Category: Hard Nosed Folks Both Good & Bad
CNN’s Gun Hating Snowflake Reporters Never Disappoint ~ VIDEO
Opinion
Ft Collins, CO –-(Ammoland.com)- CNN’s “sheltered perspective:”
Today, two female CNN reporters were “shocked” to see a photo of our General Scott Miller openly carrying an M4 as he is walking (in uniform, with others also in uniform) on the streets of Afghanistan. Miller’s M4 actually has a magazine inserted, and this really “raised eyebrows” in the hallowed halls of CNN.
An American military officer, in uniform, in an area of active fighting, openly carrying an “assault weapon.”
Ft Collins, CO –-(Ammoland.com)- CNN’s “sheltered perspective:”
Today, two female CNN reporters were “shocked” to see a photo of our General Scott Miller openly carrying an M4 as he is walking (in uniform, with others also in uniform) on the streets of Afghanistan. Miller’s M4 actually has a magazine inserted, and this really “raised eyebrows” in the hallowed halls of CNN.
An American military officer, in uniform, in an area of active fighting, openly carrying an “assault weapon.”
CNN finds this “shocking” enough to report on just this.
I wish I were surprised, instead of merely revolted.
Snowflakes at CNN, who in their entire sheltered lives have never had to fight-off anything more dangerous than a mosquito, so self-righteously, so piously critical of this wonderful fighting general.
CNN is too accustomed to interviewing our aging gaggle of remaining grandiloquent “peacetime generals,” who (like CNN reporters) are frightened to death of guns, don’t trust their own troops (even fellow officers and s/NCOs), and are themselves “veterans” of nothing more threatening than polite arguments in university faculty lounges.
Scott obviously represents a new generation of military officers who aren’t afraid of going armed, and CNN can’t stand it!
In September, a WY hunting guide was attacked and killed by a grizzly bear. The deceased guide was carrying a G20 (10mm) in a shoulder-holster when attacked.
Investigators subsequently found the (unfired) G20 in question and discovered that it was unloaded (no round chambered)
There can be no doubt about it:
“Administrative procedures,” that are designed to render soldiers and civilians alike absolutely defenseless, and any firearm to which they may have at least some access, essentially useless, will get that gun-owner, or soldier, stone-dead when nature or evil, uninvited and unexpected, suddenly shows up
… as we see.
These stupid “rules,” designed to do nothing but generate victims, have filtered-down from the edicts of grass-eating “administrators” and “managers” (who care far more about their next promotion than they ever will about your safety), to endanger even those who knowingly go to unsafe places, and should thus know better.
CNN, along with their self-important, liberal flunkies, need to stop presuming to dictate politically-correct “proper procedure” to us who actually do own guns, and do go armed, sometimes in dangerous places, and go back to eating grass in their ivory towers.
We neither need, nor want, their non-authoritative, indeed laughable “advice.”
/John
About John Farnam & Defense Training International, Inc
As a defensive weapons and tactics instructor John Farnam will urge you, based on your own beliefs, to make up your mind in advance as to what you would do when faced with an imminent lethal threat. You should, of course, also decide what preparations you should make in advance if any. Defense Training International wants to make sure that their students fully understand the physical, legal, psychological, and societal consequences of their actions or in-actions.
It is our duty to make you aware of certain unpleasant physical realities intrinsic to the Planet Earth. Mr. Farnam is happy to be your counselor and advisor. Visit: www.defense-training.com
What Should You Do If There’s an Active Shooter in the Office?
Would you know what to do if a gunman invaded your office? THOMAS_EYEDESIGN/GETTY IMAGES
If you heard gunshots at work, would you know what to do?
Would you know the fastest escape route or the best place to hide? And if it came down to saving your own life and those of your co-workers, would you be prepared to fight back?
Media reports to the contrary, mass shootings actually are more likely to occur in places of business than schools. When the FBI studied active shooter cases from 2000 to 2013, it found that 45.6 percent of the incidents happened in areas related to commerce (like offices and malls).
This was followed by environments related to education (like schools and colleges) at 24.4 percent.
And the number of shooting incidents keeps rising: In 2000, there was one active shooter incident, resulting in seven casualties, according to the FBI; in 2017, there were 30, resulting in 729 casualties.
