Category Archives: Troops

Waiting for Bowe

Posted on June 5, 2014 | 1 comment

Amid all the cacophony about the alleged deserter the White House traded five al Queda bosses to get back, we’ve yet to hear from the man himself: Army PFC (when he was captured) now Sergeant (promoted in captivity) Bowe Bergdahl.

Wormtongue’s latest controversy arises, in part, from his Rose Garden presser welcoming home Bowe with his, ahem, eccentric parents. But it’s also due to the left’s adoration of anti-war soldiers like Bergdahl and its persistent military blindspot: “…its failure to comprehend the centrality of honor to military culture.”

I’m reminded of Marine PFC Robert Garwood who was brought home from Vietnam under a cloud of disgrace. His parents never got near the Rose Garden. His explanation of how he was captured and why other POWs thought he was a collaborator wasn’t very persuasive but at least we got his version to weigh against the others.

A military court eventually acquitted Garwood of desertion while convicting him of “communicating with the enemy” and ordered him dishonorably discharged. He later collaborated with two authors in an interesting book on his case, which remains controversial, at least in the Marine Corps.

We’re still waiting to hear from Bowe, and we should because there’s bound to be another side, his side, to this whole deal. Whether it will change any minds remains to be seen, but for now his silence is deafening.

UPDATE:  Oops, turns out ol’ Bowe, whom Obamalot contends served honorably, converted to Islam and declared himself a jihadi. Wonderful. Does Wormtongue ever tell the truth about anything?

1 Comment

Posted in Afghanistan, Blogosphere, The Culture, The War, Troops, Viet Nam

Tagged ,

In Remembrance

Posted on May 26, 2014 | 1 comment

These seven men of 60th Company, OC 504-68, were killed in Viet Nam.

We graduates of that 1968 class at Infantry Officers Candidate School, Fort Benning, Georgia, commemorate the seven each Memorial Day.

One graduate:  1LT Jacob Lee Kinser, a Huey helicopter pilot.

Two Tactical Officers:  CPT Reese Michael Patrick and 1LT Daniel Lynn Neiswender, both infantry commanders.

Four class drop-outs:  SP4 Robert Chase,  SP4 Reese Currenti Elia Jr., CPL Sherry Joe Hadley, and PFC Jeffrey Sanders Tigner, all infantry riflemen.

Rest in peace.

1 Comment

Posted in Infantry OCS, Obituaries, Troops, Viet Nam

Tagged ,

The VA scandal

Posted on May 23, 2014 | Comments Off on The VA scandal

I like to read the Wall Street Journal’s Best of The Web Today, which yesterday had a good rejoinder to one Democrat’s questionable concern:

“‘As troubling as some of these allegations are, this controversy presents an opportunity for the administration,’ Waldman continues. ‘This isn’t some kind of phony scandal like Benghazi: it’s a real issue with real consequences.’

“Christopher Stevens could not be reached for comment.”

These VA scandals come and go. The hospitals were not originally intended to treat all veterans exclusively but only those unable to pay for their health care. Nowadays, the pols are sending many career retirees to the VA on top of everyone else and the load, of course, is overwhelming.

Mrs. Charm always says “Go get your free hearing aids.” I never have because I can afford to buy them and don’t want to add to the problems of those veterans who can’t.

Comments Off on The VA scandal

Posted in Blogosphere, Mrs. Charm, Obamalot, The War, Troops

Tagged ,

Trey Gowdy kicks butt

Posted on May 11, 2014 | 4 comments

Wormtongue’s, certainly. And Princess Benghazi’s, as well. But, also, bless his heart, the dumb-dumb-we’re-all-asleep-here Democrat news media. This will be the best 3:26 you will ever spend: Sic ’em.

Via Mouth of The Brazos.

UPDATE:  The violent Left already is threatening Gowdy’s life, probably for fear he’ll expose Democrat smuggling of arms to Al Q.

4 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, The War, Troops

Tagged ,

Inspired by the latest Fort Hood massacre

Posted on April 3, 2014 | 2 comments

You go climb every mountain.

Via Phase Line Birnam Wood

UPDATE:  The killer was a 34-year-old Spec 4. That’s a lot of years for such a low rank. He either joined late, never deserved promotion or got busted along the way.

And, no, I don’t think allowing non-police soldiers to carry loaded weapons on post is a good idea. Investing in a few metal-detector wands for every person and car that passes through the gates would be a better one.

2 Comments

Posted in Afghanistan, Blogosphere, Guns, Iraq, Texana, Troops, War Without End

Tagged , ,

Vlad Putin gives SXSW a hand

Posted on March 8, 2014 | 3 comments

It might seem a bit pompous of Kansas Republican Mike Pompeo to ask SXSW to cancel its much-advertised, long-distance interview Monday with Vlad Putin’s favorite foreign guest.

But Pompeo, the junior member of the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, a former Army captain and a West Point graduate, has some arguable reasons:

“The panel, ‘A Virtual Conversation with Edward Snowden,’ will focus on the impact of the NSA spying revelations and how technology can be used to protect privacy.

“Snowden’s ‘only apparent qualification,’ Pompeo wrote, ‘is his willingness to steal from his own government and then flee to that beacon of First Amendment freedoms, the Russia of Vladimir Putin.'”

Indeed, it is the only reason for the “conversation,” in which Snowden—having helped put SXSW back on a media stage that might be tiring of it—allegedly will answer questions from the Austin audience, even the unadoring kind. Instead of just making speeches.

Whether there will be any unadoring “questions” from the primarily leftist audience remains to be seen. Pompeo offers two the leftists might not think of: “including why [Snowden] chose to leak ‘purely military secrets’ with no bearing on domestic surveillance, and…the extent of his relationship with the Russian government, ‘financial or otherwise.’”

Via Instapundit,

UPDATE:  Apparently neither of Pompeo’s questions were asked. No surprise there. No one even asked why Snowden fled to Russia, no champion of privacy or freedom whatsoever.

3 Comments

Posted in Texana, The Culture, The War, Troops

Tagged

Crimea river

Posted on March 5, 2014 | 2 comments

Just can’t get excited about Russia’s pending annexation of Crimea. Do wish Lurch wasn’t so free with the billions of our tax money, handing it over to Kiev where the political corruption makes Chicago’s look juvenile. Not to mention the anti-Semitism.

Even Spengler can’t get outraged: “There isn’t going to be a war over Ukraine. There isn’t even going to be a crisis over Ukraine. We will perform our ritual war-dance and excoriate the Evil Emperor, and the result would be the same if we had sung ‘100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall’ on a road trip to Kalamazoo. Worry about something really scary, like Iran.”

Did Lurch get congressional approval for the dispensation, or was that another of Wormtongue’s executive decrees? Who gave him that big of a kitty?

Nor can I get worked up about Wormtongue’s alleged lack of ‘nads on the subject. Bush Jr. didn’t call out the 82nd AD over Georgia in ’08, either. In fact, the ongoing downsizing of the American military is going to make such adventurism harder and harder.

Thankfully, maybe. Unless Monsieur Putin decides to annex Poland, it’s probably for the best. The world policeman gig is old and no longer very appealing to right or left hereabouts.

Via Simply Jews & Mouth of the Brazos.

2 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, Troops

Tagged , ,