Tag Archives: military

Extending adolescence

Posted on September 9, 2007 | Comments Off on Extending adolescence

It must annoy 19- and 20-year-olds to be called kids. It would me. Especially if I went to work immediately after high school, or into combat in the military. It grates everytime I hear some college football coach refer to his players as kids. But the terminology seems inescapable.

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Posted in Scribbles

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“Background chatter men”

Posted on August 6, 2006 | Comments Off on “Background chatter men”

I don’t recall anyone in the Army of the 1960s sounding like LTC Randolph C. White, Jr., but times certainly have changed in the past forty years. The quote below is from a Free Republic transcript of White’s speech to an advanced individual training (in this case, infantry) graduation back in April at Fort Benning, Ga., and it’s a rouser:

"Don’t let the pessimistic television talking heads, high browed newspaper writers, Hollywood idiots, or any other faction of the ‘blame America first’ crowd get you down! I’m speaking of the ‘Latte Biscotti Crowd.’ They are simply background chatter men and will always exist on the periphery of any endeavor that requires selfless service or loyalty. They are not worthy of your concern and truth be told — in the pit of their cowardly hearts — they wish they could be like you."

Blackfive has the complete video and the transcript and a link to where all 26 MB of the video can be downloaded for repeated viewings and squirreling away.

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Posted in Troops

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Recruiting up

Posted on July 15, 2006 | Comments Off on Recruiting up

From Strategypage, continued good news from the recruiting office.

"The U.S. military recruited all the people it needed in
June, and, for the current fiscal year (which began on last October 1st),
have brought in more people than they need. The armed forces needed
120,130 recruits and re-enlistments for the year-to-date and exceeded that
by 2,256. For the reserves, 101,248 were needed for the year-to-date, but
only 101,185 were recruited, coming up short 63 people (less than a tenth
of a percent). This recruiting activity doesn’t make the news, which in
itself is not unusual, as good news has never been profitable in the news
business. But the story behind the continued recruiting success does
contain the germ of a good headline or two. That’s because a major reason
for the good recruiting numbers can be found in the above average
re-enlistment rates, and the positive word-of-mouth from veterans of the
fighting…" 

Next up: A resolution to the backyard deer problem and the resurgence of the antique rose bushes. 

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Posted in Troops

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