Cmdr Michael S Speicher was born and raised in the mid-west. Upon graduating college, Speicher join the Navy and became a pilot. Upon completion of training, he was assigned to an aircraft carrier. There he became proficient at piloting the Navy’s F-18 Hornet. His ship was deployed to the middle east for Desert Shield. On the opening night of hostilities, Cmdr Speicher’s plane was hit by a surface to air missile. It is unknown if he was able to eject. No evidence has yet surfaced to conclusively say whether Cmdr Speicher was killed or captured on that night nearly 16 years ago. His family bravely waits for any news about their beloved family member.

On April 9,2004, his convoy came under heavy fire. Matt and another Army personnel along with 7 civiain contraters were captured. 8 of the 9 people have since escaped or been confirmed killed. Only Matt remains unaccounted for. His family struggles to get through each day while waiting on word of Matt’s return. Several days following his capture, a video showed Matt with his captures. He appeared well and unharmed. About 3 months later, another video was aired which reportedly showed Matt being executed. Officials have not been able to determine that the person in the video was Matt.  Currently, he is the only person unaccounted for in the current war.

This Veterans Day Weekend remember the missing in Iraq. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers. Their families have nothing to celebrate.

Ssgt Matt Maupin - missing since Apr 9, 2004

For the last couple of days, I have studied hard, trying to learrn HTML coding. Despite what my kid's say, I have proof that I have a brain.

There are so many variables, but it is slowly sinking in. I found a good online interactive tutorial that I have been using. As I am going along in the tutorial, I am creating a practice web home page. I am stuck right now trying to change colors. I want the text on the top half of the page to be one color and the lower half to be a differant color. Whatever I make the top half is what the whole page is like. Oh well, give my brain a rest and I will go back at it. I have taught myself two other programming languages and I'll learn this one eventually.

Hope y'all are doing great and making lots of money.  I see where Danna has the blog cookbook ready. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but plan to this evening. Now she is starting on the Christmas Edition of the cookbook. She is always into something or other. Gal, I appreciate all you do. Danna is just one of the many nice people I have met here on the blogs. This is a great place to just sit back, kick your shoes off, and relax a while.

God bless all of you.

Leaving a post that is nothing but an advertisment in another person's blog is just plain rude. If I say something in a post about needing something and someone has what I want, that is one thing. But if I'm just talking about the weather or anything else the last thing I want is for someone to say come visit my store I have all kinds of great stuff. I hate telemarketers. I hang up on them everytime. If I don't invite you in my house you best not come in without knocking. I have no problem with a person advertising in their own blog. You have a right to talk about anything you want as long as it isn't talking trash. And it is my choice if I read that post or not. Thanks for letting me vent a little. Oh not quite done yet. Don't use my feedback as an oportunity to advertise yourself. My feedback is supposed to be about me and how well I kept up my end of the deal. OK now I'm done. lol

Now having said that if you want to leave that ad, go ahead but you will get a nastygram in the mail. Fair enough.

I have been sitting here trying to get an idea of what things must be like for the "Matt" Maupin family. Especially at this time of year. Not having any word on their son since he was captured on Apr 9, 2004. That is outside of one video showing him seated on the floor surrouned by 5 armed men. And another video played in Arab countries that showed a man kneeling before his captures and then the station saying that they will not show the rest of the tape because it shows the man being executed. From the video, it can't be determined if the man was Matt or not. The not knowing his fate must be terrible for his family. Try as I might, I can't imagine that. If he is dead, let them produce the body. If he is alive, at least let the family know. His family must be afraid to turn the TV on, and afraid not to. I hope they have a deep faith in God as that is all that will sustain them through this nightmare of an ordeal. My prayers are with Matt and his family.