A Word for Hospitalman Benjamin Rast

Hospital Corpsman Benjamin D. Rast, 23, of Niles, Michigan, died April 6, 2011, while conducting a dismounted patrol near Patrol Base Alcatraz in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Doc Rast was stationed at Naval Medical Center, San Diego, but assigned to 1st Battalion, 23rd Marines, 4th Marine Division, in Afghanistan.

Evidence seems to point to this being a "friendly-fire" missile strike from a Predator drone. I don't know what to say to that other than "shit happens."

Semper Fi

10/4/2016 Someone (Anonymous) recently pointed out that my summation "shit happens" was insensitive, and I can't deny that. This was reportedly the first "friendly-fire" Predator strike of the war. No one meant for Doc Rast and SSGT Jeremy Smith to die, and drone strikes were meant to save American lives, not to take them, but it happened. SSGT Smith's father said he forgave the operator and I'm okay with that. I hope he can forgive himself. It happens.

A Word for Hospitalman Edwin Gonzalez

Hospital Corpsman Edwin Gonzalez, 22, of North Miami Beach, Florida, died October 8, 2010, of wounds from an improvised explosive device while supporting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Doc Gonzalez was assigned to 1st Battalion, 8th Marines, 2nd Marine Division, FMF Atlantic.

Semper Fi

A Word for HM3 James M. Swink

Hospital Corpsman Third Class James M. Swink, 20, of Yucca Valley, California, died Aug. 27, 2010, while conducting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.
Doc Swink was assigned to 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Forces.
Semper Fi.

Keeping Good Thoughts

Today I am keeping good thoughts for Roger and for all who love him and for all who come into contact with him today as he undergoes and recovers from a colectomy and resection this morning starting at about 10:30 AM in the Eastern Time Zone.

Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude

I think I'm going to be doing most of my writing in the blog on my web site.
Any anonymity I enjoyed during my working life has pretty much outlived its utility, and I'm not normally that inflammatory anyway.
Keeping good thoughts for NancyB and for all who love her.
Harold/AQ

A Word for Hospitalman William Ortega

Hospitalman William Ortega, 23, of Miami, Florida, died June 18, 2010, of wounds sustained from an IED blast while conducting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Doc Ortega was assigned to Third Battalion, First Marine Regiment, First Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force.

Semper Fi

Is Homosexuality in the Military Really That Big a Deal?

I've been kind of aimless in what I want to do with this blog recently. Since leaving the cubicle behind, and working as hard as I want to at jobs I volunteered for, I haven't felt any particular need to vent. I'm not on that edge of aggravation that I used to live on.

Having said that, I want to say a few words about the situation with homosexuals not being able to serve openly in the military. It's been awhile since the Clinton administration enacted "Don't Ask Don't Tell" as a compromise between the then extant ban on homosexuals serving and their being able to serve openly. When people say they want to repeal "DADT" I don't know if they mean they want to go back to the ban or to allow homosexuals to serve openly. Personally, I think the ban should be done away with.

I remember when I reported to the Naval Hospital at Yokosuka, Japan, in September, 1967, and during the check-in process the protestant chaplain spoke at length about being careful because the Naval Intelligence Service (pre-Mark Harmon) periodically swept for homosexuals. I was just two years off the farm, and less than a week out of the US, and had no idea what that had to do with me or the chaplain, or whether or not there was a big homosexuality problem I didn't know about. I did not go to services at the hospital chapel.

Anyway, as I read the Times OpEd by General McPeak that Kay referenced yesterday morning, I was reminded of the denial that the military seemed to live under at the time. There were homosexual sailors at Yokosuka, and in Ranger, and at Miramar, etc., and there probably always had been, but in the "boys will be boys" military of the era there was denial that some of the boys preferred boys.

I always wondered at the degree of homophobia by some of the darnedest people. There was a sailor who worked for me in San Diego who I thought everyone knew and accepted was homosexual, but he was outed when he was arrested for a DUI. One co-worker who shaved his body "to be more aerodynamic while bicycling" - but who never raced on his bicycle - was aghast(!) at the news. Guys in their beers would go on about what they'd do if they were hit on by a homosexual, but I have never to this day been hit on by a guy. Go figure.

