Happy Veteran's day

[Ted Hoppe]

To my fellow veterans - thank you for your service.

[Tom Montgomery]

.
To my veteran friends: Happy Veteran's Day with my undying respect and gratitude. Here is hoping you have better weather for it than us. The remnants of Hurricane Nicole will be soaking my part of Ohio today.

My father (miss you Dad) enlisted in the U.S. Navy on his 18th birthday (September 3, 1943) in the hope of fighting the Japanese. He was instead shipped to England to prepare for the invasion of Europe. He was a Pharmacist Mate (corpsman). He spent June 6, 1944 in Normandy, France on Omaha Beach, under fire, triaging the wounded and evacuating those deemed savable to ship for transport to hospital in England. He hit the beach with the 1st wave and returned a 2nd time that day. He was not yet 19 years old.

After the war he volunteered for the U.S. Naval Reserve. His unit was activated when the U.S. entered the Korean War and he was assigned to a Marine unit in California. Because of his previous service he was held in the U.S. when his Marine unit was shipped to Korea (and that is quite a story). He was reassigned to the Navy Underwater Demolition Team (now known as the Navy SEALS) to care for personnel injured during training on Coronado Island.

Dad suffered from PTSD his entire adult life. My mother told me he had terrible nightmares. He told her he hated playing God that day in 1944.

Navy hospital corpsmen are the most highly decorated rate in the U.S. Navy, to date being the collective recipients of 22 Medals of Honor, 199 Navy Crosses and 984 Silver Stars.

[Sandlapper]

Thank you Tom. I appreciate the story of your father and his service and the pride you must feel in telling us. Those who served on front lines in that long ago war are becoming fewer rapidly.

[Breakaway]

Thanks to all who have served!
Kevin

[Jim Bow]

https://youtu.be/dUvyWX3xuCY

Eugene Sledge. For you NPR types, Terry Gross has him among her top ten best interviews.

[Tom Montgomery]

^
Thank you, Jim. I have copied this to my Facebook page. Listening to Eugene Sledge I realize he is describing my father's experience on D-Day, 1944.

[hawkeye54]

.

My father (miss you Dad) enlisted in the U.S. Navy on his 18th birthday (September 3, 1943) in the hope of fighting the Japanese. He was instead shipped to England to prepare for the invasion of Europe. He was a Pharmacist Mate (corpsman). He spent June 6, 1944 in Normandy, France on Omaha Beach, under fire, triaging the wounded and evacuating those deemed savable to ship for transport to hospital in England. He hit the beach with the 1st wave and returned a 2nd time that day. He was not yet 19 years old.

Tom, my Dad was on that beach, the same day. They made him an 'MPEG' ( Military Police Escort Guard ) and had him loading German POW's onto train cars. He passed away some years ago, and would never say much about his military service.



Rick

[Kevin G]

Jim: I never could quite figure out the reason for the USAF's spending all that money on background checks, Yale Language school, Goodbuddy School etc. using us for 15 months, and then send most to clerking jobs. What a waste of resources!! At least I was sent back to Kelly AFB to do some language work.

Hope you enjoyed your Day today.

Kevin

[dwr9]

My dad, Wilbur Reeve, was an army medic in the South Pacific in WWII. Doug

[Osborne Russell]

Being tough doesn't mean what people think.

[Dave Hadfield]

I led a flight of three over Parliament and the National War Memorial -- a tremendous privilege. Then we carried on for 3 more flyovers where ceremonies were taking place.

I have soldier-relatives buried in France. Too many...

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[sandtown]

To my fellow veterans - thank you for your service.

In my view the best way to thank us vets is to stop making more of us.

Lets go back to celebrating Armistice Day, a day of peace

https://www.veteransforpeace.org/tak.../armistice-day

[Osborne Russell]

In my view the best way to thank us vets is to stop making more of us.

Lets go back to celebrating Armistice Day, a day of peace

https://www.veteransforpeace.org/tak.../armistice-day

Are you a pacifist?

[sandtown]

Are you a pacifist?

What business is that of yours ??

But FYI, Vets For Peace is a big tent. Some of us are indeed pacifists, while others are not.

[Osborne Russell]

What business is that of yours ??

But FYI, Vets For Peace is a big tent. Some of us are indeed pacifists, while others are not.

You're not a pacifist. A pacifist cannot deny or conceal his pacifism. It's part of the deal. Whole realms of bull S are off limits to the pacifist, by his chosen principles.

Whether you are a pacifist is the basis of who you are. The nature of the social contract -- to which I am a party -- depends on it. Even a pacifist must pick a side. That makes it my business.

[sandtown]

You're not a pacifist. A pacifist cannot deny or conceal his pacifism..

Of course they can . . what are you talking about ??

However I will say that my friends among the pacifist Franciscan Sisters, whom I jokingly refer to as my Liberation Theology girlfriends,
are the most noble and brave people I have ever met.

[Durnik]

Of course they can . . what are you talking about ??

However I will say that my friends among the pacifist Franciscan Sisters, whom I jokingly refer to as my Liberation Theology girlfriends, are the most noble and brave people I have ever met.

some others being the medics/corpsmen ref'd above, one being a cousin of mine.. took his punishment for not carrying a pistol (iirc) and did his job.

yeah, I always hate civies going 'thank you for..'.. they have no freaking idea. Ted, you were Navy? Cool. Uncle Sam's Airplane Patch here.. we all did what we had to.. and those who went to Canada instead? also have my respect.

yeah, remembrance day is what we forget.. fooking warlike, destructive culture.

