November 19, 2008

Attention American Auto Makers

I think the first thing you need before you get a dime of our hard earned tax dollars is some very plain, honest talk.  Talk you should have listened to and heeded years ago.I'm retired now.  That means I live on a combination of social sec...

November 24, 2005

Thank you, American Military Service Members

Thanksgiving is a bittersweet time for our military and their family members.  Many of our service men and women will be spending their holidays deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan or other areas around the world that require a military presence and c...

August 14, 2005

Disabling Able Danger

There's an old axiom in military circles that states that the first reports that stream in from the field regarding a significant event do not always present the facts as accurately as will a more in—depth evaluation conducted later on.  T...

August 11, 2005

No heroes in Iraq?

The absence of recognized and celebrated heroes whose names should have become household words by now in this war is palpable... and shameful.  No one knows what to do with them, I guess.  We send them there and then some poll decries their...

August 6, 2005

Some tough days for the Corps

Twenty one Marines have been killed in the past three days.  Almost all of them were from the same unit, Third Battalion, 25th Marines, and many of them were from the same town and state.  The devastating news of their deaths has left a hug...

July 15, 2005

Kids: the tools of terrorists

British investigations of the recent London bombings have been precise, methodical and effective.  In a very short period of time they have identified four young men all of whom evidence suggests were the terrorists responsible for last week's c...

June 23, 2005

A half baked apology, a few tears… and he's good to go?

An open letter to Congress Now, let me get this straight. Here is a senator, who by any standard has denigrated the reputation of our nation, disparaged those whose job it is to defend his right to speak those words, refused to apologize and the...

June 21, 2005

Will the Republicans we elected please stand up

I voted for our current president twice for one fundamental reason: he exhibited the unique, personal leadership characteristics, I believed our country needed the first time he ran and continues to need today.  He looked at a situation, sized i...

June 17, 2005

We're still at warÝight?

I was channel surfing recently and part of this ritual involved a stop at the Military Channel.  Sometimes they have programs that interests me and other times I move on. This time, they got my attention.  It was a documentary de...

June 15, 2005

Gutless wonders

Months ago, as the war in Iraq spooled up and we poured men and equipment into the breach, those on the left compared this conflict with the war we fought in Vietnam.  Somehow, the war in Vietnam had become the defining event against which would...

March 24, 2005

Dear Terri

Dear Terri, You don't know me and you never will.  Unfortunately, I know a lot more about you than you could have ever imagined.  I am not alone; there are millions of your fellow Americans who can say the same thing.  The information ...

February 3, 2005

The purple finger

Take a good look at it; purple indelible ink right down to the first joint of their index fingers.  It's the new 'Don't Tread on Me' symbol.  The people who proudly wear it and flash it for others to see are the new Minute Men.  They a...

January 27, 2005

Thirty Marines and a Sailor dead

The words came crashing through the speakers in my car this morning.а 'What the hell...Oh no...Oh my God' were about all the words I could muster after hearing this report.а The framework for measuring this loss began to take shape in my mind.а This ...

December 19, 2004

Each in his own time

The current war in Iraq and operations in  Afghanistan, my personal recollections and the television interviews with veterans from wars past  remind me of the adage that the more things change the more they remain the same.  There is ...

December 8, 2004

"Troop extensions"

These words flashed across the TV screen as I was getting ready for work one recent morning.  It was just some copy that came up there, rather matter of factly, and it was followed by the name of a U.S. Army Cavalry unit that has now had its dep...

December 5, 2004

Past is prologue

I remember watching a news clip of a Marine Infantry unit preparing to deploy from Camp Lejuene during the First Gulf War.  I watched a young, squared away sergeant move competently among his men checking their gear and speaking quietly to them ...

November 23, 2004

Old eyes, new war

The center of strength and love in my life is my family.  Pat and I had our kids early in our married life and now our three wonderful daughters have children of their own, and better yet...they all live close by.  When we get together for ...

November 17, 2004

Where do we get them?

Their faces are becoming more familiar to us now. Young men, grown old beyond their years, their faces framed in Kevlar helmets and desert pattern camouflage covers, appear in magazines and newspapers routinely now.  Running through rubble and s...