The FBI defines an active shooter as “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area.”
The truth is that none of us really knows how we’d respond in the unlikely event of an active shooter in the office. Which is exactly why education and preparation are so important, so you’ll know what to do in such a terrifying situation.
Rob Berryman is a safety consultant with the American Contractors Insurance Group who presents frequently at risk management conferences about active shooter training and response.
One of Berryman’s favorite sayings is, “People don’t rise to the occasion. They retreat to their level of training.”
While nothing replaces a thorough, in-person training by active shooter response specialists like the ALICE Training Institute, Berryman shared some life-saving tips for how to survive an active shooter attack in an office.
His tips are organized under the active shooter survival mantra: Run. Hide. Fight.
If You Can Escape, Run
The first and best option in any active shooter situation is to escape to safety. But to do this, you first need to know all of the exits and escape routes in the office.
This is why it’s so important to plan for precisely this kind of emergency. Every worker needs to ask themselves, “If I’m at my desk, on the elevator, in the break room or in the bathroom, what’s the quickest way out?”
If the shooter isn’t yet in your area of the office, stay low and move as quickly as you can toward the nearest exit. Don’t hesitate and always keep moving.
While fleeing, prevent anyone else from entering the building. Only when you’re free and clear of the immediate danger should you call 911.
If You Can’t Get Out Quickly, Hide
This is not an “old-school lockdown,” says Berryman. Hiding does not mean passively huddling in the corner of an office. Sadly, that only makes it easier for shooters once they discover the hiding place.
Law enforcement and training experts recommend a much more “active” form of hiding intended to keep the shooter out or escape if possible.
Again, knowing the best hiding places in the office requires planning ahead. The ideal locations are rooms with thick walls that can be locked from the inside.
Cubicle walls won’t stop a bullet, and glass-walled conference rooms can be shot open. Even doors with glass panels are too risky.
Many office walls are made of thin drywall, which also is too weak to stop a bullet. Interior rooms closest to an elevator shaft tend to have thicker, reinforced walls.
If none of the rooms in your office have locks, you need to know what it takes to keep that door closed. That means knowing which doors open inward and which open outward.
Doors that open inward can be barricaded with heavy pieces of furniture (filing cabinets, refrigerators, desks) or jammed closed with a pair of rubber doorstops.
For doors that open outward, Berryman recommends tying an electrical cord around the door handle and using two or more people to pull hard on the cord to keep the door closed.
If an outward opening door has a hydraulic arm at the top, you can tie a belt tightly around the v-shaped arm and door won’t open.
“Shooters are opportunistic,” says Berryman. “They’re holding a gun, so they only have one free hand to work with. If you can secure that door using any and all means, it’ll be harder to get inside one-handed.”
Remember that hiding is still your second-best option. If your hiding place is on the first or second floor, consider escaping through a window.
That’s what saved several students’ lives during the Virginia Tech shooting. A brave teacher corralled his students out the window before the shooter breached the door.
If you need to break the window to escape, smash it from a top corner using any heavy object, including a chair, fire extinguisher or “salesman of the year” trophy.
Clear out as much glass as possible before escaping, not forgetting hanging glass shards above you. If you’re on the second floor, hang by your hands from the window ledge to lessen the distance of the fall.
If All Else Fails, Fight Back
Fighting back does not mean actively seeking out the shooter and facing him one on one. Instead, it’s the last resort if the shooter breaks into your hiding place, but one that could save many lives, including your own.
While hiding, you and your co-workers need to be ready to react quickly if that door opens. That means staying low, but not sitting or laying down on the floor. Grab anything available that you can throw at the shooter or use as a weapon.
“I challenge people to go back to their desk and find five things that can defend themselves with,” says Berryman. “Staplers, scissors, coffee mugs, anything.”
The first defense if the shooter gets through the door is to throw stuff directly at his face. Berryman, a certified self-defense instructor for the NRA, says that it’s impossible to aim when solid objects are flying at your head.
Then comes the hardest part. For the split second that the shooter is thrown off guard, everyone in the room needs to swarm him. Not just one or two people, or the biggest, toughest people, but everyone.
This is no time to go lightly or fight fair. The goal should be to incapacitate the shooter with aggressive physical force using any means necessary.
