[SuperScout]

After initially enlisting in the Texas Army National Guard, I later applied and successfully completed OCS at Ft Benning School for Boys and Other Wayward Children. Back home to a Selected Reserve Force (SRF), we were subject to federalization by the President, like any other Guard unit, to sent to wherever the DoD needed. As a matter of fact, some national guard units were activated, an engineer unit from Iowa comes to mind, and sent to Vietnam. But LBJ, too busy trying to micro-manage everything else, and too concerned about his political future, which was zero, relied on the corrupted draft system to fill the ranks as needed. My two tours in Vietnam, served voluntarily, are testimony enough.

What I find truly amazing is how some are attempting to assess a degree of fitness, honesty, truthfulness, value, or weight on a person's Honorable Discharge form. If a person got one, they got one, and anybody trying to denigrate another's Honorable Discharge form is pure childishness, like whores arguing about virtue. Are the two Purple Hearts I was awarded any more or any less significant than anyone else's Purple Hearts? I think not! In fact, it's downright dishonorable to impugn the value of another's certificate or award, implying it was obtained under false pretenses. Frankly, I doubt that any commentator on this site has seen the President's certificate, much less knows what printed on the bottom of it; any presumption to the contrary is specious. Since it has now been established that Bush fulfilled his military obligations, we certainly can argue about how dangerous his service was or not, but not denigrate the man. Frankly, knowing what I do about F102's and their predisposition to fall out of the sky, I'd rather stick with my ACAV in the Delta.

And the last time I had a reality check, the war in Iraq was and is not over oil. To assert otherwise is such a sophmoric and inane canard, seemingly unfit to be uttered by intelligent people.

Next month, we'll bid safe tour to son #2, who's deploying with a unit of the 1st Cav. I've done the best I can to mentor him, to pass on whatever morsels of wisdom I gleaned from being in combat, and made covenant with him that he would be remembered and prayed for daily. Turning the matter over to the care of God, as I undertand Him, is the best solace I can find.