Back on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor, an attack that left 2380 dead (including 68 civilians), and 1178 injured. Nine ships of the U.S. fleet were sunk and 21 ships were severely damaged in a sneak attack that brought the United States into World War II.

Never forget!

Our beloved friend, Charlie Eames, passed away a year ago, on November 1, 2009. I thought it would be fitting to honor Charlie by dedicating this Veterans Day tribute to him. Charlie served Honorably in the United States Air Force, during the Vietnam Era in the early 70′s. Here’s a photo of Charlie that will forever be known as “Veteran’s Salute”:

Charlie was also one of the pioneer contributors to RochesterConservative.com and it’s our third anniversary today! Charlie, Veterans Day and RochesterConservative.com will forever be intertwined into my heart…

And we can’t forget starting the Tea Party Movement in Rochester. Charlie was there, speaking at the first three Tea Parties:

Charlie speaking at the first Rochester Tea Party, 3/11/2009

In the following video, you’ll hear Charlie speaking at the 2009 Tax Day Rochester Tea Party:

“I’m finally glad to see people standing up as Americans”.

Right after, you’ll hear phantomlord proclaiming:

“In the present crisis, government isn’t the solution to our problems, government IS the problem!”

We can all buy into those sentiments!

Charlie also spoke at the Rochester Independence Day Tea Party on July 3rd, 2009:

Charlie Eames believed in the American values of limited government, individual liberty and the Constitution and he layed those beliefs and his reputation on the line by standing for those values publicly, where all could witness and be inspired.

I don’t know about you, but I was both inspired and amused by Charlie! I loved Charlie’s commitment to liberty and also for his quirky sense of humor that I miss to this day.

After Charlie left us to be with the Lord Jesus Christ, we honored him and his wife, Donna, daughter, Tiffany and Aunt Vera at the 2010 Tax Day Rochester Tea Party by dedicating the “Tribute to Veterans” to him:

In closing, I feel compelled to share that life is not quite the same without you, Charlie. We love and miss you!

A fair warning, this post is a rant about the barbaric and ignorant Taliban who murdered the 10 medical missionaries in northeastern Afghanistan. From npr.org:

the bodies of 10 members of a medical team – six Americans, two Afghans, one German and a Briton – were flown to Kabul from the northern province of Badakhshan, where they were gunned down three days ago at the end of a humanitarian mission. The Taliban claimed responsibility and accused the group of spying and seeking to convert Muslims to Christianity.

The Taliban animals butchered doctors and nurses who were providing needed medical care to the people of Afghanistan! They were also Christians and for that they were robbed and shot, one by one.

I had an interesting conversation with my niece’s boyfriend, who served three tours of duty in Iraq. He doesn’t think that the situation in Iraq or Afghanistan can ever be totally stabilized due to tribal in fighting.

With incidents such as the murders of the medical missionaries and the mounting death toll of US troops and those of our allies, I’ve come to change my stance about us staying there until the situation is stabilized. At this point, I doubt it will ever be stabilized in a “Western manner” as a good portion of the people are incapable of ruling themselves and are too divided by religious and tribal loyalties to ever be able to cooperate in a civilized manner.

It’s time for us to pull our troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq and leave them with a warning that if terrorists originating from those countries attack the US or US interests, we’ll go medieval on them with nukes.

Vets for Freedom PAC members–

If you’re like me, you’re deeply concerned about the future of our country. Washington deal-making and “me-first” politicians have jeopardized American power, both on the battlefield and here at home.

Now is our time to fight. We know our mission. This is our moment. And we’ve found our warriors.

All 10 are Iraq and/or Afghanistan veterans. All 10 have proven to be strong, viable candidates. All 10 are challengers in competitive House races. And, most importantly, all 10 believe in victory on the battlefield. Now, our job is to make sure that all 10 win in November!

PLEASE DONATE and help VFF-PAC send them to Washington!

But we can’t do it alone. We need your help. Entrenched Washington interests are stacked up to beat these veterans, and we need fire back with everything we’ve got. Meet all 10 candidates and read their unassailable records of service on the battlefield. The media is already taking note, as POLITICO ran an article this morning on our effort.

In the coming weeks, VFF-PAC will send out more information about ‘OPERATION 10-in-10′ and will let you know how you can help. But today, we need ammunition for the fight. Help VFF-PAC–the largest and most influential Iraq and Afghanistan veterans organization in America–send warriors to Washington!

Move Out and Draw Fire!

We Surround Rochester RSVP Page for the Restoring Honor Rally

The “Restoring Honor” Rally is a non-political fundraiser for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. This non-profit provides support and assistance to the families of wounded and fallen special operations personnel. This includes 60,000 of America’s elite troops such as Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets and Rangers, Air force Combat Controllers and Marine Corps Special Operations.

