JUAN BATALLA

Case Type: Family Abduction
DOB: Jun 8, 2001	Sex: Male
Missing Date: Dec 6, 2007	Race: Hispanic
Age Now: 8	Height: 3’9″ (114 cm)
Missing City: MEMPHIS	Weight: 57 lbs (26 kg)
Missing State : TN	Hair Color: Black
Missing Country: United States	Eye Color: Brown
Case Number: NCMC1127667
Circumstances: Juan was last seen on December 6, 2007. He may be in the company of his father. They are believed to be in Mexico. Juan’s nickname is Juanito.

Missing Kids

Patient of the week – Ellen Taylor

By St. Jude/PIO
Sept. 17, 2009

5 years old

Diagnosis:

Ellen was found to suffer from non-Hodgkin lymphoma in February 2008.

Ellen’s Story:

The mother of 3-year-old Ellen was plagued with worry over her daughter’s swollen lymph nodes, even though doctors repeatedly told her it was nothing.

They insisted the bumps on Ellen’s head and neck were caused by a simple infection. But after three months of taking antibiotics with no improvement, Ellen’s primary care doctor examined the bump on her head and said, “It’s not good. I don’t know what this is, but we need to get it off.” The doctor sent them immediately to the local children’s hospital, where the family was devastated to learn their little girl had non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The doctor referred Ellen to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

At St. Jude:

Ellen’s mom remembered how terrified she and her husband were when they arrived to St. Jude. “We were at the security gate, and you could see the devastation on our faces. The security guard put his hand on my husband’s and said, ‘You are in the right place.’”

Doctors immediately placed Ellen on a two-and-a-half-year protocol of chemotherapy. The treatment is tough, but Ellen has been brave.

Ellen’s mom says there are two miracles at St. Jude: the cures the hospital provides and the beautiful people she’s met during this experience with her daughter—people like the doctors and nurses who care for her daughter, as well as the volunteers and donors who give so generously to St. Jude.

Darlene, a nurse in the medicine room, knows how much Ellen hates shots—but also knows how much she loves the Wizard of Oz. So when Ellen gets her chemotherapy shots, they hold hands and repeat, “There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home.” Ellen’s mom said these small acts of kindness mean the world to their family.

Ellen is responding well to treatment, and her prognosis is good. Ellen loves cooking with her dad and playing dress up. She also loves to sing, and she knows all the words to “The Star Spangled Banner” and “America the Beautiful.”‘

Source: St. Jude

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

Medal of Honor Recipient – Army Staff Sgt. Jared Monti

By Dan Samaria
Publisher/YC
Sept. 17, 2009

Editor’s Note: Across just a few deadly yards of rocky terrain, the private’s cries grew weaker. Even though bullets came pouring in like hail, Staff Sgt. Jared Monti made a break for it. The enemy was strong — maybe 50, to the 16 Americans. But Pvt. Brian Bradbury was Monti’s guy. He was isolated and bleeding badly on this grim mountain ridge in northeastern Afghanistan’s Nuristan province. Monti didn’t get far. A barrage of fire cut down the 30-year-old moments before air cover he’d requested arrived.

Below is the whole story of this hero:

Each week we at the Chronicle will be honoring one of these true heros. We will call it Medal of Honor Recipient of the Week. We hope you will join with us to honor these true heros. Who have given us the greatest sacifice that one could give their life, to save their fellow soldiers.

We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

By Dianna Cahn
Stars and Stripes
Sept. 17, 2009

LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Across just a few deadly yards of rocky terrain, the private’s cries grew weaker.

Even though bullets came pouring in like hail, Staff Sgt. Jared Monti made a break for it. The enemy was strong — maybe 50, to the 16 Americans. But Pvt. Brian Bradbury was Monti’s guy. He was isolated and bleeding badly on this grim mountain ridge in northeastern Afghanistan’s Nuristan province.

Monti didn’t get far. A barrage of fire cut down the 30-year-old moments before air cover he’d requested arrived.

Exhausted and reeling from a desperate fight that left Monti and another leader dead, the 10th Mountain Division soldiers pulled Bradbury to safety.

