Democrats always attack, decimate, reduce, belittle, disarm, and de-fund the military.

Here is some more of the Democrat party putting down the military and making them pay taking their pay.

The United States military forces were greatly reduced by the Democrats after World War I in the years before the December 07, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. At that time our military had been reduced to a very dangerously low level. We had to pay dearly for that foolishness.

Such are the Democrats and their complete denial and ignorance of history.

The Democrats have always despised the American military, who maintains the freedom of the United States, so much so that they continuously attack the American military in any way they can, especially financially.

In the sixties the Air Force was paid twice a month, on the fifteenth and the thirtieth. Most military families lived payday to payday because the pay was so poor. They were forced to plan on two week budgets. Then their payday was changed to once a month, to being paid on the last business day of the month. The pay they planned on and needed on the fifteenth of the month did not happen. The total pay for the month was the same but families who planed on their pay every two weeks had to go an extra two weeks to receive that pay. This was extremely hard on those who had to live from payday to payday. For what it maybe worth, most of these families could have qualified for food stamps. In the military you could not even apply for food stamps.

But the government got a two week cash flow benefit.

So our payday became the last business day of the month, we survived and we adjusted.

Another outrage was promotion freezes; I went through several of these during my twenty plus years in the USAF.

Then there were the years of the pay freezes, no Cost Of Living Allowances (COLA, which was supposed to keep up with inflation).

There were years of reductions in forces, material, weapons, R&D, bases being closed, medical care (promised but not delivered).

There are many more.

Then the payday was changed again to the first business day of the month instead of the last business day of the month. Only a day or two change, but that had an effect on the government’s cash flow. Ours as well but we did not count, again we adjusted.

Here is the latest rip off (no other words apply).

The once a month pay that was paid on the first business day of the month was changed again.

December 2011, the payday was changed, this time the rule was that if the first of the month is a holiday or a weekend the payday would be the last business day of the preceding month.

Only a day or two you say?

Here is what a difference a day or two can make.

The kicker: January the first is always a holiday, therefore the January 2012 pay was moved to December 31, 2011.

The INTENDED consequences were that I and all other retired and active duty military personnel in all branches of military service would be taxed on thirteen months of pay (the thirteenth month was the January 02, 2012 pay that was received on December 31, 2011 and accounted as 2011 pay).

Count the days.

This increased my taxable income enough that part of my Social Security became taxable.

Wait!….What?

In case you did not know, Social Security IS taxable. Now you know about another democrat party lie.

To continue: this shifting of income from 2012 to 2011 put me in higher tax brackets. It also made part of my Social Security taxable which bumped me into yet another higher tax bracket.

The end result was an additional $251.00 in income taxes. This was effectively a reduction in pay of $251.00 for that “thirteenth month”.

That may not sound like much, but it is more than one month’s basic utilities (gas, water, and electric) for me.

How would you feel about that?

Obama and the democrats have once again given me and every retired and all active duty military personnel in all branches of service, another screwing. We will all have to pay taxes on thirteen months of pay for 2011. Multiply my cost/loss by the total number of retired and active duty military service personnel in all branches of service.

I am not typical; the real amount will be far higher.

That is a huge amount stripped (stolen) from our military and their families.

Once again our United States military pays the cost.

So where will this money go?

Where did the TARP go?

I can not understand how anyone, especially anyone in the military, can vote for Obama or any Democrat or even believe anything the Democrats say.

Well on second thought, maybe I can. I used to associate with people who were: “Blissfully Blind”, “Determinedly Stupid” and “Invincibly Ignorant”. Thankfully I got away from them without being infected.

(I think know they were liberals)

In 2012 I will have to pay taxes on twelve months of pay, the January 2013 pay will be moved to 2012. That is twelve months of pay. That means there is no way I can ever recover from this financial fraud.

This is another story you will never see in the MSM (Marxist, Socialist, Media, also known as the propaganda arm of the Obama administration/Democrat party).

