CONSTANT DRUMBEAT OF INSANITY CONTINUES

The continual assault on our culture continues. If I had time, I would document the many ways the destructive, anti-Western Civilization forces within our society have attacked all that is good and decent. The inversion of our morals and values has become an almost daily occurrence. This time the very method we honor our heroes is cheapened, made meaningless:


”A three-year-old federal law that makes it a crime to falsely claim to have received a medal from the U.S. military is unconstitutional, an appeals court panel in California ruled Tuesday.”

“A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with him in a 2-1 decision Tuesday, agreeing that the law was a violation of his free-speech rights. The majority said there's no evidence that such lies harm anybody, and there's no compelling reason for the government to ban such lies.”






August 17, 2010 SAN FRANCISCO - A federal law making it a crime to lie about receiving the Medal of Honor or other military decorations violates freedom of speech, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.



Read more HERE and HERE


You know, they're absolutely right. All a military decoration is, is a little piece of tin or brass, with a bit of silken ribbon around it - these things are ultimately meaningless.

Unless you attach meaning to them, of course. Stolen Valor is about giving meaning to the symbols we drape upon those who have bled on our behalf, those who came back in bits and pieces, and those can no longer defend themselves; the Honorable Dead.

During the course of my career I had the dubious pleasure of personally busting out two phony wannabe's - shamed the shit out of these kids and tossed them out of Special Forces training. I've seen too many good men die in that uniform, seen too many families suffer the consequences of such sacrifice, to tolerate fake heroes.

But now the Bozo's of the Ninth Circus Court of Appeals have determined that this is OK. They have stripped honor from the real heroes, and their families, on behalf of the fake, phony wannabe's who mock our heroes by portraying themselves as something that they are not.

Have we gotten to the point where nothing has any meaning any more? If not, at what point will we get there?

Burning an American flag - that's okay, that's Freedom of Speech. Erecting an al Qaeda Victory Monument on Ground Zero - that's good too, that's Freedom of Religion - in the meantime, try to get a copy of the Ten Commandments into a U.S. Courthouse, or a nativity scene on a church lawn and see what happens next. Two boys holding hands and getting married - that's good, that's Freedom of whatever-it-is.

Hordes of undocumented foreigners to stream across the borders and infest our land - and the same crowd that is against all that is good and decent in our society goes out to demonize and punish those who wish to take action, those who suffer at the hands of these hordes. Let these non-Americans wave Mexican Flags and dance and sing in the hallways of our schools on Cinco de Mayo - a non-holiday invented by Adolf Coors Brewing Company to sell beer - that's OK too; but dare not to wear an American flag on your t-shirt or to defend the American flag on this High Holy Day of Mexican Meaninglessness - "we cannot have this, no, no, no, no, NO!"


My only question is how come nobody ever tries to burn an American Flag whenever I'm around?


Thanks to Jason, Thomas H., and of course Theo, who each sent info on this sad state of affairs, to me.

- SEAN LINNANE SENDS

MEMORIAL DAY 2010

In the twenty five years I wore the War Suit, the deal was you could do anything - murder and treason excepted - and they'd cover for you; you’d answer to the Old Man, sure, but the unit takes care of it’s own. But there was one task we were told that no matter what, come Hell or high water, we could never eff-up:



Funeral Detail.



Honor.



The dead have no voice, so we speak for them. Our war dead truly sacrifice themselves. They give their lives in far-off, miserable combat zones - often at young age - for causes that more often than not they barely understand, or if they did, could care less - especially considering the circumstances.



They give their lives for the most honorable of causes; in defense of the Nation, that we may enjoy the gifts of peace and freedom. This is the meaning of the phrases: “To have peace, arm yourself for war,” and “Freedom isn’t free.”




. . . so we honor them.




The Cenotaph, London




Honor to the crew of my uncle's Wellington bomber FU-D - Charleroi, Belgium.




The Irish Brigade Memorial, Gettysburg




This Memorial Day, we are treated to the spectacle of pot-fiend-doper-head-zombie-killer Harrelson impersonating a real man:

Not quite John Wayne.



In the film The Messenger Woody once more indulges his penchant for scandalizing America by throwing manure in our faces; this time sinking lower than his sicko Natural Born Killers piece of garbage.