A medevac helicopter appeared like an angel of mercy come after a long nightmare. It lowered a stretcher. A medic grabbed hold of Bradbury and the two rose high into the night air.

He was going to make it.

Then the hoist broke, and the two plummeted to their deaths.

The men who made it off the mountain on June 21, 2006, and the haunting memories of the four who didn’t, will fill the East Room of the White House on Thursday, when President Barack Obama will present Monti’s family, from Raynham, Mass., with the Medal of Honor, the highest recognition a servicemember can earn.

The battle and the crushing accident that followed marked every soldier there. All came back changed by the violence, the loss and the astounding sacrifice they saw in themselves and each other during the most dire juncture of their lives.

“There’s only a few people in the world who have been with a person in their most trying time,” said Staff Sgt. Chris Grzecki, 26, now an instructor at Fort Sill, Okla. “To see the things those guys did — it’s amazing to see that kind of dedication and courage.”

Monti will be receiving the medal. But those present will honor not just Monti, posthumously promoted to sergeant first class. They will also honor Bradbury, whom comrades said kept firing with his good arm until his ammunition ran out, and the rest of the men pinned on that bloody mountain, outnumbered and outgunned.

Some of the younger ones, like Pfc. Derek James, 22, who with a bullet in his back was the only one wounded to make it out alive, Spc. Sean Smith, 23, and Sgt. Joshua Renken, 22, would be back to fight again two years later with the 10th Mountain Division, this time in Logar province.

“I accepted the fact that I was gonna die that day on that mountain,” said Smith. “I do know now it’s made me a better soldier because one of these days, I will be a leader and I will be able to speak from experience and tell my soldiers the bad guys are bad, they will try to kill you. You don’t realize how terrifying it is.”

Suddenly, the place lit up

The 16-soldier patrol from the 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry Regiment of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team set out June 18, 2006, on a hellish three-day climb up a steep, unnavigated mountainside into enemy territory near Gowardesh. They were members of Charlie Troop led by Sgt. Patrick Lybert and two groups from Headquarters and Headquarters Troop: the snipers led by Staff Sgt. Chris Cunningham, and the artillery team, known as forward observers, led by Monti.

The troops were supposed to be setting up over-watch for a larger operation in the valley 2,600 feet below. But the main effort got delayed and the soldiers soon exhausted their food and water. A helicopter with fresh supplies that would have come under the distraction of helicopters arriving with the larger operation, instead came in alone, even though it “increased the risk that re-supply would compromise the patrol,” an Army report said.

They divvied up the items and settled in for the night, aware the enemy might have them marked.

The men divided into two positions along the ridgeline, most of them in a line of trees and bushes at the northern end of the ridge, others, including Monti and Cunningham behind some large rock and tree cover at the southern end.

Suddenly, just before dusk, the place lit up with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire from the trees just above the ridge to the north.

James tried to take cover behind a small rock, but it wasn’t enough. An RPG blew a chunk out of his left arm. Then a bullet struck his back. If he was going to survive, he was going to have to make a run for it to the southern position.

“I remember thinking ‘Shit, I am going to die,’ ” James said. “We are all going to die.”

Bleeding, he got up and ran past the ridgeline, then crawled up to the main position, where a medic began to bandage him.

The gunfire was so intense that Grzecki could not reach his rifle about a foot away. A soldier beside him had his rifle shot right out of his hand, Grzecki said.

Lybert was using a big rock for cover, but kept popping up to see where the enemy was, James recalled. “Then, all of a sudden, he just stopped.”

He’d been shot in the head and killed.

“We were taking so much fire we couldn’t make out where the mortars landed. It was coming in so close that … you could hear it right over your head, just like whizzing through,” James said. “They were so close at one point you could hear their voices.”

Smith, who grew up the son of a Special Forces officer in the Middle East, heard the enemy chanting in Arabic. The soldiers were throwing grenades to keep them at bay.

