Hey Ya'll
You'll never believe it. I have been screwing around with the V.A. for 20 years. I've got major depressive disorder and PTSD. I'm half lame in one leg and I've got a screwed up and very painful shoulder. My hearing in one ear is messed up and not so good in the other ear and due to neurological damage I'm left with moderate to severe tinnitus and benign paroxymal positional vertigo. All service connected. I've been in the hospital several times on suicide watch. And have generally been through a somewhat tough time lately.
For 20 years I've been screwing with these morons and as of a few months ago I've got just 50% disability. I can't find a job that I can do and when I do go to try for a job my problems get in the way. Seems like no one wants to hire a vet who can't even get through an interview without clutching a lorazepam bottle. I tried for so long to get therapy from the V.A. for the depression and PTSD that I just gave them a single finger salute and walked away. I thought that if I tried for just a little bit longer then somehow the common sense fairy would come down and bless the V.A. and viola the gates would magically open and I would get the treatment I needed to keep from eating a bullet or rigging up a large ANFO device and blowing myself up. And I would be able to guide the younger guys through the system and show how to appeal to the benevolence of the V.A. system. I found out though that hanging on was costing me my sanity and could cost me my life. The V.A. is not there to provide they are there to deny. I have gotten denial after denial. The more messed up you are the less you receiveve of the help you need. You can't function enough to work your way through the hoops and face yet one more denial without collapsing and grabbing the .357 and squeezing the trigger.
I got away from them and went to Optimum health family practice for my medical needs. The medication I get from them hasn't caused me any harm. The stuff the V.A. gave me for my diabetes left me with blood sugars down as far as 30. I have literally been down on my living room floor with the EMT's trying to get my blood sugar up to a survivable level and get me into the hospital. But I haven't suffered that for a year or so. And my A1C is at acceptable levels. I also went to Christian psychological services. I have been with a therapist for that long and am now on Pristiq. I'm not all better but I'm working on it. I at least have a chance.
So I've heard from the V.A. again. They still haven't found a suitable therapist for me. No wonder these younger guys are killing themselves. If I want to go over to the V.A. and let them dope me up till I drool then fine they'll do that. But if I want reatreatmentnt I have to go outside the V.A. and get civilian medical service. And that's my advice to the younger vets.
That's not the end of the story. I can't seem to make a living any more. But I'm only 50% disabled and I can't for the life of me get the idiots to recognize that Dorothy and I are married and have been for 14 years. I'm still getting paid at a single rate with no dependents. More hoops to jump through every time I turn around. Most entities would accept that we are married and get on with it but the V.A. system is designed for denial not provision.
So do you really want government health care? This is serious. I was left without psychological services I needed and almost committed suicide four times. I was given Glyburide for my diabetes and kept on it until I refused to take it because it nearly killed me several times. I was on a blood pressure med that was no longer used by civilian doctors because it causes congestive heart failure. At the same time they had me on a very large dose of Niacin 1000Mg. Which eventually made me very sick and caused my legs to fold up out from under me. In the mean time they couldn't find an antidepressant for me even though Pristiq had been out for a long time and was shown to work well on people with my sensitivities to other meds. What goes on with the V.A. is just a very good example of what everyone will receive if the government is in charge.
If we do not get this government out of our medical care this is what you will get. A system that is illogical, incompetent and in the end fatal.
Your choice, be hard headed and stick with the wrong way that will never work right just because it fits your ideology or else strike back and demand repeal of the laws that allow the government to muck about anywhere they are not supposed to be. All powers not specifically given to the congress by the constitution nor forbidden by it are reserved to the states and to the people.Yeah that's really in the constitution. Real simple, if one understands English. In "Redneck", If Washington ain't told they can do it in the constitution they can't. Everythin else gits done at home. Like everything else our fore bearers did there is a reason for that. It is said that Government is at best a treacherous servant and at worst an unbearable tyrant. When government has too much power and the public treasury is open to it to do as it wishes not as it should it becomes self perpetuating and very self concerned. While promising to aid those it should aid it instead makes slaves of those whose support it requires keeping them at its mercy while it strips away the wealth of those it is supposed to protect and serve. It becomes self preserving and other destructive. It is at that point now. This latest Obama bill will do no good for anyone. Not even for those you would presume to be its benefactors it is set to destroy them and keep them in submission and dependent, while transfering more power to government to strengthen the beast that is set to devour us.
I have seen the benefits of their system and if we do not stop them NOW those benefits will be suffered by all.
Ipsa conteret,
Herb
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Hey Ya'll
Thought I'd check in with ya and ask what’s going on your way and let ya know what's going on here.
Well let's see Topeka has become a real interesting place recently. Funeral missions have been up. A couple of weeks ago one of our guys Blaine lost his wife to cancer. So we had to go and stand at his wife's funeral. Poor guy. It's sad to lose your true love. And she was his. Then One of our former Supreme court Justices and an Air Force Veteran went down. The Ugly people were there with their ugly songs and ugly signs and their ugly little attitudes. Good thing we were there, and we were there in a good number. Way more than I expected on a weekday. I was proud. But right after that we had to pack up the flags and beat it up to the north end of town. Remember Blaine? Well his brother died. So we had to bury his brother. What a shame! So we had a day to take a break and then bam we had a memorial for some young fellow named Galloway. A PFC in the Army. He left a wife. That tugs at your heart to see a real young wife crying like that. At our age they look like high school kids, did you ever notice?
Then there's the biker scene, which we are on the edge of. Late last fall some of our guys took advantage of the decent weather to ride down to the S.E. corner of Kansas. From here that's quite a ride. They stopped in a town named Liberal on the way back. There were Sons of Silence everywhere. Well the guys thought they would see what was up. It turns out that some motorcycle club in Liberal patched over to S.O.S. that day. A couple of beers and a couple of death threats from the Sons and our guys were on the road and out of there at a high rate of speed. We're no pansies but we do not fight when there are a hundred of them and only a couple of us. Well we adjusted our patches to get rid of the TOPEKA banner at the bottom and hopefully that will not happen again. Meanwhile the Sons of Silence are threatening the American veterans motorcycle club and generally making a nuisance of themselves. See there have been Sons here for quite a while but no patches. Now we're seeing full patch wearing Sons around. Then Wednesday after the funerals I parked the bike and went out in the truck to do some grocery shopping. While I'm at the store I run into some Iron Horsemen nomads. Well I'm curious and I talked to them and they tell me that they are opening a clubhouse in Topeka and are having an open house. I got invited. Well I'm thinking this is weird. Now we have full patch wearing Sons of Silence and Iron Horsemen. But that's not all dear friends, not by a long shot. Today my friend and club brother called me up after the memorial service while I was visiting with Jerry at the gun shop. He says "Herb you'll never believe what I just saw ridding into the south side of town." So I says "what did you see Robert?" He says "I just saw a dozen or so Bandidos ride in." Well heck we've got a clique of Bloods and a clique of Crips and some Sur 13s and a couple of other little street gangs. Now we've got Sons of Silence and Iron Horsemen and Bandidos in town. Oh yeah and my friend in the Legacy Vets mc is looking around for body armor because of the Sons. Most of us are carrying a pistol and or a big knife when we're out. And we aren't 1%ers we just go to funerals and do charity work and have fun. Most of us are combat vets and some of us are or have been law enforcement. Allot of us have PTSD. Now this is a great situation. There's talk of American veterans mc and Legacy Veterans mc and the ALR doing more things together with our numbers we far outnumber the Sons. They leave ya alone when they are out numbered.
