[Mr.Atos]

Michael E. McBride retired as a Major from the Marine Corps and blogs with Dueler and myself over at My Sandmen... Portland, Oregon's most notable Blog of Reason.

http://mysandmen.blogspot.com.

[Mr.Atos]

Ping

[kilowhskey]

There is a second essay by Major McBride in which he offers some insights into why guys like his brother and Pat Conroy who chose not to serve. That piece, soon to be seen here, gives a good explanation of "those other guys."

[Peter Libra]

From the text.

Guy Sajer in his excellent book, Forgotten Soldier.... he never met a man his age that had not served in the French Resistance.....that a large preponderance of the male population in France, were abject liars about service to their country.

I routed out my long dormant copy of The Forgotten Soldier. Ballentine Books. New York. NY.1967. The civilized behaviour of Sajer's final interrogator shines through. Ah yes, says he-"Your mother". Sajer gets a pass into freedom.

I am somehow reminded of a Jewish chap who re visited Austria. He exclaimed somewhat cynically that "everyone has their Jew". He meant that every one hid a Jew during the occupation by the Germans, or so they said.

I have a chuckle at my fellow Londoners. They and their rattle of Bofors guns, shrapnel raining all around. House next door blown to smithereens. Well I suppose they are entitled.

There are those that really know about their sacrifice in that war. They are conspicuous by their reticence on the subject. They have my respect and thanks.

[ASOC]

Nice enough post, but I would note that not everybody has to die to have filled this version of "serve".

Milton points out - "They also serve who only stand and wait" -- the quote may be and usually is misinterpreted.

Another author gets it much more accurately. In the 1951 book by Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny, a pivotal section brings up the point

"When I was studying law, and Mr. Keefer here was writing his stories, and you, Willie, were tearing up the playing fields of dear old Princeton, who was standing guard over this fat, dumb, happy country of ours, eh? Not us. Oh, no! We knew you couldn't make any money in the service. So who did the dirty work for us? Queeg did! And a lot of other guys, tough, sharp guys who didn't crack up like Queeg"

Service in peacetime (after Korea, I don't know how much of that we had) was viewed as poorly paid, boring and of little value. Today, many citizens view service in our armed forces in much vein, Jon Carry aside.

Doesn't matter when you served, or where you served, a vet has shown by their actions that they are willing to place duty before self, and Nation before family/friends/etc.

So for the Coastie changing batteries in a bouy on a cold and wet morning, to the solitary radar maintenance tech pulling a PM routine at midnight on a mountaintop in Korea, for all service personnel worldwide

Merry Christmas. And THANK YOU.

[Salem]

I read this one at MySandMen when I noticed the traffic to my site, Mr.Atos. Thanks for the link. I stop by frequently to see what new literary work you and the crew are sculpting with the English language.  

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AMERICA AT WAR
At Salem the Soldier's Homepage ~
Honored member of FReeper Leapfrog's "Enemy of Islam" list.
Islam, a Religion of Peace®? Some links...  by backhoe
Translated Pre-War IRAQ Documents  by jveritas
Mohammed, The Mad Poet Quoted....  by PsyOp
"PLAES DO NOT TOCH THE WAR"  by AnnaZ
One FReeper On The Line  by SNOWFLAKE
The Clash of Ideologies - A Review

"...It's time we recognized the nature of the conflict. It's total war and we are all involved. Nobody on our side is exempted because of age, gender, or handicap. The Islamofacists have stolen childhood from the world." [FReeper Retief]

"...That the totalitarian force pitted against freedom wears a religious makes this civil war among mankind all the more difficult to engage. Loving freedom as we do, it seems reprehensible to deliberate against a religion. But this is no ordinary religion as it demands absolute obedience of all to their religion at the cost of freedom itself." [FReeper Backtothestreets]

[Scotsman will be Free]

Excellent post. During the past 35 years I have only met one Vietnam vet who did not claim to have been a grunt out in the bad bush.

[kalee]

ping