Presumably everyone is following the ridiculous thread about the Pot guy and the ears he was cutting off in Viet Nam. His latest story is that it was a buddy of his doing it and he simply appropriated the story. Whatever. Just assinine. But, NOT as asinine as this comment I found on the Facebook discussion on his Facebook page….
Jeri Rose I consider myself a Nam vet for having been abused for protesting against anyone going to that war. Everyone who was involved in dealing with that war was a veteran of it. I still cry when I think about it for all my friends who left the country for all those who died and for all those who came back and could not get over the PtSD.
Um, yeah, no. Now, you could see it yourself, but the dirty hippie deleted the entire thread. It was classic, but that comment above was my all time favorite.
Now, as a guy who has been to 54 Grateful Dead shows, I really am agnostic on legalizing pot. I really don’t care one way or another. But, the crap about how pot helps your PTSD is a load of shite used to justify their actions, not the reverse. In other words, they wanted pot legalized, and this was the bext means to raise support. It’s not like this is the best treatment available, and the legalize pot thing grew out of it.
Nonetheless, I challenge you to make up your own ridiculous toutologies. If she is a Viet Nam veteran for having opposed the wars, then I am a player/coach for the Patriots for having opposed vocally the vile and perfidious Giants in last years Super Bowl. One of the best examples on my Facebook page thus far was from one of my Boys from Virginia Boys State who comments:
I cried when Sherlock Holmes died….I’M ROBERT DOWNEY JUNIOR!!!!
Sniper rhetorically posits:
I cried when John Holmes died. Does that make me a porn star?
I’ve seen Sniper in the shower. He could almost do Lesbian pr0n.
I don’t really do much in the way of celebrating Veterans Day. I have in the past, but I just don’t do much nowadays. I had just come off a week-long vacation, so I honestly just needed some downtime by myself, and I took it. Socially I tend to prefer small groups in small doses, so when I recharge, I even turn the phone off. So, I didn’t talk to any of my military buddies on Veterans Day, but for the simple reason that I talk to them the other 364 days a year. As one PNC was oft to say, “Every day is Veterans Day.”
But two of my friends ended up on TV, and both of them did a phenomenal job, and I would be remiss if I didn’t share them. The first is Alex Horton, who in addition to being a sometimes drinking companion of mine on my infrequent trips to DC is also a military blogger for the VA. I was honored when he asked me to write a letter of recommendation for him, and while it probably hurt him since his then-boss didn’t care much for me, I was so very proud of having been asked. Before I met Alex I knew him from the blogosphere, and we’d even competed for Blogger of the Year, so I was naturally predisposed towards competing with him and viewing him as my online nemesis. And then I met him, and it was like meeting a brother you didn’t know you had. Our differences in blogging perspective and politics was immediately overcome by our shared circumstances as Infantrymen who were now bloggers. I’m proud to know him (honestly, proud) and watching this video he did for CBS made me well up a little bit.
Meanwhile, Headline News also ran a piece on Veterans Day that I admit I haven’t been able to make it through yet. My emotions watching it run too hot. But, I made it about half way, and I will finish it, it will just take some time. (For the same reason I havdn’t made it through “Taking Chance” or “RESTREPO” yet either.) This one deals with an organization I am on the Board of Trustees for (Soldiers Angels) and two men that I have had the pleasure of spending a lot of time with, Gold Star Dad Robert Stokely, and fellow Infantryman, Toby Nunn.
How far would a father go to honor his son? After Army Sgt. Michael Stokely was killed in action, his father Robert set out on a journey like no other. He wanted to go to Iraq — half a world away — to visit the site of his son’s last moments on earth. It is an unforgettable pilgrimage of danger, determination, unbroken promises and undying love.
Mr Stokely lost his son in Iraq, and was determined to go to the place where his son succumbed to his wounds. He contacted Blackfive.net, and Soldiers Angels, and despite the odd request, they made it happen. I met Mr Stokely about a year and a half ago, and he was every bit as nice as he comes off in this video. I watched him at the Wounded Warrior Barracks down at Brooke Army Medical Center, and he was playing with a young girl of about 5 or 6. Even as others around him enjoyed some BBQ, Mr Stokely was on a little hill with the young girl, playing, laughing and even rolling down the hill with her. It was incredibly touching, and I felt so bad that he had lost his son. My wife and I just watched him play, and it was so touching I kept getting choked up.
Meanwhile, his companion on the trip, my friend Toby is no less wonderful. When I went to Austin last year and found out that my hotel reservations were off by a day, leaving me with a $200 one-night stay, or come up with alternate accomodations, Toby leaped in and asked if I wanted to stay at his house. We sat there and talked for hours while I played with his Golden/Poodle mix and looked out over the woods that back up to his house. Although we served in different units, it was much like with Alex, the brotherhood of Infantrymen was strong. I could say a lot about my friendship with Toby, but the best way to know him is to hear what he thought about his trip to Iraq with Mr Stokely:
I remember standing in the Atlanta Airport with Robert, looking at him staring out the window into the darkness and airport lights and thinking to myself, it’s this dedication to children and loved ones that I aspire to. It was a pill hard to swallow for me, as that very day was my daughter’s fourth birthday and with deployments and other issues I should be with her. However, I knew this journey would some how make me a better man and father.