By the way have you heard that Topeka is trying to be the safest capitol city in the USA? This all is going on in Topeka n Shawnee County in little ole Kansas. Our county, on a good day, has about 170,000 residents.
Our illustrious legislature can't learn how to spend what they have and no more, anyway they can't do the math necessary to balance the budget right, and they can't figure out that it's the business in this state that brings in the tax dollars for them to spend so they do stupid stuff like running off business. They think that if they just raise the tax rates then there the money will be, magically, right in front of them for them to spend. The dumb asses can't figure out that when so much of the business that is done is done with other businesses in this state and the dollars that change hands are the very same dollars that have been changing hand in this state for some time we are in trouble. Sure we export our crops but we need to export more stuff. Even if it's just value added. However if some idiot that thinks that someone might so much as change the smell of the air in one room they all get enviro conscious and shut everything down. So now we don't have the money to spend on their little pet projects that are totally unnecessary and what do they do they want to shorten up on dollars for the law enforcement and judiciary.
I think the idiots should come to Topeka and work for exactly 30 days. And I mean 30 x 8 hours. We should build a dorm for them out at Forbes industrial park where they bunk up with an appropriate room mate. Something like a college dorm, no more. They should have a kitchen that prepares simple Army type mess. And they get paid $15.00/hr plus travel pay from their home to Topeka and back one time at a rate of 1.5 times the cost of a gallon of gas. And no more voting themselves a pay raise. The bill for a pay raise goes to the people to pass. No more than $2.00/hr increase per year or the increase in cost of living for this state whichever is higher. And they have to pass a test in economics at a college Bachelors level. No more of these people who wouldn't know Laissaez-faire from Keynesian economics to save their lives.
I Know that things aren't good in the whole USA, but if things are going sour in the rest of the states and business is looking for a place to relocate, create low tax, low restriction, business friendly atmosphere here. Give the beleaguered businesses a place to go other than Mexico or China. This is the ideal place in the USA to make and distribute things for the USA. But our legislature is more worried about banning smoking a cigarette in a damn bar than getting a business in here so we can afford the cigarettes and the bar. It seems to me that most all of the representatives in our state house are “Richie Riches” and they have the cash reserves and property to weather a recession without a problem. But if you go to the Tennessee town area or Central Park area of Topeka those people tend to live hand to mouth. Each and every meager pay check means a great deal to those folks. They do not have the resources to care about the piddling little things that seem to disturb our “oh so sensitive” legislators who just care so much for everything under the sun except getting jobs into this state.
Case in point. We had a chance recently to get a modern low sulfur coal fired power plant here. The environmentally concerned legislature turned them away. This was the kind of place that would produce so little pollution that you could hang your white washing down wind and when it dries it would still be white. Oh yeah they were worried about that plant. But what about the pesticides and herbicides and chemical fertilizers that their friends spray all over the place? But then that isn’t the point. The point is preserving their vision of what Kansas should be, even if that vision is so romanticized and unrealistic that it overlooks most Kansans. So they run off the energy plant that would have required so many people to build and run it and provided quite a few jobs to unemployed Kansans and would have exported electric power along the national grid. So it goes with other business. They see our brilliant legislature and they see the restrictions and the taxes and they run screaming to China or Mexico.
We are facing at least a 100% increase in gang activity and the idiot legislature is twiddling their thumbs. The gangs are here because we don't have the resources to run them off, we don't have the resources to run them off because we don't have the business we need to generate the tax revenue and we don't have the businesses because the legislature ran them off. It will eventually come about that the manufacture of meth and the redistribution of pot and cocaine will take place in Kansas. Can you think of a better place?
The elitist legislature wants to preserve Kansas as it is for their children. Of course our children will have to go begging for food because they have no jobs but as long as their children have roundabouts to drive around and don't have to smell cigarette smoke that’s the point isn't it?
Ipsa Conteret
Herb
Thought I'd check in with ya and ask what’s going on your way and let ya know what's going on here.
Well let's see Topeka has become a real interesting place recently. Funeral missions have been up. A couple of weeks ago one of our guys Blaine lost his wife to cancer. So we had to go and stand at his wife's funeral. Poor guy. It's sad to lose your true love. And she was his. Then One of our former Supreme court Justices and an Air Force Veteran went down. The Ugly people were there with their ugly songs and ugly signs and their ugly little attitudes. Good thing we were there, and we were there in a good number. Way more than I expected on a weekday. I was proud. But right after that we had to pack up the flags and beat it up to the north end of town. Remember Blaine? Well his brother died. So we had to bury his brother. What a shame! So we had a day to take a break and then bam we had a memorial for some young fellow named Galloway. A PFC in the Army. He left a wife. That tugs at your heart to see a real young wife crying like that. At our age they look like high school kids, did you ever notice?
Then there's the biker scene, which we are on the edge of. Late last fall some of our guys took advantage of the decent weather to ride down to the S.E. corner of Kansas. From here that's quite a ride. They stopped in a town named Liberal on the way back. There were Sons of Silence everywhere. Well the guys thought they would see what was up. It turns out that some motorcycle club in Liberal patched over to S.O.S. that day. A couple of beers and a couple of death threats from the Sons and our guys were on the road and out of there at a high rate of speed. We're no pansies but we do not fight when there are a hundred of them and only a couple of us. Well we adjusted our patches to get rid of the TOPEKA banner at the bottom and hopefully that will not happen again. Meanwhile the Sons of Silence are threatening the American veterans motorcycle club and generally making a nuisance of themselves. See there have been Sons here for quite a while but no patches. Now we're seeing full patch wearing Sons around. Then Wednesday after the funerals I parked the bike and went out in the truck to do some grocery shopping. While I'm at the store I run into some Iron Horsemen nomads. Well I'm curious and I talked to them and they tell me that they are opening a clubhouse in Topeka and are having an open house. I got invited. Well I'm thinking this is weird. Now we have full patch wearing Sons of Silence and Iron Horsemen. But that's not all dear friends, not by a long shot. Today my friend and club brother called me up after the memorial service while I was visiting with Jerry at the gun shop. He says "Herb you'll never believe what I just saw ridding into the south side of town." So I says "what did you see Robert?" He says "I just saw a dozen or so Bandidos ride in." Well heck we've got a clique of Bloods and a clique of Crips and some Sur 13s and a couple of other little street gangs. Now we've got Sons of Silence and Iron Horsemen and Bandidos in town. Oh yeah and my friend in the Legacy Vets mc is looking around for body armor because of the Sons. Most of us are carrying a pistol and or a big knife when we're out. And we aren't 1%ers we just go to funerals and do charity work and have fun. Most of us are combat vets and some of us are or have been law enforcement. Allot of us have PTSD. Now this is a great situation. There's talk of American veterans mc and Legacy Veterans mc and the ALR doing more things together with our numbers we far outnumber the Sons. They leave ya alone when they are out numbered.
By the way have you heard that Topeka is trying to be the safest capitol city in the USA? This all is going on in Topeka n Shawnee County in little ole Kansas. Our county, on a good day, has about 170,000 residents.
Our illustrious legislature can't learn how to spend what they have and no more, anyway they can't do the math necessary to balance the budget right, and they can't figure out that it's the business in this state that brings in the tax dollars for them to spend so they do stupid stuff like running off business. They think that if they just raise the tax rates then there the money will be, magically, right in front of them for them to spend. The dumb asses can't figure out that when so much of the business that is done is done with other businesses in this state and the dollars that change hands are the very same dollars that have been changing hand in this state for some time we are in trouble. Sure we export our crops but we need to export more stuff. Even if it's just value added. However if some idiot that thinks that someone might so much as change the smell of the air in one room they all get enviro conscious and shut everything down. So now we don't have the money to spend on their little pet projects that are totally unnecessary and what do they do they want to shorten up on dollars for the law enforcement and judiciary.
