A word about military service
There’s a general theme running through a lot of the criticism I’ve encountered the last few days, that theme being that some military service has more “moral authority” in the discussion about this war against terror. That the voices of some veterans are more valuable than others.
I admire people like Lt. Nixon at LT Nixon Rants – even though politically we’re miles apart, he’s able to successfully make a credible argument on the subject of the war without demeaning any veterans. Others, however, are unable to do that. One veteran who had not even served in any war, placed more value on his own opinion than mine because he’d served since I retired (in 1994, if anyone is interested and unable to click the “About” link above).
I had a run-in with IVAW members yesterday and when I mentioned that I had trouble hearing them because I’d lost most of my hearing in a war, their response both times was “What war were you ever in?” as if only their experience has value.
And the thing that got me to thinking about it happened back in November when I read Clifton Hicks’ letter to the Veterans for Freedom;
How come nearly every single one of you people that I’ve seen or read about are Lieutenants and Sergeants? When I look at your little war pictures and read your poorly written bio’s my vision is overflowed with images of lazy, incompetent, cowardly Officers with a handful of brain-dead NCO’s to do their dirty work, as usual. I wonder where you boys all served?
The implication is; if you aren’t Clifton Hicks, your service doesn’t count. (Ed. Note: Hey, Cliff, m’boy, we were two feet from each other at Winter Soldier, I didn’t say a word to you no matter what I thought of you or your service – that’s the kind of stand up guy I am)
I had trouble dealing with a lot of the things I had to do in war when I first came back. I found solace in the strangest of places – in Civil War diaries. I discovered that all veterans of all wars have a common experience that others can’t understand. Not psychologists and certainly not some chic with hairy legs.
Some wars were tougher than others, but the effect that wars have on people is always the same – whether your war was four years of slugging your way across the Pacific or 100 hours of slugging your way across Kuwait.
Since my awakening, I have surrounded myself with war veterans – from across the spectrum of World War II veterans to veterans of our current war. From paratroopers who jumped into Normandy to meatcutters who went across Germany in the back of a deuce-and-half. From Huey crew chiefs in Vietnam to tunnel rats. Many times I discovered that I have more in common with warriors from previous wars than I do with people whom I’ve known my whole life but never left our hometown.
Well, what I’m saying, I suppose, is that if these IVAW guys want to attract us to their point-of-view, the last thing they should be doing is demeaning our own experiences and that commonality in the experience of war that we share. Yeah, us older guys are out-of-shape at the moment, but in our day we kicked ass, on and off the battlefield. To judge our accomplishments on something as superficial as our current appearance borders on childishness. And it adds nothing to the discussion.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Society, Support the troops, Terror War
Well spoken. i don’t have the eloquence that you do SFC. I to am from the same era as you. I enlisted in 1973 to go to sea and work with and on airplanes. The lottery number ws in the 300s. Not to mention getting out of the hometown. I didn’t have relatives on the BN Railway and said hometown exists because of the railroad.
I did get the “treatment” when I volunteered, because of Vietnam. Basically, my social(girls) went in the tank. Only one girl I graduated with said to get out and don’t look back.
I went back when I retired. Guess what? I didn’t fit in anymore.
I never saw any combat. Being on an aircraft carrier, combat is where the airplanes go. But I was part of the team that made sure that pilots and planes were able to carry out the mission. I missed Desert Storm. I was on shore duty at NAS Whidbey Island, WA in the West Coast A6 Fleet Replacement Squadron. Some of my neighbors wondered why I was still home when the shooting started. My reply was we provided trained aircrew and maintenance personnel to the Fleet Squadrons. I don’t know if it sunk in or not.
Being a student of “winter soldiers” long ago and now, I am convinced that what they get involved in publicly has more to do with their own individual psycho-pathologies than it has to do with anything that did, or did not, happen in a war zone.
Some of my fellow Vietnam vets will never join VFW, for example, because of the treatment they got from WWII guys when they returned home and tried to join the organization. They were not spurned there by the anti-military mentality common at the time on the streets among young non-vets; they were spurned because they had not fought in a “real war” like WWII, or because they had “lost” their war.
It is the age old adolescent nonsense found among insecure men of small accomplishment: “Mine is bigger than yours.”
This is one reason many of the IVAW and VVAW types are so grandiose, exaggerate their victimhood, and seek out validation from their own kind in groups: they were failures as soldiers and have to put the blame somewhere – anywhere – except on themselves.
Thank you, Mr. Lilyea, you are too kind.
Just remember, nobody is as brave or as smart as the IVAW pukes. Just ask them.
I as so glad that WS2 imploded. Corporal Kokesh’s “Black Opel” testimony is classic. Of course a prep school grad like Elvis wouldn’t know what an Opel was. Now of course has Zarchawi made a break for it on a polo pony, Kokesh’s your man.
IVAW has repeated every VVAW protest except the yakeover of the Statue of Liberty. They one moron thorwing his medals at the Labor College was aping Kerry.
But everything they’ve repeated, they’ve done badly.
Take the “March” to Valley Forge. The original had 200 people covering 85 miles in 4 days and meeting 2,000 people there in VF.
Kiddie Kopy has 30 people doing 25 miles in 2 days.
Neither one was as much of a hot rock as Sgt Craig Breiner, USMC Reserve who covered 45 miles in one day to boost morale and then went 50 miles a few months later as a fundraiser.
Well said. I too am from the same generation of soldiers, often called Cold War Warriors. I retired in ’99 after 22 years. We had our share of dust ups like Panama, Somalia, Kosovo, and Desert Storm, but you are right some do consider our contributions not as significant. I take pride in the fact that I served in an Army that had to overcome the image and implanted stereotype of the post Vietnam era crowd whose only knowledge of what the military was about came from Hollywood and people like John Kerry and his Winter Soldiers. We built a helluva Army. That is our legacy.
Anytime they want to try and demean my service I can tell them a few stories about driving HMMV’s down jungle paths in Somalia to trip an ambush so that the QRF could respond and take care of the attackers. This was long before uparmored HMMV’s were even dreamed up and the only thing between me and a bullet was the buttons on my BDU’s.
thanks for letting me vent.
“Anonymous Says:
March 20th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Being a student of “winter soldiers” long ago and now, I am convinced that what they get involved in publicly has more to do with their own individual psycho-pathologies than it has to do with anything that did, or did not, happen in a war zone.”
You are right on the money. Many of them already had problems even before they enlisted. Most could not adjust to military service or the demands it places on people. They were problem children in their units and were dealt with accordingly. I saw it as a war vet and as a section and platoon Sergeant.