LEATHERNECKM31

All that’s missing is a fluffy kitten

I detest the Navy’s new ad campaign TV commercials which features a sci-fi “Transformer”-type aircraft full of nurses and doctors saving flood victims and handing out bottled water… Evian please.

All that’s missing is a fluffy kitten.

And the tag line?“America’s Navy..  A Global Force for Good.”

Puke.

But then what do you expect when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,  “Mommy” Mike Mullen, an admiral so giddy over paving the way for openly gay sailors to help destroy the world’s premier navy, that I expect him to appear at the next Gay Rights parade in San Fran.

That is he over there, with his Cub Scout salute and his cover askew; looks gay to me.

Mullen has said “We treat each other (gays)with respect or we find another place to work. Period.”

That’s right, Gunny; you don’t like this, don’t let the door hit you in the six. We’re making room by getting rid of you for seamen recruits with the political agenda to turn then Navy into The Village People. They already have their own marketing tool.

The Navy’s new buzz phrase is just one more “chickification” of our military specifically, and our society in general.  “Global Force for Good” replaces the “Accelerate Your Life” campaign which was even more lame and could easily have been used for DeVry University… same with the Army’s “Be All You Can Be” and “Army of One.”

You get the trend here….?

The individual is stressed over the unit and the mission.

Our military is answering the question that should not be asked by recruits in the first place–”What’s in it for me?”

Our political-military is rewriting history: “Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you.”

But to my shipmates’ credit… the Navy Times reports that it has received 56 e-mails from readers, and all but six disliked the new slogan.

“This bumper-sticker jingle would look good on a flower-toting cart, but when an [aircraft carrier] that displaces over 100,000 tons pulls up off your coast, generally the thought is, ‘Oh crap, the U.S. Navy is here,’” said Information Specialist 1st Class Joshua Forman, 2nd Fleet Military Intelligence Operations Center.

“Some people disliked the slogan for practical reasons: “This is not ‘America’s Navy.’ It is the United States Navy … America encompasses two continents. The United States is located in just one. Tell them to get it right,” said retired Lt. Cmdr. Bill Jones.”

And what does it cost to “re-brand” the United States Navy and put it in a Volkswagen mini-bus?

“Campbell-Ewald, the Navy’s main advertising agency since 2000, was awarded its third five-year contract in May, worth as much as $800 million, partly on the strength of its “A global force for good” re-branding concept. The company and Recruiting Command have enough evidence that convinces them today’s young people will respond to an  appeal to a higher purpose.”

A “higher purpose” you latte-drinking metrosexual?

There is no higher purpose than serving your nation honorably, and hopefully getting the chance to kill some of the enemy during your career.

And yet, onboard the Navy’s website, you’ll find this…. Yea!! UPS stands on guard for you.

Hey, all hands… and let’s not forget to celebrate Women’s History Month…. which is right before Take Your Daughter to Work Day and just after Secretary’s Day.

No… not Navy Month or Military History Month or Large-caliber Weapons Month.

What about Medal of Honor Month…. National Medal of Honor Day was 25 March, but you won’t find that in the Navy budget line items.

No… for your tax dollars you get:  CHICK MONTH!! Which is just before Black History Month and just After Hispanic History Month… and I’m laying 10 to 1 that Muslim History Month is only one Obama re-election away. 

Naturally, all the colors of the rainbow (rainbow… get it?) are prominently displayed in the Navy ads… most of the females are of those carefully chosen models who appear to be a mixture of Mediterranean, Black, Oriental… somewhat exotic like the gal above.

This is what you need when build and maintain a focused, dedicated, cohesive military force?…  diversity, separate agendas, groups and sub-groups within the group? 

Can Puerto Rican lesbian defrocked nuns, and trannys be far behind?

“…The more effeminate and debauched the people are, the more they are fitted for an absolute and tyrannical government.” –Charles Thomson, Secretary to First Continental Congress

But thank God and 230 years of hard as nails Americans, there still is a Marine Corps.

The Corps has perfected the negative sell…. “… you can’t make it here, go away and don’t bother us.”

Marine Corps Medal of Honor Recipient Hershel Woodrow “Woody” Williams was rejected twice by a recruiter because he was too short. He refused to take no for an answer.

Less than two years later he helped turn the tide in one of the Corps’ most pivotal battles.

It will again my distinct privilege to break bread with Woody on Tuesday… the last survivor of 22 Marine and five Navy MOH Recipients cited for heroism on for Iwo Jima.  (I’ll post through next week on our annual Medal of Honor Weekend here in Gainesville… now in its 11th year. This year we are hosting 14 Recipients.)

Over the years the Corps has used variations of the  “you’re not good enough” theme: “First to Fight”,  ”We Didn’t Promise you a Rose Garden”, “The Few The Proud The Marines”, “Duty… Honor… Country.”

