Tuesday, 03 July 2007
 

Want to be President? Here’s Your Manifesto.
Contributed by Bill Faith

Via email from Gene Harrison. The opinions expressed are his; I may or may not agree.

1. Accept resignations or retirement from all non-technical members of the State Department
2. Appoint John Bolton Secretary of State
3. Offer to help move the UN to Switzerland, Vienna, Berlin, or Moscow
4. Require UN members to support the UN in proportion to their population
5. Provide foreign aid on submission of national proposals reviewed by a peer group
6. All foreign aid to be provided by American companies: need new roads, call Halliburton.
7. Appoint Mark Krikorian special officer in the Department of Justice as Director of Immigration.
8. Fund and enforce all existing immigration laws.
9. Establish section of DARPA to develop new (seismic, video, infra-red, etc.) border control technology
10. Make all medical insurance freely available nationally, i.e., all medical insurance companies will be nationally licensed.
11. Establish appropriate fund recovery for medical research supported by NIH, and other federal agencies.
12. Proclaim that military response will be instantly forthcoming to any “act of war” identified by the President and subsequently submitted for review and approval by Congress. “Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead.”
13. Restore American Merchant Fleet
14. Speed approval of Nuclear Power plants, nuclear powered merchant fleet, nuclear powered locomotives.
15. Solve nuclear waste disposal problem: NASA, military?
16. Promote electric home heating and air conditioning
17. Enhance and extend national rail system.
18. Design and develop light rail (perhaps electromagnetic or elevated monorail) public transport.
19. Explore and test coal-into-oil technology
20. Explore and design rotary motion engines and flywheel power.
21. Design tidal capture power generation.
22. Offset costs of small, modest speed, short range personal transport systems (e.g., electric cars, three wheelers, tiller steered etc.)
23. Establish personal national flat (sales, VAT, or whatever) tax, modulated on occasion.
24. Establish Board of Tariffs on imported items of commerce to reestablish American production of everything: animal, vegetable, or mineral.
25. Establish a National Institute of Education similar to NSF
26. Provide an American Education Curriculum for ages 4 to 10; in twenty years we will have closed a racial-cultural-ethnic-gender achievement gap in reading, writing, and arithmetic
27. Restore non-academic programs (work preparation) in middle and high schools.
28. Establish principled public civic education from ages 4 to 18; restore American culture.
29. Require all 18 year-olds to engage in national service of various appropriate kinds.
30. Harvest and replace broad leaf trees. Establish federal greenspaces.
31. Restore freedom of speech and non-violent activities of all kinds: good, bad, or irrelevant

Contributed by Bill Faith on July 3, 2007 at 02:55 PM in Gene Harrison | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Tuesday, 31 October 2006
 

October Surprise.
Contributed by The Gray Dog

Down to the wire, the October Surprise was unleashed upon the Democrats yesterday.  Surprisingly it wasn’t launched by the Republicans, but instead the liberal’s very own “useful idiot” John Kerry. 

"You know, education - if you make the most of it - you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq,"

With that comment the Old War Dogs are pleased to make known their own 11th hour October surprise:

The Old War Dogs Forum is now open for membership at www.oldwardogs.org

This site was to be announced next week, but in light of Kerry’s comment and the importance of next week’s elections we hope you will visit what promises to be an exciting place for discourse on the issues of the day.

Participation does require registration, so don’t be shy.

Contributed by The Gray Dog on October 31, 2006 at 07:57 PM in 9/11, Afghanistan, Bill Faith, Bill's Bites, Bobbie Craig, Caring about our troops, CIA/NSA Treason, Current Affairs, Dem Dumbness, DisUnited Nations, G W Bush, Gene Harrison, George Mellinger, Iran, Iraq, Islamism Delenda Est, Jean Fraud Kerry, Jim Bartimus, Lloyd A. King, Mad Jack Murtha, Open Posts, Patriotism, Politics, Religion, Russ Vaughn, Shane Briscoe, Steve Gardner, The American Warrior, The Gray Dog, US Air Force, US Army, US Coast Guard, US Marine Corps, US Navy, Video, Viet Nam, War? What war?, William "1stCav" Page, Zero Ponsdorf | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Monday, 09 October 2006
 

Perhaps to Draft an All Volunteer Army
Contributed by George Mellinger

(One of our other dogs, Gene Harrison provoked me in an e-mail by soliciting my opinions on ROTC and conscription. Asking Rurik for an opinion is much like trying to get a drink from a firehose. You're guaranteed to get all you wanted and more.)

The draft? For me that is a difficult question. My brain, my heart and my gut all pull in different directions. And in today’s arena, it is made worse that the only ones arguing for reinstating conscription are a few dishonest schemers, like Charlie Rangel, who I know intend nothing but mischief. Thirty years ago, soon after Nixon had abolished the draft in a futile attempt to buy off the Watergate mob, I argued that is was a mortal mistake. Even if I was right, I think that three decades have made the end of conscription one of those irreversible mistakes, much like abolition of literacy requirements for voting, or the direct election of senators. You cannot turn an omelet back into the eggs.

At the time, I supported universal male conscription because it provided a large pool of manpower available for national defense and because it served as "the school of the nation".

As the "school of the nation", the draft took men from all walks of life and all social classes and mixed them together, Blacks from The Projects, Southern Rednecks, Urban Jews, Asians, Midwestern small town hicks, the works. Contrary to the civics class mythology, this did not teach us to love all our fellow Americans and treasure all the different ethnic groups. More often, it taught us that our preconceptions were spot on, and turned prejudices into postjudices. But at least the various antagonisms then were based on experience, including a knowledge of how to deal with that disliked "other". The military also taught us all to keep the peace with each other, to submerge our dislikes in behalf of the common cause. In fact it taught us to do this within our own ethnic and social groups as well. You may not like that sonofabitch, but if you cooperate, you’ll both return home alive, if not then neither. This is a truth and a talent that goes way beyond any brotherhood sermons. And I learned that intelligence, even genius-level, is only one particular talent of many, no more no less. Sometimes other talents, such as physical strength, coordination, or acute vision can be just as important or even more so. In our motorpool was a fellow, Dwight from Sink’s Grove, West Virginia, who was one of the dimmest doofuses I’ve ever met. He was also the best mechanic in the motorpool, a mechanical genius who could make even the most hopeless truck or scoop loader respond. The military also taught us self-discipline, and a certain reliability. And an ability to fend for one’s self. And attention to detail, and the ability to respond during a crisis without losing one’s composure. so the military teaches lots of character traits which seem increasingly rare in our civilianized society.

The military also inculcated something else, a primal love of country transcending ideological lines. A psychologist might recognize this as the result of the stresses of training and of warfare operating through Festinger’s "Cognitive Dissonance" theory. The brutalizing and hazing of Combat training were intended mainly to condition the trainee to immediate obedience and to prepare him mentally for the stress of battle. but it also served as a rite of passage, a proof that one has passed the test and become a member of the tribe, making the achievement far more valuable and permanent.

Yes. You heard me right. I said hazing. Harshness, hazing and risk are what distinguishes the military from other sorts of pretend national service beloved of progressives and pseudo-Conservatives. Job-, Ameri-, Peace-, Feelgood-Corps. none of them produce any real esprit. The fact that the schoolmarms and little old ladies of both sexes and all ages cannot comprehend this is another reason military service is so important. I’ve never heard of an organization the Veterans of Foreign Kibitzing. Nor do I expect to see a website called OldPeaceChickens.com. This tradition is also one of the most important experiences which ties together veterans across the generations transcending the various gneration gaps.

