National Day of Prayer

In 1775, the First Continental Congress called for a National Day of Prayer. In 1952 Congress established the NDP as an annual event by a joint resolution, signed into law by President Truman. In 1988, the law was amended to designate the first Thursday in May for NDP, and was signed into law by President Reagan.

The mission of the National Day of Prayer Task Force is to communicate with every family the need for personal repentance and prayer, and to mobilize families to personal and corporate prayer, particularly on behalf of the nation and those in leadership on all levels of local, national, church and educational areas of influence.

In 1800, John Adams wrote in a letter to his wife Abigail, "I Pray Heaven to Bestow The Best of Blessing on THIS HOUSE, and on ALL that shall hereafter Inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof!" It was his last year in office, but the first year any president occupied the White House.

Franklin D. Roosevelt had Adam's quote lettered in gold in the marble over the fireplace in the State Dining Room of the White House.

Indeed, prayer is the only enduring path to hope and change, and our nation needs a lot of both right now. However, the current inhabitant of the White House will not be observing NDP. Robert Gibbs told his press club, "We're doing a proclamation, which I know that many administrations in the past have done," but Obama will not be inviting faith leaders to the White House (like Wright, Pfleger and Farrakhan?), or attending any of the events associate with NDP.

That notwithstanding, The Patriot Post's National Advisory Board and staff invite you to join us, and millions of our countrymen, in prayer for our nation today at 12:00 local time. The NDP theme for this year, "Prayer ... America's Hope," is based on Psalm 33:22, "May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you." Link to the National Day of Prayer Web site (www.ndptf.org) for more information.

WRITTEN by Mark Alexander, publisher of The Patriot Post (http://patriotpost.us), in his email essay dated May 7th, 2009

Real American Hero: Donald Rudolph

They are leaving us now on a daily basis, the American armed service veterans who served and fought during the greatest military conflict in the history of the planet Earth. The youngest of the men and women who served their country, whose efforts secured freedom and democracy for generations to come, and who have survived to continue as living representatives of those long-ago days are now in their 80's. On May 30th, 2006, the advancement of age and the ravages of illness finally took from us a man who the Imperial Japanese could not. On that date, 85-year old Donald Rudolph of Minnesota died from complications of Alzheimer's disease. He left behind his wife, Helen Rudolph, who remains with us for now to tell the story to their three grandchildren of a man on whom "the fellas in his platoon relied on for leadership" and who he had said was doing "his duty to protect them because they were going to protect him." The story of Donald Rudolph, particularly his actions on February 5th, 1945, is one that deserves to be known and remembered by all Americans. On that day few realized that the world was entering the final months of what had been a conflict which had raged across the globe for more than five years. Just a few weeks earlier, American forces fighting in the Pacific theatre against Japan had stormed the main island of Luzon in the Philippines and began a 110-mile drive on the capital city of Manila. They were involved in the process of liberating island-by-island the territories that the Japanese had invaded, conquered, and subjugated over the past few years. On that early February day, Don Rudolph was a Sergeant and platoon leader with the Army's 20th infantry, Sixth infantry division which was engaged in a pitched battle for the heavily fortified town of Munoz. Rudolph was administering first aid to a wounded soldier when his platoon suddenly came under heavy fire from a group of Japanese who were concealed in a culvert. He grabbed his rifle and some grenades, and moved forward with his men supporting him with their own rifle cover. He reached the culvert safely and was able to take out three of the Japanese soldiers there, and then he began to make his way across open ground to attack some pillboxes which were housing Japanese machine guns. On reaching the first he tossed a grenade through an opening there. Not thinking the job done, Rudolph then tore the cover off the pillbox with his bare hands and dropped another grenade inside. He moved on to a 2nd pillbox and utilized a pickax to bust it open, then took out its combatants with rifle fire and another grenade. He continued to move along the pillboxes, taking out six more, when suddenly a Japanese tank arrived and began to attack their platoon. Sergeant Rudolph leaped atop the tank and dropped a grenade through the turret, killing the Japanese crew. In the aftermath, for his actions he was given a battlefield commission to the rank of Lieutenant. On August 23rd, just ten days before the Japanese would formally surrender, President Harry S. Truman presented Lt. Donald Rudolph with the Medal of Honor stating that in acting in "complete disregard for his own safety" Rudolph had "cleared a path for an advance which culminated in one of the most decisive victories of the Philippine campaign." Unlike many of his fellow service persons in his 'Greatest Generation', Don Rudolph went on to live a long, healthy life. He finally retired from military service in 1963, and was later marching in a Minneapolis Veteran's Day parade in 1969 when he was interviewed and said "When I see that flag, it does something to me inside. I want to jump up and salute." What a sentiment. It is important that we not only share his sentiment, but that we also remember to jump up and salute the real American heroes such as Donald Rudolph whose actions have made and continue to make freedom possible both in the United States and around the world. NOTE: This is the continuation of the 'Real American Heroes' series remembering U.S. military heroes, all the entries of which you can view by clicking on to that below label. Thanks as always to the www.mishalov.com website.

