tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-185237992024-03-14T06:16:14.133-04:00LRRP's WorldThe ramblings, meanderings and personal opinions about war, politics, adventure and anything else that strikes my fancy.garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.comBlogger1716125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-80030751143248574712022-11-10T21:45:00.004-05:002022-11-10T21:45:36.180-05:00<p> THANK YOU LIBS AND DEMS</p><p><br /></p><p>You put a doddering, incompetent fool up for President, backed by a seemingly inane female island girl, and now — in Pennsylvania ” got a brain damaged radical elected as a senator.</p><p>We've gone from producing our own oil to allowing other countries determine what we'll pay, opened our souther border to an invasion, keep our homeless Americans on the street, promise to raise taxes on pretty much everything and have let crime run rampant ...God almighty ... what next, you fools?</p><p>Good going.</p><p>Can't wait to see what disasters befall us in the next two years. </p><p>Whatever happens ... try and take our guns ... because we are undoubtedly going to need them.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-55936703478945386022021-09-24T21:00:00.005-04:002022-12-08T18:08:05.649-05:00ON THE EDGE OF AMERICA: RIDING WITH THE US BORDER PATROL<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;">Here's a story I wrote about the US Border Patrol. It was written — I believe — in 2001-02 after the September 11, 2001 attacks. I got to ride with a marine patrol on a body of water that is shared by Mexico and the US — specifically, Texas — called Lake Amistad.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;">I'm doing this because I think the President of the US — Biden, that is — is a horse's ass and is intent on destroying this country — even though he — also — isn't un-aware of it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;">Enjoy</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: medium;">On the Edge of America</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Story by Gary P. Joyce <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Those of us involved in boating have noticed the increase in security on our home waters since the events of September 11, 2001 unfolded, and more recently since the invasion of Iraq began on March 19 this year.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But “home waters” covers a greater expanse than those of us on the nation’s coasts may realize. Along our northern border, boats play an important part in national security. But it’s – surprisingly – in the arid areas of cactus, wide-open spaces, Longhorn cattle, bad-ass sun, Stetsons and scuffed cowboy boots of America’s Southwest where boats have been put to their latest use in protecting our nation. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As unlikely as this venue is for boating, are the people who man these boats. It’s an unheralded service, usually not even an after-thought in most American’s ideas of who our protectors are. While they patrol both northern and southern borders, the main responsibility for monitoring and interdicting incursions – with virtually no assistance from the abutting government – across the 1,989 miles of border separating the U.S. and Mexico falls to the U.S Border Patrol (BP). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Border Patrol Agents in this story are rugged individuals working in small teams, sometimes alone. Their deeds usually go unsung, yet they perform their job with relish, professionalism and integrity. They are excellent outdoorsmen, trackers, hunters, public relation specialists, intelligence operatives, search-and-rescue personnel and, yes, boaters, all wrapped up into a quintessentially Western breed of law enforcement officer. They are people who are matter-of-fact in their approach to a job that is difficult by definition, and grows more difficult everyday. Yet, they’re also enthusiastic, intrigued, compassionate and dedicated to preserving the security of America. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Amistad – “friendship” – National Recreation Area is the American side of a beautiful international recreation area in western Texas about two-and-a-half hours west of San Antonio. The park is administered by the National Parks Service (NPS) out of a headquarters in Del Rio, Texas, and its main feature is the Amistad Reservoir, formed by the Rio Grande, Pecos and Devils rivers, the flow stemmed by the Amistad Dam. The reservoir sports 850 miles of coastline and shares 310 miles with Mexico. The dam provides hydroelectric power, water reserves for agriculture and recreation for millions of people on both sides of the border. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Spying the lake for the first time shocks the eye; an expanse of blue water nestled in the jagged, arid, limestone-beige terrain spotted here and there with barely discernible patches of greenery and the bright white wakes of bass boats running hither and yon. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The only thing as startling as the water’s color is the boat ramp at the Diablo East put in. Concrete, it’s about as wide as an eight-lane freeway … it’s also a loooong way downhill to the water.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> “The lake’s down about 40 feet from its full height. The last time it was full was 1992, but it’s still plenty deep,” says Jeffery Parsons, the assistant chief of the Del Rio Border Patrol Sector, and a dead ringer for every western-movie, square-jawed, good guy marshal you’ve ever seen.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There are approximately 1,000 agents in the Del Rio Sector that includes 10 forward stations covering 59,541 square miles of land and 205 miles of Rio Grande River. The agents perform the gamut of BP duties: flight ops, highway interdiction, undercover work, special tactics work, search-and-rescue and marine enforcement, the relative newcomer to the service’s repertoire having been in existence barely two years. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The NPS had the responsibility of patrolling the lake, but security concerns have required round-the-clock ops since September 11, and thus the BP boat patrols. NPS Ranger Dennis Anderson and his boat crews were instrumental in getting the BP crews up to snuff. The NPS uses bright orange RIBs as patrol craft. “We do a lot of boardings for safety inspections and whatnot,” said Anderson. “Guys would get a little touchy if we pulled up to their $30,000 bass boats in a hard boat, so we figured the BOBs were the way to go.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">BOBs? “Big orange boats,” clarifies Anderson with nary a smile. If you’re going to play with Texans, you have to get used to a dry humor that’s hard for this Easterner to detect. And be prepared to let no foible go by unnoticed or unmentioned ... dryly.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Agent Ernie Carrillo, a 19-year veteran with the BP, is the boat unit’s supervisory agent. “The purpose of the Whiskey boats is high-profile deterrence,” he says, as he hands me a Sospender self-inflatable PFD. “And we mean high profile, literally. We’re standing about nine foot tall, and most of the bass boats out there aren’t but about two feet.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The boats – two 23 foot SeaArk aluminum patrol boats – have a nice cabin atop which are mounted a beam-wide halogen light bar, radar tower and blue emergency lights. Bass boats at a distance can only be recognized by their wakes, so the Whiskey boats – the two boat’s callsigns start with the letter W, “whiskey” in communication parlance – definitely stand out. The boats have eight-foot, six-inch beams, look narrower, yet ride surprisingly dry and stable. “We’ll get six-foot swells and 30 knot winds out here,” said Senior Agent Travis Konkle, our helmsman. “These boats handle it pretty well.” And Konkle handles the Whiskey boat pretty well.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Powered by twin counter-rotating Merc 200 EFI’s, the boats have a Kohler 800 generator mounted forward of the engines to power the halogen light bar and the heater and a/c unit; temperatures reach extremes on both ends of the thermometers. Konkle sits in one of the two Air-Ride electric chairs in front of the full-size wheel, Raymarine radar and Furuno GPS. Boaters on the lake generally use cell phones; the Whiskey boats have Motorola FM radios allowing them contact with other BP and NPS units. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Aside from all the requisite boat gear, Carrillo and Konkle carry backpacks containing their personal gear of first-aid supplies, radio, water, food, handheld GPS and Gen-IV night vision scopes. Weaponry consists of .40 caliber Beretta semis, Remington 870 .12 gauges and the new M-4 submachinegun. It can get dicey for two men out in the wilds of the desert that comprises much of the western end of Lake Amistad (from the Amistad Dam west, Mexican territory is on the south and west. East of the dam is all Texas), and should trouble arise the two men – sometimes one-man – can be 30 miles from backup; not a thought the agents dwell on, but a reality they accept. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> The boat is merely a means of reaching patrol areas, then the agents quietly beach the craft, secure it, and head inland on foot. “A lot of our work,” says Carrillo, “is gathering intelligence and looking for patterns of alien traffic and narcotics transport. We also have Mexican commercial fishermen hauling people and drugs that we keep and eye on.” The bottom line according to both agents is that the boats provide a presence, and by virtue of that presence, a deterrence. There are no patrol patterns, and with the access the SeaArks provide, the agents can appear anywhere. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We cruise west making slalom turns at the buoys as we adhere tightly to the international border’s contours, working our way up the Rio Grande towards the confluence of the Pecos River. We pass Mexican and American recreational anglers along the way, with both seeming to adhere to their sides. Everyone gets a wave from Carrillo, but you can also see him mentally running the boat through the list of suspect “bad-guy” boats the NPS and BP have amassed. Carrillo is quiet and unassuming, but you can tell there’s little that escapes his attention. Every inch of coast we cruise provides a different moonscape of small, twisty, side canyons, caves, rock scree and cactus – hard, tough terrain.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“When they cross from Mexico,” said Carrillo, “the object, obviously, is to get into America. We stand an excellent chance of grabbing them when they come across close to towns, but those are still the favored routes. The ones that really want to get in will head overland and hit someplace way deep in the state.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“How far will they travel,” I ask. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Virginia,” says the Texas born-and-raised Carrillo, a reference to where Konkle was born; ergo: Texas humor. “There’s a route that runs 90 miles to the first town,” he adds. “They’ll try and go windmill to windmill, staying out of sight. Most of the land is privately owned ranches, and the windmills provide water for stock. Sometimes they make it,” he says, “and sometimes they don’t. Regardless, we’ll start a group [cross their trail] and track them, sometimes for three weeks before we get them.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">One of the more interesting – and in today’s climate, scary – facts I learn is that it’s not just Mexicans. “Central Americans, South Americans, sure. But we also are seeing lots of Europeans – Hungarians, Czechs, Yugoslavs – just about every nation in eastern Europe. They get into Mexico City and make their way to cross here,” said Carrillo. The import of this internationality is not lost on the agents; not with the country at Alert Level 4.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Konkle spots something on a bluff and spins the boat around. “See those two kind of black balls on that bush on the bluff?” he asks. I don’t see it till he runs the boat aground at the base of the bluff. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“It’s a marker for a crossing point,” explains Carrillo. “Those black dots are catfish heads.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We tie up the boat and are joined by NPS Ranger Anderson in a BOB, and scramble up the loose scree and boulders. There’s a fire circle of rock, and a few other traces of use. The two catfish heads are about the size of footballs. Everything <i>is </i>bigger in Texas.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The men are consummate trackers and quickly work the site, but there’s no sign of recent use. Carrillo takes me over to where I crossed the rock surface and points out where I stepped. A pebble overturned shows its dark side, the sun-baked shine of a point of rock is dulled, the slightest shoe toe print stands out to him in a rare patch of loose dirt. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“This guy weighs about 150 and has 59 cents in his pocket,” Konkle says to me, causing me to give him a mouth-breathing look of wonder. He shakes his head as I feel for the large “L”-for loser on my forehead. “It’s my foot print,” he finally notes, “but I’ll tell you this: if you learn how to track in west Texas, you can track people anywhere on earth.