An IHTM Salute to Our Veterans

An IHTM Salute to Our Veterans. We at IHTM thank you. Because of you we have the freedom to write here.

CO2Insanity: Tired of the CO2 BS and all the other BS in the US and the world.

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    • She wasn't very bright, but the one with the black and white top and yellow thong did have other merits.

  • Ah! See the NSA is preventing me from posting an honorable post! I had to rewrite this one 3 times!

          • The agency was formally established by Truman in a memorandum of October 24, 1952, that revised National Security Council Intelligence Directive (NSCID) 9.[25] Since President Truman's memo was a classified document,[25] the existence of the NSA was not known to the public at that time. Due to its ultra-secrecy the U.S. intelligence community referred to the NSA as "No Such Agency".

          • And the OSS transmitted into the VIA. Your point? I was not blaming FOR for the NSA. catch up.

          • oh yeah? well. Kennedy's bs in viet nam was all because of Truman's domino theory of asian communism. So i couldn't give 2 effs about that monkey farmer either. as for FDR. My Grandaddy who was a teacher, preacher, certified public accountant for the govt. told me when I was just a little boy that fdr's economic policy (paraphrased, cuz My grandaddy was a good man) effed up the country. so yeah, apparently every POTUS since Washington have been morally ambiguous and quite possibly idiots, in Somebody's opinion.

          • It wasn't just Truman's theory. MacArthur said the same. KENNEDY's shit was based in Eisenhower's decision to get involved. One would think he would have known better. And yes, I think pretty.much EVERY President has had detractors as well as supporters.

    • I remember we used to sell these around Veteran's day. Thenkoneybwent timbers and youbworevthe potpourri show you had contributed. In honor of the poppy fields.

  • Someone must hate and loath the US Military and those who've given their all so that they can be a coward and not state why the TDs. It my privilege to challenge you on their behalf. It is those who this day is for that permit you to say that you hate, despise or loath those who wear the uniforms of our military. The next time you feel the need to disrespect them keep in mind that they could careless what you think of them. They care about their brothers and sisters in harms way. They care about their families and protecting their futures. They face the uncertain of the day. They know that in a moment all that they wish to be can and might be gone. Yet they stepped forward while your chicken shit ass stabbed them in the back. Let me take a guess what your political leanings are. Weak kneed leftis, either in academia, or some type of professional student whose never had to worry about being a private productive citizen.

    If you wish to TD, by all means do so. It's your right. It's also my right to call you out for not having the fortitude to state your position.

    In closing. My friend and comrade SSgt Dale White was a mans man. He knew what he faced and he faced with courage. So TD all you wish, I've been fortunate enough to know true and real men and women.

  • Dad was one of six brothers who served during World War II. One of them didn't make it back. Uncle Bob, who of course I never met, was in a crew that flew bombers over Germany. After the war, the two sisters of one of the crew members got in touch with all the families of the crew members - they thought it would be nice if the whole crew could be buried together in Arlington. The families all agreed and signed the necessary paperwork, including my family. Dad, Grandpa, and three brothers headed to Washington for the ceremony at Arlington. Wouldn't you know, the only crew member whose body didn't make it to Arlington - some kind of shipping SNAFU - so he could be buried with the rest... was the brother of the two girls who arranged the whole thing. His body was late arriving, he isn't buried with the rest. Dad has always felt bad for those two sisters. It was a good idea. All the family members present at Arlington that day admitted it made them feel better that their loved one was with his buddies. But those two sisters didn't get to feel better, even though it was their idea.

    • If the officials at Arlington had 1/2 a heart, they would have held open the space for him until he was located, and put him there at that time.

      • Well, maybe, but I can imagine the days after WWII were pretty hectic at Arlington, and also at the Europe end where they were collecting all the bodies and sending them home. What a job. From what I've heard, the people at Arlington have always been very conscientious and I'm guessing if they'd had any idea when or if the missing body was coming, they would have done their best.

          • To be honest, your reaction was the same as mine: why couldn't they make special arrangements? My father's reaction and his reaction to the VA scandal demonstrate the difference between his generation and later ones. He wasn't upset with the government for not having the body at Arlington sixty years ago - shit happens - and he's not nearly as outraged by the VA scandal as I expected. His generation simply does not expect the world to cater to them. His generation was always expected to take care of themselves. The first time we discussed the VA scandal, he was very unsympathetic to the man who died in Arizona (I think that's where it was). He couldn't understand why, when the man realized something was wrong with his body, he didn't just go to a doctor. And Dad was way more upset with the man's family than the VA - "Why did the family let him suffer, instead of taking him to a regular hospital?"

