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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Happy Veteran’s Day!

Happy Veteran’s Day!

by John Cole|  November 11, 201411:35 am| 59 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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valley

That’s me in the driver’s hatch as we roll through the Valley of Death created in large part by big bad A-10’s.

Here’s the whole crew relaxing in the heat.

kuwait

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Reader Interactions

59Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    November 11, 2014 at 11:38 am

    Thank you to all vets who have served our country so I could have this well-deserved day off. ;-)

  2. 2.

    Quaker in a Basement

    November 11, 2014 at 11:39 am

    Except for all the hell going on outside, I bet those are fun to drive.

  3. 3.

    srv

    November 11, 2014 at 11:42 am

    I didn’t know every M-1A had a cook. /s

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 11, 2014 at 11:43 am

    @Quaker in a Basement: They are EXTREMELY fun to drive. And just to ride around on.

    My best wishes to all my fellow BJ veterans, and veterans everywhere.

    You’re welcome, Baud!

  5. 5.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    November 11, 2014 at 11:46 am

    Thanks and best wishes to the Balloon Juice veterans, and veterans everywhere.

  6. 6.

    Cacti

    November 11, 2014 at 11:51 am

    Fond memories of Schwarzkopf’s war crimes.

  7. 7.

    BGinCHI

    November 11, 2014 at 11:56 am

    Cole, have you seen “Fury” yet?

    Review please.

  8. 8.

    srv

    November 11, 2014 at 11:59 am

    @Cacti: Just because your enemies stay between the yellow lines does not a war crime make.

    Not sure what’s up with that though. A-10 is awesome because it does great with traffic jams? Like how hard is that?

    Me thinks the Reds would have been a little less orderly in the Fulda Gap.

  9. 9.

    gogol's wife

    November 11, 2014 at 12:03 pm

    I would say “Thank you for your service,” but my consciousness has been raised on BJ that veterans don’t like that phrase. But thank you anyway!

  10. 10.

    PurpleGirl

    November 11, 2014 at 12:03 pm

    Many thanks to BJ veterans and other veterans for their service.

    I like how “American Heroes Channel” (formerly the Military Channel) has phrased it “Home of the Free because of the Brave.”

    Remember why we commemorate this date on this date: The 11th day of the 11th month and marks the end of World War I. It was originally called Armistice Day.

  11. 11.

    gogol's wife

    November 11, 2014 at 12:03 pm

    @BGinCHI:

    Have you seen it? Does it overcome the dopey aphorisms that are in the trailer?

  12. 12.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 11, 2014 at 12:06 pm

    @srv: As my GDP (General Defense Plan…where your unit goes when the balloon goes up) area when I was stationed in Germany WAS the Fulda Gap, I can assure you, I’m happy we never found out what it would look like. The area is too naturally beautiful to allow the Dogs of War to soil it.

  13. 13.

    Linnaeus

    November 11, 2014 at 12:07 pm

    @PurpleGirl:

    Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.

  14. 14.

    d58826

    November 11, 2014 at 12:07 pm

    In addition to being thankful for the sacrifices of all our veterans, we can be thankful that Texas is Ebola free. Ohio is also Ebola free. Maine is free of the scourge of Ebola. The state of New York, the city of New York and even the subway system are free of Ebola. New Jersey in spite of Chris Christies best efforts, remains Ebola free just as it always has. And last but certainly not least the United States, one week after the election, is free of the Republican/faux news generated Ebola panic.

  15. 15.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 11, 2014 at 12:08 pm

    @PurpleGirl: The brave are not to be found among the huddled masses quaking in fear over Ebola, I’ll tell you that.

    Nor among pants shitting NRA board members, either.

  16. 16.

    trollhattan

    November 11, 2014 at 12:09 pm

    You and all your fellow Vets have my sincere thanks.

    For anybody who hasn’t seen it, Tower of London poppy installation for the 100th anniversary of WWI.

  17. 17.

    Cacti

    November 11, 2014 at 12:10 pm

    @srv:

    Just because your enemies stay between the yellow lines does not a war crime make.

    Boxing in and slaughtering forces that were withdrawing in compliance with UN Resolution 660 sure does.

  18. 18.

    El Caganer

    November 11, 2014 at 12:10 pm

    http://youtu.be/cZqN1glz4JY

  19. 19.

    kindness

    November 11, 2014 at 12:11 pm

    @Baud:

    so I could have this well-deserved day off. ;-)

    Day off??? What you talkin’ bout?

