Althouse: Veterans Day.

November 11, 2014

Veterans Day.

Let us express gratitude.

53 comments:

MadisonMan said...: Thanks Dad!; 11/11/14, 1:11 PM
Big Mike said...: The wall TV in our cafeteria is permanently tuned to CNN so I saw Joe Biden giving a stem-winder of a Veterans Day speech. Now if only he or any other Democrat actually believed what he was saying...; 11/11/14, 1:11 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: I'm wearing my Adak hat today. Tradition.; 11/11/14, 1:27 PM
lemondog said...: God Bless the U.S.A.

And I'm proud to be an American
Where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died
Who gave that right to me; 11/11/14, 1:28 PM
Scott said...: My Dad (rip) was a WWII vet who got a great education through the G.I. bill. He went to medical school at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, and did his residency in psychiatry at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas; part of the federal government's initiative to train psychiatrists after the war.

It is amazing to read how many notable people in public life owe their education to the G.I. bill. It's a program that did massive amounts of good for so many people, and for the country.; 11/11/14, 1:38 PM
rhhardin said...: I think it's wrong-headed.

Andy Rooney had the best line - the veterans already got what they deserve, a free country.

The inclination to honor starts right - the guys are called and they go.

That's the movement of ethics in general. You're called. You go.

The calling of you makes you unique and irreplaceable, which is how it gets to be moral.

So honor that explicitly.

If you lose sight of it, it descends into political correctness and gamesmanship.

You were called and you went. Do you need more honor than that.

Well, some interest groups do. That's not for honor.; 11/11/14, 1:42 PM
Unknown said...: Great Uncle Howard (Ensign)Crow was killed by shrapnel on the Deck of the USS Maryland, Dec 7, 1941. The Maryland was not seriously damaged. The bomb landed on anchor chain and exploded prematurely.

USS Howard D. Crow (DE-252) was an Edsall-class destroyer escort built for the U.S. Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean the Pacific Ocean and provided destroyer escort protection against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys.

She was named in honor of Howard Daniel Crow who was born in Alvarado, Texas, 2 February 1918, and was commissioned ensign after completing Naval Reserve Midshipman’s School, Northwestern University, 14 March 1941. Ensign Crow reported to battleship USS Maryland (BB-46) 29 March. In the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941, Maryland was moored inboard of USS Oklahoma (BB-37) and received two bomb hits, one of which killed Ensign Crow.

DE-252 was laid down on 6 February 1943 at Houston, Texas, by Brown Shipbuilding Co.; named Howard D. Crow (DE-252) on 23 February 1943; launched on 26 April 1943; sponsored by Miss Viola Elaine Warner, the late Ens. Crow's fiancée (who had been recommended by his parents for the honor of christening the ship); and commissioned at Houston, Texas, on 27 September 1943, Lt. Comdr. Donald T. Adams, USCG, in command.; 11/11/14, 1:47 PM
Larry J said...: John Lynch said...
I'm wearing my Adak hat today. Tradition.

You were at Adak? I spent 1990 in Shemya. We had a sign at one end of the island saying "McDonalds: next stop 350 miles" referring to Adak. When we passed through Adak on the Reever, they wouldn't let us out of the terminal.

Your weather sucked just as bad as ours. I had a good job but man, it was a lousy location. I had a lot of fun on Shemya, most of it involving large quantities of alcohol.

Now, those poor Coasties one island over on Attu, those guys had it rough! There were only about 40 of them working to maintain a LORAN station.; 11/11/14, 1:56 PM
traditionalguy said...: The Bin Laden shooter, Rob O.Neill, gets his interview tonight on Fox. I look forward to hearing from him.

After seeing five hit pieces on O'Neill over the last four days, all using the "headlined facts that are not in the actual story trick," this man must know a whole lot.; 11/11/14, 1:56 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Wow. Yeah, I transited through Shemya in 1993 and 1994. I remember all the little gray foxes that would come up to the plane.

