When Hollywood Volunteered to go to War

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celebrities, Duty, Duty honor country, Hollywood, honor country, Military Service, sports, U S Military, Veterans

Veterans Tales by Vassar Bushmills

March 29, 2019 is Vietnam Veterans Day.

Boston Red Sox Player Ted Williams swearing into USNavy 1942 Source: US Military/Wikipedia

 

Those veterans, called Baby Boomers, all recognize these Hollywood stars who served in the military during World War II. It’s called a handshake.

Obviously this is not the America of today that it was seventy years ago when “movie stars” just naturally put love of country above their own personal interests.

 

Sterling Hayden, US Marines and OSS.  Smuggled guns into Yugoslavia and parachuted into Croatia.

 

James Stewart, US Army Air Corps. Bomber pilot who rose to the rank of General. 

 

Ernest Borgnine, US Navy. Gunners Mate 1c, destroyer USS Lamberton. 

 

Ed McMahon, US Marines. Fighter Pilot. (Flew OE-1 Bird Dogs over Korea as well.) 

 

Walter Matthau, US Army Air Corps., B-24 Radioman/Gunner and cryptographer. 

 

Steve Forrest, US Army. Wounded, Battle of the Bulge. 

 

Jonathan Winters, USMC. Battleship USS Wisconsin and Carrier USS Bon Homme Richard. Anti-aircraft gunner, Battle of Okinawa[…]

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DHS, DoD Host Press Conference on Department of Defense Deployment to the Southwest Border

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2018 mid-term elections, Honduras caravan, illegal immigration invasion, Mexico-Guatemala border, riot, U S Military, U.S.-Mexico Border

The caravans enroute to the U.S.-Mexico border are scheduled to arrive just in time for the 2018 mid-term elections next Tuesday.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Progressive bureaucrats have not mentioned the coming invasion or the odds of what could happen at the border when the invaders who are carrying their nation’s flag while burning the U. S. flag head this way.

In the meantime, the Communist media complex is spinning the story as if this wave of men old enough for enlistment are too hungry and weak to create the mischief that is no doubt planned.

Honduran invaders storming the gate on bridge at Guatemala-Mexico border.

Just yesterday, another caravan on invaders from Honduras stormed the gates to the bridge at the Guatemala-Mexico border making it abundantly clear that (i) they are up to no good and (ii) they must be met with strength. U. S. Border patrol should not have to deal with these people alone.

Published on YouTube October 29, 2018 by U.S. Customs and Border Protection

WASHINGTON — Today, October 29, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, Commander, United States Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command General Terrence John O’Shaughnessy, and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security Kenneth P. Rapuano hosted a joint press conference on the Department of Defense deployment to the Southwest border.

See my post over at Grumpy Opinions entitled, “Another Honduran Caravan Storms Mexico-Guatemala Border Bridge (footage).“

 

9/11 Where Were You?

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911, Islamic Terrorism, military and veterans, Normandy Speech, President Donald J. Trump, Remember 911, Ronald Reagan, September 11 2001, September 11 Islamic terrorist attacks, September 11th terrorist attacks, U S Military

Attribution: Robert J. Fisch-Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Veterans’ Tales by Allen Ness

I was an Observer/Controller at the Joint Readiness Training Center, Ft Polk, LA.  The Command took care of us, when we weren’t in the “box” we worked half days and three or four day weekends.  Ft Polk is the middle of nowhere but is within five hours of Houston, Shreveport, Baton Rouge and N’Orleans.  Talk about some places to party!  Party during the 90 odd days of the year you aren’t in the box.

Every month a Brigade from the US Army comes to train in the box at JRTC.  It is the premiere Light Infantry training site in the world.  The 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment (Geronimo) provides the Opposing Forces (OPFOR) and they are good at what they do.  I learned more by watching my peers fail at JRTC more than anywhere else in my career.  I must thank every one of them for sharing those lessons with me.  I suffered some shitty times with my Blue Force (BLUFOR) counterparts, wading thru Louisiana swamps chest deep, being lost like forty m*therf*ckers.  Having 10,000 mosquitoes bite and lift, threatening to carry you away.  Waking up with swollen lips from the nasty stagnant water the mosquito had been dragging it’s proboscis through.  We averaged 250 days in the field each year.  Way more than half, but we did trade in and out, we called it “refit” when we could go back home shower and be human for a day.

September eleventh, 2001 was my day for refit.  My partner came out to the box, relieved me and I drove my HUMVEE to the rear.  I parked, carried my dirty gear to my truck and drove home.  It was about 0800, Central Time.  I stopped and got a six pack on the way home.  My wife was already at work and the kids were at school.  I got home, cracked a beer and turned on the TV.  The first thing I saw was the first plane hit the tower.  The rest, the jumping bodies, the second plane, the collapsing buildings is all a blur.  A blur of outrage and growing anger.  I stared at the TV all day long, uncomprehending, lost in anger and the desire for vengeance.  Anger helped me hold back the tears.

