Veterans Day: Remembering My Oath

[BroIgnatius]

As with my fellow Veterans, I remember my oath taken upon my enlistment. It is an Oath that I took very seriously back then, and an Oath to which, modified as now I am a civilian, I still consider binding today.

Read the Oath and see the Video

 

[freezerman2000]

I too,took the oath..never regretted it.
Thank you for your service..from a proud US Navy Vet!

 

[eastcoast_bsc]

I am proud that I served my country. US Army.

 

[Fantine]

My husband is a Vietnam Vet. He believes, as I do, that it is the Democrats today who are preserving the Constitution. If interested in this thesis, read Jeffrey Toobin's "The Oath," which I just listened to as an audio book. From "Washington Post."

After Toobin describes what the two men have in common (“powerful intellect and considerable charm. . . . Both were products of Chicago and its environs, and both were graduates of Harvard Law School”), he argues that “the most important difference between the two concerned the work of the Supreme Court” and the meaning of the Constitution. “One believed in change; the other in stability; one looked forward; the other harkened back.” Then the punch line: Contrary to expectations, Toobin suggests, “it was John Roberts who wanted to use his position as chief justice as an apostle of change” and Obama who was the constitutional conservative.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/ente...9d4c54-fb56-11e1-8adc-499661afe377_story.html

I know you disagree, but I just want to assure you that we are defending the Constitution, too, and will have to work an awful lot harder than you to do so. That's why I joined the ACLU last week.

 

[bill5]

My husband is a Vietnam Vet. He believes, as I do, that it is the Democrats today who are preserving the Constitution. If interested in this thesis, read Jeffrey Toobin's "The Oath," which I just listened to as an audio book. From "Washington Post."


https://www.washingtonpost.com/ente...9d4c54-fb56-11e1-8adc-499661afe377_story.html

I know you disagree, but I just want to assure you that we are defending the Constitution, too, and will have to work an awful lot harder than you to do so. That's why I joined the ACLU last week.

Thank you for taking a simple thread about something as bipartisan as the military oath and trying to digress it with political us-vs-them nonsense and drawing attention to yourself to boot. I guess that shouldn't be surprising given the ridiculous backlash from the election.

PS this is not the political sub-forum FYI.

 

[Wolseley]

On Veteran's Day, I usually remember three people the most....

The first is my Dad, a WWII combat engineer in the US Army, who went from Hawaii to Fiji to New Caledonia to India to Burma to China, was horribly wounded in Agratala, and spent the remainder of the war in a hospital in Calcutta. He also spent the remainder of his life missing a sizeable portion of his right hand.

The second is my uncle, who lived with us when I was growing up. He was a US Army infantryman in the European theater in WWII; went from North Africa to Sicily to Italy to France to Germany. He was horribly wounded in Italy and carried shrapnel in his body for the rest of his life.

The third is my best friend and roommate when we were overseas in the US Air Force together. He was killed while trying to save another's life, and I've had problems with his death ever since. A young man should not die when he's only 19 years old. He had a girl back home and I didn't; maybe it should have been me, not him....

Anyway, we all do the best we can. God bless all veterans, and God rest the souls of those who never came home.

 

[Fantine]

You can surely understand how a soldier who vowed to defend the Constitution is upset at the sale of America and our political process to big business and other judicial excesses since 2007.

Given your desire to uphold the Constitution I felt impelled to advise you that the current court is not protecting it. It is altering it.

 

[pdudgeon]

another Vet here, and proud to support as always our men and women in uniform who always put others first, and who work together to accomplish much that is good in the world on a daily basis.
Preserve, protect, and defend.

 

[pdudgeon]

You can surely understand how a soldier who vowed to defend the Constitution is upset at the sale of America and our political process to big business and other judicial excesses since 2007.

Given your desire to uphold the Constitution I felt impelled to advise you that the current court is not protecting it. It is altering it.

BTW, ^^^^ this is putting yourself first above others, taking on concerns that are outside your chain of command, and as such serve only to distract you from your assigned duty. These concerns belong to others to deal with.

meanwhile it is best to do the duty assigned to you, and do it in a manner that is befitting your station in life. Others in your chain of command are counting on you for their support, which you cannot give if you are off chasing someone else's concern.

 

[BroIgnatius]

BTW, ^^^^ this is putting yourself first above others, taking on concerns that are outside your chain of command, and as such serve only to distract you from your assigned duty. These concerns belong to others to deal with.

meanwhile it is best to do the duty assigned to you, and do it in a manner that is befitting your station in life. Others in your chain of command are counting on you for their support, which you cannot give if you are off chasing someone else's concern.

