Thanks for ignoring FR posting etiquette and failing to ping me. I, too, have seen heroes in many walks of life, both on the battlefield and off. Lakin is no hero, just a misguided fool. If he had talked to an attorney with the slightest bit of competence, instead of one with a political agenda, he would have known that he had no chance and that the birther issue would never get its day in court. I do hope that he gets a chance to put his life back together.
You, and others, are most welcome to search my posting history on the Lakin case, as well as others on matters military and political. You will encounter responses from JimRob that may surprise you. My consistent point in this case has been that soldiers and officers have a duty to follow legal orders and the orders Lakin received were certainly legal. The military must remain a nonpolitical, disciplined force obedient to its chain of command and not some unruly commie union mob like we have seen recently in Wisconsin. But, I doubt that you could understand that distinction.
All of this has nothing to do with Obama, who demonstrates everyday that he has fairly earned his reputation as the worst President in the history of America. Those bright bulbs out there who want to connect a defense of military integrity and discipline with a love for Obama can continue to demonstrate their limited cognitive skills.
Of course, the debate over Lakin takes place within the larger birther brigade discussions. Obama and his supporters are quite pleased at the willingness of the birthers to carry his water. They are missing the real point. None of us know where Obama was born, but I believe that the odds favor a Honolulu birth. The real issue, is not his place of birth, but rather what version of birth certificate, passport, draft registration, school records existed at what point in time and what that information would tell us about his early life. What evidence do we have that Barack Obama Sr knew Ann Dunham for any longer period than 15 minutes? When did Barack the Younger adopt that name and why? Did he ever take the steps to restore his citizenship, his legal name, his U.S. passport, or he is still legally Barry Soetoro with a ghost written autobiography that creates a BHO myth. The answers to these questions would have kept him out of the White House in the first place and will ensure that he is not reelected. But, instead folks entertain themselves with some Kenyan hospital fairytale. By obsessing over the birth issue, they are missing the real story.
Well, I’ve rambled on long enough and I wouldn’t want to make you late for your rendezvous with all of your hero buddies at the State Capitol in Madison. Have fun.
I have been reading the hurtful manure spewing from your keyboard regarding Col. Lakin for the past year. And you think you deserve normal etiquette? You are a piece of work. You have a pretty high opinion of yourself but you are not so smart, you are a nasty hateful little person.
I attended a leadership class this last week... the instructor had everyone who thought they had "leadership presence" raise their hand and then explain why. I have been working with most of my coworkers for many years. The exercise wasn't intended to be funny, but the people in the room who were most enthusiastic about their own "leadership presence" were the known blowhards. Some of them have good qualities that are related to their inflated opinions of themselves, but most are just blowhards with no more leadership presence or abilities than the most reserved people who were in the room. None of them were the people who I know from experience that I can trust the most.
I have never met Col. Lakin but from what I have read he is a person that his coworkers have learned from experience is very trustworthy and takes his service and his duty very seriously. They have said that he is a person that they can count on. Your repeated judgments here have been unfair, hurtful and inaccurate. I don't know what you are like away from your keyboard, but your posts remind me of people who I know and work with. They are not the people who I have learned that I can count on. They are the people who think they are the greatest, the people who berate others and treat the public like they are dirt and then when push comes to shove they lock up and don't know their jobs. Those are the people I think of when I read your posts.
One can reasonably conclude from your comments regarding LtCol Lakin’s actions that you do not believe it is the duty of a military officer to detect, confront and expose corruption in the military chain of command. Such a view appears to disregard the military officer’s oath to defend the Constitution which, I hope you will agree, is a higher duty than participating in a fraudulent chain of command.
The view also seems to hold that the many O6’s and above to whom Lakin appealed over a period of several months had no duty to process his Constitutional concern. His concern was based on the fact that Congress had failed to take even the slightest step toward confirming the CinC’s qualifications for office, notwithstanding evidence in the public record to the contrary, several lawsuits and the substantial public outcry. That was a legal point (a breach of 3USC15), if not a clerical oversight, that could have been easily transmitted by the command structure to members of Congress and easily resolved.
But, lets turn to a more interesting fact. You named 10 highly decorated Viet Nam warriors and claim you “served with them”. More specifically, you state, “I have walked in their company and I know their mettle.” The term is usually taken to mean having been with them on the battlefield either shortly before, during or shortly after their heroics; otherwise, of course, everyone in the community could make a similar claim.
(Here, let me recommend you drop Barry McCaffrey from your list. Shooting noncombatants who are trying to go home, after receiving notice of a cease fire agreement is not the stuff of a hero and for many is an ugly stain on the authenticity of his earlier awards.)
You are most fortunate. Few of us, who do not have occasion to be associated with MOH recipients, have had the honor of formally meeting one, or perhaps even two recipients, if that. You on the other hand, have met a half dozen or so and walked with them.
What is even more amazing is that although these individuals served across a wide spectrum of military activities in different units in different locations in the same relatively narrow time period, you had the chance to walk with them.
The readers of this thread, which includes many who served in Viet Nam, would be very interested in hearing even a modestly detailed story behind your Viet Nam connection to each of the 10 warriors. It must be a hell of a story.