A couple of us were chatting about our families and our participation in defending the country/being in the military and an interesting point came out- I don’t know if anyone has ever researched this, but at least within the 8 or 10 of us, there is an interesting corollary…
Most of those who fought in WWI also fought in WWII (if able). 21 years later
Those who fought in WWII also fought in Korea (some even fought in Nam). 6 years later
Those who fought in Korea also fought in Vietnam. 10 years later
Those who fought in Vietnam also fought in the 1st Gulf War. 16 years later
Those who fought in the 1st Gulf War are fighting again this time. 11 years later
This is a weird little cyclic, but in light of the normal career (20 years minimum) it makes sense. Mine started with Nam and ended with the 1st Gulf War, as did a couple of others. It’s almost as if you came in for one as cannon fodder, stuck around and ended up in another as a leader due to the spacing (assuming you survived).
One of the guys Dads was in Big Red One, he said his Dad told him they lost 21,000+ dead from the Division in WWII. The total size of a Division was 14,000!!! This means they took over 150% casualties during the war, and apparently “most” of the Division had at least one Purple Heart (If I remember right, his Dad had a couple of Silver Stars, etc. and three Purple Hearts)!
Veterans’ Day was originally called Armistice Day. This day was set aside to reflect and remember the sacrifices men and women made during World War I in order to ensure peace. This truce was signed on November 11th, 1918 at 11 A.M. after 5 years of fighting.
The first official celebration was on November 11th, 1919. In other countries it is known as Remembrance Day. It was not until after the Korean War in 1953 that President Eisenhower signed the bill that officially changed the name to Veterans’ Day. But even today, a moment of silence is observed at 11am to mark the truce that ended WWI.
To honor the veterans, I want to share with you an interesting story passed via the military side of the house…
Here’s an interesting story of Naval Aviation. “Point of interest… about 3 minutes 20 seconds into the clip, you will see an F6F Hellcat, it’s hydraulics shot away during a strafing run, pancake on the carrier deck and slew into the island.
A deckhand was crushed between the aircraft and the superstructure and killed. The number on the plane is 30.The lanky pilot sitting dazed in the cockpit is a gentleman named Andy Cowan. He is hale and hearty at 87 and lives just north of Salinas , Ca.
To this day he cannot recall this accident without a tear coming to his eye. Andy is a marvel. He has absolute total recall of those bygone days.He is regularly invited back to the Naval War College to give a powerpoint demonstration to the young fighter jocks of today’s Navy. They hang on his every word.
A living link to the past… to the days when you got up close and personal to kill the enemy.No over-the-horizon missile kills…
Andy was the longest serving Navy fighter pilot in WWII. He was on his shakedown cruise off Gitmo on December 7th, 1941. The carrier Ranger made flank speed to Norfolk and the pilots were transshipped to San Francisco by train, then sped to Hawaii by ship.
He saw Pearl not long after the sneak attack, and again is unable to speak of it… a horrible disaster. He immediately went aboard the Lexington and in the course of the war had 4 carriers shot out from under him as he fought in every major Pacific battle… Coral Sea , Midway, Battle of Santa Cruz, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima … you name it. Credited with 4.5 kills, he flew with Butch O’Hare, Cmdr Thatch (inventor of the ‘Thatch Weave’), flew with high scoring ace David McCampbell… served under Admirals Nimitz, Bull Halsey…
He has studied the Japanese side of the Pacific War and is a recognized expert on their side of it. He can reel off the names of all their capital ships and admirals and battles from memory.Remarkable man… and still alive to tell the tale…”
And you’ve never heard of him…
Go here and see the video of carrier ops, and thank a Veteran for their service!
Happy Birthday Marines!
233 years of tradition unmarred by progress 🙂 Officers STILL wear officers wear a lace cross on the top of their Barracks Cover, called the Quattrefoil, a traditional mark of distinction (meaning don’t shoot ’em) from the Marine Corps’ foundation as sharpshooters on ships…
Not that we’ve had Marines in the ratlines for oh about 150 or so years 🙂 But not bad for an organization that started in a bar either… Tun Tavern to be exact.
