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| The South Gate of Hougoumont (Source) |
No doubt they were scared, when they weren't busy doing their jobs. Load, fire, move, load, fire, move again, watch your buddies die. Move, load, fire again, maybe see an enemy fall as the result of your fire. Remembering that always makes me think.
I wore a uniform for twenty-four years and got nowhere near combat. My son had been in uniform for perhaps a year when he found himself on a destroyer in the Red Sea, firing Tomahawk missiles in anger.
It's all we can do² ...
I have studied war my entire life, I find it fascinating. Yet I know that people die in horrible ways and suffer unbelievable agony in war. War is a destroyer. As the old saying goes, "War is not healthy for children and other living things."
Quite true, you can buy a poster from Amazon for $6.99 which says just that. But I'm here to tell you my friends, it ain't that simple.
There are people out there who hunger for that which does not belong to them. There are people out there who hunger for raw power, the power to force other people to do their bidding. These people often resort to war to achieve those ends.
When attacked it is righteous to fight back, to resist, even to kill those who seek to take that which is not theirs. But once again, it ain't that simple.
The common man (or woman these days) is often at the mercy of powers they cannot control. Being drafted into the military is one of those things.
Say you're a simple Russian kid, hanging out in some big city or some small town out in the Russian boondocks. One day your draft notice shows up. It's not something you can ignore, governments have power. The power to throw you in prison, the power to make sure you don't have a job, Hell, they can do that to your whole family.
So you go, next thing you know you're riding in a BMP¹ somewhere in Ukraine with angry Ukrainians trying to kill you and your buddies. But why? What did you ever do to them? Well, nothing, but your government did. They decided to invade Ukraine for whatever reasons they felt required armed conflict.
Change the name of the country, you're a British kid in 1776, you're a German kid in 1940, or an American kid in 1965. Government says, "you're in the army," what can you do? You go, you try to stay alive, you kill those trying to kill you. Or you die.
War sucks but as long as there is evil and greed in this world, it will persist ...
Veterans Day was Friday. We had a nice ceremony at work honoring veterans. Yeah, yeah, thank me for my service, I do appreciate it. But for me, November 11th will always be Remembrance Day, Armistice Day.
As I stood there, holding the Air Force flag I might add, I couldn't help but remember those who went before, and didn't come back. I did shed a wee tear as taps was played.
So I didn't want the weekend to pass without mentioning a few names:
- Lex
- Kurt
- Taj
- Nate
- Uncle Robert
- Stefan
- Albert
Thanks guys, I remember you. I will say your names until my breath fails me. You are not forgotten ...
¹ Boevaya Mashina Pehoty (Боевая Машина Пехоты) literally "infantry combat vehicle."
² If you want peace, prepare for war.
Sarge, if you haven't already; or even if you have, listen to Mark Knopfler's "Remembrance Day".
ReplyDeleteBG.
PS, just finished Seven Men of Gascony; great read, thank you!
Knopfler is a talented man, I'll check that out.
DeleteBeing prepared is all we can do. The State Department does not have a good record of protecting anyone's peace. Pretty good at making things worse, I will grant them that.
ReplyDeleteDiplomats always seem to drop the ball, in every country.
DeleteExcellent Sarge,
ReplyDeleteA minor nit. "It's all we can do." I'd add "And insist the folks we elected do the same." No particular reason, just thought it appropriate.
My List?
Joe, Harry , Marty, Ambassador Stevens, Phil, Brian and Rocket.
Taps has (and will) always bring a tear to my eyes.
I agree, Remembrance Day is a more appropriate name than Veteran's Day.
The "elected" have shown that they don't care a wit for most of us.
DeleteWe have Memorial Day (aka Decoration Day) to remember our dead; this day is for those who serve/have served honorably. People seem to conflate the two quite a bit
Boat Guy
juvat - Who is insisting that those we elect do their jobs? I get the distinct impression that no matter who gets elected, the system will capture them, then corrupt them. Sad, but there it is.
DeleteBG - Yes, true, however I stick with the original meaning of the 11th of November, as do many of my kinsmen.
