Tag Archives: USMC

Current Events

Belated Memorial Day Message

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To all my Vietnam Veteran brothers, as well as my patriotic American followers who weren’t able to serve, may God bless you and keep you. I did not post anything prior to Memorial Day, as I always find myself somewhat lost for the appropriate words. Is it correct to wish someone “Happy Memorial Day? Appropriately or not, I always find it difficult to make that wish.

However, yesterday I received an email from a good friend and fellow warrior, Lobo, with a message from Quang Nguyen that I found highly moving and fittingly appropriate as a Memorial Day presentation. In case you are not familiar with Quang Nguyen, he is a state representative from Arizona. He sent Lobo a copy of the speech he had given this year at the Prescott National Cemetery in his home state. I’ll let him tell you his story. Enjoy!

Big Brother,                                                                    I was given 7 minutes to speak at the Prescott National Cemetery on this Memorial Day.  I thought it beneficial to Veterans to hear a different perspective.  Here’s the copy.  Please remember that I write the way I speak and so I am not paying attention to grammar or punctuation.  Thank you.

It is always an honor to be present here at the Prescott National Cemetery on Memorial Day. I was here last year to hear the wise words from Major General Mick McGuire and I hope to be just half as inspirational as his.

There is somewhat of a different perspective of Memorial Day once you been in a war and understand the true meaning of the “ULTIMATE SACRIFICE”. Today, I offer you my unique perspective of what this day personally meant to me. You see… We recently commemorated the 50th Anniversary of the Fall of Saigon. I was too young to be in the service, but I lived through three communist invasions including the final one on 30 April, 1975. So when I say I’ve seen American service members walking through the rice fields, I actually saw that with my own eyes. When I say I understand the sacrifice of young men and women who travel 10 thousand miles to fight for my freedom, I actually do know and do understand. More than 58 thousands of your sons and daughters gave it all, SO I can stand here in front of you today. No books; No teachers; No professors will be able to explain the meaning of Memorial Day to me. I know from personal experience. Not a single day in my life that I don’t think about how lucky I am to be an American.

My Dad spent 39 years of his life fighting in three different wars.  My brother fought along side many of you who are here today, from 1968 to 1975 as an Airborne soldier. During my childhood, I learned that two of my first cousins died as rangers in Cambodia. One was executed after the Fall of Saigon in a concentration camp. Those are also my personal experience.

For years, I wasn’t able to visit the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC. I felt responsible for getting those names etched on those Walls. I did not want to interfere with the mourning process by showing up. There is so much guilt in my soul. In 2016, my wife, daughter, and I flew to DC to drop off my daughter Sarah at a Summer Program in Annapolis. Having little else to do in the area, my wife and I decided to visit the monuments and I mentally avoided the WALL. My wife then said to me… We need to spend time paying respect to Vietnam Veterans to which I replied, I don’t think I am wanted there. She literally dragged me from the Lincoln Memorial to the Vietnam Wall. It was 2:30 in the afternoon and for some unknown reasons, not a soul was there except for a wreath left for a soldier with a gold banner: “West Point Class of 64”. I touched as many names as I possibly can and by the time I got to the very end, I was emotionally drained and I felt grateful having known that so many died for me and I am grateful to be adopted by the most generous nation in the world.

To the Gold Star families, you bear the heavy burden of loss. You showed us your strength and resilience and that is a profound testament to the love and pride you hold for your love ones. I will never be in the position of telling you that I understand your loss. Thank you, Gold Star families for your ultimate sacrifice. To you and your service members, this nation owes you a debt of gratitude.

Here’s what we all need to recognize… Our fallen heroes know sacrifice through giving. The rest of us know sacrifice through receiving.

Let us honor our fallen heroes not only with words, but how we live, by serving others, stand up for what is right and to ensure their legacy endures through our action. May we never forget freedom is not free. It is paid for by the brave, and today, we remember them all.

God bless the Unite States America and her heroes.