I think the Veterans we are talking about mostly are no longer in the military, which makes your comment a non sequitur. But, even if one is in the military concern for political and social issues is not prohibited as long as it does not interfere with one's military job or violate regulations.

 

[freezerman2000]

Let's please leave the politics out of this thread....

 

[pdudgeon]

I think the Veterans we are talking about mostly are no longer in the military, which makes your comment a non sequitur. But, even if one is in the military concern for political and social issues is not prohibited as long as it does not interfere with one's military job or violate regulations.

you missed the point, but thanks for your comment.

 

[bill5]

I think the Veterans we are talking about mostly are no longer in the military, which makes your comment a non sequitur. But, even if one is in the military concern for political and social issues is not prohibited as long as it does not interfere with one's military job or violate regulations.

Right. (PS: veterans by definition are no longer in the military)

Let's please leave the politics out of this thread....

Yeah good luck with that.

 

[BroIgnatius]

you missed the point, but thanks for your comment.

How is that? Civilians do not have a "chain of command". I took you at your words.

 

[concretecamper]

God bless our veterans. Thank you all for your service.

 

[bill5]

How is that? Civilians do not have a "chain of command". I took you at your words.

You've obviously never been married.

 

[eastcoast_bsc]

Thank you for taking a simple thread about something as bipartisan as the military oath and trying to digress it with political us-vs-them nonsense and drawing attention to yourself to boot. I guess that shouldn't be surprising given the ridiculous backlash from the election.

PS this is not the political sub-forum FYI.

Agreed! Some people would argue at a funeral.

I went to the Boston Bruins hockey game the other night. They honered the Vets. Up above in the Corporate seats several Vets in their 90's got standing ovations. They were sitting in wheel chairs. It was emotional. All WWII Vets.

They then had a Medal of Honor recipient dropped the ceremonial puck. His story blew my mind. Surrounded , the enemy was so close he could hear them talking. He pulled pins on grenades and waited to just before they blew in his hand, then he would throw them, the shrapnel. Would cause maximum impact.


This young soldier from NH suffered grave wounds to both legs but managed to save his fellow soldiers.

Finally they suprised a youngbVet witha service dog he had been waiting 13 months for. Why he even had to wait is incredulous.

This is how we honor our Vets.

I advice those on the left to get off the pity pot and to cease the attempt to subvert thevDemoctatic process.

 

[s_gunter]

Agreed! Some people would argue at a funeral.

I went to the Boston Bruins hockey game the other night. They honered the Vets. Up above in the Corporate seats several Vets in their 90's got standing ovations. They were sitting in wheel chairs. It was emotional. All WWII Vets.

They then had a Medal of Honor recipient dropped the ceremonial puck. His story blew my mind. Surrounded , the enemy was so close he could hear them talking. He pulled pins on grenades and waited to just before they blew in his hand, then he would throw them, the shrapnel. Would cause maximum impact.


This young soldier from NH suffered grave wounds to both legs but managed to save his fellow soldiers.

Finally they suprised a youngbVet witha service dog he had been waiting 13 months for. Why he even had to wait is incredulous.

This is how we honor our Vets.

I advice those on the left to get off the pity pot and to cease the attempt to subvert thevDemoctatic process.

If we care so much for our veterans, why did we vote into Congress a whole bunch of "representatives (I use that word loosely)" who only down-vote bills that would benefit veterans? This article's dated, but it does prove the point. This one's more current, but it is a tad foul-mouthed.

We keep electing those who don't do anything for our veterans and we keep on expecting a different result. There's a word for that...

 

[Fantine]

Veterans have a lot of wisdom to share with us. They come back with their stories and their sacrifices, and they let us know whether the wars our country brought us into were really worth fighting or just misadventures begun for greed or oil.

The bravest veterans know they fought for principles, and if our country's leaders aren't supporting those principles of democracy, then we have to choose principles over blind support of our leaders.

We will always honor their sacrifices, even if they fought in dishonorable wars, because they did it for our country and their fellow soldiers. Their sacrifice will hold a tender poignancy if it was in a fool's errand, and we will empathize with their woundedness even more.

We love our veterans.

 

[bill5]

Hurray for more political digression.

Oh well BroIgnatius, it started out as a nice thread and sentiment, regret that it got tarnished with political nonsense. But the whirlwind of political muck right now is apparently impossible to avoid...... I would not be surprised if someone started a thread about bird-watching and someone went off on a political tangent about it.