Isn't it pathetic that the USA leaders preach to us how fearful we should be of Russia and China. They find places where they can send our war machine to battle a small country in the name of democracy, but then they cripple the war machine directing them to back off because Russia or China has people in the area. It appears our leaders do not want to defeat Russia or China because they would lose their cash cow.
Truth be told, Jim, I was not a Chaplain until 1977 - did Desert Storm as 410th Evac Hosp Chaplain near Al Qaisuma.
(I can still see some of our berms in the sand just east of the airport . . .
I did times of being nice to the Army and USAF Chaplains when I need rides in their aircraft.
I did ferry some Chaplains in my Birddog tho. Flew a wee bit higher too, at their request . . . :-D
After RVN, I reverted to Signal Corps and then Engineers (short tours wile in Seminary).
I paid my way to RVN with ROTC Flight, Sam Houston State. But did not see the handwriting on the war from Korea.
My younger brother was near the DMZ while I was at SHSTC ('62-'64) - but it seems there in the early '50's was when our govt decided our troops were not to be allowed to win.
Gen Bradley agreed (Wikipedia - his B'Day yesterday) with Truman on the "Containment" - aka - agreement not to win.
and it went downhill from there, IMHO.
There were times in RVN when I was told not to shoot when shot at . . . so I did not tell them.
But I could see the RVN troops I met were not about winning either - just surviving.
One observer I carried said to me, " Trung Uy, to you this is a war. To us it is a way of life."
Yup. SEA had been in war for two ceturies before us. Seems only the names and uniforms changed. ...Show more →
Thank you for your service and Welcome Home Chaplin!
Chaplins were very few and far between in my AO. ESpecially Roman Catholic chaplins. But when one did arrive for a service, we cared NOT his denomination but wanted to thank God we were still alive and to pray for those who did not. Have a few words of gospel to maybe re-ignite a spark of survival!
And where I was for 2 years 80% did NOT!
If I or my Team was told NOT to shoot...I suddenly had a radio problem..can't hear you!
Vietnam was a colony of many masters! I don't blame them 1 bit for finally saying đủ thứ tào lao này rồi(enough of this crap)! I am sorry we were the last "domino" to get eliminated!
God Bless!
Dan-Hawkeye 1-0(One Zero)Actual!
PS The picture is an extremely "telling" image! You see 2 GI's and the rest ARVN's. The GI's look totally wasted(exhausted)! Lost in introspection while the onlookers look unconcerned.
BB62- USS New Jersey- from Vietnam 1968. "The Big J"
Photos courtesy of CPO James McCathran-USS New Jersey 1968
Sorry for the lack of quality in the photos.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
This is a rhetorical question, but I'd like to know, from the guys here who actually had a considerable amount of skin in the game, when did we quit fighting wars with the goal of actually winning them, and not sacrificing our financial and human treasure only to pack up and leave with our tail between our legs? Seems like WWII was the last time we went all in, kicked butt and took names. I know it's a complicated subject but how many times can you deploy our heroic men and women only to tie their hands and at the same time ask them to put their lives on the line? It's one thing to be deployed with the orders to go win, quite another to ask for that sacrifice with the knowledge that the people sending you have no intention of actually letting you emerge victorious, all the while sitting behind a desk somewhere safe. Seems to me that we have the finest fighting force on the face of the earth, if we had a reputation of deploying, when necessary, handing our foes a new parking lot, and coming home, we'd have a lot fewer people poking the bear. ...Show more →
I might have said it here before, In hindsight, I think the second Gulf War was a mistake that caused irreparable damages. Trillions were wasted, thousands of lives from our side were lost and many times of that on the other side as well. The U.S.'s reputation was badly ruined. The biggest winner as the result of the second Gulf War is Iran. Do I miss Saddam? of course not, but as brutal a dictator as he was, he would have done a better job keeping the Iranians in check than the mighty USA. That part of the world is too complicated for me to understand, your enemy's enemy may not be your friend.
Russia, China and Iran are all in heaven right now with all the division in our country. They're probably instigating a lot of this division. Q is probably some idiot in a foreign basement throwing out crazy ideas just to see which ones stick with the people wanting to believe it. If we don't get it together soon Russia will have all of Ukraine. China will turn on its attention on Taiwan because of our weakness and lack of resolve.
When I served I didn't serve only the right, only the left or only the middle. I served my country. All of it. And I promise you all this, and I've said this before, when the sh*t goes down and you are in it up to you eyeballs you don't care if the people you are with are right, left or in between. You only care that they have your 6.
Democracy needs right, left and in-between to function. As well as compromise. We ALL need to wake up and realize we're all Americans. We could very well lose our democracy and everything our forefathers fought for.
airfrogusmc wrote:
Russia, China and Iran are all in heaven right now with all the division in our country. They're probably instigating a lot of this division. Q is probably some idiot in a foreign basement throwing out crazy ideas just to see which ones stick with the people wanting to believe it. If we don't get it together soon Russia will have all of Ukraine. China will turn on its attention on Taiwan because of our weakness and lack of resolve.