  20. 20.

    ruemara

    November 11, 2014 at 12:12 pm

    Happy veterans day to all the vets on the board including the esteemed blogmaster.

    I’m home sick, otherwise I’d be at work. Trying to get work done. Lift head, tweak pose. Lie down. Lift head tweak pose. Lie down. I hear the republicans are cutting SNAP benefits, which will hurt veterans’ families. So patriotic.

  21. 21.

    BGinCHI

    November 11, 2014 at 12:14 pm

    @gogol’s wife: I have not. I’m just hoping it’s better than the reviews suggest….

  22. 22.

    trollhattan

    November 11, 2014 at 12:15 pm

    @trollhattan:
    Okay, that didn’t work.

    http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/08/Paul-cummins-Poppies-Tower-of-London3-537×401.jpg

    http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/05/article-2716788-203CEC3200000578-311_964x602.jpg

  23. 23.

    Citizen_X

    November 11, 2014 at 12:16 pm

    Just passed the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month where I am. “Happy” Armistice Day.

  24. 24.

    Baud

    November 11, 2014 at 12:18 pm

    @kindness:

    :-(

  25. 25.

    Gin & Tonic

    November 11, 2014 at 12:25 pm

    @PurpleGirl: I like how “American Heroes Channel” (formerly the Military Channel) has phrased it “Home of the Free because of the Brave.”

    Let’s not forget that there are plenty of people in various places in the world who are bravely fighting to make their homes as free, today (and yesterday, and tomorrow.)

  26. 26.

    Thor Heyerdahl

    November 11, 2014 at 12:32 pm

    Good Luck Everyone – Blackadder

    One of the most poignant endings to a television series – over the top in WW1.

  27. 27.

    PurpleGirl

    November 11, 2014 at 12:38 pm

    To all who have commented on my comment: I find I have an existential problem. While I want to commemorate the sacrifices made by so many, I also want to acknowledge those sentiments which point out the other side (or another side) of the life equation. The outcome of WWI also gave us incredible poetry against war and its waste. Sometimes insurgents and the “enemy” are their country’s freedom fighters. Often people are just asses. And some of us struggle to hold multiple views at once because life is full of ambiguities and is not always black and white with clear dividing lines.

  28. 28.

    max

    November 11, 2014 at 12:45 pm

    @srv: Me thinks the Reds would have been a little less orderly in the Fulda Gap.

    Well, if you can find any remaining Red Army veterans of the Patriotic War, you can ask them how much they like enduring being hammered by the A-10 equivalent Ju87.

    I don’t think they liked it too much on account of so many many tanks, particularly in the part at that beginning where they lost half the army.

    @PurpleGirl: And some of us struggle to hold multiple views at once because life is full of ambiguities and is not always black and white with clear dividing lines.

    Driving tanks is fun; war really sucks.

    max
    [‘Happy Armistice Day.’]

  29. 29.

    jacy

    November 11, 2014 at 12:51 pm

    Another hearty thank you to all the BJ veterans, and to veterans everywhere.

  30. 30.

    Suzanne

    November 11, 2014 at 12:57 pm

    Thanks, BJ veterans!

    Maybe “BJ veterans” doesn’t sound like I meant it to sound. Oh well. Thanks anyway, y’all.

  31. 31.

    Seth Owen

    November 11, 2014 at 1:09 pm

    Sorry, Cacti. Pursuit is a recognized part of warfare. If anything, we ended that phase too quickly.

    Let’s save the ‘war crimes’ label for the real thing. Lord knows we have enough actual war crimes to answer for without confusing things with sloppy labeling.

    In the Gulf War American soldiers still has a good enough reputation that large numbers of the enemy willingly gave themselves up. I hope we can regain that someday.

  32. 32.

    p.a.

    November 11, 2014 at 1:13 pm

    Happy Veterans Day. And now for something completely different:

    Seen this yet John? Take your blood pressure meds.

  33. 33.

    Beatrice

    November 11, 2014 at 1:31 pm

    “Day After Tomorrow” – Tom Waits

    I close my eyes Every night
    And I dream that I can hold you
    They fill us full of lies Everyone buys
    About what it means to be a soldier
    I still don’t know how I’m supposed to feel
    About all the blood that’s been spilled
    Look out on the street
    Get me back home
    On the day after tomorrow

    You can’t deny The other side
    Don’t want to die Any more than we do
    What I’m trying to say, Is don’t they pray
    To the same God that we do?
    Tell me, how does God choose?
    Whose prayers does he refuse?
    Who turns the wheel? And who throws the dice
    On the day after tomorrow?

