Leaving Texas - next stop, Sandbox !

A late night call was answered and I was informed that I will be leaving Texas today. It is interesting as Nov. 19th is my oldest son's Birthday (he is turning 27) and the anniversary of my wife Karen's & my first date when she came to James' 6th birthday party, 21 years ago at my dinky apartment in Brockton....times have changed. Karen & I knew we were good for each other on that day and it has been love, laughter & some interesting times.

I didn't expect to be put on the "A1 ready-to-go- list" quite so soon, but in all respects, this is what I was coming here for, to get ready to go. I will be OK and I will go out to do my part in support of the troops as that is the primary mission of my company. We support the Warriors, plain & simple. While the company is making a profit, and some question the arrangement, civilian contractors have been supporting the armed forces for years. The origin of the Seabees was having civilian contractors do the construction at the start of WW2. They eventually brought them into the Navy, but they were civilians when they started up. Many of the jobs we do have no military counterpart, and the expertise needed is not available in the military.

My thanks for all the support, kind words and prayers. All are gratefully & humbly accepted.

Wednesday, Paratrooper Ben Sherman was brought home to Plymouth, and the town showed their support for this splendid warrior. His wish was that if anything happened, he wanted his funeral at our church and to be laid to rest there in the Manomet Cemetery. The wake will be today and the funeral on Friday at the 2nd Church of Plymouth. I hope to help support his brothers and mine, because as a Veteran, he and all others in uniform are my brothers (and sisters).

I do not read the Bible as much as I should but I have a few favorite psalms, and I wanted to share this one with you. I will be back and will look forward to seeing my friends & family when I get back for next Thanksgiving. I'll keep in touch and I'll probably have some more silly stories to share about the dusty side of the world.

All my best and I'll be in touch.

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Psalm 63

1 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
3 Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:
6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
7 Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.
9 But those that seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.
10 They shall fall by the sword: they shall be a portion for foxes.
11 But the king shall rejoice in God; every one that sweareth by him shall glory: but the mouth of them that speak lies shall be stopped.

Ben Sherman comes home to Manomet

Ben Sherman is coming home to Manomet today. He will be brought home by his family and honored by the community & friends who salute his service to our nation. It is true that the tree of liberty must be regularly watered with the blood of patriots, as this has kept our nation safe for 200+ years.

His Mother, Denise Sherman made a powerful statement last week regarding her son and the course of our wars overseas:

“I am requesting,” she said, “because we are one nation under God, that you ask our nation to come together in prayer, to pray for all those who are missing to persevere, to pray for his comrade’s family (for him) to be found safe and returned home, for those who have gone before us and have made the sacrifice (for) this country, and for those who serve our great nation to be guided and protected…I pray for the leaders every day that they are guided to make good decisions.

“This is to the President of the United States: It is time. It is time to make a decision. "

“I think it is time that a decision is made that this country comes together and supports our troops or whatever (President Obama) decides. God will guide him. But it is time. It is time,” she said.

Earlier in my blog, I ran a copy of a column from another blogger, Neptunus Lex, who wrote about this same subject. It said:

" The time for half measures and dithering is over. It’s time to go heavy, or go home.
There is no middle path." - http://www.neptunuslex.com/2009/10/04/the-cost-of-muddling-through/


Ben Sherman was the tip of the spear.

As George Orwell said: People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

We as a nation owe a debt of gratitude to Ben Sherman and others like him who stand on the wall, and make sure nothing will harm you as you go about your life at home.

Rest in Peace, Ben Sherman. Patriot, Paratrooper, Son, Father-to-be, Brother & Leader.

Observation

An observation made by an anonymous posting I read on the web....from a New Yorker.....

Just something that occurred to me today while trying to cross Fifth Ave in Manhattan during the Veteran’s Day Parade:

The towers fell in New York on 9/11/01, Kabul fell to American led forces on 11/14/01. That’s 65 days.

President Obama’s hand-picked replacement commander in Afghanistan, GEN McChrystal, delivered his Afghanistan war plans to President Obama on 8/30/09, and President Obama hasn’t acted on his General’s recommendations as of today, 11/11/09. That’s 73 days, and waiting.

Damn...I hate to admit that I agree with a New Yorker.....at least about one thing.

Red Sox / Yankees, Patriots / Jets, etc..... I bet him and I would likely have words.