Another major benefit of universal military training is the creation and maintenance of a large inactive reserve. This is implicit in the Second Amendment and its evocation of a citizen militia. This is not so important for feeding once again millions more troops into the maw of the Somme or Bastogne. It is important in case of a defeat which might leave our homeland vulnerable. or even more, in the event of one of those scenarios in which the government turns against its own people, or is captured by some alien force, perhaps a stealth Muslim president or a coup. Or perhaps a new civil war. Such SHTF situations are to be dreaded, but if they happen, it is the veterans who will lead the way in coping. Though the NRA is a fine organization (of which I am proud to be a Life Member), gun safety and marksmanship classes are totally inadequate for a combat tactical situation. Huey, Dewey, and Louie do not shoot back or attack your flanks. A large supply of experienced veterans is a country’s ultimate defense. And for true security, that means that all males should be trained, with at least some experience, since the veterans themselves might pose a potential danger to the liberties of everyone else if they were to become a small but alienated, and skilled minority.

Let us remember the origins and evolution of our own Western civilization. Originally Greece, Rome, and the various barbarian kingdoms all incarnated the traditions of the people armed. Voting by raising the right had originated from the tradition of warriors brandishing aloft their weapons. While the fall of these systems differed somewhat in each case, all may be typified by the Roman example of the people who ceased performing their military duty, hiring instead barbarian mercenaries to fight for them, till at last the Romans were too effete and untrained to do anything but submit when the armies decided they might just take over. Again and again, the story is a variation on this theme, and the peasants who could not forsake their fields, and the townsmen who would not leave their villas came to forfeit their authority to the men-at-arms who did know the uses of sword and spear. The countries which preserved the tradition of the yeomanry in arms, such as England and Switzerland were the places which remained most free. And let us note carefully, that Muslim laws traditionally mandated that weapons were to be restricted to Muslims alone.

Universal, or near universal male military service remains the arbiter against enemies foreign and domestic. Another aspect of this is that a populace familiar with arms tends not to develop the separate military caste which so often leads to the loss of liberty, the collapse of personal freedom, and enserfment for the masses. And this leads me to thoughts about ROTC. If there is to be domestic danger from an army, that danger comes from the commanders. This is particularly the case if the officers become an in-bred class, alienated from the rest of society. Not only might they decide to move to protect the interests of the country from perceived misguided and corrupt political leaders, but civilian leaders, equally alienated in the opposite direction, and totally ignorant of military needs and values might well try to impose unacceptable policies driving the military into a coup sheerly out of self-defense. The best defense against such a situation is to have a large percentage of our officers men who arrive in the officer corps with a civilian higher education and serve relatively briefly before returning to civilian life. And if some of those "civilian officers" make the transition to a service career, so much the better. This will assure that a significant portion of the officer corps will remain in touch with the civilian ethos they are pledged to defend. And it will also tend to make available for later service in civilian leadership positions citizens who have an understanding of military matters, men who can read the military reports and can recognize which military assertions are serious needs and which are bureaucratic scams and diversions. Today far too many of the congressional leaders are incompetent to their jobs of military oversight; they don’t even know the right questions to ask, and cannot tell a straight answer from a lie. Consequently, they respond by treating everything as an attempt to deceive them, but often direct their most scathing criticisms for those problems least deserving. In my opinion, an intelligent enlisted veteran who has studied deeply may be able, but the odds of finding such people are much better among those who have been briefly company and junior field grade officers. To develop such officers in the numbers necessary, we need ROTC. And on the military side of the issue, steady infusions of ROTC officers will mitigate against careerism which seems to have become such a plage of our military since conscription was ended. of course. Conscription and ROTC reinforce each other. The certainty of conscription as an enlisted man has been a traditional motivator for ROTC cadets. And the presence of large numbers of ROTC commissioned officers provides the volume of junior officers needed for a large conscript army.

So where do I find my conflict? What is the negative side of a large conscript army? There are several problems.

About three years ago, I had a rare opportunity. My friend Colonel Walter J. Boyne, USAF (ret.) began writing "Operation Iraqi freedom, What Went Right, What Went Wrong, and Why", Forge Press, 2003. He hired me to serve as a manuscript reader/commentator and assistant, and he began writing even as the war was beginning. In the course of our arguments, I was able to change Walt’s view on several points, and he led me to change my mind about several other issues.

One of these matters was the all-volunteer army (since the other services had long been all volunteer, only the army relying on a draft.). First there is the issue of greater discipline and motivation. In a conscript army, the troops are there unwillingly - by definition, and many of them will behave accordingly. they will give the minimum effort and try to rebel in oh so many ways, trying only to avoid the stockade or other punishments. How many times I heard the expression "Close enough for government work"! Of course, even with the volunteers, the army still harvested a portion of screw-ups, but under the AVF routine, they are more easily jettisoned, and it is not like a conscript force where troops just dare the command to "send me home". of course this makes the life of an officer or senior sergeant so much easier. Of course, this does prejudice somewhat the testimony of those military who loudly champion the AVF.

But this leads to other problems, such as retention and finding sufficient warm bodies when the attrition starts to get ugly. Nobody enlists with the goal of getting maimed. It has led to a need to offer pay and benefits levels to recruits, even for Guard and Reserve components, which are insulting to those of us who served at conscript pay&benefit rates. During the late 1970s and 1980s this was a bigger problem, since there were a lot of people enlisting just for the college benefits and the skiing like they saw in the ads. Some of those people were taken aback when they learned in 1991, and then again in 2002 that military service occasionally might mean fighting a war! By now, it would seem that anyone joining, or remaining in service knows exactly what is involved, and may have joined for precisely that reason. But rumors and debates persist that the military manages to meet its enlistment goals by lowering standards, and bluffing through with a "can do, make it happen" posture. (The reality of these allegations we could know better, had we larger numbers of ex-military people capable of seeing through the camouflage.)

The other really important issue is the degree of training necessary to for a recruit to become proficient in his MOS, or to learn to operate the new high technology combat equipment. Were we to give the current level of training to the old two-year conscript army, they’d be gone before they became fully combat capable. Working with Walt on his book I was overwhelmed learning about the new technologies, not only things like Predator drones, but devices at infantry squad level, now in use. I began to feel that my Viet Nam era training was so outdated, I might well have been better fit for maybe the Spanish American War. Of course this means that a modern squad of professional infantrymen can bring more fire power to bear, can accomplish what maybe would have formerly required an entire battalion. But if those ten men can do the job of 600, then they also absorb that much more in training and expense. Wee we to train and equip a mass conscript army to the same degree we train and equip our volunteer forces, it that would break our defense budge and bankrupt us, let alone the fact that we could not find enough of those masses with the talent to absorb the necessary training.

And attempting to impose a new conscription in the present state of our national culture is likely to prove a political disaster. The great flood of angry volunteers on September 12, seems never to have found its way to the recruiting offices, and by September 15, they seem to have opted to defend America with yellow ribbon magnets. We must also note the deep and bitter divisions in our society, on racial, class, and cultural lines. Do we want to conscript MS-13 gang members? or New Black Panthers? Or perhaps the Arab-Americans from Dearborn? Conscripting the unwilling or openly hostile cohort of our society will lead to the same sort of problems as we experienced in the 1960s, both for the army and for society as a whole. Except that this time with sleeper cells already in America, and a wide-open southern border, it would probably be far worse. And the is no reason t believe that our government would be more ruthless in its response.

Likewise, attempting to pay, to house, to garrison , to equip a mass army at contemporary standards and pay rates would bankrupt us. We could have a mass army or a professional army, but not both.

On balance, at this time, in our current situation I must side with the champions of the AVF. Highly skilled and willing volunteers, suffering fewer casualties are more to our needs than a mass army, semi-trained and suffering mass losses. In my opinion, our difficulties in Iraq right now are attributable lee to a shortage of troops than to arbitrary restrictions on utilizing the full capacities of those that are there. More troops would not make a difference, would only provide the jihadis with more Americans to target. More troops would require more infrastructure and support, and would further degrade our civic affairs efforts.

