On July 4th 1976 I was in a tank in the desert training area on Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Our unit, 1st Battalion/70th Armor, just began two months of field training before we deployed with our entire brigade to Wiesbaden, West Germany.
When we drove the tanks on roads, many of us clipped 13-star colonial flags on our radio antennas. Many of our 54 tanks and one-hundred-plus support vehicles flew the flags celebrating our bicentennial.
I was 23 years old and excited at the prospect of living in another country. More than that, our alert area was in Fulda on the East-West border between the two Germanys. We were being sent as a full mechanized combat brigade of 4,000 soldiers to show America was still committed to NATO and Europe despite our recent troubles.
Those alive during America's bicentennial will remember a nation beset by riots and terror bombings. In 1974 President Nixon resigned in disgrace. In 1975, we abandoned Saigon and lost our ill-fated war in Vietnam, abandoning our allies. Our economy was a mess with high inflation and gas shortages.
Yet, we survived and thrived. Today we are in another series of crises with leaders far more corrupt and foolish. We just lost another war we started (much quicker this time) but I am planning to celebrate our nation just as I did 50 years ago.
The Declaration of Independence remains the greatest and most influential political document in history.
Happy 250th America!!
