I stood there so proud of my little group of boys. The time we spent out in the cemetery passed so quickly not one boy asked ” how much longer?” or “when can we go?” They were so serious and carried themselves with a purpose that I haven’t witnessed before. I was constantly scanning to keep track of all of the boys. When my eyes fell on the two boys again, I saw them standing near a row of flags and chatting to each other about something that appeared to be serious to them. I walked close to see what they were so serious about. As I approached them and asked what was wrong, they informed me that the flags along the two closest rows to them were placed wrong. The flags were placed behind the headstone instead of in front of them. They asked me for permission to move the flags to their proper placement and of course I gave it to them.

My attention was quickly drawn to a large group of ROTC Cadets from a local college, who had begun gathering and chatting loudly between each other. Moments later the Commander in charge of the Cadets came to me and asked me “Do the boys over there belong to you?” Of course, I admitted that they were my boys. He then proceeded to tell me that my boys were messing with the flags that his cadets had placed and it was disrespectful and I needed to control them. I called the boys over even though I knew what they were doing. I wanted them by my side in case one of the cadets approached them. When the boys arrived at my side I looked to them and asked the boys to “please tell this nice man why you are moving the flags that his cadets placed on the graves.” The boys turned from me to face the Commander and told him “Because the flags were placed wrong so we are moving them so that they are in their proper place.” The Commander looked at the boys and said “Boys, you should never play with the flags that are on the graves, it is disrespectful. The flags are not placed wrong.”

At that point, one of the two boys stated “but Mister the flags were placed wrong because a soldier never turns his back on the flag!” The Commander stood there staring at the boys as if to ask them what they meant by that statement. The boys almost in unison, explained that the flags had been placed behind the headstone instead of in front and that they knew the placement of the flags should be in front of the headstone because “a soldier never turns his back on the flag”, which was why they had so painstaking cleaned the tops of every headstone prior to placing each flag because they wanted to make sure that the soldier buried in that grave could see the flag. The Commander stood there looking at the boys in amazement. At that point, I bent down to the boys to face them at eye level and told them thank you for making sure that we were honoring our veterans properly. Before the boys walked away they made eye contact with the Commander and said to him “thank you for your service”. The Commander smiled at the boys and said the only word he could muster “thank you”.

(This piece was written 9 years ago today. I held onto it in my journal and from time to time I have recalled the story. This story is special to me and has always touched my heart. I do not often share stories of my Cub Scouts but these two were very special to me because one was my son and the other his good friend. Nine years later, my heart is still full of pride for these two guys. One is a “knob” (freshman) at The Citadel and the other a Senior in High School who will be receiving his Eagle Scout soon. When I look at these two guys I still see the same love and respect for our service men and women. I have no doubt that one day they will be doing great things for our nation.)

BOUHAMMER NOTE-This morning, just like the last 11 Veterans Days, the Cub Scouts from this pack are at the same cemetery placing flags at Veteran’s graves. Now it is our youngest son who is walking from stone to stone with his fellow scouts making sure that the Veterans NEVER turn their back on the flag. 

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• 

As a member of the New York State Army National Guard, a middle school teacher, and a coach within my own home community I’ve always felt a sense of duty to do what’s right and enjoyed helping others. Like most fellow service members, I’m not one to look for the spotlight of appreciation from others. However, with the HERO (Helping Early Responders Organization) award and the opportunity to assist Soldier’s Angels, I feel deeply honored. As a combat veteran who saw the destruction of 9/11 and patrolled the mountains along the Afghan-Pakistan border, I always appreciated the Americans back home who took a few moments to send care packages to unknown service members. Soldier’s Angels is one of those groups and I feel like I’m now able to give them a thank you.

This past weekend I had a GREAT experience with Dan Leon, TJ Bell (NASCAR driver), the #50 Green Smoke team and NASCAR this past weekend. The HERO award is very humbling and appreciated as it made my family and I feel like rock stars.

