The Boy From The South Or I'm Not Going Back

When I was a child the county courthouse and the surrounding blocks of shops were the centers of our community. The courthouse was a huge structure of marble and granite and it was surrounded by giant live oak trees. To gaze on the courthouse and the surrounding grounds was to gaze on a cool and serene scene. To this day I still think of that courthouse as one of the two most beautiful structures our community possessed. The post office, one block over, being the other. They are gone now. Replaced by faceless modern structures, that in my estimate, display no architectural beauty what so ever. As I reflect on this building and the pastoral square that surrounded it there is a great and painful sadness in my soul. The source of that sadness lies in two stark facts. The first is that on the lawn of that majestic structure was a monument to the Confederate South. The second was the two, somewhat inconspicuous, water fountains on the lawn. Inconspicuous with the exception being that one was marked "Colored" and the other marked "White".

As I reflect on the frequent warm summer afternoons walking around the town square and holding my mother's hand, it is amazing to me the innocence and naivete with which I saw these things. I realize now that it was sadly, so very "normal". It was "normal" that the town was divided by a highway. It was "normal" that the people of color lived west of the highway and the "white" people lived to the east. It was "normal" that there was a "colored" shopping area and a "white" shopping area. It was normal that there were "colored" toilets and "white" toilets. It was "normal" that the children of "color" went to the schools west of the highway and the "white" children went to the schools east of the highway. And, it was "normal" that over half of my community was living in abject poverty, unseen in plain sight.

I suppose that it is only natural that I, like many others, often reflect on my childhood with more than a touch of nostalgia. I believe that that is quite normal but, I also believe that we do something else that is quite normal, but not normal. We don't all remember those subtle and not so subtle signs. We don't all remember those signs that said, "Colored Only" and "White Only".  Those signs of deep-seated disrespect, viral hatred, and venomous resentment toward a group of fellow Americans that happened to be of a different skin color.

At the age of 18, I did something that so many members of my family had done since the Revolutionary War. I joined the United States Army. This became one of the defining moments in my life.  I entered an Army where, because of the draft, every ethnic and socioeconomic class living in our country was represented. I must mention here that even with the draft, some of our citizens with means and or influence did avoid the draft.

It is not possible for me to describe the following 28 years in this single blog entry so I will simply attempt to express some of the profound effects it had on my life. My entire worldview was about to change.

On the day that I joined the Army, I began an experience of profound consequence.  An experience where the color of mine and my comrade's skin was the least relevant thing in my life. The military taught every soldier that you take care of your "buddy". Your "buddy" was the most important person in your life. Your life depended on your "buddy" and your "buddies" life depended on you. This relationship, this bond, was forged in the fires of war, and for me, it could never be broken. My comrades and I lived and ate and slept together every hour of every day. We held each other in the cold, we pulled each other from the mud and we check every inch of each others body for leeches and bugs. But most importantly we made sure our buddy lived to go home and we did it in any way we had to regardless of the consequences to our own well-being.

During my career, I served in every condition known to man in both peace and war. I served in blistering deserts and frigid tundras. I served with every variation of humanity that occupies this earth and they all had one thing in common. They were, to a person, human beings just like me. Throughout my life and career, I have met people I liked and people I didn't like and people I "really" didn't like. I met people I loved and people I fell in love with, but I never met a single person where I experienced one of those emotions because of the color of their skin or their religion or their sexual orientation or any other human trait.

I don't want my readers to misunderstand. The military was not a cultural utopia. It was, in fact, a part of the great bureaucratic machine. It was a microcosm of American society at large with all of its many troubles. The difference was that all of these cultures and ethnicities, these people, were forced into a single unit and required to conform and blend for a single purpose. The military implemented surprisingly effective programs to promote equality and equal opportunity and understanding. Soldiers had to become one single unit for the sake of the mission and their own survival. The positive side effect of this merging was tolerance and shared values. An environment where all humans could come together with mutual respect and understanding. It promulgated a multicultural society. 

Since November the 9th I have felt profound sadness and anger. My emotions are raw but not as a result of any political discourse. They are a result of the language and attitude of one individual and the group of people who are following him. It is a result of who we are about to put into the office of the President of the United States and those whom he is choosing to fill positions within his administration. They are a result of what these people represent and the lack of core human values they appear to not possess.

Since the election, I have read many articles and opinion pieces that espouse that we must work with those who will soon be taking the reins of power. Writers across the spectrum are saying that those individuals who voted for the President-Elect have simply expressed their grave concerns for our country. That these people have used their vote to express their concerns about losing their jobs and their culture. And, that we must accept the results of the election and move forward.

I agree with much of this. We have been losing jobs overseas and our culture is changing. It is true that we haven't done enough to reform our immigration policies and to stem the tide of incoming undocumented immigrants. It is true that we haven't done enough to craft trade agreements that are fair and that keep good jobs in this country. I understand all of these things and there are many, many more issues I most probably agree with. I want to tell all the people who have supported the President-Elect, I understand. I really do! I want those same things but, I also want an accepting and just society.

In the beginning of this post, I described for you the community that I grew up in and then I told you of my profound experiences upon leaving that community and entering a world that opened my eyes. Now, I tell you that I am profoundly grateful that I left that community. And this is why.

The community that I left, like many communities across the nation, was not really the nice place we all thought and believe that it was. It was a place that we really don't remember accurately and that we remember with false images. We don't look deeply  at our memories.  We no longer see the signs "Colored" and "White Only". In reality, it was a place of segregation and inequality. A place of happiness on one side and deplorable inexplicable pain on the other. I do not want to go back there in reality or spirit.

My disagreement and the disagreement that I believe millions of Americans have with the incoming administration is this. They appear to be blatantly and admittedly misogynistic, racist, homophobic and demonstrably unqualified to be in the positions they are being placed in. I simply cannot accept such people being in charge of my government. I cannot accept going back. I want to move forward to a nation that is inclusive in every way possible. I won't share my country with hate and the President-Elect and his staff is the personification of that.

Those Are The Sergeant Majors Thoughts On That.

The Story Of Two Men Or Why I Don't Hate

Note: I would just like to let anyone who happens on this post to know that it is very painful for me to write about this. It's painful in bad ways and in good ways.

When I was a very small child, I believe it was when I was about five or six years old, we lived in a small house in town. My father was still living with my family and would be around for about three more years. The day of this first event was an unusual day in that my mom was away and my father had remained home with me. This was something that I don't remember having ever occurred before or ever occurring again after that day. At any rate, we were home and my father was in the house while I was outside playing. At the time we had a big collie named Rex and like most collies, Rex was very protective of our home and in particularly we children. It was early morning and I heard the garbage truck approaching and, like most children would, I went to the side of the house where the truck stopped to pick up our trash. In those days the men working on the trucks had to dismount and pick up and carry the cans to the back of the truck to empty them. As the worker approached the yard, as usual Rex ran to the edge of the property and began barking. I ran and grabbed Rex by his collar and told the man, "It's okay mister you can come in, he won't bite".

After the garbage truck drove away my father called me to the back porch. When I came up to him, without a word, he grabbed me by the arm and whipped me. As my father whipped me he said, "Don't you ever call a ni**er, mister again"! (Please excuse my use of that very painful and insulting word, but I feel it is needed here to emphasize exactly what happened to me that day.)

Fast forward fifteen years. After my parents were separated, my mother, my sisters, and I moved next door to my grandparent's which is where this next scene occurs.  I am in the Army and I have just returned from my first tour in Vietnam and after a month of leave, I will be heading back for my second tour.

I had been home just a few days and had met someone whom I, of course, had asked out. Since I didn't have a car and my mother's car was in use I had to borrow my grandfather's car. Long story short we got a little carried away and I didn't arrive back home until around 5:00 am. As I arrived I had planned to quietly roll into the driveway, park the car, sneak the keys back in the house and go to bed pretending nothing had happened. As they say, "plans of mice and men". As I exited the car my grandfather was standing by the front door. I can, with all honesty, say I had never seen, nor ever saw again, my grandfather so angry. I cannot express that strongly enough. I don't remember much of that conversation which I'm sure included a lot of, don't you know how to be responsible etc but there are some words and an expression I will never, ever forget. My grandfather, who wasn't prone to profanity, said, "son, I don't give a tinker's damn about that car, I was worried sick that something had happened to you". His expression was like a blow to my gut. I felt, so very ashamed and irresponsible at that moment and every time I have thought of that moment since. As ridiculous as it seemed to me in that moment I could not believe how much my grandfather loved me and he worried about me all the time. Here I was between two combat tours as an infantryman and a crew chief/gunner in Vietnam and my grandfather worried that I would have an accident and be hurt.

