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How would you like to see a day or two in the life of a retiered soldier?

IT IS ANOTHER MANIC MONDAY WITH MO

You folks have got to know the Old Sarge loves the Appalachian Mountains and in the fall you can find plenty of ORANGE

I am sure you would expect to find an very large pumpkin, I found this one at the Sunrise Grocery, US 29, about 8 miles south of Blairsville, Ga

Arlington National Cemetery in the fall we must never forget

I know, we will take a little road trip starting Arlington Cemetery and going south along the Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway.

Blue Ridge Mountain Parkway will take you all the way to North Carolina. Then you take the Great Smokey Mountain Parkway to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

If you are lucky enough to be in the Great Smokey Mountains at Dawn you would see this

Did you ever wonder why they call them the Smokey Mountains

This one will help you start to understand

Now you know

And you can stop in and see how the pioneers lived

And if you look around you could see a critter or two

Yep, you could see a Chipmunk

Or even a Black Bear Cub

I love a mountain stream

And yes, you will see a great sunset over the Great Smokey Mountains

IT WAS NOT ALL ORANGE BUT I LIKE IT ANYWAY, HOW ABOUT YOU…………….

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On my post, The Old Sarge Gets Aggravated by Quitters……..

Comment by Mr Bojangles
September 24, 2007 @ 2:39 pm |Edit This

I am retired military, so don’t even start on the standard fall back of questioning my patriotism to the ideals of this great country. Unfortunately old Sarge believes the end of a gun regardless of the reason or purpose for war is the answer. (hey Sarge, what about all the lives lost in Red China in the 60’s?? if you are crying for the Vietnamese, why not cry that we did not invade China too? What about Darfur right now … where is our military?? what about Uganda & Ida Amin?? cry for the Ugandans.. where was our military?? And this list could go on & on & on …Old Sarge, you just don’t get it. It is sad and unfortunate. A soldiers job is to fight the battle, but it is the public and their elected representatives to debate & determine which wars are right & justified. (this is the freedom & democracy the military is defending)
Vietnam was a mistake, get over it … the French found out & so did we. It was a civil war. Now we are in another civil war quagmire in Iraq … Sadaam Hussein was not a nice guy … but he was never involved in 9/11 & DID NOT have WMD.
This administration has weakened the military, alienated our friends & emboldened our enemies. It will take a herculean effort to undo the damage this administration has inflicted on our country & our security, so we better get started by throwing these bums out ASAP.

Well now Mr. Bojangles, I will start my response to you by thanking you for your service, unfortunately, you have forgotten what the hell you were there for. Let me take you comment item by item:

POINT 1

what about all the lives lost in Red China in the 60’s?? if you are crying for the Vietnamese, why not cry that we did not invade China too
Read a book sir, if you look back at Korea, General MacArthur wanted to solve the problem in China in 1953, President Truman fired him as Supreme Commander because he voiced his opinion. Please go to my post and read Remembering my Life Page 3 where I discussed action Truman took in countermanding MacArthur’s orders on deployment of the 7th fleet in the Strait of Formosa this allowed the Chinese to send an additional 100,000 to 200,000 troops into Korea. Just an example of politicians running a war and not the generals.

POINT 2

What about Darfur right now … where is our military?

I think our military is busy now, this pesky little thing called the War On Terror, maybe you should pose that question to the United Nations.

POINT 3
what about Uganda & Ida Amin?? cry for the Ugandans.. where was our military?? And this list could go on & on & on

Please refer to point 2.

POINT 4
Old Sarge, you just don’t get it. It is sad and unfortunate. A soldiers job is to fight the battle, but it is the public and their elected representatives to debate & determine which wars are right & justified. (this is the freedom & democracy the military is defending)

And I suppose you believe I give up my rights under the Constitution when I became a soldier. I believe we have elected some real losers, people who did not learn from history, as you did not, with the people we have now we will repeat the errors of 1975. History is in the past, I am worried about today.

POINT 5

Vietnam was a mistake, get over it … the French found out & so did we. It was a civil war.

