Open sniping at vets again
Now that the wars have slipped off the national screen, it’s time for journalists to start taking pot shots at veterans of those wars, like they did during the Vietnam Era. Of course, I see it as penis envy, or something, wherein the journalists got a good look at how useless they really are during the wars, how the big contribution they thought they were going to have on changing the world is really just a popcorn fart in the Great Scheme of Things.
Two journalists in particular have popped up in my inbox. The first, Bill MacClellan at the Saint Louis Post Dispatch thinks that most of us don’t even deserve a military funeral;
Both the federal government and the state government are broke. So why are we providing military funeral honors for all veterans? It is a nice gesture we can’t afford.
Certainly, men and women killed in combat deserve full military honors. It’s a way for the country to say, “We honor the memory of those who died in our service.” These military honors — and the thought behind them — are intended to provide some solace for the families of the fallen.
But what about the guy who spends a couple of years in the military and then gets on with his life? Bear in mind that most veterans did nothing heroic. They served, and that’s laudable, but it hardly seems necessary to provide them all with military honors after they have died.
What an asshole. I mean seriously. Just because he never wore a uniform (at least he didn’t hide behind someone else’s service for his vacuous rant), what gives him the right to decide whose service is worthy of a military funeral? Just so Bill knows, in these times, just stepping up and wearing a uniform is ten times more worthy than the rest of you shitheels who snipe at us for our service.
Over at the Washington Post, Charles Lane, another opinionated fartknocker has decided that we don’t deserve Tricare;
Neither the recently adopted Senate budget plan for fiscal 2014, drafted by Democrats, nor the supposedly “austere” Ryan budget passed by the Republican House, touched Tricare. Hell hath no fury like a veterans’ lobby scorned, as senators and representatives of both parties know.
So do I! In anticipation of a lot of hate mail, I would note that I respect and honor America’s veterans. They should be well provided for, including reasonable health benefits. But no one — not even a veteran — is entitled to taxpayer support regardless of competing public needs.
In the case of Tricare, this is what the veterans’ lobbies have demanded of Congress, and what Congress has given them.
Yeah, both Lane and McClellan say that because we’re broke, we can’t afford these veterans’ benefits anymore. Mostly because they don’t know what the sacrifice to military service involves, although you can be certain that, given a chance to explain, they’ll tell you how their grandfathers stormed the beaches at Okinawa or some damn thing. We all had a choice whether we wanted to serve or not, but these things that they want to take from us are factors that led to the decision to continue service.
I dare either one of those so-called journalists to publicly disparage those people on Social Security for smoking pot, or anyone else who has made a living out of government benefits without giving anything back. Veterans have at least earned those benefits around the world, whether or not we’ve done anything that rises to MacClellan’s or Lane’s standards of valorous service worthy of these benefits.
ADDED: StrikeFO emails to let us know that Bill MacClellan claims in another article that he was “drafted” into the Marine Corps, so there’s a possibility that he was a Marine, but his wording in the article leaves me with some doubt. Some draftees were drafted a second time into the Marines in the 60s, but it was a very rare occurrence.
Category: Veterans Issues
Sadly, it’s not even worth the attempt to explain it to them. Some people just prefer being ignorant.
This is how people operate today – “Screw you and everything you stand for! But I respect you, and send you good thoughts. But yeah, you’re a piece of crap! But again, loser, I respect your service. Loser.”
The author is a liar. Nobody can respect service while disrespecting service in the same breath. Our actions/words betray our heart of hearts.
Well, if we wouldn’t be giving $500 million to the palestinians, $250 million to the Egyptians, $200 million to the Jordanians, $1.4 million for “Shotgun” Joe to spend a couple nights in Europe, $1 million to study Snail shagging tendencies, all since sequester started, then we might be able to fund Tricare and funeral honors. Of course, these buttnuggets don’t have the first fucking clue about any of that.
As a “LIFE” member of the Disabled American Veterans and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, I’ve donated my time (when I was younger and healthier) to participate with other UNPAID volunteers in rendering these military honors for veterans when regular military troops were not available.
This is being done every day, all across the nation, by unpaid volunteers of veterans organizations, as a free service to veterans.
So far as I am aware, it ain’t costing any taxpayer one thin dime.