There’s going to be a great line-up of speakers and entertainers including, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Jo Dee Messina (“I’m All Right, Bring on the Rain”), Gary Sinise (Lt Dan in Forrest Gump), Marcus Luttrell, David Barton and the largest collection of Medal of Honor recipients that have ever been assembled.

For more information, you can also email John Woods at jwoods3@rochester.rr.com.

First, a little background. I’ll start with my own personal experiences, and those of friends who were in, and in some cases continue to serve, in the armed forces.

Military service is a bit of a calling for many. Americans of all backgrounds imaginable choose to serve to defend this country because of intangibles which we take for granted. There are intangibles related to military service, as well. I served in the Marines for 4.5 years in the mid-to-late-90′s, and met great people from across this great country, and elsewhere, who were fiercely patriotic. Urban, suburban, rural, immigrant, and even foreign nationals with green cards. We had Canadians, Germans, Bosnians, and folks from other countries whom had been here a short period of time before enlisting. 1st generation Americans seem to be fiercely patriotic, as well, and in the 90′s a lot of them from my generation were from SE Asia.

Military pay had fallen way behind anything remotely close to private-sector pay, by the mid-90′s. Also, the force was getting older, and thus there were more dependents. I have my own views on that, which are outside the scope of this article, but when you boil it down, people know what they’re getting into when they join up, yet the pay often times doesn’t reflect the sacrifice and toil servicemembers go through, particularly E-5′s and below. The compensation should be such that those in uniform can live with some semblance of comfort.

At the combat unit I served with, 70+ hour work weeks were the norm, and we pulled quite a few 80+ hour work weeks, often times in hot, humid conditions. The stress did break some folks. Stomach ulcers were common in some folks, mostly senor-enlisteds and some officers whom had been in for a while. Repair and maintenance parts were in short supply. The equipment was beat up and, in some cases, not designed right to begin with. So, the stresses we experienced were way above and beyond that of your average civilian, and, in some cases, what the average servicemember might experience.

Base pay for an E-1 is now roughly the same as it was for me as an E-4, with 3 years’ service, in ’98 ($1450/mo.). So, there have been major gains in that area. There are more, and bigger, bonuses than there were 10-15 years ago. The re-enlistment bonuses and bonuses for officers in critical MOS’s are helpful in retaining skilled, motivated folks in uniform. Friends of mine have gotten bonuses on the order of $15K-$25K+, which can be taken as lump sums or spread across their 4 year contract. Bonuses for special forces folks exceed $100K. Medical and flight officers are also offered large bonuses. Most officers are not eligible for bonuses, though. My view is the increases in pay and allowances, plus these bonuses, have finally leveled the playing field, at least in so far as compensation is concerned.

The force leaked highly skilled, smart, motivated people like a sieve, 10-14 years ago, or so. This affected unit readiness and unit cohesion, terribly so. From what I gather this I no longer a problem.

During my service I met great people, some of them senior-enlisteds (E-6 and above), and some NCO’s with 4+ years in who were on food stamps. They were driving 1984 Corollas and other vehicles which were falling apart. Wives were making more money than their mid-career husbands, delivering pizzas. Military towns generally do not have a lot of well-paying private sector jobs, so even if a spouse has skills/education the chances of them getting even a decent job are about nil, if they choose to work. Military pay, particularly for career servicemembers, plus their allowances (which have increased substantially in the last several years), is thus an important issue as it’s often the only source of income a military family has. From what I gather we no longer have a force which is dependent upon food stamps, and worried about paying their bills. Home ownership is way up for enlisteds and junior officers, which has taken a little of the burden off of base housing. I’d argue a contented force is integral to national security.

Raises in the armed forces come in two flavors: Automatic biannual increases based upon rank and years of service, plus whatever % increase Congress authorizes.

An E-5 with 6+ years in has a base pay of $2,583.90, basic allowance for housing (BAH), with dependents, of $1083 (off-base at Camp Lejeune), and basic allowance for subsistence (BAS; feeding themselves) of $323. They will most likely have a re-enlistment bonus under his/her belt, so $20K/48 mos.=$416.67/mo. Monthly grand total is thus $4406.57, for a yearly direct compensation of $52878.84. None too bad for a family of 4, plus they get Tricare as their health insurance. Total yearly compensation for this servicemember thus exceeds $60K+++, not including flight pay if they’re on an air crew, combat pay if they’re forward deployed to a combat zone, etc. People deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan are serving there, tax-free. Those not forward deployed pay all the taxes the rest of us pay.