Funeral duty - and every nuance and ancillary duty attached and associated to it - especially the family notification - is the most hallowed and sacred duty a soldier can be called upon to perform. This unenviable task must be performed with utter professionalism and the utmost respect; the family of the fallen interfaces with the face of the nation, at their weakest and most vulnerable point.



Now I'm not naïve, and I'm not fooling myself - the next time a member of the funeral party takes advantage of the widow in her moment of weakness will not be the first - every and any possible form of interaction between human beings has already taken place; there is nothing new under the sun - but to dedicate a movie to the conduct portrayed in the film; to explore this, to exploit this theme is not art, nor is it intended as entertainment.



It is propaganda: anti-military, anti-American propaganda - nothing less - and it is disgraceful.



Heroes . . .





. . . they dwell in Valhalla . . .





"Only the Dead have seen the End of War" - Plato


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A TALE OF TWO HEROES

An incredible story of modern war, an amazing series of coincidences; UNLESS - like me - you don't believe in coincidences. - S.L.

PVT BRENNON ON PATROL THAT CAPTURES HVT RESPONSIBLE FOR MASTERMINING COUSIN'S DEATH



SGT Joshua Brennan, B Co 2-503, 173rd Airborne Brigade, KIA 26 Oct 07

Josh Brennan was critically wounded on 25 October 2007 in a Taliban ambush on patrol with his platoon in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. During the ambush the Taliban attempted to drag Josh away. SPC Hugo "Doc" Mendoza gave his life, and two others were severely wounded attempting to save Josh from the enemy. His platoon continued to fight the enemy and were successful in getting Josh back. One of those men has been nominated for the Medal of Honor for his actions that day.



SGT Josh Brennan on the day of his last mission: Operation Rock Avalanche


Inspired by his cousin's footsteps, Joseph Brennan enlisted in the US Army, went Airborne (that's Joe Brennan being pinned with his cousin's wings at Fort Benning), and shipped out to Vicenza, Italy to join the same outfit his cousin had served in.

Two years to the day after Josh was killed in action, Private Joseph Brennan entered the same platoon that Josh had served in and met several of Josh's friends. Their outfit - 2d Battalion of the 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment - deployed to Afghanistan just before Christmas, 2009. Joseph's platoon was sent to Camp Joyce, in Kunar province where his cousin Josh was ambushed and killed.

Joseph has already been out on several missions since Christmas. Then his family got the word; his platoon CAPTURED THE GUY WHO PLANNED THE AMBUSH THAT KILLED JOSH BRENNAN AND HUGO MENDOZA.

The entire incredible story is over at tankerbabelc's blog FROM COW PASTURES TO KOSOVO

Some of the facts:

* SGT Brennan was wounded in combat on 25 October 2007 and died of his wounds the next day, 26 October 2007.

* PVT Brennan left the US for his overseas duty station in Vicenza, Italy on 26 October 2009 (the second anniversary of his cousin's death)

* PVT Brennan was assigned to the same unit his cousin SGT Brennan had served in: B Company, 2nd Battalion of the 503d Parachute Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade.

* PVT Brennan's platoon went on patrol that captured the High Value Target who masterminded the ambush that killed his cousin SGT Joshua Brennan.



PVT Joseph Brennan, graduating from Airborne school and being pinned with his cousin Josh's wings.

Four Taliban were captured that day in this unbelievable chain of events, including the HVT known to have planned the ambush where Josh Brennan and Doc Mendoza were killed. His family got the word immediately afterward, from Joe Brennan himself.




173D AIRBORNE BRIGADE - "SKY SOLDIERS"

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AMERICAN HEROES

Contemplate the images below, and then read on . . .














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


CONFUSED?


There are many confusing, conflicting aspects to the struggle we are involved in.

Please bear with me while I make my point:

America, and the rest of the civilized world, are at war with an extremely dangerous group of criminal maniacs and their twisted logic.




Up until very recently, the war was known as the "Global War on Terrorism", or G-WOT. I don't know what they're calling it now on citations or campaign medals, but it is important to be aware that we are not fighting 'Terrorism' per se. Terrorism is a tactic, not an enemy in and of itself. What we are fighting is Islamic Fundamentalism, in it's most extreme form.


The question to ask is not "Why do they hate us?"


The question to ask is: "What do they want?"


