Article

2008-11-11

Posted by Fred 2008-11-11 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11136 views ] Top

#1 Pretty sad day; here in France, 11th of november is WWI armistice day. A day to remember those who fell, 1.5 milliosn killed (out of a slightly less than 40 million population), millions upon millions wounded, and even more than that who never were born (french demographic winter started right after WWI)... if you look a bit at the ramping up to WWI, at its unfolding, and at what it led to, you really can't help being saddened at this waste, and angered by the legacy of those who led to this waste, and still leading the show (and, no, G(r)om, I'm not talking about the joooos or something).

Posted by anonymous5089 2008-11-11 07:52|| 2008-11-11 07:52|| Front Page Top

#2 Which is another day to thank our fathers' fathers for getting the heck out of there when they did.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-11-11 09:59|| 2008-11-11 09:59|| Front Page Top

#3 Long line of those who served with my name. I'm the latest, but not the last - two cousins have children who joined this past month. Freedom isn't free - it has a terribly high cost only something as valuable as it is could continue to extract. Bless those now serving - their burden is about to become even greater. Pray for them daily.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2008-11-11 12:13|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2008-11-11 12:13|| Front Page Top

#4 I'm wearing my flag pins today, American Left collar (Nearest the heart) Confederate right collar.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2008-11-11 12:21|| 2008-11-11 12:21|| Front Page Top

#5 In 1914 the French Army went to battle with bright red trousers. It went to battle with an officer corps who in name of "laicité" (not to mix with American "secularity") had has its church or temple-going elements (that is 75%) bypassed for promotion or downright purged. End result was that Joffre had to fire one general in two before the end of war for gross incompetence after having gained their stars not through professional merits but for politic/religious motives. End result was hundreds of thousand French soldiers needlessly dying victims of their absurd uniforms (1) and the political toadies they had in guise of officers.

(1) It would have had a pass if, like the American Civil War generals using Napoleonic-like tactics in the era of the Minnie bullet, the French command had been surprised by the lethality of a new weapon, but already during the Boer War that is over ten years earlier it had been evident, even to the obtuse British who dropped their red uniforms for kaki ones, that you couldn't go to battle dressed like a practice target.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2008-11-11 12:54|| 2008-11-11 12:54|| Front Page Top

#6 Army bureaucracies can, alas, be as stupid as other bureaucracies. Only with armies it's more obviously fatal.

Posted by lotp 2008-11-11 14:12|| 2008-11-11 14:12|| Front Page Top

#7 JFM, tell folks why the pants were red! It wasn't just the generals' idea, apparently. You'd tell your own story better than I would.

Ninety years ago this morning, my grandfather and thousands of other gobs crowded the rails of the USS Arkansas and other British and American ships based in Scapa Flow. They passed binoculars around (and dropped a few in the ocean), all trying to see the German admiral in his launch hand his sword over to the British admiral.

The Grand Fleet had kept the Kaiser's fleet bottled up in the Baltic for most of the war.

Today I'd like to honor our friend Art, who served a year commanding a construction battalion in Iraq. They built schools, roads, communities and public order.

Posted by mom">mom 2008-11-11 14:51|| http://idontknowbut.blogspot.com]">[http://idontknowbut.blogspot.com] 2008-11-11 14:51|| Front Page Top

#8 to all who serve or served, thank you

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-11-11 15:01|| 2008-11-11 15:01|| Front Page Top

#9 I served, thank you Frank G.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2008-11-11 15:12|| 2008-11-11 15:12|| Front Page Top

#10 Thanks RJ.

Posted by .5mt 2008-11-11 15:38|| www.cybernations.net]">[www.cybernations.net] 2008-11-11 15:38|| Front Page Top

#11 Thanks

Posted by illeagle 2008-11-11 15:55|| 2008-11-11 15:55|| Front Page Top

#12 Rj served in the confederate army?!?

Posted by Fester Creanter3194 2008-11-11 15:56|| 2008-11-11 15:56|| Front Page Top

#13 Mom

The pants were tainted in red because government had tried to subsidize the farmers who produced the plant (garance in French) for tainting them. My guess is that the use of this plant was being phased out with the introduction of syntethic taintings. My other guess is that some influent politicians depended on those famers for reelection or, that given the electoral system the shifting of just a dozen constituencies could tumble the government.

Also in case the red trouser was not visble enough, the jacket was the kind of blue used in the Grande Armee. And French soldiers had no helmets. It took several months and hundreds of thousands dead before they got the horizon blue uniforms (since this ws France uniforms had to be blue) and helmets made from third rate steel.
a "hoeizon b

Posted by JFM">JFM 2008-11-11 15:59|| 2008-11-11 15:59|| Front Page Top

#14 Yes, for all of you who have served - me and my family thank you.