Dan Leon gives great credit for the success of Captain Knowles and Soldiers’ Angels at the Watkins Glen event to the strong partnership between T.J. Bell and LTD Power Sports, Green Smoke, Soldiers’ Angels and The Hero Foundation, which works to honor and support both military personnel and first responders (Bell is the Foundation’s spokesman). The group has planned four more races with an honorary hero that will be selected through an online voting process. If that hero is military, Soldiers’ Angels will be featured on Bell’s car once again. “Just a wonderful opportunity for Soldiers’ Angels,” Leon says. Additionally, Bell has offered to carry the Soldiers’ Angels logo and bumper wrap on the vehicle he is racing at the Michigan International Speedway this weekend. He will be on National TV for the Friday practice sessions and Saturday qualifying rounds. But he will have to pull out of the race itself early on Sunday due to funding problems. “He will be sure to plug Soldiers’ Angels during any and all the chances that he gets,” Leon says. Thank you to The Hero Foundation LTD Power Sports, Green Smoke and Herr’s for helping Soldiers’ Angels spread the word and give a hero an amazing weekend!

I’ve always felt a great deal of pride serving and protecting my country. What makes me even more prideful is to observe fellow Americans who remember to “live the dream” on a daily basis as a result of the sacrifices our service members make for them.

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• 

And yet the Liberal sect of our great country contends that if we quit fighting then the problem will go away. If we Conceed and Accomodate, we will just embolden them to ask for more.

And as we look at world events that are transpiring world wide right this instant, I am forced to believe that mankind as stopped moving forward, and we have started moving backwards. There are People who are in Power that prefer the mindless drones reminiscent of the medieval ages, where due to our education level as a people they were able to mold our thought process’s, and thus maintain power and continue to build their riches at the expense of their people’s. The reason why soo many countries hate the United States despite our Ginormous humanitarian aides to both big countries and countries that have nothing significant to offer, is this :

The people of these countries cannot fully put their plan of power over their own people as long as the United States Shines as a beacon of hope for freedom and democracy on the western horizon. Which is why we get soo much flak from the international community.

One of our greatest Presidents (probably not the very best but still an incredible man) once gave a speach referencing the Soviet menace in the East. And even though the names of the enemy have changed the end state our enemy has, has not changed. And President Ronald Reagan summed it best in this exerpt of a speech given on October 27th 1964.

Now let’s set the record straight. There’s no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there’s only one guaranteed way you can have peace—and you can have it in the next second—surrender.

Admittedly, there’s a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson of history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face—that their policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no choice between peace and war, only between fight or surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand—the ultimatum. And what then—when Nikita Khrushchev told his people he knows what our answer will be? He told them that we’re retreating under the pressure of the Cold War, and someday when the time comes to deliver the final ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary, because by that time we will have been weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically. He believes this because from our side he’s heard voices pleading for “peace at any price” or “better Red than dead,” or as one commentator put it, he’d rather “live on his knees than die on his feet.” And therein lies the road to war, because those voices don’t speak for the rest of us.

You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin—just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard ‘round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn’t die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well it’s a simple answer after all. You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, “There is a price we will not pay.” “There is a point beyond which they must not advance.” And this—this is the meaning in the phrase of Barry Goldwater’s “peace through strength.” Winston Churchill said, “The destiny of man is not measured by material computations. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we’re spirits—not animals.” And he said, “There’s something going on in time and space, and beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, spells duty.”

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.

We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.

And although the temptation to prematurely jump to peace is almost too strong to withstand, I believe it is imperative that we do so. Our enemy has sworn to never stop until there are no infidels left in the world. They will not stop until every Human either converts to radical Islam (yes.. it has to be radical islam because they are killing non-radical as well) or they have been murdered.

And when our enemy has a mentality this strong, filled with this much hate that they even kill their brothers and sisters of the same faith because they are not radical, how can we as a nation of free religion, even begin to think that a real and lasting peace is achieveable through accommodation?

And I know it is almost like comparing apples to oranges… however, after WWI the entire world turned a blind eye to the German activities of the build-up prior to WWII.. making thousands of tank turrets, and thousands of “tank Chasis” … but no one would say anything because most countries were still licking their wounds from the first World War. And in a matter of a couple weeks all the tank turrets were mounted to the chasis.. and sent through Poland….

