WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] A vote for Bush or Gore is a vote to continue Clinton policies! A vote for Buchanan is a vote to continue America! Therefore a vote for Gore or Bush is a wasted vote for America! Don't waste your vote! Vote for Patrick Buchanan! ***************************************************************** SOLDIERS FOR THE TRUTH "DEFENDING AMERICA NEWSLETTER" 24 May 2000 "When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen." General George Washington, New York Legislature, 1775 Soldiers For The Truth Foundation, PO Box 63840, Colorado Springs, CO 80962-3840 HTTP://WWW.SFTT.ORG ***************************************************************** TABLE OF CONTENTS SITREP Hack's Column: Article 1 -- "Lest We Forget" "From my Position" -- On the way!" Article 2 - Readiness Truth - Victim of the Experts Big Picture: Article 3 - Memorial Day - Honoring those that have fallen Article 4 -- Kosovo SITREP - A Rough Week for Battalion XX "VOICE OF THE GRUNT" Article 5 -- Lessons in Leadership Article 6 - No Gun Ri response - No Gun Ri Article 7 - No Gun Ri response -- Real Combat is not like the Movies Article 8 - It's raining Medals once again Article 9 -- Why are the Ones in Power so forgetful G.I Humor: Article 10 -- Learning the Language Medal of Honor: Article 11 -- LEE, HUBERT L. Korea 1951 =============================================================== SITREP: 1. Main topics: 1) Memorial Day 2) Too many Military Experts with clue 3) Leadership 4) Kosovo 2. WE ALWAYS NEED YOUR HELP! Thanks to all of you who have responded to our call to financial arms. We have collected enough money to keep us operational for the next 4 months. Hack and I estimate that we need about 100k to make us an organization with clout. We could EASILY reach that goal if every subscriber pitches in $ 30.00. Remember, AUSA alone has about a 20 million dollar budget and still doesn't get anything done! If you believe that we are the organization to speak for the troops, support us! 3. Methods of Support Check or Money order: Send to and make payable to: Soldiers For The Truth Foundation, PO Box 63840, Colorado Springs, CO 80962-3840. Credit card donation option via Website should be available by mid-May. Our site is at www.sftt.org. REMINDERS: Your donation is tax deductible! SFTT is a 501 (c) 3 non-profit educational foundation, IRS # 31-1592564. If you send us an E-MAIL address with your donation we can immediately mail you a RECEIPT!!!! Some of you have sent multiple contributions. Please remind us when you submit your donation, so we can send you an annual statement for tax purposes. 4. SFTT Website. Please check out our updates, i.e. objectives, mission statement, book reports, etc. If you didn't get the complete newsletter or only the Short Version (sv), you can find it archived on the website http://www.sftt.org. Until next week let' s make contact - break through -- and exploit! R.W. Zimmermann President SFTT [EMAIL PROTECTED] =============================================================== ARTICLE 1 - Defending America ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Lest We Forget" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By David Hackworth Another Memorial Day is upon us. Not that it's that big a deal to most Americans, who don't seem to understand what this holiday is all about. But for combat veterans and their families it's a day of reflection, a time to honor fallen comrades. As the years pass, M-Day's taken on an even more special meaning for me. Old pals who back in their young and foolish days were brave mud soldiers are checking out faster than I want to count. Almost every week now I get the word that another brother's gone. Sometimes it's a phone call in the middle of the night, a letter or an obituary piece I've been sent about a friend I fought alongside. Each death notice brings pain. Some bring tears. All bring reflection that dials up the face of a brother I grew to love a long time ago. A love born from terrible strife where we had the searing privilege of getting to know each other as few men ever do. Back then, we thought we were damned to be the chosen few. But now, so many years later, we know the truth: It was the defining and most challenging period of our lives. Together, we saw the elephant. On the battlefield there's no faking it. A guy is either a good man who'd die before letting his brothers down or a dud the outfit figures out how to unload. You get to join The Brotherhood only if you're trusted, only because you've earned the respect of the other elephant hunters. For me, after the shock wears off from hearing the bad news, reason sets in: "Eventually everyone's going out feet first. My old friend just beat me by a few ticks." Next, the process seems to move quickly to the good times shared and why my pal was