Many times, even in military communities, regular military personnel are not available, due to a manpower shortage and/or mission priorities.
If I were a guy and anywhere near that McClellan shitbag, I would “dispatch” his sorry ass. I am over the people who don’t have a fucking clue. No, I was not ever deployed to a combat zone, but I earned the honor of a military burial and I hold a combat veteran in higher esteem than I do myself. Have a nice fat cup of STFU, McClellan and Lane and be glad the veterans do what they do so you can be complete fucking tools.
“….. regardless of competing public needs.!!!
Typical sentiment of the ‘elites’ (aka smug arrogant pr#ck)
1.5 million to study why lesbians are fat is ok. But taking care of the men and women who have served is bankrupting us?
John Robert Mallernee: there is often a small cost to the taxpayer – often a govt vehicle is used to transport a Reserve or National Guard funeral detail to a vet’s funeral, and the Reserve funeral detail gets retirement points (but typically not drill pay) for performing the duties.
But unless the funeral detail is from an active unit (some still are), that’s the only cost.
IMO that’s not too much to ask for someone entitled to a military burial.
According to Mr Lane, “no one-not even a veteran-is entitled to taxpayer support regardless of competing needs”. I guess we can start saving a metri shit-ton of money then by cutting of Medicaid, WIC, and all sorts of other “entitlements”. Veterans at least did something to earn their benefits besides being a resident of this country and having a pulse.
Old Trooper, Swampfox: I’ll see your snail and fat studies, and raise you this:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/25/yes-we-should-study-duck-penises.html
Stacy0311: yeah, if we’re that short of $$$ maybe we should start by eliminating stuff that wasn’t earned via service, blood, or broken body parts.
I hate journalists. I had the “pleasure” of looking out for John Robers from “The Week at War” in late October 2006. I remember pulling security at Yarmouk hospital after a VBIED went off and his camera man was in my face and he was pestering me about a KIA we had responded to the night before. He kept asking me if the KIA was wearing body armour and if he was had it failed. I wanted to muzzle thump him in the throat so badly.
McClellan says that the military funerals are intended to provide solace to families. Really? That’s the intent? I always thought that the intent was to allow a grateful nation to pay a final tribute to those who served that nation through military service. If a family finds some solace in that recognition and display of gratitude, fine, I think that is great. But to state, as McKnucklehead does, that solace is the intent is a fail of the first order. Worse, he tries to get cute with word play. His final sentence: “Let’s play taps for an unnecessary program.” It’s Taps, not taps, and he ought to be forced to listen to it 100 times while observing a Veteran’s graveside service from afar, so as not to bring any dishonor to that sacred rite.
At the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, D.C. (known as “the Ol’ Soldiers’ Home”), the funeral details are conducted by the “Old Guard” of the Third Infantry Regiment, or the United States Air Force Honor Guard, depending on which military service the individual was a veteran of.
The Soldiers’ Home Cemetery is across the street from the Soldiers’ Home, and is administered by Arlington National Cemetery, and in fact, the Soldiers’ Home Cemetery is OLDER than Arlington National Cemetery.
Did Lane mention cutting the health care bennies for Congress critters?
HONDO:
While there might be a slight cost to taxpayers when Reserves or National Guard furnishes the burial detail, there is NO cost when it’s performed by a veterans organization, as everyone is an unpaid volunteer, traveling in their personal vehicle at their own expense.
Veterans organizations usually do this when no military personnel are available, as is common throughout the country.
Unfortunately, when those elderly veterans journey to the cemetery to perform the honors for a fellow veteran, it occasionally becomes a comedy of errors.
Remember, these volunteers who are doing this are ELDERLY and in failing health, so – – – ,
Will there be ENOUGH guys show up to perform the ceremony?
Some may have trouble working the bolt of an M-1 Garand rifle, causing the salute to be unsynchronized, or maybe they’re a bit out of step, or can’t hear or understand the orders, and there’s often a question of whether “TAPS” will be sounded by a genuine bugler (VERY rare!) or a tape recorder.
But – – – , there’s no cost.
But what about the guy who spends a lifetime on welfare and then never gets on with his life? Bear in mind that most welfare recipients did nothing, at all. They sucked at the government teat, and that’s espected of them, but it hardly seems necessary to provide them all with government benefits after contributing absolutely nothing to society.
