Pat Conroy, a gifted writer, son of a Marine pilot, anti-Vietnam War protester has come out with a clear eyed letter on his decisions made in his youth, and how he views such actions now.

It takes some serious guts for a man to look back, his understanding of life tempered by years of experience, and grant that he made a bad decision. Most would prefer to ignore such choices to be forgotten, or try to rationalize them away, but Pat steps up tot he plate and admits he wasn’t so wise when he was young, and what that decision means to him today.

I applaud him for his courage to say this in a web based and media forum. Titled harshly by himself, “An Honest Confession by an American Coward” is worth taking about 5 minutes to read and reflect on his words, and how his college teammate, never questioned his views, yet in telling his story of captivity during the Vietnam War, and as a result of this relationship, cause Pat to look inside himself. Some would see this as the process of “iron sharpening iron.”

When I visited my old teammate Al Kroboth’s house in New Jersey, I spent the first hours quizzing him about his memories of games and practices and the screams of coaches that had echoed in field houses more than 30 years before. Al had been a splendid forward-center for the Citadel; at 6 feet 5 inches and carrying 220 pounds, he played with indefatigable energy and enthusiasm. For most of his senior year, he led the nation in field-goal percentage, with UCLA center Lew Alcindor hot on his trail. Al was a battler and a brawler and a scrapper from the day he first stepped in as a Green Weenie as a sophomore to the day he graduated. After we talked basketball, we came to a subject I dreaded to bring up with Al, but which lay between us and would not lie still.

“Al, you know I was a draft dodger and antiwar demonstrator.”

“That’s what I heard, Conroy,” Al said. “I have nothing against what you did, but I did what I thought was right.”

“Tell me about Vietnam, big Al. Tell me what happened to you,” I said.
[…]
It was that same long night, after listening to Al’s story, that I began to make judgments about how I had conducted myself during the Vietnam War.

In the darkness of the sleeping Kroboth household, lying in the third-floor guest bedroom, I began to assess my role as a citizen in the ’60s, when my country called my name and I shot her the bird. Unlike the stupid boys who wrapped themselves in Viet Cong flags and burned the American one, I knew how to demonstrate against the war without flirting with treason or astonishingly bad taste. I had come directly from the warrior culture of this country and I knew how to act.

But in the 25 years that have passed since South Vietnam fell, I have immersed myself in the study of totalitarianism during the unspeakable century we just left behind. I have questioned survivors of Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, talked to Italians who told me tales of the Nazi occupation, French partisans who had counted German tanks in the forests of Normandy, and officers who survived the Bataan Death March. I quiz journalists returning from wars in Bosnia, the Sudan, the Congo, Angola, Indonesia, Guatemala, San Salvador, Chile, Northern Ireland, Algeria.

As I lay sleepless, I realized I’d done all this research to better understand my country. I now revere words like democracy, freedom, the right to vote, and the grandeur of the extraordinary vision of the founding fathers. Do I see America’s flaws? Of course. But I now can honor her basic, incorruptible virtues, the ones that let me walk the streets screaming my ass off that my country had no idea what it was doing in South Vietnam. My country let me scream to my heart’s content – the same country that produced both Al Kroboth and me.

It is in our relationships and getting to know each other’s life and stories, not in shouting down of one another, that we all grow. Many could take a lesson from the hard won wisdom of Pat Conroy.

H/T: Chapomatic

Posting will be a little light, as I’m sure it will be around the blogosphere and many thoughts are percolating on this end, but I prefer to do justice to some of the topics, rather than hack out a few paragraphs unchecked.

In the meantime, my work schedule allowed me the opportunity to have a late and extended breakfast with Jim Helinger, Sr, the glider pilot, and we, as usual, discussed a wide range of topics.

We didn’t “go there” intentionally, but the discussions of the Middle Eastern situation led to “you know, some people are denying the Holocaust ever happened?” he said to me. Yes, I agreed. He went on to say that at V-E Day, they were stationed in Munich. Because the glider pilots didn’t have to any missions to fly, they sent them to Dachau, 60 miles away to help with the clean up of that death camp.

