3 COMPANIONS…

3 COMPANIONS…

Companion.  The word conjures up all sorts of pictures, doesn’t it?   A man can have a woman as a companion, with or without the benefit of being married…and the same goes for a woman.  In these times such partnerships, even a companion of the same gender, is not unusual.  Room-mates in college, or in the business world, sharing expenses and experiences.  That is not to say that I either approve or disapprove of same-sex partners, it’s just a fact of modern day life, that’s all.   In my Navy career there were many such companions, buddies we called them, and we were thrown together because of the work we did, or the places we went.  Many life-long friendships have come out of my Navy years.

            There is the relationship of a man, or woman, to a dog…and these companions are, for many, the only true friends they may ever know.  Nothing that I can think of is more relaxing than sitting in your favorite chair with your dog beside you, or in your lap.  You give a dog, as an example, the time you can spare, the love you can spare and, now and then, the food you can spare.  In return he gives you everything…companionship and love…perhaps the truest love there is because it’s given freely with no thought of anything but pleasing you.  I have had many dogs in my lifetime, and notice I didn’t say I owned them because you don’t own a dog…you and it are a living partnership and when one dies it is no less a heartbreak than if one of my children had died…they are that much a part of me.   The one wish that I might have in the case of my dogs is that they lived longer than they did.

            Some people think of horses as good companions, but although I like to look at them, they don’t strike me as a companion…unless of course I’m a cowboy riding the range.  In that instance, a horse is not just a companion, it’s an absolute necessity and if you find yourself out in the wilderness, you’d better take really good care of that four-legged baggage carrier…it might be many miles to the next watering hole or town.   We had what we called a “lookin’ horse” once.   Nobody rode her, she was just to look at and looking at her made you feel good.  Mariah was her name and she was pretty gentle but we were not riders.  She would come to the back fence in the morning and my wife would bring a tray on which were two large mugs of coffee and two sweet rolls, and they would share a morning treat.  She had three acres of area in which to roam and every once in a while we could see her rolling in the pasture.

            On these three acres we had chickens, ducks and geese…as well as the horse and a very nasty goat.  Our original two geese were bought as babies, so my wife became their mother and they would follow her everywhere, and that included into the house.  Eventually the male became the dominant bird of the place and we called him The Boss.  His attitude clearly indicated that we were trespassers on his land and he would make mock attacks toward us to frighten us away…but we had learned how to grab him by the neck and hold him still until he decided to allow us to go into the backyard and gather whatever eggs we could find.   With a mixed flock of fowl we often had eggs of different sizes and the goose eggs were the best.  One egg was a meal!  As time went on we lost a bird now and then to something…we never found out what, but we suspected it might have been a fox, as one had been seen in the neighborhood.  Eventually we lost them all.  I wish we could have lost the goat!

            We got the goat because we thought we’d milk her and possibly make cheese out of the milk, but she turned out to be pregnant and when she had the kid she turned even nastier than ever.  The kid was born dead, unfortunately, and we had to lure the goat away from the body so we could bury it.  You didn’t want to turn your back on this goat because she would butt you and with enough force to knock you down.  One experience with her was enough and we learned to leave her alone.  As it turned out, one of our friends said they wanted a goat so we got rid of her.  It was not a sad parting, I can tell you.

            So you see, as was said in the beginning, there are all sorts of companions, just as there are all sorts of people.  There are people with whom you want to, and do, spend your life, and there are others that have an effect as they pass through your life ever so briefly.   A companion, human or animal, seems to make life more bearable and, sometimes, more enjoyable to the point where, like me, a trip down memory lane makes me happy.   If you don’t have a companion, get one…of some sort, because you’ll find that life is that much better with one.