Now seems just as good a time as any to repost a classic: Tommy By Rudyard Kipling Born 1865 I went into a public-‘ouse to get a pint o’ beer, The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.” The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die, I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I: O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”; But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play, The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play, O it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play. I went into a theatre as sober as could be, They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me; They sent me to the gallery or round the music-‘alls, But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls! For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, wait outside”; But it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide, The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide, O it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide. Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap; An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit. Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, ‘ow’s yer soul?” But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll, The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll, O it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll. We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too, But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you; An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints, Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints; While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, fall be’ind”, But it’s “Please to walk in… Read more »
What were you guys expecting? You didn’t see this coming?
This is the way the twits in the media are, and have been since the 1960s. It starts out fine, then they discover the reality of warfare and do everything they can to tarnish the image of anyone who serves. They only want you when they need you; otherwise, they wish you’d just go away, until the next time they need you.
Will that ever change? I have no idea. Wait until they desperately need you again, then ask me.
Sooo, what was that bit from a year or so ago? The one that revealed that only 1% of todays American population actively serve in the military?
Are we targets because it’s convenient? Or does the thought of anything icky like war and violence really bother these fucknuts that much?
I’ve spent ten years in this mans Navy and I grew up an Air Force Brat. However, as a “civil servant”, I’m rapidly reaching the point to where the general sentiment is something to the tune of: “What’s that? China is looming and North Korea is threatening? Fuck that noise, you jackasses can deal with this shit yourself.”
And I also like how the two journalists fail to understand things about benefits. You have to stay in for a set number of years or be medically discharged to qualify for the full range of items their bitching about. It’s not a “Enlist for four years and get out” gravy train.
It was an honor and a privilege to serve on an honor guard when I was with the 3rd ID. I don’t care what the cost, in time or money, is anyone and everyone that has served has earned the honor of having a military funeral.
Talked to my doc today. Some of you may remember I am in the WTU awaiting discharge after 19 years of service and five deployments. Doc tells me orders have come down from on high that E-7 up and Majors and above are all to be considered fit for duty so they can save money by not medically retiring us. Same thing happened when PTSD was to be rediagnosed as association disorder or depression to save money and deny benefits. They sent us to war for 12 years and took our blood, but they can’t afford to pay for the effects of that. No one even mentioned this in 2003, it was starry eyed visions of tanks and tomahawk missles, everyone so excited to see Geraldo in the sand. This is the thanks of a grateful nation. Lip service and scorn.
@18 Al Pacino in Sea of Love says, “In the wet ass hour, I’m everybody’s daddy”…
He’s talking about cops being disrespected, but it works for troops as well. You post is more eloquent certainly but the sentiment is the same.
The true 1%’ers aren’t a bunch of scruffy outlaw pieces of garbage living as parasites off the land, but the 1% who offer to lay down their lives for ungrateful b4stards back at home.
They don’t understand because they have no honor, they have no truth in their words (unless by accident), and they have no soul. No one serves because they will be draped in a flag and saluted when they die. And nobody serves because they believe the government owes them healthcare. Those things are what the government offers as a component of their compensation package for that service.
If their employers were discussing violating terms of their employment agreements I suspect these 2 j4goffs would be crying like little babies about the inequity of their situation. But they would not care to extend that same vision to veterans because the reality is they DO NOT value your service, nor do they really believe your actions were “laudable”. One of them figures most of you did nothing special and deserve nothing as a consequence. What a couple of clueless f#cks…perhaps when the next jihadists arrive and someone they know is victimized because we have weakened our military presence they will feel a sense of shame, but I doubt it. That too will be the fault of the military, they are never culpable for their words or actions…weak minded fools.
@20 – “Are we targets because it’s convenient?” Umm, yes.
The Big They want you when They need you. Otherwise, it’s ‘thanks, please go away now.’
This encompasses a large group of the population.
I hate journalists, I wouldnt talk to the ones that came by FOB Warhorse back in O4 and I wouldnt take the time to piss on one if they were on fire now. There is no integrity in traditional journalism these days, there is only sensationalism and tabloid style reporting.
What ever happened to reporters like Ernie Pyle?
I was on Warhorse in 04. 3BCT, 1ID?
Yup SFC Holland I was in the EMS Platoon.