USAF RET MSG Al Cooper

The Being Conservative team saw this heart-wrenching yet sobering reminder of our troops’ sacrifice and wanted to share. This is a photo of Landon. His father, Marine LCPL Andrew Carpenter, was killed in Afghanistan a month before he was born.

Lance Cpl. Carpenter was killed in Afghanistan February 19th of this year.

Marine Lance Cpl. Andrew Carpenter, a member of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, was shot in the neck while on patrol in southern Afghanistan. The bullet severed his spinal cord. His heart stopped and it took officials 43 minutes to revive him. Medical officials later declared the 27-year-old brain dead.

~~~

Father Kevin Carpenter spoke with The Daily Herald on Saturday from Germany, where his son was hospitalized. He and his wife flew there last week to spend time with their son.

“We got to tell him we love him. We got to see him. And even though he wasn’t there, we got to hold him,” he said.

The Marine’s father said officials tried their best to keep his son alive and considered flying him back to the U.S. to let his wife see him, but they believe he would have died during the flight.

Crissie Ponder could not fly to Germany because she is pregnant and expecting to give birth in less than two weeks.

Andrew Carpenter joined the Marines in 2007 and was serving his second deployment in Afghanistan. Kevin Carpenter said his son was due back sometime this spring. He married Ponder in 2010.

She declined comment to the newspaper, but wrote on her husband’s Facebook page: “You will always be my soul mate and my best friend forever. … I look forward to seeing you in Heaven one day, baby.”

Cpl. Joseph Davis, who has known Carpenter since childhood, will escort the Marine’s body back to Tennessee once he reaches U.S. soil.

Davis said his friend was always happy wherever he went.

“He lived a full life,” Davis said. “He loved doing what he was doing. He was glad to serve.”

A section of street in his hometown of Columbia Tennessee was named in his honor.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Brittney Murray and Hero sit by Justin's grave. Murray took the lead in trying to bring Hero to the United States. Bill O'Leary / WASHINGTON POST

..and Tissue-alert story of the day:

This was as close as Hero the dog had been to her old buddy Justin since they were photographed together in 2007. In that picture, they were snout-to-chest, a 23-year-old soldier cuddling a weeks-old stray puppy in Samarra, Iraq. But Wednesday, Hero could get no nearer than six feet, a grown dog snuffling above a grave at Arlington National Cemetery.

~~~

Dog and soldier took very different paths to Arlington. On March 5, 2007, one day after he befriended the puppy, Army Spec. Rollins was killed by a massive roadside bomb. Two weeks later, he was here in Section 60.

Hero’s trip was longer and stranger. It started when an Iraqi soldier waved over Rollins and his unit to see something interesting outside a police station. It was a litter of dusty blond puppies, sleeping in an old upturned outhouse.

A group of the men jumped at the chance to fraternize with some local critters. Rollins in particular was a self-professed animal nut, with a beloved pit bull sleeping on his bed in New Hampshire and a history of rescuing strays. When his unit was sent to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, he got dozens of abandoned dogs into shelters.

The guys passed around the Iraqi pups, snapped a bunch of pictures. Later that night, Rollins called his girlfriend back home and told her to expect some very cute photos from him the next day. That e-mail never arrived.

“We never heard from Justin again,” Rhonda says.

When they did see the pictures, sent by one of his buddies, they were entranced: Justin nose to nose with a brown-eared pup; Justin cradling the one with a patch over its eye. His joy was palpable.

“It was so wonderful to see how happy he was,” Rhonda says. “Those were his last happy moments.”

When his flag-draped transfer case arrived at an airfield in New Hampshire, an Army general asked the family members if there was anything he could do for them.

As a matter of fact, there was.

“I want one of those puppies,” Rhonda answered immediately.

The officer nodded and said they would be glad to get her any kind of dog she liked. No, Rhonda said, she wanted one of those dogs. From the pictures. Justin’s dogs. She already had a box full of his personal effects, but she knew his dog could provide something his dog tags couldn’t — an armful of her son’s loving warmth.

