Armed Forces Day

In addition to watching the Royal Wedding, the FA Cup Final, and a myriad of other events going on, today is also Armed Forces Day, a perfect time to reflect on the sacrifices our military members and families makes each day.

Having witnessed the commissioning of 25 Air Force and Army ROTC cadets as second lieutenants two weeks ago, a 50-year tradition at UP, it was a powerful reminder that our military men and women are tenaciously defending and preserving our way of life and are defining what it means to be courageous.  Today we thank our military for everything they have and continue to do.

America is blessed to have true heroes among us.


The security force platoon leader for Provincial Reconstruction Team Farah in Afghanistan, a UP graduate, provides rooftop security.

There was a wedding? Why hadn't I heard?

May each one of them come home safe and sound.

Thanks for their service and yours.

Not sure how this fits under General Sports.

Reminded still that Afghanistan was thought to be the graveyard of empires. How long do we intend to stay exactly?

If we are to continue to deploy these fine young men, let us consider greatly whether placing them at risk serves our long term interests.

wrv wrote:May each one of them come home safe and sound.

Thanks for their service and yours.

Not sure how this fits under General Sports.

Reminded still that Afghanistan was thought to be the graveyard of empires. How long do we intend to stay exactly?

If we are to continue to deploy these fine young men, let us consider greatly whether placing them at risk serves our long term interests.

Yeah, didn't mean to post this in General Sports, that was just a hurried mistake....but the continuing wars our military men, women, and families have been forced to endure for so long may indeed seem like a sport to those who are pulling the strings, but have no close relatives in the fight..."While America's military is at war, America is at the mall..."

I've kept up a pretty good email dialogue with UP grads in the military over the last 10 years, and most have been discouraged by the lack of progress/stalemate, but in just the past six weeks I'm beginning to hear more optimistic reports as the Afghanistan Army is beginning to win battles using their own intelligence, and with the guidance from their American advisers, Afghan commandos have been launching frequent assaults supported by Afghan aircraft.

Even more striking is that once battle areas are cleared of enemy forces by the Afghan Army, the Afghan National Police are now moving in to hold the ground while enabling local political leaders to retake the government.  Sure, U.S. surveillance and strike aircraft still provide support, but much of that is invisible to the local people, who now see the Afghan forces as their liberators.

This coordination between the intelligence collection, the fighting forces and the police, is what the U.S. has been waiting to see....we'll just have to see if can continue.  Personally, I'm not all that optimistic because of Afghan government corruption and political infighting.  Too often in recent years, U.S. officials have seized on a glimmer of hope, only to watch the Taliban regroup and surge again while taking back territory.

IMO, if America's politicos had sons and daughters in the fight, or America's youth was being drafted like it was during the Vietnam War, this war would have been over yesterday....


Lieutenant Ruiz Calderon with his Afghan counterpart...

DD wrote:IMO, if America's politicos had sons and daughters in the fight, or America's youth was being drafted like it was during the Vietnam War, this war would have been over yesterday....

What Vietnam war are you talking about?

The one I remember had had the sons of American politicos and plutocrats exempted from service , shuffled off to reserve units where they never left the USA. Some spent their service on four year cocaine binges before they took their term in the presidency, rarely reported for duty, and had their records “lost”.

Others had  doctors  invent bone spurs to avoid service before becoming president.


John McCain is conspicuous as an exception, but the sons of American politicos were largely absent. The Vietnam war was fought by working class whites and Blacks, who took the overwealming percent of casualties.

And Johnson and Nixon kept them there for purely political reasons, not strategic onesnes. They knew from the start the war was unwinnable, as documents and tapes declassified in recent years prove.

I do not disagree with any of your points, Geez.

When I lecture, teach and discuss the Vietnam War with high school and university students, I do not sugar-coat the rolls Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford played, but I do not mention the subsequent presidents who did not go to war as it is not germane to my presentation.  Certainly Clinton, Bush, and Trump, all born in 1946, would have been prime candidates to go to Vietnam had the system been equitable. (Obama was 14 years-old in 1975 when the war officially ended).

However, I do discuss the protests (including Kent State) and the ever widening divide our country experienced because of the "Quagmire" that was Vietnam, and the resultant 58,220 American deaths because of that war.  Also discussed are the 1,400,000 "others" who died as a direct result of the war (some estimates go as high as 5,500,000 when post war political deaths, Cambodian and Hmong deaths, and the 500,000 Vietnamese "boat people" who died fleeing the Communists are counted.)

As I said before, "if America's politicos had sons and daughters in the fight, or America's youth was being drafted like it was during the Vietnam War, this war would have been over yesterday...."


Second Brigade, First Cavalry Division near Phouc Vinh, South Vietnam, July 1969.