Consider: there are 1.82 billion Muslims in the world (source: CIA World Factbook). If only one percent of them are Islamic Fundamentalist terrorists, that's 18,200,000 enemy fighters.



This figure, by the way, represents the entire number of soldiers, sailors and airmen who ever served in the German Wehrmacht during the entire course of World War II and the Spanish Civil War (not the force strength of the Wehrmacht at any point).

A terrorist army that large boggles the mind, strains credulity. There are possibly that many sympathizers and auxiliary supporters, but there is no way al Qaeda and it's variants (Taliban etc.) fields and supports that many fighters.

The majority of Muslims are regular folk just like you and me, who want the same things we want: to be left alone, to prosper and provide for their families, to leave their children better off than themselves. As with any demographic, there is a segment of the Muslim community, however, who are susceptible to becoming deranged or disgruntled, like Army Major Nadal Hasan at Fort Hood last Thursday - these sociopaths are found in any population, and their numbers are tiny.

And there is a segment of Muslims who are active, dedicated members of al Qaeda, et al. Despite the fact that the terrorists are capable of inflicting mass casualties, these numbers are also tiny.


Here's my point:

Ordinarily, the modern terrorist ethos is twofold: A) to gain publicity for their cause, whatever it is, and B) to force the State entity into giving concessions.

What is sinister about al Qaeda and their ilk is their plan: they wish no less than to start a global religious war of Muslims versus Christians (Crusaders) and Jews (Zionists). The Islamic Fundamentalists also view secular, sane Islamic nations such as Turkey and Morocco as traitors, and enablers of the Crusaders and Zionists.



Their agenda is to create a limitless bloodbath on such an unprecedented global scale that for all intents and purposes they will have unleashed Armageddon upon us. This is their stated goal. They have stated this numerous times, via video releases, and their writings.

IF we succumb to a xenophobic tendency to embrace a knee-jerk hatred of all things Muslim; IF we lower ourselves to their level - THEN THEY WIN.

It is that simple.

S.L.



The military headstone images preceding this post were originally posted on Frum Forum on 6 November 2009.

NAVAL AIR OPERATIONS IN AFGHANISTAN

From:
Date: 6/13/2009 8:05:51 PM
To:
Subject: Naval Air Operations in Afghanistan


This is me in the cockpit and my large Martian helmet. The weapon that is out on the right wing of the aircraft is a 500-lb laser guided bomb. On the other wing that you can't see is a 500-lb GPS guided bomb. That is our standard load out on these missions.


Hello everyone,

I just wanted to send another update to let you know how things are going out here on the good ship USS Eisenhower. We're in our seventh week of deployment and have 108 days to go. We began combat operations on March 21st and have been flying over the beach almost every day since then. This is the most flying that I've done in all my 17 years. Naval aviators are limited by instruction to 30 flight hours a month and, to exceed that, you must have a written waiver by the Flight Surgeon. As of today I have 65 hours in the last 29 days.

Our missions are regularly 6 hours long. Its an hour transit to and from the ship just to get on station in southern Afghanistan . All the air traffic travels up a common air route that we call The Boulevard that traverses Pakistan and crosses the border into Afghanistan. All the traffic on the boulevard is either Naval aircraft from our ship or Air Force tankers coming from Qatar.

Most of our missions thus far have been in southern Afghanistan near the city of Kandahar. That is where a lot of the poppy harvest is taking place right now and that is where a lot of the enemy forces are dug in. On a typical mission, we check in with a Joint Tactical Air Controller (JTAC) on the ground who is part of a ground unit. The JTAC is trained to communicate with aircraft and if necessary call in for air support in case some shooting starts. They used to be called Forward Air Controllers.

Thus far I have worked with American Special Forces, British Forces, Australian and Danish Forces. It is very interesting to see the mix of troops on the ground. But its nice to see that all the procedures are very standardized no matter what nationality that you are supporting. On most of our missions we provide Armed Reconnaissance, which has us watching over a friendly ground patrol, in vehicle or on foot, and looking ahead of their route of travel to try and find enemy fighters or potential spotting positions.

A few days ago I was watching over an Army Special Forces unit. There were about 15 to 20 guys all riding four wheelers in the hills overlooking a small village. We do most of our searching using our FLIR camera which is an infrared camera that has the ability to zoom in pretty close. The JTACS on the ground can also link up with our FLIR camera and see what we are seeing on their laptop computer.