Quang Nguyen

Current Events

USAA

24 Comments

Well, it will happen this week as soon as they deposit my senior discount into my checking account at NFCU. What is it that will happen you asked? I will un-ass USAA after having been a customer since February 1974 (50 years for you non-math guys – LOL). It all started about a year or so ago when I had fraud on my USAA credit card. When speaking to a very nice woman (always), who was going to issue me a new card. I  was complaining about having to call all the companies that hit that card for recurring payments e.g., utilities, and she recommended I get another card and use it just for those recurring companies, but don’t carry that card with me. What a GREAT idea. She transferred me to another very nice woman (always). I  gave her all the information, and she sent it to the underwriting dept for approval. She came back on several minutes later and told me it was disapproved. Can you imagine the shock? She said they turned me down due to a credit report. I asked for a copy of it and the ONLY thing on the report was that I had three inquiries in the past two years. I refinanced my house three times to get to a 1.75% 30 yr fixed rate VA Loan. The bottomline statement said “There are no derogatory items on this report.” And by the way, my credit score on that report was 831. I wrote Mr. Peacock (President) who always boasts about loyalty. and told him where his loyalty really lies. A snooty woman (no longer nice) called a week later and tried to explain to me that the underwriters had to follow set policy. I asked who sets those policies and she tried to tell me it was the insurance industry. Bullshit, USAA sets the policy. I am a damn  Economist by education and hobby. I finally hung up on the bitch. Anyway, that was the beginning of the end for me and USAA.

Then they had the audacity to add something to my auto insurance policy this year without asking me. Something about “Car Replacement Assistance,” and Rental Car option. I called and talked to a very nice woman (as always, except for Mr. Peacock’s bitch) who said they added that thinking I might want it and that I may have forgotten to add renal car to my policy. I have a separate RV towing policy with another company that also covers rental car.  She removed them from the policy.

A month or so later  called and heard “Welcome to USAA, Press one for English or stay on the line.” Now, if I were in charge of a company who caters to military only like USAA, It would be “Welcome to USAA,” then in Spanish someone would say “Press one for Spanish.” Moot point you say? No it isn’t. I spent 36 years of my youthful life serving and bleeding for this country, and I refuse to deal with any company who asks me to press one for English. This is America and our damn language is ENGLISH! If you are Spanish and that upsets you, tough shit, learn English or get out.

There were other incidents that have caused me to un-ass USAA. But I decided I was going to look for another auto insurer because USAA has gotten way too expensive for my wallet. My policy is to expire on March 25th, and they raised my premium another 5% this coming year which will require me to pay a whooping $2,619.87 for a six month  policy.  Want to hear something funny?  They have the gull to tell me that they have given me $4,661.65 in discounts because of my bride and me being such safe drivers, etc. OK,  so had they not been so kind to give me that discount, my six month policy would have been $7,271.52 or 14,563.04/year. LOL Can you believe that? I can’t. I know I live in FL where no one knows how to drive, no one but me drives the speed limit, because here everyone believes a speed limit means you have to drive at least that fast. I believed all these years that I have lived here that everyone was paying these sort of premiums. Surprise! I did my due diligence and comparing apples to apples have found two reputable companies i.e., Progressive and Traveller’s  who will give me the exact six month policy I have with USAA for $1,687  (-35.6%) and $1,515 (-42.2%) respectively. And I am not done checking other companies since I have till March 25th to decide. Oh, and my cars are not expensive new cars. Nancy’s is a 2015 Lexus RX350 and Mine is a 2022 Mini Cooper

You may be asking what were my bonuses this year. The standard was $77.27 and my Senior bonus this week will be $262.02 for a total of $339.49. But that doesn’t even come close to reducing the upcoming policy to what I can get elsewhere.

So, my advice to all my military brethren, I suggest you do some due diligence on your own. Having spoken to Marine brothers of my vintage I am amazed at the huge number who said, “Hell. I dumped USAA years ago.”

I can’t wait to make this phone call and ask to speak to a Supervisor because the women who answer are always so nice and I do not want to shoot the messenger. Speaking to supervisor might have more of an impact on Mr. Peacock, but I have doubts, he’s a jerk as well. How much will USAA pay for ads on the Super Bowl tonight?

Comments sincerely welcome

Originally posted 2024-02-11 16:12:01.

Current Events

Flight Over Iwo Jima

12 Comments

Every now and then I come across a story that has nothing whatsoever to do with the political swamp, or sick society in which we find ourselves. Some move me and make my chest swell. Well here’s one for you jar heads out there. It’s wonderful story that needs no additional words from me! Enjoy, comment, and share.

