Lost Heroes of the War on Terror: Gallant Deeds and Untold Tales
Our culture immortalizes show-biz celebrities — shouldn't we know the names and hear the stories of our nation's true heroes?
Jason Dunham, United States Marine Corps
Jason Dunham, of Scio, New York, was killed in Iraq in 2004, at the age of 23. Had Dunham not given his life for his comrades nearly five years ago, he would have turned 28 last fall on the very day the U.S. Marine Corps, which has been fortunate beyond measure to have contained men of Dunham’s quality for over two centuries, turned 233.
Dunham’s death in Iraq is not in itself what makes his a story of heroism, though. Rather, it is his final actions, stunning in their selflessness, which deserve to be known and remembered. According to the Marines’ official report:
On April 14, 2004, Corporal Dunham heroically saved the lives of two of his fellow Marines by jumping on a grenade during an ambush in the town of Karabilah.
When a nearby Marine convoy was ambushed, Corporal Dunham led his squad to the site of the attack, where he and his men stopped a convoy of cars trying to make an escape. As he moved to search one of the vehicles, an insurgent jumped out and grabbed the corporal by the throat.
The corporal engaged the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. At one point, he shouted to his fellow Marines, “No! No! No! Watch his hand!”
Moments later, an enemy grenade rolled out and Corporal Dunham jumped on the grenade to protect his fellow Marines, using his helmet and body to absorb the blast. Corporal Dunham succumbed to his wounds on April 22, 2004.
At the time of the battle in question, Lance Corporal Mark Edward Dean, a close friend of Dunham’s,
didn’t recognize the wounded Marine being loaded into the back of his Humvee. Blood from shrapnel wounds in the Marine’s head and neck had covered his face. Then Lance Cpl. Dean spotted the tattoo on his chest — an Ace of Spades and a skull — and realized he was looking at one of his closest friends, Cpl. Dunham. A volunteer firefighter back home in Owasso, Okla., Lance Cpl. Dean says he knew from his experience with car wrecks that his friend had a better chance of surviving if he stayed calm.
“You’re going to be all right,” Lance Cpl. Dean recalled saying to Dunham as the Humvee raced against the inevitability of time and mortal wounds on a doomed quest to save the life of a brave Marine whose selfless act had just saved the lives of his comrades.
“We’re going to get you home.”
The situation was eerily familiar to Dean, who recalled Dunham’s words to him and their comrades while on a trip to Las Vegas shortly before leaving the U.S. for Iraq. Dunham told them that he was planning to extend his enlistment and stay in Iraq for the battalion’s entire tour. “You’re crazy for extending,” Lance Cpl. Dean said. “Why?”
Cpl. Dunham responded: “I want to make sure everyone makes it home alive. I want to be sure you go home to your wife alive.”
And he did just that.
Dunham’s parents accepted his posthumously-awarded Medal of Honor from President Bush in a ceremony at the White House on January 11, 2007.
Ross McGinnis, United States Army
When most young men are turning 17, they are thinking about their upcoming senior year of high school, their sports career, or their choice of college. When Ross McGinnis of Knox, Pennsylvania, turned 17, he walked straight down to the recruiter’s office and joined the Army via the delayed enlistment program.
By the age of 18, the ambidextrous McGinnis was in training to be an infantryman, where he qualified as a sharpshooter with both his left and right hands. Shortly thereafter, he was assigned to Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, based in Schweinfurt, Germany, where he was the youngest soldier in the unit.
In August 2006, he found himself in Iraq, where he distinguished himself so greatly in his first three months that a waiver was requested — and granted — to promote him to Specialist (E-4) despite his lacking the requisite time in service.
On December 4 of that year, at the age of 19, Ross McGinnis traded his life for the lives of four members of his squad when he jumped on a grenade and shielded them from the blast.
On the last day of his life, Private McGinnis was manning the .50-caliber machine gun mounted in a turret atop his Humvee and serving as the rear guard in a mounted combat patrol against insurgents and sectarian fighters. As the convoy made a turn onto a narrow street, a fragmentation grenade was thrown from the rooftop of an adjacent building. According to the official report:
[McGinnis] immediately yelled “Grenade!” on the vehicle’s intercom system to alert the four other members of his crew…[he] made an attempt to personally deflect the grenade, but was unable to prevent it from falling through the gunner’s hatch.
According to platoon sergeant Cedric Thomas, who was commanding the vehicle, “McGinnis yelled ‘Grenade. … It’s in the truck!’… I looked out of the corner of my eye as I was crouching down and I saw him pin it down.”
“He had time to jump out of the truck. He chose not to.”
Instead, according to his award citation,
[R]ather than leaping from the gunner’s hatch to safety, Private McGinnis made the courageous decision to protect his crew. In a selfless act of bravery, in which he was mortally wounded, Private McGinnis covered the live grenade, pinning it between his body and the vehicle and absorbing most of the explosion.
Private McGinnis’ gallant action,…extraordinary heroism and selflessness at the cost of his own life … directly saved four men from certain serious injury or death.
For his actions, McGinnis was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, the military’s third-highest award for combat heroism. On June 2, 2008, that award was upgraded to the Medal of Honor.
According to a later report, “Thomas remembered McGinnis talking about how he would respond in such a situation. McGinnis said then he didn’t know how he would act, but when the time came, he delivered.”
“He gave his life to save his crew,” Thomas said. “He’s a hero. He’s a professional. He was just an awesome guy.”
Jason Cunningham, United States Air Force
Jason Cunningham of Carlsbad, New Mexico, joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 19, but he didn’t stay long. After just under four years in the fleet, Cunningham decided on a radical career change, setting his sights on joining an elite Air Force fraternity known as Pararescuemen (or PJs). The Air Force has fewer than 1,000 of these highly trained professionals whose job is to deploy by any means necessary — sea, air, or land — to rescue downed aircrew members and injured special operators.
After two years of selection and training, Cunningham succeeded in his goal of becoming a PJ and was assigned to the 38th Rescue Squadron at Moody AFB, Georgia. Only eight months later, he deployed to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. The PJs there were based in an air operations building that also housed a forward surgical team — a training opportunity he took advantage of almost immediately.