TEXAS

Dallas/Ft. Worth - arrival went well and the weather here is nice...had a thundershower which was something I would not see at home.

Nice accommodations and the preparations seem well organized....

Going to meet with some people this evening and then watch the Patriots / Colts game.

Take The PATS as this is their game to win (or lose)....

And the count down begins.....

Like many things in life, events start to take on a progression.....Having deployed before, I know how the days/hours/minutes start ticking away and soon you are feeling the time is coming to make the big jump.

I can hear the voice of the launch control official in his basic tone saying " We are at T-minus 48 hours and counting, all systems are nominal and the count down is proceding as planned...."

Sunday Morning I will be getting on a plane and starting a year overseas to take on my new job. This will be a tough year for me and for those I leave behind.

Like many things, you have to take the good with the bad. I'll do my best to make things work and I know my family will do so too. It is a process and you just have to get on with it. the sooner you do so the sooner you get to come back and finish.

Final preparations are under way....."The Astronuats enjoyed a good breakfast including Tang...mission control will be briefing the media later on as the countdown procedes"

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step......Yeah.....right......

Sage Words from a Brother-in-arms....

From Neptunuslex, a great military blog - www.neptunuslex.com

I couldn't had said it better -

Veterans Day

At 1100 on the 11th day of the 11th month, the guns finally fell silent, but not before 10 million young men fell, never to rise again, with another 20 million maimed, and nearly 8 million missing, forever. The world got its first look at modern, industrial warfare on a massive scale and turned away revolted. Promised those left behind that this would be it, the war to end all wars.
It was a promise that went sadly unfulfilled.

On Memorial Day we lay flowers on the graves of those that fell. Today we give humble thanks to those that served, and returned again with honor to take up the plow, hammer or pen. Or to those who fell back into the ranks vowing to keep the sword bright and sharp for the next time, grimly aware that there will always be a next time, that only the dead have seen the last of war. Having seen for themselves the real nature of man, knowing as they do that weakness is provocative to savagery and that the surest path to peace is to be prepared for war.

Some march in parades, and see the battle pennants streaming from the colors. For them these are not mere gaudy flashes, for they have a memory of the time before they were in place, remember the streamers fresh and new, remember what it cost in human terms to tie them to the flagstaff.

Others will gather in taverns and VFW halls, hoist refreshments in memory of their youth, offer toasts to those forever young, and wonder how they will ever be able to explain any of it to anyone who wasn’t there, while knowing that for those who were, no explanation will ever be necessary.
Some will wake up in the middle of the night seized with nightmares or private guilt, some few will try to self-medicate, fall down a deep tunnel and end up wandering the streets muttering dark and unintelligible dirges of innocence lost and the human connections that cannot be restored once one has seen the whole world turn violently mad.

Military service is hard, even in peace time. People are asked to surrender a portion of their freedoms to better ensure the freedoms of the rest of us. Discipline is enforced; great exertions are called for, there are separations and privations. They are taught to run towards the sound of the guns, to stand in the hatch and fight the fire, to shove the throttles up and fly into the maelstrom. In short, they are conditioned to willingly go towards things from which every fiber screams to flee. They are taught, and most of them eventually come to believe, that there is something more important than themselves. That some things really might worth dying for, whether those be noble principles, those they left at home, or those on their left and right.

These are hard teachings, but they have the example of heroes to testify to the truth of them.
In this land we are graced with a vibrant political culture, but it was Washington’s guns and musketeers who gave it to us. We enjoy the remote fastness of our island home, but it was Decatur, Farragut and Porter who scoured the seas to defend our ocean ramparts. We have human freedom and increasing dignity here at home, but not before three million boys in blue and butternut contended the terms of that freedom. We have liberal democracies here and abroad, but not before millions more marched forth asking for nothing but a patch of earth to be buried in, should it come to that.

There are many blessings in this land, but although we tend to treat them as birthrights, transferable to our heirs in perpetuity, the reality is that all of them have been fought over. Perhaps the greatest blessing of all is that in each generation there have been those who answered their country’s call when it came and said, “I’ll go. I’ll do it. Pick me.”

They are the veterans, and this is our day to thank them.

HAPPY VETERANS DAY ! (OK so I'm a day early)

HAPPY VETERANS DAY TO ALL VETERANS, PAST & PRESENT !

