Jim Warman Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 This was sent to me by a Canadian Army vet - a man that saw peacetime duty with my Dad.. -------------------- This is from Jim, a retired Delta pilot, and a Marine fighter pilot. The letter comes from his son serving in Afghanistan. Reconnaissance Marine in Afghanistan It's freezing here. I'm sitting on hard, cold dirt between rocks and shrubs at the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains along the Dar 'yoi Pomir River watching a hole that leads to a tunnel that leads to a cave. Stake out, my friend, and no pizza delivery for thousands of miles. I also glance at the area around my ass every ten to fifteen seconds to avoid another scorpion sting. I've actually given up battling the chiggers and sand fleas, but them scorpions give a jolt like a cattle prod. Hurts like a bastard. The antidote tastes like transmission fluid but God bless the Marine Corps for the five vials of it in my pack. The one truth the Taliban cannot escape is that, believe it or not, they are human beings, which means they have to eat food and drink water. That requires couriers and that's where an old bounty hunter like me comes in handy. I track the couriers, locate the tunnel entrances and storage facilities, type the info into the handheld, shoot the coordinates up to the satellite link that tells the air commanders where to drop the hardware, we bash some heads for a while, then I track and record the new movement. It's all about intelligence. We haven't even brought in the snipers yet. These scurrying rats have no idea what they're in for. We are but days away from cutting off supply lines and allowing the eradication to begin. I dream of bin Laden waking up to find me standing over him with my boot on his throat as I spit a bloody ear into his face and plunge my nickel plated Bowie knife through his frontal lobe. But you know me. I'm a romantic. I've said it before and I'll say it again: This country blows, man. It's not even a country. There are no roads, there's no infrastructure, there's no government. This is an inhospitable, rock pit shit hole ruled by eleventh century warring tribes. There are no jobs here like we know jobs. Afghanistan offers two ways for a man to support his family: join the opium trade or join the army. That's it. Those are your options. Oh, I forgot, you can also live in a refugee camp and eat plum-sweetened, crushed beetle paste and squirt mud like a goose with stomach flu if that's your idea of a party. But the smell alone of those 'tent cities of the walking dead' is enough to hurl you into the poppy fields to cheerfully scrape bulbs for eighteen hours a day. I've been living with these Tajiks and Uzbeks and Turkmen and even a couple of Pushtins for over a month and a half now and this much I can say for sure: These guys, all of 'em, are Huns. Actual, living Huns. They LIVE to fight. It's what they do. It's ALL they do. They have no respect for anything, not for their families or for each other or for themselves. They claw at one another as a way of life. They play polo with dead calves and force their five-year-old sons into human cockfights to defend the family honor. Huns, roaming packs of savage, heartless beasts who feed on each others barbarism. Cavemen with AK47's. Then again, maybe I'm just cranky. I'm freezing my ass off on this stupid hill because my lap warmer is running out of juice and I can't recharge it until the sun comes up in a few hours. Oh yeah! You like to write letters, right? Do me a favor, Bizarre. Write a letter to CNN and tell Wolf and Anderson and that awful, sneering, pompous Aaron Brown to stop calling the Taliban 'smart.' They are not smart. I suggest CNN invest in a dictionary because the word they are looking for is 'cunning.' The Taliban are cunning, like jackals and hyenas and wolverines. They are sneaky and ruthless and, when confronted, cowardly. They are hateful, malevolent parasites who create nothing and destroy everything else. Smart. Pfft. Yeah, they're real smart. They've spent their entire lives reading only one book (and not a very good one, as books go) and consider hygiene and indoor plumbing to be products of the devil. They're still figuring out how to work a Bic lighter. Talking to a Taliban warrior about improving his quality of life is like trying to teach an ape how to hold a pen; eventually he just gets frustrated and sticks you in the eye with it. OK, enough. Snuffle will be up soon so I have to get back to my hole. Covering my tracks in the snow takes a lot of practice but I'm good at it. Please, I tell you and my fellow Americans to turn off the TV sets and move on with your lives. The story line you are getting from CNN and other news agencies is utter bullshit and designed not to deliver truth but rather to keep you glued to the screen through the commercials. We've got this one under control. The worst thing you guys can do right now is sit around analyzing what we're doing over here because you have no idea what we're doing and, really, you don't want to know. We are your military and we are doing what you sent us here to do. You wanna help? Buy Bonds America . Saucy Jack, Reconnaissance Marine in Afghanistan: Semper Fidelis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BustedKnucklez Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 USMC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Siko Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 And that is the real story, those brave men and women that have chosen to serve and protect my freedom have my deepest thanks. I was signed up in the seabees on graduation from high school, but a car accident changed everything. Seabees (still with the diesel smoke) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G. Bedford Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 http://www.snopes.com/rumors/freezing.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Siko Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 So is there as much truth in that letter as in the general media reporting. The only way to get the truth is to be there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 Truth or fabrication... I don't think that part matters much... we send our boys and girls off to foreign lands and expect them to do those things we refuse to do ourselves... For those that cannot find words or feelings of thanks for our troops - I can only say that if you can read..... thank a teacher... if it's in English.... thank a soldier.