It's 2010 and women are serving in ships - submarines now (good luck with that) - and in forward operating areas. Commanders are speaking out on banning pregnancy. It's time to clear the decks and accept that people in the military are sexual beings, set boundaries for their conduct consistent with good order and discipline, and get back to work. There's a freaking war on.

A Word for HM3 Zarian Wood

Petty Officer Zarian Wood, 29, of Houston, Texas, died May 16, 2010, in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained from an improvised explosive device blast while on dismounted patrol.

Doc Wood was assigned as a hospital corpsman to Third Battalion, First Marine Regiment, First Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force.

Semper Fi

World Press Freedom Day

I just wanted to take a moment this morning to take note of World Press Freedom Day celebrating "Freedom of Information: the Right to Know" today. UNESCO's celebration intends to "highlight the importance of freedom of information as an integral part of freedom of expression and its contribution to democratic governance" and to "foster reflection and exchange of ideas on freedom of information to advance empowerment, transparency, accountability and the fight against corruption, as well as on the key obstacles that the effective exercise of the right to know faces in today’s digitalized world."

As I watch the evening news now I sometimes try to picture Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow "reporting" on Tiger Woods' infidelity or who was voted out - left out, actually - last night on "Dancing With the Stars." It's probably good that the networks are getting away from using journalists as news anchors, and I suspect it's less embarrassing for the journalists, too.

The thing is that I miss the news. Heaven only knows what is going unreported, and that's kind of scary, too.

Keeping Good Thoughts for Sarah

Sean Dustman's sister, Sarah, whose new blog is now on my sidebar (Drink Water and Breathe), was "just" going to have a mastectomy today until they found "something" in an ovary and cells in her lymph nodes. Now she's looking at a double mastectomy and some level of hysterectomy and oopharectomy. Oh, and she's a single mom with two boys, and her big brother is stationed at NAS Lemoore instead of anywhere near Scottsdale.

I'm keeping good thoughts for Sarah and for all who love her. I'm pretty sure that more wouldn't hurt.

Happy Birthday, Ronni!

Happy Birthday to Ronni Bennett at Time Goes By!
Ronni was one of the two people who inspired me to begin blogging, among other things. (The blogging lapses are all my own.) She is thoughtful, mindful, and writes as I wish I could write about the things that I wish I knew more about. In a more civilized world she would still be working eighty hour weeks in producing great television, but the world is what it is so she's 'ours.'
Happy Birthday, Ronni; and Thank You.

Now There's a (Fledgling) Coffee Party

This morning I logged into Facebook and saw that Tamar - of Mining Nuggets - had discovered and become a fan of the Coffee Party Movement. I looked at their website and watched their founder's video (why is she outside in the snow?); but I have misgivings.

I like the ideal I think they represent - that the function of the government is to represent the will of the electorate and that it is the responsibility of the electorate to be engaged participants in the process - but I liked the idea of the One America organization sponsored by John Edwards' campaign and that wound up going nowhere (as did he). (In fairness to the One America movement, that provided the impetus toward community involvement that has led to my continuing participation with the American Red Cross.)

If I were to parse their Mission Statement, I don't want to see "cooperation in government" so much as I want to see "collaboration..." I want my representatives to work collaboratively with other people's representatives to find practical solutions to the problems before them.

I also reject the call to "support leaders..." because, with the exception of some people in the Defense Department and the American Red Cross, those people aren't my leaders; they're my representatives. Let's not forget who votes for whom in the elections.

If the Coffee Party movement is simply a counter movement to the Tea Bag movement then it's probably a cute idea but not something I want to make time for. I think the bigger issue is that I must compete for the attention of my representatives not only with the other voters in my legislative district but also with the Democratic or Republican Party who bring nothing to the table but their corporate self-interest; and I'm not okay with that.