The Corps has maintained this simple recruiting (marketing) concept that has worked since Smedley Darlington Butler was a private, and before; we’re just looking for a small number of dedicated individuals who are full of testosterone, possess a clear mind, and above all, are willing to use maximum violence to kill our enemies.

Meanwhile, other branches do a disservice to their troops by painting them as Super Peace Corps Volunteers helping out natural disaster victims.

“Humanitarian missions”, “Peace keepers”. Crap.

The Corps will never run an ad that suggests someone join for college money, or to “be all you can be”.

The Corps offers one thing–you can be a Marine if you can hack it; if you doubt yourself, don’t take up the nice recruiter’s time.

Semper Fi… .

David

It would have pleased David mightily; not the pomp and ceremony, but the heartfelt tribute paid him yesterday as the people of his hometown said farewell and Godspeed to a truly loved resident of Crosby Texas.

The motor procession route from his church to the Houston National Cemetery was lined with hundreds of Real Americans, all ages, genders, ages and walks of life who knew and respected what David life meant to theirs, his beloved state of Texas, and the Nation. But just as much they loved the Massachusetts native for choosing their small town as his own; his dedication to their beliefs, their youth, especially Junior ROTC cadets, the veteran community, especially American Legion Post 658, and his devotion to his God and fellow man.

To say that Vietnam Medal of Honor Recipient 1stSgt David McNerney was loved is a disservice to the word. I asked an older couple along the route if they knew David, and the gentleman said with tears in his eyes, “He was my neighbor, lived right behind me… I’ve lost a great friend.”

In my weaker moments, I cannot understand some Americans, though they are the clear minority, why they refuse to understand or appreciate what being a Real American is… to stand in the just sun and humidity for hours just to pay their respects the a great national hero and thank him for allowing them to live safe and free to go about their lives free of fear and oppression.

But in the end, the summer soldiers and sunshine patriots, the domestic enemies and those who hate our beloved nation matter not; as 1stSgt McNerney and his men of A Company, 1st of the 8th showed the enemy more than 40 decades ago, it only requires a dedicated group of patriots, a band of bothers, those willing to lay down their very lives for their comrades and people back home—even those who disrespect and hate them—to preserve liberty and freedom.

It was a great honor for Don and Lynette, Scott and Jenny and myself to participate in David’s farewell, but it was also a duty; we would have been nowhere else.

And as we made the long drive back across the Lone Star state, one of David’s favorite old songs played in our heads….

I'll be seeing you

In all the old familiar places

That this heart of mine embraces

All day through.

In that small cafe;

The park across the way;

The children's carousel;

The chestnut trees;

The wishin' well.

I'll be seeing you

In every lovely summer's day;

In every thing that's light and gay.

I'll always think of you that way.

I'll find you

In the morning sun

And when the night is new.

I'll be looking at the moon,

But I'll be seeing you.

More about David here, here and here.

Video coverage here.

David McNerney--June 2, 1931 – October 10, 2010

Vietnam Medal of Honor Recipient, 1stSgt. David McNerney, passed away early Sunday morning at the VA hospital  in Houston after a months long battle with cancer. He was 79.

Viewing will be Friday, Oct. 15 from 3 to 9 p.m. at the Sterling White Funeral Home, 11011 Crosby Lynchburg Road (also called FM 2100 Road), Highlands, TX.  Rosary will be at 7 p.m.

Funeral services will be held Saturday at noon at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 915 Runneburg Road, Crosby, TX.

Full military honors will be rendered immediately after the funeral at the Houston National Cemetery, 0410 Veterans Memorial Drive, Houston, Texas.

David requested that in lieu of flowers, donations may be made  to the Wounded Warrior Project - http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/.

His passing leaves the number of surviving Recipients at 86.

We here at the Southern Command and Gainesville’s Medal of Honor Host City Program have lost a great friend… a kind and quiet man who always wore his uniform to talk with school children “because it gives them something to ask questions about.”

His constant aide-de-camp for the last decade was Gerald Blankenship (below left shown with our mayor, Glenn Loch), a neighbor, retired law enforcement officer and Navy submariner who devoted much of his life to his friend for many years. Gerald and his wife, Suzanne, cared for David on a daily basis toward the end; they are wonderful people, friends and great patriots.

One of our group here, Major Tom, issued a fine eulogy that fits David well:

David was special.

He was special to the program and to everyone who knew him.  He was a gentle man who rose to accept the challenge of combat and beyond. He did not brag, he did not wear his heroism on his sleeve, he was not vain, he was a real hero.I will never forget him and his kindness.

He was a real hero to me off and on the battle field. I was honored to be able to call him friend.  David is a role model for all of us. 

