purpheart23 Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 To you and yours. Happy Veterans/Remembrance day. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongLeftFlank Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 Wearing my poppy! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamingknives Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 Happy? Not quite what I would think appropriate. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purpheart23 Posted November 11, 2008 Author Share Posted November 11, 2008 Happy? Not quite what I would think appropriate. Guess it depends on your point of view. For those of us still serving having lost friends and maybe family. To think back on their life as one given in the name of freedom and the pursuit of happiness. It brings a smile to my face knowing that such men/women existed and still exist to this day. Remember those that have come before, and pray for those currently serving. Thank you and Happy Veterans Day. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamingknives Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 I'd go for saddened that lives have been and continue to be lost, reassured that there were and are people who will put themselves at that sort of risk. I'd still not choose happy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 Te mamae nei a te pōuri nui The great pain we feel Tēnei ra e te tau Is for you who were our future Aue hoki mai ra ki te kainga tūturu Come back return home, E tatari atu nei ki a kou tou We have waited for you Ngā tau roa Through the long years I ngaro atu ai te aroha You were away. Sorrow E ngau kino nei I ahau aue taukuri e Aches within me 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Ross Posted November 11, 2008 Share Posted November 11, 2008 Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs, And towards our distant rest began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots, But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of gas-shells dropping softly behind. Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! -- An ecstasy of fumbling Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time, But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime. -- Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams before my helpless sight He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin, If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs Bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, -- My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jak170 Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 nice... I just read Dulce Et Decorum Est last year 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falconander Posted November 12, 2008 Share Posted November 12, 2008 Happy is just fine and way better than saddened... Why does it have to be sad? I am proud of my service and those were some of the best times in my life. I am happy to have served and proud of those who continue to serve. Lives gets lost every day. You can die for something or die driving your SUV down the highway on your way to work. What is sad is that my kids only got a half day off of school. What is sad is those that criticize the fatalities and civilian loss without any appreciation for tactical advances that that have limited both over the years. I saw that deaths per 1,000 is worse in New York... Saw that motorcycle deaths were killing more of our men... A true infantymen/marine/grunt awaits for the day that they get to go into conflict. Be happy that you have the freedoms that were brought to you by the blood, sweat and tears of those who serve... Be happy you are warm in your bed with your family... Be happy when they return wirth their mission complete, rather than with their tail between their legs because the people back home lost heart... Veteran's day... a good day to honor those that serve and be happy that they have your back... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purpheart23 Posted November 14, 2008 Author Share Posted November 14, 2008 Well put Falconander. Obviously couldn't say it better myself. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 Falconander, While I take your point about the incredible improvements in survival rates thanks to rapid stabilization, prompt evac and state of the art trauma care, I should point out the Big Lie on reported casualties, at least for the U.S. in Iraq and likely Afghanistan. If you die over the country after evac or from wounds and/or complications thereto after leaving the country, neither counts against combat fatalities. Call it the Pentagon's New Math! Have also recently learned that the suicide rates among U.S. Iraq war veterans are a staggering 6000+ a year. IOW, the public's hearing and seeing only a trickle, when it's more like a hemorrhage. Given these and the government's shameful neglect of those hurt in its service, I marvel we still have people willing to serve. Hats off to the veterans, especially the ones getting the short, smelly end of the stick! Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 If you die over the country after evac or from wounds and/or complications thereto after leaving the country, neither counts against combat fatalities. Call it the Pentagon's New Math! Hardly anything new about it - I don't think anything has changed in that regard in the last hundred years, except that back then casualties weren't flown home. But even if you made it home after being wounded, and then some years after the war died due to effects of the injuries to your health and immune system, let alone became depressed and killed yourself, your family would have had a hard time with having the government pay any sort of widow's pension or other blood money. And I'm talking about all governments in general, not just yours. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falconander Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 Understand your comments, Yes, after you are a casaulty things get worse. Our base hospitals were great, also awesome care for my family and the births of my sons. Guys who were wounded, even a limp had pay for the rest of their life as well. But you would not catch me in a VA hospital or under VA care. This is what has to change. I'd like the death payout raised as well. I think it went recently from $100,00- when I served to $300,000 now. It maked the bean counters think twice about better armor on Hummers and the like. 4 grunts *$300K= $1.2 Mil. Still, if you get civilian insurance there is the war clause. So better life insurance needs to be put in place for the widows and kids. But my comments were more centered around the air support and gunships, precision tank fire and the like. I forget the stats but in Desert Storm their Armor was neutralized very efficiently. So the efficiency of the attacks and the civilian loss has dramatically decreased. I bet my bottom dollar that we are being fed some false intel on supposed targets so that there are civilian deaths. They are using the media as a weapon to fuel their own hatred but to fuel the anti-war efforts back here. Served a bit with the Rangers and Airborne and I would rather be the strike force than the occupation force any day of the week. As far as suicides, more guys die from motorcycles every year. Not to say it is not a problem but given the situation, you would expect to see it worse than the civilian rate. It just gets more press to add fuel to the fire that we have to pull out. Army: Soldier suicide rate may set record again by Pauline Jelinek / Associated Press If all are confirmed, that means that the number for 2008 could eclipse the 115 of last year -- and the rate per 100,000 could surpass that of the civilian population, Col. Eddie Stephens, deputy director of human resources policy, said at a Pentagon news conference. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nidan1 Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 JK where did you get the statistics on the suicide rates? Seems rather high to me. According to what I have read, suicide rates among current war vets are not much higher than rates of vets from previous conflicts, or much higher than the national average. Look at this article http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/01/terror/main3439629.shtml as an example. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falconander Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 The rate per 100,000 soldiers also has been rising and could be surpassed. It was 18.1 per 100,000 last year -- the highest since the Army started keeping record in 1980. That compared to a rate of 17.5 in 2006 and 9.8 in 2002 -- the first full year after the start of the war in Afghanistan. The rate for 2008 has not been calculated, officials said, but if the trend holds, it would surpass the demographically adjusted rate of 19.5 per 100,00 for the civilian population, Stephens said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the suicide rate for U.S. society overall was about 11 per 100,000 in 2004, the latest year for which the agency has figures. But the Army says that when civilian rates are adjusted to cover the same age and gender mix that exists in the Army -- a younger and largely male population -- the civilian rate is more like 19.5 per 100,000. I bet the military, even with cambat casualties, has a lower death rate per 1,000 than the civilian rate if you factor in things like diabetes, cancer and the like. Joe Blow having a coronary at this desk is coverd by CNN. I was probably safer and healthier when I was serving.... food for thought.... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Falconander Posted November 14, 2008 Share Posted November 14, 2008 But even at that think of the two paired to each other.... Joe Blow, worries about his mortgage, sleeps with his wife, sees his kids every day. He makes $60K a year and his main concern is that they don't carry French Vanilla at work. His main health risk is high cholestoral (sp?) and throwing his back out bowling last week. Joe Grunt worries about IEDs, sleeps in the sand, his wife sleeps around, he has not met his kids. He makes $30K a year and his main concern is he has to be deployed again after he goes back home. His main health risk is getting his head blown off and or losing limgs to some bomb blast. So why is the military rate almost the same as the civilian rate? Because you appreciate what you have and have the stamina/pride to see the mission through. All things equal, the military rate should be three times the civilian, but that does not make good news. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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