DeleteMy kinsmen left - apparently were compelled to leave - the auld sod mid-17th century, so I'll stick to Decoration Day and Armistice Day. BTW both of my Grandfathers were in France on 11 Nov 1918; fortunately both came home on their own feet, but each played a part in winning said Armistice. Since then, each generation has served - and come home on our two feet. The 11th is a day to reach out to my brothers and sisters who have done so, along with family; Dad, Brother and younger Son (the latter continues to serve). Between that and my 247th birthday the day before, it's been quite a martial week.
DeleteBG
Sarge,
DeleteUs...If not us, then we deserve the fate that's fast approaching us. It's not like it hasn't been done before.
"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
BG - My great grand uncle died a month before the Armistice. He was with Allenby in Palestine.
Deletejuvat - I hate to say it, but that ship has sailed. The current population of the country appears to not give a damn about anything that went before. They do not deserve those that fought and died for our freedoms. As to that bit from the Declaration, who but a small few would be willing to make that stand again. Damned few. I fear that we're about to become a footnote in history.
DeleteAh Sarge, fret not; t'was only 3% of the colonists who took up arms ( my ancestors among them), the " underserving" are fewer than half the population ( who have the "votes" of "81 million" to be sure. We still have one box left; I'd prefer not to use it, but that's not saying we won't.
DeleteBG
We live in distressing times. If I have to, I will stand to, but I'd rather not. I hope for sanity but have my doubts. Didn't use to be that way.
DeleteKnopfler, Remembrance Day, brought a tear to my eye. When will the bastards in charge learn?
Likely never, Sarge; unless those bastards have seen the elephant - even then, no guarantees.
DeleteOne of the many things I like about Knopfler is his choice of topics; I suspect he's quite a reader.
BG
Concur, on both.
DeleteIgitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
ReplyDeleteIf you desire peace, prepare for war.
I suppose that's grammatically correct, but not the traditional phrasing. Which I used above.
DeleteIt is always Armistice Day for me as well, even though I honor veterans on it.
ReplyDeleteAt my father's funeral last month, they played Taps. Struck me in a way it had not before.
War is never simple, yet it continues to fascinate us. That is why we can read Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War 2400 years after the actual events and still find truth in it.
"Am fear nach gheibh na h-airm 'n am na sith, cha bith iad aige 'nam a chogaidh" - The man who does not keep his arms in times of peace will not have them in times of war. (Scottish Gaelic)
Amen to your last.
DeleteI've stood at Vicksburg, at the Alamo, at San Jacinto, Coleto Creek (the gin screw) and la Bahia de Goliad. I've been to Palo Alto and to Palmetto Ranch. I wondered what the warriors were thinking, especially those that realized that was their day to be gathered to their ancestors. I'm thankful such men existed, my life would be quite different if they hadn't.
ReplyDeletePS Say a prayer for the families bereaved by the loss of the B-17 Texas Raiders and the P-63 King Cobra yesterday.
We had the opportunity to walk the ground of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, been to all of the Normandy beaches, Ste Mer Eglise and walked part of the Bastogne perimeter; if you're not grateful and reflective you have no right to be on those grounds.
DeleteBG
First I'd heard of the air show collision. Tragic
DeleteBG
STxAR - I saw that collision, prayers for those who died.
Delete"The power to throw you in prison, the power to make sure you don't have a job." Fortunately our country would never do that us!" Oh, wait.
ReplyDeleteWe're there, the goddamned politicians, both parties, have sold us out.
DeleteEisenhower warned us.
DeleteHe did, we didn't listen.
DeleteCrusty Old TV Tech here. A lot to unpack in this posting and the comments therein. That Wings over Dallas tragedy, words cannot describe the loss. Homes and hangars will be empty today, and there will be much grieving. Prayers for the families.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the vicinity of Land's End plantation, in NW Louisiana. We visited it a couple times when I was little. It was used as a field hospital in the nearby Battle of Mansfield, in the 1860's War. Still blood stains on the curtains, and a display of artifacts from that era. I wondered what it would have been like to have been a Confederate defender in that battle, in my kid's mind. I hear the old plantation house has burned down, a true loss to history.
