Monday, 15 November 2004 - 12:25 PM PST

I wish you had done the amusing stories.

I don't believe that Bush takes their sacrifices lightly.

Clinton / Billary were the ones who took the military and military service VERY lightly. Read Reckless Disregard - by a military aid who carried the football. Eyewitness to their snubbing of the military and other BAD behavior.

He cut the military to its knees. So if this war is unwinnable, Clinton is to blame. He froze 80% of military salaries to $30K - we're talking families trying to get by on that. People left the military in DROVES.

He's also to blame because he'd rather watch golf than go after someone we'd been after for years - military had them in their sights. All they were waiting for was the OK from Clinton. And he kept telling them to wait. Waited until it was too late.

I guess just have to agree to disagree on this.

Monday, 15 November 2004 - 12:37 PM PST

Don't get me wrong. I was never against the Invasion of Afghanistan. We gave them every chance to turn over OBL and dismantle the terrorist machine and they refused.

I don't see the logic in attacking Iraq. I don't see how killing Iraqis is going to give them better government. I don't see how occupying Iraq is going to make America safer. I can't imagine how bombing Faluja (or how ever you spell it, I have seen so many versions) is going to make us stronger in the world.

Maybe my problem is a fatal lack of imagination.

I won't defend Clinton...I am not even a Democrat...in fact I have voted Republican in more presidential races than I have either Demo or Indie. To me this isn't R vs. D politics, this is about how very messed up this war is. All I can think is that I would be one royally pissed of Medic if I was there.

Of course there are people who disagree with what I perceive...and I could be wrong. I think only time and the history books will tell for certain.

Monday, 15 November 2004 - 3:31 PM PST

I'm not going to comment on any of the political aspects of this post.

My grandfather was a career military man and he'd sit and talk about his days during the war(s) he was in and his military service and I'd be bored. To. Tears.

And now that I'm in my 30s (and saw "Band of Brothers") I realize I should have paid attention to him! I regret having been bored and not realizing the importance of what he did!

Monday, 15 November 2004 - 4:10 PM PST

Thank god. I am truly blessed that both my father and my grandfather are still alive and well and get to bore me with their stories about the military.

My Grandfather was in the Merchant Marine. It took me years to realize how dangerous his job was, shipping armaments all over the Pacific Theatre.

My father was stationed for part of his service on the U.S.S. Forestall, which is an aircraft carrier that toured the Mediteranean.

On this Veterans Day recently past, it is important to remember the sacrifices of all of our men and women in uniform who are willing to risk life and limb to secure our freedoms.

Monday, 15 November 2004 - 7:47 PM PST

I apologize for going off on a rant.

I fear that Iraq and those who are fighting/will fight over there will be treated like the VietNam vets. I think the "enemy" is just as crafty/sneaky now as the Vietnamese.

My cousin was just sent over there. I pray for his safe return. He also served in the Gulf War.

Tuesday, 16 November 2004 - 1:12 PM PST

I can see why you are afraid. Iraq is a very dangerous place to be right now. I have friends who are over there right now and I pray for their safe return, both for their sakes and their families' sakes.

I am afraid that this will be like Viet Nam as well, both for the troops and for the country...I also pray this isn't so.

I think old age has made me soft. I see pictures from Iraq and it makes me cry. I cry for the Iraqis. I cry for our boys, men and women over there. Perhaps I am getting to be a sentimental old fool, but all that death seems so futile. I see pictures of fallen American youth and all I can think about is how they will never get to come home to their families, how they won't ever get to realize their hopes and dreams, it depresses me for the rest of the day.

My son will be 16 in January and we have a family tradition of service. I fear for him and I hope he doesn't decide to enlist, because he is my only child and I don't know what I would do if he will slain in some foreign war.

Ach! I am babbling. I am sorry if I came off all political...it is my fears speaking loud and clear. Going to get some lunch and bring back some tales...that will cheer me up.

Friday, 19 November 2004 - 12:34 PM PST

Yes, I was lucky too to serve when terrorism was but in its infancy and we had no clue what was coming down the pike. My nephew will be there until at least March. A friend of mine is enroute in 2 weeks to go over there. My best friend's husband is supposed to come home in 1 month. She has shown more strength then I could imagine in the same situation but now that it is down to the wire she is freaking out that fate will snatch him this last month he is there. After 20+ yrs of marriage that would be a heavy cross to bear...

My dad was a WWII vet and used to tell the 'lighter' stories to entertain us kids. He died when I was 14 so never got to the serious stuff. Although my mom told me later about a horror story he told her regarding having to bury hundreds of the enemy dead after the corpses had been rotting in the sun. This was about the time I started researching the Division he was in I realized what a horrible hairy 4-years that service really was for him. For all of them. It just amazes me what those men went through. Four full years completely away from home living in the trenches killing and trying not to be killed. Mail from home was truly snail mail and at one point the man was in a 'battle' that lasted a record 300+ days or something ridiculous like that and at another point he ate salmon for breakfast, lunch and dinner for weeks on end due to being cut off from their supply line. The whole thing is Unf$*cking believable to me that he survived this four years of hell and went on to become a relatively normal husband & father after all that...

oh he had his pain, his post traumatic stress per se, I didn't see it but my mom saw whisps of it. My mom had no clue what happened to all his war medals (they married after the war). I found out you can order a relatives medals so I ordered his for her which turned out to be pretty easy since I had a copy of his discharge because unfortunately his Army papers were burned in a fire at the personnel center in the '70's.

Talk about bizarre, the medals which took several months to be reissued, came just one a couple of days before memorial day. So I made her a display of the medals & 1940's circa pictures of him in uniform and when I handed it to her on memorial day she said Is this for me or for you? I replied, he was your husband! So now it proudly hangs on her wall. And, my nephew who never had the good fortune to meet his grandpa carries one of his uniformed pictures in his own Army helmet. Hopefully it works like a guardian angel and he will come home in one piece.