Thursday, March 15, 2012

Baby Killers


In December of 1973, I came home on leave shortly after being injured in a missile explosion in Utah.  I landed at Logan Airport wearing my Air Force uniform and bandages on my right hand and right eye.  I heard "Baby Killer" as I walked through the terminal.  The Mei Lai Massacre was how many people looked at soldiers at the end of Viet Nam War.

I went to dinner last night with a friend who is not military, but very pro military.  He brought up the Army sergeant who killed 16 Afghans.  He said it was a shame.  I said I was amazed it took ten years for it to happen--especially with Americans getting killed by the Afghans they are training.

Our soldiers, like our politicians are us.  Soldiers are not beamed in from a good planet and politicians from a bad one--which is how many people talk.  We have leaders whom we elect.  We have soldiers who go to our schools and live in our neighborhoods.  Politicians, soldiers, police, teachers and all of the rest of us who take responsibility for some aspect of public life bring humanity to that job--good and bad.  The soldier who turned his weapon on civilians was on his fourth combat deployment and was diagnosed with PTSD.  His fellow soldiers get killed and maimed by people who pretend to be civilians.

The dumbest thing I heard so far was from columnist and commentator Mike Barnicle.  He said "This is a failure of the chain of command from top to bottom."  As far as I could find, Barnicle has never been a link in any chain of command.  If any of his knowledge of the military was first hand, he would know how much everyone has to trust one another and that the men in his chain of command are not jailers.

American NCOs have traditionally had more responsibility and ability to take initiative than other armies. Of course freedom can allow people to do wrong, but that is one of the costs of freedom.  Our military patrols and protects the world with less than two million soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen--including active duty, national guard and all reserves.  Soldiers with real responsibility and superior technology are the reasons we can do this.  Barnicle would have some sort of Soviet-style army where even the generals have no latitude.

I wonder if Barnicle could last through four combat tours, see his friends killed and maimed by terrorists and maintain his sanity.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

200 Moms and Babies and Five Soldiers

In 1977, I flew home on leave from Germany on a long-body Douglas DC-8.  These planes were passing out commercial use, replaced by wide-body aircraft, but charter companies still flew these long, narrow planes with more than 40 rows of seats--no first class.

In the 70s when one million Americans lived in Germany (250,000 soldiers and airmen) the passengers on the cheap charters were Army wives and their kids.  In the 70s when our unit got a replacement soldier, I would assume he was 19, from the South and his 17-year-old wife was pregnant with their second child.  He needed a job with benefits.

I was on an eight-hour flight with maybe 230 wives and kids and five soldiers.  From boarding to landing this long, narrow plane echoed with 100+ kids taking crying--sometimes all at once, sometimes in a crescendo that moved from the back to the front of the plane, getting louder then growing softer as the kids got tired.

I was a pack-a-day smoker then.  Probably half the adults on the plane were in the "smoking area" in the back.  You couldn't see the front of the plane when a bunch of us lit up.  In fact, it blurred the definition of second-hand smoke when there was that much smoke in a confined space.

I thought of this flight today because a toddler was howling five rows back.  I thought 'This is SOOO much nicer than 100 kids crying.

The kid is quiet.  Quiet never happened on that charter flight.  Ahhhhhhh!!!

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Wearing Uniform--First Class Idea

Today I am flying to Orlando, Florida, for three days for a scientific instruments conference.  Since I now know that in 400 days I will be a civilian again I decided to wear my uniform whenever I could.  Flying is always a good place to have a uniform.  Today I took the AirTran direct flight to Orlando from Harrisburg.  At check-in my bag was free.  The security line is so short at Harrisburg it was only quick to get through security anyway.  I had an aisle seat near the middle of the plane and AirTran boards by rows, so I waited until everyone was almost through the cold Jetway before I boarded.

As I got on the plane, the flight attendant put me in the last seat in First Class.  It's not too big of a deal, but I am writing this post with enough leg room to stretch my legs.  My wife and I ran six miles this morning so it's nice to stretch.

