This is a preamble to Memorial Day. I’ll post more about it when I can. It sometimes hard for me to do this. I lost a friend in Iraq in 2006, so this is always personal.
Our steadfast and loyal heroes deserve remembrance
by Allen West
The solemn act of honoring those who have fallen in battle is a custom that seems to have faded in importance to our nation over time.
Nowadays, many Americans have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At cemeteries across the country, the graves of the fallen are sadly ignored, and worse, neglected.
While there are towns and cities still planning Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some think the day is for honoring anyone who has died, not just those fallen in service to our country.
Perhaps they do not know how deeply our nation once appreciated those who sacrificed their lives in defense of the principles we hold most dear. Perhaps those very principles of individual sovereignty, freedom and liberty are no longer so important.
When we all heard his speeches during the 2008 campaign, it was something akin to the Lesley Gore’s Sunshine, Lollipops, and Rainbows. He promised more transparency and a return of civility in politics. He was everything George Bush wasn’t, which provided the hot air that led him to the presidency. Bush did run deficits and the orgy of spending and corruption scandals that plagued Republicans in 2006, that were not forgotten in 2008, allowed Democrats to control the narrative on a key Republican issue: Taxes and Spending. The “tax and spend label” that usually sinks liberal candidates, or at least makes the race a competition, faded away. Obama vowed to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term and that was music to the ears of independent voters sick of Dubya. However, when the ballots closed that miserable day in November, Barack Obama rode that wave of “hope and change” into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on a flawlessly executed campaign that ushered in our first black president. However, after a $800 billion dollar stimulus, a trillion dollar new entitlement program, stagnant economic growth, a volatile job market, and high unemployment, the banner of hope and change is looking more like a Kafka-esque nightmare. We’ve all transformed into beetles.
As for the so-called “stimulus,” we should thank the president. He finally and irrevocably proved that government spending doesn’t spur economic growth and, therefore, killed the cornerstone of Keynesian economics. We’ve had eleven recessions and recoveries in the past sixty years and, as Harvey Golub wrote in the Wall Street Journal yesterday:
This recovery is near the bottom of all 11. Cumulative nonfarm job growth is just 1.9% 34 months into recovery, the ninth-worst performance and well below the average job growth of 6.5%. Cumulative GDP growth is just 6.8% 11 quarters into this recovery, less than half the average (15.2%) and the worst of all 11…fiscal policy, under the control of the president and his party, increased expenditures by about $700 billion per year since 2008 and launched a spending package of about $800 billion (along with various “targeted” temporary tax reductions), all of which resulted in an increase in national debt of over $5 trillion. In other words, we borrowed $5 trillion, for which we will pay interest for who knows how long, in order to stimulate the economy now.
During the question and answer portion of President Obama’s NATO summit press conference today he made an interesting statement. He alluded to the fact that the Presidential election will be about who will ensure success for Americans from top to bottom, that everyone has a fair shot. It is clear that Obama is redefining the words of Thomas Jefferson who articulated that our unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness come from our Creator, not man, nor government. Benjamin Franklin stated that it is the pursuit of happiness and it is incumbent upon the American individual to make that chase and catch it. America is about individual sovereignty to pursue their happiness. It is not about government driven collective subjugation in an attempt to guarantee happiness. Sorry President Obama, we will not allow you to redefine America, nor the American Dream!
Another shot at the Dummycrats. They are morons, and the proof just keeps piling up against them. And another survey shows that Democrats are closed minded, less informed, and couldn’t take criticism if it would save their lives.
Yet another new survey shows that Republican supporters know more about politics and political history than Democrats.
On eight of 13 questions about politics, Republicans outscored Democrats by an average of 18 percentage points, according to a new Pew survey titled “Partisan Differences in Knowledge.”
The Pew survey adds to a wave of surveys and studies showing that GOP-sympathizers are better informed, more intellectually consistent, more open-minded, more empathetic and more receptive to criticism than their fellow Americans who support the Democratic Party.
The April 1942 air attack on Japan, launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet and led by Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, was the most daring operation yet undertaken by the United States in the young Pacific War. Though conceived as a diversion that would also boost American and allied morale, the raid generated strategic benefits that far outweighed its limited goals.
The raid had its roots in a chance observation that it was possible to launch Army twin-engined bombers from an aircraft carrier, making feasible an early air attack on Japan. Appraised of the idea in January 1942, U.S. Fleet commander Admiral Ernest J. King and Air Forces leader General Henry H. Arnold greeted it with enthusiasm. Arnold assigned the technically-astute Doolittle to organize and lead a suitable air group. The modern, but relatively well-tested B-25B “Mitchell” medium bomber was selected as the delivery vehicle and tests showed that it could fly off a carrier with a useful bomb load and enough fuel to hit Japan and continue on to airfields in China.
