Tag Archives: Afganistan

Current Events

“All Gave Some . . .

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But some gave all. And that is what this weekend is all about. So when you gather around the table for some traditional hotdogs and burgers this weekend, remember to hold hands and give a moment of silence to all those service men and women who are resting in ANC and in all those other hundreds of other  cemeteries spread around the world

Jazz Finally at Rest                    By: Greg Maresca

On January 24, 2022, less than a month after Robert “Jazz” Jasinski, celebrated his 60th birthday, his six-decade run on this third post from the sun came to an abrupt and unexpected close. It would not be until May 23, 2023, that his cremains would be finally interred to their ultimate resting place in Arlington National Cemetery.

As the nation prepares to observe Memorial Day, it was certainly a tailored time to have his last and long overdue request realized. The elapsed time of 16-months – two hockey seasons – would have stirred a hearty laugh tinged with a little disgust from my old friend. Jazz was all too familiar with the enduring federal bureaucracy having spent most of his life toiling on the front lines for Uncle Sam – first as a U.S. Marine and then with the Transportation Security Administration.

 The extended and unnecessary ripple effects of COVID-19 still resonate throughout America’s capital city and wokefully ground zero is Arlington National Cemetery. In no way does COVID still make such a prolonged wait for burial justified. It is nothing short of a national disgrace.

We have no issue with packaging multi billions in military aid to Ukraine and thought nothing of bequeathing nearly just as much military hardware to the Taliban in our flight out of Afghanistan – another national disgrace.

Millions pour over our southern border illegally, while we drown in government debt living in a cultural zeitgeist where plenty of folks think nothing of using a $1000 iPhone 14 Pro to check their food stamp balance.

The nation’s capital was like a second home to the Delaware County, Pennsylvania native having done a tour of duty at Marine Corps Headquarters. A favorite D.C. haunt of his was Arlington. Yet, it took 16-months to finally inter Jazz’s ashes among some of the men he served with and those he helped bury while serving with the Corps’ Casualty Notification Unit decades ago.

If Jazz had survived and knew that any veteran had such a long waiting period, he would have been heard. Given the circumstances, he never would have placed himself in a situation to jump the line, either.

Still, with this Memorial Day weekend upon America, we can’t bury some of our veterans in a timely fashion at the nation’s most hallowed and historic burial grounds affording closure for so many families.

There still exists a third of America who takes seriously the nation’s oldest president whose administration is devoid of many things, most of all – wisdom. According to Biden’s recent commencement address at nearby Howard University, America’s greatest threats are not foreign, but domestic. Is it any wonder why on this Memorial Day weekend, the nation is circling the drain of the abyss?

A call to Arlington’s general service number yielded nothing but excuses, namely COVID overkill. What was emphasized was how Arlington conducts approximately 6,400 burials a year averaging 30 per day. Their backlog consists of 4,500 extending the wait to 16 months – now in its third year.

Unanswered in another column from a year ago was when Biden abandoned Afghanistan in record time, why couldn’t he sign another one of his numerous presidential executive orders to expedite laying to rest heroic American veterans in a timely fashion?

Pulling punches is not in the Jasinski DNA as Jazz’s older brother Stan was generous providing solutions saying, “They (Arlington) need to think out of the box by holding larger ceremonies for groups at a time, use special ceremonial units or ROTC for extra manpower to reduce the wait. They have got to stop this ‘is what we have always done mentality.’”

Arlington guards the remains of more than 330,000 immortal souls buried under plain, white granite stones all in formation where every day is Memorial Day, and where waiting lists should be entrusted to the dustbin of history.

Arlington is the priciest of American real estate and is the unabridged narrative of the nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. And my old friend, whose ashes now finally rest here, would stress in no uncertain terms that we need to keep it that way.

Rest easy, Jazz, you are finally home.

Yes, may God please bless Jazz, and all the others who have served this once famous country. Amen

Postscript: I just received some very bad news from a Marine Brother, Sam Garland. Our best friend and brother Marine hero, LtCol Vic Taylor, USMC (Ret) from Steamboat Springs, CO has passed away. We know none of the details at this time. When I get more information, I will pass it along on here.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 An older picture (1959) of Vic as a LCpl

 

Current Events

Is it NATO or ATO?

