nascarpop Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 My brother flew A-4s and F-18s. A very interesting commentary: From a General: Thank you to the 0.45% I remember the day I found out I got into West Point. My mom actually showed up in the hallway of my high school and waited for me to get out of class. She was bawling her eyes out and apologizing that she had opened up my admission letter. She wasn't crying because it had been her dream for me to go there. She was crying because she knew how hard I'd worked to get in, how much I wanted to attend, and how much I wanted to be an infantry officer. I was going to get that opportunity. That same day two of my teachers took me aside and essentially told me the following: Nick, you're a smart guy. You don't have to join the military. You should go to college, instead. I could easily write a tome defending West Point and the military as I did that day, explaining that USMA is an elite institution, that separate from that it is actually statistically much harder to enlist in the military than it is to get admitted to college, that serving the nation is a challenge that all able-bodied men should at least consider for a host of reasons, but I won't. What I will say is that when a 16 year-old kid is being told that attending West Point is going to be bad for his future then there is a dangerous disconnect in America, and entirely too many Americans have no idea what kind of burdens our military is bearing. In World War II, 11.2% of the nation served in four years. In Vietnam, 4.3% served in 12 years. Since 2001, only 0.45% of our population has served in the Global War on Terror. These are unbelievable statistics. Over time, fewer and fewer people have shouldered more and more of the burden and it is only getting worse. Our troops were sent to war in Iraq by a Congress consisting of 10% veterans with only one person having a child in the military. Taxes did not increase to pay for the war. War bonds were not sold. Gas was not regulated. In fact, the average citizen was asked to sacrifice nothing, and has sacrificed nothing unless they have chosen to out of the goodness of their hearts. The only people who have sacrificed are the veterans and their families. The volunteers. The people who swore an oath to defend this nation. You. You stand there, deployment after deployment and fight on. You've lost relationships, spent years of your lives in extreme conditions, years apart from kids you'll never get back, and beaten your body in a way that even professional athletes don't understand. Then you come home to a nation that doesn't understand. They don't understand suffering. They don't understand sacrifice. They don't understand that bad people exist. They look at you like you're a machine – like something is wrong with you. * *You are the misguided one – not them. When you get out, you sit in the college classrooms with political science teachers that discount your opinions on Iraq and Afghanistan because YOU WERE THERE and can't understand the macro issues they gathered from books, with your bias. You watch TV shows where every vet has PTSD and the violent strain at that. Your Congress is debating your benefits, your retirement, and your pay, while they ask you to do more. But the amazing thing about you is that you all know this. You know your country will never pay back what you've given up. You know that the populace at large will never truly understand or appreciate what you have done for them. Hell, you know that in some circles, you will be thought as less than normal for having worn the uniform. But you do it anyway. You do what the greatest men and women of this country have done since 1775 – YOU SERVED. Just that decision alone makes you part of an elite group. Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.* *AMEN!* Nascarpop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEFEGeorge Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Any idea which General or in what context? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nascarpop Posted January 17, 2012 Author Share Posted January 17, 2012 I don't know. He is coming for a few days stay tomorrow. I will ask him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEFEGeorge Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Great. I put your post on the Air Force Blues site and came under a lot of criticism because of no source. Problem with those guys is that they're all "new" AF, except for a few, and those few are know-it-all officers with 15 yrs or less in. Plus, their "war" has been going on for 10 years with multiple deployments - to hear tell oh how they're suffering..... Hard to compare their war, with 4,000 casualties to VN with how many, 58K if I remember correctly. Plus-plus, they've got cell phones, computers, etc., to speak with their families whenever they want. What did we have? I only talked with my wife once from RVN over the MARS(?) system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobWoods Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Looks like it may have come from a Ranger site http://www.facebook.com/westpointadmissions/posts/299850436693998#!/photo.php?fbid=10150329882779702&set=a.10150149103174702.284579.594649701&type=1&theater link to Rangerup site on facebook page. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FEC130 Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Dont compare, they are still seving!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FEC130 Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Great. I put your post on the Air Force Blues site and came under a lot of criticism because of no source. Problem with those guys is that they're all "new" AF, except for a few, and those few are know-it-all officers with 15 yrs or less in. Plus, their "war" has been going on for 10 years with multiple deployments - to hear tell oh how they're suffering..... Hard to compare their war, with 4,000 casualties to VN with how many, 58K if I remember correctly. Plus-plus, they've got cell phones, computers, etc., to speak with their families whenever they want. What did we have? I only talked with my wife once from RVN over the MARS(?) system. Don't compare yesterdays war with today’s, Yes they have technology that some of us didn’t have in the past. These young men and women today are still serving our country and deserve respect as much as those who served in the past. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEFEGeorge Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 True, but when they downplay the older vet's wars... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinwhistle Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 I'm really torn on this one. Todays young warriors (aren't our warriors always young?) are a product of the society in which they were raised. You all know my opinion on that. What amazes me and truely makes me proud is that despite the afore mentioned fact; they still line up for duty. Todays warriors are stil operating under the wrong headed engagement policies that we struggled with in Vietnam. Yet they persevere. However, I think back to the "first" gulf War and remember (on a different web site) where the C-130 crew members were complaining about the "sorry" condition of the C-130s they were flying. I remimded them that that old girl earned every ding, dent, scratch and scrape and wore them with pride. I recently saw, on the rear bumper of an old beat up pickup, "Never again shall one generation of veteran forget another generation of veteran". Bottom line: I agree with SEFEGeorge, but on the other hand...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wukong Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Gee Whiz, bitching and moaning is a God given right for all soldiers. It's written in the fine print on the stone tablets brought down by Moses. I can recall my uncle (a vet of Bastogne) passing judgement on my generation going off to the Southeast Asian games. Give it a break Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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