Most of the guys made it back to the main position. But as Bradbury, 22, of St. Joseph, Mo., ran, an RPG exploded and he fell just over the ridge from his colleagues. They called out, kept him talking, but separated from the group by what James called “the death zone,” they could not reach him.

“You can tell Bradbury is slowly slipping away,” Renken said, allowing himself to drift into the moment. “We are doing everything we can to keep him talking.”

Monti, whose call sign was Chaos 35, was on the radio calling in artillery and airstrikes. But when Cunningham said he would go after Bradbury, Monti wouldn’t hear of it.

“That’s my guy. I am going to get him,” Grzecki recalled him saying. “That’s when he threw me the radio and said ‘Hey, you are Chaos 35 now.’ ”

Twice Monti tried to make the run, but gunfire pushed him back. The third time, with the men all laying down cover fire, he went for it, almost making it to Bradbury before he fell in a hail of RPGs and bullets.

“With complete disregard for his own safety, SFC Monti moved from behind the cover of rocks into the face of withering enemy fire,” his commendation says. “SFC Monti’s acts of heroism inspired the patrol to fight off the larger enemy force.”

His scream was like nothing his men had heard before. Several of the men wondered briefly why he seemed to be joking around at a time like this. It took a few seconds for them to realize he’d been hit.

One of the last things he said was that he’d made peace, Grzecki said. And to tell his family he loved them.

‘Trees are falling over …

Within minutes of Monti’s death, the air support he had called in arrived and dropped several 500- and two 2,000-pound bombs just a few hundred yards from where the men were surrounded.

“Trees are falling over, you can hear the shrapnel whizzing over your head,” Renken recalled. “Your teeth are rattling, about to fall right out of your head.”

It took time for the last fire to subside. Finally, the beating of a chopper blade pulled close and a jungle penetrator was lowered down onto the ground before them.

“I remember hearing the flight medic they dropped down say ‘Hey, don’t worry. I am gonna get you guys out of here,’ ” said Smith. “That was nice. It made me feel better. At this point it began to sink in that it was [messed] up, the whole situation.”

Staff Sgt. Heathe Craig, 28, a medic with the 159th Air Ambulance Medical Company out of Wiesbaden, Germany, took James up first. He deposited him on the helicopter, then came back down with extra straps to take Bradbury. The private was too hurt to hold on, so Craig rode up with him, the report said.

They ascended into the darkness, relief washing over the men left below, who, even as the helicopter flew away, believed that their man Bradbury had made it out of there alive.

“I heard a thump, like you dropped a ship anchor to the ground,” Smith said. “I heard someone call the medic again. I asked what was going on.

“The steel cable … snapped and that killed Bradbury,” Smith recounted. “It also killed the flight medic that had just told us we would be OK.”

They laid out the dead and took turns watching the mountain with their thermal vision goggles. They could see the bodies of their comrades slowly growing cold in the long, deep night.

Jittery, they’d call fire every time a twig snapped or an insect landed on their shoulders, Smith said. “Things were lighting up all night long.”

The morning after the firefight, the men scoured the area for enemy bodies or equipment.

“It looked like a nuke had hit,” Smith said. “All the trees were cut in half. Branches were all over.”

The helicopters came back and the men piled their dead in a basket, which was raised to the chopper. But there wasn’t room for the living, now beyond exhaustion. They would have to go down on foot.

The grieving

It would be days before they’d be able to grieve, standing inside a closed military aircraft at Bagram Airfield: 13 men, four coffins and the sobs these hardened soldiers had not allowed themselves before.

Renken would later remember Monti kidding around on the trek up the mountain, telling them how he wanted his funeral to be like the Vikings: a push off into the water with a flaming arrow that would burn in the sea.

“Sgt. Monti was trying to keep everyone happy, cracking jokes, giving people a hard time, just to keep the mood up because we had no food, no water,” Renken said. “We were just hurting.”

For many, Monti was always a legendary figure, a man who gave of himself and always engaged those around him. His men loved him like his family did, for his generosity and his humility and what his father, Paul Monti, described as his humanitarianism.

“He exuded love and caring for everyone around him,” his father said.

