Reminder Time
By Geoff Metcalf (08/28/06)
"After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him. The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut." - - Will Rogers
I’ve said it before and will no doubt say it again (and again and again), “Duty, Honor, Country are not just words. They are a gift that has been inculcated into the military and of which all Americans are beneficiaries.â€
It is time to hit the refresh button and revisit some axioms the mainstream cabal seems intent on ignoring.
1. We ARE at war.
2. The bad guys want us (yeah including YOU) dead.
3. Your protectors are in uniform far from home in harms way protecting your rights.
It is beyond galling to hear petulant partisans falsely state ‘manufactured’ universal truths that are crafted out of whole cloth. Notwithstanding the chronic, routine, annoying protestations of many liberal democrats, the majority of military personnel do NOT embrace the gospel according to Nancy Pelosi and John Kerry.
· They do not feel they were lied into a war.
· They do not think their time and sacrifices are wasted.
· They are proud to serve.
Soldiers are ‘different’ from civilians.
Fox News reporter Steve Centanni was recently released by his Palestinian kidnappers and said, "We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint…it was something we felt we had to do because they had the guns, and we didn't know what the hell was going on." Centanni is a civilian and he did what he thought he had to do to survive captivity. I am not criticizing Centanni.
However, contrast Centanni’s two week ordeal with the two year hell Rocky Versace went through at the hands of his Viet Cong captures.
"Rocky" was an Army Special Forces captain, and he was a hero. He was captured by the Viet Cong on Oct. 29, 1963, and in the best tradition of the military Code of Conduct he resisted his captors ... BIGtime and in spades. Eventually he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. [Click here and scroll down to his citation: http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/mohviet2.htm ]
Versace spent two years chained in a bamboo cage and endured almost daily torture by the Vietnamese Communists. He routinely frustrated his Viet Cong interrogators by refusing to obey demands that he denounce America and accept the Communist propaganda.
One day the Viet Cong decided they had had it with resistance from Versace. On orders of Viet Cong leader Vo Van Kiet (subsequently Vietnam's prime minister and Sen. John McCain buddy), Versace was dragged from his filthy, mosquito-infested bamboo cage for the last time. He was forced to kneel with his forehead pressed into the mud and was shot in the back of the head.
Donald Cook was a Marine Capt. Cook was awarded our nation's highest award for valor and was/is legendary for his refusal to betray the military Code of Conduct.[Click here and scroll down: http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/mohviet.htm ] On one occasion, Viet Cong put a pistol to Cook's head, demanding that he denounce the United States. Cook calmly resisted and recited the nomenclature of the parts of the pistol.
Like Versace, Cook disappeared and was never heard from again.
Soldiers are ‘different’.
Charles Plumb was a Vietnam jet fighter pilot. He suggests we, “Recognize and be gracious to people who pack your parachute, and strengthen yourself to prevail through tough times.†http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/parachute.html
B.T. Collins was a remarkable man and a dear friend. He wrote an article for Readers Digest in which he said, “I didn't learn about leadership and the strength of character it requires from an Ivy League graduate course. I learned by watching one tall captain with proud bearing and penetrating eyes."
http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/sambird_20010526.html
General Charles Krulak, former Commandant of the United States Marine Corps has granted me permission to post a remarkable speech he gave to a Military group on Professional Ethics. Please read it: http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/krulak_20001019.html
Soldiers ARE different. Far different from the liberal democrat detractors and Cindy Sheehan scrub brush.
Duty, Honor, Country are more than words. Those three words co-joined represent the essence of what is good and ‘different’.
All those who seek to undermine military action for partisan advantage do so on the foundation of efforts and sacrifice of the soldier.
Father Denis O’Brian, USMC noted,
It is the soldier,
who salutes the flag,
who serves under the flag,
and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
who allows the protester to burn the flag.
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