David came by his courage and combat audacity honestly; born in Lowell, Massachusetts to a military family, his father, Edward McNerney, was a decorated World War I veteran, having earned the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, and two Purple Hearts. Two of his siblings served in World War II and a third was a fighter pilot in Vietnam.

In 1949 he enlisted in the United States Navy and served two tours in Korea during the Korean War before his discharge in 1952. He briefly attended the University of Houston, but disliked college life and joined the Army after seeing a recruiting poster on campus.

In 1961, McNerney married Parmelia Marie Moeckel; the couple had no children. Parmelia died in 2003 after a long illness.

McNerney’s men of Company A, 1st Battalion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division operating in the Central Highlands near the Cambodian border were convinced that the  no nonsense senior staff NCO was a hard-assed lifer who insisted on making them miserable with incessant training and a zero tolerance for mistakes.

On March 21, 1967, they came to understand that all along he had been preparing them and saving lives with his two-tours of experience as a military adviser to the South Vietnamese Army.   

On that afternoon, he and his company were dropped by helicopter into Polei Doc to search for a missing reconnaissance team. The unit’s advance the next morning stalled by a North Vietnamese force three times Co. A’s size.

McNerney immediately moved to the lead element to assess the situation and was wounded by a grenade. In quick succession the company commander and forward observer were killed, leaving McNerney to assume command. He began rallying his men and organizing the defense.

He called in air strikes to within 65 feet of his own position and marked the unit's location by climbing a tree, in full view of the enemy, tying an identification marker to the upper branches.

Braving heavy fire to collect demolition equipment which had been dropped early in the battle, he blew up trees in order to clear a landing site for a helicopter extraction. Despite his wounds, he refused to be evacuated himself and stayed with the company until a new commander arrived the next day. For his actions during the battle, McNerney would be awarded the Medal of Honor.

He returned to the United States in August 1967 and worked as an instructor at Fort Dix, New Jersey. During a ceremony at the White House on September 19, 1968, he was formally presented with the Medal of Honor by President Lyndon B. Johnson. He volunteered for a fourth tour in Vietnam before retiring as a first sergeant in December 1969.

David was one of the first Recipients to support our program starting a decade ago. He missed one annual event in that  time… but only because a hurricane and flood prevented him from getting to the airport. Occasionally he would come up on his own…. he and Gerald driving virtually all of Texas south to north for just for a two or three-day visit.

Our small community adopted him as one of “our” Recipients. He was a favorite of grade schoolers and women doted on him because he was quiet and gentlemanly and they loved to embarrass him with genuine affection.

He apologized for not being able to accept our last invitation… to attend the dedication of the Host City lobby in our civic center which features personal articles that he’s donated for our display cases. He was simply too ill and only has a few weeks to live. 

Every year I prepare a short in-memoriam video to honor the Recipients who have died in the previous year; it never gets any easier, just more sad. I’d hoped I wouldn’t have to include “our David” so soon.  

 

 

The best of America in peril, but rising up

 (Stars and Stripes) — Looking up at the high walls of the snow-covered Afghan valley, Army Special Forces Staff Sgt. Robert Miller, right, knew that his patrol might be walking directly into an ambush.

That’s why he insisted on being up front, his teammates said.

It’s also what cost him his life.

On Jan. 25, 2008, Miller’s patrol of 22 U.S. and Afghan soldiers was ambushed outside of Gowardesh by a force of 120 enemy fighters. Troops there said Miller bore the brunt of the attack, then drew even more fire in an effort to help his men drop back to safety.

Even after being shot through both sides of his chest, he continued to return fire and toss grenades at the enemy. “He definitely saved lives that day,” said Staff Sgt. Nick McGarry, a close friend who served alongside Miller in the Special Forces for three years.

Today, the White House will posthumously honor Miller for his heroism by presenting his family with the Medal of Honor, only the third service member to be awarded the honor for actions in Afghanistan.

Also please keep our friend, 1stSgt David McNerney in your thoughts and prayers; David, a Recipient for his heroic 1967 actions in Vietnam, has entered the Houston VA Hospital for hospice care.

A quick note or card would be a great lift for him and his family and friends.

Send to:

David McNerney, Medal of Honor Recipient

c/o Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center

2002 Holcombe Blvd.

Houston, TX  77030

I always hate this segue… switching from the epitome of American exceptionalism, honor and achievement and to the politicians who have hacked away at those very bedrock principles for more than a half-century.  

May their end be swift, calamitous and complete 

Once again… sorry for infrequent posts … had a good time at the MOH Society’s annual convention in historic Charleston, S.C.  Many states, many miles… like Lethal Weapon cops, “I’m gettin’ too old for this crap.”

