Big Red Car here. Beautiful, cool Saturday morning. The kind of genuine pleasure that makes even a Big Red Car — not given to humility by its very nature — happy to just be alive.
Tie that life to Texas, being alive in the ATX, well, my friend. It does not get better than that. On Earth as it is in Texas, the ATX.
In recent events surrounding the celebration of the 70th anniversary of D Day it was reported by Brian Williams how proud our President, Barack Obama, was of the service of his grandfather in Patton’s Third Army in the weeks after D Day.
His exact words were: “It’s quite a distinction to be able to say that a family member fought in Patton’s Third Army.”
In fact, Stanley Durham, President Obama’s grandfather Stanley Dunham was a supply clerk and sergeant for an aviation unit who landed almost two months after the invasion. They did not fight by the nature of their duties.
It is undisputed, he served with the 1830th Ordnance Supply and Maintenance Company, Aviation, as a supply clerk and a supply sergeant. Today this would be considered the Air Force which did not exist yet in those days.
Stanley Durham did not get anywhere near a fight during all of his service in World War II. It was not the nature of an aviation Ordinance or Maintenance unit to be anywhere near the fighting. They by their very nature would be far in the rear where planes were being serviced and repaired. Such units might not even be issued rifles. Likely their weapons were kept in an armory under lock and key. Their war was one of issuing equipment (supplies) and repairing damaged aircraft.
These units, including Stanley Durham, were not combat units and did not see action of any kind whatsoever. They fought sleeplessness, shortages of beer and the weather and nothing more.
Can the press please stop their slobbering adoration and attention to the President’s backside? Please.
Brian Williams, can you please stop the bromance with the President? Please?
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car but one that is sick of it all. Stop already. Poseurs. You dishonor those who did actually fight. Enough already.
So, why didn’t he say “served” instead of “fought”?
I hate to be cynical-and do not discount anyone who served in the military-but there are certain people that try to make big events about them-they use them to connect politically to a group. Remember, Obama is having some huge trouble right now with the VA, and with the prisoner exchange. I think that is your answer.
I still don’t get it. If he had said “service”, that’s like getting a B instead of an A. By lying/stretching, he prob got an F.
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When you walk into an Officer’s Club and you have three rows of ribbons because you served in combat, they make a hole for you. They notice if you are a Ranger or a paratrooper or sporting a combat patch.
The Army does not mislead itself, this is a civilian problem.
The military is very judgmental and does not mislead itself.
BRC
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The real answer is this administration does not fundamentally understand the military, does not want to and does not really respect them.
Would you expect them to at a granular level when you know who they are?
BRC
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There is service and there is combat. They are not the same.
The press needs to be accurate in its description of the nature of service. They need to stop with their unending slobbering adoration.
No, Obama’s grandfather did not see action. Just describe it accurately that’s the point of it.
I am tired of endless poseurs. Tired. Poseurs.
BRC
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There is a book, I forget the name of it. It was written by an American Ivy League (Dartmouth) guy from Philly that wound up in the military. He was Jewish, and his father chaired the draft board. No doubt, when Pearl Harbor happened he was going in. He candidly spoke about his career. He never saw combat-and “guarded” the gasoline pipelines through France. “Guard them” they had to because the French used to steal all of Patton’s gasoline. The book is enlightening as it shows how the French citizens sabotaged the Allied effort. Many French citizens preferred the Nazi’s. The only drama in the book came when he was at the Nuremberg trials. On the day they proved Hitler killed the 6M, he was there and a witness to history. But, he makes no bones about his military service and his “heroism”-he says there was none. He went on to become a newspaper editor and publisher in Virginia.
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There is dignity and nobility in every element of service in an army. Not everyone gets to be a Ranger or a paratrooper or in combat arms (Infantry, Artillery, Armor, Engineers) and someone has to be the shaft of the spear point.
Good chow and adequate supply is more important than anything sometimes. An army travels on its belly.
The French have much to be embarrassed about for World War II. The French collaborate with the Germans in turning their own Jewish countrymen in to the Germans to be exterminated. More French Jews than any other nation including Germany.
BRC
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I am glad his grandfather served. Sometimes you don’t get to pick where you go. But, D Day is not Veteran’s Day. Yes, I wish Obama didn’t make big events about him. Let’s tell the stories of Pegasus Bridge, of Pointe du Hoc, of Easy Red and of the other beaches. In the first three days of battle at Normandy the Allies lost 12,000 solders. 156,000 landed on the first day. On the beaches, we lost 2500, 2000 at Omaha beach.
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As they say — If you’re going to be ONE why not a Big Red One? One of America’s best units ever. Ever.
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The American ability to storm a beach under fire and wrest it from the enemy is a unique American skill. Whether it is the Army or the Marines, the Americans are the only ones to master this art form.
Bradley was the most experienced American planner in the entire theater having planned N Africa, Sicily, Italy and Normandy. He has never been given his due as a planner extraordinaire of American European landings.
The Marine landings in the Pacific were just as intense though much smaller.
We have much to be proud of in our military heritage. The Americans are uniquely experienced in projecting force around the world and beyond the horizon.
BRC
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Agree. I knew Walt Ehlers. He made three amphibious landings (N. Africa; Sicily, First wave at Omaha). Also have met Herschel Woody Wilson. He went ashore at Iwo. I am glad I never had to and wonder if I would have been able to. Very courageous those guys. At Omaha, the officer corps was basically killed off since they were in the front of the landing craft.
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D Day was won, in great part, by company grade officers who drove their units eastward and killed Germans and in turn were killed in hugely disproportionate numbers.
Where do we get such men? How are they inspired?
They come from the heart of our great nation. They go to places like West Point, VMI, the Citadel, Annapolis, Air Force, Texas A & M, Norwich and when America calls, they drop their plows and pick up their rifles and buy our liberty with their blood time and time again.
We are not worthy of such sacrifice and yet they keep coming. War is an obscenity because of the sacrifices demanded. It is why we should be strong and never tempt any evil doer to screw with us.
We are living in very dangerous times. It is a time to be strong not weak.
BRC
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We landed 156,000 troops on D Day. We lost 2500 on the beaches, 2000 of them at Omaha. We lost a total of 12,000 troops in the first days of fighting. The Nazi’s lost 7-8k. That’s the human price we paid. (Those numbers don’t include wounded or POW)
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Just as our nation was born at the point of a bloody bayonet, D Day was won by a bloody bayonet.
Can you imagine coming out of the surf to take a beach defended by Germans in concrete fortifications?
That is the kind of men we call Americans. We are an exceptional nation. We are the greatest force for good ever produced by a free people.
We should never be ashamed of it. That is who we are.
BRC
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…but What about those Canadians at Juno, I think they did a good job too, albeit with less experience.