Sniper Steel

A man- after having survived a helicopter crash- comes out the least injured among his comrades. In the night during the Vietnam war in 1969, Sergeant Ed Eaton and fellow soldiers are stuck, injured, and under attack by invading forces.

Ed and Major Mike Perkins were on a helicopter night mission when assaulted and injured (along with other men) with near fatal wounds. Mike was pinned under the helicopter. They were still being assaulted when Ed Ed Eaton- the least injured man- decides to stay behind and protect his comrades.

Ed uses a combination of a busted sniper rifle and a machine gun. He uses the scope to spot the two separate two armies descending on them. He shoots at the (30+) group of men, slowing down their descent on the injured men. The use of the two guns makes the enemy think he is more than one man. He then began taking one man out at a time.

Finally, helicopters came down to rescue that injured soldiers. Although, Mike, whose injuries were too much for the ride, stayed behind. He was given a grenade for suicide in the event a capture would ensue. Ed, however, opted to remain with his friend, giving them both a fighting chance against the still descending enemy. Ed was left holding off even more soldiers with limited ammunition, while they were once again stuck.

Ed left two bullets for he and Mike, miraculously they were rescued before suicide was their final decision/ Ed Eaton describes his rescue on the commentary for the book Inside the Crosshairs: Snipers in Vietnam by Michael Lee Lanning, on the website HistoryNet.com

"In reference to the Hist channel story and as to how Maj. Perkins and myself got out. Our Bn. Commander came in later. We though for sure we were left alone but thank God; only thought it. I caught a ride on a Cobra that took me to a rice pattie where I was later picked up by Dustoff."

This man proves courage and compassion at it's finest. In many instances or high amounts of stress, we find ourselves frozen in fear. We become unsure what to do. This man held off an army with a broken sniper rifle along with the cover of the night. Staying behind to protect a man who held almost no chance of survival.

Not Everything Should Be Done By The Book

Hundreds of dollars in groceries were almost stolen my a struggling Florida mom. She was caught mid-act by a police officer who didn't do what most law enforcers might. She, instead paid for 100$ worth of food, and gave the mother a ride home. No not to the station house. The officer gave her a ride home.
The officer was interviewed by ABCnews.com. Here's what she said.

“She was crying. I said, ‘Okay, what did she take?’ And he pointed to a grocery cart that was full of groceries,” Thomas told ABCNews.com. “I’ve been on [the job] 23 years, and I went, wow.”
“She just filled up the grocery cart and she just walked out, which shocked me and I asked her, ‘Why?’” Thomas recalled. “She said, ‘My children were hungry.’ And that immediately impacted me.”
Thomas said Robles told her through tears, “I’d love to be able to tell you I’ll never do this again, but I can’t because my children are hungry.”
“My grandchildren flashed before my eyes,” Thomas said. “I knew at that time what I was going to do. I knew I was going to buy her groceries.”
Thomas and her partner took the woman to their car, completed her paperwork and then Thomas asked her to wait a few minutes.
“I grabbed my debit card, ran back into the store and bought things that would sustain her for a week or so and when I walked out she saw that I had the cart of groceries and she burst out in tears and asked if she could hug me, which is kind of unusual for the suspect to be hugging the officer,” Thomas said with a laugh. “I let her hug me.”
Thomas made it clear that she technically arrested Robles. The woman had no priors for shoplifting and since the amount of goods she tried to steal amounted to just under $300, the cut-off for a misdemeanor, it was up to Thomas’ discretion whether to arrest her or give her the misdemeanor and get a promise to appear in court. She chose the latter.
The woman didn’t have a car, so Thomas loaded the $100 worth of groceries into the police car and the officers gave her a ride home.
“I’m a full-service cop,” Thomas joked.
At Robles’ house, Thomas met two of her three children.
“She went into the house and said, ‘Come outside. The officer bought us groceries,’” Thomas said. “They came outside and they were helping us bring the groceries in, going through the bags asking, ‘Can I eat this? Can I have that?’”
“I honestly didn’t know the magnitude of how bad it was until later,” she said. “We got the groceries in and I got back in my car and took the next call.”
Robles could not be reached for comment.
Thomas hesitantly admitted that she has done good deeds for people she encounters on the job “a lot,” such as buying meals, but admitted this was an unusual case. She said it’s not uncommon for police to go above and beyond their required duties.
She recalled an incident where her sergeant arrested a woman’s husband for domestic violence and the woman didn’t have any gas in her car to go to her mother’s house. The sergeant put $80 of gas in the car.
“We do it silently,” Thomas said. “The victims know and I figure she’s the one that mattered. I just don’t normally buy subjects groceries.”