A TRIO OF RANDOM THOUGHTS…

A TRIO OF RANDOM THOUGHTS…

            The madness that is the state government in California has once again been made known to the residents of that state.   On Tuesday, May 10^th of this year, the California Assembly passed a bill Monday that would require all single-use restrooms in business, public and government establishments to become gender-neutral.   AB 1732 requires all single-use restrooms in the establishments to be identified as "all-gender toilet facilities."   A looney-tune member of the legislature, one Philip Ting, had this to say about the bill, "California continues to move forward, be forward thinking - think about how we can be more inclusive and frankly, more tolerant.  My hope is that we de-politicize the bathroom issue.”           

            If the bill became law, it would give the state the power to decide how individual business owners and public entities should best serve their customers.   The gender inclusive restroom bill would inconvenience far more people than gender specific restrooms did.  Women,specifically would be inconvenienced.   Not many women would want to use a bathroom that had been used by men.  There are other, unintended consequences to this bill, if it becomes law.

            As I understand it, a person just has to believe, or “feel” that they are of a different gender that day and they can use the bathroom of the other gender.  Let’s carry this a step or two further.  How about boys showering with the girls in high school or college?   Can a woman play on a man’s sports team simply because she feels like it that day?   In my not-so-humble opinion, this whole transgender thing is nothing but trouble and the only ones that are going to profit in any way from it, will be trial lawyers.

            The number of so-called “refugees” in Europe makes the Police shake their heads.   It was reported back in April that Police have uncovered a large and growing network of Islamic State fighters, at least two of whom came to Europe as “refugees.”   French and Belgian authorities have found that the scale of the threat of terrorism could be much bigger than they had previously thought. They’ve found that the members of these terror cells are mostly young Muslim men from the Brussels suburbs of Molenbeek and Schaerbeek and many were former criminals often involved with petty thefts and assaults.  

Many of the attackers in Paris committed suicide and blew themselves up. One fled the scene of his crime and hid away with his cousin. He was killed in a police raid five days following the attack.   After the attacks police had a major question: How large was the network that participated in the attacks and were there more sleeper cells in Europe waiting to strike?   Many of these men are currently being sought by police, but unfortunately police often have no idea if they are in Europe or in Syria.   Their names, which cannot be verified, are assumed to be aliases as authorities are currently unsure of their true identities.

This next piece came to me from one of my readers and he asked me to pass it on, and I am.   My Grandfather watched as his friends died in WWI.    My Father watched as his friends died in WWII and Korea.  I watched (1st hand) as my friends fought and died in Vietnam.  I watched as our friends and children fought and died in Desert Storm.   I watched and waited while our friends and children fought and died in Iraq.   None of them fought for or died for the Mexican Flag or any other foreign flag…Everyone fought for and died for the U.S. Flag!

            In Texas, a student raised a Mexican flag on a school flag pole; another student took it down.  Guess who was expelled.  The kid who took it down.   Kids in high school in California were sent home on Cinco de Mayo because they wore T-shirts with  the American flag printed on them. Enough is enough.               

This message needs to be read by every American… and every American needs to stand up for America.   We've bent over to appease the America-haters long enough.

I'm taking a stand.   I'm standing up because the hundreds of thousands who died fighting in  wars for this country, and for the U.S. Flag, can't stand up. And shame on anyone who tries to make this a racist message.             

Let me make this perfectly clear!   THIS IS MY COUNTRY!   And, my making this statement DOES NOT mean I'm against immigration!   YOU ARE WELCOME HERE IN OUR COUNTRY.  Welcome!   To come through legally: 1. Get a sponsor!  2.  Get a place to lay your head!   3.  Get a job!   4. Live By OUR Rules!   5. Pay YOUR Taxes!  6. Learn the  LANGUAGE like immigrants have in the past!   7.  Please don't demand that we hand over our lifetime Savings of Social Security Funds to you.   If you don't want to forward this for fear of offending someone, then YOU'RE PART OF THE PROBLEM!   When will AMERICANS STOP giving away THEIR  RIGHTS?   We've gone so far the other way...we’ve bent over backwards not to offend anyone...But it seems no one cares about the AMERICAN CITIZEN being offended!   Wake up America, your country needs you…desperately.

