http://pic16.picturetrail.com/VOL665.../238572098.jpg
http://pic16.picturetrail.com/VOL665.../238713927.jpg
http://pic16.picturetrail.com/VOL665.../238713921.jpg
http://pic16.picturetrail.com/VOL665.../238580115.jpg
Printable View
http://sharuntech.com/goe/thumbnails/Picture%20665.jpg
http://sharuntech.com/goe/thumbnails/Picture%20019.jpg
http://sharuntech.com/goe/thumbnails/Picture%20136.jpg
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 19, 2007 10:54 AM: Message edited by: travelinman ]</font>
Nice pics Trav.
Thanks for sharing them.
Anyone recognize this guy?
http://mainevietnamwall.com/pics/goe...e/IMG_0031.jpg
[img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]
[img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I know Im stupid but that T shirt doesnt make any sense. Is it saying under a Democratic Administration there would be no Marine Corp???Quote:
No Sean. It's saying that Democrats would not join the Marine Corps. (Here in the US the Marines have a reputation as being the hardest branch of the service. My father was a Marine, and other than marchibg around the house singing the Marine Corps hymn, I remember him doing push ups with me on his back. Granted I was young, but I WAS a fat kid.) You don't want to mess with US Marines. Turst me.
I had the pleasure last night to spend some time with GS, his lovely wife and gorgeous daughters. Gunslinger says he's old and all that, but I have to say that he's maybe not as lean, hopefully not as mean, but he is still a Marine.
Semper Fi! And thank you, GS, for your service.
that makes no sense, There are NO democrats in the Marines????? Surely armed forces are non-political. In fact Id wager a large percentage of those names on that wall you Rightly protected at the weekend were democrats. It makes no difference they died in the name of Your country.
SeanPa3
At the time of the Vietnam war, "Democrats" were differnt than they are today. Used to be that the Dems were in favor of social change. Now, they are limousine liberals. I mean no disrespect, but read some Ameiucn history, staring with LBJ.
I can only speak for my generation (maybe GS will weigh in here), but Democrats would NOT have joined the Marines. Our draft here was for the Army; even back in the day, Air Force, Navy and Marines were there by choice.
Our boy who is in the sandbox is there by choice; thank you for all good thoughts for his safe return. (58 days and counting!)
OOrah!
So NO democrat would join the Marines, either this decade or previous.
Well i just cant see that, But will have to take your word.
http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p...-Black-600.gif
From the same guy who designed your t-shirt.
this made me spit out my tea [img]biggrin.gif[/img]
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Didnt realise you had family out there, hope you see him soon [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]Quote:
Originally posted by gae:
Our boy who is in the sandbox is there by choice; thank you for all good thoughts for his safe return. (58 days and counting!)
[/QB]
Many thanks, SeanPa.
He;re's to your boys. May they all come home safely.
Lan, this is from the Philadephia Inquirer. Tell me they speak for you and I will quit making noise. If they don't, come stand with us.
We'll take you.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Quote:
Making a stand at the Wall
Echoes of the past are heard as vets gather in D.C. to back the troops, oppose war protesters.
Chris Hill visits the Wall every Veterans Day. He follows the path to Panel 4W, Line 36, and stops at the name Curtis R. Smoot. It's the same name on the POW-MIA bracelet Hill has worn for 22 years.
Hill picked up the bracelet at an ROTC recruitment table in high school. He didn't know Smoot, but the bracelet was a poignant reminder of service and sacrifice during Hill's years with the Seventh Infantry Division in the late 1980s.
At Panel 4W, Hill places his hand on the Wall, bows his head, and honors the helicopter crewman who was shot down in 1971, and whose body was never recovered.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is hallowed ground for Hill, made more significant by his first visit right after he enlisted. He was with his dad and uncle, both Vietnam vets. The two older men stood before the Wall on a cold, rainy December afternoon, holding on to each other, weeping.
"That picture's never left my mind," says Hill, now 38.
So when Hill heard about the Wall's being a gathering place for an antiwar protest, he decided he'd be there too - in opposition.
Joining Hill's outrage at what looked like an "occupation" of the Wall were other veterans, military families and their supporters. They worried about vandalism because of the spray-painting of the Capitol steps during a January demonstration.
Out of informal talk among local vets groups, and via e-mail and blogs, a national ad hoc group - a Gathering of Eagles (www.gatheringofeagles.org) - and a mission grew:
Show respect for vets of past wars, and the monuments that honor their sacrifices.