I think the idiots should come to Topeka and work for exactly 30 days. And I mean 30 x 8 hours. We should build a dorm for them out at Forbes industrial park where they bunk up with an appropriate room mate. Something like a college dorm, no more. They should have a kitchen that prepares simple Army type mess. And they get paid $15.00/hr plus travel pay from their home to Topeka and back one time at a rate of 1.5 times the cost of a gallon of gas. And no more voting themselves a pay raise. The bill for a pay raise goes to the people to pass. No more than $2.00/hr increase per year or the increase in cost of living for this state whichever is higher. And they have to pass a test in economics at a college Bachelors level. No more of these people who wouldn't know Laissaez-faire from Keynesian economics to save their lives.
I Know that things aren't good in the whole USA, but if things are going sour in the rest of the states and business is looking for a place to relocate, create low tax, low restriction, business friendly atmosphere here. Give the beleaguered businesses a place to go other than Mexico or China. This is the ideal place in the USA to make and distribute things for the USA. But our legislature is more worried about banning smoking a cigarette in a damn bar than getting a business in here so we can afford the cigarettes and the bar. It seems to me that most all of the representatives in our state house are “Richie Riches” and they have the cash reserves and property to weather a recession without a problem. But if you go to the Tennessee town area or Central Park area of Topeka those people tend to live hand to mouth. Each and every meager pay check means a great deal to those folks. They do not have the resources to care about the piddling little things that seem to disturb our “oh so sensitive” legislators who just care so much for everything under the sun except getting jobs into this state.
Case in point. We had a chance recently to get a modern low sulfur coal fired power plant here. The environmentally concerned legislature turned them away. This was the kind of place that would produce so little pollution that you could hang your white washing down wind and when it dries it would still be white. Oh yeah they were worried about that plant. But what about the pesticides and herbicides and chemical fertilizers that their friends spray all over the place? But then that isn’t the point. The point is preserving their vision of what Kansas should be, even if that vision is so romanticized and unrealistic that it overlooks most Kansans. So they run off the energy plant that would have required so many people to build and run it and provided quite a few jobs to unemployed Kansans and would have exported electric power along the national grid. So it goes with other business. They see our brilliant legislature and they see the restrictions and the taxes and they run screaming to China or Mexico.
We are facing at least a 100% increase in gang activity and the idiot legislature is twiddling their thumbs. The gangs are here because we don't have the resources to run them off, we don't have the resources to run them off because we don't have the business we need to generate the tax revenue and we don't have the businesses because the legislature ran them off. It will eventually come about that the manufacture of meth and the redistribution of pot and cocaine will take place in Kansas. Can you think of a better place?
The elitist legislature wants to preserve Kansas as it is for their children. Of course our children will have to go begging for food because they have no jobs but as long as their children have roundabouts to drive around and don't have to smell cigarette smoke that’s the point isn't it?
Ipsa Conteret
Herb
Monday, March 22, 2010
Time to stand.
That day has come. The vote is in. The tally was 219 to 212 and the mighty government has spit in the eye of the American people. We called them and emailed them and told them in no uncertain terms that the majority of the American people do not want to go against what is the American concept of government. We the reasonable Americans do not want the government telling us that we must buy insurance from the government approved provider. We do not want the government telling us what treatment we can have and when. But that knowledge is no impediment to those who wish to take control. We the people no longer posses the power to resist.
How did we get to this point? Simple we the American people have become stupid. Those of us who are “progressive” have no ears to hear the truth that “progressivism” is just the same old "communism sour wine" in a brand new bottle. And the majority of us who are middle-right to right politically have let our stupid petty egos get into the way and stood, time and again, not against the idiocy of the liberal Republican but against the whole of the Republican party. I will not guard my tongue, I will not parse words.The time for such civility is past. I have time and again stood with those who would oppose the liberal country club, blue blood influence in my party. But I will have nothing to do with those who would split up the conservative movement into little mini-parties with a hundred little candidates to draw votes off here and there and provide the kind of environment that let this happen. No Conservative renegade, don’t blame the Democrats and socialists for this, blame yourselves. It was you and your fragmenting splinter movements that put this Moslem, Indonesian trained Marxist into government. You so-called conservative factionalists are so fond of recalling the saying that “all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”. That is a truism, which means that it is not absolute. There are other things good men can do to let evil triumph and one is to do the wrong thing. Doing the wrong thing in some instances is even worse than doing nothing. It is time for you splinter groups to realize that if you stand alone, no matter what kind of a self-righteous ego rush it gives you, you will cause more damage to the conservative cause than all the commies in the world can. In fact take a look around you at the faces of your comrades and look carefully because it may be that one of the shakers and movers of your little splinter movements is working for the other side. It’s not uncommon for an organization threatened by a popular movement to provide splinter movements and even organize them and set them against the other groups and thereby cripple the opposition.
For God’s sake come out of your little hidey holes and join together. We have a perfectly good party. The Republican party and we are well capable of taking it over. We have more than enough to seize victory if any kind of order can be seized upon.
The time is critical. Stop playing about with your silly militia type thinking. We’re not playing. The time to get politically serious is now! Do not delay one second more. How close do we need to approach to communism before we recoil. This is no political game the cause is serious. Have we gotten close enough yet, do you not smell the stench of the sulfurous gases of hell or do you require that the flames warm your toes a bit more?
How did we get to this point? Simple we the American people have become stupid. Those of us who are “progressive” have no ears to hear the truth that “progressivism” is just the same old "communism sour wine" in a brand new bottle. And the majority of us who are middle-right to right politically have let our stupid petty egos get into the way and stood, time and again, not against the idiocy of the liberal Republican but against the whole of the Republican party. I will not guard my tongue, I will not parse words.The time for such civility is past. I have time and again stood with those who would oppose the liberal country club, blue blood influence in my party. But I will have nothing to do with those who would split up the conservative movement into little mini-parties with a hundred little candidates to draw votes off here and there and provide the kind of environment that let this happen. No Conservative renegade, don’t blame the Democrats and socialists for this, blame yourselves. It was you and your fragmenting splinter movements that put this Moslem, Indonesian trained Marxist into government. You so-called conservative factionalists are so fond of recalling the saying that “all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing”. That is a truism, which means that it is not absolute. There are other things good men can do to let evil triumph and one is to do the wrong thing. Doing the wrong thing in some instances is even worse than doing nothing. It is time for you splinter groups to realize that if you stand alone, no matter what kind of a self-righteous ego rush it gives you, you will cause more damage to the conservative cause than all the commies in the world can. In fact take a look around you at the faces of your comrades and look carefully because it may be that one of the shakers and movers of your little splinter movements is working for the other side. It’s not uncommon for an organization threatened by a popular movement to provide splinter movements and even organize them and set them against the other groups and thereby cripple the opposition.
For God’s sake come out of your little hidey holes and join together. We have a perfectly good party. The Republican party and we are well capable of taking it over. We have more than enough to seize victory if any kind of order can be seized upon.
The time is critical. Stop playing about with your silly militia type thinking. We’re not playing. The time to get politically serious is now! Do not delay one second more. How close do we need to approach to communism before we recoil. This is no political game the cause is serious. Have we gotten close enough yet, do you not smell the stench of the sulfurous gases of hell or do you require that the flames warm your toes a bit more?