Monti was the son who rarely came home for the holidays because he gave away his Christmas leave to someone with a wife and children. He‘d walk into any room and make friends, his father said.

He once infuriated his roommate because he gave their brand-new dining room furniture away to another soldier whose kids were sitting on the floor.

The way Monti died on that mountain was the way he lived.

Source: Stars and Stripes Fox Nation

Protect our Kids From Home to School

by Missing Kids/PIO
Sept. 16, 2009

Every day millions of children take to the streets and highways to get to and from school. For many children this experience is a new one and they may not understand or be able to use the safety rules. Young children do not have the same frame of reference for safety as adults do.

They may not “look before they leap,” which is why it is so important for families to supervise young children and practice safety skills with their older children to make certain they really know and understand them. The tips noted below will help prepare for a safer journey.

Instruct your children to always TAKE A FRIEND, always stay in well-lit areas, never take shortcuts, and never go into isolated areas. Teach them to stay aware of their surroundings and observe all traffic rules in place to more safely share the roads and sidewalks with others.

Walk the route to and from school with your children pointing out landmarks and safe places to go if they’re being followed or need help. Make the walk to and from school a “teachable moment” and chance to put their skills to the test. Make a map with your children showing acceptable routes to and from school. If your children wait for a bus, wait with them or make arrangements for supervision at the bus stop.

If anyone bothers your children or makes them feel scared, uncomfortable, or confused, while going to or from school, teach your children to trust their feelings, immediately get away from that person, and TELL you or another trusted adult. If an adult approaches your children for help or directions, remember grownups needing help should not ask children for help; they should ask other adults. Instruct your children to never accept money or gifts from anyone unless you have told them it is OKAY to accept in each instance.

Even though there can be more safety in numbers it is still not safe for young children to walk to and from school, especially if they must take isolated routes anytime during the day or in darkness. Always provide supervision for your young children to help ensure their safe arrival to and from school.

Instruct your children to leave items and clothing with their name on them at home. If anyone calls out their name, teach them to not be fooled or confused. Teach your children about the tricks someone may try to use to confuse them or engage them in conversation. Children should also be taught that they do not need to be polite if approached and to get out of the situation as quickly and safely as possible

Ensure current and accurate emergency contact information is on file for your children at their school. If you, or another trusted family member or friend, need to pick your children up, make sure to follow the school’s departure procedures. These procedures need to include the school’s confirmation of your children’s departure with only those you authorize to pick them up.

Teach your children if anyone tries to take them somewhere they should quickly get away and yell, “This person is trying to take me away” or “This person is not my father/mother/guardian.” Teach your children to make a scene and every effort to get away by kicking, screaming, and resisting if anyone tries to grab them.

Teach your children if anyone follows them on foot to get away from that person as quickly as possible. If anyone follows them in a vehicle they should turn around, go in the other direction, and try to quickly get to a spot where a trusted adult may help them. Advise them to be sure to TELL you or another trusted adult what happened.

Instruct your children to never leave school with anyone until they’ve checked with a trusted adult. If anyone tells them there is an emergency and they want your children to go with them, teach your children to always CHECK FIRST with you before doing anything. Also teach your children to always CHECK FIRST with you if they want to change their plans before or after school. Make sure your children always play with other children, have your permission to play in specific areas, and let you know where they are going to be. Instruct your children to TELL a trusted adult if they notice anyone they don’t know or feel comfortable with hanging around them.

In the event your children may be lost or injured, make sure they carry a contact card with your name and telephone numbers such as work and cellular. This card should be hidden from plain view.

Key Tips to Reinforce With Your Children

Always TAKE A FRIEND with you when walking, biking, or standing at the bus stop. Make sure you know your bus number and which bus to ride.

Say NO if anyone you don’t know or a person who makes you feel scared, uncomfortable, or confused offers a ride unless I have told you it is OKAY to do so in each instance.

Quickly get away and yell, “THIS PERSON IS NOT MY MOTHER/FATHER/GUARDIAN” if anyone tries to take you somewhere or is following you. If anyone tries to grab you, make a scene and every effort to get away by kicking, screaming, and resisting.

