🚨AMERICAN HERO: He took shrapnel to the spine, but never gave up!
May 1969. Vietnam mountains. Sergeant James Bondsteel’s platoon walked into an ambush. Gunfire tore through the jungle. Men hit the dirt as bullets shredded leaves and earth.
Bondsteel was struck hard. The blast fractured his spine. Most men would’ve been done.
He didn’t stop.
With pain ripping through his back, he moved through the kill zone to pull wounded soldiers out of the open. He dragged them to cover, set a defensive line, and kept shouting orders until the line held.
The firefight lasted hours. The siege lasted 48.
Bondsteel refused evacuation. Every step was agony. Every movement felt like fire down his spine. He stayed anyway.
He crawled to better firing positions. He called in artillery. He steadied the younger men who were close to breaking.
When the enemy tried to overrun them, Bondsteel, wounded and barely upright, repositioned a machine gun and returned fire. The assault broke.
For two straight days he fought with a shattered back. When relief finally arrived, his platoon was still alive because he refused to quit.
He survived the battle. For his actions, he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
But war collects its price. The injuries followed him home. His body never recovered. He died in 1987 at 40.
Most Americans never heard his name. Few know a man fought 48 hours with a broken spine so others could live.
He didn’t collapse.
He didn’t quit.
He endured.
Story based on historical records. Educational purposes.
KAREN BASS DIDN’T MOVE AT ALL IN THE LATE BALLOT DROPS.
Spencer Pratt plummeted.
Nithya Raman skyrocketed.
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING about that is organic.
They played all their cards to rig this thing in broad daylight in pure panic.
Let the investigations begin.
I'm a cardiologist. A 42-year-old mother of two came to my office complaining of jaw pain and crushing fatigue. She ran half-marathons. Her EKG was normal. Another doctor had sent her home with anxiety medication.
When I got her into the cath lab, I found severe microvascular disease — plaque choking the tiniest vessels of her heart, the ones standard angiograms routinely miss.
Her heart had been starving in silence while everyone told her she was stressed.
She is alive today. Too many women like her are not.
Heart disease kills more women than every cancer combined. And medicine is still diagnosing it through a male lens.
84% of cardiologists report having patients in the past year whose heart disease was misdiagnosed by another physician. Women with a STEMI heart attack have a 59% greater chance of being misdiagnosed compared to men. Women with an NSTEMI — 41% greater chance.
The reason is structural. For decades, we screened, tested, and treated women using a template built for men.
Men's heart attacks announce themselves — the crushing chest pain, the clutched fist, the Hollywood collapse. Women's hearts whisper. Crushing fatigue that feels like wearing a lead vest. Jaw pain written off as TMJ. Nausea blamed on a stomach bug. An ache between the shoulder blades blamed on a long week. Shortness of breath blamed on being out of shape.
For years, medicine called these "atypical" symptoms. They are not atypical. They are female-typical. Half of humanity is not a variant.
And the biology runs deeper than symptoms.
Women have smaller hearts and narrower coronary arteries. Plaque doesn't only clog the big highway vessels — it hides in the microvasculature, the tiny branches feeding the heart muscle itself. A woman can have a heart attack with a completely "clean" standard angiogram.
SCAD — spontaneous coronary artery dissection — occurs 90% of the time in women. Often young, fit women with zero traditional risk factors. It's the leading cause of heart attack in women under 50, accounting for roughly one quarter of all cases in that age group. Most doctors have never diagnosed one.
And some of the most dangerous cardiac risk factors are hidden in women's medical histories where no one thinks to look:
Preeclampsia or gestational hypertension doubles to quadruples lifetime heart disease and stroke risk. Pregnancy is the body's first cardiac stress test — and these complications are early warning sirens, not closed chapters.
Autoimmune disease — lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis — far more common in women, turbocharges inflammation and plaque formation at any age.
Cardiovascular disease in women aged 20-44 is projected to surge nearly 50% by 2050.
The youngest patients in my practice keep getting younger.
What every woman should ask her doctor — and what every doctor should be asking:
"Given my pregnancy history, autoimmune status, and family history — what is my full cardiovascular risk?" If they don't ask about preeclampsia or gestational diabetes, volunteer it.
"Should I have an Lp(a) test and a coronary calcium score?" Standard cholesterol panels miss too much. Lp(a) is genetic, one-time, and most women have never been tested.
"My tests came back normal but my symptoms haven't stopped — what's next?" Normal stress tests and angiograms can miss microvascular disease, spasm, and SCAD. Persistent symptoms warrant coronary CT angiography or cardiac MRI.
And if something feels wrong — say these exact words to your doctor: "I am concerned this could be my heart."
That single sentence changes the workup. Do not soften it. Do not apologize for it.
80% of heart disease is preventable. But the playbook has to be built for female biology.
Two decades ago, I wrote one of the first books warning that heart disease was the number one killer of women and that medicine was diagnosing it through a male lens. It was recognized by First Lady Laura Bush at the White House during the early years of the national conversation about women's heart health.
