Something for the weekend. I Didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier. A hit in the US in 1915, the song reflected the isolationist sympathy of a large segment of the American people. Former President Theodore Roosevelt detested it, saying that the fools who applauded it presumably would also applaud a song saying “I didn’t raise my girl to be a mother.” Future President Harry Truman, who would serve in combat in World War I, said that women who liked the song belonged in a harem and not in the United States. The song tied in with the 1916 slogan, which must have seemed quite ironic in 1917, of the Wilson re-election campaign: “He kept us out of war.”
I would not mind my boys being in the military under, say Ronald Reagan. I sure as heck don’t want them in under Hillary, Sanders, or Trump.
My son is a soldier. Greet them ever with grateful hearts.
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I agree with DJH. The rules of engagement and gutless military leadership are more dangerous to our soldiers than ISIS or the Taliban. At this moment, there are ten or twenty soldiers “doing” ten to twenty years in Leavenworth for fighting that didn’t conform with the ROE. One case, a young platoon leader ordered troops to fire on a suspected terrorist on a motor bike that refused to stop at a check point. It was a violation of the ROE – he didn’t have a suicide belt. The Lt is in Leavenworth for twenty years. He was protecting his men.
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Our men are giving the last full measure of devotion in combat and otherwise. This week a trooper with the 2/506/3BCT/101 died in a training accident at Fort Polk, LA. May he rest in peace.
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The troops’ Mothers, Wives, et al also serve.
T. Shaw, the injustice you cite is nothing new. During the Vietnam War USAF junior officers had a saying “The Eagle likes to eat its young”.
And by the way, USN Petty Officer Charles Keating, IV, Navy SEAL, was buried yesterday in a private service at Fort Rosecrans Natl Cemetery in San Diego, CA, with a moving and stirring tribute by the Freedom Riders (former military who provide an honor guard on Harley Davidsons) and US Navy military personnel. Just a matter not noted in our mainstream media, of course.
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Keating’s mother must be feeling the loss now: What did I raise my son for?
Here is a view of the moving tribute he well-deserved: we must not forget him, and the others:
http://patch.com/california/coronado/navy-seal-charles-h-keating-iv-laid-rest-0
Please don’t besmirch either Keating’s or his mothers sacrifice by equating them with the worthiness of the cause in which they were made.
I don’t follow your comment, Ernst S.
Answer your own question. What did Mrs. Keating raise her son for?
Ok, I don’t follow you. Have a nice day.
In a post entitled “I didn’t Raise My Boy to Be a Soldier” about an anti-war song so entitled, you made a comment in which you hypothesize Keating’s mother must be asking herself “what did I raise my son for?” I wanted to know what you had on your mind, since you’re the one putting yourself in her position. So. What did she raise her son for?
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A nice day to you as well.
Ernst,
I cannot speak for SP, but can only say I took SP’s question as rhetorically pointing out the futility Mrs. K must feel in light of how poorly our troops are treated by their government and their countrymen (context of three previous posts). But I could be wrong.
Petrik:
Generally I eschew back-and-forth when someone wants to be contentious and wants to blindside me, without understanding my position. For the sake of your understanding, and perhaps others, I hope I will clear things up a bit.
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One of the matters that is raised most often by Blue Star Moms—those who support veterans in combat, and who also support Gold Star Moms, such as now Charles Keating IV’s mom, is the questioning that arises after a child’s loss—for some Blue Star Moms (“BSM’s”), it may be a lifetime injury; loss of mobility or a limb or limbs; or, for a Gold Star Mom, up to eventually the ultimate sacrifice, the loss of your child. Forever.
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http://www.bluestarmoms.org/index.php?page=gold
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When one hears the work that these people do, as I have done so at veterans’ groups I attend, THEY state that everything becomes a question mark when a child is lost. One inevitably questions everything, no matter how patriotic the parents are. According to Blue Star Moms, the big question: “Did my son’s/daughter’s sacrifice have meaning? Was it worth it?” Not always articulated is the sense: “Does the nation appreciate my son’s sacrifice?”
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I would not presume I am the only one who went through pre-grieving, in our case, for our two children,but I am one who always tries to be prepared for the unexpected. In our case:, for Sam, with two tours of duty in Iraq, including in 1st LAF USMC in the assault on Bagdad (his Bradley FV was #3 in his column, and was hit by a RPG—which miraculously bounced off! So the Rosary does have miraculous effect; his 2nd tour was cleaning out Fallujah house-to-house; and his 3rd tour was Afghanistan, now as a senior “expert” as Staff Sarge in house-to-house clean-outs), or Carey (whose duty in the Horn of Africa on a DDE was only a little less perilous (remember the USS Cole?), cleaning out the damned pirates: yes, he has said that live fire was common and the pirates, do shoot back. And the USN disposes of them). Our useless State Dept would deny that, or allow our Navy personnel, if captured, to be humiliated and virtually disowned.
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Every day, a rational person has to pre-dispose oneself to the two uniformed men walking up the walkway to your house. Why should we ourselves think that we are “immune” to things?
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All this is only to express to you, Petrik, that I can empathize, and do empathize deeply, from what I have been told by BSM’s, what Mrs. Keating may now be dealing with. It is not a matter of being a kindred spirit with Cindy Sheehan and other hate-America types: The folded flag in the triangular cherrywood case, the posthumous Silver Star eventually to be awarded, etc—those are not to be belittled or “besmirched” as some idiot would say—but the emotional hole is real, deep, and only God, and perhaps the Moms as His agent, will show the way.
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This distracts from Charles Keating IV’s sacrifice to a nation: the scores of Catholic school kids that were allowed to line the way on May 13th at his funeral procession from Sacred Heart School in Coronado; the dozens of San Diego PD who stood at attention; the Freedom Riders on their Harleys, whose roaring bikes led the way; and the hundreds of ordinary San Diego civilians who also turned out, and stood at solemn attention and silence, as Navy Chief Special Warfare Operator Keating, now posthumously promoted to chief petty officer, passed by for the last time (Didn’t you hear about all that on the national news? You didn’t? Gee whiz!) :
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http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2016/05/13/thousands-mourn-fallen-navy-seal-charlie-keating-coronado-funeral-procession/84328656/
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I have used too many words, when I should have remained silent, like they, because they were a better witness by far, to Chief Petty Officer Keating.
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I hope, Petrik, that makes more sense. I am done.
And by the way, any who care to do so, can have a priest say a traditional Mass for Chief Petty Officer Keating.
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One place you can request one is @ http://www.breviary.net, operated by the SS Peter and Paul Society. I have already done so: his family, and he, are eminently Catholic, and his grandfather, Charles Keating Jr, was a “daily c&c-er” (confession-and-communion) at St Thomas the Apostle in Phoenix, even through all the false allegations against him in the S&L crisis. Just a little background.
Steve,
Thanks for your eloquent post. Though deeper and more layered, it is consistent with my understanding of your initial post, which I believe Ernst simply innocently misunderstood. I suspect the two of you (i.e., the three of us) are actually in what one might call “violent agreement.”
All the best,
Mike