Last year, the U.S.S. Mason arrived in Derry, honoring the crew of the ship’s World War II namesake, which made port in Northern Ireland in 1944. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder, squared up in their dress blues, shoes and buttons shining, the officers and crew of the U.S.S. Mason (DDG-87), 250 strong, faced the Celtic Cross Memorial in front of Beech Hill House Hotel, … [Read more...] about U.S.S. Mason Makes Historic Trip to Northern Ireland
Military
Petition for U.S.S. Patrick Gallagher Gains Steam
Patrick Gallagher, who everyone called Bob, left County Mayo at 18 to live in America. Four years later, in April 1966, he was drafted and enlisted in the U.S. Marines and, following basic training, travelled home to let his family know he had joined up. He didn’t, however, tell them he was being deployed to Vietnam upon returning to New York so as not to worry them, he would … [Read more...] about Petition for U.S.S. Patrick Gallagher Gains Steam
Wounded Warriors in the Rockaways (Photos)
Now in its tenth year, the Wounded Warrior Project’s Adaptive Watersports Festival invites injured veterans to Rockaway Beach for a weekend of restorative mental and physical activity. Removed from the scaffolding of Manhattan in the middle of one of the country’s oldest and most vocally patriotic Irish neighborhoods, the Wounded Warrior Project’s Adaptive Watersports Festival … [Read more...] about Wounded Warriors in the Rockaways (Photos)
Military Physicians: Like Father, Like Daughter
Dr. Francis O’Donnell and his daughter, Dr. Mary O’Donnell, have dedicated their careers as physicians to serving our soldiers. The story of their service to their country and to our servicemen and women is a reminder of what makes our military great – the people. “I was not interested in the military,” Francis O’Donnell recalls. “They basically had to drag me in.” It was the … [Read more...] about Military Physicians: Like Father, Like Daughter
My Grandfather’s War
Over 210,000 Irish enlisted in the British Army during World War I. Among them were doctors such as my grandfather who tended the wounded and saw the brutality of modern warfare up close. “A British advance has just begun, and the surgeons of a Divisional Collecting Station near the Somme are awaiting the arrival of the first laden stretcher-bearers. In a few minutes the … [Read more...] about My Grandfather’s War