However, I can imagine scenarios in which this balance could change, rapidly and tragically. If we became involved in a conventional war with China, we might well need a mass army just to hold the perimeters. If Crazy Kim or the Iranian Thug Merchant were to detonate a nuke against a major American theater target, we might lose 25,000 of our high value troops at a single pop. Then, even if we responded by annihilating North Korea in a spectacular mass retaliation, our forces would still be short-handed to pick up the slack elsewhere. Or if we find ourselves in three major theaters at once, perhaps a conflict with Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela simultaneously, with major provocations and actions also being conducted along our Southwestern borders, and against our forces in Iraq. Such a scenario is a distinct possibility.

Impossible as it seems, we need to find some way of combining a small professional military core with an available mass military of limited capability. The reserve components may have been originally intended as the solution, but they have evolved and are much closer to the regular forces and are regualrly on duty. The solution to this dilemma has not yet occured to me. Restructure of the reserve components? Different levels of pay and benefits? Deporting all the slackers off to Pakistan?

hmmm. That last one has some entertaining possibilities.

-Rurik

Contributed by George Mellinger on October 9, 2006 at 09:54 PM in Gene Harrison, George Mellinger, The American Warrior | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Friday, 22 September 2006
 

Gene Harrison: New Israeli War Plan Intercepted
Contributed by Bill Faith

Bumped in honor of the pending holiday. Originally posted 2006.09.19.14:52

[An original work by Gene Harrison, translated from MS Word to HTML by Bill Faith]

Intercepted

New Israeli War Plan intercepted, decrypted and translated.

We have intercepted an order of battle that describes the new Israeli Military War Plan, for implementation on the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashona). The code name for the War Plan is three Hebrew alphabetical symbols: Tet² Fe Tet. The translation that follows is a descriptive approximation, insofar as our decryption and translation technologies are somewhat limited. Translators notes or other ambiguities are parenthesized. Help was received from contacts in Atlanta.

The primary function of this War Plan is defensive, however responses to attack are inherently part of any defense. Regardless of the precision of a defensive response, Israel can in no way guarantee that non-combatants, including civilians, children, or the sick and wounded will not be hurt or killed as a result of an attack upon the nation of Israel.

The War plan (transliterated) Tet² Fe Tet is an open document. This means that anyone can read and understand the nature of our defense posture. This will result in savings for any enemy of Israel, insofar as they will not need spies or intelligence in order to anticipate our response to hostilities.

Section I: The geography of any (all?) potential enemy of the State of Israel will be partitioned into (roughly) square segments of a size contingent on our selection of a reactive weapon. One may construe this as a division of the enemy geography as a checkerboard. Each square in the checkerboard is assigned a unique numerical identifier, e.g., Lebanon 6219.

Section II: Each square of an enemy’s land mass is a potential target for a retaliatory strike that may include air strikes, missiles, artillery fire, infantry assault, etc. The selection of a retaliatory weapon is completely discretionary, but will normally conform to a minimum use of force.

Section III: The central principle of Tet² Fe Tet is the method of selection of the number of squares to be targeted, N_i, and the identifiers of the target locations T_j (as described in Section I).

Section IV: Determination of N_i; this number is calculated as follows:

                        For each incursion, I of a hostile nature, the value of N_i = I²

Section V: Determination of target locations T_j:

A computational equivalent of a roulette wheel with slots equal in number to the location numbers, T_j will be “spun” I² times, each outcome defining the strike point of the retaliatory force. You will note that for a single (possibly accidentally hostile) event, I² = 1, and so the retaliation is as minimal as the incursion.

Section VI: We list some consequences to foreign nationals who are present in a country that attacks the State of Israel.  This list is intended to prevent unnecessary potential loss of life or property because of Israel’s defensive actions.

1. The probability of accidental death to a foreigner in an enemy’s country is proportional to the square of the magnitude of the attack.
2. Israel can accept no responsibility for loss of life, or destruction of property engendered by anyone harmed by an Israeli Tet² Fe Tet response to military action by an enemy state.
3. In the case of stateless organizations (terrorists) the state from which their attack is launched will be the selected target of the Tet² Fe Tet response. It is not Israel’s intention to place blame or to harm any nation for a terrorist attack originating in a putatively neutral state, only to increase the cost to any nation that does not ferret out terrorists and bring them to local justice.

This concludes the translation of the new Israeli defense position, but we did note that insofar as their position on war and peace is clearly defined, it is the responsibility of the world community, and the world media to understand the principles described here.

The translators have concluded that the new Israeli War Plan is similar to an old American cold war targeting plan for nuclear retaliation, or first strike target selection, first proposed by a (still secret) RAND memorandum prepared by John von Neumann, the inventor of “game theory.” This game strategy is commonly designated “tit for tat” and may be the appropriate significance of the Israeli Tet² Fe Tet designation raised to the power of 2.

Contributed by Bill Faith on September 22, 2006 at 05:06 PM in Bill Faith, Gene Harrison, Islamism Delenda Est, Israel | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 02 August 2006
 

Imperialism Redux
Contributed by Gene Harrison

When I left the U. S. Army in the spring of 1946 I really hated war. I speak not only about the fear, anger, pain, cold, heat, and other forms of physical suffering, but also from my (mostly invisible) help in reinstalling Nazi technicians during what we called the “occupation.” Nazis?” What else could we do? The water works of a town like Mannheim had to be managed, and we couldn’t get some so-called anti-Nazi who ran a Bierstube to do the job. So the Nazis were back with our blessing, doing all the stuff necessary to restore order. The leadership of the country was turned over to those few anti-Nazis with the political bona fides to let us get away with the Mickey-Mouse occupation.

Could it have been otherwise? Of course not, wars are bad; so I joined the United World Federalists because the only way to prevent wars between nations was for the world to unite. Nations could join together, and, under the protection of agreed upon laws, never fight again. So many of us believed this that I even felt less animus toward John D. Rockefeller and his grandsons (and his Standard Oil Company for destroying the American railroad system, but that’s another story) when he offered land and money to build the UN.

Every Nation joined and had a voice, but of course some special nations had more voice than others. Those were the Security Council nations, with Uncle Sam running the show. Now the laws that were to constrain all of us were drafted, along with amendments called resolutions. These were of course unambiguous, just like our Constitution and its amendments. Oh, I forgot, sometimes unambiguous laws are ambiguous to some, like the First Amendment or the Second. Flag burning if you hadn’t known really is a form of speech, and some speech is “hate” speech and is not allowed if directed toward members of a political minority. And because a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed, one would have thought it obvious that the militias were not the bearer of arms, rather the law gave a right to the people, but oh well, let’s strive to ban guns.

Now the member nations saw that if they were richer and stronger than their neighbor, they could not simply occupy and exploit their weaker neighbors by force of arms (that was the original point remember), but rather they must help their neighbor. This could be done by taxing the richer nations, and giving some to the poorer, and much of this e.g., by UNICEF and UNESCO did some real good. However, some of these hand-outs ended in the Swiss bank accounts of the rulers of the poorer nations, who in return for the largesse, sided with their richer “friends” to further adjust how the laws and resolutions worked. Pretty soon things got out of hand, and what with delegates living pretty high on the hog, some shady dealings took form. I have no idea how many or of what sort those dealings were, but I do know that these things happen. Indeed even the biggest and most generous of the Security Council members started acting in their own interests rather than the interests of my one-world dream. I quit the World Federalists and went to work anticipating the next war would be a real horror. And so it was. It was the first UN military fiasco called the Korean War. The point was that a country’s people had divided sharply, so sharply that the usual procedures for conflict resolution—talking and negotiating—failed. Not the first time, and I’m remembering Prime Minister Chamberlain who returned to England in 1938 from his meeting with Hitler in Munich announcing “Peace in our time.”

I won’t bore you with the second act, Vietnam. Many of you were there or should have been, that it suggests maybe civil wars should not get others, even a World Federation, involved. Especially when the political bosses rewrite how a war is fought. The principle, as I understand the pols, is that wars shouldn’t kill anyone. I could rehearse again our own history about civil wars, at least to point out that another of my favorite Generals, Robert Lee, surrendered at Vicksburg, rather than engage in an insurgency that he believed could last 20+ years.

