USO Canteen FReeper FRiday....ALOHA RONNIE.......July 19,2002

ALOHA RONNIE and Snow Bunny

[Snow Bunny]

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If you know a Veteran, someone in your family,
friend of the family, neighbor, who served their
country, take a brief moment of your day to thank them.
Thank them for the sacrifice they made
for the better good of their country.

We at Free Republic, and the USO Canteen FReeper Style,
are thankful for every service member
in our military, who has served our great nation.

So, to the men and women who answered the call,
in both times of war and peace, thank you.

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Message from Snow Bunny to all those who visit the Canteen.

This is how I think of the USO Canteen Freeper Style.
It is like a cottage down a road,
a place where a weary veteran can spend the night.

Since it opened, it is magical how so many
Freepers who post here, feel it too.
It has been so dear how the Freepers
kept making it a cottage - a home-type of place
that had a huge living room
for them to visit in and a dance floor, a library, etc.

Many Veterans have written to me,
saying that the Canteen is like home
to them for the first time since they served.

This is your Canteen -
a respite from our busy
and sometimes troubling world.
Make yourself at home.

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The USO Canteen Honors FReepers
who have served,
or are now serving their country.

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You may have a loved one who has served in the past.
We at the FReeper USO Canteen would like to honor each and every one.

I DRANG'.. 1st Cav Licensed Mustang with ALOHA RONNIE Guyer in front of his home at Christmas with Lights Home,
American Flag ..Cross ..
'WE WERE SOLDIERS'.. Cap -&- all

ALOHA RONNIE
Ronnie Guyer, Sp/4
HHC, 1/7th Cav 1965-66
Vet/Battle of IA DRANG-1965 - LZ Falcon

"We few, we happy few, we band of brothers,
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother."

Shakespeare, Henry V

IA DRANG S-1 Personnel Clerk
After IA DRANG-1965 I typed up Lt. Col. HAL G. MOORE's Letters of
Condolances to the Hero families of our many Hero KIA -&- WIA Soldiers

ALOHA RONNIE was Lt. Col. HAL G. MOORE's
personal Radioman/Driver/Orderly right up to
IA DRANG-1965 Campaign

In November 1965, 450 U.S. soldiers were dropped
into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley.
They were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers.

CH-47 Chinook and S-2/3 Personnel HHC, 1/7 Cav above hill west of Bong Son-Operation White Wing/Masher April 1966

PleiMi.jpg = SP/4 Ronald W. Guyer (HHC, 1/7 S-1 Clerk) standing at entrance to Plei Me Special Forces Camp awaiting AirLift to LZ Falcon IA DRANG Valley 14 Nov 65

Commo Platoon HHC, 1/7 Cav resting in Bong Son Farm backyard, March 1966. (Paul Smith's Group)

SP/4 Ronald W. Guyer standing with a visiting young Senator TED KENNEDY at 1st Cav Div HQ October 1965

First Light 14 Nov 65 at French Fortress east of Plei Me Special Forces Camp / Lt. Col. Hal Moore planning Air Assault into LZ X-Ray 30' to my right front.

Up close picture of Lt. Col. Harold G. Moore taken in 1/7 Cav Battalion Area at An Khe just before or after our Plei Me-IA DRANG Operation, late 1965.

LZ FALCON, a smiling and Victorious Lt. Col. Harold G. Moore newly extracted from LZ X-RAY, along with the 1/7 Cav, thanking the HHC Medical Aid Men for their work at LZ X-RAY.

LZ FALCON, Helmeted Lt. Col. Harold G. Moore thanking 1/7 Cav Battalion surgeon Capt. Robert Carrara for his valiant and heroic work at LZ X-RAY saving lives. S/Sgt Keeton is on the left. LZ FALCON Medical Aid Station 2nd Lt (?) on the right is the one who pronounced S-2 CPT Tom Metzger KIA after his extraction from Huey at Falcon fresh from X-Ray.

Sp/4 Ronnie Guyer standing in front of the closest thing to a Christmas Tree to be found on Christmas Day 1965 at 1/7th Cav HQ at An Khe

Victorious Lt. Col. Harold G. Moore at PLEIKU Airstrip reading Congratulatory Telegram from Commanding General William Westmoreland who immediately followed him on top of this Jeep to personally salute the members of the 1/7 Cav for their "Outstanding Victory" at IA DRANG

1st Cav. Div. Commanding General Harry W.O. Kinnard welcoming the 1/7th Cav back to Home Base at An Khe. A smiling Lt. Col. Harold G. Moore is in the middle.

