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February 3, 2018February 15, 2018

Teacher Blasts the Military; Rebuttal Here

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Doug Bolton, the founder of the blog, Signs of Hope, which is at www.dailysignsofhope.com, has written a new book, “Signs of Hope for the Military: In and Out of the Trenches of Life.” It reaches out the many military and veterans who may be battling anxiety, fear, depression, addictions, rejections, and the many other usual suspects. There are 22 military connected suicides every day. That is almost one every hour. Doug wants to help stop those statistics.

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This is a new social network just for veterans. I joined it and made instant friendships with veterans who want to talk about what I want to talk about. Please check it out. You will be glad you did.

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Recently a school teacher went on a rant on how horrible the military people were. His blast on the military has a strong rebuttal by Mark Johnson a California Superior Judge, a retired Army Colonel and a Iraq veteran.

+Sorry about the empty frames, couldn’t get them to download.

+Warning! Strong language is used.

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“Think about the people you know who are over there. Your freaking stupid Uncle Louie or whatever. They’re dumb shits. They’re not high-level bankers. They’re not academic people. They’re not intellectual people. … They’re the frickin’ lowest of the low.”

These are the deeply misinformed words of Greg Salcido, a local California city councilman and high-school teacher speaking to a student in a video that has now gone viral.

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I am one of those dumbshits. On Oct.1, 2013, I retired from the Army after 28 years of active and reserve service.

To Salcido, I have this to say: I had teachers like you, blowhards who spout unchallenged opinions to captive high-school kids. There was one teacher in particular, Mr. Raymore. Like you, he taught history. It was 1974, and I was a sophomore at Westminster High School.

He accused our Vietnam veterans of the oft-repeated atrocities. They were all “murderers” and “baby killers.” If challenged, I suppose Mr. Raymore would have wrapped himself in the flag and said, as you have, that his comments were “free speech.”

But he wasn’t exercising free speech. Neither were you. The constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech allows people to speak freely so others can decide to accept or reject their words. The founders did not draft it so a teacher could mock a student without repercussions, particularly one dependent on that teacher for a grade. Freedom of speech never gave you the right to call that student’s father and uncle — Iraq War and Desert Storm veterans — the “lowest of the low.”

The students laughed. The student you insulted sat there and said nothing.

I did the same thing in 1974.

Vietnam War Author and retired Army Col. Harry Summers, speaking at a college campus in the post-Vietnam era, was once accused of atrocities in Vietnam by a man in the audience claiming to be a veteran. David Zabecki, a friend of Summers, recounted his response. “Shame on you, you rotten son of a bitch!” Summers said. “I didn’t do those things, and I don’t know anyone who did. I didn’t need the Army to teach me right from wrong — my mother taught me that much.”

I wish I had said that to Mr. Raymore. I wish that student said those words to you.

Today I have a second chance.

I have served with those dumbshits who cannot win a war. They are the men and women who fight and die to allow you the luxury of spouting opinions. You are talking about Americans who died in places most people only read about: Normandy, Omaha Beach, Chosin Reservoir, Khe Sanh, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Our military is not comprised of the “lowest of the low,” however you define that term. The military screens applicants for intellectual ability using the Armed Forces Qualification Test and the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Test. The military also evaluates candidates on a variety of areas including physical and mental fitness.

The data does not support what you said.

According to October 2017 findings of the Washington D.C. based Heritage Foundation and the Army Times, only 9.7 of the 33 million Americans between 17 and 24 meet the Army’s enlistment standards. Less than one-third, or 31%, are eligible to enlist. The vast majority of candidates are rejected for reasons such as low test scores, failure to meet weight and fitness standards, mental health and medical issues and substance abuse.

But even if the military was accepting those you judge unworthy, so what? Willingness to serve says a great deal about a man or woman. It speaks of character and a willingness to belong to an organization built on selfless sacrifice.

Your comments imply people of your caliber could do better.

I do not want you. I’ll take a private who scores in the lowest percentile any day to an arrogant councilman who thinks he is better than the rest of us. I would never trust a man like you guarding my flank.

The men and women you callously dismiss are the best of America. I know. I am alive today because of the courage of the young men and women of our military. You do not seem to understand that.

And do you really think the United States military cannot win a war? You said our military has not defeated “guys wearing frickin robes and chaklas” and lost to Vietnamese “throwing rice.”

What you miss is that wars are not won on the battlefield. They are won at home, politically. If the national will is ambivalent, our military personnel find themselves dying to take the same turf over and over depending on the current mood of the civilian leadership. And eventually the politicians and the public lose interest in the fight and most of our soldiers return home. Some do not.