And what truths do I draw from these comments? Only that Imperialism, whether disguised as internationalism, free trade, multilateralism, or some other new moniker is the same old Globalony. It fails its instigators, good intentions to the contrary not withstanding.

Next time, class, we’ll take up my own preference: Isolationism, which means to me independence, tariffs, self reliance, closed borders, immigration only for the national good, Fortress America, and one of my best loved college mottos, Leges sine moribus vanae, and all the other stuff academics tell you is wrong, wrong, wrong.

Contributed by Gene Harrison on August 2, 2006 at 12:41 PM in Gene Harrison | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Monday, 24 July 2006
 

Gene Harrison: Mr. President, it’s time to go to War!
Contributed by Bill Faith

[Webmaster's note: I'm using a bogus time stamp to hang this at the top of the site for a while. Scroll down for newer posts. Actually posted 2004.07.20.11:52]

By email from "Gene Harrison", who as the post indicates, is on travel. If this is any indication of the type of thing we can expect I can't wait for him to get home and start posting more often. Any dumb sonuvabitch that uses the term "chickenhawk" in our comments will be summarily banned; that was your only warning. Read the bio, folks.

Mr. President, it’s time to go to War!

First of all War is not the resolution of conflict by threat or use of deadly force; that is police work. War is not the final stage of diplomacy. That is diplomacy. War is not establishing defenses against attack—there are no defenses that cannot be breached. Stronger defenses simply change the cost to the enemy of the breach.

War is a national response to a threat of death or destruction to the people or structure (in every sense) of a nation. The purpose of war is to eradicate and so completely destroy the enemy that the threat to the nation disappears. The destruction of an enemy by war includes destroying every asset of the enemy, political, social, religious, economic, psychological, biological, and human. You may choose not to destroy a hospital, but only because it uses the enemies resources that could otherwise be directed toward you. 

Not only must you kill the enemy, you must render it incapable of recovery in any form that had led to the threat or deed that brought war on. The devastation the enemy faces must force complete compliance by the entire enemy polis; civil and military, to our demands that lead to total surrender.

I can’t count the number of Churches we shelled into oblivion in Germany. They were terrific artillery observation posts. I can hardly remember whether we killed 150,000 or 200,000 civilians in Dresden, and that was the work of the Greatest Generation. Nagasaki and Hiroshima demonstrated that in the face of overwhelming destruction, an Empire could be brought to heel. 

We aimed to destroy every avenue of communication that fostered resistance by the civil population. My battalion alone would have silenced al Jazeera on the first day of an attack. No news reporter who had not been screened and whose reports had not been reviewed by censor were transmitted, either to our homeland or to the enemy. As one of my culture heroes, Winston Churchill said, “we will make them bleed and burn.” I wore that patch. My regimental motto was “Death before Defeat.”

I note, here in England where I visit my daughter and my five grandchildren, that none of the children have learned in their schools of the Battle of Britain. They find it hard to believe that children like them living in London, where sent away to the North to escape dying by the Blitz, the buzz bombs and V2s of 1940-41, so that a remnant of a great nation would remain. They thrill to hear me speak with praise and reverence of young British airmen, flying their Spitfire “kites,” against Messerschmitts and Heinkels. 

That is War, Mr. President, and if you don’t think we are in one, you need to replace your advisors, and shape up your military. A good first step would be to return the name of the department responsible for war from the “Defense” Department back to its original title: The War Department.

Go get ‘em!

Contributed by Bill Faith on July 24, 2006 at 11:52 AM in Best of Old War Dogs, Bill Faith, Gene Harrison, The American Warrior, War? What war? | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Wednesday, 28 June 2006
 

Who Are We?
Contributed by Bill Faith

It all started with an email from Russ Vaughn, which I posted here. That set off a flurry of emails which led to the creation of this site. I'll let Russ explain more:

Through the magic of the blogosphere it is becoming increasingly evident that there are a lot of old dogs out there mastering the new tricks of this 21st Century phenomenon. While some are technically skilled enough to create their own sites, like your host Bill Faith, far more fall into my category: those who tenaciously hunt and peck out their opinions on war, society and life in general, and have only the basic computer skills requisite to sending those opinions into the ether of this wonderful thing called the Internet.

Old War Dogs is a site designed for these old dogs to practice their new tricks without having to compete with the fluid skills of younger, more technically savvy bloggers. While we may be too old to carry a gun in the ranks, we can still pound these keys. Mao’s dictum that political power flows from the barrel of a gun, while true, predates the blogosphere; and this old dog bets the Chairman would be truly stunned at the power that flows from the keyboard.

Blog on you old mutts!

	Ron is entitled to wear stars and numerals indicating multiple awards of several of the ribbons shown. The webmaster has so far been unable to obtain suitable artwork. Sgt (E-5) Winter, Ronald United States Marine Corps 1966 - 1970
	See all of Ron's Old War Dog posts in one place here.

Ronald Winter is an author, public relations executive, college professor and award winning journalist. He regularly writes and speaks on matters of public interest including the military, politics and the Vietnam War particularly as it relates to the ongoing War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq. Ron is author of the book Masters of the Art, A Fighting Marine’s Memoir of Vietnam published by Random House, and regularly posts commentary on war and politics in his column Winter's Soldier Story at his website www.RonaldWinterbooks.com. He grew up in the farming country of upstate New York near Albany where he gave up an academic scholarship at the State University there in 1966 to join the Marines and fight in Vietnam. Ron was a helicopter crewman and machine gunner, flying 300 combat missions. After Vietnam he returned to his studies earning undergraduate degrees in Electrical Engineering and English Literature. In a two-decade journalism career that included stints as investigative reporter, supervising editor and columnist, Ron was the recipient of several awards and a Pulitzer nomination.  He owns Spectre Communications where he specializes in marketing, media relations and political communications. He also is the Eastern Representative for Michael J. London & Associates public relations firm. Ron is an adjunct professor of communication at the University of Hartford.

	SP/4 Mellinger, George M. U. S. Army 1969-1970 Viet Nam October 1969-October 1970 39 Engineer Bn, 18 Engineer Brigade Texas Army National Guard 1971-1972
	See all of George's Old War Dogs posts in one place here.

George Mellinger received a BA in Psychology in 1968 and began graduate school, but enlisted in the Army in 1969 as the one acceptable way to avoid the draft. His primary MOS was 12B20 Combat Engineer, but in Vietnam he served as battalion Kit Carson Scout handler and then as a line squad member, before being REMFed back to the company motor pool. After ETS, he worked for the Veterans Administration for seven years before returning to school to study history. He also volunteered for a year in the Texas Army National Guard. As a history student he specialized in Russian History, in which he is ABD, and also studied Early Islamic History; all his degrees are from the University of Minnesota. He has taught at university level, and is the editor/author of two academic volumes on the Soviet armed forces and the author of four (and counting) commercial books on Soviet Aviation history.  He continues to follow military matters, particularly Russian/ex-Soviet, and hopes to die “on duty” at his keyboard. He is also hated on the web under the screen name Rurik. Rurik has been a frequent contributor to Small Town Veteran, where he introduced himself to STV readers with this post. Click here to see the entire STV Rurik collection. George has resigned from Old War Dogs effective 2007.01.21 and now posts at Veteran-American Voices.

	SGT (E-5) Krupienski, Robert U.S Army 1961-1964, 1964-1967
	See all of Bob's Old War Dogs posts in one place here.

