posted @ 21:32...

I have posted some photos I took last weekend at the Alamo... See them here.

posted @ 12:07...

Any self-respecting Army grunt has seen the movie Black Hawk Down. Yesterday I had the priviledge of meeting one of the real-life Soldiers who was portrayed in that movie. I won't ask him about it, since I'm sure lots of people have made annoyances of themselves over the past few years by asking him about his experiences.

More than the thrill of meeting someone who had been portrayed in a movie was the excitement of meeting someone who had acted so professionally and heroically in battle. And then I realized, there are guys all over this post who fit that bill.

posted @ 20:38...

AUSTIN, TEXAS -- The tears welled up in my eyes as I stumbled off the plane. They may have been tears of joy that this long flight in a tiny plane with a 14-month-old had come to an end. But I was truly overcome with emotion at -- after having been through everything we've been through -- finally coming back to the place I've considered "home" for so long. Billings will always be my hometown, but Austin is more than just an adopted city. (I could list all the things I miss about it, but that's another post for another time.)

So we made it, along with many weary travelers. The difference is, we weren't running from a hurricane. We had planned this little excursion long before Rita came along. The guy next to me on the plane (an insurance adjuster) was telling me how his flights had been cancelled off and on all day. In fact, last I heard, his luggage was in Chicago, and he was planning on renting a car and navigating a maze of back roads all the way to Houston.

The highways are full of evacuees. In fact, my father-in-law, an Austin police officer, may be called in to work "evacuee security" tomorrow at one of the school gyms.

It appears that Texas is handling Rita the way Louisiana should have handled Katrina. Everything's been moving into place. FEMA & the other feds are helping, I'm sure... but it's the state and city governments who are bussing people out, encouraging them to leave, etc. In fact, they're going door to door to evacuate people. And if someone wants to say in his/her house, they have to sign a waiver.

Since I have a deep and profound love of the Lone Star State, it would be easy for me to say, "Well, Texas just does it right!" But I have to admit, if it weren't for Katrina, I don't know for sure that the state would be "on" this thing like... well... like I was on that chicken enchilada this afternoon. There were definitely lessons learned from Katrina, and I know it has changed the way everyone looks at these storms from now on.

For us, tomorrow held the promise of an exciting day at SeaWorld. But it turns out SeaWorld is closed. So the San Antonio Zoo will certainly suffice. My son won't know the difference (and between you & me, I'm more excited about the zoo).

posted @ 06:02...

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873)

(The Quotations Page)

posted @ 14:36...

The tug of war resumes...

Since I arrived at this unit in the Summer of 2003, there has been controversy surrounding where I do PT each morning. I either do it at my battalion (where I'm assigned), or at the brigade leval (where I'm attached). The whole time I was deployed, we did PT as a legal shop at the brigade. Since I've been back from Iraq, and more recently, since I've been back from convalescent leave, I have been doing PT with all the other legal guys at the brigade. And somehow, it took the battalion three weeks to realize that I wasn't standing in PT formation every morning. So today they informed me that effective immediately, I am to receive my daily regimen of exercise with them.

I'm not too worried about it. After all, it's nice to be wanted. Besides, provided my security clearance goes through, I'll be gone in January.

(For those who may not know, "PT" is "Physical Training" ... you know, like running, push-ups, sit-ups, ruck marching, and so on.)

posted @ 05:47...

"The truth is that there is nothing noble in being superior to somebody else. The only real nobility is in being superior to your former self. "

- Whitney Young

(from The Quotations Page)

posted @ 09:10...

I have a friend I know from the fire department in Austin. He's a firefighter, He's an EMT, and he's a Marine. He returned from Iraq early this year, and more recently he's been in New Orleans. Here's the unedited text of an email I received from him recently. I thought y'all might like to read it:

Hello all,

I had the opportunity to go down to New Orleans this weekend for almost four days. It was an overwhelming experience to say the least and I think that you may better understand the situation without Media bias by reading my account.

I went with the Ambulance company that I work with here in Austin TX and we were attached to the Emergency operations centre in Baton Rouge. Thats were the EMS operation is conducted from.

New Orleans, today lays in a pool of water, fire's dot the city scape, Emergency Vehicle sirens fill the otherwise silent city and Helicopters zig zag across the sky, lifting people from roof tops in what is now a mandatory evacuation.

I spent the four days treating the injured, transporting them, triage operations for the Army, riding on Military helicopters with my patients, manning ollection/triage-treatment points in St Bernard parish, Jefferson parish, the airport and downtown at the convention centre and at the Dome itself where people where murdered and raped. At the airport and LSU university in Baton Rouge which are now temporary treatment centres, I worked with volunteer Doctors, Nurses, every discipline of medical professional and student that you could believe. All volunteered to treat not only the victims of the disaster, but the victims of criminals who took advantage of the situation and went on a rampage. They have moved in mobile medical equipment and have established as good of a system as one could hope for in spite of the chaotic situation that has presented itself. The seriously ill or injured patients are flown out straight away to civilian and military treatment centres - some of which are board ships in the Gulf.