2 Comments

Another informative and thought provoking treatise from my good friend and our Marine Brother. Thank you Greg.

Holding the bag.

By Greg Maresca

While many Americans would have trouble finding Utah on a map, let alone Ukraine, they would equally struggle with the acronym, NATO, that if we are being truthful means: Not Able To Operate (without the U.S.). They need to drop the “N” and make it ATO – American Treaty Organization, a synonym for American expeditionary forces.

NATO was established in 1949 to defend Western Europe from the Soviet Union. Its mission according to the alliance’s first Secretary General, Lord Hastings Ismay, “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down.”

The post-Soviet Union Russia retained its formidable military that includes thousands of nuclear warheads, so disbanding NATO was out of the question. Besides, alliances, like government bureaucracies, rarely disappear. More importantly, peace through strength is no cliché. Tyrants will always exploit weaknesses and it’s naïve to believe otherwise.

In his historic 1796 Farewell Address, George Washington made it clear how he opposed alliances. Defense treaties always work to the advantage of one country and to the disadvantage of another.

The other always being the United States and as the most powerful member we will continue to pay for ensuring its effectiveness.

NATO protects Europeans from having to provide for their own defense. It is a lot easier to let the American taxpayer pick up the tab, while also keeping the sea lanes free and open. Granted, it’s in my interest if my neighbor’s house doesn’t go up in flames. However, that doesn’t mean I must pay his house insurance.

The well-intended but fossilized NATO is more bark than bite when it comes to any support that is not American in origin. Our southern border is under siege but do not count on any NATO member to come to our aid. We can’t even count on some NATO members to vote with us at the United Nations, where we also pay the majority of the U.N.’s bill.

NATO’s first supreme commander, Gen. Eisenhower, said if U.S. troops were still in Europe in 10 years, NATO would be a failure.

Article V of the NATO treaty says any attack on a NATO member will be treated as an attack on all. NATO’s sole Article V intervention was in 2001 in Afghanistan – a long way from Europe and the North Atlantic and its founding objective.

Any member that fails to meet their obligations betrays the alliance by being strategically and ethically negligent and by escalating their dependence on Russian gas and oil only magnifies their irresponsibility.

NATO members prefer to invest in the socialist welfare state than in the necessities of defense where allegiance to the alliance and to one another is debatable. Regarding military contingency, NATO would rather conduct summits where the English would make the reservations, the Germans the strudel and the French hors d’oeuvres. All the while, Uncle Sam does the heavy lifting with the troops, tanks, planes, and ships.

During a Bold Guard/Northern Wedding NATO exercise, the only NATO trooper I interacted with was a drunk Dane who approached our armory of which I was one of two sentries. It is sobering to behold what a sliding bolt can do for the language barrier. I suppose the Carlsberg beer that was three for a dollar was just too good to pass up. The Danes did provide a hot meal in one of their air bases’ chow halls that the salty grunts of the 4th Marine Amphibious Brigade promptly cleaned out to the dismay of our hosts. Without a doubt, Uncle Sam was billed accordingly.

Lack of accountability has bred imprudence like unionized troops throughout NATO. One Air Force captain told of a NATO exercise where he was walking with a couple of Dutch officers when they passed two generals. The Americans saluted, while the Dutch, who were wearing hair nets to cover their shaggy hairdos, waved. The Dutch explained how their union claimed saluting was humiliating.

Yet, historians still debate why it took the Nazi’s four days to eliminate the Dutch from World War II.

If our NATO allies took their defense seriously, they would be a formidable neutralizer to Russia and assuage their reliance upon the U.S., while saving Uncle Sam plenty of money and headaches.

 

Current Events

The Corps Part II

15 Comments

Received an email from a fellow retired Marine—whom I highly respect—that included the following messages. I share these with you as my second blog post on the current recruiting plan put forth by our CMC significantly touted as, “Operation Semper Fi.”

* * * *

Marine Brothers, one and all. I forwarded this to a select few generals. I intend to email Senator Rick Scott…former navy officer. The words and thoughts are harsh but should not be ignored. I fear we are back to 1947…which way will it go?