Real American Hero: Jon E. Swanson

Former American President Harry S. Truman once said that he would rather be a Medal of Honor recipient than be the Commander-in-Chief. More than speaking to how difficult was his role as the nation's top military commander, Truman was paying homage to the people who are honored with the Medal, people who are referred to here at the website as 'Real American Heroes'. You can read stories of some of them by simply clicking into the label by that title at the bottom of the page. On the morning of February 26th, 1971, the Osmonds had the #1 song in America with "One Bad Apple", and 28-year old U.S. Army helicopter pilot Captain Jon E. Swanson most certainly had his young wife Sandee back home in Denver with his two small daughters, Holly and Brigid, on his mind. After all, besides his calling to the American military, they were his life. A life that none of them realized was seeing its final sunrise. On that morning, Captain Swanson prepared for his role in a military mission that was going to take place that day in the Kingdom of Cambodia, which itself was directly related to the war going on in Vietnam. The military guerillas of the Viet Cong used areas of neighboring Cambodia for their home base, and this frequently drew Cambodian territory into the conflict. Swanson's job that day was to fly an OH-6A aircraft in support of the ARVN Task Force III, which was tasked with taking out two well-equiped enemy regiments in the area. Swanson was to pilot his craft and pinpoint the exact positions of the enemy. To accomplish this, Swanson had to fly the aircraft low over the tree tops at slow speeds, making him a highly vulnerable target. As the ARVN unit that he was supporting advanced, they came under heavy enemy fire. It was reported that Swanson "immediately engaged the enemy bunkers with concussion grenades and machine gun fire", destroying five bunkers as he dodged heavy ground-to-air fire. He then observed a strong .51 caliber gun position, but had used up all of his heavy weaponry in destroying the bunkers. So he flew over it and marked its position with a smoke grenade, and another aircraft swooped in to destroy it. However, Swanson noticed that the weapon had survived the attack, and also observed an enemy soldier crawling towards it in order to man it and use it against the Task Force. Swanson engaged and killed this male, but his Scout helicopter was hit mulitple times by fire from yet another .51 caliber weapon. Again Swanson flew over this weapon, marked it, and it was destroyed by an American Cobra gun ship. With his ship low on ammo and damaged by enemy gunfire, Swanson could have stayed on the ground. But he had spotted more enemy .51 caliber machine guns that he knew presented danger to American forces, and so he went back up to mark them. In preparing to mark another big enemy gun, his craft exploded in mid-air and crashed to the ground. Captain Swanson was killed, but his actions had directly led to the deaths of eight enemy combatants and the destruction of three high caliber weapons, and countless American lives saved. Swanson's body was not recovered, and he was listed for decades as 'Missing in Action'. However, remains were recovered eventually, and Swanson's surviving family received his Medal of Honor posthumously from President George W. Bush on May 1st, 2002. Captain Jon E. Swanson died in service to his country, and particularly so that many of his fellow soldiers could live. For his actions, Jon E. Swanson is remembered here as a Real American Hero, and again, you can read all such stories of those similarly honored by clicking into that below label.