You see… we cannot quit now.. It is not an option until this war has been won. And we as a people need to unify again.. restrengthen our resolve to see this through to the end so the attacks of 9/11 shall not be repeated even in our grand childrens future.

When we allow the bleeding heart liberals to continue to write rules about how to conduct war, we do two thing. First… we hand cuff our own Soldiers.. whilst the enemy remains un-handcuffed.. and secondly… we continue to dull the edge of war towards our enemies… so that they no longer fear fighting us.. because they will be treated better by us as prisoners ( if they dont make it to ALLAH) than they are treated by their own “leaders”. Stop prosecuting Soldiers for being mean in a combat zone to the enemy… Its war. It should not be an enjoyable experience by our enemies… so that they should think twice about starting one with us again…

Gen. Robert E. Lee said it best…

“It is good that war is so horrible… lest we become too fond of it”

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• 

The soldiers have stated that they, along with other American civilian contractors, were exposed to hexavalent chromium at the Qarmat Ali water pump plant in southern Iraq, just north of the Persian Gulf. It’s believed that the highly toxic chemical was left behind by forces loyal to Saddam Hussein, and the chemical, a bright orange powder, was undisputedly widely dispersed throughout the grounds of the water plant.

KBR has denied the claim that they put American soldiers in danger knowingly vehemently, and has stated that they notified army engineers about the substance on site as soon as they were aware of the dangers and we informed that their efforts to remedy the situation were effective. However, earlier reports of KBR open-air “burn pits” for disposing of unsorted waste including human and animal corpses, asbestos, medical supplies and waste, paints, solvents, and tires endangering American soldiers health at Joint Base Balad in Iraq have caused some to question KBR’s veracity.

Further, although KBR is an independent military contractor, some are comparing the cases to the Army’s previous denial of the effects of Agent Orange and asbestos-related mesothelioma cancer in veterans. In particular because hexavalent chromium, like asbestos, causes a cancer there is concern that the veterans exposed will have difficulty receiving healthcare benefits. Today, although nearly 1,000 veterans are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year and make up over 30% of all mesothelioma cases it is still extremely difficult for veterans to receive VA health care benefits for the cancer. Partially this is because it is extremely difficult to diagnose the mesothelioma symptoms because they are so similar to the symptoms of other, less serious diseases. Of course, a major concern is that the symptoms of lung cancer caused by hexavalent chromium are similar to the symptoms of mesothelioma , including trouble breathing and fluid build-up in the lungs.

The delegation of Oregon lawmakers lobbying to strip military contractors of their protections against lawsuits have cited the concerns regarding the difficulties facing veterans who may develop cancer from hexavalent chromium receiving health benefits from the VA as well as concerns over what they term contractor’s “appalling negligence” as the main reasons that legislation is needed.

Those in opposition of the legislation note that in both instances it appears as though the U.S. Army may have been notified of any danger from environmental toxins, and claim that stripping contractors of their protections from lawsuits will likely create more bureaucracy and severely limit contractors actions and endanger their workers.

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• 

For any Soldier who has deployed for extended and multiple operations in the many hot spots festering across the globe, it is strikingly clear just how important the love and support of your family can be to make the months away more tolerable. One thing that has also become apparent after my three deployments is as that any personal or family issues that are a source of conflict at home tend to only get worse once the stressors of the actual deployment kick in. This is especially true when you are dealing with drug or alcohol addiction within your family.

The purpose of this blog is to relate a very personal and painful learning experience I encountered as a Company Commander after returning from Iraq and then re-deploying to Afghanistan. My hope is that my ordeals will be helpful to both NCOs and fellow Officers at all levels as well as the Soldiers and families of our great country.

Prior to deploying to Iraq in 2007, I felt like I was at the top of the world with a great wife of seven years and two wonderful kids. It was our first deployment as a family and I felt like I had adequately prepared my loved ones for the challenges they would be facing with me being gone for a year. For all appearances the deployment seemed to go fairly well for my wife although she did encounter issues with depression and began to see a counselor partway through the year. Our homecoming was great but looking back now I can see how oblivious I was to the warning signs that my wife was sending. Its not uncommon for Soldiers (especially coming off their first deployment) to have trouble adjusting from their deployed mindset to being an active member of their family once they return. In my case, I became very withdrawn from my family and when I did try to become involved as a parent I unwittingly just contradicted the ground rules my wife had established during the deployment with my kids.