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And track down and nab violators are what the agents do so well: the boat patrol drug seizure numbers for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003 (five-and-a-half months into it) should exceed 2002’s if they stay on the same pace ($5,861,949/7,328 pounds in FY2002 versus $2,973,294/3,718 pounds). Alien apprehensions look like they will be down or even with 2002 – a factor due to increased manpower and patrol activity (1,265 apprehensions in FY 2002 versus 456 as of March 25, 2003). The smugglers in both categories rely heavily on boats and the Amistad Reservoir; and thus must deal with the likes of Carrillo, Konkle and their fellow agents. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We scramble back to the boat and head down canyon to another area. You can’t muffle the sound of the big Mercs and the canyons are natural reverbrators, so any interdiction is usually accomplished by overland foot patrol or coordinated boat/land ambushes. We beach the boat again, and Carrillo and Konkle shoulder their packs. We take a few steps when photog Greg Johnston steps on the first booby trap.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“Dog pear,” says Carrillo, removing the spiky sea urchin-on-steroids-looking ball of pins from Johnston’s calf. The dog pear has long, rigid spikes that, when brushed upon, jump off the ground and impale. “You’ll have a nice welt there,” says Konkle. “That’s why we wear these 10-inch boots.” Alas, Johnston and I are dressed in boating shoes, since we <i>thought</i> we were doing a boating story. I spot another patch and studiously avoid it, but trip over something else in the process. “You want to watch out for rattlers, too,” notes Konkle.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Gee, thanks.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Forty-five minutes and we are back at the boat and headed down river. The patrol will last 12 hours and gobble huge amounts of the lake and shore. Sometimes we’ll double back to where we’ve been, sometimes we’ll make long runs to other landings. The job goes on day and night, everyday in all weather, and then there are special ops combining the forces of the boat; ground and aerial assets; the job is relentless.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The next morning we spend some time with the airboat patrols on the downstream section of the Rio Grande, with Mexico 50 feet away. Agent Kevin Czechowicz drives us through what looks like a farm equipment graveyard to the launch site and introduces us to Senior Patrol Agent Rowdy Ballard, and Patrol Agent Landon Schaffner. Along the way he points out bent fencing where people have crossed. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The airboat, an 18-foot, 330 horsepower, Panther Lightning, is one of 10 in the sector and is used on the below-dam portions of the Rio Grande as well as on the skinny parts of the Pecos and Devils rivers. We cruise up the Rio Grande past a huge soccer field crowded with Sunday players and families on the Mexican side, under the international bridge to a low-head dam where two Mexican fishermen are working the eddy below the dam. Just downriver from the dam are several raw sewage outlets from the Mexican side that add, shall we say, a certain pungency to the beneath-bridge climate.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> “There’s a monitor tower there,” says Ballard, pointing to the US side, “that keeps an eye on the fishermen in case they decide to slide over to the US.” One fisherman is actually in American territory, but turns and waves to the agents, seemingly intent on his fishing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“There are a bunch of spots that are monitored by camera and various other means I can’t tell you about,” says Ballard, not having to add “or I’d have to kill you” to the statement. “Those are all usually at the known crossings … yup, there are regular crossing spots. Hell, there’s a horse down river that knows how to transport people by itself,” he says.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> “The other day we got a call that one of the monitors picked up some folks crossing,” said Landon. “We were nearby, so we went on down there, and then hit the road tracking them.” On the heaviest travel crossing spots, a drag trail – a road of powdery dirt – has been constructed, which allows the agents to spot footprints easily. Then it’s a matter of directionally leap frogging ahead of the illegals to intercept them. The tactic, along with precision cooperation and planning with their compatriots on ground patrol, works.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><o:p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The BP’s motto is pride, integrity and vigilance. It is a truly unique organization combining a variety of disciplines into one unit. Recently reassigned as part of the Department of Homeland Security, the BP is, with the exception of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the only paramilitary arm of the Federal government that has their own academy and trains their own people from scratch. It’s the only service that demands their agents maintain a working fluency in Spanish, the only service where you can ride a horse, airboat, 4x4, helicopter and a boat in a day on the job. It’s an outfit that mandates all its agents work in the field … pilots, clerks, boatmen, regardless, you’ll spend three years pounding the ground first. It’s the only service where you’ll guard and patrol against incursions onto our shores, save people lives, interdict drug smugglers, work undercover, and spend all your time outdoors.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Border Patrol is a superbly trained, professional force of unsung men and women who are literally acting as our first line of defense.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And I gotta say, I feel a whole lot better having met them. </span><o:p></o:p></p>garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-60221933208539177752021-08-12T17:14:00.002-04:002021-08-12T17:14:31.475-04:00<p> <span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-indent: 0in;"><b>Don’t Be the Last Man Out ...or ... Fuck You and Die</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;"><b><o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">The idiot running our country right now is sending 3000 grunts to Afghanistan to evacuate the American Embassy.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">All I have to say is: if ONE of those grunts are killed, the parents should either hire an assassin — and believe me, there’d be plenty of guys willing to go down that path — or sue the US government.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">President Biden and Vice-President Harris are, at best, incompetents. At worse, trying to destroy America for absolutely no reason other than their only interest is to get elected again.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">Biden’s a goner (do you Democrat asshole REALLY think he's presidential material?)</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">Harris is semi-patiently waiting to take over. And anyone with a brain knew this.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">So, we have an incompetent island gal waiting for Pelosi (don’t get me started on that thief) to declare the President incompetent, and the non-Black-passing-for-Black VP to take over so she can finally run things. Pelosi, that is.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">The Democrat party consistently said that the last President “split the country.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">I say, that the only reason — and unless you’re a total asshole and can’t see this — the country is split is because the last president isn’t here. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">Prove me wrong.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">We’re almost nine months into a new presidency and the fucking scumbag media STILL leads with the word “Trump” on every negative story.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">Meanwhile, the elect and the Bizzaro media (read Superman comics, assholes) continue to make believe they know what they're doing.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">What they're doing ia killing your children and grandchildren. And if you can't SEE that, you're as big-a-fool as was ever made.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">Fuck you and die.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;">But ... hey ... YOUR kids won't have to pay back all the shit the Dems are spending. They'll be slaves instead.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></p>garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-81601896959851846792021-04-05T17:59:00.000-04:002021-04-05T17:59:31.810-04:00<p><span style="font-size: x-large;"> The Un-Making of America - Part 2</span></p><p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 8 — Senior DHS rep says — anonymously — that Biden administration has ordered that DHS not speak to media regarding border crisis. Where’s Twitter when we need it?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 9 — It is reported that Vice-President Kamala Harris has met with the heads of six foreign countries <i>without</i> the President. Hmmmm?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 10 — President Biden signs a Defense order making the military and — by default — the Veterans Administration (i.e., the taxpayers of the United States) liable for sexual re-orientation operations. Number 2: Honest. You can’t make this shit up.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 11 — President Biden signs $1.9 trillion ”covid” bill. In the bill another Democrat bullshit hidden clause becomes apparent. Freelancers — i.e., gig workers — can no longer exist. They must be employees. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 12 — President Biden holds an address to the nation. <i>The New York Times </i>(heart be still)! fact checks most of it as “wrong.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 25 — President Biden finally holds press conference with — obviously — preset questions and reporters. FOX news reporter uncalled on. President is literally and uncharacteristically “wide-eyed.” He couldn’t<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">pass a road sobriety test unless the cops were blind.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 25 — Psychotic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi after saying a few months ago that questioning state-certified election results was akin to “treason” … <i>questions state-certified election result in Iowa</i>. You can’t make this up.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 27 — VP Harris has no plans to go to southern border. (As of April 5 she still hasn’t but the president put her in charge of the non-crisis.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 27 — As country sinks into anarchy, President invites 40 world leaders to summit on climate “crisis.” Not border “crisis.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 28 —<i>60 Minutes </i>after a year-plus of Covid-19<i> </i>finally discovers Wujan, China, and thinks something fishy went on there! Now that’s journalism for you.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">April 1 — And unfortunately not a joke. The Biden administration pointed to the Claiborne Expressway in New Orleans and Interstate 81 in Syracuse, New York as two examples of “long-standing and persistent racial injustice,” in infrastructure. The plan set forth by the Biden administration would see billions spent on an effort to “reconnect neighborhoods” by destroying current highways and making sure that new projects “advance racial equity and environmental justice.” ONLY Democrats can make inanimate objects “racist!”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">April 2 —MLB announced they were moving the 2021 All-Star Game and the 2022 Draft out of Atlanta because the State of Georgia had the temerity to pass legislation requiring voters to identify themselves before being allowed to vote<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">April 5. — BLM freezes traffic in Baltimore unless drivers “beep” in support (See April 1 entry…and again, no joke). Only video observed (by this writer) shows cop supporting their efforts. <o:p></o:p></span></p>garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-60420972051047616382021-04-03T21:21:00.001-04:002021-04-03T21:21:08.391-04:00<p> I quit FB </p><p>You wanna read what I have to say ... you gotta go here.</p><p>Possibly I'll do it a podcast ...but for now ...</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Un-Making of America</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">President Trump leaves office. Iran wants President Biden to resume nuclear deal … which <i>they’d</i> broken. Israel goes on war footing. Thank you, Democrats.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">President Biden signs Executive Order revoking Keystone pipeline permit. Every union schmuck that voted for him loses their job. Loss estimated at 10,000 jobs and $1.6 <i>billion</i> dollars in revenue. Canada seriously pissed off. Arabs happy, since we — once again —have to depend on them for oil. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">BLM (Black Lives Matter) is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Honest. You can’t make this shit up.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">President Biden wants $15 minimum wage. Estimates are it will cost a loss of between 1.3 and 3.3 million jobs.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">February 6 — House Democrats seek to ban the words “alien” and “illegal alien.” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Times;">February 21— </span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #212529; font-family: Times;">Disney added a disclaimer to “The Muppet Show” </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #212529; font-family: Times;">on its streaming platform, <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #212529; font-family: Times;">citing “wrong” portrayals of “people or cultures.”</span><span style="font-family: Times;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 1 — Biden White House leaves out Dr. Seuss books for “Read Across America Day,” citing alleged “racial undertones.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 4 - According to former officials in the Obama administration, the standard for a border crisis was 1,000 attempted crossings a day. Who was on the team that set that standard? President — then VP — Joe Biden and Alejandro Mayorkas, then Deputy Secretary, and now Secretary, of Homeland Security. When the Trump administration ended, the U.S. was deporting more people than were illegally coming into the country. In less than a month under Biden, the number of people illegally coming into the country is more than 6,000 per day—that’s six times the crisis level as set by the Obama team, er, that is, the guy who is now President. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 5 — While the governor of NY, Andrew Cuomo, gets bitch slapped for sexual harassment during Women’s History Month, what does the Democrat-controlled NY legislature do? Pass a bill to curtail Cuomo's “pandemic powers,” which does nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 8 — Influx of illegals at all-time high. Called a “humanitarian crisis” by Doctors Without Borders. White House response? All-time nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 8 — </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times;">“Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty and favoring individuals over businesses,” the headline on the Washington Post’s </span><span style="font-family: Times;">website</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Times;"> proclaimed., as America sinks into Democrat-fed-depression. Gas prices under Trump (in NY) $1.99 a gallon in January. Now? $2.57 a gallon (3-8-21- NY) under Biden administration. Lotsa luck, America.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 8 — Senior DHS rep says — anonymously — that Biden administration has ordered that DHS not speak to media regarding border crisis. Where’s Twitter when we need it?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 9 — It is reported that Vice-President Kamala Harris has met with the heads of six foreign countries <i>without</i> the President. Hmmmm?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 10 — President Biden signs a Defense order making the military and — by default — the Veterans Administration (i.e., the taxpayers of the United States) liable for sexual re-orientation operations. Number 2: Honest. You can’t make this shit up.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 11 — President Biden signs $1.9 trillion ”covid” bill. In the bill another Democrat bullshit hidden clause becomes apparent. Freelancers — i.e., gig workers — can no longer exist. They must be employees. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 12 — President Biden holds an address to the nation. The New York Times (heart be still)! fact checks most of it as “wrong.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 25 — President Biden finally holds press conference with — obviously — preset questions and reporters. FOX news reporter uncalled on. President is literally and uncharacteristically “wide-eyed.” (Read that<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">as drugs. Yeah ...that's the fuck what I mean).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 25 — Psychotic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, after saying a few months ago that questioning state-certified election results was akin to treason, … "<i>questions state-certified election result in Iowa</i>" You can’t make this shit up.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 27 — VP Harris has no plans to go to southern border. A of April 4 she still hasn't seen even though the President appointed her of "in charge" of the border ...um ... well, whatever </span><span style="font-family: Times;">is happening that isn't a crisis.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 27 — As country sinks into anarchy, President invites 40 world leaders to summit on climate “crisis.” Not border “crisis.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">March 28 —<i>60 Minutes </i>after a year-plus of Covid-19<i> </i>finally discovers Wujan, China, and thinks something fishy went on there! Now <i>that’s </i>journalism for you.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">April 1 — And unfortunately not a joke. The Biden administration pointed to the Claiborne Expressway in New Orleans and Interstate 81 in Syracuse, New York as two examples of “long-standing and persistent racial injustice,” in infrastructure. The plan set forth by the Biden administration would see billions spent on an effort to “reconnect neighborhoods” by destroying current highways and making sure that new projects “advance racial equity and environmental justice.” ONLY Democrats can make inanimate objects “racist!”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;">April 2 —MLB announced they were moving the 2021 All-Star Game and the 2022 Draft out of Atlanta because the State of Georgia had the temerity to pass legislation requiring voters to identify themselves before being allowed to vote. Heart be fucking still. How dare the State of Georgia want people to prove who they are to vote!!!!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 296pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Times;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-84207694452282262932021-01-31T20:15:00.000-05:002021-01-31T20:15:12.958-05:0052nd Annniversary<p> <span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;">Back prior to 1969, there were a bunch of us — all volunteers, all paratroopers — who served in an outfit called the LRRPs — Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol. Some were Long Range Patrol but we all had the same job. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;"> Yes, that’s where the name for this blog came from.</span></p><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2664722529914200617" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 586px;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;">In my case our official designation was E-Co., 58th Inf., LRRP, 1/10 Cavalry, 4th Infantry Division. Every division had a LRRP (or LRP) of its own, operating with teams composed of anywhere between three or four to eight men and sometimes more. In E-58 we used the three-four combination (usually three Americans and a Montagnyard), a concept developed by the Australian SAS.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFAyKpEQxy4ma44FSdkqKd4COn2k2sNLgilWUloY7Y_M6yWvDWKfOmx42z9SmCHfZ3rVtzeSYSi5w7OiTp0HXtsFWGE6qVtA_MKuw06YPML46pKtMwpjfCnpZCAdVOaJxE6_kFCQ/s358/Hoot-Gary+mission.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="261" data-original-width="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFAyKpEQxy4ma44FSdkqKd4COn2k2sNLgilWUloY7Y_M6yWvDWKfOmx42z9SmCHfZ3rVtzeSYSi5w7OiTp0HXtsFWGE6qVtA_MKuw06YPML46pKtMwpjfCnpZCAdVOaJxE6_kFCQ/s320/Hoot-Gary+mission.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War</i><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;">, by James F. Dunnigan, Albert A. Nofi, (pp 79-85) gives a fairly accurate summation of what the LRRP teams did in Viet Nam. </span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;">My article </span><a href="http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=19422Evolution" style="color: #015782; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;"><i>Evolution of the LRRPs</i> </a><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;">gives a broader picture of the small unit concept.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;">The </span><a href="http://www.ranger.org/html/vietnam_history.html" style="color: #015782; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;">U.S. Army Rangers Association</a><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;"> also has a good — and briefer — history of the unit as well as a listing of which LRRP outfits became which Ranger companies.. </span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;">The reason I’m telling you this? </span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2664722529914200617" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 586px;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2664722529914200617" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 586px;"><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;">On February 1, 1969 all the LRRP companies in RVN were re-designated 75th Ranger companies, tracing their lineage back to the famed Merrill’s Marauders (5307th Composite Group) of WWII (Burma) fame. My unit became K Company, 75th Rangers.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;">So, here’s to 52nd birthday of the modern Rangers, and to all of the men — dead and alive — who served as LRPs and LRRPs in Viet Nam and as Rangers in conflicts around the globe. </span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">“Lieutenant General John H. Hays, Jr., who commanded the 1st Infantry Division from February 1967 to March 1968 and went on to become the deputy commanding general of II Field Force, serving until August 1968, said that the LRRPs were, “… generally considered to have the most uncomfortable and dangerous job in Vietnam…,” but also noted that, “… the way in which the long range patrols were used was one of the most significant innovations of the war.””</i><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;">—</span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Evolution of the LRRPs<span style="background-color: white;"> — GPJ<br /></span></i><div style="clear: both;"></div></div><div><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div>garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-91729806289374381892020-10-02T20:38:00.001-04:002020-10-02T20:38:16.797-04:00LRRP's World: OPERATION GOTHIC SERPENTToday. October 3, 2020, ...<a href="https://lrrpsworld.blogspot.com/2020/10/operation-gothic-serpent-today.html?spref=bl">LRRP's World: OPERATION GOTHIC SERPENT
Today. October 3, 2020, ...</a>: OPERATION GOTHIC SERPENT Today. October 3, 2020, marks the 27th anniversary of the start of the raid — Operation Gothic Serpent — in Mogadi...garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-8144681705416754112020-10-02T20:30:00.000-04:002020-10-02T20:30:08.199-04:00<p><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #262626; font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">OPERATION GOTHIC SERPENT</span></span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Today. October 3, 2020, marks the 27th anniversary of the start of the raid — Operation Gothic Serpent — in Mogadishu, Somalia, in which 19 American soldiers were killed in the contacts immortalized in the Mark Bowden’s book, and the Ridley Scott movie made from it, </span><i style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Black Hawk Down</i><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">.</span></p><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Although often thought of as a 75th Ranger ops (B Company, 3<sup>rd</sup> Bn.), Special Forces (1<sup>st</sup> SFOD-D), Navy SEALs (DEVGRU), Air Force Pararescuemen and Combat Controllers (24<sup>th</sup> Special Tactics Squadron) and 160th Special Operations Regiment (Night Stalkers) pilots were all involved in the battle, and the rescue element that extricated the Rangers, et al., was composed of US 10th Mountain Division troopers, as well as armor elements of Pakistani and Malaysian military.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Lost n the memory of the day was the fact that the object of the raid — capturing some criminals — was successful and that somewhere between 700 and 1500 Somalia street fighters were killed during the attack. Seventy-three Amercians were wounded in the attack and rescue/wrap up. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">The two Blackhawk helicopters taken down were hit by RPGs. Whether they were locals or al Qaida imports is still (02 Oct 20) debatable. </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Lest we forget:</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">SFC Randy Shughart</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, a Delta Sniper killed defending the crew of Super Six 4, the Medal of Honor.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">MSgt. Gary Gordon</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, a Delta Sniper killed defending the crew of Super Six 4, the Medal of Honor.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">MSgt. Tim “Griz” Martin</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, Delta soldier killed on the Lost Convoy, Delta Force.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">SFC Earl Fillmore</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, Delta soldier killed moving to the first crash site, Delta Force.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">SSgt. Daniel Busch</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, crashed on Super Six 1 and was killed defending the downed crew, the Silver Star, Delta Force.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">CWO Clifton Wolcott</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, pilot of Super Six 1 and died in crash, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star Medal, and the Air Medal with Valor Device, Night Stalkers.