What Happened to the 56 Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence

I normally wouldn't post this type of viral email here on my blog. But I found myself today thinking about this email that I'd read yesterday. And I realized that it has a very powerful message. I only wish I could credit the person who originally wrote it, but I don't know who that is.

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor..

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. Nelson quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid.

Remember: freedom is never free!

I hope you will show your support by sending this to as many people as you can. It's time we get the word out that patriotism is NOT a sin, and the Fourth of July has more to it than beer, picnics, and baseball games.
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs as a National Internet Business Examiner and at Operation Support Jews in the Military and Fiction Marketing, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her newest military-related project is the book/website project In Support of Our Troops.

Phyllis' company Miller Mosaic LLC provides internet marketing information to help people promote their brand, book or business. On July 1st the company launched the Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program.

The Coast Guard and Social Media

Nathan Hodge wrote a June 30th blog post on Wired.com titled "Can the Coast Guard Get It Right on Social Media?" The article starts:

The Coast Guard in recent months has embraced web 2.0: The service launched a new multimedia site and took enthusiastically to Twitter. Even Adm. Thad Allen, the Coast Guard commandant, has been updating his blog. And some smart search-and-rescue controllers even used Facebook to locate an overdue mariner. It’s something of an about-face for the service, which once looked on the new media with some suspicion.

Read the whole article now.
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs as a National Internet Business Examiner and at Operation Support Jews in the Military and Fiction Marketing, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her newest military-related project is the book/website project In Support of Our Troops.

Phyllis' company Miller Mosaic LLC provides internet marketing information to help people promote their brand, book or business. On July 1st the company launched the Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program.

Flashback to the Early 1970s

I'm a big fan of small world stories -- the connections that are made between people and events.

This morning my husband asked me if I remembered the first name of the lieutenant colonel who had headed the 18th Military Intelligence Battalion in Munich when my husband was stationed there from September 1970 to May 1972. I recalled his first name started with "Ro."

My husband had just read an article about seven soldiers being inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame. We agreed that the retired Brig. Gen. Roy Strom below was who we knew.

• Retired Brig. Gen. Roy “Bud” Strom, who served for 31 years. He entered the Army in 1954 and ended his career as the deputy chief of staff for intelligence at Forces Command at Fort McPherson Ga.

Not a big coincidence. Then later today I started reading an article in the July 6th and 13th New Yorker that had just arrived in the mail. The article is about Colonel Michael Dane Steele and Operation Iron Triangle in Iraq in May of 2006.

I got to this paragraph:

At the Army's Command and General Staff College, Steele has been compared to William Calley, the lieutenant who, during the Vietnam War, led the massacre of villagers in My Lai.

This is the small world connection: While my husband worked under LTC Strom, I worked as a civilian for the 66th Military Intelligence Brigade.

With free time between typing secret reports on a manual typewriter, I read my issues of the New Yorker shipped through our APO address. And I clearly remember reading the article in the New Yorker about Calley and the massacre at My Lai.

In this 2009 New Yorker article the reporter, Raffi Khatchadourian, says:

As General Oates told me, "The story of Colonel Steele and Operation Iron Triangle is about a fundamental difference of opinion about how to prosecute the war in Iraq."

I'm not a U.S. war historian so I can't write an erudite opinion as to whether the story of Lieutenant Calley and My Lai was "about a fundamental difference in opinion about how to prosecute the war in" Vietnam.

I just know that today feels like a day anchored in the early '70s.
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs as a National Internet Business Examiner and at Operation Support Jews in the Military and Fiction Marketing, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her newest military-related project is the book/website project In Support of Our Troops.

Phyllis' company Miller Mosaic LLC provides internet marketing information to help people promote their brand, book or business. On July 1st the company launched the Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program.

Michael Reagan's Life-Like Portraits of Fallen Warriors

Five years ago artist Michael Reagan's unusual project began with a phone call from a woman whose husband had died in Iraq. Would Michael create a hand-drawn portrait from a photo of her husband? And how much would the portrait cost?

Michael, a former Marine in Vietnam, told the widow that he couldn't take money for the portrait. And five years later he's drawn over 1500 portraits of fallen heroes.

