Category: American Legion

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There Does Not Seem to be Enough Military Support From Our Nation’s Leadership

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I am going to be on a rant at the first of this post. I heard the speeches for Memorial Day, from both our president and Vice president. They were both very poor. Especially the vice president’s words.

She never said anything about the brave warriors who lost their lives for our country. She said, “Have a great weekend.”

This forgetting of our fellow veterans is not acceptable. The current leadership of this country are turning their backs on the military.

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Military news…

Navy SEAL officer-turned-congressman Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) may have played himself last week, when he created a whistleblower website for complainants to report evidence of “woke ideology” in the U.S. military. But instead, Crenshaw was inundated with parody complaints and movie plots, like the famous ending monologue from Blade Runner.

If you’re going to accuse a sitting President of election fraud, maybe don’t do it on live TV while wearing your Army uniform. That’s what 1st. Lt. Alex Stovall, a 26-year-old reserve officer, found out now that his branch is looking into a TV interview he conducted with the right-wing news organization One America News Network, who is running to represent Arizona in Congress, appears to have violated several other Army rules along the way.

What do the words ‘behoove,’ ‘chow,’ ‘expedite,’ ‘daggon,’ and ‘irregardless’ have in common? They are all used way too frequently by career enlisted troops and officers, to the agony of many a junior enlisted service member.

Thousands of Afghans who helped Americans for the past 20 years face torture and death as soon as U.S. troops leave Afghanistan. What’s worse is that no one at the Pentagon or State Department seems to care enough about them to begin a massive evacuation while there’s still time. Even Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged on Wednesday that “a significant amount of Afghans” that supported the U.S. could be in danger very soon as the U.S. prepares to withdraw by Sept. 11.

What do the words ‘behoove,’ ‘chow,’ ‘expedite,’ ‘daggon,’ and ‘irregardless’ have in common? They are all used way too frequently by career enlisted troops and officers, to the agony of many a junior enlisted service member, writes James Clark in this very funny story. A few weeks ago, James asked you readers for their nominations for words that are overused ad nauseam in the military, and I’ll be daggon’d if you didn’t deliver.

Don’t miss James’ complete list of the cursed words here. I’m sure you get a promotion straight to four-star general if you can string them all together into one incoherent sentence.Thousands of Afghans who helped Americans for the past 20 years face torture and death as soon as U.S. troops leave Afghanistan, writes Jeff Schogol in this troubling article. What’s worse is that no one at the Pentagon or State Department seems to care enough about them to begin a massive evacuation while there’s still time. Even Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged on Wednesday that “a significant amount of Afghans” that supported the U.S. could be in danger very soon as the U.S. prepares to withdraw by Sept. 11.

Make sure you read Jeff’s excellent piece to understand why U.S. officials are dropping the ball on this, and what they could do to get people out faster.If you were too busy counting the minutes to the weekend last Friday to pay attention to the proposed defense budget, we don’t blame you. The $715 billion request has some good and some bad news. Good news: troops and civilian employees would get a 2.7% raise in their basic pay in fiscal year 2022. Bad news: the Air Force would retire 42 A-10s to pay for newer aircraft, should the proposal be accepted by Congress.
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How is you life going? Is it like a rollercoaster ride?

FEAR NOT!!

There are over 12,055 fellow veterans subscribed on this site who have your back.

If the ride is too bumpy and scary, GET HELP!

Here is a toll free number to call 24/7.

There are highly qualified counselors there to help you. They will not hang up until they know you are OK.

Never let your ride through life get out of control.

1-800-273-8255 Option # 1 + (New)= texting 835255
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Remember:

You are never alone.
You are never forsaken.
You are never unloved.
And above all….never, ever, give up!
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Memorial Day can be Very Special, but it Can also cause Bad Memories

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Today is Memorial Day. I want to honor all of our fallen brothers and sisters.

I watched the annual tribute to the fallen military on public Broadcasting last night.

One of the hosts was Gary Sinise. He is one of the huge heroes to all military. He spends hours and hours doing things to help them.

The program had me crying a lot. I usually don’t shed tears, but this was special. They covered all the wars. Many heroes, who spoke. Actors portrayed some of those who had passed on, but had a story to share.

There was one segment that honored nurses in the military. That really broke me up. My brother-in-law’s mother was a nurse in WWII. She was like a second mom to me.

She told me stories on how she held hands of those who were dying. A soldier asked her not to leave, because he didn’t want to die alone. She stayed with him until his last breath. She broke down crying when he passed.

During the Public Broadcast they played taps. That tore me up the most. I get emotional every time I hear it.

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There is a wonderful tribute for the military on YouTube. You search for “Tribute to Veterans.”