Gathering volunteer air crews for an unspecified, but admittedly dangerous mission, Doolittle embarked on a vigourous program of special training for his men and modifications to their planes. The new carrier Hornet was sent to the Pacific to undertake the Navy’s part of the mission. So secret was the operation that her Commanding Officer, Captain Marc A. Mitscher, had no idea of his ship’s upcoming employment until shortly before sixteen B-25s were loaded on her flight deck. On 2 April 1942 Hornet put to sea and headed west across the vast Pacific.
Joined in mid-ocean on 13 April by Vice Admiral William F. Halsey‘s flagship Enterprise, which would provide air cover during the approach, Hornet steamed toward a planned 18 April afternoon launching point some 400 miles from Japan. However, before dawn on 18 April, enemy picket boats were encountered much further east than expected. These were evaded or sunk, but got off radio warnings, forcing the planes to take off around 8 AM, while still more than 600 miles out.
Most of the sixteen B-25s, each with a five-man crew, attacked the Tokyo area, with a few hitting Nagoya. Damage to the intended military targets was modest, and none of the planes reached the Chinese airfields (though all but a few of their crewmen survived). However, the Japanese high command was deeply embarrassed. Three of the eight American airmen they had captured were executed. Spurred by Combined Fleet commander Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, they also resolved to eliminate the risk of any more such raids by the early destruction of America’s aircraft carriers, a decision that led them to disaster at the Battle of Midway a month and a half later.
This is a scholarship program that was set up for my friend Doug. He died in Iraq January 7th, 2006. He was my son’s godfather and a good friend. He was also my last platoon leader in the Army, I was his platoon sergeant. I miss him all the time. Any help you can give to this great scholarship program in his name would be appreciated. Please pass this on. You can read more about Doug here. Please help out if you can. I’ll leave this at the top for a while. Thanks.
Dear Friends,
Since his passing in 2006, the memory of our friend and loved-one, Major Douglas Amuel La Bouff has been honored by his fellow Cal State Fullerton historians during the annual banquet of the Theta Pi chapter of the Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society.
Doug’s achievements as a person, scholar and military officer are remembered through a memorial scholarship awarded to history students who embody Doug’s patriotism, and love for history. Named the “Major Doug La Bouff Memorial Scholarship,” a handful of historians have benefited from modest monetary awards that they can use to advance their study of history.
We are asking your help to expand the scholarship to help more up and coming historians further their studies. We are also planning to obtain a plaque that will record past and future awardees for years to come. Please help anyway you can by mailing a check or money order no later than 23 April 2012 to:
Phi Alpha Theta
C/O Dr. Jochen Burgtorf
Cal State Fullerton, Department of History
800 N. State College Blvd.
Fullerton, CA. 92834
Awardees for the 2012 Major Doug La Bouff Memorial Scholarship will be announced on Friday, 4 May, 2012 during the 50th Annual CSUF Phi Alpha Theta Banquet.
Thank you for your support!
Friends of the Major Doug La Bouff Memorial Scholarship.
The big 2012! Finally caught up with the year in number of posts. Who’d have thunk it. I’ve gone from a few people to about 200 people that look at my blog on a daily basis, with about 30, or so that are following me.
I give credit for the jump in numbers to a few of my fellow bloggers on WordPress for that. You should know who you are.
While the media focuses on the case of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, it is worth remembering that he is the overwhelming exception.
Spc. Dennis Weichel of the Rhode Island National Guard is far more representative of the selfless sacrifice and honor exhibited by the US military during 2 wars and over 10 years of fighting. But even within the ranks of heroic actions, Spc. Weichel’s sacrifice stands out.
The official Pentagon news release says he died “from injuries suffered in a noncombat related incident.” But there is much more to the story. Weichel, 29, of Providence, died saving the life of a little girl.
According to the Rhode Island National Guard and the U.S. Army, Weichel was in a convoy a week ago with his unit in Laghman Province, in northeast Afghanistan. Some children were in the road in front of the convoy, and Weichel and other troops got out to move them out of the way.
Most of the children moved, but one little girl went back to pick up some brass shell casings in the road. Afghan civilians often recycle the casings, and the girl appeared to aim to do that. But a Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicle was moving toward her, according to Lt. Col. Denis Riel of the Rhode Island National Guard.
MRAPs, as they are known, usually weigh more than 16 tons.
Weichel saw the massive truck bearing down on the girl and grabbed her out of the way. But in the process, the armored truck ran him over, Riel said.
The little girl is fine. Weichel died a short time later of his injuries.
Specialist Weichel leaves behind his fiance and three children.
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