There is a news article going around today about some Marine Sargent who has been passing himself off as a war hero of sorts, which in itself is an ambiguous term in that most people who are, don't really go into the particular circumstance as stated by an author in the article who debunks these frauds which in my experience is also, very true. I have never really given this kind of behavior an awful lot of thought, but aside from this article I actually ran into a guy at the health club last night who for some reason was somewhat vocal about comparing the war in Vietnam, which I was in, to the current string of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and somehow managed to inject Korea into the mix and tried to diminish the two current conflicts by comparison. Naturally, I am slow on the uptake, so I didn't really catch on to what he was doing until he had spouted off to at least one veteran of Afghanistan. He said that the wars in Vietnam and Korea were much worse and the fighting far more fierce and alluded to the current Iraq and Afghanistan wars being easy, that was when I started to catch on and decided to let this expert keep talking.
He went on to admit that he had never really gone to Vietnam because he had some kind of scar tissue that precluded him from combat although he had gone to OCS and was told that he would have been a Major after his first tour because he scored so high on his tests and could anticipate being catapulted to the rank of at least two star General if he decided to grace the military with a twenty year commitment. My best guess is that he had a family friend who had a connection with some Congressman or Senator and were able to get him stateside duty supervising a platoon of clerks. I also think he may have had any one of several maladies that kept him from strapping that seventy pound pack on his back and leading a squad of infantry' on to eternal glory. It could have possibly been shitinyourpantsitis or Ivegotayellowstreakupmybackitis or possibly Ihavetocomeupwithanexcusetokeepmeinthestatesitis, all serious conditions in that had they become pandemics' during any of our wars would have put our country in a bad way, he probably went on to become a lawyer or a politician.
He asked what I did and I said I went to flight school and he said Airborne? I wanted to tell him that, no, flight school meant learning how to fly an airplane or in my case a helicopter, but I told him helicopters and let it go at that, I now knew the source.
Anyway all wars as I see them are this, I would not want to fight in any of the current wars as these current events are every bit as deadly and fighting as fierce as any in the past. The wounds are as bad and you can end up as dead as any war before. There are some new twists in these modern times with the addition of IED's and suicide bombers that make these conflicts especially unsavory. I have had to opportunity and the privilege to know and serve with people who were front line combatants in WWII, Korea, The Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, The Gulf, Bosnia and Iraq and the men who fought these wars all have almost identical experiences and the effects were the same. To diminish this is in any way is pitiful, especially from someone who hasn't waltzed down the pathway to hell in the arms of the Devil. William Tecumseh Sherman the great Union General from the Civil War is credited with making the phrase "War is Hell" famous, truer words were never spoken.
To the Sargent who has faked his service and the jerk who attempted to diminish the sacrifice and service of others I say, piss on you.
Thanks for reading,
"You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace".
General William Tecumseh Sherman
1820 - 1891
In his letter to the Mayor and Town Council of Atlanta before Atlanta was sacked and burned.
Don't forget to check out by other blogs www.theindependentpost.com and www.theindependenttimes.blogspot.com just click on the links and they will take you right there.
No comments:
Post a Comment