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WORLD WAR 3…IT’S HERE

WORLD WAR 3…IT’S HERE.

          Regardless of which side of the political aisle you are on, you have to realize that we ARE at war…with Islam.  Oh wait…it’s only the radical element of that cult that’s at war with us, right?  WRONG!   Islam, to the true believer, does not negotiate…about anything.  It’s their way or the highway, and when it’s their way it will be littered with headless bodies, charred remains and mutilated corpses.  This CULT, and that’s what it is, may be ruled by a few thousand die-hard fanatics, but that fanaticism reaches out to whatever “moderate” Muslims there might be and scares the you-know-what out of them so they cower and don’t say anything to anyone.   To be sure, there’s some Muslims that do speak out, but they are few and far between and a lot of them may be apostates-in-secret as well.   If you’ll allow me this comparison, think back to World War 2, if you’re old enough to know it as anything but ancient history.  You DO know about that war, don’t you?  I digress.

          In WW2, we were fighting Germany.  We did not separate the “good Germans” from the “bad Germans”…they were all bad to us.   What we knew back then was that the nation of Germany was at war with us and we with them.   It was a shooting war, it was a bombing war and, on their side, it was an outright murder war.  Sometimes when they captured Allied personnel they were not sent to any work/concentration camp, they were shot right where they were captured.  Our prisoners, on the other hand, some of them, came to camps in the United States and once the war was over, decided to stay, got married and became American citizens.  The point here is that Islam is like the Nazis, and as a matter of fact the two collaborated during that war.  There is a pretty famous saying about history…it says if you don’t pay attention to it, you’re going to repeat it.

          In the years between the two World Wars one might have gotten the idea that all was right in the world…but it wasn’t.   There were little skirmishes going on here and there…more so than the two shots fired at Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, killing them both, that started World War 1.  In the United States during the period of peace between the two World Wars we relaxed and felt so good about ourselves that we drew down our military strength drastically.   Although we were sending materiel to our allies overseas prior to our entering the war in 1941, we apparently didn’t see the need to bring our own armed forces up to a wartime strength.   Our Army trained with broomsticks for rifles, they used automobiles as substitutes for tanks and much of the other gear, including ammunition, was left over from the first World War.  The Navy was sailing on some ships that were built prior to WW1.  There was an Army Air Corps, which was considered only good for patrol and reconnaissance, and a Marine Corps which was primarily for show at our overseas embassies.

          In short…we were not well-prepared for war when it came to us.   We are not now well-prepared for war, which is already here, whether you deny that or not.  Islam has but one goal and that is “peace” throughout the world…but that “peace” can ONLY

be achieved when the entire world is under the thumb of Islam.   In case you’ve forgotten, or never knew, Islam means submission and Muslim is one that has submitted, and a cult, according to the dictionary is “a religion or sect considered to be false, unorthodox, or extremist, with members often living outside of conventional society under the direction of a charismatic leader.”   Could it be any clearer than that?

Islam has been at war, truly, for 1400 years, and down through those years has had various clashes with “Western” civilization.   Sometimes they won and sometimes they lost.   In places where Islam has been, all previous forms of worship are destroyed because it is the theory that, before Islam, nothing good existed.  Even today, tombs, artifacts, anything of historical value to some other group, is being destroyed.

          So, here we are in the 21st Century and trying to get along with fanatics that are locked into the 7th Century.   Are they compatible?  No, they’re not…and not because we in the 21st Century wouldn’t accept them, but because those barbarians from the 7th Century won’t accept us.  It’s rather one-sided when you get to thinking about it, isn’t it?   We cannot, however, go out and have mass executions as they do…that’s simply not the “Western” way.   The concept of “turn the other cheek” is not going to work with these people either…when you turn your head they’re going to try to cut it off…that’s what they do.  We cannot also round them up and put them in concentration camps while we sort out who’s who…but that might turn out to be the last resort.  People more brilliant than I am are working on this problem and it will be interesting to see the plan when it’s proposed.   In the meantime, wake up America, your country needs you…desperately.