“Every time we had a casualty event [Cunningham] was always the first one here offering to help,” said Dr. (Maj.) Brian Burlingame, the surgical unit’s commander. “His enthusiasm was just genuine to the core, which was what endeared him to us. He was like a little brother.”
“He had more motivation than any one man should have,” said a Pararescue colleague. “He was all about saving people’s lives.”
Besides honing his personal medical skills, Cunningham’s involvement with the surgeons down the hall at Bagram directly resulted in a development that would save the lives of American soldiers in the very near future: the allowing of PJs to carry whole blood into combat as a part of their medical loadout. This was a controversial step, Dr. Burlingame told the Air Force Times:
“Blood is an FDA-controlled substance. It’s very, very regulated.” Special training, not to mention lots of paperwork, is required before medics are considered qualified to administer blood in the field. After Cunningham and Burlingame started talking, all the pararescuers here took the classes and filled out the paperwork.
“We then pushed blood forward with [Cunningham's] group,” Burlingame said.
Perhaps the most famous battle of the first years of Operation Enduring Freedom, the battle of “Roberts Ridge” (a subset of Operation Anaconda, which saw a loss of life unprecedented in the special operations community since Mogadishu in 1993, and surpassed since only by the operation Lt. Michael P. Murphy, noted above, was a part of), was Cunningham’s first — and last — taste of combat. At the scene, Navy SEAL Neil Roberts fell out of an MH-47 Chinook helicopter which was taking heavy fire while attempting to insert Roberts’ team onto a hilltop to watch over the Anaconda battlefield. A second helicopter had deposited the remainder of Roberts’ squad and an Air Force combat controller (Tech. Sgt. John Chapman, whose actions during the battle cost him his life, and earned him a posthumous Air Force Cross) on the hilltop in an attempt to rescue the fallen sailor, whom Predator UAV footage had shown being captured by Taliban fighters.
A quick reaction force (QRF) composed mainly of a squad of Army Rangers was launched to reinforce the outmanned and outgunned Americans who had quickly become pinned down in an exposed position. As it approached the landing zone, the QRF helicopter came under such significant ground fire that it was forced to make a crash landing in an exposed area of the hilltop, only 100 meters from a fortified enemy position. The soldiers on board immediately took fire, and casualties began to mount instantly.
Cunningham worked feverishly to treat the wounded Rangers and aviators, doing so in the back of the downed Chinook helicopter until it caught fire and became the target of increasingly accurate enemy mortar fire. Making the decision to move his patients, Cunningham crossed the line of fire seven separate times while successfully transporting them to higher ground. He then was forced to move them twice more to avoid the enemy fire raining down on their static, vulnerable casualty collection-points.
Finally, just after midnight, after having so successfully defied enemy fire so as to move and treat his patients, Cunningham’s luck ran out, and he was shot in the abdomen just below his protective vest. According to the Air Force Times:
Cunningham must have known he was in serious trouble. But despite his worsening condition, he continued to treat patients and advise others on how to care for the critically wounded. One of the two blood packs he had brought [and which he was directly responsible for PJs being able to carry] saved a badly wounded Ranger. The medics gave the other packet to Cunningham himself, whose life was slowly flowing out in a red stream onto the white snow.
Nearly 20 hours after suffering serious internal injuries, and not long before the area became cold enough for rescue helicopters to arrive and evacuate the wounded fighters, Cunningham succumbed to his wounds. He treated patients to the end, and was credited afterward with having almost single-handedly made sure that only seven men died, rather than seventeen. Such dedication and seriousness of purpose ended up costing him his own life.
Every wounded man he treated survived the encounter, and for his extraordinary heroism and gallant action in living the Pararescue motto (“That Others May Live”), he was posthumously awarded the Air Force Cross, the second-highest award that the USAF offers. According to the citation, “As a result of [Cunningham's] extraordinary heroism, his team returned 10 seriously wounded personnel to life-saving medical care.”
“He was right in the thick of it, doing it right up to the end,” said a fellow PJ. “Jason was right where every PJ wants to be. He was where guys needed him, and he was saving lives.”
No Greater Love …
These four men exemplify a mindset that is both incomprehensible and unimaginable to all who have not been in such a situation. When faced with a life or death situation, with an escape route both simple and available, every one of them chose death, against every instinct of self-preservation. And, in doing so, they allowed the men with them, marked for death, to keep their lives.
There truly can be no greater love, no more heroic acts, than such as these. The men whose lives were saved by the direct intervention of Danny Dietz, Jason Dunham, Ross McGinnis, Jason Cunningham, and others will carry the burden of gratitude with them to the grave, and beyond.
The mindset that compels a man to put himself into harm’s way for the purpose of saving another is impossible to express; however, it is a defining characteristic of the true warrior who has faced combat and who has experienced the reality of having his life entirely in the hands of the men next to him and having each of theirs in his.
As put by Dr. Joseph Blake, a sociologist who has researched the act of soldiers throwing themselves on grenades and other acts of sacrifice in the line of fire, “A combat situation has not a whole lot to do with patriotism or the folks back home. … They are fighting for their buddies. They don’t want to let their buddies down.”
Yet these heroes, and all of the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who have died in combat, have done so also, if indirectly, for the sake of all Americans. To these men and women, every American owes eternal gratitude and a commitment never to take for granted those things that we, due to their sacrifices, can continue to enjoy — things that they, due to those same sacrifices, will never again be able to.
On this Memorial Day, take a moment to thank a friend, family member, or even a total stranger who has served — or is serving — this country. For though they will never seek the praise and thanks of their fellow man, all will appreciate the expression of gratitude.
It is our solemn duty to honor those who have kept us safe and free for the past 232-plus years. America has stood strong all this time largely because of men like these. And it is because of men like them that it shall remain so.
The sacrifices of these true warriors, like those of the countless others whose stories have not yet been told to a public, did not make them heroes. It simply demonstrated what heroes they were all along.
Now it is up to us to remember them.