Evan Wright nailed it in Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War: “Five years into this war, I am not always confident most Americans fully appreciate the caliber of the people fighting for them, the sacrifices they have made, and the sacrifices they continue to make. The young troops I profiled in Generation Kill, as well as the other men and women in uniform I’ve encountered in combat zones throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, are among the finest people of their generation. We misuse them at our own peril.”

Councilman Salcido, I certainly hope you will educate yourself then apologize to the student and the public. Somehow I think you won’t. Guys like you never do.

As for Mr. Raymore?

You are a rotten son of a bitch.

M. E. (Mark) Johnson (Mark) Johnson is a California Superior Court Judge. He presided over the Riverside County Veterans Court for five years supervised the recovery of combat veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other military related mental health issues. He is a retired colonel of the United States Army Reserve, an Iraq War veteran, and a graduate of the United States Army War College.

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I am a veteran, but I am also a retired teacher. This blast of the military by this teacher imbarrases me. Please know he is not the typical teacher. He is a sick and very wrong teacher.

If you are a veteran, and are struggling with PTSD, war wounds, depression, etc. Please know we have your six. If you need immediate help call:

1-800-273-8255

Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

Doug Bolton

January 28, 2018

Rosie the Riveter From WWII Has Passed Away

We have reached our goal. We will now be giving a prize to the person who is our 4,500th person to subscribe. We just passed 4,065.

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https://www.rallypoint.com/join/spc-douglas-bolton

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I am very impressed how the subscription rates have increased the last couple of weeks. We went from 4,000 to 4,065 in a lit over one week. This means you are interested in veterans. This means you want to hear more about veterans and their needs. This means I get to talk about my one of favorite things. HELPING VETERANS.

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As I started doing inmyloasrpost I will be sharing articles that pertains to the military, and veterans. This one is a story about Rosie the Riveter. She passed away recently, but her posters are still an icon representing WWII.

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Fraley was a 20-year-old civilian working at the former Alameda Naval Air Station shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor when a news photographer snapped a photo of her wearing coveralls and a polka dot bandana, hunched over a lathe.

The aim was to highlight the strict dress code that the base commander had put down for women doing industrial jobs to boost the war effort: Slacks and turbans were mandatory. No sandals or open-toed shoes. Jewelry, including rings, was out.

The photo appeared in an Oakland newspaper with a caption that said the clothing policy “hasn’t made Miss Naomi Parker any less attractive.” Newspapers across the country also published it.

Fraley saved the newspaper clipping among her family papers, and mostly forgot about it in the years after the war, she said in an interview with the Bay Area News Group in 2016.

Then in 2009, she and her sister visited the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond for a “Rosie” reunion and saw the photo on display.

Accompanying information, however, identified another woman as the individual in the photo.

“I was amazed,” Fraley said. “I couldn’t believe it. There was another person’s name under my identity. But I knew it was actually me in the photo.”

Fraley and her family launched a campaign to prove she was the woman who inspired artist J. Howard Miller to paint the iconic image of the woman flexing her bicep.

(Miller created the poster for Westinghouse Electric to inspire the company’s workers. During the war, “Rosie the Riveter” was more associated with a hit song by the same name and a painting by Norman Rockwell of a brawny homefront worker on lunch break. Only in the early 1980s did Miller’s poster emerge in popular culture as an image of female empowerment — and since then it can be found on T-shirts, coffee mugs and refrigerator magnets).

Among those who backed Fraley’s claim as being the poster’s likely inspiration was James J. Kimble, an associate professor of communication and the arts at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, who spent six years researching the image.

Kimble was able to locate a copy of the original newspaper photo with the photographer’s information on the back, including the date March 24, 1942, the location, Alameda, and the caption, “Pretty Naomi Parker looks like she might catch her nose in the turret lathe she is operating,” according to the New York Times.

While the discovery helped cement Fraley’s claim, other researchers have said it remains impossible to know whether the artist ever saw the photo, and say that the woman in Miller’s painting may have been a composite.

A representative of the National Park Service, which runs the Rosie the Riveter museum in Richmond, said in an email to the Bay Area News Group in 2016 that it does not promote the identity of any particular individual as the inspiration for the poster.

The New York Times reported that Fraley, who worked as a waitress after the war, died at an assisted living facility.

Her survivors include her son, Joseph Blankenship; four stepsons, Ernest, Daniel, John and Michael Fraley; two stepdaughters, Patricia Hood and Ann Fraley; and two sisters, Ada Wyn Parker Loy and Althea Hill.