ANSWERS…AND QUESTIONS.

ANSWERS…AND QUESTIONS.    

How far does one have to stretch their imagination to determine that Hillary Clinton didn’t break any laws?  Unless you are brain-dead or have a very narrow field of vision you cannot help but hear about all the things that she has done…and the things she didn’t do, on the way to garnering the power(which is what she’s after) that is the Presidency.   Let’s take a cheap shot here and use the meme

“Hillary lied and people died”, which is not just true, it’s ghastly to think about.  With Mrs. Clinton it’s possible to go way back and see a pattern of deceit.  It’s just been one thing after another, usually with only certain people to be affected.  Now, with the admission of the hacker, it could very well be the safety and security of the entire United States.  In my not-so-humble opinion she ranks right up there with Benedict Arnold and Tokyo Rose, no slouches when it comes to betrayals.

              Now and then one of my readers/viewers will ask what would my plan be on a certain situation, and there’s always my stock answer: I have a plan but you may not like what you hear.   A good example is our Southern border.   We have thousands of veterans that would be excellent border guards, if we put my solution into the mix.  Generally speaking the weather along our Southern border is mild, so a tent or small shack would suffice for “quarters” stationed about every 100 yards…just the length of a football field if you need a reference.   The veterans could be “deputized” by the local sheriffs and would stand eight-hour watches.  Radio communications over that short a distance would be no problem and if worse came to worse, use semaphore or flags.  The deputies would have the authority to capture and detain illegal aliens and turn them over to the Federal Border Patrol which, it’s hoped, would not be using the catch-and-release system.  Weapons could be their own personal weapons, or something issued by the local law.

              Still on the subject of veterans I have a solution for that problem as well.  In EVERY VA facility there should be a six-foot poster that says the veteran has the option of a CHOICE card, and with that card he or she can use an outside medical facility…no questions asked.   The limitations would be pretty much what they are now, and I believe that it only disallows things like cosmetic surgery(unless it was a wartime injury).  It should cover things like dentures, but not cleaning because if you cannot chew your food it’s a problem, but you can clean your teeth as millions do.   This would have to be hashed out, as my solution is a basic one and I’m certainly not a doctor.   The present situation with the VA must be changed, soon and for the better.  Don’t put political hacks or donors in positions of policy…try to get people that are either in the field now or have SOME experience in the field.  Veterans, by and large, are well-disciplined and while most of them will never speak of their wartime experiences, you can bet your bottom dollar they don’t need a “safe place” because somebody wrote something in chalk on a sidewalk.

              What’s the best way to keep the United States alive and well?   That’s an easy one to answer.   You present a military to the world that is so strong that no one would dare to take us on.   That might mean a return of the draft and if that is what is needed, so be it.  Now let’s understand something right here…everyone, male and female, would be eligible for the draft unless they are mentally or physically incapable of performing certain duties…but, they might be able to do other duties.  Example, a person in a wheelchair is not going to be able to go on marches, but they could do things that only require sitting at a desk, at a computer or planning meals…you get the idea.   That business of fleeing to Canada?  That’s going to be a no-no and we’d work with the Canadian government to have them returned and put into jail…or join up.   Along with a strong armed forces we’d have to straighten out the mess that is the InFernal Revenue Service(and that’s “service” like what a bull does to a cow).   The manual or code or laws, whatever it is that the IRS calls it is so full of holes and dispensations for this, that, and the other that it is completely unworkable.  There is something called the Fair Tax that I urge you to look into.  The name tells you just about all you need to know about it.  Nobody escapes it, you take home your entire paycheck with no deductions and April 15^th becomes just another Spring day.

