Archive for the ‘Walk of The Fallen’ Category

I went to Ft. Lewis today to do a few errands and pick up some items at the Commissary. Even though it is both a payday and holiday weekend, the roads were nearly deserted, the drive began to take on that surreal quality imparted by sun through tall firs dappling the car and dazzling my eyes. Ft. Lewis just got a lot of people back from Iraq, the last unit to leave was from here and they came home to a riot of “Welcome!” banners and signposts roadside like old Burma Shave commercials.

In the Commissary, there was joy and ebullience in the very air. Men with very shaven heads, and some with scars healing pink and raw walked with their wives and shopping carts. And I do mean walked WITH their wives, some of them could not have achieved more physical proximity without falling to the floor and going at it. It was beautiful and heart-rending to see: a hand on her shoulder that slowly slipped down her back to rest on her rounded buttocks here, and there a man’s arm around his wife’s waist suddenly squeezes her tighter and lifts her completely off the ground.

And those men, wreathed in the love of being home, were also like children in guileless delight. Every other aisle one would freeze before some food item that had obviously been missed and longed for while in Iraq. Little cries of boyish delight issued from the mouths of men in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s and the sound of items piled into shopping carts echoed throughout the store.

The parking lot seemed to have an unusually high concentration of new cars, dealers stickers still in the windows. Everyone was smiling and making conversation. Even the usually stolid baggers were laughing and chatting with everyone. Four different men stopped me to compliment my tattoos and two asked where I got the ink done. The sun is shining, the Army has a four day weekend. Children are not yet in school. Peace and contentment made a vapor in the air, and infectious enough that I expected a musical number to ensue complete with Gene Kelly-style dancing!

The future for these families is almost certainly more separation down the road, when the Stryker Brigades go to Afghanistan. But for now, this weekend, these September mornings…….oh, breathe in the bliss of homecomings, holiday barbeques, and lovemaking! I feel humbled and honored that I could be there to feel the waves of pleasure and joy of those military families.

A favorite blogger of mine, Mustang Bobby posted a quite distressing little tidbit today. Seems a radio station in California took a very non-scientific poll asking if folks thought it would be a good idea to force all Muslims to register in a national data base.

Seems 63% of the respondents (and 100% of the dimwits) thought that was a very good idea. Mustang Bobby commented with acrid sarcasm that perhaps they should wear little crescents on the street, because hey, that worked last time, right? Since the crescent is associated with Islam as the Star of David is associated with Judaism, it sent me back down memory lane.

In ninth grade, as I began reading about the Holocaust, and Jews forced to wear the yellow star badge, I also read about the Nazi efforts to enforce this in some Scandinavian countries. They had a bit of trouble, because the Danish police did not cooperate. I thought that was very admirable. I thought if I had ever had to live through such stupid, hateful times I, too would wear the badge of “shame” as a badge of honor and solidarity. I never thought I would live to see such a thing suggested in America as registration of a religious group nationwide.

So just in case my government or any part thereof takes a nosedive off the utterly stupid high board into the pool of genocidal fascism, I have MY little green crescent ready to wear. Because if anyone seriously suggests “registering” Muslims in a data base—-EVERYONE should register. Or no one.

Thank you, Bobby, for the inspiration—I am doing an arts/crafts project daily for 100 days. This is my snark-art effort of the evening!

Oh my, the government is a-swamp with debt. The solution? Take money from programs that were necessitated by other wars we had no business being in, ala Alan Simpson:

“The irony (is) that the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess,” says Simpson, who is co-chair of the White House’s fiscal commission.”

He is talking about programs for vets. Specifically for Viet Nam vets affected by things like Agent Orange. I am baffled why so many military folk consistently vote Republican when it is ALWAYS one of these Grand Oil Party fucks who tries to screw them sideways.