NEVER LEAVE SCHOOL GROUNDS before the regular school day ends. Always check with the office before leaving school early.

NEVER take shortcuts or walk through alleys to get to or from school faster. We will talk about which way to go to and from school. Remind me if activities you participate in cause you to leave earlier or arrive home later than usual. Remember to call me once you have arrived home.

Copyright © 2001, 2004, and 2007 National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). All rights reserved.

Source: Missing Kids

Editor’s Note: According to the National Center for Education Statistics in fall 2008, a record 49.8 million students will attend public elementary and secondary schools. An additional 6.2 million students are expected to attend private schools this fall, Fast Facts. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, www.nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372, accessed September 9, 2008.

We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

Child Passenger Safety

Sept. 16, 2009

By Safe Kids USAMore than 260 Safest Generation and Seat Check Saturday events are being held across the country by Safe Kids USA’s coalitions and chapters during Child Passenger Safety Week, which runs from Sept. 12 to 18. Child Passenger Safety Week is a nationwide program from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) highlighting the important role of child safety seats in saving the lives of young children.

Preteens are the ‘Safest Generation’

As the first generation of kids to use car seats, booster seats and seat belts consistently, preteens ages 11 and 12 are today’s “Safest Generation” when it comes to vehicle safety.

While being a preteen is all about testing boundaries and learning how to make important decisions, the Safest Generation program provides tools for preteens to use in making responsible safety choices as they become more independent – including choices that could be the difference between life and death.

The Safe Kids’ Safest Generation program uses hands-on activities to help preteens:

• Become more knowledgeable about the newest vehicle safety technologies.
• Receive information that debunks safety myths.
• Learn how to make decisions that could save lives in the event of a crash.

Events held during Child Passenger Safety Week will give preteens the opportunity to complete a course of up to five hands-on activities designed to teach children ages 11 and 12 how to be safer both in and around vehicles.

The Safest Seat is a Back Seat

Research conducted for the Safest Generation program showed that nearly 50 percent of parents surveyed said that it was ok for preteens ages 11 and 12 to sit in the front seat of a vehicle.

Why the back seat?

• Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children ages 14 and under.
• NHTSA found that sitting in a rear seat instead of the front seat reduces fatal injury risk among children 12 and younger by 36 percent.
• Between 1996 and 2002, an estimated 1,700 children’s lives were saved because they were seated in a back seat.

Remember – regardless of why your child wants to sit in the front seat, or why you want them there, all children under age 13 should sit in the back seat.

Find a Safe Kids car seat checkup event near you!

About the Safest Generation program

Safest Generation is the latest program undertaken by Safe Kids Buckle Up, a partnership between Safe Kids USA and General Motors that has been teaching families how to keep kids safer in and around vehicles for more than a decade. As part of the program, a seminar is available for parents to help make sure preteens are safe when riding with friends and neighbors, and to remind them to be a good safety role model whenever they ride in a vehicle.

About Safe Kids Buckle Up

Safe Kids Buckle Up was created by Safe Kids Worldwide and General Motors in 1997 to teach families how to keep children safer in and around vehicles. Nationwide, the program has inspected more than 1.1 million car seats and reached more than 20 million people through hands-on educational activities such as Spot the Tot, Never Leave Your Child Alone, and the Cub Scout Automotive Safety Patch, covering many of the vehicle safety needs for children ages 0 to 12.

Editor’s Note: SPOT THE TOT is a service mark of Primary Children’s Medical Center Foundation.

We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

Source: USA Safekids

Officer of the week – Police Officer John D’Allara

Remember September 11, 2001
Angels Among Us

Police Officer John D’Allara
Shield 4011
ESS-2
September 15,2001

Police Officer John D’Allara
Shield 4011
ESS-2
(recovered)

John D’Allara, a member of the New York Police Department’s emergency service office in Harlem, was a rescue specialist on the scene at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. During his 14 years on the job, he pried, cajoled or otherwise extracted a broad array of life forms from danger, dealing with a menagerie of exotic animals. Spider monkeys. Bats. Squirrels. One time, he saved an iguana. But he helped plenty of people, too.

