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Believe it or not: Veterans Day is a key to modern history

American knowledge of Veterans Day and more importantly, of veterans, has had to have increased somewhat due to 9/11 and the wars that followed. I’m sure if one were to do a *”Jay Walking” (as in Jay Leno) bit and ask random people on the street what Veterans Day originally signified it would be followed by a blank stare or some completely inane utterance  from the respondent.

The day we now know as Veterans Day on November 11 was originally called Armistice Day and marked the cessation of fighting between Germany and the Allied nations. That stop of carnage occurred at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Wow, wonder what will happen next year? 11th hour, 11th day, 11th month, 11th year? The armistice marked the end of what was first known as “The Great War” or the “War To End All Wars.” Unfortunately, that was just the first act, also known as World War I.

If World War II, Korea and even Vietnam seems foreign to most young people these days, then WWI must be thought of as totally “like” ancient. Some of the veterans of that brutal war, fought often in trenches and where soldiers could find themselves maimed by poisonous mustard gas, were still alive when I was a kid. I talked to several veterans who were just as reluctant to tell their tales of horrors from that war as were their sons who fought again in Europe and as well as in Africa and Asia in the Great War’s encore.

A U.S. soldier fires at the enemy in World War I using a French contraption attached to his rifle to better allow shooting from a trench.

TV was full of war when I was a kid. These were WWII stories during the prime time of the 1960s. My favorites included “The Rat Patrol,” about warfare in northern Africa against perhaps Germany’s most brilliant leader, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Other favorites included “Combat!,” as well as lighter fare such as “The Wackiest Ship in the Army” and “Hogan’s Heroes.”

When we played war as kids we played World War II. Usually the Germans and the Americans, and sometimes the U.S. and the Japanese. It was always a short straw to be a “Jerry” and even shorter to be a “J*p,” as ignorant little East Texas peckerwoods like yours truly called them back then.

It was World War I — and to some degree the Civil War, Spanish-American War and the Punitive Expedition against Pancho Villa — that really put great chunks of the Earth in combat against one another. It was also where modern warfare was finely honed and where fatality counts ran into the tens of millions — nearly 20 million ball park. The U.S., entering late, still lost more than 116,000 of our brave young men. More than 205,000 were wounded. Many of the modern machines of war were first used with regularity in that war, the airplane, the machine gun, submarines, tanks, the list goes on.

I always loved the study of history even if the subject matter often was littered with as much foolishness and death as it was showcasing triumph of the human spirit. Whether it was Santayana who said: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” or if he lifted it, the quote can be rightfully considered a truth. Likewise, I wish American school students were given a healthy dose of World War I study or perhaps the “War To End All Wars” could be the subject of a riveting docudrama series such as “Band of Brothers,” for the first World War stands as a big piece of a puzzle that remains to this very days. See “Balkans.” I would hate to bore my fellow Americans, not that I really care whether boredom is their chief complaint. I would just like my fellow countryman to understand the meaning and importance of this great war behind “Veterans Day.” Just as how “veterans” is the most important component of Veterans Day.

There is no telling what our Texas State Board of Education will end up doing with World War I in school books. The U.S. entered that war under President Woodrow Wilson, a progressive Democrat, who was essentially against the war before he was for it.

Still, given a good many 20th century folks remain among us, we should realize just how important that ancient first World War is to our being in the present and the future. In short, we could find out a lot more about what might happen tomorrow or in the future if we set aside some time for reading about the war to end all wars which wasn’t instead of watching Bristol Palin dance with the stars. Given the choice, the pick is a very easy one for me to make.

Happy Veterans Day to our veterans and our veterans-to-be.  Remember WWI, and all the others.

*Listening to answers on the Jay Walking segments tend to make me sad rather than willing to laugh.

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Paladino lying or exercising his free speech?

It seems one cannot go six inches these days without running into a politician who is lying about his or her military service. It’s a little like making one’s way around a fowl yard without stepping into chicken s**t.

The latest who has stepped into it is Crazy Carl Paladino, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in New York, whose activities include e-mailing pictures of bestiality in action, who now has been caught in a lie about his very short time on active duty in the Army Reserve. The would-be gov’nor’s lies are not as outlandish as other claims from past politicians. They are nevertheless falsehoods concerning one’s time in the military. Many in the general public today look upon lying about military service and military decorations as a sacrilege.

Earlier this year Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah introduced a bill that would make lying about military service punishable with up to six  months in prison. A bill called the “Stolen Valor Act” signed in 2005 by President George W. “Gee Dubya” Bush broadened a law already on  the books making it illegal to wear an unearned Medal of Honor to displaying any military decorations which were not awarded. That law was struck down by a federal judge in Denver this summer, the jurist ruling that the law violated “free speech.”