The way Simpson wants vets to conveniently not have any needs, I’d say it’s a good thing they no longer sail home from war on boats. Fuckers like this would SINK them en route to avoid keeping governmental promises of medical care in the future.

Hey, Simpson, you asshole? How about shutting off the cash hemorrhage by cutting pork to Republican states AND possibly not fucking starting wars we cannot afford that CREATE disabled and sick veterans. Oh, and let’s cut YOUR goddamned health benefits and wages, alright?

The “Gold Star” banner connotes a family member lost in war. Every American below now has a family and loved ones who could display this banner in a window or upon a staff. I almost wish every one of the families in America would do so; perhaps it would awaken the slumbering country to the true costs of these wars. Today I made a new strand of 200 counting beads, for now the death count for American and Coalition deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan reached sixty eight hundred (counting the 13 victims of the Ft. Hood killings).

US Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class James M. Swink, a hospital corpsman, 20, of Yucca Valley, Calif., died Aug. 27 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

US Marine Master Sgt. Daniel L. Fedder, 34, of Pine City, Minn., died Aug. 27 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

On 27 August in Afghanistan, two US Army men were killed when their vehicle encountered an IED:

PFC. Chad D. Coleman, 20, of Moreland, Ga.
Pvt. Adam J. Novak, 20, of Prairie du Sac, Wis.

Two US Army men died in Afghanistan on August 28 as a result of wounds caused by an exploding IED:

Sgt. Patrick K. Durham, 24, of Chattanooga, Tenn.
Spc. Andrew J. Castro, 20, of Westlake Village, Calif.

On August 28, in Afghanistan, two US Army men were killed when an RPG hit their vehicle:
Capt. Ellery R. Wallace, 33, of Utah.
PFC Bryn T. Raver, 20, of Harrison, Ark.

US Army Spc. James C. Robinson, 27, of Lebanon, Ohio, died Aug. 28 in Afghanistan, when insurgents attacked his unit with indirect fire.

US Marine Gunnery Sgt. Floyd E. C. Holley, 36, of Casselberry, Fla., died Aug. 29 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan

US Army Staff Sgt. James R. Ide, 32, of Festus, Mo., died Aug. 29 in Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire.

Two US Army men were killed in Afghanistan by an IED explosion on August 30:
2nd Lt. Mark A. Noziska, 24, of Papillon, Neb.
Staff Sgt. Casey J. Grochowiak, 34, of Lompoc, Calif.

Five US Army men were killed in Afghanistan on August 30, when an IED detonated near their unit:
Capt. Dale A Goetz, 43, of White, S.D.
Staff Sgt. Jesse Infante, 30, of Cypress, Texas
Staff Sgt. Kevin J. Kessler, 32, of Canton, Ohio.
Staff Sgt. Matthew J. West, 36, of Conover, Wis.
PFC. Chad D. Clements, 26, of Huntington, Ind.

The following US Army men were killed in Afghanistan on August 31 when an IED exploded:
Staff Sgt. Vinson B. Adkinson III, 26, of Harper, Kan.
Sgt. Raymond C. Alcaraz, 20, of Redlands, Calif.
PFC. Matthew E. George, 22, of Gransboro, N.C.
PFC James A. Page, 23, of Titusville, Fla.

US Marine Sgt. Joseph A. Bovia, 24, of Kenner, La., died Aug. 31 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan as a result of hostile fire.

US Marine Lance Cpl. Cody A. Roberts, 22, of Boise, Idaho, died Aug. 31 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

US Marine Lance Cpl. Christopher B. Rodgers, 20, of Griffin, Ga., died Sept. 1 while conducting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

And the Coalition dead from this week:


Flags courtesy of ITA’s
Flags of All Countries used with permission.

French Army Sgt Enaux Herve was killed on August 30 in Afghanistan when his vehicle tumbled into a ravine.

Cpl. Brian Pinksen, 21, of Newfoundland, Canada was killed in Afghanistan on August 30 by an IED detonation.