Read the article.

After her request for the dog was turned down several times by the Army, Murray contacted local newspapers and then congressional offices. Bill O'Leary / WASHINGTON POST

I can’t shake the feeling that it was a trap. A set-up. An ambush.

And that Obama bought it. And Joe Biden made it all possible.

There was no end to self-adulation of Barack Obama following the raid in which Osama Bin Laden was killed. In the revelry, the brainiac that is the Vice President opened his mouth and identified those who carried out the Bin Laden raid.

He can tell you more about and understands the incredible, the phenomenal, the just almost unbelievable capacity of his Navy SEALs and what they did last Sunday.

Following the Biden outing, SecDef Gates made clear that increased security was necessary to protect the SEALS and their families. He also noted that the Obama administration could not shut the hell up.

Frankly, a week ago Sunday, in the Situation Room, we all agreed that we would not release any operational details from the effort to take out bin Laden. That all fell apart on Monday, the next day.”

Gates turned out to be prophetic:

“There is an awareness that the threat of retaliation is increased because of the attacks – because of the action against bin Laden,” he said.

Obama then let everyone know where the SEAL Team was.

(Reuters) – President Barack Obama, basking in U.S. public approval for the killing of Osama bin Laden, flew to a military base in Kentucky on Friday to thank special forces who carried out the deadly raid and led a rally filled with cheering troops.

By the end of May, the Taliban was promising revenge.

Nicholas Schmidle wrote a highly detailed play by play of the raid. He’ll probably get a Pulitzer Prize for it. He also helped the Taliban devise a trap.

“One option entailed flying helicopters to a spot outside Abbottabad and letting the team sneak into the city on foot. The risk of detection was high, however, and the SEALS would be tired by a long run to the compound. The planners had contemplated tunneling in — or at least, the possibility that bin Laden might tunnel out…Eventually, the planners agreed that it made the most sense to fly directly into the compound. ‘Special operations is about doing what’s not expected, and probably the least expected thing here was that a helicopter would come in, drop guys on the roof, and land in the yard,’ the special operations officer said.”

“Forty-five minutes after the Black Hawks departed, four MH-47 Chinooks launched from the same runway in Jalalabad. Two of them flew to the border, staying on the Afghan side; the other two proceeded into Pakistan. Deploying four Chinooks was a last-minute decision made after President Barack Obama said he wanted to feel assured that the Americans could “fight their way out of Pakistan.” Twenty-five additional SEALs from DEVGRU, pulled from a squadron stationed in Afghanistan, sat in the Chinooks that remained at the border; this “quick-reaction force” would be called into action only if the mission went seriously wrong. The third and fourth Chinooks were each outfitted with a pair of M134 Miniguns. They followed the Black Hawks’ initial flight path but landed at a predetermined point on a dry riverbed in a wide, unpopulated valley in northwest Pakistan. The nearest house was half a mile away. On the ground, the copters’ rotors were kept whirring while operatives monitored the surrounding hills for encroaching Pakistani helicopters or fighter jets. One of the Chinooks was carrying fuel bladders, in case the other aircraft needed to refill their tanks.

In the detailed description, there is more prophecy

One month before the 2008 Presidential election, Obama, then a senator from Illinois, squared off in a debate against John McCain in an arena at Belmont University, in Nashville. A woman in the audience asked Obama if he would be willing to pursue Al Qaeda leaders inside Pakistan, even if that meant invading an ally nation. He replied, “If we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable, or unwilling, to take them out, then I think that we have to act and we will take them out. We will kill bin Laden. We will crush Al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national-security priority.” McCain, who often criticized Obama for his naïveté on foreign-policy matters, characterized the promise as foolish, saying, “I’m not going to telegraph my punches.”

Obama did. So did Biden. And so did Schmidle.

They offered the Taliban an outline of how high value target raids are conducted. And it was another high value target they were after.

KABUL—U.S. Special Operations troops were closing in on a clandestine Taliban meeting thought to include a high-value commander in Afghanistan’s rugged Tangi Valley when they ran into an insurgent patrol that pinned them down.