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Mr. Emanuel, a special operations military veteran, is a columnist, a Pulitzer-nominated combat journalist, and a director emeritus of conservative weblog RedState.com.
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69 Comments
1. Lost Heroes of the War on Terror: Gallant Deeds and Untold Tales | Secolul 21 ~ 21st Century:[...] more here: Lost Heroes of the War on Terror: Gallant Deeds and Untold Tales This entry is filed under America – Blogs, Pajamas Media. You can follow any responses to this [...]
May 25, 2009 - 2:04 am 2. Allston:No greater words…
Semper Fi
“Follow Me”
Semper Paratus
Non Sibi Sed Patriae
Duty, Honor, Country
May 25, 2009 - 3:12 am 3. Walt:As a retired Navy CPO, I found this article to be right on the mark in all respects. Mr. Emanuel has shown a great insight into the actions and mindsets of military men/women.
While the vast majority of military persons have never known a true hero, most of us have seen awe-inspiring bravery and courage throughout our careers, and that is the expected norm. Having said that, I am always at a lose for words when I read of the exploits of an actual HERO.
I also believe that Dr. Blake is 100%
May 25, 2009 - 3:52 am 4. Walt:(continued)
I also believe that Dr. Blake is 100% correct in that protection of your buddies is the motivating factor – in battle, ultimately, the guy on each side of you is the highest priority.
And yes, every military person that is honest with you will admit he/she has often wondered what would/will be their reaction if placed in a life-threatening situation. We can seldom answer the question, we can only hope that we would not embarrass or shame ourselves or our units.
May 25, 2009 - 4:02 am 5. Big Al:We do
May 25, 2009 - 5:28 am 6. Brian:Thanks for the reminders and thanks to our heroes in arms
May 25, 2009 - 6:02 am 7. Emphasis:I have been watching the movies that have been shown on television this Memorial Day, and I realize that they are convincing proof of the critical state in which our country finds itself. There is almost no movie recounting the heroism of those that fought and died in wars after World War Two. It is like if heroism and courage stopped then. There might be a couple of movies regarding Korea, but they are almost never shown, and with regards to Nam overwhelmingly every movie except one by John Wayne, are detrimental to our soldiers and/or our country. I can’t tell about the movies related to THE Gulf Wars because I have not seen them, but from the reviews, I am afraid they follow this pattern. It is pathetic.
It almost seem like newspapers now a day go out of their way to not report the acts of the real heroes of our country.
GOD BLESS THE USA
May 25, 2009 - 6:19 am 8. Saltherring:Thank you, Mr. Emanuel, for writing and posting these accounts of heroism. These men, by their courageous acts, have earned the adulation and gratitude of all patriotic Americans. It is beyone shameful that their collective sacrifices are condemned to relative anonymity, due to the disgraceful cowardice and partainship displayed by the American news media. May God and the American public hold these media weasels accountable for their neglect and dismissal of true heroes, while worshipping Hollywood’s perverts and traitors .
May 25, 2009 - 7:04 am 9. steeple:Thank you for honoring these fine young men and their colleagues. We are so blessed to have people of such character defending us.
May 25, 2009 - 7:34 am 10. Captain Obvious:Thank you for this post, Mr. Emanuel.
and Emphasis, I agree with you.
May 25, 2009 - 7:49 am 11. r. ponce:do not forget lee ann hester, the first woman since ww2 to revieve the silver star for bravery -in combat. where is her movie?
May 25, 2009 - 7:49 am 12. CapnDick:Doctor Blake does not have it ALL right, and I have read this before. At the time of sacrifice I will acknowledge ““A combat situation has not a whole lot to do with patriotism or the folks back home. … They are fighting for their buddies. They don’t want to let their buddies down.” BUT what about the reason they joined in the first place? I have lost a goodly number of friends including one MOH who smothered not one but two grenades one and then later another. I can tell you he loved his country more than life, but at the time was protecting his buddies who were surrounded by the enemy. I think it demeans to sacrifice to belittle it with the nit picking of the chosen purposes of who have been there and ultimately gave all.
May 25, 2009 - 7:52 am 13. CapnDick:(demeans the sacrifice)
May 25, 2009 - 7:54 am 14. David Thomson:The “elites” have deliberately opted to ignore our brave military personnel. This is no accident! They do not want Americans to be proud of their country. Also, the elites are convinced that the United States is a vile imperialist nation crapping on the alleged victims of the Third World.
May 25, 2009 - 8:15 am 15. Delia:The education system is rife with ’school books’ riddled with misinformation.
Will our brave ones be remembered in an HONEST ‘history’ lesson? I hope so but I fear otherwise.
May 25, 2009 - 8:52 am 16. Oscar Wao:Pat Tillman received a Silver Star. But they had to take it back; apparently if the US government kills you itself, rather than another government’s soldiers, its not very valorous. Where was the outrage in the right wing media?
May 25, 2009 - 9:05 am 17. trapper:It angers me that the leftists who control our country’s culture condemn such actions as “warmongering”. They have much to pay for. This treason is a legacy of the boomers many of whom consider soldiers lowlifes. This in spite of the fact that many boomers served honorably in the military.
May 25, 2009 - 9:50 am 18. mshatto:Oscar – I think there was plenty of outrage concerning the Pat Tillman affair and please don’t be so disingenuous. Th MSM covered the story and used it as anti-Bush propaganda. This article has nothing to do with the mistakes made by our military. As they are human beings, they are not infallible, just imperfect people placed in difficult situations.
As a teacher, I know we do not do enough to celebrate the heroism of our military and that is the point that Mr. Emanuel was making.
Save the vitriol for another time. Please use today in the appropriate manner, maybe some quiet reflection. Spend some time with family, I’m sure that’s what the people overseas would probably prefer to be doing today.