That first step on the jetway was just like taking that first step outside the wire during my combat tours. It was “ON” and nothing would turn that switch off but bringing Robert home to his family and community — and within that all of us would find some healing. The journey was a mixture of scary times and moments of sheer disbelief at how lucky I was to be part of such an inspiring journey. I still feel, to this day, so incredibly undeserving of getting to be part of this story.
Robert has changed my life and I will always see this trip as proof to myself that I am a good father, and truly worthy of being called an American.
Two wonderful men, two wonderful stories. And more importantly to me, two wonderful friends that help me know I’m never alone in what I have to deal with.
(NOTE: For some reason HLN took down the full video that they had up. I am led to understand it will be on TV again, and I will share when it is up.)
I’m going to reprint the disclaimer, AND put it after the jump.
If you go to my church, don’t watch this.
If you go to any church that isn’t Universalist Unitarian, you should probably not watch this.
If you ever thought “this movie is too violent and raunchy”, don’t watch it.
A close friend emailed me this morning, and it kind of broke my heart.
A bit of sad news to report to the group…
Yesterday Figo got out of the house, was hit by a car and died.
We had a really tough day yesterday. I think we’re both a bit numb today…it’s going to take a while to get over this one!
This is actually the second time in less than a week this has happened to someone close to me.
This week I was in Dallas for a wedding, and Jamie, Caro and I were talking about the worst day of our life, and it couldn’t include the death of a family member. I’m not sure if the day I lost my dog counts or not, but damn that was a tough one. I knew Forrest was dying, she was after all a 17 year old Golden Retriever. I begged God to give me one last weekend with her. It was Thanksgiving weekend, and I just wanted to spend every minute with her. But Thanksgiving morning broke, and I knew we couldn’t make it. She was in pain, and it killed me.
I remember the drive to the vet. Freshly back from Afghanistan, I’m driving a jeep with no roof, and tears streaming down my face. People driving by seemed really scared to see me. But I didn’t care at that point, I was done. I took her in. The vet administered the shot, and she kissed my nose before drifting off. I’ll never have a Thanksgiving Day again without thinking of her. I was so grateful for how peacefully it ended, but…. I didn’t get out of bed for 4 days.
As my buddy Mike said “…so tough. We get so attached to these little fuckers!”
I never know what to say to people, or how to act, even under the best of circumstances. Things like this pretty much paralyze me. What is the appropriate thing to say? Just “Sorry for your loss” doesn’t cover it.
Anyway, I just feel so sad for my buddy right now.
Nonetheless, I am actively looking for a Guild/Server that does raiding. I can’t guarantee a day of the week, I don’t play late at night, and I can only guarantee I won’t be the cause of catastrophic failure. But, if anyone out there lurks or comments and is in a raiding guild that isn’t overly ridiculous, let me know so I can transfer. Right now I am Holy, but I am open to going Discipline.
So, anyone out there, use an email I can reach you at in the comments below.
As an addendum, anyone wanting to look me up, it is SGTCV on Moon Guard, and my iLevel is 358 as of last night I believe, so I have some work to do before I can actually raid.
UPDATE: How can you guys say it is gay? I mean, look at how awesome my character is….
It was late December 2011 and Pfc. Thomas Nguyen, 20, had just landed at Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, where members of his Georgia National Guard unit were taking part in peacekeeping operations. Inside the tactical operations center, after a few questions about his predeployment training, Nguyen’s first sergeant gestured toward the wooden board and told the young private that waterboarding was a training requirement in the field.
Was it a lighthearted joke or meant to instill fear?
While no attempt was made to torture the private, the insinuation was enough to convince senior Army leaders that 1st Sgt. Brett R. Paul had committed a crime.
Does that seem a bit…..thin to you? It certainly did to the commander of the unit.
“I don’t believe these things they were accused of rose to the level of court-martial,” Lt. Col. Joe Lynch, commander of the Georgia’s 3rd Squadron, 108th Cavalry Regiment, told Stars and Stripes.
“Was there some inappropriate behavior? I think there was. There was some college prank type stuff.”
The push to prosecute three soldiers, all of whom faced potential prison time, was an unprecedented overreaction by senior Army leaders, Lynch said.
“I’ve never seen this level of reaction to what is essentially an EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) complaint,” he said. “We chose the nuclear option when we could have chosen small-arms fire. We as leaders failed our soldiers on this one.”
I got busted for hazing at The Citadel, and I have brands on my arm, so perhaps I’m not the most objective one to discuss this. But these guys got in trouble for gesturing at a board and saying the private would be waterboarded? Messing with privates was a rite of passage. Every grunt I ever met sent the newbies off to find a box of grid squares or some squelch for the PRC-E6.
So, what level does it go from prank to hazing? I don’t know, but I would have had a hard time finding for the prosecution here I think.
So this young lass from work was out shopping in Indy and came across this rather quixotic book of 30 post cards. I love them so much I am trying to get a copy of it myself, and I will send 1 post card a day to my good friend Matt Burden. Only, I don’t have his home address, so I think I will send them to his work, until the mail delivery guy there quits in protest. Nonetheless, I give you, a day in the life of a totally straight soldier in WWII.