Rangers just happened to “run into” an insurgent patrol that just happened to be there in a position to pin them down??

Bin Laden’s remains were necessary to provide DNA evidence of his death. The alleged “target(s)” of this disastrous raid must also have been very high value as the raid bears a striking similarity to the Bin Laden raid. This time they knew the SEALS were coming and they were prepared for them.

Bin Laden was located from threads of intelligence gathered over four years, and it all derived from a phone call.

So now thanks to the eager press the Taliban knew how Bin Laden was found, they knew who participated in the raid and they knew how it went down. All they needed to do was set bait that someone at the top could not refuse.

The Taliban could leak information about a high value target- it had to be someone high on the food chain, someone else whose DNA would be be required for a positive ID- someone like Ayman Al-Zawahiri. Then they could pin down the first team looking for the high value target and hold out for reinforcements. And they came. The Taliban KNEW SEAL Team 6 comes after high value targets and could well be involved. They KNEW the equipment that would be used. They KNEW pretty much how it would be done. They KNEW how to furnish the fake intel.

It all fits. I believe the Taliban got its revenge by playing the game and I cannot help but wonder who made the decision to send in Special Ops and then the SEALs instead of using a drone. That decision probably came from the top. Perhaps someone was looking for another trophy- someone who needs a boost at the polls.

We still don’t know who got Khalid Sheik Muhammad.

I wrote this well before the following appeared.

UPDATE: Yes, it was a trap.

The Taliban lured US forces into an elaborate trap to shoot down their helicopter, killing 30 American troops in the deadliest such incident of the war, an Afghan official said Monday.

Arleen Ocascio, director of the VA cemetery in Houston, has decided to take the Marxist Revolution a step further and has decreed that there will be no references to God or Jesus and that all ceremonies must be written and submitted to her for pre-approval. Obviously, this low level bureaucrat has decided Obama’s Revolution is stalled and she must pick up the standard and impose her will on the veterans who come to the cemetery to bury their loved ones.

According to her, there will be no mention of a Christian or Jewish God at future ceremonies, she has spoken and her feelings reflect the Democrats and their antagonism against God. There seems to be no antagonism against Allah, at least he has not been mentioned in Ms Ocascio’s demands that religion or God not be mentioned in the ceremonies taking place in her cemetery.

Marilyn Koepp, Secretary of the National Memorial Ladies, a volunteer group that attends every funeral at this particular cemetery, was told by Arleen Ocascio that they could not mention God while on the cemetery grounds.

It’s true that Obama’a Democrats wants to erase all traces of God from public buildings and our schools, but why must they insist that the veterans who pay the ultimate sacrifice or old heroes from the wars of yesteryear deny the presence of God before being interred with their brothers. Why is this tyrant being allowed to impose the Socialist creed against religion on the grieving families of our patriots. Is Obama’s hatred of our military, going to be allowed to force undue suffering on our Goldstar families when they are at their most vulnerable time.

There is a movement calling for the firing of Arleen Ocascio, not a reassignment, a termination. It is imperative that we demand her termination; otherwise, similar encroachments by Obama’s Socialism will continue to erode away our freedoms and the Constitution. If we allow every Marxist ideologue with a bit of power to usurp our freedoms at their whim, we will lose our Liberty.

This woman must be terminated, not transferred to sow other cushy job, but terminated without benefits. We can no longer stand around and watch these petty tyrants throw their weight around and cower in fear. They are petty Marxists who think they have power over the Constitution because of Obama’s disregard for the Constitution.

We have been pushed, it is time to show these pathetic little Marxists how the brotherhood of patriots regards their disregard and disdain of our basic rights and freedoms.

Don't Mess With Our Vets

First Lady Michelle Obama and Second Lady Jill Biden have engaged in a constant media campaign to convince the American people they care about us military folks. About a month ago, they were pushing an initiative to encourage Americans to volunteer on behalf on military troops and families. The problem is that I haven’t seen anything but talk from these women.