Semper Fidelis my friends! Semper Fidelis
And yes, I CAN pick at them- 22 Years in the Navy and hauling them around 🙂
Well, I’m draggin ass… Today Wachenmacher Gun Show at Tulsa, OK I walked, and walked and walked… And I STILL haven’t seen everything (actually I’ve probably seen a third of the tables).
Met AEpilot-Jim here at the show, he is a super nice guy! Good blogger too, go visit him at Gun Toting Seagull.
Observations- If you want it, and it deals with firearms, knives, bows and arrows, it’s here!
Ammo was selling like hotcakes! I was talking to one dealer he said he had a half dozen sales over $5000 to individuals today, and had to bring in more pallets of .223 ammo TWICE!
AR-15’s and variants are also selling quickly, along with just about any accessories one could want, except .223 Otis cleaning kits in black (which is what I was looking for, of course)…
Some folks were getting good buys, of course, I was NOT one of them 🙂 Day late and and more than a few dollars short as usual!
That is all- Food and bed are calling!
It appears Joe Biden was on target when he regretfully stated that Barack Obama would be challenged in his first six months, but it didn’t take quite that long…
Yesterday President Medvedev of Russia gave his first equivalent of the State of the Union Address. It was not addressed to the Russian people. It was addressed to the United States and her Allies, and the new Administration. Russia anticipated a seam in American policy and resolve, and immediately drove a wedge into it.
For those of you demanding change, your wish has been granted. The first helping has just been served. And it is a big one…
Medvedev’s Nov. 5 speech announced hard actions, including the following statements:
Russia will deploy Iskander short-range ballistic missiles to Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave sandwiched between NATO and EU states Lithuania and Poland, in order to directly target the fledgling U.S. ballistic missile defense installations slated for Poland and the Czech Republic.
Russia will return to a more Soviet-style system of term limits in order to more firmly entrench the power of the Putin organization.
Moscow will not even consider negotiations with the lame-duck administration of President George W. Bush, preferring instead to wait for President-elect Barack Obama’s team, which Moscow thinks will be easier to manipulate.
The United States is to blame not only for Russia’s war with Georgia, but also for the global financial crisis.
Russia will not make any concessions on its international position; the United States can take it or leave it.
Obama has never said how he would deal with Russia or any of the former Sov Block countries, and they saw the waffling when they went into Georgia; they are NOT bluffing- Russia now has petro$$ and are rebuilding their military at a rate that would scare you.
This will have MAJOR impact on Europe and the emerging countries there and how they deal with the US! Either fall in line with Russia, or get run over by the bus, which is leaving the station NOW; or hope and pray the US actually comes through. Any bets???
All this info came from stratfor.com, which is on the daily read list for most of the people I work with…
A new day has dawned quite literally…
The race is over, we lost and now the assault will begin… I was reading some of the Prince by Machiavelli last night and his famous quote, “The end justifies the means.” kept coming out of the hind brain. While I was searching for that, I came across this quote from Gandhi, which I think is really more appropriate to Obama’s approach and where we are headed…
“They say that ‘means are after all means’. I would say that ‘means are after all everything’. As the means, so the end. Indeed, the Creator has given us limited power over means, none over end… The means may be likened to a seed, and the end to a tree; and there is the same inviolable connection between the means and the end as there is between the seed and the tree. Means and end are convertible terms in my philosophy of life.”
In that light, to me at least, there are many changes coming, it will be interesting to see how Obama pays off on all the promises made. I also believe a lot of those changes will negatively impact us as conservatives, taxpayers and gun owners.
I predict there will be a ‘fairness’ doctrine put in place to effectively muzzle the conservative talk shows.
And after reading this in the 2008 Democratic Party Platform page 48-
Firearms
We recognize that the right to bear arms is an important part of the American tradition, and we will preserve Americans’ Second Amendment right to own and use firearms. We believe that the right to own firearms is subject to reasonable regulation, but we know that what works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne. We can work together to enact and enforce common sense laws and improvements – like closing the gun show loophole, improving our background check system, and reinstating the assault weapons ban, so that guns do not fall into the hands of terrorists or criminals. Acting responsibly and with respect for differing views on this issue, we can both protect the constitutional right to bear arms and keep our communities and our children safe.
I predict there will be a new AWB as soon as it can be enacted that will make the Clinton AWB look like child’s play.