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">CWO Donovan Briley</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, copilot of Super Six 1 and died in crash, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star and Air Medal with Valor Device, Night Stalkers.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">CWO Raymond Frank</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, copilot of Super Six 4, Silver Star, Air Medal with Valor Device, Night Stalkers.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">SSgt. William Cleveland</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, a crew chief on Super Six 4, Silver Star, Bronze Star and Air Medal with Valor Device, Night Stalkers.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Staff Sgt. Thomas Field</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, a crew chief on Super Six 4, Silver Star, Bronze Star and Air Medal with Valor Device, Night Stalkers.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Sgt. Casey Joyce</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, who was killed on the Lost Convoy, the Bronze Star with Valor Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Spc. James Cavaco</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, who was killed on the Lost Convoy, the Bronze Star with Valor Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Cpl. Jamie Smith</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, who bled to death with the pinned-down force around crash site one, the Bronze Star with Valor Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Sgt. Dominick Pilla</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, who was killed on the convoy rescuing Pfc. Todd Blackburn, the Bronze Star with Valor Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">PFC Richard Kowalewski</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, who was killed on the Lost Convoy, the Bronze Star with Valor Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Sgt. Lorenzo Ruiz</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, who was killed on the Lost Convoy, the Bronze Star with Valor Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Sgt. Cornell Houston,</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;"> who was killed fighting on the rescue convoy, the Bronze Star with Valor Device, De Fleury medal, 10th Mountain Division.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">PFC James Martin</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, who was killed on the rescue convoy, 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry, 10th Mountain Division.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Sgt. Matt Rierson</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, who was killed on Oct. 6 by a mortar which landed just outside the hangar, Delta Force.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Pvt. Mat Aznan Awang</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;"> (posthumously promoted to Cpl) driver of a Malaysian Condor APC hit by a RPG on Oct. 3rd.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">My prayers — such as they are — for their families. </span></div>garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-11601278692166881012020-01-31T17:44:00.000-05:002020-01-31T17:44:11.182-05:0051st Anniversary — LRRPs to Rangers<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-2664722529914200617" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 586px;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk-qtzRwRQcAzBohhHNKNN9v8JEsnx9NI-AflVTbnhbci-sWh-sSLRCAuee4k3BM-M-2WEq0szhfnch9EDK0lVfsBNGZbm0AZ2OsxItCmcvOabrLyJYKXaV4qnXl9nPdxV3jq-EA/s1600/Recondo+School+-+GJ+w+AK47.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="805" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk-qtzRwRQcAzBohhHNKNN9v8JEsnx9NI-AflVTbnhbci-sWh-sSLRCAuee4k3BM-M-2WEq0szhfnch9EDK0lVfsBNGZbm0AZ2OsxItCmcvOabrLyJYKXaV4qnXl9nPdxV3jq-EA/s400/Recondo+School+-+GJ+w+AK47.png" width="400" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Back prior to 1969, there were a bunch of us — all volunteers, all paratroopers — who served in an outfit called the LRRPs — Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol. Yes, that’s where the name for this blog came from.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">In my case our official designation was E-Co., 58th Inf., LRRP, 1/10 Cavalry, 4th Infantry Division. Every division had a LRRP (or LRP — Long Range Patrol) of its own, operating with teams composed of anywhere between three or four to eight men and sometimes more. In E-58 we used the three-four combination (usually three Americans and a Montagnyard), a concept developed by the Australian SAS.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">, by James F. Dunnigan, Albert A. Nofi, (pp 79-85) gives a fairly accurate summation of what the LRRP teams did in Viet Nam. </span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">My article </span><a href="http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=19422Evolution" style="color: #015782; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;"><i>Evolution of the LRRPs</i> </a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">gives a broader picture of the small unit concept.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The </span><a href="http://www.ranger.org/html/vietnam_history.html" style="color: #015782; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;">U.S. Army Rangers Association</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> also has a good — and briefer — history of the unit as well as a listing of which LRRP outfits became which Ranger companies.. </span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The reason I’m telling you this? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">On February 1, 1969 all the LRRP companies in Viet Nam were redesignated 75th Ranger companies, tracing their lineage back to the famed Merrill’s Marauders (5307th Composite Group) of WWII (Burma) fame. My unit became K Company, 75th Rangers.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">So, here’s to 51st birthday of the modern Rangers, and to all of the men — dead and alive — who served as LRPs and LRRPs in Viet Nam and as Rangers in conflicts around the globe. </span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">“Lieutenant General John H. Hays, Jr., who commanded the 1st Infantry Division from February 1967 to March 1968 and went on to become the deputy commanding general of II Field Force, serving until August 1968, said that the LRRPs were, “… generally considered to have the most uncomfortable and dangerous job in Vietnam…,” but also noted that, “… the way in which the long range patrols were used was one of the most significant innovations of the war.””</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">— GPJ, </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Evolution of the LRRPs</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">.</span><div style="clear: both;">
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garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-39406870424524527882020-01-25T21:10:00.001-05:002020-01-25T21:12:50.321-05:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7qoQ_yrX-BHmKUQmUuH45C1rTiE3m_mx_EfpRZi17Vb52Qg6FixBwky0CuXgbqpWv0N6Sp3s0UtUJoOS99uFWhnN3J5x3zhv63hUv4VpLO-5s-hSImGB8ojdW_y3iwRPNcTiXg/s1600/Roger+Penske+Sebring.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1208" data-original-width="1475" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG7qoQ_yrX-BHmKUQmUuH45C1rTiE3m_mx_EfpRZi17Vb52Qg6FixBwky0CuXgbqpWv0N6Sp3s0UtUJoOS99uFWhnN3J5x3zhv63hUv4VpLO-5s-hSImGB8ojdW_y3iwRPNcTiXg/s320/Roger+Penske+Sebring.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
Roger Penske when he was a driver. It's a Gran Sport Corvette at Sebring ... I think 1965. I think that's Lorenzo Bandini in a works Ferrari behind him ...not sure about the Porsche ...<br />
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This was on the Sebring airport circuit. The signature says "To Gary ... Best Wishes ...Roger Penske"</div>
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It don't get better than that!!!!<br />
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garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-7250767965729326922018-10-12T19:54:00.004-04:002018-10-12T19:54:59.490-04:00LEST WE FORGET - THE USS COLE - 18th ANNIVERSARY<div class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 17.33333396911621px;">Let's not forget the sailors who died on the <i>USS Cole </i>18 years ago, and let's not forget that the fifth century scum who did it are still out there<i>.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">On October 12, 2000, USS Cole, under the command of Commander Kirk Lippold, set in to Aden Harbor for a routine fuel stop. Cole completed mooring at 0930. Refueling started at 1030. Around 1118 local time, a small craft approached the port side of the destroyer, and an explosion occurred, putting a 40-by-60-foot gash in the ship's port side. The attack was the deadliest against a U.S. Naval vessel since the Iraqi attack on the USS Stark (FFG-31) on May 17, 1987.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Those who died were:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Electronics Technician 1st Class Richard Costelow<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Mess Management Specialist Lakina Francis<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Information Systems Technician Tim Guana<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Signalman Seaman Recruit Cherone Gunn<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Seaman James McDaniels<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Engineman 2nd Class Mark Nieto<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Electronics Warfare Technician 3rd Class Ronald Owens<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Seaman Recruit Lakiba Parker<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Engineman Fireman Joshua Parlett<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Fireman Apprentice Patrick Roy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Electronics Warfare Technician Kevin Rux<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Petty Officer 3rd Class Ron Santiago<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Operations Special 2nd Class Timothy Sanders<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Fireman Gary Swenchonis Jr<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Ensign Andrew Triplett<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Seaman Apprentice Craig Wibberly<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Fair seas to all.</span></div>
garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-55373717957680516552018-10-03T08:19:00.000-04:002018-10-03T08:19:07.825-04:00OPERATION GOTHIC SERPENT – OCTOBER 3, 1993 – 25th Anniversary<br /><div class="post-header" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1em;">
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<i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">— Wm. Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act V</span></i><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Today marks the 25th anniversary of the start of the raid — Operation Gothic Serpent — in Mogadishu, Somalia, in which 19 American soldiers were killed in the contacts immortalized in the Mark Bowden’s book, and the Ridley Scott movie made from it, <i>Black Hawk Down</i>. </span><br /><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">(A<i>bove image is a 1993 photo of B Co, 3 Bn. Rangers in Somalia.</i>)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Although often thought of as a 75th Ranger ops (B Company, 3<sup>rd</sup> Bn.), Special Forces (1<sup>st</sup> SFOD-D), Navy SEALs (DEVGRU), Air Force Pararescuemen and Combat Controllers (24<sup>th</sup> Special Tactics Squadron) and 160th Special Operations Regiment (Night Stalkers) pilots were all involved in the battle, and the rescue element that extricated the Rangers, et al., was composed of US 10th Mountain Division troopers, as well as armor elements of Pakistani and Malaysian military.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Lost in the memory of the day was the fact that the object of the raid — capturing some criminals — was successful and that somewhere between 700 and 1500 Somalia street fighters were killed during the attack. Seventy-three Amercians were wounded in the attack and rescue/wrap up. </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">The two Blackhawk helicopters taken down were hit by RPGs. Whether they were locals or al Qaida imports is debatable. </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Lest we forget:</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">SFC Randy Shughart</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, a Delta Sniper killed defending the crew of Super Six 4, the Medal of Honor.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">MSgt. Gary Gordon</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, a Delta Sniper killed defending the crew of Super Six 4, the Medal of Honor.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">MSgt. Tim “Griz” Martin</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, Delta soldier killed on the Lost Convoy, Delta Force.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">SFC Earl Fillmore</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, Delta soldier killed moving to the first crash site, Delta Force.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">SSgt. Daniel Busch</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, crashed on Super Six 1 and was killed defending the downed crew, the Silver Star, Delta Force.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">CWO Clifton Wolcott</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, pilot of Super Six 1 and died in crash, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star Medal, and the Air Medal with Valor Device, Night Stalkers.