Posted by swksvolFF 2008-11-11 19:16|| 2008-11-11 19:16|| Front Page Top

#15 Back at ya Frank!

Posted by Besoeker 2008-11-11 19:44|| 2008-11-11 19:44|| Front Page Top

#16 12: Rj served in the confederate army?!?

Oh, funnnnny.
I served in the US Navy, and was mostly bored to death.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2008-11-11 19:46|| 2008-11-11 19:46|| Front Page Top

#17 RJ, you deserve nothing less, and a lot more

Frank

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-11-11 19:46|| 2008-11-11 19:46|| Front Page Top

#18 missed ya B - same to you!

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2008-11-11 19:55|| 2008-11-11 19:55|| Front Page Top

#19 Just want to say to all you who served to make this a free nation - Thank you very much.

Posted by CrazyFool 2008-11-11 19:56|| 2008-11-11 19:56|| Front Page Top

#20 My father-in-law died this summer. A veteran, age 84. As the procession left the funeral home for the church it drove past a day care center. Some wonderful soul had all those little children out on the lawn waving little American flags and clapping as the hearse passed. Small town America!

Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore 2008-11-11 20:18|| 2008-11-11 20:18|| Front Page Top

#21 I have long thought that WWI was a stupid, stupid war.
It started stupid because Archduke Ferdinand was stupid to go to Serbia, practically daring the nationalists to assassinate him. After that, the entangling alliances forced countries to fight each other who might not have fought.
It was fought stupidly - sending men in a massive charge across no man's land against entrenched machine guns guaranteed massive casualties. Generals who refused to change their strategy despite massive evidence that it wasn't working
It was stupid for America to become involved. We did not have a dog in that fight, as they say. We were suckered in by the British, and somewhat the French, who had been bled white over the years.
After the war, the Allies demanded war reparations that bankrupted Germany thinking that it would keep Germany down forever. Instead, it fostered resentment among the Germans that allowed Hitler to take over and start WWII.
Oh, and as a "consolation prize", Britain won a lot of the MidEast from Turkey, and along with President Wilson, carved it up into the mess we have today.

Posted by Rambler in Virginia">Rambler in Virginia 2008-11-11 20:19|| 2008-11-11 20:19|| Front Page Top

#22 If I make it to 84 I hope somebody does the same for me. I'd be most honored.

Posted by Besoeker 2008-11-11 20:20|| 2008-11-11 20:20|| Front Page Top

#23 Pretty damn accurate synopsis Rambler. Now tell me how we got saddled with this socialist dictator last Tuesday?

Posted by Besoeker 2008-11-11 20:28|| 2008-11-11 20:28|| Front Page Top

#24 I served in the US Navy, and was mostly bored to death.

Sometimes I wish I had been bored.

Looks like I'll be making a trip back East before the end of the month to make a final visit to my 'second Dad'. Landed at Normandy on his 19th birthday; lasted three days before getting shot in the throat among the hedgerows. Recovered, married the nurse who tended him, went to law school at the Univ of Virginia, and retired as a judge.

They don't make 'em like that anymore.

Posted by Pappy 2008-11-11 20:42|| 2008-11-11 20:42|| Front Page Top

#25 I took the Purple Heart, that my Cousin and best frien growing up was awarded when he was killed in action in Vietnam, to work today with his name, Lance Corporal William Clyde Northington attached. Only 2 people in an office of 123 knew what it was. One thought it was the Medal of Honour. Sad.

Posted by Deacon Blues">Deacon Blues 2008-11-11 21:44|| 2008-11-11 21:44|| Front Page Top

#26 [fhgd has been pooplisted.]

Posted by fhgd 2008-11-11 22:50|| 2008-11-11 22:50|| Front Page Top

#27 Cleanup, aisle five!

Some russkie puked on the floor...

Posted by mojo">mojo 2008-11-11 23:05|| 2008-11-11 23:05|| Front Page Top

23:55 rjschwarz
23:33 Pappy
23:24 Pappy
23:21 Pappy
23:17 ex-lib
23:16 USN, Ret.
23:13 ex-lib
23:09 USN, Ret.
23:09 SR-71
23:05 mojo
23:04 ex-
23:03 mojo
23:02 ex-
22:59 Glenmore
22:58 ex-
22:55 mojo
22:55 USN, Ret.
22:53 logi_cal
22:50 fhgd
22:50 logi_cal
22:48 Free Radical
22:45 USN, Ret.
22:43 cingold
22:40 JosephMendiola