I tell these two stories together because they taught me two very important lessons. My first lesson was from my father, and that lesson was that fathers don't always love their sons and don't always teach them about love and respect. The second lesson was from my grandfather and that was that men do love and do know how to teach other men about love and respect.

Of course, it was not that one incident with my father or my grandfather that made me who I am today. My grandfather and my grandmother and my mother, and even my father in his backward way taught me about what was right and wrong and how to respect everyone regardless of their skin color, gender, sexual orientation or any other differences. They taught me how to be a decent human being with their day to day actions and language and simply by the way they lived their lives.

And of course, just like most of my posts, this has a political point. My grandfather, grandmother, and mother worked very hard at teaching me and my sisters how to be a decent, respectful, honorable human being and citizen. My family is made up of immigrant men and women trying to make a good life for themselves. Some came to this country earlier and some later, my wife being the latest to arrive.  Members of my family, both men, and women, including my grandmother (in WWII) and my daughter (in the war on terror), has fought in every war this country has fought. They shed their blood for both the North and the South but they always shed their blood and sweat for America and Americans. So please, Mr. President-Elect, don't tell me to turn my back on my fellow Americans. Don't tell me to turn my back on immigrants. Don't tell me to turn my back on anyone because of where they come from or the color of their skin or their gender, or sexual orientation. In other words, don't tell me to turn my back on any human being. That is not who we Americans are.

Those Are The Sergeant Majors Thoughts On That.

Impeachment For Our Daughters Sake

I have not posted to my blog for many years. It is not that I have not had something to say but, that I have simply been complacent. With this last election, that is all changing and I once again take up my "pen" to reflect on what is happening and about to happen in our great country.

To say that the election of Donald Trump was a shock to me is an understatement of exponential magnitude. Let me explain this by way of a short story.

When I was about 9 years old my father left our family. He did not look back and he did not, ever again, come forth with any assistance to our family. Of my two older brothers, the eldest joined the military and the next oldest was disabled and, on the advice of our family physician, was sent away to a "home". Yes, it was a time that was that barbaric. So the result of my father and two older brothers departure was that I and my mother, and my four younger sisters were alone. My mother found herself alone with five children and the nearly insurmountable task of providing food, clothing, and shelter for us all. What I think makes this a little more poignant, if not totally depressing, is that my father left while my mother was in the hospital delivering the youngest of my four sisters.

There are a few more details that, I believe, are important in order for one to fully understand the sheer desperation that my mother must have felt. This was all occurring at a time in the late 1950's that was before President Lyndon B. Johnson ushered in of the "Great Society" and the passage of legislation upholding civil rights, public broadcasting, Medicare, Medicaid, aid to education, the arts, urban and rural development, public services, and his "War on Poverty". At that time there were simply no programs to help an abandoned woman in my mother's position to survive. When I think back on these times, from and adult perspective, I realize just how difficult women's lives were. If we believe that they are not receiving equal treatment today, during that time we must realize that they were little more than a servant class. This becomes quite evident when we look at the types of jobs that were available to women at this time. Not only did they not receive equal pay but the "good" jobs simply were not available to them for the simple fact that they were women.

So my mother started out with a job making just thirty-two cents an hour as a waitress and eventually working up to being a bartender. I must admit that it was thirty-two cents plus tips. Even today, at 67 years old, when I think back to those times my heart hurts. To compound this difficulty my mother had to work these difficult, menial jobs in the evenings from 4:00 pm to 12:00 pm because those were the hours that a waitress or bartender could make the most money and she needed every penny. That left me, a 9-year-old boy, home alone with four little sisters to watch and feed and bathe and put to bed.

I tell this story today because I think it is important to understand what life was like before the "Great Society" and all the programs that, had they existed, could have made my mother's life more bearable. Could have ensured that the food we had was a little more nutritious. Could have ensured we had a little more medical attention. Could have ensured that there would have been daycare for myself and my sisters. All of those things could have made us a little safer and healthier.

My mother was, and at 92 years old, still is my all-time hero. She worked her fingers to the bone to put food on our table, clothes on our backs, and a roof over our heads and I think she did a good job considering the almost insurmountable obstacles in her way. She lived with misogynists barring her way at every turn. She lived with men making unwanted advances and blocking her way up the promotional chain and denying the good jobs at every turn. But she persevered. She took care of her children and she taught me to respect every human being.

This experience had a profound effect on me. As I grew older and embarked on my career my life experiences left me with a certain perspective that helped me realize that women and minorities and the disabled and those who are a little different had it far, far more difficult navigating life and succeeding than a straight white male in our "American" society. It made me think more carefully and be more sensitive to their plight and it made me want to change myself and help change the dynamic in our society that causes us to be so blind to these things.

Now, in this post and at every other opportunity, I am asking that we all reflect on just what is happening in our country today. We, and by we I mean all Americans, through our actions and lack of actions, have elected a person to be the president of the United States who, by his own admissions, actions, and statements, is a misogynist and racist who has committed sexual assault. And we have also elected a congress whose stated intentions are to roll back or eliminate every program that has moved us toward correcting the injustices of the past and made it possible for those who are most in need to receive the help they need to get ahead and succeed in life. 

I, unequivocally reject Donald Trump's right to occupy the office of the president and I intend to exercise my constitutional right to not accept a person entering the office of the president of the United States who has admittedly committed sexual assault.  I believe that it is congresses responsibility to investigate the actions of the president-elect and move to impeach him if found guilty.

Those are the Sergeant Major's Thoughts on That.

Consider This Or It Takes A Little Time

As I always like to say, I am just an old retired Sergeant Major who spent 27 years servicing my country in the United States Army and by the grace of God I also happen to be a proud citizen of these great United States. So I ask that you take a moment and just consider an old Sergeant Majors' thoughts and reflections.

I believe it is important to first, remind folks that it was not President Obama nor his administration that took us to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The plain truth is that it was President George W. Bush and his administration that took us to war in Afghanistan and it was President George W. Bush and his administration who initiated an unprovoked, and in my mind an unjust war in Iraq. Let us also not forget that it was also the Bush administration who inherited a country with a fiscal surplus and vibrant economy and it was the Bush administration that was at the helm of the ship of state and allowed it to run rudderless into the iceberg that has been the worst recession since the great depression. I therefore submit that it was the Bush administration and their actions that bled our nation dry of our national treasure, both human and monetary, and that has left us with untold human scars and economic misery.

So those are my thoughts on how we got where we were when President Obama was sworn into office this past January. Now I would like to reflect a little on where we are today and where we might go from here. Our President has been in office for not quite nine (9) months and during that time I believe that he has accomplished far more than the media and many others have given him credit for. It is as though the media and the critics must take each and every event and look at this administration through a prism of ebony. It seems as though they report and comment as though it would be a mortal sin to report and acknowledge the real progress that has and is being made. During these past nine months the President has brought this nation back from the brink of an economic Armageddon. He has also arguably taken back much of the moral high ground that was lost in the previous eight years as a result of the Bush administrations misguided foreign policies. And this young President has begun to repair our nations international reputation that was so recklessly squandered by the previous administration.

It is my thought that he has accomplished all of these things while moving on every front at once. I believe he's moved forward on all these fronts simultaneously because he understands that it is all important and must all be done now. I know it is hard to believe after eight years of the previous administration but, as our President has said before, you really can do more than one thing at a time. And he's demonstrating that every day.

In just nine months this President has:

• passed an economic stimulus plan which has brought us back from the economic brink and he has done it without the support of the right.
• He has begun the draw down in Iraq and the process of returning that country to the control of its elected government and has shifted troops to Afghanistan where they were and are so desperately needed, and he has done this without the support of the right.
• He has begun the process of removing a catastrophic and embarrassing blot on the reputation of this nation by beginning the process of closing Guantanamo Bay, and he's doing it without the support of the right.
• He has initiated a historic reform of the wasteful and ineffective health care system of this country and he is doing it without the support of the right.
• He has begun the difficult task of joining with the other nations of the world in reducing green house gases and improving the environment and he's doing it without the the support of the right.
• He has dealt with, and is dealing, with nuclear crisis's in North Korea and Iran and has brought the nations of the world into the process of trying to remove and prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. He has even been able to bring Russia, and to some extent China, into this process and he is doing it without the support of the right.
• And in between all of this he's found time to lobby the International Olympic Committee for the United States. Though unsuccessful in this attempt to get the Olympics to Chicago he was able to multitask on that trip also by meeting with his Commanding General in Afghanistan. Imagine that, multitasking. It's a wonder in the world. And he did it while the right rejoiced at "our" not succeeding in bringing the Olympics to the United States.