Over the last two weeks and with increasing speed, the radical left of the democrat party, lead by the Obama Regime, has gone into a flat spin on all fronts; Congress slunk out of two for an Obama vacation, doing so via a single vote cast by the most hated woman in the nation—SanFranNan Pelosi.

The dems couldn’t even pass a budget…no matter, we should be more than grateful for gridlock at this moment.

We are now witnessing the final death throes of the despicable, anti-America, hard- core socialist movement that slammed into high gear after 1963; and which made tax slaves real Americans and welfare queens and their poverty pimps in Washington. Under this guise came the storm troopers, not strutting their way down the streets, threatening der untermensch with torture and death.

Working in front groups… unions, “civil rights” (sic) groups, education, the arts, entertainment, environmental movements—all supported, protected and funded by the democrat party in exchange for votes—the radicals destroyed much of American without firing a shot.

We’ve been vigilant, looking outward when first, we should have been looking over our shoulder.

It’s laughable… we claim to have “won” the Cold War—hogwash. Yet every year our “finest” colleges and universities require only four years to turn your kid into a Che Guevara t-shirt-wearing useful idiot of the left, literally cheering for the murder of a million babies a year, ridiculing the country, its founders and God.

The uber irony of course is that you paid $40-$50,000 for the whole freak show.

For America the effective end of the radical left was never really in doubt for one simple reason: we are Americans and like no other people, society or country in the world… in the history of the world.

The best there is, there ever was, or ever will be… what is around us all will fall, but never we.

Instead of being considered about the “military-industrial complex”, Ike should have warned us about the political/ economic complex… money is power, power is money.

He should have joined the founders in stressing that we be ever vigilant against domestic enemies—the real threat for a nation surrounded by massive oceans and insignificant countries to the north and south.

Socialism was and is always destined to implode because it only “works” until the money runs out and the entitlement infrastructure built on taxing to death the productive collapses of it own enormous weight… the exact scenario that now exists.

Confiscating the hard-earned wealth from Real Americans and using it to purchase the slugs, defectives, con artists, race hustlers, and enemies of our society and their votes, lasts only until all are poor and despots rule, or until strong men and women stand and throw off the yoke of tyranny.

Over $11 Million in California Welfare Funds Spent in Vegas Casinos Government

CBS Poll: 25% of Americans Would Not Support Attacking Iran in The Event They Attacked U.S. Soil First…

Unreal. New Hip-Hop Curriculum Refers to Founding Fathers “Old Dead White Men”

We are now rising up... but once again far too late to prevent great wounding. Nonetheless, most indications, even despite my inherent cautiousness when judging my fellow citizens.

1. The democrat party is in collapse.

It is warring against itself and may well indeed emerge after its collapse in 15-20 years as centrist or even conservative-lite in much the same way the Kennedy Administration was.  

Its titular head, Howard Dean, a self-serving apolitical, amoral con man is obviously lost at sea in much the same way as is his doppelganger, Michael Steele, the GOP’s answer to affirmation action. Both are incompetent, without real political clout and are but mere window dressing. This hurts the GOP far more than the DNC… at least Dean is intelligent enough for his post, Steele is not.  

Thus it must also be said that a similar transformation will cleanse the GOP of the likes of John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Blanche Lincoln, Arlen Specter, Mike Castle who never were within a solar system of conservative Reagan republicanism.   

2. Old v New.

Ninety percent of politicians are willing to sublimate their principles (if they can lay their hand to them) to win elections and maintain their power and wealth, so they’ll thrown the Obama under the bus as soon as he becomes a personal millstone around their individual necks; and he has been dead weight for them since he won the nomination. Not even a below-average IQ child ever bought into “hope and change” as a political platform. For them it has been flat spin since Jan. 20, 2009.

3. The truth will out.

Despite the massive conspiracy that created the most serious threat to the United States in its history, communism masquerading as soft socialism, law-abiding, Christian middle-Americans, regardless of previous party affiliation have now begun to reclaim their rightful role in the government…. as the supreme power of this Constitutional Republic, as it was envisioned so long ago.

4. Making it stick.

As faithful readers know, I see the world in terms of military tactics and strategy… anyone with a “political science” degree knows more and more about less and less until their know nothing. Look to the “leadership” of either party for examples.

We can win the battle, yet still loose the war; it only required five short years for American to fall dead asleep, resting on its hard-earned WWII laurels, and caught completely unprepared for the communist threat in Korea. Thousands of young Americans paid with their lives for the malfeasance and stupidity of the government, the military and the electorate which came together to rule the world somewhat less than four years.

Essentially then, Sunday, 25 June 1950 at the 38th parallel in Korea was no different than Sunday, 7 December 1941 in Hawaii.