I'm haunted by how much of that book I could republish today unchanged.
The science has advanced. The awareness has grown. But the gap between what we know and what happens in the exam room is still costing women their lives.
Share this with every woman you love — and every doctor who treats them. READ MORE: https://t.co/4LRugiY8q2
Private Carlton Barrett was possibly the smallest man in his regiment.
5 feet 4 inches tall. 125 pounds.
On the morning of June 6, 1944, he landed at Omaha Beach in neck-deep water, machine gun fire cutting the surface all around him. He made it to shore.
Then he turned around and went back in.
A soldier was drowning. Barrett pulled him out. Then another. Then another. For hours, under constant fire, this 125-pound man waded back into the surf again and again, pulling drowning men to safety and physically carrying the wounded to evacuation boats offshore.
But he didn't stop there.
He ran dispatches the full length of the fire-swept beach. He found soldiers paralyzed by shock and calmed them back into action. He appeared wherever the crisis was worst, doing whatever needed doing, treating rank and personal safety as irrelevant details.
He did this for hours without stopping.
His Medal of Honor citation says his courage had "an inestimable effect on his comrades." That is military understatement for: this small, anonymous man held that section of beach together through sheer force of will.
He survived the war.
His comrades later said his life darkened after he came home. He lived quietly and died in 1986 in California, largely unknown outside of military history circles.
5 feet 4 inches. 125 pounds. He went back in.
Remember him.
Today is my Freedomversary.
Eight years ago, President Trump granted me clemency and gave me a second chance at life. After nearly 22 years in prison, I walked out the gates and into a future I had prayed for but could no longer see.
I will never forget that moment.
Prison took many things from me, including years with my family and the loss of my parents and a son. But I never lost hope or faith that my life still had purpose.
The gift of freedom came with a responsibility: to help others.
Over the last eight years, I’ve advocated for second chances, supported criminal justice reform, and now serve as White House Pardon Czar.
From a prison cell to the White House, this journey has been possible through God’s grace and President Trump’s courage.
Every day, I strive to honor that gift by helping others find hope and a path forward.
Thank you to everyone who prayed for me, believed in me, and supported me along the way.
And to God be the glory.
🙏🏽❤️ #Freedomversary
I live in the Psalms. And so should you.
“Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
Who trains my hands for war,
And my fingers for battle;
My lovingkindness and my fortress,
My stronghold and my deliverer,
My shield and He in whom I take refuge”
Psalm 144
Just 20 years old, Lance Corporal Ben Dominic Bono stood in a war zone far from his hometown of O’Fallon, Missouri — carrying the weight of duty on his shoulders.
Serving as an Assaultman with E Company, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division, he faced the harsh realities of combat in Vietnam with courage beyond his years.
On May 14, 1967, in Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam, Ben gave his life after coming under hostile small arms fire.🕊️
A son of Missouri.
A United States Marine.
A brother-in-arms who never made it home.
For his sacrifice, he was awarded the Purple Heart, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Vietnam Campaign Medal. Today, his name lives on at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. — Panel 19E, Line 115.
He is also remembered at Assumption Cemetery in O’Fallon, where his legacy continues to be honored by those who refuse to let his memory fade.
Some heroes leave this world too soon…
but true sacrifice is never forgotten.
Rest in honor, Marine. 🇺🇸
#USMarines #PurpleHeart #HonorTheFallen #HonorAndRemember #1stMarineDivision
The Land of Enchantment is anything but.
New Mexico is the most drug-addled state in the union, and its teenagers are the most addicted, according to a new study by financial company WalletHub. The Dems have failed New Mexicans with their failed policies https://t.co/W0noeaZoZX
On this day 13 years ago, my only son was sworn in to the US Army. In ten days, it will be 12 years since he was killed in Afghanistan 2 weeks before he was due to come home. He was just 21. This week is also Memorial Day. My greatest fear now is that he will be forgotten. Please help me remember my boy during this tough week of special dates (share if you feel inspired. It never gets easier but the love and support always helps. ♥️🇺🇸
Jacob H Wykstra
KIA May 28th, 2014
Maruf, Afghanistan
Jake was a Christian, an athlete, a patriot, an artist, dog lover, a friend to all and the funniest, happiest guy in the platoon. Jake, you’ve left a huge void in our lives, but we will see you one day and there will no more heartache and no more goodbyes ♥️🇺🇸
@DukeforNM Duke hit it out of the park tonight. I was unsure of my vote. But now I am all in for Duke. He is the candidate who can and will the democrat nominee.
“It came from my Uncle before he passed away, he became a Christian. The one on the water cup [John 14:6) actually ties to the water.”
Lynsi Synder faced backlash for refusing to removing Bible versus from packaging at In-N-Out Burger.
Liberal outrage isn’t rooted in reality.
The Boston Marathon is brutal, but this moment was beautiful.
One man’s body gave out just steps from the finish, and two strangers made sure his story didn’t end on the pavement.