Now, they’re heading to California to meet with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Directors Guild of America, Producers Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America West. They have formed a “Joining Forces Inter-Guild Task Force” to provide creative and production support for Mrs. Obama’s program and to inform and inspire their memberships about the service of America’s military families.

Can I make a suggestion to both the Guild and the ladies? Leave us alone! Hollywood has done the military ZERO favors with their “inspirational” stories about us and our families! Unless, of course, creating movies about how all troops come home messed up and our families are helpless victims of a government sending us to unnecessary and “illegal” wars is somehow supportive.

According to a White House press release I got today, “The Guilds are hosting the First Lady for a special Joining Forces event to discuss the stories and issues of today’s military families so that their experiences can be integrated into film, television and digital media. The entertainment industry has the opportunity to help Americans learn more about the unique challenges and needs of military families and to showcase the families’ strength, resilience and service to our nation.”

Am I missing something here? What exactly does Mrs. Obama know about military service? At least, Mrs. Biden has a son that has deployed and served in combat! What does Hollywood know about military service? How many movies about the resilience of military families with happy endings have been made in the 10 years we’ve been at war? I can’t think of one. And I sure as hell haven’t been contacted to tell my stories. I don’t anyone that has!

This is nothing but a campaign trail publicity stunt to enlist the help of Hollywood to convince the American people that this administration actually cares about our troops and I’m personally disgusted by it.

The above cartoon describes the state of this holiday pretty damn good. While many of us take the time to remember the sacrifices of our heroes many others ignore it and party hard due to the 3 day weekend. We must remind those people that this day was proclaimed a day to remember. Remembering those who have fallen and those who are still serving:

click pictures to view videos

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.

The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war).

It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 (P.L. 90 – 363) to ensure a three day weekend for Federal holidays), though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead: January 19 in Texas, April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 (Jefferson Davis’ birthday) in Louisiana and Tennessee.

In 1915, inspired by the poem, In Flanders Fields, Moina Michael replied with her own poem:

We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.

She then conceived of an idea to wear red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation during war. She was the first to wear one, and sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need.

Later a Madam Guerin from France was visiting the United States and learned of this new custom started by Ms.Michael and when she returned to France, made artificial red poppies to raise money for war orphaned children and widowed women. This tradition spread to other countries. In 1921, the Franco-American Children’s League sold poppies nationally to benefit war orphans of France and Belgium. The League disbanded a year later and Madam Guerin approached the VFW for help. Shortly before Memorial Day in 1922 the VFW became the first veterans’ organization to nationally sell poppies. Two years later their “Buddy” Poppy program was selling artificial poppies made by disabled veterans. In 1948 the US Post Office honored Ms Michael for her role in founding the National Poppy movement by issuing a red 3 cent postage stamp with her likeness on it.

Traditional observance of Memorial day has diminished over the years. Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper flag etiquette for the day. While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country.

Most people blame the fact that Congress decided in 1971 to change the day to the last Monday of the month so we all could get a 3 day weekend. There has been multiple bills in Congress by Sen. Daniel Inouye [D-HI] that would restore it back to May 30th, with this one being the latest. Of course no action has been taken on them.

Until then it’s up to each and every one of us to remind people what this day stands for.

For those who served our country and gave all.

Korea:

In Afghanistan

In battlefields from Normandy, Antietam, Gettysburg, Trenton, Iwo Jima, Midway, Khe Sahn, Fallujah, Baghdad and thousands of other battlefields over the past 200 plus years.

Remember those who gave all.  And remember those who are still serving with honor

This Memorial Day please take two minutes out of your day at 3pm local time for a National Moment of Remembrance.

Reflect on those who have died to protect our way of life and those who are still serving

Finally, a short video on the true meaning of Memorial Day:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Beautifully expressed:

For better and worse, each death shaped our nation. Each death contributed to what we are today.