The Fairer and Fiercer Warriors - Women in Uniform

As many might know by now, the Ft, Hood shooter was stopped by Police Sergeant Munley, a brave and valiant female police officer. I can tell you that she is a hero along with all her sisters in uniform, police & military.

When I was in Fallujah, you knew you could count on the Female Marines because they HAD to be twice as good to get recognition. As a Supply type, I had a counterpart on the USMC side who was ALL MARINE, and happened to be of the fairer sex. She was a good shipmate and she liked that as a Older Seabee, she could talk to me like a Father figure as many of the younger types would look to hit on her.

Follow this link to an article from Glamour Magazine (not that I read it regularly) called ” The war’s deadliest day for U.S. women ”

Three Female Marines killed and 11 wounded, all while outside Fallujah doing the duty they dedicated thier lives to -Read the article and be in awe of these splendid Warriors – SEMPER FI !!!

http://www.marine-corps-news.com/2006/05/the_wars_deadliest_day_for_us.htm

WARBIRDS a.k.a. PLANE PRON

Some great pictures of Old Warbirds - Bernard Zee is an awesome photographer -
View his website and see some great photography !

http://home.comcast.net/~bzee1b/bombers/bomber.html

The Picture Speaks for itself

No other commentary required.....

U.S. official resigns over Afghan war

A man of principle to say the least - That is the way they make them in the USMC. I hope his assessment turns out to be incorrect as if this is the start of a group of similar proclaimations, the road ahead will be even tougher than we expected.....


U.S. official resigns over Afghan war
Foreign Service officer and former Marine captain says he no longer knows why his nation is fighting

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 27, 2009

When Matthew Hoh joined the Foreign Service early this year, he was exactly the kind of smart civil-military hybrid the administration was looking for to help expand its development efforts in Afghanistan.

A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed.

But last month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency.

"I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan," he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department's head of personnel. "I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end."

The reaction to Hoh's letter was immediate. Senior U.S. officials, concerned that they would lose an outstanding officer and perhaps gain a prominent critic, appealed to him to stay.

U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry brought him to Kabul and offered him a job on his senior embassy staff. Hoh declined. From there, he was flown home for a face-to-face meeting with Richard C. Holbrooke, the administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102603394_pf.html

SEMPER FI - Marines Win Top Sharpshooter Prize

SEMPER FI GENTLEMEN...Here is hoping you get to use those skills to find a few "Prime Targets" in the mountains of Waziristan....SOON !

Marines Win Top Sharpshooter Prize
October 26, 2009
Military.com|by Bryant Jordan

The Marine Corps earned bragging rights during the 9th annual U.S. Army International Sniper Competition at Fort Benning, Ga., last week, when Leathernecks from the Corps' Scout Sniper School (West) in Camp Pendleton, Calif., claimed the title of top marksmen.

But because of the nature of their work the top-scoring Marines -- Team 3 of the Pendleton school -- will not be doing any public bragging.

Those Marines, along with most other winners -- Marine and Soldier alike -- are keeping their names confidential, according to Benning spokeswoman Brenda Donnell, who told Military.com today that only two Army team members are being identified. Donnell believes the secrecy is related to the commands the snipers are with.

In all, 31 two-man teams took part in the week-long event that, in addition to the Overall place won by Pendleton's Team 3, featured 1st- 2nd- and 3rd-place winners in the Service Class and Open Class categories, according to a Benning announcement.

Service class teams were Marines or Soldiers who fire 7.62 NATO or small rounds as a primary or secondary weapon system, while those competing in the Open Class were snipers whose primary or secondary weapon fires a round larger than the 7.62, the Army said.

In addition to winning in the Overall category, Pendleton's Team 3 won 1st Place in Service Class.

Other winning teams in the Service Class were:

2nd Place - Team 24, D Company, 2nd Battalion, Special Warfare Training Group, Fort Bragg, N.C.

3rd Place - C Troop, Team 6, 1st Bn., 73rd Cavalry, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg. Team members were identified as Ian Erickson and Justin Chavis. Donnell did not have their ranks.

Open Class winners were:

1st Place - Team 10, A Company, 2nd Bn., 46th Infantry Regiment, 194th Armor Brigade, Fort Knox, Ky. Team members were Staff Sgt. Kevin Wildman and Sgt. 1st Class Timothy Johns, Donnell said.