Now the President is going through the extremely important task of taking a deeper look at the way forward in Afghanistan. I say "the way forward" purposely because this President seems to always be looking at the way forward and not looking backward. As the he continues to look forward and make progress on so many fronts what do we hear from much of the media and the right? It is certainly not reporting or a reasonable and critical analysis of what is or is not being done or even a reasonable analysis of the way forward. What we are seeing and hearing is simplistic doom and gloom and make or break and of course it's all being boiled down to do we or don't we increase troop strength in Afghanistan. The media broadcast to the American people as though they think we are a bunch of illiterates not capable of rational thought while the conservative shock jocks strive for even more ludicrous charges and accusations to sling at and belittle the President. And they simply fill the airways with vitriol.

We all know that the President has tough decisions to make but unlike his immediate predecessor it appears to me that he is going about that decision making process in a careful, intelligent, and methodical way and it seems to me that he is getting input from all the right places.

I for one take, and will continue to take, what I hear from the talking heads, shock jocks, and shock jokes that call themselves news reporters, commentators, radio host, and political analyst, with much more than a grain of salt and with even greater skepticism. These people are in it for the money and not for the good of our nation. Tears or no tears.

I want to close with just these few thoughts. I for one believe that the President has been and will continue to uphold his oath of office and continue to do the right thing for America. I think the Presidents first nine months in office have made a pretty good dent in the problems created by 8 YEARS of abuse and neglect. I think I'll let him have a little more than nine months to finish up the job.

Those Are The Sergeant Majors Thoughts On That.

Morality - Or To Have And Have Not

As a small child my Grandmother often said to me, "remember, for every good you do in this world you receive a good back and for every bad you do you receive a bad back". These certainly were not the words of a great philosopher or even of a country preacher but they were the words of a Grandmother explaining to a small child that you should do good in the world and not bad. The interesting thing is that even as a small child of 4, 5, or 6 I fully and completely understood what these words meant. It wasn't Christian, it wasn't Muslim, it wasn't Hindu or Jewish and it wasn't Agnostic. It was just Grandma guiding a small child down the right path. It was simple morality. It was simple right and wrong. Do good. Don't do bad.

Many years later when I joined the United States Army my Drill Sergeant (Not to be confused with my Grandmother.) gave me something called the "Code of the U.S. Fighting Force" as well as a "Geneva Conventions Card". The first was a guide to how a soldier should conduct himself or herself if a Prisoner of War. The second was a card outlining the Geneva Conventions on how a soldier should treat a Prisoner of War and how a soldier should expect to be treated as a Prisoner of War. To me, now a young man, these documents made perfect sense. They said do good don't do bad.

Today I am an old soldier having enjoyed a long military career. When I look back on that career and all of the wonderful, good, and great soldiers I served for and with I am a proud but not prideful man. We served in peace and we served in war. We served in the hell holes of the world and the paradises of the world but we, to a soldier, always struggled to do good and not do bad. I am proud to say that every one of those soldiers struggled to always do the right thing because that was who we were and what we had been taught. We knew what our Grandma and Drill Sergeant had said. It was what our parents and grandparents and teachers and ministers and yes even drill sergeants taught us. In other words, we, to a soldier, fulfilled our oath to the constitution of the United States of America.

Today as I listen to the rhetoric and reporting on "torture memo's" I find myself heart sick, embarrassed and ashamed beyond words. I am astounded that the products of the greatest generation have descended to these depths of depravity. That we have elected officials and officers sworn to uphold the constitution and laws of this nation who could instigate such atrocities on other human beings.

As a soldier this gives me great pause to think and to also question. For what did we serve and fight and die. Was it so that a group of people, though duly elected and appointed, could take the constitution for which they took and oath to support and defend and use it for toilet paper. Did we fight and die so that they could take the laws of this nation and twist and torture them into something that we the citizens can hardly recognize.

I hear it so often said that we are a "Christian" nation and that we are a nation of laws and of high morals and that we are the "leader of the free world". I must now ask myself how can any of that be? Where in any bible does it say that you should go forth and torture? Where in any law is it written that it is legal to commit "Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment"? Since when does this nation lower itself to the level of committing the self same acts as those committed on us by common terrorist? At what point do we move from "outrages upon personal dignity" to beheading on television.

As a soldier and a citizen I demand that those who instigated and perpetuated the torture of any person be held accountable and that they be held accountable regardless of what job or position they held or are holding. As a soldier and a citizen I demand that my elected representatives take the necessary steps to investigate and bring to justice those who are responsible for these acts. We are indeed a nation of laws and a nation which aspires to set the example and as such we must go to whatever lengths necessary to insure that justice is done. How far is the distance from detainee to citizen? It's not about politics. It's about the Constitution. It's about justice. It's about America. It's about Morality.

Those Are The Sergeant Major's Thoughts On That.

A Question Of Moral Courage - Or I Want Truth And Not Spin

Each day I read through my newspaper and online news sites and one thing seems to always stick out in my mind and that is that the shrillest voices are those on the extreme right followed at a somewhat distant second by those on the extreme left. I use the term shrillest because those seem to be the voices that grab the headlines day in and day out and take up the most space. The following are some of my thoughts on these shrill voices and sometimes not so shrill voices.

Growing up as a young boy when radio was still in it's heyday and television was beginning to make its serge into the American living room I remember sitting around a radio and later the television and listening and watching with my parents and grand parents. It was always a family time that I very much enjoyed. After the programs ended we would often have lengthy conversations about what we'd heard or seen. As a child I not only listened to the radio shows that I loved like The Shadow and The Lone Ranger and later watched like the Life of Riley and Ozzie and Harriet but I also listened to and watched news programs. Yes even back then I liked to listen to and watch the news. You remember the broadcasters like Walter Winchell, Edmund R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite or maybe Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. But my point is that we would listen and watch as a family and then talk about what was reported to us.

When comparing the news programs I listened to and watched back then with today's "shows" I immediately recognize that back then we didn't get nearly as much news but we got what I think was "real" news. Looking back on those programs it seems to be that they were filled with much more real and factual information and much less "opinion" or "slant" or "take" or the infamous "spin". Sure there were smut sheets and rag news papers and yes some of the reporters would sometimes try very hard to put color in their language but then I think it was because with the radio you couldn't see it and with the early television it was black and white and they didn't "tape" the news so the reporters put more effort into describing the events and describing them accurately. It just seems to me that back in the day you knew much more readily the difference between the smut and the news. Today this is no longer true. Even the "big" three networks no longer stick to just reporting the news. It has become apparent that they have become more interested in sensationalizing and creating entertainment to gain eyeballs than in "reporting" the news. The big networks and cable outfits are successfully blurring the line to the point where the average citizen can hardly tell the reporting from the opinion. It seems it is no longer about presenting news facts to the reader, listener, or watcher but more about sensationalizing, entertaining, and converting or changing the mind of the individual.

It's my thought that the citizens of this country are no longer allowed to read, hear, or watch the news and come to their own conclusions but must be proselytized. They are no longer left to make their own decisions but are told if they don't believe this or don't think that then they must be unpatriotic, weak, soft, or they don't believe in God, or are not so intelligent as everyone else.

I believe it is apparent that during the buildup and invasion of Iraq the media went after the sensational story and failed miserably to dig and report facts. The results have been painfully and disastrously evident every since. Today the media is once again embarking on that same path. They cannot simply dig for the facts and report on the rescue of the Captain of a pirated ship but they have to make it a test of a new President. It can't be simply reporting on the facts of the G20 summit it's got to be sensationalized and made to look like the Presidential debut and a test of the President as a diplomat and the President is pandering to the French or kowtowing to a communist dictator or accepting gifts from enemies of the country. These failures to conduct proper investigation and reporting on the part of "news organizations" and "news and cable networks" is in my mind unconscionable and shows an absolute lack of moral courage. Have the courage to tell us why the President went there and not conjure up mystical reasons. What were his stated goals and how did he do in achieving those goals? Was his purpose to open up a line of dialogue or to sign a treaty? There's a big difference.