I fly back on Tuesday and go straight to NYC for a black tie dinner at the Waldorf.  I am wearing the Class A Dress uniform with the bow tie.  I go to two or three black tie events a year for work, why not wear green.


Marines New Ad Campaign--TRUTH from a Recruiter!!!

The phrase "My recruiter lied to me!" must go back at least to Sparta. Leonidas probably said, "We'll be home from Thermopolay next month."

But not the US Marines!!  Their new add campaign says the world is messed up and we'll be there!

THAT is truth in advertising.

Heres the story from Jim Dao at the NY Times:


Ad Campaign for Marines Cites Chaos as a Job Perk
Saturday, March 10, 2012
The war in Iraq is over, the troop reduction in Afghanistan is under way and America's next war front is far from clear. If you are a military recruiter, how do market your product?
The Marine Corps thinks it has the answer: focus on something the world has in endless supply -- chaos.
On Saturday, the Marine Corps will open its latest marketing campaign, "Toward the Sound of Chaos," which will use social media, television commercials and print ads to underscore two points: That while no one knows where the next global hot spot will be, the Marines are ready to charge there.
"Even though we're ramping down from the 10 years of Iraq and Afghanistan, we're going to have a chaotic future in front of us, which also portends a potentially busy time for the Marine Corps," said Brig. Gen. Joseph L. Osterman, commanding general for Marine Corps recruiting command.
The new campaign will also include much information, and dramatic footage of Marines delivering humanitarian aid to nations beleaguered by war, famine or natural disaster, like Haiti, where 2,200 Marines provided medical supplies, food and security after the 2010 earthquake.
The new emphasis is partly the result of a national online survey conducted by JWT, the marketing firm, showing that many young adults consider "helping people in need, wherever they may live," an important component of good citizenship.
"There is a subset of millennials who believe that the military is an avenue of service to others," General Osterman said. "Not only in our nation, but also in others faced with tyranny and injustice."
But, General Osterman said, the Marine Corps remained an expeditionary, combat-oriented force. Post-Afghanistan, it will probably return to its traditional role of attacking mainly from the sea, he added. "Are we getting soft?" he asked. "The answer is no."
The campaign's inaugural television commercial opens with scenes of a smoke-draped horizon and the sounds of gunfire and people screaming in the distance. The terrain is vaguely desertlike, but there are no geographic landmarks -- not even a hill -- to pin down the location. It could be Africa, Central Asia or Kansas.
Marines then sprint into the picture and toward the smoke, F/A-18 fighter jets screaming overhead. Before the minute-long ad is over, virtually every form of Marine war-fighting hardware -- the much-critiqued V-22 Osprey, Cobra attack helicopters, amphibious assault vehicles and a hovercraft -- make guest appearances.
"Most people hear the sounds of chaos and run in the opposite direction," the baritone-voiced narrator says. "But there are a few who listen intently for these sounds, not in the hopes of hearing them, but to help rid the world of them."
The spot ends with a provocative tagline: "Which way would you run?"
The Marine Corps has always been adept at maximizing buzz around its marketing campaigns, and this one -- estimated to cost more than $3 million -- was no different. The television spot leaked onto YouTube on Wednesday and then on Thursday the Marines released Web-only videos on Facebook. The first television commercial will air on ESPN during the Big 12 basketball championship game on Saturday night.
The new Marine Corps campaign echoes in some ways the Navy's current campaign, titled "A Global Force for Good." The Air Force's latest campaign, "It's Not Science Fiction. It's What We Do Every Day," also includes humanitarian themes woven into commercials depicting a vaguely dystopian future.
The Army, which often competes with the Marine Corps for recruits, is evaluating recent survey data to decide whether to revamp its current marketing campaign, "Symbol of Strength," a reference to the Army uniform as a symbol of personal and military strength.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Aviation Ball

On Saturday night, I went to the annual Aviation Ball held at the Hershey Lodge.  It was a beautiful event.  My wife could not go (She would have missed Prairie Home Companion) and she made the right choice.  No one danced and the awards and speeches went on for an hour.  But if you don't like ceremonies, the Army is a bad place to be!!!