Thursday, March 11, 2010
My Fight!
Recently I joined the U.S. Census workforce as a recruiter assistant. After three days training I was confronted by two of the female supervisors and told that I was suspected of being anti-Hispanic. I couldn’t believe that I was being interrogated for “suspicion of being anti-Hispanic”. Does that sound as ridiculous to you as it does to me? What was my first response? I looked them straight in the eye and asked “would you be doing this if I weren’t a white man?”. The two went out of the room and came back and said that someone had heard me say that I wouldn’t deal with “those People”. Of course who made the accusation remained a mystery and the circumstances of the supposed incident also remained in the shadows.
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a Catholic. Being a traditional Catholic just plain makes it impossible to be anti-Hispanic. Ninety percent of Hispanics are Catholic. I also have a habit of going to Our Lady of Guadalupe church for confession and I have been known to show up for Spanish Mass when I miss the Latin Mass at St. Joseph’s. Then too there’s the fact that my family and the Tetuan family are cousins. The whole thing is absolutely ridiculous.
What’s the most ridiculous part is the fact that a white man’s job and good name can be placed in jeopardy by being accused of being anti-whatever. The whole idea of finding yourself having to prove that you are not racist is itself absolutely insane. I informed them of these things and that I was the source of the only first class relic of St. Martin de Poores that Our Lady of Guadalupe church owns.
Realizing that they had marched straight into a minefield these two goofy gals decided to change tack and then accused me of being anti-woman. I of course had already realized that they were just pulling things out of their hand and throwing them down hoping to get something to stick. I looked at them as though I was watching a naked mime show and stated flatly, ”you’re crazy, I like women fine”. Well then they tried to say that I interrupted the instructor too much and that I used my phone too much. Well I have a Blackberry and I tend to use it. I don’t write down phone no.s and appointments I enter them into the Berry. So while the instructor was giving out instructions and phone no.s I was noting them down in my Blackberry. The gal sitting next to me was doing the same with her Blackberry. When I told my classmate she could hardly believe it. She especially couldn’t believe me being scolded for taking a call from my wife when the nursing home was trying to get hold of us. My mother-in-law is in hospice care and we were expecting to get “the call”.
The guy next to me had his phone ringer on and was interrupting the class constantly. All I did was to make myself available for a true emergency.
I talked to a friend about the incident and told him that I thought that I had been discriminated against because I take a couple of medications that make me act a little different, but he was sure that the reason I was being picked on is because I am a little over six foot tall and weigh over 300 lbs. and have a shaved head and ride a bike. Well I had posed the question as a less serious challenge. Then I realized what I was surely already suspecting when I asked if a white guy would be treated that way.
Let’s look at it seriously. Think about these words, bigot, racist, sexist. When we think on words we see pictures in our mind. It’s how we think. What do you think of when you think on those words? Is it a white middle aged to senior aged white man? Be honest. If you didn’t see an older white man with short hair in your minds eye then congratulations to you and your enlightened mind. Now think of a big ol’ biker guy with a shaved head and what do you see? Why do you think this way? Because you were told to. It’s that simple. Whenever the media wants to stress that something is unfair to anyone they often use the phrase “unfair to women and minorities”. Now what does that leave you with? It doesn’t matter what you think consciously. In the back of your mind you’re sorting it out and realizing that this is a left handed way of demonizing “white men”. That statement does it’s magic even if those who hear it don’t realize it. “Unfair to women…” well that leaves men so this thing is only fair to men. But what kind of men? “Unfair…and minorities”. So that excludes minorities so the only thing left is white men. Go sit down and watch the news and when you hear mention of organizations for certain groups. There’s a program called the Black Star Project out of Chicago, its reason to exist is to further the cause of black children. There’s the NAACP founded to advance the cause of Coloured People. Let’s not forget the National Organization for Women who do you think they are looking to advance. There is no organization for the advancement of white men. When the schools mention studying diversity do you really think they are going to study white guys? No! They only mention of groups for white guys is the Ku Klux Klan. They would just as soon strangle me with my Rosary beads as lynch some poor black person.
Since I actually took stock of it I am part of the last actual minority. I’m a White, Heterosexual, Traditional, Catholic, Male. When the real prejudiced people look at those like me they see a racist, sexist, homophobe, and that being assumed we find ourselves in the absurd position of having to prove ourselves innocent of thought crimes in order to even hold a job.
Just to hammer home a point and hopefully not to belabour it. Consider the following statement,
"We must secure the existence of our people and a future for black children".
That statement probably doesn’t bother you a bit. You’ve been trained that way. The fact is that except for the word black the white nationalist or neo-Nazi will recognize that as the 14 words coined by David Lane of “The Order” inspired by Mein Kampf a book written by Adolph Hitler.
It actually reads “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”.
So, who’s the Nazi?
Not too long ago people were accused by their fellows and denounced and interrogated by the Gestapo for thought crimes. Our fathers stood against that. What now?
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a Catholic. Being a traditional Catholic just plain makes it impossible to be anti-Hispanic. Ninety percent of Hispanics are Catholic. I also have a habit of going to Our Lady of Guadalupe church for confession and I have been known to show up for Spanish Mass when I miss the Latin Mass at St. Joseph’s. Then too there’s the fact that my family and the Tetuan family are cousins. The whole thing is absolutely ridiculous.
What’s the most ridiculous part is the fact that a white man’s job and good name can be placed in jeopardy by being accused of being anti-whatever. The whole idea of finding yourself having to prove that you are not racist is itself absolutely insane. I informed them of these things and that I was the source of the only first class relic of St. Martin de Poores that Our Lady of Guadalupe church owns.
Realizing that they had marched straight into a minefield these two goofy gals decided to change tack and then accused me of being anti-woman. I of course had already realized that they were just pulling things out of their hand and throwing them down hoping to get something to stick. I looked at them as though I was watching a naked mime show and stated flatly, ”you’re crazy, I like women fine”. Well then they tried to say that I interrupted the instructor too much and that I used my phone too much. Well I have a Blackberry and I tend to use it. I don’t write down phone no.s and appointments I enter them into the Berry. So while the instructor was giving out instructions and phone no.s I was noting them down in my Blackberry. The gal sitting next to me was doing the same with her Blackberry. When I told my classmate she could hardly believe it. She especially couldn’t believe me being scolded for taking a call from my wife when the nursing home was trying to get hold of us. My mother-in-law is in hospice care and we were expecting to get “the call”.
The guy next to me had his phone ringer on and was interrupting the class constantly. All I did was to make myself available for a true emergency.
I talked to a friend about the incident and told him that I thought that I had been discriminated against because I take a couple of medications that make me act a little different, but he was sure that the reason I was being picked on is because I am a little over six foot tall and weigh over 300 lbs. and have a shaved head and ride a bike. Well I had posed the question as a less serious challenge. Then I realized what I was surely already suspecting when I asked if a white guy would be treated that way.