              Hey…I could go on and on because there’s so much that needs to be done if the United States is to return to being the shining city on the hill…instead of the shanty that it has become.   Wake up America, your country needs you…desperately.

             

PANCHO VILLA AND OTHER NUISANCES…

PANCHO VILLA AND OTHER NUISANCES…     

It was a typical New Mexico morning, on March 9, 1916.  The small town of Columbus awoke and people were starting to go about their daily routines…but this was not going to be a routine day.   The American President, Woodrow had been lending support to Venustiano Carranza, the opposition leader to Victoriano Huerta whose administration Wilson had described as a “government of butchers”.   Unfortunately, Carranza proved to be no better than Huerta.  Wilson then turned to a rebel leader, a man named Pancho Villa.   Villa was an adopted name.  The real name of this bandit leader was Francisco (Pancho) Villa born José Doroteo Arango Arámbula, born in Durango Mexico on June 5^th, 1878, he was from the peasant, or peon, class…but he had ambition.

          It was that ambition that drove him to team up with another ambitious rebel leader, Emiliano Zapata.  They wanted to keep the rebellion going, but it was going to take money, power, and guns.   Somewhere along the time-line President Wilson got to thinking that Carranza was on the right track and that he, Wilson, no longer needed Pancho Villa…and he dropped his support.  This withdrawal of support for Villa so aggravated Villa that he declared war on the United States.  And that brings us to what Villa did.  Pancho Villa stopped a train in Mexico, but which had 18 Americans on it.  He

took them off the train and killed them all.  

          A few weeks later, on March 9, in 1916, Villa led an army of about 1,500 guerillas across the border to stage a brutal raid against the small American town of Columbus, New Mexico. Villa and his men killed 19 people and left the town in flames.   Woodrow Wilson called on the US Army, under General John “Blackjack” Pershing, to lead 6,000 troopers into Mexico to capture and/or kill the bandit, Pancho Villa.   For two years, Pershing pursued Villa, on horseback, in automobiles and even the new-fangled airplanes…but he never caught him.

          By this time Carranza had lost patience with the American Army in his country and ordered them out.  Pershing went on to become the leader of the American Expeditionary Force(AEF) in World War One.  Although he never actually caught Villa, he did convince him never to attack the United States again.  Pancho Villa retired from banditry and was eventually assassinated in 1923 while on his way to become the Godfather to a friend’s child. 

          Fast forward now to the present.  We no longer send expeditionary forces in to wipe out foreign leaders.  We have special operations teams to try to do the work without actually harming anyone…other than the intended target, that is.   Who might some of these nuisances be?  There was Osama Bin Laden, and we got him.  There was Moammar Quaddafi, but his own people got him.  There was Saddam Hussein, and he was hanged by his own people.   Still around is the North Korean Kim Jung Un, the little fat boy dictator, several people connected with ISIS, whose names I cannot pronounce, and if we had something other than a spineless twit in the White House we could get rid of them also.

          It just seems to me that when duty called we had men and women to answer that call.   These were young men and women stepping up and putting their civilian lives on hold while putting their lives on the line in combat.  Today’s armed forces are being hamstrung by ridiculous rules of engagement which actually give the enemy the advantage.   What good is superior technology if you cannot use it first.  What good is technology if the troopers don’t understand how to use it, or it’s too bulky to move around easily?   We hear of sorties into areas controlled by ISIS and the bombing of a truck or a building…surgical strikes they call them.  Some of these sorties come back without firing a missile or dropping a bomb.  Maybe we are just a nuisance factor to ISIS.

          While on the subject of nuisances, what about our borders?  Are we to continue to have such porous borders that we no longer resemble a sovereign nation?  If you look at the areas now controlled by ISIS the borders of those countries seem to have melted away and in their places is something called the Islamic State.  The lesson is very clear, at least to me…if you have no borders, at least none to speak of, you cannot be considered as a sovereign nation.  You become simply a territory of some name or another without real meaning and, sometimes, without a real government.  A good example of this, aside from ISIS is Somalia.  Although they have borders of a sort, bandits and pirates operate inside and outside those borders as if they didn’t exist.  There hasn’t been a true, working, government in Somalia for several years now.