You should reread your history. A civil war, we were fighting against and North Vietnam and the Viet Cong who was supplied by Russian and China, The French learned the same thing that we learned from Vietnam. If you lose your will to fight then the war is lost. America did not lose the war in Vietnam, it lost the war at Kent State, San Francisco, and the Mall in Washington DC. Yes America lost a war in Vietnam but the soldiers never lost a battle. It was Nixon’s domestic problems that doomed the South Vietnamese, “Vietnamization” was working when Congress cut the funds necessary for the Vietnamese to defend themselves. We could not even give them ammunition so they could fight.

POINT 6
Now we are in another civil war quagmire in Iraq … Sadaam Hussein was not a nice guy … but he was never involved in 9/11 & DID NOT have WMD.

This is truly lame Mr. Bojangles, I expected more from you. To start we are fighting an Insurgency, Alquada in Iraq, there has been some secular violence but that is diminishing daily. As in Vietnam, if Iraq is given enough time they will be able to defend themselves. War is hard, mistakes are made, you correct and complete you mission or you cut and run. I suspect I know where you stand. Hussein was not a nice guy, compared to Hitler or Pol Pot you might have enjoyed his company. Your statements is nothing more than Left Wing talking points, the deserve no response. He did have WMD, he used them on his own people, where are they, I have no idea, most likely Syria

POINT 7

This administration has weakened the military, alienated our friends & emboldened our enemies. It will take a herculean effort to undo the damage this administration has inflicted on our country & our security, so we better get started by throwing these bums out ASAP.

Do as you wish my friend, the country needs strong leadership at this time in our history, what kind of team do you want, Nancy, Harry and Hillary. Maybe Obama as Secretary of State, he plans to do something someday. Murtha in Defense, wow what a powerhouse. Look at what you are wishing for my friend, hopefully you will not get it……

Mister Bojangles
Call him Mister Bojangles
Mister Bojangles come back and dance please

Come back and dance again Mr Bojangles

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THIS IS ALSO POSTED ON SARGE CHARLIE, PLEASE STOP BY AND CHECK OUT MY BLOG

IF YOU MISSED PAGE 7, SCROLL DOWN AND READ IT FIRST

At the end of page 7, I left you with the speech by President Ford just 5 days before the fall of Saigon.

President Ford’s Speech on the Fall of Vietnam,
24 April 1975

We are saddened, indeed, by events in Indochina. But these events, tragic as they are, portend neither the end of the world nor of America’s leadership in the world. Some seem to feel that if we do not succeed in everything everywhere, then we have succeeded, in nothing anywhere. I reject such polarized thinking. We can and should help others to help themselves. But the fate of responsible men and women everywhere, in the final decision, rests in their own hands.

8/22/2007 

President Bush Attends Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention, Discusses War on Terror

THIS IS ONLY A PORTION OF THE SPEECH, LINK IS ABOVE PHOTO FOR FULL SPEECH

Three decades later, there is a legitimate debate about how we got into the Vietnam War and how we left. There’s no debate in my mind that the veterans from Vietnam deserve the high praise of the United States of America. Whatever your position is on that debate, one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America’s withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like “boat people,” “re-education camps,” and “killing fields.”

There was another price to our withdrawal from Vietnam, and we can hear it in the words of the enemy we face in today’s struggle — those who came to our soil and killed thousands of citizens on September the 11th, 2001. In an interview with a Pakistani newspaper after the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden declared that “the American people had risen against their government’s war in Vietnam. And they must do the same today.”

The Old Sarge says: OK folks, you see what President George W. Bush said, much of which has been ridiculed by the press and those on the left, did we add those words to our vocabulary………..

BOAT PEOPLE: From Wikipedia

Why Did Three Millions Vietnamese Leave Their Homeland? Of that three million, did you know 25% died in stormy seas or were murdered by pirates on the high sea? Did you know these people knew the risk and elected to leave Vietnam in search of freedom?

Thuye^`n Nhân: Boat People, term used to describe the Vietnamese refugees who fled Communist rule after the Vietnam War (1975) in small boats. More than one million people became refugees. Many perished, and others, upon reaching other Southeast Asian countries, discovered they could not remain permanently. The United States, Canada, and other nations accepted most of the refugees in the late 1970s and the 1980s. It was estimated that up to 25% of those who left Vietnam have perished in the stormy seas. Thousands have died when their boats were robbed repeatedly then sank by Thai’s pirates. Many women and young girls were raped then murdered or sold to brothels in Thailand.

These people loaded on boats with little or no hope of survival but that was better than what they faced in Vietnam.