Berryman admits there’s a very real risk of somebody being shot while swarming, but the risk of doing nothing is far worse.
Again, one of the huge benefits of training and preparing for active shooter situations is that you and your co-workers are on the same page and ready, if necessary, to fight for each other’s lives.
Get Trained, Be Prepared
If your workplace doesn’t already have active shooter training and drills, let your bosses and human resources team know that it’s important.
Local law enforcement can often provide free training, or you can reach out to professional training institutes like ALICE. The Department of Homeland Security also has an excellent Active Shooter Preparedness program that includes instructional videos, training booklets, posters and more.
***Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance! Grumpy***
Yeah I know, It’s Tacky but you have to admit it is amusing in a Dark Humor way. So lighten up Folks!
BORN TO A PHILADELPHIA FAMILY OF MEANS IN 1877, TOWNSEND…
Born to a Philadelphia family of means in 1877, Townsend Whelen was a thoughtful man with a talent for expression that has made him one of our most-quoted gun writers. My favorite succinct observation is, “Only accurate rifles are interesting.” A close second might be “The .30-06 is never a mistake.”
Although we agree, this last quote should lie in proper juxtaposition to the fact that he spent many decades diligently working to improve the .30-06 cartridge. Colonel Whelen experimented with the GI .30-06 Springfield while commanding Frankford Arsenal in the early 1920s.
Frankford machine shop foreman James Howe, later of Griffin & Howe, assisted Whelen in modifying the .30-06 case to fire bullets of different calibers, as he was particularly interested in creating a cartridge to fire heavier bullets from M1903 rifle actions available from the Civilian Marksmanship Program.
Although his experiments with the .25 Whelen ultimately lead to the .25-06 standardized by Remington, probably the best-known and all-around-useful big-game round developed by him is the .35 Whelen.
.35 Whelen
The beauty of the .35 Whelen is that it’s a powerful medium-bore rifle cartridge that does not require a Magnum action or a Magnum bolt face.
The parent is the .30-06 Springfield, necked-up for a .358 (9.1mm) bullet, originally developed as a wildcat cartridge in 1922 by Col. Whelen and built by Howe.
In a 1923 issue of American Rifleman, Whelen referred to it as “the first cartridge that I designed” and in that same article noted, “Mr. James V. Howe undertook this work of making dies, reamers, chambering tools, and of chambering the rifles, all in accordance with my design.”
In 1987, the Remington Arms Company standardized the cartridge as a regular commercial round, first made available in the Remington Model 700 Classic manufactured in 1988.
Suitable .358 bullets range in weight from 150 to 300 grains, and this round can use .38/.357 pistol bullets for cheap practice, low-recoil target shooting and varmint busting. With a 250-grain bullet, the .35 Whelen can deliver 3,500 FPE at the muzzle of a 24-inch barrel.
The .35 Whelen amounts to a ballistic twin of the .350 Remington Magnum, and with the right bullet is suitable for virtually all thin-skinned large and dangerous game. The European designation for this cartridge would be 9x63mm.
Note that the “.375 Whelen” (aka .375-06) was developed in the early 1950s by L.R.“Bob” Wallack and named in honor of Col. Whelen.
It comprises a .30-06 Springfield case necked up to .375. The .375 Whelen Improved was later introduced with a 40-degree shoulder angle, providing more case capacity as well as better headspacing.
.400 Whelen
The .400 Whelen was also developed by Col. Whelen while at Frankford. The cartridge resembles a .30-06 Springfield case necked up to .40 caliber to accept bullets made for the .405 Winchester.
In this instance, James Howe necked down cylindrical brass, available in the arsenal manufacturing process, to form cartridges with a .458-inch-diameter shoulder to fit the chamber of his rifles.
Quality Cartridge has also manufactured unformed, cylindrical empty brass cases head-stamped for this cartridge. Griffin & Howe chambered custom-built rifles for this cartridge, and used neck-resizing with cases carefully fire-formed to the chamber in which the loaded cartridges were to be used.
Although requiring skill to reload, this round will throw a 300-grain slug at more than 2,300 FPS, which at the muzzle has 3,522 FPE—a very good harvester of elk, moose and bear at ranges up to 400 yards.