Imagine my surprise when last week it was announced that some members of Congress, and folks within the Pentagon, are mulling cuts in military pay raises. Leading the charge in Congress is none other than Sen. Jim Webb, former Asst. Secretary and Secretary of Defense (SecDef).

Here’s a grunt’s-eye view on the ground in Afghanistan, after the troop surge gobbled up more resources than what the Obama Admin. planned for:

Camp Mike Spann is not the only place dealing with a shortage of food and water. An article in Stars and Stripes brought to attention the hardships of one Marine Encampment. At Marine Combat Outpost Contu ,”there are no beds, no showers, no toilets and no electricity. Chickens and ducks roam the bare dirt yard amid scraps of trash and rotting animal dung. Fleas, flies and filth are the grunts’ constant companions.” They doubt they will see permanent living crates or even cots. They sleep with flees and chiggers and have very little food available to them. They say living like pioneers in the 1800s has given them a new appreciation for things like a bath or a shower and clean clothes.

Hmmm, we had more than enough MRE’s during the austere 90′s. Ammo shortages, maybe, but those of us in the states sacrificed so those whom were forward-deployed would have the ammo, the parts, and the food available to them to accomplish the mission. Chances are these guys over there are going weeks without showers. I’d argue these troops overseas deserve the 1.9% raise the vets’ groups are pushing for, not Jim Webb’s 1.4%. Just what are we paying over $600B/year for, right now?

Now, Pentagon officials see fiscal calamity.

In the midst of two long-running wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, defense officials are increasingly worried that the government’s generosity is unsustainable and that it will leave them with less money to buy weapons and take care of equipment.

Huh? Just what is that $600B+, plus the sundry defense appropriation bills, buying us, anyway? I know we’re paying an army of contractors, both in forward-deployed areas and on bases throughout the world, rather handsomely. Hmmm, no calls for curtailing their pay, or cutting their numbers.

With Washington confronting record deficits, the Pentagon is bracing for an end to the huge increases in defense spending of the past decade. On Saturday, Gates is scheduled to give a “hard-hitting” speech in Kansas on fiscal discipline, in which he will warn military leaders that “we’ll have to take some dramatic measures ourselves to sustain the force we have,” his press secretary, Geoff Morrell, told reporters.

Clifford L. Stanley, the undersecretary of defense for personnel, told a Senate committee in March that rising personnel costs could “dramatically affect the readiness of the department” by leaving less money to pay for operations and maintenance. Overall, personnel expenses constitute about one-quarter of defense spending.

Yeah, guys, maybe ya shoulda thought about that before expanding both the Army and the Marine Corps by tens of thousands. I have a hunch compensation is only a small part of the fiscal woes facing the DoD. The new GI Bill is a gargantuan one, and the Pentagon was even mulling a college tuition plan for wives/husbands of servicemembers. When I got out the GI Bill was pathetic, but by ’04 or so it was up to about $1,000 or so per month during the school year. The new bill was sponsored by none other than Jim Webb, and now all of a sudden the Pentagon and VA are starting to backpedal on these newer, and larger, benefits.

Washington’s screw ups should not be foisted upon the backs of servicemembers and vets. The bang-up job our folks have done, when they’re allowed to do their jobs, has kept the wolf well backed away from the door.

To solve the fiscal issues the Pentagon has they need to look internally at their day-to-day costs, plus the many dozens of bases we keep overseas which serve little, if any, purpose in a post-Cold War world. Another area would be appropriations. Asking our frequently forward-deployed troops to sacrifice anymore would be criminal. Some have deployed 6+ times since 2001, to Djibouti, Iraq, and Afghanistan. I don’t see members of Congress and their families sacrificing much, they simply take for granted we have an all-volunteer force which has carried a heavy burden since Sept. 11th, and which continue to do a great job.

Within the last several days, Gates appears to be calling for cuts in overhead and general costs, but in my eyes it’s too little, too late, for him. Gates needs to go. He had his chance to reign in costs at the DoD, and he blew it. Bad enough we have a Congress which is entwined in military contracts which benefit specific Congressional districts, thus ensuring certain contracts are never cut or scaled back, we’ve had a SecDef for several years, now, whom has been complicit in keeping the gravy train going for contractors across the country, and the world, even. The DoD needs to focus their energies there, rather than on the backs of servicemembers.

