“George was a husband, a father, a grandfather, an uncle, a brother and a friend, but one role that he was especially proud of was that of Army Infantryman.

“He was a career serviceman and a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran. He served in many units and battalions, but the one closest to his heart was the 26th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division….Interment will follow at a future date in Ft. Benning, Ga….”

As a young captain, Wolfe commanded Infantry Officer’s Candidate School class 504-68 at Ft. Benning, of which I was a graduate in June, 1968. He had talked me out of quitting, when the daily stress of the six-month program finally wore me down.

Although I was commissioned in Armor, I fought in Vietnam as an Infantry lieutenant, and like Lieutenant Colonel Wolfe, I have always been proud of being an Infantryman.

Via The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

These are the men of 60th Company, OC 504-68, who were killed in Viet Nam.

We graduates of that 1968 class at Infantry Officers Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia, commemorate these seven each Memorial Day.

One graduate:  1LT Jacob Lee Kinser, a Huey pilot.

Two Tactical Officers:  CPT Reese Michael Patrick and 1LT Daniel Lynn Neiswender, both infantry commanders.

Four drop-outs:  CPL Sherry Joe Hadley, SP4 Reese Currenti Elia Jr., CPL Robert Chase, and SP4 Jeffrey Sanders Tigner, all infantry riflemen.

Now here’s a cool Vietnam veterans project I read about in the current issue of VVA Veteran: The Library of Vietnam.

It’s a string of childrens libraries, with books, computers and Internet connections, mainly across the middle of the country (the northern end of the former Republic of South Viet Nam), financed, stocked and built by American and Vietnamese veterans and others who want to help and are able to donate money and/or time. Begun by one Americal Division veteran, Francis (Chuck) Theusch, who got the idea from a Vietnamese interpreter while visiting the My Lai massacre memorial in 1999. A good excuse to revive this haunting song.

“The loss of the martial virtues weakens an entire culture. Whole generations begin to rate themselves too special, ‘with a special kind of hide to be saved,’ as Gen. Savage puts it in Twelve O’Clock High, to risk their careers, let alone their lives, for their country.”

Insight from an academic blogger who burned his draft card back in the day and now regrets his youthful arrogance. At least he’s not a wannabee lying about serving when he didn’t.

“This is so simple that it’s brilliant. I can see it now:  you’re in
the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion.  Shortly
thereafter an announcement comes over the PA system, ‘Attention,
standby passengers! We now have a seat available on flight number…’”

Via OCS classmate Marshall Sapperstein.

My nephew’s current service as a pilot-rated Navy officer. A Mississippi cousin-by-marriage who recently left the Army. My late great uncle from Dallas whose Navy unit landed on Omaha Beach on the first day, and his nephew who was there on the second day with the Army.

Another late great uncle from Mississippi who drove Army ammunition trucks in World War I, and a cousin who served in the Spanish-American war, though his unit never left its training camp in Houston.

Before that there was family who fought for the Confederacy, in the Mexican War, the Texas Revolution, the War of 1812, and in the American Revolution: Thomas Farrar, a lieutenant colonel in the South Carolina “line” of the Continental Army, and Claudius Pegues, Jr., a captain in the South Carolina militia, who died young from a combat wound.

Veterans all.

UPDATE:  Mr. B.’s 5th grade teacher had a nice idea today for homework: let the kids practice their writing skills by writing thank-you letters to veterans. He’s not sure where they will be sent. He’ll find that out tomorrow.

Actually it was at noon on June 3, 1968, which is roughly 15,147 yesterdays. The magic day and time I graduated from the Benning School for Boys.

Sounds like a reform school for “troubled” youth. In a way, it was. Considering that it was a one-way track that led straight to the infantry in Viet Nam.

UPDATE:  Whoa. The school is on Facebook. Who knew? Even the 101st ABD claims it. Apparently the name was first given in World War II and applied to all combat training at Benning, not just OCS. News to me.

One graduate:  1LT Jacob Lee Kinser.

Two Tactical Officers:  CPT Reese Michael Patrick and 1LT Daniel Lynn Neiswender.

Four drop-outs:  CPL Sherry Joe Hadley, SP4 Reese Currenti Elia Jr., CPL Robert Chase, and SP4 Jeffrey Sanders Tigner.

“…at least as I understand it, doesn’t change the existing law at all, except maybe to encourage Arizona cops to be more proactive in doing what the Border Patrol is too understaffed to do effectively by themselves.

“When I was a cop way back in the 70′s, we used to stop and arrest illegal aliens all the time. A state cop (under the case law) is empowered to enforce federal statutes so long as it was Congress’s intent that they do so when the statute was enacted. There is case law that says that Congress intended local cops to enforce the federal illegal entry and illegal presence statutes. So we did so until it became politically incorrect to do so.

“So San Diego PD, and many other agencies, by policy, quit enforcing the federal statutes. Arizona did no more than eliminate the issue (if there ever was one) by making it a violation of state law as well to be in the country illegally. Being a victim of the illegal alien invasion myself at times, I’m all for it.”

Me, too, tired as I am of seeing my taxes rise to pay for the consequences of the invasion that our feckless politicians and president wish to ignore.