The growing anger grew as I remained stuck in Louisiana and other units deployed to take vengeance.  I couldn’t participate but that was the one thing I wanted.  I helped train the 101st Division to go to Afghanistan but couldn’t go myself.  Finally in early 2003 I was re-assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division[…]

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Gays in the Military, a Wartime Remembrance

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GAYS IN THE MILITARY, Homosexuality, LGBTQ, LGBTQWERTY, military and veterans, U S Military, Veterans' Tales, Women's Army Corps (WAC)

Veterans’ Tales by Vassar Bushmills

“Policies Concerning Homosexuals” have changed since I was an Army defense lawyer in the closing years of the Vietnam War. “Being boarded out” was a large part of my defense work.

I’d be interested to know how attitudes stand up to today versus how it was during that war. In 2010 homosexuality became totally legal in the US military, but I wonder if anything has changed.

For one, it never seemed to matter except in combat units and in barracks situations, such as basic training, where troops slept and showered together. I knew a few military who had strong moral opinions, wives more than their husbands, and a few Army Reg’s-sticklers, you know, like Maj O’Houlihan of MASH, but even she had to endure Corporal Klinger all those years….which reminds me, we could still poke fun in those days. We can’t now.

Except in those two areas, it was de facto “don’t ask don’t tell” twenty years before Bill Clinton ever made it official policy. If people took it off post, no one bothered.

Still, we had two gay-dragnets in my three years in Japan. No one could ever tell me whose idea it was. I had friends in the CG’s office, and it didn’t come from him. Most believe it came through CID channels, perhaps through Pacific Command in Hawaii.

I learned it was a standard cop-tactic to roust gays for a couple of months, then street-corner dime-bag dealers another few months, then start the rotation all over again.

I think they got idea from the old Dragnet TV series in the 50s. According to one CW3, the theory was, it kept the cops from falling into a rut, since in most military commands, US or overseas, there wasn’t a lot of real crime going on, at least not like Brooklyn.

Anyway, the order comes down to our CID. They had an LTC in command, and he later came to hate me because I busted up their attempt to bust up the Class 6 (Liquor) Store racket, where soldiers would buy top brand scotch, bourbon and brandy at bargain basement prices, then re-sell to bar owners off-post at ten times the pice, who wou;ld then resell to customers at $20 a shot. I represented two-three of those kids, and called them in gave a little seminar. “Look, this is illegal. All the bars want are the bottles and labels, so they can fill with Japanese rot gut. Their customers would never know. Instead of taking risks, just go around and start collecting empties, and then sell them. Then you’re not breaking the law.”

That shut that CID business line down and their boss hated me for it, for turning little bootleggers into choir boys.

Those were the types of crime waves we had. One attempted murder, Sgt Dan, who beat the rap because he stole a Silver Star, a stolen bicycle, not a lot there for our CID office. The Mayberry Sheriff’s Office was busier. At least the MP detachment, made up of ex-college football players, were off playing football half the year.

So in 1973 CID sent me the first wave of ;lesbians, seven WAC’s they’d nabbed for being gay with about 30 other WAC’s.

But wait, aren’t they all equally gay, and equally guilty? Well apparently not, and you’ll understand why when I tell you.

In our command we didn’t have any lower ranking female clerk-typists personnel working HQ offices. All that was taken by Japanese nationals (you’ve met Mrs Ogawa) or DAC employees, such as Mrs Minami. There were no female Spec4 clerk-typist MOS slots. There were several E4-E5 specialists filling other MOS slots handled my males in those days, and, if unmarried, they lived in an apartment complex on the other side of the post.

For all anyone knows, they were in there doing carnal push-ups every night, only no one every got wind of it, so no one cared.

The object of these dragnets were aimed at all the young (and pretty) “dyke bait” as the CID called them, about 150, who were found in one spot, the top-secret STRATCOM (Strategic Communications Command) on the first floor of our Headquarters[…]

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A Memo on the Vietnam Draft, a Prelude for Vets

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Education, Elitism and Class, military and veterans, The Draft, U S Military, Veterans, Veterans' Tales, Vietnam, Wounded Veterans

Bryan Anderson, U.S. Army veteran and triple amputee, talks with members from the 18th Security Forces Squadron on Kadena Air Base, Japan, June 17, 2013. Anderson was a military policeman in the Army and was able to see how U.S. Air Force security forces members conduct their mission within the different sections of their squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Malia Jenkins/Released)

Unified Patriots by Vassar Bushmills

(This is a set-up piece, a prelude, as to why we need a corps of veterans out there teaching young kids about America. Like any military exercise, we have to 1) know the objective and 2) and know the size and power of the obstacles out there laying out there to keep us from reaching it.)