May 25, 2009 - 9:55 am 19. Oscar Wao:My son is overseas, you nitwit. Some recruiter came to him while he was still in high school, and he joined the Marines without saying anything to anyone when he was 18. Nice work; do you really think a high school student has the wisdom and experience to decide if he should be out killing and being killed, do you really think he knows enough about Iraq or Afghanistan to understand if they are just wars? Save your bullshit platitudes; the one thing we should be doing to honor our soldiers is asking questions about the wars we send them to. Doing that on Memorial Day, when we are supposed to think about those fallen in war IS EXACTLY THE PATRIOTIC AND RIGHT THING TO DO. No matter what reason those people went to war, it certainly wasn’t to defend your right to be an ignorant and authority worshiping automaton.
May 25, 2009 - 10:43 am 20. Bad Karma:Our respect goes out to all of our fallen bretheren, all who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Unfortunately the media doesn’t properly report military matters, well simply, the military folks are the types of which they could only hope to dream of being and instead of holding up, choose to cut them at the knees. It would be difficult to find most in the media that could tell the difference between and AK and an A10, let alone be able to covey properly what these heros have done. This day is to remember those that went before us, not as I’ve seen, a day to celebrate having sales at stores. How disrepectful is that? Celebrate Memorial Day by saving on a pair of shoes? No wonder our children wouldn’t be able to recall the names of heros.
Sua Sponte
May 25, 2009 - 11:14 am 21. Bilgeman:#19 Oscar Wao:
“Some recruiter came to him while he was still in high school, and he joined the Marines without saying anything to anyone when he was 18.”
I rather doubt that. I approached my recruiter when I was 16. If you want to be a Marine, and you think you’ve got what it takes, that’s usually how it works.
And why should he have said anything about it to anyone? He was 18, a legal adult…he didn’t need anyone’s permission to make a decision.
If it makes you feel any better, (and you know that I’m ALL ABOUT your feelings, Monkey-boy), he’s in with the best and most dedicated bunch of ass-kickers on the planet.
I wouldn’t think of sharing a foxhole with anyone else, save perhaps some of the Army’s Airborne lads, who have a job rather similar.
“Save your bullshit platitudes”
No…YOU save YOUR bullshit “daddy worries”.
Your son was offered the chance to take part in a noble endeavor, something bigger than himself, and to write his name in fire and iron and blood for history.
These were things YOU FAILED to do.
The fault lies not with him, nor the service, nor the conflicts.
The fault, if there ve any, lies with YOU.
If you can’t see the greatness inherent in your own son, I at least can.
And FWIW, I hope he makes a poor target and comes home safely.
May 25, 2009 - 11:23 am 22. Bohemond:Not for your sake, but for his.
Oscar:
“defend your right to be an ignorant and authority worshiping automaton.”
I wasn’t aware that mshatto was an Obama supporter….
Even at 18 it’s plain your son had the sense to rebel against the leftist bullshit he was raised on. It must really burn your ass every day that he’s a better man than his father.
May 25, 2009 - 11:24 am 23. 11B40:Greetings:
I recall seeing a two-hour program on NBC-TV, several years ago now, about the fighting on “Robert’s Ridge” in Afghanistan. It was well done, but it was also the only program I saw on broadcast TV dealing with our soldiers in combat.
When we were enduring the brouhahas about the media not being allowed to photograph the caskets of our dead returning from their fronts, all I could think of was the media’s fixation on the negative aspects of military service. Now, after President Obama has re-oriented that policy, where are all the pictures of our returning troops’ caskets?
In my mind, it’s been all downhill since the politicians did away with the military draft.
May 25, 2009 - 11:37 am 24. Sal Cal Bill:Excellent and very appropriate article. All the people mentioned should be household names as it was in the past wars. My son, who serves in the Marines, has many stories of heroic actions that go by unreported. Thanks to all the Marines, Army, Air Force, Navy and their families for there faithful duty to our country; my prayers go out to all of them.
May 25, 2009 - 12:14 pm 25. Oscar Wao:Bohemond:I noted your stupidity elsewhere.
May 25, 2009 - 12:36 pm 26. Rob:An interesting article, and I’ll freely admit I had never heard of any of those names or events. I doubt anyone I know has either. Jeff observes that the media isn’t doing its job and reporting these events. But even if any of this stuff was reported, I’m not sure it would matter.
In the nearly two decades I’ve lived in the USA I’ve never met anyone who is in the military, or who even knows someone in the military. Which means that the military is something of which I’ve heard, and events in which it participates are “news”, on par with events happening to any other group of people of which I have heard but never met. Reading his article on heroism in Iraq or Afghanistan is indistinguishable from reading war stories from WW2 or Vietnam, or a Tom Clancy novel. If you don’t know the people involved, it’s not real.
May 25, 2009 - 1:03 pm 27. Bohemond:[Chuckle]
Oh, Wao, Wao, Wao…
My intellect is subject to your feeble Kool-Aid-soaked assessment? Tee-hee-hee.
Like all of your ilk, screaming insults is the only tool in your adolescent box.
May 25, 2009 - 1:09 pm 28. Sgt. Hulka:Bohemond,
He could never understand your intellect. It is so complex, I think even a two dimensional model of a hydrogen atom wouldn’t really do it justice. But please, we could do without the porno references: adolescent box? That will get you into a lot of trouble some places on the internet.
May 25, 2009 - 1:14 pm 29. Bob:It should come as no surprise that modern journalists don’t actually cover the war – they are there to find the story “under” the war. Generally this so-called story is one where the allied forces screwed up; either through accident or by intent. The story of a soldier saving his buddies at grave risk to his own life has only minimal human interest. But, the story of the impact of the war on the “innocent civilians” is ripe with possibilities for the Pulitzer. Modern war reporters are there to cover the moral dilemma of normal military actions, while conveniently sweeping aside the other dilemma of the daily handfuls of these same civilians beheaded or tortured by the islamist terrorists.
May 25, 2009 - 1:24 pm 30. Oddball:A lot of the goverment do not want the everyday person to know what is really going on in the war on terror. To me everyone of those soldiers that have served and are serving tday are heroes. Let us remember them too. I have served and retired along with 4 other members of my famly. We are not the heroes the Men and Women serving today are. Let us remember them in our thoughts and prayers everyday.