He described some of what he saw, which included piles of bodies and the bottoms of the furnaces covered with skeletal remains. He stood on that real estate and witnessed that it happened. I know Jim, Sr. He tells a good story, but not a one of them is false. I know, because of my association with him over the past few years, that the Holocaust did happen.

They can have all the conferences they like, but my mind will never be swayed. Thank God he made it, and after reading “Silent Wings at War,” I further thank God that he is here to share his memories and stories, for many in his military specialty were not so lucky.

While on the sweetest shore duty known to a sea going sailor, short of being a Naval Attache in the Down Under (so I’m told, never got to make it there, but had a friend who did), I had to pen a paper on a topic for a Philosphy course. I thought: Hmmm…how can I do something that looks serious, but can’t have that much to read to get my arms around it????

A quandry, but, I went on to think: What about the Turkish and Armenian thing? Ok, I’ll do genocide as a topic, so I’ll learn something, but not have to do a lot of reading…

Foolish me…..I will say, once “engaged,” I found there was much to read and many ways we have determined it can happen, and it’s not always about killing. For instance, I found out that The Muslim Turks would take children from the Christian Aremnians and give them to Turkish families to be raised as Muslims. That, my readers, fits the definition of genocide, as determined in the United Nations definition of the crime of genocide (Resolution 260 (III)A) in 1948. Many other things, brutal and not (at first) come under the umbrella of this word we so fear, and hate, all at once. It’s not a long read, and I’d suggest you take a few minutes and gather some understanding for use in the ongoing discussions, not only about Iraq, but for the future of those in the Darfur region of Sudan.

A guest, and it may have been LCol Ralph Peters on Bill Bennett’s morning show (disclaimer: I was driving and I renouce the need to be 100% accurate on the source), but maybe it was elsewhere, talked about how the time of history we have come to call the “Cold War” had the entire World, in it’s bi-polar superpower state, keeping that conflict between the “free” and “Communist” factions at the forefront of our issues. He made this point to support his other point that the current religious fratricide we are witnessing today in Iraq (and elsewhere, such as Darfur, but the MSM reports on Iraq almost exclusively), is not something new. It is a bloody legacy of the Middle East and the history of the Sunnis and Shi’ites, begun shortly after the death of Mohammed. Now, tie the two together: Our conflict with the Soviet/Communist “sphere of influence” casued both ourselves and the Communists to maneuver pretty much everybody else as a huge political and sometime geographic, buffer between us, thus surpressing the ancient blood feud of the Muslims from our sight, and, while I’m sure some of it was going on, the tensions between the two groups have been simmering in that “pressure cooker” for the 1945-1989 time frame.

Both “spheres” put strong men in power, which aided in keeping the direct confrontations beneath the surface.

Now, flash back to fall 1987: As I dug further into the history and analysis of this horrible human capability of genocide, we saw many cases of genocide on the African continent, as the European colonists departed. The analysis: The same as the source above: The colonial governments never solved existing conflict of the indigenous populations, then did as it turns out the Cold War did for our era: The “lid” was kept on and when the pressure was released, boy was it ugly.

My $.02: The core local issues need to be dealt with in these circumstances. The issue of by lineage or by selection is now about a is almost 2000 years in the making at this time, so it will sure keep great minds thinking about what to do to end the bloodshed, our troops and thier civilians, too. In this case, how do we convince two major “branches” of Islam to park at a conference center and talk out their differences? The analysis of the Iraq Study Group certainly doesn’t focus on this on this issue, but blames our presence in the region, with a dash of the real estate know as Israel being the salt in the same perceived wound for the violence that originally erupted in the later part of the 7th Century AD.

I think Mr. Baker and the others certainly could have afforded to be much more knowledgable of the conditions we are facing, and forgetting “concensus.”

Genocide: Its history taught me so much about the human condition.

