I was presented with a beautiful statue of an Eagle with an American flag in its talons. It was presented to me on behalf of GoE, Second Brigade MC, Viet Nam Vets Mc, SE.E. Pennsylvania Confederation of Clubs and our larger veteran’s community, which was quite unexpected and touching when dealing with. Lt. Cdr. Joe Eastman USN Ret. Received a same statue which I believe he deserved. I was very moved by this and I do believe that the statue doesn’t only belong to me but to all the peoples that has made A.C.E a huge success. Be it serving food to homeless, packing boxes for your brave warriors or other events that I had to direct involvement. It would nearly be impossible to accomplish all this without you all.

As in the end of your journey I would like to take time and appreciate all the hard work done by our soldiers and civilians for making it easier for those young men and woman who wish to join the army, for providing a decent atmosphere for those kids wanting to spent time after school in a safe and sound environment, for mentoring all those teenagers motivating them in every aspect of their life and also for providing all the guardianship to those kids, spending time with them on fun websites where they can play www.newbingosites.org, making them well-versed with the modern technology, which did help improving them in lots of ways.

Now as the journey coming to an end I am proud to say that all the brave warriors that are assigned elsewhere will be taking with them valuable things that they have learned throughout this time which will not only shape their military careers but will also help with the social factors of the community.

Lt. Gen. James Mattis made his comments at the San Diego Convention Center amid an exposition sponsored by the U.S. Naval Institute and the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association.

A career infantry officer, Mattis until recently commanded the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton. Now stationed in Quantico, Va., he is in charge of developing better ways to train and equip Marines.

Reaction to Mattis’ remarks from his commanding officer, Muslim organizations and Internet bloggers has fallen into two camps of thought.

One is that Mattis has fomented more hatred of Americans among Iraqis and other Middle Easterners. The other is that he simply speaks a military man’s professional truth, something hard-won on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq.

On Tuesday, Mattis responded to a question about fighting Iraqi insurgents by saying: “Actually, it’s a lot of fun to fight. You know, it’s a hell of a hoot. … It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right up front with you, I like brawling.”

Mattis went on to take a not-so-subtle poke at the purported treatment of women in the Middle East.

He said: “You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them.”

His comments were met with laughter and applause from the audience.

Yesterday, Gen. Mike Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps, issued a statement saying, “Lt. Gen. Mattis often speaks with a great deal of candor. I have counseled him concerning his remarks, and he agrees he should have chosen his words more carefully.”

Hagee also said, “While I understand that some people may take issue with the comments made by him, I also know he intended to reflect the unfortunate and harsh realities of war.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil liberties group, called on the Pentagon to discipline Mattis for his comments.

“We do not need generals who treat the grim business of war as a sporting event,” said the council’s executive director, Nihad Awad. “These disturbing remarks are indicative of an apparent indifference to the value of human life.”

Discussion of Mattis’ statements also filled several Web logs. Here are two excerpts taken yesterday:

“Somehow, after nearly three decades in the (Marine) Corps, Lt. Gen. Mattis has somehow not learned that there are some things you aren’t supposed to say when civilians are present. They can only be spoken before military audiences.”

“This guy’s a soldier. He’s trained to, well, kind of, sometimes, kill the enemy. The guy didn’t say he enjoyed killing pregnant women, did he?”