May 25, 2009 - 1:32 pm 31. mshatto:Oscar – I just took a peaceful hike with my family, picked up trash from the paths, and tried to be the best father I could. I was with my family and I appreciated every moment that I was able to spend with them. I believe that is the best way I can express my gratitude to those who have served and more so, those who are serving. Last night, we barbecued with friends, our kids all go to school together and one of the dads has served three tours in Iraq and is preparing to go back. He believes he is doing much good in this world. Give thanks to your son and his mates. They’re better people than you or me. A little quiet reflection would be good for you and them today. Resume the vitriol tomorrow. Thanks.
May 25, 2009 - 1:44 pm 32. Bilgeman:Someone else who wasn’t understood by his parent:
http://www.blackfive.net/main/2005/08/army_specialist.html
Before anything else, first there was his heroism, and his sacrifice.
This kid was a freakin’ Humvee mechanic…he didn’t HAVE to go along on the QRF. but his buddies were in trouble, and so he went.
Rest in Peace…and thanks, Specialist Sheehan.
You done good, kid.
May 25, 2009 - 2:09 pm 33. Oscar Wao:I don’t give a crap what your friend “believes” [not that I believe that you actually know anyone serving]. Before I go invade a country, I’m going to actually KNOW something about it, belief is something for church, not democracy. What an offensive idiot you are; hiding behind pleas to observe niceties and politeness so that you can enjoy your barbecue while you send young men to kill and die for a lie.
May 25, 2009 - 2:22 pm 34. MisterH:RE: #21 Bilgeman-
#19 Oscar Wao
I commend you on your thoughtful response to “Oscar Wao” but it was a waste. That smarmy toad-eater fabricated the whole pointless anecdote about having an 18 year old son effectively kidnapped by the USMC. Fact is, he’s unmarried and has no children at all and lives with his bed-ridden mother. This is not to say he does not have a reason to exist on this planet. He is after all, deeply committed to waging a personal battle against the dark forces of conservatism by tolling the underbelly of the blogosphere to engage and confront us evil ones wherever we pop up.
May 25, 2009 - 2:23 pm 35. tlitwin:On this day, I would like to remember the men I served with in the 299th Assault Helicopter Bn, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Vietnam 1972-1973. “Garry Owen”.
I would also like to thank my daughter and her husband for their service in Iraq.
And lastly, I would like to thank and have us all remember, every serviceman and woman that has ever worn a uniform and served our great country.
May 25, 2009 - 2:35 pm 36. The_Truth:Wow, you right-wingers, for all your protesting and proclaiming, will never be half the heroes that our military men and women are. Way to go, losers.
May 25, 2009 - 2:37 pm 37. Sgt. Hulka:Bilgeman. Thanks for that. A lot of people don’t understand that about people like us, who made that ultimate sacrifice. We have the same intellect we had at 16, and nothing ever changes that. Anyone who doesn’t think that a 16 year old has the wisdom to choose battle over an education, should ask themselves why we don’t let people drink until they’re 21. Oh wait…you guys make this all seem so easy, but I keep getting tripped up on logic and things.
May 25, 2009 - 2:40 pm 38. Bob:Oscar, what you describe is some odd assortment of libertarianism and anarchy. It is most definitely NOT a description of democracy. In a democracy, people vote, then they support the decision. It seems that even your son has seen what a pathetic little man you are. I’m sure he’s proud to hear every carping note you send him on what a mistake it was for him to join the service. God bless you, Oscar, as I doubt anything else in life does.
But, for the record, the troops are over there to support the other guy’s “right to be an ignorant and authority worshiping automaton”, as well as petty carping incivil malcontents, such as yourself.
May 25, 2009 - 2:51 pm 39. Bilgeman:#34 MisterH:
“He is after all, deeply committed to waging a personal battle against the dark forces of conservatism by tolling the underbelly of the blogosphere to engage and confront us evil ones wherever we pop up.”
Is that what he’s doing?
Huh…and here I reckoned that he was just a little feces-flinging monkey boy.
Well, if that’s the case, and this IS some kind of “anti-conservative jihad” he’s on, then maybe he should practice suicide-bombing by sticking successively bigger firecrackers up his behind and then detonating them.
You fight how you train and you train how you fight n’all that jazz.
May 25, 2009 - 2:52 pm 40. Sar:A well done article Jeff. As a veteran, from the jungle side of things, I appreciate hearing about and respecting the heroism of these young men. Unlike other posters here, they have walked the walk and paid the ultimate sacrifice so someone can sit at home and whine about whether the action was moral or right based on thier own perception of the facts.
I don’t care if you support the action or the concept, I do care that these men are given the respect they deserve. Semper Fi. Fair winds and following seas.
May 25, 2009 - 2:57 pm 41. ChuckJ:On this day i would like to remember two genuine heroes who were very good to a young man who lost his own father (a Marine BTW. LTC Will Hollenbeck & LTC Stan Adams. Bothw qualify as genuine hereos & LTC Adams won the MOH in Korea. These two made a lasting impression on me through the years as they tried to fill in for my dad.
May 25, 2009 - 3:02 pm 42. Larry E.:TO THOSE WHO HAVE SERVED: THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!
May 25, 2009 - 3:20 pm 43. myth buster:To those who call us chickenhawks or say that we don’t know anybody in the service, I’ll have you know that some of my best friends are military personnel, and they’re all smart enough to get into the University of Michigan. It’s crystal clear they have a lot more sense than most of the rest of the student body, too. There is, however, a man there who doesn’t belong in a commissioning program, because properly, he should have already been commissioned a few years ago. Unfortunately for this esteemed Gunnery Sergeant, today’s Marine Corps does not field commission men, so he’s a Gunnery Sergeant a year or two away from commissioning, instead of a First Lieutenant about to put on Captain.
The only reason I’m not currently in the military is because some bureaucrat decided that Asperger’s Syndrome, no matter how slight, is an automatic disqualification. So if you want to whine about why I’m not serving, go complain to Congress that high functioning Asperger’s patients are exactly the people we want in the military. You don’t have to tell me to volunteer- I already did that two years ago. All I ask of you is that you help me get permission to serve.
