| Chaplain Rasmussen Remembers One Memorial Day |
It was raining "cats and dogs" and I was late for physical training. Traffic was backed up at Fort Campbell, Ky., and was moving way too slowly. I was probably going to be late and I was growing more and more impatient. The pace slowed almost to a standstill as I passed Memorial Grove, the site built to honor the soldiers who died in the Gander airplane crash bringing about 200 members of the 10lst back from a peace keeping mission in the Sinai Desert.
Because it was close to Memorial Day, a small American flag had been placed in the ground next to each soldier's memorial plaque. My concern at the time; however, was getting past the bottleneck, getting out of the rain and getting to PT on time. All of a sudden, infuriatingly, just as the traffic was getting started again, the car in front of me stopped.
A soldier, a private of course, jumped out in the pouring rain and ran over toward the grove. I couldn't believe it! This knucklehead was holding up everyone for who knows what kind of prank. Horns were honking. I waited to see the chewing-out that I wanted him to get for making me late.
He was getting soaked to the skin. His BDUs were plastered to his frame. I watched-as he ran up to one of the memorial plaques, picked up the small American flag that had fallen to the ground in the wind and the rain, and set it upright again. Then, slowly, he came to attention, saluted, ran back to his car, and drove off. I'll never forget that incident. That soldier, whose name I will never know, taught me more about duty, honor, and respect than a hundred books or a thousand lectures.
That simple salute - that single act of honoring his fallen brother and his flag - encapsulated all the Army values in one gesture for me. It said, "I will never forget. I will keep the faith. I will finish the mission. I am an American soldier."
by Chaplain John Rasmussen, station in Bosnia June 2002
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The book Nothing Left Over. Why is it that our experiences or possessions never seem to bring us lasting happiness or a sense of completion? We always want something more, and it is always eluding us. Not only do we want to hold on to what we already have but we also want to acquire as much more as we can.
I think of possessions as possessing me rather than vice versa. If you own something then you are responsible for taking care of it and are continually worrying that it might get harmed or you might lose it. We try to fill the vacuum that we believe to be inside us, but we need to remember that we didn't come into this life to shop, to chalk up experiences, to amass objects we can't take with us when we go, or even to make a lot of money.
In truth, it is not the number and diversity of our possessions that are the problems but our attachment to them. When the attachment grows thin and the filament breaks, then we discover that we do not really want so much anymore.
When we need to relinquish; therefore, it is our attachment not possessions and experiences, not the things themselves. The freedom we are all seeking is freedom from the fear of losing what we believe we own. "
Now this would be a good study book for some folks who wanted to dig a little deeper in life--not many do, I don't think.
This writer is not very good in my opinion and I don't think and under normal circumstances, doubt seriously if she could get this memoir published. However, she was an editor for Knopf for years and is very smart, obviously.
And, in the publishing industry, contacts are everything. I keep reading her memoir because she does have some gems: things we already know but somehow, at least for me, reinforces them.
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House of Sand and Fog Wow one of the best movies I've seen in ages. Very intense and well done movie. One of those where it is amazingly sad, no winners. Good story.
Basically, it is about a female whose life comes apart, she loses her house that her parents gave her; she lost it mostly in a bureaucratic fiasco but was so wallowing in her own misery that she didn't pay any attention to the notices of back taxes, etc.--mostly, it is kind of a convergence of bad luck.
Ben Kingsley plays the part of an Iranian with wife and son: he was a Colonel in Iran, works two jobs in America and mostly trying to keep up appearances--buys this woman's former house in like a fire sale; then, as an entrepreneur tries to turn a profit; it all goes to hell in a handbasket; however, overwhelming tragedy: anger, what it means for immigrants in this country, Americans who make bad choices, interpersonal relations and what happens when all these lives converge.
Big Fish which was about a guy who literally thought he was a big fish but wasn't but in reality was; a kind of son coming to grips with father kind of thing; they went for years and didn't talk and the son discovered things about the Dad which gave him much more appreciation.
The Hired Hand-Peter Fonda's directorial debut, older movie but very insightful: not the usual, big rancer and clod hopper sort of stuff; very, very thoughtful. Many of the actors now dead. Great costumes.
Swimming Pool, a murder mystery but lots of breasts in it. A writer who kind of leaves you wondering if it was real or made up.