I was at the NSGA on Adak Sep. 1993- Sep. 1994. That was on the northern end of the island. The NAS with the airfield was in the middle.

It wasn't so bad, though the weather was incredibly awful, and I experimented with alcoholism for a month or two.

The McDonald's was... not the best McDonald's I've ever been to. It was better than nothing.

I still have dreams that I'm there.; 11/11/14, 2:00 PM
khesanh0802 said...: @ Fred Rawlings: Thanks for the run down on great Uncle Howard.; 11/11/14, 2:00 PM
The Drill SGT said...: I spent 1990 in Shemya.

Ah, the days before NSA got all its take from telcom satellite intercepts and tapped cables.

We had a series of field stations surrounding the USSR and China.

My little piece of hell was the 8th Radio Research Field Station, Phu Bai, South Vietnam...; 11/11/14, 2:26 PM
jacksonjay said...: My Pops was on Adak during WWII.; 11/11/14, 2:28 PM
Robert Cook said...: Armistice Day. Let us have no more war.; 11/11/14, 2:33 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Here's a good book about Adak during the war.

The Ten Thousand Mile War.

The point of the book is that weather and geography made fighting in the Aleutians meaningless. Planes on bombing missions couldn't even find enemy islands, and when they did they couldn't see any targets. I can't even imagine trying to fight outside in that weather. It was truly senseless.; 11/11/14, 2:34 PM
etbass said...: My uncle Howard (Cotton) Abell was a tank mechanic on Okinawa. After the war, he travelled every other year to Pennsylvania for the reunion of his unit until he was the sole survivor. He is 97 today and lives in Lebanon, Kentucky.; 11/11/14, 2:38 PM
The Drill SGT said...: John,

While you may be correct in the general sense, two factors to consider are obviously the morale issue and potentially the military value of the meteorology. We were able to succeed in our bombing of Japan because of our Gobi Desert Weather Station. The D-Day invasion succeeded in part because we knew the weather forecast due to our weather stations and by that point, the Germans had lost that ability.

My mission in South Vietnam had a weather component (over NVN) that is still SCI as far as I know.

Weather info is military info; 11/11/14, 2:43 PM
etbass said...: My daughter's father in law, Lt. James Collier, USN, was a medic in the 6th Naval Beach Battalion assaulting Omaha Beach. He survived the war and completed a successful career as an orthopedic surgeon in Haddonfield, N.J.; 11/11/14, 2:48 PM
The Drill SGT said...: Dad was a Bosun's Mate on a Jeep Carrier, USS Croatan, CVE-25, on Anti-sub convoy duty in the North Atlantic.

Croatan's last claim to fame was that she ferried the helicopters of the 1st Cav Div (Air Assault) to Vietnam in 1965.; 11/11/14, 3:02 PM
Heartless Aztec said...: Within living memory. I just returned from an across the country road trip. Two lane roads to California and back to Florida. We came across the National WWI museum in Kansas City. A massive museum on the scale of the a Smithsonian museum. Inside I found the ambulances that my great uncles drove in 1918 during the battles of Meuse Argonne and Chateau Thierry. Gassed for their efforts at Meuse Argonne they received small disability pensions till they passed in the 1970's. Lifelong bachelors they shared a nod and a wink about the French girls whenever they would tease me about my latest paramour telling she didn't hold a candle to Michelle at the estimet behind the lines when they were on leave between battles. So on the 11th hour of this 11th day during the 11th month, a toast to a great generation who fought in a great war to end all wars. Oscar and Leo? I am proud to be your great nephew. Cheers.; 11/11/14, 3:23 PM
Achilles said...: Robert Cook said...

Armistice Day. Let us have no more war.

11/11/14, 2:33 PM

Communism, Genocide, Tyranny, Socialism etc are worse than war. First we need to get rid of those. When everyone in the world is as free as you are then we can get rid of war.; 11/11/14, 3:23 PM
David said...: Robert Cook said...
Armistice Day. Let us have no more war.