Bob spent 6 years on active duty with the Army starting in February of 1961, taking his basic at Ft Leonard Wood, Missouri. They had wooden barracks and coal burning furnaces for heat and hot water back then. From there he went to a Nike Missile base northwest of Cincinnati (D Btry, 5th Msl Bn, 56th Arty, Oxford, Ohio). That was his duty station for his first enlistment, which ended in February of 1964. After Bob was discharged he bummed around the country for a while with no real plans for the future, then re-enlisted in late 1964. Upon re-enlistment Bob was assigned to Brooke Medical Center for Med Records training. During his training he learned that his father was terminally ill so he requested a compassionate assignment to the Chicago area. The request was taking forever. Finally, his brother got hold of a powerful Chicago Alderman and within days Bob was at his duty assignment at the 5th Army HQ in Chicago, at 51st and Hyde Park near the Museum of Science and Industry. He was there about a year. From there Bob went to Korat, Thailand and was assigned to the 31st Field Hospital which was part of the 9th Logistics Command. As the end of he assignment came near I requested and got a 6 month extension . That put him back in the states with less than 3 months to go so he got an early out. Bob is currently working for a engineering firm in downtown Chicago. He has been with them for 30 years and spent 25 of those years at job sites during construction. They are in the power industry. Bob tells me: I am sure I am not the only one who, as we reach our twilight years, has found the need to re-connect with people from out military days. The need became stronger for me beginning March of 2007. I, and around 30,000 other vets and supporters went to DC to keep Hanoi Jane and her followers away from the Vietnam War Memorial. I met a lot of vets there but none from my old units. That was also the time I decided to join the Patriot Guard Riders. Yep, even at my age I ride a motorcycle.

	SSGT King, Lloyd A. U.S Army 1967-1973, 1986-1992 1st Squad, 2nd Platoon, Bravo Company, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division Airmobile Republic of South Vietnam, 1968 - 1969
	See all of Lloyd's Old War Dogs posts in one place here.

Lloyd A. King, Jr. was born in the rural town of Batavia in western New York State.  Lloyd graduated high school in Sweetwater, Texas and attended college at Philadelphia College of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania majoring in Industrial Design with a minor in Fine Arts. Lloyd's many aspirations were put on hold in 1967 during the Vietnam War when he was drafted into the U.S. Army.  Lloyd served as a non-commissioned officer in the infantry with the 101st Airborne Division-Airmobile during 1968 and 1969, the two worst years of the war. Following Vietnam, Lloyd worked in the Oil and Gas Industry for twenty-eight years retiring as a Director of Safety and Training.  In conjunction with his notable career, he lived in nine states and traveled to numerous foreign countries.  He and his wife live in Lafayette, Louisiana, which he refers to as his adoptive Cajun hometown.  Lloyd began delving into the world of creative writing as a combat infantry soldier in 1968.  He penned his emotions, experiences, and the sights and sounds of war in the form of poetic vignettes while in the jungles of South Vietnam.  He described the things he couldn’t tell his family back home. Thirty years after surviving Vietnam, Lloyd decided to tell his family about his experiences, but he couldn’t verbalize events that still haunt him today like the rage of a fierce thunderstorm.  On July 28, 1998, he began a literary mission to tell others what the war was like…hoping that his family and friends would understand the war and better understand Lloyd as well. Lloyd considers himself very blessed to be alive.  Wounded twice, he experienced many of life’s terrible adversities firsthand…and somehow survived.  Through seeing death, fear, killing, and atrocity, he learned about his own mental and physical capabilities and limitations. (Click here to read more.) Lloyd has resigned from the Old War Dogs pack effective 2008.02.28

	Gene is entitled to wear 2 Oak Leaf Clusters on his Presidential Unit Citation and two stars on his Europe/Africa/ Middle East Campaign Ribbon. The webmaster has so far been unable to locate suitable artwork.  Sgt. Harrison, Gene Hq 1st Bn 254 Inf 63 Div United States Army "Death before Defeat"
	See all of Gene's Old War Dogs posts in one place here.

"Gene Harrison" is the nom de guerre of a WW II veteran who served in Europe with Hq 1st Bn, 254th Inf, 63rd Infantry Division from Aug 1943 to June 1945, and then with SHAEF until April 1946. His regiment was attached to the First French Army for the Colmar campaign.  He and his battalion were awarded the Croix de Guerre by General Charles de Gaulle. The 63rd made the first break in the Siegfried Line near Ensheim Germany, where Sgt Harrison received a Bronze Star for gallantry in action on March 19, 1945. When the war in Europe ended, a chance meeting of an old friend resulted in his transfer to SHAEF Signal Corps, where he served with General George S. Patton, Jr., until Patton’s death in December 1945. On his return to Com Z he used the GI bill to train up through the PhD. That degree opened various faculty appointments in several Ivy League universities. His CV boasts more than 100 publications, including original work in peer-reviewed journals and several widely quoted books. He is, without question, a blot on the “liberal,” academic landscape.

	GMG3 Gardner, Steven M. U. S. Navy Feb. 1965 to Feb. 1971 Vietnam Service: 1966-1967 Cam Ranh Bay, 1968 – 1969 An Toi , Cat Lo, Vung Tau    "Other than 3months in GMG A school and 4 months aboard the USS Nereus AS-17 the rest of my time was spent in the Republic of Vietnam aboard  Three different divisions of Coastal Squadron 1."
	See all of Steve's Old War Dog posts in one place here.

Steve Gardner, known in some circles as "the tenth brother," served in the U. S. Navy from 1965 to 1971, spending almost the entire time patrolling the rivers and canals of Viet Nam as a swift boat crewman, including 2.5 months as John Kerry's gunner on PCF 44. He came home to raise 3 loving children and 4 loving grandchildren, whom he visits as often as he can get to Cincinnati. He worked and ran boat dealerships in three different states prior to the Kerry wars, after which he spent two years out of work; the company he's now with hired him knowing all about his background and he now covers three states and loves what he's doing.

	SSgt (E-5) Faith, Billy D. USAF 1970 - 1974, USAFR 1974-1975 Viet Nam, 1971-1972 (14th, 8th Aerial Port SQs, PACAF)
	See all of Bill's Old War Dogs posts in one place here.

In the spring of '70, with American troops in Cambodia, National Guardsmen at Kent State and hundreds of long haired smelly people running around with "If you aren't part of the solution you're part of the problem" signs Bill Faith decided college just didn't seem "relevant" any more and enlisted in the Air Force. After training and a few months at Kelly AFB to practice what he'd been taught, Bill arrived at Cam Ranh Bay Air Base in November of '71 for six months of shuffling papers around trying to look busy. When the air base was shut down as a result of Congressionally mandated troop cuts right in the middle of the NVA's spring offensive, Bill was reassigned to Ton Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon for 90 days Delay Enroute on the way home. Tired of shuffling papers, he volunteered at that point for the 8th Aerial Port Squadron's Mobility (Bare Base) Team and got an opportunity to do some site-seeing in such beautiful exotic places as Cam Ranh Bay (where the Mob team was the only Air Force presence; the base was shut down, remember?), Qui Nhon (likewise) and Kontum (where there'd never been a real air base to begin with). The highlight of Bill's Viet Nam experience was not dying at Kontum. After Viet Nam, Bill spent several boring months looking busy at Bergstrom AFB waiting for his ETS date. When he returned to civilian life the GI Bill made it possible for Bill to spend two years at the University of Texas, earning a BSEE with Highest Honors degree in 1976, and later an MEEE degree from UT Arlington. After stints with Motorola in Fort Worth, Emerson Electric in St. Louis, and Rockwell International in Cedar Rapids, Bill was given an opportunity to "explore his interests in other areas" when Defense Secretary Cheney told Congress it would be OK to cut the defense budget a little and Congress overreacted. After a few months of odd jobs and freelance computer programming Bill settled into a technical support role, first spending 8 months answering a Microsoft telephone and later at an "outsourcing" contractor which provided technical support for several major PC and peripheral manufacturers. When Bill's health problems became worse about the same time someone realized Indians can answer email and some Canadians sound American enough to answer the phone, Bill entered early retirement. The VA considers Bill "Totally and Permanently Disabled" (non-Service Connected) and sends him just barely enough money to survive on every month. To the extent his health permits, between occasional trips to Ft. Worth to visit his daughter and grandson he spends the bulk of his time surfing the web and blogging. Prior to becoming webmaster for Old War Dogs, Bill blogged at Small Town Veteran, and before that at In Bill's World. *** Update: Bill is also now blogging at an OWD satellite site, Bill's Bites.

