Whether you support the policies or the politics, conflicts or peaceful resolutions…Please support the people… Hate the game not the player
Happy Memorial Day…
This video was created by Joe Curtain. He is still an active Navy officer… The only link he has is his Twitter page. His Twitter handle is: @FR33SpeechMusic
I spent 20 years and 9 months in the U.S. Navy and Navy Reserves. I joined when I was 16 years old and went to bootcamp between my junior and senior year in high school.
I spent a year on a ship and visited dozens of foreign ports. I learned how to create and be a part of an extended family that your biological family may never even know about. Like a biological brother or sister, sometimes you hated them and sometimes you loved them but you always supported them. I was trained to have very high work ethics for self and how to expect and obtain the same from others. I grew up to be adaptable, creative and accepting of others and to reach out a helping hand to those life long friends I have made over the years as well as to random strangers on the street. I made friends I may never, ever see again but know that at the drop of a hat if I did see them we could reunite as if no time at all had ever passed between us.
I was trained to give and receive orders. I took entire courses on how to build things and how to immediately tear them down. I practiced the art of self-defense and learned how to shoot a variety of guns, studied crowd control measures and sometimes fought the art of self-control. I had to practice how to never use these skills unless under extreme duress and then I was trained in how to handle extreme duress. Most of the people I have worked with over the past near 21 years have considered themselves peacekeepers and not war mongers. Through all of these times I was fortunate enough to mostly serve with people who could laugh at themselves as often as they laughed at me.
We have all believed in our country and gave up a lot to support it. Most of us would do it again if asked with absolutely no hesitation. We do not expect everyone to agree or believe in our purpose when we leave. However, we do hope that we will be accepted and welcomed home on our return.
“I can imagine no more rewarding a career. And any man who may be asked in this century what he did to make his life worthwhile, I think can respond with a good deal of pride and satisfaction: ‘I served in the United States Navy.”
― John F. Kennedy
There are always two sides to every story. Two opposing thoughts to every situation.
We must never forget why we have, and why we need our military. Our armed forces exist solely to ensure our nation is safe, so that each and every one of us can sleep soundly at night, knowing we have ‘guardians at the gate.’ – Allen West
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.” ― Dwight D. Eisenhower
“The soldier is the Army. No army is better than its soldiers. The Soldier is also a citizen. In fact, the highest obligation and privilege of citizenship is that of bearing arms for one’s country” ― George S. Patton Jr.
“As long as a population can be induced to believe in a supernatural hereafter, it can be oppressed and controlled. People will put up with all sorts of tyranny, poverty, and painful treatment if they’re convinced that they’ll eventually escape to some resort in the sky where lifeguards are superfluous and the pool never closes. Moreover, the faithful are usually willing to risk their skins in whatever military adventure their government may currently be promoting.”
― Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All
“This topic brings me to that worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor… This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism — how passionately I hate them!”
So long as I’m Commander-in-Chief, we will sustain the strongest military the world has ever known. When you take off the uniform, we will serve you as well as you’ve served us – because no one who fights for this country should have to fight for a job, or a roof over their head, or the care that they need when they come home. – Barack Obama
The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.– John F. Kennedy
I started to make a study of the art of war and revolution and, whilst abroad, underwent a course in military training. If there was to be guerrilla warfare, I wanted to be able to stand and fight with my people and to share the hazards of war with them. – Nelson Mandela
The U.S. Military is us. There is no truer representation of a country than the people that it sends into the field to fight for it. The people who wear our uniform and carry our rifles into combat are our kids, and our job is to support them, because they’re protecting us. – Tom Clancy
We shall listen, not lecture; learn, not threaten. We will enhance our safety by earning the respect of others and showing respect for them. In short, our foreign policy will rest on the traditional American values of restraint and empathy, not on military might. – Theodore C. Sorensen
- How America Treats Illegal Aliens vs. Veterans
- Friday Night Think Tank: Memorial Edition
- Growing up after Graduation
- What Heroes Gave
- Memorial Day is not about your aunt
- To all our service members
- Thanks Dad
rfljenksy - Practicing Simplicity 