My own war experience in Iraq in 2005 and 2006 was far different from my father’s. I wasn’t wounded. Fortunately, none of the men in my company were killed in action during our tour. But now I know my father’s melancholy on Memorial Day. I feel it, and it’s the reason I found myself on the verge of lashing out last week when a salesman on the street thrust a flier into my hands titled “Memorial Day Blow-out Sale.”

I regained composure and thought about the question I had asked myself as a child: Were they wrong to celebrate?

Few Americans would disagree with the sanctity of Memorial Day. Yet the holiday has become a shopping spree, a party. Retail sales surge as stores release new summer offerings. The holiday weekend is among the top 10 shopping periods each year. Meanwhile, the local parade in my home town is more sparsely attended, and fewer people appear to travel to cemeteries to pay respects to the war dead.

These trends are likely to continue now that the levels of violence have dropped in Iraq and Afghanistan, and American service members appear less frequently in the media. They will continue unless we are more deliberate with our time. After all, our values are shaped by where and how we spend our time.

Memorial Day weekend doesn’t need to be a somber event for all. Naturally, it will be different for those families whose lives have been scarred by combat. But you don’t need to have experienced war to pay your respects.

So this Memorial Day weekend consider taking a half-hour to honor our war dead. Have a conversation with your children or your parents. Pause. Reflect. If you can make more time, visit a cemetery or take a child to a local parade, then talk to them about service. If you can’t travel, watch a Memorial Day concert or parade. Whatever it is, do something deliberate and out of your way.

Is it wrong to celebrate?

No, it’s not wrong. But it will be a far more meaningful celebration if it starts with recognizing why we have the opportunity to celebrate.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I didn’t start editing that video until late Sunday, deliberating over choice of music. I don’t know how well the Alison Krauss song fits (maybe not at all) but there’s something spiritually soothing in its sound. The photos are somewhat randomly chosen from my files (exceptions being the ones of Frank Buckles and personal photos provided by Shannon Galloway, Justine McDermott, and Sheba Khan- mother to Kareem Khan).

I tried to credit all the photos, but that was probably a messy effort.

Past efforts:

Also had to upload this:

I was at a loss for something appropriate to write for this special day. I know many sad stories that will go to the grave with me. Don’t misread that line. I am not a hero, but many heroes came to me to talk. I mainly listened. I am an excellent listener. Hopefully, I helped some of them by listening and offering a few lame words of encouragement.

I am offering you this previously published story to avoid reaching deeper. It is a story that is painful enough for me. I hope, by reading these few lines, you will appreciate our brave servicemen and women a little more. I wish I could do more than saying thanks and shaking hands, but that seems to be the best that I can manage for now.

I am currently working very near the diner that was the stage for this drama. So I feel it is appropriate to republish this story. Don’t thank me after reading this story: thank a vet and tell him you appreciate everything he and his brothers have done for you

Whatever It Takes: Once Again

There have been some comments lately, concerning the returning vets and how to welcome them. Old Skook has been trying to make this into an art form for several years; give me a few minutes and I’ll share my techniques and I will tell you of the day a few years ago, when I was called upon to be a better man than I am.

This activity requires stealth and nerves of steel. When you are in a fine dining establishment like Denny’s or Elmers, use your scouting skills and spot the ME vets sitting together or singly. Keep them under observation and time your meal so that you finish ahead of them, then estimate the cost of their meal and walk by their table and say, “this one’s on me soldier” and drop a ten or a twenty on their table and walk away before they can protest. That’s a great devious trick for Patriots, it always makes me chuckle when I start my car to leave.

Once I saw the chance to be a real hero and I played it to the max. Every few years, I’ll walk around the streets of Oceanside and recall those nights forty years ago when I walked those same streets with nothing to do. Except on this particular night, I saw a young Lance corporal in Dress Blues with a bride still in her wedding gown, looking to be about seven months along. They were aimlessly looking in store windows and I saw my chance for yet another dastardly deed.