Recently we published a piece calling for national service, suggesting that every high school graduate be required to attend a boot camp of sorts, where, among other things, they would be taught to make their bed, learn to say “Yessir!” “No Ma’am” and “Thank you” in the appropriate manner, and to develop an appreciation of sweat equity, rubbing elbows, with people they would never have spoken to or sat with in the lunch room at high school.

Yeah, I’ll bet you thought every kid already knew that.

Well, they don’t, and how many of them are in this condition are many more than you know.

WHY they are in this condition, and HOW they came to be in this condition is what I will discuss here, for the military, military service to be more specific, played a major role in how American youths have been shaped over the past 50 years.

In short, the idea of a mandatory system was impractical even before I put it to paper. If such a law actually could get through Congress, fully 40% of America’s parents and/or their children would likely refuse to comply, thus setting off a resistance movement larger and more violent then any we’ve seen in the past.

The situation we’re in today all started with the Vietnam War draft, for the social explosion it caused was all based on a great lie.

The great lie of the Vietnam War draft

A little history of the draft in America, by the numbers.

In the Civil War, the draft pulled in only 40,000 inductees, of a total of 2.5 million who served in the Union armies. That’s 1.6%. Another 120,000 bought their way out of the draft by paying others to take their place, another 4.8%. (This ability to buy yourself or your son out of military service was available only to those who could afford it, namely the upper classes…So take note of this.) True, many from the upper classes did serve anyway, but as officers.

Bottom line, the Union Army was made up almost entirely of volunteers, 2.3 million of them, 94%. And over 400,000 of them never came home.

That’s why we call our group the 15:13 No Greater Love Foundation.

You see, although officially the Civil War was fought to keep the Union intact, most of those 2.3 million volunteers enlisted to end slavery, because, all their lives they had been preached to on Sunday morning about how great a sin and great stain slavery was on the United States. Young men then were about as unaware of the larger purposes of America as young people are today.

Their sacrifice is still the Gold Standard for justifying America’s wars, a high moral purpose at both ends of the military spectrum.

This incorporates one of the many “First Principles” we will use in our curricula for vets who will teach young people, for it distinguishes America from the rest of the world. It’s a real attention-getter, for once you start out a classroom lecture with that, you’ve told them something they don’t know, and as a vet, have the street cred to say it with authority. I know this works because I gave several American Government classes to welfare moms in a small college in Cincinnati.

I began every opening lecture with this small fact: Throughout history no nation has ever given up its sons in battle to go rescue other people, people they did not know, of another color even, and not even known to be Christian, except the United States.

After that, the sledding was all downhill. Teaching American History and Government to 21-22 year olds was easy once you made it clear to the students that they were part of something unique and exceptional[…]

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[cross-posted on Veterans’ Tales.org]

Exorcising the Salutin’ Demon

Tags

U S Military, Veterans, Veterans' Tales

Veterans’ Tales by Allen Ness

Vassar wrote about a Salutin’ Demon a few days ago. They weren’t uncommon in my day either. Usually they are young Second Lieutenants who haven’t figured out their actual place in the chain of command. Do you know the difference between a PFC and a First Lieutenant? A PFC has been promoted twice. It kinda puts things in their rightful place. Theoretically a Lieutenant out ranks his Platoon Sergeant but in fact that Platoon Sergeant is, by Army regulation, responsible for the LT’s training. The Platoon Sergeant has ten or more years of experience compared to the LT’s two. Explain to me how I am responsible for his training and he’s actually in charge? Its not possible. If worse comes to worse and the LT refuses to see the light, you (his PSG) just agree, “Hell yes Sir, that’s perfect, you tell everyone how things work and we’ll just reap the rewards. You’re f*ckin’ brilliant.” It gets ugly fast and Lieutenants don’t know whether to shit or go blind. Some folks learn best when lessons are learned the hard way.

In my first unit, the Wolfhounds, in 1988, Vietnam Vets were in abundance. We had a Command Sergeant Major who wore a different combat patch on his sleeve every day of the week. I remember seeing him with a Screamin’ Eagle, a Big Red One, a Papa Company Ranger scroll and the southern star of the Americal Division (of Mai Lai fame) among others. Then came the day he inspected my company during the peacetime Army tradition of “Best By Test Inspections,” CSM Lopez was an angry Filipino about five-foot four who, according to local legend hated everything.

We were dressed in Class A’s and gay-ass shoes. I’m sure things would have gone better if I’d have been able to wear jump boots and a maroon beret like a real man but I was still “straight leg Infantry” at the time, therefore stuck with stupid shoes and an even stupider “cunt” cap . The CSM was conducting the inspection that day and when he crisply stepped in front of me the first thing I saw, nearly covered by the epaulet on his shoulder was a tiny powder blue ribbon with five white stars zig-zagging across i. I’m sure my eyes bugged out of my head and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the Medal of Honor ribbon at the top of his stack.[…]

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See also Vassar Bushmills:

US ends 70 years of Military Presence in S. Korean Capital