Pre-order book copies available now

Please buy a copy of Warrior SOS found at the Amazon link here in hardcopy today! Pre-orders can be purchased now. Warrior SOS will be available the second week of September 2015.

 For more information, check out my author website at www.Jeffrey-Denning.com. Thank you.

new website and blog

Check out www.Jeffrey-Denning.com for the latest and greatest blogs and information.

President Roosevelt's Prayer on D-Day, June 6, 1944

President Franklin D. Roosevelt:

In this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer....

Almighty God..... Our sons , pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor.... to set free a suffering humanity.

Lead them straight and true.... give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness to their faith.

They will need Thy blessings.... They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest.... until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violence of war.

For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and for tolerance and good will among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

And for us at home.... fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters and brothers of brave men overseas....whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them.... help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice....

Thy will be done, Almighty God..... Amen

Warrior SOS: Insights and Inspiration for Veterans Living with PTSD

I'm excited to announce that Warrior SOS, the book, is getting published by a publishing company.  A meeting commenced and a slight alteration on the subtitle was suggested.

The new title for Warrior SOS, the book, will be:

Warrior SOS: Insights and Inspiration for Veterans Living with PTSD

The book will be offered in both hardcopy and electronically.  Currently, it is estimated for a September 2015 release.

Now that I'm under contract, I've removed the link on Amazon for the ebook I self published.

Thanks a million for everyone's help an interest in this great project.

Stay tuned!

There Stands A Man - by Austin Cloninger

Yesterday, on January 28th, I learned that the book publisher I submitted the Warrior SOS manuscript to made me a conditional offer.  I was thrilled to learn that Warrior SOS will be published! What makes it even more exciting is that Jan 28th is the birthday of John Cloninger.  I dedicated the book to him.  He would have been 45-years-old.

John is the reason I created and wrote Warrior SOS.

His son Austin, now 17-years-old -- the oldest of six children -- wrote a tribute to his dad.  The words of the song are below and a video of Austin singing the song are below.  What a great song!  I know his dad, who's watching over him from heaven, couldn't be more proud of his oldest son.  What a great kid!

Here are the words to the song, There Stands a Man:

There stands a man my dad

I remember the deployment to Iraq
Momma cried as you packed up your rucksack
I could only imagine the hell to come
Those months were pretty tough

I remember those BDUs and combat boots
Medals, awards, and those war stories too
A soldiers service inspired a boy like me
To stand up for freedom and the weak.

A soldier willing to fight for what's right
A captain who was used to sacrifice
Where ever you are where ever you've been
I know there's one thing to be said
Forever and always there stands a man

Mmmm ya a fightin' man

I remember the car ride home
Mom told me the news and it wasn't so good
Before I knew it the chemo set in
Stage 4 cancer left me on the rim

I remember you fighting strong no givin up
I remember you pushing through like it wasn't much
A husband's love for his family
Taught me to never mix my priorities

A fighter of a husband who loves his wife
A father striving to raise his kids right
Wherever you are, wherever you've been
I know there's one thing to be said
Forever and always there stands a man

Mmmm ya a family man

I remember the day you passed
My heart skipped a beat and things stopped moving so fast
I'm gonna miss you everyday
But I'll carry on watching for our family

A soldier a father a man of God
Taught me so much to forgive learn and love
Wherever you are wherever you've been
I know there's one thing to be said
Forever and always there stands a man

Mmmm ya that's my Dad

Can't wait to see you again.

The Army should keep the 9mm -- Here's why

I recently wrote an article on Guns.com about what caliber I'd pick for the new Army round. Here's the link: http://www.guns.com/2015/01/13/opinion-my-pick-for-the-new-army-pistol-caliber/

Like a knucklehead, I wasn't thinking much about the crazy laws and political goofiness surrounding changing rounds.  While I did opt to stay with the 9mm, I suggested going to a 147g JHP.  But, even without going to a hollow point, I'd still opt that the conventional military stays with the NATO 9mm.

When I realized that suggesting a JHP round had a lot more to it, I decided to go to an expert.  I'm not going to go into John Talbot's background, but suffice it to say, he's squared away and knows what's up.

