About the Van…

Know Your Medal of Honor Recipients:

Sergeant Major Abraham Cohn (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on May 6, 1864 at Wilderness, Virginia and on July 30, 1864 at the mine, Petersburg, Virginia. His citation reads:

During Battle of the Wilderness rallied and formed, under heavy fire, disorganized and fleeing troops of different regiments. At Petersburg, Va., 30 July 1864, bravely and coolly carried orders to the advanced line under severe fire.

Private First Class Ronald L. Coker (US Marine Corps) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on March 24, 1969. His citation reads:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a rifleman with Company M in action against enemy forces. While serving as point man for the 2d Platoon, Pfc. Coker was leading his patrol when he encountered 5 enemy soldiers on a narrow jungle trail. Pfc. Coker's squad aggressively pursued them to a cave. As the squad neared the cave, it came under intense hostile fire, seriously wounding 1 marine and forcing the others to take cover. Observing the wounded man lying exposed to continuous enemy fire, Pfc. Coker disregarded his safety and moved across the fire-swept terrain toward his companion. Although wounded by enemy small-arms fire, he continued to crawl across the hazardous area and skillfully threw a hand grenade into the enemy positions, suppressing the hostile fire sufficiently to enable him to reach the wounded man. As he began to drag his injured comrade toward safety, a grenade landed on the wounded marine. Unhesitatingly, Pfc. Coker grasped it with both hands and turned away from his wounded companion, but before he could dispose of the grenade it exploded. Severely wounded, but undaunted, he refused to abandon his comrade. As he moved toward friendly lines, 2 more enemy grenades exploded near him, inflicting still further injuries. Concerned only for the safety of his comrade, Pfc. Coker, with supreme effort continued to crawl and pull the wounded marine with him. His heroic deeds inspired his fellow marines to such aggressive action that the enemy fire was suppressed sufficiently to enable others to reach him and carry him to a relatively safe area where he succumbed to his extensive wounds. Pfc. Coker's indomitable courage, inspiring initiative and selfless devotion to duty upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and of the U.S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his country.

Private First Class Mike Colalillo (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on April 7, 1945 near Untergriesheim, Germany. His citation reads:

He was pinned down with other members of his company during an attack against strong enemy positions in the vicinity of Untergriesheim, Germany. Heavy artillery, mortar, and machinegun fire made any move hazardous when he stood up, shouted to the company to follow, and ran forward in the wake of a supporting tank, firing his machine pistol. Inspired by his example, his comrades advanced in the face of savage enemy fire. When his weapon was struck by shrapnel and rendered useless, he climbed to the deck of a friendly tank, manned an exposed machinegun on the turret of the vehicle, and, while bullets rattled about him, fired at an enemy emplacement with such devastating accuracy that he killed or wounded at least 10 hostile soldiers and destroyed their machinegun. Maintaining his extremely dangerous post as the tank forged ahead, he blasted 3 more positions, destroyed another machinegun emplacement and silenced all resistance in his area, killing at least 3 and wounding an undetermined number of riflemen as they fled. His machinegun eventually jammed; so he secured a submachinegun from the tank crew to continue his attack on foot. When our armored forces exhausted their ammunition and the order to withdraw was given, he remained behind to help a seriously wounded comrade over several hundred yards of open terrain rocked by an intense enemy artillery and mortar barrage. By his intrepidity and inspiring courage Pfc. Colalillo gave tremendous impetus to his company's attack, killed or wounded 25 of the enemy in bitter fighting, and assisted a wounded soldier in reaching the American lines at great risk of his own life.


The van that The Wife picked out is a white 2010 Chrysler Town and Country. It has two DVD screens (three if you include the little screen in the dashboard) and a ton of cool features. She can now open the back doors using the key remote. She can also start the van remotely. The van has stow-n-go seating which was a huge plus. For those of you not in the know… stow-n-go means that the back seats can just fold into the floor. To make room in our old van we had to remove a seat and store it in our house. What stow-n-go also means is that there is a little storage area under the floor in front of Daniel’s seat. I’m not 100% sure I understood The Wife on this one, but I think the very back seat can flip over and face the back (making it “tailgate” seating). Seeing as how we’ve never tailgated, I don’t know how much we’ll ever use that… but it’s still cool. Back to the video screen in the dashboard… when you put the van in reverse the screen shows you what is behind you. It can also rip songs off of CDs and store them on an internal hard drive. It’s got about 20-30 different little storage places. People say I give The Wife a hard time on here (which I don’t get… I think I show her nothing but love on here). Anyway, I’ll say this… all in all The Wife made two pretty big purchases without me in 2011 (a dryer and a van). In each case, she knocked it out of the park. This makes me happy because now I don’t have to worry about going shopping with her whenever we need something big. I’m fine with that. Best of all, The Wife is happy. And you know what they say: When The Wife is happy, she won’t nag the hell out of me over something stupid.

So today we introduce yet another new segment to our blog. On Friday’s we’re going to take a look at different athletes from the great state of South Carolina (and by “from”, I mean they were either born here or played HS and/or College ball here). I think this is important because I feel you people really need to know what players I like so you’ll know who to like. The athletes I will highlight in this segment will not necessarily be current players. Truth is, there’s a good chance they won’t be current players. There is also a chance that not all of these players are still alive. That doesn’t matter… as someone living in this state, you need to know who they are. So let’s take a look at the first SC athlete.


The I’m just sayin… Know Your South Carolina Athlete

The first athlete we are going to take a look at is Levon Kirkland. “Captain Kirk” is from Lamar, South Carolina. He played linebacker for the Clemson Tigers from 1988-1991. He was a big part of some of the greatest defenses in Clemson history (that sure as hell never gave up 70 freakin’ points in an Orange Bowl). Shockingly, Kirkland wasn’t drafted until the second round of the 1992 NFL Draft (where he was taken by the Pittsburgh Steelers). 99% of the players taken before him weren’t worth a darn. At Clemson he was a 225 pound outside linebacker (as a freshman… I think he was in the 240s by his senior year). As a pro he weighed anywhere between 275-300 and played inside linebacker. Kirkland had 10 tackles and a key sack in Super Bowl XXX and would most likely have been named MVP if Neil F’ing O’Donnell hadn’t thrown away the Steelers chances of winning. His NFL career stats are 1,029 tackles; 19.5 sacks; 11 interceptions. He was an All-Pro in 1996 and 1997; NFL Alumni Linebacker of the Year in 1997; Steelers Team MVP in 1998 and 1999 and a member of the NFL 1990s All-Decade Team. He played for the Steelers from 1992-2000, then he played for the Seattle Seahawks in 2001 and the Philadelphia Eagles in 2002. As far as his college highlights: He was a consensus All-American his senior year; he’s a member of Clemson’s All-Centennial team and is a member of the Clemson Hall of Fame and the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame. His greatest achievement, of course, is being a unanimous selection to the I’m just sayin… All-Time Clemson Team.