Now it must be said that exaggerating or even downright lying about military exploits are considered a time-honored tradition in some parts. Who hasn’t had a few adult beverages too many and began to tell war tales of Hue, or maybe it was Subic Bay? Well, just as there are different shades and colors of lying so too do different manners of barroom bulls**tting exist. It is when someone takes those tall tales beyond the saloon and start to insert the lies into some manner of their life does the problem start to fester.

Politics and getting ahead are just a couple of  reasons why people make such lies about themselves. I think the phenomenon of military lying is lighted well in the book “Phony Marine,” a novel by writer and legendary “News Hour” journalist Jim Lehrer. The book is about an everyman who finds a Silver Star and makes himself up an entire new life as a Marine hero.

Probably most of us, scholars and just curious folks not included, never think past “Why would someone do something like that?” when serious military lying is unearthed. That is because of the complex relationship between the civilian and military world in the United States, even more is that the case when one has never served in the military.

But those of us who have served also have our different takes on those who commit the lie of military service or exaggeration. The one particularly troubling case is of those who build their service into something falsely stellar. Why? Many reasons exist, some pathological. But mostly there is this to add to the why: Why? Why lie about your military service? Unless you did something wrong while serving or something of which you are seriously shamed by, why not be proud you served? You did something honorable serving. Why not just be content what that?

Otherwise, you might just resort to doing something really stupid, like exercising  your “free speech” kind of like Mr. Paladino and other pols seem to be doing these days.

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Camo camo everywhere and not a place to hide

Camouflage has long been a popular item in the world. Animals use their natural colors and patterns to blend in to keep from getting blasted from a hunter who is dressed in camouflage to keep from being seen by the animals they are a’ blastin’. Of course, the military has long used camo to keep from getting whole armies blasted by whole other armies wearing camo. Seems like a lot of blasting is associated with camo.

Of course, camo has become a fashion statement over the past number of years. It seems it is something the chic and the redneck have in common. There are all sorts of camo clothing — camo bikini tops and bottoms, camo prom dresses and tuxes. It isn’t limited to people. There is various camo wear for that special dog in your life, cars, trucks and SUVs can be found in different camo patterns and of course, your favorite deer stand.

I thought I had seen it all in camo until today while driving down a country road in nearby Hardin County near the Big Thicket National Preserve. Just past a field of donkeys or jackasses or whatever they were I spotted a mobile home with a forest-type camo pattern. Parked next to the mobile home was about the reddest, uncamouflaged pickup truck I have ever seen with tires that seemed as if they were my height — I am just a 1/2 inch short of six feet not accounting for surgery on my neck which may have taken off an inch or so — that made the top of the pickup cab seem as if it was about as tall as the trailer house.

Trailer houses are what we folks from East Texas used to call mobile homes before companies started calling them “manufactured homes.” Yeah, they’s manufactured all right. They’s manufactured like a trailer house. I am not being snooty or anything here, believe me. I lived in a trailer house one time, right by a railroad track that ran through the woods so that when a thunderstorm came up at the same time a train went by you didn’t know whether it was the SP freight train or a F-3 tornado.

Back to camouflage, it’s now in every color imaginable. Camoclothingonline.com has got your traditional woodland camo patterns, city camo (which I don’t understand at all,) sky blue, stinger yellow, desert camo, ultra violet, OD, pink and a few more.

The best gag gift I have seen comes from Stupid.com.  They’ve got Camo golf balls. “Bring the frustration back to your golf game,” their ad says. That is just pure fun, unlike the stupidity of the new “shipboard” camo found with the new Navy Working Uniform. The NWUs, as they are assigned with an acronym, are basically the same as the Army and Marine Corps working uniforms, BDUs in the ARMY and MARPATs in the Marines, only with blue camo. That camo is supposed to hide stains and blend in with colors on shipboard as well as utilize the traditional Navy blue, according to a Wikipedia article. That’s probably the best explanation I’ve heard so far. Although I think the Army BDU is a very functional, and not a bad looking combat utility uniform, I think it has no place on a sailor.

Even the blue jumpers with the rolled collars which I used to wear for working uniforms in the 70s look better for a sailor than does something making them look like GI Joe. That is, unless of course, they are in a combat situation that calls for the NWU and camo, such as in Iraq or Afghanistan. And while we’re on the subject, and I know I have probably covered this here somewhere before, but the Navy Service Uniform is just hideous. No more Winter Blues or Summer Whites. The Winter Blues were really a black shirt and black pants but I thought they were a sharp looking. The summer whites were a pain to wear for more than a special occasion during the summer like a change of command, but they also looked pretty snazzy. The new uniform combines the two, I guess to save money, and makes sailors look more like Marines. That shouldn’t be, you know, because of the relationship between the Navy and Marines. The Marines are a corps, which is part of the Navy. It isn’t the other way around. Not saying anything. That’s just the way it is.

