All posts by Jim

Left HS before report cards came out. Enlisted in the Marines for four years. By the time those years were over, I was hooked - they had me for life. Spent nearly ten years as enlisted. Received a Silver Star, Bronze Star w/V, Purple Heart as a Sgt during first RVN tour. Upon returning to the State's received a combat commission to 2Lt. Retired after 36 total years as a Colonel. Book follows my career, but is more about the heroes with whom I served, the great mentors I had, and the leadership principles they instilled in me.
Recent Posts

CWO-2 Jim Phelps, USMC

For those who have read my book, you may remember there were times—actually many times—where I spoke of Marines with whom I had the pleasure of serving who were marvels. The type of Marine who, when the “boss” absolutely, positively needed something done could be given a mission with no instructions, no guidance, no suggestion, and supervision was impossible—knowing it would be done and done right.

Our Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Officer (NBCO) in 2d Bn, Sixth Marines was such a Marine. He was a Warrant Officer 1 (WO1) when he first joined the battalion, but was later promoted to a CWO2 (Chief Warrant Officer 2). His name was Jim Phelps—a superb Marine who should have been a Marine Gunner, but the Marine Corps had not yet reintroduced that designation into our rank structure. Back then, the only avenue for an infantry SNCO to become a warrant officer was by applying for the NBC warrant program. As his billet called for, he was assigned to the S-3 Shop (Operations Section).

Jim had the innate ability to always pull a rabbit out of a hat. As in the case with all worthwhile warrant officers, he had a special relationship with the second lieutenants in the battalion;—while not “officially” senior to them, he rode them hard and taught them much. Oftentimes they sought Jim for advice when presented with a leadership problem. I admired and encouraged that relationship. Jim and I also had a special relationship—I called him WO, pronounced “Whoa.” He knew it was a sign of my deep respect for all he added to the battalion.

I speak of him often in the book and his ability to repeatedly handle a task that was of great importance to me as the battalion commander, actually it was while deployed, so I was the Battalion Landing Team commander and the Ground Combat Element commander for the Marine Expeditionary Unit (22 MEU). I’ll not discuss those escapades; sorry, you’ll have to get the book to see what he did for me. For those who have my book and want to refresh your memory, I speak of Jim’s magic in Chapter 45, Huxley’s Harlots. I have lost touch with Jim, and I pray that he is doing well. I am sure he went on to much greater achievements in and out of the Corps.

When I left the battalion, Jim gave me a handmade plague that of all my memorabilia, hangs in a prominent place in my “Man Cave,” or as some refer to it, including my bride, my “I Love Me Room.” It explains Jim’s philosophy and his role in the battalion. Enjoy.

WO0001

Originally posted 2016-05-01 13:57:49.

Recent Posts

Your Queen-in-Waiting

As you know, my dear people, for the last year the Royal House of Clinton has been tormented by questions about our handling of finances and subjected to tiresome questions about the tragic events in Benghazi–in the furthest regions of our empire.  And, sadly, also questions about my Royal e-mails. Nevertheless, I will not be daunted in my desire and commitment to serve you, the people.

For the next seven months I will be traveling among you as one of you, to listen to your deepest longings and needs.  I will be with you in your Wal-Marts and beside you in your Burger Kings.  I will drive with you down the busy interstate highways of our land, sharing your poverty and needs.

How well I remember the days when the Duke of Arkansas and I were impoverished.  After we were expelled from our Washington Palace we hardly had two mansions to rub together.  We were so poor that we removed thousands of dollars of china, flatware, carpets and gifts from the Washington Palace just to survive. Shockingly, unscrupulous and ungrateful officials later forced us to return many of these treasures.  Now, happily, benefactors from around our empire have given me just enough for us to scrape by.

During these difficult times, we had to cut back. When our daughter was married, we only had three million dollars to spend on her wedding. And, I remember our hopes, as she moved into her $10 million

Manhattan apartment, that one day she would be able to move on from that humble abode to something more fitting.  After working for MSNBC for a starting salary of a mere $600,000 per year, what else could she do? So I now pay her $3,000,000 a year to run the ‘Foundation’.

So, as I travel across our kingdom to meet you all, I will be listening and sharing with you.  Then, when the time for the royal election (Coronation) comes, I know I can count on you to crown me as your rightful monarch, with my assurance that I will continue King Obama’s policies, and we can all live happily ever after.

Your Queen-in-Waiting,

Hillary Rodham Clinton

 

Originally posted 2016-04-27 14:57:38.

Recent Posts

Wake up Millennials!

 

Earn ItWow. This young woman has it right IMHO

Might have to copy and paste into your browser. It’s worth it, and should be forwarded to every Millennial you know, maybe your children or grandchildren for example?

http://injo.com/2016/04/591380-young-texan-drops-a-bomb/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=owned&utm_campaign=morning-newsletter

Originally posted 2016-04-26 11:35:19.

Recent Posts

Fox Valley Young Marines

2 Comments

Young Marines

 

 

We had an initial meeting this evening to plan the start-up process for the Fox Valley Young Marines Chapter in NW Illinois. I was “drafted” as the Unit Commander; one would assume that considering the amount of time I spent as an enlisted Marine that I would have learned to never ever “volunteer” for anything.  I guess I always was a slow learner. 🙂 However, after visiting the Young Marines website and learning what they do and how they do it, I was caught hook, line, and sinker. I feel honored to be able to help where I can to get this organization off the ground. We also have an adult who has stepped up to be our Executive Officer, but we need more! We need a paymaster, a training officer, an adjutant, and we need someone with medical training (Corpsman, Medic, EMS, nurse, fire fighter, etc.)

