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["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

My dad went to Oregon to use a phony birth certificate to get into the 
service.  He has a ruptured ear drum from the big guns on the ship he was 
on.  He was in what was to become the Navy Seals.  He also did his 20 years 
in the Reserves.  His advise to me, my cousins and the ex was don't do it. 
If the war came to us, fight.  If it doesn't come to us, don't join.

DH's father was on the front in WWII for a year.  He was a Timberwolf.  He 
threatened to disown his kids if they volunteered.  He raised them to defend 
THIS country and to stay out of the wars of politicians!

There are different breeds of military folks.

I have a good friend who is a Green Beret (now retired).  He also isn't a 
believer in the wars of politicians and is rabidly anti the Iraq war.

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gene GeRue" <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
> It has been my observation that those who have been in battle, those
> who have suffered in the military, and of course those of family
> military history and pride, tend to feel that war is bad but
> necessary, that service is a duty, and that it is necessary to engage
> in war from time to time to let the world know we are ready, willing,
> and able. I felt this to be evident when Tvo and I debated the Iraq
> invasion. It came to me that truth, logic and reason are different if
> you have a wartime background. Some of you will recall Tvo's
> description of a pilot released at the end of a runway by his Japanese
> captors--he had literally been skinned alive and begged to be shot.
>
> Such memories change how one's mind works.
>
> I was lucky. I enlisted in the Army just before high school graduation
> and went to basic training right after graduation. My luck was that
> the year was 1954, as the Korean war was ending and before the Vietnam
> war had become full-blown. So I spent my Army years running a drafting
> office in Japan. I am not one bit sorry that it worked out like that.
> I respect and have great empathy for those who have served under more
> difficult conditions, even more so when those conditions were
> unnecessarily created by politicians, as has almost always been the
> case in modern times.
>
> Old men have experience and sometimes they have wisdom. Often they
> have pride. When pride overrides wisdom, they do foolish things.
>
>
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