Well, I glad I got that off of my chest, especially since I cannot foresee myself ever getting back into any kind of Navy or other military uniform. I am sure the young sailors who actually do the work these days have their own feelings. This is just what a Navy veteran says and I doubt my opinion counts much in the Pentagon, the Octagon or even the Trapezoid.

The camo trailer house though, that was something pretty unusual to see even for Southeast Texas.

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Afghanistan and the eye of the Tiger, oh my

 Today I have a few words — figuratively speaking — on subjects of which I could discuss with thousands of words. However, I don’t want that and if you read this blog, you surely don’t want that.

 First off, Afghanistan and the upshot of President Obama ordering 30,000 additional troops into whatever it is we are fighting over there.

 Flip a coin. Heads, you approve of the additional troops. Tails, you disapprove. That is how I look at the announcement of additional forces. I initially thought we should have gone into Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks. Today, I’m not so sure. The only thing I am sure of is that we shouldn’t have invaded Iraq. That war is what one might call unjust, not to mention illegal. I haven’t heard it called “Bush’s Folly” or “Shrub’s Folly,” but it should go down in history that way.

 If the search and destroy mission for Osama bin Laden and gang should  not have been a federal criminal investigation — with help from the military and CIA — many of the troops and material poured into Iraq (not to mention the billions of dollars) could have went to Afghanistan.

 I guess the American in me believes that we should find some kind of victory both in Iraq and Afghanistan and leave. We need to figure out what it is we are there to do because I am not sure what our goals are now in those countries.

 As for Obama sending more trooops to augment the more than 70,000 already there — and the allies sending 5,000 more to help the almost 40,000 NATO and other foreign forces in Afghanistan — I say: “Let’s see if it works out.” He has offered a timetable, albeit a seemingly short one.  So if the situation doesn’t improve by whenever it is Obama wants a withdrawal to begin, then we get mad and jump up and down and say: “Bad Obama. Bad, bad Obama.” This seems as good as anything else I can imagine.

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 Next subject. Le Tigre. El Tigre.  Ang Tigre. The Tiger.

 Tiger, Tiger, Tiger.

 Why is the mainstream media doing stories on what was, initially, a rather odd car crash involving Tiger Woods?  Do viewers and readers of the media have such uninteresting lives that they MUST know the details of all the indiscretions of this sports (sports?) star? I have the most uninteresting life  imaginable, at least at the moment, and I don’t care about Tiger Woods” intimate moments. Let me be a bit more specific. I DON’T GIVE A RAT’S RECTUM ABOUT THE TIGER WOODS SCANDAL.

 Tiger Woods has not been elected to greatest golfer in the world or highest-paid sports star in the world. We do not own Tiger Woods. He has no obligation to tell the public zip. Sure, every star of every kind blames the media when things start to go South. But if anyone has a case against the media, this time it is Tiger Woods.

 It makes me both angry and sad to see great newspaper and broadcasting outlets report the latest on this scandal. Why don’t they report something really earth-shaking, like this?

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Happy Veterans Day: I'm no hero

veteran

 

I am a veteran.

I didn’t fight in any war when I joined the Navy in 1974 but because our nation’s involvement officially ended after the events surrounding the fall of South Vietnam in 1975 I am called a “Vietnam Era Veteran.”

That doesn’t mean a lot, especially to those who actually fought and endured the unimaginable in Vietnam. But we couldn’t stop having a Navy after Vietnam and somebody had to steer those ships and swab those decks and, in my case, push and type those papers. Someone had to do it during a time when being in the military wasn’t the coolest thing a young person could do.

Although my parents had a Navy sticker on their pickup — I was the third son to join the Navy — you didn’t see ribbons on cars with the names of their soldier boys who were serving listed on it. You didn’t see every sunshine patriot and vote-needy politician calling those of us  who served “heroes.”

 It wasn’t the best of times to be in the service. And it wasn’t the worst, by a long shot. It was, after all, the 1970s.

 You can bet your ass that I bitched and moaned throughout my tour of duty. It’s what service members do. There were petty, little regulations that seemed absolutely stupid. You could often find yourself following your orders from a tyrant, but unlike in the civilian world you couldn’t talk back or couldn’t quit because you could end up end trouble. The worst case scenario would be the brig, or jail. Those Marine guards in the brigs didn’t exactly play nice, at least that’s what I heard. Remarkably, I never — officially — got in trouble and wound up with an Honorable Discharge and a Navy Good Conduct Medal. The last I figure was quite an achievement considering all the hell-raising I did both on and off duty.

 So I am no hero. I was just a kid out of high school who needed a job, wanted badly to attend college but couldn’t afford it, the Navy needed someone who did their job and did it very well. After finishing my job, the government paid me a nice little stipend under the GI Bill that made it most helpful to become a college graduate. And the rest is history.

 That’s my veteran story. It isn’t a heroic tale but it’s my own and I’m sticking to it.