Freed Hamas Hostage Edan Alexander’s Shocking Decision: Why This American Hero Is Returning to the Front Lines
the staff of the Ridgewooed blog
Tenafly NJ, just five months after his emotional homecoming, Edan Alexander, a Tenafly, New Jersey native and former Hamas hostage, has made a powerful and deeply personal announcement: he will be returning to active military service in Israel.
Are you kidding me. This is getting to be ridiculous now. There’s a lot of opportunities if one joins. Other countries you’re forced. Maybe that’s what this country needs for our high school graduates to go into the military for a good year to straighten them out teach them reality, and some common sense make them strong and tough not sissies.
June 30,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, With the Fourth of July just days away, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its list of 2016’s Most Patriotic States as a follow-up to its recent look at the Best & Worst Fourth of July Destinations.
To identify the country’s patriotic hotspots, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 12 key metrics such as military engagement, voting habits and civic education.
| Top 20 Most Patriotic States | |||||
| 1 | Virginia | 11 | North Carolina | ||
| 2 | Alaska | 12 | Vermont | ||
| 3 | South Carolina | 13 | Idaho | ||
| 4 | Colorado | 14 | Wyoming | ||
| 5 | Georgia | 15 | Maine | ||
| 6 | Hawaii | 16 | Mississippi | ||
| 7 | Montana | 17 | New Mexico | ||
| 8 | Alabama | 18 | Wisconsin | ||
| 9 | Washington | 19 | Missouri | ||
| 10 | New Hampshire | 20 | South Dakota | ||
Key Stats
For the full report and to see where your state ranks, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/
Five Ridgewood residents from same neighborhood serve in the military
FEBRUARY 25, 2015 LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2015, 6:25 PM
BY LAURA HERZOG
FOR THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
When Sam Combs, Pat Kiernan, Ryan Mansbach and Ben Rogers were small-yet-rough-and-tough neighbors growing up on South Irving Street and Arden Court, they played together a lot: riding scooters in the street, playing manhunt and street hockey, and doing bike jumps in the nearby woods.
It was a fun time, and a good time for bonding for four Ridgewood kids living on a dead end block, with each other’s houses in sight.
But years later, the four friends, plus Masbach’s older sister Melanie, have given up the kid stuff in favor of more strenuous activities – manning submarines, surveying the Pacific Ocean for mines, or piloting Army and Navy aircrafts.
Grown up and scattered around the country, the five neighbors now also have U.S. military service in common.
Melanie Mansbach, now 29, was the first on the block to express a military interest, attending West Point several years ago and becoming an officer. She was later deployed to Afghanistan.
The four neighborhood “boys” are now all either officers or soon-to-be officers in the U.S. Army or U.S. Navy.
Subtle neighborhood inspiration might have a little to do with this, but there was no consensus on that among the four young men, since they all took different paths into the military and had several influences. (Melanie, who is in training, was unavailable for an interview.)
