Article

2003-08-13 Iraq

Soldiers families "Bring Home Troops Home" :=(

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Posted by Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) 2003-08-13 5:35:43 PM|| || Front Page|| [7 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Last time I looked this is what army's are supposed to do, its not all college tuition and job training. I want our troops home as soon as possible, but not before the job is done, besides this is one use of tax dollars that I can stomach, instead of more welfare style entitlements, prescription drug entitlements etc etc

Posted by wills 2003-8-13 6:16:05 PM|| 2003-8-13 6:16:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 Wills? On the money! BTW they were being issued an ADDITIONAL 2-1+ Liter bottles due to the heat, on top of the water available from the buffalos. These whiners will do anything to get in the news, huh? Wanna bet their loved ones serving either don't know about or are generally embarrassed by the caterwauling?

Posted by Frank G 2003-8-13 6:59:59 PM|| 2003-8-13 6:59:59 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Let's see,
Panama: Check
Vietnam: Check
Cold Warrior: Check
"Volunteer": Check.

Ok, I've got a dog in this fight. Yeah, war is hell. Always has been. Sometimes you're fighting where you're freezing certain parts of your anatomy off, sometimes it as hot as the inside of a blast furnace - it's called "Global Reach". Sometimes you don't get three squares and a cot. MRE's are miles above C-rats, and there are worse things our troops have eaten (yours truly included - ever had rat? Tastes good, if you're hungry enough). At least in Iraq, there isn't 120+ degree temps and 110% humidity, with every pore pouring forth water that does nothing to cool your overheated body.

There are a MINIMUM of sixteen names on that black marble monument in Washington that I relate to personally. There are another hundred I can relate to personally that have died in "accidents" and "training incidents" - pilots, aircrew, mechanics, truck drivers, and other spooks like myself.

War isn't a game. It's a serious business, run by serious men. People who get into it without understanding that need to leave, immediately. People who want to run the government by the level of whine from the "populace" need to go back and read the Declaration of Independence, all the way to the bottom, where it says "To these goals we dedicate our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor." Unfortunately, the whiners usually don't have a clue what "honor" really means.

Any Marine can explain it to them, just ask.

Posted by Old Patriot 2003-8-13 7:25:31 PM|| [http://users.codenet.net/mweather/default.htm] 2003-8-13 7:25:31 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 Old Patriot (OP):

Can't improve on your words or sentiments.

By the way, if folks would take the time to stop and ask the active duty infantry soldiers in Iraq (e.g., 3-15 INF 3ID troops), they'd find that while the guys want to come home they also want to do what they've been trained to do. However, the press has "managed" to find some complainers, like that SSG (E-6) and crew we've all heard beating their collective gums whining and crying.

OP, we both know that the combat arms are made up of folks who are both trained and like to "blow up things and kill people." Always been that way, always will be that way. So, with that in mind, let's both welcome folks who don't understand that to leave the field (to those of us who've "been there, done that.").

PS - I don't have 16 names on the Wall, but there's 6 there that I almost went with. Don't envy you those other 10.

And, by the way, for others (not you) who may not know:
It's Viet Nam (2 words), not 1. It has a meaning (People of the South). Vietnamese are the poeple, Viet Nam is the country.

LVK

Posted by LVK (C-1-18 1ID RVN) 2003-8-13 9:57:53 PM|| 2003-8-13 9:57:53 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 I am shaking with fury.

In my father's 30 year Army career, he did 2 one year unaccompanied tours, one in Korea and one in Vietnam. My uncle was killed in Vietnam. My first memory of my father is him COMING HOME. Got that?Coming home bringing my uncle home in a box. As my father told me just last year, my grandmother asked to see the body. She looked at his inert face and said, "He died in pain". Nothing else was said of this sacrifice by her ever again.

We moved constantly to every crappy place the Army could send us.

I made 5 strategic deterrent patrols on an old Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine. That works out to about one year under water incommunicado. As a civilain, I currently spend almost every working day of the week on the road. My wife and I have spent half our 15 year marriage apart. She NEVER complained/complains.

The most important thing MY FAMILY and I ever did or will do was our bit in bringing Communism to its knees. To have undermined that struggle by bitching in the press was unthinkable. The upside of ending totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe far outweighed any lost sleep on my part or my wife's or mother's part or my grandmother's part.

Our pain, my pain, your soldier's pain is inconsequential in this struggle. The pain will fade, only the results will endure one way or the other.

If I see one more soldier's wife simpering on TV about a lousy year separation in a war zone, I am going to barf. I have ZERO sympathy.

In my family, to have complained was unthinkable. We were expected to suck it up, keep a stiff upper lip and take pride in our sacrifices. We did and do.

The press will use your complaints to undermine your soldier and make his job harder not easier or shorter.

Quit whining. Support your soldier in uniform. Shame on the complainers. DO YOUR DUTY family members. Take strength from others in the same situation.

Soldiers, Sailors, Marines: get the job done. Sleep when your dead. Don't come back until Iraq is on track, you're relieved or you're being carried by 6 men.

All war is a moral struggle as much with yourself as with the enemy. Suck it up!! Any questions?

Posted by jfd 2003-8-13 10:43:46 PM|| 2003-8-13 10:43:46 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 "This war was supposed to be quick"

say what? We just invaded and beat a fairly large country on the other side of the world! If the "open combat" phase of the war went on for another 6 months, it would STILL be considered a "quick" war, by almost any standard.

BTW, who the hell said it was "supposed to be quick"? The Prez never said that. The SecDef never said that. The Lefties said we would be "bogged down" in a "quagmire". Who said it would be quick? Nobody.

Posted by Uncle Joe 2003-8-13 11:43:49 PM|| 2003-8-13 11:43:49 PM|| Front Page Top

22:58 Phil Fraering
01:22 Mike Kozlowski
00:22 Ernest Brown
23:57 Steve W.
23:43 Uncle Joe
23:26 Uncle Joe
22:46 tu3031
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22:27 whitecollar redneck
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21:58 Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter)
21:57 LVK (C-1-18 1ID RVN)
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21:45 Frank G
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