On Facebook (or as one man I know called it, FacePlant), I asked John, "am I wrong about using a JHP round because of international military law? I didn't even consider that. Ugh." Here's John's reply to my Facebook inquiry:

Jeffrey Denning...long and short is that the Hague Convention of 1899 prohibits the use of expanding ammunition. The convention consisted of a number of separate conventions and declarations. The ones that concern us are Hague II Annex, Article 23, which prohibits the employment of "arms, projectiles, or material of a nature to cause superfluous injury;" and Declaration III, which prohibits "the use of bullets which expand or flatten easily in the human body, such as bullets with a hard envelope which does not entirely cover the core, or is pierced with incisions." We are not Hague signatories but that's irrelevant since its become customary international law and, as such, applies to us. The US understanding of the rule, however, pertains to the use of such ammunition to increase suffering of the enemy, i.e. superfluous injury. Of course we use all sorts of hollow point ammunition today but the purpose, for example with boat tail hollowpoints, is not to cause unnecessary suffering, but rather to increase accuracy. Our interpretation of Hague is that we can use any round as long as the purpose is not to increase suffering. In fact, every type of modern rifle ammunition going back to pre-WWI days, flattens and fragments inside the human body. It is arguable that the use of hollow point handgun ammunition would be permissible following the same underlying logic as that which supports using the boat tail hollowpoint. In the case of a JHP round the supporting reason would be that its actually safer in urban combat situations, where noncombatants are often in close proximity and even mixed in with combatants. The JHP is less likely to overpenetrate a bad guy and in the event of a miss less likely to penetrate through common building materials and injure or kill a noncombatant in another room. 

Not that's the argument for, but the law as applied by US forces would forbid that. As I see it that is more of a policy decision than an absolute legal requirement. But for now it is what it is and the bottom line is that no one in authority has the political stones to make the change. However, one interesting alternative would be the use of Expanding Full Metal Jacket ammunition, EFMJ. I believe there are rounds from Federal that they call EFMJ and something else from Hornaday that uses some sort of plastic plug in the otherwise hollow tip of the round. While these expand and/or flatten easily, they are certainly not employed to cause unnecessary suffering. So, again, like the use of HP rifle ammunition for increased accuracy, it would take someone with chutzpah to decide that we were going to depart from Hague 1899 for reasons that are acceptable. Its doubtful that anyone would expend the political capital necessary on a handgun round.

I will point out that many of our allies, including 22 SAS, have been using FMJ 9mm NATO ammunition to kill bad guys for a long time. So has the US Navy SEAL community with their SIG 226s. I personally think the handgun ammo debate is a red herring. Outside of the special operations forces in the US military, almost no one is properly trained to employ a handgun. They can't perform with anything approaching what I would consider mediocre shooting with the 9mm they have now. The .45cal will not improve this situation unless the military commits to abandoning its nearly primitive handgun training methods and follows civilian competitive shooters and the law enforcement community and actually trains its personnel to use handguns. 

What I find amusing is that Soldiers will show up at a handgun match...once. After they are thoroughly embarrassed by the 55 year old lawyer and a number of other competitive shooters far better than me, including those with no military or LE training or experience who shoot far better than they do, including overweight guys, young kids, female shooters, etc., most Soldiers never come back. They think they can shoot and they find out that they don't know what they don't know. The issue isn't the hardware as I commented before, the gun and the bullet are fine. The issue is training. And with the inept training that the vast majority of Soldiers receive on handguns, the .45 will only make things worse. So I agree that 9mm is the way to go, but I depart from you in that I believe that whether they use NATO FMJ ammunition or a HP round. is irrelevant 9mm remains the way to go. 

What's the worst thing about this is that the Army that is firing Soldiers left and right, decorated and experienced combat veterans, officers, NCO's, combat leaders, is prepared to spend in excess of $350 million and likely a lot more, probably in excess of half a billion dollars, to get a new SECONDARY weapon that they then won't properly train people to use or maintain. As a taxpayer and retired Soldier I think this is sheer insanity. Instead we should keep some personnel for the inevitable fight with ISIS and Islamic terrorists and teach our trainers how to use dry fire and other methods to get Soldiers proficient with the tool they have now. Software not hardware. New toys is the lazy man's way. I just don't support it. Getting a Glock or S&W is not a magic bullet that is going to make every Soldier an Operator level shooter. It won't even make them competent. Striker fired triggers are especially prone to negligent discharges for those with poor gun handling skills. The FBI had a huge issue with it when they went to Glocks. I love my Glock and carry it every day, at work and on my own time. 

Most Soldiers I saw in nearly 22 years service have about as much business carrying a Glock as I do playing in the NFL. Zero. What will happen after the also inevitable rash of negligent discharges is that instead of employing a training solution the Army will do what it always does...write and adopt some draconian and tactically debilitating "safety" rule to prevent negligent discharges, like you can only carry your Glock w/ the magazine inserted but no round in the chamber. Then they will fail to train people how to properly draw their Glock and put it into operation with an empty chamber from the draw, further handicapping the already poorly trained Soldier from successfully defending himself when he or she most needs that handgun...when an enemy is w/in 25-30 meters and literally fractions of a second separate life and death. 

Anyway just my 2 cents. Stay w/ 9mm NATO hardball and the handgun you have now or the proposed M9A3 and train, train, train to learn how to properly employ it. I realize that I'm in the minority here. So be it. Sorry this was so crazy long.