Besides the chicken dinner, the real reason I went to a dinner as maybe the only E5 there by choice was to talk to the CSMs in attendance about the status of my request for an extension of my enlistment and to hear what they thought of my chances for getting it.  

Unfortunately for me, it seems betting m=on my extension is like betting on Ron Paul for president--some people are strongly in favor, but the result does not look like Rep. Paul will be moving to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

But I remain hopeful.  The best admins in the brigade put the packet together and sent it to division.  And a warrant officer who knew about the packet thought it was the best one she had seen.  Not that good paperwork seals the deal, but bad paperwork ensures a bad result.  



Thursday, March 1, 2012

Hitching a Ride with the Georgia National Guard


In 1973, I hitched a ride on a C-130 Hercules transport from Denver to Atlanta.  This prop plane cruises at 240mph.  The Georgia Air National Guard flight was scheduled for almost eight hours.  There were 60 high school ROTC cadets aboard in addition to cargo.  The crew gave me a headset so I could help with the high school kids—some of whom got sick, scared or both.  

It was a long, dull ride until about 70 miles outside Atlanta when the plane started to pivot right and then left, like it was rotating on a stick in the middle of the fuselage.  On the intercom I heard the pilots feather one right-wing prop then the next.  The fuel pumps for the right wing died and the plane was swerving like a crab in the sky.

I took the party line and told the kids there was turbulence.  As we descended the co-pilot said we would be going straight in because the remaining engines were overheating.  The pilot then said in a very calm voice.   “I landed one of these bitches in the Nam with just one engine.  We’re fine.”

I went up front and saw crash foam on the airstrip and fire engines on both sides of the runway.  We came in hard, took one big bounce and came to a fairly smooth stop just short of the foam.

As we led the kids out of the plane they knew the crew and I had lied big time about the turbulence.  They could see nothing but emergency vehicles. 

In the terminal the crew chief told me that they would have the fuel line repaired in a few hours and I could fly with them to DC.  I declined, saying I was in a hurry to get home.  I went back outside out of view of the crew and kissed the airstrip, then flew home commercial.

In my admittedly odd life, I have always wanted people around me who could be chased by a raging grizzly bear and think ‘This is a chance to practice sprinting.’

What I did not realize as a young man is that the unflappable folks not only handle the problem of the moment, but calm everyone else around them.



Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Interviewed for School Board, Did Not Get UnPaid Job

Last week I was one of six people who interviewed to replace a member of the City of Lancaster School Board.  The job pays nothing and has a time commitment almost as big as the National Guard .  I am assured by current members that everybody gets mad at you and State budget cuts mean even more tough decisions--followed by criticism.

So I am glad I was not chosen.

But I did try for the job.  I knew my life would be even more crowded, but I also care more about education than anything else in government.  My kids are in the school system, but even if they weren't, the future of our country depends on education.  I know many kids will choose to be stupid no matter how good the education system is, but I want to be sure the education system is there for every kid who wants a good education.

This can mean education toward getting a good job, but it can also mean education for its own sake.  Reading Hannah Arendt will not get a 58-yr-old guy a better job.  But I am delighted by her books.  Two years ago, a friend told me to read Arendt.  I am now reading the 4th of her dozen books and plan to read them all in before I am 60.  The life of the mind is its own reward--I think a better reward than millions of dollars.  An educated person gets to decide between reading philosophers and making buckets of money.

I want every child to have that choice.

I'll try again in 2013.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Still Love Modern Medicine

In my last post I wrote about the being invisible to medical people who are focused on their technology.  But yet again I have reasons to be a wildly happy fan of modern medicine.  The visit that led to same-day laser surgery was a follow up from a routine eye exam.  In that first exam, the doctor doing the eye exam caught a blood vessel problem in my eye that someone else might have missed.  The specialist I went to for the follow-up visit said several times that Dr. Wenxin Wei is very good.