At this point everything I had done (or failed to do) could have likely been resolved by sitting down with my wife and discussing our individual frustrations and problems we were dealing with. Instead of asking for help or trying to get to the source of the problem, I assumed that we could go on as we had before, and everything would work out on its own. What I didn’t know at the time was that my wife’s depression had crossed over into alcoholism and she had begun several friendships with women who were involved in cocaine and other illegal drugs (anyone who has lived in Fayetteville knows the groups I’m talking about).

A few months after returning from Iraq I took command of my first company and became even more focused on my professional life – especially since we were preparing for another deployment to Afghanistan after a 6-month train-up. It was during this time that my wife began using cocaine and the signs of her addiction became harder for her to mask. A month after I took command my wife admitted her addiction and claimed that she was ready to quit but just needed some time with me to work through her problems.

If you or anyone you know is dealing with a family member or friend with a substance abuse addiction then this is the key lesson I would hope to convey in this blog: There are no half measures when it comes to beating drug addiction. Marital counseling, twice a week counseling sessions or sending them home to spend a week with mom will not make the addiction go away. These are all things I tried so I could attempt to help my wife stay clean and manage my responsibilities as a commander. When I asked her to enter a rehab program she used every excuse in the book as to why she really didn’t need to go and be away from her family for a month, and how she was strong enough to stay clean on her own. When I finally forced her into a rehab program she completed two-thirds of the 30-day program and then begged me to check her out so she could spend additional time with me prior to my deployment. I reluctantly agreed.

When I did deploy that following January I had asked her sister to stay with my family to help with the kids and hopefully keep my wife out of trouble. In retrospect all of these actions were merely stopgaps and Band-Aids to maintain some level of stability with my family so I could deploy with my Soldiers. Not surprisingly after six months down-range, my wife was maintaining a $500.00 a day cocaine habit and my sister-in-law had assumed all responsibilities with my kid’s welfare. Shortly thereafter I was sent home when she was arrested by the police and hospitalized for putting a gun to her head and threatening to kill herself.
Three years later I am now divorced with full custody of my kids and preparing for my next job as a Battalion S3 or Executive Officer. My ex-wife was able to beat her addiction, but only after the divorce, two additional stints in rehab and the very real threat of not seeing her kids again. I am by no means an expert in addiction but I do have some very real-world understanding of how insidious addiction can be and what you should expect if you are a family member or friend of an addict.

First, when someone is an addict there is very little they won’t do to get their next fix. The physical and mental agony they experience when they are going through withdrawal will encourage them to take advantage of any leeway you allow them. This means that anything short of the 24-hour care, counseling and monitoring available in a full 30-90 day rehab program will (short of some miracle) not be sufficient. The worst thing you can do in this situation is to enable your loved one to continue to use. In my case I was so pre-occupied in trying to be a commander, a father and a husband that there was no way I could have set the conditions for my wife to make a true recovery.

Secondly, understand that your loved one will never truly beat their addiction until they are resolved 100% that there is no other alternative. We’ve all witnessed the seemingly never-ending cycles of the Lindsay Lohans and Charlie Sheens of the world as they go from rehab to relapse multiple times. Successfully completing a rehab program is just the first step in a life-long process of recovery.

Finally I would like to point out the importance of approaching this problem with a very pragmatic and realistic approach. Some of the steps that must be accomplished if you are faced with this situation include (not necessarily in this order):
1) Take the individual off any bank accounts and tear up any powers of attorney (especially General Powers of Attorney). Also contact the credit monitoring agencies (Equifax etc) and place a credit lock on your identity to prevent any new forms of credit being opened. My failure to do this cost me over $100,000 in credit card and other charges.
2) If you have children make alternate arrangements for their care in case they need to be removed from the situation.
3) Contact your Commander and get their buy-in on your plan of action.
4) Contact the Army Substance Abuse Program (ASAP) at your post and get they’re input on the best rehab facilities in the area that accept Tricare.
5) Contact the rehab facility and coordinate for an intake date and time for your family member.
6) Conduct an intervention with the family member (having other family and friends present is highly recommended) and inform the family member of how you are going to help them heal. Offer them love and support. Inform them that they need to pack a suitcase and that they will be attending (as a first step) a rehab program. If they refuse then inform them that you will be filing an emergency court order for temporary custody of the children (if applicable) and that you will be filing for divorce.

