On TV Now - The Bravest Families in America

It is Oprah, but...

"Beneath Hill 60"

BENEATH HILL 60 is a new Australian FEATURE FILM directed by renowned actor/director Jeremy Sims and written by screenwriter David Roach. It will shed light on this untold story of the Australian miners with a finely tuned dramatic script and the finest actors, working in underground sets built in association with the mining community in North Queensland.

Watch for it.

Introduction:


Trailer:

Finding the Fallen - Fromelles 2009 (ABC News feature)

Watching episodes of this program, Finding the Fallen, on ABC last year, along with another program about anthropologic war site digs in Europe I was fascinated by what could be found. The second program in one or two cases found property of a particular soldier which was identifiable and the soldier's descendents or near relatives were found and shown the items found.

The ABC together with the Australian War Graves Commission, The Australian War Memorial and the Australian Army have produced a special on the Fromelles Fallen.

Update:
This is about an Australian dig in Flanders.

Pearl Harbour - 7 December 1941

I've been to Pearl Harbour.
That's how I remember.

Please visit my friend KC's blog and Remember Pearl Harbour.

Lockheed plant wartime disguise

Found at Bolt's forum today a link to this amazing piece of wartime camoflage...

It is truly amazing!

My father told me that during the war the Bankstown aerodrome buildings were disguised as blocks of home units.

That's amazing, mike rafone!

War widow not so broke...

Breeanna Till, war widow mentioned in this blog recently apparently won't be so broke.

While it's very sad that she's lost her husband and has three kids and another on the way to raise without the support of her husband, it appears that she will not be left destitute:

War widows review a lump sum payment of about $122,000. They can then either choose to be paid a further one-off payment of about $507,000 or receive an indexed pension of about $335 a week. The pension is uncapped and not taxed.

Dependants receive approximately $73,000 as a lump sum, an $81-a-week payment while they are dependants, and education support. Widows and dependants also receive a gold card, which entitles the holder to departmental funding for all healthcare services. Opposition veterans affairs spokeswoman Louise Markus said the case highlighted the need for urgent reform of the compensation system for veterans and their families, and called on the government to step in and fix the system. (From The Australian, link.)

So financially I don't think they'll suffer.

Was Mrs Till complaining, or was her murmur picked up by the Telegraph to bash the government? That's the theory of one blogger.

Found at Leon Bertrand's blog, link to Cosmicjester's blog.

Work makes you free

This made me cry.

Time Team in Hiatus, look what's on instead

ABC1 Tuesday nights 6:10pm

Finding the Fallen

At the end of the Great War, nearly two million soldiers were missing, presumed dead.

Almost 90 years later, the bloody battlegrounds of France and Belgium are surrendering their secrets. A team of archaeologists, historians and forensic experts is working to identify unknown soldiers and finally lay them to rest.

Finding The Fallen is a documentary series that follows the work of this team as they move through time and across the battlefields of France and Belgium, releasing the fallen and their stories of courage and sacrifice from the mud of the First World War battles in which they fought and died.

.....

The professional and dedicated members of The Trench Detectives use their skills to trace artifacts and personal possessions found on the battlefield back to the soldiers who once owned them. By doing so they reveal the personal histories of named soldiers and cast light on the human nature of war.

Here's the ABC1 link to search results.

Read this letter

6 US military members KIA, and some injured...

One of the men KIA wrote home

SGT Stream's Family Published a letter he wrote a few months ago in the Chicago Tribune.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 at 9:30am

A strange thing...When I think about what surrounds me, the institutional corruption, the random violence, the fear and desperation. I feel the reasons why I am here more and more sharply. As we grow in our soldiers skills, surviving by finding the hidden dangers, seeing the secret motives and the shifting politics... we grow a set of skills that is unique and powerful in this situation.
We also see what you cannot see in the States, you are surrounded by the love of Christ and faith in freedom and humanity, like a fish you think water is 'a puff of air' because it is always there, you do not notice it... we who are out of the water look back and see the world we love surrounded by enemies, poison and envy that wants to fall on you like a storm of ruin.

Read the whole letter (At the Chicago Trib above).

Found at Miserable Donuts.