We look for bad guys in groups digging or potentially placing roadside bombs. A lot of times the JTACS give us coordinates of known bad-guy locations and have us watch for movement or activity.

A few nights ago I was talking to a JTAC and I could hear the gunfire over the radio and he calmly said they were taking fire from an unknown locations and wanted us to scan the hills surrounding them for any activity. On average our Air Wing drops four or five bombs a day or conducts a few strafing runs on enemy positions.

We also do a lot of Shows of Force which is simply a high speed low-altitude pass over an enemy position to get them to stop shooting or even run. Although I haven't yet gotten a chance to drop a bomb, I can say that I'm not in a rush. My time will come. I did have a wingman who conducted a strafing run on two individuals who were digging at a roadside intersection. It was at night so the complexity of shooting bullets from an aircraft moving 500mph at a small moving target in the dark is absolutely amazing.

I enjoy working with the guys on the ground. I think it’s a comforting feeling for them to know that we are overhead and can deliver a devastatingly accurate blow within seconds of asking for it. Even if we don't find bad guys, I feel a lot of job satisfaction just being up there and talking to the guys on the ground. These guys are pretty amazing. I will hear them say something like, "We are taking fire from an unknown location so we are going to get out of our vehicles and move into the open so we can try to locate where the fire is coming from." Amazing bravery. Our team is killing a lot of bad guys right now.

Some of the most harrowing parts of our mission is refueling . . . particularly in the dark or in bad weather. On a typical 6-hour mission, we refuel off of big wing Air Force tankers three times.


This is my wingman tanking from an Air Force KC10.

There is a point on the boulevard that once I cross it I know that if I have a problem with my tanker, that I do not have enough fuel to get back to the carrier and would have to divert to one of the three occupied airfields in the country. The tankers all hold at specific points and altitudes around the country.

I know before I launch what my tanker's call sign is, what point he will be at, what time I'm supposed to be there, what altitude he will be at and what frequency I will talk to him on. There is an overarching control agency that runs the tanker plan and it is constantly changing usually based on the fight that is going on the ground. A lot of times tankers get pushed over an area where there is fighting so that the airborne assets don't waste time trying to get to their tanker and back into the fight. Once one tanker moves it starts a domino effect that effects almost everyone. Its like a shell game. They are constantly shuffling tankers around. I don't think I've launched on a single mission and hit all my tankers that I was originally scheduled for. I have tanked off American and British Air Force tankers.

Two days ago I was on a tanker and two French Rafael fighters were waiting in line with me at 22000 feet for their gas. When the mission is over we hit the tanker one last time before exiting the country and fly the boulevard south and the hour flight back to the carrier. When its all done then I get to look forward to that night carrier landing.

Luckily the North Arabian Sea is calm and the weather has been good. No pitching deck out here so far. By the end of the mission I'm usually starving. I try and take food and water with me in the cockpit and typically I get a chance to eat and drink something on the trip back to the carrier at the end of the mission. But you don't want to drink too much because that presents a whole new problem for a single seat cockpit.

Thank goodness for altitude hold. The cockpit gets pretty crowded with all of our extra gear. We have our standard issue gear for going in country which includes our pistol and two magazine clips, our blood chit which is basically a piece a paper that we use in case we find ourselves on the ground that is written in several different native languages and basically says "I'm an American and you will be paid if you help me return to friendly American forces." We carry a camelback* full of water that is sewn into our flight vest.

* plastic collapsable bladder with drinking tube, commonly worn on the back - S.L.

On every mission we go on, we have a stack of papers that have coordinates and radio frequencies. I also have my new helmet-mounted targeting system which is a new visor that clips to the regular helmet and projects vital information on my visor (I've attached a picture of me wearing that helmet in the cockpit.) It looks like a Martian helmet, but it is honestly the best piece of gear that I carry with me. I can type in the coordinates for a friendly unit on the ground and then look outside the cockpit and diamond will be projected on my visor directly over the position of that unit on the ground. It's very useful in locating things on the ground, but it also helps me find things in the air.

Yesterday I saw my tanker from 28 miles away because my helmet puts a box around the radar contact that I have locked up so I know exactly where to look. Pretty cool. I also take a pair of NVGs on every flight. Night-vision goggles are absolutely necessary once the sun goes down. The ground units use a lot of infrared lights to help mark their positions or the positions of enemy units and I can see all of that from 20000 feet with my NVG's on.