Now we face an even more determined enemy—collectivist globalism and its key henchman, the Muslim religion—as will as the burden of a soft populace which is more than comfortable allowing a small professional military to protect their bloated lives and tag along for the free ride.

Should we backslide and not capitalize on our initial victories to finally eradicate the left in America, we will likely not survive.

MOH Convention --- Charleston

Charleston, SC—The Southern Command in on the road for a few days for the annual Medal of Honor national convention and to take in the rich Revolutionary and Civil War history of the city.

Especially for a Westerner like myself, a city such as this, founded in 1670, gives new meaning to the word “old,”

I can see Ft. Sumter from our hotel room.

Yesterday we had a great tour led by our friend, local guide and licensed ship captain, The Great Slidini, who provided us with great historical information as we took the area.

Fort Moultrie, on Sullivan Island, across the bay from Ft. Sumter, was the first fort on Sullivan's Island was still incomplete when Commodore Sir Peter Parker and nine warships attacked it on June 28, 1776. After a nine-hour battle, the ships were forced to retire. Charleston was saved from British occupation, and the fort was named in honor of its commander, Col. William Moultrie. In 1780 the British finally captured Charleston, abandoning it only on the advent of peace.

Will post through the next three days….

At last…..

Richard Etchberger holds the Medal of Honor that was presented posthumously to his father Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Richard L. Etchberger, by President Barack Obama during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010. Etchberger received the honor for his heroic actions in combat in Laos on March 11, 1968, after deliberately exposing himself to enemy fire in order to put his wounded comrades in rescue slings permitting them to be airlifted to safety.

Full story here.

First Sgt. David McNerney

(Editor’s note: sorry for infrequent blogging; lots happening both in my veterans program and in MOH news… we finally have at long last, a living Recipient, and soon a 45 year-old wrong will be corrected with the the Medal of Honor presented to the family of a great hero who was KIA in 1968.

(And over the weekend some of our Host City group traveled to Houston to participate in the dedication of a monument to one of the true gentlemen who earned the nation’s highest award.

(More tonight about the real losers in the election---members of the Republican party ruling class, from Karl Rove to Charles Krauthammer).  

                    1stSgt. David McNerney

CROSBY TEXAS – For likely the last time his troops regrouped.

The men of A Co., 1st Battn., 8th Infantry Regt., 4th Infantry Div. who fought a desperate battle 43 years ago were gathered to say goodbye… goodbye to the hard as nails “top sergeant” the young troops resisted and even disliked in training, but came to thank him once again for for their very lives, as well as those of their children and grandchildren.

In early spring 1967, career solider 1stSgt. David McNerney took command of his unit in Polei Doc, Republic of Vietnam; the commanding officer was dead and the NVA surrounded and threatened to decimate the inexperienced Americans.

McNerney, just two years from retirement, was everywhere over two days, drawing on a lifetime of experience and genuine love for soldiers young enough to be his sons.

McNerney would be awarded the Medal of Honor of the action which he insists was actually earned by the men in his command and that he simply wears it for them, especially those who died fighting a determined and fanatical enemy. 

There is a deep sadness in their eyes. If only they could pay him back in kind for the four decades he’d given them, but cancer is too tough for 1stSgt McNerney, too much for his troops and in the end will succeed where an entire enemy battalion could not.

But this day, with smiles and stories shared with and about their leader, they could bask in a few hours of life that only survivors know, the payoff for those who have seen death and know first-hand that the difference in living and dying is a matter of inches, a sudden movement or miscalculation… or the great heroism of a combat leader. 

Read the rest here.

Heroes and those who steal from them…

Over much of my life I have tried to learn and commit to memory everything I could absorb about the Medal of Honor.

To me The Medal especially but really, all valor awards, epitomize what it means to be an American—sacrifice, service, optimism, strength of character, courage and the willingness to die for the cause of freedom and liberty.

Thus it should be personally painful for all Real Americans when these noble men, these living national treasures, join their comrades in eternal and honored slumber.

Deaths last week of Vernon Baker of Idaho and and Nicky Bacon, a past President of the Congressional medal of Honor Society leave the number of living Recipients at 88.

Army First Lt. Vernon Joseph Baker, above, was born 17 December, 1919, passed away at his home in Idaho last last Tuesday. Cited for his heroism in World War II with the Distinguished Service Cross, his was finally awarded the Medal of Honor in 1997 after it was determined he should have been awarded the MOH outright.

His additional personal decorations include the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart; he will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Details are pending.

Army First Sgt. Nicky Daniel Bacon, born 25 November, 1945, passed away today at his home in Arkansas, also after a long battle with cancer.

U.S. Army from 1963 to 1984 and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Richard Nixon for his actions during an August 26, 1968 battle near Tam Ky, Vietnam.  