Journalism Isn't What It Once Was

I'm no journalist but if my boss sent me to report on an earthquake, and I sent back reports from 200 miles away from the earthquake, my boss would fire me.
As a long-time resident of California I got used to reading the stories "from Sacramento" from San Francisco. Heck, I've been to Sacramento and I understand.
My sister down in San Diego County has been having fits ever since they started getting their "local" weather reports from Los Angeles. I'm not crazy about getting my local weather from Greenville.
I'm just saying that there was an 8.8 earthquake more than ten hours ago just north of Concepcion, Chile, and the media are still reporting on how upset hotel tenants are in their modern accommodations in Santiago.
Can't catch a flight? Can't pool your cash and rent a helicopter? Can't rent a jeep somewhere?

While You Were Watching Something Else

While the media were focused on the non-productive "summit" on Health Care Reform, WLOS in Asheville ran a small piece I saw only once disclosing that last night the Senate had a) passed a one-year extension of the "Patriot Act" b) without any of the new privacy protections approved in the Judiciary Committee. The extension was passed by a voice vote which means any Senator is free to lie his ass off about whether he or she voted for or against it.

According to this AP story, the Democrats were acutely aware that any extension had to pass by Sunday and that any debate would expose them to criticism through the 2010 election cycle, so they simply caved in and passed it on to the House.

I don't know what to say about this right now. Rain wrote a really great rant yesterday that mirrored some of my frustrations at that time. This takes me past that. At their worst the Republican Party seems to represent Libertarians, Teabaggers, NeoFascists, the Religious Right, and even has a new moderate. I have no idea who the Democrats represent other than the Democratic Party.

It is sad but true that there is almost always a good reason to say "no" to anything. The Republicans have learned that simply being the Party of No is working for them. The prison at Gitmo is still open, the Patriot Act is alive and well, there is no Health Care Reform, and the economy isn't really doing that well on Main Street; and all of this when the Democrats had a super majority for most of the year. This was supposed to be a good year for them.

I know that getting the public to reason is a challenge - perhaps impossible. Getting the information out to the public so that they can make reasoned decisions probably is impossible. That there was so little coverage of the Senate's passage of this extension is disturbing. Watching the Party of No and the Party of the Inarticulate battle it out ad nauseum is just incredibly frustrating.

A Word for HM2 Xin Qi

Petty Officer Second Class Xin Qi, 25, of Cordova, TN, died January 23, 2010, while supporting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. His dismounted patrol was reportedly attacked by a suicide bomber.

Doc Qi (Chee) was assigned to Fourth Light Armored Recon Battalion, Marine Expeditionary Brigade - Afghanistan.

He was a reservist and volunteered for the deployment. A commenter in the Memphis paper, responding to the report of Qi's death, wondered what the country was coming to allowing this son of Chinese immigrants to serve under our flag. I saw that and wondered why Qi would want to. We can be such assholes.

Semper Fi, my brother.

Putting California Behind Me

I have learned - or recognized or admitted - some things about myself lately.

I'm not a good mover. I told my sisters I was fine because I only had a few pieces of furniture that I was taking and six or seven 32-gallon tubs of 'stuff.' I thought about renting a 17-foot U-Haul, but got the 14-footer instead. I was wrong. It turns out that I'm something of a packrat.

I can be unreasonably stubborn about things. I was sworn, bound, and determined to be out of California before 2010, and so I spent a ridiculous amount of time (including twelve hours on New Years Eve) in an effort to cram a 17-foot truckload of crap into a 14-foot truck. I drove away at 4:30PM on New Years Eve leaving a substantial donation to Goodwill behind, and didn't stop until 11PM(PST) in Kingman, AZ. I guess that means I "won," but I've already had to replace several of the small appliances and other items I left behind.

I do enjoy driving across the country, and I caught a huge break on the weather. Having said that, I really should avoid trying to back up while towing a trailer - or get a lot better at it. A couple of times it's provided some laughs from my fellow Red Crossers when I've had to back a shelter trailer, but there were several minutes on that freeway off-ramp in Arkansas when I seriously wished I was better at backing off of that freeway off-ramp before someone tried to exit there.