            Dad goes to the VA for most of his prescriptions, but he doesn't waste time worrying and whining if the VA is incapable of answering all his needs. Two of his prescriptions he gets at a regular drugstore because the VA bureaucracy isn't nimble enough. He doesn't whine about it. Everything doesn't have to be free, nobody ever promised that. To be honest, Dad suspects many of the people utilizing the VA are what used to be called freeloaders in the old days: guys (and gals) who spent a few years in the service, never saw combat, have zero service-related health issues, and yet expect the VA to cover all their medical expenses for life.

          • Kind of harsh to characterize those who never went to war but use the VA benefits that came with an enlistment contract as goldbricks. I understand the sentiment if one abuses the system but, IMO, if one is discharged honorably, he should receive the benefits and privileges that were promised.

            I've never used my VA benefits but I'm glad they are there if the need arises.

          • Here's another guy spitting in the eye of the notion that just because someone is a veteran they're beyond criticism, and this time it's a senator:

            http://www.redstate.com/2014/05/26/professional-veterans-sen-richard-burr-cage-match/

            I give him credit for calling it like he sees it. Of course the VSO professionals are screaming he's a coward for calling them to account. They think just because they're veterans they shouldn't have to fear criticism.

            I think what we're seeing is that VA health benefits are in danger of going the way of all government benefit programs. I'm not talking about guys who made a career of the military - those are the only ones with a contract for health benefits the rest of their lives. I'm talking about the guys playing the disability game and claiming VA medical benefits after one hitch in the military out of high school. I'm totally confused by the rules, to be honest. I'm not sure how it works. I know serving a hitch doesn't garner you lifetime medical care. I think if you come out with a disability, you get lifetime medical care, but I'm not sure whether that includes care for normal non-military problems or not. Maybe someone can enlighten me before I make a total fool of myself. My dad is considered 60% disabled and I think he could use the VA for anything if he wanted to. (He doesn't.) I don't know for sure how many years he put it - I'm guessing about ten. So the way I understand it, it's his disability that entitles him, not his time in uniform.

          • Anyone who has served is eligible to apply for medical benefits. I didn't know that myself until 8 years ago. If you weren't service connected, or served during one of the known wars (WWI-WWII-Korea-Vietnam-Desert Storm-Iraq) then you have to pass a means test. You have to make less than a certain amount of money in order to get covered, and then there are different levels of income, where you have to make co-pays, and you have to pay for your meds. I just became eligible 5 years ago when my wife lost her job, she was out of work for over a year before I was able to meet the income requirements. If you have a service connected disability, you don't pay for any treatment or meds connected to that disability. If you get the Holy Grail of 100% disability, then your spouse is covered for medical, and you get dental also. I have met many guys that are given 90% even though they should be 100%, and they get treated as if they were 100% except that they don't get the coverage for their spouse and the dental. It's another of those little tricks the government plays to hold back your benefits. I guess they need to save that money for the administrators bonuses for not having a backlog!

          • It seems to my father there are people who are abusing the VA just like there are people abusing every other government program, whatever the letter of the "contract." I know one. He has all the money anyone could ever want, but he goes to the VA for every hangnail. Because it's free. And every time he goes to the VA, he demands his travel money. My father's generation doesn't think people should rely on the government for every nickel of medical care just because they legally can. I'm not saying Dad's viewpoint is the correct viewpoint. I'm saying it's the way people of his generation tend to think.

            Like you, Dad never used the VA even though he was eligible. But when his hearing started going, he decided, since none of his brothers have hearing loss, that it was probably due to the constant artillery noise he endured at the front during the war. So he went to the VA for hearing aids. That's the contract he feels he has: the VA agreed to take care of his WWII-related problems, not the normal ravages of life.

            Sitting at the VA one time, he ran into a couple of guys on VA disability for back problems they got sitting at desks in the Pentagon during the Vietnam War. They were completely open about how they got disability. Thought it was a joke probably, I don't know. Dad was disgusted. Back problems from sitting at a desk? While grunts were out in the jungle dying? That's not what the VA is for.

          • Root cause of your anecdotes is third party payer. To those vets who abuse the system it is no different than when civilians flood doctors' offices for every little thing because either the government is paying or they are paying an insurance premium and feel entitled. Either way it "feels" free or people want their perceived money's worth. Intractable problem unless we miraculously move to a spy as you go system.

          • This guy is pulling your leg if he's telling you he is getting his travel pay. There are only 2 ways you can get travel pay.
            1. He has to have very little money and make less than $15,000/year.
            2. He has to be going there for treatment for a service connected disability.
            I know this because I have to travel about an hour to the VA Hospital, and I have never gotten a dime for travel pay. At first I didn't even know that was an option, then when I found out about it, I asked and was told those were the stipulations. It costs me about $30 in gas and tolls to go to the VA Hospital. Going to the local clinic, travel pay isn't even an option.

          • Dad and I didn't know travel pay was an option either until this guy informed us he gets it for the same trip to Ann Arbor we took last year. (About 2 hours by car.) So what is he doing, lying about his income to get travel pay? Wouldn't surprise me.

