{"id":7264,"date":"2009-01-21T18:25:42","date_gmt":"2009-01-21T23:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=7264"},"modified":"2009-01-21T18:42:09","modified_gmt":"2009-01-21T23:42:09","slug":"my-thoughts-on-the-inaugural-ball-kerfluffle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=7264","title":{"rendered":"My thoughts on the Inaugural Ball kerfluffle"},"content":{"rendered":"

The reactions to this have ranged from REALLY mad, to the just\u00a0bizarre. \u00a0“Curious” seems to think it didn’t even take place, or that it had 100 people. \u00a0There was a banquet with a meal, with at least 120 tables, each with 10 folks, and a head table with probably another 30. \u00a0So that portion had at a minimum 1230 people. \u00a0After that they cleared the hall and the “Ball” portion began, with many more folks. \u00a0I don’t know the numbers, I didn’t count.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Obama did not show. \u00a0I have no real opinion on it as much as everyone else. \u00a0Marg Helgerberger from CSI was there, Buzz Aldrin, a bunch of important folks. \u00a0All I know was I had dinner with a SGT from the 3ID that had been injured in Iraq. \u00a0He was preparing for a potential deployment to A-stan. \u00a0I was happier spending my time talking to him than listening to the comely Marg, or Buzz, or the President or anyone else. \u00a0I like the MoH guys, and that’s also who I talked to.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, I think the President should have come. \u00a0The tradition I think is a good one. \u00a0He didn’t come, so be it. \u00a0The event was wonderful, and no finer group of people (excepting me) could be found inside the Beltway. \u00a0But look, if Obama follows through on all his promises under his veterans portion of his website, then I will forgive the man for not coming. \u00a0I’ll take action over symbolism. \u00a0But I totally get people being pissed. \u00a0I don’t get the “it never happened” stuff, but I chalk it up to the same mentality as the faked moon landings. \u00a0For my part, I just hope Obama comes through. \u00a0I’m not bad mouthing him in saying he didn’t come. \u00a0He didn’t. \u00a0It’s up to you guys to decide what that means to you. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

All I know was I got to meet my heroes. \u00a0You couldn’t pay me enough to go to the MTV ball, but that floats some peoples boats. \u00a0For my part, I was happier spending time with the bus loads of guys that came in from Walter Reed, and the MoH guys that flew in across the country. \u00a0The President’s presence or lack thereof didn’t ruin our time in the slightest. \u00a0I just hope he won’t forget us when budget time comes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

PS: In case anyone gets the wrong story and runs with it (saving you here Curious) this was a different ball that was cancelled.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

PPS: Oh, and I totally applaud the President for going to the CinC ball. \u00a0But, just so everyone knows the difference, that Ball is for active military, this one is for veterans, so they ARE NOT the same bodies. \u00a0There is some overlap, since you can be active and a veteran, but largely the bodies are different, with different needs. \u00a0Hearken back to the WRAMC debacle, and everyone blaming the VA. \u00a0WRAMC is military, not VA. \u00a0Same applies here.<\/p>\n

And lastly, I saw this comment over at LGF:<\/p>\n

a Coyote 1\/21\/09 1:53:50 pm
\nCan’t blame him. I’d feel very small in a room full of my superiors. He doesn’t qualify to be a dustball in that room with heroes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dude, that’s how I felt sitting there. My buddy Superbowl6Romeo and I even discussed why we weren’t wearing our CIB pins. Having a CIB is great, but when next to the MOH…. It’s like showing up to a monster truck rally in a pimped out Yugo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The reactions to this have ranged from REALLY mad, to the just\u00a0bizarre. \u00a0“Curious” seems to think … My thoughts on the Inaugural Ball kerfluffle<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":148,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/148"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}