From Wikipedia

Reeducation camp (tra.i ho.c ta^.p ca?i ta.o) is the official name given to the prison camps operated by the government of Vietnam following the end of the Vietnam War. In such “reeducation camps”, the government imprisoned several hundred thousand former military officers and government workers from the former South Vietnam. Reeducation as it was implemented in Vietnam was both a means of revenge and a sophisticated technique of repression and indoctrination which developed for several years in the North and was extended to the South following the 1975 North Vietnam takeover.

“OFF TO ANOTHER DAY AT SCHOOL”

THIS WOULD BE PHYSICAL EDUCATION

YOU KNOW YOU MUST FOLLOW THE RULES

THEY ARE BEING KEPT AFTER SCHOOL

Yes, reeducation was just another day at school, teaching you how to live under communist control.

The Killing Fields

From Wikipedia The Killing Fields were a number of sites in Cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the Communist regime Khmer Rouge, which had ruled the country since 1975. Estimates of the number of dead range from 1.7 to 2.3 million out of a population of around 7 million.

LINK

Did you know that the Khmer Rouge forced all of the people living in cities to move to the countryside where they were forced to work as peasants in the fields? Did you know that they taught the children to report their parents for violations of their rules? When reported the parents were killed. Did you know if they could speak English they were killed. Did you know that all of the educated people were killed.

The Khmer Rouge was thoughtful, they took their photo before they executed them.

This is part of a memorial to the dead..

WE LIVE IN A DANGEROUS WORLD, IT IS NO DIFFERENT TODAY, WILL WE ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN AGAIN?

President Ford’s words, words have meaning………..

AND ACTIONS HAVE RESULTS……..

We can and should help others to help themselves. But the fate of responsible men and women everywhere, in the final decision, rests in their own hands.

An Act of Congress

Prohibits obligation or expenditure of funds “heretofore or hereafter appropriated” to finance the involvement of U.S. military forces in North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos or Cambodia or to provide direct or indirect assistance to North Vietnam “unless specifically authorized hereafter by the Congress

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what is was once like in the United States where men were free.” -President Ronald Reagan

The old Sarge Says: We have been down a bloody road in our history, it seems shameful to me that we would repeat the errors of our past, yet your elected officials are trying to do just that. Will America have the blood of millions more on our hands because America has lost its will to finish what has been started? The actions of Congress have results, are we going there again?

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THIS IS ALSO POSTED ON SARGE CHARLIE, PLEASE STOP BY AND CHECK OUT MY BLOG

What is happening, why are our friends and supporters the target of a blood bath, how can this happen, we are America, this cannot happen. But it did………..

Yes, a black day in the history of the United States, we have lost a war yet we never lost a battle. Oh yes we did, we lost the battle in the streets of America, at places like the Mall in Washington DC, at Kent State, in towns across America, we lost a war in America.

Top Photo is Kent State where students were killed by National Guardsmen and the next photo is John Kerry and John Lennon during a war protest.

We, the greatest nation in the world, committed our resources, our soldiers, and yes our pride to a small country in South East Asia, South Vietnam. We spent our treasure, spilled the blood of 58,000 soldiers, and then lost our will to fight, our Congress lost the will to support a friend.

With the death of students at Kent State College in Ohio, the war was lost, America had lost it’s will to continue the fight.

From the mall in Washington, DC to College Towns across the country, mostly young people were demonstrating, including my oldest daughter.

In the summer of 1973 Congress passed a measure prohibiting any U.S. military operations in or over Indochina after August 15. We has trained and supplied the Army of South Vietnam (ARVN), and then we stopped giving them bullets for their weapons, they could not resist the army of North Vietnam, supplied and supported by the Soviet Union and China. The ARVN was overwhelmed and the result was the Fall of Saigon.

An Act of Congress

Prohibits obligation or expenditure of funds “heretofore or hereafter appropriated” to finance the involvement of U.S. military forces in North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos or Cambodia or to provide direct or indirect assistance to North Vietnam “unless specifically authorized hereafter by the Congress.

President Gerald R Ford pleaded in vain with Congress for additional military aid that might at least raise Saigon’s morale. But members of Congress, like most of their constituents, were ready to wash their hands of a long and futile war.

