11th month, 11th day, 11th hour
On Veterans Day:
You know, it’s funny. I got wished a Happy Veterans Day by six people before 9:00 AM this morning. I don’t think I was wished that until after the first Gulf War.
The first time I came back from someplace that people were shooting at us, no one even noticed I was gone, other than my father. I remember when he came to pick me up at the airport. He looked me in the eye and I think that was the first time I ever looked him back, square in the eye. Funny the things that you have to go through before you can really understand your father.
Cold gray Indiana days, always make me miss him, as does anytime I see a documentary on Arlington. My dad, after I got out of the service always called me on Veterans Day, much like when your mom calls you about Midnight Mass or Easter Services, to tell me when the service was at the graveyard. It depended on which organization he was least pissed off with as to where we would stand.
My father was a joiner; he belonged to the VFW, DAV, the Legion, the Korean Vets and the Vietnam Vets. Dad got around. We would go and I would stand there with him and my Uncles (military service was a family business) and his buddies. We would listen to a speech about duty, honor and sacrifice, given by someone who knew what it meant and said to people who understood it more that anyone who has never been could.
After taps, I always went home, most often back to bed, now that he is gone, I wish I could ask him so many things. How do you make sense of it all? How do you pick-up and move on, what worked, and what didn’t. And does it really ever stop?
God-Damn, I am sitting here right now and I would trade so much for a chance to go to the bar with him and his buddies and just listen to their stories. Wow, that caught me by surprise, I am fucking crying, good thing I got up and shut my door.
On another note, I was at a meeting with a bunch of other professionals on Monday, and the subject of PSTD came up and its treatment. I being the only veteran was asked for my prospective on the subject. Being in military is much like having someone stand right behind you with a loaded gun to your head. (Let’s say, for the sake of visualization a Smith and Wesson 44 Magnum revolver, just like the old Dirty Harry movies) you don’t know if the trigger is going to get pulled, but you know its pointed at you head, now this gun is there, 24/7, yes, 24/7, when your training, when your eating, when your sleeping, when your driving your car, when your taking your shower, when your making love, its always there.
I then asked how they thought they might handle the stress, and what long term effects that might have on them the individual. I then proceeded to make this example for someone who goes to combat. You see, in my experience, it’s a little different, The Smith and Wesson 44 Magnum revolver is still there, but instead of all six chambers being loaded, one is, and instead of just pointing it at you, someone is pulling the trigger and you know that one time its going to go boom, your going to run out of luck playing the odds game. You just hope you’re out of the shit before it gets a chance to. Once again, I asked how long they thought they could take that level of stress, and then think about road side bombs, ambushes and snipers, not for an hour but for days that crawl into weeks that slowly add up to months, that will eventually be years. I like giving other professionals models to examine their views.
I will tell you, the long term effects do tend to suck.
To my bothers and sisters, who stand or stood their turn on the wall, I salute you and I give you not only my thanks but my respect. In peacetime or combat, you were willing to go in harms way and give it all for America.
On going to the Dentist:
I hate the dentist, no really I hate the dentist. People often say, well everyone hates going to the dentist. Well they may, but do they have reason to? When I was a young man, in the service of my nation I visited a dentist.
Dear reader let me tell you, all those dental students who squeaked by on C- grades found respect and a steady pay-check in the service of this great land. Let me say that skills in DDSs were somewhat lacking at beautiful and sunny Ft. Bragg, NC. In having my wisdom teeth removed, I found myself 4 days later having to call in my own medivac while engaged in a field problem. (field problems for those not familiar with the term, involve little or no sleep, bad weather, extreme heat or extreme cold, bad and/or little food, and walking around a lot mostly at night, stoping every now and then to dig holes). I spent the next nine days in a military hospital (yes, much differs than those in the civilian world, but they are still better than any VA facility I have had the joy of going to, lets just say Bethesda it wasn’t). Seems I developed a nasty little bone infection from having my wisdom teeth removed.
While working for a state contract agency in an un-named state on the coast of the south that begins with an S and has the same last name as a state to the north, I decided to again give density a try. I had a cavity, and it hurt. I summed my courage and off I went. Well, thinking that hey what’s a cavity? No big deal. Well, about 45 minutes into the root-canal that I was told I needed, that sweet girl from the front desk came back and told the dentist. I juss c-a-ll-ed Bluue Cross and he don’t have no in-sure-ance (I spelled it out for those of you who have never lived in the low-country).
Funny me, I thought my employer was telling truth when he said we had dental insurance, even going to the point of giving us “temporary cards”. It was one of those insurances I was to find out that were only in existence if you didn’t need them. The dentist, true to both form and oath, stopped his work exposed nerves and all. Luckily, there was a retired dentist from New Jersey who lived three doors down from me at the time and he finished the root-canal in his kitchen for 50.00 cash and free golf passes.