Well I've written way more than I should have. I hope I haven't bored you. I know many of you have asked what I'm doing over here. This email was to try to help you understand what I've been doing. It in no way is meant to be tooting my own horn.. The guys on the ground are the real heroes. I'm simply a supporting element to the fight.

I want to say thank you to all of you who have sent Care packages. They were very much appreciated by me and all the guys in my ready room. Keep watching the news. If you hear about airstrikes in Southern Afghanistan there is a good chance it came from my Air Wing.

This is me flying in Aircraft 401 taken two days ago.

HERE THEY ARE TODAY

Veterans of the Normandy Jump revisit Ste Mere Eglise, the lucky ones who survived the battle, and the war. These men are my heroes.

HONOR THEM

When I was young I read about the Trojan war; I studied Homer's writings for clues about such traits of personality or character possessed by the ancient heroes. I studied the Old Testament Book of Judges. Fascinated, I watched the film To Hell And Back; the story of Audie Murphy, Medal of Honor recipient and most decorated soldier of World War II.

I am not a hero but I have served in the company of heroes. More and more it seems nowadays we are living in an era of heroes.

In the latest conflict there have been heroes, as there have been in any and all wars of the past, mostly anonymous. Just recently I learned of a friend's stepfather's funeral at Arlington. A company commander in World War II, he fought with Patton; in a near ambush he was wounded by Germans three times on the same day, then returned to serve with his men on the front lines. For this heroism he received a single Purple Heart medal. He went on to serve his country in other capacities, working out of embassies in Africa and Southeast Asia. I didn't know it at the time, but while I was escorting his daughter to high school dances, this man was a prisoner of the Pathet Lao Communists. If I could have made it to Arlington that day, I would have worn my dress blues to honor this hero.

Three names immediately come to mind:

Captain Chesley N. Sullenberger, the nerves-of-steel pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 who safely his disabled aircraft in the East River and saved his entire compliment of passengers and crew from certain death.

Captain Richard Phillips of the MV Maersk-Alabama, who put himself in harms way, offering himself as hostage to the Somali pirates in exchange for the safety of his crew.

Colonel, US Army (Retired) Rick Rescorla. Born and raised in England, join the British military at age sixteen and fought against Communists in Cyprus and Rhodesia, then came to America, enlisted in the US Army and went to Vietnam with the 7th Cavalry - Custer's old outfit - and fought in the legendary Battle of Ia Drang. On Sept. 11th 2001, Rick Rescorla was vice-president in charge of security at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. His office was on the forty-fourth floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center. The firm occupied twenty-two floors in the South Tower. After the plane hit his building, the Port Authority told him not to evacuate and to order people to stay at their desks.

Instead, Rescorla ensured that every one of his firm's employees was safely evacuated, then took some of his security men back INTO the burning building to make a final sweep, to make sure no one was left behind, injured, or lost. Rick did not make it out. Neither did two of his security officers who were at his side, but only three other Morgan Stanley employees died when their building was obliterated. In this final act of heroism, Rick Rescorla saved the lives of over 2600 employees of Dean Whitter.

Of course, there are the 4900+ men and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice in the subsequent campaigns of the Global War on Terror.

Some 640,000+ gave all in the wars of the 20th Century: 25 Somalia (including 18 in the Battle of Mogadishu); 113 Gulf War I; 24 Operation JUST CAUSE Panama; 240+ Lebanon peacekeeping operations; 19 Operation URGENT FURY Grenada; 13 Operation POWER PACK Dominican Republic; 58,000+ Vietnam; 36,500+ Korea (latest casualty US Army CWO David Hilemon in 1994); 416,800+ World War II; 116,708+ World War I; 4100+ the Philippine War; 2900+ Spanish-American War;

Some 675,000+ Americans who died in the wars preceding: (including 620,000+ KIA or died of wounds and disease in the Civil War; 13,200+ Mexican War; 700+ Texas War of Independence; 17,000+ War of 1812; 24,000+ American Revolution).

The numbers listed above do not include Americans killed in politically-motivated terrorist acts, to include the 18 American servicemen & civilians killed during my time in the Philippines 1988-1989.

They are all heroes. We must honor them.