Bill Knowles Green Valley News & Sun and The Sahuarita Sun
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Off and on during my adult years I have associated with members of the United States Marine Corps and these short interludes have been worthwhile in all respects; most recently I have shared a mutual volunteer chore with a retired member of the Marines, a local guy by the name of Master Gunny Bob Duerden. Another great member of the “Corps.”

For Bob and the rest of our local retired Marines, here is a story about 165 Marines on their way to war!

During the years 1963 to 1971, I had the privilege of managing the flight operation of a 13-plane fleet of Boeing 320C aircraft carrying troops and/or cargo from United State’s shores to SE Asia and the war known as Vietnam. When carrying Marines, our flights progressed from the USMC base at Pendleton, in Southern California, to Honolulu thence to the Marine base in Okinawa and then to Da Nang in Vietnam, where the Marines would board their own helicopters to proceed to their in-country posts.

It was a typical lovely Sunday that we departed Honolulu bound for Okinawa; there were three cockpit crew members , eight cabin flight attendants and 165 members of the USMC in this gold-tailed Boeing 320C Intercontinental jet capable of flying nonstop some 13 hours and more than 6,000 miles.

Over the Pacific Ocean the skies were clear and the ride was smooth … most of our passengers quickly fell asleep. Some seven hours later, a smidgen of light coming up on our tail suggested the arrival of the morning sunrise; I called the first flight attendant to the cockpit and asked about the well-being of the passengers and when she was planning to awaken them for their breakfast.

“We have a small gift for the Marines coming up in 20 minutes but I need them all to be awake.” She answered that she would awaken them now and serve breakfast when I advised her.

During flight planning, before departure from Honolulu, the en route winds and weather suggested a route that took us directly over the islands of Iwo Jima — these islands were deeply etched in the history of the USMC in World War II — and forecast winds would result in a flight faster than the normal for this route.

I called the first flight attendant on the intercom and advised her that I would be making a PA to the passengers in about 10 minutes and that after that please do not serve any beverages until we had passed Iwo Jima. A short time later our weather radar picked up the Iwo Jima Islands on the nose 40 miles ahead; I made the following PA to the passengers: “Gentlemen, I hope that you have been comfortable … we are ahead of schedule and we have a small gift for you this morning … in about 12 minutes we will pass directly over the islands of Iwo Jima where earlier members of your Marines fought so gallantly in World War II. We will circle the islands two ways so that all of you will have a great view of the islands.

The Pacific Ocean six miles below was glassy smooth and deep blue, it was an outstanding morning.
As we started our circle of the islands below, the first flight attendant came into the cockpit saying, “Captain, look back through the cockpit door at the passengers.” She opened wide the cockpit door.

The First Sergeant had every Marine aboard standing up, at attention and these 165 proud warriors were singing the Marines’ Hymn as we passed over these Iwo Jima Islands where so many of their brothers had earlier fallen.

The cabin of the aircraft had taken on all those qualities of a land-based church; I really do not think that, including the cockpit, there was a dry eye aboard this flight, on this morning, so far from home. The hymn from 165 Marine voices reached every nook and cranny of this largest of Boeing aircraft on this peaceful morning … never to be forgotten.

Later arriving at Okinawa , where the Marines would spend a week or so before heading for Da Nang to join their fellow Marines, as our crew descended the steps after the passengers has proceeded us, we heard a great “Thank you, crew” from 165 proud Marines. It was a gratifying moment!

Of 157 flights across the Pacific, that particular trip — with 165 of the nation’s finest – will live forever in the memory of this flight crew member.

Bill Knowles lives in Green Valley.

Thank you Mr. Bill Knowles for such a wonderful story

Originally posted 2020-08-10 12:37:34.

Current Events

Taxes

7 Comments

Once again, I am remiss in posting anything. My only excuse is age-related – I guess having turned 83, I’m just slowing down. Otherwise, my health is good. I find this latest from my friend and fellow Marine Greg earth-shattering as well. I cannot believe the Supreme Court can find anything in the Moore case to go along with the government. Absolutely crazy and could change everything about a capitalistic economy.

