Meta tags:

Headings (most frequently used words):

my, 2008, 2007, the, of, friday, march, april, larkin, and, blog, new, task, force, phoenix, monday, november, 30, 2015, september, 26, tuesday, 18, wednesday, 05, sunday, june, 03, 27, saturday, 14, todd, about, me, milbloggies, thank, you, facebook, badge, iava, suppor, soldiers, that, why, sgt, dub, archive, some, favorite, links, people, who, have, donated, to, buy, shoes, for, afghan, kids, milblogging, com, voting, booth, vote, year, old, bayleigh, pledge, allegiance, no, friend, mine, years, later, view, on, president, back, home, forgotten, war, bye, from, afghanistan, wrapping, up,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (189), and (179), for (57), you (44), will (36), that (35), all (33), was (33), from (31), home (29), are (28), just (26), things (25), with (24), mccain (24), this (23), have (23), not (22), but (22), about (22), what (20), over (19), they (19), back (19), veterans (19), #afghanistan (18), iraq (18), there (17), blog (16), people (15), much (15), our (15), one (15), todd (14), here (14), had (14), its (14), time (14), how (14), larkin (13), well (13), when (13), would (13), get (12), few (12), war (12), got (11), country (11), year (10), vote (10), see (10), who (10), new (10), been (10), last (10), life (10), day (10), military (9), soldiers (9), guys (9), out (9), know (9), after (9), americans (9), great (9), his (9), want (8), posted (8), done (8), can (8), lot (8), hope (8), never (8), now (8), has (8), more (8), could (8), going (8), thanks (7), com (7), oklahoma (7), best (7), comments (7), glad (7), getting (7), their (7), were (7), issues (7), john (7), record (7), obama (7), voting (6), weeks (6), keep (6), wonderful (6), kids (6), another (6), help (6), national (6), troops (6), thank (6), sending (6), view (6), days (6), pretty (6), couple (6), like (6), did (6), continue (6), change (6), american (6), these (6), espn (6), other (5), think (5), week (5), collinsville (5), shoes (5), times (5), some (5), march (5), 2008 (5), say (5), because (5), show (5), thought (5), good (5), years (5), most (5), address (5), next (5), give (5), seen (5), them (5), any (5), returned (5), everything (5), than (5), support (5), long (5), started (5), way (5), care (5), need (5), soldier (5), members (5), friday (4), everyone (4), phoenix (4), word (4), june (4), september (4), 2006 (4), april (4), 2007 (4), enjoy (4), told (4), every (4), off (4), busy (4), station (4), still (4), stuff (4), once (4), many (4), don (4), school (4), lost (4), thing (4), then (4), gave (4), http (4), family (4), army (4), only (4), friends (4), talk (4), guess (4), right (4), wife (4), didn (4), car (4), past (4), expect (4), even (4), wars (4), barack (4), future (4), important (4), veteran (4), service (4), bayleigh (3), box (3), chance (3), task (3), force (3), page (3), guard (3), security (3), november (3), looking (3), rants (3), stories (3), minute (3), fast (3), far (3), reading (3), received (3), hero (3), clothes (3), being (3), such (3), big (3), problems (3), families (3), really (3), left (3), gets (3), wanted (3), always (3), remember (3), missed (3), her (3), asked (3), again (3), sure (3), miss (3), made (3), ready (3), those (3), story (3), tell (3), work (3), better (3), month (3), end (3), decided (3), night (3), coming (3), ask (3), later (3), daughter (3), jodi (3), clerk (3), stood (3), bit (3), bill (3), local (3), mean (3), into (3), weekend (3), meet (3), says (3), price (3), make (3), biggest (3), living (3), came (3), true (3), president (3), speech (3), organization (3), services (3), voted (3), against (3), old (2), anything (2), saturday (2), milblogging (2), ground (2), san (2), williams (2), head (2), donated (2), 180 (2), website (2), site (2), sgt (2), jake (2), away (2), red (2), favorite (2), 2015 (2), iava (2), your (2), badge (2), also (2), supplies (2), feel (2), free (2), leave (2), profile (2), dad (2), email (2), posts (2), staying (2), keeping (2), cause (2), ago (2), promotions (2), director (2), experience (2), least (2), goal (2), trying (2), read (2), appreciate (2), humanitarians (2), live (2), boys (2), girl (2), scouts (2), around (2), deployments (2), nation (2), world (2), cookies (2), helping (2), sitting (2), today (2), knew (2), own (2), recent (2), rain (2), leaving (2), within (2), major (2), roper (2), secfor (2), anyway (2), before (2), happen (2), heading (2), seems (2), went (2), making (2), mom (2), signed (2), elders (2), stay (2), wait (2), receive (2), plan (2), house (2), first (2), down (2), full (2), forward (2), planning (2), let (2), without (2), words (2), gripe (2), earned (2), very (2), airport (2), colorado (2), leaned (2), where (2), she (2), wow (2), little (2), called (2), landed (2), minutes (2), including (2), face (2), soon (2), enterprise (2), utility (2), bills (2), returning (2), considering (2), cool (2), please (2), passed (2), paper (2), same (2), might (2), forgotten (2), nothing (2), vietnam (2), welcome (2), while (2), concert (2), since (2), greet (2), audience (2), complaining (2), appreciation (2), vacation (2), monday (2), ardmore (2), wouldn (2), candidate (2), person (2), america (2), white (2), someone (2), lead (2), hillary (2), bush (2), children (2), current (2), worry (2), republican (2), presidential (2), worse (2), look (2), facing (2), honoring (2), sports (2), eticket (2), both (2), campaign (2), find (2), fact (2), group (2), convention (2), nonpartisan (2), congress (2), legislation (2), votes (2), adequate (2), name (2), grade (2), million (2), scorecard (2), two (2), yet (2), medical (2), treatment (2), perfect (2), said (2), legion (2), cost (2), public (2), state (2), stipend (2), diamond (2), friend (2), deployment (2), focus (2), battalion (2), pledge, allegiance, click, below, opinion, question, booth, freeman, havre, grace, gelfand, battle, heeren, bend, wagoner, madill, durden, pruitt, hackett, hundley, davis, stagler, jose, manhattan, maddox, lake, tapps, stevens, dallas, craspin, diego, forester, city, arlington, coutchie, hilton, island, ladies, guns, lovington, singer, fort, collins, buy, afghan, sgtdub, myspace, kxii, frontline, newsletter, suporting, fallen, hook, donovan, sarge, charlie, hudson, nine, zones, center, policy, bag, wag, wear, fridays, gunz, charlotte, conservative, links, july, august, january, february, archive, bloggers, dub, why, suppor, create, facebook, reads, enjoys, feedback, milbloggies, complete, average, married, comsmos77, yahoo, subscribe, atom, older, numbered, love, counts, clock, haven, passing, shaun, pierce, 101, christian, pittsburgh, interview, shocked, enjoying, reach, thinking, though, reason, backpack, drops, mostly, donations, brought, each, themselves, whelming, together, ways, drift, involved, kid, outside, learning, thin, mints, drop, giving, food, clothing, homes, flooding, drought, handed, oil, beans, rice, flour, blankets, bought, winter, hardest, rid, conex, fall, privilege, picking, mail, replacement, south, carolina, cerp, mark, 41bct, hhc, camp, apo, 09320, short, update, lots, questions, entry, updated, www, wordfm, wrapping, adventure, forget, grown, realize, along, bet, contract, learned, civilians, hard, decide, opportunities, enough, longer, states, memories, take, med, caps, lunches, fun, smiles, something, thumbs, hopefully, easier, job, weren, boxes, goodies, heroes, amazing, final, sign, writing, touch, supports, bye, moving, process, finally, settling, bored, lazy, starting, promotion, reporter, waiting, awhile, until, couldn, chest, heard, saying, encouragement, upset, experienced, somethings, complain, spoiled, kind, encouraging, emails, different, treat, examples, flew, springs, flight, attendants, spent, skipping, beat, whats, stunned, explain, elderly, stepped, proceeded, ever, kindly, hours, happy, actually, plans, renting, driving, landing, greeted, able, friendly, beautiful, grabbed, bags, headed, rental, company, spoke, front, desk, case, showing, wondering, use, tried, request, trip, spending, flying, break, bring, maybe, stressed, excited, notice, daily, several, articles, needed, needs, focused, dealership, taking, cards, packages, send, forgive, sound, jealous, whatever, having, huge, problem, ounce, means, anytime, dies, deployed, losing, turning, should, weekends, bothered, adding, raves, memorial, sales, mall, parties, remembering, planned, party, seemed, town, pushed, edge, ushers, lady, nice, inform, allow, backstage, hand, passes, sit, starts, radio, comes, found, half, standing, ovation, deserve, small, amount, simple, pay, stop, move, months, drill, start, date, write, continuing, paid, ardmoreite, surprise, urprising, disappointments, disappointed, shouldn, sunday, black, yellow, green, male, female, direction, reasons, either, grandchildren, hell, grow, grew, worrying, adults, too, forever, watched, democratic, primaries, slide, forth, fear, nervous, feeling, wins, whole, hold, honestly, scary, recession, wave, gas, prices, supporter, personally, disagree, individual, taxpaying, citizen, myself, clear, covering, bases, wednesday, comment, five, anniversary, invasion, telling, tolls, takes, doing, tells, arm, behind, homuth, conley, tuesday, 26th, thursday, scheduled, debate, strains, readiness, graduate, intimately, familiar, valiant, honorable, concerned, unfortunately, heroism, allowed, morph, patently, false, ceaselessly, touted, strong, advocate, further, truth, earlier, delivered, acceptance, political, career, nearly, millions, watching, seconds, caring, mention, issue, during, interrupted, protesters, dismissed, noise, static, yes, argue, symbolism, substance, looks, largest, grades, affect, includes, expanded, health, reservists, death, benefits, traumatic, brain, injury, research, rest, between, 155, tracked, senator, separate, maintains, federal, dav, purpose, simply, report, facts, legislators, score, previous, congresses, goes, higher, respectively, 2004, elected, senate, led, scores, among, increasing, funding, billion, closing, corporate, tax, loopholes, senators, amendment, add, 430, department, affairs, outpatient, favor, trail, examine, claim, organizations, groups, release, congressional, scorecards, constitution, prohibits, opposition, originally, threatening, veto, law, cover, education, private, schools, capped, expensive, respective, provides, upfront, tuition, payments, directly, book, supply, 000, per, monthly, stayed, attend, fund, raiser, challenge, proud, helped, shoddy, system, lack, preparation, handle, combat, wounded, blast, trauma, injuries, failure, provide, posttraumatic, stress, disorder, ptsd, screening, rhetoric, biography, seven, sent, fight, defend, stand, native, yorker, chairman, york, served, operation, iraqi, freedom, fellow, truman, project, california, foreign, factcheck, org, disabled, naval, academy, robert, mine, followers, interested, follow, avetdad, blogspot, created, countries, 180th, infantry, durant, try, associated,