Loading people onto helicopters at the Defense Attache Office: After more than two decades of fighting the Communists, the South Vietnamese army collapsed quickly in early 1975, setting in motion chaotic evacuations like this one from a rooftop in Saigon.

At the American Embassy Vietnamese Nationals were fighting to get across the walls as North Vietnamese Army was entering Saigon. You are looking a desperate people. The have a good idea what is in their future when the Communist take over.

While the Marines guard the gate of the American Embassy, desperate people are willing to try anything to get a ride out of Saigon. Yes the wing flaps and wheel wells on this airplane is full of people. You see, they know what is coming.

Parts of the evacuation was orderly and others tried to fight their way onto the helicopter.

The USS Midway underway to help in the evacuation of Saigon, the next photo is of the deck of the Midway with choppers inbound.

Do you think is was hectic in Saigon can you imagine the deck of the Midway. The lower photo is of a South Vietnamese pilot after landing on the deck with his family, he is being cheered by the crew.

This is the most telling photo of all, a helicopter being pushed overboard to allow room for another to land. This is what it looks like when you cut and run.

MGySgt John J. Valdez
Staff Non Commission Officer in charge
American Embassy, Saigon, R. South Vietnam

Last off the roof of the embassy during the Fall of Saigon

Cpl. Charles McMahon (left) and LCpl .Darwin Lee Judge (right), two American Marines, were the last two U.S. servicemen killed in the Vietnam War. They died in a rocket attack on April 29, 1975, while providing security for the Defense Attache Office during the evacuation of Saigon.

The is the final paragraph of the speech…..

President Ford’s Speech on the Fall of Vietnam,
24 April 1975

We are saddened, indeed, by events in Indochina. But these events, tragic as they are, portend neither the end of the world nor of America’s leadership in the world. Some seem to feel that if we do not succeed in everything everywhere, then we have succeeded, in nothing anywhere. I reject such polarized thinking. We can and should help others to help themselves. But the fate of responsible men and women everywhere, in the final decision, rests in their own hands.

THE OLD SARGE THINKS

Yes, we helped the South Vietnamese help themselves, and then we stopped providing them with the means to defend themselves, and we left. This was a shameful day in Americas history, at least from my point of view, this not the end of the story, what happened to the Vietnamese People that we abandoned will be the rest of the story……….

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Another Manic Monday Theme: Kit

THIS IS A WEEKLY MEME, DIFFERENT THEME EACH WEEK, CHECK OUT MO’S BLOG  IT IS ALSO POSTED ON SARGE CHARLIE

It is said that an Army travels on its stomach

Back in the old army we would eat “C” Rations and the best thing the army had, the P38 Can Opener

Each Soldier had his own Mess KIT, and in closed up as shown on the right

A soldier using his Mess KIT

After the Meal the soldier would clean his own mess KIT in boiling water.

AND NOW YOU KNOW ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MESS KITS.

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This is a post I did at SargeCharlie in December 2006, Please stop by and visit a spell. You will find a blog that the is fun and sometimes serious, especially if some one speaks ill of a soldier.

Short timer calanders have been a military tradition for the ages…. You see blogger soldiers today and they have an electronic counter on their sidebar. You know, the Old Sarge thinks that is just too easy, it takes very little effort for todays soldiers to have a short timers calender. A few mouse clicks and the countdown is running, not so in my day, we were creative……….

Even an old soldier like me can learn how to do the countdown calenders. Miss Bee showed me how to set one up for a young man in Bagdad. I found him through a package Miss Bee and I sent to anysoldier.com He sent me a thankyou letter and since then we have used e-mail back and forth. He is one of America’s Finest, I love communicating with him, it takes me back to my youth. I call him “T”, he is from a small town in Georgia, someday I will look him in the eye and say thank you for your service. We haven’t had much contact lately, he has been on “missions”, I do worry when I do not hear from him and he knows that, he will send me a note when he can.

Way back when I looked like this and really smelled bad….. circa 1968

I had one like this, you cannot see them on the picture but there are numbers all over the helmet……

A mark-off calander, simple but effective, most GI’s kept their calander on their wall locker…………..

The paint by the numbers, very effective and you had more lookers……….