Show support for today's troops and their mission.
No one's free-speech rights would be trampled, but the antiwar protests wouldn't go unanswered.
Happy with the turnout and the chance to be heard, the vets and their supporters left last Saturday's gathering feeling the mission was accomplished - even if, at times, it seemed they'd become time travelers.
Jim Kirlin, 60, an investment banker from Medford, was standing with members of Rolling Thunder, the black-leather-jacketed motorcycle club of Vietnam vets. As the protesters marched by on their way to the Pentagon, Kirlin, who saw combat as a Marine rifleman in Vietnam, heard them yell, "Baby killer," "murderer."
"I thought I was back in the '60s," Kirlin said.
Another marcher, who looked close to Kirlin's age, came up to the orange snow fence separating the two sides and said: "You people ought to be ashamed of yourselves. I tell my students that."
That stung, but didn't diminish Kirlin's belief in standing up for fellow vets.
"We have to show the soldiers that there's enough support to go out and win it," he says, otherwise, "the enemy sees [protests] and it increases their resolve to fight, and weakens our efforts."
For Kathy Mizner, 58, Saturday was a "fantastic day." Mizner's father served in World War II. Her husband was in Vietnam. Her son in Iraq. Like Kirlin, she rode the bus for D.C. that Hill had organized. To get to 30th Street Station for the 6 a.m. departure, she left her home in West Deptford at 4. Mizner is usually "scared to death" to drive on ice- and snow-covered roads, but this was important to her. "We've always been true to the flag and our troops," she says. "That's how I was raised."
"To be with true heroes, the Vietnam vets and the kids in uniform still serving, to give them a kiss and to say, 'God bless' . . . money can't buy the feeling it gave me to do that for them," she says.
As a marshal helping to ensure order, Hill heard plenty of angry exchanges, with neither side holding back. He recalls one protester marching by and yelling, "You don't support the troops!"
The vets fired back: "We are the troops!"
But while the verbal back-and-forth provided the extent of the day's drama, the satisfaction came later. As Hill stood among a group of vets from four wars, one in his 80s, another with five Purple Hearts, he realized the common threads they shared: service, sacrifice, support for one another.
Hill recalls one Vietnam Marine telling the group what he said to his nervous wife on joining the gathering: "I'm getting old. This might be the single most important thing I do with my life. I have to go."
"That summed up my view and the view of everyone with whom I came in contact," Hill says.
Sunday, before heading home to Philadelphia, Hill was back at the Wall. No crowds. No chants. He stood with head bowed, hand on Panel 4W, honoring Curtis R. Smoot, and thousands more.
Sean Pa, there are plenty of Democrats serving in all branches of the military including the Marines. However, you will not find any Chickenhawks in the military.
As to the Philadelphia Inquirer article, no I certainly do not support name calling such as baby killer, etc. The troops have respect and honor for for their service that can't be taken away.
However, it is appropriate to question civilian and military leadership and criticize them when necessary. I support efforts to redeploy our troops out of Iraq. A majority of Americans including many conservatives, Republicans, and military veterans agree...
Whats a chickenhawk? anyone, Apart from the obvious winged raptor
Sorry Sean Pa, I forgot chickenhawk is an American term - here's an explanation from Wikipedia. What do you call these critters in the U.K.?
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Quote:
Chickenhawk is a political epithet used in the United States to criticize a politician, bureaucrat, or commentator who strongly supports a war or other military action, but has never personally been in a war, especially if that person is perceived to have actively avoided military service when of draft age.
The term is meant to indicate that the person in question is cowardly or hypocritical for personally avoiding combat in the past while advocating that others go to war in the present. Generally, the implication is that "chickenhawks" lack the experience, judgment, or moral standing to make decisions about going to war. Often, there is a further connotation that "chickenhawks" falsely believe that their support for military action is a mark of personal courage analogous to actual combat, thereby demeaning those actually serving while elevating themselves.
...Previously, the term war wimp was sometimes used, coined during the Vietnam War by Congressman Andrew Jacobs (Democrat?Indiana), a Marine veteran of the Korean War. Jacobs defined a war wimp as "someone who is all too willing to send others to war, but never got 'round to going himself", which is equivalent to how the term chickenhawk is now used. Another term used in military circles, also occasionally referring to out-of-touch generals, is "armchair warrior".
<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 26, 2007 06:18 AM: Message edited by: LanDroid ]</font>
Bill Clinton comes to mind.