Let’s look at it seriously. Think about these words, bigot, racist, sexist. When we think on words we see pictures in our mind. It’s how we think. What do you think of when you think on those words? Is it a white middle aged to senior aged white man? Be honest. If you didn’t see an older white man with short hair in your minds eye then congratulations to you and your enlightened mind. Now think of a big ol’ biker guy with a shaved head and what do you see? Why do you think this way? Because you were told to. It’s that simple. Whenever the media wants to stress that something is unfair to anyone they often use the phrase “unfair to women and minorities”. Now what does that leave you with? It doesn’t matter what you think consciously. In the back of your mind you’re sorting it out and realizing that this is a left handed way of demonizing “white men”. That statement does it’s magic even if those who hear it don’t realize it. “Unfair to women…” well that leaves men so this thing is only fair to men. But what kind of men? “Unfair…and minorities”. So that excludes minorities so the only thing left is white men. Go sit down and watch the news and when you hear mention of organizations for certain groups. There’s a program called the Black Star Project out of Chicago, its reason to exist is to further the cause of black children. There’s the NAACP founded to advance the cause of Coloured People. Let’s not forget the National Organization for Women who do you think they are looking to advance. There is no organization for the advancement of white men. When the schools mention studying diversity do you really think they are going to study white guys? No! They only mention of groups for white guys is the Ku Klux Klan. They would just as soon strangle me with my Rosary beads as lynch some poor black person.
Since I actually took stock of it I am part of the last actual minority. I’m a White, Heterosexual, Traditional, Catholic, Male. When the real prejudiced people look at those like me they see a racist, sexist, homophobe, and that being assumed we find ourselves in the absurd position of having to prove ourselves innocent of thought crimes in order to even hold a job.
Just to hammer home a point and hopefully not to belabour it. Consider the following statement,
"We must secure the existence of our people and a future for black children".
That statement probably doesn’t bother you a bit. You’ve been trained that way. The fact is that except for the word black the white nationalist or neo-Nazi will recognize that as the 14 words coined by David Lane of “The Order” inspired by Mein Kampf a book written by Adolph Hitler.
It actually reads “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”.
So, who’s the Nazi?
Not too long ago people were accused by their fellows and denounced and interrogated by the Gestapo for thought crimes. Our fathers stood against that. What now?
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Wasting Time in Court.
State V. Kristen Lane
Let me tell you a story first then I will tell you why you care about this story.
A little while before 01:00 A.M. on February 15 2009 the Topeka Police Dept. arrested Miss Lane while she was on her way to the Quick Shop in North Topeka to buy cigarettes. She was operating an automobile without a license and with a Blood Alcohol of over .10. Miss lane was in the vehicle with two men and a minor girl. According to the testimony of Miss Lane and the two men she had been in the passenger seat and when the driver Mr. Buschbom realized that he had attracted the attention of the police he suddenly climbed over Miss Lanes lap forcing her to assume control of the vehicle in order to avoid a collision. Mr. Buschbom had a suspended license and was on probation so to preserve his ability to regain his license and to avoid a probation violation Miss Lane was used as the patsy. Nice bunch.
Miss Lane was charged with DUI No. 2 and driving with a revoked license. The case came to trial just this last week.
The case was tried by a legal intern with the assistance of an assistant D.A. before a retired judge was and a six person jury. Tying up an assistant D.A. and a judge and six jury members, a court reporter and a courtroom for a day and a half. Not to mention the time spent by the D.A.‘s office preparing for this case and time spent by the legal clerk and clerical time et al. Just to send a misdemeanor DUI to jail for a week and garner some kind of fines for the DUI and the “driving without a license” charge. No effort made to offer a deal to drop the “driving without a license” charge in exchange for a guilty plea was made though it reportedly would have been accepted.
All of this takes money. Money that the State of Kansas does not have. This has been happening just about every week at the rate of 4 to 6 a week. Even to the point of calling in retired judges to sit on these misdemeanor trials.
The D.A.’s office receives the case report then investigates and decides what charges to file in the case. This D.A. office due to sloppy investigation winds up filing lists of charges in a single case and many times charges that have to be changed at the last minute. Like in State V. Lane the original charge was DUI No. 1 until at the last minute the D.A. found out that Miss Lane had been on a diversion at one time for her 1st DUI. Had this been DUI No 3 a Felony would have been warranted and not charged.
The worst example is in Domestic. You know how it goes Joe gets off work and has his pay on Friday evening. He’s worked hard all week so he goes by the Bar and Grill with the Lads and chugs down a few cold ones. He goes home and his wife wants to know where he’s been and why he didn’t come home for supper and one thing leads to another and before long the wife has a black eye and the police want to know why. Joe goes to jail. The report get’s filed the D.A. investigates and the wife visits Joe. The unhappy couple makes up and the wife no longer wants to see her beloved Joey in the slammer. She begins to hemhaw around and any normal D.A. knows that when this thing goes to court she’s not going to sound like she did when she was angry. She’s “in love” with her darling Joe and the babies miss their Daddy and they need the paycheck. If you push these things you will lose. No matter how much we know about how Sweet Little Joey is probably going to show up again a few weeks later drunk and in trouble, it just doesn’t matter. If the victim is unwilling to proceed with the prosecution, you stop. Do not waste your time and Court resources. It’s a hard fact but true all the same. If you proceed you will lose. Along the way you spent time preparing the case and you’ve wasted a day or two of time for a judge and a six man jury and a court reporter and a D.A assistant and a court room and more. So why would the D.A. proceed with a case like this if he has no chance of winning and waste so much of the State’s resources just to lose?
Well the D.A. is looking for numbers. When time comes to decide whether or not to change D.A.’s the numbers will look good when he points to how many DUI and Domestic cases his office has prosecuted and he looks real good to people who only care whether he prosecuted the cases. At a time when we don’t have the money to throw away on cases that have no merit or can be plead to save court resources, this prosecutor is more concerned with his political future than with the economic welfare of Kansas.
Let me tell you a story first then I will tell you why you care about this story.
A little while before 01:00 A.M. on February 15 2009 the Topeka Police Dept. arrested Miss Lane while she was on her way to the Quick Shop in North Topeka to buy cigarettes. She was operating an automobile without a license and with a Blood Alcohol of over .10. Miss lane was in the vehicle with two men and a minor girl. According to the testimony of Miss Lane and the two men she had been in the passenger seat and when the driver Mr. Buschbom realized that he had attracted the attention of the police he suddenly climbed over Miss Lanes lap forcing her to assume control of the vehicle in order to avoid a collision. Mr. Buschbom had a suspended license and was on probation so to preserve his ability to regain his license and to avoid a probation violation Miss Lane was used as the patsy. Nice bunch.
Miss Lane was charged with DUI No. 2 and driving with a revoked license. The case came to trial just this last week.
The case was tried by a legal intern with the assistance of an assistant D.A. before a retired judge was and a six person jury. Tying up an assistant D.A. and a judge and six jury members, a court reporter and a courtroom for a day and a half. Not to mention the time spent by the D.A.‘s office preparing for this case and time spent by the legal clerk and clerical time et al. Just to send a misdemeanor DUI to jail for a week and garner some kind of fines for the DUI and the “driving without a license” charge. No effort made to offer a deal to drop the “driving without a license” charge in exchange for a guilty plea was made though it reportedly would have been accepted.
All of this takes money. Money that the State of Kansas does not have. This has been happening just about every week at the rate of 4 to 6 a week. Even to the point of calling in retired judges to sit on these misdemeanor trials.
The D.A.’s office receives the case report then investigates and decides what charges to file in the case. This D.A. office due to sloppy investigation winds up filing lists of charges in a single case and many times charges that have to be changed at the last minute. Like in State V. Lane the original charge was DUI No. 1 until at the last minute the D.A. found out that Miss Lane had been on a diversion at one time for her 1st DUI. Had this been DUI No 3 a Felony would have been warranted and not charged.