I predict there will be a law enacted to ban gun show sales and sales over the Internet of both guns and ammo.
I predict there will be a law enacted to force buying ONLY through a licenced dealer
I predict there will be at least a 100% or more excise tax on ammunition.
I predict there will be at least a 50% excise tax on the sale of weapons of any kind.
I predict there will be a move to ban concealed carry nationwide.
I truly hope to hell none of these come true, but hunch is they will… We, those conservative bitter gun owners, will face an uphill fight the next four years to keep what we have.
Now having said all that, we STILL have to respect the Office of the President, and we can only hope the man stepping into the office can actually earn our respect. Here are the two oaths I swore during my Navy career-
Enlisted Oath: I,_____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the president of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.
Officer Oath: I, _______, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.
I still believe in them, and it is my hope and prayer that somehow we can overcome the divisiveness and move on…
God Bless America!
‘Twas the night before elections
And all through the town
Tempers were flaring
Emotions all up and down!
And all through the town
Tempers were flaring
Emotions all up and down!
I, in my bathrobe
With a cat in my lap
Had cut off the TV
Tired of political crap.
When all of a sudden
There arose such a noise
I peered out of my window
Saw Obama and his boys
They had come for my wallet
They wanted my pay
To give to the others
Who had not worked a day!
He snatched up my money
And quick as a wink
Jumped back on his bandwagon
As I gagged from the stink
He then rallied his henchmen
Who were pulling his cart
I could tell they were out
To tear my country apart!
‘ On Fannie, on Freddie,
On Biden and Ayers!
On Acorn, On Pelosi’
He screamed at the pairs!
They took off for his cause
And as he flew out of sight
I heard him laugh at the nation
Who wouldn’t stand up and fight!
So I leave you to think
On this one final note-
IF YOU DONT WANT SOCIALISM
GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!
Author unknown
Nuff said…
Sadly, nobody cares about educating themselves or reading history anymore. We are doomed to repeat it.
Folks are too busy watching American Idol, snacking on a McHappy Meal to take a second thinking about this country and what made us what we are today…
Think, read, and VOTE!!!!
Well, went and shot an action pistol match this morning at the local range- 32 steels per round, 18-9″ floppers, 14- various size swingers and I just flat sucked… I guess I used all my accuracy last week 🙁 I wasn’t last, but I sure as hell wasn’t first!
To top everything else off, I had two failure to feeds on two different mags, bottom line- NOT a good day on the line, but a great day, since I was on the range and getting trigger time…
I “really” want to talk to the guy that designed this setup though… one of the batwing swingers was about 3×5 inches! Try hitting a black swinger in dappled sunlight from 15 yards… sigh…
Oh yeah, while I’m thinking about it, for those of you with M-16/AR-15/M-4 type guns, and especially if you are lefties, go here and get your ambidextrous magazine releases! They are good guys, I’ll personally vouch for them, and more importantly the product WORKS! Even though I shoot right handed, I got one because I do occasionally change out mags with my left hand and it’s dead easy! If you’re military, there is an NSN and it is approved for USN/USMC issue.
Got these two last night and about fell out of my chair laughing…
Notice to All Employees
If on November 5, 2008 , President Obama is officially elected into office, our company will instill a few new policies which are in keeping with his new, inspiring issues of change and fairness:
1. All salespeople will be pooling their sales and bonuses into a common pool that will be divided equally between all of you. This will serve to give those of you who are underachieving a “fair shake.”
2. All low level workers will be pooling their wages, including overtime, into a common pool, dividing it equally amongst yourselves. This will help those who are “too busy for overtime” to reap the rewards from those who have more spare time and can work extra hours.
3. All top management will now be referred to as “the government.” We will not participate in this “pooling” experience because the law won’t apply to us.
4. The “government” will give eloquent speeches to all employees every week, encouraging it’s workers to continue to work hard “for the good of all.”
5. The employees will be thrilled with these new policies because it’s “good to spread the wealth.” Those of you who have underachieved will finally get an opportunity; those of you who have worked hard and had success will feel more “patriotic.”