The first two Communist North Vietnamese Regular POW's of the Battle of IA DRANG fresh from LZ X-RAY are escorted from Helicopter to Helicopter at LZ FALCON by members of the HHC, 1/7 Cav. Associated Press Photographer is running to the right to get in front of them to take the picture that is in 'WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE....AND YOUNG.' Shadow of me taking this picture is at lower left. I consider this Picture one of the best. Notice M-16 POW wounded knee on one of the POW's in the middle of the picture.

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Actor SAM ELLIOTT who portrays Hero CSM BASIL PLUMLEY to MEL GIBSON's Lt. Col. HAL MOORE in ..'WE WERE SOLDIERS'.. with ALOHA RONNIE Guyer/Radio Operator to both in Vietnam ...and the real IA DRANG-1965 Hero S-3 Operations Officer Capt MATT DILLON ...who I also Clerked for ...to the left at our Year 2001 IA DRANG Alumni D.C. Conference. (photo taken by Kevin Burke)

With our very own ALOHA RONNIE Guyer/Radio Operator to both in Vietnam ...
and the real IA DRANG-1965 Hero S-3 Operations Officer Capt MATT DILLON ...
who ALOHA RONNIE also Clerked for ...to the left at the Year 2001 IA DRANG
Alumni D.C. Conference.

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Vietnam Troopship the USNS ROSE

[Pippin]

It is unforgivable what they do to those innocent little children. It seems like they have no rights to a good childhood free from fear and the right to swift justice when they are hurt.

Don't these poeple realize it is our very future and th future of our nation that they are tampering with when they do these horrible things?

not to mention that there is no excuse what so ever to harm a child.

[SAMWolf]

I thought this was relevant to all the "It's Sick" comments I've been seeeing. It;'s scary how our language has been made PC without us even knowing it.

Call it what it is. Evil!
By Al Ruechel | 07-18-02

How many times have you heard someone say, “Oh, that’s just sick!” You usually hear it when some one talks about pedophiles, or the kidnapping and murdering of young children, or other bizarre behavior we “normal” humans just can’t accept.

Let’s get this straight! These actions aren’t sick. A sickness is something we often times can’t help. We get sick with the flu or with a cold because it’s the flu or cold season and the bug is floating around. We generally don’t have much of a choice when we get sick.

These actions, and the actions of greedy CEO’s, and the actions of the September 11th terrorists, and suicide bombers are the result of evil. These are choices these individuals made to ignore all the accepted norms of civilized people in order to justify their actions. The ultimate lie or evil is to wrap these choices in faith, thereby invoking God or Allah’s permission to carry out these atrocities.

What’s crazy is that these deceptions do nothing to promote any cause but the cause of evil itself. And the last time I checked evil doesn’t particularly care if anyone is happy or content or making any kind of contributions to the betterment of society. Evil has at its core the destruction of everything we hold dear. Its most potent alley is our own appetite to satisfy our selfish desires. The battle is generally balanced by our moral convictions, which help us realize that in the end we all lose when we become too self-absorbed.

But when we exchange the word “sick” for “evil” we fall into the trap of victimology. Last week in Parade magazine, Andrew Vachss, a child advocate attorney wrote an incredible article describing the difference between sick and evil in the context of child abuse. You can find it at www.parade.com. I think his argument can be applied to all evil deeds.

Vacchs argues that when we excuse people’s behavior as being “sick” it prevents us from seeing the truth. There are absolute rights and wrongs and point-of-view has nothing to do with it. It is absolutely wrong to harm a child. It is absolutely wrong to use a child for profit or pleasure. It’s one thing for a person to fantasize about sexually exploiting children. “But if the individual chooses to act upon those feelings, that conduct is evil. People are not what they think; they are what they do,” Vacchs says. “Sickness should be treated. Evil must be fought.”

So how do you fight evil? Dr. Scott Peck, in his book “People of the Lie” says the place to begin is acknowledging the fact that there are some people who take great delight in choosing evil. It is not a sickness, for them it is a choice. And when people make choices that negatively affect the rest of us by threatening our lives or well being they must be removed from that society and punished. A society that doesn’t punish evildoers will eventually be consumed by that evil.