The worst example is in Domestic. You know how it goes Joe gets off work and has his pay on Friday evening. He’s worked hard all week so he goes by the Bar and Grill with the Lads and chugs down a few cold ones. He goes home and his wife wants to know where he’s been and why he didn’t come home for supper and one thing leads to another and before long the wife has a black eye and the police want to know why. Joe goes to jail. The report get’s filed the D.A. investigates and the wife visits Joe. The unhappy couple makes up and the wife no longer wants to see her beloved Joey in the slammer. She begins to hemhaw around and any normal D.A. knows that when this thing goes to court she’s not going to sound like she did when she was angry. She’s “in love” with her darling Joe and the babies miss their Daddy and they need the paycheck. If you push these things you will lose. No matter how much we know about how Sweet Little Joey is probably going to show up again a few weeks later drunk and in trouble, it just doesn’t matter. If the victim is unwilling to proceed with the prosecution, you stop. Do not waste your time and Court resources. It’s a hard fact but true all the same. If you proceed you will lose. Along the way you spent time preparing the case and you’ve wasted a day or two of time for a judge and a six man jury and a court reporter and a D.A assistant and a court room and more. So why would the D.A. proceed with a case like this if he has no chance of winning and waste so much of the State’s resources just to lose?
Well the D.A. is looking for numbers. When time comes to decide whether or not to change D.A.’s the numbers will look good when he points to how many DUI and Domestic cases his office has prosecuted and he looks real good to people who only care whether he prosecuted the cases. At a time when we don’t have the money to throw away on cases that have no merit or can be plead to save court resources, this prosecutor is more concerned with his political future than with the economic welfare of Kansas.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Open letter to Senators Roberts and Brownback.
Dear Senator,
Thank you for your faithful service. I would like to encourage you to maintain the best of Conservative ideals.
I listened to the President give his speech about how the “Panty Bomber” got through the security net. First point I’d like to make is that no mater what we do someone is going to get through. We have been focusing so hard on restricting ourselves that we forgot to focus on Islamic Wahabist Terrorists.
The only way we can insure total safety while flying is to surrender all our possessions to the security personnel including the clothing we are wearing, submit to a cavity search and x-ray examination then submit to being strapped into a chair and having to ask to be released to use the restroom, while being observed. Then and only then can we be totally safe from a terrorist being able to hijack or blowup a plane. I wont do that. Will you?
The only way you can provide any level of security is by identifying and focusing on those most likely to be Islamic Wahabist Terrorists. You know young Islamic males of African and middle eastern extraction who display certain behaviors. Did you notice that none of this stuff ever happens on El Al flights? They have a system of screening these people. Think of how many of their passengers are Middle Eastern. Yet they successfully identify the terrorists. Do You think we can call up the guy in charge of their security and ask him how?
The President mentioned that the simple act of changing the spelling of ones name can cause a problem. Why did he let that out anyway? But that’s beside the point. Did you ever “Google” someone and misspell the name? Did you notice how Google will ask you if you intended to search for the properly spelled name? Can’t we hire someone to set up the data server that we keep the terrorists names on to do that? Can’t we set up a server to be intuitive? Also why can’t we buy a computer with a nice Azus raid motherboard in it and put a 5 drive raid array, striped with parity. Use some really big hard drives and use the search program that Google uses and strip it of the graphics’ except for photos and fingerprints and the like. Every time someone gets a valid looking warning checked out and entered, every check using a name similar to the listed one will pull up the info on that one. Let every query go to that server no matter who makes it. Of course you will have to have whole forest of these computers but can’t we manage that for homeland security? EBay and Google can.
The last point. And I’m not trying to be weird. I know the idea is grotesque but so is cutting off a fellows head with a butcher knife and putting it on video. The rectum is used in prisons for transporting contraband. A terrorist can be trained to accept a 1 lb block of C4 or even C8 with a plastic blasting cap encased in a couple of condoms. Once in place the only thing exposed would be two tiny wires. Those wires could be pulled out in the restroom and later be attached to a power supply and Boom! Any personal electronics can supply the power needed. This is why I want to see more screening of actual terrorist suspects so that we can stop these people getting onto a plane. There is no way you can defend against a determined foe by doing the generalized screening you’re doing now. We do need to profile people. When was the last time you saw an Irish Catholic grandmother hijack a plane?
Ipsa Conteret,
Herbert Seel
Thank you for your faithful service. I would like to encourage you to maintain the best of Conservative ideals.
I listened to the President give his speech about how the “Panty Bomber” got through the security net. First point I’d like to make is that no mater what we do someone is going to get through. We have been focusing so hard on restricting ourselves that we forgot to focus on Islamic Wahabist Terrorists.
The only way we can insure total safety while flying is to surrender all our possessions to the security personnel including the clothing we are wearing, submit to a cavity search and x-ray examination then submit to being strapped into a chair and having to ask to be released to use the restroom, while being observed. Then and only then can we be totally safe from a terrorist being able to hijack or blowup a plane. I wont do that. Will you?
The only way you can provide any level of security is by identifying and focusing on those most likely to be Islamic Wahabist Terrorists. You know young Islamic males of African and middle eastern extraction who display certain behaviors. Did you notice that none of this stuff ever happens on El Al flights? They have a system of screening these people. Think of how many of their passengers are Middle Eastern. Yet they successfully identify the terrorists. Do You think we can call up the guy in charge of their security and ask him how?
The President mentioned that the simple act of changing the spelling of ones name can cause a problem. Why did he let that out anyway? But that’s beside the point. Did you ever “Google” someone and misspell the name? Did you notice how Google will ask you if you intended to search for the properly spelled name? Can’t we hire someone to set up the data server that we keep the terrorists names on to do that? Can’t we set up a server to be intuitive? Also why can’t we buy a computer with a nice Azus raid motherboard in it and put a 5 drive raid array, striped with parity. Use some really big hard drives and use the search program that Google uses and strip it of the graphics’ except for photos and fingerprints and the like. Every time someone gets a valid looking warning checked out and entered, every check using a name similar to the listed one will pull up the info on that one. Let every query go to that server no matter who makes it. Of course you will have to have whole forest of these computers but can’t we manage that for homeland security? EBay and Google can.
The last point. And I’m not trying to be weird. I know the idea is grotesque but so is cutting off a fellows head with a butcher knife and putting it on video. The rectum is used in prisons for transporting contraband. A terrorist can be trained to accept a 1 lb block of C4 or even C8 with a plastic blasting cap encased in a couple of condoms. Once in place the only thing exposed would be two tiny wires. Those wires could be pulled out in the restroom and later be attached to a power supply and Boom! Any personal electronics can supply the power needed. This is why I want to see more screening of actual terrorist suspects so that we can stop these people getting onto a plane. There is no way you can defend against a determined foe by doing the generalized screening you’re doing now. We do need to profile people. When was the last time you saw an Irish Catholic grandmother hijack a plane?
Ipsa Conteret,
Herbert Seel
Friday, January 1, 2010
And The Women Cried. Pt 1
And The Women Cried
It was one of those warm April mornings you get in the south. Clear skies and fair seas promised a good day to go to sea. People gathered in small familial clumps on the dock quietly kissing and clinging to their men and each other. A quiet whisper could barely be heard beneath the sound of the seagulls. Hundreds of women slowly crowded the gang plank still holding hands pushing rosaries and kerchiefs into their sweethearts palms as they parted with one more kiss. Their men ascended the gangplank as the sun broke over Charleston harbor. All of them in their dress whites. All except the duty crew who wore khakis and dungarees starched and pressed to perfection. Gear was stowed and the gangplank withdrawn. The men assembled into formation. The women watched quietly. My mother stood as quiet as she could though if you watched she was visibly shaking watching my father on the bow as he barked orders to cast off line and get under way.