Putting all of that behind me, I now live in an apartment on a hillside overlooking Asheville, NC, with a really nice view of the sunsets over the Smokey Mountains. I'm unloading boxes, and too often finding things that have me asking myself what the hell I was thinking when I packed that instead of my toaster oven or whatever.

My baby sister has already asked when I'm going to see the error of my ways and move back. I told her that, even if I were to admit to missing an El Nino winter in Southern California and California politics, I recognize that I suck at moving and I'm staying put.

Getting Ready to Move

If I was superstitious at all I might start to wonder if this transition wasn't snake bit, but I recognize that a lot of the tsuris is self-inflicted.

I sat here for a week unable to access the internet before I called Verizon. Of course, the first thing the tech asked was if I had a dial tone which I did not. (In the seven years I've lived here I've received no more than a dozen personal calls on my home phone so I don't answer it. It never occurred to me to see if it worked.) Then it took another week for a tech to come out and fix the problem - a corroded connection out on the panel.

My older sister came over from Arizona at Thanksgiving to help me pack, but she and I don't seem to work well as a team. She wanted to get rid of things I wanted to keep (or resisted getting rid of at her suggestion) so, although I took several bags of donations to Goodwill, I didn't get much packed before she went home.

I'm donating books to the county library and most of my furniture to the Salvation Army. I'm pretty much down to a U-Haul truck towing my Jeep on a trailer now, and there is a major winter storm moving up the Eastern seaboard - a foot of snow in Western North Carolina. Que sera sera. I expect to be underway for the Asheville area in ten days.

It looks like we might get health care reform legislation this year although it will fall short of providing universal health care. We let the oil industry write our energy policy and Wall Street banks write their own regulations, and now we're passing a health care financing plan that satisfies no one except the insurance industry.

I read that the commander of US forces in Iraq has just banned pregnancy among his troops. Way to keep it real, General. Outlaw physiology.

Life Transitions

It occurs to me, as I advise Kay to beware of paralysis by analysis, that I told her a little bit ago that I'd start writing again if she would; and she started up again awhile ago.

I am conscious of a degree of hopelessness in terms of seeing significant improvement in the state of the Union, and of a lack of any optimism at all about the State of California. I am conscious of some level of anxiety about the change in my personal situation from employed to 'retired' and my impending move away from California. Having said all that, I really can't say why I stopped writing. (I am bitterly disappointed that we appear to be letting the opportunity to enact universal health coverage get away from us, but I don't think that alone was the issue.)

It has occurred to me that I write about politics, etc., because it's easy to identify the issues and potential solutions. I seldom write about what's going on with myself because I don't believe I'm that interesting in the first place and I tend to deny the issues anyway. I confess that I was concerned about losing 30-some pounds over a six-month period, but that seems to be due to ulcerative colitis which apparently will aggravate me for the duration but won't kill me - much like that big honking clot in my right leg.

I have resigned from my job as of last week, and I expect to leave California in my rear-view mirror within six weeks. In a sense then the hard part is over because without a job I can't afford to stay in California anyway. I'm committed, and it's just a matter of getting up onto I-40 and aiming the vehicle east.

A Word for HM3 James R. Layton

Petty Officer 3rd Class James R. Layton, 22, of Riverbank, CA, was killed September 8, 2009, in Kunar Province, Afghanistan. Doc Layton was assigned to an embedded training team with Combined Security Transition Command in Afghanistan.

Doc Crone at corpsman.com first made me aware of this casualty, and he linked to this story of Doc Layton's passing in the Modesto Bee.

Semper Fi

A Word for HM3 Benjamin P. Castiglione

Petty Officer 3rd Class Benjamin P. Castiglione, 21, of Howell, MI, died September 3, 2009, supporting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

Doc Castiglione was assigned to 2nd Light Armored Reconnaisance Battalion, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force.

Semper Fi