I'm sure many vets would join you in this lovely wish but also remind you that it's counter to all of human history. Certainly to theirs. I will not say your wish is unachievable but under humanity's current conditions it is not going to happen soon.

So in the meantime let's try to avoid war through wisdom and strength in our nation. The strength is easier to produce than the wisdom but right now we have neither in adequate supply.; 11/11/14, 3:28 PM
Jaq said...: Armistice Day. Let us have no more war

How'd that work out?

I would love a planet without war, unfortunately, I was born on Earth, and there are bad people everywhere willing to send other people to their death to take stuff they don't have.

As long as that is the case, there will be war, and it looks like that will be the case for a while.

But why don't you head over to let Putin know he can give it up, then stop down in Syria and work out a peace there?

Then you could calm down Hillary's War in Libya.; 11/11/14, 3:29 PM
The Drill SGT said...: Armistice Day. Let us have no more war

How'd that work out?

One of the reason's Britain had to fight WWII was that attitude...

Si vis pacem, para bellum

- Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus; 11/11/14, 3:33 PM
madAsHell said...: Dad was a captain in intelligence on Okinawa. He wasn't a trigger puller, but he had to pick through the pockets of the dead when the battle was over.

Today, we would say that Dad had PTSD, but his tombstone says Lt. Col.; 11/11/14, 3:38 PM
Bob Ellison said...: Thank you all veterans and veterans' families for your service and sacrifice.; 11/11/14, 3:44 PM
LuAnn Zieman said...: My father was in an engineering division of the 3rd Army. He began in northern Africa, worked his way though Sicily, Italy France and into Germany. Two cousins were in Vietnam. One of them later was appointed the head of the Minnesota Veteran's Administration by then-Governor Tim Palenty. He wrote articles about PTSD for VFW magazines. My grandson is now teaching a course at UW-Stevens Point entitled “Back from the Front: Transitioning from the Military to Civilian Life,” which strives to do exactly what the class name implies — help veterans make the transition from service to life as civilians.; 11/11/14, 3:54 PM
cold pizza said...: From Clark AB, Philippines in 1984 to Beale AFB, CA in 2005: a toast! To absent friends and comrades! -CP; 11/11/14, 4:02 PM
Larry J said...: jacksonjay said...
My Pops was on Adak during WWII.

He has my respect and sympathy. For as bad as it was being stationed in the Aleutians in 1990, it was far, far worse for those guys in WWII. Most of them lived in tents or Quonset huts. The weather was no better back then.; 11/11/14, 4:30 PM
Michael K said...: "owe their education to the G.I. bill. It's a program that did massive amounts of good for so many people, and for the country."

I went back to school to do pre-med on the GI Bill.

The guy I first went into practice with was a young Navy medic who went ashore on Iwo Jima with the Marines. He is now 96 and he and his wife went back to Iwo Jima in 1995 for the 50th anniversary.

They went into some Japanese caves which had been aid stations for the Japanese army. There were still skeletons in the bunks carved out of the volcanic rock. The rock is soft like the catacombs in Rome.; 11/11/14, 4:34 PM
Michael K said...: "He wasn't a trigger puller, but he had to pick through the pockets of the dead when the battle was over."

My father-in-law was an officer in the Graves Registration service. They went back along the Bataan Death March identifying bodies. They also went over the Owen Stanley Mountain Range in New Guinea identifying American remains, some of which had been eaten by the Japanese. The story about cannibalism is in Flags of My Fathers, I think.

He came back in 1946 an alcoholic and spent some time in an army hospital getting dry, then joined AA for the rest of his life.

He laughed about his first AA meeting. They only use first names and he was bit stiff about not being called "Lieutenant" until one of the other guys at the meeting mentioned he was a general.; 11/11/14, 4:41 PM
Robert Cook said...: My point was, November 11th was originally Armistice Day, a day to celebrate the end of war, hopefully the end of all war, (as WWI was the "war to end all wars" (sic)).