Mr. Rifleman
“A good rifleman plus a good rifle will shoot, see straight, think straight and will run our country straight.”—TW, 1932
Whelen’s interests in ammo were egalitarian and open minded, as this accomplished wilderness hunter and competitive rifle shooter was the real deal, with keen objectivity.
In Why Not Load Your Own, he noted, “…in 1901 and 1902 I shot many mule deer, sheep, and goats with my .30-30, and very successfully up to about 150 yards, but I also subsisted largely on grouse, rabbit, ducks, porcupine, and beaver shot with reduced loads. The .30-30 is not to be despised as an all-around rifle.”
Whelen was instrumental in all aspects of redesigning ammunition, developing a practical gilding metal to stop metal fouling, researching the boat-tail bullet, and was instrumental in developing the .22 Hornet.
Fortunately for surviving generations, Col. Whelen was not only a well-expressed writer with something valuable to say, but he was prolific as well, writing full-time after his retirement from the Army in 1936.
Whelen served as a contributing editor to American Rifleman, Guns & Ammo, Sports Afield, Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, and other gun and outdoor magazines.
He was the author of many highly-regarded books on small arms, including Small Arms and Ballistics, Why Not Load Your Own, Telescopic Rifle Sights and many others. He began an autobiography, Mr. Rifleman, which was finished by his family and published after his death.
If you can only have one of his books, try for a copy of The Best of Colonel Townsend Whelen, edited by Bradford Angier. Whelen’s writings are from experience—strong on hands-on and how-to.
Throughout a life involved with the development of technology, Col. Whelen managed to retain a reverential respect for nature, wilderness, and the wisdom of simple living.
Whelen’s stories of, or set in, the great outdoors were often a medium to express nuggets of wisdom, philosophy or practical guidance.
Although Mr. Rifleman is primarily remembered for his sound advice on the topics of wilderness living, hunting and rifles, many of his pithy observations would be worthy of Thoreau or Emerson.
Philosophic Ways
Three years before his death in 1961, Col. Whelen wrote, “Scientists remind us that nature intended human beings should spend most of their hours beneath open skies. With appetites sharpened by outdoor living, they should eat plain food.
They should live at their natural God-given paces, un-oppressed by the artificial hurry and tension of man-made civilization…
Yet the mass of city men, stalking their meat at the crowded market instead of in the green woods or the cool marshes, put up with existences of quiet desperation. Their incessant anxiety and strain is a well-nigh incurable form of disease.”
One of the best shots in the Army, Whelen could hit man-sized targets at 200 yards with an open-sighted M1903 Springfield—six hits in 10 seconds flat—and could do it on command.
He was also involved with 1,000-yard shooting—with the 1892 .30-40 Krag. Aside from the innate eloquence of his writings, what comes through is the gentlemanly authority of a writer who has learned by doing, not by studying.
He once went to British Columbia, bought a mount and pack horses, pots and pans and headed solo for the farthest regions—not to “survive,” just to live and learn from the fauna and locals, if any.
Later in Panama, then uncharted and totally inhospitable, the young lieutenant grabbed a pack, a rifle and set out to make maps and learn the environs.
The same point-blank “why not” attitude and quiet enthusiasm that served him from his days as a spindly rich kid served him well throughout an interesting and productive life. And the legacy of his writings, and his cartridges, will serve generations yet to come.
Although we agree, this last quote should lie in proper juxtaposition to the fact that he spent many decades diligently working to improve the .30-06 cartridge. Colonel Whelen experimented with the GI .30-06 Springfield while commanding Frankford Arsenal in the early 1920s.
Frankford machine shop foreman James Howe, later of Griffin & Howe, assisted Whelen in modifying the .30-06 case to fire bullets of different calibers, as he was particularly interested in creating a cartridge to fire heavier bullets from M1903 rifle actions available from the Civilian Marksmanship Program.
Although his experiments with the .25 Whelen ultimately lead to the .25-06 standardized by Remington, probably the best-known and all-around-useful big-game round developed by him is the .35 Whelen.
.35 Whelen
The beauty of the .35 Whelen is that it’s a powerful medium-bore rifle cartridge that does not require a Magnum action or a Magnum bolt face.
The parent is the .30-06 Springfield, necked-up for a .358 (9.1mm) bullet, originally developed as a wildcat cartridge in 1922 by Col. Whelen and built by Howe.