Thanks John. I couldn't have said it better, and I totally agree with the training aspect, and everything else, for that matter.

Check out my articles at http://www.guns.com/author/jd/

Patton on Fear

If we take the generally accepted definition of bravery as a quality which knows not fear, I have never seen a brave man.  All men are frightened.  The more intelligent they are the more they are frightened.  The courageous man is the man who forces himself, in spite of his fear, to carry on.  Discipline, pride, self-respect, self-confidence, and the love of glory are attributes which will make a man courageous even when he is afraid.

Gen. Patton, War as I Knew It

Daughter uses father’s story of survival during WWII to teach true heroism

 Daughter uses father’s story of survival during WWII to teach true heroism

Eugene Nielsen in 2004 talked about how he survived a brutal massacre at a prisoner-of-war camp in the Philippines on Dec. 14, 1944. The fact he survived led to the rescue of 500 other prisoners of war. He died in 2011. (Picture KSL-TV)

By John Hollenhorst, Deseret News

Published: Wednesday, Dec. 31 2014

Seventy years ago, the Bing Crosby song "White Christmas" meant salvation for a Utah prisoner of war.

It climaxed Eugene Nielsen’s miraculous escape from a brutal prisoner-of-war massacre in the closing months of World War II.

Now Nielsen's daughter, Lorna Murray, is using her father's incredible experience to help high school students define what heroes are made of. The fact that he survived led to the rescue of 500 other prisoners of war.

At the beginning of World War II, Nielsen was young, in the Army and stationed at Corregidor in the Philippines.

In May 1942, Japanese forces closed in, capturing thousands of Americans. Nielsen was taken to a POW camp on Palawan Island in the Philippines and held captive for almost three years.

A Hollywood film called "The Great Raid" opens with a brutal massacre at a POW camp on Palawan Island. American soldiers scramble into air-raid shelters, questioning each other as to what was going on. Nielsen was in one of those bunkers on Dec. 14, 1944.

"Then they started pouring gas into the holes. I couldn't believe they were doing it," he said in a 1994 interview.

"I know a lot of this here is hard to believe. I don't know why so much of it happened to me," he said in 2004.

"It was really the worst day of his life and the worst event that could happen to anyone," said Murray, a teacher at Copper Hills High School.

Murray's class recently watched KSL-TV's two previous stories about her father's astonishing escape.

"They were firing rifles down in the hole, throwing hand grenades; a machine gun every now and then," Nielsen said in 1994. "I realized I had to make a break some way or another."

Somehow, Nielsen climbed out of the bunker, through barbed-wire, and jumped off a 50-foot cliff, catching a tree branch on the way down.

"It was just enough to break my fall. I just rode it down," he said.

Nielsen hid for hours on the beach and heard Japanese guards cheering as they killed, or tortured, American prisoners.

"There were guys up there begging to be shot," he recalled.

When he decided to jump in the ocean and swim, guards fired hundreds of shots at him.

"I got hit in my leg, and a bullet went up into my hip. I got hit right under my arm," Nielsen said. "I was in bad shape. I didn't think I had a chance."

Wounded three times, he just kept swimming. A big fish, he worried it was a shark, circled him for hours.

"I could reach out and touch it sometimes. It was so close," Nielsen said.

He later found out it was a dugong, a sea cow.

Thirteen hours later, he reached another part of Palawan Island. For the first two days of his 12 days of Christmas, Nielsen hid out in a swamp.

"(There were) lots of animals in there — mosquitoes, snakes, crocodiles," he said.

For 10 more days he marched through jungles, hooking up with anti-Japanese guerillas. They traveled through Japanese territory for days, on foot, on a sailboat, on water buffalos.

On Dec. 26, 1944, they walked into a camp where he met two American military advisers. They reported Nielsen's survival by radio, and the voice of Bing Crosby came back over the airwaves.

"He sang the first two lines of 'White Christmas.' I never heard it before," Nielsen said, voice breaking. "I never did forget it."

Nielsen's report of the massacre triggered one of the most daring rescues of World War II. Realizing the Japanese intended to kill all prisoners, Army Rangers mounted "The Great Raid." Sneaking 30 miles behind Japanese lines, they attacked another POW camp, killed the guards and rescued 500 American prisoners.

It might never have happened if Nielsen had just given up and died.

"He survived what a lot of people could not have survived," said Saige Martinez, a student in Murray's class.

Nielsen's daughter shares her father's story to teach that heroes usually don't look and act like Captain America. They are ordinary people who rise to extraordinary circumstances.

"We have to promise them, and we have to promise ourselves, that we will remember what they gave us," Murray told the students.

The Nielsen family celebrates “Free Day” every Dec. 14, and Nielsen was on the verge of tears every time he heard “White Christmas.”

Nielsen lived 67 years beyond that terrible day in 1944. He died in 2011, at the ripe old age of 95.