"From Iraq... To Palm Coast"

Nothing can prepare you... Nothing... Not screaming drill sergeants: "You better pay attention, boy, because what I'm telling you may save your young a__ in a firefight in Baghdad." Or "live fire" exercises. Or actual combat videos. Or squad tactics drills at the Urban Warfare Training Center... Nothing.

When you grow up in America, even if it's in a tough inner city, you're just not prepared for Baghdad... or the A Shau Valley, or Khe Sanh, or the Chosin Reservoir, or Omaha Beach. They just can't teach this stuff at Fort Jackson or Parris Island or Lackland or Great Lakes. The sane mind cannot "prepare" for the insanity of war. The best you can hope for is that you are trained well enough to adapt to your new reality quickly.

It's almost the same when you're lucky enough to come home. For the past year or so, you've learned to survive. "Hyper-vigilance" is no longer a term in a training manual... it's become your way of life. At first, when you saw the carnage - on both body and soul - you couldn't believe your eyes. "No," you thought to yourself, "This can't be real... Surely this is a bad dream and I'll wake up soon..." But it wasn't a dream. And not that you wanted to, but you soon became hardened to this demonic dance. Not by choice, but by necessity. And now it's time to go home?

Please... Put away your political bias here. Love or Hate President Bush... Hawk or Dove... Republican or Democrat... Makes no difference. When the troops return to Palm Coast, wrap them up with love and thanks. Let them know how proud of them you are. Although you can't see it, I was wounded in 1969 in the San Francisco airport. I was in uniform and on my way home to Upstate New York, after a year and a half with the 196th Infantry in Viet Nam. A young girl spit on me... and I still have the scar. Let's show this generation of America's defenders something better.

This video will give you some ideas... http://www.youtube.com/v/ervaMPt4Ha0&autoplay=1

Also (edit date 8/28/07) this video was sent to me by "RoyalLD," who has a great Blog of his own. Check out "As I See It," at http://www.royalld.blogspot.com/. Here is what he sent me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKJzZXZKf8k