Which leads me to today. I have a good dentist and I have learned they are worth their weight in gold and at times they have been known request their payment in that tender. Best of all he hands out drugs (to help with my anxiety, which I don’t have, but the Sweet and Sedated Mrs. John Q. Public enjoys the meds greatly). So, I have just returned from my visit, in and out, no waiting, pleasant, I still don’t like dentistry, I however have a new found respect for the art.
On World News:
Well, I was asked how I felt about Arafat dieing this morning. I didn’t like the man, he might have started out with his heart in the right place, but he proved the point that the ends do not justify the means. He was a terrorist, plan and simple, just ask any of the widows of the Munich Olympics. A guerrilla fighter targets military targets to advance their cause, a terrorist targets civilian. Ok, Arafat is dead. Please God, lets get someone who is serous about peace in there on both sides.
Nerve agent found…well, I will wait to read the after action reports when its all said and done before I make a call on this one, lets just get the job done and get the fuck out. Right now it looks like they are going to try Vietnamisation. I could go on but what’s the point.
Todays Poem:
The Soldier by Rupert Brooke
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Todays GOP Joke:
Dateline WASHINGTON, DC -
The GOP National Committee announced today that it is changing the Republican emblem from an elephant to a condom because it more clearly reflects the party's political stance:
A condom stands up to inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks and gives one a sense of security while screwing others.
Furthermore:
It was reported today that at a White House staff meeting last week there was a heated discussion about the health of Vice President Cheney and his angina problem.
President Bush interrupted and stated emphatically that men do not have anginas. The president was especially perplexed when a staffer said that Cheney has acute angina.
Sent to me by my dear friends two counties to the North...Thx
On today’s Musical Genius:
Roger Miller: The man who gave the world such great songs as “King of the Road” “You can’t roller-skate in a Buffalo herd” and who can forget the classic “Dang-Me”.
Well worth the listen to, if you’re in the mood for a time when music was simpler.
The word-smith like talents is both under-rated and under-appreciated. He makes auditory poems of his songs.
Quotes for the Day:
Given to me by some of the finest members of the military who were involved in the training of young minds to be all we could be.
“Sometimes you get the Bear, and sometimes the Bear gets you.”
“Aint nothing but a thing, if you don’t mind, it don’t matter.”
“Free you mind and your ass will follow.”
“Fuck it, suck-up and move on”
“Drive on Mother-Fuckers Drive on”
Airborne!
JQP
You know, it’s funny. I got wished a Happy Veterans Day by six people before 9:00 AM this morning. I don’t think I was wished that until after the first Gulf War.
The first time I came back from someplace that people were shooting at us, no one even noticed I was gone, other than my father. I remember when he came to pick me up at the airport. He looked me in the eye and I think that was the first time I ever looked him back, square in the eye. Funny the things that you have to go through before you can really understand your father.
Cold gray Indiana days, always make me miss him, as does anytime I see a documentary on Arlington. My dad, after I got out of the service always called me on Veterans Day, much like when your mom calls you about Midnight Mass or Easter Services, to tell me when the service was at the graveyard. It depended on which organization he was least pissed off with as to where we would stand.
My father was a joiner; he belonged to the VFW, DAV, the Legion, the Korean Vets and the Vietnam Vets. Dad got around. We would go and I would stand there with him and my Uncles (military service was a family business) and his buddies. We would listen to a speech about duty, honor and sacrifice, given by someone who knew what it meant and said to people who understood it more that anyone who has never been could.
After taps, I always went home, most often back to bed, now that he is gone, I wish I could ask him so many things. How do you make sense of it all? How do you pick-up and move on, what worked, and what didn’t. And does it really ever stop?
God-Damn, I am sitting here right now and I would trade so much for a chance to go to the bar with him and his buddies and just listen to their stories. Wow, that caught me by surprise, I am fucking crying, good thing I got up and shut my door.
On another note, I was at a meeting with a bunch of other professionals on Monday, and the subject of PSTD came up and its treatment. I being the only veteran was asked for my prospective on the subject. Being in military is much like having someone stand right behind you with a loaded gun to your head. (Let’s say, for the sake of visualization a Smith and Wesson 44 Magnum revolver, just like the old Dirty Harry movies) you don’t know if the trigger is going to get pulled, but you know its pointed at you head, now this gun is there, 24/7, yes, 24/7, when your training, when your eating, when your sleeping, when your driving your car, when your taking your shower, when your making love, its always there.
I then asked how they thought they might handle the stress, and what long term effects that might have on them the individual. I then proceeded to make this example for someone who goes to combat. You see, in my experience, it’s a little different, The Smith and Wesson 44 Magnum revolver is still there, but instead of all six chambers being loaded, one is, and instead of just pointing it at you, someone is pulling the trigger and you know that one time its going to go boom, your going to run out of luck playing the odds game. You just hope you’re out of the shit before it gets a chance to. Once again, I asked how long they thought they could take that level of stress, and then think about road side bombs, ambushes and snipers, not for an hour but for days that crawl into weeks that slowly add up to months, that will eventually be years. I like giving other professionals models to examine their views.
