Posted on 02/26/2014 1:54:13 PM PST by dynachrome
Niven or Pournelle (can’t remember which) said, “a country that despises its army will soon have a despicable army.” The situation we have now is not quite the same because the country as a whole still loves our Army, but our elected leadership despises it, and treats it with contempt.
It must be incredibly hard to stay motivated, patriotic, and willing to defend God and country when the very people you are sworn to obey unquestionably do none of the above. If this PFC had genuine top-down leadership, she might be more willing to do the bottom-up loyalty thing. As it stands now, why should she?
A very valid point.
How did I know the soldier was Black before looking at the picture. This soldier has just earned herself the Michelle Obama Respect for American Award.
I have kind of a funny story related to that.
Poltergeist came out in 1982, and I went to see it in a theater with a bunch of friends. Now, the movie starts out with a completely black screen, so the theater is pitch black. And long before anything shows up on the screen when the movie starts, this beautiful version of the national anthem begins at a pretty good volume.
Now, I grew up as a military brat, and had just got out of the navy a couple of years before, and my muscles started twitching.
On the bases I lived and served at, they began every movie by playing the national anthem and everyone in the theater would stand up. So here I was, completely baffled, having never done this in a civilian theater, and my knees kept trying to involuntarily straighten out and bring me to my feet!
I eventually stood up straight, and when the screen lit up, and I could see nobody else was rising, and at that point I realized it was part of the movie...:) I am certain people would have looked at me like I was some kind of weirdo...
That’s awesome - I’ll have to share with my brother.
I never once saw anyone run...
But I do recall people waiting inside before exiting and walking faster when it approached the time.
As a kid, living on bases...we ran! But if it started, we stopped. My dad was the XO, and having to face him because we were misbehaving during colors was not something I wanted to do.
He would not be amused, he was all Navy.
But she is cute. Imagine for a moment that she’s in an article for supporting conservative causes instead of bragging about being disrespectful to the flag. There would be a lot of comments about her physical attractiveness. It’s too bad that her inner ugliness gives proper motivation for the negativity that’s being directed her way.
Perhaps she’ll wise up and this experience will make her a better person in the future.
Inner ugliness is far more difficult to overcome than external ugliness.
Someone acts like that in our armed forces, I have a real problem with that.
Nobody ran and certainly did stupid stuff like this. It tended to happen more in the peak of summer or when it was super cold.
“Perhaps she’ll wise up and this experience will make her a better person in the future.”
She said ‘IDGAFFFF’. I wouldn’t put any money on her wising up.
Nor would I, but it costs nothing to hope for a positive change.
Or, when it was raining!
That’s true, but those who did dodge the flag in such a manner didn’t publicize or boast about their misbehavior. This girl is strictly there for the benefits. She helps Hagles decision to skim off the overhired billets.
Can a nation this stupid survive?
But it won't be people like her or the new LBGT military that get downsized. They are the new privileged class in the Transformed United States. I have gone through downsizing under Clinton, so I know cuts can be targeted to certain career paths, grades, and other demographics...
I saw it too - was walking with my chief one day (I was an LT) and saw two P02s who thought they could “sneak away” after taps had started into a nearby building and stand just past the front door yapping away. Once it was done - I looked that way shook my head and said, “Chief, you want to deal with those clowns or would you like me to do it?” He said, “LT, I’ll be damned if I’m letting them off light with your ass chewing despite how much I’ve taught you.” They started walking out I said: “Have a good rest of the evening Chief” by the time I walked by about a half hour later their own chief and command master chief were with him chewing the breeze - I can only imagine how that ended for those two petty officers - almost - almost made me feel sorry for em.
dammit - I know better - retreat not taps...
Back in my day, not too long ago, we would stop & salute on or off duty. You knew the time, you heard the music, you PAID RESPECT!!!
= = = = = = = = = = = =
Few years back I was going on Ft Detrick MD and went through the gate just before evening colors.
People came to a stop, I stopped, got out and saluted. The guy behind me blew his horn when I stopped, got out of his car and started yelling something... I was standing at attention and rolled my eyes around and saw the gate MP (there were a also a couple of ‘renta cops’ on the gate) and the fool behind me yelled you will move now...
Ceremony ended, MP talking to guy behind me, I went and made my delivery and as I was coming out 15 or so minutes later, the MP was still there with the guy, giving his car one of those COMPLETE ANAL checks...
I tapped my horn, saluted the MP and laughed at the idiot.
I saw it happen a lot in “A” school. Those who did it most were people who had been in a few years and thought they were “salts”. We’d usually get to school before reveille (sp?) was played so we’d be outside having a cigarette when it would start and they’d run over under the awning.
On another note, my last day in the Navy I was walking down the street and met a young Ensign on the other side of the street. I didn’t salute him so he called me over. I crossed the street and walked up to him and saluted. That kind of surprised him but he still said “Don’t you know you’re supposed to salute an officer?” I explained the regs to him about how close you’re have to be to be required to salute. Not that I minded saluting. I just believed in knowing the regulations and living by them.
Like I said, it was my last day. I also remember getting out of boot camp and all of us saluting airline pilots.
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