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">CWO Donovan Briley</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, copilot of Super Six 1 and died in crash, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star and Air Medal with Valor Device, Night Stalkers.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">CWO Raymond Frank</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, copilot of Super Six 4, Silver Star, Air Medal with Valor Device, Night Stalkers.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">SSgt. William Cleveland</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, a crew chief on Super Six 4, Silver Star, Bronze Star and Air Medal with Valor Device, Night Stalkers.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Staff Sgt. Thomas Field</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, a crew chief on Super Six 4, Silver Star, Bronze Star and Air Medal with Valor Device, Night Stalkers.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Sgt. Casey Joyce</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, who was killed on the Lost Convoy, the Bronze Star with Valor Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Spc. James Cavaco</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, who was killed on the Lost Convoy, the Bronze Star with Valor Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Cpl. Jamie Smith</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, who bled to death with the pinned-down force around crash site one, the Bronze Star with Valor Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Sgt. Dominick Pilla</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, who was killed on the convoy rescuing Pfc. Todd Blackburn, the Bronze Star with Valor Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">PFC Richard Kowalewski</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, who was killed on the Lost Convoy, the Bronze Star with Valor Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Sgt. Lorenzo Ruiz</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, who was killed on the Lost Convoy, the Bronze Star with Valor Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Sgt. Cornell Houston,</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;"> who was killed fighting on the rescue convoy, the Bronze Star with Valor Device, De Fleury medal, 10th Mountain Division.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">PFC James Martin</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, who was killed on the rescue convoy, 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry, 10th Mountain Division.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Sgt. Matt Rierson</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">, who was killed on Oct. 6 by a mortar which landed just outside the hangar, Delta Force.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">Pvt. Mat Aznan Awang</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;"> (posthumously promoted to Cpl) driver of a Malaysian Condor APC hit by a RPG on Oct. 3rd.</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: arial; font-size: 13pt;">My prayers — such as they are — for their families. </span></div>
</div>
garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-77234653059022121952018-09-17T17:08:00.002-04:002018-09-17T17:08:32.081-04:0074th ANNIVERSARY of OPERATION MARKET-GARDEN<div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-1356630692403482843" itemprop="description articleBody" style="line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 586px;">
<div class="separator" style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFQp2TYubDoSX-nF4xZKIxw0nUl66fXP5i2AXjGkCfAg-PUDD0_kDg0CH4tPkwWAdN_d6Itwo6mfkzlohs8Q5z_xp56hncaLXx4f7wo2uAfUx3x9MtAOiaWmen59uB3zz40kFuaQ/s1600/Waves_of_paratroops_land_in_Holland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1097" data-original-width="1398" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFQp2TYubDoSX-nF4xZKIxw0nUl66fXP5i2AXjGkCfAg-PUDD0_kDg0CH4tPkwWAdN_d6Itwo6mfkzlohs8Q5z_xp56hncaLXx4f7wo2uAfUx3x9MtAOiaWmen59uB3zz40kFuaQ/s400/Waves_of_paratroops_land_in_Holland.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: white;">For you paratroopers out there, September 15 marked the 74th anniversary of the launch of Operation Market Garden ... the largest airborne operation ever ...as in EVER.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: white;">Even though it failed to "end the war" it was a gallant effort nonetheless with troopers from all the allied commands. </span><br /><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: white;">The movie ain't bad, but the book is great. They both go by the title </span><i>A Bridge Too Far</i><span style="background-color: white;">. The movie starred "everybody" on both sides of the pond, and the book was written by Cornelius Ryan.</span><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: white;">You might also want to check<i> It Never Snows in September</i>, by Robert Kershaw (a look at Market Garden from the German side), or <i>Arnhem,</i> by Major-General R. E. Urquhart (yes, THAT Urquhart).</span></div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">(Photo is off US Paratroopers dropping on Holland ... courtesy of the US Government)</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-72404074282663411102018-03-28T20:50:00.001-04:002018-03-28T20:51:31.865-04:00BUMPSTOCKS — LRRP's WORLD'S OPINION<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: "times";">B<span style="font-size: large;">eing that I understand the
heart of the Second Amendment — to keep the people of the United States able to
defend themselves against a tyrannical government — I’m coming down on
bumpstocks this way:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">There ain’t NO fucking
reason in the world why you need one. Or why they should be legal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">Hear me out. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">If the shit hits the fan —
i.e., we “have” to protect ourselves against government troops — chances are most
of us are going to die. I say that from a POV of having survived a considerable
amount of combat in which large groups of my bad guys endeavored to kill small
groups of my good guys.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">We (the good guys) happened to be successful
— by and large — in not dying and killing remarkably larger amounts of bad guys,
than they killed us. But that’s mostly because we were able to do to them what
they always tried to do to our guys. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">That said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">I have whatever arms I have.
They are sufficient IMO. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">I’m pretty sure — even at
this advanced age — that there’s an awfully good chance I’ll be able to appropriate
a gun from a dead guy who was formerly trying to make me a dead guy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">Now … when I was doing this
sort of shit for a living, some of us liked to — in some cases, had to — use
the same type weaponry that belong to our enemies. We usually obtained these
weapons by killing the guy who formerly owned the weapon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">The hard part in a lot of
cases was keeping enough quality ammo for the weapon to carry it back into
combat. Communist block ammunition was notoriously shitty, and the last thing
you needed was bullets that didn’t work. Even if their guns always did (we're talking AK-47s here).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">So. You’ve stockpiled enough
.223 to keep you to doomsday. However … auto sucks, and bumpstocks suck because
they make semis auto. And you will run out of .223 faster than shit on full
auto or bumpstock auto.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">With the exception of an
on-point contact — in which you dump a full mag to stay alive — automatic weaponry sucks
and isn’t effective. Regardless of what you’ve seen in the movies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">Not trying to brag, but I’ve
been in some shitstorms of 20-feet-away, 20- or 25-to-one firefights and never
used anything other than semi-auto. Apparently, we (me and three other guys)
were successful, because I’m actually writing this horseshit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">So. You don’t need a
bumpstock or a full auto weapon. And, if you’re actually good at what you do, you’ll be able
to get one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">What you need is to do is stay in
shape (said this fat, old guy), know your weapon, and be ready to kill a living
human being. Not everyone can, and not everyone will (mainly because it’s one
of the most terrible things you’ll ever have to live with. If it isn’t, then
you’re a sociopath and you REALLY shouldn’t own a bumpstock or a full-auto
weapon). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;">That’s my opinion. And I've sure as shit been there, done that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times"; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2IOZ-5Nk5k&t=6s" target="_blank">HERE's</a> <span style="font-family: "times";"> a link to what I consider one of the best videos on bumpstocks ... and why YOU don't need one. </span></span></div>
garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-68368480636601605082018-03-28T19:34:00.001-04:002018-03-28T19:34:21.161-04:00LYING BY THE NUMBERS — BUT IT'S WHAT THE ANTI-CONSTITUTIONALISTS DO<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Defensive Gun Use Is More Than</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"> Shooting Bad Guys</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;">It's hard to say exactly, but it's certainly more than many
media outlets are reporting.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
By James Agresti<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a New York Times column entitled “How to Reduce
Shootings,” Nicholas Kristof writes, “It is true that guns are occasionally
used to stop violence. But contrary to what the National Rifle Association
suggests, this is rare. One study by the Violence Policy Center found that in
2012 there were 259 justifiable homicides by a private citizen using a firearm.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That statement grossly misleads by pretending that firearms
only stop violence when they are used to kill criminals. As explained by the
National Academies of Sciences in a 300+ page analysis of firearms studies,
“Effective defensive gun use need not ever lead the perpetrator to be wounded
or killed. Rather, to assess the benefits of self-defense, one needs to measure
crime and injury averted. The particular outcome of an offender is of little
relevance.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Likewise, a 1995 paper in the Journal of Criminal Law and
Criminology states, “This is also too serious a matter to base conclusions on
silly statistics comparing the number of lives taken with guns with the number
of criminals killed by victims. Killing a criminal is not a benefit to the
victim, but rather a nightmare to be suffered for years afterward.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Crime Prevention<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The purpose of having a gun for defense is not to kill
criminals but to prevent them from killing or harming others. Accordingly, the
same 1995 paper found that “only 8 percent” of people who use a gun for defense
“report wounding an adversary.” Given the study’s sample size, this 8 percent
figure has a margin of sampling error of ± 4 percentage points with 95 percent
confidence. The authors conclude that “the rather modest 8.3 percent wounding
rate we found is probably too high” and that defensive gun uses “are less
serious or dramatic in their consequences than our data suggest.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A range of credible data suggests that civilians use guns to
stop violence more than 100,000 times per year.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In other words, people who use a gun for defense rarely harm
(much less kill) criminals. This is because criminals often back off when they
discover their targets are armed. A 1982 survey of male felons in 11 state
prisons across the U.S. found that 40 percent of them had decided not to commit
a crime because they “knew or believed that the victim was carrying a gun.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Contrary to Kristof’s deceitful claim, a range of credible
data suggests that civilians use guns to stop violence more than 100,000 times
per year.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For instance, the above-cited 1995 paper was based on a
survey of 4,977 households, which found that at least 0.5 percent of households
over the previous five years had members who had used a gun for defense during
a situation in which they thought someone “almost certainly would have been
killed” if they “had not used a gun for protection.” Applied to the U.S.
population using standard scientific methods, this amounts to at least 162,000
saved lives per year, excluding all “military service, police work, or work as
a security guard.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Since this data is from the 1990s and is based on people’s
subjective views of what would have happened if they did not use a gun, it
should be taken with a grain of salt. However, the same survey found that the
number of people who used a gun for self-defense was about six times greater
than the number who said that using the gun “almost certainly” saved a life.