Various types of Short Timer calendars were used by soldiers in Vietnam to count their remaining days left in country. These usually consisted of a sectioned line-drawing with “color in” blocks, numbered with a count-down of remaining days (similar to “Paint by number”), and began at 30 to 90 days. When a soldier had very few days left in-country, he was considered to be “short”


Another paint by the numbers, I am not sure but I suspect this one is WWII or Korea era…

You may notice the term “FIGMO” in the print. This term predates me, I believe it means “Finally I Got My Orders”, implying travel orders.
Ok folks, you know the rules by now, if you liked this little bit of information about my past leave me a little note and I will make up some more stuff…….

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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and PMW Cartoon.

My friend Amazing Gracie had this photo posted today and the cartoon is from PMW. Yes he asked the City of New York for permission to lay a wreath at ground zero, and the city refused to provide security for the jerk. He is coming to speak at the UN, and unfortunately it is located in the USA. He has also been invited to speak at Columbia University. Shame, Shame, Shame, Columbia Alumni should be outraged that the University is allowing a man that is responsible for the death of our soldiers to speak to their students. The cartoon is self explanatory, that shows the glee of the Arab world.

THIS IS ALSO POSTED ON SARGE CHARLIE, PLEASE COME BY FOR A VISIT…….

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“Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale, and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hung.” Abraham Lincoln…

I found this quote on one of my daily reads, FHB aka Fat Hairy Bastard. He is a teacher at Ft Hood, Texas teaching college history, the Civil War. In his class there is a soldier and wife. The soldier is preparing to deploy to Iraq so he has to cut some classes. The wife takes notes for both of them and they are both getting good grades. The wife stopped by his desk and handed him a note with the quote shown above. In my opinion she has aced the course, should be given an “A” and excused from class, oh yes her husband was smart enough to marry this lady, therefore he deserves the same results.

What do you think?

THIS IS ALSO POSTED ON SARGE CHARLIE, STOP BY AND CHECK OUT MY PLACE

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When The Old Sarge made his first post on VA Joe I read the last post submitted by a new friend, HOOAH WIFE AND FRIENDS. Her post was titled WHAT IF? I was impressed with the post because it was so simple and so much to the point, stop in and read the post and you will understand what I am talking about. The sad part is a comment left on the post, well written but obviously a member the Quitters Club following the lead of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. A man that believes our soldiers are not good enough to win in Iraq.

THE COMMENTER SAID

What if you boarded the wrong train and learned that you were going in the opposite direction that you wanted to go to? But you stayed on the train because you would be too embarrassed to correct the situation by getting off of the train and getting on the correct train. You would end up many miles from your desired location and you would have to trek way back to where you wanted to go in the first place. Now lets assume that your wrong way trip is costing American lives every day. And lets further assume that the loss of American lives would end at the time when you finally get to the location you wanted to go to in the first place!

The Old Sarge Responded

What if you take your train back to Vietnam in 1975, enjoy yourself as you watch 3 million Vietnamese try to escape by boat, with an estimated 25% thatravat will die at Sea.

Your next stop on your train should be the Reeducation Camps for those who did not take the boat, an estimated 1 million people were sent to be reeducated, tortured, and estimated 100,000 die.

Then take the train to “The Killing Fields of Cambodia,” while your train is stopped please entertain your self by watching the execution of 2.3 million people.

Yes sir, what if your train is going in the wrong direction, simply turn around and finish what the hell you started, otherwise you will have new places to visit, have a nice day. Sarge Charlie

***********************************************************

You folks have got to understand that the Old Sarge has lived the pain of Vietnam since watching us leave in April 29, 1975. I don’t know what you folks think about that but to me it is a shameful day in our history.

The real problem is that when my grandson went to Iraq, I pledged that he would not have to live with the same shame, but I see America headed in that direction.

This commeter has motoviated me to do a post about our exit from Vietnam, come on back next week.

THIS POST IS ALSO PUBLISHED ON SARGE CHARLIE PLEASE STOP BY AND CHECK OUT MY BLOG.

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CNN The Situation Room Spotlights VAJoe

Today the CNN political news show The Situation Room spotlighted the VAJoe Candidate Calculator. Answer the questions in the Candidate Calculator to find the 2008 presidential candidate that best aligns with your beliefs.

Mark the column for Yes if you support the issue and No if you oppose it. After that, select how important the issue is to you. The calculator then shows how well you match on the issues with each candidate and which candidate you agree with most.

Give it a try! You may be surprised by who matches closest to your political values.

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