Taxing Tremors                                                              By: Greg Maresca

A 7.6 earthquake and its resulting tsunami on New Year’s Day that shook Japan set the stage as the faultless metaphor that will reverberate throughout 2024 and beyond.  With the impending presidential election aside, the tremors of improbability arrived a month earlier when the Supreme Court decided to hear a case with profound implications for the federal income tax.

Moore v. U.S. will decide if the federal government can tax unrealized capital gains not yet received under the 16th Amendment.  The justices agreed to hear the Moore’s appeal as the couple wanted their $14,729 refund that the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against. The Ninth Circuit, known in legal circles as the “Ninth Circus,” has the worst record of any appeals court before the Supreme Court.

Like Roe v. Wade did last year, this case will have a huge and lasting ripple effect regarding future taxation that should concern everyone.

It is no secret that the nation is accruing debt that is unsustainable. The day of reckoning approaches. The irony is the case is named Moore – indeed “more” income through taxation.

Over a century of income tax laws has resulted in thousands of pages of decrees that carve out craters of exemptions in a labyrinth of directives. The tax code is a bloated, crony orchestrated, lobbyist measured disaster for those unable to manipulate it by hiring all those cunning accountants and attorneys who are paid handsomely to circumvent it.

When was the last time a member of Congress did their own taxes?

A fundamental reckoning from the ground up is long overdue to bury the income tax along with the IRS and replace them with a consumption tax or flat tax.

To tax unrealized capital gains not yet received is extreme. The power to regulate and tax is the power to destroy. Congress’s authority to tax does not include reinvested capital and personal property as income.

Income is money received.

Assets may increase in value, but until they are collected as interest, dividends or sold, there is no income. If you cannot spend it, it is not income.

You can’t pay the rent or fill your gas tank with paper gains or the appreciation of your home.  When you gain on any financial instrument but do not sell you earn a “paper profit.”  If unrealized gains are taxed, and the taxpayer has no cash to pay, a forced liquidation would be necessary for payment.

Are you prepared to pay a tax because your assets go up in value?  House, car, pets, trading cards, comic books, Auntie Estelle’s antique coffee table – where does it end?   Provided market values decline would monies be refunded?  Stop laughing, that was no joke.

Uncle Sam wants all the golden eggs without having to buy the hens, the henhouse, and the chicken feed. The power brokers in Washington believe everything is subject to taxation real or imagined.

It is pitiful that this case is even necessary.

A tax in bad faith resulted in a revolution nearly 250 years ago. Such taxation realizes the socialist dream of equal outcomes regardless of effort, ingenuity, innovation, or lack thereof. Ayn Rand’s nightmare is finally realized.

The Supreme Court’s job is not about maximizing taxable income for Uncle Sam but to interpret if this tax is constitutional.

A ruling in favor of Uncle Sam will unleash Congress’ taxing power and devastate our economic system as we know it.  Going forward, all unrealized income will become whatever the government says it is.

The Supreme Court’s decision is expected in June right in the middle of the presidential campaign. Provided the government loses and refusing to allow what they perceive as a crisis; Democrats will condemn the decision as a political red herring.

A Moore victory would also challenge other sections of the tax code that stands at nearly 7,000 pages.  Provided they are unconstitutional; they must fall, too.

The income tax has been around since 1913 and its ability to produce revenue has never been assuaged by politics. The hardcore issue is the United States does not have a taxing problem, but a spending problem. Revenue is up but it can’t compete with current spending levels.

A ruling in favor of the government would only exacerbate such spending.

Postscript: I have given up on all the latest coming out of the military and especially our Corps. Absolutely sad! I am simply too old to even bother with it anymore. My stress level is more important to me.

In case you have not read your copy of the latest “Semper Fidelis, or if not retired and don’t get it, I always look at the “Taps” column looking for friends with whom I served. I saw MajGen Dennis Murphy listed this month. Sad, I considered him another Ernie Cheatham – a warrior. He gave me Huxley’s Whores.

Well, this is election year. Do we really believe the liberals are going to allow a legal, valid election? I don’t!

 

 

Originally posted 2024-01-19 13:08:35.

