The left possesses such blind rage over the Trump presidency, the depth to which they will stoop knows no bounds. But they really are making a habit of exploiting Gold Star families, and I find this grotesque.
The audio of the actual phone call Trump made is now making the rounds. There were awkward moments, but how could there not be? Have you ever had to make such a difficult call? I didn’t hear anything offensive, although there were some points of levity which seemed a little forced. I commend Trump for making the call, and the others he’s made.
A lot has been written critically about the phrases “He knew what he was signing up for, he died doing what he wanted to do, he died surrounded by his brothers.” Let me explain something. No one who has ever been in combat or who has family members in combat would take any offense to these phrases. On the contrary, these phrases are a COMFORT, and were repeated over and over by me and my wife when our oldest son was deployed. Repeated to others, and to ourselves.
Repeated when we were constantly asked how could we “let” him go? Repeated when asked “gosh why didn’t he pick a ‘safer’ MOS?” Repeated when asked, “how do you deal with the stress?” You deal with it by accepting that he is over there doing the job he has wanted to do since he was a child; has it ever dawned on you that no nation on earth can stand without warriors? You deal with it by understanding the absolute necessity of the warrior class, and the transcendent honor attached to sacrifice on the battlefield. How many people die while doing the very thing they were born to do? Calvary comes to mind, and that’s a pretty good model if you ask me. We should always aim to unite our sufferings to those of Christ on the cross, never more appropriate than in this case.
Our son went to boot camp two months after high school graduation. He was deployed to Afghanistan as a Navy Corpsman nine months later, exactly as he wanted. This was 2008-09, the height of the surge. He made sure to get ‘CRUSADER’ tattooed on his forearm before he left. I will never forget watching him leave with his Marines, on the bus to the airfield at Camp Lejeune, not knowing if we would see him again. So many prayers.
You dread watching the news. You dread the politics. You dread the deadly and traitorous change in the ROEs, which gave the enemy a real tactical advantage. You dread all the good men being forced out, the unleashing of the LBGTQXYZ agenda by Chuck Hagel and Ash Carter, the opening of combat roles to women.
But mostly you dread the phone call. You pray it never comes. When the phone rings, you never want to look at the caller ID. When it rings in the middle of the night, your chest implodes. But we knew that if it was bad, the call would come from a duty officer stateside, so whenever the number was clearly from overseas, we knew our son had gotten his turn on the Sat phone. Those times were the best, even when he would lie and tell us everything was just fine, no major firefights, blah blah blah.
Thanks be to God, the dreaded call never came.
The homecoming is so sweet. It makes you realize that, no matter how many parties you’ve been to, you never really had something to celebrate quite like this. You appreciate the time you have together. Then the next deployment comes, and then the next. It’s a cycle that never becomes comfortable, although it’s never as bad as the first time.
My point is, this episode demonstrates that nothing is sacred to the left except leftism. And even as we are constantly presented with evidence confirming this, we continue to be shocked by it. This is what Chief of Staff John Kelly, retired Marine General and himself a Gold Star father, was trying to get across in his press conference yesterday. First he describes the process of recovering/removing KIA and then walks the press patiently and opening through his discussions with Trump, explaining the process to him. As he relates the moment yesterday morning when he learned what the congresswoman said, I have no idea how he remains so calm.
I beg you to watch the first eleven minutes of this. You’ll be glad you did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=Ps5ttDzWBaY
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I am not an American, but am very proud to have served my country in the uniform of the Royal Canadian Air Force. When Canadian Forces were deployed in Afghanistan in the Kandahar region, ordinary Canadians spontaneously gathered on the overpasses between the airhead at the air base in Trenton to Toronto whenever our fallen were transported before being shipped home for burial. For over 100 miles of highway the overpasses were filled with those who came to honour our dead and their stricken families. Waving flags, saluting or standing to attention.
I participated in this tribute when I could with my (then) two young sons. One wore his air cadet uniform, the other his cub scout uniform and I remember vividly them saluting the hearses as they passed below escorted by numerous local police cars It was a very moving experience.
I also recall a chance meeting with the widow of a Captain who had been killed in that conflict and who was accompanying her husband to his gravesite. It was not an easy conversation, but I was very impressed by the graciousness and poise of that gallant bereaved lady. There was a woman at her side who said nothing until the widow moved on to join the soldiers who were her husband’s honour guard. I asked her if she was a friend of the family. She said no. She had lost her 20 year old son in battle a year before and had agreed to be there to support the wife of the fallen captain. At that point I had a bit of a struggle not to shed tears.
All of this is to say, that I found General Kelly’s wonderful comments to be thought provoking, respectful, and entirely accurate. BZ General Kelly. I my view that congresswoman ought to be ashamed of herself.
May the mercy of God be granted to our fallen and may perpetual light shine upon them.
John the Mad, Major (Ret’d)
Sir, thank you for your service. I might add, during my years in the GTO, I was always struck by the solemnity afforded to Remembrance Day. It’s done so at a completely different and far more appropriate level than in the States.