In a 1923 issue of American Rifleman, Whelen referred to it as “the first cartridge that I designed” and in that same article noted, “Mr. James V. Howe undertook this work of making dies, reamers, chambering tools, and of chambering the rifles, all in accordance with my design.”
In 1987, the Remington Arms Company standardized the cartridge as a regular commercial round, first made available in the Remington Model 700 Classic manufactured in 1988.
Suitable .358 bullets range in weight from 150 to 300 grains, and this round can use .38/.357 pistol bullets for cheap practice, low-recoil target shooting and varmint busting. With a 250-grain bullet, the .35 Whelen can deliver 3,500 FPE at the muzzle of a 24-inch barrel.
The .35 Whelen amounts to a ballistic twin of the .350 Remington Magnum, and with the right bullet is suitable for virtually all thin-skinned large and dangerous game. The European designation for this cartridge would be 9x63mm.
Note that the “.375 Whelen” (aka .375-06) was developed in the early 1950s by L.R.“Bob” Wallack and named in honor of Col. Whelen.
It comprises a .30-06 Springfield case necked up to .375. The .375 Whelen Improved was later introduced with a 40-degree shoulder angle, providing more case capacity as well as better headspacing.
.400 Whelen
The .400 Whelen was also developed by Col. Whelen while at Frankford. The cartridge resembles a .30-06 Springfield case necked up to .40 caliber to accept bullets made for the .405 Winchester.
In this instance, James Howe necked down cylindrical brass, available in the arsenal manufacturing process, to form cartridges with a .458-inch-diameter shoulder to fit the chamber of his rifles.
Quality Cartridge has also manufactured unformed, cylindrical empty brass cases head-stamped for this cartridge. Griffin & Howe chambered custom-built rifles for this cartridge, and used neck-resizing with cases carefully fire-formed to the chamber in which the loaded cartridges were to be used.
Although requiring skill to reload, this round will throw a 300-grain slug at more than 2,300 FPS, which at the muzzle has 3,522 FPE—a very good harvester of elk, moose and bear at ranges up to 400 yards.
Mr. Rifleman
“A good rifleman plus a good rifle will shoot, see straight, think straight and will run our country straight.”—TW, 1932
Whelen’s interests in ammo were egalitarian and open minded, as this accomplished wilderness hunter and competitive rifle shooter was the real deal, with keen objectivity.
In Why Not Load Your Own, he noted, “…in 1901 and 1902 I shot many mule deer, sheep, and goats with my .30-30, and very successfully up to about 150 yards, but I also subsisted largely on grouse, rabbit, ducks, porcupine, and beaver shot with reduced loads. The .30-30 is not to be despised as an all-around rifle.”
Whelen was instrumental in all aspects of redesigning ammunition, developing a practical gilding metal to stop metal fouling, researching the boat-tail bullet, and was instrumental in developing the .22 Hornet.
Fortunately for surviving generations, Col. Whelen was not only a well-expressed writer with something valuable to say, but he was prolific as well, writing full-time after his retirement from the Army in 1936.
Whelen served as a contributing editor to American Rifleman, Guns & Ammo, Sports Afield, Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, and other gun and outdoor magazines.
He was the author of many highly-regarded books on small arms, including Small Arms and Ballistics, Why Not Load Your Own, Telescopic Rifle Sights and many others. He began an autobiography, Mr. Rifleman, which was finished by his family and published after his death.
If you can only have one of his books, try for a copy of The Best of Colonel Townsend Whelen, edited by Bradford Angier. Whelen’s writings are from experience—strong on hands-on and how-to.
Throughout a life involved with the development of technology, Col. Whelen managed to retain a reverential respect for nature, wilderness, and the wisdom of simple living.
Whelen’s stories of, or set in, the great outdoors were often a medium to express nuggets of wisdom, philosophy or practical guidance.
Although Mr. Rifleman is primarily remembered for his sound advice on the topics of wilderness living, hunting and rifles, many of his pithy observations would be worthy of Thoreau or Emerson.
Philosophic Ways
Three years before his death in 1961, Col. Whelen wrote, “Scientists remind us that nature intended human beings should spend most of their hours beneath open skies. With appetites sharpened by outdoor living, they should eat plain food.