On our BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com, Michael shared with Nancy Brown and me the story of this first portrait. He said that the widow told him that, when the portrait arrived, she looked into her dead husband's eyes -- and slept through the night for the first time in the year since he had been killed.

It's these stories that keep Michael and his wife determined to continue this project even though he now does two portraits a day and each portrait takes about five hours. No one makes any money for the portraits but there are costs associated with the project -- including framing, mailing, supplies.

Go to Michael Reagan's site now at fallenheroesproject.org to see samples of his amazing life-like portraits and to donate to this project that means so much to the loved ones of the fallen warriors.

Then get out your tissue box and listen to the interview of Michael Reagan describing his compelling project that gives back to the families of the men and women who have paid the ultimate price in the service of our country.
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs as a National Internet Business Examiner and at Operation Support Jews in the Military and Fiction Marketing, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her newest military-related project is the book/website project In Support of Our Troops.

Phyllis' company Miller Mosaic LLC provides internet marketing information to help people promote their brand, book or business. On July 1st the company is launching the Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program.

Nancy Brown Is Inspired by the Wife of a Wounded Marine to Start Online Support Group

My BlogTalkRadio YourMilitaryLife.com show co-host Nancy Brown of YourMilitary.com is truly one of the most amazing people I know.

She has set up in 24 hours the site WoundedWarriorsSuport.org because she learned from Karie Fugett -- wife of a wounded warrior injured by an IED in Ramadi,Iraq,in April 2006 -- that there is no real online support group for wounded warrior families.

Now Nancy and Karie together are providing that support. Join immediately to show your appreciation of this valuable new site. (I just did.)

And you can read Karie's posts there or on her Cinchouse.com blog.
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs as a National Internet Business Examiner and at Operation Support Jews in the Military and Fiction Marketing, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her newest military-related project is the book/website project In Support of Our Troops.

Phyllis' company Miller Mosaic LLC provides internet marketing information to help people promote their brand, book or business. On July 1st the company is launching the Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program.

USO Magazine Features Article on Special Ops Mission Six-Part Series

My husband just received the second edition of the USO's new magazine ON PATROL. After reading the issue, he handed it to me to look for potential interviewees for the BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com that I co-host with Nancy Brown of YourMilitary.com.

The article that most interested me is by Wil Willis, former Army Ranger and Air Force Pararescueman, who is now the host of the Military Channel's new six-part series "Special Ops Mission" that premieres July 30th.

According to the article, the series "will provide an inside view of skilled military operators using their tactical abilities in a realistic environment. This [inside view] previously had only been possible for the elite few who undertake actual covert military operations."

I'd like to link to the entire article. But for some reason the summer edition, which has this article, is not yet available online, although the spring edition is available.

Meanwhile, I'm going to look for a contact to Wil Willis because Nancy and I would love to have him on our show.
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs as a National Internet Business Examiner and at Operation Support Jews in the Military and Fiction Marketing, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her newest military-related project is the book/website project In Support of Our Troops.

Phyllis' company Miller Mosaic LLC provides internet marketing information to help people promote their brand, book or business. On July 1st the company is launching the Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program.

What You Should Know About Combat Stress

Dr. Glenn Schiraldi, who has served on the stress management faculties at the Pentagon, the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, and the University of Maryland, discussed the nature, prevention, and treatment of combat stress when he was interviewed on the BlogTalkRadio show YourMilitaryLife.com that Nancy Brown of YourMilitary.com and I co-host.

Dr. Schiraldi is the author of The Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Sourcebook, World War II Survivors: Lessons in Resilience, The Self-Esteem Workbook, Ten Simple Solutions for Building Self-Esteem, and The Anger Management Sourcebook.

I particularly liked his use of the word "inoculation" when he talked about mental health training before being exposed to the stress of combat.

Listen to his interview now to learn more about inoculating yourself and your loved ones against mental illness caused by trauma.
___

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs as a National Internet Business Examiner and at Operation Support Jews in the Military and Fiction Marketing, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her newest military-related project is the book/website project In Support of Our Troops.

Phyllis' company Miller Mosaic LLC provides internet marketing information to help people promote their brand, book or business. On July 1st the company is launching the Miller Mosaic Internet Marketing Program.