This may sound harsh but the alternative in my case was two years of enabling, pure hell for the kids, my credit and savings destroyed, and in the end – divorce. Additionally I think it’s important to note the importance of staying connected with your family members before, during and after a deployment. My wife had become depressed and frustrated and I wasn’t prepared mentally when I got back to address her needs. Hopefully this hasn’t been too depressing to read, but I can only hope that it might help someone facing a similar circumstance from making the same mistakes.

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• 

Capt. Jessica Russell, a finance officer assigned to the division’s Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, Intelligence and Sustainment Company, had not seen her brother, Sgt. Josiah Russell, in nearly seven months. Before then, the Oswego, N.Y., natives had not seen each other in almost two years due to his Iraq deployment and her assignment as a basic training company commander. In a casual conversation with her battalion command sergeant major, Command Sgt. Maj. Roy Rocco, regarding her brother, his upcoming reenlistment and being deployed to the same country, she mentioned wanting to see him and being a part of his momentous occasion before he redeployed back to Fort Drum, Jessica said. “To be totally honest, I didn’t think anything would come out of the whole conversation with the sergeant major,” said Jessica.

Meanwhile, in northern Afghanistan’s Balkh province, Josiah thought of the possibility of coming down and seeing big sister Jessica, but his busy schedule always dictated otherwise, he said. The 23-year-old sergeant is serving as a member of the Quick Reaction Security Force at Camp Mike Spann in Mazar-e-Sharif. When he is not pulling security out on patrols, Josiah serves in the camp’s fire department and is preparing to redeploy back to the United States.

“I just came back from a mission when my platoon sergeant approached me and said I had to go see the command sergeant major (Philip Chepenik) with my squad leader. I’ll admit, I was a bit concerned and didn’t know what to think,” said Josiah, a combat engineer assigned to Brigade Special Troop’s Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10thMountain Div. (LI). Back in Kandahar, Rocco gathered all of Josiah’s information from Jessica and contacted his old Fort Drum neighbor, Command Sgt. Maj. Philip Chepenik. “I told him the story about one of our officers having a brother in his unit, and how she wanted to reenlist him before his unit redeployed. [Chepenik] sent me an e-mail back stating he would work it on his end. A couple of days later Captain Russell contacted me stating that her brother would be coming down on the 20th to reenlist,” said Rocco.

“I was really excited that my brother was coming down and couldn’t wait to see him. The sergeants major really came through for us,” Jessica said. After meeting with his sergeant major, Josiah was told to pack his bags and head to Kandahar where he met his sister and spent the next few hours catching up and taking photos to send home to their proud mother, Susan Tarbell, who lives in Oswego.

Approximately five years ago, Jessica, a young Army officer, took Josiah, a local farm-hand, to their local Army recruitment center and convinced him to join. Once the contract was drawn up, she swore him in. “I was glad to see my sister. I started to think it wasn’t going to be possible to see her out here, but here we are, just like before, her swearing me in again. I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Josiah said.

The Russell’s have made the service a family affair. Aside from Jessica and Josiah, they have another brother, Justin, currently serving in the National Guard. Jessica enlisted him as well. “It’s always a great day in the Army when we can reenlist quality noncommissioned officers. But, to have an older sister reenlist her younger brother is great for both the Army family and the Russell family,” Rocco said. “I am proud of our service. I feel the military is a great institution, allowing many opportunities to excel. I wouldn’t want anything else for my family,” Jessica said.

