Good morning

Done with class. My prayers to the troops and there familys.

I thought the podcast was interesting. I look forward to the Special Ops documentary, if she's able to make it come to fruition.

Great documentary.

Can you please provide a link to SFC Nun's blog?

My fiance is a soldier with the National Guard, about to go on his 2nd deployment. I agree that you don't hear as much about the Guard, and have actually had people ask why he is being deployed, because he is National Guard. I have no idea how to respond.

I dunno. Most of the movies that are available on the market that have to do with true life accounts of the war in Iraq are about NG Soldiers it seems. You know, those movies that are based on the Soldier's own movies and stories.

War sucks. Great bunch of guys. I hope they all get back safe and in one piece.

Funny you should say that NicciC...you made me think of something. (**sorry for going a little off topic here, folks**)

When I got back from the 2nd Army trip to the 'kitty litter box' across the pond (the long trip) and was FINALLY having a beer at my local bar (where I knew everyone, and everybody knew me), an old Vet asked me where I had been for the last year and a half.

I told him I'd been mobilizing, training, and then was stuck in the sandbox for 366 days of fun and games. He just shook his head in disbelief, and asked me why I would volunteer to do THAT. Not quite understanding where he was coming from, I asked him to clarify.

See, it turns out that he knew I was in the National Guard before I left...and in HIS mind (he served from the mid 50's to the early 80's), the National Guard didn't deploy OCONUS. He said the Guard was a bunch of wuus boys who didn't want to go to war, so they had mommy or daddy make a call and pull some strings for them. He still had that picture of the Guard in his mind to that day (in 2005). Guys that played Soldier on the weekends, but that didn't have the balls to join the 'Real" Army.

I have to wonder how many others in society, who remember the National Guard of the Vietnam Era as being a place for the Bush and Quayle types who never made it over the pond to the land of noodles and land mines...but DID manage make it off the draft lottery rolls. Or the ball players who had their buddies "sign them in" for drills they never bothered to attend...(My grandfather was a Staff NCO in a unit that had some very high profile "drilling" reservists during Vietnam...it pisses him off to this day)...while the kids without such a "hook up" were coming back through Travis AFB on my father's C-141 in body bags.

I still have some of those old photos from the 141's...he made sure to show them to me before I signed on the dotted line...and again before I started deploying.

So, that being said, I then understood why there was a disparity in understanding...and took no offense to his perception.

Maybe they just don't realize the EXTENSIVE role the Guard has filled for the Total Force of today....over, and over, and over again.

The aforementioned old man at the bar has no doubt in his mind about how things work now, as I was rather quick to explain, rather clearly, how my dead friends were, most certainly, serving the Army National Guard, OCONUS, in combat, at the time of their final missions. It was obvious that our conversation was an eye opener to him.

It is a topic worthy of discussion when you are shooting the bull with middle aged and older folks...you'd be surprised how some of their pre-conceived notions, (rightly) forged in another era, are in need of some modern adjustment (a twisting of the Vertical Hold knob, maybe?) in order to get the whole, current picture.

Then there are the old farts in the VFW (an organization I became a Life Member of, and donate to annually)...who know EXACTLY what we do, and know EXACTLY when we are coming home (as they were there to meet us, late at night, in the blowing snow at McChord AFB when we stepped off that contract rotator bird...

...OLD men, WW2 vets...standing outside, freezing his butt off at 85+ years of age...just to shake MY hand, and say "welcome home, Soldier").

I will NEVER forget that.

I saw the last half hour of this on PBS late last night. Wow!!!! I never served in combat. How unreal it was to watch the convoy deal with that IED under the overpass and have to search in the darkness for secondaries.

What a way to travel down the highway and then wonder if they were placed there by the Iraqi military.

Stay safe all,

Don
Proud father of a U.S. Marine

Funny thing..three NG soldiers walked past me at walmart today.. all E6's. Two of them looked to be mid 40's.

Not a combat patch among them.

SSGT (lstgnfghtr) Thank you for your service!

Outstanding show, incredible work those folks are doing. Would be glad to have them in the boat with me anytime. IRT whether someone has combat insginias on their sleeves or not, or how old they are compared to their rank or rate, I never notice. I only notice someone proudly wearing the uniform in public for all of us to see. Great job by all, be safe if you are there or go there.

quote:

Originally posted by SaraSnipe:

quote:

Originally posted by threerings:
Funny thing..three NG soldiers walked past me at walmart today.. all E6's. Two of them looked to be mid 40's.

