Please be respectful to others with differing opinions. May God bless us all. Rosemary
[Here is the rest.] The police notified members of the Finkbeiner administration who were not aware that the mayor objected to units training in Toledo.
When the mayor found out, he sent a member of his staff to tell Marines they could not conduct urban operations in Toledo. The unit was notified about 3:30 p.m. after an advance team arrived in Toledo. Five buses carrying some 200 Marines traveled four hours from Grand Rapids, only to find out the training had been shot down.
The unit briefly stopped at a 1-24th Marine base in Perrysburg Township, then returned to Grand Rapids where training was expected to be held this weekend. A spokesperson for the Marines said they were disappointed by the mayor’s decision especially after the city had been so helpful in the past.
Finkbeiner held a news conference Saturday night to address the growing controversy. Finkbeiner says bad planning and communication breakdowns led to his decision to bar a Marine Corps unit from training in downtown Toledo. Finkbeiner spent much of the twenty minute news conference explaining what he didn't know, and when he didn't know it.
“I don't know when we were first asked,” he says, “were we asked Tuesday or Wednesday of this week?”
I hope it all fits. If not, I have the other half. lol. I would like give you a great big Thank You. We must all stand together as one, as the saying goes. 
Thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. I hope you do not mind, but I would like to bring something to your attention. It has happened again...in Toledo. We must gather our strengths and continue this fight. I was not old enough to fight the cowards back then (Vietnam), but I sure am now. And I am respectfully willing! Here is a link for you: Mayor Kicks Marines Out of Toledo. (My Ret. Navy buddy.)
1-24th Marines were scheduled for weekend urban warfare training in downtown Toledo, when Carty gave them the boot.
By Darsha Philips.
Posted: Saturday, February 09, 2008 at 2:05 p.m.
TOLEDO, OH -- Mayor Carty Finkbeiner on Friday ordered some 200 members of Company A, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines from Grand Rapids, Michigan, out of Toledo just before the unit was supposed to start a weekend of urban warfare training downtown.
The mayor’s spokesperson, Brian Schwartz said, “The mayor asked them to leave because they frighten people. He did not want them practicing and drilling in a highly visible area."
Toledo police said they knew about the training and had approved the unit’s use of the Madison Building and the Promenade Park area. The training was scheduled to start Friday afternoon and last until Sunday. Police said the unit’s presence would have a minimal impact on the city. Police issued a press release earlier in the week saying the Marines would be wearing green camouflage uniforms, operate military vehicles, carry rifles, perform foot patrols, and fire blank ammunition during the exercise.
Schwartz said there was a breakdown in communication between police and the Finkbeiner administration that led to the mayor’s action.
“The Marines drilled here three times during the Ford administration and once under the Finkbeiner administration. After the last visit, the mayor told then police Chief Jack Smith, that he did not want the marines back. Smith failed to inform the current police administration of the mayor’s feelings,” Schwartz said.
NBC24 spoke to Jack Smith who recalled that after the Marines last visit, he and the mayor had a heated exchange about the training.
“He told me he did not want them, as he put it, 'playing war in Toledo,'" Smith recalled. "I told him, as a former Marine, that if one young Marine’s life is saved because of training he or she received in Toledo, Ohio, then it was worth the inconvenience.”
Smith said if the mayor objected, then he should have been the one to convey those feelings to police. Smith took his run-in with the mayor as an objection to that last visit and not future training in Toledo. As a result, the Toledo police went ahead, granting approval to the 1-24th Marines to conduct the routine exercise. The police notified members of the Finkbeiner administration who were not aware that the mayor objected to units t
On Jan 31, 2008 I wrote a letter to the Mayor of Berkeley stating my position regarding his and the City Counsel's position on the USMC recruiting station.
I passed that letter along to a couple of Marine handball buddies. They passed that email/letter to the guys who play in the Semper Fi handball tournament at MCRD, who passed it along to, who passed it along to, etc.
In my wildest dreams I never envisioned the response I have received. I now spend ALL DAY answering my cell phone acknowledging that yes, I really did write "THE" letter, and receiving personal thank yous from Generals, Majors, Colonels, SGTs, PVTs, CEOs, COOs, talk show hosts, and average everyday American Patriots. I have received over 600 calls in the past two days (today is the 8th of Feb.) I am privledged and honored to speak with the finest and best people America has to offer.
Likewise I spend the balance reading emails from the same sort of people.
I am humbled to a degree that is hard to state clearly. I am emotionally overwhelmed with the positive response to my letter and want to thank everyone who has called me or emailed me to state their support.
My intention was never to shine the spotlight on me, it was to cause, to whatever degree I could, great fiscal discomfort to the city of Berkeley in retaliation to their un-American, cowardly and despicable stance that the US Marines are unwelcome, and uninvited intruders in their city.
If in my small way I helped light a fire that now appears to be blazing across the nation, I am proud of that, but I am more proud of the fact that I could , at a time when our heroes are fighting against those who would destroy us, help focus some attention to the vast debt, and undying respect, that we as a nation owe to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces.
Respectfully,
Brian G Dennard
Dear Mayor Bates, Jan 31, 2008
In that you and your city have chosen to gravely insult the brave men and women, who have indeed bought you that right with their blood, I am informing you that my company will no longer do business with any of our current suppliers located in the Berkeley,California metro area.
In that my company is in international resort real estate development, and do business with and am associated with, developers and investors worldwide, I am informing all of my contacts, associates and patrons that we will no longer do any business of any sort with anyone living in the Berkeley area.
In that we/MDG Resorts are currently building a state of the art mega-yacht marina, all of the suppliers of Marina equipment, all owners of Yachts , all suppliers of Yacht materials & supplies, all yacht brokers and all tangential yacht business purveyors will likewise be informed that we will not do any business whatsoever
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