This amounts to at least 1,029,615 defensive gun uses per year, including those
in which lives were saved and those of lesser consequence.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Facing the Facts<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Notably, anti-gun criminologist Marvin E. Wolfgang praised
this study, which was conducted by pro-gun researchers Gary Kleck and Marc
Gertz. In the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Wolfgang wrote:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“I am as strong a gun-control advocate as can be found among
the criminologists in this country.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Nonetheless, the methodological soundness of the current
Kleck and Gertz study is clear. I cannot further debate it.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“The Kleck and Gertz study impresses me for the caution the
authors exercise and the elaborate nuances they examine methodologically. I do
not like their conclusions that having a gun can be useful, but I cannot fault
their methodology.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Other credible studies provide evidence that defensive gun
uses are much more common than Kristof leads his readers to believe.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anti-gun researcher David McDowall and others conducted a
major survey of defensive gun use that was published in the Journal of
Quantitative Criminology in 2000. The authors did not take their survey results
to their logical conclusions by using the common practice of weighting them to
determine what the results would be for a nationally representative survey. But
when one does this, the results imply that U.S. civilians use guns to defend
themselves and others from crime at least 990,000 times per year. This figure
accounts only for “clear” cases of defensive gun use and is based upon a
weighting calculation designed to minimize defensive gun uses.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Similarly, a 1994 survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that Americans use guns to frighten
away intruders who are breaking into their homes about 498,000 times per year.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In 2013, President Obama ordered the Department of Health
and Human Services and CDC to “conduct or sponsor research into the causes of
gun violence and the ways to prevent it.” In response, the CDC asked the
Institute of Medicine and National Research Council to “convene a committee of
experts to develop a potential research agenda focusing on the public health
aspects of firearm-related violence...” This committee studied the issue of
defensive gun use and reported:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Defensive use of guns by crime victims is a common
occurrence, although the exact number remains disputed…”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Almost all national survey estimates indicate that
defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by
criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more
than 3 million…”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“[S]ome scholars point to a radically lower estimate of only
108,000 annual defensive uses based on the National Crime Victimization
Survey,” but this “estimate of 108,000 is difficult to interpret because
respondents were not asked specifically about defensive gun use.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Studies that directly assessed the effect of actual
defensive uses of guns (i.e., incidents in which a gun was ‘used’ by the crime
victim in the sense of attacking or threatening an offender) have found
consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with
victims who used other self-protective strategies…”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In sum, the difference between credible defensive gun use
data and Kristof’s deceitful “259” figure is enormous. By misleading his
readers to believe that firearms are rarely used for defense, he and his
editors at the Times could dissuade people who may otherwise save lives from
ever getting the firearms that enable them to do so.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Timely stories and timeless principles, delivered daily to
your inbox.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sign up for the FEE Daily!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
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garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-9285087841374937682018-03-28T19:29:00.004-04:002018-03-28T19:29:49.217-04:00The Anti-Gun Movement's Use of Child Crusaders Debases the National Discourse<div class="article-about" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Lora;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>I sooooooo wish I'd wrote this — Gary P. Joyce</i></span></h1>
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<br /></h1>
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The Anti-Gun Movement’s Use of Child Crusaders Debases National Discourse</h1>
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The anti-gun movement’s elevation of these students to the status of celebrities merits scrutiny.</div>
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<a href="https://fee.org/people/jordan-mcgillis/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #ff2322; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Jordan McGillis " src="https://fee.org/media/25950/jordanmcgillis.jpg?center=0.4525,0.4475&mode=crop&height=100&widthratio=1&rnd=131565280080000000" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 10px 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 70px;" /></a></div>
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by <a href="https://fee.org/people/jordan-mcgillis/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #ff2322; font-family: Lora !important; text-decoration: none;">Jordan McGillis </a></h6>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Impassioned by the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas shooting that left 17 families without loved ones and a school forever changed, Cameron Kasky, Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, and other MSD students have embarked on a crusade for stricter gun laws—and become </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">de facto</em><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">spokespersons for the anti-gun movement. With emotions still raw and wounds both physical and psychological far from healed, the students have unleashed a torrent of vitriol on all parties they think contributed to their tragedy: gun manufacturers, gun-rights advocates, companies that do business with them, lawmakers, and regular gun-owning Americans. </span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The reaction of these young people to the heinous violence they experienced six weeks ago has rightfully been met with sympathy. But the anti-gun movement’s elevation of these students to the status of celebrities merits scrutiny.</span></div>
<h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: adobecaslonrroregular; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding-top: 15px;">
The Hubris of Youth</h2>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Kasky and his classmates, driven by grief, anger, and the hubris of youth, have become mascots for the anti-gun movement and darlings of a national media that aids it. Beginning with interviews in the hours after the shooting and a CNN town hall event, their words have been conferred an unearned gravitas.</span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">
<span class="rte-quote" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #231f20; float: right; font-family: montserrat; font-size: 24px; line-height: 36.4px; margin: 0px 0px 18px 20px; width: 315px;">Age itself does not disqualify a person from contributing a valid argument, but these teenagers are acting in response to trauma, and their arguments show it. </span></div>
<ul class="social-links share-quotes" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: initial; list-style: none; margin: 5px 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px;">
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; padding: 0px 8px 0px 0px;"><a addthis:href="https://fee.org/articles/the-anti-gun-movement-s-use-of-child-crusaders-debases-national-discourse/?utm_source=FEE+Email+Subscriber+List&utm_campaign=1c96e8456c-MC_FEE_DAILY_2018_03_28&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84cc8d089b-1c96e8456c-108334341" addthis:quote="Age itself does not disqualify a person from contributing a valid argument, but these teenagers are acting in response to trauma, and their arguments show it." addthis:title="Age itself does not disqualify a person from contributing a valid argument, but these teenagers are acting in response to trauma, and their arguments show it." class="addthis_button_facebook at300b" href="https://fee.org/articles/the-anti-gun-movement-s-use-of-child-crusaders-debases-national-discourse/?utm_source=FEE+Email+Subscriber+List&utm_campaign=1c96e8456c-MC_FEE_DAILY_2018_03_28&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84cc8d089b-1c96e8456c-108334341#" style="background-color: #3b5a96; border-bottom-left-radius: 100%; border-bottom-right-radius: 100%; border-top-left-radius: 100%; border-top-right-radius: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-size: 12px; height: 25px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; width: 25px !important;" title="facebook"><span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-facebook" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: FontAwesome; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 25px; text-rendering: auto;"></span></a></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; padding: 0px 8px 0px 0px;"><a addthis:href="https://fee.org/articles/the-anti-gun-movement-s-use-of-child-crusaders-debases-national-discourse/?utm_source=FEE+Email+Subscriber+List&utm_campaign=1c96e8456c-MC_FEE_DAILY_2018_03_28&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84cc8d089b-1c96e8456c-108334341" addthis:quote="Age itself does not disqualify a person from contributing a valid argument, but these teenagers are acting in response to trauma, and their arguments show it." addthis:title="Age itself does not disqualify a person from contributing a valid argument, but these teenagers are acting in response to trauma, and their arguments show it." class="addthis_button_twitter at300b" href="https://fee.org/articles/the-anti-gun-movement-s-use-of-child-crusaders-debases-national-discourse/?utm_source=FEE+Email+Subscriber+List&utm_campaign=1c96e8456c-MC_FEE_DAILY_2018_03_28&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84cc8d089b-1c96e8456c-108334341#" style="background-color: #59adeb; border-bottom-left-radius: 100%; border-bottom-right-radius: 100%; border-top-left-radius: 100%; border-top-right-radius: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-size: 12px; height: 25px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; width: 25px !important;" title="twitter"><span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-twitter" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: FontAwesome; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 25px; text-rendering: auto;"></span></a></li>
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; padding: 0px 8px 0px 0px;"><a addthis:href="https://fee.org/articles/the-anti-gun-movement-s-use-of-child-crusaders-debases-national-discourse/?utm_source=FEE+Email+Subscriber+List&utm_campaign=1c96e8456c-MC_FEE_DAILY_2018_03_28&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84cc8d089b-1c96e8456c-108334341" addthis:quote="Age itself does not disqualify a person from contributing a valid argument, but these teenagers are acting in response to trauma, and their arguments show it." addthis:title="Age itself does not disqualify a person from contributing a valid argument, but these teenagers are acting in response to trauma, and their arguments show it." class="addthis_button_more at300b" href="https://fee.org/articles/the-anti-gun-movement-s-use-of-child-crusaders-debases-national-discourse/?utm_source=FEE+Email+Subscriber+List&utm_campaign=1c96e8456c-MC_FEE_DAILY_2018_03_28&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84cc8d089b-1c96e8456c-108334341#" style="background-color: #d8d8d8; border-bottom-left-radius: 100%; border-bottom-right-radius: 100%; border-top-left-radius: 100%; border-top-right-radius: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; color: #5d5c5d; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-size: 12px; height: 25px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; width: 25px !important;" target="_blank" title="more"><span aria-hidden="true" class="fa fa-plus-square-o" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: FontAwesome; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 25px; text-rendering: auto;"></span></a></li>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Age itself does not disqualify a person from contributing a valid argument, but these particular teenagers are acting in response to trauma, and their arguments show it. One line that I suspect will haunt Kasky was delivered in</span> <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/03/23/596356998/parkland-survivor-on-march-for-our-lives" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #ff2322; text-decoration: none;">an interview with National Public Radios’s Noel King</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> on the eve of the “March for Our Lives.” Asked what he has to say to teens with views that differ from his own, teens who enjoy shooting guns for sport, for example, Kasky responded that he would tell them, “We’re marching to protect you from other people like you who have guns.” The line betrays an impulsive authoritarianism that’s been fueled by tragedy, but critically—distressingly—encouraged by a movement that has greedily used the students to further its own message.</span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The continued presence of Kasky and his peers in the press implies that opinion-makers think the students’ views not only matter but should matter to the exclusion of others because they have been struck by tragedy. With each successive interview, the acrimony from the teens, not toward the assailant, but toward peaceful Americans is ratcheted higher. Kasky followed his we’re-protecting-you-from-people-like-you line with an even more accusatory barb, saying to youngsters who enjoy target practice, “We are the targets now. We are running away from people like you.”</span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ten years on from my own teenage years, I’m thankful that my views during that time of self-formation weren’t broadcast around the globe. I’m sure I’ll look back in another decade upon some of the views I hold today with the same discomfiture. Kasky, Gonzalez, and Hogg didn’t ask to be thrust into the spotlight and no ire need be directed toward them individually, but ire indeed belongs with the bloodhounds who have furthered their agendas on the back of teenage anguish.</span></div>