It was day to celebrate peace, not to honor the military.; 11/11/14, 4:52 PM
Robert Cook said...: "...and there are ___ people everywhere willing to send other people to their death to take stuff they don't have."

Yep...that's what nearly all wars are about. Ours included.; 11/11/14, 4:53 PM
Balfegor said...: Re: Robert Cook:

It was day to celebrate peace, not to honor the military.

THE GLORIOUS DEAD; 11/11/14, 5:17 PM
Drago said...: Robert Cook: "Armistice Day. Let us have no more war."

When are childrens hours at Althouse over?; 11/11/14, 5:19 PM
Balfegor said...: They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
We will remember them.; 11/11/14, 5:23 PM
Drago said...: Robert Cook: "Yep...that's what nearly all wars are about. Ours included."

Ah yes. What would a thread on Veterans/combat/etc be without a marxist showing up and lobbing in some false moral equivalence?

Hitler and Roosevelt? Peas in a pod according to Cookie.

Although, and this is where we need to be clear-eyed, cookie would actually blame Roosevelt more.

That's why cookie spends so much time wallowing in hilariously false conspiracy theories with that horrible USofA and those dastardly Republicans at the heart of those conspiracies.

It gives him a warm feeling as he sips his lattes at his local coffee house.; 11/11/14, 5:23 PM
Big Mike said...: Armistice Day. Let us have no more war.

I can imagine life in a world run the way Robert Cook wants to see it run, and that is worse than war.; 11/11/14, 5:31 PM
jimbino said...: Why can't we pay servicepeople enough while they're serving so that we don't have to feel obligated to show our gratitude for years after they've returned? O maybe just give them a 15% tip when they leave service?And why don't the many medals suffice to show our gratitude?; 11/11/14, 5:40 PM
Balfegor said...: Honestly, turning Armistice Day -- Remembrance Day -- into a bland celebration of "peace" is disrespectful to those whom the day is set aside for us to remember.

The Cenotaph bears the words "The Glorious Dead," and the Stones of Remembrance the language "Their Name Liveth For Evermore" not in celebration of peace, but in remembrance of the soldiers who died in the Great War. It is for this reason that on Remembrance Day, there are observances held at the memorials to the dead of the Great War -- at the Cenotaph in London, at the Menin Gate, at Thiepval and at Arras, and at the myriads of memorials erected across the globe to honor the soldiers who fought and died in the Great War, where there names are inscribed today, that they not be forgotten. To elide that all into an empty celebration of "peace" is to pervert its meaning, to work to make that "not yet anonymous" soldier just a little more anonymous.

Yes, peace is celebrated. But the day is a day of remembrance for the dead and has been since the start.

Well, outside the US at least. Here we have our Memorial Day and Remembrance Day is used to honour living veterans.; 11/11/14, 5:49 PM
Anonymous said...: My father served in WWII. He was sort-of drafted in that he started college in the fall of 1942 when ROTC was mandatory. They activated his unit (reserve to active duty) in the spring of 1943 and off he went to series of military camps in the US. He had enrolled in college because his health was not good and farming was not going to work out for him. He went to Europe in December 1944 and was there into 1946. He told great adventure stories when I was a kid. After my freshman year of college did not go so smooth I thought I might enlist and get some specialized training. He advised against it--which surprised me. I took his advice and went back to college. I am sure I never heard the stories of evil and suffering he witnessed.; 11/11/14, 5:53 PM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Cook,

Hope in one hand, shit in the other. See which weighs more.

Only the dead have seen the end of war.; 11/11/14, 6:17 PM
Big Mike said...: Meanwhile, up in Canada ...; 11/11/14, 6:53 PM
Titus said...: My dad, who was in the Korean War, went to Applebees for a free din din.

A few years ago I took him to Kentucky where he was stationed.

Finally, Keenland, so he could bet on the horses.

I never seen that man fast food restaurants...in Kentucky...the south.