Current Events, videos

The New USMC

4 Comments

While I have pretty much remained silent about CMC Berger’s FD 2030, there has been and continues to be a plethora of verbiage about it. And as far as I have been able to ascertain none of it has been good. I reckon I considered it a long gone conclusion with the new CMC simply carrying on his predecessor’s image of the new Corps. In nine days the world is going to change, make no mistake about that; the proverbial shit will hit the fan globally, not just here in the US. Our mainstream nerds will have so much to talk about it isn’t even funny. I will start watching the news again, except it will be either CNN or that ridiculous MSNBC. I can’t wait to hear their spins.

But I digress. FD 2030 is a disaster; our Corps is not the same and there is some serious doubt that it never will again be America’s 911 Force. The divestitures were HUGE, so much so that anyone who thinks it can still respond to an urgent crisis somewhere in the world is living under a rock. Do you actually know what all was given up?

Here is an article written by Captain Dale Dye, USMC (Ret). In case you don’t know of him, once he retired he became a favorite consultant in Hollywood for any producer who wanted to show or talk about Marines. In fact, he convinced producer Oliver Stone to let him put the principal actors—including Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, Johnny Depp, and Forest Whitaker—through an immersive 30-day military-style training regimen before the filming of Platoon. He limited how much food and water they received; when the actors slept, he fired cartridge blanks to keep them awake. Dale who had a small role in the movie as Captain Harris, also wrote the novelization based on Stone’s screenplay.

Here, in his usual uncensored style, is a good recount of everything that has happened since Berger’s stroke of his pen behind closed doors.

Marine Swords Beaten into Puny Plowshares

Not likely anyone in authority will be influenced by a long-retired Mustang bitching about the state of today’s Marine Corps, but I feel compelled to lob a few grenades at Force Design 2030. That’s the radical restructuring of the Corps ordered by former Commandant General David Berger in a sleazy backroom deal that demanded all the sycophants involved sign non-disclosure agreements. Since it was announced three years ago, the revamping of Marine missions, tactics, and techniques has created a defecation deluge from opponents who believe—as I do—that the whole thing has a lot in common with a jet engine. It sucks and blows.

Before I get into the weeds here, let me say a thing or two about the general mission and offensive ethos of the United States Marine Corps. Simply stated, the Corps is—or was—always designed to be the country’s 911 force, most ready to fight when the nation is least ready. It’s meant to be the crash crew in crisis response anyplace and anytime around the world. The key asset for global combatant commanders was a Marine Corps air-ground team (MAGTF) always forward deployed—usually aboard Navy amphibs—trained, equipped, and instantly ready to handle any mission in the full range of military operations.

For some reason known only to General Berger and his clones, that wasn’t good enough for a force facing China in the Western Pacific as the perceived priority threat. Rather than tweak weapons, training, and positioning to meet that challenge as Marines typically do, they decided to throw the baby out with the bathwater and ordered a tactical shift to defense with primary focus on small teams of missile-armed Marines who would jump from island to island in efforts to damage or deter a growing Chinese blue-water fleet in the event of a shooting war in the Western Pacific. The Navy—and certainly the Army—currently has a plethora of missiles capable of sinking ships. Here’s a hint. If you want to avoid redundancy arguments, don’t try to do something another service already does and probably does it better than you can.

Not much thought—if any—was given to moving these small vulnerable Marine detachments, much less resupplying and otherwise supporting them under the ever vigilant eyes of Chinese radars, satellites, and cyber capture networks. And apparently never mind if the sovereign nations that claim the territory Marines would need to launch their ship-killer missiles want no part of a super-power fight. What if—as entirely likely—those sovereign nations deny the Marines those operational bases? I’ll wait while someone thinks that through.

Under this misbegotten concept, the US Navy has a huge vote as the provider of small, fast amphibious ships needed to move Marines. And they voted no. Not only do we have insufficient gator freighters in our current fleet, but the Navy has no apparent plans to produce the smaller inter-island transports called for under FD 2030.

Screwing around with the Marine’s central mission—locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver—threatens to turn the US Marine Corps into a single-mission niche outfit ready to die in place on remote islands and unready to handle crises anywhere else. It puts Marines in a defensive posture when our time-tested ethos has always been the offense, forward deployed and eager to fight any enemy. It’s that attitude that used to permeate Marine ranks and kept us supplied with avid young recruits. Seems to me given the puny recruiting numbers we’re seeing from all the other services, the Marine Corps can ill-afford to sacrifice this aspect of their gung-ho, first-to-fight reputation.