I palmed a hundred and walked up to that young Marine and shook his hand and congratulated him on committing matrimony. I held on to his right hand (they say I have a grip like a gorilla, so that part was easy) I grabbed his shoulder with my left hand and told him to take his bride out on the town and spend all the money and let tomorrow take care of itself. I turned my hand so that it was on top and the C note wouldn’t fall on the side walk and left them at a brisk (at least for me) run.

He was outraged and said he couldn’t accept the money, but I was laughing like a schizophrenic and double timing my way out of there. I am 63 years old and know that I can’t outrun a young Marine, but when they are dragging a pregnant woman, I can outrun them all.

Now on a more serious note, I was driving on I 70 and I stopped at a truck stop in Western Colorado for a meal and spied a young soldier that looked like he had been dealt a few bad hands. I decided to buy him a meal and dropped a twenty on his table and said, “thanks soldier”. I rushed to the cash register and a bunch of seniors crowded in front of me and some of them looked mean, so I decided to wait my turn to pay.

The young soldier walked up to me and asked, “Sir, are you former military?” I told him, I once wore the uniform and that I wasn’t an officer, so he didn’t need to call me Sir.

He asked if I would have a cup of coffee with him; he needed someone to talk with.

You can’t refuse a request like that, I sat down at his booth and looked him directly in the eye and said, “What’s wrong son?”

He told me of his best friend in that war in the Middle East. They were planning to go back to California and live near each other the rest of their lives, but one day while he was on the perimeter and his friend was sleeping, a single mortar round landed directly on the hootch they shared and his best friend was killed instantly. He saw it happen in slow motion and clear detail.

His voice began to quake and he was barely keeping the tears back. Our neighbors at the tables around us were interrupting their meals to eavesdrop; however, the Lord gave me a cold stern stare and after I looked at the nosy people, they found a renewed interest in their pancakes and eggs.

He went on to tell me that he had a wife and a baby son that he had never seen waiting for him in California and he didn’t know if he could face them after the loss of his friend, he was actually dreading the rest of the drive back to California. I listened to the tale unwind and finally heard my cue, “What do you think I should do?”

I reached deep down inside and hoped I could say something that was worthwhile. “You think your friend is gone, he’s not gone, he’s here with us right now; as a matter of fact, he’s a little disappointed in you for being reluctant to drive home and see your bride and baby. He’s never going to have a son, so he’s planning on living his life through you. He will be beside you for 50 or 60 years, every mistake you make will be a disappointment for him. He expects you to be a man, the best man that you can be, because he can only live through you. He wants to watch you play ball with your son, take him fishing, help him with homework, he wants you to be the dad he will never have a chance to be. If you hide like a whipped dog and feel sorry for yourself, he will be ashamed of you. The best thing you can do is to drive on to California and be the best husband and father that you can possibly be, because you will never be alone, not even when you check out of this big poker game they call life.”

Well, that did it. he lost it and it was all I could do to keep from crying, but I figured it was my job to maintain discipline. I walked with him to his car, we shook hands and he thanked me several times and told me he felt much better.

He drove West and I drove East, about twenty minutes later, I pulled over and broke down.

With Chris on my mind, I read the following NYTimes article about the difficulties soldiers face in returning home:

For a year, they had navigated minefields and ducked bullets, endured tedium inside barbed-wired outposts and stitched together the frayed seams of long-distance relationships. One would think that going home would be the easiest thing troops could do.

But it is not so simple. The final weeks in a war zone are often the most dangerous, as weary troops get sloppy or unfocused. Once they arrive home, alcohol abuse, traffic accidents and other measures of mayhem typically rise as they blow off steam.

Weeks later, as the joy of return subsides, deep-seated emotional or psychological problems can begin to show. The sleeplessness, anxiety and irritability of post-traumatic stress disorder, for instance, often take months to emerge as combat veterans confront the tensions of home and the recurring memories of war.

In their new normal, troops must reconnect with children, adjust to more independent spouses and dial back the hypervigilance that served them well in combat — but that can alienate them from civilians.