Sgt. Josiah Russell (left), Brigade Special Troops Battalion 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Div. (LI), raises his hand and recites the oath of reenlistment given to him by his sister, Capt. Jessica Russell, Intelligence and Sustainment Company, Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 10th Mtn. Div., during a reenlistment ceremony held on Regional Command South compound, Kandahar, Afghanistan, Jan.21. (Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Felix A. Figueroa, RC S Public Affairs, 10th MTN DIV)

Sgt. Josiah Russell (Left), Brigade Special Troops Battalion 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Div. (LI), raises his hand and recites the oath of reenlistment given to him by his sister, Capt. Jessica Russell, Intelligence and Sustainment Company, Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 10th Mtn. Div., during a reenlistment ceremony held on Regional Command South compound, Kandahar, Afghanistan, Jan. 21. (Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Felix A. Figueroa, RC S Public Affairs, 10th MTN DIV)

Sgt. Josiah Russell (Left), Brigade Special Troops Battalion 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Div. (LI), shakes hands with his sister, Capt. Jessica Russell, Intelligence and Sustainment Company, Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 10th Mtn. Div., during a reenlistment ceremony held on Regional Command South compound, Kandahar, Afghanistan, Jan. 21. (Photo by Sgt. 1st Class Felix A. Figueroa, RC S Public Affairs, 10th MTN DIV)

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• 

 
But others, including some who are Ranger qualified, believe that combat trumps training, that the hard-earned Ranger tab worn on the left shoulder after completing a brutal 61-day regimen through mountains, woods and swamps, on minimal food and sleep, is no substitute for years spent fighting real-life enemies in Afghanistan or Iraq.

NCOs with extensive combat experience are good enough for some.

“They’re as qualified as anybody else,” said Sgt. Maj. Thomas Dartez, who earned his tab in 1985, served with the 2nd Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, and taught at the school twice, most recently in 2004.

Combat is ultimately the best teacher “because you learn from experience,” Dartez said, using roadside bombs as an example. “Having a tab doesn’t prepare you for that.”

You can read the  whole story is at www.stripes.com/news/is-combat-experience-making-ranger-school-unnecessary-1.129472

Well my longterm and good friend D. Mullen has responded with a guest posting to respond to the above mentioned article. His response is below:

My feelings on this are now that the Military, in this case the Army, is so fatigued from decades of grueling deployments, (yes I include all the pre-911 deployments that occurred in the 1990s too!) going to Ranger School is seen as a hassle. This notion may be fueled by others within the Army who want to close the school just to save money. They did away with the desert phase long ago for that very purpose back in the mid 1990s. An ill advised move in my mind given the types of environments we have been operating of late.

The arguments made against the school in the article are weak and forget history. Viet Nam, our last major protracted LIC (Low intensity conflict) was similar to current ops in that it was mostly a counter-insurgency operation. The need for Rangers was so great that Ranger Companies were stood in country up to run raids, recons and ambushes. Post Viet Nam saw the Army go further by standing up not one but two Ranger Battalions in the mid 1970s when military budgets were their tightest since the WW II days. After Grenada in 1983, the Army saw fit to stand up an additional Ranger Battalion, brining the complement to three. Clearly, someone saw the value of what Rangers brought to bear in those conflicts. Interesting, in those post-conflict experiences, the need was seen for more Rangers and now, in this time in which the training and tactics instilled in Ranger School are well suited for our current conflicts, there is now talk of the value of it. Did I miss something? For me, Ranger School was the best military experience I had in preparing me to lead an Airborne Rifle Platoon, an Airborne Mortar Platoon and even being a Light Infantry Brigade Signal Officer. The Infantry Officer Basic Course was absolutely no substitute compared to Ranger School. What’s next? We should stop sending officer’s and NCO’s to Airborne School as the experience is just a confidence booster since the vast majority of the graduates will never serve in an Airborne unit.

The article only touched on the fact that first and foremost Ranger School is a Leadership School which uses dismounted patrolling, coupled with food and sleep deprivation to simulate combat stress, as the vehicle to develop leadership skills. The leadership is continually rotated during each mission so that each member of the patrol has the necessary information, experience and motivation to follow through on the sixth stanza of the Ranger Creed which states ‘Readily will I display the intestinal fortitude required to fight on to the Ranger objective and complete the mission, though I be the lone survivor.’ Hooah that!