May 25, 2009 - 3:44 pm 44. Bilgeman:#43 myth-buster:
“The only reason I’m not currently in the military is because some bureaucrat decided that Asperger’s Syndrome, no matter how slight, is an automatic disqualification.”
Hmmm, I think I could dope out a way around that.
D’you think you could hack where Osama bin-Laden does his banking?
That kinda “kung-fu” might be, y’know…useful.
Knowing which ATM he draws his ducats from when he wants a soda, a pack of Lucky Strikes, and a lotto ticket.
(If you wouldn’t mind taking the pay cut).
May 25, 2009 - 3:57 pm 45. Mo:#19 Oscar Wao
“My son is overseas, you nitwit.”
Name calling is the first sign that the person posting has no interest in actual dialogue, and is a good clue that there will be probably nothing worthwhile said in the post.
“Some recruiter came to him while he was still in high school, and he joined the Marines without saying anything to anyone when he was 18.”
He’s an adult. He doesn’t have to ask your permission.
I feel sorry that your son has a parent that thinks so little of him and thinks he is too stupid to make a decision like this. 18 year olds may be immature in some ways, but for goodness’ sake, they are no longer children.
“Save your bullshit platitudes;”
Listing the heroic final acts of some of our soldiers is a platitude?
“the one thing we should be doing to honor our soldiers is asking questions about the wars we send them to.”
What question would you like to ask about the wars we are fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan?
“it certainly wasn’t to defend your right to be an ignorant and authority worshiping automaton.”
Wow, you sound like a miserable person. How sad that this is what you think of your son. If feel sorry for him. Perhaps he joined the military at such a young age to get away from your hateful attitude?
Your son knows that military service is an honorable calling and has chosen to follow that path. What a shame that you refuse to honor and support his decision.
May 25, 2009 - 4:04 pm 46. Jimmy:This is the wrong day to accuse each other of Liberal, or Conservative partisan BS. I am a proud Liberal, that served in the Viet Nam War. Why do I have a bitter taste in my mouth over war? My government lied to me, the Politicos ran for cover to protect their own ass, and Kissinger went to Paris to suck off Ho Chi Mihn. Causing the worst American Military rout in our History, when Saigon fell. When I got home, the Military was advising troops not to wear their Uniforms off base. IN AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!A Republican President(EisenHower) had Viet Nam divided in to North/South by the CIA and install a puppet American Regime! To prevent a Domino Effect. A Repubican President(Nixon) surrendered, and Republicans and Democrats in Congress couldn’t wait to bad mouth the Military, and blame it on the grunts dying in their mis-begotten war. Yes, I am against war. Still every time I hear the news of one of My Heroes falling, my eyes well with tears, we have truly lost a Great American! Do I support the American Military? You bet your sweet ass, I do. I support to your freedom of speech to burn the flag. At the same time, I reserve the right to be arrested, fined and go home, after I stomp you ass! nuff said! As for our Troops, there is an Old Decretpit Hippie in the Bayous of Louisiana, that God almighty has blessed, to support you. My Love, My Prayers for the Greatest American Heroes.
May 25, 2009 - 4:14 pm 47. paul_unalaska:Being a vet as well, I too wish to give thanks to 2 of my friends who’d given their ultimate sacrifice.
No regrets, anger or disillusion for either of them. They’d stayed more active, upbeat and kept their heightened sense of humor than I possess in ‘the world’. I hope you guys are enjoying paradise..!
Reading this article I had a tough time choking back tears. I was envisioning my 2 buddies last moments and know in my heart-of-hearts they were extremely proud of their actions. Thank you, Mr. Emanuel.
Oscar, thank you for your son’s service nonetheless. His doing so may be something you cannot grasp nor comprehend. Though I hope I’m wrong..
May 25, 2009 - 4:17 pm 48. Bob:myth buster,
It’s hard to believe anyone who has actually served would use the pejorative “chicken hawk” to describe anyone who supports the troops. It’s the misfits, cowards, and anarchists who reserve the right to use that term; all the while damning themselves with their own invective: “chicken”.
May 25, 2009 - 4:17 pm 49. Sgt. Hulka:Bob,
Thanks for that. As Bilgeman noted somewhere ealier, a lot of liberals are trying to deny us and our children the right to make our life meaningful by killing people in other countries. You showed ‘em, eh! There are two problems producing people like Oscar. First, we’re letting foreigners who don’t have the genes to understand Democracy and the American Way. Americans understand that when we undertake nation building and democracy, there are going to be some problems, maybe even several to hundreds of thousands of deaths, but everything will always turn out right in the end. There’s no way to make them understand that; even Americans born in large cities are losing their capacity to understand that.
The second thing is that we no longer have the draft. Not every kid out there is as smart as Oscar’s, and understands that the only way to give their life meaning and to protect the rights of Americans to say things that other Americans approve of, is to go and kill people in other countries. The draft took care of that for me and mine. Of course we didn’t want to go! But after all, those of us that survived were very grateful for what we had and were forced to make something positive out of the experience. We learned to love and respect what we had done, after the nightmares, because we had no other choice to maintain our sanity. Today’s spoiled and coddled sanity-loving youth are too hooked on getting laid and having good jobs and learning about the universe to understand what really makes life worth living.
I hope you’ll all join me on this memorial day in raising a glass to our beloved draft with the heart-felt wish that she’ll be coming back one day soon.
May 25, 2009 - 4:32 pm 50. The Opinionator:Thanks to all who have given all. Especially someone I went to high school with that died in the navy chopper crash last week. R.I.P. Grant.
Fortunately, those of us that frequent milblogs know the people in this article. As Jeff points out it is a damn shame that is not the case for those who get their news from the MSM.
May 25, 2009 - 5:05 pm 51. Paul:Oscar,
You’re not going to invade, or fight anywhere. You had your chance, and did nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. The Lincoln Brigades are long gone, and you had decades to ‘Free Tibet’. You could of fought in solidarity( or hung out with Eurotrash) with the Nicaraguan Sandalistas, instead you wore a Che Beret and put bumper stickers on your elderly Volvo.