Your Dominant Thinking Style: Exploring

You thrive on the unknown and unpredictable. Novelty is your middle name. You are a challenger. You tend to challenge common assumptions and beliefs. An expert inventor and problem solver, you approach everything from new angles. You show people how to question their models of the world.

H/T: FbL

So, there I was, flat on my back at 20,000 feet…no kiddin’…oops…wrong story and me without the obligatory huge watch (to compensate, ya know), but…it’s open season on trackbacks, so link ’em up!

Last week, I left me “on station” at the gunfire support range at San Celmente, Island, by way of discussion the continualy noise that surrounds you while abaord a ship.

So as it was training, within minutes of checking in on the radio net after maneuvering into the assigned gunnery “box,” of course the observer ahsore had targets for us…”Fire Mission! Troops in the Open! Grid: ….” and so the formatted message went, telling us what, where and some other important details. The plotters surrounding me went to work locating the spot he was adressing, marking our position on the chart and “ded reckoning” (simple time/speed/distance calculation) to show our predicted path of the ship. Once we had the target location plotted, we’d measure the azimuth to the target from the ship’s track and compare that to where the gunfire control system (GFCS) had figured (with its own computer) where the target was. We had to be within a degree of difference, or we’d have to replot and check, which burned valuable time ashore and specifically in the target’s area.

On top of the comparison to the GFCS plot, we also checked with the Ship’s Navigator to make sure his plot tracked with ours. It’s all about accuracy and speed within that. The Gunnery Officer would order the guns loaded and I would announce “plot set!’ if all the navigation data (three separate plots) were within the allowed tolerances. Our readiness would be reported to the spotter, who would give us final clearance to shoot. Usually he would have us fire a single round to see where it landed, then he would pass directions to “adjust the spot, by his best reckoing, to make the next round land on target. Back then the “Mk 1 Mod 0” eyeball and the operator’s calibration were the means of doing this. Today we have fancy laser stuff to tell the observer the distances, accurate to very small distances.

So…when the radio told us to shoot, it was my responsibility to send a standard order to the Gunnery Officer, who would relay it to the gun crew and the gun control console (GCC) operator, who would step on a foot pedal to fire the gun.

In this sequence, I would come to learn the timing from the moment I gave the order to shoot to the time the round was on it’s way. The thumping of the electrohydraulic ammo hoists and the operation of the loader tray and ram, followed by the slamming shut of the large steel breech block became familiar to me, so when we got to exercises requiring rounds to arrive on a target at a specific time, I was able to time my order so the computed time of flight for the rounds was essentially what was measured from the actual shot leaving the barrel. The “latency” was all

As I meantioned last week, the operation of the guns, whether they be the forward or after gun mount, was detectable where I stood in CIC, in the darkened space with dungaree clad sailors and khaki clad chief petty officers and officers, while I learned a deadly trade.

Maybe more specifics next week…but…that’s the short form and worthy of not interfering too much with essential afternoon shopping runs for those of us late present determiners….

Lots of chatter about the net, so I left this alone, as I have posted my thoughts in comment sections.

However..to add some unbearable lightness to the insane naming situation, Rich Casebolt needs to be credited with these brilliant one liners, found in the comments section at Milblogs, on a post by Bublehead:

I can already hear the commentary about having Ford-class carriers in the fleet …

“You can have it any color, as long as it’s gray …”

“Fix Or Repair Daily …”

“Found On Rocks, Damaged …”

“Have you sailed on a Ford, lately?”

“Ford … a Better Idea?”

Would enlisted men on these carriers, who move up to become officers, now be known as Ford Mustangs?

Would the ships of the Battle Groups formed around these carriers now be referred to as Ford Escorts?

Would the Lefties criticize the building of these carriers by referring to them as Ford LTD’s — Long Term Debts?

And finally, I now see the truck ads, featuring these carriers behind the truck (or launched off its catapults) to show that the trucks are “built Ford tough.”