New Orleans always was a rough City which is commonly known as the murder capitol of America. The city right now as you you know is largely covered in not only water, but oil and various unidentified chemicals and the bodies of animals and humans alike. It looks like a scene form a Zombie movie, other than the 1000's of Police, Military, Fire, rescue and EMS personnel - there are not too many people in the city as we have pretty much evacuated everybody that wanted to go. Some do not want to leave, but they are now being forced to leave as to avoid a disease outbreak, but also due to the fact that all rescue personnel are taking gun fire, from Snipers and groups of disgdisgruntled people with AK-47's. They are shooting at rescue personnel because they are white. Workers who were trying to bring electrical services online were receiving fire from eight men armed with AK'S. The assaults were dealt with by the police and six of the armed attackers were shot on-site. Truth be told, 99% of the rescue personnel are in fact white. People have came in from as far away as Alaska and Canada, I had a New York City Paramedic working with me on my Ambulance. Some people are angry with white people because they think that we do not care about them because they are black and if we were rescueing white people we would have been here earlier. Again 99% of the rescue personnel most of whom are working without pay, are white! I hate to bring race into this story, but its a major issue to some of the victims of this tragedy. I think that the federal response was in fact slow, not because of such issues, it was due to lack of comunication and leadership. We do not know how many police officers have been killed at this time. Most rescue personnel are now wearing armored vests and have side arms for personal defense. I have been in and around EMS for a few years and have never seen anything like this, not even in the seven months I served in Iraq with the Marines.

I talked to some of the people that we were helping, they talked about family members being washed away: babies, the elderly, people with chronic illnesses and
people who are dependent on medications that could not help themselves and could not get out. They told me about Sharks in the water, one told me he seen an alligator eating the torso of a human. I have had countless grown men, break down and cry on my shoulder and people asking me to find their children. I had a 12 year Navy veteran with chemical burns on his arms that lost everything except for his dog who was just as exhausted, deyhydrated and burned as he was himself. He cried in my Ambulance and tried to apologize for doing so. He only cared about his Dog, he told me that he'd ratehr die than leave his dog - he was not leaving st bernards without it. Then I helpd a man who was pretty torn up. He was a volunteer Fire fighter in the neighbourhood. They became victims long before they had the oppertunity to help anybody. He sat on the gound as we waited for a School Bus to come to our location which was along the coast amidst twisted shrimp boats and wrecked processing plants.. He flat out broke down and put his head in between his legs. I gave him a smoke and he could hardly hold it. He asked me where I came from. I told him Texas, he asked me if the people in Texas even knew about what was going on there. He told me about their own rescue efforts in their own communities being hampered by armed thugs who were shooting at them with weapons that they stole from Gun stores or had already owned, the thugs raped women and stole possessions from people who could not get out after the water poured into the area.... The stories are endless. We did a lot of listening when we had an oppertunity, its hard to talk to a person who has lost everything, its even harder to talk to 1000's of people when they all have lost everything. But they did appricate the conversations. For most of them, it was the first time to talk in to a sympatetic ear.

Martial law is in effect in the City of New Orleans. The city is under control. they have a zero tolerance policy on looters and thugs. Some criminals have been shot on-site. Going Downtown, we had police escorts - at intersections, national guard and regular army personnel held positions.

Anyway, the operation to rescue people from the greater New Orleans area has been going well despite the problems that we have had with the ethnic hatred which a small group of civilians have for us. I must stress that the majority of the african american people held no such hatred, only like everyone else was upset that the evacuation had taken so long. They knew that we were there though, they could not thank us enough. We have helped a lot of people, the operation has been conducted in a highly professional manner on the ground level and with a lot of heart. The operation continues and I hope to be back in New Orleans in a few days to help the process of recovery as they transition the mission from rescue to picking up the dead.

Well, that's my take on the situation right now. It may or may not be along the lines of what the News stations are reporting and I understand that I have not have seen the entire picture. But from what I have seen.. this is what I have to say.

Most of you have asked what can I do etc... There are temporary shelters in every city throughout the country.. Go down there and volunteer to do something, anything! You may not be a Doctor or a Paramedic, you may not even be able to cook. But you can listen, you can talk to people, bring a childrens book and read to some kids, bring some half decent clothes, plus size clothes, baby clothes. Some of you are pretty religous - so are a lot of the people of southern Louisianna, and now they turn to God even more so than ever. I'm pretty sure that there are religous groups trying to figure out how to facilitate the growing congregation in Town.

Graham

(Some people are emailing me and asking, "Wow, what was it like?" Once again, the above text was sent to me as an email from an EMT that I know in Austin. I was not there in New Orleans and did not write it. Graham did. - Brian)

posted @ 05:05...

Fort Drum Rapist Gets 6 Years

I spent the greater part of Friday afternoon at a trial of a Soldier accused of rape. Most of what I heard on Friday was the testimony of an expert witness talking about the specifics of DNA analysis. I never thought something could be both so interesting and so dull at the same time.

A certain colleague passed the time -- and refrained from sleeping -- by keeping a detailed log on the movements of a fly that was buzzing around the courtroom.