When I served I didn't serve only the right, only the left or only the middle. I served my country. All of it. And I promise you all this, and I've said this before, when the sh*t goes down and you are in it up to you eyeballs you don't care if the people you are with are right, left or in between. You only care that they have your 6.
Democracy needs right, left and in-between to function. As well as compromise. We ALL need to wake up and realize we're all Americans. We could very well lose our democracy and everything our forefathers fought for. ...Show more →
Yeah, singing another "national anthem" at the super bowl really helped....
Douglas L wrote:
I might have said it here before, In hindsight, I think the second Gulf War was a mistake that caused irreparable damages. Trillions were wasted, thousands of lives from our side were lost and many times of that on the other side as well. The U.S.'s reputation was badly ruined. The biggest winner as the result of the second Gulf War is Iran. Do I miss Saddam? of course not, but as brutal a dictator as he was, he would have done a better job keeping the Iranians in check than the mighty USA. That part of the world is too complicated for me to understand, your enemy's enemy may not be your friend. ...Show more →
I cannot agree with you more on the status of some dictators Douglas! Yes Sadaam was evil BUT the Country was stable and he took no crap from "proxies"! We could deal with him in whatever way we had to. If not! Go after him!
Like I stated in another post....Command-MACV- really never knew what the "field" was doing or what was actually happening at the time of the engagement. When they radioed for a "CD"(cease and decist) or "BC"(break contact)...all of a sudden my radio man couldn't hear those instructions and we would break contact w/ MACV and finish our mission. Got my ass chewed out many times but heh...my CO had my "six" and would buy me a "coke" ( I didn't drink then) after the ass-chewing!
Good discussion brother!
Dan
airfrogusmc wrote:
Russia, China and Iran are all in heaven right now with all the division in our country. They're probably instigating a lot of this division. Q is probably some idiot in a foreign basement throwing out crazy ideas just to see which ones stick with the people wanting to believe it. If we don't get it together soon Russia will have all of Ukraine. China will turn on its attention on Taiwan because of our weakness and lack of resolve.
When I served I didn't serve only the right, only the left or only the middle. I served my country. All of it. And I promise you all this, and I've said this before, when the sh*t goes down and you are in it up to you eyeballs you don't care if the people you are with are right, left or in between. You only care that they have your 6.
Democracy needs right, left and in-between to function. As well as compromise. We ALL need to wake up and realize we're all Americans. We could very well lose our democracy and everything our forefathers fought for. ...Show more →
AMEN BROTHER! We bled red! All of us grunts! In my 2 years, I must say..politics NEVER entered the mission until my last few months(1969). We saw the writing on the wall from the Pentagon via politicians.
And this "bradcasting to the World" what our next move is is a choice for disaster! Shut up!
Semper Fi Marine!
RD
Just FYI, I was a firm believer in many of Sun Tzu's "The Art of War"....
The First Mistake of The Gulf wars were when Pres GHWB, being caught in the same fear pattern and "Containment fallacies" as Korea and RVN, called a halt at: "10 hours has a nice ring to it" before we could finish our Missions.
We had all the Troops and Materiel to march to Bagdad and finish the job.
It would have done three things:
1. Taken out the 9/11 perps.
2. Showed the rest of the world, including our prime adversaries, that we were not and will not be "Push-over Pansies".
3. Prevented, IMHO, the second Gulf (read- like Korea and RVN) War, while saving lives, materiel and the reputation of the USA!
- - -
Yeah, I had not a small bit of "radio trouble" in my Trusty Shotgun 839, my 'Kismet' L-19D.
She was an awesome Lady. She got me out of more trouble than I can share.
I went to a Walmart in Columbia, Maryland yesterday to get some underwear, I was shocked they were locked up, I had to ask someone to unlock to get them. I know they lock up a lot of things like toothpaste in many cities, but Columbia has been ranked the "safest city in the U.S." in the last several years, now even in Columbia they have to do that. That says a lot about the sad state of affair in this country. Yeah, let's blame the orange man...
Douglas L wrote:
I went to a Walmart in Columbia, Maryland yesterday to get some underwear, I was shocked they were locked up, I had to ask someone to unlock to get them. I know they lock up a lot of things like toothpaste in many cities, but Columbia has been ranked the "safest city in the U.S." in the last several years, now even in Columbia they have to do that. That says a lot about the sad state of affair in this country. Yeah, let's blame the orange man...
WOW! Columbia? Never thought that would ever happen there Douglas. I lived in the subdivision of Owen Brown on Carved Stone Rd for many years and cannot conceive that happening in a city that was developed for its diversity!
This is just getting to the point of absurd and beyond!
I really makes Suzanne and I physically sick!
Yep when you see treasonist insurrectionists beating police with American flags trying to stop the peaceful transfer of power there is really something wrong. It would have destroyed my father to have seen that
I think that you might want to actually discover for yourself what happened on January 6, and not spout the Progressive version of it. Lots of facts that get in the way of the democrat narrative, but don't let that deter you from pushing the agenda.
