Than Sign Up To Fight!

Than Sign Up To Fight!

© September 29, 2006 by M. Emmett Townsend

Someone said, in another article I sent in, "This country is 1.5 trillion dollars in debt and soldiers are dying in an unnecessary war. If you are so pro-Bush (who couldn't be bothered to read a memo with Bin Laden in the title) and pro-war than sign up to fight! Put your money where your poetic whiny mouth is."

            Now I must say I have not attacked this particular person directly though she was on a set of debated comments with me in the past.  And while her comment aggravated me, it also inspired me to write this article. It is not complete and may be missing a date or have a date wrong I wrote it quickly, I will edit as I realize something I missed. Much of this story begins when I was 14, or 26 years ago. Well enough setting the story up.. lets get on with it.

I have been in the military, and I have 5 members of my family currently serving 3 of them over there as we speak. My cousin died in an ambush 4 months ago in Afghanistan, he was a medic setting up clinics for the Afghan people.  I have and will continue to donate time to help soldiers who have needs on this side.  My sister is a retired Lt Col air force, My brother is Retired Army National Guard, My other sister is Retired Air force Intel, her husband, is retired Intel as well but is now Civilian Intel working for the Air force still, and he serves in the reserves as well all were activated soon after 9/11. My nephew is on his second year activation training troops in Georgia. My cousin David has just returned from Iraq, Brian also a cousin just went to Afghanistan.  My father is retired Air force, 23 years Col. and a DR, he served 2 tours in Viet Nam, he volunteered he had a position here at home but felt as a volunteer in the air force he felt he should go since others have been drafted to go (that is called a code of ethics, and dedication and love of his fellow country man, something Kerry certainly never displayed). 

       When my father retired in the December of 1979 then signed on with International Rescue Committee. So, at the age of 14, I traveled (6 months later) to him, my father, who was in Thailand and we worked in the refugee camps. My father as chief Surgeon and head of the Hosp, my mother worked as a Nurse in one of the clinics and I became an English teacher and also a child play therapist for the children in the Hosp of the Nong Khai Refugee camp. This was a camp of 48,000 people, bigger then many cities here.  I have seen war and I have seen what it takes to fight for freedom and I saw what people did for that freedom, how they sacrificed and then once free how they didn't waste a moment they got to work making that freedom mean something. I have also seen what happens when the good guys leave a war unfinished, the additional pain and suffering that involves.  Vietnam was a war miss fought and lost because of the liberals and many of there lies, (J. F. Kerry being one of the liars) we worked with Dad for a year then mom and the kids came home to the US dad continued to do this work for 3 more years. We saw him 2 times during those years once for 3 weeks and then he had to head to DC for Hearings in the Senate, and a surprise meeting with William Casey (then head of the CIA) where my father was thanked for the detailed information he gave Washington from refugees about the chemical weapons being used on the people of the Lao Highlands supplied to the Pathet Lao by the Soviets.

So I know a lot about sacrifice for my country and for the cause of righteous war, and defending the people and their freedoms they long for.  You see they couldn't say the things we say here on Gather, because they would be harassed or put to death, for it.  The same goes for the Iraqi people, they can now, but before we freed them they could not and the number who died from the war is smaller then the number killed each year by Saddam.

            My family has fought in every war this Nation has been through, starting with the Battle of Lexington and Concord, where my direct Grandfather fought and his brother covered their retreat and died with 48 musket ball holes in his body. Civil war been there, WW1 been there, WWII been there, Korea been there, Vietnam been there, (We may have missed Granada, but that was a quick rescue mission, but a cousin might have been there), Gulf War been there, Kosovo been there, Afghanistan been there and still there, Iraq war been there and still there.  We know war, we know peace and we realize that your freedoms and you times of peace, must be bought and paid for from time to time with our families most precious blood, and we are willing because all of you even those I disagree with are worth it, you lives, your freedoms and your ability to tell me off are worth the sacrifice.

So miss, what was your challenge? Put my money where my mouth is?