I think most Americans are quite capable of listening to and watching real news programs and coming to appropriate conclusions. For instance, I might say that no, the action at sea was not a test of the President. It was a piracy incident that was taken care of appropriately by the United States government (paid for by your welcomed tax dollars). Yes the President had to make some decisions which he did and yes some military personnel had to do their jobs and they did and yes thank God the Captain and his crew were brought home safe but, it was not a test. It was real life and everyone involved did their jobs. That's all it was. Will there be more piracy incidents, yes. Will the President have to make decisions and the military carry them out, yes. That's all there is to it. Will it, over time, develop into a pattern and then we will see the whole picture that is the foreign policy of this President and this nation, yes but let's just report the facts and then let the American people make up their own minds.

You might ask why the title of this post is "A Question Of Moral Courage"? That is because I believe that if you have News in your name it is a question of moral courage, or lack there of, on the part of the news media to report the just the facts. To dig and know all of the facts and present them to the citizens of this nation as simple facts for them to draw their own conclusions. Show us pictures, tell us what happened and who said what. That's why we're watching.

If you're not a real news organization then label yourself what you really are "entertainment" just like Jon Stewart or Steven Colbert. It's my thought that the difference between Stewart and Colbert and the Fox "News" organization and its ilk is that when Colbert and Stewart tell their rare comedic lie they tell you they are lying and that's at least honest. They don't pretend to be real news organizations.

So my bottom line is this. If you are just a 7 day a week hard copy print blog or a 24/7 broadcast TV blog then have the moral courage to admit it and then those who are interested in being converted can read or tune you in. Otherwise take the News out of your name because your not.

Those Are The Sergeant Major's Thoughts on That.

Civil Discourse, Real Civil Discourse

Let me say at the outset that I begrudge no citizen their constitutional right to protest. After all, the documents that our founding fathers drafted when establishing this great nation guarantee every American citizen that right but I also have a right to a few observations and the following few paragraphs are those observations on the sad mockery that was yesterdays protests.

I consider myself to be an average American. I grew up in the south in the 1940's, 50's, and 60's and I would add, in a fairly poor family. The first few houses we lived in were situated on dirt roads which received the occasional spray of tar to keep down the dust as well as the occasional pest control truck passing to fog for disease bearing insects. The tar got tracked all over everything and it's a wonder all of our children weren't born with some defect as a result of us breathing in the fumes. When living within the city we even had city water and sewage provided at a fairly reasonable price and we were always lucky enough to have electricity even though it came in on an overhead wire. I knew many rural residents and neighbors who didn't have electricity and still used oil lamps and out houses. Anyone remember the TVA and the other projects to bring electricity to rural America. When we traveled a long distance it was on very narrow two lane roads that were sometimes paved and sometimes not. There were no interstate highways. A trip from Ocala to Moultrie could take nearly a whole day. I think what was most frightening was that we had no such thing as medical insurance so the vast majority of Americans simply didn't go to the doctor because they couldn't afford to and all dreaded a serious illness because it meant probable bankruptcy. I tell you this because today, I and indeed most of the collective we in this country, live a very different life from that of 60 or 50 or even 40 years ago.

Today I would venture to say that most Americans can't imagine living on a dirt road and though in the south they still spray for disease bearing insects I seldom if ever hear or notice because it's just a normal fact of life. How many other things have become just a normal fact of life. It's become a normal fact of life that we have a standing Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard to fight our wars and protect our international interest. It's become a normal fact of life that we have competent well equipped police forces. It's become a normal fact of life that we have Fire Departments and Paramedics to respond to our home fires and accidents and medical emergencies. It's become a normal fact of life that we have health departments to protect the public health. It's become a normal fact of life that we have Homeland Security along with the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Border Patrol. It's become a fact of life that we have an incredible network of roads and highways and interstate highways that take us where we want to go in minutes if not hours and certainly not days. And we virtually all have access to electricity, water, communications and sewage treatment. I think I need not go on with this nearly endless list of services that our city, county, state, and federal government provides for our taxes but there are one or two other services I do not want to pass. Those are Social Security and Medicare. My great grand parents, like most Americans of their time didn't have either of those and because of that they mostly died prematurely and often in abject poverty or living with their children if they were lucky and the children could house and feed them. If not they went to a poor house.

It is my thought that the reason these things and many others don't stand out in our minds is because they have become part of the American landscape and we have grown accustom to them and the many, many other services that our "government" provides to the citizens of this great nation in return for our taxes. This brings me to a few final thoughts on the protest of yesterday.

First I believe the Tea Party idea was grossly misguided for one simple reason. The Boston Tea Party was about taxation without representation. Today in the United States of America that is simply not an issue. Every citizen of this great nation has a vote and a representative in city, county, state, and federal government. Second, as far as higher taxes are concerned I can only say that after President Obama came into office and just a few weeks ago my paycheck went up because he and the Democratic Congress passed a law reducing 95% of all Americans taxes.

My third point is this. I believe it is past time for real civil discourse in this country. It seems to me that the far right knows only how to shout down people using catch phrases that grab simplistic headlines. It's time for that shouting and the sound bites to stop. It's time to talk about the real issues facing this nation and all their complexities and look for real solutions that benefit the nation as a whole. I served and defended my country for 27 years in every hell hole on the planet. I didn't serve part of my country I served all of my country, white, black, red, and yellow, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian and Independent, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Agnostic and Hindu, straight and gay, naturalized and native born and everyone in between. I did this without question because I swore and oath to support and defend the constitution of the United States. Our political leaders took that very same oath and I think it's time they started living up to it.

Those Are The Sergeant Majors Thoughts On That.

Of Irony And Grief Or Why Has He Turned His Back

Today the numbers are 4,158 and 30,324 and 591. I don't believe I need to tell you what those numbers represent because anyone who reads this blog knows what I write about and therefore they will intuitively know what those numbers represent. But I'm writing today to share with you what I believe those numbers and another number, 95,533 really represents.

I believe those numbers represent the back of a hero, a failure in victory, and a nation lost.

Some forty years ago I began a journey in the jungles of Vietnam that I now look back on with great pride. I look back with pride because I was lucky enough to experience a career with a military that was led by visionary officers who said "never again". Never again to politically motivated wars that were destined to end in disaster for our nation. Those officers and non-commissioned officers led in rebuilding and re-energizing a decimated force and in creating the finest military the world had ever seen as was demonstrated in Panama, Kosovo, Kuwait and Iraq and in many other places over the decades since Vietnam.

Today, I regret to say, that force has once again been decimated and the officers who built and led it have been cast aside like so much unwanted distraction. It has once again been decimated not by the enemy without but by the enemy within; by the misguided and uncaring political forces of this country led by George W. Bush and the Republican Congress of which John McCain is one of the more prominent leaders.

As a soldier and veteran that has witnessed and experienced the rise and subsequent decline of our military I am most aggrieved by the actions of Senator John McCain. A man who experienced the fiasco that was the Vietnam war in the most cruel and inhumane manner appears to me to be turning a blind eye to history. It appears to me he is turning a blind eye to not only his own sacrifices but also to the sacrifices of others both past and present. As I observe Senator McCain's actions I must ask myself why? Why has John McCain conducted himself this way and I find this question leads to only one answer. It appears to me that John McCain is doing this for the basest of reasons. For self aggrandizement. I can come to no other conclusion based on what I myself have observed over the last eight years.

By his own words and actions it appears to me that John McCain has forgotten that his instruction at the Naval Academy focused "on integrity, honor, and mutual respect based on the moral values of respect for human dignity, respect for honesty and respect for the property of others."

Now our great nation faces an election of epic proportions and we must ask ourselves a very basic and serious question. Do we want a president who would turn his back on his own sacrifices as well as the sacrifices of others for the purpose of self promotion or do we want a president who looks to the past for knowledge and wisdom and to the future for possibilities and inspiration?

Political discourse and "media buzz" across our nation is filled with a sickening silence. Yes I said silence. I say silence because there is silence in the noise and lack of substance that is our nations political discourse and in the media that is called news. That silence is ripping our nation apart. It leaves the soldiers and civilians that have lost their lives and been maimed by this war in a vacuum of silence to be ignored by this nation as we grovel in our own self pity because we've ignored civic responsibility and we've spent ourselves into a hole as our infrastructure is crumbling around our ears.

Of course the numbers I mentioned at the beginning of this piece are the lives, both American and Iraqi, that have been sacrificed or permanently scarred by an unjust war perpetrated by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John McCain and the rest of the Republican Congress. This is the tragedy that is John McCain, a warrior who seems to have forgotten he was one. A warrior who would let his and the sacrifices of so many others be spent in vain as he pursues glory in higher office and refuses to let history be his teacher or the future be his beacon.