          Nuisances exist in many forms, not the least of which is government itself.  Our country was formed with the idea that government people were elected for a term or two and then they went home and continued on with their lives.  Serving in Congress was never meant to be a career, and those making it so seem to have created an elite class completely disconnected from their constituents.   Wake up America, your country needs you…desperately.

         

A FEW EXTRAORDINARY MEN

A FEW EXTRAORDINARY MEN  

            Who was George S. Patton?   If there is such a thing as a born soldier, General Patton was one.   He was regarded as one of the most successful military commanders of World War 2.   He came from a military family, having had relatives fighting for the colonies in the American Revolutionary War, the War Between the States, and the Mexican war when he served under General Blackjack Pershing trying to capture the bandit Pancho Villa.   Following success at the Virginia Military Academy he went to West Point and graduated as a 2^nd Lt. in 1909.   While serving under Pershing he impressed the senior officer to the point where he was promoted to Captain.   When World War 1 started tanks were in their infancy, but Patton recognized their worth early on and became an outspoken advocate for their usage.

In World War 2 Patton became one of the first officers of the Armored Force and continued on with his knowledge of warfare, strategy and in particular, tanks.  He was, by all accounts, a gruff commander both loved and feared by his troops as well as the enemy.   Patton wanted to continue his streaking across Europe right into Berlin, but was stopped from doing so…some say it was a political move.  In any event, when a professional soldier was needed, George Smith Patton answered the call.

            The American Revolutionary War produced many great heroes, not the least of which was General Anthony Wayne, nicknamed Mad Anthony.   At the time the war broke out he was a member of Congress in the United States House of Representatives. Wayne adopted a military career at the outset of the American Revolutionary War, where his military exploits and fiery personality quickly earned him promotion to brigadier general and the name Mad Anthony. He later served as General in Chief of the Army and commanded the Legion of the United States.  He never finished college although he was in the graduating class…instead he became a land surveyor in Nova Scotia and eventually returned to Pennsylvania, married and served in that state’s legislature.   During the American Revolution he actually served under Benedict Arnold during an unsuccessful invasion of Canada.   Wayne was in the battles of Germantown, Brandywine and Monmouth, among others.  His leadership at the battle of Stony Point was the high point of his career and he was given a medal by the Continental Congress for that action.

Wayne used a strategy of bayonets-only in skirmishes which served him well and probably helped establish the nickname of Mad Anthony.

            The 33^rd President of the United States was a Captain in World War 1. In the last months of World War I, he served in combat in France as an artillery officer with his National Guard unit.   He owned a haberdashery business in Kansas City, Missouri, got interested in politics and became a United States Senator in 1934.   He gained national prominence as chairman of a committee, formed in March 1941, which exposed waste, fraud, and corruption in Federal Government wartime contracts.

He helped set up the United Nations and was already the President when Germany surrendered on his birthday.   Even though the war in Europe was ending, there was plenty going on in the Pacific.  At some point, as the our military forces island-hopped closer and closer to the Japanese mainland it was determined that an invasion of the homeland might produce losses of up to a million American servicemen.   He was instrumental in developing the Marshall Plan which was to rebuild the conquered Europe.  It never occurred to him to take over conquered countries, but to help them come back from the war.  He was also instrumental in the formation of NATO and oversaw the Berlin Airlift.  Probably most people remember him, if they recognize him at all, for his famous firing of General McArthur and the dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan.  He was the plain-speaking man from Independence, Missouri, Harry S. Truman.

            Alvin Cullum York…also known as Sergeant York was a hero of World War 1.   He came from a poor family in Tennessee, being raised in a two room log cabin, much like Abraham Lincoln.   Alvin only got a partial formal education, being necessary to help raise the crops on the family farm and hunt for food as well.  He went to Harriman, Tennessee and worked in construction and then went into logging.

