World War II veteran feels like a foreigner
Ronald ‘Rondo’ Scharfe is 96 years old and served during World War II. After being turned down for enlistment due to his age, he later stole baptismal certificates and changed his age. Months later, he was fighting in the battle of Iwo Jima. When asked what he thought of the U.S. today, he said that he felt like a foreigner in his own country.
From Fox News:
Asked to share his thoughts on what he thinks of the state of America today, the 96-year-old veteran did not mince words.
“The real truth? I feel like a foreigner in my own country lots of times and I don’t like it, it makes my heart real heavy,” he said. “I just hope we can pull out of this, there’s too much Hollywood going on in Washington all the time — the important subjects they don’t cover. So I hope all the guys rally up and go back and straighten it all out.”
Scharfe said he finds it unlikely that most 16-year-olds today would go through the lengths he did to risk their lives for their country. He called it a symptom of a “lazy” generation.
“It was a different generation. Each generation is a little bit different,” he said. “And I think that all the generations are great, but I think some of the ones they got now are a little lazy, and I think they’ve got to show more pride in their country than they do.”
Scharfe recalled how he was initially turned away from enlisting at 16 years old, but he was determined to fight. He ultimately stole baptismal certificates during his sister’s wedding and falsified his age. Only months later, he found himself fighting in the battle of Iwo Jima.
Additional Reading:
Halon, Y. (2024, June 8). WWII veteran on state of America today: ‘I feel like a foreigner in my own country and I don’t like it’. Fox News. Link.
Category: Veterans in the news
“…a little lazy…”? Maybe…but I would think that the latest generation is more indoctrinated than lazy, per se. Instead of teaching all of the positives that America has done for the world, there is too much of the perceived negatives. No country/government/person/system is perfect and the current generation does not realize that the destruction of these States United is the ultimate goal of foreign AND domestic enemies. As the man said, the despot will burn down his own country, just to rule over the ashes.
I can understand, fully, why a current generation would not want to cross the ocean and assault a beach head. I do like to think that if our country was invaded by armed enemies, the current generation would do the whole “Red Dawn” thing to defend themselves and our country. We may have an opportunity to test that theory…soon.
Prepare
KoB,
I’d also like to think that some of older generations would do a better job than in Red Dawn…
I guess we’ll see.
I tend to agree with the lazy term given how hard it is for employers / businesses to find and keep employees on staff. I hear the same complaint that the “kids” or young people don’t know how to or want to work.
Foreigner in your own country??? He’s not wrong.
Pedo Joe & der Commissar types want to replace American patriots with compliant foreigners to rubber stamp their degenerate agenda.
Somebody once said “duty, honor, country”.
Haven’t heard that in a a while.
An interesting example is the recent IDF rescue of hostages.
One IDF soldier was killed….Arnon Zamora.
Scott Johnson of Power Line has put together the details in an
easy to understand format at:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/06/remembering-arnon-zamora.php
Amir Ofer was one of the rescuers at Entebbe in 1976.
Perhaps a million ghosts in brown khaki, olive drab and blue and grey will rise from beneath their white crosses and thunder out the betrayal.
Perhaps!!!
Arnon Zamora.
Let’s all say his name!!!!
May God bless this Soldier and his family and loved ones!!!!
We have people protesting for Hamas, AFTER they attacked Israel and took hostages. This hero should have never been in a place to become a hero! AND our dumb ass youngsters are too busy being “fashionable” to actually understand what the hell is really going on.
YMMV.
Here’s the “migrant” foreigners Democrats want here… came for the Free Sh*t (which left/libtards want to support with sympathetic articles like this):
https://www.yahoo.com/news/migrant-woman-searches-husband-vanished-100000161.html
So,,, honest question,,, how Fn bad is your homeland, that you pay all this money, risk life and limb, to get to the IS to panhandle?
Give me an Fn break! I believe I could garden and work enough to eat!
They payed all of that money, took all of the risks to got here to beg for money?
NO!!!
Someone (Soros-funded, perhaps?) encouraged and supported ign’ant, selfish and dependent f*ckheads who couldn’t cut it in their own country to come here.
