Replies

"Almost 30 Americans were killed in the conflict, most the victims of friendly fire."

I had the honor to know one of them. In fact, this kid, SP/4 Kevin Lannon wouldn't have been there were it not for me. And, yes, that knowledge still haunts me a little bit.

SP/4 Lannon was my platoon medic when I was a Lieutenant in the now defunct 9th Infantry Division. His lifelong dream was to be an AIRBORNE RANGER. I had a buddy from college who was the Ranger Bn S1 and my own S1 was a good guy, so I did some talking to my best friend from high school was the HHC Ranger Bn CO and we worked some paperwork magic and got the kid transferred.

The day I handed him his orders (about six months before his died in the air assault on the medical school from ENEMY FIRE) he looked like a five year old about to get a ride on the town fire engine. He was thunderstruck. He wanted those orders more than anything in the world and that is my solace. To die doing something you love is not so bad is it?

Buy in large, unequalled by me before or since, I have never been in a organization that as much as humanly possible, supported each other from supply to triggerpullers as much as the Green Team. It was always my feeling and observation that if you were in trouble, be it enemy, or alcohol or money, somehow, someway the Army would help you through it provided you helped yourself. I saw great effort by NCOs and Officers at cost of time and effort to themselves to help young men get through tough professional and personal problems. Even to the point of significant out of pocket cash money on a promise. Often done outside of official channels and disregarding of rules. Other than that we entertained ourselves by fighting amongst ourselves.

You did right Sir, and I am sure there is some Grenada trained MD, with his family this day, who every now and then thinks of those young men with awe and fondness. How, where and when that gratitude will manifest itself, of which I have no doubt, is know only to time and God.

I had to come back to this:

"Almost 30 Americans were killed in the conflict, most the victims of friendly fire."...(and)..."I had the honor to know one of them. In fact, this kid, SP/4 Kevin Lannon ..."

Granada was a tactical joke, it's hard to say otherwise.

But as a Vietnam veteran (non-hero type) it was just about the first boost I/we got following such absurdities as the great hostage screw-up and goat-rope conducted by Carter and the overhanging sense of weakness imposed by the post-Vietnam left.

In fact, it took that victory, small as it was, and the nifty night shots of troops and hilos in Panama to re-legitimize the role of military to the American public.

The success of those two very minor campaigns was in the reaction to Clinton's crimes in Somalia. "Blackhawk Down" would have been an anti-war Fonda epic had not the earlier two dust ups been conducted and used, intentionally, to restore some luster to what democrat administrations from and including JFK had managed to foul.

No eason to feel remorse ExSoldier, everybody knows what the wings imply and very few would go there without the will to follow through.

End of rant, thank you.

As a Navy man, I never had the bittersweet honor of pounding the ground for Uncle Sam, so maybe my opinion doesn't matter.

But I can say, without any reservation whatsoever, that I have never met a warrior who would assign one iota of blame to you for helping SP/4 Lannon achieve his lifelong dream! Once the orders were cut and he left your charge, your moral and legal responsibility for his well-being ended. Period.

It is good that you have a conscience, but it can be a curse, too. Anyone who would fault an officer for sending warriors to fight has no business giving an opinion, because sending warriors to fight is exactly what officers are supposed to do. It has always been that way, and for good reason. You know it, I know it, and anyone with their head screwed on straight knows it.

So my sincerest and most heartfelt advice is to not let the consequences of any action you took in good faith as an officer haunt you, regardless of what they might be.

And do this confident in the knowledge that there isn't a true warrior alive or dead who would want it any other way, including Specialist Lannon.