Those Are The Sergeant Major's Thoughts On That.

Honor - To Have And Have Not

After these many months of silence I find I am once again compelled to express my thoughts.

I have over recent months followed the presidential campaign quite closely and even more closely over the past two weeks and one very specific issue has become crystal clear to me which I want to share with you.

Throughout my life growing up in a military family and in my military career one predominate trait or quality was emphasized and driven home by both my family and every leader I have ever met. That trait or quality was honor. Just to refresh your memory the dictionary defines honor as, honesty, fairness, or integrity in one's beliefs and actions: a man of honor.

From the time that I had what I believe was probably my very first logical thought about the subject I do not believe that there was ever any doubt in my mind of what the meaning of honor was nor was there ever any doubt of what actions honor required. There was a second thing that I never had any doubt about and that was that once ones honor was compromised it was a permanent and oft never fading blemish. I know this from personal experience and my own personal failures against which I struggle to this very day. I point that out because I believe that even the most honorable and well intentioned people with the most hard earned sense of honor can fail and that they can be guilty of being dishonorable and I believe that that has happened in the presidential race.

I have known of John McCain for as long as he has been in the public eye. I have, as a fellow soldier and as a fellow citizen, respected him for his extraordinary military and public service. In fact I believe we as a nation should respect and appreciate and yes honor what he has done for our nation. I believe his have been the actions of an exceptionally brave and historically honorable man.

However there is something else that I believe. I believe that past honorable service and dedication to duty and country does not immunize one against poor judgment, failure or even from doing the wrong thing. I believe that ones honor is not something one does once and then puts it on a shelf where it shines forever. Honor is second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour and year by year. It is only as untarnished and undiminished as ones past and ones last action.

It is with great sadness that I say to you that John McCain is not an honorable man today. The reason I say this is because I am observing and hearing reported by every major news organization in this country that he and his running mate are participating in and personally articulating blatant lies. These are not the actions of honorable people. When one is aspiring to the highest and second highest public offices in the land it is incumbent upon one to speak truth and only truth and to communicate about those issues that are vital and of importance to the citizens of the nation. It is not honorable for individuals to speak lies to the citizens and make unproven accusations against those whom they oppose. When one opposes another person in vying for public office it becomes even more important to insure that one speaks the truth and deals with issues and substantive differences and not innuendo and accusation.

The fact that John McCain is a former Naval Officer and a sitting United States Senator makes this lack of honor horribly reprehensible. But I think what makes this lack of honor so disgusting and even more vile is that he would lose himself to the point of using his own sacrifice and service as a shield to commit such petit dishonorable acts of lying. Conservative, liberal, or Independent, share his beliefs or not, it would be morally reprehensible for anyone to support someone who displays so little honor. Sometimes we must call them like they are. Prisoner of war or not service to country or not there is a line and John McCain and his running mate have crossed the line.

This nation has endured eight long years of lies and deceptions from the two highest ranking public figures in the country and virtually their entire administration. Our honor as a nation is not just blemished but in tatters and we cannot endure another four or eight years of the same. If for no other reason than the fact that John McCain and his vice presidential running mate have publicly lied and continue to lie this nation needs to insure that he does not occupy the office of the president. Our nation needs honor above all else at this crucial point in our history. With honor comes respect and from these come all else.

Those Are The Sergeant Major's Thoughts On That.

Heroes Or The Decline Of A Nation

As a young boy, like many other young American boys, I grew up admiring heroes like Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Randolf Scott, John Wayne and Audie Murphy to name a few. Many of my fondest memory's are of going to the drive-in movies and watching bigger than life heroes up on the silver screen duking it out with the bad guys and saving our country. You better believe that, if Friday nights were at the drive-in then it was going to be Saturdays in the fields and woods near the house in a make believe world of cowboy's and soldiers. And if I had a spare moment, when no one was around, I could be found going through the boxes and trunks filled with my fathers old uniforms and photo albums. As I'd rummage through musty uniforms, badges and pictures and travel in those make believe worlds it seemed to me that it was as much my father and grandfather whipping the bad guys and saving their fellow soldiers as it was Roy or Audie. At any rate it was no great leap for me to see my father and grandfather doing all of those heroic things up on that big screen. I think that the reason it wasn't such a great leap was because I was living in that time shortly after World War II when patriotic fervor still bubbled in the land. The country had survived the great depression and beaten the axis powers and had even conquered polio and we were Americans doing the right thing in the world and my family had been part of that experience. I was so very proud.

Today we don't have those hero's. No they are all gone and the ones we should have are too busy taking drugs and or driving drunk. Yeah I don't think Nick Nolte is any Randolph Scott and Mel Gibson is certainly no Audie Murphy. And by the way don't look at sports figures either because when it comes to the Roger Maris' or Mickey Mantles most of the ones that took their places are taking steroids and beating up other people if not their own wives and children. And what about the soldiers, well I haven't seen a George Marshall, Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, or even a Omar Bradley lately and if there was one of those around I'm certain they would have been fired by now. But most importantly we don't have the "genuine" patriotic fervor that we had in those years during and after World War II. We don't have that sense of knowing we are Americans and that we really do know right from wrong and we really do know about sacrifice and duty and honor and country. No we have lost all of that and it is our fault. Our very own fault. We can point fingers at the politicians in Washington and say it's all their fault. That's the easy excuse and also not the truth. We have become a nation of lazy self indulgent hedonist. As a nation we have lost our moral compass and those in Washington are simply a reflection of that loss and self indulgence.

As I look back over the last 6 years I see that our government has served only to bring clarity to this reality. We can look at the incompetence of our intelligence agencies and the deception and malice of the president and his administration and we know that we have elected and allowed the appointment that incompetence, deception, and malice. We can look at the congress and their failures to perform their constitutional duties and their willingness to accept money and favors from anyone willing to pay for influence and know that we elected the spineless greedy people occupying those offices. But what is most sad is that as we sit here in our comfortable recliners and gape at the world through a rose colored idiot box we are allowing thousands upon thousands of Iraqis and Afghans to die and thousands of American soldiers to die and thousands upon thousands of all of these people and soldiers to be wounded and maimed and we sit.

We sat and thought an unnecessary preemptive invasion was the final straw; and then we sat and thought Guantanamo was the final straw; and then we sat and thought Abu Grahib was the final straw; and then we sat and thought warrant-less wire tapping was the last straw; and then we sat and thought that Blackwater was the final straw and then we sat............ My grandfather served in World War I and my grandmother and my uncle and my father served in World War II and my father served again in Korea. I served in Vietnam and that was a tragedy beyond words but what we as a nation have wrought and continue to execute in Iraq is beyond anything anyone could ever explain much less justify or condone. I am proud of my families service in every conflict this nation has been engage in since the Revolutionary War but I am just as proud that we have not served in this conflict in which we are now engaged. Do not misunderstand. I was and am and always will be a soldier and I am very proud of our soldiers that are now serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, they serve with honor and courage and for their country, but I am not, not proud of our "nation's" actions in this war. Is it not so very sad that I, one who served his country for 27 year, must write a qualifier at the end of my contemplations on the state of our nation.

Those Are The Sergeant Major's Thoughts On That.

When? – Or Why I Love Soldiers

I love American Soldiers! It's not because I come from a family of soldiers or even because I was one for 27 years. I love them because they choose to do something not many people choose to do or are capable of doing. They choose to serve their country by putting themselves in harms way to defend our constitution.

I continually hear politicians and pundits say you can't not support the troops. I hear them say if you criticize the war in Iraq you're criticizing the troops and if you say we're loosing the war in Iraq it demoralizes the troops and you're not supporting them. It is my thought that those politicians and pundits are dead wrong. You can criticize the war, and you can say we are loosing the war and doing so is not criticizing the troops and it is not demoralizing the troops because the troops are doing what they signed up to do. They are serving their nation and defending the constitution and defending our constitutional right to voice our opinions and criticize our government and it's actions.

We are not fighting in Iraq because 169,000 American soldiers decided we should invade a country without provocation and we are not loosing the war in Iraq because our soldiers are not doing the job on the battlefield. In fact it is quite the contrary. One man, who is not a soldier, decided we would preemptively invade another country and then lied to the nation to get us to do it and one man failed to set a realistic policy and failed to plan appropriately and that is why the nation is loosing the war.

