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Posted on 09/21/2003 12:00:28 AM PDT by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support. The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer. If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions. We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.
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What most people know of the military they've heard from their fathers or otherwise gotten secondhand. In 1951, New York Giants center fielder Willie Mays was the National League's rookie of the year. The following season he wore a different uniform. Like many others of his generation from all walks of life, he had been inducted into the Army. Among those soldiering the same year as Willie Mays was a future senator of some note, PFC Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts. Later on--with several gold records already behind him--Elvis Presley did his hitch, too.  It was a time when virtually all men who could serve in the armed forces did serve. Those who didn't were more pitied than envied. Draftees were out in two years. Recruits stayed at least four years but got a better choice of duty and training. Most veterans were proud of the experience. A great many of them regarded it as an important part of their personal development.  Things changed in 1973 with the coming of the all-volunteer force, which did more than end the military draft. It also brought to a close what had been a major rite of passage that celebrities and the sons of the rich and the famous shared with the rest of us. After 1973, men reaching age eighteen were no longer pushed toward service by the draft or by cultural norms. The volunteer force set up a major shift in the demographics of the nation.  Military service peaked during the mobilization for World War II. Accordingly, seventy-six percent of American men today between the ages of seventy and seventy-four are veterans. By contrast, less than a tenth of men under age thirty are veterans. With conscription abolished and the armed forces getting smaller, veterans are a diminishing minority. For the most part, what young people know of military service they will have heard from their fathers, seen in the movies, or otherwise gained secondhand. 
The percentage of veterans in Congress can be expected to deteriorate with each passing election. Elsewhere in government, the representation has deteriorated already. According to John Wheeler, a Vietnam veteran who campaigned for the Clinton-Gore ticket, only four percent of male staff members in the Executive Office of the President in June 1994 were veterans.  The military still rates higher than other institutions in national attitude polls, but that could change. News coverage of the armed forces emphasizes waste, mistakes, and scandal. The entertainment industry depicts the military as bumbling, corrupt, and depraved. When people do not have experience on which to base their judgments, images delivered by the news and entertainment media can have a powerful influence.  It does not follow automatically that no one except veterans can understand the military and military people. As the percentage of veterans continues to decline and fewer Americans have military experience, however, the nation's leaders have an added responsibility. They must try harder to understand.  It is not simply a matter of tradition or a footnote in historical trivia. The decline of national military experience marks a gradual but fundamental change in the relationship between the armed forces and the society they serve. That is an issue of national security.
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Don't know how I missed that.
Texas
Representative Ralph Hall joined the U.S. Navy on December 10, 1942, and served as an aircraft carrier pilot during World War II.
Representative Sam Johnson began his 29 year career in the U.S. Air Force, where he served as director of the Air Force Fighter Weapons School and flew with the Air Force Thunderbirds precision flying demonstration team. In Korea he flew F-86s in 62 combat missions. In 1966, Johnson's F-4 was shot down over North Vietnam and he spent nearly seven years as a Prisoner of War. Three of those years were spent in solitary confinement. He was awarded two Silver Stars, two Legions of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, one Bronze Star with Valor, two Purple Hearts, four Air Medals, and three Outstanding Unit Awards. He retired from the Air Force in 1979.
Representative Solomon Ortiz Representative Ron Paul served as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force in the 1960s.
Representative Silvestre Reyes served in the US Army from 1966 to 1968 including a tour in Vietnam where he reached the rank of Sergeant.
My apologies to Texas.
Representative Solomon Ortiz served in the US Army including a tour with the 61st Military Police Company, Criminal Investigation Office.
He allowed Clinton to put Charlie Trie on the Bingaman Commission to Beijing.
Trie had just dumped a half mill in illegal donations on Middleton's White House desk.
During Taiwan crisis of 1996 Trie's "Dear President" letter (pages 112-3 Gertz Year of the Rat) blackmailed Clinton to back off the carriers or lose ChiCom dough.
Bingaman blocked access to staffer Stephen C. Clemons' incriminating letter vis a vis Trie appointment to Bingaman Commission.
I spoke of it on conference call with two of Burton's counsels: pure protocol prevented access: House (Burton) could not force Senate (Bingaman) to produce documents.
Anne Bingaman (after crucifying Bill Gates, leading engine of US GDP) made record two mill lobbying FCC behalf of Global Crossing.
Global Crossing dumped to turn McAuliffe's 100K into eighteen mill.
Global Crossing bought by Li Ka-shing of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., a PLAN crony.
Bingaman and wife are dangerous to the Republic.
There is no sign his service prevented him from participating in the Clinton butchery of the military, cutting divisions in half, ships in half, air wings in half, while also cutting counterintelligence and counterterrorism to Boy Scouts escorting old ladies across street.
Mere service is not a good indicator: Kerry was more inspired in his Hanoi Jane in drag routine, Clark provided the fifteen pieces of armor and the enlisted personnel and the CS/Methyl Chloride to kill 80 US citizens including women and children.
Clark also killed 2,000 citizens in the Kosovo wag the dog, which gave Russia an F-117, gave China a foreign devil (Embassy bombing), almost started WWIII (ordering Jackson to attack the Russians at Pristina, so depleted the cruise missile stocks as to cause the conversion of the only 500 nuclear cruise missiles, distracted from the Cox Report and Impeachment.
I am all for our U.S. legislators serving, and so have drafted H Res 1010-321 calling for the Selective Service Administration to conscript all 535 U.S. legislators the first business day in October 2004 and send them into Tikrit.
Senator Clinton and Senator Schumer will walk point--but without those nasy assault rifles the other troops carry.
Blood of tyrants takes on a new connotation.
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