“The hardest part for me is, I guess, not being on edge,” said Staff Sgt. Francisco Narewski, a father of three who just completed his second deployment. “I feel like I need to do something, like I need to go on mission or I need to check my soldiers. And I’m not.”

For the First Battalion, 87th Infantry out of Fort Drum, N.Y., which recently finished a yearlong tour, leaving Afghanistan proved as deadly as fighting in Afghanistan. In the first 11 months of deployment, the battalion lost two soldiers, both to roadside bombs. During the next month, it lost two more, neither in combat.

~~~

Specialist Jeremiah Pulaski, who had returned from Afghanistan in February, was shot and killed by a police officer after he shot and wounded a man outside a bar in Arizona. He was 24.

Both soldiers were considered among the best in the battalion. Specialist Wade, a whiz with a soccer ball, was a member of the elite scouts platoon and on a fast track to promotion. Specialist Pulaski could be quick to use his fists in an argument but was revered for his fearlessness on the battlefield.

Specialist Pulaski was awarded a Bronze Star with Valor for dashing across an open field during an ambush in December, drawing enemy fire away from his platoon. Later that same day, he killed several insurgents as they were trying to ambush his unit near a village called Haruti.

Captain Bonenberger, Specialist Pulaski’s company commander, said the soldier saved his life twice that day — and it gnawed at him that he had been unable to return the favor.

“When he was in trouble, he was alone,” Captain Bonenberger said. “When we were in trouble, he was there for us. I know it’s not rational or reasonable. There’s nothing logical about it. But I feel responsible.”

I was curious to know more about the circumstances surrounding Pulaski’s death at the hands of a police officer, someone, like Pulaski, trained to protect and serve society. What I found was just sad:

It all started at a Glendale bar where, police said, Army Spc. Jeremiah Pulaski and his friend were talking outside.

That’s when Jason Taylor, a total stranger, came up, and made a seemingly innocent comment that almost cost Taylor his life.

“He is a miracle,” Mandy Taylor said of her husband.

She has a hard time talking about what happened to him.

“I was actually there that night,” she said.

But Mandy Taylor is the one facing these difficult questions because Jason simply doesn’t remember.

“I don’t remember the accident. I don’t remember the head trauma,” Jason Taylor said.

“I heard the gunshot and looked out the door and saw him lying on the ground,” Mandy Taylor remembered.

According to police, Jason Taylor told Pulaski that if he had to choose he’d join the Marines.

Pulaski reacted by pulling out a handgun and shooting Taylor in the back of the head, police said.

Pulaski took off. He later got in a shootout with the police and was killed.

“For me to focus on that, I’m focusing on the wrong thing,” Jason Taylor said.

Taylor’s attitude is amazing.

His recovery is unbelievable.

It’s been less than two months since a bullet exploded in his brain.

“He still struggles with short-term memory, but it’s better and it gets better every day,” Mandy said.

With the support of his wife and his daughter, Jason looks towards the future.

“I’m the type of person that will get better, will be 100 percent,” Jason said.

His wife smiled, knowing someone was watching over her soulmate.

“You think of all the things that had to happen just right for him to survive something like that. And he did,” she said.

Glad Taylor survived and appears to be on a good track to recovery. But what of Pulaski and those returning vets like him who are at risk of “not surviving” when they are off the battlefield? Are Taylor and Mandy aware that the man who shot him is a war hero? The officer who had to end his life so ignobly? If not for the NYTimes piece, I would not have known that there is more to the man than his criminal act.

Wounded Times asks:

How many people read about the end of his life and thought he must have deserved it? Honestly? Had I not been so involved in tracking all of these reports for this long, I may have thought the same thing because it is so much easier to just figure this guy was a criminal and the world is better off without him walking around terrorizing civilians. But I know too many of their stories to ever think that way again.

How do we save our soldiers from the mental effects of war? Innoculate them from committing suicide?

Losing good men and women on the battlefield, at the hands of a physical enemy, is tough. To lose them back here at home where they should be safe…

…how can we do better?