	Sgt Dog, Gray USAF 1970 – 1974, USAFR 1974 – 1976 5008th Tactical Support Squadron, Elmendorf AFB, AK 3902nd Air Base Wing, SAC HQ, Offutt AFB, NE
	See all of The Gray Dog's Old War Dogs posts in one place here.

The Gray Dog was born in West Virginia but grew up in the Detroit area.  After graduating high school in 1969 with a student deferment in hand, he entered Wayne State University as a Music Major.  After a sudden illness in his second semester forced him to withdraw from classes, the Selective Service saw fit to reclassify him 1A.  With a low lottery number and a new draft status, Mike decided to be proactive and enlist in the Air Force in July 1970.  His hopes of becoming an Air Traffic Controller were dashed when he didn’t pass the vision test, thus the Air Force armed him computer training and shipped him off to Alaska. At Elmendorf AFB all newly arrived airmen were assigned to a Security Police Augmentee Team. So when he wasn’t defending the country from behind a computer console, The Gray Dog was issued an M16 and walked guard duty during the long Alaskan nights.  Two years later he was reassigned to SAC HQ at Offutt AFB, NE.  There, he was an Operations Supervisor assigned to the 3902 Air Base Wing. After leaving the Air Force, The Gray Dog remained in the computer industry as a mainframe software developer which he still does today, making him a dinosaur in the industry. In 2004, with the maniacal rants Michael Moore and John Kerry proliferating through the air waves, The Gray Dog decided to add his voice to the conservative blogs that were springing up throughout the country by starting his web site and assisting and contributing to his son’s site, IHateJohnKerry.net.  He  also was a contributor at Reject Liberalism and it was also during this time that he began regular correspondence with Old War Dog Jim Bartimus.    The Gray Dog and Jim became fast electronic pen-pals and contributed frequently at each others site.  The Gray Dog has recently resurrected his own fine site, The Gray Dog

	Del is entitled to wear a V for Valor device on his Navy Commendation Ribbon. The webmaster has so far been unable to locate suitable artwork. Cpl. Del Vecchio, R. J. U.S. Marine Corps 1966 - 1968
	See all of Del's Old War Dogs posts in one place here.

When R. J. Del Vecchio entered the Marines in 1966 the Marine Corps decided to make use of his BS and MS in chemistry and assigned him to a Photography MOS. He spent from Dec '67 to Nov '68 in Viet Nam, working as a Combat Photographer for the 1st Marine Division, based in Da Nang, and traveled over most of I Corps, from An Hoa in the southern tip to Hue most of the way north. Many of his photographs are in the National Archives, College Park, MD. After his service in Vietnam, Del continued working in the field of chemistry and became a pro-veteran activist using his experience and knowledge of the conflict in SE Asia. His book, Whitewash/Blackwash: Myths of the Viet Nam War, co-authored with Mr. Bill Laurie, explodes many of the major myths of the Vietnam War. Now active in veteran circles, also Director of a charity for disabled ARVN vets suffering still in Viet Nam, been back there twice in the last 15 months to find and help them. He is also a regular lecturer in high schools and colleges on the history of the war. Learn more about Whitewash/Blackwash, including ordering information, here. Learn more about The Vietnam Healing Foundation, which Del directs, here. Click here and here while you're at it.

	MSgt (E-7) Craig, Bobbie USANG 1973-1976, 1982-2004 Desert Shield, Desert Storm 1990-1991 Various periods of Active Duty 1973-2004
	See all of Bobbie's Old War Dogs posts in one place here.

("Bobbie Craig" is the nom de blog of a retired Air National Guard NCO who prefers to keep her real identity secret for reasons the webmaster knows and considers perfectly valid.) As the daughter of a career Army man, it was a family joke that whatever "Bobbie" grew up to be, it would be in the Army. Years later, Bobbie was expecting to pursue a career in federal law enforcement and found that the competition usually included military police experience. In order to keep up, in spite of the fact that we were in the midst of a serious conflict in a little place called Viet Nam, Bobbie tried to enlist, but insisted that it would be for military police training. The Air National Guard finally called and said that they could guarantee her a slot in that career field. So, it was off to Lackland for basic and SP training in 1973. That was the beginning of a very satisfying career with the ANG, to include interesting trips to some fascinating places in a wide variety of assignments. Special memories for Bobbie include being one of the first 4 women to graduate from USAF Law Enforcement technical training (back in the day when women were not issued combat boots. Ever done the low crawl in regular shoes, guys?); packing C-130's for deployment all over the world in support of every imaginable contingency; riding those hulking birds all over the world, wearing out 5 laptops doing load plans during Desert Storm, printing the final ones to get the units home with no screen; and getting to drive to DC on 9-12-01 to support operations there. After retirement in the spring of 2004 it was Bobbie's honor to stand with other veterans who opposed the lunacy of Kerry running for the presidency. That group continues operations in opposition to the Idiots for Peace as they work to undermine all the sacrifices we have made.

	CPT Briscoe, Shane U.S. Army, 1971-1976 2/34 Armor, Ft. Carson 4th Infantry Division Headquarters, Ft. Carson 1/77 Armor, Ft. Carson 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Nuremberg
	See all of Shane's Old War Dogs posts in one place here.

Shane Briscoe is the pseudonym (for purely business reasons) for a West Point graduate (Class of ’71) and former Army Captain who, though he signed up at the height of Vietnam, ended up missing combat altogether. The son of an Army officer (we call them “Brats”), Shane grew up on Army Posts around the world, from Germany to Hawaii and in between.  He sought nomination to West Point with the goal in mind of a military career, but such was not to be. “Vietnam changed the Army, and not for the better,” Shane says.  “Fighting a war with one hand tied behind your back and no strategy for clear victory will do that to any army.  Having said that, I thank my West Point classmates and everyone else who stayed in and fixed things so that we have the professional, dedicated, lethally effective force we have today.” Commissioned an Armor officer, Shane served as a Platoon Leader and Executive Officer in two Fort Carson tank units and later at 4th Infantry Division Headquarters as a Public Affairs and Information Officer (“I was setting myself up for civilian employment”) before being posted to Germany in 1974.  “My Dad always told me volunteering was bad luck, but I wanted a short tour so I could be in the United States to find a civilian job when my commitment expired in 1976; I volunteered for Vietnam first, and then Korea.  They told me, ‘Lieutenant, you’re on orders for Germany,’ and that was that.” Shane was assigned to the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, the oldest regiment on continuous active service in the U.S. Army.  Its mission at the time:  Patrol the southern sector of the East German Border, along with the Czech Border as the very frontline NATO force.  "In other words, we were the tripwire tasked with delaying the Warsaw Pact until our heavy divisions could organize.  Gen. Tommy Franks of Iraq War fame was a fellow regimental staff officer." Leaving the military in June 1976, Shane went into corporate public affairs, serving first as speechwriter for the chairman of a major utility company before finding his true calling in the oil business in 1980.  He now works as a senior executive with an international oil and gas company headquartered in Houston. “There is nothing more important than fighting and winning the War on Terror,” Shane believes.  “This is World War III and the stakes are every bit as high as in World War II, the American Civil War and our Revolution.  The rest of the world is too decadent and too socialist (same thing) to recognize it, but this war is also a fundamental clash of civilizations—the modern, Judeo-Christian, human-justice forces of Western Civilization against barbarians, pseudo-religious zealots stuck in the Middle Ages with no morals and, more important, no restrictions on their behavior.  Winning this war, and winning it decisively, is the only option.  It is the challenge of our age and a life or death struggle for our way of life.” Shane also has his own blog at AyesRight.