That’s it.
I hope your son stays well. No doubt, being better, he will forgive his bald talking, cowardly father.
May 25, 2009 - 6:46 pm 52. Allston:The_Truth, #36:
I would guess you didn’t even read most of the responses. A lot of us ARE Veterans.
Oh, go look and try to find what the proportion of Veterans and/or serving military are Conservative. Why, you’ll be appalled.
Why do you think in very closely run races – a funny thing this – it’s always the Democrats who try to discount as many military absentee votes as they can? And why those votes in particular?
Figure it out, smart guy.
May 25, 2009 - 7:16 pm 53. The Opinionator:Sgt. Hulka,
I disagree about bringing back the draft. The all-volunteer force has worked well and I would rather see a highly motivated group of volunteers as opposed to a sullen group of draftees. I do not want to think of what my four years would have been like with a bunch that wanted to be there even less than the most disillusioned volunteer.
May 25, 2009 - 7:27 pm 54. Oscar Wao:Paul.
I liked your story. Are you also fantasizing about what I’m wearing?
May 25, 2009 - 8:24 pm 55. Anonymous:I don’t know about you guys, but I have hundreds of books about military history, I don’t think I have any about Hollywood movie stars.
I know a whole lot about guys like Hal Moore, Alvin York, and Audie Murphy (also a movie star, actually)…I don’t know squat about Brad Pitt.
Maybe some Americans idolize show biz celebrities instead of guys who fight in wars…but not all of us do.
May 25, 2009 - 8:51 pm 56. Well Educated Cad:#36 “The Truth”- isn’t that what the propaganda Russian newspaper’s name is ? Pravda- “the Truth? You’re showing your streak there- the yellow (and Red) one.
May 25, 2009 - 8:57 pm 57. Sgt. Hulka:As for our darling media- They are too interested in making themselves famous to bother with dying soldiers stories. Remember the “Scud Stud”? All the faces are there to make their own career and fame. And one cannot rise in the Glorious Socialist Media of Amerika unless one toes the party line very carefully.
And yes, I’m a veteran too.
Opinionator
Well, folks like me and Bilgeman would heartily disagree. The draft brought self-respect and killing skills to hundreds of thousands of men who would have otherwise been out hunting down beaver and getting ultra liberal educations. Anyone can see that where our country went wrong was getting rid of the draft; how would we ever have had Vietnam without the draft. There would never have been enough troops; there were nearly 800,000 troops in our military back then. I mean, do you really think all of our wars are going to be this easy? What happens when we need to send our boys out to die in large numbers as cannon fodder? Do you really think you’ll get your volunteer army with ten thousand body bags coming home? You’re living in a dream world, you draft-dodging pansy.
May 25, 2009 - 9:07 pm 58. Jason:Good news everybody!! Our boys have done such an outstanding job overseas that Iraq is on pace in May for the lowest death toll of Iraqi forces and civilians for any month so far. Only the best fighting force in the world could have accomplished this. We are upholding our promise to the Iraqi people despite all the naysayers and irresponsible people who would have left them for slaughter. God bless our troops and lets continue to give them whatever they need so that they can come home as quickly as possible. I just wanted to pass along some good news on this somber day that you might not see on the news.
http://icasualties.org/Iraq/index.aspx
May 25, 2009 - 9:13 pm 59. Oscar Wao:(scroll down, you’ll see it)
Paul,
They deleted my first response to you, which I actually appreciated. You’re not worth that many sentences, you pant-crapping nancy-boy.
May 25, 2009 - 10:12 pm 60. Emphasis:Jimmy if you served in Nam, I thank you for it.
If you want to know about the partition of Vietnam, you should really find out why this was done and what where the terms of the Geneva Accords, and who violated them. You should then read the SEATO treaty and see why we where supposed to go. The only thing I will agree with you in this matter is the idea that when you fight a war you fight to win, and we did not. We don’t seem to be able to do that any more. However, we where not defeated in Nam, we did not loose, even when we left in 1973 the South Vietnamese where holding their own against the North and its allies by themselves. Furthermore, they continued to do so until 1975 when our congress eliminated the funding they had committed to provide them. At the time we were providing around 300 million dollars a year while the Soviets were providing over 1 billion. Once we did this the South could not defend itself. Check the history. Incidentally I served 1967-1970.
May 25, 2009 - 10:20 pm 61. WhyamInotsurprised?:At this time, I remember two men whom I knew that died in service of their country. SSgt. Victor Fowler, the first man to die when my father’s company was deployed to An Khe in 1966 with HQ/5/7 of the First Cav (Gary Owen). Also, W.O. Gary Butler, who went to my high school and was one year ahead of me. I played baseball with him. God bless them and their fellow patriots who paid the ultimate price for our freedoms. RIP.
May 25, 2009 - 10:32 pm 62. Bilgeman:#57 Sgt Hulka:
“Well, folks like me and Bilgeman would heartily disagree. The draft brought self-respect and killing skills to hundreds of thousands of men who would have otherwise been out hunting down beaver and getting ultra liberal educations.”
No, chum, you and are not entirely in agreement.
I do think a draft would be a good thing, and I’d draft everybody…because people who get wrapped up in logic and identity politics and things, while they may not need killing skills, certainly need experience “walking the point”.
And I’m looking at your shoe size…yep, you’re qualified. All the rest of us in the squad agree.
Get on it.
If you take a step and feel a mechanical click or something pulls on your ankle, just freeze in place and let us know.
We’ll get back to you, ace.
May 26, 2009 - 5:52 am 63. Libertyship46:I agree totally with above article by Jeff Emanuel. But what really saddens me is how “the Media” (notice I said “the Media” and not the American people) have ignored our men and women in the military. This is not surprising, though, if you just look at where most of the current members of the Media come from. Most of them are journalism graduates from very expensive LIBERAL universities who are taught in school that the military is not to be trusted, let alone admired. The Liberal teachers in higher education cram down the throats of our students that military service to this country is something to be avoided and is certainly NOT a profession to go into. According to these teachers, only losers and people who can’t find work in the “real world” end up in the Army, like Senator John Kerry once joked. Anybody who has spent any time on an Ivy League campus knows what I’m talking about and the fact that military recruiters are actively discouraged from going to Ivy League campuses only proves my point (even though the US Supreme Court said that the recruiters had a right to do so).