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Rosie the riveter was an icon for everyone during the war. He poster gave people strength to carry on and keep fighting. We still need that strength in our world today, just like Rosie the Riveter did for the people in the 40’s.

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If you are a veteran and reading this please know that you are not alone. There is someone to help you if you need it. Just call this number and you will get help.

1-800-273-8255

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Remember:

You are never alone.

You are never forsaken.

You are never unloved.

And above all…never, ever, give up!

January 20, 2018January 28, 2018

What to Fear in a War with North Korea

Thanks to all of you who have been joining me here. We help bring change to lives. The response has been wonderful. We just past 4,000 new subscribers. That was a huge increase in 2016. We only had 1,000 two years ago.The year 2017 helped us to make it to 4,000.

We have reached our goal. We will now be giving a prize to the person who is our 4,500th person to subscribe. We just passed 4,065.

______________________________________________________________

https://www.rallypoint.com/join/spc-douglas-bolton

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I am sharing the latest news pertaining to veterans today. Some will be good. Some not so good.

1. Government Shutdown Looming: Except for military and emergency services, the federal government will shut down unless Congress passes a continuing resolution by midnight tonight. Whether Congress will be able to put political differences aside is uncertain. Also uncertain is whether a new shutdown would replicate the 16-day shutdown in 2013. The VFW, along with other organizations, have worked tirelessly to shield VA from future shutdowns. That means health care facilities will remain open, new appointments will still be made, disability and compensation payments will be paid, and veterans will still be buried. More information will be known as the day and weekend unfolds.

The government shut occurred last night. What this means is the the military will continue to protect us, but without pay! This certainly is not acceptable! It mainly has shut down because each party has their “needs,” that they think should come first. They will not budge to compromise, and get this country going again. Updates on this coming.
This Is One Of US Military Planners’ Greatest Fears In A War With North Korea

By JARED KELLER

on January 8, 2018

With tensions between the U.S. government and North Korea at a historic high, the Department of Defense spent 2017 deterring an armed confrontation with Kim Jong Un’s regime on the Korean peninsula. The Pentagon deployed three carrier strike groups to the Western Pacific for the first time in a decade; stood up THAAD missile defense batteries in South Korea; and deployed squadrons of F-22 and F-35 fighter jets to patrol the skies near Pyongyang. All the stakeholders know that, even with overwhelming U.S. might and decades of wargaming, an invasion involving the 28,500 U.S. troops currently stationed in South Korea could bring massive casualties for military personnel and civilians, including an estimated 20,000 South Korean deaths a day from North Korean artillery.

But according to a series of war games conducted last year at the Air War College on Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, the DoD also faces a limited ability to evacuate wounded service members from a battlefield in Korea — an obstacle that could send the U.S. military death toll soaring in an open conflict.

South Korea Medevac Exercise

U.S. Army and South Korean military personnel conduct MEDEVAC exercises as Suwon Air Base

The upshot: United States forces in a conventional ground war with North Korea could suffer an outsize wound-to-kill ratio due to those airlift difficulties, political science professor and war scholar Tanisha M. Fazal argues in today’s Washington Post. While the United States has endured Nearly 7,000 combat casualties in the course of the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, those numbers have remained relatively low and stable over time due to the DoD’s overwhelming air superiority in the region (an advantage best captured by the massive rise in bombing sorties against militants in the first year of the Trump administration). Under those conditions, evacuation of casualties by air — the fastest method, and hence the key to making injuries more survivable — is a no-brainer.

Unlike al Qaeda or ISIS jihadists, however, North Korea is ready for an air war: A November 2017 assessment by the Congressional Research Service of the country’s military capabilities conclude that while Pyongyang’s air defenses are relatively outmoded, the North Korean Air Force possesses “a dense, overlapping air defense system of SA-2, SA-3, and SA-5” surface-to-air missile sites and other mobile and man-portable anti-air munitions — and that’s not even counting the Kim regime’s fleet of 1,300 Soviet-era aircraft intent on knocking U.S. assets out of the sky.

Add it all together, and those air defenses spell trouble for an opposing force’s traditional medevac efforts. “Modern combat medicine has made great advances in stemming blood loss, for example, but those procedures are typically temporary measures, carried out to keep a patient alive until airlifted to a higher-level, trauma-care facility,” Fazal writes. “That was possible in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the United States had undisputed control of the skies. But it would not be true on the Korean Peninsula, at least at first.”Indeed, a 2012 assessment in Military Medicine found that late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s Air defense command unit was effective enough during the initial months of the 2003 invasion that the U.S. military scrambled to develop forward-deployed medical and surgical teams to stabilize casualties near an injury point.