<h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: adobecaslonrroregular; font-size: 22px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 18px; padding-top: 15px;">
Appeals to Emotion, Not Facts</h2>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">I do not doubt that the teens who led the “March for Our Lives” hold their beliefs </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">sincerely—my contention is that the wider anti-gun movement is shamelessly using the teens to erect an intellectual shield. What sort of person, every cover photo and interview latently ask, could possibly be against these poor kids? This tactic stifles credible commentary in much the same way as we see advocacy for lower military budgets smeared as unpatriotic. It is the employment of emotion to cow rational dissent.</span></div>
<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 24px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">
<span class="rte-quote" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #231f20; float: right; font-family: montserrat; font-size: 24px; line-height: 36.4px; margin: 0px 0px 18px 20px; width: 315px;">To the survivors of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas shooting, we owe compassion, but to ourselves, we owe a sober and fact-based approach to policy. </span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">What Kasky and his peers seem not to have had time to learn in the whirlwind of their media tours, marches, and walkouts is that gun murders have, in fact, plummeted over the course of the last 30 years. And though each is an atrocity in its own right, even </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">school</span><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"> shootings show no statistical uptick. According to</span><a href="https://news.northeastern.edu/2018/02/schools-are-still-one-of-the-safest-places-for-children-researcher-says/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #ff2322; text-decoration: none;">research from Northeastern University</a><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">, in contradiction of our current moral panic, there have been only eight shootings that have killed four or more people at K-through-12 schools in the United States in the past 20 years. But the availability heuristic has won the day and instead of hearing the truth—that violence has precipitously fallen—students are being told they’re living through an epidemic of unparalleled danger.</span></div>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Should this information dull the pain felt by Kasky, his schoolmates, and the families of the slain? Of course not. But it should influence our policy discussions, which have unfortunately taken on a tone of hysteria. Gun laws are by no means out of bounds for public discussion, and it is valid to use recent events to illustrate flaws in our system, but the leveraging of emotion—both that felt by the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas survivors and that which it evokes from the public—detracts from the quality of our national discourse. To the survivors of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas shooting, we owe compassion, but to ourselves, we owe a sober and fact-based approach to policy.</span></div>
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<img alt="Jordan McGillis " src="https://fee.org/media/25950/jordanmcgillis.jpg?center=0.4525,0.4475&mode=crop&height=287&widthratio=1.3937282229965156794425087108&rnd=131565280080000000" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; filter: grayscale(100%); float: left; height: 68px !important; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto !important;" /><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: neutratext-regular; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 400; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 6px;">
<a href="https://fee.org/people/jordan-mcgillis/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #ff2322; font-family: Lora !important; text-decoration: none;">Jordan McGillis</a></h5>
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Jordan McGillis is a policy analyst at the Institute for Energy Research. Follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%40jordanmcgillis.&src=typd" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #ff2322; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@jordanmcgilllis</a>.</div>
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<a href="https://fee.org/articles/the-anti-gun-movement-s-use-of-child-crusaders-debases-national-discourse/?utm_source=FEE+Email+Subscriber+List&utm_campaign=1c96e8456c-MC_FEE_DAILY_2018_03_28&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84cc8d089b-1c96e8456c-108334341">https://fee.org/articles/the-anti-gun-movement-s-use-of-child-crusaders-debases-national-discourse/?utm_source=FEE+Email+Subscriber+List&utm_campaign=1c96e8456c-MC_FEE_DAILY_2018_03_28&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_84cc8d089b-1c96e8456c-108334341</a><br />
<br />garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-22000607034494146212018-03-26T19:28:00.000-04:002018-03-26T19:28:56.086-04:00LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT!Two broads — yeah, broads. You don't like that, too bad — got paid $130 and $150 grand each (!) to bang a rich guy who eventually became the President of the US. And they're complaining about it, and this ISN'T politically driven?<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, a lot of other guys who were president were banging them a dime-a-dozen while they were IN the White House (and also married) ? THOSE woman should be complaining ! (Unless they got paid more!)<br />
<br />
But God forbid we deal with truth!<br />
<br />
Wanna' know what REAL journalism is?<br />
<br />
Doing stories on all the other presidents who were actually President when they were using the Secret Service as pimps. You can go back to Camelot and waaaaaay before that.<br />
<br />
God forbid.<br />
<br />
The media and the liberal "establishment" (in quotes because there IS no "liberal establishment." They're just pimps getting teenagers to do their jobs) are the scum of the earth.<br />
<br />
You gotta love this shit.<br />
<br />
President Trump oughta' get up and say, "Hey, guess what. I banged the two of them, it was morally wrong because I was married, I apologize to my wife, now go fuck yourselves."<br />
<br />
Man up. You'll be one of the first presidents to do so. And you'll STILL get elected for another term.<br />
<br />
What have the fuck-heads on the left to offer that's better than you?<br />
<br />
Nada (wall or not!) .garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-20146772295467793782018-03-24T20:51:00.001-04:002018-03-24T20:51:56.660-04:00A MESSAGE TO THE KIDS<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I admire the fact that the youth of America decided to make a stand, even though I don't think they actually understand what "stand" they're going for.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unfortunately, they were led by ADULTS with an agenda. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Had they pulled this off as kids I would have applauded it, and possibly even agreed with them. But when EVERY news media outlet covered it as if it was God speaking to the non-believers, it lost its potency. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">YOU KIDS ARE RIGHT.....</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">But what you don't understand is that you've been CO-OPTED (look it up) by a bunch of scummy adults with an agenda. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">You are being used ...just like every generation is used by ADULTS who have money sunk into why they want something. The adults DON'T GIVE SHIT if you die (in school or anywhere else. You're fodder)— that's why young guys go to war — adults just want to make MONEY ...and now they're going to make it off you. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">YOU mean well. LOOK beneath how you were able to pull this off.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">WHO paid for the busses. WHO paid for the rooms. WHO paid for the signs. And MOST OF ALL ....what exactly does the Second Amendment mean? </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Even more importantly ... what state allows the purchase of "assault weapons?" (as far as I know, none!).</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> There are adults who have $$$$$$ invested in you buying BS ... LOOK at who's using you. PLEASE. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">You are important. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">You wanna change things? Change the voting/legal age. Stop thinking the Internet is more important than learning. LEARN history. And the next time some asshole runs for a position run against him. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">You wanna CHANGE THINGS? Marching won't do it. Get politically active and kick all us old guy's asses. I'm 69 years old ...I quit college when was 18 and joined the Army. I did three combat tours in Vietnam (did you learn about that Vietnam in school?), got spit at, kicked some ass, and learned to live with it. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">YOU KNOW WHO STOPPED THAT WAR? A bunch of kids. And that's a fact. A war we were winning got stopped by a ZILLION KIDS (all led by a bunch of fucked-up adults). But YOU CAN do it. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">BUT ... marching won't do it. Get involved, learn history, learn the law, learn business, tell your teachers to stop catering to the dumb-fucks in your class. KNOWLEDGE wins.</span>garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-26647225299142006172018-02-01T07:06:00.002-05:002018-02-01T07:06:18.153-05:0049th ANNIVERSARY: LRRPs to Rangers<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtPDTsCFQ1HaG-P2Iw0bfDJFZ1auRwLscyAIB9R_n53rL3gqO1ve8fSW3O69KOasJP7j8EeoTkDQjLSbuEMiK2VRUUnA7voPSJxMlCM6yBXQBqp268TpYDLAmUwUgs6uoB0ePDnQ/s1600/nam+68+A+1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1401" data-original-width="982" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtPDTsCFQ1HaG-P2Iw0bfDJFZ1auRwLscyAIB9R_n53rL3gqO1ve8fSW3O69KOasJP7j8EeoTkDQjLSbuEMiK2VRUUnA7voPSJxMlCM6yBXQBqp268TpYDLAmUwUgs6uoB0ePDnQ/s640/nam+68+A+1.jpeg" width="448" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Back prior to 1969, there were a bunch of us — all volunteers, all paratroopers — who served in an outfit called the LRRPs — Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol. Yes, that’s where the name for this blog came from.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Our official designation was E-Co., 58th Inf., LRRP, 1/10 Cavalry, 4th Infantry Division. Every division had a LRRP (or LRP — Long Range Patrol) of its own, operating with teams composed of anywhere between three or four to eight men and sometimes more. In E-58 we used the three-four combination (usually three Americans and a Montagnyard), a concept developed by the Australian SAS.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">, by James F. Dunnigan, Albert A. Nofi, (pp 79-85) gives a fairly accurate summation of what the LRRP teams did in Viet Nam. </span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">My article </span><a href="http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=19422Evolution" style="color: #015782; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;"><i>Evolution of the LRRPs</i> </a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">gives a broader picture of the small unit concept.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The </span><a href="http://www.ranger.org/html/vietnam_history.html" style="color: #015782; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: none;">U.S. Army Rangers Association</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"> also has a good — and briefer — history of the unit as well as a listing of which LRRP outfits became which Ranger companies.. </span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The reason I’m telling you this? On February 1, 1969 all the LRRP companies in Viet Nam were redesignated 75th Ranger companies, tracing their lineage back to the famed Merrill’s Marauders (5307th Composite Group) of WWII (Burma) fame. My unit became K Company, 75th Rangers.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">So, here’s to 49th birthday of the modern Rangers, and to all of the men — dead and alive — who served as LRRPs in Viet Nam and as Rangers in conflicts around the globe. </span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">“Lieutenant General John H. Hays, Jr., who commanded the 1st Infantry Division from February 1967 to March 1968 and went on to become the deputy commanding general of II Field Force, serving until August 1968, said that the LRRPs were, “… generally considered to have the most uncomfortable and dangerous job in Vietnam…,” but also noted that, “… the way in which the long range patrols were used was one of the most significant innovations of the war.””</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">— GPJ, </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Evolution of the LRRPs</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">.</span>garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-32119907058794681862017-11-10T08:23:00.003-05:002017-11-10T08:23:47.493-05:00IN MEMORIAM: THE EDMUND FITZGERALD<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpfm5yRNEXSCbrll5n9OkzYGidxfkrTxKj8YgbxQKHCQgNheg722rw5DALtosBxtjg_gyWESdrFsQ88F3cu1MMRgZGlqikPoqjHuwzyg4FSu3zaSdjHnp8hI81aeOiMIH6S8HERg/s1600/Edmund+Fitz.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="328" data-original-width="500" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpfm5yRNEXSCbrll5n9OkzYGidxfkrTxKj8YgbxQKHCQgNheg722rw5DALtosBxtjg_gyWESdrFsQ88F3cu1MMRgZGlqikPoqjHuwzyg4FSu3zaSdjHnp8hI81aeOiMIH6S8HERg/s400/Edmund+Fitz.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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November 10 marks the 42<sup>nd</sup> anniversary of the
loss of the ore-carrier <i>Edmund Fitzgerald</i> and all 29 hands. For those of you
unfamiliar with the story go to <a href="http://www.ssedmundfitzgerald.org/">HERE</a>.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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And for those of you who DON’T know the song, here’re the
lyrics.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Wreck of the <i>Edmund Fitzgerald</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Gordon+Lightfoot&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgVuLQz9U3yDE1KQIA-HnW3wwAAAA&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiUqZnsurHXAhXFz4MKHUVpCxsQMQgrMAA"><span style="color: #660099; font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Gordon
Lightfoot</span></a><span style="color: #777777; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down<br />
Of the big lake they called 'gitche gumee'<br />
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead<br />
