for one second that these people do not want us there. I have met many, many people from Iraq that want us there and in a bad way.

They say they will never see the freedoms we talk about but they hope their children will. We are doing a good job in Iraq and I challenge anyone,
anywhere to dispute me on these facts. So If you happen to run into John Kerry, be sure to give him my email address and send him to Denison, Iowa. This soldier will set him straight. If you are like me and very disgusted with how this period of rebuilding has been portrayed, email this to a friend and let them know there are good things happening.

Ray Reynolds, SFC
Iowa Army National Guard
234th Signal Battalion

Yesterday Lee emailed us to let us know he had re-enlisted. Mind you He has been in the Navy for 10 years, and his current contract still has almost a year to go. I guess he just wanted to make a statement. Here is the note we got from him and the pictures he sent to go with.

These are the pic's from my re-enlistment.
Even though I still have another 9 months left on my current contract, I decided that Iraq would be an awesome backdrop, and not to many
people can say they re-enlisted in a combat zone.
The gentlemen administering the Oath of Enlistment is Lieutenant
Colonel Bierman. The Col was my company commander when I was at 1st
Battalion, 1st Marines. Over the last 7 years that I have been with the
Marine Corp he has been the one man that I would fallow to the top of the
hill, anytime he asked. Needless to say I hold him in very high reguards.
And it was an honor to have him administer the oath to me.

Minesinger, Calvin L.
Hospital Corpsmen Second Class
Fleet Marine Force
Only those who can Heal, can truly inflict pain.
9th Comm Bn, BAS
Camp Falluja, Iraq

May 7, 2004

We got a few fun pictures from the back of the front lines yesterday. These guys aren't bustin' their humps all day. They have a little time to ham it up for the camera. I didn't make the captions, the pictures came with them. I like the fact that God is keeping a light on behind the clouds of strife.

Bad BAS God's Flashlight Roll Call

Asleep ?? God's Flashlight II

Ken,

Thank you for your email, it really does mean alot to the men and women over here to know that the American people are still behind us, weather they support the cause for which we fight. I am an OH58D pilot with the US Army stationed in Mosul, Iraq. I am attaching a few pics for you to use on your site. Again thank you.

Tad Stuart

CW2 US Army

THANKS TAD !

Speaking for the Wheeler family, We are grateful for your service to our freedom!