As the sun rose from the water all hands stood at attention saluting the women who each searched their mans face to get a last look at their sailor. My father stood at his post all the way forward near the anchor chain. Straight and tall at attention he saluted his wife. Fighting her own emotions my mother forced a smile and waved, it was considered bad form in those days to not send a sailor off with a smiling face to remember. I, being the Navy brat I was, stood at attention barely managing to keep back the tears.
The loud speakers played the Star Spangled Banner, not their normal “go to hell” song as the ship slipped away from the pier. Each woman choking back tears in a stoic attempt to retain composure at least as long as their men could see and hear. The USS Glennon drew away slowly gaining speed with her characteristic permanent port list. The crowd on the pier kept very still in near silence though the low moans and those hiccups you get from holding back a scream were getting louder. No one moved away. All stood staring out to sea until the stern of the ship slipped over the horizon.
As a group they all broke in one horrible heart piercing wail. I don’t know if Angels can be slain. But if they can this must be what it would sound like. Receiving unspoken permission from the group they all poured forth in one continuous wailing for what seemed like a very long time. It was terrible to watch a thousand tear soaked women crying together staring at the empty sea.
Soon the Shore Patrol reluctantly began to move the crowd from the pier to send them home. If they didn’t move them some might have stayed sobbing and staring out to until shaken back to life.
I loaded my mother into the Beatle and started for home. The crying settled into sobbing and then into a fragile silence. My mother settling into the behavior expected of the wife of a Chief Boatswains Mate with 25 years. We had gotten soft. For four years my father was assigned to the USS Hunley. The giant ship was named Hunley after the Confederate sub lying on the bottom of the sea somewhere near Mount Pleasant. Like the sub it never went anywhere except for a regular cruise down the coast to dump heavy water out at sea. It was believed though not confirmed that when the Hunley went out the river mouth it had a polaris sub sitting directly underneath it. It never went out when there was any possibility of heavy weather. Of course a ship with an anchor chain that consisted of links weighing hundreds of pounds could see some pretty heavy seas before she felt threatened. A very comforting thought. Like driving a tank down the highway. Not much can touch it.
Before his tour of duty aboard the Hunley my dad was on the roll of a security agency. Sometimes pulling seemingly normal duty but doing abnormal things like the time we spent on Guam with him working in special services by day and running around the island’s back roads in a jeep carrying a shotgun and a .45 by night. Or working as liason with the Polizei in Germany while arranging to get certain scientists visa to the US expedited. Sometimes Dad would load a couple days uniforms in a bag along with a couple of pistols and disappear for a few days to a week to parts unknown and reappear with Spanish or African or Middle Eastern money in his pockets. Any of these assignments could have gotten him killed or worse. But this one was the most traumatic. Five years before he was assigned to duties that would keep him out of harms way and provide him with the opportunity for promotion to Chief before he retired.
But April of 1972 saw him on board the USS Glennon DD840 a ship with a port list, a number 1 gun that was so slow to turn that the whole ship was brought to bear when targeting with #1 gun. Number 1 gun had an old man with a beard, a nightshirt and a candle painted on it. Number 2 had a Tweetie bird painted on it because it screeched so bad, and there was some doubt about whether she could handle a near miss without bursting her seams. And they were headed to Vietnam to the firing line. The commies had started another one of their offensives and just about every combat capable ship that could be spared headed to Vietnam. Along with them went a lot of Marines and Seabees, Pilots etc.. Along with them went my Dad an aging Chief about to retire. The fear in our house was palpable.
This time we weren’t living in some Washington D.C. area township among civilians, the only family on several blocks with a loved one in harms way.
This time we were quartered in Menriv Naval Housing near Goose Creek.
It was a pretty new community. First class housing and landscaping and if you’re familiar with the military way you know there was everything from a bowling alley to a commissary and a military style chapel complete with chaplain. A little town within a town. A little town filled with combatants. Every body had a dog in this hunt.
On March 30 1972 the NVA got a wild hair and assembled all their tanks and equipment and charged south. There was already a group poised on the border of Vietnam having moved through Laos and Cambodia. That group moved through near An Loc trying to split the country and the northern group came south to try to retake the ancient capitol of Hue. They were stopped dead after just a short offensive. They were denied an effective guerilla campaign because of the destruction of the V.C. in South Vietnam after Tet ’68 and subsequent trouble recruiting new V.C. . The Ho Chi Trail was buzzing just north of the DMZ where it came close to the sea well within the reach of the 5” 38 guns on the Glennon. The heavy overcast slowed the use of air power at first. Massive sea power moved in.
The Glennon exited Charleston harbor and joined with the Mullinnix, the Dipple, and the Sarsfield. The four destroyers headed south to the Panama Canal.
The atmosphere at home was quiet, one of those quiets you knew better than to break. Any noise at all may be greeted with a crying jag of indeterminate duration. Nervous silence was demanded. The truth of the matter was that fleeing the house was to no avail the whole housing area was enveloped by the very same “Mal de Esprit”. As though with the departure of the Glennon a grey filter had been pulled down and the world was all shades of grey.
Daily chores and school getting ready for the summer break and the traditional Junior beach party quickly brought us back to near normal. After all our Dads didn’t fly in they would be a while getting there. About a week out we realized that they had just passed the Panama canal and were heade for Hawaii. We visited each others house and watched the war on Tv to see what was happening, at least for a while. We knew that it would be pointless to send any mail before they hit Vietnam because the mail would only chase them all the way there at worst or they would catch up with it in Subic. We got the letters and cards from “Pearl”, Midway, Guam. Then Subic that was the big one. The mood so heavy before had gotten much lighter. I think the time combined with nothing to worry about but a couple of Pacific storms sets you at ease. Then the Subic. From there the short hop across The South China Sea to the firing line and the largest amphibious landing since Inchon and Fuson. Our housing area was heavily invested in this battle and we again held our collective breaths.
But in the mean time we realized there was no reason to worry for a couple of weeks. The mood among the naval dependents became more relaxed for a short while and we turned our energies to one more hurrah. The Goose Creek High school Junior / Senior spring beach party was a resounding success. The weather was perfect, unusually warm and sunny, and the surf while not large was still respectable and surfable and we got plenty of liquor smuggled in past the chaperones. We played volleyball, surfed any wave we could, had a world class clambake and had the best beach party since Frankie and Annette. Plenty of hangovers and second degree sunburns were had all around.
Then the mail arrived from Subic and we knew that within a couple of days the last few destroyers would be joining the firing line. Some of ours were already on the ground and some others were yet to land but even the rest who would stay on board still were in danger. Handling and firing huge amounts of ammunition and explosives. Attacks from Migs and shore batteries were all dangerous especially in a lightly armored ship like a destroyer. Any ship disabled and left unattended too long would drift on the prevailing current into the North Vietnam coast. Navy families understood and we were concerned. Especially for the Glennon. Even The Charleston Evening Post had expressed concern about the state of non battle readiness of the Glennon.
On the 13th of May ‘72 the little group of four joined over 40 other destroyers on the firing line.
Note: Certain names and details have been changed for obvious reasons.