Beyond that, since I was going to be a officer in the U.S. Army, I felt it my duty to become as well trained as possible. Ranger School was as good as it got during my time. Also, to properly ‘lead by example’ NCOs who themselves were Ranger Qualified, necessitated to me that I become Ranger Qualified.

The debate of combat experience trumping Ranger School is, to me, a bit apples and oranges. Ranger School prepares young leaders for combat or, for those with combat experience, complements and augments that combat experience. I heard story after story from NCOs with Afghanistan combat experience complain about the low quality of officers and poor Operations Orders they received, if any were issued at all, for missions they were expected to complete. I also heard them complain about people serving in roles they were ill equipped to, mostly due to lack of light infantry patrolling experience. Sounds to me the Army needs more, not less, Ranger Qualified leaders up and down the chain of command.

The best complements I received while in the Army stemmed from me being ‘tabbed’ was one from one of my soldiers in the Mortar Platoon who said, in a most concerned voice upon my leaving about my replacement ‘Sir, why are they letting a non-tabbed Lieutenant be our Platoon Leader? We have never not had a Ranger Qualified Lieutenant before? What are they thinking up at Battalion?’ The second was from the then CPT Barry McCaffery Jr, who said of me when I was a Brigade Signal Officer ‘Lieutenant Mullen, I know you are a commo officer but you look like an Infantry Officer!’ Enough said. RLTW!

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• 

Fortunately, the Soldiers of Troop A, 1-172nd Cavalry Squadron, 86th
Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Mountain) happened to be in the area for
a leaders meeting, and when the village elders turned to them for
help, they soon found themselves providing a solution to a daunting
problem.

“We were at the Afghan national army compound and they asked us if we
could help,” said SFC Todd Gagnon an infantryman, from Alexandria,
N.H., and a U.S. Army Mountain School Instructor.

By the time they got to the scene a small crowd had formed to see what happened.

“We went and looked at it, and it was at least a 130-foot drop but it
was easy with these [Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All Terrain]
vehicles,” said Gagnon.

As the Soldiers set out to retrieve the car, Gagnon stationed his MATV
to stop traffic and use the winch installed on the front of the
vehicle. Another MATV was stopping traffic in the other direction
while Gagnon headed down the embankment.

“The hardest thing was using the cables, it was a small car and only
one place to hook it up and that broke about ten feet from the top but
we hooked it back up and pulled it up,” said Gagnon.

The crowd of onlookers grew as the car started to make its way back to
the road.

After they recovered the car, the Cavalry Soldiers, learned that that
they had saved the small town a lot of money in recovery costs.

“The interpreter said that we saved them about 1,400 U.S. dollars
because there is no wrecker service out there,” said Gagnon. “They
would have had to bring in a crane from a local jobsite, so that was a
good thing, and we enjoyed doing it for them,” added Gagnon.

When they finally got the car to the top of the ravine the Soldiers
were surprised when the owner was able to jump in and start his
vehicle back up.

“He jumped in when it was almost to the top and it started right up,”
said Gagnon. “Even though the windows were all smashed and the front
was a mess he did not have a scratch on him.”

They knew by the sheer size of the crowd that they were really helping
out the local community and they were strengthening their relationship
with the local Afghans.

“There was quite a lot of people there not just because we shut down
the street, but to see us pull this car out of the ditch.” Gagnon
said. “The interpreter could hear the crowd talking and saying
encouraging things the whole time we were pulling it out.”

Supervising the event was 1st Lt. Peter Burnham who was very pleased
with the performance of the team and the outcome for the citizens of
Shinwari.

“They did an excellent job in the recovery of the car and helped out
the population,” said Burnham. “It just shows you that no matter what
mission you are on, you never know how it is going to turn out or what
could happen.”

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Following the recent immigration debates arising out of Arizona and in Congress made me step back and think. “What makes someone an American?” Is it an accident of birth? Having a special skill? Or is it an attitude?

My grandparents names are listed at Ellis Island. It’s no big deal, so are the names of dozens of thousands of others. They came over amongst those human waves of Europeans in the late 1800’s who were coming to the New World for a chance for a better life.