Tango, a foreign film-Italy, a little like Italian For Beginners inasmuch as the story was much bigger than merely the dance, Tango.
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Up Country, Super book, every Vietvet should read this. The dialogue is a little tedious and occasionally annoying from the main character, retired Warrant Officer, Brenner. It is fiction and actually Brenner is sent to Vietnam to investigate a murder which is quite interesting. But, I loved the Vietnam descriptions and the references of when we were there. It is "right on" with the thoughts. I did with this book what I do rarely, kept notes. The author obvious did his research or somebody did for him. The author, Nelson DeMille, is a Vietnam vet and was with the 1st Cav.; he actually has a website,Nelson DeMille
And, I especially liked the view of modern Vietnam which is something we often forget: Vietnam is a totalitarian regime. Fortunately, younger Vietnamese in the South are able to operate rather freely or so it seems; both from the book and from reports I hear.
The book has some great dialogue. A woman says to the main character, Paul Brenner, "I know a few men your age who work here, and a few men who I've met here (meaning Vietnam) who have returned to find something or maybe lose something. So, I know it's tough. And I can understand. But for people my age, Vietnam is a country, not a war."
ANY VIETNAM VET WILL RECOGNIZE THIS FEELING
"a long item ago, when Vietnam was a war and not a country, I could remember recalling nights like this out under the stars, the tropical breeze moving through the vegetation. And there were other nights without a breeze, when the vegetation moved, and you could hear the tapping of the bamboo sticks that they (meaning the VC) used to signal one another. The tree frogs stopped croaking and even the insects became still and the night birds flew off. And you waited in the deathly silence, and even your breathing stopped, but your heart thumped so loudly you were sure everyone could hear it. And the sound of the tapping bamboo came closer and the vegetation swayed in the breezeless night."
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| Zany and Interesting: Wild Animals and San Fran by John Moore |
Just looking at the headlines of the paper gives you an idea of what a zany place this is. Some of the residents of the South Bay are really upset over a cougar that the police killed. Now, get this, here was this wild animal, that wandered into this neighborhood.
Obviously, we are encroaching on his territory but not much we can do about it at this stage. Anyway, he's pretty dangerous and in the next county, one actually attacked a hiker and almost killed him. No small thing. But, here is this cougar and it is up a tree just a few blocks from this elementary school which is about to let out these hundreds of kids. So, there's danger, no doubt about it and the police have to make a reluctant decision. A dart gun to tranquilize could take 30 minutes to take effect.So what to do? They shoot the cougar.
So, we have this barrage of emails and nasty phone calls because they did. The cougar is mourned and some folks have set up a memorial.
Here's a good email, "Editor, Bay Area residents love to tell themselves and the rest of the world how civilized they are. Well, our response to the hapless mountain lion argues otherwise. That was a brutal response to a minor threat, and it indicates our true colors better than any Stanford merlot-and-chardonnay peace rally. I'm surprised the insular and mean- spirited residents didn't just order up the armored infantry to eliminate the intruder. Shame on us." RR, San Fran.
This is a good one. A deer crosses the Golden Gate Bridge in a record ten minutes. It ran from Marin County into San Francisco. It passed through lane eleven which is a “fastrak lane.
Someone made a joke or maybe it wasn’t. "Since the deer didn’t have a transponder it came across as a toll violation." (a transponder is a device that a motorist must have to cross without stopping to pay a toll the fee goes to the motorist’s credit card).
Any way, The deer takes 19th Avenue and disappears into the old Army post, the Presidio. Maybe the deer wanted to get out of the high rent, pretentious Marin into the more surreal San Fran. The deer could have had a date. Who knows. This is a case for, Without A Trace. Wild and Crazy Stuff.
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| Now Ain't that the Truth(Quote from General Zinni) |
"I think there was dereliction in insufficient forces being put on the ground and (in not) fully understanding the military dimensions of the plan. If you're the secretary of defense and you're responsible for that. If you're responsible for that planning and that execution on the ground. If you've assumed responsibility for the other elements, non-military, non-security, political, economic, social and everything else, then you bear responsibility. If I were the commander of a military organization that delivered this kind of performance to the president, I certainly would tender my resignation." -Gen. Anthony Zinni, former Marine General
----Read more in the book Battle Ready
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