After the the dye in my arm and many strange pictures of my eye, it turned out I had fluid in my eye and a build-up of fluid can lead to vision problems including blindness.  So far, they don't know what caused it so I will be getting more needles in my arm to figure out exactly what is wrong.  The specialist, Dr. Roy Brod, (whom Dr. Wei said is the best in the area) said they may not find a cause.  But in two months he will do laser surgery on the other eye so both are repaired.  

In previous posts I have written about the many ways I could have been dead or crippled without modern medicine.  This makes twice I avoided blindness.  

And that is just what makes the healthcare debate so difficult.  I owe my life and sight to expensive, innovative treatments that did not exist when I was a kid.  Without those treatment I would be blind, dead, crippled, or maybe all three.  With them, we all have to pay more and more for health care.  In principle cutting big-ticket healthcare seems like a good idea.  But facing blindness or paralysis, I think healthcare costs look very reasonable.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Being an Invisible Patient

On Tuesday I had an appointment with an eye doctor.  It was a follow-up appointment from a routine eye exam in December that found some blood in my eye.  The appointment was almost five hours long and ended with laser surgery and me leaving wear an eye patch.

Too bad it was not Talk Like a Pirate Day.

At one point in the exam, a technician put a yellow dye IV in my arm and took digital photos of my yellowed eyeball.  She had another technician with her.  The second tech was in training.  The two of them were looking at the array of eyeball photos on a large monitor.  In one of them they found the problem and were delighted.  They pointed at the problem and said how interesting it was and the direction of blood vessels and other fascinating details.

I was sitting five feet away.  By the way, I rode 20 miles before the appointment and was wearing spandex bike clothes.

Then they started discussing what would cause the problem they saw.  In their diagnosis protocol, the usual cause for the symptoms they saw was high blood pressure or diabetes.

One said, "He must be out of shape.  Look at that.  Probably high blood pressure."

My rest pulse is 58.  My blood pressure is 120 over 70.  I do not have diabetes.  But they were excited by the images on the screen.  So I had to have high blood pressure and/or diabetes, even if I didn't.

At this point I interrupted and said I didn't have high blood pressure or diabetes and that I am not in bad shape for my age.  Maybe something else could cause my problem?

Then they asked if I felt I had low energy lately or was feeling lethargic.  So I told them I ran five miles and did 75 pushups with my sons the previous evening.  I went to the gym for 45 minutes that morning and rode 20 miles to the appointment.

They decided I was not lethargic.

Later the doctor came in, said they were going to correct the problem in the left eye that day and the right eye two months later.  Sometimes they never find a cause.  He ordered blood tests to rule out infections.

I understand that people with complex jobs have to rely on protocols to interpret the vast amounts of data they deal with.  But it still is a strange experience to be discussed like a piece of meat.  Or an eyeball!




Monday, February 13, 2012

"Chill out will ya"

Ok.  Last post I was talking about my very noble friend who faced a choice between family and his comrades.  And I talked about choosing between two good things.  That was on the train going to work.  Now I am on the train home in the quiet car.  I sat next to a guy who seemed pissed off to share the seat.  Ten minutes after we leave the station, he takes a call.  I let him know we are in the quiet car.  His response is to say "Chill out will ya" and stomp away out of the car.

Which means, he is among the small but constant group of people who sit in the quiet car so they won't have to listen to other people's calls.  What they want is the "Quiet Except for ME Car."

As opposed to the person choosing between two good things and doing the right thing, these people--the ones who know very well they are sitting in the quiet car--want the world to revolve around them.  They have every opportunity to choose to do the right thing and choose to be jerks instead.

The Four Loves in Camo

No, I am not going to write about a soldier with four girlfriends (or she could have four boyfriends!).  CS Lewis wrote a book called The Four Loves about the four Greek words for love.  We lump all these words together in our one word Love.

In Greek the word Eros is romantic love, Philia is friendship, Storge is love among family members and long-time familiarity, and Agape is what we call charity.