Bacon dedicated his life to helping the nation’s veterans, and served as Director of the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs from 1993 until 2005.

Bacon was the guest of the Medal of Honor Host City Program in Gainesville Texas in 2005 when this photograph was taken.

An oak tree was planted to commemorate his visit.

In addition to the Medal of Honor, Bacon's personal decorations include the Distinguished Service Cross, the Legion of Merit, two Bronze Stars (with “V” device) and the Purple Heart.

He will buried at the Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock on Saturday, July 24.

Additional information coverage here.

My friend in Colorado, Doug Sterner, has forgotten more about the Medal of Honor than I know; he and his wife, Pam, are tireless in the defense of America and especially the truth.

Yes, truth in that there are hundreds of times more Americans who claim to have earned the Medal of Honor than the surviving 88 who have.

Veterans are fighting back… here’s just one of myriad websites dedicated to uncovering and pressuring prosecutions of frauds and imposters… Stolen Valor.com

News Item:

After examining Who's Who and obituaries, the Chicago Tribune used military records to unearth 84 bogus Medals of Honor, 119 Distinguished Service Crosses, 99 Navy Crosses, five Air Force Crosses and 96 Silver Stars.

…. and that doesn’t even make a dent in the numbers of despicable liars, frauds and con artists guilty of the worst kind of theft.

The Sterners through their Home of Heroes.com literally wrote the first draft of the Stolen Valor Act which made it a federal crime for unauthorized persons to wear, buy, sell, barter, trade or manufacture "any decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the armed forces of the United States, or any of the service medals or badges awarded to the members of such forces."

Doug and Pam and were successful in getting it through Congress, seeing it become law in 2005.

It only took one federal judge a stroke of a pen to undo all their years of hard work and leave our history and the nation’s honor vulnerable as never before.

This is devastating to the nation’s veterans and under this fifth-columnist-run government, there is a good chance the judges’ decision will not be overturned.

DENVER -- A federal judge has ruled the Stolen Valor Act unconstitutional, and on Friday dismissed charges against a man accused of lying about being an Iraqi war veteran.

In hearing the criminal case against Rick Strandlof, federal Judge Robert E. Blackburn said that the Stolen Valor Act is unconstitutional because it violates free speech. (Read judge's decision).

Strandlof, aka Rick Duncan, claimed he was an Iraq vet who was injured during combat. He said he served three tours in Iraq and was at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. He also falsely claimed to have received a Purple Heart and a Silver Star.

I’ve include this waste-of-skin’s photo to do my small part in identifying someone who should be shunned by the nation, not just veterans.

Here Strandlof is shown speaking at the Colorado Veterans Monument another great friend of mine and tireless advocate, Tim Drago, and a small group of dedicated vets, dedicated 20 years to see become a reality. (See here for his current undertaking… Tim is not known to sleep).

In the Stolen valor decision, essentially, the judge ruled that lying, and the bigger the better, is protected free speech under the First Amendment.

Strandlof, 32, was charged with five federal misdemeanors of claiming that he had been awarded a Purple Heart Medal and Silver Star Medal. All charges have been dismissed.

Not surprisingly, he American Civil Liberal Liars Union of Colorado and the Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based nonprofit civil liberties group, all filed briefs in the case, arguing the Stolen Valor Act is unconstitutional since it's not illegal to lie.

One of my favorite intel blogs, In From The Cold, has a very good piece on this outrage here under “Why Judges matter”.

Doug recently had a great success in unmasking a fake hero right here in the heart of Texas… it didn’t matter that the revered “war hero” was taking a dirt nap in the Texas State Cemetery.

Also from In From the Cold….

Even in death, Texas state senator (and former U.S. attorney) Charles Ferguson Herring was hailed as a war hero.

During his lifetime, Herring claimed to have won the Navy Cross, three Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star as a Navy officer during World War II. Herring also stated that he rose to the rank of Lieutenant Commander in the naval reserve, before leaving the service in the mid-1950s.

As you might have guessed, Herring's claims of valor were nothing but lies. Doug Sterner, who runs a website honoring military heroes, obtained copies of the late senator's military records under the Freedom of Information Act.

While Mr. Herring served as a junior officer in the Navy (and Naval Reserve) from 1943-1953, he never received any decorations for valor, and was never wounded in combat.

All references to Herring’s “heroism” and fraudulent military claims have been stripped from the Texas State Cemetery’s website, but of course his damned carcass is allowed to remain in the same ground as Recipients BGen. Robert Galer, Maj. George O’Brien and Sgt. Jim Logan.

See A Hero No More -- scroll down to July 13.

Our ANZAK brothers battle the same problem, here.

McChrystal’s crystal ball……..