Like, maybe, these “safe mobility offices”:
https://x.com/townhallcom/status/1800185756427899386
Russkies are forcing their “migrants” to earn it by fighting in Ukraine:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/not-just-convicts-russia-forcing-050807355.html
“ Voy a ir a por un poco de leche. “ 😆
Yep
I enlisted when I turned 17 as I was inspired by listening to WWII veterans. I think some baby boomers where a bit lazy too. Some wanted to avoid the draft. I saw it as an opportunity. Now I see parents discouraging their kids from enlisting. Rondo has it spot on.
Went in after HS at age 17 and was in boot camp when JFK lost his life.
I enlisted at 17 (GED) in USAF 73-76, active reserves 76-78. I was stationed at Ellsworth AFB, Udorn RTAFB, and Gen. Mitchell Field Milwaukee. plus TDY’s. Security Specialist and made E-4 Buck Sargent at 19. A rank that no longer exist.
I enlisted at 19, after dropping out of my sophomore year of college, and getting a letter saying that my neighbors wished me to live an adventure. By some coincidence, I happened to enlist at the end of the first day of the Battle of Ia Drang, and Walter Cronkite was going on and on about the number of casualties that day in the Nam. i didn’t want to wait to get drafted.
My mother started in on me, about enlisting. My dad looked at her and said, “at least he didn’t go to Canada”.
Two months later I was in Basic at Ft Knox.
I met a guy a few years ago that told me he regretted going to Canada. His BIL who did serve in Vietnam would mention his choice, perpetual shame.
Not ashamed enough to take his own life. More’s the pity.
Why should the kids join? Why do they join?
Patriotism:
The media fills the airways full of lies and history alterations to tell us how awful the US is. They seem to totally forget that everywhere else is worth and no country is without sin.
College Money:
No worries Joe has your back and will pay off your college for nothing.
Job Training:
Who wants to be welder or an auto mechanic? Those jobs are for low information voters, uneducated people and immigrants.
Selfless Service:
Don’t make me laugh. The first question is always what is in it for them.
Still if you raise your kids right they might see some value in it. Half my kids joined, half couldn’t due to some random physical disqualifiers.
But the inevitable WWIII the dims insist on jumping into? They aren’t just going to nope out it will be mass protests and joining the other side.
Vietnam was portrayed as a senseless use of our military by the press. Hollywood portrayed the veterans as blood thirsty deranged killers of babies. Blood lusting, dope smoking drug addicts, uneducated, morons , and lowlife’s. So it’s no wonder that parents don’t want their children to join the military. Bad things are going to happen to every kid that joins the military. In actuality you’re going to get an education and possibly be a leader of your community. An example of hard work. Try to convince parents of that.
Those betrayal portrayals didn’t start until the late 60s. After the media portrayed the Tet Offensive falsely as a Vietcong win things really started going sideways on public support. Oh, of course John Kerry played a leadership role in that.
The millions of phony Vietnam vets haven’t helped that false impression. However by the ’80s most of that was gone. Through about 2004 kids join the military in high numbers. Then the moronic invasion of Iraq in 2003 caused things to reverse.
Lt Calley was really beat on by the press too. The media took that story and made a mountain of bad PR for the Army. Not saying what happened was good. It just happened when the hippie left needed something to portray the War in a different light. Same with Kent State. And Jane Fonda foaming at the mouth didn’t help either.
I beg to differ. Not in this current woke military. The “education” they will get will include large doses of indoctrination in wokeism and leftism. They will not be leaders of their communities because they are being taught to be compliant sheep.
Sadly, I’m afraid you’re right. I am in my 37th year of service (AD and RC). I’ve seen a lot happen. Currently, it’s the worst ever!
There are some young, patriotic kids out there. They’re just a thin minority.
My AD service ended in 1974, and I did five years of RC thereafter. I was impressed with how the military rebuilt under Reagan and Bush. But then 0bama and his band of 0bamunists managed to destroy what had been accomplished. The current occupant and those who run him have managed to compound it.
Even in Full Metal Jacket:
I’m just a yute of 61 and there are times when I look around and wonder where my country went.
Could you imagine being a young man in 1942 America claiming the flag triggered you and was a symbol of oppression?
Hell, even the *actually* oppressed and mistreated blacks of the pre-Civil Rights era never made that claim — yet children (and overgrown) children today make it and point to events and situations they never even experienced as proof.
Understand how he feels.
As do I.