so special and why his memory won't disappear until I do. Then I'm ringing a brother, giving him word of the death, and we start in with the old "Remember when ..." jazz, retelling all the fun stuff about our fallen mate. We never dwell on the horror or go to the dark side of the moon. Maybe that's how we keep it together and move on. Another thought that always comes front and center in my head is why did Frank or Billy or Phil die now and not me? This was the question we all silently asked ourselves back on the battlefield when a comrade didn't get up after a fight. It didn't seem fair then, and it doesn't now. But whoever said this crap game called life was fair? The loved ones of World War II and the Korean vets are hearing "Taps" played at funerals at the rate of almost 2,000 a day, and now the Vietnam vets are stepping up for their turn at the death plate. The combat-vet dying business has become a boom industry and will continue to roar for the next couple of decades until the ranks are exhausted. And by then, M-Day might have morphed further into a meaningless extended-weekend party no longer even momentarily interrupted by glimpses of flags or sound bites from politicians jawing some insincere patriotic gobbledygook. Only the still-serving and families and friends of the departed will still care about what our warriors went through, the sacrifices they made. Seems like we're almost there now. Liberty and the good life are so taken for granted that few folks can be bothered to spend M-Day remembering -- honoring those who died so we could be free to do our thing. No one's had to buy a freedom ticket for a long time, and the living's easy. Minimum wage, Social Security, a college degree -- all that good American stuff -- are there pretty much for the asking. No price of admission paid. No respect for those who did pay. Just gimme gimme gimme. I'm afraid one of these days soon some fast operator will come along and try to change Memorial Day into something else. You know, a name change due to a new sponsor. Hope you'll kill that ignoble idea quick smart and that you'll visit a Veterans Home this week and tell those valiant men and women you haven't forgotten their sacrifices. *** The End Http://www.hackworth.com is the address of David Hackworth's home page. Sign in for the free weekly Defending America column at his Web site. Send mail to P.O. Box 5210, Greenwich, CT 06831. © 2000 David H. Hackworth Distributed by King Features Syndicate Inc. ================================================== ARTICLE 2 - "From my Position" -- On the way!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Readiness Truth - Victim of the Experts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By R. W. Zimmermann President SFTT 05/22/00 Our intellectual elite and the military experts without experience are on a crusade to convince you that all is well with national defense. In a recent piece in the Washington Times, Michael O' Hanlon, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, acclaimed author and adjunct professor at Columbia University, attempts to convince us that under Mr. Clinton, our fighting forces have not declined. Au contraire, with stats directly from the Pentagon's Dreamworks studios, he tells us that our fighting forces are in terrific shape. The proof: spectacular victories in the Balkans, the successful "never-ending" war with Iraq, Somalia, Korea, Taiwan and other ongoing deterrent missions. Joseph Goebbels, propaganda spin-Meister under Adolph the Terrible, couldn't have done any better than that! Lets look at some of O' Hanlon's frightening conclusions: The US is still capable of fighting a two-front war strategy, (most likely) against Iraq and North Korea, while maintaining sufficient forces for all other nuisance missions. Whoa!!! O'Hanlon has probably never talked to any brigade commanders. Brigades are the building blocks for our combat divisions. He would have learned that of the three brigades in each division, maybe ONE is fully mission capable and that two of them are normally robbed for personnel and equipment to enable the "Ready Brigade" for deployment. It isn't much different for the Navy to keep ships in critical operational areas. As another reason, he claims that our weapons and equipment are much better today. Maybe true but are the humans that are handling and maintaining the stuff? Next, he states that our units are expertly trained and that our equipment maintenance readiness is between 70-80% for critical combat equipment, such as tanks, planes, choppers etc. That's only slightly down from the 90% in recent years and in the Reagan era. The man seems to have "zero" clue of the corruption in our readiness reporting. When a unit reported 90% readiness in recent years, the true number was about 75%. Why? Because the efficiency report of a