@25 – Whatever happened to people like Ernie Pyle, Bill Mauldin, Dickie Chappelle?
People with no integrity took their places.
My thoughts exactly Ex-PH2 it sickens me.
SFC Holland get one of the admins to toss you my E-mail address.
@18 – Thanks for that post. Hadn’t read that poem from Kipling – it certainly demonstrates that even back then that society hasn’t changed its’ attitude towards the military.
We had a journalist pull the “don’t you know who I am?!” routine in Somalia at a checkpoint. Later, some nimrod let him ride on our LAV. I must admit I fantasized about fraging him and leaving his VIP corpse out in the wild for the critters to munch on.
Settled on traversing the turret around and smaching him in the head with the 25mm barrel a few times. It felt good.
@25. Schools of Jounalism happened. They are all either ring knockers or ring-knocker wannabes nowadays. We have the idiot news readers on TV and radio and the Columbia/NYU/Wisconsin Schools of Journalism intellectuals in the newspapers. It’s sad. They are sooooooo smart and know so little.
@30 — It goes back further than Kipling’s time. I read a lot of Geogette Heyer’s Regency romances. She did an enormous amount of research of the Regency period to make her characters authentic to her readers.
In “A Civil Contract”, the main character is a veteran of the Peninsular War (the Crimea) and served under Wellington, took a ball (round) in one leg and has a limp as a result of chirurgeons (surgeons) digging it out. He sees the disdain for soldiers up front and the annoyance expressed by Brits vacationing on the Continent when Bonaparte escapes and rallies soldiers around himself to start another campaign.
If she included the crappy attitude that the early 19th-century civilian population had toward Wellington in a novel, it must have been much worse in reality.
It is nothing new. It probably goes back even beyond the Crusades and the Roman Empire. Remember, Agamemmnon went home from Troy to find that his wife had been having an affair in his absence. When he got home, she killed him.
All this comes from the “Lame Stream Media”, which doesn’t surprise me a bit. What else can be said?
My father, a master sergeant who retired after twenty years in the United States Army, and a veteran of the Second World War and Korea, didn’t want the military honors at his funeral.
However, for my sake, they did decide to put a flag on his casket, so it could later be sent to me, along with his medals, as I was unable to be there.
My brother-in-law, who was there, said that the pilot of a C-130 on final approach to Pope Air Force Base, as it passed over the cemetery, looked down, saw the family gathered around the flag-draped casket, and respectfully wagged the wings!
Today, the flag and the decorations are displayed on the wall of my room.
Right next to the display of his flag and decorations is a display of my stepmother’s United States Army medals.
When the Second World War began, she was number 104 to enlist in the newly created Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps.
Today, she’s ninety-six years old and living in an assisted living facility in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
She also doesn’t want a military burial.
Why?
I don’t know.
Neither she nor my father ever explained why they did not want the military honors.
I remember talking with a fellow Mormon in rural Idaho, who was a Navy veteran of the Second World War.
He told me he didn’t want the military honors at his burial, for he thought the rifle salute was sacrilegious.
In reality, I would consider it legitimate to discuss the lowering of earned benefits of retirees – IF they cut out all the unearned benefits first. Until then, there is no way that it can be justified.
@26, I was kinda sorta on Warhorse in 08-09. It was our “home FOB” but we lived on a COP in Zagania. When they closed our COP down they moved us up to FOB Grizzly which is next to the Iranians in Ashraf.
I think that they should retroactively charge the news organizations for all travel provided to all journalists in combat zones for the past 12 years by Uncle Sam. Might make up for some of those wasted Tricare funds :).
I did funeral details for years for NY State. We were paid $100 per day (multiple funerals per day – WW2 and Korea vets were dying at an incredible rate) and OCCASIONALLY had use of a GSA vehicle. I don’t want to calculate the number of trips and expenses paid out of pocket in a 150 mile radius in POVs, but we’d do it all again for free. You can’t put a value on the honor it was to present that flag and say those words to family members – one of the highlights of my career.
When we get our heads out of our asses on a fiscal level as a country, and stop spending money on our enemies so they can keep hating and attacking us, and giving money to governments who have NEVER paid their debts to us, we will have plenty of money to support our veterans — and probably run every entitlement program we have and add some. It’s a matter of getting our priorities in order.
