Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/21363
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Editor’s Note: The following letter is in response to Sharon Valentine’s opinion LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Reader Responds to Valentine’s Article on Development piece titled Wanted: Economic Development Leadership in the Dec. 8 issue. Dear Ms. Valentine, Your stated opinion of needing a “point” person has been addressed and is in resolution progress. I’d like to kindly suggest that had you been aware of SABRE — a volunteer pool of leaders from each organization you mentioned in your article + SCORE - you might have spent the copy space on the promotion of SABRE and written a positive spin on it’s goal rather than the downgrade on the volunteering efforts that go on around here. Granted, your editorial did lay out that you were NOT targeting comments towards the volunteers, yet I felt the punch to the gut just the same. I am the Cumberland County Chair for SCORE and I work with Glenn Book Signing at Barnes and Noble a STAFF REPORT Gina Cavallaro will be at Fayetteville’s Barnes and Noble Bookstore on Dec. 18th at 2 p.m. to sign and discuss her new book, Sniper: American Single-Shot Warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Sniper,” which was released in September, is a collection of exciting yet humble war stories as told to Cavallaro by our military’s most intimate warriors, the snipers. Based on interviews with more than 25 snipers, the stories take the reader to the ground where the battles rage. And, unlike many of the sniper books that have been published during more than nine years of war, Sniper delivers a mix of experiences from a wide range of Soldiers and Marines that paint a picture of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through the lens of a small team delivering lethal blows in an insurgent fi ght. The reader is given a glimpse into the training and operations of Special Gina Cavallaro will be at Barnes and Noble on Dec. 18. Forces and 75th Ranger Regiment snipers, and Cavallaro’s personal account of the death of a young soldier on patrol in 2005 at the hands of an enemy sniper is a compelling preface. The book is not a gory combat action thriller. Although it does thrill, we learn about and get to know the men who fought. Cavallaro relates the personalities of these chosen men who tell her what it felt like to kill a man for the fi rst time or what it felt like to get shot by an enemy sniper. Snipers will sometimes end up hiding in heaps of garbage for days or enjoying the tropical fruits of Iraq’s most fertile plains, literally. Snipers are known for their ability to hide which in retrospect often becomes an entertaining backdrop linking Fayetteville’s Weather Forecast Friday Fayetteville’s Weather Forecast Thursday Saturday December 16 December 17 December 18 war to humanity while simultaneously disconnecting the two. Many of the stories are close to home as they feature Soldiers still stationed at Fort Bragg today. A chapter of the book returns us to the Special Forces Sniper School where the instructors relay some of the fi ner points of shooting and sniping alongside their personal experience in combat. Throughout this work we learn that being a sniper is much more than shooting; it takes will, physical and mental strength and perhaps most importantly, character. The reader will explore the diffi cult moral decisions made in combat in Chapter 7, “The Shots Not Taken.” Here snipers account vivid images of potential insurgents sighted in their scope and recall the mental tirade resulting from the question, “Should I?” Cavallaro describes herself as a journalist. But she is much more than that. She is serving our country by telling the untold stories of some of America’s best. She is an immensely experienced war correspondent who knows and understands the trade. She has sweat and toiled on the front lines shoulder to shoulder with the next greatest generation and her investment in our troops downrange informs the texture of each chapter. After experiencing multiple deployments and conflict, like any Soldier’s Soldier, she longs for her next rotation. Cavallaro is providing a service to our children. Years from now when these men have long since retired, a grandchild or neighbor will come across these stories, “Is this about you Grandpa?” Humbly, the sniper would reply, “It’s about the guys I worked with.” CalCall 910.354.1679l 910.354.1679 Sunday Monday December 19 December 20 Phelps of the Sandhills chapter. Yes, redundancies exist but SABRE is the anecdote. Most of the SABRE members work full-time yet still attend monthly meetings and work hard to move the needle towards integration with the goal of streamlining rather than re-inventing the wheel. On a personal note, I am not one to reply to editorials as we all are entitled to an opinion. While your opinion is valid in my book, I want you to know we are and have been working on it and I’m hoping you might write a follow-up piece on SABRE and promote its efforts. To learn more about our organization, visit our website at www.sabre-cc.com. Cheers, Cynthia Danker Fayetteville Tuesday December 21 High 40° Low 32° Rain Snow Showers WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM High 48° Low 29° Showers High 45° Low 23° Showers Forecast available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. High 42° Low 24° Partly Cloudy High 47º Low 28º Sunny High 44º Low 25º Snow Showers DECEMBER 15-21, 2010 UCW 5 24 / 7