First, I’m not convinced that Obama will sack Gen. Stan McChrystal after his unvarnished opinions of his Marxist CnC and others in his chain of command came to light in Rolling Stone Magazine or all venues.

From a common sense standpoint as was as General Kickass’, firing McChrystal is unnecessarily problematic. First, a shakeup at the NATO commander on the Afghanistan theater now is hardly welcome for Obama who would rather be golfing, going to ball games, and looking for tar balls, and than being president, let alone CnC.

After all America, he has to “clear his mind” and what’s good for Him is of necessity, good for us all. Non?  

Another reason for not firing Gen. Wisenheimer is that his “offenses” were more personal than professional. Anyone who understands fully the titanic struggle between Gen. Douglas MacArthur and President Truman realizes that the McChrystal flap “does not rise to the level of impeachment” as the dimocrats used to say about everything Bubba Clinton did in and out of the Oval Office… and with his hand on the Bible or, uh, elsewhere. 

MacArthur wasn’t just “airing dirty laundry”… he was damned near conducting his own war in Korea and ignored POTUS in a manner unprecedented in U.S. history; even if Truman had wanted to stay his hand, he had no historical or Constitutional choice. Civilian control of the military was at stake.

This doesn't come within a BP oil spill of that Constitutional dilemma.

But from my POV, I hope McChrystal is sacked by the cocktail hour tomorrow. My opinion has nothing to do with the rarified atmosphere of “the war room”… it has to do with the troops on the ground… the real heroes in this drama who always get third and fourth billing.

McChrystal was infuriatingly devoted to Obama’s ROE—“rules of engagement”—for our troops which literally means, do not fire unless/until your are bleeding.

The only person who seems to have adhered complete ROE was Lt. Michael Murphy, the Navy SEAL who did not kill the Afghan civilians who stumbled on this team’s location in Afghanistan and for that decision received the Medal of Honor and a first-class funeral… along with those of two of his Operation Red Wing teammates.  

From the Rolling Stone article:

“(McChrystal) has ordered convoys to curtail their reckless driving, put restrictions on the use of air power and severely limited night raids. He regularly apologizes to Hamid Karzai when civilians are killed, and berates commanders responsible for civilian deaths. "For a while," says one U.S. official, "the most dangerous place to be in Afghanistan was in front of McChrystal after a 'civ cas' incident." The ISAF command has even discussed ways to make not killing into something you can win an award for: There's talk of creating a new medal for "courageous restraint," a buzzword that's unlikely to gain much traction in the gung-ho culture of the U.S. military.”

But however strategic they may be, McChrystal's new marching orders have caused an intense backlash among his own troops. Being told to hold their fire, soldiers complain, puts them in greater danger.

"Bottom line?" says a former Special Forces operator who has spent years in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I would love to kick McChrystal in the nuts. His rules of engagement put soldiers' lives in even greater danger. Every real soldier will tell you the same thing."

"Patrol only in areas that you are reasonably certain that you will not have to defend yourselves with lethal force," (command’s) laminated card reads. For a soldier who has traveled halfway around the world to fight, that's like telling a cop he should only patrol in areas where he knows he won't have to make arrests. "Does that make any f**king sense?" asks Pfc. Jared Pautsch. "We should just drop a f***ing bomb on this place. You sit and ask yourself: What are we doing here?"

So, I’m relying on odds here; I believe that Obama is no more versed in his role as CnC now than he was his first day as a community organizer for ACORN… so chances are, his replacement for McChrystal might be slightly better (for the troops).

As far as getting people dead for no reason, no one could be worse for our guys unless Obama appointed someone from Code Pink, or dug up John Murtha.   

So, there’s the possibility that a combat leader will be selected who will flatly oppose the idiocy of The Fighting Peace Corpse and demand that we effing win the damned thing.

Besides, McChrystal is a life-long dimocrat and admits that he voted for Obama; he should be sacked just for that.

Once again my fellow patriots…. I cannot urge young Americans to enlist and die for this country, this Commander in Chief, this despicable Marxist government that it trying to destroy America.

“Pacific”

For those of us who have studied the Pacific theater in WWII, and especially jarheads, Home Box Office’s “Pacific” was long awaited, and at least for this Marine, a successful effort in portraying WWII’s worst crucible.

The inevitable comparisons with Spielberg/Hanks/HBO’s epic “Band of Brothers” are both predictable and frankly, unfair because, like the wars, the productions were completely different.Soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines were dying in Pacific combat from Dec. 7, 1941 until a brutal, fanatical, and psychologically unbalanced enemy was eradicated by any and all means necessary. In the end, peace was only achieved with an unthinkable weapon designed specifically to kill Japanese in massive numbers.