As for those journalists:
Can’t drive a big car…nobody should own big cars.
Afraid of guns…nobody should own guns.
Can’t afford a big house…nobody should have a big house.
Doesn’t have any honor…nobody should be recognized for their honor.
See a pattern? See a lack of integrity and a ME FIRST mentality?
Yeah, me too.
I would rather deal with lawyers than reporters. I was recalled for base security in 2001. When the first units were returning, CNN showed up with one of their satellite rigs. They were informed that we had to search their vehicle. The field producer handed me her card and said it was okay we did not really need to search the vehicle…they WERE CNN after all. I told her we could search her vehicle or they could leave the base. She said she was going to call the PAO, I offered to let her use the phone in the guard shack……she shut up after that……
Robot Wrangler: not an admin here per se, but can do that much. Done.
Simple solution to funding problems – let Uncle Sam retroactively bill all news organizations for any expenses incurred for lodging, feeding and transporting all journalists in combat zones for the past 12 years. That should make a pretty good dent in the current federal deficit :).
I did the honor guard for years for NY State, and it was one of the best duties I ever performed. We were paid $100 per day (multiple funerals), and OCCASIONALLY had the use of a GSA vehicle (begged and borrowed). Can’t begin to guess the miles and expenses on my POV in a 120 mile radius, but they were substantial. You couldn’t put a price on the honor it was to present that flag and say those words to the families. An added bonus was the Marine Corps vets that assisted with almost every funeral – those gentlemen were exceptional. I talked with men in their eighties that were at places with names like Guadalcanal and Tarawa – places that demanded a price that no government or journalist could hope to repay. They were content with honoring their own, but now it appears that even that is too much to ask…
Damned browser – that was me double posting 🙂
@37, By chance you weren’t on one of the MiTTs from Riley/Funston were you?
@44, Nope, I was C Co 1/24 IN out of Wainwright.
I had the honor in participating in burial at sea ceremonies a few times and besides preparing the casket and/or urn there is no expense involved. All ceremonies took place during scheduled underways and everyone involved except for Chaps was a volunteer. I plan on going out the same way, hard to screw up a burial when your plot is the size of the Pacific.
There is an article in today’s San Diego Union-Tribune about how the teacher’s union in San Diego is demanding $25,000 buyout bonuses for teachers who have ALREADY RETIRED. Yup, they want retroactive bonuses for people who are already retired.
The takeaway for me is that the pigs are feeding at the trough, and they are willing to steal from others, regardless of the consequences. So, my advice is “Push Back.” And, you all know how to do that.
So a night at the Ritz for Biden, $1 million dollars on his european trip….millions for Syria, Egypt, Libya….millions for illegal aliens who have not contributed a dime to the nation but are parasites from the moment they enter, millions for people who have never worked and paid a tax a day in their lives and are never going to….
All eternity in a hole in the ground $300 for a man or woman who served their nation with honor and kept their end of the deal they signed. And these numb nuts figure the $300 number is the problem?
F$ck these guys and the 4ssholes who employ them…
Still trying to find a journalists , I thought they all died off 20 or more years ago… Now we have idiots on computers… Don’t get me wrong , never been a fan of journalists , but that might be because I have yet to hear, see or read anything done by a journalists.
Sorry to all the Vets out there that we have people like these folks.. You all deserve so much better. However , you know the old saying, Dogs and Soldiers keep off the grass, until we need you or want to use you as a prop…
To MacClellan and Lane S&*T IN YOUR MOMMA’S FACES for raising such POS excuses for human beings! I remember my Grandad’s funeral in 1979. He was a WWII Vet, he was laid to rest in a National Cemetery, and thanks to cutbacks from Jimmeh Kahtuh & Co., he was laid to rest sans honor guard, and taps was played from a cassette player from the back of one of the Cemetery’s service trucks. I’m still a Guardsman, and I’ve done Funeral Details as well. I’ll also gladly volunteer for them again, I don’t even care about getting paid for them, giving the due honors to a Veteran is what counts to me, whether it was one who served overseas, peacetime,…. It doesn’t matter to me, they’ve served, and they’re entitled. Every one of those tax-fattened pompous turds in Congress ought to be forced to take pay and benefit cuts, and be forced to surrender their plush Health Care plan and go on 0bamacare!