Text of the page (random words):
te is not associated with the us army or the oklahoma army national guard in any way monday november 30 2015 new blog not sure if i still have any followers left on here but if you are interested in my life after deployment and living as a veteran dad follow my new blog hope everyone is well todd http avetdad blogspot com posted by todd larkin at 11 15 am no comments friday september 26 2008 no friend of mine john mccain s no friend to veterans by robert diamond friday september 26th 2008 4 00 am as soon as thursday night barack obama and john mccain are scheduled to meet for their first presidential debate they will talk about national security iraq afghanistan the strains on our military readiness and i hope they will talk about our veterans as both an iraq war veteran and a graduate of the u s naval academy i am intimately familiar with john mccain s valiant and honorable military service mccain as far as i am concerned is a true american hero unfortunately his heroism in the vietnam war has been allowed to morph into a patently false record ceaselessly touted by his campaign that mccain is a strong advocate for veterans that could not be further from the truth earlier this month mccain delivered his acceptance speech at the republican national convention the most important speech of his long political career in a nearly 50 minute address with millions of americans watching mccain could not find 10 seconds to talk about one of the most important issues facing this country caring for our returning veterans he did not mention the word veteran once in fact the only time the issue of veterans came up during that speech was when mccain was interrupted by protesters from the group iraq veterans against the war mccain dismissed them as ground noise and static yes that was just the convention and you might argue more about symbolism than substance but it only gets worse when one looks at mccain s voting record the nation s largest iraq veterans organization iraq and afghanistan veterans of america a nonpartisan organization grades members of congress on how they vote on legislation that affect s troops veterans or military families this includes votes on such issues as expanded health care services for veterans and reservists military death benefits traumatic brain injury research and adequate rest for service members between deployments just to name a few of the 155 votes tracked by iava since 9 11 john mccain received a grade of d while no senator earned a grade of a barack obama got a b a separate veterans group disabled american veterans with over 1 4 million members maintains a federal vote scorecard dav is also a nonpartisan organization and says the purpose of its scorecard is simply to report the facts how legislators voted on issues important to us and our members mccain s score in the last congress 20 obama s 80 in the previous two congresses mccain s record goes a little bit higher to 25 and 33 respectively obama s is 92 for 2006 in 2004 he was not yet elected to the senate what led to these scores among other things mccain s vote in march of 2006 against increasing veterans medical services funding by 1 5 billion by closing corporate tax loopholes obama voted for it another was in april 2006 when mccain was one of only 13 senators to vote against an amendment to add 430 million for the department of veteran affairs for medical services for outpatient care and treatment for veterans obama voted in favor of it but mccain says he has a perfect record on veterans issues he said so on the campaign trail factcheck org decided to examine this claim what did it find mccain said that he had a perfect voting record from organizations like the veterans of foreign wars the american legion but we called both of those groups and they told us they don t even release congressional scorecards in fact the american legion s constitution prohibits it my favorite was mccain s opposition to the new gi bill that president bush after originally threatening to veto signed into law this past june 30 the new gi bill will cover veterans for the full cost of education at any public school in the country and many private schools it s capped at the cost of the most expensive public school in the respective state it provides upfront tuition payments directly to the school a book supply stipend of 1 000 per year and a monthly living stipend when it came time to vote on this legislation mccain didn t show up he stayed in california to attend a fund raiser i would never challenge john mccain s proud record of