Sources:

Military.com
DigitalJournal.com (“U.S. Military Goes Hungry in Afghanistan”; April 5th, 2010)
Stars and Stripes
The Washington Post

Bonamassa was born in Utica, New York. He received his first guitar from his father at the age of 4, and by age 7 he was playing Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix tunes note for note. At the age of 11, during a short period of being mentored by Danny Gatton, he learned such styles as country and jazz as well as heavy rock. During this time with Gatton, Bonamassa sat in with Gatton’s band whenever they played in New York. He first opened for B. B. King at 12 years of age. After first hearing him play, King said, “This kid’s potential is unbelievable. He hasn’t even begun to scratch the surface. He’s one of a kind.” At 14, he was invited to attend a Fender guitar event; during that trip to the West Coast he met Berry Oakley, Jr. Bonamassa and Berry founded the group Bloodline with Miles Davis’s son Erin and Robby Krieger’s son Waylon. They released one album which produced two chart singles — “Stone Cold Hearted”, and “Dixie Peach.” He has since played with other music greats including Buddy Guy, Foreigner, Robert Cray, Stephen Stills, Joe Cocker, Gregg Allman, Steve Winwood, Paul Jones, Ted Nugent, Eric Clapton, and Derek Trucks.

Newsbuster’s Candance Moore posted a commentary on a Christian Science Monitor (CSM) article on Tea Parties. The CSM article by Patrik Jonsson, was titled, “Are Tea Party Rallies Given Preferential Treatment By Police”.

On Monday, the Christian Science Monitor bucked its mainstream peers by reporting something truthful about the TEA party movement: police officials have begun to relax security requirements at conservative rallies because of the remarkable absence of violence.

Yes, you read that right: despite nonstop media warnings about hateful protests, violence from TEA party attendants is so nonexistent that police feel safe allowing them to bring large items and sometimes even guns.

The Monitor was compelled to check things out when a TEA party in Raleigh, North Carolina, persuaded officials to overturn a ban on flag poles. Such items are typically banned because a flag pole is really just a very big stick that could be used as a weapon. The Monitor’s research led the paper to admit that conservative protests are far less threatening than many past demonstrations.

Patrik Jonnsson’s article drew a refreshing contrast between violent rallies of the Vietnam era versus the new model of peaceful civil uprising:

To be sure, permitting rules and police preparedness are often developed based on past behavior at various kinds of protests. Many go back to the 1960s and 1970s when violent rallies erupted over the Vietnam War. Such protests sprung up again during the presidency of George W. Bush, when protesters clashed with police in New York City and elsewhere during large-scale demonstrations against the Middle East wars. With tea party rallies so far proving more orderly, police have given them more latitude.

There’s never been violence at any of the four Rochester Tea Parties. Those of us who have organized them do not condone violence or racism and we put the word out that it will not be tolerated and people will be asked to leave if they display violence or racism.

We work within the system and obtained the necessary permits to hold the Tea Parties and cooperate with the Rochester Police Department. The people who participate in the Rochester Tea Parties are regular, working class folks who are law abiding citizens, we are not radicals. Many of us have served our country in the Armed Forces. We love our country and are not looking to tear it down, but restore it to it’s Constitutional Republic roots.

At this year’s Tax Day Rochester Tea Party, I worked with RPD’s Sgt. Lee and we communicated several times before the Tea Party. I told Sgt. Lee of the threat issued by the “Crash the Tea Party” people and that there may be trouble from them, but that he would get no trouble from us. We finally got to meet in person the day of the Tea Party. The RPD detail had two mounted horse patrol officers, a motorcycle officer, several bicycle officers and foot patrols. It was reassuring having their protection and everybody took the time to thank the officers for being there.

I heard after the fact, that disruptors did try to make their way into Genesee Crossroads Park to mess with us, but that RPD intercepted them and turned them away. Why somebody would want to come to our Tea Party to disrupt it is beyond me, but maybe that’s why their rallies sometimes are violent. Last October, I posted a commentary on the SDS protest Downtown, where they decided to break from the confines of Washington Square and take to the streets, without a permit, during rush hour. They blocked a fire truck that was on a call and pushed an RPD officer into the path of the fire truck. RPD tried to block their passage and asked them to disperse, at the Main St. Bridge and they pushed by the RPD cruisers. This prompted a strong response from RPD to restore civil order and 12 people were arrested and one ended up in the hospital. While watching the news that evening, I took note of the commentary of one of the protesters, an older guy who plainly stated that the march by the SDS was a deliberate act of civil disobedience. In other words, the SDS radicals were looking to cause trouble.

The Rochester Tea Party Movement is NOT radical, we are regular, working class citizens that are working within the system to bring about change. We obey the law, pay our taxes, many of us have served our country and we do not condone violence or racism. We’ve proved ourselves with our four successful Tea Parties and there’s never been an incident. It’s time that the MSM drops the charges that we are violent and racist because that’s a lie!