[antimedia] antimedia: I have an idea....
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Sat May 26 17:09:45 EDT 2007
I *think* the age limit is 55 but exceptions have been made. If you're really serious, the first step would be to talk to a local recruiter. Another option is to look into civilian jobs at area bases. Those are often used to free up slots for duty at the front. Finally, you could look into doing something for the local Guard units. They may have positions available for taking care of maintenance or paperwork issues.
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----- Original Message ----
From: Jim Fishback <fish2rvp at bellsouth.net>
To: antimedia at sbcglobal.net; antimedia at lists.powerblogs.com
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2007 1:17:58 PM
Subject: Re: [antimedia] antimedia: I have an idea....
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Let me ask you great Patriots a question.
Is there any way a 61 year old fart like me could replace a well bodied Armed Forces person (that wants to serve on the Line) at a desk job?
I heard DOD raised the age to Forty somethin', but I would like to volunteer for a desk job, or light duty job to free up an able body who may wish to be freed up to actually Go to the front line to kill Sheet Head Terrorists.
Jim
Harrodsburg, KY
-------Original Message-------
From: Email subscription to blog articles
Date: 05/23/07 22:37:19
To: antimedia at lists.powerblogs.com
Subject: [antimedia] antimedia: I have an idea....
Posted by antimedia:
I have an idea....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1179974234.shtml
....Let's embed Americans with our troops. Perhaps it will be [1]a
life-changing experience for them as well.
While I was at the Combined Press Information Center in Baghdad on
my recent trip to Iraq, a pair of Spanish journalists--a newspaper
reporter and a photojournalist--walked in, fresh from their embed
with the 1-4 Cavalry of the First Infantry Division (the unit with
which I embedded only days later). They had spent two weeks amongst
the troops there, living and going on missions with them, including
house-to-house searches and seizures, and their impressions of
these soldiers were extremely clear.
"Absolutely amazing," said David Beriain, the reporter (and the one
who spoke English), said of the young Cavalry troops. "In Spain, it
is embarrassing--our soldiers are ashamed to be in the army. These
young men--and they seem so young!--are so proud of what they do,
and do it so well, even though it is dangerous and they could very
easily be killed." Mr. Beriain explained that the company he had
been embedded with had lost three men in the span of six days while
he was there--one to a sniper and two to improvised explosive
devices, both of which had blown armored Humvees into the air and
flipped them onto their roofs. Despite this, he said, and despite
some of the things they might have said in the heat of the moment
after seeing another comrade die, the soldiers' resolve and morale
was unshaken in the long term, and they remained committed to
carrying out their mission to the best of their ability for the
duration of their tours in Iraq.
It was in the process of performing that mission, of coping with
the loss of loved ones, and of just being themselves as American
soldiers that these young men were able to win over the admiration
and affection of more than one journalist who had arrived in their
midst harboring a less-than-positive opinion of the Iraq war, and
of those who were tasked with prosecuting it.
"I love those guys," Mr. Beriain said, looking wistfully out the
window of the media cloister in the Green Zone that is the Combined
Press Information Center. "From the first time you go kick a door
with them, they accept you--you're one of them. I've even got a
'family photo' with them" to remember them by. "I really hated to
leave."
Such a radical transformation--and such a strong bond of
affection--can rarely be forged in so little time outside of the
constant, universal peril of a wartime environment. "It is those
common experiences," Mr. Beriain explained, "where you are all in
danger, and you go through it together. It builds a relationship
instantly."
It doesn't matter how skeptical of the war a journalist might be,
according to an Army public affairs officer who spoke with me about
it on condition of anonymity. "So often, they come out of that
experience and--even if their opinion of the war hasn't
changed--they're completely won over by the troops."
"I was one of those," admitted Mr. Beriain, speaking broken English
and blinking away tears. "No matter what you think of the war, or
what has happened here, you cannot be around the soldiers and not
be completely affected. They are amazing people, and they represent
themselves and the Army better than anyone could ever imagine." A
retired Army officer concurred, telling me that "young troops are
some of the best goodwill ambassadors we've ever produced. It would
never occur to one to not tell you what he's really thinking, and
they are so earnest" that it is almost impossible not to be won
over by them if given enough time.
We could start by embedding Cindy Sheehan and Ramsey Clark and John
Kerry. A couple of weeks should do the trick. Or maybe not. Maybe
they're too far gone to be saved.
The next part of the article relates the story of an ardently anti-war
Greek public television reporter who cannot talk about the troops he
was with without crying.
The most spectacular recent case of a journalist with an antiwar
mindset being completely overwhelmed into a change of heart by
American soldiers, according to the public affairs officer, was a
Greek public television reporter who had been embedded with an
infantry unit that became entrenched in a 45-minute firefight with
insurgents. Yanked out of the line of fire by a soldier who put the
journalist's life above his own, he waited under cover and in fear
of his life for the almost hourlong duration of the battle, with
the best view possible of American soldiers in action against an
armed and murderous enemy. He credits his having lived to tell the
tale directly to those young troops.
"He had tears in his eyes as he talked about it," said the public
affairs officer. "He just kept saying, 'They saved my life, they
saved my life. . . . These are great men; they are heroes.' Even
after telling it several times, he couldn't get through the story
without choking up--and this was a man who had arrived here with
all of the disdain for the Iraq mission and for the American
soldiers who he [like seemingly most Europeans] had seen as the bad
guys in this fight."
America, these are your soldiers. Do they sound like the evil killers
that the left paints them to be? Do they sound like the uneducated
morons that John Kerry claims they are?
Or do they sound like the best and most ethical warriors that the
world has ever seen -- a shining example of the goodness and the
greatness of America? (Hat tip to [2]The Discerning Texan.)
Tags: [3]US military [4]warriors [5]Iraq [6]journalists
References
1. http://www.opinionjournal.com/federation/feature/?id=110010083&mod=RSS_Opinion_Journal&ojrss=frontpage
2. http://discerningtexan.blogspot.com/2007/05/winning-war-one-journalist-at-at-time.html
3. http://technorati.com/tag/US%20military
4. http://technorati.com/tag/warriors
5. http://technorati.com/tag/Iraq
6. http://technorati.com/tag/journalists
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