York was what used to be called a battler and was known to have participated in several barroom brawls.   Although he wasn’t exactly what became known as a conscientious objector at the time, his mother had instilled some sense of the value of life into her son.   He was drafted into the army in November 1917 even while his status was being determined.   He told the draft board that he was worried clean through. He didn't want to go and kill. He believed in his Bible, where it said thou shalt not kill.   There is some dispute as to whether or not he kept a diary during the war, in which he might have written his objections.   During one engagement with the Germans, York and seven men managed to capture 132 enemy soldiers, and for that he was awarded the Medal of Honor.   

            In every time of need America has had men and women of valor, who stepped forward and did what had to be done.

D-DAY PLUS 72 YEARS

D-DAY PLUS 72 YEARS

          This week, which begins with the 6^th of June, was a momentous one 72 years ago.  Those of us of a certain age remember crowding around the radio, listening to the overseas reporters telling about the landings in Normandy and other places on the French coast.  It was the beginning of the end for the Third Reich…but they didn’t know that, or if any of them did, they didn’t acknowledge it.

          The Third Reich which was coined in 1923 by Arthur Moeller Van Den Bruck.  The author used the term to bridge the Holy Roman Empire and the later German Empire to the revitalized Germany he envisioned (or advocated for) as emerging from the ruins brought on by the Weimar Republic, WWI and the Treaty of Versailles.  Under Adolph Hitler it became something entirely different and was supposed to last a thousand years.  It lasted less than a decade.

          The troops that landed ashore on D-Day had trained for this for weeks, maybe even months, but even so they were not prepared for the withering fire raining down on them from the cliffs above.  The troops were expected to scale cliffs that were practically straight up and down, using ladders, hooks thrown up and over, which they hoped would secure themselves and allow a soldier to climb up.  The Germans not only fired straight down, they would push the ladders off the cliffside and undo the hooks that had gotten hold of something.  From all that I’ve read and seen of actual coverage, it was a soldier’s worst nightmare.

          Nightmare or not, they came ashore, many being dropped off in water that was deeper than expected, and many drowned because of the weight of the equipment they were carrying.  There were land mines, barbed wire and many other impediments for the soldiers to get past, only to begin that perilous climb to the top.   The first 20 minutes or so of the film “Saving Private Ryan” are so true-to-life that many veterans got up and walked out because they couldn’t stand the carnage portrayed on the screen…and they knew it was true.

          Literally thousands of troops poured ashore, carried to France by the largest armada the world has ever seen.  Ships as far as the eye could see, in the bays, out into the Mediterranean Sea, brought the Allied armies to Fortress Europe with the ultimate goal of crushing the German power…a power that had almost ruled the world.  Many brave members of all the services, men and women, even civilians who risked their own lives as the underground resistance in the various countries, aided in this massive effort.

          Now, here we are again…a few days past Memorial Day.  We remembered all those who served and who are still serving…and how are we paying honor and tribute to these men and women who rushed to the sound of the guns…many knowing for certain they would never return to their loved ones.  We celebrate, and that’s really the wrong word, but we celebrate this day and other patriotic events with a sale on linens, groceries, automobiles and televisions.

          That irks me, it really does.  If you have the ability to visit a National Cemetery, go.   Read the headstones.  A large majority of the honored dead lying at rest will be in their 20’s…some will still be in their late teens.  Now and then you’ll find one of us old codgers there…and we were the lucky ones…we made it back, but we’re not the heroes.

No, the heroes are resting now, having made the supreme sacrifice at some distant location, for men and women that they may have hardly known, if at all.

          This week, and every week for that matter, take a moment and thank whoever you want to thank, for the freedoms that you have, and remember the price paid for those freedoms.

          Wake up America, your country needs you…desperately.