Tag Archives: army

Giving Thanks

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON | NOV 27

“Thank you for your service.”

It is an expression that rolls off the tongue. Thanking someone in uniform as they trek through an airport or walk down a sidewalk has become commonplace.

The expression can take many different forms, from a simple ‘thanks’ and maybe a handshake to a fireworks popping flyover, flag-waving spectacle at a professional football game.

It is certainly most often a gesture made in hopes of lifting the spirit of a service member, a tiny step forward to express appreciation for what a soldier has done for the country, whatever that might be, from suffering the horrors of warfare to shuffling papers at the Pentagon.

Continue reading →

164 – Ten Years On

BY RICH GALEN

Reprinted from Mullings.com

Note: On September 14, 2001 President Bush went to Ground Zero. Standing atop a buried fire truck the President draped an arm over a firefighter wearing a helmet bearing the number “164.” Talking through a bullhorn, President Bush began addressing the rescue workers. When someone shouted that they couldn’t hear him, the President responded:

“I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”

I went through a good deal of what I wrote during the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. I’ve chosen to reprise this column because it was, unfortunately, prescient in the way it portrays the ways wars start and the ways war ends. I know you may be suffering from 9/11 fatigue, but I hope you’ll spend a few minutes and re-read this column from nearly 10 years ago:

Wars start with old men telling young men there is a great cause. Young men run tell their young women they are answering the call. Continue reading →

Bring Back the Draft

BY JOHN FEEHERY

His bed-making skills are much more impressive than mine will ever be. He creases his sheets just so. He could easily get a quarter to bounce high off the finished product. He tried to instill his bed-making skills onto his sons, but somehow, we never were able to follow in his footsteps.

Part of that was because we didn’t really care about making our bed. Part of that was because as teenagers, you are lucky to get to school, let alone worry about making your bed with military precision.

My dad learned a bunch of other things in the Army. He learned how to polish his boots. He learned all about physical fitness. He learned about different cultures in America (and in Korea).

He learned some things that he will probably never tell his grandkids, and some things he never told his mother. Continue reading →