Anyone with access to the San Fransisco Chronicle, and an interest in the Army, has probably already seen what I am forwarding.
To those who haven't, I hope you take a minute to read it, and then take action.
RETURN TO SENDER.
I first read Colby Buzzell's book, "My War, Killing Time in Iraq", back when we learned that our son was in a unit being deployed to the sand box.
I found it a real page turner. It is more than an eyewitness account of the war.
Colby gives a day to day look at a soldiers life while deployed in a war zone.
He spent a year with the 3/2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team in country 2003/04.
While he gives some hair raising accounts of battles, he also enlightens readers with a mostly diary style of writing, most if not all of which came from posts to his blog, which of course got him in trouble with his superiors.
It is a must read.
You can find it here, MY WAR
After reading his post, I hope you will take action by contacting your elected congressmen, and demanding that they take action by writing, or backing, the needed legislation to reinstate the draft.
This is the only way we can stop the military from overburdening those courageous young people who stood up and volunteered to serve their country in time of need.
How can we stand bye and watch them get ordered back to duty because there just aren't enough people to fill the necessary slots to keep the machine running.
I could go on, but I said it was going to be short.
In closing, and on a much happier note, I hope that we will all take time to remember our moms. Be they still with you, or gone from here, without them we wouldn't be here. It's a beautiful day here in New England. The kind of day that makes one glad to be alive. I feel blessed by many things, a wonderful wife, three great sons, a comfortable life with the ability to do and have most of the things that I've always wanted.
The great friends I've made in person and here through blogging.
Matt's impending return to society.
And my mom is still with us.
I get to see her almost every day, and tell her I love her, but today I'm going to take her to dinner, and tell her how much she means to me.
I love you mom.
God bless.
'Dad,
ReplyDeleteI haven't read the book so I won't comment on it. The young man seems to have it together.
It doesn't appear to me he is whining just a little venting as they say.
My comment is about the draft. I certainly don't want to rain on your parade for when Matt returns home. I felt like you when I heard of young men and women going back to the war 2 and some 3 times. Why not re-instate the draft?
I asked Jacob about it and with no hesitation he, in military terms, said something to the effect he didn't want any F______, draftee watching his back! He wanted someone who wanted to be there, who wanted to protect his county and not some Jerk____, that had a choice of going to jail or going to war.
I think you get one soldier's opinion. If you served during the Vietnam War you know this happened a lot and sometimes with some very bad results.
As for me, I take Jacob's point of view as he has been there, done that, just like Matt.
You may want to bounce that off of Matt when he returns home. He may change your mind.
We pray for his safe return every day and can't wait for MM to do her dance.
Poppa,
ReplyDeleteI served during the Vietnam War.
Army. Got drafted. I wouldn't have ever dreamed of volunteering.
I partied my way out of college, not being smart enough to understadand the priviledge of being able to go to college in the first place.
Once drafted, and in training, I came to enjoy the Army life.
Fortunatly for me, it was 1972, and Saigon fell. I ended up in the reserves, and the rest is history.
The Army had a way of weeding out the draftees that couldn't or wouldn't come around to the military way. They got pushed out with other than honorable discharges.
There are a lot of good young men out there who just aren't motivated to join. Some would be a lot better off for the experience.
If we are going to continue to wage war, and take on the problems of the world, we need more people in the service.
The worry that a less than desirable sort might ended up watching your back is next to nill.
Those sorts have a way of getting themselves eliminated from being in that position in the first place.
Also, anyone who thinks that there aren't a lot of slackers who get into the military because they can't make a go of it anywhere else is sorely mistaken. And that will become more of a problem as the economy continues to go south.
Thank you for your thoughts, and prayers for Matt.
Give Jacob our thanks for stepping up and doing his part to make ours a better and more safe world.
I hope he never has to go back to war.
Oh yeah, if you get a chance, read the book.
ReplyDeleteColby is not a whiner.
He sure tells it like it is though.
'Dad,
ReplyDeleteWill get the book this weekend, going to Bragg to babysit the boys while mom and dad go on a retreat for some much needed time alone.
Wish me luck, ages 8,9, & 13,
OMG!
Luck?
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great time to me.
Just be sure to feed them full of chocolate about an hour before mom and dad get home.
;0)
Ah, Roger that 'Dad, chocolate and Mountain Dew, 'bout 1 before Mon and Dad get home,
ReplyDeleteI keep glancing at Matt's photo, you gotta get him to smile. It's a serious business they do but he NEEDS to smile once in a while, {:)
well, I"m with Pops on both the draft and Matt's non-smile. Please post a SMILING pic as soon as he gets back!
ReplyDeleteAlso, draft isn't the only option to increase the numbers in the military. How about getting support for the frikkin recruiters who are trying to get those idle bodies to join up?? (Berkley anyone??) I mean come on! Somthing's gotta give, people moan and groan and piss and bitch about "draft" yet they stonewall the people trying to increase the numbers of volunteers.
hey dads, have you been over to 1%ers yet? you gotta read this post! "Son in Baghdad"...it's for you two!
ReplyDeletePoppa,
ReplyDeleteMy experience was pretty the same as Dad's.
Partied my way out of school. Got drafted August 1972. Went to boot camp at Ft. Jackson, S.C. and when basic was over, the Paris Peace Accords had been signed and the Army had 50,000 draftees with no where to send them.
I ended up in Washington D.C. writing award citations for officers and then to Camp A.P. Hill, Va. as a company clerk. Did two years active, one in the National Guard, three inactive reserves.
I thought many of the draftees were pretty decent soldiers. A lot of the bad ones never made it out of basic.
But at A.P. Hill, a National Guard training facility, we would see the TDY dregs from other units sent to us to manage the training grounds every summer. They were a mixture of enlisted and draftees.
I admire the professional Army we have now. It's just too small.
thought of you today, sat behind a suv at a light that had "Army Dad" all over the back of it. I've forgotten the division it displayed,
ReplyDeleteblue ribbon said "My hero is a Silver Lion".....anyone what what a Silver Lion is??
anyway, as I said, I thought of you today.,
Mom,
ReplyDeleteThe Silver Lions are the 1st battalion, 68th Combined Arms Regiment, 4th Infantry Division out of Fort Carson, Colorado.
THANKS DAD, well, one of their Dads was driving around N Dallas last week.
ReplyDeletepraying for all our military families.