“One time, we had a kid trapped in an elevator, with his head trapped between a beam and the elevator,” said Sgt. Lee Hom, who worked with Officer D’Allara for five years in the late 1980’s and early 90’s. “He kept the kid calm, and we got him out.”

A physical education teacher before he joined the Police Department, Officer D’Allara, 47, who lived with his wife and two sons, Johnny, 7, and Nicholas, 3, in Rockland County, intended to go back to teaching. “He loved the Police Department,” said his brother, Dan. “But he was counting his paychecks to retirement.” – The New York Times 1/29/2002

Source: NYP Angels

Firefighter of the week Dep. Chief SOC Raymond M Downey

By Dan Samaria
Publisher/YC
Sept. 15, 2009

Firefighter to the Core
Raymond M. Downey was the battalion chief in charge of special operations in the New York City Fire Department.

Here’s his son, Chuck, a fire lieutenant: “Dad joined the Fire Department on April 7, 1962. Coming on in the 60’s, they went to a lot of fires. The war years, they termed it. In 1995 he was assigned to Special Operations Command, SOC is the acronym, as chief of rescue operations. . . .

“He was on the Gilmore Commission to fight domestic terrorism. No one’s going to see it all, but I don’t think anyone thought of the World Trade Center. . . .

“When the south tower went down, there was a lot of Maydays. He survived. A lot of the top brass did. These are all guys with 30- plus years. They went back in. There were two young firemen, he told them, not in the nicest language, to get out of here.”

Here’s Chief Downey’s daughter, Marie Tortorici: “Mommy, Rosalie, is Italian. Daddy’s Irish. He would have been 64 on Sept. 19. He’s very spiritual. He was in Oklahoma City after the bombing. Gov. Keating gave him a set of rosary beads. He wore them every day. Well, they broke, and he kept them in his pocket. He had them with him, because they’re not home. . . .

“When I was a little girl, he was working three jobs to support the family, and he was always too busy to come to the school to do fire prevention week. Last year, when my daughter was in first grade, he went to the school for fire prevention week. I don’t know. It’s so sad, everything. But a good thing came out of this. My sister, my father called her the baby, we just found out she’s pregnant. So she felt like it was a blessing from my father.”
Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on October 22, 2001.

DOWNEY-Raymond. Of Deer Park, LI, FDNY-Deputy Chief of Special Operations Command, heroically in the line of duty at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, a week before his 64th birthday. Beloved husband of Rosalie (nee Princiotta). Loving and adored father of Joseph and Lynn, Marie and Girolamo Tortorici, Chuck and Melissa, Ray and Christine, Kathy and Brian Ugalde. Cherishd poppy of Gina Marie, Nicolette Rose, Peter Raymond, Joseph James, Connor Joseph, Olivia Faith and Kayla Rae. A dear brother to Eugene, Thomas and the late Joseph and Alice Routledge. Dear brother-in-law of Eileen Downey, Jean Downey and Sal Princiotta. Survived by many loving nieces and nephews and cherished family and friends. Memorial viewing at the Claude R. Boyd-Caratozzolo Funeral Home, 1785 Deer Park Ave, Deer Park, NY, on Thursday and Friday from 2-5 PM and 7-9:30 PM. A memorial mass will be held at St. Cyril and Methodius, RC Church at 11:00 AM on Saturday, December 15th. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his loving memory to the Deputy Chief, Raymond Downey Scholarship – Charity Fund (D.C.R.D.S.C Fund) 7 Bardish Lane, Babylon, NY 11702.

Paid notice published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 13, 2001.

Source Legacy

Soldier of the Week- Marine 1st Sgt. Paul Archie

by Dan Samaria
Publisher/YC
Sept. 14, 2009

Editor’s Note:
Hometown: Dallas, TX, NJ
Awarded: Bronze Star

A year ago, many people fretted that Iraq’s Anbar province was lost. Yet since then progress has come at an almost unthinkable pace, the results of principled and dangerous work by Marines working with locals. As the top enlisted Marine in his company, 1st Sgt. Archie provided consistent leadership in battle from August 2006 through February 2007, a key period of the turnaround in Anbar.