If you need more “gouge” on the USS FORD, Lex’s post, replete with raging commentary is here, and Bubblehead has the “long form” version here,

Update 12/20/2006: I had some errors in this post as far as the facts presented below. I’m editing it to help show those, and the corrected info as best I can to make sure the truth gets out there.

Earlier this year, a restaurant in Washington, DC, Fran O’Briens, located in the lower level of the DC Hilton, was sent packing, on short notice. They were told their lease would be renewed, but about 60 days before it was time to resign, the Hilton Management pulled the plug, citing a variety of things, one being the lack of ADA capabilities and therefore the possibility of law suits.

The blogger who, as I recall, was the first one to notice this problem was FbL of the blog Fuzzilicious Thinking. By scanning back some, here is a post of hers that has links to many of the posts with all the background on the issue. Here, however, is the first “Saving Fran O’Briens” post.

There is plenty more around the blogsphere, from Andi’s World, Castle Arrgghhh!, Black Five, Mudville Gazette, etc, etc, etc. It got “our” attention, particularly because when the news broke, we were only a few weeks away from the first ever MilBlogging Conference, to be held in DC, mere blocks from Fran O’Briens. On Friday night before the conference, many of the MilBloggers showed up at Fran O’Briens, to meet and show our support to troops and Marty and Hal.

That’s not really important. What is is the legacy of what happened on Friday nights ar Fran O’Briens. Wounded servicemen from the local military hospitals were brought over for a great steak dinner, as a way of saying thanks to this generation’s best and brightest and bravest from the two restaurant partners, Marty O’Brien and Hal Koster, both a Vietnam Vets themselves.

As a result of the rude and unprofessional behavior on the part of the management of Hilton Corporation, there has been a grass roots protest to now grace any of the Hilton facilities with travel/entertainment dollars.

As a way of helping to make this more visible, the website Perish Hilton is now up and operating, complete with a graph to record the dollars not spent with Hilton Corporation. If you have had the opportunity to “divert” your personal or professional resources away from Hilton, the Perish Hilton site will record and display the dollar value.

The point at Perish Hilton is to not make this a site where “Hey, I coulda spent $2M with them, but I didn’t,” but one that is based on fact. You can submit your data, and the staff in the background (all volunteer) will scan it and then submit the amount to the database for graphical display.

Now, the good news is the dinners, while Fran O’Briens DC location shut it’s doors is the dinners went on for the troops, thanks to the Aleethia Organization.

[ed note: The “better news” following this editorial comment was a report in error. More background on the confussion found here, thanks to Andi]The better news is the new Fran O’Briens Steakhouse will be opening in McLean, VA, and the tradition of serving up some hospitality to our servicemen and women, as well as their families, will kick off again.

I know some people have commented around the web on how they have not spent their money with Hilton, some with pretty sizable travel budgets, and now you can make your conviction of supporting the troops known.

If you can help add to the numbers, please get over there. If you have like minded friends, please pass this around.

Questions/comments on this efforts welcomed. Leave them in the comments section or you can email them to me.

And for those of you who might like the chance to show some more support to Fran O’Briens, the 2007 MilBlogging Conference is scheduled to be held in the DC area (specific location not designated) May 5th. [ed note: We can pray this will come to pass, but, who knows?]I’m sure a Firday night join up at Fran’s will be in the plans….mark your calenders now!

It started getting really clear when I woke at 0452 EDT today for some unknown reason…..

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to jump into a “debate” (in quation marks for when one of the debators anchors a post in concrete labeled “Bush is Menatlly Ill” it is a difficult time indeed to have substantive dicussions), begun by a Milblogger and Army Recruiter, who made a post regarding the defeatist attitude on parade and mentioned a few bloggers by name.

I went to one of the sites and read her response, posted on her blog, and then proceeded to enter into the discussion.

The response, which helped me to understand her thinking more completely began to coagulate last night, but when my eyes popped open, it really became clear how she frames her argument. I’ll most likely speak to that here in the next few days.