Waffle House was kind of retro and cool though.

When I was like 17 I called some 1-900 number and drove to some city, in Kentucky, across from Cincinnatti. I met him and he wasn't hot. I told him I was going to see a friend and be back. Being in Drum Corps I had friends in Cincinnati. The dude made me leave my boombox at him house so I would return. I returned with my friends and had to apologize to him for not wanting to do him. Than I went out to some hag palace in Cincinnati and did a guy in his car

kiss kiss; 11/11/14, 7:00 PM
Titus said...: I called the 900 number from a friend in Madison and I didn't pay the bill, so if fucking roommate called my mom to tell her I owed the phone bill because I was calling sex lines.

I also did a guy in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, while I was teaching a band camp there. It was the summer before I traveled to Cambridge. I was staying with the band director, but already scouted out the gay bars. So after practice one big I drove by the hag pens, drove slowly and inspected the trade, and some pretty hot guy hopped in my car. We did it and he stole my wallet. I told the band director someone at the camp stole the wallet and he punished all the kids. Tons of laps and push ups insued.

tits.; 11/11/14, 7:05 PM
Robert Cook said...: "It gives him a warm feeling as he sips his lattes at his local coffee house."

I don't like lattes and I don't hang out at coffee houses.

Ha! A lot you know!; 11/11/14, 7:06 PM
Robert Cook said...: "Hitler and Roosevelt? Peas in a pod according to Cookie."

Actually, no. But there were many fine Americans from fine families and fine institutions back in the day who were inclined to favor Hitler over FDR.; 11/11/14, 7:13 PM
Jaq said...: Why can't we pay servicepeople enough while they're serving so that we don't have to feel obligated to show our gratitude for years after they've returned? O maybe just give them a 15% tip when they leave service?And why don't the many medals suffice to show our gratitude? - jimbino

Fuck you jimbino; 11/11/14, 7:13 PM
Jaq said...: Yeah, and there were lots of Americans who preferred Stalin to FDR, as well.; 11/11/14, 7:16 PM
Titus said...: The band director made me speak to the band, saying stuff, like, I don't care who stole my wallet, if you could just put it on the bleachers during the break that would be so helpful.

No questions asked.; 11/11/14, 7:32 PM
Titus said...: Every time I see those friends from Ohio, they like to tell that story.

Oh and the band parents all put money into a pot to "help me out" because the rotten kid who stole my wallet,

I lied and said I had more cash in my wallet than I had. I had like 10.00 in my wallet and received over 100 from the parents and received 500 for the band camp. I knew how to make money early and the band won the Indiana (which is a competitive hs band state, as opposed to Wisconsin, which sucks) state championships that year with the show I designed, "Dada"

I was 17. I was bad. My father, who was a bullshitter, told me I was the best BSer he ever had seen, and he seen many.; 11/11/14, 7:41 PM
chillblaine said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/11/14, 7:48 PM
Drago said...: Cook: "Actually, no. But there were many fine Americans from fine families and fine institutions back in the day who were inclined to favor Hitler over FDR."

Cookie studiously (purposefully?) avoids the obvious: The progressives were completely in love with the fascist movements in Italy and Germany.

One of my favorites: Lincoln Steffens said that Italian fascism made Western democracy, by comparison, look like a system run by “petty persons with petty purposes.” Mussolini, Steffens proclaimed reverently, had been “formed” by God “out of the rib of Italy.”

Naturally, "truthseeker" cookie "forgot" to include old Joe Kennedy in the list of those who felt some very strong Hitler love.

In fact, prior to Hitlers invasion of Russia, the entire (and I do mean the entire) left wing in the US was against standing up to Hitler in any way (since that stance supported Stalin's position).

Of course, once Stalin found himself in Hitlers cross-hairs, he ordered his little lefty morons in the US to twirl on a dime and adopt the opposite position overnight ("Second Front Now!!")...and the left was more than happy to oblige him.; 11/11/14, 8:10 PM