For Veterans Day, Remember From Where Our Fortunes Flow

Forbes ^ | 11/10/2011 | Bill Flax

[billflax]

As an eighteen year old infantryman who knew everything, our unit was once assigned to the S-4 Logistics shop for a “working party.” A welcome sign admonished, “Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics.” We snickered, handled the office “pogues’” heavy lifting and left. “Every marine is a rifleman,” and Napoleon affirmed, “An army marches on its stomach,” but surely it was the “grunts” who won wars.

Friday, 11/11/11, America will honor her veterans, particularly those who paid the supreme price protecting our cherished principles. We should solemnly reflect on this, holding those most heavily engaged in the highest esteem. Tales of my experiences would induce slumber, but thankfully brave sacrifices by such heroes ensure the liberty Americans all too frequently take for granted.

Freedom has been rare through man’s sorry annals. “Free” often meant not rights to pursue happiness, but oppression by your own sovereign instead of an invader. Yet, for most of her history, America was exceptionally free because our military ventures were extraordinarily successful. Lest America plunge off her perch, we ought to ponder the fountain from whence our fortunes flow.

The great imperial commander and military theorist Raimondo Montecuccoli observed, “For war, you need three things; 1. Money. 2. Money. 3. Money.” Apologies to real estate agents thinking they devised the clever trilogy, but the engine of victory is economic, an outgrowth of the very freedoms our forces sustain.

[billflax]

America’s strength derives from the constitutional principles our troops preserve. Prosperity is the fruit of freedom and the wellspring of power.

[Ron H.]

From one veteran to all my fellow brother veterans have a memorable 2011 Veterans Day. Everyone else be sure to shake the hand of a veteran today and be sure to thank them for their service to you and our country. For if not for them you you'd likely be speaking German today and not be as REEE as you are and get to enjoy and experience all the liberties you currently enjoy. Veterans from every conflict in our nations history who has been involved in has helped to preserve and maintain all of our freedoms and liberties with their blood, sweat and tears.

       1970-71