It also happens to tie into much of what has been bouncing around in my thoughts the last few weeks, with the election results, the claims of mandates, the total lack of understanding of how you don’t elect congressment to run the nation, the Iraq Study Group report and the players who have come out on both sides (while the ISG really kinda did the normal political thing and mealy mouthed the whole issue of Iraq (yet was very clear about hating Israel)) of the debate; The thoughts of how another “Greatest Generation” is in the crucible right now, and to not lose hope, for these are the leaders of tomorrow; World population statistics; Wolrd history, both ot the Islamic culture/faith and also some of the analysis by Paul Kennedy in The Rise and Fall of Great Powers” from the late 80’s; Dr. Spock, Timothy Leary, the rise of gangs on our streets, which have now migrated world wide; The War Against Drugs; The “Mob” and the now prolific “Russian Mafia;” Chaos theory and Complexity and a whole lotta other stuff. More ganglia twitching, and how much of it seems to come together, or at least help explain the human condition.

I’ll also be posting at The Wide Awakes, along with ohters who write for that group blog (see blogroll on the sidebar). I’ll begin this afternoon with a few “retreads” of older work, but some of my prior work seems to be puzzle pieces in the “knowldege soup” brewing on this end.

In the meantime, I believe there is a snow globe that needs shaking to show the true beauty of winter….

Found in the comments section over at Little Green Footballs of the post Servicemen Respond to Democratic Slurs, which, chasing that link is a good read in itself. But…here’s a great add on:

YOU WORRY ME!

By American Airlines Pilot – Captain John Maniscalco

I’ve been trying to say this since 9-11 but you worry me. I wish you didn’t. I wish when I walked down the streets of this country that I love, that your color and culture still blended with the beautiful human landscape we enjoy in this country. But you don’t blend in anymore. I notice you, and it worries me. I notice you because I can’t help it anymore. People from your homelands, professing to be Muslims, have been attacking and killing my fellow citizens and our friends for more than 20 years now. I don’t fully understand their grievances and hate but I know that nothing can justify the inhumanity of their attacks.

On September 11, nineteen ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners in my country. They cut the throats of women in front of children and brutally stabbed to death others. They took control of those planes and crashed them into buildings killing thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise grandparents, elegant daughters, best friends, favorite coaches, fearless public servants, and children’s mothers.

The Palestinians Celebrated, The Iraqis were overjoyed as was most of the Arab world. So I notice you now. I don’t want to be worried. I don’t want to be consumed by the same rage and hate and prejudice that has destroyed the soul of these terrorists. But I need your help. As a rational American, trying to protect my country and family in an irrational and unsafe world, I
must know how to tell the difference between you, and the Arab/Muslim terrorist.

Read the rest of this entry »

Dec 15th, 1791, the Bill of Rights was adopted. Not a well known anniversary in all my years, but certainly and particularly in these times, an important moment to remember what it took to get those first 10 amendents ratified by the feldgling nation. Think about it and then compare the concern over how long it is taking to get democratic ideas to take root in the middle east.

1776 to 1781: 5 years just to get our Constitution
1781 to 1789: 8 years to propose these modifications to the original document to proclaim many important concepts we hold dear 215 years later.

1789 to 1791: 2 years to get 10 of the 13 states to ratify 10 of the originally proposed 12 amendments.

So…my new math says that was 15 years of struggle to get there.

The history says a foundation of the Bill of Rights was the Magna Carta, written in 1225. Consider that as part of the timeline and then consider exercising some patience while more of the world finds out how great freedom and democratic principles are for them.

In the mean time, Happy Bill of Rights Day and, readers and bloggers alike, let’s really enjoy our freedom of speech!

Update 12/16/2006: Consider this addition by RTO Trainer:

Hey, tack on three more years to develop a national defense capable of defending the nation. You can front load another year to 19 April 1775, to the start of the war. 19 years from start to legitimate and secure.
And two rebellions, an attmpted military coup, disaffected soldiers running Congress out of town, and an indigenous insurgency along the way to boot.

But then again, they didn’t have Daily Kos and the Democratic Underground to deal with either…:)