Hey Sarge, I have driven past the site you pictured, and the "Lion's Butt" (as my AF buds called it, ah GI slang!) on the way to and from our billets in Brussels to Florennes. Man, small world. Did not have time on that TDY to visit the battlefield, wish I had now.
Another site that gets you down inside. Going up in the concrete towers at Tempelhof, and seeing the shrapnel pockmarks, bullet holes, and soot from the fires that raged during the Battle of Berlin. The powers that be never removed that damage, and seeing it (and the GI graffitti going back to WW2) does sort of sober one. Then you get to the roof, and (in 1984) see the Pope's Revenge in the Commie sector, and the Wall.
To quote Marine BG SMedley Butler, "War is a racket"!
Butler was right, there has to be a special place in Hell for those who push war on others, then profit from it. Otherwise there is no Hell, probably no Heaven either.
DeleteI did my two-year's active at GFAFB (what I found out later was called "jockstrap troops" [a kind way, perhaps, of saying support personnel]), went into my reserve unit based at the Lexington Ave. armory, and went back to school for my specialty. Having total access to the seniors (4th year dental students), particularly those who were aggravating themselves waiting to hear about their hospital internships or jobs with offices treating 99% Medicaid (not Medicare, this was an entirely different "social" program paid for by NY taxes with some Federal funding) patients, I became an unpaid proselytizer/recruiter for the medical/dental section of the Armed Forces; if I happened to suggest the Air Force more than any other branch...well.
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to say I had a fairly decent rate of success; some guys even made a career out of it. I'd lost two uncles in the Pacific, one cousin in Korea, and I'm over the top to say I didn't lose anyone, family or friend, in the fracas on that contentious little peninsula where we tried to intervene/help mediate between the French and the locals.
We remember all of them, each of them.
Every day.
DeleteHey Old AFSarge;
ReplyDeleteGood Post, For us, we volunteered, and I preferred it that way, but I get "the Drafted" part, was part of out Armed forces for generations. I get uncomfortable when somebody says "Thank you for your service", I'm glad and honored I served, but I still feel uncomfortable, and when people see my awards and medals I get uncomfortable again. Strange I know. My Dad served, made a career, as did my brother, My Grandfather served, and so forth on down the family line. I wanted to but I had the wrong MOS and got RIF'ted after Desert Storm and was unable to stay in. Hey it is what it is, I lost a couple of friends in the Storm, one to Friendly fire other to Enemy, and I have lost others that didn't make the transition back to the world, if you know what I mean. So Yes I honor all of us, living and passed on. With the present state of the U.S. Military, I am kinda glad my son isn't in, I have absolutely no trust in the leadership.
It's a sad state of affairs.
DeleteMrG- we're uncomfortable because we're humble, or we had fun doing it, or we got paid to do it, or maybe because we know that others died or were injured while serving. Wear a vets hat and you can't go far here in San Diego without someone thanking you for your service, so I've gotten used to it- just saying thanks and moving on.
DeleteSmile and wave boys, just smile and wave.
DeleteVery mixed feelings on November 11. A grandson, South Carolina Nation Guard is a fifth generation soldier. His sister, a high school senior has a stellar JNROTC record and will undoubtedly join the military. Their father was a 100% disabled Army Medic. I'm very proud of them. I'm not convinced the country, as a whole, deserves what they have to offer and question the worth of my service some 50 years ago.
ReplyDeleteI wonder myself.
DeleteI would submit "the country as a whole" no longer deserves "the bones of a single Pomeranian Grenadier"; a plurality of the people have demonstrated they have neither the intellect nor the morality required for a Republic and I'll be damned if I lift a finger in their defense. I will continue to recommend if/when asked that others eschew service in any federal entity.
DeleteBoat Guy
Very sad, innit?
DeleteSad? More like infuriating.
DeleteBG
Sad that it's come to this, infuriating because so few seem to care.
DeleteThanks for sharing that. Too many seem to be 'ignoring' the Vets again, much like the early/mid 70s.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it's a cyclical thing?
Delete