          • He's lying about something, because they compare your stated income on the annual means test to your income tax returns. So if he is wealthy, he's lying about getting the travel pay, or he's got a service connected disability that he is there for, which is the only other way to get travel pay.

          • guys (and gals) who spent a few years in the service, never saw combat, have zero service-related health issues, and yet expect the VA to cover all their medical expenses for life.

            that hurts, although i don't expect the VA to cover all their medical expenses for life. I would that i could work, i'm only able to be online cuz i've had to hang with a buddy til after the first. Yeah, some might consider me a goldbricker, or that I did this to myself, but the fact is I didn't want these 2 incurable diseases, nor did I have any issues with them til after being separated honorable upc9. At any rate. It is a different world today than after WWII. Were there not so many rules and laws and all the other apputernances of big govt. I might just be able to do SOMETHING that won't require my driving or any other activity that might cause me to dizzy and hurt myself at insurance expense. To say nothing of depression.

          • I can't say that I blame him for thinking the family should have taken the guy to the hospital, I wondered why they didn't also. However, they may not have had any options financially. I didn't notice if he was old enough to be on Social Security or not, so I can't comment. However, if he was service connected, and was promised that he would be taken care of, I don't blame them for waiting and hoping that the promise would be kept. He did his part, serving for the pittance they pay soldiers, hoping that he would be able to be looked after later in life when he needed help.

  • Two things...For those that may not be aware..Please don't wish combat veterans or those family members who have lost loved one's
    a "happy Veteran's Day". I don't say anything to those that greet me this way but is isn't a happy day. Just sayin.

    I would also imagine a number of those folks who post here have or at least know of a member of the Military who made the supreme sacrifice for our country. If you are fortunate enough to not be in that group maybe consider having a cold one in memory of Corporal William T. Perkins, USMC. There's a better then 50/50 chance I'm not here writing this today if he didn't do what he did back in 1967. I think of him often..more so on days like today. Semper Fi Cpl. Perkins.

    http://www.usmcfew.com/0311/perkins/moh.html

  • TO: Whom It May Concern

    FROM: Dimitrios Karras, CEO Ares Armor

    SUBJ: Memorial Day

    DATE: May 26, 2014

    Today, we take time to honor those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our once great country. An ungrateful land filled with recitals and incantations that have long lost their meaning. A land where those very same heroes who fight in her defense are labeled as domestic terrorists.

    Today, take time to really think about the sacrifices that were made. Take time to imagine what it’s like to be covered in the blood of one of your brothers. Imagine picking up the torn pieces and entrails of his body, one by one, and stuffing them into a sleeping bag so that at least his body can make it home to be buried by his wife and two daughters. To pick up the small bible that he carried in his pocket for luck and not be able to turn a single page because his blood has drenched and stuck them together. Take time to really ponder what it is like to dream every night of the blood dripping off your hands into the sand as you watch a young boy, barely in his teens, die in his father’s arms. Take time to wonder at what it feels like to come home and explain to a friend’s mother the events surrounding her son’s death, to look her in the face and watch her tears as she hears your story. Take time to really think about wiping a friend’s brain matter from your shirt. Feel helpless, as you learn of your friends committing suicide one by one till the deaths of those who have taken their own lives after the war overtakes the number of those who died in the war. Take time! Really take time to think.

    What was it all for? Our brothers, our sons, our friends and our loved ones, their corpses even now rot in the land of ungrateful wretches such as us. We have allowed their sacrifice to be mooted by an overbearing tyrannical government that has enslaved us. What hubris is it on our part to thank a veteran for their service while we sit by and watch the very thing that they fought for be trampled and trivialized? The very word freedom has become a meaningless cliché used by politicians to further their own political agenda! How dare we. How dare we.

    Mourn your dead land of the free! Mourn your dead! These sacrifices are not trivial. These men did not die in a pleasant romantic way. For what? For our own people to give away the very thing that could possibly justify their sacrifice? How selfish and self-righteous are we to recite the pledge of allegiance as if it is merely words without meaning? How many of us have taken an oath to uphold and defend The Constitution yet we sit back and do nothing as our Constitution is ripped asunder?

    To my friends in the Federal Government: You have sworn an oath to The Constitution of The United States of America. Perhaps, you should do some real soul searching on who your master is and what your actions really are. If you are ordered to do something that is unconstitutional, it is your duty to refuse.

    To those I saw die in combat: I promise you, I will not forget you. I will do my best to honor your sacrifice. I will remember my oath, I will remember.

    Dimitrios Karras, CEO Ares Armor

  • To every grunt who ever bitched about digging a hole and then wished ten minutes later he'd dug it deeper: we salute you and thank you.

    • Had a hard time finishing that poem.
      Those damn, er, allergies (yeah, that's it, ALLERGIES) picked a helluva time to make my eyes water.

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