    I’m not fighting For justice
    I am not fighting For freedom
    I am fighting For my life
    And another day In the world here
    I just do what I’ve been told
    You’re just the gravel on the road
    And the ones that are lucky
    Ones come home
    On the day after tomorrow

  34. 34.

    d58826

    November 11, 2014 at 1:40 pm

    @p.a.</a Well either someone is paying him big bucks to remain a nominal 'D' or the GOP won't meet his price since they don't have to. Maybe he figures if he bucks the democrfats enough then the GOP will come up a bit in their offer.

  35. 35.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 11, 2014 at 2:01 pm

    @Suzanne: Many veterans (Balloon Juice and otherwise) are also BJ (the other well known meaning of “BJ”) veterans. Or at least they used to brag about it to their buddies.

  36. 36.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 11, 2014 at 2:03 pm

    @Seth Owen:

    Let’s save the ‘war crimes’ label for the real thing.

    You know, like launching a war of aggression. Something both Saddam and the deserting coward did.

    Oh, also, too, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-According-To-Godwin.

  37. 37.

    Villago Delenda Est

    November 11, 2014 at 2:28 pm

    Doh!

    Posted in the wrong thread. Please see Elon’s latest for it.

  38. 38.

    rikyrah

    November 11, 2014 at 2:40 pm

    thanks to all the Veterans for their service.

  39. 39.

    Schlemazel

    November 11, 2014 at 2:41 pm

    WWI story my grandfather told me.
    His unit landed in France & was assembled to get their steel helmets, the last thing before leaving for the front. Some guys collapsed with the flu and the whole unit was quarantined. After 2 weeks it was determined the flu was no longer a threat & they were all well enough to die the officers showed up & ordered everyone to get their sht together because the trucks would be coming to take them to the trenches. The officers then left. When the trucks arrived the guys got back into bed and pulled the covers up. The drivers came in, assumed they had the wrong place & left. It was a couple more days til anyone figured out they had not shown up.

  40. 40.

    Cacti

    November 11, 2014 at 3:03 pm

    @Seth Owen:

    Sorry, Cacti. Pursuit is a recognized part of warfare. If anything, we ended that phase too quickly.

    You should get a hold of Ramsey Clark and straighten him out about what are actually war crimes.

    “They had it coming” was the same rationale used for Dresden.

  41. 41.

    p.a.

    November 11, 2014 at 3:05 pm

    @d58826: my thought exactly. He’s doing the prep work. Then if the D’s show any backbone over the fence he’ll go. I didn’t leave the Dems, the Dems left me. Prick.

  42. 42.

    Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)

    November 11, 2014 at 3:20 pm

    Greetings and thanks to all my fellow veterans!

  43. 43.

    dmbeaster

    November 11, 2014 at 3:42 pm

    @Cacti: That report is garbage as is your baloney ranting about war crimes. My favorite piece of junk from the Clark report is that fuel oil bombs constitute war crimes because they are allegedly “asphixiating” bombs which supposedly suck the oxygen out of the local area, and because they cause “unnecessary harm”. Just utter garbage.

  44. 44.

    gene108

    November 11, 2014 at 4:03 pm

    @p.a.:

    I thought we do not want our side to copy the Republicans and play at being Republican-lite?

    Seems cooperating and trying to govern responsibly are the polar opposite to what the Republicans have done during the past 6 years.

  45. 45.

    raven

    November 11, 2014 at 4:11 pm

    Hey ya’ll. Just back from a trip to Chattanooga and sunrise at Chickamauga. The scale of the place is overwhelming. This is sunrise at the Viniard Field with Illinois and Indiana Monuments next to the cannon. What a waste.

  46. 46.

    Bill Arnold

    November 11, 2014 at 4:25 pm

    @d58826:

    And last but certainly not least the United States, one week after the election, is free of the Republican/faux news generated Ebola panic.

    Thanks, Ebola!
    Has anyone published any estimates of how many net votes Ebola gained for the Republicans? (I didn’t see any in a brief search.)

  47. 47.

    Denali

    November 11, 2014 at 4:29 pm

    I for one and glad that you, John Cole, came back from Kuwait.

  48. 48.

    HRA

    November 11, 2014 at 4:36 pm

    My gratitude to all of you veterans who put your own lives on hold to protect us.