Sgt. Herdis Sikka, 20, of Estonia, was killed in Afghanistan on August 30 when an IED detonated.

Which is what I fear eventually will happen to the military men and women left in Afghanistan and Iraq; and to those who return in various states of broken. This is Mishi Donovan, a wondrous voice often singing about the loss and alienation among the indigenous peoples of the Americas. But loss and alienation are not limited by tribal affiliation, she focuses on the neglect of the old, too….and she has it right about those who “won’t listen”. Viet Nam veterans are old and forgotten now; how long before the vets of these wars are likewise relegated to such neglect?

As I prepare to end this blog, I intend to highlight some of the brilliant bloggers from my blogroll, as I did in the post before this one.

This link will take you to not only a favorite blogger, but to a favorite topic of mine: labor in America. I, too, hear all the time about the evils of labor unions and it is bullshit.

More and more local companies that support the super stores here in our state hire temps for the largest part of their work force in warehouse operations. Huge tracts of land that once grew fruits and vegetables are now filled with warehouses that service stores like Target.

They are filled with workers from temp agencies like Labor Ready and the supervisors are encouraged to be verbally abusive to them. Workers are not allowed water on the job area, and very limited breaks and are ordered to show up “voluntarily” to work on break days or lose the job entirely. The shifts worked average 12 hours, even tho’ running three shifts of eight humane hours would be more effective.

They hire illegal aliens and if anyone is coming to inspect (Immigration or the Labor people) they get a two hour warning and all the people who need to hide leave the floor for the day. Supervisors who protest this style of management don’t last long, they are demoted or fired.

Labor unions may ask for more than America thinks it can afford. But truly, consider the option of a land with no surviving unions, folks? If you think the description above cannot be spread to store floors and offices, think again.

(My apologies to the band VNV!) Yes, Iraq is “over”….but you know, that surely was not a win, and not a war that we ever should have been involved in from the start. I am floored to read comments on some news stories wherein I see people calling the wars “Obama’s wars” as if he and not George Bush, had started them. His efforts to finish them do not satisfy me….but there is no good finish to wars began for vengeance.

But someone else says it all so much better than I do.

I sometimes wonder if the “practice” of medicine needs a bit more work before they are allowed to work on real people. In spite of recent claims that soldiers are not being over-drugged, I have to wonder.

The VA likes to prescribe the drug Seroquel, and doesn’t seem to realize the risks adequately. Or perhaps it is just a somewhat Mengele-like experiment to see just how much CAN be given? Seroquel is NOT a sleep drug, you see; it is for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but the military IS experimenting with it for sleepless troops. But PTSD affected soldiers, desperate for sleep without nightmares are taking it…and dying:

“In White’s case, the nightmares persisted. So doctors recommended progressively larger doses of Seroquel. At one point, the 23-year-old Marine corporal was prescribed more than 1,600 milligrams per day — more than double the maximum dose recommended for schizophrenia patients. A short time later, White died in his sleep. ”

And this drug, even for those it doesn’t kill, has some terrible side-effects. It deserves a whole new category of “Just say No!” to military experimentation drugs.

I know he is away in a war zone. And I truly don’t expect him to find a way to call with his cellphone every weekend. But a weekend when the phone does not ring, and no email arrives, and he is not shown “up” online at all, and the news reports seven US military killed…..well, that is the sort of weekend that makes silence fall around your heart.

A silence and darkness full of monsters worthy of a child’s night time closet.

The Veterans Administration is not known for dazzling speed or efficiency. But seriously, when you jerk a man around who is disabled and dependent on VA disability payments by declaring him DEAD? That is a new low; is this the latest way to control costs?

And when you only fix it as the media prepares to break the story of how long and how repetitious the process was to prove you are alive….yeah, Cover Your Ass DOES seem to be Standard Operating Procedure.

Pity the veterans, folks. They have to deal with the Very Asshattish all the time.