No it is not the citizens of this nation who oppose this war who are demoralizing our soldiers. It is not the citizens of this country who say we are not winning the war who are demoralizing our soldiers. No it is not the citizens of this country who are not supporting the soldiers. It is one man and his associates who are demoralizing and not supporting the soldiers. It is George W. Bush and his administration.

The President of the United States was given a sacred trust in that when elected to office he became the Commander in Chief and was given the responsibility of leading our nations armed forces. He has violated that trust. He lied to take us to war. He took us to war without a coherent policy. He took us to war without a coherent plan and he took us to war without proper preparation and most heinous of all he continues to execute a war without a coherent policy or plan or the necessary equipment and that is what is demoralizing troops.

I love our soldiers because in spite of all that they are enduring at the hands foreign hostile forces and of our own president they continue to put themselves in harms way for our constitution and our country. They continue to bleed and endure hell on earth for our nation and their president is too arrogant and too stubborn to even care. He didn't care during Vietnam and he doesn't care now. Do we expect anything more?

When will our Congress act to bring this travesty to an end?

Those Are The Sergeant Major's Thoughts On That.

A Fools Errand – Or Why The General Embarrasses Me

The testimony provided to Congress by General Petraeus over the last few days has embarrassed and saddened me. I saw a dedicated, professional officer focused on his mission but I also saw something else that I wish I had never seen. I saw a soldier letting down his soldiers in the most basic way.

As I watched General Petraeus brief members of the Congress and the Senate I saw a soldier doing his duty and presenting the situation in Iraq in simple, stark military terminology but I also saw an officer who, in spite of what I believe are the best of good intentions, is letting his soldiers down in the most basic way. This was brought home to me with laser clarity as I listened to his very simple response to Senator Warner's question; Is the war in Iraq making us safer at home? The Generals answer was very telling. “I don't know.” The very fact that he said that so simply made me realize that he was at that very moment coming to realize how badly he had and was letting his soldiers down. Simply put, no leader would ever lead his or her soldiers into combat without knowing two basic things. First, that the battle can and will be won and second that it is for the defense of the constitution and the nation. (Please note that I did not use the divisive and personally distasteful term “homeland”.)

There is no doubt in my mind that if General Petraeus believed that the war in Iraq was making America safer he would have unhesitatingly stated so unequivocally and succinctly in response to the Senators question. He didn't and that told the rest of the story.

In 2003 George W. Bush took our nation to war under false pretenses. He did this in spite of the advice of senior Generals and he in fact fired those officers who dared to speak against the invasion. As a result of his bloated ego and lack of world view and understanding we entered a conflict we were ill prepared to execute and unprepared to see through. Since that preemptive invasion the mission in Iraq has continued to morph and change with the whims of that self same President. All along more and more Americans and Iraqi's die as our nations blood and wealth is poured into the deserts of Iraq. And our once seemingly bright though certainly tarnished image in the world has been decimated.

I believe General Patraeus' testimony should serve to remind us of a few things. It should serve to remind us all of how we came to be where we are in Iraq. It should also serve to remind of where we stand in the world and how very difficult it will be to both extract forces from Iraq and to rebuild our credibility and honor. Most importantly it should serve to remind our Congress that in 2006 we put them in office to fulfill their constitutional duty of defending the constitution and that they must exercise their constitutional duty of checks and balances and force the president to extract our forces from Iraq in the most expedient and safe manner possible. No we cannot walk away and yes we must leave a stable Iraq but that requires both a plan and leadership. This president has failed and continues to fail to provide either of those things. It therefore falls to our duly elected Congress to provide both. We Americans, whatever our political leanings, must realize that, yes George W. Bush and his cohorts got us into this mess but it will take the will of the people holding our elected officials accountable to get us out of it. It is not going to be easy. It is not going to be pretty and neither the left nor the right will be completely satisfied but we must leave a stable Iraq and yes that is possible.

Those Are The Sergeant Major's Thoughts On That.

Why I Want The Draft Back - Or They Take But Never Give

As I write this post I'm sitting in my room looking at the memento's of a life and career in the Army. Each worn and fading object representing a different moment in my life, a different person or persons, place or event that has touched and changed my life in some way. It is a warm comfortable feeling that settles in me as I contemplate these objects because I know that each and everyone of the people and events these objects represent affected me and the course of my life. Some of these gentle and sometimes not so gentle touches were for the good and some for the bad but in the end I can say all for the best. And as I look from one to the other and see the often battle scarred faces and places they represent I like to think that perhaps I have made some small positive difference in their lives. All in all it has been a life I would not trade for all the gold or treasures of the world.

You know, not one part of a soldiers life is easy. Yes, for 20 or 30 years, not one part easy. It seems to cover the whole spectrum from teeth grinding boredom to muscle paralyzing fear and everywhere in between. Did you ever think about that? Did you ever think what must be going on inside of a soldier as they check and double check and recheck their vehicles and gear before going through the gates on yet another patrol or convoy? Did you ever wonder what it's like to be walking a dusty side street in a god forsaken dirty desert town not knowing what's in the next doorway or what's around the next corner or on the next roof? Did you ever wonder what's going through their minds as they ride down some dusty street not knowing which bump is going to be an IED that's going to send shrapnel and vehicle parts trough their bodies and rip off their arms and legs?...........Do you know what's not on their minds? Medals aren't on their minds. Ribbons and plaques are not on their minds and ticker tape parades are not on their minds. If they're smart and lucky the sounds and smells and sights of the moment are on their minds because that's all that is going to keep them alive for this one more patrol. If they're unlucky, their moms and dads and wives and children are on their minds and because they are on their minds they'll make a mistake and they won't go back to see those they love or at least they won't go back in one piece. Think about that for a moment. Can you just imagine how hard it must be? Can you imagine how hard it must be to make yourself not think about those you love; to not think about those you love just when that is what you want and need so badly it hurts down in your guts?

These are the things that I think about every single day. Every day I think about soldiers, sailors, and airmen in Afghanistan, Iraq, Korea, Europe and all over the world. I think of them in stifling desert heat and sand and waist deep mountain snow. I think of them in rocky holes in high mountains and knee deep mud in tropical swamps. I think of them with their families on a post or base in Kentucky, Texas, Georgia or North Carolina and I think of them alone on the deck of some ship in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I think about them, their families and friends think about them, and if you're reading this you probably think about them but, believe it or not there are thousands if not millions who do not think about them. They do not think about them because they do not have to think about them. These are the same thousands if not millions who are reaping the bounty of these soldiers' sacrifices. These are the same thousands if not millions who choose to not think about the soldiers because they and their little world are safe and neither they nor their children have to serve or sacrifice.

This is the folly of not having a national service obligation. This absence of an obligation to serve allows people to become lazy and disconnected from the broader world. It allows them to retreat into their consumer world of Wal-Mart and Target or into their neighborhood mall and not think about the thousands of innocent people who are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan or the thousands of soldiers who are bleeding and dying for them around the world. It allows them to ignore the poverty right here in America and certainly the rest of the world. It allows them to suffer the elements by standing in line for days to buy the first new video game system but not to stand in line to vote. They think that it is their God given right to mindlessly shop and drive and to burn precious fuel because "that's why God put it here"; he put it here just so I can drive to the mall. These people are so lazy and self absorbed that they cannot find the intestinal fortitude or presence of mind to take the one action most readily available to them and every other American and the one action in their immediate possession to defend the constitution and that act is the simple act of voting.

It is my thought that the absence of a national service obligation has created an elitist attitude among a large number of people in this country who believe it is the responsibility of someone else to defend the nation and it is the responsibility of someone else to fight terrorism. This lack of national service obligation has created, not an atmosphere of shared responsibility, but a self-serving atmosphere of you go and die for your country or send your child but leave me and my child alone. And, this atmosphere of self-centered elitism was, if not created then certainly fueled by George W. Bush and his administration. It is also George W. Bush and his administration along with the other elitist that hold a lions share of the responsibility for our being in Iraq today and for our failed foreign and domestic policies.

I must add that I believe it is the millions of non-voters who have, by their inaction, allowed the radical minority to determine the fate and direction of our nation. In the day of the volunteer military it is perhaps reasonable that people choose not to serve in the military and perhaps it is even reasonable that they not serve their nation in some civil capacity but it is absolutely unforgivable that they would not walk out their door and go to a voting booth and at least cast their vote in defense of the constitution and this is the very reason I champion national service. We citizens of this great nation who do defend our country and our constitution deserve to have that gift and burden shared. We deserve to have it shared by all and that includes those elitist who think it beneath them as well as those who are so apathetic and unpatriotic as to not vote. I believe this is true even if it means a mandatory national service obligation for ALL citizens of this great nation.