I will tell you, the long term effects do tend to suck.
To my bothers and sisters, who stand or stood their turn on the wall, I salute you and I give you not only my thanks but my respect. In peacetime or combat, you were willing to go in harms way and give it all for America.
On going to the Dentist:
I hate the dentist, no really I hate the dentist. People often say, well everyone hates going to the dentist. Well they may, but do they have reason to? When I was a young man, in the service of my nation I visited a dentist.
Dear reader let me tell you, all those dental students who squeaked by on C- grades found respect and a steady pay-check in the service of this great land. Let me say that skills in DDSs were somewhat lacking at beautiful and sunny Ft. Bragg, NC. In having my wisdom teeth removed, I found myself 4 days later having to call in my own medivac while engaged in a field problem. (field problems for those not familiar with the term, involve little or no sleep, bad weather, extreme heat or extreme cold, bad and/or little food, and walking around a lot mostly at night, stoping every now and then to dig holes). I spent the next nine days in a military hospital (yes, much differs than those in the civilian world, but they are still better than any VA facility I have had the joy of going to, lets just say Bethesda it wasn’t). Seems I developed a nasty little bone infection from having my wisdom teeth removed.
While working for a state contract agency in an un-named state on the coast of the south that begins with an S and has the same last name as a state to the north, I decided to again give density a try. I had a cavity, and it hurt. I summed my courage and off I went. Well, thinking that hey what’s a cavity? No big deal. Well, about 45 minutes into the root-canal that I was told I needed, that sweet girl from the front desk came back and told the dentist. I juss c-a-ll-ed Bluue Cross and he don’t have no in-sure-ance (I spelled it out for those of you who have never lived in the low-country).
Funny me, I thought my employer was telling truth when he said we had dental insurance, even going to the point of giving us “temporary cards”. It was one of those insurances I was to find out that were only in existence if you didn’t need them. The dentist, true to both form and oath, stopped his work exposed nerves and all. Luckily, there was a retired dentist from New Jersey who lived three doors down from me at the time and he finished the root-canal in his kitchen for 50.00 cash and free golf passes.
Which leads me to today. I have a good dentist and I have learned they are worth their weight in gold and at times they have been known request their payment in that tender. Best of all he hands out drugs (to help with my anxiety, which I don’t have, but the Sweet and Sedated Mrs. John Q. Public enjoys the meds greatly). So, I have just returned from my visit, in and out, no waiting, pleasant, I still don’t like dentistry, I however have a new found respect for the art.
On World News:
Well, I was asked how I felt about Arafat dieing this morning. I didn’t like the man, he might have started out with his heart in the right place, but he proved the point that the ends do not justify the means. He was a terrorist, plan and simple, just ask any of the widows of the Munich Olympics. A guerrilla fighter targets military targets to advance their cause, a terrorist targets civilian. Ok, Arafat is dead. Please God, lets get someone who is serous about peace in there on both sides.
Nerve agent found…well, I will wait to read the after action reports when its all said and done before I make a call on this one, lets just get the job done and get the fuck out. Right now it looks like they are going to try Vietnamisation. I could go on but what’s the point.
Todays Poem:
The Soldier by Rupert Brooke
If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.
Todays GOP Joke:
Dateline WASHINGTON, DC -
The GOP National Committee announced today that it is changing the Republican emblem from an elephant to a condom because it more clearly reflects the party's political stance:
A condom stands up to inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks and gives one a sense of security while screwing others.
Furthermore:
It was reported today that at a White House staff meeting last week there was a heated discussion about the health of Vice President Cheney and his angina problem.
President Bush interrupted and stated emphatically that men do not have anginas. The president was especially perplexed when a staffer said that Cheney has acute angina.
Sent to me by my dear friends two counties to the North...Thx
On today’s Musical Genius:
Roger Miller: The man who gave the world such great songs as “King of the Road” “You can’t roller-skate in a Buffalo herd” and who can forget the classic “Dang-Me”.
Well worth the listen to, if you’re in the mood for a time when music was simpler.
The word-smith like talents is both under-rated and under-appreciated. He makes auditory poems of his songs.
Quotes for the Day:
Given to me by some of the finest members of the military who were involved in the training of young minds to be all we could be.
“Sometimes you get the Bear, and sometimes the Bear gets you.”
“Aint nothing but a thing, if you don’t mind, it don’t matter.”
“Free you mind and your ass will follow.”
“Fuck it, suck-up and move on”
“Drive on Mother-Fuckers Drive on”
Airborne!
JQP
posted by John Q. Public esq. at 9:11 AM
<< Home