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Some articles for Memorial Day…

Celebrating Memorial Day over a grill or a pool is one thing, but what about when you’re in the middle of a war? That’s what retired Army Col. Steve Miska experienced when he commanded Task Force Justice in Baghdad in 2007, at the height of sectarian violence during the Iraq War. Not only were Miska and his colleagues mourning the recent loss of their fellow American soldiers, but also the Iraqi interpreters and supporters who helped keep them all alive in a dangerous city. When you’re in the middle of it, remembering those who passed strengthens your resolve to keep fighting, Miska writes.

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“The day will have a few rough spots … we will all get emotional at some point,” an Army veteran told Haley Britzky in this excellent story about what Memorial Day really means to those who’ve served. Believe it or not, the holiday often involves plenty of laughter as well as tears. It will start with a fellow vet leaning over from their lawn chair and telling an old story that starts with ‘Remember that time in Ramadi/COP Najil/Anaconda/Dirty Tampa/Long Bihn…’ and we will laugh our asses off,” the former soldier said.

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How are you feeling on this Memorial Day? Have your memories been good, or do they haunt you?

FEAR NOT!

There are over 12,050 fellow veterans who have subscribed to this site, and they all have your back.

If the memories are getting the best of you. GET HELP!

There is a tool free number to call 24/7.

There are highly qualified counselors there to help you. They will not hang up until they know you are OK.

Never live with bad memories!

1-800-273-8255 Option # 1

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Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

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The Loss of a Buddy During Your Time in the Military is Hard at Best

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My last post caused quite a stir. Talking about suicide is not an easy thing to do, but when 22 veterans take their own lives EACH day then we need to reach out.

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Military news…

It’s a bad day for one Missouri bar after a video went viral over the weekend of a bartender berating a group of six service members who tried to get drinks with their military identification card. The bartender, identified as Josh Weitkamp, refused to serve them, appeared to bend and throw away one of the service members’ military IDs, told them they “don’t even look old enough to know about f—ing 9/11” and then denied that they were in the military at all, which is funny because at least a few have been to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hazing is always terrible, especially when it involves being tied up to a target. Hazing is always terrible, especially when it involves being tied up to a target on a live-fire range while fighter planes drop ordnance near you for 20 minutes. But that’s what one French Air Force pilot said his fellow aviators put him through in March 2019. The pilot recently filed a criminal complaint because he felt the French military was not taking the matter seriously enough.

‘Wait, they just now started doing this?’ is a perfectly reasonable reaction that the 18th Airborne Corps wants anyone found guilty of sexual assault or harassment to be immediately separated from the Army. But it’s true: the new policy marks a major departure from how such crimes are handled elsewhere in the service, and it’s a direct result of soldier feedback to their leadership.

Remember that scene from The Matrix where Neo orders up a big honkin’ arsenal of virtual guns? Well that’s what the deck of the USS Monterey looked like last week. After the Navy ship stopped a small boat in the North Arabian Sea that was chock full of Type 56 assault rifles, PKM machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket propelled grenades and kaboodles of other kinds of firepower. In fact, the cache was so large it took the crew 36 hours to unload all of it.

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One of the many things that sticks out in my mind about my time in the military was the loss of lives during peacetime.

In my book, Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life, I wrote about two buddies I lost while in Korea. Neither one of them were in combat.

The first one was a buddy that I signed up with to get into the military. We went through basic together. We went through MOS training together, and was sent to Korea together.

When we got there, he was sent to another part of Korea. Things went Ok for a few months until I was notified that he had died from some kind of crud he caught there.

I couldn’t believe it. He died from an illness? I found out it happens a lot in foreign countries. I still think about him to this day.

The second incident was right in my own company at Camp Red Cloud, outside of Uijeongbu, Korea.

A close buddy had been drinking heavily, and went out into the village to be with a girl. He was coming back to the Camp, and he was staggering very badly. He could hardly walk.

As he was walking he fell into a “honey bucket.” A honey bucket is where the locals keep their human waste for fertilizer. It is about seven feet across. My buddy actually suffocated.

We had no idea it had happened until our morning formation the next morning. I noticed a gap where he was suppose to be in the ranks. I didn’t think much about it. However, the company commander came out and announced that he had died the night before.

We all were in shock. He was a good guy that everyone liked.

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These and many other stories like them will be in the book that will come out this fall. Be sure to follow this site to see the latest on the book.

Better yet, subscribe now by clicking on the subscribe button at the top of this page. You won’t have to come back here to find out more. It will be sent straight to your inbox each time I post.

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How are you doing? Did you lose a buddy while in the military? It is hard at best to even think about it.

FEAR NOT!!

There are more than 11,800 fellow veterans subscribed to this site who have your back.

BUT! If you heart is broken, and you need further assistance, GET HELP!

Here is a toll free number you can call 24/7.

There are highly qualified counselors there to help you. They will not hang up until they know you are OK. AND IT IS FREE!

Never face another day that causes you to hurt.

1-800-273-8255 Option # 1

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Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

___________________________________

+If you like what you see, please subscribe at the top of this page where it says, “subscribe.” When you do, all future posts will come directly to your inbox. Also, if you know some else who could benefit from this site, please let them know about it.