6. The last few people who were hired should clean out their desks. Don’t feel bad, though, because President Obama will give you free health care, free handouts, free oil for heating your home, free food stamps, and he’ll let you stay in your home for as long as you want even if you can’t pay your mortgage. If you appeal directly to our democratic congress, you might even get a free flat screen TV and a coupon for free haircuts (shouldn’t all Americans be entitled to nice looking hair?) !!!
If for any reason you are not happy with the new policies, you may want to rethink your vote on November 4th.
And the other one…
Dear Fellow Business Owners
My brother and I take pride in having started from scratch a small family-owned business which is domiciled in coastal Connecticut. After twenty difficult years of working our arses off, our payroll now totals about thirty (30) people. Because we worked hard to steadily build this business, we have earned a modest net profit every year since we started.
However, allowing for the probability that Barack Hussein Obama will be our next President, we are trying to figure out how to remain in businesses and cope with Barack’s “share the wealth” mind-set. Since federal taxes are sure to increase under Barack’s administration, our customers must bear some of the burden because we can’t.
We therefore foresee the likelihood of having to increase the cost of our products and services by about eight (8%) percent across the board.
We must also lay off 6 employees. Furloughing employees is the hardest part.
How best to identify who goes and who stays? Here’s how we finally resolved the problem.
We took a little stroll thru the parking lot this afternoon and found eight (8) employee-owned vehicles bearing Obama bumper stickers.
We have decided six of these eight will be the first to be laid off. Seniority will rule in who stays and who gets the axe. We can’t think of a fairer way to approach this problem. If you have a better idea, let us know.
We’re sending a copy of this letter to all the small business owners we know. Trust you will forward this to all the small business owners you know.
Giuseppe and Vito
Milford, CT.
Now the reason I was laughing, I was at a site earlier this week where I had to park hellandgone out in left field… As I was walking through the parking lot, I saw this little clutch of about 9-10 POS Prius(i since it’s plural?) and every damn one of them had an Obama sticker on it! Then I started looking around- seemed like every pickup truck (and there were quite a few) all had McCain stickers! Interesting little dynamic there…
In Closing, I don’t care who you vote for of Tues, that is between you and God, but PLEASE go and exercise that right to vote!
Now back to the regularly scheduled trash… 🙂
It’s not just in the Muslim and Communist countries that people are talking about and making internet restrictions! The Australians are doing it, but for euthanasia and anorexia… And mandantory blocking of illegal material… What if???? 2A, certain religious material (fill-in-the-blank) religion, freedom of speech, Republican or Democratic sites… Who will make those decisions??
This from an Australian news service:
THE Federal Government is planning to make internet censorship compulsory for all Australians and could ban controversial websites on euthanasia or anorexia.
Australia’s level of net censorship will put it in the same league as countries including China, Cuba, Iran and North Korea, and the Government will not let users opt out of the proposed national internet filter when it is introduced.
Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy Minister Stephen Conroy admitted the Federal Government’s $44.2 million internet censorship plan would now include two tiers – one level of mandatory filtering for all Australians and an optional level that will provide a “clean feed”, censoring adult material.
Despite planning to hold “live trials” before the end of the year, Senator Conroy said it was not known what content the mandatory filter would bar, with euthanasia or pro-anorexia sites on the chopping block.
“We are talking about mandatory blocking, where possible, of illegal material,” he told a Senate Estimates Committee.
Previously the net nanny proposal was going to allow Australians who wanted uncensored access to the web the option to contact their internet service provider and be excluded from the service.
Groups including the System Administrators Guild of Australia and Electronic Frontiers Australia have slammed the proposal, saying it would unfairly restrict Australians’ access to the web, slow internet speeds and raise the price of internet access.
EFA board member Colin Jacobs said it would have little effect on illegal internet content, including child pornography, as it would not cover peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.
“If the Government would actually come out and say we’re only targeting child pornography it would be a different debate,” he said.
But the Australian Christian Lobby yesterday welcomed the Government’s proposals.
Its managing director Jim Wallace said he expected resistance from the industry but the measures were needed.
“The need to prevent access to illegal hard-core material and child pornography must be placed above the industry’s desire for unfettered access,” Mr Wallace said.
Here is the link to the article http://webmail.east.cox.net/do/redirect?url=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.news.com.au%252Ftechnology%252Fstory%252F0%252C25642%252C24569656-5014239%252C00.html
H/T Julie from down under.