Many times you will come across stories of police officers abusing their title and power, and harming the citizens they're supposed to protect. This officer did what she should. There is always a hero in the story, even if you have to look, but I promise you they are there. Stay safe my friends.
(http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/10/florida-cop-buys-100-in-groceries-for-woman-caught-shoplifting-food/) 

Blood Donation

Right now over 100,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for a blood donation. Right now you have 10 pints of blood in your body.  And just 1 pint of your blood can save 3 lives. Did you read that right? One measly pint save three whole lives?
It does, my friend.
If you're considering it, please let me help you. Read on.
Blood donation takes four steps: medical history, quick physical, donation, and snacks.
The actual blood donation usually takes less than 10 minutes. The entire process, from when you sign in to the time you leave, takes about 45 minutes. Now that's not a whole lot of time to take out of your schedule, even once a week.

Now one week holds 10,080 minutes. 45 minutes out of 10,080 minutes is very minuscule. In fact, that's about  0.45% of your week. Literally. That's not even 1%.

If all blood donors gave blood 2-4 times a year, it would help prevent blood shortages. Now adding yourself to that list, you may think that one person won't make a difference, but it does. Here's why;

If you have O or B blood, donation centers desperately need you. O- is the universal donor meaning any blood type accepts it. This means you can save anyone's life. All they're counting on is someone like you. If you don't have these blood types, don't sweat it. Your still making a difference in someone's life. You're prolonging each day they have with they're loved ones, making their chances of survival much higher than if they didn't have you. You're making sure that one day they can see more smiles and create more as well. It all begins with you. 

Most anemic's , cancer patients, hemophilia or thrombocytopenia patients, severely infected patients, those who have liver disease, all diseases that cause anemia, need your help. 

Now then, while you are considering this, here's a story for the sake of your smile related to blood donation.

"After needing 13 liters of blood for a surgery at the age of 13, a man named James Harrison pledged to donate blood once he turned 18. It was discovered that his blood contained a rare antigen which cured Rhesus disease. He has donated blood a record 1,000 times and saved 2,000,000 lives. An Australian man who has been donating his extremely rare kind of blood for 56 years has saved the lives of more than two million babies.James Harrison, 74, has an antibody in his plasma that stops babies dying from Rhesus disease, a form of severe anaemia. He has enabled countless mothers to give birth to healthy babies, including his own daughter, Tracey, who had a healthy son thanks to her father’s blood. Mr Harrison has been giving blood every few weeks since he was 18 years old and has now racked up a total of 984 donations.When he started donating, his blood was deemed so special his life was insured for………………………………………….. one million Australian dollars.He was also nicknamed the ‘man with the golden arm’ or the ‘man in two million’.His blood has since led to the development of a vaccine called Anti-D.He said: ‘I’ve never thought about stopping. Never.’ He made a pledge to be a donor aged 14 after undergoing major chest surgery in which he needed 13 litres of blood.‘I was in hospital for three months,’ he said. ‘The blood I received saved my life so I made a pledge to give blood when I was 18.’Just after he started donating he was found to have the rare and life-saving antibody in his blood.At the time, thousands of babies in Australia were dying each year of Rhesus disease. Other newborns suffered permanent brain damage because of the condition.The disease creates an incompatibility between the mother’s blood and her unborn baby’s blood. It stems from one having Rh-positive blood and the other Rh-negative.After his blood type was discovered, Mr Harrison volunteered to undergo a series of tests to help develop the Anti-D vaccine.‘They insured me for a million dollars so I knew my wife Barbara would be taken care of,’ he said.‘I wasn’t scared. I was glad to help. I had to sign every form going and basically sign my life away.’Mr Harrison, dubbed ‘the man with the golden arm’, is still donating every few weeks at the age of 74. He is thought to have saved 2.2million babiesMr Harrison is Rh-negative and was given injections of Rh-positive blood.It was found his plasma could treat the condition and since then it has been given to hundreds of thousands of women.It has also been given to babies after they are born to stop them developing the disease.It is estimated he has helped save 2.2 million babies so far.One of the mothers he has helped is Joy Barnes, who works at the Red Cross Blood Bank in Sydney.Grateful: Mr Harrison’s friend Joy Barnes is one of many mothers who have been able to give birth to healthy babies thanks to his donations.She has known Mr Harrison for 23 years but has only just told him she is one of the countless mothers he has helped.Ms Barnes, who miscarried at four and five months before having treatment, said: ‘Without him I would never have been able to have a healthy baby.’Speaking to Mr Harrison on an Australian TV show, she said: ‘I don’t know how to thank you enough.’His own daughter, Tracey, also had to have the Anti-D injection after the birth of her first son. She said she was ‘proud’ of her dad for continuing to give blood, even after the death of her mother after 56 years of marriage.Mr Harrison said: ‘I was back in hospital giving blood a week after Barbara passed away. ‘It was sad but life marches on and we have to continue doing what we do. She’s up there looking down, so I carry on.’ Mr Harrison is expected to reach the 1,000 donation milestone in September this year."(story from http://www.toksdam.com/2013/02/01/the-man-with-rare-blood-has-cured-over-2million-of-rhesus-disease-and-still-counting-man-with-the-golden-arm-saves-2million-babies-in-half-a-century-of-donating-rare-type-of-blood/ story by toksadmin) 