successful battalion commander depended on the 90% pass figure. No Division commander would have accepted less. If today, we proudly report 70-80%, the real readiness number is likely in the 50% range, cause for very great readiness concern! O'Hanlon also claims that we are recovering well from the recruiting crisis and he cites our recent successes with pay raises and improved AD CAMPAIGNS. He claims our forces today are better educated and qualified than ever before. That pegs the BS-meter at max output! Do you really believe that spending more money on fancy commercials will improve recruiting quality? My experience in the last three years was that to keep up the numbers (and recruiting careers), we were scraping the bottom of society's barrel. We were trying to buffer our shortfalls with more and more minority groups. Pretty soon, if we can't make our forces attractive to our middle and upper middle class white male citizens, we will have created a force that is so diverse and "standards-deprived" that we won't be able to preserve the essential ingredients that make cohesive fighting organizations - common national values, language and history. And by the way, test standards have dropped over the years so that lower category recruits won't show as total morons but in the "availability" range. In many cases, today's High School Diplomas don't mean as much as the ones from ten years ago, and I recall a few Lieutenants from questionable colleges who couldn't write a simple field order or successfully lead a bunch of ants to a picnic. Then O'Hanlon talks about the distinguished performance of our troops in Somalia. Accepted, our troops on the ground fought well, but they were "sold out" by their senior political and military leaders. Once more, the analyst forgets the human factor. Bad leaders implement bad processes, give bad orders, and make bad tactical decisions. My conclusion from the grunt level is that all is not so well but that we are not in a totally hopeless situation yet. To make candy from the crap that we are being served, we must return to the basics and assemble information that is as close as possible to the truth. That ground truth is best obtained from those who would have to do the fighting and dying vs. the sleek analysts and fast buck E-commerce salesmen. The Democratic biased assessment that we are as ready as ever is total nonsense. But the Republican position that more money thrown at defense will fix it all is just as flawed. Zimm © R.W. Zimmermann, LandserUSA [EMAIL PROTECTED] ============================================================ ARTICLE 3 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Memorial Day - Honoring Those that have Fallen ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ed.: Another Memorial Day is upon us. Many politicians will render empty speeches to honor our troops' sacrifices they personally never made. Where the political speeches fail, the simple words of those who served can stir the proper thoughts and emotions. The following piece is by a former old Guard Officer. The attached poem was written by one of his soldiers. On the upcoming Memorial Day, a salute and warm thanks from all of us to the troops of the 3rd US Infantry who make sure that duty, honor and country live on from the day you don the uniform, to the day you are recalled from duty on this planet. ************************************************************************ By Bob Milani [EMAIL PROTECTED] Memorial Day conjures up so many memories of a previous life. A military life, a life spent as an infantry officer in command of American soldiers. No greater honor exists in this world than to lead the wonderful men and women of this blessed country. And no greater honor exists within the military, as in command of soldiers providing military honors to our fallen comrades. For more than a year I had the privilege of company command in the prestigious 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) at Arlington Cemetery. Those of you who have visited Arlington Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, know The Old Guard. These are the soldiers who guard the Tomb and pay silent tribute to the Unknown Soldier. Each of these Tomb guard's movements are executed silently, with precision and grace. Each of their movements replicate a higher purpose: That of bestowing honor on the dead. Each movement is choreographed to replicate our nation's highest honor -- a 21-gun salute; each Tomb guard does so with their 21-step cadence and their 21-second salute. Many of us remember President Kennedy's funeral at Arlington Cemetery: A horse drawn caisson, John-John's salute, the three rifle volleys, the mellifluous notes of Taps echoing in the hills of Arlington, and the folding and presentation of the flag to Mrs. Kennedy. The daily life of the average Old