They should live at their natural God-given paces, un-oppressed by the artificial hurry and tension of man-made civilization…
Yet the mass of city men, stalking their meat at the crowded market instead of in the green woods or the cool marshes, put up with existences of quiet desperation. Their incessant anxiety and strain is a well-nigh incurable form of disease.”
One of the best shots in the Army, Whelen could hit man-sized targets at 200 yards with an open-sighted M1903 Springfield—six hits in 10 seconds flat—and could do it on command.
He was also involved with 1,000-yard shooting—with the 1892 .30-40 Krag. Aside from the innate eloquence of his writings, what comes through is the gentlemanly authority of a writer who has learned by doing, not by studying.
He once went to British Columbia, bought a mount and pack horses, pots and pans and headed solo for the farthest regions—not to “survive,” just to live and learn from the fauna and locals, if any.
Later in Panama, then uncharted and totally inhospitable, the young lieutenant grabbed a pack, a rifle and set out to make maps and learn the environs.
The same point-blank “why not” attitude and quiet enthusiasm that served him from his days as a spindly rich kid served him well throughout an interesting and productive life. And the legacy of his writings, and his cartridges, will serve generations yet to come.
Bruce McLaughlin Jr. is shown in an undated photo provided by the Pickens County, S.C., Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities say McLaughlin, who escaped from a South Carolina jail Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2018, was shot and killed by a woman after he kicked open the backdoor of her home. (Pickens County Sheriff’s Office via COLUMBIA, S.C.)
An inmate who had escaped minutes earlier from a county jail in South Carolina was shot and killed by a woman after he kicked in her back door, the local sheriff said.
The inmate was still in his orange jail jumpsuit and had grabbed a knife sharpening tool from the woman’s kitchen in Pickens as he headed toward her bedroom around 3 a.m. Tuesday, Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark said.
“This was a big guy. If she hadn’t had a weapon there’s no telling what would have happened,” Clark said. “I gave her a big hug. I told her how proud I was of her.”
Last American president to actually win a war has passed on
Former President George H.W. Bush, who fought in World War II as a naval aviator and as the 41st president from 1989 to 1993, led American forces to decisive military victories over major powers including Iraq and Panama, died peacefully on Friday night at his home in Houston. He was 94 years old.
Bush began his long and distinguished career in public service as a sailor in 1942, when he enlisted in the Navy to avenge Pearl Harbor. By 1943, he was the youngest Naval aviator, flying a Grumman Avenger torpedo bomber against the Empire of Japan. He flew 58 combat missions and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism after being shot down and rescued by a submarine.
“They wrote it up as heroism,” Bush later told his biographer of the medal, “but it wasn’t — it was just doing your job.” His other military decorations included three Air Medals and the WWII Victory Medal.
After graduating from Yale, making a fortune in Texas oil, and serving as a congressman, director of the CIA and vice president under Ronald Reagan, Bush ascended to the presidency as a Republican in 1989. Within months, he ordered U.S. forces to invade Panama. The invasion toppled a generic Latin America dictator who may or may not have worked for the CIA and was a forgettable success. But the move was widely praised at the time for giving the military a “soft ball” to help it get over its post-Vietnam malaise.
By the end of 1989, probably because the Commies thought Reagan was still president, the Soviet Union crumbled. Sensing decisive victory was at hand, Bush skillfully talked Russian leaders into signing a “strategic partnership agreement” in which Russia threw in the towel in the Cold War in exchange for American promises that NATO would not expand even “one inch eastward.” This landmark agreement paved the way for NATO to expand 500 miles eastward towards Moscow and incorporate a dozen post-Soviet states, securing peace in Europe for generations.
Bush won his second war in the Middle East in 1991 after Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. In response, Bush assembled an international military coalition to expel the Iraqi invaders from Kuwait and shake the Vietnam Syndrome once and for all. American forces and their allies charged across the desert and killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, liberating the small kingdom and keeping the price of oil reasonable. In the victorious aftermath of the war, American held its last unironic military parade.
Scholars agree that Bush’s victories enabled the military achievements of his successors. His actions to secure the contemporary rules-based international order and establish lasting American hegemony laid the foundation of contemporary American foreign policy.