My maternal grandmother was Mary Inez Ryan, from Ireland’s County Limerick, and we grew up listening to her stories of wailing banshees and the shrieking tree. She married Joseph Mendell, whose father had changed his name from Mendel when he arrived from Germany the generation prior. My dad’s side was also European: Louis Ljubon from Budapest married Aloysia Woelfl from Bavaria Both families settled in northern New Jersey, learned English, struggled through the Depression, and then both my mom and dad joined the Marines in WW2. Afterwards they were part of the first G.I. Bill class at Montclair State Teachers College and worked hard to give us kids a better life and more opportunities.

America has so many other stories…last month at FOB Dwyer I met Tuan Pham, a Vietnamese refugee whose grandfather and father were killed by the Viet Cong. His mother and sister left Vietnam as ‘boat people,’ and eventually got Pham out when he was 16…now he’s Major Tuan Pham, USMC, who enlisted three years after arriving here. While his is certainly a far more interesting family story than mine, it’s remarkably similar in that it started with folks looking for a better life, making their way to America, working hard, giving back, and helping build that which we call “The American Dream”.

And it’s worth noting the many stories of citizenship that started after 9/11: there have been some 55,000 immigrants who became Americans through their service in the Armed Forces. The ranks of the Marine Corps are filled with young men and women with fascinating accents who are “giving back” to their newly adopted country. Some of them “give back” a lot; think back to Sgt Michael Strank, one of the five Marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. He was born Mychal Strenk, in Jarabenia, Czechoslovakia, and learned English in the tough steel mill of Franklin Borough, Pa. Sgt Strank was killed on Iwo, three days after that famous photograph was taken. Or Mexican-born Marine Sgt Rafael Peralta, whose last act was to roll onto a grenade in Fallujah, sacrificing himself in order to save the lives of the Marines behind him. Other countries should envy immigrants like these two.

Perhaps they’re the strength of this country, this blend of farmers, tool & die makers, steel workers, and shopkeepers who arrived here with little more than an ill-fitting suit and a fierce determination to “do better.”

That’s the unifying feature that built the United States of America; they learned the language; worked their way into the social structure and politics of their new homeland, worked hard, tried to blend in, and in committing themselves to success, they gave this country a mind-set that anything is possible if one works hard.

Another mind-set was that of leaving the old ways behind. The old ways weren’t working; that’s why people came here in the first place. My Grandpa Lubin would never, ever discuss his hometown, or his life before he came here. “It doesn’t matter,” he’d say “I’m an American now, and being an American is all that counts.”

And unlike the faux-patriotism espoused by so many of today’s politicians, the older generations understood that patriotism was something that was to be practiced, as opposed to lectured from the airwaves. On Monday 8 December 1941, most of the men of Harvard and many other colleges were on the recruiting lines, and by 1945 America had 12 million men under arms. Everyone volunteered; in fact my ex-wife’s father forged his father’s name to the paperwork, and joined the Army a year underage – Lewis Nash participated in the invasion of Italy and ended up fighting in the Battle of the Bulge.

That’s real patriotism. Everyone served, everyone helped out, and everyone pulled together for the common goal of protecting the American way of life that their parents and grandparents offered them.

That’s what makes the recent immigration debate so frustrating. Most of these 12 million illegals hunker down, work hard, and are taking the dirty jobs that most American citizens won’t. Sure many of them don’t speak English now, but then neither did my Grandfather Ljubon or Mychal Strenk when they arrived. America is still a country of opportunities for those who want to work, and given the opportunity, look at how the Strenks and Peralta’s have become an integral part of America’s history.

Maybe that’s it; being an “American” is as much an attitude as an accident of birth. Since people today aren’t digging the Erie Canal, or building the transcontinental railroad; perhaps today’s settlers are instead cutting lawns in New Jersey or working in an Iowa meat-packing plant. But hard work and attitude never hurt anyone, as Grandpa Lubin used to tell me; and as Grandpa’s Strenk, Peralta, and Pham likely told their boys; with attitude and hard work you can accomplish almost anything.

So let’s raise a glass to our 234th birthday – with more hard work and the same attitude, we’ll be celebrating 234 more.

Happy Independence Day.

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