I want to share these inciteful comments from a distinguished Marine, the father of two outstanding Marine officers (one infantry, the other combat engineer), both of whom had multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I feel sorry for the head of recruiting. At the same time that the CMC insults and denigrates previous generations of Marines and their flawed culture he is trying to rally retired Generals and Marines to help the Corps recruit. Sending it to retired Generals is preaching to the crowd that at about 80-90% supported or fell silent on the critical issues of perversion, depravity, fraternization, reverse racism, sexual preference for women, unisex uniforms, women in the combat arms, the elimination of tanks, tube artillery, numerous infantry Bn’s, 25% of F-35’s and CH-53F’s, female grooming standards, 18 months of maternity leave, the destruction of the MAGTF concept, the vapid attacks on the culture of the Corps and its racist/sexist heritage. Add to that a bevy of Generals who went from Warriors to politicians and openly and repeatedly insulted a sitting President.

 A Marine four- star CINC presided over a catastrophic NEO from Kabul taking orders from the Taliban about who, what, when, how, and why and then fled in the dark of the night with his tail tucked between his legs.

Our beloved Corps is at an historic low point with few allies on the Hill and an American people who view us as mere victims. Eighty percent of our Generals appear to have been intellectual midgets without a spine, charisma, presence, or persuasive verbal skills. They appear be average to below average men by every measure. When the time to stand up and be counted came, they opted to pass. This made it even harder for those willing to do the right things, the right way, for the right reasons.

We know who has a high propensity to enlist and we don’t want them. Instead, we chase after the misanthropes, the gender confused, the lost souls, and those we know are poorly suited to the battlefield. We encourage those to join the Corps whose interests are totally self-serving, to then change the Corps.

The Corps must reassess the culture it has abandoned if it expects the endorsement and support from those who have retired. I cannot, at this juncture, encourage an 18 year old to join the Corps. I say that with a very heavy heart.”

I must admit that with a very heavy heart, I have already convinced one 18-year-old to forego his lifelong desire to become a Marine and go on to college in hopes that—just maybe with God’s help—the Corps will be back on track.

* * * *

Another highly respected Marine known to me wrote:

Sometime back, I opined that the success of Berger’s “Great Leap Forward,” his “re-imagining” of our beloved Corps to make it more “representative of our country,” would be reflected in the retention rates of serving Marines and the recruiting of new ones. The following is from a Brother Marine regarding the missive recently sent to all retired Marine generals by the CG, USMC Recruiting Command requesting their support of “Operation Semper Fi:”

“My response: I will watch… but if they think they can muster Marine Veteran support if they continue the march to “woke land” …and all that implies including fostering Marxist ideology masquerading as modern liberalism they are sadly mistaken. Veterans will support traditional Marine values not forced ideas that are counter to common sense and successful traditional values. The thinking of those forcing the “new order” is being brought to us by the same people or their progeny that abandoned us in Vietnam and tried their best to turn the entire country against us—they failed but as a result they are now working from the inside of government (civilian and military) to have their way.”

Please stand by Marines, and others. There is much more to come in the ensuing days regarding this disgusting issue. It will end with my open letter to General Berger!

 

 

Current Events

God Help Us — PLEASE

4 Comments

I am, as I suspect my followers are, absolutely horrified as to what is transpiring in that shithole we know as Afghanistan. The fact that my RVN battalion (2/1) has lost Marines and a Corpsman after having to go into that country to do something that should have never happened had we had an administration and generals who had even the slightest clue as to what they were doing. A fresh-caught second lieutenant right out of OCS could have developed a better plan than any of those fools. Sad, Sorrow, angst is all I feel. I have lowered my Flag to haft mast; it will remain in that position until this is all over and everyone is out and safe. I would encourage all of you to do the same. I can assure you this would never played out as it did had we had Trump where he was supposed to be — our legal and duly elected POTUS.

Our current flock of generals and admirals are more concerned with diversity and weeding out so-called extremists from their ranks than doing what they are charged to do. The perfect example is our CJCS, Miley, what a life-long POS! Every one wearing a star today needs to be fired w/o pension!

The title Photo says it all. How pitiful he appears having followed those handling his puppet strings. God help us, not him!

Below are comments from who should have been running this OP.

Here’s one fellow American whom we should all love and respect!