Suspended Coffee

Coffee can be a very addictive substance for college students and the "not-so-morning" person. In winter it's great for warmth. In the A.M. it's great for energy.
For a homeless person, it could be the only nutrition they get all day.
So what's a suspended coffee? Please read the story below and find out.

"We enter a little coffeehouse with a friend of mine and give our order. While we're approaching our table two people come in and they go to the counter: 

'Five coffees, please. Two of them for us and three suspended' 

They pay for their order, take the two and leave. I ask my friend: 

'What are those 'suspended' coffees?' 

'Wait for it and you will see.' 

Some more people enter. Two girls ask for one coffee each, pay and go. The next order was for seven coffees and it was made by three lawyers — three for them and four 'suspended'. While I still wonder what's the deal with those 'suspended' coffees I enjoy the sunny weather and the beautiful view towards the square in front of the café. Suddenly a man dressed in shabby clothes who looks like a beggar comes in through the door and kindly asks 'Do you have a suspended coffee?' 

It's simple — people pay in advance for a coffee meant for someone who can not afford a warm beverage. The tradition with the suspended coffees started in Naples, but it has spread all over the world and in some places you can order not only a suspended coffee, but also a sandwich or a whole meal.
(Read more at 
http://www.snopes.com/glurge/suspended.asp#8k3q8G2i0LIT0AOH.99 )

Before you consider the value in doing this small act of kindness, let me share with you something.
Many believe that giving money to the homeless should not be done due to the fact that they may utilize the currency for drugs or alcohol instead of something beneficial. However, you don't need to give them money in order to do something for them. 
I've volunteered for feeding the homeless for over a year now. Still being a student, I don't have much money swinging around in my pockets. But what I do have, I take to buy Ramen (very inexpensive)
6 boxes of 12-pack ramen feeds up to 130 homeless persons. [I do not give one serving (or one pack) but instead half a serving. The people I'm serving generally have other food in their diet thanks to the help of other servers]
This is a substantial amount of people we are able to help fill their bellies. 
Often times after we run out of other food and all that's left is the ramen, even half a scoop brings smiles to their faces.
I would like to compare this to the saying "a penny saved is a penny earned", but instead make it, "a serving given, is a day made" Please, if you see a homeless man begging for food or money, it doesn't hurt to get a meal at the nearest McDonald's. It doesn't hurt to spend an extra two dollars to a suspended coffee. 
Think of the world if everyone just did this at least once. 

Bikers Against Child Abuse

Once upon a time, as I stumbled across the internet, I came across something truly unique.
Get this, Biker gang protection program.
Is that what they're actually called? No. However, for small children they might as well be guardians. No not parental units. I'm talking about someone who protects you. 'Why' you may ask?
Because they will give you the comfort any child needs who has been in an abusive situation. Had a nightmare? They'll be there. An abusive dad driving by, and you're scared. Don't be. The typical 'intimidating' look they have not only makes the child feel safe but can potentially scare of any abusers that are wanting to harm children.
"We desire to send a clear message to all involved with the abused child that this child is part of our organization, and that we are prepared to lend our physical and emotional support to them by affiliation, and our physical presence. We stand at the ready to shield these children from further abuse." - B.A.C.A. mission statement (http://bacaworld.org/mission/)
If you have ever had a moment, even for 5 seconds, of feeling alone, depressed, anxiety ridden, flash-backs, bullied, abused, or anything that affects your mental well-being, you know that one friend can make a world of a difference.
 I know that having one friend can make a world of a difference. And having someone who is not only trained in this field, but also has a reputation for not being the friendliest people, (but this group truly is)- I've read inspiring things, but this is something else. This is humanity at it's best. Compassion that swells from them is astounding. This truly changes life for the better. So, thank-you Biker's Against Child Abuse, just the thought of you all makes life a little easier.
Please pay a visit to their site. I highly encourage you all to keep them in mind, always.


Now to make your day even more brighter ( I hope) have some cats
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And of course, have a brilliant day my Veritas-readers. And please, remember, you are not alone. Stay strong (as you all are) and stay shining. If needed please take time to e-mail me and questions or concerns, even to tell me about your day.
Until next time!