My favorite soundbite from the trial? "And once again... women do not produce semen, correct?"

There were some other good quotes from the Government trial counsel (prosecutor), including: "This is a court-martial concerning the profoundly perverse act of rape. This is not a theater; this is justice."

From then on, he referred to the accused as a predator. "There is a wolf beneath that Army green."

In the end, even though there wasn't definite physical evidence, the panel (jury) decided to convict. And then they gave the guy six years. A lot of my buddies assumed the guy would be found not guilty. I wasn't sure either way, having never actually heard the victim's testimony. Regardless of whether the act was rape, or simply drunken sex that the victim regretted, it was a pretty interesting trial.

posted @ 08:04...

A week-and-a-half later, and the blame game is practically getting more coverage than hurricane relief efforts. There are few points I found interesting:

• President Bush called the Governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, two days before the hurricane made landfall, and asked if she would be needing federal aid. She declined.
• New Orleans residents were told months ago by Mayor Ray Nagin that they would be "on their own" in the event of a catastrophic hurricane. The mayor also promised, however, that buses would be sent through neighborhoods to help evacuate people if such a storm was coming. Fox News reported, however, that those buses were never authorized and went unused. Meanwhile, he cussed out the federal government on a local radio station.
• People who were warned to get out, didn't. And then they expected government to come in and save them immediately. Sure, some had no money. I've been broke before, but if a life-threatening storm was headed for my family, I would use any means possible to evacuate. Maybe these welfare recipients could do without cable TV and cigarettes for a week or two while they save come "just in case" cash. But that's too much to ask people who survive on hand-outs.
• Even now, people continue to shoot at rescuers. One word: Idiots.
• Kanye West provided evidence to my "celebrity intelligence correlation." My hypothesis: the more famous the individual, the less he/she knows about what's going on. He spouted off about how the president "doesn't care about black people." What? What does being black have to do with anything? It just so happens that the vast majority of people who were in New Orleans are black. Does he honestly think that skin color played a role in the federal government's slow response? If anything, the feds know that the faster you help out a minority, the less backlash you'll get from people like the NAACP & the Congressional Black Caucus. I seriously doubt that President Bush was sitting there thinking, "We really should help these people, but... take your time. After all, they're black." Ridiculous.

Why do people like the Congressional Black Caucus get all crazy about skin color? The answer: It's what they do for a living. Any issue, whether it's a natural disaster, a terrorist attack, or the fact that the sky is blue, will be twisted into a racial issue by people like the CBC. And why the assumption of poverty? The black people I know and work with are smart, talented people. More accurately, that's my impression of almost everyone I work with, regardless of skin color. In fact, I would venture to say that modern white people in most parts of the country are relatively colorblind. On the other hand, groups like the CBC & the NAACP are very preoccupied with skin color.

Why then, do groups like the Congressional Black Caucus automatically equate being black with poverty? It doesn't sound like they have a lot of faith that black people can rise above stereotypes to acheive success. This should be viewed as an insult to black people... perhaps just as insulting as affirmative action. (Under affirmative action, "people of color" are essentially told, "You probably can't do as well in school or in the professional world because of your skin color, so we'll make it easier for you." That's a slap in the face to all minorities who work hard and acheive success without any special favors. It's also a slap in the face to a firefighter, for example, who scores a 99% on an entrance exam, but is beaten out for the job by a minority who scored lower.

Alright, that rant is over for now. I've got to get back to studying.

posted @ 19:21...

Louisiana resident Daniel Edwards showed his frustration with his current state of affairs when he was quoted today by MSNBC.com: "You can do everything for other countries, but you can't do nothing for your own people. You can go overseas with the military, but you can't get them down here."?

Yeah, it does seem odd. I agree that we should be a bit more concerned with the welfare of our own people than with those of other countries. After all, it's the United States government... However, it's just not the same, logistically. Essentially, it's just very short notice. With a typical deployment to a foreign country, the actual troop movement is in the planning stages for quite a while. The Army doesn't just say, "Hmmm, hey 10th Mountain Division; you guys send a brigade combat team to Iraq this weekend and 82d Airborne; you folks send some units to Afghanistan... be there in four days." Obviously, for security reasons, the actual travel dates are not divulged -- hopefully not till Soldiers are already on their way.

It takes time, finesse, and most of all, planning. Sometimes, months of planning.

That said, my unit is on alert for a possible deployment to Louisiana. Sounds weird, doesn't it? Deployment to Louisiana? Where is their National Guard? Every state has one, you know. Well, looking back on my time in Iraq, one of the National Guard units that we worked closely with was from Louisiana. (For the record, yes - it is possible to have a Mardi Gras parade in a combat zone). Of course, I'm sure they're not all in Iraq right now. Besides, Guard and Regular Army units from surrounding states are already on the way.

No real indication yet as to whether or not we'll get to go help out. For now, we're not allowed any passes or leave, just in case. I won't be volunteering, but I don't think I'd complain too loudly if they sent us.

And now, for your moment of Zen...