service to his country but his voting record has not helped address the shoddy state of our va system the lack of preparation to handle today s combat wounded who have returned home with blast trauma injuries or the failure to provide adequate posttraumatic stress disorder ptsd screening and treatment for all our service members it s time for americans to look past rhetoric and biography in the past seven years this country has sent our military to fight in two major wars john mccain has stood up to defend those wars he has yet to stand up for veterans once they ve returned home diamond a native new yorker is the chairman of new york veterans for obama he served in operation iraqi freedom and is a fellow with the truman national security project posted by todd larkin at 9 15 am no comments tuesday march 18 2008 5 years later espn is honoring the five year anniversary of the u s invasion of iraq by telling stories of 2 soldiers and their families their life before and after war and what tolls war takes including life these are great stories and its great to see espn doing such a great thing by honoring these guys one tells of a soldier who lost his arm and returned home the other didn t make it home and left behind a wife and daughter http sports espn go com espn eticket story page conley http sports espn go com espn eticket story page homuth posted by todd larkin at 2 36 pm 1 comment wednesday march 05 2008 my view on a new president this is my own view as a person an individual this is not the view of the military or a soldier my view as an american taxpaying citizen just making myself clear and covering bases i have watched the democratic primaries slide back and forth from barack to hillary and then last night my biggest worry fear came true and i have this nervous feeling about it john mccain is now the republican presidential candidate wow he s worse than what we have now for a president and if he wins the whole thing we are in for another long 4 years and with the way things are now what will our future hold as americans it s honestly scary to me i mean look at the issues we are facing now recession is looking like the wave of the future gas prices the price of everything is going up and most important of all the war mccain is a true supporter of keeping us in iraq and i personally disagree with that it s time for an end and time for a change and if its barack or hillary i will vote either way but we do not need another bush in the white house we need someone who will make this country better and lead us to a better future if you have children or grandchildren you need to vote for a change in the future mccain will not give americans change it will be the hell we ve been living for the last 8 years i want my daughter to grow up like i grew up not worrying about problems and current issues that adults worry about these days too many children ask if we will be at war forever that s all they know because that s all they see and here i m voting for the best candidate the person who will make the biggest change in america and the biggest change me i do not care if they are white black red yellow or green i don t care if they are male or female i just want someone who will lead us in the right direction for the right reasons posted by todd larkin at 8 39 am 2 comments sunday june 03 2007 back home and the forgotten war well a month back home and things are going pretty well for my family we got a new house and did the moving process within the first couple weeks of being home so things have been busy and finally settling down and getting bored with staying home and i guess getting ready to go back to work then there are times i want to continue to be lazy i plan on starting back the 11 th and will receive a promotion to full time reporter by the end of the month and i m looking pretty forward to that i was planning on waiting awhile to do another blog until after i started back to work i decided last night i couldn t wait to get a few things off my chest i have seen and heard a few things that i just wouldn t let go without saying a few things about it because i knew you guys would give me a few words of encouragement and would be just as upset as i was when i experienced my recent rants i guess there are somethings i shouldn t gripe about or complain about but i feel i ve earned the right to gripe about this and i ve been very disappointed in all the people back home after all the wonderful support i got from all of you guys i guess i got spoiled by you guys sending all the kind words and great encouraging emails i just returned home and things were so different with how the people treat the military and how they show their appreciation here are my examples my disappointments started the day i flew home we were sitting in the airport at colorado springs and one of the flight attendants asked if we were coming back from iraq i leaned over and told her no we just spent a year in afghanistan and where heading home she leaned back over to ask me without skipping a beat whats going on over there wow i was stunned and when i started to explain a little thing called 9 11 an elderly couple stepped in and proceeded to tell her