Survey of Veterans

Interesting survey of veterans reported by Jim Dao on the NY times "At War" blog.  Veterans care most about jobs and want to work for the government.  And he reports real joblessness among veterans is double the national average.

First Time I Missed a Drill Weekend

I am sick.  Right now I am getting better, but Friday morning I got a flu that came in stages.  Friday I was throwing up.  Saturday morning I felt OK.  I really felt good mid-day and went to drill.  Saturday evening I was bad again--at the other end.  All night I made a dozen trips to the bathroom and spent most of Sunday in bed.

This morning I ate a little and feel better.  At this point I have lost ten pounds in four days.  Like my other diets, I do not recommend it.

Ran NYC Half Marathon--Right Through Times Square

Twice a year Times Square gets closed to traffic:  on New Year's Eve for the ball drop and party and  on the Sunday nearest St. Patricks Day for the NYC Half Marathon.

I ran the race this year with 25,000 of my closest friends.  More entered but there was a lottery to get in.  The BEST part of the whole event was running out of Central Park straight down 7th Avenue through Times Square--it is really cool to run down the middle of 7th Ave. but not a good idea most of the time.

Here's what the Ave looks like with nothing but runners.  I am in the middle acting like I won, but there are 12000 people ahead of me and six miles to go!

Newsletter or Facebook Page

Last summer I started a Facebook page for my unit.  But last drill, a couple of people asked about when I was going to do another newsletter.  I wrote weekly newsletters in Iraq, monthly after we got back to America, and stopped once we had a Facebook page.

But new media does not quite replace old media--at least not for everybody.  That newsletter was a lot of work.  The Facebook page is easier because it can be done in little pieces.  Doing both is more than I could ever have time for.

Let me know if you think one is better than the other--assuming I could choose between the two.

And, of course, if you are on Facebook, please "Like" our page!

Liberal Advice from a Conservative

Yesterday I went to a lunch for consultants and industry executives in New York City.  One of the men at the lunch knows I am a soldier and was giving me advice--on how to get all the money I can from the government.

He is a very Conservative guy.  He does not like President Obama particularly for the way he spends tax money.  Having made his Conservative credentials clear, he then said he was really pissed at Obama   because "Obama makes us pay a $200 co-pay for [Army medical coverage]."  This man is a retired colonel, owns a successful business and is eligible for Medicare.  He has private medical insurance plus Tri-Care (Army) and Medicare.

Then he asked how much of a disability payment I was receiving.  

I said "None."

He was shocked.  "You should be getting disability payments.  You deserve it."  

I explained there is nothing wrong with me.  

He said, "It might take two or three physicals, but you should at least get 20 to 40 percent."  

He does.

I know there are real Conservatives who actually don't want to take government money.  But this guy was clearly like the pork-barrel senator who campaigns as a fiscal conservative and votes for every bit of spending he can bring home to his own state.  Like the Amtrak riders who want a "Quiet-Except-for-Me" car on the train.  This guy is a "Stop-Government-Spending-Except-on-Me" Conservative.

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.

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!!!