[sandtown]

yeah, I always hate civies going 'thank you for..'.. they have no freaking idea. Ted, you were Navy? Cool. Uncle Sam's Airplane Patch here.. we all did what we had to.. and those who went to Canada instead? also have my respect.
yeah, remembrance day is what we forget.. fooking warlike, destructive culture.

and you have my respect

[sandtown]

FYI, 52 medics, many of them pacifists, have received the Medal of Honor . .

and some of you dare to suggest that they are cowardly, or not fulfilling their side of the "social contract".

Shame on ya !!

https://medalofhonornews.com/2011/07...-who-have.html

[Osborne Russell]

Originally Posted by Osborne Russell

You're not a pacifist. A pacifist cannot deny or conceal his pacifism..

Of course they can . . what are you talking about ??

However I will say that my friends among the pacifist Franciscan Sisters, whom I jokingly refer to as my Liberation Theology girlfriends,
are the most noble and brave people I have ever met.

OK, here comes Ms. Pacifist walking down the sidewalk. She'd rather let one enemy kill a thousand of her fellow citizens than to kill that one enemy; so profound is her love for humanity.

It's just that it's a secret. Her love of humanity is not that profound that, before the war started, in her participation in the social activity of self-government, she made no arguments based on her deepest belief, her pacifism. It's a secret. She had to make sure her pacifism didn't influence anyone, like to stop the war or something. She had to wait until . . . what?

It's like virtue signalling without the signalling. Virtue concealing?

[sandtown]

OK, here comes Ms. Pacifist

You really, really have no idea what you are talking about.

The Franciscan Sisters teach non-violent conflict resolution in the schools that they run.

They and the Quakers & Mennonites and other are quite open about their beliefs.

What do you want them to do, wear a yellow armband ?? (that is an old Nazi trick)

What an absurd post on your part.

[Osborne Russell]

You really, really have no idea what you are talking about.

The Franciscan Sisters teach non-violent conflict resolution in the schools that they run.

They and the Quakers & Mennonites and other are quite open about their beliefs.

What do you want them to do, wear a yellow armband ?? (that is an old Nazi trick)

What an absurd post on your part.

What I said was, are you a pacifist? If they are pacifists, of course they are open about it. Part of the deal, as I said. That's how I know you're not a pacifist. So the next question is, do you know you're not a pacifist?

[Durnik]

^ What do you think you'll get by getting in sandtown's face, demanding responses you have no right to?

rhetorical - no need to answer.

walk a mile in his shoes and all..

vets for peace lost a wwii member (& I, a friend) recently.. not covid, just old age. but for years he - a Quaker - was at the high schools requesting space along side the recruiters. RIP Hector.

[sandtown]

^ What do you think you'll get by getting in sandtown's face, demanding responses you have no right to?

rhetorical - no need to answer.

walk a mile in his shoes and all..

vets for peace lost a wwii member (& I, a friend) recently.. not covid, just old age. but for years he - a Quaker - was at the high schools requesting space along side the recruiters. RIP Hector.

Could you PM me with his Obit ?? I will make sure that Vets For Peace gets it.

[Joe (SoCal)]

PFC 1st Class Van Hoorn

IMG_0287.jpg

My right wing, Trump & country music, loving, 1% motorcycle gang Harley riding, Two tours of Iraq /Afghanistan E-3, Lance Corporal, LCpl USMC and best friend Glover

[sandtown]

May we all find peace, or peace find us . .

whichever comes first.

[Durnik]

Could you PM me with his Obit ?? I will make sure that Vets For Peace gets it.

pm sent.

[Osborne Russell]

^ What do you think you'll get by getting in sandtown's face, demanding responses you have no right to?

rhetorical - no need to answer.

walk a mile in his shoes and all..

His shoes, pfah. This isn't a matter of identity. It's war.

Been through it all before with Viet Nam et seq. Many people want to appropriate to themselves the cachet of pacifism when they aren't willing to pay the price pacifists pay. And so they aren't pacifists. It's something quite serious but it can be cleared up easily by a simple answer to a simple question. Then we can proceed to addressing the issues seriously.

I have every right to demand a response when I ask a fellow citizen why he says our country should abandon Ukraine, and for what reason. Same with someone advocating the invasion of Iraq. Why would they refuse to answer? What gives them the right?

[sandtown]

I have every right to demand a response when I ask a fellow citizen why he says our country should abandon Ukraine, and for what reason. Same with someone advocating the invasion of Iraq. Why would they refuse to answer? What gives them the right?

No one at all in the Bilge has called for abandoning Ukraine, and only the loony tunes joined the Neo-Con colossally stupid call for invading Iraq.

Because you are relentlessly rude, I owe you nothing other than rudeness in return.

[Osborne Russell]

No one at all in the Bilge has called for abandoning Ukraine . . .

Does it not then follow that we must support them, if one may ask?

. . .and only the loony tunes joined the Neo-Con colossally stupid call for invading Iraq.

The point is, if one can have secret pacifism as a basis of one's position on Ukraine, why couldn't someone else depend on some other secret as a basis to call for invading Iraq? Why are only pacifists entitled to this kind of secrecy?