Yesterday at lunch I talked to a soldier who volunteered for an upcoming deployment, then changed his mind when it looked like his marriage would end when the wheels went up.  His one-sentence choice was between deploying with his buddies or keeping his family.  He chose his family.

But The Four Loves makes clear why this is no easy choice.  Friendship and Romance are different kinds of love, but they are both love.  And both Friendship and Romance grow from a free choice we make of that particular friend or lover.  Of all soldiers we serve with, there are a few whose company we enjoy above all others.  Falling in love often begins with a moment in which we see our beloved and decide in a moment 'That's the one.'

Which puts Romance and Friendship in stark contrast with Charity and Family.  We do not choose our uncles, cousins, in-laws, children and even pets.  Families form from existing families, blending and adding to form a new family.

Charity is expressed best by God's Love for us and Mother Teresa's love for lepers.  God accepts us as we are:  needy, nasty, selfish and small.  Loving us does not show His good taste, but His compassion.  When Mother Teresa lifted a leper from a Calcutta gutter, she was not thinking 'This is the best leper in this gutter.'  She was expressing the kind of Love God has for us and wants us to have for others.

While  Romance and Friendship are a free choice based on our estimate of the value of the beloved, Charity and Family Love are freely given with no regard to value at all.  We love the child who didn't learn to tie her shoes till she was 12 just as much as the one who is on the honor roll and a starter on the soccer team.

All through my Army career, I have seen these agonized choices between two good things.  A man who is choosing between family and friends is torn by two kinds of love.  The toughest moral choices are not between Good and Evil, but between Good and Good.  And they hurt all the more because when we choose between two goods, we know we are hurting someone who does not deserve it.

More later.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Daily Inspections not acceptable

This weekend many of us went through an Aviation inspection getting ready for a visit by the Inspector General.  A warrant officer who is also a Blackhawk pilot is in charge of the security for the aviation facility.  Because this is a highly secure area, they conduct a 100% inventory of keys at the end of every day.

The inspection requires a semi-annual 100% inventory of the keys.  Our security officer showed the inspector the daily log of key inspections.  Since it says "Daily Log" the inspector said it was unacceptable.

Our security officer asked.  "If we are supposed to have an inspection on June 1 and December 1 could I give you the inspection sheets for those particular days?"

"No" was the answer.  The sheets are labelled Daily so they are unacceptable as Semi-Annual inspection verification.

In the area of key security, he was rated "Unsatisfactory."

Clearly, it is important not to accept daily inspections when a semi-annual inspection is needed.

Welcome to the Army.

Saturday, February 11, 2012



First month in Iraq, fuelers set up at Camp Normandy
 Roomie, SGT Nickey Smith, goes to Camp Normandy with the fuelers.
Waiting for the bird

Luxury accomodations
 Nice neighborhood!


Thursday, February 9, 2012

Commute is Getting Worse

I talked to a guy at Dow yesterday who just returned from four years working in Sao Paulo, Brazil.  He commutes into Philadelphia from Wayne PA and is very happy with the drive on the Schuykill Expressway.  It is a narrow, crowded highway into America's fifth largest city.  But the traffic moves.  Different than driving in Sao Paulo.

Two days of three so far this week my commute home was longer because a train broke down or was delayed.  I was more than an hour late Tuesday, a half-hour yesterday.  The commute is two hours each way already, so delays really suck.

In December I had a different problem caused by the conductor.  I wrote a letter of complaint.

Here it is:

On December 8, 2011, the conductor on the 10:59 pm train to Lancaster refused to allow me to travel on her train.  I believe her name is Debbie.

I have commuted from Lancaster to Philadelphia on Amtrak since 1995 for three different jobs.  Since I returned from deployment to Iraq in February 2010, I have bought monthly tickets and travel to Philadelphia three or four days per week.  I am an avid bicyclist and sometimes bring a folding bike with me on the commute.  I normally travel to Phila at 706am and return at 535 or 642pm.  

I have a folding bike with 20-inch wheels and another bike instead of folding breaks in half.  I then fold the two pieces of the bike.   