Guard Soldier revolves around providing military honors at funerals conducted in Arlington. It was not uncommon for my company to be assigned more than 10 funerals a day - all of which were executed flawlessly. Each of these soldiers took their job seriously and trained accordingly. Whether as part of the casket team, the firing party or the marching platoon, each soldier had a role to play and a job to do. Precision, timing, teamwork, impeccable appearance, and discipline were the hallmarks of The Old Guard soldier. There were no slouches. These soldiers were the best the Army had to offer -- they knew it and I knew it. When these soldiers were not conducting funerals, they were training to conduct funerals. No one wanted to make a mistake. The firing party strived to have seven men so synchronized that on the command of "Fire!" the volley sounded like one big "crack. " The eight-man casket team's goal was a good flag fold - a tight tuck with no red showing. All of these movements were choreographed with the military band, the caisson horsemen, the color guard, the marching platoon, and the bugler. Most of these commands were executed without verbal command and on silent cue. To witness a funeral at Arlington was to see attention to detail in its minutest form. One who participates in these events cannot help but be moved. Many days I fought back tears. The days that I was assigned to present the flag to the widow of the deceased were the most difficult for me and the difficulty usually started at the playing of Taps. No matter how professional an organization is, motivating a unit to perform a repetitive task at a high level of execution is not always easy. For me, personalizing the event as much as possible had the necessary effect of drawing out the best in my soldiers. Anything I could learn before the funeral about the deceased and their family I would pass on to the soldiers. Soldiers do not express their emotions easily. I always felt that I was the only one struggling to maintain my composure, but I was not. The following story really defines The Old Guard and caring attitude exemplified by its soldiers: We were assigned to perform a military funeral for 2nd Lieutenant William P. Dever. We were to provide only a headstone marker and military honors for this man - 47 years after his death. Three weeks before being shipped out to England, William Dever married a beautiful girl. Six weeks later his plane was shot down over the English Channel and he was killed. His body was never recovered. In that very short time before his deployment to England, William Dever and his lovely lady, smitten with young love, had conceived a son. William Dever's son was present the day of his father's funeral, memorializing a father he never new. He walked next to his mother behind the horse drawn caisson. Since there were no remains, the caisson carried only an empty casket bearing an American Flag. The funeral was very moving to me and to my soldiers as well - more so than I knew at the time. The day I relinquished command of my company, a soldier presented me the following poem about that funeral. It moves me to the point of tears every time I read it and takes me back to that hallowed place. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- In Memory of 2nd Lieutenant William Dever *********************************** "Can you see me?" I can see you; looking so lost. The blank stare, the empty expression. Emotionless you sit - broken, melancholy, I feel your pain . . . A flag shadows the lawn before a quiet marker standing in silent representation of a fallen hero; the one you loved . . . Three sharp cracks that leave your ears ringing. Taps is lifted up; the melody fills the air; it's tune wretches the heart, pulling out memories of happiness lost long ago. As the notes fade gently to their rest; I can hear the sobs echoing on the wind. I watch you still; as the flag is folded. Mesmerized, I am unable to look away. I watch the strength - the composure, creep it's way back into your spine. A salute rendered, the flag presented. To see you receive the flag, clutching it to you; Maybe you feel you'll regain one last moment of closeness with the one you lost? I'm still watching you as the crowd slowly departs. If you look up towards the silent formation on the hill you'll see me too - I'm the soldier with the tears in his eyes. PFC Kevin W. Baker Charlie Guard, 3rd U.S. Infantry (The Old Guard) August 1991 ========================================================== Today, candor compels us to admit that our vaunted two-party system is a snare and a delusion, a fraud upon the nation. Our two parties have become nothing but two wings of the same bird of prey... Patrick Buchanan **COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. 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