When the skies of November turn gloomy<br />
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more<br />
Than the <i>Edmund Fitzgerald</i> weighed empty<br />
That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed<br />
When the gales of November came early<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The ship was the pride of the American side<br />
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin<br />
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most<br />
With a crew and good captain well seasoned<br />
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms<br />
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland<br />
And later that night when the ship's bell rang<br />
Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound<br />
And a wave broke over the railing<br />
And every man knew, as the captain did too,<br />
T'was the witch of November come stealin'<br />
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait<br />
When the gales of November came slashin'<br />
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain<br />
In the face of a hurricane west wind<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'<br />
Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya<br />
At seven pm a main hatchway caved in, he said<br />
Fellas, it's been good t'know ya<br />
The captain wired in he had water comin' in<br />
And the good ship and crew was in peril<br />
And later that night when his lights went outta sight<br />
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Does any one know where the love of God goes<br />
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?<br />
The searches all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay<br />
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her<br />
They might have split up or they might have capsized<br />
They may have broke deep and took water<br />
And all that remains is the faces and the names<br />
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lake Huron rolls, superior sings<br />
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion<br />
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams<br />
The islands and bays are for sportsmen<br />
And farther below Lake Ontario<br />
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her<br />
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know<br />
With the gales of November remembered<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In a musty old hall in
Detroit they prayed,<br />
In the maritime sailors' cathedral<br />
The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times<br />
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald<br />
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down<br />
Of the big lake they call 'gitche gumee'<br />
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead<br />
When the gales of November come early<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Songwriters:
Gordon Lightfoot<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald lyrics © Moose Music Ltd./Early Morning Music
Ltd.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-86005935701862904812017-10-27T20:16:00.004-04:002017-10-27T20:16:35.003-04:00MY APOLOGIES TO THE USMC<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="color: #29aae1; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; position: relative;">
<a href="http://lrrpsworld.blogspot.com/2016/10/33rd-anniversary.html" style="color: #29aae1; line-height: normal; text-decoration: none;">34th Anniversary ...</a></h3>
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<span style="background-color: white;">October 23, 2017, marked the 33rd anniversary of the 1983 terrorist bombing of the Marine barracks at Beirut airport in Lebanon, which killed 241 members of the 24th Marine Amphibious Unit.</span><br /><br /><span style="background-color: white;">Yet another unmarked, un-remembered reason why we're supposed to be killing islamic terrorists.</span></div>
garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-6358941500912953592017-10-02T07:47:00.002-04:002017-10-02T07:51:47.826-04:00OPERATION GOTHIC SERPENT – OCTOBER 3, 1993 – 24th Anniversary<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR7mwQUniXoaYo8eC0bKTgADZ-aS2RzE11ijQJRaqbQ_V0n11OBB_0MqUsZpMkipgSWfDzqYw-0tSR3a_sn3xdj9nUO5FNFsceU9_zXLU9irsIArzdadffruLta7I4rFArrlrLkQ/s1600/300px-75th_Ranger_Regiment_Bravo_Company_3rd_Batallion_Somalia_1993.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="187" data-original-width="299" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR7mwQUniXoaYo8eC0bKTgADZ-aS2RzE11ijQJRaqbQ_V0n11OBB_0MqUsZpMkipgSWfDzqYw-0tSR3a_sn3xdj9nUO5FNFsceU9_zXLU9irsIArzdadffruLta7I4rFArrlrLkQ/s400/300px-75th_Ranger_Regiment_Bravo_Company_3rd_Batallion_Somalia_1993.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Your son, my lord, has
paid a soldier's debt. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">— Wm. Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act V</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Tomorrow marks the 24th anniversary of the
start of the raid — Operation Gothic Serpent — in Mogadishu, Somalia, in which
19 American soldiers were killed in the contacts immortalized in the Mark
Bowden’s book, and the Ridley Scott movie made from it, <i>Black Hawk Down</i>. </span><br />
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">(A<i>bove image is a 1993 photo of B Co, 3 Bn. Rangers in Somalia.</i>)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Although often thought of as a 75th Ranger ops
(B Company, 3<sup>rd</sup> Bn.), Special Forces (1<sup>st</sup> SFOD-D), Navy
SEALs (DEVGRU), Air Force Pararescuemen and Combat Controllers (24<sup>th</sup>
Special Tactics Squadron) and 160th Special Operations Regiment (Night Stalkers) pilots were all
involved in the battle, and the rescue element that extricated the Rangers, et
al., was composed of US 10th Mountain Division troopers, as well as armor
elements of Pakistani and Malaysian military.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Lost in the memory of the day was the fact
that the object of the raid — capturing some criminals — was successful and
that somewhere between 700 and 1500 Somalia street fighters were killed during
the attack. Seventy-three Amercians were wounded in the attack and rescue/wrap
up. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The two Blackhawk helicopters taken down were
hit by RPGs. Whether they were locals or al Qaida imports is debatable. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Lest we forget:</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">SFC Randy Shughart</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, a Delta Sniper killed defending the crew of Super Six 4, the
Medal of Honor.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">MSgt. Gary Gordon</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, a Delta Sniper killed defending the crew of Super Six 4, the
Medal of Honor.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">MSgt. Tim “Griz”
Martin</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, Delta soldier killed on the Lost Convoy, Delta
Force.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">SFC Earl Fillmore</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, Delta soldier killed moving to the first crash site, Delta
Force.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">SSgt. Daniel Busch</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, crashed on Super Six 1 and was killed defending the downed
crew, the Silver Star, Delta Force.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">CWO Clifton Wolcott</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, pilot of Super Six 1 and died in crash, Distinguished Flying
Cross, Bronze Star Medal, and the Air Medal with Valor Device, Night Stalkers.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">CWO Donovan Briley</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, copilot of Super Six 1 and died in crash, Distinguished Flying
Cross, Bronze Star and Air Medal with Valor Device, Night Stalkers.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">CWO Raymond Frank</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, copilot of Super Six 4, Silver Star, Air Medal with Valor
Device, Night Stalkers.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">SSgt. William
Cleveland</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, a crew chief on Super Six 4, Silver Star,
Bronze Star and Air Medal with Valor Device, Night Stalkers.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Staff Sgt. Thomas
Field</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, a crew chief on Super Six 4, Silver Star,
Bronze Star and Air Medal with Valor Device, Night Stalkers.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Sgt. Casey Joyce</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, who was killed on the Lost Convoy, the Bronze Star with Valor
Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Spc. James Cavaco</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, who was killed on the Lost Convoy, the Bronze Star with Valor
Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Cpl. Jamie Smith</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, who bled to death with the pinned-down force around crash site
one, the Bronze Star with Valor Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Sgt. Dominick Pilla</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, who was killed on the convoy rescuing Pfc. Todd Blackburn, the
Bronze Star with Valor Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">PFC Richard Kowalewski</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, who was killed on the Lost Convoy, the Bronze Star with Valor
Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Sgt. Lorenzo Ruiz</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, who was killed on the Lost Convoy, the Bronze Star with Valor
Device, 75th Ranger Regiment.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Sgt. Cornell Houston,</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;"> who was killed fighting on the rescue convoy, the Bronze
Star with Valor Device, De Fleury medal, 10th Mountain Division.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">PFC James Martin</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, who was killed on the rescue convoy, 2nd Battalion, 14th
Infantry, 10th Mountain Division.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Sgt. Matt Rierson</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">, who was killed on Oct. 6 by a mortar which landed just outside
the hangar, Delta Force.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Pvt. Mat Aznan Awang</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;"> (posthumously promoted to Cpl) driver of a Malaysian Condor
APC hit by a RPG on Oct. 3rd.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 13.0pt;">My prayers — such as they are — for their
families. </span></div>
garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-13566306924034828432017-09-14T20:25:00.001-04:002017-09-14T20:25:53.610-04:0073rd ANNIVERSARY of OPERATION MARKET-GARDEN<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">For you paratroopers out there, September 15 marks the 73rd anniversary of the launch of Operation Market Garden ... the largest airborne operation ever ...as in EVER.</span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Even though it failed to "end the war" it was a gallant effort nonetheless with troopers from all the allied commands. </span><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The movie ain't bad, but the book is great. They both go by the title </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">A Bridge Too Far</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">. The movie starred "everybody" on both sides of the pond, and the book was written by Cornelius Ryan.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">You might also want to check<i> It Never Snows in September</i>, by Robert Kershaw (a look at Market Garden from the German side), or <i>Arnhem,</i> by Major-General R. E. Urquhart (yes, THAT Urquhart).</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span>garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-55113044900171611872017-07-05T19:52:00.001-04:002017-07-05T19:58:57.351-04:00YOU HAVE TO LOVE SANCTUARY CITIESEspecially liberal-run ones. They're just so ....fuzzy warm. And — thanks to such strict gun control — they're soooooo safe. <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-chicago-july-4-weekend-shootings-violence-20170705-story.html">GO HERE</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiipBXGDqeUU5UVnYecHOUOd8jVbYKZ9SbNPmkM0uIVbJ3HUOElgRmf3O38DT05o-wyHRe38JMJ9WcDAt1IlT6sbHFYwTDmzHC2sCrJOrXERCIFMlnn5kZeHgI9FjQBc04t19uuwA/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-07-05+at+7.57.38+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="1593" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiipBXGDqeUU5UVnYecHOUOd8jVbYKZ9SbNPmkM0uIVbJ3HUOElgRmf3O38DT05o-wyHRe38JMJ9WcDAt1IlT6sbHFYwTDmzHC2sCrJOrXERCIFMlnn5kZeHgI9FjQBc04t19uuwA/s400/Screen+Shot+2017-07-05+at+7.57.38+PM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18523799.post-6851397334943172592017-07-01T19:38:00.001-04:002017-07-01T19:38:03.677-04:00156 DEMS (and 1 REP): "IT'S OKAY FOR ILLEGALS TO KILL AMERICANS"One Republican (Congressman Justin Amash- R-MI) and 156 Democrats (a list of these asses is <a href="https://www.billoreilly.com/b/Speak-Out!-Contact-the-Senators-Who-Voted-Against-Kates-Law/-386169768288872244.html" target="_blank">HERE</a>) have said — by voting no against Kate's Law — it's OK for illegal immigrants to kill American women. Hell, it's OK to kill ANY American.<br />
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Spin this however you want, but the fact of the matter is that 157 self-absorbed, low rent, long-leeching idiots, think a non-citizen has more rights that YOUR wife, daughter, niece, aunt, etc., etc.<br />
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Kate's Law was named for Katie Steinle, a San Francisco woman murdered by an illegal immigrant who had been deported <i>multiple</i> (I believe it was five) times. She was killed July 1, 2015 by Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanches who shot her in the back with a .40 cal.<br />
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Kate's Law increases penalties for deported aliens who are caught on return to the US (this in lieu of a fucking wall).<br />
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Another bill passed by the House denies federal grants to those sanctimonious purveyors of sanctuary city filth (better termed "shooting gallery cities").<br />
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Both bills passed the House.<br />
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Let's see what all those 'courageous' representatives (who live quite well on our dime) in the Senate do.<br />
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<br />garyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12522418555760418180noreply@blogger.com1