On December 8 I worked late.  On the platform Debbie said the bike did not fold so it was not allowed on the train.  I had been bringing this bike on trains for almost a year and said that to Debbie. She said, "That's not true."  Really?  

I am a 58-year-old combat veteran of Iraq with five kids.  I do not often get called a liar to my face.  

My employer covered the hotel room because I had to stay over in Philadelphia.  Debbie said she was concerned about passenger safety, but she had three completely empty cars.  If she thought anyone was in immanent danger from a folded bicycle, the bicycle could have been stored in an empty car.

I did not write immediately because I am treated so well by Amtrak and tell my friends who drive how nice it is to take the train.  My wife and I are also in the process of adopting a child from Haiti.

But this morning I was reminded of just how rude Debbie is.  I am writing this letter on the 706am train to Philadelphia.  I had not seen Debbie since the incident until this morning.  We are in the quiet car.  She is talking loudly.  Loudly enough she was asked to quiet down.  She said, "I am allowed to talk."  When the conductors sneer the rules, even if they are off duty, that is a real problem.

I do not think you should have customer service people who act in an arbitrary and insulting way to customers and disobey your own rules.

I want an apology from Debbie.  

Sincerely yours,

Neil Gussman
Lancaster PA 

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Flushing at Home, at Work, in Iraq

Toilet training is clearly not equal in the many parts of my world.  And new information can change the flushing habits of people brought up push the chrome handle after doing their business.

I work in a 7-story museum and library.  My co-workers average more than two college degrees each.  The bathrooms in our building are shining clean.  But in the 4th floor men's room, walking up to a urinal means looking down into yellow water.  At 9am the water is blue from the previous night's cleaning.  But the 4th floor has offices for the most environmentally conscious members of our staff.  Which means, I suppose, "If it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down."

At home, my 12 and 13-year-old sons are still being trained to aim, flush, and wash.  They always get two out of three.  I occasionally listen for the proper sequence of water sounds and correct on the spot if there is a mistake.  But sometimes when I take a shower I find and unflushed toilet.  

In Iraq the toilets were often horrendous.  Once people were posting Facebook pictures of a turd that would not flush and got named Il Duce, after Benito Mussolini.  How the connection was made, I don't know.  These guys not only pissed on the seat, they shit on it which seemed to me physically impossible.  But who knows.  On drill weekends, many soldiers clearly do not know urinals flush.  Or maybe they are environmentalists.

In any case, most days, I see yellow water somewhere.

Moving Pictures onto Facebook

Over the next few months, I will be moving the thousands of pictures I have from Iraq and from Army weekends to the facebook page http://www.facebook.com/2104GSAB for my unit and my own facebook page http://www.facebook.com/ngussman.  With the war in Iraq over the pictures are all of places that will be just memories.  If the current government succeeds then no one will need outposts with blast walls in the middle of nowhere.  If things go badly, all those places could end up ruins.  Either way, my home-away-from-home at Camp Adder is history.


Monday, January 30, 2012

Waiver Moving Forward

Today the first stage of getting a waiver should be completed.  Right now, like any Mac user, I am struggling with opening the Army forms.  My old COMPAQ laptop I use for Army stuff decided to quit in the middle of downloading the file.  Oh well.

In my last post I wrote about the survey of what Americans value.  My wife and I were talking about the list.  She said I have to make clear that the list is talking about what people value in their own lives.  So when competence ranks #23 of 30 she says it is not something the respondents hold as a personal value even if they value it in others.  Most people very much want competence in people around them--doctors, lawyers, police, teachers--but that does not mean they value it in themselves.

Very true.  The worst sort of sports fan is exactly that.  A 300-pound guy who can't run or throw across a street yet knows exactly how Tom Brady should lead the Patriots in the Superbowl.  Competence is not something he values in himself.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Why Go Back in the Army?

Two days ago, I had a two-hour psych evaluation.  My wife and I have to get the evaluation to be sure we are not crazy before we adopt our next child.

