Category Archives: Troops

Memorial Day in Afghanistan

Posted on May 26, 2008 | Comments Off on Memorial Day in Afghanistan

Michael Yon on the way they do it at Bagram Air Force Base, when the C-17 arrives to take another warrior home. And this good Pajamas media piece on the truth about who serves and who doesn’t.

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Posted in Afghanistan, The War, Troops

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MACV advisors KIA

Posted on May 25, 2008 | Comments Off on MACV advisors KIA

Usually I reserve Memorial Day for remembrance of the seven classmates and cadre of OC504-68 who perished in Viet Nam. (Eleven others have since died of various causes at home, including AIDS.) But this year I also want to nod to the one hundred twenty-six MACV advisors who died in pursuit of counterinsurgency (the strategy being pursued in Iraq and Afghanistan), at least according to the Virtual Wall, which may not be complete as to MACV. And, especially, MAJ Roger Lee Graham, of my own Advisory Team 15.

UPDATE: I got an email, apparently from Major Graham’s sister, wanting any details I had about him. I have none other than what’s at the link. I never met him. He apparently was on Team 15 before I arrived in Viet Nam.

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Posted in Troops, Viet Nam

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Flags

Posted on May 25, 2008 | Comments Off on Flags

Mr. Boy will go with his Mom and grandmother this morning to put a little stick flag on his Navy grandfather’s grave at the national cemetery near Dallas, in observance of Memorial Day. I think of his Air Force grandfather, my dad, who’s buried in Arlington many miles away. Someday we’ll take him there. Arlington probably put out their flags yesterday for all. There’s this touching Trace Adkins song about that place.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Texana, Troops

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Remembering

Posted on May 25, 2008 | Comments Off on Remembering

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Austin, Texas. Southwestern architecture in a flag theme for the weekend, inspired by Instapundit.

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Posted in Texana, Troops

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That G.I. Bill

Posted on May 23, 2008 | Comments Off on That G.I. Bill

Glad to see a version of the Vietnam-era bill pass. Sorry to see it was the one predicted to lower retention rates by sixteen percent. But that’s the Dems for you. They’ll interfere with the war if they can find a way. Meanwhile Dumbocrat veterans (yep, there are some, hard as it might be to fathom) are whacking McCain for not voting for it. Even Barry, the I-never-served-and-never-will candidate, had the nerve to question Mac’s committment to his fellow soldiers. Mac smacked Barry back good. The benefits were actually more generous in Mac’s bill, which did not pass, but increased with length of service, negating the retention problem.

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Posted in The War, Troops

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Iraq support rises

Posted on May 22, 2008 | Comments Off on Iraq support rises

Barry’s crowd has some retrenching to do. They’ve long been throwing around the sixty-percent-oppose-the-Iraq-campaign poll figure as a justification for their cut-and-run views. But some recent polling shows a sharp rise to fifty-three percent saying the U.S. will succeed in reaching its goals in Iraq. Even CBS admits this could "alter the dynamics of races up and down the ballot." I’ve never been a fan of polling, which is hampered as never before by changes in the way Americans use their phones. The polls were predicting Kerry would beat Bush right up until election day 2004. But if you live by the polls, Dems, you gotta die by them, too.

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Posted in Iraq, The War, Troops

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Five days before Memorial Day

Posted on May 21, 2008 | Comments Off on Five days before Memorial Day

Warning to military service members from the Federal Transit Administration in Washington, D.C.:

"Uniformed members [on Metro trains] have been approached by individuals expressing themselves as anti-government, shouting anti-war sentiments, and using racial slurs against minorities. In one instance, a member was followed onto the platform by an individual who continued to berate her as she exited the metro station…military members should be vigilant and aware of their surroundings at all times while in mass transit."

Disgusting. Be sure to thank the next service member you see, wherever you see them.

UPDATE: This may be a hoax, which is sad, but altogether better than if it were really happening. Read the comments at the link for more.

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Posted in Troops

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