2nd Place - Team 23, D Company, 2nd Bn., SWT Group, Fort Bragg.

3rd Place - Team 21, U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg.

YOU OWN IT NOW MR. PRESIDENT

I don't mind showcasing superior writing when I see it (and/or read it)

Peggy Noonan steps up to the plate and smacks one out of the park.

" President Obama, in office a month longer than Bush was when 9/11 hit, now owns his presidency. Does he know it? He too stands on rubble, figuratively speaking—a collapsed economy, high and growing unemployment, two wars. Everyone knows what he's standing on. You can almost see the smoke rising around him. He's got a bullhorn in his hand every day.

It's his now. He gets the credit and the blame. How do we know this? The American people are telling him. You can see it in the polls. That's what his falling poll numbers are about. "It's been almost a year, you own this. Fix it."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704224004574489530713762884.html#printMode

President JAFO is AWOL

From the WSJ...

Obama Goes AWOL On Afghanistan, "voting present" would be an improvement.

By JAMES TARANTO

...we suppose it's easy to sit on the sidelines and snark. Barack Obama is President of the United States, and he is juggling all kinds of urgent responsibilities. Such as this one, reported by the New York Times:

Mr. Obama will fly to New York on Tuesday for a lavish Democratic Party fund-raising dinner at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for about 200 big donors. Each donor is paying the legal maximum of $30,400 and is allowed to take a date.And hey, if you don't like it, " grab a damn mop!" As Obama said just last week at . . . uh, another lavish Democratic Party fund-raiser.

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports from Washington that "frustrations and anxiety are on the rise within the military" as the president dithers over Afghanistan:

A retired general who served in Iraq said that the military had listened, "perhaps naïvely," to Mr. Obama's campaign promises that the Afghan war was critical. "What's changed, and are we having the rug pulled out from under us?" he asked. Like many of those interviewed for this article, he spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals from the military's civilian leadership and the White House.Shouldn't it be the enemy that fears reprisals?

During the presidential campaign, Obama's opponents mocked him for frequently voting "present" on difficult questions that came before the Illinois Senate. This is even worse. The commander in chief is absent without leave.

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He is AWOL...as we would say in the military when you were confronted with something that made no sense "WTF, over?"

Make a decision President JAFO

As President JAFO plays politics with the Afghanistan issue, I feel that we are only fiddling while our best & brightest burn....we (and they) cannot wait until the WH decides whether the political climate is right for a decision...Men are dying in the field...

While I understand the need for boots on the ground, and the whole hearts & minds thing, we should not be holding back in areas where we have clear tactical advantage, i.e. hitting the caves/desolate outposts with the guided munitions.

While we need both types of battle, we should be maximizing the use of finding the places where they are training/ resupplying in the wilds of Waziristan and hitting those caves/camps with everything we got.

Using the surveillance drones to make sure we are not hitting the WRONG places and making sure that we are hitting the RIGHT places. NO bombing weddings accidentally, just hitting the bad guys as they are getting trained up in the SH-Twilds…

The area along the PAK/AFGHAN border is too rugged to control with troops on the ground and by now, we should be able to use our superior tactical advantage to smoke them out of the holes….Find em and send them to Allah…

I thought the whole issue with the Kamdesh firebase that was attacked and almost overrun would have made the perfect test for the right application of this type of battle. After we left this base and made it unusable, the Taliban announced to the world that they had taken over the base and were flying their flag over the base.

Really?? Well someone at CENTCOM should have told them ” Stay right there..” as a C-130 flew overhead and dropped a Daisycutter on the spot as we knew exctly where they were and what they were doing. As the side of the mountain sheered off from the blast, we could have taped it and played the film at a news conference over & over again….Then we would conclude the news conference by quoting John McCain who stated, ” We will chase you to the gates of Hell..” as this will be the only way the Taliban Cockroaches stop what they are doing and run for their miserable lives…

I’m sorry to sound harsh but these extremists will only stop when we make them….It is about time we use our superior advantage to it’s optimum ability and make them stop.

I lost a buddy at WTC and another on the USS Cole, along with many shipmates in Fallujah….we have suffered enough loss of our best, it is time we take out their worst.