Afghanistan in the rear view mirror...

As I listened to the evening news while prepping dinner, the tears gathered. It doesn’t matter that I didn’t know them. There is that bond that feels the loss. We did the toast at dinner tonight taken from the famous poem below.

For the Fallen​

BY LAURENCE BINYON
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.
 
The USNA Men’s Glee Club has often done this song to memorialize the sadness after 9/11, on various anniversary dates. The twentieth anniversary coming up, hard to believe. Some of you know I was in the Navy spaces at the Pentagon. Still vivid in my mind. I am feeling the same sadness today for those who gave their lives in Kabul.
 
Ok - last post on this one...This is not about politics or who is to blame. This is about 20+ years that we have spent keeping the wolves at bay. These people are savages and want to rape and pillage all that we belive in. I promise you that this is true...... @Capt MJ , @Devil Doc - WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? Is this fight going to go into the next generation.
 
I’m just. Plain. Scared.

About retribution. About my 3 boys heading out soon. About kids and classmates I’ll soon know in harms way. About another 9/11 on our soil. About stranded Americans. Moms holding their children tight….crying.

Scared.
 
justdoit19 said:
I’m just. Plain. Scared.

About retribution. About my 3 boys heading out soon. About kids and classmates I’ll soon know in harms way. About another 9/11 on our soil. About stranded Americans. Moms holding their children tight….crying.

Scared.
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Thank you for somehow articulating exactly how I feel. With a youngster son, a senior son intent on naval service, and so many new friends that are like family who are now in or may soon be in harms way, I am scared and I am angry. My heart is broken and all I can think about are the mothers, father, sisters, brothers, spouses and children whose lives changed irrevocably yesterday.
 
justdoit19 said:
I’m just. Plain. Scared.

About retribution. About my 3 boys heading out soon. About kids and classmates I’ll soon know in harms way. About another 9/11 on our soil. About stranded Americans. Moms holding their children tight….crying.

Scared.
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Everything will be O.K.

Brave, young Americans serving honorably will provide a blanket of security. Your boys will lead them.
 
Me being a 17 year old, and the things I see going on around me, are just painful to watch... The state of country, and what is going on overseas. I see myself as joining the Armed Services, in hopes that I can assist in this effort
 
MichaelT2022 said:
Me being a 17 year old, and the things I see going on around me, are just painful to watch... The state of country, and what is going on overseas. I see myself as joining the Armed Services, in hopes that I can assist in this effort
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This may become a call to action, for your generation. My Youngster was born a few short weeks after 9/11. He studies it in School. Doesn’t have a personal point of reference, but 9/11 was significant in his desire to serve. Same with my other boys. But my Youngster has a special connection on this 20th anniversary year.

This may very well be your generations 9/11…sadly, every generation has one.
 
justdoit19 said:
This may become a call to action, for your generation. My Youngster was born a few short weeks after 9/11. He studies it in School. Doesn’t have a personal point of reference, but 9/11 was significant in his desire to serve. Same with my other boys. But my Youngster has a special connection on this 20th anniversary year.

This may very well be your generations 9/11…sadly, every generation has one.
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I had the opportunity to write an essay on the effects of 9/11, for school purposes, it came out to be around 4,000 words. It was absolutely painful to see everything that happened. I though initially that I knew of what had happened that day, but I had the opportunity to dig so deep, it hurt to know nearly all the details of what happened. I even had the chance to interview with a lady who was apart of the Air Force at the time, to explain the changes that occurred in our country.

It's strange to hear that in 2 weeks, we will declare the 20-year anniversary to the worst terrorist attacks on US Soil.

Although my ultimate goal is the become an officer with the Army, I am prepared in some ways as hard as it is think: I am prepared to switch whatever I need to do, in the situation that my country needs me. I may not do something so memorable, but whenever I die, I know that I can be at peace, since I served for the country I love.
 
With all the chaos and negativity being seen and read on the news I sincerely want to believe that our military and others are doing things behind the scenes that is just not known and being reported.

Surely there are more intelligent people over there handling things than there is on this side of the world.
 
Earlier I wrote that 1st Battalion 8th Marines, one of the most storied battalions in Marine Corps lore, was the unit who lost Marines and their Corpsman. It is in fact however, 2nd Battalion 1st Marine Regiment who was attacked. Both 1/8 and 2/1 did an ITX, Integrated Training Exercise with my son at 29 Palms before they went on deployment. 1/8 is on the MEU and 2/1 is the SPMAGTF-Central Command. He knows the leadership from both units. I am writing this based on news reports that have trickled out and this black bannered unit shield post by a Marine officer. I haven't spoken with my son lately. He is running an ITX with the next units to deploy.

twoone.jpg
 
THParent said:
The Free French were tenacious fighters and the women always walked around with hand grenades. They visited swift death on The Germans who had invaded their homeland whenever possible and helped pave the way for the allied invasion with channel wall intelligence and sabotage of the power grid and rail lines. I for one think that they performed admirably against a vastly superior enemy and still managed to keep up their spirits.
xyWSw3g1bjMvsVeWyR6EYH1OzM3yPwI3duhPvcr7_MeZTydvPw-wjjrC_3rZyewzUUJ2x8mY0PnnwXo70vpwahKZkNj75nRa_LKhZSo-86QzeX9Q-lT2cxbaXMWyomHxXYF7iQUW=s0

So yeah, comparing the Afghan Army to the French gets me a little prickly. ;)
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THParent said:
The Free French were tenacious fighters and the women always walked around with hand grenades. They visited swift death on The Germans who had invaded their homeland whenever possible and helped pave the way for the allied invasion with channel wall intelligence and sabotage of the power grid and rail lines. I for one think that they performed admirably against a vastly superior enemy and still managed to keep up their spirits.
xyWSw3g1bjMvsVeWyR6EYH1OzM3yPwI3duhPvcr7_MeZTydvPw-wjjrC_3rZyewzUUJ2x8mY0PnnwXo70vpwahKZkNj75nRa_LKhZSo-86QzeX9Q-lT2cxbaXMWyomHxXYF7iQUW=s0

So yeah, comparing the Afghan Army to the French gets me a little prickly. ;)
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Are we confusing the Free French with the Resistance?

The Free French were a conventional army, fighting against the Germans (usually under overall British command) in North Africa, the Middle East, Italy and, eventually, in northwest Europe after D-Day.

The Resistance were a guerilla army fighting the Germans, and their Vichy collaborators, in metropolitan France from 1940-1944.

When DeGaulle became leader of France post-liberation, one of the first things he did was merge the Resistance into the Free French army, keeping them under his control. There were a lot commie in the Resistance & DeGaulle hated 'em.

Little known factoid: after France was liberated from German occupation around 50,000 French collaborators were subject to summary execution. Can't really blame the Free French, but this isn't something you see in romanticized WW2 books/movies (i.e. anything by Stephen Ambrose, for example.)

Nice pic though. The Frenchwoman in the far right had interesting shoes for a soldier, though.
 
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