	Karl is entitled to wear an Oak Leaf Cluster on his Air Force Commendation Medal, 3 bronze stars (instead of the one shown) on his Vietnam Service Medal, and 4 Oak Leaf Clusters on his Air Force Service Longevity Medal. The webmaster has so far been unable to locate suitable artwork.  LTC (Ret.) Bossi, Karl R. Enlisted, U.S. Air Force Reserve 1959 – 1962 (94th Troop Carrier Wing - Hanscom AFB, Bedford, MA) Officer, U.S. Air Force 1962 – 1982 (Japan, Vietnam, Spain, Turkey, U.S.)
	See all of Karl's Old War Dogs posts in one place here.

The youngest of three brothers, Karl Bossi was born and raised in Boston in the predominantly Irish section of Dorchester, a few years prior to the start of World War II. His brothers served in the USAF but Bossi chose to make the military a career. He could never know that the C-119 flying boxcars he supported as an airman would one day fly combat missions as AC-119 Gunships from his base in Vietnam. As a nuclear weapons/conventional weapons maintenance officer and later an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) officer, Bossi worked in various squadron-level and staff assignments. He managed nuclear and conventional weapons operations, performed operational testing of new weapons, led a munitions squadron in Spain, advised the Turkish Air Force, and directed nuclear weapons stockpile activities. In 1968 after graduating from the Navy EOD School in Indian Head, MD, Bossi volunteered for Vietnam and was assigned to the 14th Special Operations Wing at Nha Trang Air Base. As the officer in charge of the EOD Team he gained first-hand knowledge of Viet Cong bombs, bullets, and booby traps. In 1982 Bossi retired at Kirtland AFB, Albuquerque, New Mexico as the Chief, Maintenance and Quality Assurance Division, Field Command Defense Nuclear Agency. He landed a position there as an aerospace logistic engineer at Sperry Flight Systems, later Honeywell Defense Avionics Systems Division. Over the next 15 years Bossi contributed to many key defense avionics programs involving the B-1B bomber, OH-58D helicopter, F-117 stealth fighter and C-17 transport aircraft. Bossi holds graduate degrees in counseling and guidance and procurement management and is a published writer and author of a 5-star memoir, entitled Just Call Me Moose. Bossi's articles with photos have appeared in the Albuquerque Journal, Albuquerque Tribune, Albuquerque Business Journal, New Mexico Magazine and the nationally syndicated Country Woman Magazine. Learning conservative principles started early for him. Fifty years ago as the Editor of the Yearbook at Boston Technical High School, Bossi ended the prologue with these words: “May God grant us strength to surmount the obstacles which lie ahead in a world made difficult by conflicting philosophies and aggressive governments.” Today every American must fully grasp the consequences of failing to win the war on terrorism. The Old War Dogs who launched this website understand. Karl has announced his resignation from the Old War Dogs site effective 2006.10.22.

	SP/4 Bartimus, James R. U.S. Army 1970-1973 Vietnam June 71-March 72 102nd Engr Co. 815th Engr Bn Camp Dillard Co E, 1st Engr Bn, 1st Inf Div Ft. Riley, Ks.
	See all of Jim's Old War Dogs posts in one place here.

Jim Bartimus was born and raised on a farm in the hills of Illinois. He enlisted in the Army during his junior year in high school. He was trained as a crawler tractor operator (62E20) with the combat engineers at Ft Leonard Wood. From there he went to NCO schooling for senior operators and was deployed to Viet Nam in 1971 as a SP/5 with the 102nd Engineers CS at Camp Dillard in the central highlands near Da Lat. The mission at hand was to build QL-20, a main corridor to the southern part of the country. This was a full circle operation with rock crushers, asphalt plant and an off compound rock quarry. The sergeant running the drilling and blast crew in the quarry rotated out and Jim replaced him after learning the tricks of the trade. He received his hard stripe E-5 ranking with an MOS for quarrymen (62G30) and also did the EOD work when required. Using time delay caps on 200 shot patterns with between 2000 and 3000 lb of TNT you can pretty much pile the rock anywhere you want it, and we were good at it. Those three steps are still in the side of that hill and will be forever. The 102nd was slated to stand down in 72 and some of the upper echelon changes didn’t seem to agree with those that were working off compound in the real war zone. (long story).  JB got demoted to SP/4 and was replaced with an E-6 and continued with his work in the quarry. The day he held that badly wounded mans (Sgt Roher’s) head in his lap shielding his eyes from the sun will never be forgotten. He ran a track drill over a booby-trapped 81mm mortar round that was meant for me. We also lost the life of an old papasan that day that was very dear to me. I will never forget the Vietnamese friends that I had over there and the compassion we had for them. They weren't all the enemy. Jim rotated back to Ft. Riley Kansas in March of 72 after the 102nd stood down and was assigned to Co E 1st Engr Bn 1st Inf Div, which was a floating bridge unit. After leaving the military Jim returned to Illinois and married a nice Irish girl, and worked as a mechanic in the automotive and the trucking industry. He accepted a position in Texas doing engine (irrigation) rebuilds & machine work and spent 12 years working there and raising their son in a good environment. JB is back in Illinois now and works for one of the largest independent oil field operators working the Illinois basin. His current job is process management and control stuff and taking care of the onsite 3 Megawatt power generation facilities and doing computer work and web authoring after hours for entertainment. Jim is also the proprietor of the fine Fractured Fairy Tales site.

	Capt. (O-6) Bailey, Larry U.S. Navy 1962-1990
	See all of Larry's Old War Dogs posts in one place here.

A native of East Texas, where he graduated from Marshall High School and Stephen F. Austin State College, Larry Bailey was raised on a dairy farm, where he milked an estimated 300,000 Holsteins and Jerseys. Upon graduation from college, he went to Navy Officer Candidate School and was commissioned an ensign in 1962.  After a less-than-stellar eight months as a destroyer sailor, he volunteered for Underwater Demolition Training at Little Creek, Virginia, and graduated therefrom in January 1964.  After spending a year at UDT-22, he transferred to SEAL Team TWO, where he spent the next three years.  Among his deployments at that command were combat tours to the Dominican Republic and Viet Nam. Larry's 27-year Navy career saw him stationed in Panama, Bolivia, Scotland, the Philippines, and Viet Nam, in addition to various stateside postings, which included Little Creek, VA; Coronado, CA; and Ft. Bragg, NC.  He commanded Naval Special Warfare Unit TWO in Machrihanish, Scotland, and Naval Special Warfare Center in Coronado.  He retired from the US Special Operations Command in 1990. Since retirement, Larry has worked as a consultant, speechwriter, fundraiser, and general gad-about.  His most notable activities included presiding over Vietnam Vets for the Truth, which campaigned against John Kerry in 2004, and over Vets for the Truth, which unsuccessfully tried to deny John Murtha a 17th term in Congress. Larry and his wife Judy are the parents of two adult children: Tucker and Hallie.

	Arch is entitled to wear an Oak Leaf Cluster on his Distinguished Flying Cross and 10 Oak Leaf Clusters on his Air Medal. The webmaster has so far been unable to locate suitable artwork. Major Arthur, Arch U.S. Air Force 1967-1987
	See all of Arch's Old War Dogs posts in one place here.