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrunoWilimek Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 http://www.snopes.com/rumors/freezing.aspCheck it out for yourself, I always do, on this website. I am glad to see that not everyone believes everything they are sent. I can't count the number of times I have been sent dire warnings and pictures of nasty stuff(have you seen the one purported falsely to be a burnt wienie from peeing on an electric fence yet?)Much as our gallant young men and women serving our countries(both Canada and USA)in that hellhole deserve our support and respect, we don't need false stories going around that might influence people in power to make poor decisions regarding their futures. **Sorry to rain on your parade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted April 1, 2009 Author Share Posted April 1, 2009 Bruno... ain't nobody raining on my parade... anyway, it marches rain or shine... When I was a boy, my Dad went to Ellesmere Island for 6 months... Alert was a "listening" post... Manned by translators and radio technicians and suppoert staff. The cold war in full bloom. No, he wasn't going to get shot at up in the frozen north. This was YOUR Canadian military doing what was needed... that was in the late 50s.... Me, my sister and my Mum pretty much fending for ourselves so that your folks would be more secure.... In the 60s, Dad was sent to what was then the Belgian Congo... civil war was raging... genocide, name it... Dad COULD get shot at... me, my sister and my Mum pretty much fending for ourselves as Canada fulfilled her commitment to the United Nations. I was born in 1950, my sister in 1947 - both of us on the heels of WW2... our parents, our aunts, our uncles still cried for family members lost in that conflict... While the story of Saucy Jack may well be recorded in snopes or where-ever as an urban legend, Saucy Jack happens... Our boys and girls are sitting in some shit hole half a world away, they are getting shot at, they are getting FUCKING KILLED!!!! and the big deal here is the veracity of a letter... Not the fact that our children are a long way from home and may have to be carried to get back here. And some of us are going to worry about "impressions". If we do not learn from out history, we are bound to repeat it. I have an inextricable bond with Canadas military - even through the time that Paul Hellyer tried to turn Canadas military into a eunuch.. I have a good idea of the kind of support our soldiers need.... even if you do not. Saucy Jacks message... give us the tools to do the job. Fake? not fake? Does something like that make these kids feel better? And you will look your boss in the eye and say "give me the tools to do my job"... at least you don't have chiggers and aren't expected top self medicate yourself for sundry conditions. You can't candy coat this shit... you can't shut the fuck up and have it sudden;y become respectable or acceptable or become socially redeeming. This is the ugly underbelly of real life... deal with it.. face it... voice an opinion - loud and long... you have a fucking MP - make him your voice. Do not pray that keeping quiet will make this shit go away... Fuck me... what ever happened to BALLS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrunoWilimek Posted April 1, 2009 Share Posted April 1, 2009 If I e-mail you a powerpoint presentation about the highway of hereos, would you be able to post it here to show how some(hopefully most)of us in Ontario think about our brave young soldiers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted April 2, 2009 Author Share Posted April 2, 2009 If I e-mail you a powerpoint presentation about the highway of hereos, would you be able to post it here to show how some(hopefully most)of us in Ontario think about our brave young soldiers? Be careful of what you wish for... you just might get it.... Here is the file that Bruno sent me... Done watching? For one moment, let's pretend that your brother/suiter/aunt/uncle/son/daughter/mother/father is the occupant of one of those coffins... These people CHOSE to go there because they felt that it was right... They were doing the right thing for Canada... they were doing the right thing for the "free" world.... they are trying to make sure that some less than civilized extremist isn't going to try to hold YOU hostage in your own country... You will preach patriotism behind a facade of grief.... We will cry for our fallen heroes... But will we face the truth... will we acknowledge the fact that these kids are a half a world away and that they are dying - partly because they don't have all the tools they need to do the job we gave them? The enemy has chosen where we will fight... the enemy has chosen how we will fight... it is up to us to make sure our soldiers are prepared for the fight. Bruno, did you try to point out the grief associated with war? Or the personal sacrifice associated with war? As it stands, I am an old man with old ideas about the world - about war - about human suffering... War isn't right.... But if someone doesn't stand up for the weak and the meek, the world will suffer for it... Jump up and down... proclaim yourself the champion of the truth.... and then watch that powerpoint one more time... Sending our youngsters off to a foreign land so they can die is not high on my list of things to do... To deny that they are doing this is unconsionable... To downplay that fact and then make a circus out of thier loss... That is a fucking travesty.... If you lazy pricks had a real feeling about this shit, you would be inundating your government representatives for change... you would have suggestions for a better way.. you would make a difference... Instead, we go to snopes. Saucy Jack ain't real... so I guess our soldiers aren't dying... fuck me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 I saw a sticker on an F-series yesterday: If you don't stand behind our troops, feel free to stand in front of them. I know three people that are currently in the land of sun and sand. Hoping they make it back, big time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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