As accurately portrayed in “Band of Brothers”, the final assault on Fortress Europe did not begin until two and a half years after Pearl Harbor. We follow Easy Company, 2nd battalion, 506th PIR of the 101st Airborne though training and preparation for D-Day. Most of Easy Company didn’t hear a shot fired until 6 June, 1944.

In “Pacific” we also get an accurate portrayal… of almost immediate combat played out in the largest battlefield in the world, on tiny disease-ridden, rat-infested specks of land unknown to much of the world, then and even now. 

It’s no wonder that the “Battling Bastards of Bataan” sang, “No mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam” as an unprepared America shocked belatedly into WWII, didn’t have meager supply lines, it had no supply lines.

General Douglas MacArthur’s soldiers ate mules and monkeys and finally even shoe leather in an attempt to fight off starvation before being forced to surrender.

“Pacific” –-which portrays the war experiences of Medal of Honor Recipient Gunnery Sgt. John Basilone (left)—shows us the immediate shock of the young unbloodied Marines at the first encounter with well-trained and combat-tested Japanese who fought to the death, committed war crimes on an hourly basis and chose seppuku rather than surrender. It was a matter of honor.

Many Americans faced with surrender also chose death, but only to spare themselves the horror that falling into the hands of the Japs meant.  In the Pacific, the death rate of U.S. POWs was 37%—seven times that of POWs under the Germans and Italians.

Every Allied POW captured by Imperial Japan was tortured; you’ll never see a “Hogan’s Heroes” about fighting Japs.

The war changed the men of Easy Company to be certain, but as Eugene Sledge’s (below) physician father explained of his war and its casualties: "It wasn’t that they had had their flesh torn, it was that they had had their souls torn out.”

In last night’s final episode about the Marines’ homecoming, Cpl. Robert Leckie’s cab driver, himself a European Theater vet, refuses the Marine’s cab fare.

"”m not taking that. I might have jumped off at Normandy but I got rehab in Paris and London, all you Gyreenes got was jungle rot and malaria"

By story-telling standards, Band of Brothers is much better; there is great pace and writing, and the main characters are sharply drawn with great complexity.

But in “Pacific” the Sledge and Leckie characters and their fellow Marines haven’t the time for such niceties, they are knee-deep in a struggle to maintain a grip their sanity, let alone their humanity.

Racial hatred comes much easier for the Marines in the caldron of no quarter given.

When an Easy Company lieutenant methodically and devoid of hatred, executes a small group of German POWs on D-Day, it was a simple exercise in common sense.

In “Pacific” many men find that only exponentially greater violence, even to the point of post-mortem savagery, can satisfy their need to repay in-kind the enemy who forced them to embrace their most primitive instincts.

To say “life was cheap in the Pacific”, is to utter one of the greatest understatements of World War II.

After one savage battle, a character exclaims in a combination of bewilderment, anger and angst, “Why won’t they surrender?”

He doesn’t get an answer… there isn’t one.

For the young Marines, visions of hell are so common and unrelenting that in many ways they give up hope or even the belief in their own survival… simply based on the odds and the enemy arrayed before them.

Once home the Leckie character explains to a young lady that he wrote her many letters during his three years overseas.

“Why didn’t you send them to me?,” she asked.

“I didn’t think I’d make it, so it didn’t matter,” he replied.

There were a lot of answers for Easy Company… primary among them was their part in the liberation of the deaths camps which if nothing else made all the pain and suffering and death perhaps worth while.

The end

Major Dick Winters and Easy relaxed in Occupied Germany, winding down slowly while packing bags and memories for home.

The only thing that could be said of war by the psychologically stunned Marines, awaiting the final assault on the Japanese mainland, one hot August day in 1945, was “it’s over.”

As portrayed in the HBO series, and in Leckie’s (left) and Sledge’s war memoirs on which “Pacific” was largely based, the young sergeants, PFCs and corporals came home quietly, without fanfare and immediately started trying to make sense of home and peace—a task they found perhaps more difficult than making sense of war.

“When he came to enroll at Auburn University, the female at the registrar’s office asked him if the Marine Corps taught him anything useful. Sledge replied saying ‘Lady, there was a killing war. The Marine Corps taught me how to kill Japs and try to survive.

“Now, if that don't fit into any academic course, I'm sorry. But some of us had to do the killing -- and most of my buddies got killed or wounded’."

Sledge’s memoir is With the Old Breed; and Leckie’s is My Helmet for My Pillow.

If the war in Europe was about technology, airpower, grand war strategy and massing material and troops until the issue was simply not really in doubt, the island-hopping campaign was looking a Jap solider in the eyes as you gutted him, before he could gut you.

Is this back and forth meant to question which war was “worse”? No, but it is about which war cost our fathers’ generation more deeply.