“He is the reason we have enjoyed three decades of unfettered strategic raiding by U.S. forces in the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and probably some places you couldn’t even find on a map,” said Luke Schumacher, an international relations scholar at the University of Chicago. “As we all know, those actions which have secured core American national interests. We would not be here without George H.W. Bush.”
President Donald Trump, among others, has praised Bush’s legacy.
“You know, he got shot down — and you know how I feel about people who got shot down — and we could have beat Japan sooner, but, in the end, he was a winner,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “And who doesn’t love winning? America loves winners.”
Bush began his long and distinguished career in public service as a sailor in 1942, when he enlisted in the Navy to avenge Pearl Harbor. By 1943, he was the youngest Naval aviator, flying a Grumman Avenger torpedo bomber against the Empire of Japan. He flew 58 combat missions and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism after being shot down and rescued by a submarine.
“They wrote it up as heroism,” Bush later told his biographer of the medal, “but it wasn’t — it was just doing your job.” His other military decorations included three Air Medals and the WWII Victory Medal.
After graduating from Yale, making a fortune in Texas oil, and serving as a congressman, director of the CIA and vice president under Ronald Reagan, Bush ascended to the presidency as a Republican in 1989. Within months, he ordered U.S. forces to invade Panama. The invasion toppled a generic Latin America dictator who may or may not have worked for the CIA and was a forgettable success. But the move was widely praised at the time for giving the military a “soft ball” to help it get over its post-Vietnam malaise.
By the end of 1989, probably because the Commies thought Reagan was still president, the Soviet Union crumbled. Sensing decisive victory was at hand, Bush skillfully talked Russian leaders into signing a “strategic partnership agreement” in which Russia threw in the towel in the Cold War in exchange for American promises that NATO would not expand even “one inch eastward.” This landmark agreement paved the way for NATO to expand 500 miles eastward towards Moscow and incorporate a dozen post-Soviet states, securing peace in Europe for generations.
Bush won his second war in the Middle East in 1991 after Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. In response, Bush assembled an international military coalition to expel the Iraqi invaders from Kuwait and shake the Vietnam Syndrome once and for all. American forces and their allies charged across the desert and killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, liberating the small kingdom and keeping the price of oil reasonable. In the victorious aftermath of the war, American held its last unironic military parade.
Scholars agree that Bush’s victories enabled the military achievements of his successors. His actions to secure the contemporary rules-based international order and establish lasting American hegemony laid the foundation of contemporary American foreign policy.
“He is the reason we have enjoyed three decades of unfettered strategic raiding by U.S. forces in the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and probably some places you couldn’t even find on a map,” said Luke Schumacher, an international relations scholar at the University of Chicago. “As we all know, those actions which have secured core American national interests. We would not be here without George H.W. Bush.”
President Donald Trump, among others, has praised Bush’s legacy.
“You know, he got shot down — and you know how I feel about people who got shot down — and we could have beat Japan sooner, but, in the end, he was a winner,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “And who doesn’t love winning? America loves winners.”
But then I guess that some Helicopter parents might have a stroke or something! Grumpy
https://youtu.be/-vJTNGH4Ib0
Now a lot of folks think that panic means a person running around like a chicken with its head chopped off. Now based on my experience.
It mostly is not. Instead it takes the form of the mind just shutting down from the over flow of information & raw fear. The bottom line is that it takes a lot of guts to summon forth from that inner bank to over come this.
For Example, The Spanish have a saying. “He was brave that day”. Meaning that courage is not a inexhaustible well. That it can & will run dry. If not given time to recover & regroup once in a while.
Also sadly a large proportion of the population. Do NOT have a huge amount of this inner strength needed. Otherwise the Army or Marine Corp would not need a large NCO & Officer Corp.
The Army started to learn this during the true Holocaust of WWI. When it began to run into what is now called P.T.S.D. or as I like to call it Combat Fatigue.
This problem started when a large number of troops basically broke down mentally. After X amount of days on the front line.
It was also calculated that if even the most stout hearted trooper survived that long. Almost all troops would have a complete Mental Breakdown after a year of combat experience.
Anyways this is what I think happened at Foy. That & Winters did as usual the right thing. Grumpy
Words fail me on how to express my admiration for this guys guts and courage! Grumpy