By the way, just in case you are assuming something, let me tell you what the Young Marines is not. They are NOT in any way shape or form intended as a recruitment vehicle for the United States Marine Corps. They merely use the traits and values of the Corps as a corner-stone for helping young children between the ages of 8 and 18, boys and girls, to develop into patriotic responsible, drug-free citizens for our country. Their mission is as follows:

The mission of the Young Marines is to positively impact America’s future by providing quality youth development programs for boys and girls that nurtures and develops its members into responsible citizens who enjoy and promote a healthy, drug-free lifestyle.

The Marine Corps League Post 077 of Elgin, IL has agreed to be our sponsor, and the VFW Post 1307 of Elgin has offered up their building as our HQ and training facility.

We are just now submitting our application for the charter and have four adults who will be submitted as Registered Adults (RA) to help get the chapter off the ground.

So, if you, or someone you know lives in the Fox Valley area of Illinois and has a child in the age group who might consider becoming one of our Young Marines, please let me know through the comment section below this post. AND if you, the adult, would be interested in becoming one of our RA’s please comment below.

As Always, Semper Fi, Jim Bathurst

 

 

Originally posted 2016-04-25 23:40:30.

Recent Posts

Obama and his Treasury Department’s scheme

1 Comment
Sylvia ThompsonSylvia Thompson is a black conservative writer whose aim is to counter the liberal spin on issues pertaining to race and culture.

Ms. Thompson is a copy editor by trade currently residing in Tennessee. She formerly wrote for the Conservative Forum of Silicon Valley California Newsletter and the online conservative blog ChronWatch, also out of California.
She grew up in Southeast Texas during the waning years of Jim Crow-era legalized segregation, and she concludes that race relations in America will never improve, nor will we ever elevate our culture, as long as there are victims to be pandered to and villains to be vilified. America is better served without victims or villains.

Rending the nation: Obama and his Treasury Department’s scheme
By Sylvia Thompson

If any Americans think that the Obama Treasury Department’s decision to change the face of paper money has anything to do with good intentions, they are sadly mistaken. This move is another ploy by Barack Obama and his cadre of sycophants, behaving badly, to provoke divisiveness throughout the populace.

Under whatever guise Obama is cloaking this despicable move, he has delivered another blow to the American people, especially white people. Another in-your-face to all who hold this nation’s founding and history dear. Gains we may have made in race and gender relations in this country, by design, are being set back decades. There must be fifty ways (a la Paul Simon) to honor women of the civil rights and suffrage movements without spitting in the face of America’s heritage.

Classic liberal Greta Van Susteren, on her Fox News show, called the plan to remove Andrew Jackson from the twenty dollar bill and replace him with Harriet Tubman “stupid.” I will venture to say it was much more sinister than stupid, but I’m pleased that even a liberal mind sees through Obama’s machinations on this one.

Van Susteren offered, reasonably, that if the goal is to honor Harriet Tubman and the honor has to be with a monetary bill, why not create a bill specifically for her? A 25 dollar bill is Van Susteren’s suggestion. I read that Dr. Ben Carson, former 2016 presidential candidate, suggested a two dollar bill for Ms. Tubman. He could also see through Obama’s machinations.

Harriet Tubman’s work was indeed for liberty, but liberty for only black people. The women’s suffrage movement was for only women. Past American presidents served for the good of the whole country. Neither service should cancel out the other, as Obama and his Treasury drones have so insidiously proposed.

This man Barack Obama could not sink lower in my estimation. He is like a cancer eating away at the soul of the nation.

I hope it is not lost on anyone that Andrew Jackson was from Tennessee, a state that chose not to kowtow to Obama’s half-blackness in his election bids of both 2008 and 2012. My “no” votes were included in that mix. On his second run, he received even less support from Tennesseans. His resentment of Andrew Jackson probably runs deep and if nothing else, Obama is a vindictive creature.

The plan to place on the backs of the five and ten dollar bills only women involved with issues of racism and gender inequality in America’s history is similarly pernicious. It’s intention is solely to keep alive the specter of a shameful past and to engender discord and chaos among citizens. Only evil minds work this way.

Animus and mistrust between the races, and men and women, had been resolving itself over the years, but Obama’s regime has purposely halted that healing process. He and his administration have ripped open wounds and rubbed salt into them. All under the safety net of his “blackness.”

The Obama administration knows that it has a limited time to wreak as much havoc on the nation as it can before it is assigned to the ash bin of history, where it belongs. The question becomes can the nation avoid a literal insurrection before the miscreants are officially removed?

I think Obama and his puppet masters have been angling for some time now to provoke just such an insurrection – an actual military or militia-styled attempt to take down his corrupt regime. Such a move would give him an excuse to turn military forces against the American people.

He has deliberately culled the military of many patriotic, ranking officers and made conditions throughout the corps so anathema to many young patriots who volunteered that they have left the military. He may think he can pit what’s left of the forces against the American people, should there be such an insurrection. Some military personnel will follow his orders, as Commander-in-Chief. Others most assuredly will not, and therein lies the chance he would have to take. He just might be insane enough to take that chance.

My observation of the conditions in the nation is that we are at the point of violent disruption, and such a turn of events would be detrimental to us all. But Donald Trump’s entry onto the political scene has rekindled a fire in many otherwise disillusioned citizens. There seems to be a sense that maybe a political way out is still viable. What else, one could ask, could be responsible for so many otherwise politically disengaged people suddenly entering the process and voting for this man Trump?

These are no doubt patriots, some of whom were at the point of total despair or worse, thoughts of insurrection. They can now rally behind a non-ethnic, non-female (or gender-confused), patriotic man (of the alpha male mode) to lead America back to its original greatness. Only time will tell if their hope is well-placed.

I say it is a good thing that such a leader has emerged. Let’s hope that Almighty God is also in on the plan.

Originally posted 2016-04-25 10:01:57.