Veteran's Day

First and foremost, I want to thank all of our Veterans for the sacrifices they've made for our country. Thank you.

Without Veteran's Day we wouldn't have just about any other holiday to celebrate, at least openly. It's because of the sacrifices made that we have our freedoms today.

I was packing my bag to head back out of town for work this morning, and I just couldn't shake the feeling that I was not quite right to be heading off to work when I could choose not to. There's no great emergency that needs to be taken care of, just more money to be made. But what would that teach my four children? I want them to know that today is important, so I called the guys and told them we were pushing off tomorrow instead of today.

We'll be heading down town shortly for the Veteran's Day parade. As frustrated as I am with our current government, we still need to celebrate our veterans who served to give us a chance and a great country. I pray that, God willing, we can turn this ship around before it runs aground.

Thanks, Phillip. You're raising your kids right. Not to mention being an example to your crew. God bless.

Phillip, thanks for the kind words.

I still think that those who served in WW2 were our "Greatest Generation". They knew what it was like for our Nation to be attacked, and they defended it with their lives.

I have watched the movie "Band of Brothers", and often feel that I don't deserve to wear the same Parachute Wings as Those Guys.

This weekend while on our backpack. One of the 16 year olds wore all army gear. Heavy his pack was 60 lbs. He carried the flag to honor our military and those that paid dearly to give us the rights we have today.

I have some pictures to share and will post a link back here when they come in.
Thanks to each and everyone of you for your scrafice. I have boys that have dad's out on duty in my rangers group.
Mark Jones

Claymore wrote:

I still think that those who served in WW2 were our "Greatest Generation".  They knew what it was like for our Nation to be attacked, and they defended it with their lives.

I agree with you about the WW2 generation. My theory about why they were the greatest generation stems from the fact that they lived through the Great Depression and weren't a bunch of "users".

Thanks to veterans for serving.

Not to disagree with you Claymore but veterans after 9/11/01 should know how an attack on our soil feels like. Though 9/11 was mostly civilian targets but did include the Pentagon.

Phillip Gross wrote:

Claymore wrote:

I still think that those who served in WW2 were our "Greatest Generation". They knew what it was like for our Nation to be attacked, and they defended it with their lives.

I agree with you about the WW2 generation. My theory about why they were the greatest generation stems from the fact that they lived through the Great Depression and weren't a bunch of "users".

I agree with your premise, Phillip. They grew up learning to band together as families & communities or perish -- in fact those that did NOT band together often DID perish.

And Absolutely not to take anything from our Middle Eastern Veterans, but they never went up against an enemy that had an even chance of winning the war. It's not like the 101st Airborne (light infantry) defending agaist a Tank Assault in sub-freezing conditions.

While the Paratroopers, Rangers, & other Spearhead Units did commit in some scary situations in the Gulf Wars, our "Line Infantry" didn't have to make a Human Wave Attack on a beach while being raked with fire from machineguns with (at the time) the world's highest rate of fire.

Also, when our men were deployed since 9/11, they pretty-much knew how long their "Tour of Duty" was going to be. The Infantry, Tankers, Engineers, & all of the troops in WW2 were there "for the Duration", and when they won in Europe, many were moved to the Far East.

The only troops who "Completed a Tour of Duty" were Bomber Crews who did 25 missions: there were a total of THREE Crews -- and a few select men who were rotated home for Public Relations Purposes after Specific Acts of Valor (such as Richard Bong).

Once again, this is with all respect to our Gulf Veterans. There are Heroes, Super-Heroes, and Unmatchable Heroes Never to be Repeated. I believe that our WW2 Veterans were the latter.

I'm proud of my service - and of the service of those around me. They served honorably, and completed the missions that they were asked of. I just feel that the average soldier today didn't go through the "Meat Grinder" that those guys did in WW2.

I agree when you explain it that way. Today's wars are fought for $, oil, resources, and power. While all wars have this aspect USA has become more concerned with going to war for these things rather than for defense. I believe WW2 we were fighting for our way of life. Wars today we have no desire to get in, get the job done, and go home. We have restrictions on our troops that if they shoot the enemy first they are court-martialed and imprisoned. I strongly believe Eisenhower's warning to us in his farewell address that we now have an entire industry devoted to war whereas before we would make war in defense and not offense or for profit.