In order to twist itself around this maypole of new war fighting concepts, General Berger cooked the books in what he called “divest to invest” which basically amounts to robbing Peter to pay Paul as my Dad used to call false-economy measures. That little bookkeeping maneuver made some $16 billion available which the new model planners spent on long-range missile batteries, drones, and other high-tech goodies to equip what are now proudly called Marine Littoral Regiments. Fine if all future fights are in littoral areas of the world but history begs us not to bank on that.

Most stunning in an outfit that focuses on the combat power of basic infantry, FD 2030 orders a reduction of three full battalions from the point of the Marine Corps bayonet, or a loss of 14 percent of combat strength. If that wasn’t dumb enough in formations that face inevitable casualties in ground combat, the end-strength for a Marine infantry battalion has been reduced by 200 Marines across the board which translates to a loss of 4,200 frontline war fighters. Marine Corps Reserves won’t be there to fill in the gaps. The reserves lost two full infantry battalions under the FD 2030 axe.

None of this seemed to bother force designers all that much as they also eliminated all—that’s correct all—Marine Corps tanks. So much for lessons learned in Ukraine or the Middle East. Supporters say if the Marines need tanks in a future fight, the US Army will provide them. That’s unlikely to be any kind of high priority for an Army outfit that might well be engaged in its own fight. And even if they were willing to cough up a platoon or two of Abrams, it would likely be at the end of a lengthy and complicated pipeline. Marines need tanks at hand, not in some remote Army motor pool.

Which brings me kicking and screaming to the matter of fire support for what’s left of Marine Corps maneuver battalions in the next fight. God help the grunt commander who needs quick and accurate artillery fire support, a reliable staple of infantry combat in modern times. He might not get it as FD 2030 cut a full 16 battalions of cannon artillery for a firepower reduction of a whopping 76 percent. Savings were spent to stand up 14 rocket artillery battalions which is OK if you’re shooting over the horizon at Chinese ships, but not worth a damn to a grunt outfit pinned down and in need of rapid steel on target at close ranges in crappy weather. We will hopefully live to regret this emasculation of versatile, reliable tube artillery. If you have any doubts about the utility of cannons and howitzers on the modern battlefield, let me direct your attention to the Ukraine where artillery on both sides is proving to be a deciding factor.

Another dumb-ass divestiture under FD 2030 came in Marine Corps aviation. One of the most brilliant assets of forward-deployed Marine units is that they come to the fight carrying their own air support. Both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aviation was quickly available to a MAGTF commander who could call it up and then down on an enemy without having to ask the Air Force or compete with other battlefield priorities. Not so simple these days.

FD 2030 cut almost 30 percent of tactical and logistical aviation support. Offensive aviation cuts included at least two of seven light attack helicopter squadrons which will be sorely missed by grunts on the ground who always appreciate the quickly available support of helicopter gunships. Also eliminated were three of the current 17 Osprey tilt-rotor squadrons and three of eight heavy-lift helicopter units. With the Corps struggling to field a reliable sea-shore connector—the new Amphibious Combat Vehicle is still not approved for deployment—now seems like a hell of a time to be cutting aviation logistic and transportation support.

I could go on here about the elimination of engineer support units such as bridging and breeching units that are always a valuable and versatile piece of the battlefield toolbox, but my morale might not survive it. What’s keeping me afloat as an old but loyal believer in the spirit and inherent value of the Corps, is the controversy at very high and influential levels that surrounds the changes mandated by FD 2030. Wiser heads than mine are arguing for a return to sanity. It may take some long and bloody time to correct our course, but I believe we will do just that.

In the end active-duty Marines, veterans, fans, and friends of the Corps will demand it. As General Brute Krulak wisely said back in 1957, “America does not need a Marine Corps. It wants one.” And the one it wants is not the one that’s being shaped by Force Design 2030.

I was fortunate enough to meet Dale while I was at Marine Barracks, NAS, Lemoore CA. It was during an attempt to have Brian Dennehy as our guest for a birthday ball. Quite an impressive guy to represent our Corps to Hollywood.