In any case, the liberal indoctrination starts at the university level and then, once these brainwashed journalism graduates find their way into newsrooms across this country, the bias only gets worse. A very small number of today’s reporters have ever served in the armed forces, so they really know very little about it (aside from what they are told, usually by the liberal editors in their news rooms). They then tend never to support the armed services in any of their reporting. Again, don’t believe me? Try reading some of the news accounts thrown out by the media about how we were “doomed” to fail in Afghanistan just before we went into the country. The media called it a “quagmire” and “another Vietnam.” But the bulk of the fighting was over in a few weeks, a new democratically-elected government has been installed, and woman for the first time in the country’s history were handed basic human rights (including the vote) that were all but laughed at under the Taliban. Are things perfect in Afghanistan? Certainly not, but the situation there (even by today’s violent standards) is far better than it ever was in Vietnam. Did we ever get an apology from the media for getting it wrong? Of course not, they never make mistakes.
Obviously, this anti-military bias only got worse once we went into Iraq and, rather than focusing on how well our troops performed in battle, the media decided to make Iraq a rallying cry against the Bush administration, forgetting that most of the DEMOCRATS in Congress also voted to go to war against Saddam Hussein. So the media decided to keep slamming the military, even to go so far as to call some of the Marines at Haditha “murderers” even though the men involved in that incident were cleared of those charges. Way to go national media, condemning our own troops before they even went to trial.
So it’s not surprising that the news media does not do any stories on brave Americans. And the Sean Penn Liberal elite in Hollywood would rather have their spleens removed rather than make a feature-length film that actually told some of the fascinating stories like the ones in the above article by Jeff Emanuel. Pity, because they would make exciting movies and they would actually instill some pride in Americans. But Hollywood did give us A LOT of movies highly critical of our military, like the crappy “Rendition,” “Redacted” or “Jarhead.” How sad is it that Hollywood can’t set aside its own bias to salute the brave men and women who go so far to protect us?
So now we have a news media that is actively biased against the military and you have Hollywood that refused to do a single picture about the military unless it portrays the armed services in a highly negative light. Is it any wonder that most Americans don’t know anything about our American heroes in uniform? Is it any wonder that most Americans will never know the names of those brave souls that gave their last full measure of devotion so that those lazy, selfish, S.O.B.’s in New York and Hollywood can continuing sipping their lattes at Starbucks or their lemon spritzers in the Hamptons while, at the same time, laughing at all those boneheads who ended up in the military just because they couldn’t find “a real job” with a good, solid, bank or brokerage firm?
Well, fear not, America. The one thing the media still hasn’t been able to stop are books about brave Americans. Books like Marcus Luttrell’s “Lone Survivor” can still serve as a reminder that there are plenty of good, solid, devoted Americans out there who are willing to risk all so that the enemies of this nation are vanquished on the field of battle. We owe an enormous debt to the men and women in our armed services, one that can’t easily be repaid given the huge sacrifices they make for us. I only wish that one day the teachers at our liberal universities, the people in our news rooms, and the people in Hollywood actually read some of these books. They may actually learn how great our military really is.
May 26, 2009 - 8:44 am 64. Bilgeman:#63 Libertyship:
“But what really saddens me is how “the Media” (notice I said “the Media” and not the American people) have ignored our men and women in the military. This is not surprising, though, if you just look at where most of the current members of the Media come from. Most of them are journalism graduates from very expensive LIBERAL universities who are taught in school that the military is not to be trusted, let alone admired”
I think it also runs a tad deeper than that.
They ignore these heroes because their heroism shames them.
Look at how, even on Memorial Day, certain cretins could not restrain themselves from popping in here and mocking the military, questioning the wars in which these men and women acted, and denigrated the communities from which they came.
May 26, 2009 - 9:51 am 65. shaui-jan:“I don’t give a crap what your friend “believes” [not that I believe that you actually know anyone serving]. Before I go invade a country, I’m going to actually KNOW something about it, belief is something for church, not democracy. What an offensive idiot you are; hiding behind pleas to observe niceties and politeness so that you can enjoy your barbecue while you send young men to kill and die for a lie.”
……POM?
May 26, 2009 - 10:42 am 66. WhyamInotsurprised?:To Dear #65 shaui-jan,
Take a deep, deep breath man. Now exhale. OK.
I don’t understand what or whom you are replying to with your screech, but I would suggest that “church” has nothing to do with the word “belief.” If you would put yourself in the place of any one of the “all volunteer” military that we have, you might realize that when you sign up, you do it because you believe in something bigger than yourself. Doesn’t it make sense that someone better believe in something, even non-religious, like freedom for others, fighting evil in the world, protecting your own country and fellow citizens (which includes you!), that you had better “believe” in what you are doing because it might just cost you your life?
Hopefully, you can see that. But chances are not. Because all you can say is “Bush lied, people died.” What a moron.
May 26, 2009 - 9:37 pm 67. paul_unalaska:shaui-jan, if we intervened with Iraq based on possible WMD info, why isn’t Obama doing ANYTHING whereas N. Korea is boasting, to the world of their nuclear ‘tests’? Clearly disregarding the 2006 treaty.
Oh wait, the U.N. is placing more ‘restrictions’ on N. Korea. Uhm, sure. That’ll intimidate and show ‘em. Unbelievable.
May 27, 2009 - 12:36 am 68. Jetrayk:Energizing, great article. Hopefully Oscar can swing with the next batch of Mussilini’s. There should be plenty of rope we bought from the Chinese, we’re gonna need it…Over.
May 28, 2009 - 8:32 am 69. John Mizenko:I ran across a website that polls members on issues in Congress. It has a free voting membership for the military. Try it and vote. It is messagetocongress.com.
Oct 26, 2009 - 7:12 pm