It’s difficult to assess the DoD’s overall air evacuation capabilities in the event of war with North Korea, given the different system and structure of each branch’s various medical commands. (Air University and the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Task & Purpose). But as part of the the Air War College simulation, the prospect of an aerial medevac for American troops was reduced to near zero through a conventional strike against a U.S. air base in South Korea; that, Fazal observed, forced a radical shift in how medics treat patients.

“Certain casualties could be saved if air evacuation was possible — but would have little to no hope without evacuation, and thus would receive only palliative care,” Fazal wrote of the simulation. “A base commander would probably require medics to prioritize care for personnel essential to the mission, even if they had less severe injuries than others. Assuming that medicine and medical personnel would not be resupplied, medics would not be able to provide the standard of care to which the U.S. military has become accustomed.”

Even without a direct strike on a U.S. staging area, air evacuations would remain a challenge. “Lift in the Pacific is always a problem and has been for years, simply because it’s just so big,” Lindsay Ford, a Asia Society fellow and former advisor to the Pentagon’s assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, told Task & Purpose. “To have the amount of lift you need to cover the tremendous amount of space, there is always a challenge, whether you’re talking about everyday operations or a unique medevac. Just think about that in the context of how many forces we currently have in the region.”

Ford pointed to the 2006 evacuation of U.S. citizens from Lebanon, in which the Pentagon aided the Department of State in extracting 15,000 people over the span of two months in the largest overseas evacuation in U.S. history. While U.S. Central Command was responsible for extracting 90% of the U.S. evacuees to nearby Turkey and Cyprus, a 2007 Government Accountability Office review of the effort found that Israeli strikes on the Beirut airport and subsequent blockades of coastal ports seriously complicated air and sea evacuation efforts. The evacuations were primarily excuted by U.S. and British naval flotillas, supplemented by contracted commercial or civilian ships; Marine CH-53 Super Stallion helicopters were used only for the most serious medical cases, primarily because Israeli munitions had “crippled airports, seaports and roads in retaliation for attacks by Hezbollah militants,” the New York Times reported at the time.

“That was just 15,000 [American civilians] evacuated,” Ford said of the Lebanon evacuation. “There are some 100,000 in Seoul, where, once war starts, there will be between 30,000 and 300,000 dead in just a few days.”

There are two options available to the Pentagon to address this problem. The first simply involves improving medevac capabilities by adding more maneuverable aircraft. The Army is addressing this issue with the Future Vertical Lift project, designed to replace the iconic AH-64 Apache attack chopper and UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopter with an aircraft that combines speed and range with versatility and maneuverability. But since 2016, the Army’s Medical Research and Materiel Command has also been exploring the potential deployment of unmanned vehicles to conduct quick and relatively safe medevacs. Last March, Dragonfly Pictures unveiled the DP-14 as a potential one-man extraction craft; despite resistance to the deployment of robots downrange, a 2014 USAMRMC report stated that unmanned systems “can potentially conduct extraction and/or retrieval of combat casualties on behalf of the first responder and deliver the wounded Soldier (within a short distance) to a safer location.”

But even the best aircraft can get held up in the skies or be too far from an extraction site, leaving the standard operating procedure for forward surgical teams as the next best option: Stabilize the patient and wait for the cavalry. The Pentagon has a long-established ground-medevac doctrine utilizing chains of medical outposts that connect a forward operating base to a secure medical facility in the rear. The Army’s Combat Casualty Care Research Program (CCCRP) is working overtime on new tech to accelerate diagnosis and treatment downrange, but the branch admits that “prolonged field care” is the primary capability gap of concern across the entire branch, according to the January/February issue of Army AT&L Magazine.

“Experts say future battlefields will require medical efforts to be more assertive at the point of injury as opposed to standard forward aid locations,” Army AT&L notes, “a shift that also radically changes the concept of the ‘golden hour’ standard of care, which relies on traditional medical transport to get service members treated within the first hour after injury.”

Given the nature of defense planning, that shift in downrange medical treatment won’t come overnight, but it’s long overdue. Declassified documents from 1994 published by the Guardian last month showed that, while the Pentagon remained convinced it would eke out a victory in war with North Korea, a ground invasion would leave some 490,000 South Koreans and 52,000 U.S. troops wounded or killed in the first three months alone. After 15 years of air superiority in the Middle East and Southwest Asia, it appears the best strategy to avoid a breathtaking casualty rate in a conventional war with North Korea is the exact same as with a nuclear conflict with Pyongyang.