Those Are The Sergent Major's Thoughts On That.

Where The Brave Have Fallen - Bush In Vietnam

Do you feel it George? Like a cold chill it starts at the back of your neck and radiates down through your body. It is the breath of the many brave soldiers who fell where you now stand. It is the sound of your conscience trying to get the attention you so callously and cavalierly refuse to give it. It is the cold breeze of guilt George; you know the guilt you felt when you chose the easy way and the guilt you should feel now. I know you felt the guilt back then George because that was why you drank wasn't it? You had a conscience back then and the alcohol helped numb it didn't it. At least for a little while George but only for a little while.


Do you remember that day back on May 27th, 1968? I know you remember it because that's the day you raised your hand to take an oath you'd never live up to isn't it. I remember that day very well George, because I was in infantry training and on my way to Vietnam doing what I raised my hand and swore to do. But mostly I remember because many of my friends were dying in Vietnam on that day. They were there where you stand today but they were bleeding and they were serving their country and fulfilling the oaths they took.


Why George? Why did you run away? Why are you still running away George?


Do you feel it George? It's the breath of those many brave soldiers who fell and are falling in Iraq; that place you are talking about today. It is the sound of your conscience still trying to get the attention you continue to refuse to give it.


Those Are The Sergent Major's Thoughts On That.

You Can Call It Hubris - I Call It Uncaring Criminal Arrogance

As I read the newspapers, online and off line, and listen to the pundits and uniformed lapdogs that call themselves "Generals" I grow more angry and dismayed. It is my belief, having paid some attention, that anyone who lived through the 2000 election, the events of September 11, 2001, and the invasion and occupation of Iraq should be able to deduce and understand that this country was led to war by the Bush administration through blatant deceit.

In numerous posts in the past I have tried to contemplate, discuss, and share thoughts that I believe to be of some significant consequence to citizens, soldiers, and their families. I have spoken of leadership, courage, honor, trust, faith, and dedication to nation and constitution. These are all concepts, ideas, and beliefs that I believe have helped to forge this great nation. Yes, it is true that our history is filled with these honorable concepts, ideas and beliefs but it is also filled with the deepest depths of depravity, malice, and injustice as evidenced by our historic treatment of Native and African Americans and seemingly any other minority that has had the poor misfortune to cross our path. Please understand that I am not making light of what we have, as a nation, done to these peoples but that I am at this moment focusing on that aspect of our national Psyche that strives for the better. That being said, the one thing that I have always believed has made America truly great and made it stand out among all nations is our continuing struggle to achieve a higher moral goal and to try to live by those greater ideals. I believe that in spite of our weak individual human failings we have, as a nation, always been moved, inspired, and drawn to struggle to achieve the hard right and just.

With those thoughts in mind and simply said, the Bush administrations actions in Iraq were not and are not part of our national struggle to achieve the hard right and just. It has not been and is not part of our continuing struggle to achieve a higher moral goal. Invading Iraq was neither right nor just nor was it in the best interest of the United States but to the contrary it was in all likelihood probably a criminal act. As the titular head of of the nation we expect our President to move boldly but with a large measure of moral caution. We expect our President to act with the moral grounding which we as a nation strive to achieve. I believe that the invasion of Afghanistan was both bold and morally cautious and I do believe it was a legitimate part of our great struggle not only to fight global terrorism but also to do the right and just thing. But then in his arrogance and greed, and perhaps with a smidgen of vindictiveness, the President turned our nations might in the wrong direction. The President did this at the reckless peril of us all, and while using blatantly false information to justify his unilateral and preemptive invasion. This single malicious act has resulted in our now being bogged down in an unnecessary civil war and on the verge of perhaps having caused the complete destabilization of a region that is, at this moment in history, of almost incomprehensible strategic importance to our nation.

As we struggle to find a way out of Iraq that does not leave a destabilized country and region it is important that we realize that this situation was caused by one person and their administration. It was caused by coercion, lies, and deceit perpetrated by the President and Vice President of the United States and members of their administration. Yes, we Americans share part of the responsibility because even after the 2000 election we reelected this administration and allowed the continued ravaging of a nation but ultimately the responsibility lies with the President and he should be held accountable by the Congress and the citizens of this great nation. Unfortunately we must maintain a stable Middle East because until we achieve energy independence we are strategically vulnerable. So yes, struggle we must, and sacrifice, and even fight to return stability to Iraq and the entire Middle Eastern region but let us not forget who was and is responsible for the carnage. Let us not forget whose inability to lead brought us to this point. Let us not forget whose inability to face the reality of the situation even today, continues to cost this nation its treasure in the form of human life, limb, and blood and continues to cost Iraq the lives, limbs, and blood of its citizens.

It is time for the President and his administration to face reality. It is time for the Senate and Congress to quit playing political games and bring trust and honor to Washington. It is our nations very survival that is at stake. As our soldiers continue to fight, bleed, and often die so must the citizens of this nation fulfill their obligation to the nation and fight for the hard right and just. We citizens must hold our newly elected Congress and Senate to task. We have no time for infighting and backstabbing. We have elected these men and women to go to Washington to do a job and not to collect money from lobbyist and squabble over committee seats. I say to Congress and the Senate, 'get to work' and to the President I say, admit your gross errors and arrogance and get to work cleaning up your mess. That is if you have the moral fiber Mr. President.

Those Are The Sergeant Major's Thoughts On That.

As I Sit And Ponder - Or A Matter Of Trust

As I sit and ponder the state of our nation and my military career and service I am "disheartened"; in much the same way a certain General recently said he is "disheartened" by the situation in Iraq. Why you might ask am I pondering the state of our nation and my career these many years later. Well, simply put, I am where I am as a result of observing where our nation stands today and how we arrived at where we are but mostly it's a matter of pondering a trust lost. The Sergeant Majors thoughts are below the fold.

Today in Afghanistan, Iraq, Korea, Germany, and a thousand other geographic points there are thousands upon thousands of American soldiers, sailors, and airmen serving their country. Why do you think those soldiers serve? I have heard any number of answers to that question over the years. They join for the educational benefits. They join because it's the only way out of abject poverty. They join because they want "adventure". Hell they even say they join because the judge told them that was the better of two choices. Well you know what? They join for all of those reasons and many many more but I know why they stay. They stay because it's a hard life of service to their country and the constitution and because they trust their leaders.

In my military career one 'most desired' and 'respected' virtue always stood out more than any other and that virtue was "trust". You were expected from day one to be trustworthy and to trust. Regardless of what aspect of military life you looked at it was all based on trust. You began to see it as a young soldier in basic training/boot camp when it was driven into your very soul that you take care of your buddy. That person who would share your foxhole for the "duration". Everything depended on the knowledge that your buddy would take care of you and you would take care of your buddy. You trusted each other more than brothers or sisters. The second part of that shared knowledge was that your leader would take care of you and your buddy and you would take care of your leader. It was about trust. My leader could trust that I would follow orders and I could trust my leader to give me the correct order. This concept, this sacred blood bond, was driven into your very being that you could trust your leader to never ask you to do something he or she would not do themselves and that they would stand right beside you and be the first up the hill and your shared survival and that of your nation depended on trusting one another. Any soldier, sailor, marine or airman understands this reality without question.

As I read this article it became crystal clear to me that our soldiers have come to realize that this most sacred of bonds has been and is being broken. They have come to realize that they cannot trust their leadership. This thought hurts and frightens me down to my core. It is important to understand that for a soldier to fight and fight well he or she must trust their leaders to not just provide them with the necessary tools to accomplish the mission such as armored vehicles, body armor and bullets but they must also be able to trust their leaders to take care of their families.

This trust has been violated one time to many and now the truth is obviously spreading through the ranks of our military. Our soldiers are coming to realize that this administration, this Presidents has not and is not supporting the troops. The reason the American military has been successful in its over two hundred year history is one that no, and I do mean no, other countries army has had and that reason was trust based on a constitution that guaranteed a government of the people and by the people. Well they no longer have that trust based on that constitution because the Bush administration has systematically destroyed that constitution and through repeated lies and deceit destroyed that trust.

On November the seventh the American electorate spoke loud and clear and our Congress and Senate have been changed and as if by punctuation this past weekend many Americans observed Veteran's Day. As we move forward I hope and pray that the Congress and Senate understand that the American people want leadership that they can trust. It is time this President understands that he is accountable to the American people and that our precious treasure is not one to be squandered on self centered idealogical and radical goals.