In October of last year, insurgents launched a brazen attack on his company’s base: mortars, rockets, AK-47’s, and a suicide bomber driving a truck. Archie coordinated the defense of the base by setting up fortifications on six rooftops and sending out Humvees to block roads from incoming insurgents. Under constant and heavy fire, he moved throughout the battlefield, making sure his Marines had everything they needed. He also successfully oversaw the evacuation of two wounded Marines from the fight. Archie is largely credited for the defense of the base during the intense hour-long fight.

That was not 1st Sgt. Archie’s only encounter with insurgents: His company saw combat all over Anbar during the seven-month deployment. In all, Archie undertook more than 200 combat missions and guided his company through more than 100 engagements with the enemy. Archie estimated that in many areas, there was a 50 percent chance his unit would face an Improvised Explosive Device attack.

For his leadership, dedication, and courage, 1st Sgt. Archie received the Bronze Star with the Combat Distinguishing Device at Camp Lejeune on July 30, 2007.

Editor’s Note:

Hometown: Dallas, TX, NJ

Awarded: Bronze Star

We would like to know what you think? dan@goldcoastchronicle.com

Source: Our Military

Wish of the Week – Brenda

By MWF/PIO
Sept.15. 2009

Because of her battle with cerebral palsy, 7-year-old Brenda uses a communicative device to interact with others. She made it clear to her wish granters that her one true wish was to go on a Disney Cruise to the Bahamas. Once aboard the Disney Wonder, there were characters everywhere Brenda turned. She could not believe she was really there. The Broadway-style shows were entertaining, the Mickey Mouse pool was refreshing and the sunsets were breathtaking. Brenda was mesmerized by her dolphin encounter as she pet and hugged her new friend. Every night, Brenda tried her hardest not to sleep because she wanted to keep having fun.

Brenda’s Disney Cruise continues to inspire her months after returning from her dream vacation. Her mother said, “Her wish really made an impact. It was a life experience for her. Brenda is expressing herself better and being more independent.” The other morning, she woke up saying “Mickey’s boat” over and over. She has a scrapbook and often goes and gets the album to revisit the fun she had with Captain Mickey on his big red boat.

Brenda’s mother said, “Every detail was thoughtful. All the words I can say but ‘thank you’ is not enough!”

Wish Granters: Michelle Del Valle & Andrea Liscano
Referred by: her mother
Sponsored by: Palm Beach Sailfish Classic & Village Tavern

Source: Make A Wish Foundation

 

Editor’s Note: We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

Little Girl’s Scream Saves Her Life

By Keyla Concepción
BSO/PIO
Sept. 16, 2009

The search is on for a man who broke into an Oakland Park apartment and attempted to abduct a young girl Sunday morning.

The suspect broke into the Oakland Park apartment at around 2 a.m. on September 13. The 7-year-old victim was sleeping in a bedroom with her 8 and 5-year-old brothers when the intruder pried the lock and got inside the home. Awakened by an unfamiliar face, the young girl began to scream as the man picked her up from her bed and headed for the door. Her cries for help prompted the man to leave her in the living room before bolting from the scene. The older brother, who saw the man attempting to take his sister, also began to scream for help until their mother woke up to see what was going on. That’s when she found the front door ajar and the kids told her what had happened.

Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the scene and searched the area for the suspect, but he was not located. Now detectives are releasing a composite sketch of the man in the hopes that someone will be able to identify him.

Anyone who recognizes or has information about this attempted abduction is asked to contact BSO Sex Crimes Detective Chris Blankenship at 954-321-4240, or Broward Crime Stoppers, anonymously, at 954-493-TIPS or www.browardcrimestoppers.org. A reward of up to $1,000 is available for information leading to an arrest.

Source: BSO

Editor’s Note: Parents please teach your child to do this, it could save their lives. We will show you some safety tips to help you.

We would like to know what you think? dan@youngchronicle.com

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