Category: Pointless blather

Another Colombia prostitution scandal arises, this time the Drug Enforcement Agency is under the gun according to an ABCNews link sent to us by Tman;

“It’s disturbing that we may be uncovering a troubling culture that spans more than one law enforcement agency,” [Sen. Susan Collins] the Maine Republican said this evening. “In addition to the Secret Service scandal, we now learn that at least two DEA agents apparently entertained female foreign national masseuses in the Cartagena apartment of one of the agents. The evidence uncovered thus far indicates that this likely was not just a one-time incident.”

Are these government law enforcement agencies only sending their ugliest agents to Colombia, or are they only hiring ugly agents? I never found a need to pay for company when I was in Colombia, although I’ll admit that I am unusually attractive, none of my friends ever paid for it either. So I really don’t get this whole thing with these agents.

Just scrolling through my Facebook, I noticed several of my friends are watching their sons, daughters, nieces and nephews head off for the recruiter or for basic training. As school days end and some kids are suddenly concerned about their futures, that’s what happens. Believe me, I’m right there with all of you.

I thought my mother was being silly when she saw me off at the Syracuse airport back in 1974 and she couldn’t even force a smile. But I understood when I saw my son off for basic training. It was a sense of pride that he was on the right path, that he’d come to a grown-up conclusion without me, that I was probably losing my son forever to the world. Of course, I had only a few minutes to impart all of the worldly advice I thought I might have forgotten to teach him through the years before that. Suddenly, there wasn’t enough time.

And then, I went through it all again when he deployed to Afghanistan. He was going to be a combat veteran the next time I saw him and even though he was nearly thirty years old, he was still too young for it to happen to him. At least that time, we had some time to talk about what it was going to be like over a bottle of rum and some cigars on the balcony. When he came home, he was still the same guy who had left and he thanked me for preparing him for it. Sometimes dads do know what they’re talking about.

Last year, he went to Korea. I took him to the airport from the Milblog conference after showing him off to all of my friends there. But after leaving him at BWI, it felt just as bad as it had the first time. I couldn’t go back to my friends, I just went home. So you can probably assume that it never gets easier.

Tonight at Zero-dark-thirty, I’m picking him up at BWI again and I’m more excited than I’ve been all year. I’m more excited than I’ve been since I picked him up at BWI when he came back from Afghanistan. My rum-drinking/cigar-smoking buddy is coming home before he heads off to Germany next week. Three years this time, and he’s going to the surgery unit at Landstuhl to be close enough to the Afghanistan War that he can make a difference – for him, but far enough away from it to stay safe – for me.

It will break my heart to take him to the airport next time, but I’ll remember that when he comes home, there will be rum to drink and cigars to smoke and two old vets can reminisce about their lives which intersect in an experience that most people can only imagine or watch at the movies. Two old vets – a very proud father and his son.

The news just broke that Donna Summer has passed after her battle with cancer. I only mention it because it brings back a fond memory of the mid-70s during my time in the Army and her song “I love to love you, baby” was like every other song we heard during the weekend we spent at Fort McClellen, AL. At the time, Fort Mac was the home to WAC basic training – thousands of female basic trainees – and the MP school.

We’d been using their ranges and training areas for the week and then they gave us the weekend off, amongst all of those WACs and with the MPs thrown in the mix it looked like a long Keystone Cops movie. On laundry detail, one of my buddies overheard a female drill sergeant yell at her trainees “There’s a hundred miles of Ranger dick on this post and none of you are going to get an inch if you can’t get in step.” I miss the old days.

I got thrown out of one of the barracks by an ugly little female drill sergeant. I pointed out the sign in front of the barracks that said something about men being allowed if they were escorted and she said “That sign didn’t mean YOU!” I took it very personally.

We had guys trying to hide from the MPs in the bottom of a pool – like they didn’t need air. There were lights and sirens everywhere on that post Saturday. But it wasn’t just the privates, the EM Club was packed full of our NCOs with their master wings, Vietnam CIBs, Pathfinder badges, Ranger tabs and no rank on their collars.

That’s what I think of whenever I hear Donna Summer. So, thanks for the memories, Donna.

ADDED: Hey, this is my 30,000th post.

This post has been about four years in the writing, since one of the Tea Party rallies when Uncle Jimbo and I were bemoaning the trials and tribulations of trying to blog about the Left vs. Right politics and we both said that we’d rather blog about the military without involving politics for a change.

Today, I looked through my inbox today which has 6,514 “important” emails in it. Going through it, I see campaign crap from people I’ve never heard of – no offense to the folks who live in Utah, but I really don’t think I’ll be supporting a candidate whose name I’ve never heard or read a word about their position just because they think I’m a Republican.

And I really don’t care that Obama rewrote all of the presidential biographies on the White House website – yeah, OK, I care, but I expected it from him. But, I didn’t elect him. And do you really think that Romney wouldn’t do the same thing? In fact, looking at the two presidential candidates, are they really all that different?

For the first time in my lifetime, neither candidate has military service. So who do I support – neither are going give a tiny rat’s ass about veterans. Do you think Romney has the guts to roll back veteran health care cuts?

In that interview I did last week, they had to go back to 2008 to find a quote on this blog about Romney – and the quote wasn’t even mine. Because I never thought about him, good, bad or indifferent. I had an inkling years ago that he’d be the Republican candidate this year. I’m not happy about it and I won’t vote for him.

If you come right down to it, voting for Obama is the same as voting for Romney. There’s not a bit of difference between the two of them. Not. A. Bit. Either one of them would take my guns without thinking twice about it. They both want an expansive government that sticks it’s nose in my business. Both would raise my taxes on a whim. Both want to balance the Defense budget on the lives of the next generation of trigger pullers.

And don’t get me started on Congress….

From this point forward, this blog is about nothing but the troops, national defense and veterans. Yes, I’ll still criticize the candidates…but only as far as it effects those issues. Screw politics…no one is listening to me anyway, because I said I was going to do this when Gingrich got into the race.

So if you work on a campaign and you’re currently sending me press releases about your idiot candidate, please STOP! I haven’t endorsed him in the last three years you’ve been sending your crap, so why would you continue? If you belong to a think tank and you think I’m interested in your crack pot theories about taxation and social engineering, please STOP! If it doesn’t have to do with the troops or veterans, stuff it. I don’t fricken care.

I’m partisan in that I think all of you politically-connected geeks are in this for yourselves and don’t care about anyone who doesn’t work at your bank.

I’m not giving any money to any political party – my money is going to the VSOs who have proven in the past to be concerned about my issues. But the Republicans in Congress act like Democrats, so why would I give either of them any money?

Will I still blast VoteVets and IAVA when they act like partisan hacks? Yes, most definitely. I hate blatant hypocrisy.

I can already feel the burdens lifting from my aging shoulders.

TSO writes that he has arrived in Afghanistan and that he’s in a bunker that smells like ass. So that’s the extent of today’s report apparently.

Here at TAH HQs, in solditary with my buddy, I’m still wearing multicam and my beard is three days old. So it’s just like I’m there in the bunker with him, well, except for the satellite radio, the roast beef sandwich, the ice cold Coke and my office smells like potpourri.

With TSO gone to Afghanistan VT Woody doesn’t answer my emails anymore. But, probably because he found a place where it’s raining cheerleaders and he’s afraid I’d give him some serious competition;