Arch Arthur was born in Birmingham, Alabama – the son of an infantry lieutenant who was wounded in Normandy, and again on the first day of the Battle of the Bulge, then gave his life for his country in April 1945. Two years later, Arch's mother married a career naval officer who spent WWII island-hopping the Pacific as a Seabee. His family moved from Gulfport to Guam, Washington DC, Boston, New York and Norfolk. Arch attended public schools and two military academies, graduating from high school in Newport RI. He earned a BA in Asian Studies at the University of Oklahoma and married Judith Kennedy – the daughter of a retired artillery officer. In 1967, 2LT Arthur graduated USAF officer training school. He attended undergraduate navigator training and the F4 aircrew training course before volunteering for South East Asia. He was assigned to Homestead AFB, FL. In 1971 while TDY to Phu Cat, he got orders to the 366 Tactical Fighter Wing at DaNang AB, RVN. During his tour, he flew 164 ½ combat missions. During the 1972 Eastertide Offensive Arch flew Linebacker and strike missions. As a Stormy Forward Air Controller, he and Cisco, his aircraft commander, made 7 passes on a SA-2 site the North Vietnamese set up just south of the DMZ. A site across the border fired five missiles; they saw three. The fourth detonated just below their aircraft. Both engines caught fire and stuck in full afterburner. Flight controls failed crossing the beach and the nose pitched up. As the aircraft slowed to 450 knots, they both ejected and parasailed about 1 Km feet wet. NVA artillery shot at their rafts for half an hour until HH-53s from the 33 ARRS rescued them. After recuperating for 10 days, he returned to Stormy. After Vietnam, he was assigned to 58 TTW at Luke AFB, teaching aircrews to operate the F4C. In 1975, he moved to Clark AB, Philippines in an operational test and evaluation unit – the 1st Test Squadron. In 1978 he served in the 4th TFW at Seymour-Johnson AFB, NC. After 13 years in the cockpit, he accepted an overseas assignment as a US military-political affairs officer in Central America. Returning to CONUS in 1981 with three overseas tours, he finished his career as a staff officer in Air Defense Weapons Center at Tyndall AFB, FL. From concept to operational status, Arthur was responsible for three major range improvement programs – formation drone control, vector scoring and telemetry relay. Before retiring in 1987, Major Arthur had earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism and another for extraordinary achievement, the Purple Heart, the Air Medal with 11 oak leaf clusters and other citations. He held aeronautical rating of Master Navigator and a Top Secret SBI clearance. After retiring from the Air Force, Mr. Arthur accepted an executive position with LTV Aerospace and Defense – Missiles and Electronics Group/Sierra Research Division in Buffalo, NY. At Sierra, he was program manager and product line manager of avionics with full profit-loss, orders, sales and performance responsibility for $100 M in active US DoD, foreign military and commercial contracts. In 1999, he was promoted to director of business development, marketing wideband time space position information technology. In 2004, Arch accepted early retirement and founded his own defense electronics firm. In December 2006, he moved from Buffalo to a rural town south of Birmingham.

(Unit patches pending)	OST-6 "Antimedia" U.S. Navy 1968-1974
	See all of Antimedia's Old War Dogs posts in one place here.

Antimedia served in SOSUS, which was secret but has now been declassified.  His entire service was shore-based - one year and three months in training, two years and nine months in Cape Hatteras, NC and two years in Newfoundland, Canada. Antimedia also has a great blog of his own, Media Lies.

	Sgt. Andrew, Martin Royal Australian Air Force, 1977-2005 International Military Liaison Darwin October 1999 – July 2000 RMAF Base Butterworth July 1982 – November 1984
	See all of Martin's Old War Dogs posts in one place here.

Martin Andrew is an Aussie ring in.  Best known for his GI Zhou Newsletter and his contributions to the Jamestown Foundation's China Brief he spent 28 years in the Royal Australian Air force rising to the rank of Sergeant.   A dedicated REMF or Pogue, postings during his career included Malaysia where he received an Australian Service Medal for liver abuse and getting married, and eleven and half years in the Northern Territory. The highlight of his career was being an International Military Liaison Officer from October 1999 to July 2000 in Darwin, during Australia's involvement in East Timor the first time.  He worked as a liaison officer with elements from various forces including the Jordanian Special Forces, South Korean Rangers, Irish Rangers, Canadian Defence Force and the Fijian Defence Force. Martin holds a Masters Degree in Asian Studies and has been to Harvard University as a Research Affiliate on North Asia.  His contributions will be in the area of North Asia, modern weaponry notably infantry weapons ,and modern warfare.  He was trained in many small arms during soujourns to Fabrique Nationale and Heckler and Koch in the 1980s and travelled extensivelly around East Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei from 1991 to 2003 collecting much information about the region for his university research.  He looks forward to contributing to the Old War Dogs but acknowledges he is a pup - he owns a half Staffordshire Terrier/half Australian Red Heeler who is his best friend and companion. Martin Andrew has resigned from the Old War Dogs site effective 23 Nov 2006.

	Gary is entitled to wear 3 Oak Leaf Clusters on his Air Medal, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze OLC on his Air Force Good Conduct Medal, 2 OLCs on his Army Good Conduct Medal, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze OLC on his Air Force Longevity Medal and 3 OLCs on his Outstanding Unit Award ribbon. The webmaster has so far been unable to locate suitable artwork. SMSGT Adams, Gary ("Boomer") U.S. Air Force 1956-1986
	See all of Boomer's Old War Dogs posts in one place here.

Gary was born and raised in Ashland, Wisconsin, on the shore of Lake Superior (some call it Gitcheegumee). He enlisted on June 12, 1956 upon graduation from high school.  Basic training was at Parks AFB, Pleasanton, CA and was one of the very last classes before the base was closed and all basic training moved to Lackland AFB, TX.  Gary's first assignment was to be Itazuke AB, Japan.  He departed Oakland by ship (MSTS M.M. Patrick) and spent 17 days, three days in a typhoon, enroute to Yokohama, Japan.  At Tachikawa his assignment was changed to Kadena AB, Okinawa where he spent the next four years (Dec 56 - Dec 60).  While there he met his Miss Okinawa in 1958 in the Airman's Club. Gary comments: "It took three months of trying to get her attention before she finally spoke to me and three more to get her to go on a movie date". They were married on March 16, 1959 and have one son (48), one daughter (46), eight grandchildren and one great-granddaughter who lives with them. Other assignments:  Fairchild AFB, Spokane, WA (Dec 60 - Sep 64), Pease AFB, Portsmouth, NH (Sep 64 - May 66), Ching Chuan Kang AB, Taichung, Taiwan (May 66 - Jun 67), Travis AFB, Fairfield, CA (Jun 67 - Dec 70), Grissom AFB, Peru, IN 9 (Dec 70 - May 72), a second tour at Kadena AB, Okinawa (May 72 - May 80) and finally Andersen AFB, Guam in May 1980 where SMSGT Adams assumed the position of his career as Chief Boomer, Pacific Tanker Task Force.  He retired on March 1, 1986. Gary logged 212 combat support missions (800+ hours) in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam conflict.  Notable historical events he participated in:  Frequent Wind (the withdrawal from Vietnam) - flew 12 hour communication relay sorties on the last two days, 29 and 30 April 1975. He also participated in 8 of the 11 days in December 1972 during Linebacker II when the B-52's conducted an intensive 11 day bombing of North Vietnam.  An unforgettable 11 days it was. After Gary retired he was hired by Pacific Stars & Stripes as the Guam Area Manager.  He held that position until he resigned in December 1989.  Gary is now 100% retired and stays home to take care of his many canine friends and play with his great-granddaughter who will someday be a pilot and take him for a space ride (she already loves airplanes).

Webmaster's note: This post may change as time goes on without being re-dated. I'm still looking for better pictures of some of the ribbons and badges, and the post will grow as we recruit more Old War Dogs.

Contributed by Bill Faith on June 28, 2006 at 07:25 AM in Anthony Pahl, Arch Arthur, Bill Faith, Bobbie Craig, Gene Harrison, George Mellinger, J D Pendry, Jim Bartimus, John "72nd TCS" Werntz, Karl Bossi, Larry Bailey, Lloyd A. King, Martin Andrew, Russ Vaughn, Shane Briscoe, Site Notes, Steve Gardner, The Gray Dog, TorqueJaw, William "1stCav" Page, Zero Ponsdorf | Permalink | Comments (31) | TrackBack