The psychologist was very interested in why I would go back in the Army after almost 25 years.

I talked to her about some of the reasons I had, but one reason became more clear to me in Chapter 2 of a book titled The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management by Hyrum W. Smith.  If you are the type of person who cares about time management, you may recognize Smith as one of the founders of Franklin-Covey and the Franklin Planner System.

My wife carries a Franklin planner and is a strong advocate of the system.  I am a disorganized mess and working through the book in hopes of becoming organized.

So, did I join the Army to be more organized?  No.

But in the book on Pages 63-4 is a list based on a national survey in which people were asked to list the things that had the highest priority in their lives.

Here it is:


In a survey carried out in the United States in 1992, the following
values were most commonly mentioned:
  1. Spouse
  2. Financial security
  3. Personal health & fitness
  4. Children and family
  5. Spirituality/ Religion
  6. Sense of accomplishment
  7. Integrity and honesty
  8. Occupational satisfaction
  9. Love for others/Service
10. Education and learning
11. Self-respect
12. Taking responsibility
13. Exercising leadership
14. Inner harmony
15. Independence
16. Intelligence and wisdom
17. Understanding

18. Quality of life
19. Happiness/Positive attitude
20. Pleasure
21. Self-control
22. Ambition
23. Being capable
24. Imagination and creativity
25. Forgiveness
26. Generosity
27. Equality
28. Friendship

29. Beauty
30. Courage

When I thought about going back in the military, I knew without being able to completely say why that the military had a better grasp of reality that the civilian world.  For many reasons, soldiers call civilian life "The Real World."  But I don't think so.  The list shows why.

Look at the bottom of the list:
23. Being capable


28. Friendship

30. Courage

A "real world" in which competence, friendship, and courage are bottom-of-the-list, optional extras is not the kind of life I want to live.  

The psychologist was very professional and said affirming things about all my life choices, but I am going to guess she likes the Franklin survey list the way it is.   

Sunday, January 22, 2012

France Suspends Combat Operations in Afghanistan

On Thursday four French soldiers were killed and sixteen were wounded when an Afghan soldier they were training blew himself up.  Following the incident, the French President suspended combat operations and all training of Afghan soldiers by the 2000+ French troops serving in Afghanistan.

Earlier in the week I had a moment of sympathy for Mitt Romney when he was criticized by his Republican rivals for speaking French.  The same people who criticized Jon Huntsman for speaking Mandarin.  The same people who are too self-satisfied and stupid to learn another language themselves--not they have a particular talent for English.

There will certainly be criticism by the chubby commentariat on the Right of the French decision.  But since none of the loud-mouths on right-wing radio ever served in the military, they will be talking out of their XXL asses.

France was our first ally and without them we would have lost the Revolutionary War.  France remained our ally after their own revolution and it pisses me off every time I hear criticism of France by the Chicken Hawks who are in favor of war as long as they are fought by someone else.

I don't know if or when French troops will return to risking their lives training Afghan soldiers, but in this ten-year-long war, French troops have been on the ground and in the fight since the beginning.  French critics in the US have been on their fat asses just as long.


Col. Scott Perry Announces Run for US Congress

My battalion commander in Iraq, Col. Scott Perry said he will run for a US Congressional seat in Central PA.  Perry is currently the representative of the 92nd PA state congressional district.

I was hoping he would run sooner rather than later and with the current congressman stepping down, he should have a good shot at getting elected.  Perry is a Republican in a very Republican area of the state.

If I lived in the 4th district, I would vote for him.  He commanded a big task force with soldiers from a dozen states, aircraft flying around the clock and the worst flying conditions Iraq had to offer.  He worked hard all the time.  Pennsylvania and our nation will be a better place with Perry in the US Congress.

Col. Perry is a Blackhawk pilot and is currently commanding the 166th training brigade at Fort Indiantown Gap PA.

Not So Supreme: A Conference about the Constitution, the Courts and Justice

Hannah Arendt At the end of the first week in March, I went to a conference at Bard College titled: Between Power and Authority: Arendt on t...