what was going on over there and did so ever so kindly a few hours later i landed in oklahoma and was as happy as i could be for the next few minutes well let me back up a few days my wife didn t know what day i was actually planning on coming home so i wanted to s urprising my wife and daughter i had made all the plans including renting a car and driving down to ardmore to surprise jodi and bayleigh well now i can fast forward to the day i landing in ok i was greeted at the airport by one of my best friends jake it was great being able to see a friendly face as soon as i landed in beautiful oklahoma i grabbed my bags and headed to get my rental car from a wonderful company enterprise i spoke with the clerk at the front desk and he started getting me ready to head on my way well that wouldn t be the case after showing my id the clerk as for 2 utility bills because i was returning the car to the ardmore enterprise lot i stood there wondering what 2 utility bills i would use considering i had just got back from afghanistan i tried my best to get past the request and after 15 minutes of no help from the clerk i lost my cool the week long trip home and spending the day flying from colorado was just a bit much and i lost my cool but please give me a break where do you expect me to get a bill or how could you even expect me to bring one or expect to show one maybe i was just stressed or to excited to get home after the next few days passed and i got home i would notice things more and more one day it was the local paper the daily ardmoreite they had several articles about the iraq war and how people needed to support the troops over there and how so much needs to be focused on iraq a couple days later in the same paper a local car dealership was taking thank you cards and care packages to send to troops in iraq please forgive me if i sound a bit jealous or even mean or just whatever you think i might mean i am having a huge problem right now with all of the support for iraq and not an ounce for afghanistan i know its an american war and soldiers are soldiers but iraq is not afghanistan and by far not the same war by any means we need to be in afghanistan and i m leaving that one there anytime a soldier is home its from iraq every time a soldier dies its in iraq every time a soldier gets deployed its to iraq there is another war out there and we have our americans losing their life over there as well i can t see how things are so forgotten and just passed over like there is nothing going on i m not sure if these wars are turning into vietnam but things are not the way they should be these last 2 weekends have really bothered me and just adding more to my rants and raves the memorial day weekend was more about sales at the mall and parties than it was about remembering our hero s my mom planned a welcome home party for me just for that weekend and it seemed that there was nothing going on around town to remember the troops this last weekend just pushed me over the edge when my wife and i went to a concert while we were at the concert jodi decided to ask one of the ushers if there was anything they could do since i just got back home a couple weeks ago the lady was nice with jodi and got back with us to inform us that she told the promotions director and he would see what he could do for us so they allow some people backstage for a meet and greet and hand out some free meet and greet passes and we sit there the show starts and a dj from a local radio station comes out and says i just found out that we have a couple soldiers in the audience who just got back home from iraq and i just want to welcome them home half the audience stood up and gave us a standing ovation and that was it so i didn t just get home from iraq and that was all they could do for us i don t expect much and i m not complaining about not getting things i just know what we ve seen and what we ve done and i think soldiers deserve more than a small amount of appreciation i ve always asked for just a simple thank you and that was it and it seems like that s even a very big price for some people to pay considering the price the soldiers have paid for them anyway i will stop the complaining and move on and just see how things go for the next few weeks we get about 6 months off from drill so as much vacation from the army will be pretty good and monday i will start back to the tv station my vacation is coming to an end but its been a good one and i hope to keep people up to date and write at least one blog a week about our life and how things are going thanks again for continuing to read my blog and i hope you all continue to enjoy it posted by todd larkin at 7 26 pm 19 comments friday april 27 2007 bye from afghanistan well my last blog from afghanistan there were times i never thought this would happen and times i wanted it to happen that day it s been an experience and an adventure i will never forget and will always remember some of the things i ve seen and done for the last year i never thought it would be like this and never thought i would do and see the things i ve done or seen so a year in afghanistan and i m heading home at times it seems the year went by ...