Not a combat patch among them.

Don't let that fool ya. I'm thinking about not wearing mine just so I can yank somebody by the chain when they got something to say about my slick sleeve.


SaraSnipe out

From "A Few Good Men" as the Marines are leaving the courtroom....

Tom Cruise: "Harold...you don't need to wear a patch on your sleeve to have honor."

Don

quote:

Originally posted by 21yrsUSCGUSCS:

quote:

Originally posted by SaraSnipe:

quote:

Originally posted by threerings:
Funny thing..three NG soldiers walked past me at walmart today.. all E6's. Two of them looked to be mid 40's.

Not a combat patch among them.

Don't let that fool ya. I'm thinking about not wearing mine just so I can yank somebody by the chain when they got something to say about my slick sleeve.


SaraSnipe out

From "A Few Good Men" as the Marines are leaving the courtroom....

Tom Cruise: "Harold...you don't need to wear a patch on your sleeve to have honor."

Don

You stated it so much better than I. Play your position. If you get a patch out of it...well Ok.


SaraSnipe out

"LT, I have two books by my bed side...The Marine Corps code of conduct and the King James Bible, the only proper authorities i'm aware of is Col. Nathan R Jesup and the LORD OUR GOD!!"

LOL...Sorry couldn't help it, but that is about the most ridiculous line in a Military movie ever :P

Are any of Voodoo getting kick backs from the PBS DVD sales? It seems a shame that Bad Voo is doing all the WORK and PBS is getting all the profits?

Just a thought.
You take all the Vids that media is selling and making TONS O PROFITS OFF OF, and Troops not getting squat, that money could help alot of the Troops/families after this war. Not just the Media types!

PBS is a non profit.

Public Broadcasting System.

Not that they aren't making money, but it isn't profits that go to shareholders...it pipes back into the system and gets used to produce quality shows that show you all the stuff the other FOR profit networks aren't interested in producing.

My opinion only...I am a PBS supporter and have donated to KQED back home as long as I've been a working member of society. A bit liberal, yes...but the good outweighs the bad IMHO.

MIT is a non-profit Institute and therefore departments, labs and centers are not typically able to make donations to other non-profit organizations<<<<<<<

Non-profit can be misleading.. US Gov sends many Millions to MIT for R&D on products that will go to contractors for big profits.

But I understand what you are saying, but money does go into someones pockets, not the Troops.

"I don't need to wear any stinkin patches!"

Big time difference between PBS, or NPR, or the like...and MIT

You are absolutely correct, however, in your statements about non-profits in that regard...I cannot argue that one bit.

In my backyard, we have the Lawrence (U.C. Berkeley) nuclear folks, who work completely in sync with the DOE's LLNL in Livermore...where said research money that starts out "non-profit" and comes out in research grants, one way or another translates into contractor profits.

Many of the kids I went to high school with had parents that worked at the Lab, and they weren't lowly paid government employees...these were 6 figure PLUS...(it's a pretty pricey neighborhood in CA...not a lot of civil servants can pay the rent there)...mostly people who worked for Govt. Contractors...and the money funding the projects (laser research, particle acceleration, matter implosion, etc.) often came via the "Public" education system of one of the most liberal colleges in the USA...U.C. Berkeley (go figure that, eh?)

...similar to MIT's research turning into Lockheed/Rockwell/BAE's next cash cow.

quote:

Originally posted by RobRodriguez:

quote:

Originally posted by bigEMarDet77:
Was a good show, but why is it linked to the MODF?

My prayers to those in Bad Voo and safe return and no more going back to Iraq after May 2008.

Semper Fi

I know that this may seem a bit out of place in the service-specific forums; but since this topic is of such great importance, we (the boss and I) thought it best to selectively link it to get the most attention and exposure.

We would like to hear feedback on the show and on the interview from many points of view, and linking this forum is the method of choice.

>> Rob Rodriguez

While I personally agree with the political message here, I would like to emphatically express my opposition to the use of these forums as a platform for spreading any messages other than those freely formulated and expressed by the members on these board.

It has been tried before, and such attemts at centrally controlling the content of a forum invariably result in the effective death of the forum. You might visit http://www.irandefence.net/ to see the result: a sickly forum of 14-year olds discussing nothings.

Let us not let the military.com forums come to that.

regards JakobA