NOVEMBER 11, 2023
VOLUME 49
VETERANS DAY
This day evokes a lot of different emotions in my brain. Sometime in my later life, I crossed a line, can’t tell you when, but I started thinking a lot differently about this day. I recently attended a military vehicle show, drove my 80 year old Dodge shown above, and witnessed one of the most dramatic flag raising ceremonies I have ever seen. A color guard presented the flag and raised it to position, and a bugler flawlessly played the Star-Spangled Banner. Not a trumpet, a military bugle. A bit different. I can tell you standing amidst the antique military vehicles and watching this caused the old man to tear up a bit. I love my country and its people.
I have the utmost respect for our warriors, past and present. I was not one of them, unable to serve due to a football injury when I was twelve years old. But my heart has always been with these guys that literally stare death in the eye every single day. Imagine standing in one of the landing crafts approaching Omaha Beach knowing your chances of survival are slim to none, but when the door drops, you charge forward regardless. I can’t fathom the terror these young men felt at that moment.
Probably the most brutal 30 odd days in a soldier’s life was being involved in the “Battle of the Bulge”. I have read numerous eye watering accounts of what that brief space of time was like for these men, it was absolutely terrible conditions and deadly assaults by German infantry units. If you weren’t killed by enemy fire, you could easily freeze to death or lose your extremities to “frost bite”. In a time span of just over one month, the U.S. Army experienced over 70,000 casualties. My late father-in-law was a tank driver during that battle under Gen. George Patton. I hate it because I didn’t spend more time with him and learn more about his experiences in that great battle. That’s what people mean when the refer to being “young and dumb”. I literally missed the opportunity of a lifetime.
In the first paragraph, I mentioned about crossing a line in my thoughts about Veterans Day. I suddenly became much more sensitive and thoughtful about combat soldiers. I started thinking about how I would react to waking up every morning, with the realization I was going to face a lot of people that were intent on killing me, or causing great bodily harm as in losing arms and legs. What kind of impact does that have on your brain after two plus years? How do you deal with coming home to your friends and family after that experience. You must live in total paranoia just walking down the street in your home town after two years of constantly being hyper vigilant. I have never faced anything remotely like this, it’s hard for me to really imagine what it must be like.
Now my thoughts turn political. In my opinion, the last really valid war we fought, that was strategically necessary, was the Korean conflict. That made sense to me for many different reasons. Viet Nam, first Iraq war, second Iraq war, Afghanistan, in my mind were created by Washington D.C. neocons and the military industrial complex for purposes that had nothing to do with preserving freedom in the homeland. In my opinion they were nothing more than financial endeavors to enrich the D.C. war mongers.
My opinion expressed above, only make my feelings deeper for our veterans. These young people willingly signed on the dotted line, fulfilling their strong patriotic devotion to the USA to fight wars without merit, with no real end game. Every single one of the wars I just mentioned, the US Government, simply withdrew the forces, and walked away after spending enormous blood and treasure. That sends a very strong message to the warriors that the government never had any intention of victory. Why does a warrior fight if not for the glory of victory? A glaring example of this was the withdraw from Afghanistan, giving up, leaving millions of dollars of equipment, and abandoning one of our most Stategic airfields in the world.
Do you know what happens when you achieve a major military victory? Huge celebrations, with ticker tape parades, thousands of people gathering at seaports and airports to welcome the victors. The entire nation celebrates. That hasn’t happened since 1946. Need I say more? We have been fighting and losing useless wars for 77 years. It needs to stop. We need to quit sacrificing our young men and women to the gods of the almighty military industrial complex and greedy politicians.
God bless the young men and women who fought valiantly with honor and dignity. God damn the war mongers for the death and lifelong disabilities they suffered. God damn the monsters that would shred our constitution these brave men and women died to preserve.
As a nation we owe these valiant warriors far more than they receive. A huge thank you to all of the organizations that have been created to help our veterans cope with life after serving. God bless all of you that support these great organizations.
VERITAS VINCIT ~ LIVE FREE OR DIE
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