  49. 49.

    dance around in your bones

    November 11, 2014 at 4:37 pm

    I’m happy that all the veterans I know came back alive, even if not in one piece. And I respect their service.

    I’m angry as hell about the ones who didn’t make it back.

  50. 50.

    Loviatar

    November 11, 2014 at 4:44 pm

    My Desert Storm memory.

    I was at my desk in the truck with the Platoon Sgt., and we were going over the duty roster; who were we going to send on shit burning and water duty. Then we heard gas, gas, gas, we grabbed our gas masks and ran outside, the sky was black. We didn’t know it at the time but Saddam had lit off the oil wells. I started scrambling to get my mask on, while holding my breath and trying to remember all the training that had been hammered into us over the previous months. I’ll remember to my grave the look of fear on the Plt. Sgt.’s face, I must have looked the same. It hit me he was only 29 and I was only 24. FUCK, I was going to die from some shit in the middle of the fucking desert before I turned 25.

    Most afraid I ever been in my life.

  51. 51.

    raven

    November 11, 2014 at 5:15 pm

    @Loviatar: 24, damn, I was 19 and 10 months when I came home after tours in Korea and the Nam. If we had guys that were 21 we stood and stared.If they had been to college,that was too much!

    we, the unwilling,
    led by the unknowing,
    are doing the impossible
    for the ungrateful.
    we have done so much,
    for so long,
    with so little,
    we are now qualified to do anything
    with nothing.

  52. 52.

    Zinsky

    November 11, 2014 at 5:49 pm

    Are we supposed to be pleased as punch that you were complicit in the mass slaughter of other human beings? Explain to me in very precise detail how Saddam Hussein was planning to take away my freedom or any American’s freedom. Please, I’m all ears.

    We need a lot less glorification of the military as well as reinstating the draft and passing a permanent war tax. If the U.S. is involved in any foreign hostilities, there should be an immediate 10% surtax placed on all American’s incomes (corporations too). Watch how quicky we find peaceful solutions to foreign policy problems.

  53. 53.

    raven

    November 11, 2014 at 6:11 pm

    @Zinsky: Be whatever you want to be.

  54. 54.

    Loviatar

    November 11, 2014 at 6:55 pm

    @raven:

    24, damn, I was 19 and 10 months when I came home after tours in Korea and the Nam.

    That was the thing that always blew me away about the military, you forget how young everyone was. I was considered the “old man” because I was in my early 20s and was an officer. The military made you grow up at a very young age, I remember having to counsel an 18 old who was having marital problems and thinking to myself; what the fuck do I know about marriage, I can’t even commit to regular dates. At the age of 22 I was responsible for the lives of 32 men and millions of dollars worth of equipment. wow. Today I can barely get a 13yr. old to clean his room.

  55. 55.

    CZanne

    November 11, 2014 at 7:31 pm

    Huh. Small world, Cole. Spouse has very similar pictures, grew up in the town you’ve mentioned as your hometown, is about your age. Was confused when he looked over my shoulder and saw those pics and which site I was at.

    As with him, I am very glad you came back, too.

  56. 56.

    Smiling Mortician

    November 11, 2014 at 7:54 pm

    I’m very late to this party. It’s been a busy day. But on the topic of Veterans Day, here is a link to a show I co-wrote called Back in the World, which has two more performances this coming weekend if any of y’all are anywhere near wet & windy western Washington.

  57. 57.

    Jado

    November 12, 2014 at 9:08 am

    @d58826:

    Pity the poor news networks – they have their best chance of 24/7 panic coverage evaporate into a fine mist of medical competence.

    Maybe CNN can sue the CDC for restraint of trade…

  58. 58.

    Jado

    November 12, 2014 at 9:11 am

    @BGinCHI:

    I thought it was REALLY good. Shia LeBeouff was really good, and Brad Pitt is really magnetic. I have no idea how “historically accurate” it could be, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, in a “HOLY CRAP, I am glad I didn’t have anything to do with that. That’s horrible…” kinda way.

  59. 59.

    Jado

    November 12, 2014 at 9:17 am

    @Zinsky:

    Don’t disagree on the tax part, but the issue you have is with the Old White Guys in charge, not tank driving grunts. Work to keep idiots like Bush II out of reach of the levers of war, and maybe we won’t have to deal with sending young military warriors overseas to fight for “strategic interests” that have nothing to do with an invasion of the US.

    Rail all you like about politicians sending someone else’s kid off to fight and die, but the grunts don’t deserve the vitriol

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