It was one of those warm April mornings you get in the south. Clear skies and fair seas promised a good day to go to sea. People gathered in small familial clumps on the dock quietly kissing and clinging to their men and each other. A quiet whisper could barely be heard beneath the sound of the seagulls. Hundreds of women slowly crowded the gang plank still holding hands pushing rosaries and kerchiefs into their sweethearts palms as they parted with one more kiss. Their men ascended the gangplank as the sun broke over Charleston harbor. All of them in their dress whites. All except the duty crew who wore khakis and dungarees starched and pressed to perfection. Gear was stowed and the gangplank withdrawn. The men assembled into formation. The women watched quietly. My mother stood as quiet as she could though if you watched she was visibly shaking watching my father on the bow as he barked orders to cast off line and get under way.
As the sun rose from the water all hands stood at attention saluting the women who each searched their mans face to get a last look at their sailor. My father stood at his post all the way forward near the anchor chain. Straight and tall at attention he saluted his wife. Fighting her own emotions my mother forced a smile and waved, it was considered bad form in those days to not send a sailor off with a smiling face to remember. I, being the Navy brat I was, stood at attention barely managing to keep back the tears.
The loud speakers played the Star Spangled Banner, not their normal “go to hell” song as the ship slipped away from the pier. Each woman choking back tears in a stoic attempt to retain composure at least as long as their men could see and hear. The USS Glennon drew away slowly gaining speed with her characteristic permanent port list. The crowd on the pier kept very still in near silence though the low moans and those hiccups you get from holding back a scream were getting louder. No one moved away. All stood staring out to sea until the stern of the ship slipped over the horizon.
As a group they all broke in one horrible heart piercing wail. I don’t know if Angels can be slain. But if they can this must be what it would sound like. Receiving unspoken permission from the group they all poured forth in one continuous wailing for what seemed like a very long time. It was terrible to watch a thousand tear soaked women crying together staring at the empty sea.
Soon the Shore Patrol reluctantly began to move the crowd from the pier to send them home. If they didn’t move them some might have stayed sobbing and staring out to until shaken back to life.
I loaded my mother into the Beatle and started for home. The crying settled into sobbing and then into a fragile silence. My mother settling into the behavior expected of the wife of a Chief Boatswains Mate with 25 years. We had gotten soft. For four years my father was assigned to the USS Hunley. The giant ship was named Hunley after the Confederate sub lying on the bottom of the sea somewhere near Mount Pleasant. Like the sub it never went anywhere except for a regular cruise down the coast to dump heavy water out at sea. It was believed though not confirmed that when the Hunley went out the river mouth it had a polaris sub sitting directly underneath it. It never went out when there was any possibility of heavy weather. Of course a ship with an anchor chain that consisted of links weighing hundreds of pounds could see some pretty heavy seas before she felt threatened. A very comforting thought. Like driving a tank down the highway. Not much can touch it.
Before his tour of duty aboard the Hunley my dad was on the roll of a security agency. Sometimes pulling seemingly normal duty but doing abnormal things like the time we spent on Guam with him working in special services by day and running around the island’s back roads in a jeep carrying a shotgun and a .45 by night. Or working as liason with the Polizei in Germany while arranging to get certain scientists visa to the US expedited. Sometimes Dad would load a couple days uniforms in a bag along with a couple of pistols and disappear for a few days to a week to parts unknown and reappear with Spanish or African or Middle Eastern money in his pockets. Any of these assignments could have gotten him killed or worse. But this one was the most traumatic. Five years before he was assigned to duties that would keep him out of harms way and provide him with the opportunity for promotion to Chief before he retired.
But April of 1972 saw him on board the USS Glennon DD840 a ship with a port list, a number 1 gun that was so slow to turn that the whole ship was brought to bear when targeting with #1 gun. Number 1 gun had an old man with a beard, a nightshirt and a candle painted on it. Number 2 had a Tweetie bird painted on it because it screeched so bad, and there was some doubt about whether she could handle a near miss without bursting her seams. And they were headed to Vietnam to the firing line. The commies had started another one of their offensives and just about every combat capable ship that could be spared headed to Vietnam. Along with them went a lot of Marines and Seabees, Pilots etc.. Along with them went my Dad an aging Chief about to retire. The fear in our house was palpable.
This time we weren’t living in some Washington D.C. area township among civilians, the only family on several blocks with a loved one in harms way.
This time we were quartered in Menriv Naval Housing near Goose Creek.
It was a pretty new community. First class housing and landscaping and if you’re familiar with the military way you know there was everything from a bowling alley to a commissary and a military style chapel complete with chaplain. A little town within a town. A little town filled with combatants. Every body had a dog in this hunt.
On March 30 1972 the NVA got a wild hair and assembled all their tanks and equipment and charged south. There was already a group poised on the border of Vietnam having moved through Laos and Cambodia. That group moved through near An Loc trying to split the country and the northern group came south to try to retake the ancient capitol of Hue. They were stopped dead after just a short offensive. They were denied an effective guerilla campaign because of the destruction of the V.C. in South Vietnam after Tet ’68 and subsequent trouble recruiting new V.C. . The Ho Chi Trail was buzzing just north of the DMZ where it came close to the sea well within the reach of the 5” 38 guns on the Glennon. The heavy overcast slowed the use of air power at first. Massive sea power moved in.
The Glennon exited Charleston harbor and joined with the Mullinnix, the Dipple, and the Sarsfield. The four destroyers headed south to the Panama Canal.
The atmosphere at home was quiet, one of those quiets you knew better than to break. Any noise at all may be greeted with a crying jag of indeterminate duration. Nervous silence was demanded. The truth of the matter was that fleeing the house was to no avail the whole housing area was enveloped by the very same “Mal de Esprit”. As though with the departure of the Glennon a grey filter had been pulled down and the world was all shades of grey.
Daily chores and school getting ready for the summer break and the traditional Junior beach party quickly brought us back to near normal. After all our Dads didn’t fly in they would be a while getting there. About a week out we realized that they had just passed the Panama canal and were heade for Hawaii. We visited each others house and watched the war on Tv to see what was happening, at least for a while. We knew that it would be pointless to send any mail before they hit Vietnam because the mail would only chase them all the way there at worst or they would catch up with it in Subic. We got the letters and cards from “Pearl”, Midway, Guam. Then Subic that was the big one. The mood so heavy before had gotten much lighter. I think the time combined with nothing to worry about but a couple of Pacific storms sets you at ease. Then the Subic. From there the short hop across The South China Sea to the firing line and the largest amphibious landing since Inchon and Fuson. Our housing area was heavily invested in this battle and we again held our collective breaths.
But in the mean time we realized there was no reason to worry for a couple of weeks. The mood among the naval dependents became more relaxed for a short while and we turned our energies to one more hurrah. The Goose Creek High school Junior / Senior spring beach party was a resounding success. The weather was perfect, unusually warm and sunny, and the surf while not large was still respectable and surfable and we got plenty of liquor smuggled in past the chaperones. We played volleyball, surfed any wave we could, had a world class clambake and had the best beach party since Frankie and Annette. Plenty of hangovers and second degree sunburns were had all around.
Then the mail arrived from Subic and we knew that within a couple of days the last few destroyers would be joining the firing line. Some of ours were already on the ground and some others were yet to land but even the rest who would stay on board still were in danger. Handling and firing huge amounts of ammunition and explosives. Attacks from Migs and shore batteries were all dangerous especially in a lightly armored ship like a destroyer. Any ship disabled and left unattended too long would drift on the prevailing current into the North Vietnam coast. Navy families understood and we were concerned. Especially for the Glennon. Even The Charleston Evening Post had expressed concern about the state of non battle readiness of the Glennon.
On the 13th of May ‘72 the little group of four joined over 40 other destroyers on the firing line.
Note: Certain names and details have been changed for obvious reasons.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)