Those Are The Sergeant Major's Thoughts On That.

Deep Abiding Pain - But He Doesn't Feel It

As I read this article it hurt. I mean it really hurt. When Gilda ran from the room and into the hall screaming I was screaming with her and my guts just plain hurt and the lump in my chest wouldn't shrink enough for me to breath. I was loosing one of my soldiers again and again and again.

As I read this article I understood Alex. Alex the marine. Alex the leader. Alex the husband. Alex the son. I understood him because he was, as all soldiers are, different yet so very much like every marine, every soldier, every sailor and every airman. He was doing what marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen do....he was serving his country. He was doing what his "country" asked him to do. He was fighting a war.

That is what soldier do you know.......They fight wars. That's what they're trained to do. They are trained to accomplish the mission by fighting and winning and surviving and taking care of their buddy. They are trained as leaders to accomplish the mission by fighting and winning and surviving and taking care of their soldiers. You read it in every quote....how is my soldier? Did he make it? Is she okay? Leaders leading, soldiers fighting and caring and sometimes giving everything for their country. What a hell of a marine he must have been. I won't say I wish I had known him because in my heart I know I did.

As of just a few minutes ago 2,754 American soldiers had given their lives for their country. As of just a few minutes ago 20,687 American soldiers had sacrificed part of their bodies for their country. As of just a few minutes ago arguably 600,000 Iraqis had died as a result of war in Iraq.

Mr. Bush you lied to us and took us to war.....look at the price we have paid.
Mr. Bush you lied to us and took us to war.....look at the price Iraq has paid.
Mr. Bush you lied to us and took us to war.....look at the mothers crying.

Why Mr. Bush?

Mr. Bush, for this old soldier, for the fathers and mothers, brothers and sister and all of the families of the soldiers and all of the Iraqis.

Mr. Bush stop this war!

*Those Are The Sergeant Majors Thoughts On That.*

Leaders and Lapdogs - Or The Consequences Of A Hollow Force

You might have noticed that in my post I rarely link to articles or quote directly. That's because I don't consider myself to be a very complicated person and I simply want to share my thoughts on world events as seen through the eyes of an old soldier. Having said that I must also say I do occasionally link to an article and I will insert a few here because they are indicative of and germane to the point of today's post.
Readiness Link 1
Readiness Link 2
Readiness Link 3

I joined the military in 1968. Specifically I joined the United States Army as a volunteer and as an Airborne Infantryman. I was a wet behind the ears 18 years old boy from the Deep South and I was poor and a high school drop out. (And apparently not too smart hence Airborne Infantryman) That probably sounds rather gloomy to many of you but, it wasn't the worst that was happening about that time in our history nor was it the worst situation to be in in the south in America at that time. Now the Army that I joined wasn't in much better shape than I was in. We were buried in a war that was based on lies and we were loosing many too many American soldiers as well as American and Vietnamese civilians every day. Also because of the protracted war and the cultural/social agonies that our country was going through the United States Army was becoming an ever more dysfunctional reflection of a dysfunctional society.

Those were the not so good ole days. As the United States mercifully began to extricate itself from Vietnam a group of young officers, that included such bright young men as Colin Powell, Edward Meyer, John Wickham, Carl Vuono, Gordon Sullivan, Dennis Reimer, Eric Shinseki and too many others to mention began to move up through the ranks and these men saw an Army that was broken in every way it could be broken but they instinctively and with understanding and vision began to rebuild it. They began the change by providing a vision and by cleaning out and building up the ranks. They began to rebuild the Officer and Noncommissioned Officer Corps and they made what I believe was an unspoken pact with each other and the nation. That pact was to never allow another Vietnam to happen. These brave men were successful. They built a new Army. They rebuilt the Officer and Noncommissioned Officer Corps that had been decimated by years of war and neglect and they recruited the brightest and the best. I was a privileged and proud member of that organization. I stuck it out studied and worked hard and I met and exceeded the standards and I was able to get a good education and make an incredibly rewarding career in the Army. That was then and now is now and I am sad to say that the amazing results of all those brave men and women’s efforts are being dismantled soldier by soldier, bolt by bolt.

I believe it is intuitively obvious that the administration of George W. Bush has not the least bit of understanding of the purpose of the military other than that of a tool to garner power and bully the world. Neither a Statesman nor a Diplomat would call names (Axis of Evil) or make threats on the world stage without having a clear understanding of the potential diplomatic and military consequences of those statements and threats nor would they do so without the strategic and military knowledge to understand their own and others capabilities. One of the first inklings the public should have had of this administrations reckless attitude with regards to the military came when Donald Rumsfeld decimated the General Officer ranks by firing those who understood and hiring those who would be his lap dogs. Well now even the lap dogs are nipping at their ankles. Unfortunately the rest of the world saw and sees something else that this administration refuses to see and that something is that this administration is wearing out and destroying the American military. Put simply they are over extended, under funded, and wearing out. With 140,000 +/- troops in Iraq, another 12,000 in Afghanistan and thousands more spread out across the globe the active force is stretch to the breaking point. The reserve and National Guard Forces don't have the equipment and manpower to fully staff their ranks or train and respond to war or a national emergency.

As this nation faces the nuclear threat of Iran and North Korea it is with few options and many risks. As a result of the recklessness of the incompetent leadership that is the Bush administration we find ourselves with few options this side of the one option that is most un-thinkable.

Those Are The Sergeant Majors Thoughts On That.

Brave Soldiers All - Or Why Are Mr. Bush And Mr. Cheney Cowards

In writing my posts I have often spoken of my family and of the great pride I have in their service to our nation. As I have often mentioned my family has served this nation in every conflict since the Revolutionary War but in this post I want to share a story with you that I believe demonstrates just how much my family really loves this nation.

My maternal grandparents met in Koblenz Germany at the end of World War I. My grandfather had served as a First Sergeant in the American Army and was working with the occupation Army in Germany as a civilian where he met my grandmother who was a young French woman working for the French occupation forces. After a typical war time whirlwind romance they married and in 1921 moved to my grandfather’s small hometown in Florida. They settled into a quiet southern life and raised a fairly typical "American" family. They later weathered the depression and all the hard times it brought; then came World War II. Like all the families of that time the war sent their lives into even more turmoil. Just after Pearl Harbor my uncle joined the Army Air Corps and shortly after that my grandfather volunteered for the Army. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, my grandfather was deemed to old to join for another war and that was when my grandmother decided to do her part. To "show her appreciation" to the country that had so warmly welcomed her when my grandfather was turned down by the Army my grandmother joined that organization that would later become known as the Women’s Army Corps. So the results of all of this patriotic fervor was that my war time mother was left with a son to raise alone and with a husband, a brother, a mother and a brother-in-law all away fighting a war.

I have told you this little story to demonstrate something that I think needs to be made clear to each and every Americans. All of these American patriots were members of the Democratic Party.

So it is that I tell you through this prism of patriotism that I find it particularly repugnant when I read this article. It amazes me that a man such as Mr. Cheney, who so obviously, aggressively, and successfully avoided serving his country, could find the gall and audacity to point a finger of cowardice at another human being much less and entire group of Americans. It is in fact even more repugnant and disgusting to me when I look at the military records of not only Mr. Cheney, but the military records of virtually all of the members of the current administration and I find them to be not just sorely lacking but virtually non-existent. So it is that I must ask myself, who is this person and who are these people to question the patriotism and valor of any American. They are in fact nobody. They are in fact the cowards whose failed foreign policy has brought this nation to the brink of disaster. These are the architects of a cowardly foreign policy that used lies and deceit to take a nation to war. These are the architects that took this nation into an unjust and illegal war that has cost thousands of American and Iraqi lives and wounded and maimed thousands of others for no honest reason. These are the architects of a cowardly foreign and domestic policy that has brought the absolute finest military to the brink of collapse. These are the architects of policies of failure that have emboldened our enemies, alienated our friends and created an unstable world filled with volatile despots.

It is by no means necessary to serve in the armed forces to demonstrate ones patriotism or love of country. It is by no means necessary to shed blood or draw blood to demonstrate ones patriotism but it is certainly necessary to demonstrate honor and integrity to be a patriot and Mr. Cheney neither you nor any of your fellow members of this administration demonstrate either of these traits.

Those Are The Sergeant Majors Thoughts On That.