Cpl Jason L. Dunham, a United States Marine, has been posthumously awarded the Metal of Honor by President George W. Bush.

On April 14, 2004, in Iraq near the Syrian border, the corporal used his helmet and his body to smother an exploding Mills Bomb let loose by a raging insurgent whom Dunham and two other Marines tried to subdue.

The explosion dazed and wounded Lance Cpl. William Hampton and Pfc. Kelly Miller. The insurgent stood up after the blast and was immediately killed by Marine small-arms fire.

“By giving his own life, Cpl. Dunham saved the lives of two of his men and showed the world what it means to be a Marine,” said Bush.

I used to stand inside the battalion headquarters of my unit when I was a Marine and read about WWII, Korean and Vietnam war Metal of Honor recipients, and it seemed so distant to me. Their names were on plaques on the wall, with the official record of how they earned their metal. A different time. That was during the Clinton years, and we as a country were not doing much in the way of combat and war. To read about this now, it’s a little stirring. However anyone may feel about the war, this man gave his life to save his friends. There’s no denying the heroism and valor of Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, a Marine and a Hero.

The Memory Hole is another very interesting information resource. Their explicit purpose is:

to preserve and spread material that is in danger of being lost, is hard to find, or is not widely known.

They have a vast collection of government and non-government information, obtained using the Freedom of Information Act, through submissions, and other means.

There’s a lot more than what I’m going to mention here, but I’ll list what I found and liked while quickly browsing.

Some things about 9/11:

A five minute video of George Bush after he had been told that a second plane had hit the WTC. You can see him being told right at the beginning, and then sitting throughout a reading performed by young children.

An audio file of an air traffic controller tower monitoring Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania. There’s discussion about yelling heard, a heavily accented voice saying a bomb is aboard twice, then flight 93 changes flight abruptly, then silence, and then it disappears from radar and visual.

Also the NYC Figherfighter radio transmissions before the WTC collapse (excerpts, the full audio, and police transcripts).

Other:

Films From the National Reconnaissance Office
Three short films in which the nation’s spy-satellite agency talks about itself.

FBI Research Reports on the Ku Klux Klan
Kind of interesting I thought.

LSD Reports From the US Military
Three Army reports on experiments involving LSD. (The documents date from the 1960s and 1970s.

The Memory Hole collects many other information resources, saving them from ‘the memory hole’ where information disappears forever, including:

• Government files
• Corporate memos
• Court documents (incl. lawsuits and transcripts)
• Police reports and eyewitness statements
• Congressional testimony
• Reports (governmental and non-governmental)
• Maps, patents, Web pages
• Photographs, video, and sound recordings
• News articles
• Books (and portions of books)

It’s worth giving it a once over.

american, history, government, information, library, george bush, 911, video, audio

The Library of Congress has a website called American Memory. It is an amazing information resource:

American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America, serving the public as a resource for education and lifelong learning.

The collections available, including audio recordings, images, and more from American history are absolutely amazing. This an informative site if I’ve ever come across one. Once I have fixed my Share Wonders site rating (it’s still using the colors from the old site) I’ll give this one a 5/5!

library, government, american, history, information, search,