My buddy Nick Palmisciano, who is on the Soldiers’ Angels board of advisors and President of the best MMA apparel site Ranger Up, has come up with an innovative way to raise awareness and money for a good cause.

“From now until the MMA fight on 10 December 2011, we’re asking every MMA fighter, celebrity, or organization that wants to make a fundamental difference in the lives of our men and women serving abroad to “Mustache Up” and sign up for a team. Your team can be as many or as few people as you want. We’ll post anything you want about yourself and your team. We’ll link your page, your sponsors, anything. What we ask of you is that you get the word out and ask your fans and friends to donate to your team via this website.

Our dream is that on 10 December when Jon Bones Jones faces Lyoto Machida, the cage is full of fantastic facial hair, showcasing amazing support for our men and women in uniform.

All donations are tax deductible and will go through Soldiers’ Angels accounts.”

And lest you get the idea that growing a stache is some easy feat, think again. Guys like Tim Kennedy – while able to kick the living snot out of me for saying this – will most likely require expensive pubic implants from their nether regions to pull it off. They’re really making huge sacrifices to support the troops (and so am I for making these accusations!).

With that said, I feel it important to the extension of my lifespan that I throw my hat in the ring to support Team Ranger Up. I’m going to need the protection when Team America hunts me down in my fobbit hole here in Afghanistan and decides to rip my head off and urinate down the resulting orifice (can I say that?). Besides, if you are thinking, “hey, did I recently see Brian fight with a face as smooth as a baby’s butt? How’d he grow that stache?” Well, here’s the secret to his stache success.

Don’t be caught walking around with a bare upper lip or the terrorists win. Go to the StacheBash.org website and donate to the team of your choice.

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The hosts and producer of You Served radio show, CJ, Troy, and Marcus, are issuing a challenge to the MilBlogosphere in a charity fundraising event with bald heads at stake.

Marcus has already lost a bet to shave his head bald from a bet on the second coin!

The new challenge is two-tiered with a third bonus tier added this evening during the You Served radio show.

The first tier is to raise $100 cumulative on the engravable memorial medallions we are auctioning in the You Served eBay Store (http://stores.ebay.com/userved). All proceeds will be donated to Soldiers Angels. The kicker and incentive on that cumulative total is that we have a generous anonymous donor who will donate $1,000 to Soldiers Angels if we can meet that $100 total. In addition to a donation of $1,000, CJ will shave his head along with Marcus! We currently have 2 coins auctioned with a total of $37.50, so we will need to raise $62.50 over the next 4 weeks (including this one). We will put up one coin a week to be auctioned.

The second tier is that if we can meet $250 cumulative total, not only will we garner that $1,000 donation, CJ and Marcus will allow Troy to shave their heads in Washington, DC during the Milblog Conference. It will be video recorded also, for all the listeners and donors to see! Imagine the fun and hilarity THAT would be.

The bonus challenge is if another person or organization donates an addtional $1,000 to the first tier, the Hero Maker Clayton Murwin, a regular listener of our show, will produce an orignal 16×20 military themed oil painting of the person or organization’s choosing!

This challenge is issued to all who enjoy a bit of good fun with a bit of humiliation mixed in. The You Served crew hopes everyone enjoys this bit of excitement for a good cause and that you don’t forget the real reason behind all of this; Soldier’s Angels!

On behalf of the entire You Served Team,
Marcus

Tomorrow, Ranger Up is launching the first ever Ranger Up Charity Day. They’re donating 20% of all of tomorrow’s sales to a very deserving organization – Soldiers’ Angels.

Soldiers’ Angels also some details about the event on their website. So, get off your ass and start working on that birthday and Christmas list for this year and buy some shirts! I’ve practically replaced my entire wardrobe with Ranger Up gear. As a matter of fact, I think the only thing they don’t make that I need are suits.

So, Ranger Up, if you’re listening: you’d start making some suits if you knew what was good for you! And cool ties! Holy cow, I could use some killer Ranger Up ties!

Pay no attention to the date, it’s wrong! The date is February 17th, I promise.

Five Soldiers from Newnan, Georgia-based Bravo 2-121 were wounded in the attack. But no one was killed, and the Soldiers say that’s because their dogs Sasha and Rufus attacked the intruder when he tried to enter their barracks.

The interesting thing about this story is that the military has long had a policy against adopting stray animals while deployed. I can’t help but cringe to wonder how many of our troops would be dead without these animals! Maybe we oughta rethink this policy.

Guard dogs can’t be beat. On our farm, we have dogs that are good for nothing but barking when people pull up to the house. We know when the mailman comes, when someone comes home, when someone is creeping around the house, etc. Of course, sometimes they bark at that rascally raccoon I can’t seem to capture and kill, but for the most time they are great guard dogs. They’re not vicious, just alert us when something out of place happens. I’ve woken up a few times locked and cocked patrolling the house looking for the source of the barking. I’d rather come up empty 100 times than have someone there the one time I don’t get up.

Anyway, read the story here.

As listeners and fans of the You Served Radio Show know, each week we feature one or two auctions to raise money for Soldiers’ Angels. 100% of the bid goes directly to the charity. Right now, we have two great auctions going on.

The first is an unopened box of IcyMint Jolt Energy Gum. The box contains 12 packs of the gum and makes a great gift for that troop in your heart. Bidding starts at just a penny and you can start the bidding by clicking here.

Our second auction for a signed, sealed copy of the latest Smile Empty Soul CD, “Consiousness.” The CD comes brand new still in its shrink wrapping. A signed separate copy of the linear notes and a poster are included in the auction. Previous auctions of these CDs have gone for big money and I think this one is the last one we got. Bidding also starts at a penny and you can get in on the auction by clicking here.

Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss, helps provide voice-controlled/adaptive laptop computers and other technology to support Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand wounds and other severe injuries. Technology supplied includes:

* Voice-controlled Laptops – Operated by speaking into a microphone or using other adaptive technologies, they allow the wounded to maintain connections with the rest of the world during recovery.
* Wii Video Game Systems – Whole-body game systems increase motivation and speed recovery when used under the guidance of physical therapists in therapy sessions (donated only to medical facilities).
* Personal GPS – Handheld GPS devices build self-confidence and independence by compensating for short-term memory loss and organizational challenges related to severe TBI and severe PTSD.

The experience of Major Chuck Ziegenfuss, a partner in the project who suffered serious hand wounds while serving in Iraq, illustrates how important these laptops and other technologies can be to a wounded service member’s recovery.

Read more HERE.