If you want to get religious, Peck argues the solution is found in embracing a God that establishes, through his word, the template for doing good and for right living. This moral code that puts evil in its place isn’t up for debate and provides the framework for a moral society. That’s what our forefathers had in mind when they penned the Declaration of Independence. Some of the writers had actual hoped to incorporate the Ten Commandments in our constitution but backed off because they thought it was too obvious, i.e. “we hold these truths to be self-evident”.

Those who aren’t religious may think this is just a philosophical question. Who cares what you call it as long as we have laws in place with definitive guidelines of what is and isn’t acceptable.

And now the argument comes full circle. Dr. Peck would argue without a revered lawgiver, a God who clearly spells out the difference between good and evil, man would drift back into that state of selfishness. Relativism is always about trying to justify that which isn’t justifiable. We will call evil a sickness and try to prescribe an antidote that will only mask the symptoms rather than deal with its cause.

In short, it is evil for CEO’s to cook the books so they can make more money at the expense of the employees. It is evil for the Catholic Church to cover-up the acts of pedophiles in their ranks. It is evil for terrorists to use their bodies as bombs in order to kill as many innocent people as possible. It is evil to knowingly lie, cheat, steal, or harm another individual. And it is evil to call it a “sickness” to avoid the difficult choices we as a society must make if we are to preserve the truths that we hold to be self-evident.

[Snow Bunny]

You are so right!

[Snow Bunny]

Thank you for this Sam !!!

[SassyMom]

AMEN, SAM!

[Pippin]

That's telling it like it is. I'm going to try to start abandoning this PC way of putting things and call it as I see it. Yes, what this and other creeps like him has done is EVIL!

[SAMWolf]

We've had the English language hijacked over the last 20 years. Think of the things you used to say that are now considered bigoted or have been replaced with "kinder terms".

Anyone remember bums, queers, lechers, illegal aliens, etc?

[Pippin]

I remember them.

[Snow Bunny]

ALOHA RONNIE has web tv and because of this he cannot get into threads , any of them at FR that have the kind of length that ours does. Like the Klamath Falls threads, Petition threads and the Canteen.

This morning I sent him the URL to his email for the thread today so he could open it up early before posts were made.

He as just sent me a FReep mail to pass on to everyone. He thanks you ALL so much!!!! I do to, YOU are ALL such special precious friends and freepers.Thank you ALOHA RONNIE for saying yes to me and to our country.

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This is his email to me......

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From ALOHA RONNIE | 2002-07-19 17:11:31 new "GARRY OWEN, Sir" -&- ALOHA 2-Snow Bunny ...I gotta tell ya, CHRISSIE, from the wonderful responses from really great FReepers to your USO Canteen FReeper Friday Thread, this must be one heck of an honor you have bestowed on me today. ...May I accept it on behalf of the Heroism of so many others I witnessed in the first major battle operations of the Vietnam War...? ...As usual, you have done such a fine job with your -Message of Honor- that again my WebTV Unit cannot load it up for viewing. Just like in Vietnam when they kept asking me over and over again .."What are you, Guyer, ..BLIND..?" ...I can send out your link to it that you E-Mailed to me this AM ..out to my fellow Battle of IA DRANG-1965 Vets which is going to mean a lot to them. ...Lt. General HAL G. MOORE and JOE GALLOWAY already have their copy. ..Please convey my humble gratitude to all who have replied here...and tell them that this I will NEVER FORGET ...seen or unseen ..just like the LOVE ITSELF. ...ALOHA RONNIE Guyer-HHC, 1/7th Cav 1965-66 www.LzXray.com

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"Prayers to give me strentgh would be appreciated."

You have my prayers Brother.

[SAMWolf]

You're not a pinkie raiser are you?

[SAMWolf]

You wouldn't believe how many times I get into trouble because I refuse to be PC.

[SassyMom]

I agree, let's do tea. I guess that really it isn't really tea time. I should have posted this at 2:00. Oh well, we can still have tea and crumpets, scones, and don't forget the cucumber sandwiches and sugared grapes.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Snow Bunny.

[Pippin]

That's a great message from Aloha Ronnie! Tlee him he's welcome but My Thanks go to him for all he's done for this country and for his friends. God bless him!

[Pippin]

I can beleave it ;^)

I'm always getting into trouble for saying exactly what i mean, and not always in a PC way! What can you expect from liberals!?